Greetings to workers in Bangladesh here ♦ Workers’ Power Will End Imperialist Wars here ♦ Movie Review: “AntZ” and “A Bug’s Life” here ♦
Revolutionary greetings to the workers in Bangladesh!
ICWP members in Bengaluru and all over the world have been organizing for communism.
Your struggle in Bangladesh inspires us all as you fight the capitalist monster. We know that the garment workers produce billions of dollars for the profits of European and American fashion designers. Local capitalists in Bangladesh also create sweatshops to exploit workers.
Bangladeshi workers’ wages are among the lowest in south Asia. In April of this year, the capitalist government quietly increased the legal workweek of garment workers from 60 to 72 hours a week with the same pay.
Millions of young people find it difficult to survive and pay their loans to banks. Nearly 40% of youth are permanently unemployed.
We, too, in India, face the same capitalist atrocities. Some women work 16 to 18 hours a day and must walk long distances. Our children are constantly starving. We suffered enormously during the COVID-19 pandemic. We had to borrow money to survive. Now the capitalists have increased work hours. We are continually in debt.
Our fight is the same everywhere. Last year, the workers in Sri Lanka rebelled under similar conditions to those in Bangladesh.
Workers and students are looking for an answer to this system of wage slavery that binds us to our capitalist oppressors. We need to end this wage slavery that creates unemployment, homelessness, and hunger by dividing us based on our gender, ethnicity, race, religion, and the languages we speak.
The heroic fight to overthrow the Hasina government will not change capitalism. But millions of workers in Bangladesh are now more open to an alternative. That alternative is communism.
We are actively building and recruiting workers. We have been sending you the Red Flag for the last three years. Some of you are regular readers. We invite you to form a collective of our party, ICWP. We have the same fight! Together, we can win and eliminate capitalism.
—Comrades in Bengaluru (India)
COLOMBO (Sri Lanka) July 2022—Garment workers played key role in mass protest.
Organized Industrial Workers Fight for Communism. Only the Working Class Worldwide Has the Power to Crush Capitalist Genocide
EL SALVADOR, September 28— “Since the extended meeting on the beach a few weeks ago, we have gotten great results, very positive reactions, and more comments about Communism from the workers inside the factory. This led us to distribute more Red Flag newspapers,” said P, a comrade worker leader, at a meeting of the ICWP collective.
“’I have heard many times about Red Flag. I want to ask you directly, what is your struggle?’ a fellow worker inside the factory asked me as I was crossing the production lines,” P continued. “I said that we are a Party that fights directly for Communism, a system that will end wage slavery, racism, sexism, and the wars that are causing death and destruction. And all the evil that capitalism represents.”
The working class organized in our ICWP can achieve this. The meetings we hold are very important. “You are invited to be part of this effort, for the Communist system,” concluded the worker leader, who ended by inviting his co-worker to a meeting.
“Sounds good to me. I like the information. Thank you for inviting me so I can learn more about your struggle,” replied the co-worker. We agreed to meet soon and thus follow up on winning more comrades.
Workers’ Power Will End Imperialist Wars
The capitalist crisis is forcing us to live through wars in several places in the world. Mainly the genocide in Gaza and the war in Ukraine, where the imperialists are fighting to control resources, thus increasing their profits. The working class must respond decisively to bury this capitalist horror.
Now is the opportunity to make communist ideas mass ideas. We need to circulate our Red Flag and mobilize the masses around the world amid the genocide in Gaza.
Workers everywhere in the world are key to recruiting for ICWP, as in the strike of the 33,000 Boeing workers, where commercial and military planes and weapons are made to fire on Gaza and Ukraine.
“Imperialist wars affect the working class all over the world. The question is what we as workers are doing,” said M, a young worker. “I already met with two new fellow workers who are reading Red Flag. We agreed to meet to discuss the new edition.”
Worker leader G pointed out, “I’ve started talking with some workers in the team I’m working with about the struggle we’re building in ICWP. I’ve told them that many workers in several parts of the world are organizing and fighting for Communism. We must recruit more workers, even if we are afraid of rejection or being isolated. I explained to a co-worker who we are, that we fight for a better world for our sons and daughters, for the Communist system. We need a mass party to achieve this. These are the things that we must do to build it.”
Movie Review: “AntZ” and “A Bug’s Life” — Communists Fight Collectively to End Capitalist Exploitation and War
EL SALVADOR, September 1— “We should be as organized as the ants. The way they work collectively for the common good of all in the anthill. We can put that into practice as communists,” said a health care worker comrade.
“I really like that. Some movies express what we are discussing. In both “AntZ” and “A Bug’s Life” we can see how the working class is exploited. How those in power enslave and subjugate the worker ants through exercising an ideological control in which they can be nothing more than slaves. We see this clearly in the capitalist system,” said a young comrade.
From this, a discussion of political learning began in a meeting with industrial workers that inspired everyone. It reflected that unity between soldiers and workers is vital. The search for strategies to join the army and strengthen ourselves in the struggle to break the chains of this capitalist slavery is essential.
Both films are from 1998 and share similarities in terms of class difference, working class exploitation, and fighting for revolution. With tyrants who control through fear and manipulation. A totalitarian, fascist capitalist system of oppression and strangulation of the working class. These are tactics the rulers use.
“AntZ” addresses themes of individualism, collectivity, and the struggle for freedom. It shows a world where individual voices are often silenced. The story of Z (the protagonist) shows him at the beginning of the film as an individualist who only sought his own benefit. During the film he changes, understanding that only by mobilizing the masses can one have freedom. And his voice resonated as a powerful reminder of the importance of training leaders fighting collectively to defeat the genocide they face, where soldiers and workers united.
We concluded that, even if you live under a capitalist system, you can change your ideology because we are from the same class. You just have to open your eyes, fight, and achieve a communist revolution.
“A Bug’s Life” is an anti-capitalist film. The grasshoppers represent the oppressor class that exploits the other insects, who work hard to collect food for their oppressors. This reflects the power relations in capitalist societies, where a rich minority benefits from the work of the poor majority. The ants’ dependence on the grasshoppers symbolizes how the oppressed can come to accept their situation out of fear or conformity. And only unity and collective power overthrows the oppressive system, which is demonstrated at the conclusion of the film.
Building Communist Collectives in the Militaries is Crucial
“The power of the oppressors is just an illusion. If we open our eyes and unite all the working class, we will see that we are more and we are the ones who generate profits,” said V, a young worker. “That’s why we must organize youth, soldiers, and the working class to end the ruling class and achieve our goal of living in a communist society.”
“The capitalist class maintains control through violence. It doesn’t care about life, only about its power,” said C, a comrade worker. “And only with communist revolution will we end genocidal wars, racism, sexism and exploitation.”
Our main idea is to get some of our young communists into the army. In that way we can win over more comrades to open their eyes. We can make them realize that they are protecting the profit system of the imperialist capitalists, obeying orders to carry out genocidal attacks against workers like them. With this, they will be even more open to communist ideas. If they learn these ideas, it will make a huge difference. So, organizing inside the army is crucial.
When we have collectives in every army in the world, we can at the right time turn the weapons against our class enemy for our communist revolution.
ICWP needs to mobilize masses of workers, youth and soldiers to fight for working-class power. Neither oppression nor genocidal wars will stop the communist-led working class from making revolution! Join ICWP!
Read our Pamphlet:
Soldiers, Sailors and Marines: Crucial for Communist Workers’ Revolution here