*What will communism look like?
*How are we planning to achieve and lead communist revolution?
*What are advantages and disadvantages of communism? *Does individual freedom exist in communism?
SOUTH AFRICA, March 30 – Yesterday our student collective met for the first time. We were three students from two different universities. One comrade was not present because he is currently out of town. But we were able to include the youth collective in another city via Skype.
We had very deep and long discussions, starting with the new comrades’ questions.
Comrades explained that the International Communist Workers’ Party mobilizes and organizes the workers internationally to join the struggle towards communism. This will free the workers from the dictatorship of the capitalists. The Party is struggling towards building a communist society that will be primarily meant to meet the needs of the working class.
Other comrades explained that in order to be able to build this communist society, the working class will have to own the means of production, which are currently owned by the capitalists. We realize that they will not voluntarily let go of those means of production. Hence the only way is to take them by force through a revolution.
Currently these capitalists use the police and the military to fight among each other and also to control the masses and keep them from taking power. For that reason, the party mobilizes the soldiers (who are our class brothers and sisters) to turn the guns against our class enemies. That’s how we plan to lead a communist revolution.
Another comrade tried to answer the question of advantages and disadvantages by stating that there is nothing the working class is gaining from capitalism. They face exploitation, hunger, and death from preventable events that are caused by the capitalists’ pursuit of profits.
Therefore, the working class has nothing to gain from the current system. They have everything to gain from eliminating the system and building a society where they produce for their basic needs. That is the advantage of communism.
This is not to say there will be no problems and challenge. Contradictions are always present. But the working class, using the dialectical philosophy of struggle, will always try to find ways to solve them. The principle is to advance the class struggle and eliminate exploitation however it presents itself.
Communist society will ensure individual freedom because our guiding principle is “from each according to commitment and ability, to each according to the need.” This guiding principle ensures that individuals won’t be restricted by what capitalists’ markets dictate.
But individual freedom should not be confused with individualism, which is against the spirit of a collective. A collective consists of individuals and they are completely allowed to contribute in a way they can, to partake in every action.
The new comrades agreed with a lot of we said. They took 20 & 10 Red Flags respectively to distribute. They promised to commit themselves more. We agreed to hold such meetings every two weeks.