On this page: The Main Thing here ♦ Imperialist War Inevitable here ♦ Website Proposal here ♦
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Red Flag thanks readers who have written with criticisms, comments, and stories. We encourage more to take part in the ongoing struggle to develop our communist political line.
The Main Thing Communists Must Do Now
“The main thing is to struggle with people to get them to accept new ideas and join the party,” said a comrade’s son, as we began to mobilize for the protest against the racist murder of Breonna Taylor. A teacher comrade and neighbors checked their networks to find the time and place. They couldn’t attend, but three other comrades did.
We distributed all our Red Flags and party leaflets, but that wasn’t the main thing that came out of this rally. Our experience sparked exciting conversations with comrades and new friends on communism, fascism, and what could replace police forces.
When our neighbor returned from work, the first thing he wanted to know was how the rally went. This led to a longer conversation about the development of fascism and a comrade’s experiences fighting it over the years. The neighbor made an interesting point about how calls for free speech for fascists ran counter to getting rid of racism. He was clear that not only Trump, but also neo-liberals, were promoting fascism.
Then things turned real. He asked the comrade what organization he belonged to. That led to a conversation about the ICWP. He really wanted the literature the party distributed at the rally. The comrade gave it to him. The discussion turned to the differences between socialism and communism.
About a week later he texted us to say that he had read “a few columns” of Red Flag and would read more as soon as he found the time. Around the same time, two comrades had another political discussion with his wife.
The Saturday after the rally, we discussed what we can write about for Red Flag. The teacher is working on a letter about restorative justice. We are trying to explain how communism will exist without laws and cops, and where restorative justice falls short. Our participation in the rally helped to open the door to the ongoing struggle about this.
This is a continuing story involving others as well, but you get the idea. The communist conversations we have with our neighbors, co-workers and comrades are crucial. There is no substitute.
—Seattle (USA) Comrades
World War is Inevitable Unless Communist Revolution Destroys Capitalism First
The lives of masses everywhere are affected by rivalry among imperialist powers. These leading capitalists fight for control of workers’ labor power, markets and resources. Their rivalry is the main contradiction in the world today. Sometimes it takes the form of trade disputes. But it increasingly explodes into war.
Wars have killed thousands already this year in Afghanistan, in Yemen, in Syria. In South Sudan, Congo, Libya, the Maghreb (northern Africa). In the Mexican drug war. And now in the Artsakh (Nagorno-Karabakh) conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia. Most if not all of these, involve conflicting imperialist powers. So do the equally deadly insurgencies in West Africa, Iraq and Mozambique.
Still, some think that “all-out world war” might not be inevitable. That perhaps the imperialists have “found ways to re-divide the world without total conflict.”
This is not a new idea. The German socialist Karl Kautsky argued in 1914 that “it is not impossible that capitalism is now to enter upon a new phase marked by the transfer of trust [monopoly] methods to international politics, a sort of super-imperialism.” However, the first World War was already underway.
But it is a dangerous idea. It’s true that imperialists sometimes make deals, but their unity is temporary. They have competing interests. Eventually these deals fall apart, like the Versailles treaty after World War I. The Versailles treaty itself contained the seeds of World War II.
It is dangerous because the vain hope that imperialists can peacefully divide the world diverts us from the fight to destroy capitalism and imperialism with communist revolution.
Lenin answered Kautsky in Imperialism: The Highest Stage of Capitalism. He showed that the nature of capitalism’s competition for maximum profit makes world war inevitable. The biggest capitalists – finance capital– control vast industries. As their profit rate declines, they must export capital.
Initially that meant subjugating regions of Asia, Africa, America in order to pay lower wages and reap higher profits. By the start of the 20th century, the French, British and other imperialists had conquered and divided up the world. Further expansion – including the rise of new imperial powers like the US and Germany—inevitably meant imperialist war to re-divide the world’s territory, resources, markets and labor power.
The resulting wars “re-set” capitalism by massively destroying productive capacity: factories, of course, but most tragically workers’ lives. They left different imperialists on top of the heap.
Understanding this, Lenin led the Bolsheviks to prepare for world war by building a base among industrial workers and soldiers. Their aim was to turn the imperialist war into a war for workers’ power.
And they did! Soldiers and workers turned their guns and tanks against the rulers to destroy the capitalists’ power.
Today’s imperialists and regional powers – from the US to Turkey to Russia to India to China—are once again preparing for even deadlier world war. So must we.
Communist-led masses stop imperialist war by destroying capitalism with communist revolution.
—Comrades in Los Angeles (USA)
Website proposal
I would like to make a simple proposal that would greatly increase our social media presence and help comrades all over the world with the conversations designed to bring workers closer to the party.
The proposal is that our RF/BR website have fresh material everyday about current events, the things workers are currently talking about, and the things we would like to talk with them about.
We can start it right away, and involves very little extra work for the collective that puts out RF/BR and our website. I can personally handle most of the extra work, including translating.
My proposal is very simple. Currently on the ICWP landing page we find a list of articles from the current issue, each with a small image and a few sentences from or about the articles. This is an effective use of space.
My suggestion is that at the top there be a similar item, labeled “Breaking News”. Ideally, it would change every day. Anyone could contribute but the RF/BR collective would be in charge of approving contributions. A proposed article would be posted on the chat group and if there are no objections, it’s posted on the site.
I suggest that the articles be shorter (<500 words) and more informal than regular RF/BR articles.
Given the current crisis, there will be no shortage of things to talk about. Just this week we would have the debate, war in the Caucasus, Trump’s tax returns, the anniversary of the founding of ‘Red’ China, the anniversary of the founding of the First International, 40,000 airline workers laid off, Trump gets COVID, and a general strike in Costa Rica.
Currently the ICWP site has nothing about any of this and won’t have for another two weeks, when a new issue of RF/BR comes out.
This is an opportunity we can’t afford to miss.
—Comrade in Canada
Front page of this issue
