www.icwpredflag.org 8 Obama and Putin Promise More War let’s destroy their racist system and imperialist wars with communist reVolution

As the crisis in Syria shows and Obama and Black Sea region and Eastern Europe. Other US Central Asian former Soviet Republics. It is a Putin’s UN speeches confirmed, the dog fight rulers who want to regain US worldwide influ- huge area with a population of 70 million people, among the world’s capitalists-imperialists is ence by retaking the Middle East want Obama to of whiom over 80% are Muslim, susceptible to sharpening. Capitalism-imperialism can only commit US troops to Syria. ISIS’ influence. Dozens of them have joined the offer the working class more misery, chaos, eco- The Russian rulers’ main concern is to ISIS in Syria and Iraq, along with thousands from nomic crisis and wider wars, including world guarantee that no natural gas – from Iran, Russia. war. Iraq or Qatar – flows to Europe without their China’s energy pipelines to bypass Malacca These capitalist evils, however, have put mil- consent. If it did, this would break Russia’s must pass through this area. Russia fears instabil- lions of our brothers and sisters in motion world- chokehold on Europe’s energy supply, which now ity and chaos in its backyard and the possible wide. Many question capitalism, which creates limits the Europeans’ ability to side with the US reigniting of wars in Chechnya and Dagestan the opportunity to win masses of workers, stu- on geopolitical issues and to wage war as their al- where it waged a long genocidal war against Is- dents and soldiers to fight for . lies. lamic fundamentalist groups. Thus, Putin calls his Only communism can fulfill the masses’ aspi- The Chinese imperialists’ interest is to have intervention in Syria a preemptive strike against rations for a world without wars. There can be no Iran’s gas and oil flow to China, especially in terrorism. peace for our class under capitalism. It daily the event of war with the US. This energy must Since the failure of the old communist move- wages a genocidal war against our class, mur- by-pass the Strait of Malacca and other Pacific ment has left a vacuum, many put in motion by dering tens of thousands through starvation, cur- sea lanes controlled by the US Navy. Oil and gas the imperialists’ atrocities have turned to Islamic able diseases, and racist terror. pipelines from Iran, Iraq and Central Asia would fundamentalism. Only by destroying capitalism’s wage slavery securely deliver this energy by land. But no religion can meet the aspirations of the and production for profits can we eliminate the ISIS is a much bigger threat to China’s Xin- oppressed masses of workers. With patience and competition for profits that inevitably leads to jiang province and Russia’s underbelly, Cen- persistence they can be won to fight for commu- war. The material basis of capitalism created the tral Asian nations, than to the US. nism. ideologies of racism, sexism, nationalism and Xinjiang, a vast territory of mainly deserts and We call on Red Flag readers everywhere to anti-communism to divide us and keep us en- mountains, is strategic to China. All the energy read, help translate, and distribute Red Flag in slaved. pipelines coming from Russia and Central Asia every country in the world, especially where the Obama and Putin promised more war in converge here. workers are in motion. Join us! their speeches: Obama against the Islamic State Xinjiang has five (ISIS) and the Syrian president Al Assad; Putin million restive against ISIS to support Assad. Uyghurs, a predom- Obama has a coalition that includes 62 other inately Muslim eth- countries. Putin’s coalition consists of Syria, Iran, nic group that seeks Iraq and China. They are all pursuing their own independence from geopolitical interests, not the well-being of Syr- China. The East ian workers or workers anywhere. Turkestan Move- The Syrian carnage is mainly a proxy war be- ment, waging armed tween the US on the one hand and China and struggle for Xin- Russia on the other for world supremacy. The US jiang independence, is trying unsuccessfully to hold on to the domi- was organized with nant position it has occupied since 1945. CIA participation in The Middle East is the main point of con- 1997. It is now sup- tention. It was the corner stone of the US empire ported by both Al for decades. US imperial decline has been accom- Qaeda and ISIS. panied by its loss of influence in this oil-rich Besides this region. threat, China, like The dominant US imperialist wing doesn’t Russia, also faces

