Communist Workers Will End Imperialism’s Trade Wars here ♦ APEC Summit: Preparation for War here ♦ Heading for War here ♦
Anti-APEC protest in the Philippines, 2020
Communist Workers Will End Imperialism’s Trade Cartels, Exploitation, and War Preparations
SEATTLE (US), June 15— Special education students are tossed aside as the school district cuts one program after another. This motivated a passionate young para-professional in Portland to join a worker outreach meeting sponsored by an anti-APEC coalition.
He did not want to focus only on the economic attacks on US workers. But that was the emphasis of the host from the Washington Fair Trade Coalition and the representative from the Washington State Labor Council. They assumed that only concerns about wages and benefits would bring workers to the July 29-30 workshops and anti-APEC demonstration in Seattle. Workers at the meeting had other ideas.
A comrade supported the para’s point. Trade unions, like the Boeing union that he belonged to, always try to limit discussion to “bread-and-butter” issues. However, his experience showed that workers have a much broader interest in the struggles of their class.
Boeing production workers have taken action to support the global working-class family. They fought the separation of families at the Mexico-US border. They supported fights against racism in the US and abroad. They overcame union officials’ sabotage and responded to the plight of exploited workers worldwide.
Others spoke up, linking political attacks to economic attacks. Later, the Portland para asked to be connected with Seattle paras involved with ICWP.
Struggle With/Struggle Against
This meeting’s agenda and the resulting struggle did not come out of the blue. A few weeks earlier, ICWP comrades and friends led a discussion on the 1999 “Battle in Seattle” against the World Trade Organization. They exposed the unions’ role in spreading anti-Chinese hysteria. The danger of worldwide fascism and war is even greater today.
To NGOs and union bureaucrats, the villain is free trade, not imperialism itself. This approach will keep the masses exploited by the imperialists. We must end capitalist exploitation with communist revolution.
Many of the rank-and-file organizers agreed with the ICWP.
“I’ve heard of these kinds of obstacles before,” said D, a Philippine-American leader. He was referring to unions and NGOs that try to limit the debate to economic attacks on US workers. He suggested that we win some of the more advanced workers who pushed back against the apologists for capitalism.
Political economy can be a sharp weapon in the struggle against APEC and capitalism, and to advance the fight for communism. D will invite his friends to an ICWP-led workshop about this.
There is a comradely disagreement about whether trade union economism is limited to US unions or is a global phenomenon. This discussion will continue.
Communist Political Economy in the Era of Imperialism
Imperialism means the periodic re-division of the world through military conflict. It links the APEC summit to war preparations.
Imperialism divides the world among capitalist powers. But the law of uneven development dictates that the relative strength of imperialist powers is constantly changing. Each must fight to export capital to dominate the other.
China’s regional trade group is already expanding its commercial heft, beating out US trade groups like APEC. China uses its capital to set up supply chains as well as manufacturing. In 1999, China had about 3% of the worlds GDP. Now it represents more than 17%.
No imperialist multi-national trade group, whether led by China, the US, or any other capitalist power, can ever provide stable, peaceful trade to benefit the working class anywhere.
The law of uneven development drives sharpening US-China contradiction and the upheaval of US political and economic policy. The future of US economic and political dominance “will become murkier,” admits the capitalist mouthpiece the New York Times.
The only way to end this dangerous chaos is communist revolution. We will eliminate commodity production (production for sale). The masses’ needs will determine what is produced and how the necessities of life are distributed globally. Borders and countries will cease to exist. Trade for profit and power will end.
When communism prevails, imperialist chaos and destruction will no longer haunt us.
APEC Summit: Preparation for War—Anti-imperialists Need to Fight for Communism
USA, June 16— “There’s no capitalist country whose government represents the interests of the masses.” A comrade at an anti-APEC zoom forum was responding to someone who said that some countries’ leaders –like Japan and the Philippines—don’t represent the interests of the masses because they side with the US against China. Others appreciated the comrade’s response.
Forum presenters said the problem is US imperialist aggression, which has a long violent history. That’s part of the picture. But the basic problem is capitalism and its inevitable inter-imperialist rivalry and wars.
