Egypt: Abolish Wage Slavery by Smashing All Borders here; From Kurdistan to Pakistan Need Class Perspective here ♦ “Free Palestine” Won’t Free Palestinian Workers here ♦ Working Class Unity for Communism in Gaza Protests here ♦
London, England, October 14
Egypt: Abolish Wage Slavery by Smashing All Borders
I have participated in daily demonstrations against the fascist war in Gaza. It is perhaps hard for you to imagine the roaring masses who kept saying “Open the border!” “We are millions, and we will join you with our guns.”
Egypt has very high unemployment. I can safely say that almost every unemployed person in Egypt is in the streets expressing their desire to join in urban warfare against the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF). The anger of the masses is spilling into all the countries in the Middle East. All these rulers have nothing in common with the suffering of the workers in Gaza. Their interests are in making opportunist alliances to make sure the oil flows uninterrupted to China.
I really appreciate your analysis in the pages of Red Flag. I agree that only communism will end wage slavery by smashing all the borders. I am talking to all my neighbors about Red Flag. Many don’t understand English, but I can translate it for them. The comrades’ mood changes when we say, “communism is the only solution.”
I want to formally recruit them to ICWP. Please print more pages of Red Flag in Arabic. We also know many other comrades in Jordan. Our ideas are going to change the face of the earth.
“Open the border” rings in my ears.
—Comrade in Egypt
From Kurdistan to Palestine: Need Class Perspective, Not Nationalism
A friend in London is an undocumented worker from the Kurdish part of Turkey. We have been in regular contact around Red Flag for years. When the Gaza war started, we began talking about the demonstrations planned for London.
My friend did not agree with our position on Kurdistan. He thought it should become a nation. We had a long conversation about what the two-nation theory did to South Africa and India. It has created havens for the multi-billionaires.
I explained that Adani of India is investing massively in an oil pipeline from Turkey to the Kurdistan areas of both Iraq and Turkey. Just a week before the start of the Gaza war, Erdogan of Turkey had started negotiations on that pipeline. Adani benefits from the two-nation theory and now he is going to occupy Kurdistan for oil. I also gave the example of South Africa, where Apartheid created many Black millionaires, including Ramaphosa. The masses of Black people are still very poor.
My friend took the ICWP leaflet to the London demonstrations. He reported that almost everybody was talking about ‘free Palestine.’ But our conversation affected what he did at the demonstration, where he engaged with other Kurdish people who came with him. They all took the leaflet and said they would read it. It was very nice to see him struggling with other friends, and we asked all of them to join our party.
— International Comrade
“Free Palestine” Won’t Free Palestinian Workers
Hundreds of students gathered at the University of California – Santa Cruz on October 18 to protest the Gaza massacre. I spoke to about fifty of them. Some faculty and staff also joined. Everyone was outraged by the barbaric ongoing war.
The posters were all for “Free Palestine”. When I asked students about what they meant by “Free Palestine”, they said that they were fighting the racist Israelis and there wouldn’t be racism if the Palestinians came to power.
We started looking at the leadership of Palestinians now, who would become ‘free’ if they got a country just like Israel. I said that Hamas was created by Israel and took money from Israel to create the foundation of the most right-wing religious extremists. Then it took money from Qatar and Iran. Some of the top Hamas leaders are billionaires living a life of luxury in Qatar. How can they do anything to change things for the better for the working class when they make money from them?
Many students listened intently. It became like a small forum. We gave examples of the two-nation theory in India and South Africa. Several billionaires who emerged from so-called ‘free’ India have created the most vile, racist, anti-Muslim regime. We also gave examples from South Africa, including Mandela, and the billionaire Ramaphosa who was instrumental in killing striking miners.
Many students were stunned to hear that their ‘heroes’ were nothing but capitalist bloodsuckers, the result of the two-nation theory. We need communism to build our party. The students took the leaflet and Red Flag. Some gave numbers to be contacted regularly.
Giving speeches is the easy part. Now comes the real work of keeping in touch and building relationships so we can recruit young new Party members.
—California comrade
Fighting for Working-Class Unity for Communism in Gaza Protests
LOS ANGELES (USA), October 24— ICWP comrades took Red Flag and our communist leaflet to the coalition demonstrations organized to protest the genocidal attacks on the Gaza masses.
“On October 14, I emphasized that the gravity of the situation shows the utter necessity of working-class unity in the fight for communism,” said comrade Nancy. “The only way to stop the killings is the unity of Palestinians and Israelis against their rulers.
“Communists around the world and in other countries of the Middle East have overcome historic racial and ethnic divisions. This is happening with Arabs and Jews in Israel as well. But the solution to the ongoing disaster is to build an international party, ICWP.”
“One incident shaped how I then offered the paper to others,” reported comrade Clarisse. “I showed Red Flag to a young Palestinian man and explained that the front-page picture showed our comrades in South Africa in a protest with the banner “Abolish Wage Slavery with Communist Revolution.”
“THAT was the original apartheid,” he said excitedly, pointing at the picture.
“Exactly,” continued Clarisse. “And they fought a courageous mass struggle against it. Now they live the same as before, but they have billionaire Black bosses, as well as billionaire white bosses. These people (in the picture) are fighting to get rid of all bosses. For communism.”
He gladly took the paper and leaflet. He agreed that the masses don’t need Israeli fascist bosses or Hamas capitalist bosses.
“At first I was taken aback by the wave of Palestinian flags,” said George, an immigrant comrade from El Salvador. “I would have reacted the same way to a wave of Salvadoran flags. But then I reached out to people from my own experience as a US soldier in Iraq. I told people that the rulers make war and working people die. I urged people to join together to fight against the rulers.”
“The next day,” said Nancy, “I shared in church what comrade George had said. I also posted the international leaflet in the chat. “Most of the people in the congregation were advocating ‘peace.’ I know most of my friends at church think that communist revolution is unrealistic. I said that I thought that what was truly unrealistic was hoping for ‘peace’ while the capitalist rulers still have weapons of mass destruction.”
We were able to organize for an even more effective collective presence, with a banner, at a larger demonstration on October 21.
We distributed more than 700 leaflets and 500 Red Flags. Distributing literature close to the banner allowed us to multiply our efforts.
One middle-aged Palestinian woman standing on the sidewalk was taking a picture of our banner. A comrade gave her the paper and the leaflet and said she was with the group carrying that banner. The woman embraced the comrade and gave her contact information. She was not the only one.
We hope these experiences will inspire more comrades to do this communist work among masses in the streets, as well as on the job.