LOS ANGELES (USA) — “And how do you plan to make the revolution?” asked a worker who recently began reading ICWP communist literature.
He and two of his co-workers recently received Red Flag and the immigration pamphlet. We explained that mobilizing the masses for communism is the basis for making a revolution. That we need thousands and then millions of workers. The people in the army and the masses in general must take these communist ideas and turn them into a revolutionary force.
We said that, although relatively small, our Party has members and political work in other countries such as Mexico, El Salvador, Spain, South Africa and India.
“That’s impressive,” the worker said, with a smile of amazement.
He told us about his experiences at work and how he has seen and felt exploitation. He says that the company receives three times more than what the workers are paid. He also commented that they were given a monthly bonus a while back, but if someone had an accident, they would take it away. This created conflict among the workers themselves. “It’s a way of dividing the workers,” he said.
During the meeting, the situations in Venezuela and Cuba came up. We explained that these are not communist countries, but capitalist ones. We talked a little about the revolution in Russia and China. But these revolutions left the foundations of capitalism intact and now they are openly imperialist. We said that in communism there will be no money, no exploitation, that we will produce to meet the needs of our own class, and that this is the basis of communism.
It was a very friendly conversation. The worker brought a bottle of wine, but we didn’t open it because he was driving and one of his small children was with him.
We had agreed beforehand that the meeting was to invite him to the May Day Dinner and see how he can help us invite more workers to the event. He agreed to take the flyer to the other two friends so they can invite their families.
We also asked him to participate in our club meetings so that we could discuss many of his doubts and questions. We said that we would invite the other two friends also. He agreed and said he would try to participate in those meetings.
This is a new advance with a group of industrial workers, linked to the garment workers’ club.