RIMPAC War Games: Turn Imperialist World War into Communist Revolution

Cancel Rimpac: Let’s Prepare to “Turn the Guns Around” here ♦ Revolutionary Role of Soldiers and Sailors here ♦ Soldiers and Sailors:  Key to Ending Imperialism here ♦ the Strait of Hormuz and Danger of World War here ♦

October 8, 1972, sailors mutinied on the USS Kitty Hawk in the Subic Bay Naval Base in the Philippines during the Vietnam War

Amid Imperialist Preparations for Pacific War, Prepare to “Turn the Guns Around” for Communism

(US), May 24— “I love hearing about Black US soldiers allying with Filipinos!” said a young Filipina at an Education Committee meeting of the coalition to Cancel RIMPAC (Rim of the Pacific).

At the end of World War II, US imperialists ordered soldiers to attack a communist guerrilla rebellion in the Philippines, their former allies. Segregated Black battalions wrote a scathing letter to US President Truman. They were “disgusted with American foreign policy.” They vowed not to “take the field in league with rulers who were against the freedom revolts of oppressed peoples.”

An ICWP comrade described how multiracial masses of US troops, led by communists and armed with rifles and tanks, made sure no attack on their Filipino allies took place.

Today, the US Navy runs what is called the largest naval war exercise of its kind. Twenty-nine nations and over 25,000 soldiers and sailors will participate. Included in this imperialist war coalition are the Israeli armed forces responsible for the Gaza genocide. The newly recruited trilateral military alliance, featuring Marcos Jr.’s Philippine navy and that of Japan, will be there. Biden hopes the trilateral alliance will encircle China.

In April, approximately two hundred and twenty-five activists launched a campaign against the biennial RIMPAC exercise. “Cancel RIMPAC” mobilizations will be held in San Diego and Hawai’i in late June or early July.

Reach Out to Soldiers and Sailors

To emphasize the importance of reaching out to soldiers and sailors, comrades prepared for the RIMPAC coalition meeting a history of thirteen rebellions and organizing efforts inside capitalist-imperialist armed forces. Other committee members were inspired.

One suggested writing a leaflet aimed at the sailors. Another proposed organizing a panel of veterans. She knows someone who organized during the Iraq war and suggested he be on the panel. A third knows a Vietnam War veteran in San Diego who knows a lot about the rebellions on aircraft carriers.

Our party members have a long history of sending comrades into the imperialists’ militaries. Our strategy is organizing to “turn the guns around” for communist revolution. Communists organized mass rebellions among US soldiers during the Vietnam War. ICWP members also have experience developing relationships with soldiers during the Iraq war and since.

These veterans and younger comrades can play a decisive role in revitalizing our efforts to build a communist base among rank-and-file soldiers and sailors. Without recruiting soldiers there can be no successful communist revolution.

On November 9, 1972, 132 mostly Black sailors refused to reboard the USS Constellation ship in San Diego during the Vietnam War in protest against racist practices on the ship, part of Pacific-wide rebellion during the Vietnam War.

Changing Minds

One close friend of ICWP initially had reservations about reaching out to rank-and-file troops. Some soldiers threatened him and others when they tried to talk to them. When he heard about the history of soldier rebellions and the personal experiences of communist friends, he started to rethink what was possible.

This friend knows that industrial workers are key to any revolution, but once again he has hesitations. He’s had bad experiences with the leadership of industrial workers’ unions. In particular, the Longshore Workers’ and Boeing unions.

Two comrades came to talk to him about RIMPAC. Like the committee members, he was inspired. They explained the need to go to the rank and file, not to union officials.

“I’m changing my mind,” he admitted. “No matter what, we need solidarity between industrial workers, in particular Boeing workers, soldiers, sailors, and the growing opposition to the war footing of the Biden regime.”

He took extra Red Flags to distribute at his workplace. Comrades encouraged him to also show ICWP’s communist paper to his high school relatives who have already built a political club at their school.

Many young people are inspired by the hidden history of troops rebelling against imperialism. We will meet more potential communist organizers as we prepare to confront RIMPAC. The political and social ties we build now will lay the foundation to turn inspiration into action and recruitment to ICWP.

Revolutionary Role of Soldiers and Sailors: History We Need to Know

Capitalist armies and states spend enormous resources and time hiding the ever-present threat of mutiny and rebellion. As revolutionaries, it is our responsibility to make sure the history of rank-and-file soldier rebellions is well-known by the international working class.

To this end, comrades have prepared a list of some of the many rebellions and organizing efforts inside capitalist-imperialist armed forces. This list, although incomplete, is too long to print in Red Flag. It is below:

The 1917 Russian Revolution relied on decades of communist organizing in the Tsarist military and among industrial workers. Fourteen imperialist armies invaded the new Soviet Union. The Red Army defeated the invading imperialists, as soldiers and sailors in each military rebelled against invading the new workers’ state.

