World Revolution no.324, May 2009

I am an american living in Washington state. I have been thinking very much about the cruelties in this world and how they constantly revert back to our consumerism. I am part of a greed that uses other people as our expense. The growing inequalities in this world are starting to haunt me every waking and sleeping hour of my life. I cannot keep going on with this life I have when others are suffering because of me. Capitalism is slowly becoming my unbecoming. I am tormented and want to stop it. Every day I hear a story that has me to near tears because of corporate greed. What can I do here in my state to help? And if need be where do I go?

I can understand your situation. There are plenty of communists in the small towns of USA who have no organizations in their towns to join and can feel isolated. I'm in a similar situation myself.

In my opinion, there's very little you can do on your own, so I would suggest maintaining contact with the ICC or perhaps some other group defending communist positions that has more of a presence in your locale. I don't really know if there is one, so such contact might have to remain over the Internet. From there, it would be a very good idea to discuss various issues, including the development of capitalism and its course, and especially the fact that it is the way it is structured that influences the harm that it does, not necessarily greed. It would have helped if you could have gotten to the Days of Discussion in NYC this past April (I couldn't go myself due to other commitments, including exams).

There's also a facebook group, to which I can't invite you because I'm not an admin.

As Zimmerwald says, we can use the internet to make contact and discuss with each other, to overcome the physical isolation. You're welcome to e-mail our section in the US (see above menu: Contact Us > By e-mail) to start the ball rolling... :) Colin.