FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM!
International Communist Workers Party
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FIGHT FOR COMMUNISM! |
International Communist Workers Party | |
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“Those were the best two weeks of my life,” said a young comrade. He spoke for everyone who attended the recent communist school in South Africa.
“It has opened my eyes. Now I cannot go back to the old ways, I am an organizer for ICWP for life,” said another.
A third comrade, beaming confidently, said, “It is a choice between capitalist mass murderers who are planning world war, or a communist society led by our Party. We will win the working class to our side.”
We must use this experience to advance our Party everywhere to a new level with confidence and urgency.
Learning Communist Theory
A comrade generously opened his house to us. As we did not have enough chairs, we sat round a circle on old paint buckets and bricks.
We began by discussing Mobilize the Masses for Communism. This document describes the strengths and weaknesses of past revolutions to overthrow capitalism. We identified the need to build for communist revolution. We recognized that to mobilize the masses for communism requires vigorous struggle against revisionism and the poison of nationalism.
Then we spent two days of intense study on communist dialectical materialism, using our Party’s new DVD presentation. Comrades learned how contradictions develop and how they are resolved, how new things emerge from old, universal aspects of laws of development. We integrated this learning concretely by putting it into practice to build and struggle for communism.
Lastly we studied communist political economy. The key is how capitalist bosses exploit the working class by stealing as profit most of the value our labor produces. Fierce competition among capitalists drives them to maximize profit. They use most of this to upgrade factory machinery. As they replace workers with machines, their rate of profit declines.
The bosses attempt to reverse this decline by exploiting workers more. They use racism, sexism and nationalism to divide and super-exploit large sections of workers, especially non-white and immigrant workers. Capitalism is a crisis-ridden system that leads to imperialist wars. This internal contradiction can only be resolved by our Party leading the masses to communist revolution.
Putting Theory into Practice
Every day we visited workers, distributing the Red Flag and other literature, and we visited an auto factory. Comrades learned that practice is primary. It deepens our understanding of theory.
We encountered strong nationalism among honest workers. The African National Congress and others have used the fact of centuries of racist super-exploitation of black workers to build nationalism to divide the working class. Our comrades vigorously attacked this nationalism whenever it surfaced. They were resolute and fearless in advancing communist internationalism.
A comrade who is a mass organizer was sharply criticized for nationalist tendencies. The new ICWP comrades who led this ideological battle were never personal. They clearly and fearlessly advanced our understanding that we can only eradicate racism by replacing capitalism with communism. The comrade mass organizer concluded, “I’m still and will remain for the communist cause until capitalism is abolished in our revolution.”
Nationalism portrays black workers in South Africa as victims. A comrade proudly replied, “I am not a victim, I am a revolutionary. I stand shoulder to shoulder with black, white and coloured workers.”
Ideological struggles like these led many workers to join ICWP. This included some who had been attracted to nationalism and realized they were wrong. Many more are thinking seriously about joining.
Communism Can Win
The old communist movement did not believe that workers can be mobilized directly for communist revolution. But the comrades who struggled have emerged as confident communist mass organizers. They are proving that communism is possible. As one comrade said, “the bosses are sitting on a thin ideological shell.”
We ended two weeks of activities with a lively braai party (BBQ). It started in the afternoon and lasted past midnight. Comrades worked hard to organize for it and cook a delicious meal. Over 45 workers came. A group of students expressed willingness to spread revolutionary ideas. More intense ideological struggle against nationalism won many to see that “communist revolution is the only solution and ICWP is the only Party that can do it,” as many workers declared.
Criticism and Self-Criticism Advance Communist Struggle
The ICWP leadership in South Africa met to critically assess our work and how we can advance it. We all agreed that we learned a lot and gained confidence that we are able to mobilize the masses. This revolutionary process, as a comrade said, “exposed our weaknesses and showed that we have lot of work to do.”
Our deepening commitment was made real by a comrade who makes very little money and sometimes has to go to bed hungry. He said that he would financially guarantee the transportation of the comrades to attend ICWP meetings. This is just one example of how our intense struggle has created communist relationships among us of the kind that the bosses fear most.
