On this page: Young party leader writes here ♦ Teachers Need Communism not unions here ♦ Workers need communist class struggle, not reform here ♦ Communists fight to destroy racism here ♦
Young Party Leader: We Have Profound Work to Do
My political work began at the age of 14. Back then I read books from such political figures as Che Guevara and Malcom X and that’s about as political as I was. In high school, I took a class where our comrade was my teacher and he introduced communism to me. After a few months of learning about it, I decided to join the party. A lot has changed since then and I have developed a lot politically.
During the protest movement that was sparked by the death of George Floyd, I went to plenty of protests. When I went by myself or with my friends who weren’t in the party, I experienced so many people with various points of views and political beliefs. Some advocated for racial justice, defunding the police, and various other reforms under the current system. But I realized that my presence there was just one more person in the crowd.
I talked about that with party comrades, and I decided that there’s more profound work to do. When I went to protests with my comrades in the party, we spoke with National Guard personnel, we distributed communist literature to protestors and even got contacts for the party. Through this we have been creating real change and fighting for the world we envision—a communist world.
—Comrade in Los Angeles (USA)
Teachers and All Workers Need Communist Politics, Not Unions
“The little angel has died/and I don’t want to cry/the little angel has died/who knows how many more will go/the little angel has died/it wasn’t a natural death/it was the social system that kills us a little at a time… (Popular song)
Preventable diseases have caused a mortality rate in Mexico (11.5%), which exceeds that of other countries. These include obesity, diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular and respiratory diseases caused by poor eating habits and living conditions under capitalism
The ruling class is taking advantage of this pandemic, like all natural disasters, to strengthen its grip. After the earthquakes in Managua and Mexico, the rulers and businessmen filled their pockets with the million-dollar aid they received from their external allies.
Similarly, the world’s big financial sharks are gloating and preparing to extend their loans to governments around the world. They plan to collect and concentrate wealth from all corners. The European Union, through its Central Bank, has approved a “support” fund. A little less than half of it will subsidize businesses and the population, and more than half is low-interest loans.
The working class will pay for the imbalances in the capitalist economy, made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic. First are the dead. Although this disease “affects everyone” in each country, it has killed the most vulnerable: the elderly in retirement, but even more so Black and Latino/a workers in the US, immigrants in England and the European Union.
The pharmaceutical companies increased their sales. And in general capitalism will recover as long as the working class does not focus on overthrowing it.
I went with other professors to the Rectory of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) this week to demand that those without permanent employment (more than half of university teachers) not be thrown out of their jobs. They told me in disbelief that we are not going to overthrow the system because the teachers don’t even come to defend their jobs.
I answered that we are starting from scratch, because the old communist movement became capitalist. No matter how long it takes, the working class will fight to emancipate itself from wage slavery. It will not resign itself to living forever under the domination of the capitalists.
These teachers believe that unions are bad today, but they can be cleaned up and defend workers. Some have formed a new one. I have been arguing that we need political organization and I am inviting them to read Red Flag. It will take time to convince them. However, if we don’t take the communist ideas to those who are fighting, they will continue to be deceived by false leaders. Let’s Mobilize the Masses for Communism!
—Teacher Comrade in Mexico
Workers Need Communist Class Struggles, Not Reform Struggles
In a letter in the last Red Flag, a comrade in El Salvador makes confusing, and at times contradictory, remarks about the role of reform. The letter says, “We should support these types of struggles for reforms, without being the ones leading them.” The end of the same letter states, “The reform should not absorb us, but fights for better wages and lower production goals serve us to tell the working class that there is a possibility of a world without money, without borders.”
Our goal is to break the wage slavery that binds us to the unions. That means participation in communist class struggle to tear down every aspect of reformist struggle. Reform struggles, in one way or another, are about money. How is it possible to support these demands for more money by telling the working class that it will lead us to abolish wage slavery? To avoid this question, the comrade says we should support reform demands without leading them.
Comrades who clearly put forward the demand for water in the garment factory made it clear to the entire working class: We will take the water, the unions don’t have to beg for it, the bosses cannot stop us, no money was exchanged. This is an example of communist class struggle.
What will inspire the working class is breaking away from the reform struggle. Perhaps that is where the fear of the unions is. And that is the reason comrades tell us to participate in the reform without leading them.
—Comrade in the US
Communists Fight to Destroy Racism
It is great that so many people around the world are having conversations about systemic racism – where does it come from? Are people naturally racist? What do we do about it?
Many people who do not have a communist analysis of the source of racism are trying to find individual solutions to a problem which is actually caused by the system under which we labor. Many white liberals (and Black people referring to them) use the words “white privilege.” I have been trying to understand my own discomfort with that language.
To my mind, the things referred to as privileges – NOT to get murdered by the cops; NOT to be unsheltered, hungry, without medical care; NOT to fear racist or xenophobic attacks are not privileges – they are what all humans deserve.
We discussed my letter in the club and I came to a better understanding of the usage. A comrade told me about a conversation she had with some former neighbors, who are Black. They told her that their youngest son and all his friends now carry a gun with them everywhere they go, even camping. The comrade knew their son as a good, well-liked kid. But he and all his crowd are deathly afraid of being assaulted anywhere. They obviously cannot depend on cops, etc. to save them. Most white folks who are not communists would assume that they could always call the police to save them.
People of color have to think about racism all the time. There is no getting away from it, closing your eyes and ears, taking a “break.” A white person, even a person of good heart who hates racism, has the opportunity not to think about it for a while – in school, work, walking on the street, grocery shopping, wherever. For POC, racism is a reality, and potentially a deadly one, ALL the time.
As communists, we must have the same vigilance about racism no matter what our color. The working class around the world is in a life-and-death struggle with the ruling class and only communists have the tools and historical understanding to provide the necessary leadership to mobilize the masses to overthrow the rotten system.
And essential to this mobilization is the fight against racism. Unless we are in the forefront of this struggle, unless we are fighting every day in the best way we can to smash racist ideology, there is no way that communism can win.
So being an anti-racist fighter is at the very heart of being a communist. We want to be sure our friends, families and co-workers understand that this is key. We fight against racism not because we are good people, but because we are communists who understand that the only way we can truly break our chains is by uniting and mobilizing large sections of the working class. We truly have a world to win!
Comrade in the US
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