Classroom Conversations here ♦ From South Africa to Ukraine here ♦ Transit Worker “Ukraine is a Billionaire’s War” here ♦ Anti-War Russian Soldiers and Civilians Need to Fight for Real Communism here ♦
MOSCOW, Russia, February 24:-Protestors risk arrest to carry a banner calling for peace in Ukraine and freedom in Russia
Classroom Conversations about Ukraine
The situation in Ukraine has been dominating the news. Not many people in my class realized that what happens in Ukraine or anywhere else a war breaks out affects us, even though we are far away from Europe. It has a significant impact on our lives, starting from the food we eat. In the stores, things are more expensive. If the price of oil goes up per barrel, it also means the price of bread, rice and the other foods will go up.
It was a good conversation that dispelled some misconceptions that some people held that we are not affected by the suffering of our class brothers and sisters in Ukraine. This can’t be overstated.
The point was how this also affects us. When you order parts from Ukraine you won’t be able to get them or will get them late. The sanctions imposed on Russia will also have a negative impact .
We also talked about the response of some of the other groups here, like the EFF and the SACP. They are cheering Putin as if this is the right thing. But this is a direct assault on the working class. People are suffering on a daily basis. Women and children, old people are really suffering because of the conflict that has been initiated by Putin.
To suggest he is a champion of the working class is something that probably I would expect from the Economic Freedom Fighters but the South African Communist Party is also simply ignoring the suffering of our class, the soldiers from our class who are dying on a daily basis. it’s a problem that we need to struggle against when we talk about what is happening in Europe and the ramifications that it has on the entire world.
I think it is important to expose these revisionists. This war is anti-working class and has no benefit to us.
But at the same time, this is something that we can use because even people who were not interested in politics now are asking questions and want to know what we think. This is an opportunity to struggle with people around our ideas and show them that the only way to end wars for profit is to put an end to the profit system with communist revolution.
A Comrade in South Africa
Communist Fight against Racism and Xenophobia Lays Basis to End Imperialist Profit Wars
SOUTH AFRICA, March 6—Our collective of the International Communist Workers’ Party here is taking up the struggle against the growing racism and xenophobia organized by right-wing nationalists in “Operation Dudula.” We must connect the fight against racism and xenophobia to the war in Ukraine.
Yesterday I went to a night vigil held in solidarity with Ukrainians and their President. Some media here have portrayed Zelenskyy as a hero who is standing up against Russia for the brutally oppressed masses in Ukraine.
We know that this is a lie. Zelenskyy is no hero. He and Putin represent different capitalist-imperialist ruling classes fighting for power and hegemony.
One member of the group was holding banners about Ukraine, singing praises of Ukraine, especially their president for standing up against Russia. I asked her, “Who is most affected by war and who is benefitting from war?”
My point to her was that it is the capitalist bosses, the corporations, especially the ones in the military industry that benefit in war from the sales of weapons.
The competition for maximum profit among the capitalists-imperialists makes inter-imperialist rivalry and war inevitable in capitalism. They want to carve out their spheres of influence, fight for resources, and control. Russia wants its own hegemony within the spheres they deem their national interests. The people who are suffering are the masses, the working class, whether through economic sanctions or bombardment.
She argued that all wars mean destruction and must be stopped and must never be allowed to happen. We argued that for the working class, our class war is necessary to destroy the capitalist class. That’s the only way to end racism and imperialist wars.
Throughout history, it is always the working class who suffers in imperialist wars. We must never again suffer wars because of capitalism and imperialism. Instead, workers must mobilize to fight for our own liberation. When we are engaged in working class struggle, we must wage war against capitalism.
It was a good conversation. Some students said “stop war” in Palestine and all over the world. We said that we cannot ignore racism and xenophobia, whether in Palestine, Ukraine, or anywhere. In Ukraine the racists are discriminating against African students because they are Black and from non-European nations. The capitalists push racism to divide the working class.
The communist fight we wage against racism and imperialist war will lay the basis for communist revolution.
