Letters to Red Flag

To New Comrade in Pakistan here ♦ Talkin’ Bout Revolution here ♦ Never Give Up here ♦

November 18, Paris police attack migrant camp at the Stalingrad metro in Saint-Denis. Communist-led masses defeated the Nazis at Stalingrad in 1943 but capitalism’s fascism lives on. So, too, does anti-racist and pro-migrant resistance. But only communism can create a world without borders, where everyone is welcome everywhere.

To the New Comrade in Pakistan

We welcome you to the Party, especially because you join us by immediately engaging us in struggle to clarify (and strengthen) our line.

It’s true. We do use the word “victory” when talking of the Paris Commune, the Soviet revolution, the Chinese revolution and the Chinese Cultural Revolution. We mean it in the sense of a great advance – an advance that had previously been thought impossible for workers or peasants.

Perhaps when we update the pamphlet, we will use the more accurate term “advances” to describe these four revolutions. We see these as the most important in advancing the fight for a communist world. When we look at these revolutions, we see great achievements that all ended in defeat. Why, we asked ourselves? What was the way forward?

We concluded that the one factor central to all of them was the failure to reject commodity production – producing for wages (workers) at one end and profits (private or State) at the other end. We saw that socialism did not pave the way forward to communism. Even though we could recognize there had been forces within the socialist states that wanted and fought for communism.

The way forward, we decided, was to fight directly for communism. We would advance the need for communist revolution in every struggle we found the masses engaged in. No matter whether the fight is against imperialist war, racist police murder, sexist atrocities or deepening exploitation, we would enter the struggle patiently, persistently, insisting on the need to build a revolution for a communist society. No other solution could liberate us from “the horrors of capitalism,” as Lenin called it.

And that is the Party that is excited to welcome you comrade!

—California (USA) comrade

Talkin’ Bout a Revolution

Recently, a teachers’ union Social Justice committee was listening to a report about “Universal Basic Income” (UBI). The speaker mentioned that some conservatives support it to pump more money into the economy and also because growing inequality can lead to “social instability.”

This was a continuation of the discussion described in Red Flag (v. 11 #12) a month ago. We wrote then that “UBI is a capitalist attempt to resolve the irreconcilable contradictions of the capitalist system. Before increasingly impoverished and infuriated masses join the communist revolutionary movement to destroy it.”

When the speaker finished, a comrade asked a question. “Is it possible to fight for UBI without falling into the trap of helping maintain the stability of the capitalist system?”

“That takes us back to the fundamentals: compassion and justice,” said another teacher. “Obviously our society does not work for improving human lives. Profit comes first.” That led him to bring up revolution. He mentioned that “Dr. King gave his ‘I Have a Dream’ speech in 1963. By 1967, his dream had become a nightmare. He began talking about economic justice.”

Suddenly everyone was talking about revolution. “Even if we get UBI, you still need to have a revolution,” said one.

“I don’t want all-out revolution,” replied someone else. “The conservatives worry about the sustainability of capitalism. Faced with radical social revolution, they would opt for fascism.

“I care about the sustainability of the planet,” she continued. “I think about local cooperatives. Large revolutions don’t always end up the way we want.”

Another teacher identified himself as a socialist. He talked about the National Basketball Association. “Don’t laugh,” he warned. “The players have a contract that guarantees them 50% of the revenue. Imagine if factory workers got that!” But, he said, one owner got half while a dozen players shared the other half.

He hurried to add that UBI would provide immediate help to the worst-off among us. As someone who had experienced extreme poverty himself, he felt this was very important. “They can’t wait for revolution.” As for economic sustainability in an era of disappearing jobs, he proposed the fight for a shorter work-week: “30 hours work for 40 hours pay.”

With that, the meeting moved on to its next topic: single-payer health insurance.

Two things are clear:   First, that even many teachers who are deeply involved in electoral politics and reforms are, at the same time, thinking about revolution. Some have read Red Flag or have met with us. And second, that we need to build closer ties with these folks, to be able to have serious discussions about communism with them.

—Teacher comrade

Never Give Up!

I wanted to share a wonderful experience with a longtime friend. She and I worked together in the 1980’s and became fast friends. Even when I left that job, we continued to see each other, talk on the phone, etc. We agreed on many things, but politics was not one of them. She considers herself a liberal; I am a longtime communist. We would have struggles over world events, and always disagree strongly at election time, since I think voting is just a capitalist ruse.

She is cynical about the potential for a revolution for communism. I believe her cynicism comes from being brought up in a religion that stresses original sin. She has long since left the religion, but that kernel stays in her mind.

Our strong friendship continues, and we have agreed to disagree. I try to highlight humans fighting back, how people try to help each other all over the world. She reads and listens to too much of the bosses’ media and tells me awful stories.

Last week I got an email from her that her grandson, who is in college, had interviewed her for a paper he is writing for his Women’s Studies class. He wanted her “historical” take, since she has lived through a lot.

Here is what she told me about her response: “You would’ve been proud of me. I unexpectedly kept returning to the topic of capitalism. And how it impacted women’s rights for those in lower socio-economic groups.”

I was so happy and told her so. All those years of base-building and struggle did eventually have an effect. Now I need to convince her that the answer to capitalism is building a base for communism. Time to try again to get her to read an article or two from Red Flag.

The struggle continues!

—Seattle Comrade

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