USA: Genocide or Communist Revolution here ♦ Bosses Fight in Venezuela over Resources here ♦
Chicago, USA, August 20—Protest at Democratic National Convention
The Moral Question of our Time: Genocide or Communist Revolution
LOS ANGELES (USA), August 17— “I’m voting for Kamala because I don’t want Trump to win,” said a friend.
“But she’s no better than Trump,” I protested.
“Trump is trying to take away women’s rights. None of these candidates are great but at least we won’t have Trump,” my friend said before we concluded the conversation.
These are the conversations which take place daily surrounding Kamala Harris, whose popularity skyrocketed after Joe Biden decided not to seek reelection. Kamala has been stamped as some workers’ last hope in stopping America’s Bogeyman (Trump) from returning to power. However, workers who support Kamala are choosing to ignore her own anti working-class history.
As a prosecutor and DA in California, Harris supported mass incarceration policies which specifically targeted Black men. She also targeted Black women due to penalties for child truancy which resulted in working-class parents serving jail time.
Kamala’s contradictions are many, but workers’ newfound optimism has led to millions of dollars pouring into her campaign.
The Harris campaign has been built on identity politics and symbolic gestures to the very people who are weary of her antics. Kamala has a Jamaican father and an Indian mother, which makes her favorable to workers who want diversity.
“I’m voting because it’s my right, to honor my ancestors who fought for the right to vote,” said a worker. She was defending her moral need to vote, with Harris as the only alternative, as many workers tell themselves. Kamala may be a woman of color, but she is a detriment to the international working class.
At a recent rally, Kamala was met with resistance from pro-Palestinian protesters who she couldn’t ignore. She said, “If you want Trump to win, say that. Otherwise, I’m speaking!” This is the narrative: she’s the lesser of two evils and the only alternative.
At a second rally, she repeated the tired platitude that she and Biden support a ceasefire in Gaza and a return of the hostages. Meanwhile, billions of dollars go to Israel from the administration she serves now. She has refused to even discuss an embargo on the shipment of arms to the Zionist entity.
While Harris may want to protect US women’s right to contraceptive healthcare, hospitals aren’t even a reality for Palestinians anymore thanks to US-funded missiles. Workers should not have to prioritize their reproductive rights over the mass murder of 40,000 Palestinians with no ceasefire in sight. We deserve something better.
What’s the alternative?
“If you’re not for Biden or Harris, that means you are voting for Trump,” a comrade was told. This is a false idea. We don’t need to pick a side between two parties that represent the US capitalist imperialism. We must reject this system altogether. Workers of the world have been shown countless times that we cannot put our fates in the hands of the elites.
Workers of the world must reject their “civic duties” and unite for the future of humanity. The only answer is communism!
The global bourgeoisie are in crisis to win the masses to continue their exploitation. The illusion is that Kamala is much different than Trump. The reality is they are both bad news for the working class.
Only through international solidarity can we end mass genocides, wars, and sexist discussions over women’s autonomy of their own bodies. Instead of backing a capitalist party, we must mobilize the masses for revolution.
Communism, with collective struggle and shared responsibility, is the only answer to fascist genocide and world war. Join ICWP to change the world.
Bosses Fight in Venezuela over Oil, Gold, and Other Resources Workers Need Real Communism
EL SALVADOR, August 20— “What’s at stake in Venezuela, with the elections that just happened?” asked a farmworker and former FMLN guerrilla who is now a member of the International Communist Workers’ Party. “What I know is that after Chávez, Venezuela stopped being a partner of the United States.”
A comrade answered, “There is a lot of wealth there, and an inter-imperialist struggle. On the one hand, the United States wants to recover the loot for its transnationals. On the other, Russia and China want to consolidate their control through Maduro.”
She continued, “Chinese leader Xi Jinping has just invited Venezuela to be part of the BRICS, an economic cooperation bloc controlled by China and Russia. The aim is to expand cooperation to confront the US and its allies.”
Z, a worker comrade, reported that someone had told her, “Maduro has economic resources and has bought the army. That’s why they are on his side, but the workers don’t have a way to do that and that is why I find it difficult.”
Another comrade responded: “That is why the ICWP considers that organizing in the army is key. The power is in the working class. When the masses make the decision to organize themselves, there are no bosses, no officers, nor a government that can stop them.” He continued, “If working-class soldiers turn their weapons against the bosses, that will be our revolutionary victory.”
Elections or Communist Revolution
Elections in Venezuela or anywhere are just another one of the processes that, with or without fraud, fail to resolve the situation of the working class. “Freedom” and “democracy” are illusions the capitalists sell to the working class. No matter who comes to power through capitalist elections, they always keep workers in wage slavery and poverty. The working class needs communism, not the fiction of democracy.
The USA had not opposed Maduro in the last elections because transnational companies like Chevron have made strategic partnerships with Petróleos de Venezuela PDVSA. These contracts go from 2023 to 2050. They allow drilling for oil and gas in the state of Zulia and in the Orinoco oil belt in eastern Venezuela, which has the largest proven oil reserves in the world.
The US bosses want to recover control of Venezuela because of its natural resources and its strategic military position in the Caribbean. They use the street mobs and send workers to die with the lie that it’s “for Freedom and Democracy.” At the same time, they negotiate secretly with the Venezuelan government.
And on the other side are Russia, China, and Iran, which are pushing Maduro to join BRICS, which controls immense oil profits.
The resources of the country have been in the hands of Venezuelan businessmen, international companies and, to a lesser extent, the state, doing multi-million-dollar business. Among these companies are ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, Conoco Phillips, Chevron.
Former President Chávez expropriated the biggest oil companies. This provoked a confrontation with the United States, a major importer of oil. In 2003 the oil passed into the hands of the state. PDVSA (Petróleos de Venezuela Sociedad Anónima), created in 1975, was the main state oil company in Chavez’ time.
The reforms promoted by Chávez and Maduro will never be enough for the working class because they maintain social classes and the wage system. In “21st Century Socialism,” as this phase of reforms in Latin America was called, they have never been able to stop the poverty and suffering created by wage slavery.
The masses are fed up with Venezuelan capitalism. Their protests reflect the need for change, for a system that meets the needs of the working class.
The imperialists and a group of Venezuelan bosses take advantage of this to mobilize the masses against the capitalist Maduro. But the only solution is the fight for a system that breaks these imperialist chains. And communism is the only system that will build the power of the working class, and produce what we need, without exploitation of the working class, to fulfill the needs of all. Communism will provide for each person according to their needs.
The ICWP mobilizes the working class to organize for Communism, not for elections. In Venezuela and everywhere, from Bangladesh to El Salvador, from India to Mexico, from Spain to the USA, from South Africa to Costa Rica, and all over the world, we must fight for a communist system.