“What Motivated Me to Join the Party” here ♦ You Strike a Woman, You Strike a Rock! here ♦ Red Salute here ♦ Viva Comrade C here ♦
“What Motivated Me to Join the Party”
I was asked to talk about what motivated me to join the party and what motivates me to continue.
I joined the party in 2014 or 2015. An international meeting here in South Africa was the first meeting I attended.
Prior to that I had been in political discussions. Then I was involved in the student movement—particularly the black consciousness movement.
I always thought that capitalism means white people because I was influenced by the South African context. Even today white people are referred to in Xhosa or in Zulu as “abelungu.”
When someone is at work, the boss or owner of a company is referred to as “abelungu,” which literally means white person, but it also means boss. Even today a boss is still referred to as “mlungu” [singular] or “abelungu,” [plural], whether that person is white or Black.
That was my understanding. But now I had white people telling me about capitalists, and I thought, “Aren’t you a capitalist, because you’re a white person?” But then came the struggle about racism within the context of capitalism and how capitalists use racism to divide the working class.
That opened up my understanding of the world. I understood that we had bosses who are Chinese, Indian, Black.
One particular example: comrades used to ask me about Ramaphosa. Cyril Ramaphosa is a mine boss, President of South Africa and one of the country’s richest individuals. Other than that, we are both black, what more do we have in common? That really got me thinking about what a capitalist is.
I started to see that a capitalist is anyone who owns the means of production and uses it to make more profit by exploiting the workers. And those workers are usually of different races and different nations.
It dawned on me that it was not particularly black people. All those who don’t have the means of production are equally exploited. Equally affected by racism, discrimination, joblessness, crime, and living in bad conditions. No access to health care. They have to sell their labor in order to survive. We find that in South Africa, India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, South America, Mexico, El Salvador and the US. Even in those so-called first world countries, it’s the same. Exploitation everywhere.
That is a higher consciousness, as opposed to just black consciousness. I learned that we need Communism to end this exploitation and all the social ills. That has been my motivation. I made a commitment to join the party and organise for it. I committed myself to learn about communism and what it is to be a communist. Communists are not born, but through practice we will be better communists than we were yesterday.
That was my motivation and the constant struggle, keeping in touch with other comrades here in South Africa and in other parts of the world. The reading and distribution of the Red Flag. We learn not only by reading the Red Flag at home, but by talking to other workers and organizing. Learning the theoretical ideas like dialectical materialism. That complements our practice with an understanding of the laws of change.
All that gave me a better understanding of Communism in general, but also a better understanding of the party and how it is organized. Since then, I’ve tried to be a useful comrade, recruiting new comrades and contributing in whatever capacity that I can or that has been asked of me.
So that’s my motivation, comrades.
–Comrade in South Africa
Wathinta Abafazi, Wathinti Mbokotho!!
You strike a Woman, You strike a Rock!!
The future of the party is looking great. The energy and exciting ideas the new female comrades have, along with the eagerness to destroy the capitalist system, are powerful.
The weekend stay in Jeffrey’s Bay was bittersweet. A lot of mistakes were made, such as not dividing up the workload, not introducing the new comrades before attending to other commitments, and not being entirely transparent. But we have learned from them. To avoid this happening again, we agreed to have regular meetings to form strong bonds with each other.
Comrade C shared how nervous she was when delivering her speech during the International meeting. She expressed that she wasn’t expecting a lot of people from other places. She was amazed that the party is so big. This was her first meeting after hearing about ICWP in August 2024. Again she said she is ALL IN and promises to deliver and continue spreading the word about the party. “I still maintain my ‘I JOIN! I JOIN! I JOIN!’” statement. We need to continue meeting so we can fight to destroy this system.”
Comrade Z, a new female comrade who joined us on that day came all the way from Kirkwood. She had a lot of fun and learned something new. She is happy and excited to take this journey because the capitalists have taken over everywhere. She will spread the word in Kirkwood.
Comrades were sad and emotional when hearing about what is happening in Gaza. We understood the importance of organising the protest and giving our support to Palestine.
The room was full of amazing, strong women. We were seventeen in total—thirteen females and four males. We are massively growing.
To destroying the evil system!
#STOPTHEBOMBINGINGAZA
ALUTA CONTINUA
—Comrade Q in Eastern Cape, South Africa
Red salute
Comrades, the intensifying contradiction between the old imperialist G7 and emerging imperialist Russia and China gives us more opportunities to strengthen our communist relations and sharpen our mindset with dialectical materialism.
Cell classes have to continue like our red lions in India and Gaza.
Collectively, we can transform our quantity into quality.
I am happy to have all my ICWP friends in this communist struggle. It makes it easier to eliminate individualism, a cancer that leads us to revisionism or fascism.
Having constructive communist talks every day can help us conquer capitalism. We must be reading and distributing the Red Flag. We need regular communist meetings, mobilizations, political education and communist relations.
Today we have Comrade Q, who brought female comrades into our party. Thumbs up, comrade. This leader motivated me mentally and physically. Let’s multiply into thousands! WHATHINTA ABAFAZI WHATHINTI MBOKODO, PHAMBILI MAKOMANISI PHAMBILI (You strike a woman, you strike a rock! Forward, Comrade, Forward!)
—Comrade C
Viva Comrade C
Thank you so much, comrade. Your words are touching and motivate me to do more each day. I am glad you are back comrade. As much as we have gained lots of female comrades, we still need the male comrades, too. Together we will transform QUANTITY into QUALITY!
Red salute comrades