We went to a movie night that ICWP organized. We watched a movie called "Quilombo." This movie was very interesting because it showed how communism would work. In this movie Palmares is a place that we all dream of at some point. I say this because we all want a place where you can be treated the way you want to be treated. Also, Palmares is a place where it doesn't matter what "race" you are, it's a place that's free.
The movie narrates the true story of a revolt of slaves, in the early 17th century in Brazil, who kill the Portuguese masters and flee to an isolated corner of the nation, which they place under their control. Other escaped slaves, indigenous people, and various disenfranchised and disenchanted whites join them and under their charismatic leader Ganga Zumba, they begin to create their own new society.
For close to a century Quilombo of Palmares survived and defended itself as the Portuguese tried everything they could to crush the new society these free men and women were creating.
After the movie we had some discussion. A comrade said, "I think that the part where the kid told the 'king', that all he does is give orders points out that communists don't want kings or anybody else giving orders." I think that this movie teaches us how we could bring out communism in a way that a lot of people would join us and agree to it. This movie was very deep and inspiring.
The movie had good lessons. It showed how you should never give up no matter how much the government doesn't "approve" of our beliefs. If we are going to fight for communism we should always be together and not forget what we are fighting for. We fight for the people who aren't treated the same as everyone else. We are also fighting for ourselves because we are tired of having the capitalists step on us. This movie shows us how to take a stand.
The movie also showed how free men and women can never have a peace agreement with slave owners just like we workers can never have a peace agreement with the capitalists.
A big weakness in the story of Quilombo was that there was a charismatic leader that led the people. This limited the people from actively being involved in the decisions and the actions to be taken. With communism we would mobilize the masses of workers to be actively involved in all of the decisions and in all of the actions in the building and the defense of the new society.
I think people should look at this movie and get familiar with the history of Quilombo. We need to learn from the history of the struggle to create a world free of racism, exploitation and inequality. In everything one does there is a lesson.

--High School Student Comrades