These articles and letters appear only on the Web this issue.

Drug Wars in Mexico here ♦ Letter: World Wars here ♦ Letters on Contradiction here ♦Letter: Chavez Racist and Sexisthere ♦

Drug Wars in Mexico: Capitalists Fight Over Wealth Produced by Workers

MEXICO CITY, February 24— The struggle for the wealth produced by workers has been presented as a war on drugs. The Trump administration declared drug cartels as “terrorist” organizations. It is pressuring the Sheinbaum government to arrest and extradite their leaders.

The leader of the Jalisco Cartel was killed, with US intervention. This created an atmosphere of uncertainty regarding possible attacks by his followers. This paralyzed activities in several states.

These cartels have a symbiotic relationship with political and economic power. They are part of the bourgeoisie that reaps high profits and influences. And that determines municipal, state, and federal governments. Banks are also involved, laundering illicit profits into the formal sector.

All of this represents an arrangement among each country’s elite, who ultimately reap the benefits.

The two drug lords captured most recently began their operations in the US. Later they established their base in Mexico. What is being pursued is the money they have accumulated. The “persecution” is a pretext to pressure Sheinbaum’s government to favor US capitalists more. To distance itself from dealings with the Chinese and Europeans, who continue to advance their investments.

The Mexican ruling class has a degree of sovereignty, although US imperialism generally persists in its dominance. However, it cannot prevail in certain sectors of the economy. Europeans dominate the banking sector. Asian and European car manufacturers have a market. Trump would like them to leave, but Ford, GM, and Stellantis cannot cover the entire market. Nor can they lower their prices. So they cannot blame the Mexican government for facilitating the Asian and European operations.

Some analysts say that for the government to yield more to US interests, they would have to reach higher-level officials linked to criminal groups. However, they have not succeeded so far.

The working class suffers the consequences of this conflict: misery and death. It is intimidated in the streets and workplaces. Manipulated by the subsidized income of pensions and scholarships from “social benefits” and by differentiated consumerism across various social strata.

The only solution is for workers to develop class consciousness by joining the International Communist Workers’ Party and mobilizing the masses for communism.

The rulers promote the false idea that there are good guys and bad guys in the dispute. However, it is a fight among themselves for capital. They are thugs in the pursuit of wealth.

Obviously, there is a capitalist/imperialist crisis regarding Mexico’s resources, such as materials and labor. But there is also a great internal struggle among the bosses. Many news outlets, including major networks, reported that drug cartels had taken over the Guadalajara airport. But the president and a general stated that the news was fabricated using AI, orchestrated by TV Azteca. The masses can’t trust any of these capitalists!

Letter: What Causes World Wars? How Can We End Them?

“Trump is completely destroying the country and the world. The economy is a mess. It will get a lot worse with oil prices going up every day. Killing all those people! Alienating allies. China is beating the US at everything!” said a friend who is very worried about what’s going on.

I explained that the US is the declining imperialist power and China is a rising one. “Yes, everyone knows that,” she said.

We have to ask ourselves why there have been two world wars and now we are heading into World War III.

“What is the root cause of this?” I asked. “What is it in the nature of capitalism that leads to ever more destructive world wars? How come humankind hasn’t figured out how to stop that from happening?”

She didn’t have an answer.

I said that no imperialist power in the history of capitalism has given up its hegemony without fighting to the death to keep or regain it. We talked about how the Versailles treaty that ended World War I was a humiliation. The German rulers used it to whip up nationalism to launch their Nazi campaign to conquer Europe and especially the Soviet Union. The US is like a cornered beast, like Germany between World Wars I and II. The US must try to halt China’s rise militarily.

She thought that sounded right.

I said that to end this murderous cycle we have to put an end to capitalism. Capitalism, based on competition to exploit workers for maximum profit, makes murderous world wars inevitable. Capitalist profit comes only from exploiting workers’ labor power. As competition increases, the capitalists invest in more machines with fewer workers. Exploiting fewer workers, the capitalists’ rate of profit declines. Their “solution” is to fight to destroy their competitors’ factories, resources, and workers.

There is less anti-communism now. Many people all over respond positively to communist ideas of destroying capitalism and its wage slavery and producing only for human need, not for profit.

A danger is that people will support China as the lesser of two evils instead of fighting to get rid of capitalism.

She didn’t think anyone would support China. I disagreed. Many people worldwide think China is the lesser of two evils. They don’t necessarily see that China aims to replace the US as the number one imperialist exploiter.

I explained the only answer is to mobilize the masses to turn the imperialist war into revolutions for communism. Communism: collectivity instead of competition and exploitation.

In times like these people are open to radical change. We have to be active with them presenting the communist solution now when they seek answers.

During World War I, the Russian workers and soldiers overthrew the capitalist government. After World War II the Chinese working class and soldiers did the same.

