Resolve contradictions to build stronger ICWP here ♦ Education in pandemic times here ♦ Communism: solution to growing inequality
Resolving Contradictions to Build the ICWP/PCOI We Need
The inspiring work of comrades in El Salvador, South Africa, and India starts to show how we can become not just a bigger, but a better International Communist Workers’ Party: A mass party of dedicated members with an even more massive base.
*Where “from each according to commitment and ability, to each according to need” describes our communist work now and in the future.
*Where the way we make, carry out, and evaluate decisions today points ahead toward how we expect to do it later.
*Where we carry out our line collectively while enabling party members and collectives to help develop that line further based on practice.
Recruiting dozens of workers and youth, as some collectives have begun to do, can transform ICWP into the Party we began to envision in MMC. But we need clearer ideas about this.
Ideas about party organization are part of our political line. For example, South Africa comrades explained to workers that we don’t collect “dues.” Instead, we get the money we need by explaining that need and asking friends to contribute as they are willing and able.
Communism won’t tell the masses to “work or starve” like societies based on wages, including socialism. We’ll explain why tasks are necessary and ask everyone to contribute as they are willing and able. Today we don’t set “quotas” for distributing Red Flag or attending meetings. Instead, we work collectively to resolve contradictions between what we want to do to build the party and what holds us back. We plan how each comrade and collective can best contribute to the work.
Sometimes we ask a friend to join the Party and they say, “I support you, but I can’t be as active as you are” or “I don’t understand the line well enough.” We respond, “this is a mass party, we welcome everyone who supports communism.” But maybe they don’t join, or they say “okay” but then drop away.
Why? Partly because we’re not clear enough on the politics of party organization. We are not yet the party we strive to be. We must resolve some contradictions to move forward (and discover new contradictions). Examples:
Should we be building a mass Party now, or is it okay to be a small Party with a mass base? How does the answer affect recruitment?
What do we mean by “leadership”? How do we identify and develop comrades to take on more responsibilities? The experiences of El Salvador comrades who are advancing the factory work should advance our line as well as our practice.
In communism, the Party will organize masses to make decisions. But we don’t have an effective practice today for resolving contradictions or disagreements. Resolving this contradiction will let us move forward on the others.
Once we could all get together and work toward consensus. We can’t anymore, even on Zoom. How do we organize discussions and decision-making now in a way that begins to show how communism will work? What practices will effectively help recruit and organize many new comrades? When we start looking for answers, we’ll find them.
—Comrade in Los Angeles (USA)
Education in Pandemic Times
The poverty in education in El Salvador is becoming more acute every year. Before the pandemic, according to studies by the World Bank and UNESCO, this phenomenon was alarming since they indicate that 10-year-old children are not capable of understanding texts. Before the pandemic there were already 53% of them with this problem and it has risen to 73% with the health crisis.
If the ability to understand and analyze is diminished, so will be the potential to learn and use knowledge to function in life. Added to all this is dropping out of school, grade repetition, older children just starting school, and migration.
These results are very good for capitalism. We know that it is convenient for the system to have these results to continue generating profits and increasing the exploitation of the working class.
Only a communist revolution will stop this problem. As a teacher, I think it is urgent that we do the work of spreading communist ideas among our colleagues. It is urgent that the new generations grow up doing collective learning, avoiding self-centeredness, individualism or whatever the system wants to call education by competition.
In El Salvador, technology is being delivered to the entire student population of the public system. That’s good, but it doesn’t pay off, with a teaching staff that is comfortable with repeating content. The equipment for the youngsters and children is still stored in its boxes.
I feel the need for teachers to start changing the course of education, directing it towards a communist education, where the objectives are meaningful learning for collective benefit. We need teachers with communist ideas to put a positive spin on education.
We must win the masses of teachers to communism, just as we are winning more workers in the factories. Only communism will defeat capitalism.
—Communist Teacher in El Salvador
Communism Is the Solution to Growing Inequality
After reading the last edition’s article, “Class War in Oakland (USA) Schools,” I reflected on my frequent visits to Oakland, CA. My last visit was in May 2022. Often, when I visit, I rent a hotel room in Downtown Oakland near Lake Merritt. Since 2020, I have noticed unhoused individuals sleeping in Lake Merritt Park.
The homeless situation in Lake Merritt Park has grown increasingly worse since 2020. Additionally, Downtown Oakland appears to be a Ghost Town. It is sparsely populated. Even the luxury restaurants and shops at the marina near Jack London Square do not see a lot of patrons.
Oakland’s Chinatown is part of the Downtown Oakland business district. It is important to note that Chinatown experienced a rise in Anti-Asian Hate Crimes in 2020. I was informed that this exacerbated financial losses to Downtown Oakland businesses. Also, in the past few years, Oakland lost its professional football and NBA teams.
Clearly, Oakland is struggling financially. Not investing in the future of the city (closing schools) will turn a bad situation to worse. To add insult to injury, economists predict that a down stock market and record inflation will soon lead to a recession. With all the wealth in the San Francisco Bay Area and the United States, how is this growing inequality possible?
Well, we have a solution! The solution is to mobilize the economically oppressed people of Oakland (and the world) to fight for communism. With Oakland’s strong history of activism, we believe there is an appetite for real equality. For example, the Black Panther Party for Self Defense was founded in Oakland. If you are sick of falling victim to the bourgeoisie, join us now!
—Comrade in Los Angeles (USA)
Read our Pamphlet
“Communist Education for a Classless Society”
Front page of this issue
