The International Communist Workers’ Party (ICWP) recently held a series of meetings with Party clubs and friends. One such meeting included farmworkers and former FMLN guerrilla fighters in the eastern zone of El Salvador.
These comrades shared their experiences and their history. After many years they have not given up “in the struggle to bring about real changes for the working class and their families,” as one comrade put it.
“I lost five of my brothers in the civil war,” a comrade told us. “They died with a rifle in their hands, thinking that they were fighting for revolution. Our choices were to die or to flee, and we decided to fight.” He added that “I still hate those [bosses] against whom we fought in the civil war.”
Workers still feel this class hatred due to the living conditions they face, a direct consequence of capitalism.
“Here the wealth they promised during the war never arrived,” said another farmworker and ex-combatant. “Only the leaders of the FMLN party benefited from the elections and their arrival in power.” added another peasant and ex-combatant.
A younger city comrade mentioned the importance of exposing the current elections as a farce. None of the parties act in the interests of the working class. He urged us to struggle to mobilize the masses for communist revolution and to build a new communist system.
Help Make Red Flag a More Effective Weapon for Communism
Comrades from the United States and Spain attended the meeting. They spoke about the political and economic situation there. They answered questions about the organization of the party and the production and distribution of Red Flag.
Local comrades criticized several recent articles about immigration (the caravans to the United States). These articles did not explain well why we want to eliminate borders. They didn’t explain how communism will do this. They didn’t say much about communism at all. The El Salvador comrades urged that the editorial collective intervene more forcefully to guarantee the political line of all articles.
The comrade from the US agreed with the criticisms of those articles. She explained that they are trying to encourage more comrades to write for the paper, especially about work – like conversations with friends active with the migrant caravan in Tijuana, Mexico.
She emphasized the importance of reading, discussing, and writing to Red Flag: “We need you to write letters about Red Flag articles and about our pamphlets” like the ones about sexism and education.
We should be more attentive to the requests that are made from the editors to discuss, send criticisms and/or suggestions for the articles or series of articles that appear in our newspaper. Because that is how the party defines positions regarding a particular situation. That is how the line of the International Communist Workers’ Party is collectively developed.
The comrades from other countries, from the city, and from the eastern region ended the meeting by sharing a delicious lunch. All left the meeting very motivated to do the communist work needed to accomplish our revolutionary project.