MEXICO-Thousands of city workers, farmworkers and students will take to the streets of the main cities of the world to commemorate the historic martyrs of Chicago. Mexico City will not be an exception. There is no more opportune time to realize that Communist revolution is more urgent than ever.
2019 will be the first year of the administration of Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, (AMLO) who leads a process that has excited millions with the hope of a radical “transformation” in the country. An illusion that will fade with time.
AMLO puts forward that the plague of the world is corruption. One of his main objectives is to put an end to it, but he will not be able to. Corruption is inherent in the capitalist system. Officials who live lives far from the masses will put their personal gain first by taking advantage of their position. But even if the proper functioning of the state were achieved, it will remain a bourgeois state that will operate for the part of the ruling class which it represents.
The masses must not aim for the optimal functioning of the bourgeois state. They must aim to destroy it and build a Communist society where every woman and man works to meet everyone’s need. This is not possible without defeating the ruling class and without eliminating wage labor.
Wage labor and the bourgeois state give full power to the bosses to make the most important decisions in society. Production for profit will continue to rule our lives. This determines our health, housing, education, recreation, and sexuality. Whatever the market dictates, our lives will remain in the hands of the interests of a few.
AMLO cannot and has no interest in solving this. On the contrary, he proudly speaks of his alliance with the bourgeoisie. As an achievement, he announces that Carlos Slim (the richest capitalist in Mexico) has committed himself to withdraw from his companies, where he has exploited millions of workers around the world, until the Mexican economy achieves 4% growth. What an honor!
To limit ourselves to criticizing the opportunists would be an error. So, what do we do? What strength do we have? The communist movement is re-emerging after the defeats of the 20th century. Although our strength is still insufficient, each day more and more people are listening more intently to communist ideas. The students and men and women workers of the ICWP in South Africa, in El Salvador, in India, and in the United States are proof of this.
Although the objective conditions for building a world where we produce for our needs and not for the market are present, the forces of the communist movement are very few. We have to struggle not only with the ideology of the ruling class, but also with its “left-wing” expressions: revisionism and opportunism.
Our call on International Workers’ Day is to organize ourselves into communist collectives in workplaces, schools and living spaces. Building these collectives will ensure the building of the International Communist Workers’ Party. The immediate tasks of these collectives are to study communist theory, a correct balance of the experience of the twentieth century from the perspective of revolutionary dialectics, and fundamentally to build communist social relations among its members that is only possible through communist practice.
Our newspaper Red Flag is our most important and strongest tool so far to achieve our goals. We want you to read, discuss, criticize and write for it with your friends in the factory, in the fields, at school or in the barracks.
In other articles you can read what Communism is. We want to emphasize that the building of the International Communist Workers’ Party is the most ambitious project ever of humanity. It tries to condense the experience of the past communist movement that teaches us that it is the masses of workers, and not a group of “cadres” or officials, who should lead society. It is working to meet needs and not for pay that can overcome class society.
The masses have made clear their longing for a dignified life with health, education, housing, work, and recreation. Lives without sexism, racism or xenophobia.
Only the ideological and political rebuilding of Communism and the International Communist Workers’ Party will be able to achieve this when the working class becomes aware of the urgent and necessary tasks to do it. Step by step. There is no time to lose!