Garment Workers Organize here ♦ Transit Workers Meet to Explain Communism here ♦
Garment Workers Organize Family and Co-Workers
EL SALVADOR, November 24— “I am distributing and discussing Red Flag with fifteen workers, including a worker from another factory,” said a worker leader at a recent meeting of communist industrial workers.
In recent months, the members of the responsible cell of the International Communist Workers’ Party (ICWP) have divided into groups to distribute Red Flag. In this way, they can bring the important information that Red Flag transmits to the different readers despite the changes in the schedules for leaving work.
One of the strategies they have implemented is that readers (including family members and neighbors as well as co-workers from the factory) fulfill the task of sharing it with their friends and discussing the articles or letters.
In addition, she tells us: “I also share it with my son at home (a university student and worker) and we debate certain topics. For example, he found one of the editions in October very interesting. It was about the conditions in South Africa, where a worker said that even though he is working fewer hours they force him to get out the same amount of work. At that moment, the same thing had been happening to him, because the bosses are taking advantage of this situation.
“Red Flag is so important,” she continued, “because this is how we realize that it is the same worldwide and that we need to organize more workers to the party, and fight for a communist world to end all the exploitation that the whole working class is living.”
Our families are important pillars in this fight to build a communist system. That is why it is necessary to involve them.
This is how young sons and daughters of workers have begun to write for the newspaper. It is a way that they are informed of the need to organize from an early age, and they can share these ideas in school and universities.
We still cannot hold broader meetings. That has affected us a lot, but even under these conditions we have managed to recruit four co-workers. We have used social media to keep in touch with ICWP members, readers and friends.
The workers are organizing to leaflet at other factories. No matter how difficult the conditions are, our party must keep fighting to overcome the obstacles and advance. Red Flag is a key tool to make this a reality.
LONG LIVE THE WORKING CLASS!
LONG LIVE COMMUNISM!
Transit Workers on the Job: “How do we explain to other workers what communism is?”
LOS ANGELES, USA, November 24 —A group of members of the International Communist Workers’ Party who work for MTA (mass transit) met to continue investigating and learning about communist ideas. This meeting was saddened by the murder of our dear comrade Zipho in South Africa. We began it with a moment of silence and a few words about the example of struggle that he leaves us. Each of us promised to continue fighting for communism, which was our dear comrade’s dream. We also collected money from several Red Flag readers to help his family.
Our meeting was based on the question: “How do we explain to other workers what communism is?”
Comrade A said, “The new society will create new relationships among human beings. Economic conditions (the material basis) will change greatly because exploitation will not exist, and equality will exist.”
He continued, “The new society is not the invention of a small group of people who are dreaming. Rather, it is a process of social development. Communism does not exist yet, because in previous struggles mistakes were made. That is understandable, because mistakes are made in all experiments. That is why it does not exist yet, but more and more, the working class has been learning. Now, with our party, that theory has reached the point where hundreds of workers worldwide are embracing communist ideas. They are realizing what they want and this is what they are looking for.
“We try to tell others (like you, in this case) that they should attend our study groups so that they learn more,” he concluded. “Here we study political economy, philosophy, and I would like to invite you to join us.”
Comrade B said, “My approach is similar to Comrade A. But I disagree on the question of equality. Because I think that equality is not what we are looking for. That creates a false image of the new society — communism. It is not going to be based on people who are all the same or that everyone will get the same. The truth is that to each one it will be given according to their needs. Suppose I have three children and Comrade A has only one. If we get the same, it would be a very difficult situation for me and very comfortable for him. That is why I believe it is necessary to make workers understand that we are going to create a society of equity in which each one receives according to their needs.”
We discussed that the bosses try to make workers believe that they will suffer in communism or that the party leadership is going to become a new bourgeoisie. Our line is very specific about privileges. In the future there will be no privileges for anyone. Everyone will receive according to their needs and no one will be given anything else, especially when money is not going to exist in that society.
The meeting was very lively. At the end we talked about the need to continue developing political work with more co-workers through the distribution of Red Flag and these study groups. The bell rang and everyone returned to their workplaces.