“Without revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement.” Lenin, What Is To Be Done : mao’s “on practice” In the last article we described the spread of duction, class struggle, and scientific experi- first stage is information about phenomena. Phe- the Soviet formulation of dialectical materialism ments. The most fundamental of these is material nomena are what can be perceived by the senses in China, which was called the “new philosophy” production. In production, people come to under- or are easily recognized, superficial information there. In 1936 and 1937 (and a stand their relationship to nature and to varying that doesn’t show hidden connections between study group he led) carefully studied the Soviet degrees, the social relations among people. Pro- things. Mao’s example: what visitors might learn textbooks and the work of Chinese communist duction is “the primary source from which human from a tour of the Yan’an liberated area. philosophers, and produced the manuscript Lec- knowledge develops.” The rise of the working The second stage requires the formation of ture Notes on Dialectical Materialism. class and large-scale production makes possible concepts that can be applied to phenomena and The topics and the views advocated in this text a comprehensive, scientific understanding of so- explain them. These concepts have to be thought are quite similar to the Soviet texts, but also em- ciety, which is Marxism. up in the course of trying to understand the phe- phasized the specific situation in China. Two es- Mao wrote that for knowledge of the world, nomena, “arranging and reconstructing” the data says from this work were widely circulated, “On human social practice is the “sole criterion of of perception. Practice” and “.” Here we give truth.” This means that when we make plans and Concepts are qualitatively different from the a brief outline of “On Practice,” but the whole ar- base them on what we think is true, the practical phenomena they apply to. They show the true na- ticle is worth studying carefully. result shows whether our thinking was right or ture and inner connection of the phenomena and Mao wrote that social practice alone is the not. Success is evidence that our thinking is true allow logical conclusions to be drawn. The result source of all our knowledge and the criterion or close to the truth. Failure shows that we must is knowledge of true theories, which Mao calls of truth. “Social practice” includes a variety of revise our ideas and test the new ideas in practice. “logical” or “rational” knowledge. Quoting activities, but the three most important are pro- Mao divided knowledge into two stages. The www.icwpredflag.org 6 LETTERS LETTERS LETTERS CRITICISM AND SUGGESTIONS

A World without Money Needs a Mass criticism and self-criticism to over- Communist Party come any obstacles. We must Our party study group has talked a lot about evaluate our work openly and ho- how communist society could work without nestly in order to figure out how to money. About three years ago we wrote seve- advance. ral Red Flag articles about this. It’s great to Many people want to believe that read that Metro workers are talking about this communism will work. We need to too. develop our vision of a mass party In capitalism, money (“the market”) connects in more detail. We need to make it people to labor and its products. Most of us real by showing what communist work mainly for money. We can only get things values mean in practice today. we need by paying money for them. Money That’s the material basis for belie- allows capitalists to steal, enjoy and stockpile ving in a world without money. the fruits of our labor. --Proud Party Member Without money, what will connect us? We agreed that it would have to be a consensus Opportunities or Not? around communist values. Reading the article in the last As a high school student said, “Before capi- issue about Guatemala, I saw that talism came, they used to share and help each the paragraph that mentioned that other out. Sooner or later we’ll come back to we can’t see these demonstrations our senses. People will do it because we have as opportunities was changed. to do it.” A sentence was added saying LOS ANGELES, September 26--Today marks the one- But that’s only part of the answer. How will “But when we take our ideas to year anniversary of the disappearance of 43 normal school we organize ourselves? How will we decide these demonstrations, the working students in Ayotzinapa, Mexico. Close to 200 marchers what’s most needed and how to produce it? class can advance the struggle for chanted in the streets of Los Angeles, “Here and there the What’s the best use of scarce resources? communism.” struggle will continue” and “Ayotzinapa lives, the struggle “We need to work as collectives to produce I think that this misses the point continues”. The ICWP was present and helped lead some and share what we need without money, and that the article intended to make. chants such as “We want a world without borders” and we need to link the collectives worldwide in We cannot make a significant im- “Down with capitalism.” More than 200 Red Flag newspa- some sort of process,” said an older friend. pact on these mobilizations (like pers were distributed to marchers and onlookers. At the end To convince ourselves and others that we those in Guatemala against the ex- of the march we were able to take the microphone. A com- can have a world without money, we need to be President) when we