Building personal/political relationships here ♦ Communist internationalism builds Red Flag networks here ♦
Building Political/Personal Relationships: The Continuing Struggle to Develop International Communist Leaders
Fascism has grown in the months since the last International Committee meeting of the International Communist Workers’ Party (ICWP).
*Workers in El Salvador live under an emergency decree.
*The Duterte-Marcos tandem has consolidated fascism in the Philippines.
*In South Africa, the racist, xenophobic Dudula movement has spread, even to political parties vying for state power.
*In France, Le Pen’s far-right party has made electoral breakthroughs.
*Every day the caste attacks and assaults against Muslims increase in Modi’s fascist India.
*In the United States, fascist militias and politicians are becoming more aggressive while the Summit of the Americas has once again exposed the decline of U.S. imperialism.
ICWP comrades are involved in the fight against this growing fascism. Our goal is to recruit and consolidate communist organizers and leaders amidst this uproar.
Escalating political and economic devastation follows capitalist decline. The proxy war in Ukraine between NATO and Russia has intensified raging inflation, brutal unemployment, and food shortages around the world.
From Tunisia to Sri Lanka to Mexico, ruling classes can’t rule in the old way. The international working class can’t live in the old way. Hundreds of millions have no choice but to risk life and limb to protest.
Only communist revolution can end the natural expansion of fascism and war caused by capitalism’s chaotic decline. The same goes for ending racism, sexism, xenophobia, nationalism and more. Unfortunately, capitalist ideas still dominate the anti-fascist movements even when increasing numbers of workers and youth are turning against capitalism.
Masses in the streets will not, of their own accord, lead to communist revolution. Communist revolution requires a communist party with unbreakable ties to the working class. This means we need more communist leadership.
We face a contradiction. While millions around the world have lost faith in capitalism, too few see a path to a communist alternative.
This contradiction is the main obstacle holding back our class. This contradiction won’t be resolved spontaneously. To resolve it, we need many more communist leaders who have unbreakable relationships with the working class. The upcoming International Committee meeting will continue the international struggle to develop these leaders.
Where will new communist leaders come from whose motivation is to serve the masses? It is hard to tell in advance who will come to the fore over time. But we have the best chance of developing these leaders from among those who build expanding circles of communist relationships.
We must build the kinds of relationships that will recruit to the party. This won’t happen overnight. But the effort we put into communist relationships is not sacrifice. It is an opportunity to grow as communists and to see how the masses view our line.
Every comrade and friend must ask, “Whom do we know? What is the nature of the relationship?” We must fight individualism. Our collectives must spend more time helping each comrade to strengthen these relationships.
ICWP Is an International Party.
We have the great advantage of learning from the global struggle. We are not “allies.” We are all comrades collectively struggling to develop communist leadership everywhere.
There is uneven development in different parts of the world. We can’t let that dilute our determination to build these relationships wherever we work and live. Every area has potential. Setbacks are expected. We will not dismiss any areas, nor become “giddy with success” in others.
Sometimes comrades say, “Without ties to the workers, the line is irrelevant.” Even more so under fascism!
Comrades from South Africa will start the meeting. We’ve read about the distribution of Red Flag in a factory district. Now we can discuss the emerging personal relationships needed to develop communist leaders among experienced comrades, new recruits, and friends.
Comrades in the El Salvador maquilas will share how nurturing communist relations with industrial workers is key to advancing under fascism. The time spent at work and socially with our co-workers is invaluable, especially under fascist repression.
The upcoming meeting will make time to hear from comrades in India, the US, and other areas. The discussion will continue afterward in the pages of Red Flag.
The long-term and rewarding work of building unbreakable ties with the working-class masses is key to getting our party to the point where revolution is possible, and communism is within sight.
—ICWP Steering Committee
Communist Internationalism Helps Build Red Flag Networks
LOS ANGELES (USA)— “What’s that newspaper about?” asked a garment worker. “It’s a communist newspaper that carries articles from countries like South Africa, India, El Salvador, Mexico and here in the US,” replied the ICWP comrade.
“And from Honduras?” asked the garment worker.
“Hmm, well in this edition we don’t have anything from Honduras. But if you help us write an article, it would come in the next edition,” said the comrade
“Let me read it and I’ll let you know later,” responded the worker.
We have distributed Red Flag in various factories in the garment industry here for years. Many men and women workers know the newspaper and take it with pleasure. The garment industry has shrunk in Los Angele but there are still thousands of blue-collar workers in the area.
There is consistency in these Red Flag distributions. But a sharper approach to seeking contacts and struggles, inside and outside the factories, is missing. We are beginning a process of visiting and struggling with our friends who work in the garment industry and from there trying to develop a real mass concentration.
Our ICWP collective was previously made up of garment workers. Now it includes workers in service industries, cleaning, and small industrial workshops. There is the potential to create new fronts of struggle and bring workers to our social activities and study groups.
The struggle is that each member of our collective, at different levels, can create networks of Red Flag readers with whom they develop a connection that leads to the recruitment of new members of the Party.
Part of this plan is to constantly write for Red Flag about struggles such as a world without borders and problems within the factories and how these are linked to the fight for a communist world.
The articles from the maquilas in El Salvador and India on the struggles of garment workers help a lot to show the international communist line of our party.
Also, if the comrades in Honduras could help write from time to time about the struggles there, it would help spread communist internationalism.
We will continue building the relationship with the worker from Honduras and to develop new struggles and opportunities for the recruitment and growth of other Party.
—Comrade in Los Angeles (USA)
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