China and Russia are rising imperialist powers. The US is a declining one. This makes the US more desperate and willing to go to war against its rivals. But China and Russia are preparing for war, too.
Upcoming APEC meetings in the US will try to win US workers and the capitalist rulers in Asia to positions against China. They will push US war propaganda.
The interests of all capitalist rulers are the opposite of the interests of workers. Their profit and power come from our exploitation.
The only way to end this is to destroy capitalism with revolution and build a communist (not socialist) society free from exploitation, bosses, money, or wages. Where the masses collectively decide everything and produce only to meet everyone’s needs—not to buy or sell.
In communism, masses will be motivated to work through communist relations of cooperation to improve life for everyone, without money or wage slavery.
Capitalism is based on competition for maximum profit. Those with the lowest production costs undersell their competitors and drive them out of business.
Once they corner the home market, the biggest capitalists roam the world to expand their markets by taking over the cheapest natural resources and labor. They become imperialists.
They build armies composed of working-class youth to fight rival imperialists and to put down rebellions of angry workers against their racist, sexist super-exploitation.
The imperialists can’t share markets peacefully. No trade rules can change this.
Wars, including World War III, are how imperialists seek to capture their rivals’ markets, destroying their factories and workers.
All the imperialists are willing to kill workers in their deadly fight to conquer markets and control profits, as in Ukraine today.
The US has lost market share to China. China is outproducing and outselling the US. Its capitalists super-exploit workers in China, the rest of Asia, Africa and beyond. Chinese bosses pay workers in Peru $1.45/hour.
Forum presenters showed that the US wants control of Taiwan’s key and profitable microchip industry. However, the US imperialists’ greater need is to control Taiwan as a large, unsinkable aircraft carrier for any US offensive against China.
The US wants to encircle and contain China to prevent its powerful navy’s expansion beyond Taiwan into the Pacific.
To defend and increase their profits and power, the Chinese imperialists are preparing to challenge the US on the battlefield. They aim to become the top imperialists.
To end the profit system’s imperialism, fight for communism.
A forum presenter called for popularizing the slogan “People over Profits” to prevent the US from going to war, including nuclear war, against China.
Demanding the government stop its war plans won’t stop imperialist war.
The only way to end imperialism and its wars, including World War III, is to mobilize for communist revolution. Communist masses must take power and build a world without profits or money. Socialism never did that. By eliminating capitalism’s deadly competition for maximum profit, we will rely on collectivity and cooperation to produce what the masses need.
The rulers push the lie that workers in China, the US, South Africa, and El Salvador have competing, or opposite, interests. But we have the same interest—getting rid of capitalism and building communism.
Soldiers, industrial workers, and youth are key for communist revolution. We need to bring them Red Flag, get to know them, and invite them to join ICWP.
We welcome the struggle for communism at the anti-APEC mobilizations and among masses everywhere. We have a world to win!
Heading for War
The US and China are both stepping up their military presence in the South China Sea.
China has built islands with advanced weapons there. The powerful Chinese navy claims sovereign rights to the international shipping lanes in the whole area. It harasses ships from the Philippines and Vietnam as well as the frequently patrolling US war ships.
The US Secretary of Defense recently outlined a US grand strategy to respond. It is to surround China with US military bases and US-armed allies.
They plan to station US military forces in Japan, Australia, and the Philippines. He described the new unit going to Japan as “the most advanced formation in the US Marine Corps.” It’s a mobile unit able to act independently.
The Chinese Minister of Defense answered that China would respond to US provocations with unrestrained military force. That includes Taiwan. He said the US is pushing for a NATO-like military alliance in Asia-Pacific.
He warned of US encouragement and arms to separatist elements in Taiwan and its intent to “contain China with Taiwan.” He called these the greatest danger, saying China would “safeguard [China’s] national sovereignty and territorial integrity at any cost.”e promised to
Workers will pay that cost in blood.
Read our Pamphlet:
Soldiers, Sailors, Marines: Crucial to a Communist Workers’ Revolution
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