Donât Defend Democracy, Mobilize Masses for Communism Instead
Los Angeles, USA, Nov. 7
USA, November 23 â âDefend democracy!â demanded broad coalition marches across the US on November 7.  âDemocracy in danger!â scream print and other headlines.
Trumpâs openly racist coup attempt is a flop. The transition is happening. But leading US industrial and finance capitalists worry some about Trump supporters who distrust the electoral system.
However, they worry more about young workers and students who may have voted for Biden but donât trust âthe systemâ either. The rulers need to chain the masses to elections â or perhaps ânonviolent civil protestâ â to keep them away from communism and the armed struggle to win it.
âWhat is democracy?â a comrade asked a group of liberal anti-racist friends. âWhat is it that you aspire to, really?â
âThatâs a good question,â one responded. âIâve never really thought about it,â admitted another.
Textbooks say that democracy is âgovernment by the peopleâ or âmajority rule.â In this imaginary world, economics is separate from politics. The social relationships of production have no relation to âpower.â
Everyone can see thatâs not true in the US or El Salvador or Belarus or Peru or anywhere else. The wealthiest capitalists know it and love it.  Masses see it as âcorruptionâ and want to âget money out of politics.â
âDEMOCRACY = COMMUNISM!â posted Comrade T in an online chat.
âI donât agree,â Comrade H responded. âDemocracy, started by Greek slave holders, was a way to try to get their subjects who werenât slaves to buy into their system. Communism is where the masses decide everything about our lives and carry it out together. Itâs the only way the masses will control our future. Because it will be based on collective production for need without capitalists or wage slavery.â
âIf communism is not democracy, why do we fight for it?â T asked. âThe most democratic form of society is communist; I have always thought. How is that wrong?â
âIn a communist society there is no class of exploiters or oppressors,â H replied. âSo, we are not using the fig-leaf of democracy to deceive the masses. We will run society with mutual relationships, not based on profits, to help each other as one human race.â
Communism: How Will Masses Decide?
The key is building one mass communist party. We understand that the international working class has a common interest. As a new friend put it, âEight billion people working together can do anything!â
Itâs not always easy to see what best serves the international working class at any moment. All who agree with communist principles and want to fight for a communist world need to figure that out through party collectives.
Unlike communist parties in the past, we want all these comrades to be Party members. Not just a select few. Not just those who can be on call 24/7. Not just those who have read a lot or have a lot of experience.
If you want to help build a communist future, we need you to pull up a chair and sit at the table. We need you to speak up.
We invite you to join a party club (cell, collective). Together, we all come to understand communism better. We fight for it more effectively. We recruit more members, build stronger communist relationships, expand our influence, build our power.
Local party collectives are linked globally through a unified structure of direct participation. We struggle for all members and friends to help make decisions. We struggle for all to help carry them out, evaluate them, and move forward. Red Flag helps in these struggles.
We all have the responsibility for thinking about and building the new society. Capitalism doesnât train people to do that, but communism does.
Whenever and wherever the party succeeds in mobilizing masses to establish communist workersâ power, this is how our âliberated zonesâ will function.  Weâll throw out ballot boxes and elections along with money and markets. Weâll strive for consensus (or near-consensus) in a growing mass communist party whose members influence even broader circles among the masses.
Why donât we call this âthe most democratic form of societyâ?
First, because communism unites the working-class to lead the oppressed masses â not âthe peopleâ â to rule. As long as there are classes, even remnants of formerly ruling capitalist classes, itâs misleading to talk about âgovernment by the people.â We donât welcome class enemies into a government. We organize masses to suppress them.
Second, because the idea of democracy involves each person voting for what they want (as an individual) instead of resolving collectively what the international working class needs. We have to hear and consider everyoneâs opinion. âMajority ruleâ closes off discussion. It often prevents the collective from reaching the best decision.
Thatâs why we donât âdefend democracy.â Instead, we mobilize masses for communism.