New Communist Leaders Worldwide here ♦ Discussing Boeing Strike here ♦ Garment Workers’ Response here ♦
Breakout Group at ICWP International Conference, December 2024
Developing New Communist Leaders Worldwide
CENTRAL AMERICA, December 2024— “The history of the class struggle shows that we must rely on the masses. Industrial workers and soldiers are key for communist revolution.” said a comrade to open ICWP’s International Communist Conference.
We live today in the geopolitical context of Israel’s genocide in Gaza, of war in Ukraine, Yemen, and elsewhere. This makes the struggle for Communism more urgent. The imminent threat of a third world war is increasingly present. The US, Russian, and Chinese imperialists are fighting to the death for profits, territories, and resources.
Conference discussions aimed to advance our struggle for communism, organizing to build the International Communist Workers’ Party (ICWP).
A young comrade presented a video of the Party’s political activities around the world in response to capitalism’s horrors. It put forward the vision of a new communist world.
Workers from three garment factories, from the countryside, and other workers and youth traveled hundreds of miles overland to attend the conference. The borders that divided us were among the obstacles they overcame. “In Communism we will not have divisions. We need a world without borders,” said a worker during the trip.
“Revolution will not fall from the sky. We have to organize more workers to achieve it,” said a comrade farmworker. Reports and comments from comrades in South Africa, Spain, Mexico, the US, El Salvador, and Costa Rica, in person and via Zoom, emphasized this need.
Comrades in South Africa
“We need to build relationships with other communities around the world. This is a vision I have come to understand,” a comrade said.
“We are more the same than different. More women are now part of ICWP here. We have been more consistent. The more understanding we have, the more trust there is among comrades.
“The industrial work at Volkswagen has shown us more exploitation, layoffs, the results of crisis, and with it, crime to survive. This most affects those who live in the poorest neighborhoods.”
Garment Factories in El Salvador
Comrades talked about the work of the collectives. They outlined the difficulties they face due to the fascism implemented by the government. “We have exceeded a thousand days of the regime of exception (fascist measures), but they don’t stop us. We always implement new methods of struggle and so we are able to meet.
“There are bosses who treat us more liberally, but they still always keep the products of our labor power to increase their profits, like in the factory where I moved to and where I have an opportunity to organize more workers for the Party,” commented A.
Learning about Communist Dialectics to Understand Contradictions: Reform versus Revolution and the Need for ICWP to Grow
“I heard workers at the conference using concepts like ‘capitalism, communism, dialectics.’ How do they learn about these terms?” asked a comrade.
A worker answered, “We have extended meetings of cells outside the factories, where we discuss why Communism is necessary, and we read Red Flag. It has analyses of our struggles that are the source of our developing knowledge.”
Comrades from Mexico
“The communist system will put an end to the capitalist system. Wealth will no longer be in a few hands. Instead, the wealth of the planet will be in the hands of the working class,” said a comrade from Mexico.
“The crisis of capitalism provokes the need to organize. To fight to achieve changes at the roots. Not only the illusion, but to see the reality.”
Comrades from Mexico made an important contribution to the discussions, and there is a significant potential for ICWP to grow there.
Workers and Peasants Movement of Costa Rica (MTC)
They presented struggles they have carried out, including for jobs and housing.
“The bosses are all the same, like those at the pineapple companies. After they kicked me out of the pineapple plantation, they no longer give me work in any agribusiness,” said a worker.
“What we have lived through is not just happening to us. By uniting in this space, we gain more strength from the Party.
“We need to critically and collectively transform and empower ourselves and to grow. Every comradely relationship, every word, experience, is equally important in our lives and our struggles for communism,” the worker concluded.
Red Flag
After a young comrade gave the Red Flag report, each group discussed two questions:
1. How to overcome the contradictions so the party grows, and how can Red Flag be used as a revolutionary tool?
2. How can we encourage and develop more writers and encourage them to take more leadership?
Important suggestions emerged. These included:
*Guaranteeing audio media (audio readings or podcasts of Red Flag articles)
*Using technological platforms, especially with young people
*Workshops with specific guidance on how to write articles
*A commitment to increase the distribution of Red Flag
Military Work
A comrade veteran of the US Army during the Iraq war said, “Why are we dying in this imperialist capitalist war? The interests of the elites are not our interests. Organizing in the military is possible and it needs to be guaranteed all the time.”
We have to see who can join the army and what are the concrete possibilities of organizing soldiers. How to guarantee this effort in our families. We need a plan to raise awareness among the youth.
The conference consolidated communist relations among more comrades. It increased the potential for new struggles, more Red Flag writers, and the growth of ICWP internationally.
International Conference Discusses Boeing Strike: Advancing Our Communist Work
December 27— “The communist work during the Boeing strike is an advancement for our party,” assured an enthusiastic participant in the ICWP International Conference in Central America.
