Our Families Fought Apartheid, But Not for This!â here ⊠Distributing Red Flag here ⊠Building Communist Society Without Money here ⊠Getting the Change We Need here ⊠New ICWP Collectives here âŠ
Our Families Fought Apartheid, But Not for This!â Successful ICWP Meeting Plans for Communist Growth
GQEBERHA (South Africa), May 20â Yesterday we had our general meeting at kwaNoxolo [township] with old and new comrades. The meeting was to re-introduce and start reviving the collective on this side. We had new comrades that had never participated with us, but who were friends of the party. All the comrades who attended wanted to be there and participate in the growth of the party.
We are a small group who want a communist revolutionary change. We all agreed that we live in a capitalist system that exploits us and the working-class everywhere. The question was: How do we change this system, and what do we change it to, and is it even possible to do this?
Comrade Xola remarked, âWe live in a system where people do not have houses. They stay in shacks in every urban area and in all the cities.
âWe have family members who fought against the apartheid,â he continued. âSurely, they were not fighting for this, to be sold by the ANC [African National Congress] and be forced into a situation where things have gotten worse. Poverty has increased, crime has increased, violence and hopelessness, with millions of people unemployed.
âWhy should we live like this?â Xola concluded. âWhy do we allow itâ?
We all agreed that we should not allow it. We should do something about it. This is why we are building the collective and recruiting new members.
âWe are here as part of our mobilisation of the masses for communism,â comrade Sipho said. âWe canât allow our oppression and exploitation to continue.â
 âWe have to be united in order to win against capitalism and the bosses,â said comrade Mandisa. âOur grandparents won because they were united against apartheid. Also, we have to change our mentality and consciousness [into class consciousness]. We grow up being told that we are free because now we can go to a beachfront and there is no sign that separates people according to their race. They say we are free, but we are not free. Maybe we are free 70%â.
This sparked a dynamic discussion. Comrade Asanda said, âWe are not even 70% free. Maybe we are less than 50% free, because how are we free when we donât have anything to eatâ?
Comrade Xola answered, âWe are free to go to Summerstrand, but we donât have the taxi fare to go there, and we donât know what we will do when we get there. We cannot be free like that. In fact, we donât have any freedom and we cannot have it under capitalism.â
How Will Communism Look?
âIn communism we live without money,â said comrade Amanda. âWe will go anywhere we want without worrying about money.
âIn communism, workers will own the factory. Now, workers produce everything. At VW, the bosses donât do anything. On farms the workers produce the food and in food factories workers produce the food. And they can do that even in small household gardening. You can see that workers have the skill to produce and survive.
âWe have to own the material,â she continued, âthat is, the means of production, in order to be able to produce using our skills. Thatâs the only thing preventing us. We donât need bosses to survive; we only need them to survive under capitalism.â
âWe need them only for wages,â said comrade Arthur. âIf we cut money, there is no need for bosses. That means we have to own the means of production they currently own.â
Where to Start?
To change to communism, we must start by organising ourselves and our colleagues and friends and family. We wonât win people if we cannot even win them from our neighbourhoods.
This meeting is a start. We are small group but if we meet regularly and consistently and grow together and forge communist relationships, we will be strong. If we follow up on the workers who have shown interest in the party, if we build new collectives, we can change the tens into hundreds into thousands and to millions of party members.
We have to understand change, how it happens and how we can shape the future and build a world without exploitation. But to get there, we have to bring the army of the people we know individually to the party. We have to recruit more people. We have to struggle with them and go to them. If we donât show interest, they wonât stick with us, comrades concluded.
The meeting was a huge success. New comrades have vowed to invite even more people, learn more about the party, attend more meetings, and forge and build communist relationships with other comrades.
Women played an important role in uMkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation) in the struggle against apartheid.
Distributing Red Flag Builds Confidence in the Workers and ICWP
Todayâs mobilization, distributing of Red Flag at VW, was one of the best. Each and every time, I meet new faces. And each and every time I do meet those ones who you have to explain who we are: we are not an electoral political party.
A worker was going in to start his shift. When I tried to give him the Red Flag, he said that itâs those politicians, those political parties, who are always promising us things. I tried to make him understand who we are and how we are different from the (capitalist) political parties. He was smiling at me across the road. He was overwhelmed by the information I was giving him. He liked it.
I met mostly coloured* workers today, and what I like about them is that theyâre not aggressive. They are easy and patient. There in VW, the coloured workers took the papers, started reading them, and some put them in their bags to read later.
