Letters, Criticism and Suggestions
Deaths at the US Border Show Need for Communism
“Oscar and the girl drowned,” said a young mother. She, along with her partner and her little daughter, had traveled to the US, fleeing poverty and violence in El Salvador. The father and the girl drowned in the Rio Grande, trying to cross into the US.
The death of this young worker and his daughter caused worldwide outrage, and a series of attacks between the Trump government and the Democrats blaming each other. On the other hand, the government of El Salvador and its president Bukele used this case to build populism and declare that it was necessary to focus on: “Making El Salvador into a better country, a place where nobody has to migrate from.” The lie adorned with inventiveness. Capitalism cannot be reformed. We have to destroy it.
The precariousness of working conditions and the strangling of the family economy by profit-driven capitalist economic policies continue forcing more Central American families to emigrate to the United States.
The struggle for Communism is necessary. In an egalitarian system, there will be no reason for borders to exist. We fight so that no worker is called foreigner. Millions of workers worldwide migrate fleeing the failure of Capitalism. The bosses’ crises, subjecting workers to poverty, is causing more deaths.
The death of this young father and daughter should be unacceptable. Yet it happens almost every day. On the road to seeking better living conditions, migrants encounter violence, sexual assault, murder and hunger. The same things they are running away from. And when they reach their destination, they find the same exploitation and the same conditions of poverty. There is no escape from Capitalism.
This will have its end. The International Communist Workers’ Party has a firm objective: to organize and mobilize the working class to put an end to this system at its roots. In Communism, the workers will have conditions worthy of human life. Of course this is not going to happen by itself. This requires commitment to communist work, organizing in the factories, universities, fields and among soldiers, to achieve victory.
Organize and Fight for Communism
—Comrade in El Salvador
BARCELONA, SPAIN, July 12—A comrade and a friend distributed Red Flag at the “Lights of Liberty” protest against the concentration camps for immigrants at the US border.
PARIS, FRANCE July 12—Hundreds of undocumented African immigrants known as Gilets Noirs (Black Vests) occupied the Pantheon in Paris, demanding legal papers, jobs, housing, and an end to police attacks. They denounced the system which colonized their home countries and forces them to emigrate. Their chosen spot? Beneath a statue representing France reading: “live free or die.”
Forever a Communist
At first, like most of the comrades, I never knew about communism. I wasn’t even familiar with it until one day comrade N told me about it and brought Red Flag.
I still wasn’t interested because I thought it was one of the political parties, so I did not pay any attention to it until I attended one meeting. Many things about communism were discussed and I had a lot of questions.
The more I attended the meetings, the more my eyes opened about ICWP and what’s it about: the fight for getting rid of capitalism. The struggles we are facing and suffering from are caused by capitalist corruption and the source of it all is money.
I told myself I have to be part of this. I have to fight, too, especially as the youth are the key of our revolution.
A month ago, I gave birth to a baby boy. And now I am ready to participate in the meetings. I will forever be a communist and I will forever fight for communism. A LUTA CONTINUA
—New Mother in South Africa
Sexism: Learning As I Go
I know the meaning of sexism. We girls grew up with the idea that men will always be superior to women. Our grandmothers and mothers always told us that men are the ‘head’ of the house/family.
Some of us don’t believe that. Today, many women raise their kids without fathers or men in their lives. But society always says things about this that can damage a woman’s self-esteem or confidence.
Women struggle with sexism every day of their lives. For example, where I work, we are dominated mostly by older men. You’d find that there could be more than ten males and less than four females in a meeting. Some men won’t feel at ease with a room with females.
People are hired to serve the people who attend meetings. But men would ask one of the ladies to serve them instead. Which is wrong.
I feel like women must go an extra mile to prove that we can do what males can do. There are things we can’t do, that we know for a fact. That’s why I say we deal with sexism everyday of our lives.
In our party we have more men than females. We try to bring more females but most of the time we have other things that we do that may interfere.
Sometimes there’d be three girls and eight guys in a meeting and that does feel a bit too much sometimes. We have gotten used to it as we accepted everyone as comrades, which makes it easier for us. We all have given each other a platform where we don’t ‘compete’ with one another.
It would be easier if we all would see the environment around us with one eye instead of fighting for everyone’s opinion. Trying to fight the whole sexism stigma alone doesn’t work. It’s best to fight it along with people who share similar views/visions. When people see a group of people fighting for the same visions and how we work together as a team they would most probably be amped to join the ICWP.
—Comrade in South Africa
Read our pamphlet: The Communist Fight Against Sexism. Available at: icwpredflag.org/sxse.pdf