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South African Masses Respond to Communism:

ICWP Takes Big Steps Forward

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SOUTH AFRICA, April 27—Communist ideas of ICWP are spreading like wildfire here.  Masses are joining our party. This report describes one of the many meetings we organized this week.
An enthusiastic family of Red Flag readers invited us to their house for a meeting.  They invited their friends to talk about communism.  In this township in the last year angry masses have confronted cops and government officials with violence and mass protest against horrific living conditions.
We arrived early to a huge room, with three large sofas and a stack of plastic chairs.  As the meeting  time approached, the sofas were filling with comrades.  Then more workers took every chair from the stack.  Newcomers started squeezing in.  We had to use empty pails of paint as chairs.  This was not enough:  some of us had to stand.
Young and old, men and women, employed and unemployed introduced themselves.  A woman in her 60’s described bloody battles she had fought during apartheid. She had joined the South African Communist Party (SACP).  Now she is disgusted with its class collaboration. She said she was looking for us.
Another comrade became very emotional when he saw a young ICWP member tirelessly organizing in her neighborhood and among comrades everywhere in the city.  He said that young ICWP members give him hope. He himself had been in the movement for decades as an SACP member but got disillusioned with their reformist line.  He was so encouraged by our party and comrades that he wants to invite all his neighbors to join ICWP.
Our meeting was serious.  Comrades expressed in very eloquent Xhosa language their class anger, hatred of the bosses, total disgust for the reformist policies of all the political parties, their corruption and false promises. 
The focus of the meeting was how communism will work. Communism is a society that will fulfill the needs of the working class.  However, as we fight the bosses, and the bosses fight among each other, it will create tremendous destruction.  ICWP will organize the masses to take power. We will face enormous shortages of everything from food to housing and healthcare.  During this revolutionary transition to communism we will have to fight the old capitalist ideology of selfishness with the communist principle of sharing.
The comrades are prepared for it.  They took stacks of Red Flags.  Everyone pledged to come to the Communist School to get a deeper understanding of our movement and how to build the new society. Each and every one in the room who was not already a member of ICWP joined. 
Comrades are prepared for difficulties that lie ahead. They are determined to build the party.  Even after a long and exhausting day of mobilizing, they went on to another area to continue building the base for the party.
Overwhelming success and the passionate response we are getting from the masses have created good problems.  In one week we have distributed over 2000 leaflets for May Day, and 1500 Red Flags and End Racism pamphlets.  This is more than we expected.  We will need more money to advance and spread our political work among the masses. We will have to print more Red Flags and transport many more workers to May Day and the Communist School after that.  We urge party members, friends and supporters all around the world to contribute financially to our party so we can build our future without the bosses, or their parasitic system of wage slavery based on racism, sexism and nationalism. 

Communist Fund Raising

How do we raise money to fund our paper, transportation, literature, international projects? We get donations; members give monthly stipends, and periodic fundraisers. But to meet the need of our growth we must be more collective and creative about fundraising. Surely there are party members or friends who have a talent or interest in this aspect of party building.
If you like what you are reading in Red Flag and want to learn more about communist society, I would invite you to contact Red Flag about forming a fundraising committee.  We have many projects that need funding and we need a collective approach to do it!
--Enthusiastic comrade

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