Why Workers Need Communist Philosophy

Communist Philosophy is Dialectical Materialist Philosophy, Not Idealism

EL SALVADOR— “The boss tells the workers, ‘Work hard, much harder. Work overtime and you’ll earn a lot of money.’ Lies! This is the idealistic philosophy that the bosses try to instill, so that we produce more, to generate profits for them,” said a worker comrade of the International Communist Workers’ Party (ICWP) during our international conference.

M explained: “If I push a chair, it moves. The chair moves because of the real outside pressure I apply. This is a materialist explanation, but to end here would be mechanical materialism. On the other hand: ‘I can move this chair with my mind.” Or I can pray, ‘God, if you exist, make this chair move NOW.’ These would be idealistic ways of looking at change.”

Dialectical materialism explains that the main reason the chair moves is because of its organic composition and not so much because of the pressure I apply to it. Dialectical materialism considers both the internal and external when looking at change, but the internal is primary. If you applied the same amount of pressure to a wall or a tree, they wouldn’t move a bit.

ICWP fights for workers to study and understand philosophy, with a vision of how things work. Mechanical materialists have a superficial/external view of how things change. Dialectical materialists see internal contradiction as primary.

Similarly, when someone says, “It’s cold outside. Put on a coat or you’ll get sick, “ this is a materialist, but mechanical explanation. Yes, real external forces, like how cold it is, would be partly to blame, but if we leave it there, the explanation remains superficial and externally focused.

Dialectical materialism explains that the main reason why a person gets sick or not would come from within. Some will get sick, but some will not. Some contracted COVID and some did not. Some died and some didn’t. It had to do with many factors: How old was that person? Was the person’s immune system compromised? Did the person have other illnesses? What made that person vulnerable to getting sick? Not getting enough rest, depression, or being too stressed all cause a person’s immune system to weaken.

Why do communists study dialectical materialism?

Dialectical materialism is the only philosophy that can help us free ourselves from all forms of exploitation. To win, ICWP needs to use it to guide our actions.

We can’t learn to ride a bicycle without getting on it. It’s not enough to read in our Red Flag newspaper about how to organize a communist revolution that leads to a communist society. We will learn in the process of mobilizing for communism.

We can’t win a revolution without organizing soldiers and their working-class parents. We can’t build a base without going out and talking to the people. We must talk to the people to learn about their disagreements and contradictions and be able to struggle with them.

​Winning Communism Is an Idea Based on Material Reality

How much time and energy do we spend trying to survive under capitalism versus organizing to destroy it? That’s often based on how effectively ICWP comrades show us that the only solution to capitalism’s attacks is collective mass action to smash this capitalist system of profit and wage slavery.

What is our understanding of materialism and idealism? Where does knowledge come from and what is it for? Does what we practice help change our political work and our thinking? These were key questions discussed during the conference.

The general answer is that materialism is real and concrete. It is based on facts. It forms the basis for communist revolution. As communist organizers of ICWP, we should not live on dreams (idealism) but on concrete reality.

“In the Party, we generate solidarity among comrades. That is communist materialist practice,” said a young worker.

Knowledge comes from those who came before us and our own experience. It helps us to understand and do things better based on history and experience. Knowledge helps us avoid repeating past mistakes by fighting directly for communism.

Knowledge comes from the social practice we carry out in our collectives. We learn and then put this new knowledge into our practice. Building and strengthening communist relations helps us create a mass ICWP. It helps us overcome fear by creating class consciousness.

Even after the conference, the participants continued to ask questions. They were still trying to clarify the difference between materialism versus idealism. We concluded that we should continue to study dialectical materialism and make efforts to include it in articles in every issue of Red Flag.

More about the communist philosophy of dialectical materialism here 

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