Factory Workers Conference Strengthens Party Unity and Commitment
EL SALVADOR, July 30— “This is a war against the system that requires sacrifice, but I am proud of the fight we are giving,” commented a worker at a large meeting.
Before starting the meeting, we showed a video about the struggle of organized workers in the International Communist Workers’ Party (ICWP) around the world.
The call of our comrades in South Africa reminded us how the “Law of Exception” in El Salvador is used to imprison and often kill their political enemies, the organized workers. For this reason, we take security measures before, during and after the meeting with maquiladora (sweatshop) workers, students, teachers, and health workers.
Then we talked about the recent international report. It discussed thinking about and practicing communist social relations. We considered two aspects: (1) strengthening our struggle towards communism and (2) avoiding the turn to the right, towards revisionism and reform
Our workshop discussions focused on three points:
- How do we use Red Flag?
For the factory workers, Red Flag is a tool to inform, organize and strengthen knowledge of the class struggle and communist ideas among ICWP collectives, friends of the party, and readers of the paper.
“The call is to read a Red Flag article every day, write our experiences, our struggles to motivate and teach in other parts of the world how to confront capitalism and the abuse of the bosses,” added a comrade.
An industrial worker summed up: “Red Flag reflects the work at the global level, it helps us to have a broad panorama of the situation and the struggles of the workers of the world.”
“It is our weapon to organize inside and outside the factory,” commented two maquila workers. “With Red Flag we got to know ICWP and thanks to the newspaper we were able to make our children aware of the struggle that the communists are doing in ICWP. And today they are here.”
“Thanks to Red Flag, we are aware of all the situations that occur in the factory. It helps us unite. Knowing that we are not alone, that there are other groups that accompany us, encourages us to continue,” said another.
The struggle was to overcome the obstacles that keep some members from fully reading the newspaper. This fight must be sharpened to develop party leaders, hand in hand with Red Flag. They should feel the confidence in using our newspaper to do the work with co-workers.
- How do we recruit more workers to ICWP?
“We must deliver Red Flag to more workers.”
“We must not give up. We must lose our fear.”
“We must take advantage of the workers’ discontent and their problems to start political discussions.”
These were words from sweatshop workers about how to recruit more workers for communism. Certainly, the massive distribution of Red Flag and the discipline, training and enthusiasm of the communist collectives will bring us closer to achieving our objectives.
- What does it mean to be a party member?
“Being a party member means dedication, discipline, seeing others as comrades like family, treating others fairly and being responsible to organize more workers for communism,” said a factory comrade.
“Being a party member means knowing that we are not alone, that we are not just a small group trying to fight against the capitalist system, knowing that we are more than the bosses who oppress us,” said another worker. “It gives me strength, and I feel very happy to be part of the party,” she clarified. “My situation and that of my family and colleagues in the factory.”
A third commented that “Everything has been achieved through the struggle of other workers. Our struggle is to persevere, to seek the common welfare of the working class, to give part of ourselves and our lives if necessary for the common welfare and communist future for the new generations.”
Many of us insist, after the discussion, that only worker-military-peasant unity will be able to stop the horrors of capitalism. Only worker unity and communist internationalism will keep us on the path to our goal of a world communist system.
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