Transit Workers and Their Families Teach Each Other About Communism
LOS ANGELES, June 28 —“In a family, the young people work, the children study, and the grandparents contribute what they can. But when it’s time for dinner, everyone eats at the table. And if someone is sick, the family cooperates to take care of them.”
That’s how a young comrade MTA transit worker explained the way communism will work.
Five MTA workers, plus the spouses of three of them and four other ICWP comrades, were at a barbecue in the young comrade’s back yard. We got together to see how we could continue to organize and inspire the fight for communism during the pandemic. We were Black, Latinx and white.
It’s a contradiction. We know we must stop the spread of COVID-19 and protect the most vulnerable among us. But we felt that, in this case, we needed to get together in person to learn from each other so as to fight the more deadly virus—capitalism. So we wore masks, tried to keep some physical distance, and had great discussions about communism.
One worker asked how communism will deal with unemployment and homelessness. Comrades explained that communism won’t have those problems because the society will take care of each other. Nobody will need money.
His wife, also an MTA worker, asked how communism will deal with looting. Comrades explained that in communism looting, like sexist and racist behavior, will be dealt in a mass way in all the places we work, learn and live. We had a lively discussion about individualism and need for collectivity.
The meeting was very relaxed and comradely. We asked other women what they think about communism. The wife of the young MTA comrade replied, “I like it, and I’d like to learn more.”
We passed Red Flag to everyone. Our Red Flag literature is very important for the continued growth of the ICWP. Our members reading and distributing it is part of the fight towards a Communist World.
The endless efforts of every member to better understand and help others understand the Racist, Sexist, Discrimination, Greedy, driven ways of the failing system of Capitalism is part of the struggle. We invited everyone to help with this.
The worker who’d asked about homelessness saw the picture of the George Floyd protest in Syria on the front page. “Wow, amazing!” he said. “How big is the Party?”
“We are still relatively small,” a comrade answered. “But we have great potential to grow, and we are already organizing in Mexico, El Salvador, South Africa, India, Spain and other places. Red Flag reflects those struggles.”
The worker who’d asked about looting was very interested the Red Flag article about that. “I want to learn more about communism,” she said. “I want to be in the next zoom study group that you are talking about.” We plan to invite many more workers to these zoom meetings.
Her husband agreed with us that mass demonstrations need structure. We said, “That’s why we need a Party and you should be part of it.” They both smiled.
Capitalism only benefits the less-than-1% elite of the world. It does not benefit the rest of the population that is mostly the working class. The purpose of the party’s growth is not solely in our jobs, communities, or families, but to impact the masses on a global scale.
History has helped us understand what a Revolution is, and at this given time, it could be very near. We need to continue the culture, be organized, and be very well structured to continue the fight towards Communism.
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