Communist ideas have no borders
I am writing to you to share a reflection about an exchange that took place in the south of Mexico. Communist workers from the Progressive Labor Party who live there hosted a political event with others visiting from central Mexico and New Jersey. We are fortifying our political base with workers who are learning about our ideas and how we put them in practice in different parts of the world. Equally as important, our event gave these workers who are being exposed to PLP an opportunity to put to the test and reaffirm the difference our analysis makes in guarding the future of the international working class.
As an education worker of less than three years, and who was recently fired, seeing the determination of communist teachers in that part of the world to not give up after kidnappings, and other threats to stop fighting back on behalf of the working class raised my morale.
It was incredible to see the level of courage and confidence from the comrade that my comrade from Jersey and I stayed with had, both in bringing together us visiting comrades and the workers in his base, as well as his three children. It was powerful to see the confidence in the same political analysis being shared by comrades from different parts of the world. We mainly focused on, and workers were most interested in, discussing the following 5 points:
We believe that we need to fight for communism as one Party across the world, because our force as a working class crosses all borders, and therefore requires a united struggle.
Intensifying inter-imperialist rivalry is the common force by which all working class attacks are extended. Our class must fight to turn this into international working class consciousness and unity.
The liberal fascists, born out of the divisions within national capitalist classes and competition between capitalists from different nations, are the most dangerous obstacle to workers winning themselves to fighting for communism and smashing capitalism.
Multiracial unity and fighting racism has been important in forging new communist fighters.
Long term base building is key to maintaining political morale and building confidence in the working class for communist politics.
I am trying to use this inspiration and all the wisdom learned from education workers in the south of Mexico, to turn the attack against me as a communist teacher in New Jersey into an opportunity to struggle with other workers and youth in my community to expose the limits of this horrible system in being unable to create the conditions our kids and us workers need to reach our fullest potential.
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Azovstal: workers must steel themselves vs. nationalism
News of the recent battle for Mariupol between Russian and Ukrainian forces is filled with irony. Much of the battle was fought over the Azovstal steel works, a massive industrial complex built by Soviet workers and later turned over to Ukrainian capitalists who became part of that nation’s ruling class. Communists can learn from this disaster.
Azovstal opened in 1933 during the second five-year plan in the Soviet Union (USSR). The plant was modern, large, and included 12,000 homes, schools, movie theaters, a hospital and maternity clinic, as well as two parks. In 1941, the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union and occupied Mariupol. In 1943, after the Soviet victory at Stalingrad and expulsion of Nazi forces, the factory was repaired and again put to the task of producing steel for Soviet citizens.
When the Russian army attempted to seize Mariupol this year, their soldiers found stiff resistance from a group of Ukrainian fascists called the Azov Battalion. These fascists are officially integrated into the Ukrainian military, despite their ideology of carrying on the traditions of Ukrainian nationalists from World War II who collaborated and fought alongside the German Nazis. That the Azov Battalion exists today and is part of the Ukrainian military speaks to the cynicism of nationalism. Nationalism and fascism are natural extensions of each other.
The war we see in Ukraine today reflects mistakes of the past communist movement in the USSR. The Soviet leadership in the 1930s attempted to build unity among workers by building nationalism among the workers of different regions.
The Ukrainian nationalism, Russian nationalism, and other pro-nationalist sentiments we see today in the former USSR states are, at least partly, a result of this failed strategy. The very unity the Soviets hoped to build has turned into its opposite. Now Russian and Ukrainian workers are killing each other instead of fighting together to kill the capitalists who order them into battle.
The Progressive Labor Party is now leading the way for workers to achieve the unity the Soviets strove for, but ultimately, lost. Fighting for internationalism, instead of nationalism, will help us greatly in that struggle.
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