Iâm getting used to those who question me. That doesnât stop me. It keeps me going forward. Most of the coloureds are starting to recognize us. Iâm getting more experience than last year. Red Flag can help everyone, most especially the workers. If they can read the Red Flag articles, they will see why we are ICWP, and they will understand our main points.
Iâm working with such amazing guys. We share our work. We assist each other and then we guide each other.
In the distribution, no one is forcing anyone. We are not forcing the workers to take the paper. But as we are explaining to them about ICWP, most are walking in with a smile because they are understanding the meaning of our party. I wonât lie. I think we need to be greater in numbers next time so we can distribute all of our Red Flag papers.
I will leave it here for now. I just want to say thanks to the guys who gave us examples of what we are supposed to do when we distribute Red Flag.
There is no training fee. We learn what it means to be a member. It means to be with us and do what we are doing: to mobilize the workers. Not everyone is blind, not everyone is stubborn to open their eyes.
Today for me was superb. Only three of us distributed two hundred papers. If there had been seven of us, we could have distributed hundreds more. The workers took the papers quickly. I think we have to be better in numbers, so that next time we can distribute all our Red Flags.
Doing the distribution, Iâm happy to be part of ICWP. I wouldnât know about such a thing if I werenât part of the Party. Iâm happy to be an ICWP member. Iâm glad to know the comrades and the way they explain everything to me. They were transparent to me and thatâs how I am when I distribute Red Flag to the workers and talk to them. I would love to distribute more papers to industrial workers.
âA Comrade in South Africa
NOTE: âColouredâ was a legally defined âracialâ classification during Apartheid. It refers to people of mixed ethnic ancestry. The separation of âColouredâ from âBlackâ workers is an important part of racism in South Africa today.
How Workers Will Build Communist Society Without Money
Ever since I became a member of ICWP, it has become clear how the capitalist system has brainwashed us into thinking we cannot do anything without money, that we need bosses to survive, that we are nothing without the bosses. But in actual fact the bosses need us more than we need them. They wonât be able to run the business without us.
In COMMUNISM there will not be bosses. You are probably thinking how is that possible? Well, that is very much possible. Look, for instance, at the big company VW. If all those workers would step out of the company, would production continue without them? NO!
Workers from VW are not doing the same job. Some are doing body parts, other tires, engines, glass, lights, etc. It is possible for them to gather and build transport that is of value to be used by everyone (e.g., buses to fit a lot of people) without making profit.
How wonderful life would be without crime, corruption, greed, and exploitation by the bosses! We are a lot of people with different talents. We have teachers, doctors, farmers, seamstresses.
All of us worldwide could divide ourselves. Those who can farm, farm for everyone (planting fruit, vegetables etc.) Doctors to provide free medication and consultation (even though when living under communism we wonât be needing much medication).
Now the bosses are making money from us being sick, making money from us to having to provide for medication. They are even making money from us dying. How do they do that? It starts from the poisonous food we consume to the medication prescribed for us to become âbetterâ not cured to passing away. They make money out of all that.
To have more understanding about communism we need to read the Red Flag, have constant meetings with the collective, and spread the word to our friends, family, and colleagues because together we can do it.
Red Salute!
Comrade in South Africa
How Do We Get the Change We Need?
On March 21, 1960, the South African Police in the town of Sharpeville opened fire on 7,000 Black protestors against apartheid. They killed 69 people and wounded 180, including 29 children. This massacre was a turning point in the struggle against apartheid. From that moment on, it was clear that South Africaâs official policy of racial separation was doomed. But how would it end? And what would replace it?
In 1961, leaders of the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party formed uMkhonto we Sizwe, (English: Spear of the Nation). This paramilitary organization was dedicated to resisting government terror. Most of its actions sabotaged government buildings. But its militants trained in guerrilla warfare. It contained the beginnings of a strategy of armed struggle for power. Still, it was a national liberation movement, not a movement for communism.
In 1962, the majority of the United Nations passed Resolution 1761. It condemned apartheid and called for economic and other sanctions against South Africa. The UN hoped to end the legal system of apartheid while maintaining capitalism in South Africa.
Over the next thirty years, the fight against apartheid continued on both paths:Â armed struggle and economic sanctions.
Within South Africa, thousands of militants, women and men, joined the uMkhonto we Sizwe. Tens of thousands took part in mass actions against the apartheid government. Hundreds were sentenced to house arrest. They were banned from participation in public life. Many were sentenced to decades in prison.
In spite of tremendous suffering, the movement continued to grow. It became more and more difficult for the South African capitalist class to govern.
