Workers Must Fight Directly for Communism
Over a year ago when the workers in Zimbabwe rose up against the tyrant Mugabe, with the help of the army, they had one goal in mind: that they wanted change.
ICWP has maintained that the only way to achieve that change, that freedom, is to fight directly for communism. And after a year and eight months of Emmerson Mnangagwa replacing Mugabe, the situation has worsened even more. There are reports even now that workers are assembling for a peaceful march, yet the government has deployed the army to quell the protest. They are taking steps so as to even ban the protests.
This is not what this regime promised when it took over. They promised prosperity, equality, employment. Now the workers are starting to realize that they made a mistake in supporting Mugabe’s deputy. It is imperative to emphasize what ICWP has maintained: that replacing Mugabe with his deputy only served the elite. The conflict was between the elites in Zimbabwe, and one of the factions won. The workers’ anger was again exploited.
It is important for workers all around the world to learn from the experience of what is happening in Zimbabwe. There is a similar case in Sudan where we can see that the protest leaders have signed a deal with the generals. This is the same problem they are going to experience in Zimbabwe or with any other workers who compromise with the bosses and the elites. The bosses will always regroup and come back to dominate and exploit our class brothers and sisters.
We need to reject these reforms. Anything less than communism is futile and even fatal to the working class. We need to act against these reformist people who demand that they represent us, who insist that they seek change. They only seek to enrich themselves, to benefit their masters. Another example of this is what is happening in Venezuela.
But the working class needs to look no further than what is happening now in Zimbabwe. Unemployment is skyrocketing. People can’t even afford to buy bread. Workers, doctors, nurses, and teachers have not been paid for months. There are severe blackouts in the country. There is not even capacity to generate power in Zimbabwe. They are importing it from South Africa. The infrastructure is crumbling. 5% of Zimbabwe’s imports are used just to keep some lights on in the industrial hubs like Harare. But communities are living in the dark. Workers are living in the dark.
All these atrocities confirm that the fight for reforms, which preserve capitalism, the fight for anything less than communism is futile.
Communism will not have money. The masses’ collective labor power and planning will guarantee electricity, food and shelter for everyone based on meeting our needs. Join the fight for communist revolution!
Mexico City, Mexico August 24—One of dozens of protests around the world against fascist Bolsonaro’s policy of devastation of the Amazon