Elections Are Fights Among Capitalists here ♦ Communism Will Keep Us Healthy here ♦
Red Flag distribution in South Africa
Elections Are Fights Among Capitalists–Only Communism is the Future for the Working-Class Masses
SOUTH AFRICA, March 21— Elections here on 29 May will choose the political party that is going to govern. New political parties are coming to the fore. The old ones are intensifying their campaigns to receive more votes than their rivals.
Political parties like to position themselves as representing the interests of the masses. But in reality, they represent the interests of the capitalists that fund and pay the politicians that lead them. In South Africa, this past fiscal year alone, capitalists have spent more than one billion rand (US$52 million or four billion Indian rupees) in funding political parties. And that is just the money they have declared in parliament.
Capitalists will never spend money without expecting something in return. The masses can and must dismiss and reject their empty promises as they just seek further exploitation of the working class and the masses in general. None of the political parties seeks to destroy capitalism. All seek “a piece of the pie.” The differences are superficial. They all represent one class, the ruling capitalist class.
The parties appear to be fighting and opposed to each other. But we know their opposition is simply different capitalists fighting each other. These differences are the result of the imperialist rivalries among capitalists.
The African National Congress (ANC), the Democratic Alliance (DA), and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) represent competing sides of the domestic and international capitalist class. The ANC factional fighting has intensified, resulting in a split and the formation of the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) Party led by former president Zuma. The MK represents the Black and Indian bourgeoisie that has been discarded by Ramaphosa’s faction, representing the dominant white capitalists.
The DA represents the banking capitalist class that supports the US, Israel, and Western imperialism. The EFF openly backs China and Russia and seeks to model South Africa after the Chinese form of capitalism. Other formations use xenophobia, racism, and nationalism to gain votes.
Mobilizing for a Communist May Day
As these formations intensify their campaigns, as ICWP we do the same in spreading communism. And especially so as we mobilize for the May Day rally. Only communism represents the future of the working-class and the masses.
The masses already reject these political parties. Millions of citizens eligible to vote chose not to vote. Thousands are taking to the streets to demand services, as is happening in Durban Central Business District. Hundreds are open to our ideas. We have recruited new comrades who are willing to recruit even more to our party.
In our base, many participate in our marches and toyi-toyi protests. The millions no longer listen to the capitalist propaganda. They openly say that they will not vote because “voting does not change anything”. Indeed, by voting we only choose our oppressors. We must free ourselves by joining the communist party, ICWP, that seeks change through communist revolution.
We must reject having to choose between imperialists who are only interested in control and profits. ICWP offers the alternative: the only liberation that will free us from capitalism. Only communism represents a bright future free of exploitation and poverty. A future where we use our collective power to build a society where the working-class needs are primary, not profit and exploitation.
As we move toward May Day, we must reject imperialist lackeys (these political parties). We must embrace communism and win over millions of the workers, employed and unemployed, who already reject the parties by not voting. Not voting is one step. However, change will not come if we do nothing. We can do something by actively mobilizing for communism and recruiting friends, family, colleagues, and neighbors to ICWP.
We have a future to build, and it starts today. Aluta continua!
Our Manifesto: Mobilize the Masses for Communism here
Communism Will Keep Us Healthy
Healthcare was a big issue even before the deadly Coronavirus pandemic. But even then, the real question was: why are so many people so sick in the first place? The answer is capitalism, which makes workers sick in so many ways.
In communism people will be much less sick, much less often. This will be true of all kinds of illnesses. It doesn’t take a lot of medical knowledge to see this.
For a start, life under capitalism is extremely stressful for workers. Workers never have enough money, even when they have jobs. They must worry about paying the rent or mortgage, buying food, paying for gas, buying clothes for the kids … you know the story.
They must worry about losing a job or getting sick. Bosses driving them crazy at work, kids getting into trouble. And many face racist/sexist harassment and violence.
It is well understood that stress aggravates almost all illnesses, from diabetes to depression. In communism, the abolition of money and unemployment, of sexism, racism, and xenophobia, will mean a life of joy rather than stress.
Reducing stress will all but eliminate the harmful addictions that workers contract trying to compensate. No (street) drugs, or smoking, or alcoholism, or eating disorders.
Work itself will become joyful because we will be working together to satisfy peoples’ needs. There will be no economic competition and therefore no incentive for speedup or short staffing. Workers will do a variety of activities, even in the same day. No one will wear out body parts doing the same motions day after day.
Learning also will be joy. It will be mixed with working. Students will not spend long hours sitting motionless cooped up in a classroom. They’ll learn by doing.
Replacing stress by joy will make a huge difference in people’s heath, without any professional intervention.
For example, people will not be as lonely anymore. Almost all activities will be communal. You can be alone if you want, but that will be a choice. You don’t have to be lonely. Loneliness is known to be a health risk factor – as harmful as smoking or obesity.
Good food is vital to good health. For capitalism, on the contrary, what’s vital is cheap food, so bosses can pay low wages. And cheap food – processed food and junk food – is known to be slow poison. Communism does not have the same incentive. We can make sure we eat well (if simply). Nutrition-based diseases like diabetes will all but disappear.
In communism, even the air we breathe will be healthier. We’ll eliminate all the poisons that choke us every day. In particular, we’ll do away with fine particle pollution. We’ll do this mainly by vastly reducing the use of fossil fuels or all but eliminating the private automobile that is the main source of this pollution. Workers will travel for the most part in clean, safe, free public transportation – buses and trains. And the switch to public transportation will eliminate most traffic accidents, which currently kill ten million people per year worldwide.
Not just public transportation – people will walk more, or ride bicycles, or run. Physical activity, including participatory sports, will be a priority. The US CDC recently reported that 25% of US adults are not active enough to preserve their health.
Good housing, including sewage and clean drinking water, is also vital. Under capitalism, good housing does not make workers more productive – they can live in squalor and still produce big profits for the bosses, as billions do. We’ll do away with both junk food and junk housing, not to make money but to make workers happier. And a lot healthier.
Life in communism, once capitalism is gone for good everywhere, will above all be peaceful. No more nations and no more bloody wars. And without private property, no more crime. People will have different opinions and lively arguments, but normally no one will ever raise a hand against a fellow worker.
Of course there will be medicine, healthcare workers, and hospitals in communism. And they’ll be great for those who need them. Furthermore, basic medical knowledge will be widespread and not confined to experts as it is today. And our media will not spread disinformation as happens today about vaccination or diet or many other topics. Who knows, there may be pandemics and other forms of new diseases. We’ll mobilize the masses to snuff them out.
But, thanks to the communist lifestyle, workers won’t experience illness on the scale they do under capitalism.
Front page of this issue
