Rebellious Soldiers, Sailors Key to Revolution here ♦ End Imperialist War by Building ICWP Worldwide here ♦
Sailors’ Rebel Against Aircraft Carrier USS Kitty Hawk in 1972
Rebellious Soldiers, Sailors, Marines: Key to Communist Revolution
Capitalism is like a rabid animal. It has no consciousness. It only acts in self-interest and only knows violence. There’s no reasoning with it, no cure, no reforming it. It can only get worse, and if allowed to go on it will continue to harm those around it.
For a rabid animal, the humane thing to do is to put it down. That is what communist revolution is to capitalism: the humane thing to do.
Like a veterinarian with a needle, we as workers, students, soldiers, and sailors will need to arm ourselves against this threat and take action through armed struggle.
It will not go down peacefully. History shows that. We can only take down this threat by having the correct personnel, equipment and training. That means organizing inside of the boss’s military.
Are we ready?
At a recent ICWP conference, a comrade asked those present to raise their hand if they thought that firearms would be needed for a revolution.
Almost everyone raised their hands.
The speaker asked if they knew how to fire a rifle.
All but a few hands went down.
After a few more such questions, the only person left with their hand up was an ex-guerrilla fighter from El Salvador.
Getting that training and recruiting others from the bosses’ military is a struggle we are having with young comrades and their families and teachers today. After a spirited discussion at the conference, three young comrades committed themselves to take this struggle more seriously.
Enlisted soldiers and sailors come from the working class, usually its most oppressed sectors. They have often been involved in class struggle before they enlisted or were drafted.
Soldiers and sailors have been important in movements against capitalist imperialism. The strengths and weaknesses of those movements play out in the military resistance. Militant organization of soldiers and sailors is not enough. We need a mass communist party to lead that struggle in the factories, schools, streets, barracks, and onboard the bosses’ ships.
A Mass ICWP Needs to Grow within the Bosses’ Militaries
After World War II, the struggle in India subordinated the revolutionary movement of workers, soldiers, and sailors to the demands of the Indian national bourgeoisie for an independent capitalist India. The 1946 mutiny of Indian sailors within the British Royal Navy played a key role. Indian sailors, angry at their racist treatment, exposed the weakness of imperialist militaries. These militaries rely on the oppressed, with guns in their hands, to maintain their system of global domination. This mutiny accelerated the process of Britain’s decolonization. With the leadership of a revolutionary communist party, it could have been part of a communist revolution in India.
During the US imperialist war on Vietnam, the US Army, reflecting the systematic racism of US society, put working-class soldiers, especially Black and Latino, on the front line in Vietnam. The civil rights movement, urban rebellions against racism, and the anti-war movement spread to soldiers on the ground. They killed their own officers, refused to go on patrol, and burned down military stockades. The US rulers resorted to an air war, launching genocidal bombing raids from aircraft carriers. And the rebellions spread to the sailors on these carriers.
In 1972, Black sailors on the USS Kitty Hawk led an armed rebellion when the ship, stationed in the Philippines, was ordered to return to the Gulf of Tonkin after two other ships had been sabotaged. Sailors on the Constellation in dry dock in San Diego organized their own multi-racial nonviolent sit-down strike. Many of them had had contact with communist anti-war organizing in Southern California. The sailors were inspired by the mutiny on the Kitty Hawk, The Navy was pushed to make reforms, and in 1973, the US had to withdraw from Vietnam. But the revolutionary potential of sailors and soldiers was not realized.
We are living through the beginning of a third world war. The major imperialists will greatly increase their armies and navies and call on their lackeys to supply soldiers and sailors. The horrors of war will open the door to worldwide communist revolution.
We must not find ourselves in a situation where the conditions are ripe for revolution, but we are unable to seize the moment because we lack the firepower and support of soldiers and sailors to win the revolutionary struggle. Now is the time for comrades around the world to build party collectives inside the bosses’ armies and navies.
See: “Russia, 1905: Mutiny on the Battleship Potemkin” here.
See: “Communist History: Bolshevik Organizing Key to Revolution” here.
Read our Pamphlet:
“Soldiers, Sailors, Marines: Crucial to a Communist Workers’ Revolution” here
Workers, Soldiers, Students: Unite for Communist Revolution!
End Imperialist Wars by Building a Worldwide ICWP
EL SALVADOR, April 8 – “Now is the time, when capitalism is in crisis,” commented J. “It is the time to act and put an end to imperialist wars. The working class, soldiers and students united for communist revolution.”
We discussed how we can end imperialist wars. We all concluded that only Communist Revolution will put an end to the oppressive yoke of the powerful imperialists.
Racist, xenophobic, and sexist attacks on the working class take different forms. But always with the same purpose: the capitalist system of boss domination and wage slavery.
The struggle between imperialists for profit drives capitalism-imperialism to oppress the masses as slaves to be super-exploited. Imperialist attacks lead to more retaliation and divisions. The imperialists foster xenophobia and racism.
This is happening in Moscow. Many Central Asians in Russia, especially Tajiks, have faced intensified xenophobia after the recent terrorist attack on the rock concert at Crocus City Hall near Moscow. Muslims experienced the same kind of xenophobic attacks after 911 in the US. Israeli Arabs have also faced the same hate attacks since October 7.
This triggers discrimination, Islamophobia, and disproportionate racism against immigrants. Despite this, the imperialists need and depend on the entire working class, especially immigrants, using and manipulating them for their own benefit without regard for their needs. They create divisions and hate crimes, just as the Russian government did with the Tajiks. Now they are targeting the Muslims of Central Asia, advertising to recruit them for their army.
Capitalism keeps our working class divided through racism, xenophobia, nationalism, sexism, and constructing the borders that divide us. We must destroy this deadly system through an armed revolutionary struggle for communism.
The imperialists are moving rapidly toward world war to defend their profits and world domination. “It’s amazing how the imperialists’ wars murder millions for their profits,” said R. “The attacks, violence and genocide that are happening worldwide: these are imperialist power struggles.”
The working class pays with their lives amid fighting, suffering from hunger, through inflation, high oil prices, mass unemployment and poverty. All capitalists and imperialists are mortal enemies of the working class.
Capitalism is in a severe worldwide crisis. They have developed technology so much that they can no longer sustainably return profits to their capitalist bosses. This sharpens the conflicts between the powerful imperialists pushing them to wars. Communist revolution will begin by taking advantage of this capitalist weakness and crisis. The masses will put a stop to this carnage and mass destruction by turning the weapons around for communism.
Why Fight for A Communist Revolution?
Fighting for a communist revolution is the only possible solution to this crisis. This is the opportune time to call for unity to build a massive International ICWP.
No more imperialist capitalists, no more profits, no more wage slavery. Communism will end starvation. It will reverse the climate change consequences of the capitalist system’s profit maximization. It will provide housing and health care for all. We will live in and for a common good. The material basis of communism is collective production for the collective needs of the international working class. Communism will liberate the masses.
This revolutionary struggle begins here and now. Building and strengthening communist social relations and a mass ICWP. Mobilizing the masses for the victory of our communist society by eradicating all capitalism and its behaviors.
Long live communism! Power to the working class!
Read our pamphlet :
“Fight for the Day When No Worker is called Foreigner”
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