Imperialist Rivalry Behind Currency War: Communism Means No Money, No Exchange — Produce and Share to Meet Humanity’s Needs
EL SALVADOR, June 20—“I need you to help me, because I don’t know anything about this Bitcoin currency,” said a comrade.
“In the expanded meeting, this will be the first point,” said a comrade leader from the factories.
Several comrades and co-workers have approached our collectives of the International Communist Workers’ Party, to ask us about Bitcoin. This is because the Legislative Assembly approved the law for this currency to be used legally here. There have been meetings of the collectives in the factories where the main point has been this virtual currency.
“The groups of bankers are not very happy with this Bitcoin law because they will stop receiving their profits; the richest people in the world will stop swimming in their swimming pools full of money,” said a comrade Party member.
“Bitcoin or any other digital currency that competes with the dollar, or any other physical currency, responds to the interests of other economic groups [of capitalists] that will be the beneficiaries, never the workers,” responded a comrade from Spain.
Central banks around the world are studying the possibility of creating their own digital currencies, as a way out of the capitalist crisis. The Salvadoran government of Nayib Bukele is allying with China and Russia in this inter-imperialist war. This is the fight for the markets and super-profits generated by the working class, but that will not benefit the workers.
Bukele is using cryptocurrency as a way out in the face of drastic measures imposed by the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. These institutions respond to the economic interests of the USA. They have expressed their opposition to this law.
After meetings with the US ambassador, they have suspended loans to the Salvadoran government. They have also stated that this kind of virtual currency helps the big capital investors make this country a money laundering paradise.
But in these capitalist fights, the only thing that is generated is the continued wage slavery of the working class. In capitalism, no currency will benefit the working class.
Communist Society Will Not Use Any Kind of Money
This week in the fields, the rural areas, we also discussed Bitcoin with comrades of ICWP, ex-guerilla combatants.
“Bitcoin doesn’t seem to be a good option for workers. In the 1980’s when the war started in this country, we did not carry money. It was the organized masses who sustained our armed struggle. We didn’t use money for many years. A group of supporters produced what we needed to survive,” said the comrades.
“Thank you for sharing this type of discussion with us; our class consciousness must help us to move forward and be clear that the bosses’ money only serves to attack the working class. We must continue fighting for a world without money,” they concluded.
ICWP fights for a society without money. Nothing will be bought or sold. Everything will function based on sharing. The collective organization of communist society, including the distribution of goods, will be based on need. It will depend on communist social relations, which will be the link that will unite us and enable us to succeed.
The communist masses will be motivated to struggle and produce to meet the needs of our global family. There won’t be any kind of money or exchange value. Production will solely be for the masses’ use.
As long as there is any form of money in a society, it will be a capitalist society, even if it is called “socialist.” Money and wages chain us to the capitalist exploiters. We must destroy wage slavery. The way forward is building a society without money: communism.
We must be organized in ICWP, reading and writing for Red Flag. The collectives that we build today are where we learn and develop communist social relations.
This is urgent now when the inter-imperialist rivalry is at a high point, reflected in the area of trade, military, and the creation of virtual currencies. In the face of capitalist wars, we must direct our organization and the struggle of the working class towards communist revolution.
Our comrades and friends in the factories worry that Bitcoin will become a new attack on their wages and standard of living. And yes, it could be. That is why they need to join the ICWP in the fight to abolish capitalism, its money, its exploitation, and any other form of monetary transaction, physical or virtual.
The experiences of our ex-guerrilla comrades show both the need and the possibility of mobilizing the masses for a communist society.