Mass Migration Calls Us to Mobilize for Communism
Los Angeles, California, USA January 2018
SEATTLE (USA), Nov. 17—At our potluck last weekend we decided we had to write a leaflet for high school and community college students concerning the migrant caravan. We did. Everyone there was sent a copy of a draft for comment.
Not all agreed with everything. One friend emailed back, “The goal based on the content appears to be to get people involved with the [ICWP] cause… The information it contained seems appropriate to your goal.”
A comrade answered, “Thanks… Yes, that is our goal. Because just supporting them with money or donations is good, and we do that. But that does not address the real problem. We need to convince people that we can change the world someday!”
The Whole World is Watching
We’re not the only ones having this discussion. The whole world is debating what this caravan means.
And no wonder! Puerto Ricans are fleeing hurricane damage. Venezuelans are fleeing socialism (capitalism by another name). Rohinghas are running from racist persecution. Zimbabweans are fleeing to South Africa. Algerians to France. Africans in Italy to France. Moroccans to Spain. Syrians to Lebanon and Turkey. Eritreans, Ethiopians, South Sudanese, Yemeni to anywhere. Sixty million migrants are on the move.
Meanwhile, the fascists are pushing racist xenophobia. We are mobilizing to spread the communist answer.
In Seattle, we started to discuss these two options with nearly a dozen immigrant workers at a community college and Boeing. Everyone got Red Flag and/or the ICWP leaflet. With most, we hadn’t raised communism until this time.
They come from all over the world. They were born in East Africa and South Africa. They are Native American and Pacific Islander. South East Asian and Filipino. And of course, black, Latin and white workers born in the US.
A student from Africa is writing her current events article taken from the front page of Red Flag. We had a half-hour discussion with four immigrant Boeing workers at work and on the ride home. These conversations were sparked by recent caravan pictures from Tijuana, MX. They soon turned into intense discussions about the role racism and anti-foreign propaganda plays in capitalism.
We reviewed the various ways the bosses push racist xenophobia. Trump’s racist ad during the elections came up more than once. A comrade who was in the Army during the Vietnam war described how the officers used racism to try to make young recruits think the Vietnamese were less than human. As the war dragged on, this racist depiction was more easily defeated among soldiers. Rebellion among the troops followed.
Only communism can end racist xenophobia. Even liberating one area will advance our goal. We’ll welcome workers from anywhere. They will join with workers from the liberated area, giving millions a taste of how the world can function without nations and borders.
We will welcome the extra hands, because communism will eliminate the competition for jobs. In fact, communism will end exploitive jobs altogether. We will work collectively to provide for our needs.
US Workers, Students and Soldiers Are Part of the International Working Class
A high school student that comrades knew from distributing Red Flag outside her school took a bunch of leaflets. She passed them around in her history class. The school is filled with working class students—black, Latin and Asian—as well as immigrants and the children of immigrants. She invited our comrades to come and support her team, strengthening our social ties with her and her friends.
Comrades and friends have already distributed 500 ICWP leaflets and hundreds of Red Flags. We still have another high school to reach and some social activities to attend.
We’ll follow up on the advances we made so far. We’ll do our part locally to advance the international struggle for communism. Our goal is to end this capitalist catastrophe and all the other catastrophes inherent in this system.