GQEBERHA (South Africa), August 2—I have been in the party for some time. I have provided leadership according to my capabilities. Over the last two years, some female comrades have taken leadership to new heights and brought even more female comrades. However, challenges we face as we grow include complacency, lack of commitment, and consolidation. One of my strengths is my ability to explain communism to new comrades. I use that to recruit comrades and ensure that they come back to the meetings.
But one of my weaknesses is in the consolidation of new comrades. I have not been going out of my way to build relationships with them. Hence, we can’t make sure that we understand them and the things that hold them back. That also prevents comrades from being comfortable to fully express themselves. We remain “strangers” when we don’t build communist relationships.
I have tended to treat the party like a football team or NGO I volunteer in. I created a separation between me and the party: the party is something separate from my life that I participate in when there is an organised event or meeting. So, my commitment has not been what it could have been.
As I take leadership roles, it has become clear to me that I am a communist and a party member even when I am sleeping. I do not have a personal life and communist life separately from each other. My personal life is that I am a communist and a party member every day of my life wherever I am.
This is part of our collective struggle as to what it means to be a communist leader. It means to sacrifice your time to serve the party and, by extension, to serve the working-classes and the masses.
In our workplaces we are workers and communists. At a social gathering I am myself and a communist. There is no separation of the two. We must recruit and organise for the party wherever we are.
To overcome those weaknesses, I am working on building communist relationships with the comrades who have committed to organize for the party. I will make sure I talk to comrades regularly. To close the gaps between us and make sure we are comfortable with each other. That will make it easier to overcome shortcomings.
I have also started to open up more and build friendships with co-workers. I intend to recruit them to the party and join us in mobilising the workers for communism.
A recent meeting at work planned a team-building exercise, where we would go out for drinks and braai this Saturday. I stated, “Unfortunately, team, I won’t be attending. I have other commitments”.
When we were out of the meeting, a co-worker asked, “Why, man, are you not coming?”
I responded, “I will be attending a meeting with my political party”.
“Are you in EFF or ANC?” he asked.
“No,” I answered. “I am a communist. I will be attending an ICWP meeting”.
He asked, “What is that? I have never heard of it”.
I told him “It is an international party that is fighting for communism to end this exploitation such as what we face here at work. Exploitation is where we produce a duvet inner that sells for 2000 Rand in seven minutes, but we get paid 30 Rand an hour. Can you imagine? We make like 8 or 9 inners in an hour, but we get paid 30 Rand. That is what we are against”.
That moved him and opened his eyes. He started to calculate. “Yerr bra!! In 8 minutes, one person produces something that pays our salary for the week. The rest of the other stuff is money for boss”.
I said, “Yes, that is what we are fighting as communists”.
And he said that I must tell him more next week. I promised to bring him the Red Flag.
I won’t just bring him Red Flag. I will talk to him and build a communist relationship with him. Understand the things that he cares about and the things that move him and what holds him back. Understand more about him as a person.
And that way we can consolidate him to the party. This is our struggle. This is my mission at work: to recruit workers, as many as I can, to join the party. That is what is means for me to be a communist leader.