FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM!
International Communist Workers Party
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FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM! |
International Communist Workers Party | |
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South Africa: Activists Need Real Communist Alternative
I want to share with you my experience today. I had an unexpected meeting. There are three comrades who live near my home. There’s an old man and 2 other guys. That old man is from the South African Communist Party (SACP). But now he has renounced his leadership position in the SACP.
So we started to discuss about all the politics in South Africa. What came out is that yesterday they attended a meeting organized by the United Front, a political party that was set up by the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA). What they found out and were not happy about is that most of the comrades who had leadership positions in NUMSA now were getting leadership positions in the United Front (UF). But when the idea of that party was sold to them, it was sold as if the UF was an independent group.
What they found is that NUMSA has much influence in that party and in the leadership positions. They were unhappy about that meeting. So I told them that the UF and NUMSA are one and the same thing. Because in the first place the UF is the brainchild of NUMSA, so you can’t expect to separate NUMSA from the United Front.
Then we started to discuss communism. They were very much interested because most of them understood about communism. Yet it was out of desperation for them to want to join the United Front because it was presented to them as the most radical organization as the alternative to the SACP. So they were disappointed and felt they had no other option.
I explained to them that there is another alternative, the International Communist Workers’ Party (ICWP). They were very much interested. I gave them Red Flag and they told me that they will get back to me. I told them about my comrade members of ICWP and they told me that I should set up a meeting with them.
I also told them that we will have a conference. They were very interested in that too.
--A comrade in South Africa
From Rebellion to Revolution
The article on Potosí was rightly self critical about our failure to organize international communist support. But the authors themselves missed an opportunity – to explain what the ICWP would do if we were already well established in the area.
We would turn the rebellion into a revolution.
First, we would take power in Potosí itself. We would send armed squads to occupy the government buildings, police stations, newspapers, TV and radio stations etc. We would decree the immediate abolition of money, private property, and the wage system.
Next we would make an inventory of food and arms available, in stores, warehouses, and the homes and estates of the wealthy. The food we would start distributing “to each according to their needs.” The guns would be used to arm the new Red Army.
Depending on how many guns we could find – even hunting rifles would be welcome – we could soon have a force of many thousands. We would immediately go on the offensive. We would not make the same mistake the Paris Commune made, namely, waiting for the bosses to attack. As Engels said, “the defensive is the death of every armed uprising.”
Our army could spread out in the countryside, procuring food, then concentrate to take power in other towns and gain recruits and more guns.
At this point President Evo Morales would finally quit his football game and send in the Armed Forces. If our comrades in the bosses’ army had done their work, many units would turn their guns around on their officers and go over to the revolution. Some elite units might stay loyal but they would find themselves surrounded and heavily outnumbered.
Before long we could have a force of tens of thousands strong, ideally one or two hundred thousand. At this point we could think of surrounding and closing in on La Paz itself.
A lot of this is speculation, but at least it’s plausible. And it’s based on a real event, the Potosí rebellion. Revolution is not an impossible dream.
--A Comrade
Red Flag thanks the comrade for this letter. What do you think? We hope to get many responses.
Better Editorials
The editorial in the most recent Red Flag “Workers Everywhere Need to Mobilize for Communism” had a good title but the content did not support it. Workers worldwide should understand what is happening in today’s world. More importantly, they have to understand what we can do about it.
The big struggle is to find out how we can leverage the opportunities workers’ fight back provides. An editorial that doesn’t support revolutionary optimism, that we (workers, led by ICWP) can and will lead a revolution to destroy the horror that is capitalism, is not doing its job.
Most workers understand the ravages of this system, but many believe there is nothing we can do about it. Masses need to see fight back around the world and understand how this contains the potential of our ultimate success. That’s what workers need to become revolutionary Communists. …And that is what our editorials should be about!
--A Comrade