Poster showing picture of soldiers on the USS constellation protesting against racism, part of a Pacific-wide rebellion during the US war on Vietnam.
ICWP Tells “Cancel RIMPAC” Conference Participants: Soldiers and Sailors Key to Canceling Imperialism with Communist Revolution
LOS ANGELES (USA), July 29— “I like your idea of organizing soldiers to turn the guns around,” said a workshop participant. An Army veteran comrade had called for more purposeful organizing and mobilization of workers, soldiers, and students for communist revolution. The workshop was part of the “Cancel RIMPAC” conference in San Diego.
RIMPAC (Rim of the Pacific) is one of the most comprehensive war exercises, led by the US along with 28 other partners worldwide. This summer was the 29th RIMPAC exercise since 1971.
“Cancel RIMPAC” mobilized workers and students from different organizations under the banner of “Peace, Solidarity, Self-Determination! Fight for Lives, Livelihood and Sovereignty! Resist War and Militarization!” That is a lot, but it does not clearly make the connection between resisting war and the role of sailors and soldiers. Four ICWP communist veteran soldiers led a group of about a dozen comrades who put our party line on organizing in the military at the forefront of our participation in workshops and our literature tables.
“We need soldiers,” said a comrade in another workshop. “Soldiers are the sons and daughters of the working class, and we need to reach out to them and organize.”
A participant responded, “It seems really hard to build a base with soldiers and the working class.”
“It’s really not that hard,” responded an Army veteran comrade. “Our party, ICWP, has decades of experience sending party members into the Army to organize soldiers.”
“But soldiers are already won to nationalism,” someone responded.
A second Army veteran comrade chimed in. “That’s not really true. Most soldiers enlist because this is the only way they can sustain themselves with a full-time job. And recruiters target low-income workers with limited financial resources, especially Black and brown men and women in the inner city.”
A third Army veteran comrade, in another workshop, stated that everyone in the workshop must know someone in the military. There were about 20 people there and most nodded their heads in agreement.
“We must build stronger political relationships with these soldiers and sailors that we know because they could very well be sitting next to us agreeing that imperialist wars are not worth dying for,” added the veteran comrade. “We must infiltrate armies around the world and organize soldiers to turn the guns around!” A handful of people clapped.
A comrade made great use of our poster depicting sailors in the famous 1972 USS Constellation rebellion during the Vietnam war. The comrade brought people to the poster, where two comrades (one a veteran) staffed a literature table.
One attendee thanked the comrade for a copy of Red Flag. About thirty minutes later, he came back to say, “I read the article. It reminded me of what I’ve learned about the Russian revolution and the Potemkin.” Next time, we should have a gallery walk of similar rebellions of soldiers and sailors in history.
The conference criticized imperialism as the culprit of war, but all ICWP members pinpointed the cause of imperialist war: capitalism. Comrades also linked RIMPAC exercises to genocide today and in the past.
A presenter in the Students for Justice in Palestine workshop discussed imperialism and “settler colonialism.” A comrade said that imperialism was a necessity at the highest stage of capitalism. “Settler colonialism” may be one form of imperialism, but not the only one. The genocide in Guatemala—definitely not a a “settler colony”—was perpetrated by the US and Israel. She emphasized the need to get rid of capitalism and all imperialism with communist revolution.
Overall, ICWP was able to mobilize comrades along with mobilizing workers and students during the Cancel RIMPAC. We distributed hundreds of copies of Red Flag and of our Gaza pamphlet, and dozens of copies of our military and sexism pamphlets.
But there are more important numbers. Dozens of conference attendees gave us their contact information to stay in touch and continue receiving Red Flag. And we were able to provide leadership opportunities to four younger comrades, including three veterans.
What do we do next? We have already begun to reach out to our contacts and are sending them this new issue of Red Flag.
The real undertaking is the organizing that we do in militaries around the world. This takes strategic planning and base-building. ICWP plans to conduct a forum about organizing in the military and recruiting soldiers around the world. That includes South Africa, the US, India, and El Salvador, where we are working to build close contacts with the military.
The Cancel RIMPAC conference demonstrated the need for our presence. We are the only ones urging activists to organize soldiers, and this is the only possible way that we can cancel imperialism with communist revolution.
Read Our Pamphlet:
“Soldiers, Sailors, Marines: Key to Communist Workers’ Revolution” here
See Letters about Cancel RIMPAC Conference here