Today, the world is more interconnected than ever as capitalism viciously attacks our class worldwide. A victory in one country could be multiplied many times over. The masses will fight for communism—when they understand it.

This discussion will continue.

—Experienced comrade

Letters: Dialectical Materialism and Class Struggle

Obstacles and Contradictions

I recently attended an inspiring international conference. The discussions were valuable, but I noticed problems in how dialectical materialism was being applied.

The first concerns the word “contradiction.” Several speakers described trying to get someone to do something, say, attend meetings. They said we must understand that person’s “contradictions.” At first this seemed odd. It became clear they really meant understanding the obstacles preventing attendance—what is holding the person back.

But contradictions are not obstacles. In dialectics, a contradiction consists of two aspects in struggle. Each side limits and shapes the other. It is inaccurate to treat contradiction as a barrier that must be removed.

Understanding someone’s internal contradictions is essential if we want to help them move forward. However, in general we do not completely eliminate contradictions, at least not right away. For example, it will take generations before the contradiction between workers and bosses completely disappears. In the meantime, we weaken the aspect we oppose and strengthen the aspect we support.

What I heard at the conference, however, leaned heavily toward weakening the “negative” side. This produced an almost entirely defensive approach.

Consider a comrade who skips meetings because they fear judgment from more experienced members. One response is to reduce that fear by reassuring them that others are not judging them. That may help.

But there is also a positive approach. We can ask why this comrade wanted to attend in the first place. What motivates them?

Suppose they feel strongly about sexism. We could ensure that sexism is meaningfully addressed in upcoming meetings and let them know their concerns will be taken seriously. Their commitment to fighting sexism may strengthen their confidence and outweigh their fear. By reinforcing the positive aspect of the contradiction, we help shift the balance internally rather than merely trying to suppress the negative side.

There is also the question of materialism. One speaker suggested that we win people to communism simply by talking to them.

For a small number of people, especially those shaped by intense struggle, that may be enough. But for most, words alone are insufficient. People want to see practice. They want to know whether we live up to what we say. Materialism means recognizing that action—shared, concrete activity—carries decisive weight.

Fortunately, there were several discussions about collective actions, for example about comrade Soso organizing her friends to fight for a math teacher. Of course we don’t fight for reforms, but hiring a math teacher hardly counts as reforming the system!

Beyond workplace struggles, we can organize other collective efforts—such as a chorus, a picket squad, or a street theater group. Shared activity builds trust, confidence, and political understanding. Through such experiences, people see in practice what the International Communist Workers’ Party stands for.

If we apply dialectical materialism concretely—treating contradictions properly and grounding our work in collective practice—we strengthen both our theory and our organizing.

—Comrade in Canada

Sharpening Contradictions

Dialectical materialism shows there are contradictions in all processes. The unity and struggle of opposites inside every process determines its movement. This is not complicated, confusing, or misleading.

We are fighting for a communist world with no bosses or imperialist wars. We are struggling to sharpen the struggle within ourselves, our friends, and the working class in general for communism. To do that, we need to sharpen the contradiction between capitalist ideas and practice and communist ideas and practice in each of us, our friends and in the working class in general.

This is clear cut. Let’s say a comrade says, “my friend’s main contradiction is individualism, or fear.” Is this wrong? No. The comrade is saying that the contradiction in their friend is between individualism and collectivity, or between a capitalist outlook and a communist outlook. In the case of fear, it could be between lack of confidence in the working class and confidence in the working class. There are many ways to overcome these contradictions. If the friend goes to a demonstration with the Comrade and sees the good reaction to Red Flag/Bandera Roja, this can help overcome and defeat fear. Or marches with a communist contingent on May Day.

The previous letter incorrectly criticizes comrades who “confuse” obstacles with contradictions. They can both be true. Racism is both an obstacle and a contradiction. The contradiction is between racism and a working-class communist outlook that all workers are class brothers and sisters and have the same interest. Comments from comrades about their own or their friends’ contradictions and the struggle to strengthen the communist side and defeat the capitalist side are correct and helpful.

The above letter incorrectly says that in general we don’t eliminate contradictions. The contradiction between the workers and the bosses defines capitalism. Our struggle is exactly to defeat the capitalist bosses so that the working class can live without wage slavery, imperialist war, racism, sexism and all capitalism’s horrors. We are fighting every day to eliminate that contradiction. We are fighting to eliminate nationalism and racism and replace them with communist internationalism and class solidarity. A communist revolution will decisively defeat capitalism and resolve the contradiction between the workers and the bosses.

Our material practice is communist practice. It includes talking, writing, distributing communist literature, and struggling with friends while deepening communist relations. It means actively participating in the struggles and hardships of the working class raising communist ideas in them now. We invite friends to help distribute RFBR and communist leaflets. We fight for our practice to be communist, not reformist, practice. We aim to organize communist class struggle, opposing the bosses’ terror and raising communist solutions. It is not “negative” to expose capitalist ideas while we fight for communist ideas! It’s positive.

