Building ICWP Among Mechanics
A woman worker at MTA (Los Angeles Metropolitan Transit Authority) was invited by another comrade to participate in a union meeting about how to fight “Right to Work” laws. (These laws weaken the ability of unions to organize by limiting their collection of dues money from non-members.) She invited a close friend, who also works at MTA.
Other ICWP members who work at MTA went to the meeting, and met up with Red Flag readers from other divisions.
The union leadership is planning a campaign against “Right to Work” laws. Part of their plan is to mobilize a mass participation of MTA workers for the 2018 May Day March.
In previous meetings of our ICWP club at MTA, and in discussions with other workers we have talked about the necessity of working within the union without falling into reformism. The question has been how to do it? In particular, how can we get involved in the union’s current campaign, at the same time always putting forward the goal of communism?
This is not just a question for the MTA club. A comrade in South Africa asked in a letter in the previous Red Flag: “How do we then participate in reform events without contradicting ourselves as revolutionaries? How do we live in the immediate time or present future, forging and practicing practices that are in line with our communist principles? Because the communist ideas must be practiced and enhanced, but how do we do that and find solidarity with masses without falling for the reformist trap?”
Working in the union as communists
Trade unions, not being revolutionary organizations, do not aspire to end wage slavery. They perpetuate it by signing contracts that justify and legalize our exploitation. ICWP’s goal is to end wage slavery, the source of racism, sexism, xenophobia and wars.
As the gravediggers of capitalism, we need revolutionary communist leadership, not reformist trade union leadership, in order to fulfill our historical task. ICWP’s strategy is to mobilize the masses for communism.
Unions hold back the ideological advance of the working class, helping the ruling class to build nationalism, supporting the bosses’ wars, and tying the workers to the tail of the Democratic Party. Our interest is political. Our goal is to raise the workers’ revolutionary communist consciousness to prepare our fellow workers for the inevitable future struggles.
Unions are walking down a dead-end street, dragging the workers to the hangman, consciously or unconsciously, because they defend nationalism. We, as communists, defend internationalism. They defend and support the bosses’ wars; we in ICWP support revolutionary war. They fight to win workers to the electoral circus, we say don’t vote for your hangmen; organize with ICWP for armed struggle.
Building a communist base on the job
The woman mechanic who went to the union meeting with us has been reading Red Flag, and participating in political discussions with the ICWP MTA club.
The club has developed politically, participating in constant and persistent ideological struggle with our base. We have been able to consolidate a multi-racial club which meets every two weeks or more often if necessary. We also have social activities, dinners or parties with our base.
When we didn’t have a club, we wrote about the union, denouncing its reformist character and explaining to the workers the need to join ICWP as a pro-working class communist organization.
Now we have an ICWP collective, we have participated in union activities to contact workers in other divisions, distribute the paper, and most importantly train new members to defend, spread and have confidence in communist ideas.
We’ve had good results. New comrades have joined and been consolidated, and we also have a number of contacts who are interested in our party. For now, we go to union meetings and activities, not with the intention of giving openly communist speeches, because we’re not strong enough to do that yet. We talk individually with other workers about a communist political strike as a possible and necessary action to advance the ideological level of the workers, not only at MTA, but internationally.
Joining the party
After the union meeting, we invited the woman mechanic who went with us to come to our ICWP MTA club meeting. There, another worker told her, “Thank you for coming. We need your help to build the struggle for communism, and we want you to join ICWP.” He explained in detail our communist line and the need for women leadership in our movement.
She said, “Yes, I like that idea. I’m going to participate with you and I want to learn more.”
