Advances in Building Closer Communist Social Relations
LOS ANGELES (USA), October 3— “Capitalism hates communism and communism hates capitalism,” said a friend who was participating for the first time in a social/political meeting of the Los Angeles industrial collective of the International Communist Workers’ Party (ICWP). His wife and their two teenage daughters came with him.
The opening remarks began a broader explanation of why the bosses hate communism and why we need to fight directly for a communist society.
Twenty-eight people participated, almost all of them immigrant workers from Mexico and Central America, and their families. Twelve learned for the first time about the Party and our communist newspaper Red Flag. It was a great advance for the Party since it had not been possible to conduct an activity like this here during the pandemic.
After we enjoyed a delicious meal, a young comrade explained that ICWP is an international party fighting for a communist world without borders, without money, without racism. She invited everyone to take and read Red Flag.
She also spoke about the attacks on the Ayotzinapa students, the situation in Sri Lanka, the war in Ukraine and the current struggle of women in Iran. She explained that the Party is responding to these organized attacks on the working class in places like South Africa, India, El Salvador, Mexico, and the United States to fight directly for a communist revolution.
Comrades were inspired by seeing the people there listening attentively to our ideas. One working woman from Mexico commented, “I like what is being said about communism. I believe that we are all like siblings regardless of where we are from or our skin color.”
A Red Flag reader came with her husband, a veteran of the 1970 student struggles in El Salvador. Two Honduran Garífuna women (of mixed Indigenous and African ancestry) came with them. They welcomed the paper and asked us to invite them when we have these kinds of meetings. In conversing about dances (cumbia and punta) we found that one was the ex-wife of a former reader and friend of the Party who lived here almost 25 years ago. This helped to create more trust and solidify the new relationship.
Four young people (between 12 and 22 years old) who attended took the Red Flag. Although they didn’t say anything, we will continue discussions with them. After the presentation, a young woman told a comrade that she would have liked to speak and will do so at the next opportunity.
A Guatemalan worker told us about how his brother’s hospitalization is affecting him and his wife and children in Guatemala. We made suggestions about how his wife can come to Los Angeles and be with him, since the doctors say the situation is serious. We will continue to look for ways to help.
Some families and comrades from the collective could not attend, for varied reasons, but we will continue the struggle with them. We are forming a plan on how to continue building these political relationships with everyone we know. New opportunities for Party growth continue to open.
We need to build this kind of communist political unity and struggle among our friends, comrades, and neighbors to strengthen the Party and advance toward our goal of mobilizing the masses for communism.