Communist theory and practice here ♦ Water crisis caused by capitalism here ♦
Communist Practice, Theory, and Relationship-Building in South Africa
June 21—In the past month we have intensified our efforts to mobilize and recruit workers to join the party. We have been visiting industrial areas around Port Elizabeth (South Africa) to distribute the Red Flags, as dialectics states that “quantitative change leads to qualitative change”.
We have received some positive reactions from the workers. We met one of our comrades who works in a gas container factory. The fact that she works there will give us an advantage in terms of trying to form a base/cell since she is already on the inside.
We gladly explained to workers that even the socialist party and the unions will never end the misery of capitalism. Because as long as we are in a capitalist society, there will always be a class struggle and capitalism can never be reformed.
The only way to end this misery of capitalism is for the workers to join the International Communist Workers’ Party and defeat the capitalist system through a revolution.
We have also met workers who are opposed to a communist society. We understand that in our struggle to realise a communist society, there will be servants of the bosses who will be an obstacle.
A new comrade has also joined and showed commitment to distribute the Red Flag whenever we visited these industrial areas.
We have also decided to go through the dialectics on the next few collective meetings we will hold so that the new comrades can better their understanding about the party. This will make them grow in confidence, to be able to answer questions posed to them whenever they mobilize, recruit, and invite people to the party.
—Comrades in Port Elizabeth
Water Crisis Caused by Capitalism, not by the Weather
PORT ELIZABETH (South Africa), June 19— A water crisis is facing Port Elizabeth and the Eastern Cape in general. Whenever we read the news, there is this misconception that the reason for this is because of the lack of rain. But as an ICWP collective we adopted the view that this crisis we are facing is manmade. This is a symptom of capitalism.
Because if you look at the South African Breweries, they are continuing to produce beers and ciders uninterrupted. Most of the mines are using water. Coca Cola is producing soft drinks and energy drinks that are harmful to the health of our class brothers and sisters. And yet we cannot have water.
You find the bosses’ houses in Summerstrand and other places; their swimming pools are full and their paths are clean. But for us here in the townships, they can only switch on water every three or four days.
Imagine! You cannot even use the toilet, let alone to drink or wash. So, these are the conditions we are living in, not because of the low rain but because of the neglect of capitalism and the corruption of the system.
To address the question of water not only here but also other places in the world we need to eradicate capitalism. Because this is the cause of the lack of water, because they commercialize it.
Now if you exceed some set litres, they can simply switch off your water. Telling people to use fifty litres (thirteen gallons) a day, a household of seven or eight people, they have to wash, they have to cook, they still have to use the restroom. All of these on fifty litres of water. While the wealthy people have these yards and everything in their own houses.
This is a problem not because of the rain. This is the problem because of capitalism.
As an ICWP collective we have taken a decision that we are not going to take this lying down. We will continue to mobilize industrial workers for communism. We will continue to recruit our class brothers and sisters so that they can join the party to fight the scourge of capitalism and join the party.
Not to focus only on the water crisis or the electricity because these are the symptoms of capitalism, not the disease. We need to eradicate the disease, remove the cancer which is capitalism.
We took it on ourselves to distribute and also write so that we can produce Red Flag and share our experience about our struggle with our comrades so we can exchange views and solutions on how we can strengthen the fight against capitalism.
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