During the US war on Vietnam, the US army and navy admitted that 47% of their rank-and-file troops were either resisting orders or in outright rebellion. The commander, General Westmoreland, pleaded with President Nixon to withdraw immediately. “Otherwise, we will lose the Army,” he warned.

Their loss must become our gain! Let’s win the rank and file of all capitalist armies to our communist Red Army.

Soldiers and Sailors Key to Ending Imperialist War and Genocide

These are just some of the many rebellions and organizing efforts inside capitalist-imperialist armies.

Haitian Revolution of 1804— After eleven years of struggle, half a million Africans enslaved in Haiti successfully defeated the French, Spanish, and British imperialist armies. They took power and immediately abolished slavery there. They went on to rebel against wage slavery. They thrived for 100 years until 1915, when US imperialism invaded and forced them to be wage slaves. The masses who organized this revolution included tens of thousands of veteran soldiers.

India, 1914 and onward— Indian soldiers and sailors in the British army took the lead in fighting to end British imperialist rule in India. However, they did not fight to get rid of capitalism. Today India is a capitalist fascist country which seeks to become an imperialist power.

Philippines, 1890s— During the US imperialist invasion, there were rebellions in the US army against the slaughter of Philippine masses. These were led by Black soldiers, including Robert Fagen, who, along with about fifteen others, deserted the racist US Army and joined the Philippine resistance to US imperialism.

Philippines, 1940s— After World War II, the US rulers ordered US troops to prepare to fight their Filipino allies, the communist Huks. But they couldn’t mobilize the troops to do so. Over 20,000 US soldiers marched in Manila demanding their immediate return to the US. Another 20,000 demonstrated in Honolulu. All 250 members of the segregated all-Black 823rd Engineer Aviation Battalion wrote to tell President Truman they were “disgusted with American foreign policy” and did not want to “take the field in league with rulers who were against the freedom revolts of oppressed peoples.” A white US communist sailor proudly wrote in his diary, “The [US] Communists and those allied with them helped guide the outburst into a powerful, well-organized movement.”

Russia, 1905— During the Russo-Japanese war, sailors on the Battleship Potemkin organized a rebellion. The Bolshevik torpedo quartermaster, Afansy Matyushenko, led the mutiny. He described it as “one of the object lessons of the revolutionary struggle in which the broad masses of workers and particularly the sailors and soldiers learned the lesson of revolutionary struggle and the concrete tactics of armed revolt.”

When the mutiny began, Captain Golikov ordered Matyushenko to drop his weapon. “I will drop my weapon when I am no longer a living being but a corpse,” Matyushenko replied. “Get off the ship! This is the peoples’ ship and not yours.” The arrogant Captain refused. The sailors threw his corpse overboard.

The rebellion spread to other ships in the Black Sea Fleet and the city of Odessa. To halt the growing unity between Odessa workers and Black Sea Fleet sailors, the police started an anti-Jewish pogrom. The port was set on fire. Over two thousand people died in the overnight battle.

The Bolsheviks recognized the tremendous significance of the Potemkin mutiny and the mass support in Odessa. For the first time, a large part of the tsarist military forces came over to the side of revolution.

The party formed detachments of the revolutionary army among the troops. It learned that these detachments must give military leadership to the masses, form base points for wider open struggle, and develop the creative efforts of the rank-and-file workers, soldiers, and sailors.

Fraternization with “enemy” rank-and-file soldiers emerged as a political/military weapon. Building a base in the military was then, and is now, the necessary strategy for communist revolution.

Mexico, 1910-1922— During the Mexican Revolution, Mexico Army veterans gave key leadership to the masses who fought against the landowners. Since they did not fight for communism, they ended up as wage slaves for the capitalists.

Russia, 1917– Soldiers were key, along with industrial workers, in the Russian Revolution. For years, the Bolsheviks had sent Party members into the military to organize and actively befriend soldiers and sailors and win them to revolution. There were big political struggles in the barracks between supporting Russian imperialism in the war versus siding with the revolution. Revolution won.

France, 1919— French sailors refused to join the invasion of Russia. They sang the International
(Communist hymn of the international working class) on the ship. The whole fleet went home.

There were similar mutinies, rebellions, and refusals inside all the imperialist armies sent to attack the Russian workers’ state. It was an example of workers’ internationalism. But it did not lead to revolutions everywhere because the line of the movement was to defend Russia.

USA, 1919— Black vets returning from WWI gave crucial leadership to masses of Black workers fighting back against lynchings and attacks by the KKK and its government supporters. They led armed battles against the racists and set up self-defense groups to defend Black workers from racist mobs who fought against the “Great Migration” of Black workers to northern industrial cities.

