Seattle, USA – Muslims join caravan supporting farm protests in India
PUGET SOUND (US), December 6— “And that’s how it begins,” said a comrade’s neighbor. He had just read a report from a small collective of Indian garment workers describing how they used Red Flag to help recruit new members and supporters.
The neighbors knew about the massive Indian protests and strikes from the ICWP leaflet the comrade gave them. They downloaded it and sent it to their friends, who now want to know more.
The comrade had attended a 1000-car caravan supporting the India farmers. He described how participants had welcomed our leaflets and Red Flag. Whole families read and passed them around while waiting for an hour to get out of the parking lot. Party members had numerous discussions about the potential for communism.
The huge protests and the caravan were inspiring, but the neighbor was most interested in the garment workers’ nitty-gritty communist work. Workers like these—here and around the world—are whom he wants to talk to.
Then a retired Boeing worker contacted us. He had supported the party when he worked in the factory: from distributing and defending the paper to fighting scabs on the picket lines.
“I am frustrated by our political situation but have no idea what to do. Give me a call when you have the time,” he requested. We forwarded the leaflet and Red Flag with an invitation to pass them on. Almost immediately, the retiree returned a thumbs-up.
Over the last six months, our Party collective has received similar requests from former co-workers. Some had joined our collectives years ago. Most importantly, these supporters have now reached out to their friends. Our friends’ friends have made valuable contributions to Red Flag. They have written about their battles and their visions of a communist future. We’re a far cry from revolution, but these developments are significant.
Our distribution network has lit up! Our party collective has distributed about 60 leaflets and Red Flags though our network, mostly over the internet. At least 100 more have read our literature.
A current Boeing worker was impressed that the Indian struggle “could generate so much involvement from Puget Sound folks.” Another friend who was raised in South Africa has Indian friends in the U.S who also migrated from there. He and other Boeing workers have promised to get back to us after they and their friends think about the leaflet and the report. Our job now is to make phone calls, reply to those texts and DMs and organize family and party Zoom meetings.
There have been many conversations about how communism will eliminate markets and the wage system. We’ve talked and written about communist food production in the Chinese communes of the 1950s (see page 6).
Many conversations have zeroed in on whether or not reforms can lead to revolution. Massive battles to reform capitalism are exciting and they come out of real suffering. Nonetheless, they will never lead to more communists and communist revolution.
From India to Seattle, our job is to develop more communist organizers and grow the ICWP. We have to focus on the essential communist work in the factories, schools, communities, churches, armed forces, etc. The collectives and Red Flag networks we build in these places are key to developing a force that can lead to revolution.
“That’s where it all begins.”