Soldiers, Sailors and Industrial Workers: Key to Communist Revolution

Winning Troops and Industrial Workers to Communism here ♦ Communist Revolution Requires Soldiers here ♦


FMLN fighters in El Salvador, 1980s

Winning Troops and Industrial Workers to Communism:

Persistence, Patience, and Communist Relationships

SEATTLE (USA), July 14— “That was a great BBQ.  I was so impressed by how multi-racial and multi-generational it was,” said a school worker friend who attended our ICWP summer potluck.  “People brought their families and friends, and everyone got along so well, laughing together, but also talking about very important things.  It gives me more confidence in what you say about communism.”

We planned this as a follow-up to the “Cancel RIMPAC” activities in San Diego. Many at the BBQ hadn’t yet heard about RIMPAC, the huge military exercise sponsored by the U.S. Navy. To spark discussion, we printed two posters of sailors rebelling against racism and the US war against Vietnam. A half dozen retired Boeing workers, including a Vietnamese couple, were particularly interested. Many were worried about growing fascism and war.

B, who works with young people and distributes Red Flag, wanted more than symbolic activities. Often the politics of “progressive” coalitions underestimate the revolutionary potential of US troops and workers. He wants to build insurrectionary collectives in the US as well as around the world.

B also thinks that limiting efforts to reforming capitalism is a diversion. His view of internationalism includes a path to revolution and anti-racism for workers in the US and globally. The struggle intensified when comrades raised that the only successful revolution would be communist revolution.

He has many questions about the specifics of organizing in the armed forces. Why are the rank-and-file troops winnable, while the officer ranks are filled with our enemies? Are enlisted or drafted soldiers and sailors part of the international working class?

“There is plenty of revolutionary history in the US,” he declared. “Reaching out to US troops as well as those around the world is the only way to end imperialism.”

Another friend was amazed that so-called left groups still fought over whether sailors and solders are winnable.

M, a Seattle friend who was in San Diego for the Cancel RIMPAC event, was glad to meet a dozen ICWP members there.  Although he was unable to come to the BBQ, he plans to attend the forum that veterans are organizing to expand our efforts to recruit troops to communism and ICWP.

Opportunities Among Young Industrial Workers

There were many conversations about trade union struggles. Boeing workers will be voting on a new contract on September 12.  It has been sixteen years since the last contract vote. This contract fight is taking place during the decline of the US and the growth of Chinese manufacturing power.

Boeing workers and others are aware of how union leadership hides behind a progressive veneer. The group of retired Boeing workers agreed to regular social/political meetings. Current workers from the shop floor must be included.

“How can we break through this new veneer?” asked a former steward. The consensus was that the industrial workforce has changed. It is younger and more diverse. And potentially very receptive to communist ideas.

The media churn out incessant propaganda that industrial workers are right-wing and unwinnable. That hasn’t been our experience. For example, comrades recently distributed over 150 copies of Red Flag in under an hour at a Boeing gate during shift change.

“F—k corporate capitalism,” exclaimed a Boeing worker who took Red Flag to read at work. He was not the only blue-collar worker who eagerly cursed their bosses, while some gave us their contact information.

B commented that given the geopolitics of fascism and war, we must reach out to industrial workers, much like we must reach out to troops. Persistence and patience are key to recruiting communist organizers over time.

Discussions and social/political events like the BBQ help us build communist relationships and, as our friend said, “talk about very important things.” The task of communist organizers is to continue these conversations and act on them. That’s how we will win these friends to become ICWP comrades.

Communist Revolution Requires Soldiers as Well as Workers

EL SALVADOR, July 28— “I joined the FMLN when I was 12 years old,” said a former guerrilla comrade. “The repression had reached unendurable levels. They massacred my family. That shocked me and many families. I was a child, but I began to understand that my incorporation into the struggle was necessary.

“The organization of soldiers is key to the communist struggle. I learned from my experience in the armed struggle in the civil war that it was necessary to send young comrades to the army to learn the use of weapons. Others were recruited while they were in the army leading their struggle against the repressive apparatus. Today we are in another moment. I think what the veteran communist comrades did was particularly important when they brought ICWP literature to the Cancel RIMPAC conference in the US.”

During the struggles here in the 1970’s, workers of different communities organized collectively to grow and supply food to the guerilla fighters. They also built houses for all. Those who had land put it at the service of all. That did not please the exploiting capitalists, who began to persecute and repress them. The armed struggle became necessary to confront the genocide that was unleashed at that time. Many of these workers are today part of ICWP.

The participation of soldiers in the government army was important. They organized themselves into the guerrillas and turned their weapons against the murderers who repressed and killed the working class. These soldiers who were sent to massacre their own class had the courage take the necessary step of joining the struggles to better the conditions for the masses of El Salvador.

“A great effort was made, but it did not end the causes of the war, because only communism can end the horrors of capitalism,” a comrade pointed out. “This war showed the capacity of the organized workers and soldiers,” he continued, “and that even being part of the government army, they could be won to be conscious of the reality that the masses lived and the need for the change.”

The International Communist Workers’ Party fights directly for Communism. We seek the conditions to organize industrial workers and soldiers worldwide to end imperialist wars. Capitalism is not eternal. It will have its end. ICWP’s guiding principle is to mobilize the masses for Communism. Industrial workers and soldiers are key to achieving this.

The capitalist system advances in growing fascism and widening wars. Our class siblings are used as cannon fodder to defend the empires. They must strongly take up the communist cause and make that turn to end the horrendous capitalist system at its roots.

“The soldiers we see in the street are young people of our class, the blood of our people, who join for different reasons,” said a comrade teacher. “The most common reason is as a source of income. But they are closer to us than those who use them to defend the capitalists’ interests. They are children of rural and city workers.”

Today, organizing under fascist attacks, we need to begin the work of organizing in the army.

“In this Communist project of ours, this is the best of all times, because it gathers the history and experiences that others have had,” commented the former guerrilla fighter, now an ICWP leader. “With these communist principles, we must be prepared and trained in all aspects: political, ideological, military, agricultural, health and others that are available for the quality of life that humanity needs. Only in Communism will this be possible.”

Soldiers are our class brothers and sisters. We call on all comrades, city workers, farmworkers, and students who have friends or relatives in the army to talk to them about communist ideas.

Read our Pamphlet:

“Soldiers, Sailors and Marines: Crucial for Communist WorkersRevolution” here

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