MTA Workers here ♦ A Mass Party is Key here ♦
Theory and Practice: Transit Workers Learn from Criticism and Self-Criticism
“The pandemic has limited us, but I liked something the comrade from El Salvador said,” remarked Comrade A, who works for MTA (public transportation) after the June 26 ICWP international meeting. “That during the civil war, meetings with other workers were not only prohibited, but suicidal. However, the cunning of the working class, and the need to fight, forced them to hold these meetings, very efficiently, because the working class is very smart.”
Comrade B, an MTA retiree, told him: “Your report at the meeting was positive. However, you were not sharp enough about the work you do inside MTA. It is very important to focus and sharpen those grassroots growth efforts there. It was not what we had discussed or planned to present. We should have prepared better.”
This prompted a review of the communist work within MTA. And a criticism and self-criticism, especially about the perseverance and boldness needed to develop new party members.
There is a long history of struggle here and we have a broad base with these workers. The struggle is for Comrade A to take more leadership in developing these new comrades.
This doesn’t happen automatically. It is a serious fight with quite a few ups and downs. We currently have meetings and study groups to consolidate some comrades and invite new ones to participate.
Comrade A agreed. “Yes, I think I did not do enough to be able to express everything better to help other workers understand our work at MTA. And to increase my leadership.”
The question is to try to consolidate the base, which will only happen through the communist political struggle. Comrade A has a lot of passion for party work and reads a lot to understand the history and to be able to explain it. But now it is necessary to take another step forward: to concentrate on a group of workers to advance the bases inside the workplace.
For example, a comrade from Division 15 is always willing to help. But we need to be consistent with him. Asking him if he has passed out newspapers, how many, who is he passing them to?
Criticism and self-criticism are tools to improve communist work. And in this process, very positive aspects of the struggles of other comrades also help us understand our strengths and weaknesses.
We must put into practice what we read, because putting it into practice and from practice taking it back to theory lets other comrades learn from our experiences.
—MTA comrades in Los Angeles (USA)
Mass Party Is Key to Our Communist Future
I thought the article from Chennai in the last issue was very good, documenting conversations about communism among ICWP members and supporters. The plan to double the Red Flag distribution and increase friendships is inspiring to us all. ICWP members and friends everywhere can benefit from this enthusiasm and hard work.
My concern is that, towards the end, the article references a small group of ICWP comrades who will eventually organize masses to confront the bosses in class struggle. It also says, “Small groups of ICWP members in thousands can lead to communist insurrection.” This seems to allude to a small (“cadre”) party leading the non-party masses.
However, as we said in Mobilize Masses for Communism, “A communist revolution must be the work of millions—billions—of communist workers. For this reason, ICWP is a mass party. We invite all who agree that a communist revolution is the only solution and are willing to act collectively on that belief to join the party.”
We still have a long way to go to put this into practice.
The Party needs the experiences and ideas of masses of workers and their allies. The struggle for communism is a mass struggle, not the property of a few. The masses will make communist ideas their own and the fight for a communist world their deepest commitment.
Our line and practice improve with the input of everyone who understands and agrees with the basic ideas of communism and revolution. Their active participation and leadership will unleash enormous power and creativity.
The comrades in Chennai are distributing many Red Flags and talking with lots of people about communism. They have a plan to greatly increase the work in both of those areas. Their plan should also emphasize increasing Party membership. We need to read about how ICWP members there are developing relationships which will grow and eventually lead to a mass party. This is key to a communist future.
—Comrade in Seattle (USA)
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