Building Communist Relations to Crush Deadly Imperialism here ♦ Why Students and Young Workers are Key to Building ICWP here ♦
April 11: Anti-Trilateral Summit demonstrators in the Philippines tearing up pictures of Biden, Marcos and Kishida.
Building Communist Relationships Today Paves the Way: Communist Revolution Will Crush Deadly Imperialist Alliances
Marcos and Biden
they’re planning out their crimes.
waging war for profit
on the people’s dime.
A ‘beggin n a’pleadin
at butcher Biden’s door
US fighting China
but the [Philippine] islands host the war.
Free all the people
from this system
rise up and tear down all the walls
that keep us from each other.
—From the power lyrics sung by a Red Flag reader at the Seattle demonstration against the Washington, DC Trilateral Summit.
SEATTLE (USA), April 11—From Manila to Washington DC, Los Angeles to Portland, Seattle, San Francisco and Honolulu, workers and youth rallied against the Summit of the US, Philippines, and Japan. Commercial bribes and rhetoric about new relationships couldn’t hide the true nature of this “Council of War.”
As the rally began, a young organizer asked a comrade if he represented the media.
“Yes,” he answered, “I’m going to write about the demonstration for our party’s communist newspaper.
After looking at Red Flag and discussing life at the Ft. Lewis military base, she exchanged contact information with the comrade. Like many at the rally, she had previously read Red Flag.
A high school student explained why he was demonstrating. “Six thousand laborers per day are sent to countries around the world by the Philippine government,” he began. “Both the US and China are attacking Filipino workers.”
The comrade offered him a Red Flag.
“I get this at my school,” he declared. He sees our comrades distribute it outside his school every issue. We will ask him to show the paper to his friends.
World Economic War
Months ago, Biden and Xi agreed to a tentative “reset” of the countries’ relationship. This reset has collapsed.
The Chinese regime demanded that the US “view issues of industrial capacity objectively.” The US government countered by declaring that it will “not be caught flat-footed by China’s emerging dominance in hot new industries.”
China must find a way to sell industrial products to deal with overproduction. If the US creates international alliances that hinder these sales, the likelihood of war increases.
Capitalist relationships are based on deadly competition and preserving wage slavery. They pit companies and nations against each other as well as worker against worker. Capitalist competition and wage slavery nurture racism, sexism, xenophobia, and fascism.
The only relationships that can serve the needs of our global family are communist relationships. In a communist society, collective production will unleash the creativity of the working class to serve the collective needs of the masses. Every child will see adults contribute to the well-being of the international working class.
Capitalists Are Our Enemies, Not Our Partners
All the talk about changing capitalist relationships to save companies and nations and secure peace is empty rhetoric. For example, Seattle Times Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists call for new relationships between Boeing workers and management. They say that the only way Boeing can recover is a new partnership between the company’s workforce and leadership.
A retired inspector, who still has friends and family working for Boeing, sees the hypocrisy of this partnership.
“We were there to make a living. Managers are there to squeeze every penny for the board and shareholders. Now they are seeing that product fall apart.”
The new, younger Boeing workforce includes many immigrants. This is an opportunity for the ICWP to build communist collectives in the Boeing plants.
Communist Relationships for a Communist Revolution
“I’ve always wanted to know what happens after the revolution,” said another friend who is committed to political organizing among industrial workers. “The most inspiring aspect of a communist society that I have learned about to date was the history of Chinese barefoot doctors.”
Before and during the Chinese Cultural Revolution, a million barefoot doctors studied for six months and spent the rest of the year embedded with their industrial and agricultural co-workers. This showed him the power of work collectives to end elitism and rely on the working class to advance society.
He was talking about the necessity of building communist relationships among youth, industrial, and agricultural workers—now and in the future.
The ICWP is building more of these kinds of relationships. They will open the path to communist revolution in the future and put an end to capitalism’s “council of wars” and the brutal exploitation of imperialist powers.
Why Students and Young Workers Are Key to Building Our Communist Party
History has shown us that students can be a force for revolution and change. In 1976, young Black students in Soweto, South Africa organized an uprising against the racist apartheid system that was forcing them to speak and be taught only in Afrikaans and English.
In 1968, students joined thousands of striking workers in Paris and shut the city down. That same year, huge student demonstrations took place in Mexico City before and during the Summer Olympics. Black American athletes Tommie Smith and John Carlos stood through the medal ceremony with fists raised, not only for Black power, but also to protest the deaths of hundreds of Mexican students who were shot down during the protests.
More recently, movements like Occupy, Black Lives Matter, and against the genocide in Gaza have attracted many students and young workers in the US and elsewhere.
But the Fight Needs to Be for Communism
All these movements have addressed racism, inequality, police violence, and have even recognized the evils of capitalism. But they come and go, leaving the international working class to fight forever for reforms or to put their faith in so-called progressive politicians.
The work of anti-racism provides an opportunity for communists and friends to link racism and white supremacy with capitalism, and to connect the work with revolutionary communism, led by ICWP. Young people are looking for ways to bring these ideas with them as they leave school and enter the workforce.
Right now, the US bosses are desperate to revitalize their industries so they can better compete with China. They understand that, because of international competition and the weakening of US and European economies, they urgently need a larger force of trained and skilled industrial workers.
The capitalists are converting some high school and community colleges into vocational training programs. They need workers who will become machinists, mechanics, medical technicians, maritime workers, etc. Most of the students come from working-class families. Many are already working or planning to work in manual and technical labor.
These programs attract women, newly arrived immigrants, and others. They understand that many tech-related jobs are low paying and/or temporary. They see that they will be unable to pay off their student loans, or even afford to live in a major US city.
It is in students’ interests to become industrial workers, where there are opportunities to build communist relations in the industrial working class. History has shown the potential of these ties in building a revolution for communism. Trade schools and community colleges are fertile grounds for this work. Capitalism in crisis has created this opportunity, and we must take advantage of it.
Workers and students at the Federal Building in Seattle (USA) protesting the Trilateral Summit on April 11.
Front page of this issue
