GQEBERHA (South Africa), September 9— “We must have comrades, especially the young ones, confident enough in order to take leadership and organise for the party”. A comrade said this at a collective meeting of about a dozen comrades this last Sunday.
It was a follow-up to a previous one where we decided to meet every second week to discuss the Red Flag and the international situation. The things we can do to grow and accelerate the fight against capitalism.
The meeting started by reviewing our previous meeting and addressing the issue of commitment and respect for each other’s time. One comrade said, “I am glad the comrades who were not here previously are available today. And glad that those who were late reported on time. This shows the seriousness of the comrades and the respect they have for the collective, as well as demonstrating their commitment to our collective decisions”.
We read the article “Fighting Genocide and Fascism from LA to Palestine”. After a young comrade had read the article, Comrade X commented, “Comrades it is important to see ourselves as the international working-class, not just as South Africans. We should not limit ourselves with nationalism and borders”.
He continued, “This makes it easy to see the interconnectedness in things, and how capitalism pits us against each other. The Gaza genocide and racist and fascist raids in Los Angeles are the case in point”.
Another comrade said, “What this article is describing is history and it is similar to apartheid. This is what they used to do here. The apartheid government killed and displaced people from their houses and jailed them. It’s so sad what is happening, comrade”.
An experienced comrade then said, “If, comrades, what is happening in LA is similar to apartheid, and the Genocide in Gaza is even worse, what can we do about it? What is our role”?
This question was key. It made comrades think a bit more and internalise what is happening around the world and view those events as something that they must care about and do something to stand against.
Comrade S responded, “For me, comrades, what we can do now is spread the word and make sure people join our party and grow in numbers”.
Another comrade echoed that: “Yes, if we can be more around the world, we can stand against the police like in LA. If they come, we stand our ground. They can never kill us all. When we are united, we can fight them”.
This then brought out another question: How can we make sure that we talk and recruit more numbers to the party? Comrade X said, “We must build confidence and have confidence embuthweni (confidence in the Party). We must make sure that we attend meetings to learn more about communism and make sure that we able to talk about it confidently to anyone we want to win”.
Comrade Sese said, “When I am confident and know a lot about communism I can talk to all three hundred students in my school. I have no problem”.
Another comrade said, “We also spread the word via Red Flag and distribute it in all the places we find people. Not only at VW but malls as well, and schools”.
Therefore, we resolved that our high school comrades will receive at least 20-50 copies of Red Flag to distribute in their schools. Comrades will visit industrial areas to distribute the paper. And we will host workshops and regular meetings to learn more about communism and dialectical materialism.
As comrades said, doing all of these things helps boost their confidence and understanding of the party’s line and recruit more people to fight against capitalism. Red Salute!
