British Workers Need Communism, Not Capitalist National Healthcare here ♦ Communist Philosophy Teaches Patience and Persistence here ♦ Communism: From Each According to Commitment and Ability here ♦
British Workers Need Communism, Not the Capitalists’ National Health Service
Health workers in Britain are becoming increasingly disillusioned and angry with the current pay proposals for National Health Service (NHS) staff. The government has announced only a 1% pay rise. The last pay negotiations two years ago saw a measly increase spread over six years which amounted to little more than 1% anyway.
Many Nurses, Doctors, Porters, and auxiliary staff died during the Covid-19 pandemic. They had inadequate protection due to the government’s short-sightedness and decades of underfunding NHS.
Many health workers who died were Black and Asian. Many worked and lived in poorer parts of the community where the virus spread most rapidly. Or they worked in low-paid jobs and received little protective equipment.
The government made much of its ‘Clap for Carers’ campaign throughout the pandemic. They encouraged the population to come out every Thursday at 7pm and clap for NHS staff.
The masses began to see through this deceptive propaganda campaign, particularly after the proposed 1% pay rise. Inflation is the means by which the capitalist class snatches more of our wages. Taking this into account, it is a pay cut in the long run as it has been for the last decade.
The health sector unions cannot agree on a single pay demand. They won’t even threaten strike action. The leader of Unison, the biggest health union, said we should all clap slowly on a particular evening to show how disgusted with the government we are!
These leaders are pathetic. The working class can do better. The Nurses’ union (RCN) is calling for a pay raise for Nurses only. The union bosses can’t even agree on pay demands. They try to use sectoral interests to keep workers divided.
In 1982, health workers in Britain took strike action over several months. They refused overtime in order to force a pay demand on the government. That dispute gained huge solidarity from across the working class. Miners, Shipyard workers, Teachers, Printers, Electricians, TV production workers, Sea Ferry workers and many others walked off the job in support in various ‘days of action’.
All this broke the 1980 law banning solidarity strike action. No union would have the guts to do that today. Some health workers won their demands in 1982. But the government struck back soon after. It began privatising many auxiliary services in the NHS, leading to worse pay and conditions for those workers.
The NHS is like any capitalist employer. Just because it belongs to the state does not mean it belongs or works in the interests of the working class. Much of it is already in the hands of profit corporations anyway. And it has always been used as a purchasing vehicle for private enterprises to make profits.
Communism will provide real free health and welfare for all people. The West European ‘Welfare states’ all became means-test states, and in some areas the provision is in a poor state. This demonstrates that struggles over wages are not enough, and we need to fight for the communist system of planned distribution without wage labour and exploitation.
Comrade in England
Communist Philosophy Teaches Patience and Persistence
“I found the letter about dialectical materialism in the last Red Flag to be hard to understand,” said F during a club discussion about the paper. She had been active in various left groups for years and participated in an ICWP study group during the past year. After distributing Red Flag at May Day, she decided to join the party.
She continued: “I’ve always had a hard time understanding dialectical materialism. I’ve learned a lot in study groups, but that’s something that’s just not clear to me. I’m grateful for the patience you all have had with me, especially over the last year.”
“It’s dialectical materialism that gives us patience,” responded V. She had learned communist philosophy when she was a teenager, and it has guided her practice ever since.
“We know from our study of dialectics that small changes can add up to a big change,” continued V. “And even if we don’t see those small changes happen, we know that if we keep struggling, the big change will happen. It’s logic. It’s communist science. And it’s how we know that communism will work.”
“That’s very helpful,” said F. “It had always just seemed like jargon to me.”
W, a veteran comrade, added, “This week we’ll go together to distribute Red Flag to bus drivers. We can talk about dialectical materialism in the car. You’ll see. It makes sense.”
—West Coast Schools Collective Comrades
Communism: From Each According to Commitment and Ability; To Each According to Need
Many years ago, I was invited to a school about dialectical materialism, which I knew little about. A friend told me that it was complicated, that I wouldn’t be able to understand it at all without reading a lot of philosophy books. But it was taught in a very understandable way. Everyone gave and heard examples from everyday life and politics about change, contradictions and struggle. I saw that, while still new for me, I could understand it, learn more, and even begin to use it. Applying it is a life-long process of learning and struggle.
This shows that while people have different abilities and experiences that they can contribute to the collective struggle for communism, these abilities are not static. Everything changes. We can all learn new abilities and improve old ones in the fight to mobilize for communism.
ICWP has changed Marx’s slogan from “From each according to ability” to “From each according to commitment and ability; to each according to need.” This is our slogan today and will be in communism.
Capitalist ideology claims that capitalists and higher paid professionals have more “ability” than the rest of us. They paint the world as static, and claim that ability is something inborn, or natural. They use this to justify class society’s racism, sexism and all exploitation.
In fact, both commitment and ability can increase. Commitment to the working class and to communism is primary, the product of collective struggle to understand and mobilize for communism. With increased commitment people can learn new abilities. The communist masses can and will learn to do many things that they (and we) have never done before.
A recent article said that “Comrades who work long hours in a factory…have more ability than most to build communist relationships with other factory workers.” I think it should have said that when they have the commitment to mobilize their co-workers for communism, they will develop many new abilities to do that.
Today we struggle for more comrades and friends to write for Red Flag. Rather than depend on a few “experts,” collectives struggle to reach out to newer comrades and less confident writers, who have a lot contribute, and encourage them to help write articles for Red Flag.
This applies to leading a study group, building communist relations and communist collectives. It means learning how to be patient, comradely and principled in the struggle for communism—a lifelong struggle for me and others.
People have different abilities that make the collective stronger. We need commitment to learn from them in order to advance.
It takes commitment and struggle for each of us to “move out of our comfort zones” and do things we haven’t done before-like give a speech for the first time.
When communism abolishes money, commitment to communism, based on communist relations, will motivate people to work to produce for everyone’s needs.
That will motivate masses of people to learn new abilities to eliminate pandemics, racism, sexism, nationalism and all capitalism’s poisons.
Commitment to communism will guarantee that everyone’s communist understanding and leadership develops.
A Comrade
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