It’s very good that more comrades are sharpening the struggle with themselves, friends and coworkers to strengthen the communist side and weaken and defeat the capitalist one. Rather than fear the struggle for communism, they welcome it. This gives us all more confidence that the working class will win the fight to defeat capitalism and its murderous wars with communist revolution.

—A Comrade

Understanding Contradiction

It is important, but not necessarily easy, for all communists to comprehend dialectical materialism. It is an understanding of the world that is so very different from what capitalism teaches us. ICWP has a very good series of articles on dialectics on our website.

Recently there has been some disagreement among comrades about the meaning of “contradiction” in dialectical materialism. I reread many of the articles by our late, beloved comrade Tom to refresh and increase my knowledge. I want to try to explain what a contradiction is.

Dialectical contradiction is a unity and struggle of opposite things or processes which are connected, but which interfere with each other and cause change. The opposed sides of a real contradiction cannot be unified or reconciled.

The worker/capitalist contradiction is internal to the capitalist system. It is the underlying cause of strikes, protests, and rebellions that happen everywhere in the world.

Ending a contradiction is called resolving it. Contradictions move toward resolution by the conflict between the two sides becoming stronger and more intense. The masses move toward resolving their contradiction with the capitalists by organizing for revolution. By becoming more united around communist politics and better prepared for an eventual armed struggle.

The victory of communism will resolve the contradiction between the working class and the capitalist class by destroying the capitalist class, and with it the capitalist system.

This is typical of how contradictions are resolved: one side defeats the other or even destroys it, often with a sudden dramatic result.

Resolving a contradiction always leads to new contradictions. And the defeated side always leaves traces of itself behind. These traces could even be the basis for a future revival of the defeated side.

After capitalism is destroyed, some of its ideology and habits such as racism, sexism, and individualism will remain temporarily, causing more contradictions. Our party will lead masses to struggle against these things as long as it takes to wipe them out forever.

The more people who join ICWP, read and write for Red Flag, struggle with co-workers, friends, and family members, the clearer these contradictions become. And the more we are able to advance in resolving them with communist revolution.

—Still Learning

Read more about communist philosophy here

Letter: Chávez Racist and Sexist

Around 1973, communist workers met farmworkers organizing in the United Farm Workers (UFW) against anti-worker attacks. One was Epifanio Camacho, who had been organizing in the fields, striking, and opposing the sellout pacifist and anti-undocumented workers politics of Cesar Chávez. Epifanio became a communist organizer who built a collective which brought communist politics and leadership to farmworkers throughout California’s San Joaquin Valley. They exposed the racism and pacifism of the Chavez leadership. Camacho joined ICWP.

Now it has been revealed that Chávez was also a sexual predator. Some of his victims kept this secret for up to 60 years because they didn’t want to “hurt the movement.” The “movement” ceased to be a force among farmworkers many years ago. All that was left was the image that the ruling class created of a pacifist reformer who supposedly single handedly won reforms for farmworkers.

Whatever short-term victories the farmworkers got were from militant class struggle against the growers, in spite of Chávez’ pacifism. The main victory was that some of the farmworkers became communist fighters for the working class. Their goal: instead of reform, a communist society free from wage slavery, money, racism, sexism, and borders.

Now the same ruling class mouthpieces, like the New York Times, which built Chávez into a “hero” are tearing him down exposing his sexism and pedophilia which was kept secret until now. The New York Times is not including his anti-immigrant racism.

Are they exposing this now because they want young Latinos/as to think the only way they can be respected is to fight bravely for US imperialism? Or because the US government is bringing in vastly more temporary workers and wants to prevent organizing in the fields and factories?

Capitalism breeds individualism, racism, and sexism. Our sympathies and solidarity go to the women Chávez molested and to all workers victimized by the rulers and their agents.

But one of his victims, Dolores Huerta, was the Vice President of the UFW for many years. She helped lead the attack on undocumented workers. It was she who demanded that union members turn in the names of undocumented workers they knew so that the union could report them to the immigration department. Most workers refused.

She has campaigned for the Democratic Party for years and has personally attacked and maligned communism and communists.

She kept silent about Chávez’ assaults for 60 years while she built a career with the UFW supporting the Democratic Party.

The working class has masses of actual heroes—who fought the Nazis, who fought the bosses all over the world, who fought for revolution, who fought the red bourgeoisie in China.

And those who are fighting for communism today. We hail the past, present, and future communist fighters for our class. We don’t need the ruling class to either create or tear down their pro-capitalist “heroes.” Join and build ICWP to build collective leadership fighting to eliminate racism, borders, sexism, and imperialist wars with communist revolution.

—A Comrade

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