SEATTLE (USA), December 29 — “I’m fighting to get my job back at Boeing,” declared Frank, a friend of ICWP, at an industrial workers’ meeting. In response, three current Boeing workers are going to try to help him.
But Frank is even more concerned about the general attack on the working class. “The attacks are relentless and fascist. Violent attacks are aimed at the international working class everywhere, not just Boeing workers.”
He proposed in-person political committee meetings every month. These industrial meetings will be open to struggles and debates among the members, including communist ideas.
Frank emigrated from Latin America. He rejects nationalism. He wants to mobilize industrial workers in Central and South America as well as the US. These monthly meetings are an opportunity for industrial workers to talk about building a new future, without capitalism.
ICWP comrades have regularly distributed about 100 Red Flags each issue at the Boeing gates for well over a year. Comrades and industrial friends are considering combining their strengths. The aim is to develop a massive approach and increase Red Flag distribution at the gates and in the factories.
“We need to be prepared if the union leadership attacks the rank-and-file,” said another worker at the meeting. The union leadership’s strategy is based on the IAM constitution, which includes an anti-communist clause added during one of the Red scares, when the government and the unions worked together to build anti-communism. But that will not stop this Industrial Committee.
The increasing attacks on the international working class are part of preparing for global war.
For example, Boeing will design and produce 25 new fighter jets for Israel under a contract with the US Defense Department. Boeing stands to get about $8 billion to produce these planes. Many Boeing workers are clear that they don’t want to be complicit in the genocide.
A few dozen Boeing workers are taking this fight outside the formal union boundaries. Some Society of Professional Engineering Employees in Aerospace engineers are creating podcasts to make the public more aware of the struggles with the union leadership. Some blue-collar workers are volunteering their time to fight ICE.
Communist Social Relations Are Key to Building Communist Factories
An ICWP comrade said that communist factories and machines would function differently than capitalist factories.
In 1974, Charles Bettelheim wrote about the Chinese Cultural Revolution. He maintained that “transformation of production relations is a function of class struggle… A new system of social relationships can be fully developed, and a new mode of production instituted.”
The Soviet masses, too, believed that they were working toward communism. They wanted to change the focus from individual competition, inequality, and exploitation, to collectivity, equity, and meeting the needs of the working class.
But the Soviet and Chinese Communist parties never eliminated markets, wages and profits. They eventually turned into full-blown capitalism. ICWP has learned from both the vision of these historical Communist parties and from their failure.
A new world has opened for Frank. His concern for the international working class influences his discussions at industrial meetings and with ICWP comrades. Frank reads Red Flag regularly. Next, we are asking him to distribute it to his friends and to join the party.
This understanding of the international nature of the working class is the basis for fighting for our communist future. The political battles in the factories and meetings bring friends closer to our party. Some already call themselves communists but have yet to join ICWP. We will recruit many more people if we are persistent in building communist relationships.