GQEBERHA (South Africa), November 24 — Around 50 comrades participated in the Red Flag distribution and mini toyi toyi protest at the VW plant in Uitenhage yesterday. A mix of new and old comrades distributed more than three hundred copies of the Red Flag. We had two banners: one in solidarity with the Palestinians and another calling for the destruction of capitalism.
That was our message to the workers as we distributed the Red Flag and marched in solidarity with the Palestinian masses suffering genocide at the hands of Israeli and US imperialism and capitalists.
One coloured worker shouted, “Free Palestine!” when he saw our banner. A comrade replied, “Free Palestine and forward with communism!”
A worker asked, “If you say down with capitalism, who is going to employ us as we work in these firms to feed our families and they pay well here.”
The comrade replied, “We will work as workers are working right now. The difference is that it won’t be to satisfy the profits of shareholders and bosses that we have never even seen face to face. Rather, we will produce everything, not for profit, but to satisfy our needs.”
“Then who is going to own things,” the worker asked. “People sometimes need a boss.”
“The system favours the bosses,” the comrade answered. “That’s why they always pretend that we need them. For example, workers here produce cars even though they never see the owner. That means that workers can produce without the bosses’ presence already. The difference is that in communism, workers will own the means of production without them being owned by few individuals.”
“That’s an interesting angle,” the worker replied. “I wish I had time, but I will read the paper.” We told him the number was on the paper if he wanted to know more about communism and ICWP. He promised he will do as he was rushing to clock-in.
Other comrades welcomed the fact that workers received the paper with a smile and enthusiasm, even though some were little shy because they had never distributed it before. Comrades marched and danced with our banner. The workers in the plant definitely now know about ICWP. We are confident many will join in the future as our work in the plant will intensify leading up to May Day next year.
Another positive is that we have a long-time friend who works at VW. He has promised to distribute the paper to a few of his colleagues and factory workers he is friends with. There are two potential workers he will struggle with since he is close and talks with them every day. We will assist the comrade and we plan to invite the workers to our meetings.
We had a positive day. However, we recognise that as comrades we must struggle and learn every day about our weaknesses and strengths both as a collective and individuals. Part of that is, as a collective, we need new members to be confident with the party’s communist line. It helps that they are present to distribute but that is not all. We must sharpen our ideological understanding so as to advance it to the masses and workers with confidence and conviction. Participating in the distribution is a start and we will continue in this struggle.
Aluta and happy revolutionary holidays to all!
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