Palestinian Struggle Against Genocide Opens New Political Era–Masses Everywhere Need One Revolutionary Communist Party, Not Electoral Parties
LOS ANGELES (USA), September 9— Ceasefire Now! US Out of the Middle East! Every week they are in the streets. Chanting. Waving signs. Marching. Discussing. Building community. And taking copies of Red Flag. Some have attended ICWP activities.
What they are NOT doing: voting or working for Democratic Party presidential candidate Kamala Harris. “We are stuck between one genocidal party and another,” one declared.
M holds a sign for the Green Party candidate. “Do you think she can even win?” I ask.
“She can, if enough people vote for her,” M replies. She, like many others, wants to abolish the electoral college. It is working as intended, to prevent masses of voters from having their own say. She wants to abolish the US “two-party system.”
I mention that in countries with multi-party systems (like Italy, France, Israel) capitalists still control the government. I explain that elected governments in class societies like capitalism are part of the capitalist state. They exist exactly to defend the interests of the ruling class. They enforce laws to keep the masses exploited and suppressed.
No electoral reforms can change that fact. Elections maintain the illusion that government is “neutral” rather than a dictatorship of the rich.
Progressive (not revolutionary) candidates can sometimes get elected (not as president). But they can only be “effective” if they respect the limits imposed by capitalism. New York Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortes (AOC) was elected as a “radical firebrand.” Now she has sold out to Zionism.
M listens. She is interested but does not put down her sign.
R is curious about how Red Flag is produced. He would like to help “but not until after the election” because he is busy campaigning for a city council candidate. “It will make a difference locally,” he says.
“Well,” I reply, “that’s a pretty good example of how electoral politics divert us from organizing for communist revolution. But okay,” I smile, “we’ll still need help in November.”
It’s not just Harris we need to expose. We need to explain more clearly the class nature of government and the state. And with more concrete examples that will help in more important in-depth discussions.
“The Only Solution – Intifada, Revolution”
This chant is very popular. So is another (in Arabic) that means “Up, up, up with revolution!” But do these slogans refer only to Palestine, or to everywhere? What kind of revolution?
“Some people think that systemic change means ending ‘white supremacy’ or something else,” a friendly student said at a panel discussion. “Others mean ending capitalism. That’s the understanding we need to work for.”
The Israeli/US genocide in Gaza has changed the political situation far beyond the Middle East. Many more young people are seeking answers to such questions. Many like Red Flag. “Because it’s so different,” one told me. Surprising numbers say, “I’m a communist, too.”
Some are reading Lenin (“State and Revolution”) and other Marxist classics. More should. But we need to learn, too, from the successes and failures of 20th-century communist movements. Our website www.ICWPRedFlag.org contains much of what we’ve learned so far. Some from our own experiences in the US, El Salvador, and South Africa, and more from our study of revolutionary history.
An important example is the need to prepare now for armed revolution. Lenin and the Bolsheviks recognized the critical role of young working-class soldiers and sailors in capitalist militaries. We must organize for communism among them.
Building a Mass International Communist Workers’ Party – In New Ways
Some activists discuss excitedly how new social formations can emerge from mass movements. Our party understands that if we want communism, that’s what we must fight for directly. And we plant the seeds of a post-revolutionary communist society by building the party today.
Clearly, we don’t lead the global masses right now. But we are building an international network of party collectives based on communist social relationships. Wherever we are, we work to develop ourselves and others as communist leaders among broader masses.
This requires work and struggle: we can’t rely on spontaneity. But it’s the way we’ll be able to build a communist system where production, distribution, and decision-making depend on relationships, not money.
We welcome the comradely struggles that necessarily arise when more workers and youth – including you, reader! – bring new ideas and experiences into a growing communist party of a new type.
Labor Day LOS ANGELES (USA), September 2— Two thousand workers and youth braved brutal heat to march in the Labor Day parade. Union officials did their best to mobilize their base to get out the vote for the genocidal Democratic Party, but not everyone was buying it. Fourteen comrades and friends of ICWP distributed 540 copies of Red Flag and 100 of our Gaza pamphlets. Two friends new to ICWP carried our signs and flags, and one wants to participate more.