Reject Ruling Class Myths here ♦ US Workers Can’t Escape Capitalist Attacks here ♦
EASTERN KENTUCKY (USA)— The heaviest rain in decades caused catastrophic flooding on July 28-29 that killed over forty people in this impoverished mining region. Trailers, cars, and homes (some of which had lacked indoor plumbing) were swept away. Days later, thousands remained without electricity. The workers in this area (most of them white) mainly work in mines or for mining-related businesses, if they have jobs at all. They are among the poorest in the US and have lowest life expectancy – comparable to Indigenous tribal areas and the mainly-Black counties in the Mississippi Delta. Capitalism creates both these conditions and the worsening climate crisis responsible for the historic floods.
Reject Ruling Class Myths to Build for Communist Revolution Everywhere
“Everyone following the economic situation, including central banks, do not have an answer on how to deal with this situation,” said a chief economist at a Norwegian investment bank.
The European and US ruling classes don’t know what to do about their deteriorating economies.
Financial crisis is unavoidable in capitalism. It is compounded by the irreversible decline of US imperialism. The bosses must respond by waging war on their international competitors. Economic depression also forces the ruling class to intensify divisive racism, sexism, xenophobia and more.
The global economic crisis has become a huge political crisis for capitalism and hell-on-earth for the international working class. In Sri Lanka, for example, months of mass protests, daily power cuts and shortages of basics such as fuel, food and medicines (intensified by the war in Ukraine) have taken down a government.
Masses in Ecuador have protested soaring food and fuel prices and a 56% unemployment rate. South African unemployment hovers around 40%. Desperately trying to escape outright revolt, the South African government is promoting xenophobic and tribal divisions, including murder.
One common myth is that such economic devastation can’t happen in the U.S. Another is that economic downturns in the US and western Europe will always be temporary and short.
Decades of such propaganda can disarm the working class. It can blunt our sense of urgency to respond to US fascist developments. It can lead us to underestimate the potential for communist revolution in the US.
The ICWP fights to turn struggling workers into communist revolutionaries. Wherever we see our class taking on the capitalists, we mobilize globally. A vital part of this international struggle is fighting for communism where we work and live.
Workers Misled by Economic Myths About US Imperialism
A friend working at a US Boeing plant invited a comrade’s family to a barbecue. This east African immigrant is a regular Red Flag reader with many questions about our line. He trusts us based on many communist-inspired struggles against racism and xenophobia in the plant.
The friend said this “downturn” would soon run its course, then asked, “What is the union going to do?’’
The union had betrayed this friend in the past. It was the workers who read and distributed Red Flag who fought against a racist, xenophobic attack on him. Before the comrade could respond, he answered himself: “Yeah, the union works for the company.”
He introduced the comrades to his cousin, who has worked at Boeing for over a decade. The cousin thought the collapse of Boeing Commercial was caused by “bad management decisions.” That opened a debate about the decline of U.S. imperialism, with which their extended family is all too familiar.
Declining US Imperialism…
Often, we think of a declining imperialist power (like the US) in terms of diminishing ability to wage war and defend an empire. But it also means attacks on workers internationally, including those in the imperialist nation.
This suggests the potential for communist revolution, but it does not guarantee the growth of ICWP needed to realize it. Comrades who understand the necessity to end capitalism must explain this to co-workers, family, and friends. By abolishing money and wage slavery, communism will eliminate the material basis for racism, sexism, xenophobia, economic attacks, and imperialist war.
…Means Increasing Attacks on US Workers
A retired blue-collar Boeing comrade recently visited his former Seattle (USA) neighborhood, once the most diverse in the country.
He was shocked to see new million-dollar homes for sale everywhere. “Who can afford all these boxes?” he exclaimed.
As the area became gentrified, workers (especially workers of color) had to move out of the city, into poorer city neighborhoods, or onto the streets. The median home price in the US in 1950 was 2.2 times the average annual household income. By 2020, it was six times the average annual income. And that income now typically comes from more than one wage-earner.
In communism nothing will be bought, sold, or exchanged. Shelter will be free – like everything else. We will produce what the masses need. Housing will be a top priority, along with healthy food, childcare, and health care.
Communist Relationships Are Key
Masses worldwide, including in the US, cannot escape the carnage of this devastating economic and political crisis. Workers everywhere must reject capitalist illusions to prepare for communist revolution.
The ICWP has confidence in the working class and the potential of collective struggle in the US and everywhere. Building relationships based on support and communist struggle are key to building a mass party. We work toward the communist revolution that will end capitalism’s horrors by strengthening these ties and convincing those around us of the necessity and power of communist revolution.
US Workers Can’t Escape Capitalist Attacks on the Working Class
“In the past decade, U.S. families were bled dry by landlords, hospital administrators, university bursars and child-care centers,” (Atlantic, 2020)
The trauma has only gotten worse with inflation and continued economic chaos. It falls disproportionately on women and people of color, but the whole US working class feels the pinch. For example:
A notorious 2019 undercount of people in shelters and on the street found 56,000 homeless in Los Angeles County (CA) and 11,200 in King County (WA). The mayor of Seattle, in King Country, ordered the destruction of homeless camps during the recent record-breaking heat wave.
US childcare costs grew 2,000 percent between 1972 and 2007. Family premiums for employer-based health insurance jumped 47 percent between 2011 and 2021. Deductibles and out-of-pocket costs shot up almost 70 percent. The average price for brand-name drugs on Medicare Part D rose 236 percent between 2009 and 2018.
One million California residents lack safe drinking water. Super-exploited immigrant farmworkers in the Coachella Valley suffer everything from rashes and hair loss to kidney disease and cancer from water with ten times the allowable limit of arsenic. Nine thousand children are still suffering from the lead in the water of Flint, Michigan.
Only communism—where there is no money, and production and distribution reflect the needs of the working class—can truly address these issues for workers in the US and everywhere. If you’re angry, act! Join the ICWP to fight for the communist world we can create with our anti-racist, internationalist strength and unity.
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