don’t have a rade said, “We’re from the International Communist Workers’ clearer about that process. presence from the beginning and in Party. We are here in solidarity with our brothers and sisters In a nutshell, the answer is a massive world- the base of them. in Ayotzinapa. We mobilize the masses for communism, a wide communist party – the ICWP that we are In addition, not all mass mobili- world without money, exploitation, racism or borders. We starting to build today. Members agree to be zations have interests that benefit urge you to join this mobilization.” part of a growing network of collectives. Each the working class. The mobiliza- collective has specific responsibilities for the tions in the Ukraine and Venezuela are proof of ces, we can win some, few or many. work of mobilizing masses for communism. this. For example, we don’t have members in the Each collective also shares the general respon- I am not against having the articles edited, mobilizations in Guatemala or among the refu- sibility of helping to develop the political line of much less do I ask for rights as the author, but gees in Europe. But we have analyzed them. the whole party. it seems important to me to note this point. We have used this analysis to present The same is true for each individual within a Maybe I am wrong, and if so, I would like clarifi- massively the need for a communist world. And collective. We welcome everyone to join the cation. with the analysis of the refugees, the respon- Party, whatever they are willing or able to con- Greetings to all. ses from many parts of the world have been tribute to the work. The collective’s job is to --A comrade very positive. help them develop as communist leaders of the On the other hand, the mobilizations of the masses. We ask our members to be open to Red Flag Responds: fmln or pro-immigrant groups or by the “Oc- this struggle. The comment about “opportunities” did not cupy” movement in essence are pro-capitalist, The Party is what links the collectives world- refer to the idea that we will lead this move- like the movements against Maduro in Vene- wide. That’s why we dedicate major resources ment for reforms or be part of this leadership, zuela. These are not pro-worker. However, we to our international Party work and to Red whether from the beginning or when they are at should take advantage of them to discuss them Flag. their peak. with our base and, when possible, to take our The process of mobilizing for communism Instead, the opportunity is to use communist communist politics to them with Red Flag and today will prepare us for the process of building ideas to analyze these movements and win the other literature. communistmething, we society. must follow When up we using agree constructive to do so- massesrevolution. to join theDepending party and on fight the circumstan-for a commu- We ask other comrades and Red Flag rea- nist ders to comment about this.

Lenin, Mao cites “matter,” “laws of nature” and properties of the atom you must practice, and needs to be corrected by failures and (economic) “value” as examples of concepts. make physical and chemical experiments to partial successes in practice. Thus the internal The first, perceptual stage of knowledge is the change the state of the atom. If you want to contradictions of knowledge drive the process of basis for the second, higher theoretical stage, so know the theory and methods of revolution, you the growth of knowledge. that “all knowledge originates in perception of must take part in revolution.” The whole point of rational knowledge, knowl- the objective external world through man’s phys- Mao discusses several wrong views in the edge of true theories, is to reveal the essence and ical sense organs.” Knowledge from both percep- theory of knowledge that have important conse- inner nature of things, which makes consistent tual and theoretical stages is needed to guide quences for the communist movement. One error success in practice possible. In particular, rational practice, and can be corrected when practice goes is to think that knowledge can stop at the first, knowledge of communist politics, economics and wrong. perceptual stage, and that rational knowledge is philosophy is essential to guide our struggle for Mao distinguished between a person’s direct not reliable. This anti-theory view is called “em- communism. experience and his or her indirect experience, in- piricism.” Empiricism fails to understand that formation from the experience of other people. perceptual knowledge is superficial and one- Although he wrote that most knowledge comes sided, and fails to get to the essence, to the inner from indirect experience, Mao insisted that spe- laws that govern a thing and reflect its totality. cific kinds of knowledge require personal partic- The second serious error is “rationalism,” a ipation. “If you want to know the structure and view that sees theory as independent of percep- tual knowledge. Rational knowledge always de- pends on perceptual knowledge derived from