Tackling Racism with Communist Basebuilding
November 15, 2019 — The South African team Springboks recently upset England to win the World Rugby Championship. Siya Kolisi, the first-ever black captain of the Springboks, grew up in Zwide township, Port Elizabeth. Kolisi spoke of growing up, often hungry, in this racially segregated township. He thanked other hungry and homeless people for giving him strength.
Springbok started in 1906. It championed white supremacy, symbolized male domination and cheered for the apartheid system. Black youth in townships were excluded from rugby by the need for expensive training and a healthy diet. Under Apartheid, 140 out of 1000 black children died before their first birthday. The black masses hated rugby.
M, an ICWP comrade who works in a large bakery, also grew up in Zwide. “I knew the captain,” said M. “He’s younger than me. He used to attend this primary in Zwide but he was very talented and they took him to an expensive mostly-white private school, Grey High School, where there’s the best rugby in the country.”
M continued, “It’s their propaganda that if he can make it, everybody can make it. It’s always for the capitalist only. The capitalists want to use you. There’s no such a thing as everybody can make it.”
Kolisi is not starving now. He literally ran for money. In his open-bus victory parade around the big South African cities, he collected lucrative endorsements from large multinationals. He skipped Zwide, as there was no money to be made there.
Over 14 million people in the “new” South Africa go to bed hungry each night. Over half of all South Africans experience food insecurity.
Organizing in Zwide for communist revolution.
ICWP is organizing for communist revolution in Zwide and elsewhere in South Africa. The bosses have won one black youth to their side but we have millions to win on our side to destroy capitalism.
Our collective talked excitedly about how sports will be in communism. We will have no spectacle sports endorsed by multinationals where hundreds of millions watch while the bosses make huge profits promoting individualism, racism, sexism and nationalism.
Communist society will encourage everyone to be physically active and to participate in collective activities. This new society will create new sports to fight individualism and champion collectivity.
To build this communist society, we have to win a large number of workers and youth to our party now to prepare for revolution. This requires deep and consistent social, political and personal ties with many people around us. Distributing Red Flag helps us build this communist base.
In Zwide we have, over the years, recruited several comrades. Some became less active as they encountered personal problems such as family crises, joblessness, alcoholism or mental health issues. These are real and time-consuming problems, all created by capitalism.
For example, comrade L is a very promising organizer. He came on our first trip to Marikana. During the 14-hour drive, we discussed “Mobilizing Masses for Communism,” dialectical materialism, and the International Communist Workers’ Party. In Marikana, although he was new to the party, he was very bold in distributing Red Flag. He engaged effectively with the workers as he speaks a language commonly spoken there.
Later, personal problems led him to be less active but we kept in touch. We struggled with him but when he stopped attending meetings, we were disappointed and frustrated. However, as a collective, we never gave up on this comrade.
Last month L’s father died after a leg amputation due to diabetes— another death caused by profit-hungry capitalism. We sent a small contribution to help with expenses. A week later, he renewed his organizing efforts. “I am in ICWP not for personal reasons,” L explained, “but because I am passionate about communism.”
There are many similar examples. Recently a comrade was stabbed and had to undergo surgery in a horrific hospital. Another comrade was robbed. We reached out to them and helped them as much as we could.
This communist base building is crucial to recruiting masses to ICWP. Sometimes comrades have very liberal relationships with co-workers, friends, neighbors and family. They tend to look for unity and avoid political struggle for communism. Sometimes comrades try to win an argument without listening to a new worker.
We are becoming more aware of our strengths and weaknesses. By making collectives stronger, with urgency and patience, we are building a strong base for mass recruitment.
