the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Apr 30, 2012
Reactionaries like Rush Limbaugh attack working women, the black population, unions, immigrants, the poor–any group in this society that dares to try and organize for improvements and speaks out against injustices.
In order to pit one group against another, and turn potential allies into enemies, lies get peddled. Reactionaries repetitively push insane lies like: women who use birth control are “sluts,” poor people are just “complainers,” trade unions “created the financial crisis,” black people are “criminals,” and immigrants take “our jobs.”
Reactionary ideas are sold as a solution to workers’ problems. But it doesn’t take much to realize that the capitalist class will not solve workers’ problems. The capitalist class is organized only to solve the problem of making more money in the next quarter.
In order for society to move forward, the working class must lead the fight to take on our worsening problems and in so doing, open the door to another society.
In 1871, men and women workers took control of Paris, France, and held it for 10 weeks against all the reactionary forces in French society. This historic struggle became known as the Paris Commune. In 1917, faced by economic hardships that had become unbearable, Russian women took to the streets demanding bread. This led to the overthrow of the czarist regime, to the sweeping aside of all reactionary forces and to the establishment and defense by the working class of its own power–the Russian revolution.
Was it just a coincidence that fights set off by the protests of women led directly to the two most important political struggles of the working class known so far? Perhaps. But it has often happened that women push other oppressed layers of the working class into struggle.
But however it starts, the sooner the working class begins to flex its political muscles, to put itself forward as the new leader of society–what could eventually become a socialist, a communist society–the better off working people will be.