Mobilize to Develop New Communist Leaders here ♦ Global Strike Wave Shows Potential for Communist Workers’ Power here ♦
Half a million workers strike in South Korea, October 20, 2021
Mobilize to Develop a New Generation of Communist Leaders
October 17—Ten thousand engineers (members of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa) plus others are on strike. What should party comrades do when we have no members among the strikers?
That’s the question that opened today’s meeting of the International Communist Workers’ Party (ICWP) Steering Committee.
The leading comrade in South Africa described a plan worked out at a collective meeting the day before. He knows scores of people. Times like these offer opportunities to struggle for our communist goal among lots of people. He will struggle with scores but will focus on two he thinks can become ICWP leaders.
A comrade in Seattle (USA) remembered how, years ago, a few comrades and friends led hundreds to march through the Boeing factory, reaching out to tens of thousands of industrial workers. The collective built lifelong ties with one Black worker. She joined and spread the struggle to thousands more, recruiting family members. Just last month, her daughter brought her boyfriend to the party’s summer BBQ. He left with a pile of party literature.
Another comrade talked about a Black university student in the USA who was a leader in the anti-apartheid fight in the 1970s. He developed ties with many in South Africa and with the comrade. Now a professor, he wants to introduce our party and its communist politics to miners in South Africa and other workers he knows.
A maquila comrade gave an exciting report about how recruiting ones and twos has recently led to the expansion of the industrial work there to more factories. They are planning a conference to consolidate even more members and leaders.
A pattern emerged. We must have a mass presence, while recruiting ones and twos (and threes and fours). These new recruits change the dynamics of our collectives. They begin to lay the basis for implementing our strategy: mobilizing the masses for communism. Expanding collectives will allow us to reach many more.
The party’s communist line is a key advantage. The power of our communist vision is enriched with every recruit.
We must move fast to consolidate newer, younger members to guarantee the next generation of leaders. These new members help us see more clearly the world we live in as we fight to mobilize the masses for communism.
We must fight hard to develop international, multi-racial membership of all genders. The Steering Committee must make sure it can gather insights from collectives everywhere.
Some comrades already have communist relationships with many people; some less so. We can all improve. Each collective must decide on whom to concentrate and on specific activities and tactics.
None of this will happen overnight. Recruiting and consolidating new communist organizers requires a laser-like focus on the part of comrades and, even more importantly, our collectives everywhere. There is no magic bullet. All Party collectives should make and carry out concrete plans to advance this struggle. Then share the results in Red Flag.
The expanding international strike wave opens new opportunities for the Party to grow now!
Massive Global Strike Wave Shows Workers’ Power
We Need Communist Revolution: Nothing to Lose but Our Chains!
October 23—Mass shutdowns in India supporting farmers and farmworkers protesting fascist farm laws! Tens of thousands of metal workers in South Africa on strike, with other unions in solidarity! One-day general strike in South Korea! Almost 100,000 US industrial and health care workers on or ready to strike: Alabama coal miners, factory workers at John Deere, Kellogg, Nabisco, and more.
They are striking for their lives. Pushing back against the bosses’ attempts to control the workplace ever more tightly – to squeeze ever more profits from our labor.
Since the pandemic started, corporations and the super-rich have gotten insanely richer while most workers are worse off than before. In Haiti, Mexico, Chad, and East Timor, many are starving or near starvation. Even in the US, 25% of workers’ families have been food-insecure this year – and over 50% of Black workers’ families.
Strikes show us – more importantly than showing the bosses – that we are not simply angry exploited individuals. We are members of the mighty international working class!
But if we use our power only to strike for reforms, we are doomed to remain wage slaves. Capitalism – whether democratic or openly fascist – gives dictatorial powers to those who own the means of production. Its inner logic forces them to turn the screws on us to maximize their profits. Competition among imperialists – like the US, Europe and China–lead from trade wars to shooting wars. Workers, including those in military uniforms, die for the capitalist rulers’ profits.
We need to organize the power of the international working class for revolution to destroy this deadly system. Industrial workers and soldiers must mobilize masses for a communist society where we will be fully in charge.
Communism means no wages, no private ownership of production. Instead, collective work for the common good. No buying, selling or exchanging. Instead, sharing what we produce according to need. No nations or borders – one global family!
No cops, jails, police to suppress us, kill us, and force us to submit. Instead, communities organized to handle anti-social behavior and to prevent capitalists from using racist-fascist gangsters to restore their rule.
No division between “mental” and “manual” labor! Lifelong learning, especially in workplaces, will prepare all workers to innovate, make decisions, plan and carry out work collectively with the Party’s leadership.
Communism will thrive on unity and eliminate competition among workers. Thus, it can end racism, sexism, xenophobia, and all the “isms” that capitalists use to divide us, dilute our power, and maximize profits.
Unions can’t win the world we need because they accept capitalism’s limits and rules. They devolve into a branch of management and a feeding trough for corrupt officials. Unionism can, at best, give us only roomier cages and shinier chains.
The liberation of the working class and the world’s broader masses requires a communist outlook and an International Communist Workers’ Party.
Let’s meet and talk! Contact us in person or on social media. Read, discuss and distribute Red Flag and other ICWP literature especially with friends and family. Send letters, articles and pictures. Join or organize an ICWP collective.
We have nothing to lose but our chains. We have a communist world to win.
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