Three weeks ago, I was robbed. I work two shifts: one week, mornings; the following week, nights. I live in a poverty-stricken township, with 70% of the youth unemployed. Many, especially young males, are on drugs and in petty criminal gangs.
It looked like these petty criminal boys had been observing my movements because I leave my house at 05:00 in the morning and they broke in between 05:15 – 06:00. They took every electronic device to sell it to get a fix or the next couple bags of Tik (crystal meth) and cocaine.
After realising the damage, I contacted my comrades, neighbours and friends who live close to my house. I told them what had occurred and tried to get information about the break-in. My neighbours had heard and seen nothing.
But ICWP and my role in it are relatively known in the community. So, I was able to quickly spread the word to all the sections of the township that I was looking for any information relating to my electronics that I had lost. I would not have been able to do that without the network of comrades and friends of the party. They took it upon themselves to reach as many people as they could.
A day passed. Someone who fixes electronic devices came to comrade T about something unrelated and my lost electronic devices came up. This guy said that several guys came to him looking to bypass a laptop password. He described the laptop, and it was mine. Comrade T immediately called me. It was 22:00 (10:00 pm) and they told me the names of the boys. Comrade T knew where they stayed. We immediately went there accompanied by a newer comrade. The father said we must come back tomorrow as it was very late.
The following day I went to one of the street committee members and informed him about the situation. The person in question was not there, and the father said he had seen no devices. It looked like we had lost track.
The guy who fixes electronic devices told us that he just heard the boys who did it were in some base close to where comrade N lives. We immediately went there and found out where they sold the laptop for only R150 (US$8.64 or 760 Indian rupees).
We went to collect the laptop. It so happened that the buyer knew me. He had, a long time ago, attended one of our May Day celebrations. And the petty criminal came with rest of the stuff voluntarily because we told them that we were done chasing them and they must come with stuff by themselves.
I never involved the police. House break-ins, robberies, and murders are an everyday thing, and the police do nothing to protect the community. Police are primarily there to protect capitalists’ private property.
I relied on the comrades, and the network of people who know me through ICWP. That’s what led me to recover my devices. This is an example of how the masses can mobilise to fight criminal behaviour in our collective communities. Of how communists plan to fight crime.
Such examples can show the masses that we must rely on each other and not look at the police to protect our communities. The party’s visibility, and the fact that many people know about it, aided me a great deal. It showed that spreading the Red Flag
does make a difference. We plan to distribute the paper more in our township and expand the network of friends and comrades.
—Comrade in Gqeberha (South Africa)