Previous Letter criticizing banner slogan here ♦ In Defence of May Day banner here ♦ We are Proletarians Building Communist Revolution here ♦
Criticism of Slogan on ICWP El Salvador May Day Banner
Just a comment or a criticism about the picture on the front page of Red Flag’s last edition, which reads: “Construyendo La Revolución Proletaria Mundial (Building the Proletarian Revolution Worldwide).”
This was the main banner in the ICWP May Day march in El Salvador in 2021.
Red Flag has used the picture of this banner several times.
We think that it doesn’t really express what our goal is. ICWP is building together with the proletarian masses a COMMUNIST revolution, not a PROLETARIAN revolution.
The proletariat is the agent of the revolution, but the goal is not a proletarian society or state. That was the slogan of the old communist movement. They fought for a proletarian revolution to establish the dictatorship of the proletariat.
In the communist revolution that ICWP is mobilizing the masses for, the proletariat ceases to be the proletariat after taking state power – no longer wage slaves.
We fight for communist workers’ power that will usher in and build a classless world, without wage slavery, borders or nations, racism, sexism, and all other anti-working-class ideologies created by class society.
Our new communist slogan should be: “The communist working masses will be the human race.”
-Some Comrades
In Defence of May Day banner
In the last issue of Red Flag, some comrades sent a letter criticising the banner “Building the Worldwide Proletarian Revolution” used on May Day by comrades in El Salvador and its use in the newspaper. I think this criticism is mistaken.
The letter stated that we are fighting for communist revolution and not a proletarian revolution. But the proletarian revolution is for communism.
We cannot stop being proletarians when we make revolution, which is by its nature a protracted process and struggle.
As we know from previous experiences of proletarian revolutions, it will occur in different places at different times due to the uneven nature of capitalist imperialism. There will be liberated areas, which will have to abolish the wage and commodity system and implement communist relations. We know now the mistakes of “building socialism” by the old communist movement which led to capitalism.
The comrades say in the letter that the goal of the revolution is not a proletarian state. Of course, that isn’t our end goal. But this does not mean a liberated area creating communist relations can dispose of the dictatorship of the proletariat.
When there are still capitalist countries and classes existing in the world, the communist areas will still require a state led by the communist party, that is the ICWP.
There will still be many people and those from the former capitalist class, big and small, who will still desire and plot to restore capitalism, despite the abolition of the wage system, money and commodity production.
There will still therefore be a distinction between proletarian outlook and a capitalist one. Hence the need for a dictatorship of the proletariat until the whole world is liberated from capitalism.
The difference will be that, this time around, we will be able to avoid some of the major errors of the old communist movement, where in Russia and China the dictatorship of the proletariat created state capitalism and a new bourgeoisie.
-Comrade in London
“We Are the Proletarian Class, Who Build the Communist Revolution”
The preparations for an activity such as May Day require a lot of organization. They include several tasks, and one of them of great importance is the material that is going to be used. It must reflect a clear message to the working class of the goals of the struggle of ICWP.
We believe that we have achieved this every time we have marched, through slogans and the distribution of the Party’s manifesto and newspaper.
The content of the banner that was carried in this year’s May Day march has been the subject of criticism from some comrades. They say that “it does not express what our objective is.”
I think the criticism is useful and we can say that it leads us to discuss this more fully. The proletariat is considered to be the social class that can acquire the means to subsist only by selling its labor power. That is, we are part of the wage-earning class.
Who are we, the members of the International Communist Workers’ Party? We are the proletarian class, the class that sells its labor power, but we are also the ones who build the communist revolution.
We are making the revolution for communism, but we are proletarians. It is in this sense that the slogan was written.
The criticism letter also mentioned that “the photo has been used in several editions” of Red Flag. So its content is criticized, but also its use in Red Flag.
Practice shows us some aspects that we must take into account in this process.
We are learning to function collectively. This also requires that the comrades dedicate more time to reviewing the content of the material that we are going to show to the working class. We can only achieve this through discipline and understanding of the line of ICWP.
These are important lessons for more comrades to get involved in this activity.
We appreciate the comrades’ criticism because it has led us to review the origins of the proletariat. Historically, it is there where the struggles have been born, and they are pointing the way and correcting errors of the old communist movement.
-Comrade in El Salvador
Front page of this issue