US Transit Worker: “Ukraine is a Billionaires’ War”
LOS ANGELES (USA)—The Ukraine-Russia conflict has been the primary topic of discussion among the workforce here at MTA (public transportation). The top two comments are “What country is at fault?” and “Luckily, we live here in the U.S., and it cannot affect us, because Ukraine is so far away.”
Some of the MTA comrades who read Red Flag and actively participate in our ICWP collective have growing concerns about the Ukraine-Russia conflict. “It is a Billionaires’ War at the working-class mercy, and the big corporations are using the resources from the working class to protect their corporate personal financial interests,” said a Red Flag reader.
Another said, “The working-class citizens that are in the epicenter of the conflict do not even know why this is happening.” This Comrade also felt that the media had a tremendous impact on downplaying the crisis and many were left scrambling to flee without proper notification. On the other hand, government officials and people with an abundance of money were able to flee in multi-million dollar yachts or relocate with ease.
“Wars are the logical results of capitalism’s struggle to dominate the markets,” said Comrade A, “contrary to communism where the goal will be the cooperation and the well-being of humanity.”
“We need to spread the Red Flag distribution to confront the bosses’ lies and put at the front the communist ideas,” said Comrade B.
Red Flag helps the working class by exposing the flaws and building growing awareness of all the inhumane activities of this so-called beautiful, perfect, democratic capitalist society that has evolved to what we have today.
Current events are showing us that one day we can be going to the market, spending time with the family, or prepping for another work week, but the illusion of a perfect world can easily vanish when things like war can happen in our backyards.
Many MTA workers are joyful that we recently received a 2-year extension of a Union employee pay increase. That pay increase does not mean much when the cost of living is growing exponentially. We are paying much more while the media states we are stabilizing the economy. I am not a mathematician, but the cost of some basic goods has almost doubled in the last two years and wages have not.
All these attacks on the working class must stop. It is our duty to be the moral, humane, and loving people we are, while also understanding the real world we live in today. As an ICWP member, I know that the growth of the party is necessary to be able spread information to masses about communism. To protect our loved ones and to stop Capitalism once and for all.
—MTA Comrade
Anti-War Russian Soldiers and Civilians: Need Real Communism to Defeat Russian Imperialism
March 9— “General: Your tank is a mighty weapon… but it has one defect. It needs a driver.” This poem, written by German communist Berthold Brecht during World War II, points out the problem with Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
As we go to press, a forty-mile line of tanks is stalled on the road to Kyiv. There are reports that some Russian soldiers, eating expired rations and disillusioned with this invasion, are sabotaging their tanks.
In St. Petersburg, Moscow and other Russian cities, protestors immediately took to the streets when the invasion began. They painted “No War between Nations! No peace between classes!” on the walls. Thousands have been arrested in the crackdown against these protests, but the opposition continues.
One Russian opposition group proclaimed that “Putin’s imperial fantasies are not worth a single life.” As more Russian soldiers are killed in Ukraine, this will become a mass line.
“The yachts of the Russian oligarchs will not become smaller, but everyone else [in Russia] will begin to live worse,” they continue. As the cost of war in the lives of Russian soldiers and the cost-of-living increase, so too will opposition to the war.
The war in Ukraine is an imperialist war on both sides. Workers have no side to defend in such a war. The history of imperialist war, from the trenches of World War I to the jungles of Southeast Asia, shows that working-class soldiers, forced to fight an imperialist war, can turn their guns on their oppressors.
The most visible opposition in Russia has been from anarchists. Their protests are courageous and class-conscious. But anarchism won’t defeat imperialism. Working people in Russia and around the world need an international party to fight for communist workers’ power to build a society without wage slavery, exploitation, and war. We invite them, and everyone, to build the International Communist Workers’ Party to carry on that struggle.
Brecht’s poem concludes: “General, man is very useful. He can fly and he can kill. But he has one defect: He can think.” Today, soldiers and workers of all genders are thinking about the devastation of imperialist war. Red Flag invites you to think about the communist alternative.
Read our pamphlet: “Soldiers, Sailors, Marines: Key to Communist Revolution” here
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