As the leadership meeting ended, we got a message from a new comrade: “I have lined up three teachers who want to know about ICWP.”
“We are unstoppable and we will overcome every obstacle,” the comrades concluded.
Take These Lessons to Build ICWP Everywhere
The experience of struggle in South Africa to build ICWP has changed our lives. A young comrade said, “I don’t have a life separate from struggle. I breathe communism, talk about it and put it in practice every moment.”
Comrades, friends, and Red Flag readers everywhere must critically assess the strengths and weaknesses of our Party. We, too, must find more ways to build communist relationships, to grow, and to deepen our commitment in practice.
Forward to Communism! Forward!
It was an unusually cold, windy Sunday in Port Elizabeth, South Africa. As it happens rarely, the monthly pay day for the workers happened to fall on the first weekend of the month. The workers were very busy getting all their necessities for the month and it was very difficult to have our regular meeting. Ever energetic and quick to adapt to challenge and last minute changes, comrade John of ICWP suggested we meet his friend Charles, an autoworker who works for GM.
We arrived at Charles’ home in the afternoon. He lives in a modest home with his two young daughters and wife. He has worked for GM for 8 years and has seen hard times when he was without work for over a year. GM discontinued production of the Hummer and so the big guy and his family had to struggle.
Charles invited us into his home with warmth. As soon as we sat down in the living room, he wasted no time. Because of comrade John’s efforts, Charles is familiar with Red Flag and has talked to his fellow auto workers about ICWP. “How are you going to succeed? The Soviets and Chinese revolutions failed.” Immediately after posing this all-familiar doubt, he partially answered his own question by saying, “It is going to be a very difficult task.”
Indeed, it is, it will be. But is it impossible? We talked about how difficult it is to build a car. Charles and millions like him around the world take on this difficult task every day and their hard, difficult work is transformed into profit for the capitalist class.
A comrade who had participated in the communist school a few days earlier said, “Revolution is like building a car. If, in the process of building a car, you think it is difficult and give up, the car is never going to be built. To build for revolution you have to learn from the past mistakes and be patient and persistent about building our movement that will eliminate money.” We talked about the four articles in Red Flag about the auto industry --“We make cars, they make profit.”
Comrade Charles told us about corrupt, capitalist NUMSA and how workers don’t trust them. Where does it leave the workers? It is a choice between pro-capitalist NUMSA or ICWP. “Come to my house next Sunday,” says Charles. “I will invite some co-workers who are mad as hell with capitalism and NUMSA.” Mobilizing the masses for communism is taking deep roots.
The most experienced member of ICWP in South Africa said, “We are crawling here and soon we will take baby steps, we will learn to walk and then we will run. There is no going back.”
We are profoundly inspired by the growth of the International Communist Workers’ Party (ICWP) among industrial workers and youth in South Africa. A year ago, this work did not yet exist. Now we have so much to learn from it!
We hope that the articles and letters from South Africa in this issue of Red Flag will lead you to share the paper with many co-workers, friends, classmates, neighbors, and relatives. Let us know if you need more copies, or if you can help distribute the paper outside workplaces or schools.
Equally important, many more of us must join our comrades in South Africa in the revolutionary practice of criticism and self-criticism to advance the struggle.
What do you see as the strengths and the weaknesses of Red Flag? Of the Party’s work as described in its pages? Whether you’re a Party member or a casual reader, we need to know your opinions.
We ask Party members and friends who are doing communist work, even in a small way, to ask yourselves some hard questions:
How is your situation like the one described in South Africa, and how is it different?
Is our work reaching the limits of the possible in your area? What must we do more, or better, to reach and smash those limits?
Can you get more papers to co-workers or friends? Organize meetings or social events with them?
What can we do to deepen and extend relationships within and beyond the Party?
Can you contribute more time, or money, or both? Can you get others to contribute, too?
What do we most urgently need to study and write about?
What else do we need to do?
We look forward to your letters and articles on these and other topics.
Red Flag editorial collective