Soviet Union, 1945—The Russian Red Army defeated the Nazis in World War II. Every person in Russia was involved in preparing for and fighting the Nazi invasion. Twenty-six million died fighting the Nazi invaders. The communist-led masses’ commitment to workers’ internationalism, their courage and organization, proved victorious over the Nazis’ commitment to the fascist ideology of the “Aryan racial superiority.”

China, 1920-1949— Communist-led Red Army soldiers fought the war with a communist lifestyle, combining work and fighting, learning the alphabet and politics, with no privileges or wages. The Red Army defeated the Japanese invaders and nationalist Chinese Kuomintang army and took power in the Chinese Revolution of 1949.

Afterwards, Red Army soldiers who had lived in a collective, Communist way helped organize peasant work teams, cooperatives, and later mass communes (300,000 people or more). Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leaders attacked the communes and instituted socialism, with wages and ranks and wage grades. In response, masses of rural and urban workers and students organized the Cultural Revolution. They called for getting rid of the new “Red bourgeoisie,” and going straight to communism—a society without money, wages, or the capitalist market. Seventy million people were involved in this struggle, which was defeated by CCP leaders and its internal weaknesses, but from which we have learned that the masses will fight directly for communism.

Vietnam, 1960s-1970s—There were anti-war, anti-racist, anti-imperialist underground GI newspapers on every US military base and every ship, and in Vietnam. Led by Black soldiers and sailors angered by their racist treatment by the brass and by the attack on the Vietnamese masses, soldiers of all “races” rebelled against the Army. When “gung-ho” officers ordered dangerous missions, they were often “fragged” (a fragmentation grenade thrown under their tent). Sailors sabotaged several ships, so they were unable to go to Vietnam. The Pentagon admitted that 47% of US soldiers and sailors were either resisting or in outright rebellion.

Some young communist revolutionaries joined the army to organize inside against racism, imperialism, and for revolution. They led anti-racist and anti-imperialist struggles, distributed Communist newspapers, and recruited other soldiers.

El Salvador, 1980-1992— FMLN-led guerrillas fought against the fascist government, its death squads, and its US imperialist backers. Despite fighting against US weapons and money, the guerrilla forces were winning the war on the ground, like the Vietnamese fighters before them.

But FMLN leaders made a deal with the government (the 1992 “Peace Accords”). It put some FMLN leaders into the capitalist government that continued to attack workers. Today, Bukele’s fascist government is attacking the masses. Many have learned through bitter experience that only communism, not reform, will end fascism and capitalist exploitation.

Today— These lessons are crucial to the CANCEL RIMPAC movement. The world’s workers and soldiers face an increasingly dangerous world. World war is getting closer. The RIMPAC military exercises are one of many such, which include the US/NATO/Japan/Israel axis and the Russia-China-Iran axis as well.

This brief history shows us that the ideology and actions of the soldiers and sailors is crucial. Veterans of military rebellions can help us to reach out to soldiers and sailors everywhere.

Read our Pamphlet:  “Soldiers, Sailors and Marines: Key to Communist Revolution” here

The Strait of Hormuz and the Danger of World War

The article “From the Middle East to Europe to Asia: Turn Imperialist Genocide and World War III into Communist Revolution” (last issue of Red Flag) makes a clear argument about why US and European imperialists are so fiercely supporting Israel’s genocide in Gaza.

It explained that to fight World War III, European imperialists will need natural gas and oil. There are vast deposits of both in the exclusive economic zones of Gaza, Israel, and Cyprus. Israel is crucial to controlling these resources. There are also huge deposits of both these resources in Northern Africa which can easily and safely be piped to Europe via the Mediterranean Sea.

This will require the US and Europe to militarily control this sea. Israel plays a critical role in this scheme.

The article, however, left out an important point which shows that the danger of an Israel-Iran conflict exploding into world war is more imminent.

That is the Strait of Hormuz. If the Israel-Iran conflict had escalated to a more serious confrontation, Iran would have blocked this strategic strait. Twenty million barrels of oil flow through it daily, along with 18% of the world’s liquified natural gas. Seventy percent of this oil goes to Asia, supplying 95% of Japan’s needs and 59% of South Korea’s.

Blockage of such an important waterway would drive world capitalism into a profound political and economic crisis. If such a situation were to persist for too long, the countries most affected by this blockage would have no alternative but military force to try to solve the crisis.

The US would be the first. Its 7th Naval Fleet is in Bahrain, inside the Gulf itself. If mobilized to attack Iran, the Iranian retaliation would be quick and devastating. It would overwhelm the defenses of the US fleet, attacking it with hundreds of air and sea drones. The fleet can quickly be sunk. The US would have no other alternative but to escalate the war to a higher level. It might opt to go nuclear.

Therein lies the danger that the international working class faces and the urgent need for ICWP to grow worldwide to put an end to genocidal capitalism-imperialism with communist revolution.

—Some Comrades

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