Garment Workers Reject Capitalist Parties here ⊠Mexico: Letâs Organize Workers to Join ICWP, Not to Vote here âŠ
Mexico Teachers Attack Offices of Electoral Parties
Communist Garment Workers Reject Capitalist Parties
BENGALURU (India), May 27â âFor the last 10 years, I voted for Congress Party. I believed that it would be a better alternative to the communal [Hindu nationalist] BJP,â said Sangitha, a long-time garment worker. âToday, I am dedicating my life to communism. We donât need an electoral circus. We need to destroy the root of this barbaric system where we work twelve hours a day and, at the end of the day, we live in rat-infested slums with no toilets, no sanitation, and very little food.â
The garment collective here had a very lively discussion. Political parties are spending billions of dollars on the elections to decide the next Prime Minister of India. This will be the most expensive election in the world. It is a disgusting attack on six hundred million workers who earn ess than Rs.100 a day ($1.20).
Manisha also changed her opinion. âI do not doubt that this rotten system needs to be destroyed. Only the communism of ICWP is the answer. I now know that I was like a blind person when I voted for BJP. My parents brainwashed me to believe that Muslims were the problem. When I started working in the garment factory, I worked with immigrants from Bangladesh. I saw that they were making half of what other workers were making. How can they be a threat to the Hindus?â
Comrades like Sangitha and Manisha joined ICWP after lots of struggle in the collective. They believed in two political parties in India with opposing viewpoints. BJP represents openly fascist Hindu supremacy while the Congress Party advocates for a multi-ethnic democracy. But we struggled in our collective to show that neither of the parties represents the working class. Both have presided over major attacks on the working class.
Dedicated ICWP comrades brought Sangitha and Manisha to our collective. They had known them for years. When we talked about how dangerous the Congress Party and BJP were, they did not agree with us for a long time. However, the personal relationships we had with them allowed us to advance the struggle for communism.
Now Sangitha and Manisha are circulating Red Flag in their workplace. They know from their own experience that any electoral party is for the rich capitalists. They can struggle at a higher level with the masses.
Because of our success with these new ICWP recruits, we are reaching out to hundreds of workers who are disgusted with the electoral system. We point out that the capitalist parties are only interested in Google Analytics, Television Rating Points, and social media to prepare their speeches. Even after spending billions of dollars, almost half the electorate is not voting for anybody.
Regardless of who wins the election, the workers have a huge  opportunity to put communism on the agenda. We have formed three garment collectives that are responsible for the mass circulation of Red Flag. Most of this is done by trusted comrades. We have produced thousands of leaflets calling for communist revolution to smash the bossesâ capitalist parties. These leaflets are widely circulated.
In response to this leafletting, more than thirty new workers attended our last meeting. Comrade Manisha opened it. People were moved by her experience of leaving BJP. She said, âThe politics of Temple and Mosque is a direct attack on the working class. They want us to forget that more than three hundred million people are unemployed. Join ICWP because together we will destroy the capitalists and their ability to control us. Without the bosses, the working class will be able to create the foundation of new communist relations.â
We are forming a study group with the new comrades to introduce them to the science and politics of change â dialectical materialism. The personal and political relationships we have with the new attendees will expand into a bigger ICWP.
LETâS ORGANIZE WORKERS TO JOIN ICWP, NOT TO VOTE!
MEXICO, May 27â On May 15, Teachersâ Day, many teachers attacked the headquarters of all the electoral parties in Chiapas. However, they will still vote. Claudia Sheinbaum is the official candidate of MORENA, the party of Obrador, current President. She considers herself elected and sees the June 2 vote as a mere formality. Xochitl GĂĄlvez is the candidate of a wealthy opposition. Reportedly, she also has a US subsidy. And Jorge Ălvarez Maynez is candidate of the Movimiento Ciudadano (Citizen Movement) party. All represent the capitalists.
In distributing Red Flag and our communist leaflets among school workers, teachers, and students, we have discussed that elections do not help the working class become aware of their reality of the use and even abuse of their labor power by the capitalists.
Every few years the capitalists and their oppressive governments lead us to elect new executioners. Some four billion voters in the world are called upon each year to vote: almost half the worldâs population.
Due to many years of deceit and despotism by the governments, the pro-capitalist parties have lost influence among voters. Many believe that politicians only seek their own self-interest and should go away. On the one hand, they represented corrupt governments; on the other hand, if they came to power, they did not improve the workersâ situation.
We workers must organize ourselves completely apart from the capitalists and their governments. We must become a CLASS, which is a PARTY. Joining ICWP and mobilizing the masses for communism is our task and our future.
Bossesâ âProgressâ Means More Exploitation for the Working Class
Technological development and the capitalistsâ need to sell their increasing production led them to try to maintain consumption. This changed the life of the working class a little. Millions âcame out of poverty.â This also changed, a little, workersâ attitude towards elections. In the 21st century, they have returned to the polls. In Germany, USA, and Mexico, around 60% of eligible voters voted.
The surplus value or âprofitsâ that the capitalists have extracted from the workers have multiplied so far this century. During the pandemic, the richest billionaires doubled their wealth. On the other hand, real wages have been reduced. Millions who lost their jobs have taken new jobs with lower wages. Technological development has done the other part: as the working day has intensified, workers produce their wages in less time. So that the part left to the capitalists (surplus value) is greater.
One million young people are of age to join the labor force each year in Mexico. Yet only two-thirds can do so formally. The rest join the growing floating or surplus labor force. This industrial reserve army survives by selling the capitalistsâ goods without a wage relationship, without a steady job.
A Communist World Without Exploitation
We must break through our limitations in bringing communist class consciousness to the workers. Many who sympathized with communism reneged on it and promoted pro-capitalist politics. That led to support for the National Democratic Front from CuauhtĂ©moc CĂĄrdenas, Ifigenia MartĂnez, and Muñoz Ledo to AMLO.
Workersâ participation in the elections only demonstrates the degree of consciousness they have. No more! Elections cannot emancipate us from the capitalists or their exploitation.
Workers must break the prisons of their own exploitative workplace and the prisons of unions to which the capitalists have subjected them. We must participate in protests against the massacre in Gaza, in the obstruction of ships carrying armaments, and both economic and political strikes, to fight to turn the imperialistsâ battles into revolution for communism.