Comrades and friends there wanted to hear more about this work. A long-time Boeing worker highlighted the recent changes in the industrial workforce, opportunities for communist industrial work, and building the party.
Boeing employs over 170,000 workers in 47 countries. They produce weapons and commercial jets. Before the strike, the workforce had not received a wage increase in 16 years.
Changing Workforce Opens Communist Opportunities
Fifteen years ago, we wrote a paper, “Invigorating Work in Basic Industry.” Its purpose was to start a campaign for young party members to work in non-union subcontracting factories.
Then, supply-chain workers were paid a third of what workers in US heritage plants were getting. Manufacturing had shifted to subcontractor plants. These were built mostly on the backs of millions of Latinx, Black, immigrant, and women workers. The southern US, from the Southeast to the West Coast, became a vast region of super-exploitation.
“We can’t predict exactly what the US industry will look like in 10-20 years,” the paper warned. However, now we know how geopolitics has changed, creating a greater potential for successful communist work.
Today, Boeing workers are younger and more diverse. Their families come from all over the world. These workers and many of their friends are interested in what’s happening internationally, not just in the factory.
US imperialism is a declining power. More industrial workers are essential for the capitalists’ profits. As competing imperialists bolster their militaries, they need much larger workforces to produce weapons of war. For the first time in many years, the US government has seriously funded schools for industrial workers.
The collapse of one country after another is on these workers’ minds. When we distribute Red Flag to them, we talk a lot about communism. There are many discussions about what communism would look like and what it will take for the international working class to win a communist revolution.
These discussions sparked interest among many of the 33,000 aerospace strikers and others in the base built over the past year. Some friends have volunteered to help with party work. Others are intrigued, like a Boeing worker from Palestine who wants to share coffee with us and discuss ICWP and communism.
We learned how to do this from ICWP-led communist maquila collectives in El Salvador that showed the way. When faced with layoffs, comrades took jobs at other plants to build new collectives. Our international party never abandoned industrial work. Just the opposite. The struggles in the maquilas inspired the whole party.
Expand Communist Struggle
Our Seattle collective has long incorporated comments from friends in Red Flag articles. After the Boeing strike, we noted that friends could contribute more than just comments. We are working with quite a few new friends to build a local Red Flag collective. Some of the new writers emphasize the need to focus on a post-strike campaign to build social and political relationships with the Boeing workers and other friends.
Among the most popular Red Flag articles on the picket line were the communist solidarity statements from around the world. They showed that ICWP is one international communist party.
We are proposing a short new pamphlet about international industrial work. We can start with written contributions from industrial workers in El Salvador, Costa Rica, Mexico, India, South Africa, and the US. This will help define the international nature of worldwide communist struggles.
Boeing retirees and friends agree that this pamphlet must chronicle our successes and obstacles in building industrial collectives. It will build an international platform from which to launch more communist struggles.
Distributing it will advance our communist practice. This will be key to recruiting and expanding our global base.
Workers of the World, Unite!
Garment Workers Response to the Conference:
Red Flag
I am a garment worker. I am sending fraternal greetings to all comrades of the International Communist Workers’ Party.
I have been working in the factory for many years and living the exploitation by the capitalist bosses. While they make enormous profits, our life is becoming more difficult.
The work pressure, the environment we have there, the high temperatures and lack of ventilation is the daily life of all the workers.
I have attended the meetings of the International Communist Workers’ Party. Every time I attend, I can see the importance of being part of this struggle.
That’s because in these meetings, like the International Conference, we can see the possibilities we have to organize ourselves to make the changes so necessary for the working class.
And we can also see that worldwide ICWP is organizing the workers to fight for Communism.
Reading Red Flag is very useful for us, we get informed and see how other women in other countries are doing great work.
The International Communist Workers Party teaches us that we have to be united to defeat capitalism and also that we must be prepared for when we achieve that moment which is so important, so we can build that change that we all need.
The conference for me was a great opportunity to live together with comrades from other countries. To know that we are in the same struggle was very gratifying!
Comrade worker
ICWP Conference Important for Political Development
A cordial greeting to all the comrades around the world, organized in the International Communist Workers’ Party!
I am a worker in a factory in El Salvador. As a party member, I attended the annual ICWP conference, which was held this year in a nearby country. With great effort by the party organization, it was possible to make this trip successful and to share knowledge and strategies that will help our communist struggle grow.
Participating together with workers of Costa Rica and Mexico was very interesting because they told us about the situation of the workers in those countries. The most important thing was our political development.
It was a long and tiring trip, but very important because of the topics we discussed. These will serve as a tool to win more workers for ICWP.
We were received in the best way by our comrade hosts. Everything was beautiful, very well organized. As a comrade from El Salvador, I enjoyed the conference. Through this letter, I thank the comrades who made this trip possible.
Long live Red Flag!
—Maquila worker.