Dialectical Materialism Helps Workers Build ICWP here ♦ Winning New Comrades here ♦ “Then We Need the World to be Communist Now” here ♦
Communist Philosophy Helps Factory Workers Organize ICWP
EL SALVADOR, October 25— “I gave the Red Flag newspaper to my sister and another co-worker, and they already have attended meetings. One of them also came to the May Day march.” The comrade added, “I have two friends who are co-workers in the factory, but I haven’t given them Red Flag yet.”
“Why not?” we asked.
She answered, “I want to strengthen the friendship a little more with them and then be able to organize them in ICWP.”
This discussion was in a study group of five women workers and four men workers from the maquila factories. We talked about communist philosophy as a powerful tool that allows us to see reality in a more critical way, to understand how change occurs and to do everything necessary to achieve it. We are seeking what we need as the working class: communism.
“Dialectical materialism tells us that the different parts of reality are connected in time and space,” said a Party leader. “For example, in the maquila the exploiting bosses are connected with the workers. Today they need each other: the bosses to get their profits and the workers to subsist. But this will change with the organized struggle for communism.”
Between workers and bosses, opposing interests exist. Workers must sharpen the contradiction, through class struggle, until we win communist revolution.
“Sometimes our internal contradictions keep us from making a greater effort with our friends,” a young worker pointed out. “We have to understand and be convinced ourselves to be able to bring others.”
In the communist system, the working class will form a society without bosses, money, racism or sexism. When we affirm that things change, it means understanding every process that we have passed through to form part of this effort and to be part of the International Communist Workers’ Party, fighting for Communism.
The discussion highlighted some obstacles we encounter in recruiting for ICWP.
A worker from another factory who participated said, “Where I work it’s very hard to organize more workers. We are under extreme surveillance. There are not even unions there, and they prohibit us from interacting with workers from another factory. Especially where there are workers organized in the ICWP.”
“We have to make a plan, change the strategy there, and we will do that. We will have comrades from other areas bring leaflets outside the factory,” said a worker comrade.
Capitalism does everything it can to prevent us from organizing. It builds an individualistic society, but this can change. Precisely studying communist philosophy can help us overthrow this savage and oppressive system. We do not need to constantly be watched, much less exploited.
Communist philosophy opens our thinking and helps us produce better ideas about how to organize ourselves. That is what we are going to do to organize in that factory even under the bosses’ attack.
A worker said that some workers also believe that we are a union. “I invited a co-worker to an extended meeting. She told me that she was not going because she thought we were a union. I tried to explain, but it was not enough. This is from her experience that most of the unions do the bosses’ bidding.”
“I think that the mistakes of the fmln affect this party,” another worker commented, “because they said that they were communists, and they didn’t even give us water when we went to marches with them.”
We in ICWP fight directly for communism. In the fmln they did not and then they joined the electoral game, nothing more. They dedicated themselves to administer the system. We must learn from these mistakes so that we don’t make them.
“I have very much liked being in this collective to study communist philosophy. I’m learning new things,” the worker concluded, while he savored a delicious chicken soup, prepared by worker comrades.
Winning New Comrades
I want to share with you, comrades, how gratifying it is for me to talk about the communist ideology of our International Communist Workers’ Party, convincing new comrades to join our struggle.
We were four friends getting together and talking about how hard it is to earn a living, with wages that are barely enough to survive. Most of the time, putting up with discrimination by the boss. Subjected to long working hours without any type of remuneration. Added to this the impotence of living with the high cost of living where money is the motivation to survive.
Listening to them motivates me to show them that communism is the solution that can liberate us from this capitalist exploitation, from this oppressive hand that destroys us. That united we can fight for and build a communist society where there will be no discrimination, a society that will fight for the needs of all. That we will all work together for the common good.
They are very interested in hearing what can be achieved all together. I have been discussing this with them for several months, having social gatherings, sharing the Red Flag newspaper and inviting them to be part of our ICWP collective.
I will continue in the fight to win new comrades, following up to make it happen, just as they motivated me. I am proud to be part of our collective and to mobilize the masses for communism.
The struggle continues.
-Comrade in El Salvador
“Then we need the world to be communist now”
“Does this mean that you are a communist?” another university student asked me in a WhatsApp group chat. This question arose from a comment I had made in a Human Rights class.
“Yes, and I am in an internationalist communist party,” I answered. Another student in the group commented, “My mother has always been a very firm supporter of the FMLN.”
That’s how we started a conversation on WhatsApp when classes were virtual. A few months ago, the contact became more personal. The classes became face-to-face. That allowed me to first strengthen a friendly relationship with them and later share Red Flag with them. I was very excited since they received it with great interest. One read the entire newspaper and the other read certain articles.
One question they asked me was: “In communism, are we all going to work but they won’t pay us?”
I told them that in the system in which we live, most workers work long hours, under daily exploitation. And at the end of the month the money they get is not enough even to cover basic expenses. If they have children, the situation is even harder.
On the other hand, in communism we will work enough to meet the needs of the community. No one will die for not being able to have quality medical care, no one will go hungry. I ended by saying, “So if we have everything we need, what do we need money for?”
Their response was, “Then we need the world to be communist now.”
The struggle that I am carrying out with these friends has made me think that we should talk openly with all the people in our circle about communism. That’s how we’ll bring our ideas to more people who can eventually become active members of our party.
A Comrade
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