August 11—Hundreds died and thousands were wounded in a storage-dump explosion in Beirut. Hundreds of thousands lost their homes, their neighborhoods and their work in the blast. They are feeling the worst of capitalism in their own flesh.
They are desperate. They cannot live in the old way.
The masses have taken to the streets angry. They stormed government buildings, putting up nooses for politicians of all parties. They have caused the government to resign.
Throughout Lebanon, millions of people cannot live in the old way. Almost one-third were unemployed even before the blast, worst among women and youth. Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians and 1.5 million Syrians are stuck in refugee camps. Runaway inflation made necessities unaffordable. Economic collapse was predicted.
Masses rose up ten months ago in anti-government rebellions targeting joblessness, open corruption and lack of basic services like water, sanitation and electricity. The resulting political crisis brought to power the governing coalition of Christian and Muslim parties that just resigned.
“Bury the authorities first!” the masses now cry. “It does not end with the government’s resignation,” declared a protest flyer. “There is still [President Michel] Aoun, [Parliament Speaker Nabih] Berri and the entire system.”
The “system” is not just the corrupt political elite. It’s capitalism. And crises like this one in Lebanon create new opportunities to bury it and build communism on its ashes.
We need to spread the communist political line of the International Communist Workers’ Party in Lebanon and worldwide so that the workers know that all is not lost. That there is a solution to all the problems that capitalism has created: the communist system.
What would the International Communist Workers’ Party do today if we were on the streets of Beirut with a mass base in the army and other sectors? What would we do if an earthquake leveled San Salvador or if a nuclear bomb struck Kashmir?
We would attempt to establish communist workers’ power.
Party collectives would lead the mobilization of workers, soldiers and others to guarantee safety from fascist militias and imperialist invaders. To secure food supplies and organize distribution. To transform mansions into housing for the masses. To begin reconstruction of homes, hospitals, and necessary means of production. To spread communist revolution worldwide, working with existing Party collectives elsewhere.
Communist revolution, even in a small place like Lebanon, would stir the imagination of workers and youth worldwide. It could inspire revolutions elsewhere. It could lead soldiers of imperialist armies to turn their guns around and join the communist revolution. Winning workers to the International Communist Workers’ Party now and forming cells in the army will make this possible. The growth of the party anywhere helps workers everywhere!
Workers produce everything, goods and services and infrastructure. Today we do it as wage-slaves, directed and exploited by the gluttony of capitalist governments. In communism we will organize it ourselves, to meet the needs of the masses. As people in Beirut showed up with brooms to clean their streets!
Communism does not need currency or money, banks or loans. It needs masses mobilized to work for the collective good, knowing that they too will be provided for. In a communist world there will be neither wealth nor poverty. Communism will be free of slavery and racism, free of borders and free of exploitation.
The Beirut masses need to feel the support of their working-class family everywhere! But not solidarity messages calling for a “national and democratic state” or the overthrow of the “current political situation.” Real support means building the International Communist Workers’ Party. LONG LIVE COMMUNISM!
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