Internationally, hundreds of thousands participated in âboycott, divestment, sanctionsâ (BDS) campaigns. They called on governments and the capitalists to divest (withdraw investments) from South Africa. Activists boycotted everything from IBM to international athletic competitions. The South African government became an international pariah. Local and international capitalists saw their profits diminish.
It appeared that the two paths (armed struggle and BDS) were complementary. But appearances can be misleading.
The Cold War ended in the early 1990s. That created an opening for the capitalists to end apartheid while keeping the structure of capitalism and racism intact.
Part of the agreement which ended apartheid was the dissolution in 1993 of uMkhonto we Sizwe. That is, Nelson Mandela and the leadership of the African National Congress, including the South African Communist Party, agreed to abandon the revolutionary struggle against capitalism. Instead, they reached an accommodation with capitalist state ruleâa logical result of fighting for ânational liberation.â
International sanctions were cancelled. Capitalism, now with a few Black bosses in positions of power, continued. The South African capitalist class and the international capitalists continue to enrich themselves on the sweat of the working class.
Armed struggle and BDS were not complementary, after all. They were contradictory. The internal struggle within the ANC and SACP was primary. When they opted to reform capitalism instead of destroying it, the die was cast.
 We in the International Communist Workersâ Party dedicate ourselves to the victory over capitalism. Our organizing today will lead, when the time is ripe, to a Spear of the Working ClassâuMkhonto we Udidi lwabasebenzi. That international Red Army will fight until victory. It will lead in building communist society worldwide.
South Africa: Establishing New ICWP Collectives
GQBERHA (South Africa), May 28â We had a very successful meeting last Saturday. It took a lot of preparation beforehand. As we mobilize the masses, we need to also establish a solid base.
We have had a stable, consistent collective in one neighbourhood. Now we are struggling to re-establish collectives in two others. Saturdayâs successful meeting was to kick off the collective in a second neighbourhood. We are moving on to a third neighbourhood as well.
On Friday before the meeting, we went around the neighbourhood visiting different people. Some were friends of the party. Some have read Red Flag before. Some came, some didnât. We were encouraged both by the people who came and the response of those who couldnât but who promised to come for future meetings.
This is the culmination of discussions about the need to re-establish more collectives. This requires us going door to door, giving out Red Flag and inviting people to come. Saturdayâs attendance shows that what we do really matters.
Our strategy is to build solid bases that will lead the partyâs work of mobilizing the industrial base for communism, including soldiers. Weâve made significant progress.
This week we are planning to do the same thing in another neighbourhood where another comrade will start a collective. She canât do it alone. The collective will help her. The growth of the party depends on what we do.
Sometimes when people see a meeting with 15 or 20 people, they donât know the amount of work the comrades in the collective have done to make that happen. Or the amount of struggle to maintain and expand that number.
When you build a house, you canât start with the roof. You have to start by establishing a solid foundation so that it can withstand the weight of the walls and of the roof. If the foundation is not solid, the house will collapse.
This means that we need to wage an ideological struggle with the comrades. We also have to understand each comradeâs internal contradictions. Thatâs how we can struggle better with different comrades. Itâs really important to establish unity with comrades so we can struggle with each other. At the same time, the struggle has to be primary, unity secondary.
We have done some really promising work. Of course, thereâs a lot that needs to be done, but, as a collective, we can accomplish it.
At last Saturdayâs meeting, comrades came from different backgrounds, including some who have worked for years and know the exploitative nature of capitalism.
Most of the discussion was about how life would be in communism. How would ICWP lead society into a cashless, borderless one without exploitation? Comrades gave different examples. It was also important for us not to over-prescribe, especially for new comrades, what needs to be done. It was better to listen to what they think is best. Then that would be the main basis for discussion and struggle.
Someone mentioned the barter system. Of course it may sound interesting, but if I have nothing to exchange, what will I eat? Or if I decided to hoard, what would that do to the collective?
We explained how communism will distribute resources according to need, and how people will contribute to communism based on their ability and commitment.
We touched on the healthcare system in capitalism. Most things we consume make us sick, but the bosses sell them to us because they are profitable. Then the bosses profit from us being sick through health insurance, hospital bills and medicine. Even when we die, they profit from funerals.
In communism, we wonât focus mainly on having state-of-the-art hospitals. Yes, we will have them. But the emphasis will be on healthy living, making sure that people have quality food to eat that doesnât make them sick like now.
They were pretty receptive to our ideas. It was a good discussion. As we hold more meetings, we will have more good discussions. It was a good first step in trying to establish a stable collective in this neighbourhood.
Now we will focus on another neighbourhood. That will present us with other challenges moving forward that we will figure out.