Migrants Demonstrate in Mexico here ♦ Communists Confront Fascism and Civil War here ♦ Omicron Upsurge and Capitalist Profits here ♦ Communism and Agriculture here ♦
“Migrating is not a crime; the criminal is a government that represses Migrants”
Migrants Demonstrate in Mexico
December 2021 – Hundreds of migrants walking from Puebla to Mexico City blocked traffic on a major highway. Days later, thousands, approaching the capital, fought riot police. They were among over 200,000 who came through Mexico last year. They came from across Latin America and even from Africa, fleeing poverty and violence and seeking asylum in the US.
The US pressured Mexico to keep migrants away from the border. The Mexican government promised humanitarian visas and free transportation to Mexican cities. But most migrants, including children, were left cold, hungry, and on foot.
Once in the capital, migrants and supporters marched to the government palace. Their banner read, “To migrate is not a crime, the criminal is a government that represses migrants.” That includes the US Biden administration, which is extending Trump’s deadly “stay in Mexico” policy. And it is failing to ramp up resettlement services to meet the needs of the current wave of Afghan and other refugees.
The biggest criminal is global capitalism. It forces people to leave their homes, persecutes them at borders, and viciously exploits immigrant workers from California to Qatar. Communism will be a world without nations or borders, where everyone is at home everywhere, working for the collective good of our human family.
Communist Work in the Face of Fascism and Civil War
USA, January 5—On the eve of the anniversary of the fascist assault on the US Capitol, two new books and a flurry of articles argue that a second Civil War may already be starting.
Says the Canadian Stephen Marche, author of The Next Civil War:
“The legal system grows less legitimate by the day. Trust in government at all levels is in freefall…Right now, elected sheriffs openly promote resistance to federal authority…militias train and arm themselves in preparation for the fall of the Republic. Under such conditions, party politics have become mostly a distraction.”
Marche concludes that “The problem is not who is in power, but the structures of power.”
CIA advisor Barbara F. Walter, in How Civil Wars Start, compares the US today to Ukraine, Venezuela and Myanmar. Three retired generals warned, in the Washington Post, a coup attempt after the 2024 election could lead to a split in the US army and a civil war.
The US ruling class appears to be taking these ideas seriously. Should we?
“Can you even imagine a civil war or a breakup of the US?” comrade A asked. “Yes,” responded comrade B, citing episodes from US history and the example of the former Soviet Union.
Could the US split into four countries, as Marche proposes? Could openly fascist forces, with Trump as a figurehead, win power via compromised elections or a military coup? Will the currently dominant section of the US ruling class resort to fascism on the excuse of repressing a white-supremacist insurgency?
In any case – including civil war – our historic task remains the same. Unlike communists in the past, we don’t fight to defend capitalist democracy. We don’t seek to identify or ally with “lesser-evil” capitalists. Instead, we stand firmly and openly for communism.
We work to expose the class basis and function of racist and nationalist ideologies. We unite the alienated and distrustful masses to mobilize to overthrow capitalist structures of power and create a new structure of communist workers’ power.
“People are broken because their needs are not being met in this capitalist society,” declared comrade A. “A communist society that takes care of its neediest will be better for everyone.”
We need to take this very seriously indeed.
Comrade in Los Angeles (USA)
Omicron Covid Upsurge: Capitalism Puts Profits Ahead of Safety
“I feel like more positive cases will happen in the coming week from New Years’ Eve gatherings. Should I just keep my kids home? I don’t have any confidence in the school district. They don’t even require testing. It’s all thoughts and prayers. My gut says keep them home, but capitalism says otherwise.”
This text message from my daughter-in-law reflects the concern of millions of parents as students go back to school amid a COVID surge
fueled by the highly contagious Omicron variant. In the US, every aspect of medical care has been impacted. Long lines for the few COVID tests available, over-crowded emergency rooms—again—postponement of other vital medical procedures.
Thousands of airplane flights were canceled as people returning home from holiday celebrations coincided with massive sickouts of airplane employees. Nurses, teachers, bus drivers, sanitation workers…every sector is being impacted as people get sick and stay home.
At the same time, the economic benefits that were put into place earlier in the pandemic are expiring—if they haven’t already.
So the Center for Disease Control has now cut in half the isolation period for those infected with COVID. Instead of isolating for ten days, now someone who tests positive must only isolate for five days.
Why? Does some new scientific data say that’s safe? Nope. Dr. Anthony Fauci let the cat out of the bag. This was done for fear of economic collapse.
That’s capitalism for you. Keep the profits rolling in—no matter what the cost in human suffering. We’ll continue to fight for communism, where human life will not be sacrificed for capitalist profits.
—West Coast comrade and grandmother
More on Communism and Agriculture
It was inspiring to read the article from the comrades in El Salvador regarding the agricultural collectives which communist fighters organised during the civil war. It helps in deepening our understanding how communist relations can and were created during intense periods of class struggle in the last century, and how agriculture can be organised under communism.
I hope these discussions can continue. China also attempted to seriously break with the “land to the tiller” system of private plots in the Peoples Commune movement during the Great Leap of the 1950s. They also had a free supply system during their civil war.
As Marx said, the working class learns how to transform society and itself during periods of civil wars and revolution. It appears that once the Communist Parties took power after the success of these revolutions they tended to gradually rein in communist relations and appease capitalist remnants. They rather dogmatically accepted capitalist methods which they incorrectly assumed necessary to build up the technological base for improving production. In fact, all this did was regenerate a new capitalist class, despite the best intentions of the Communist leaders acting under difficult uncharted conditions.
We must learn from the experience of the comrades in El Salvador that when the masses grasp the commitment to communism then they will transform society.
Comrade in London
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