ADVICE TO COMMUNISTS *

It follows from our exploitation,

No matter gender, race, or creed,

That working people have no nation

So are best placed at routing GREED.

Like capital we’re international;

Unlike it though we can be rational.

If we can put class in first place

We will arise a human race.

But only after revolutions

Have turned the world all upside down

And capital has lost its crown,

Will workers’ co-ops’ contributions

Make any sense; but then you’ll see

What turns an “I” into a “We.”

* This “poem” argues that, as Marx argued, despite all differences working people, the world over, have ONE BIG THING in common: their exploitation.  It does not mean that we are not divided by a host of differences.  But unless communists bring this ONE BIG THING to the forefront we will never have a basis for overcoming these differences. This is the special task assigned to communists.