Communists Among the Masses: New Leaders Move ICWP Forward
This is the conclusion of a report. Part II focused on the development of new communist leaders and literature that serves their needs.
“We must be involved in practical struggles of the working class and bring communist ideas into these struggles,” says a key summary of dialectical materialism.
Comrades in New Brighton organized to protect children walking to and from school. And organized to feed neighborhood kids. A comrade who led that work is now organizing neighbors for healthy food and exercise.
The fight (described in Part I) for a high school math teacher was a reform struggle around a specific demand. Some comrades might consider this a reformist error. I think it would have been a terrible mistake to try to discourage the young organizer. She and other comrades brought communist ideas into this practical struggle. They built the party around them. We must fight for our line amidst workers’ struggles, not stand aloof.
People in Grahamstown asked what communists can do about widespread hunger. They understood that in communism nobody will go hungry. But they are hungry now. Could people do better pooling resources collectively? Not everyone agreed. There were food riots in South Africa during Covid where masses liberated food from markets and warehouses.
Many workers and youth in South Africa take us very seriously. Mobilizing them for communism includes communist study, mass distribution of Red Flag, meetings, and marches. But we need more action. Slogans aren’t enough. Comrades there and elsewhere are creatively finding ways to immerse our party and its communist ideas in the masses’ practical struggles. This is good.
ICWP Work in South Africa Requires Our Money
Unemployment is officially 40% but actually much higher. That includes many comrades. Those with jobs spend much of their meager wages on transportation. Everyone lives on the brink. The comrades have few contacts among better-paid professionals or others there. Of course, this is true also of many comrades elsewhere.
Few comrades or friends have cars. There is no “public transportation” worth the name. Rideshares, transports, and taxis are not cheap. The distances between townships are not walkable. There are real costs to organizing meetings, protests, distributions.
Meeting spaces must sometimes be paid for. We must subsidize cellphone and internet service so comrades can stay in contact with each other and with the rest of the party. Red Flag must be printed.
There are additional expenses when comrades visit. We want at least one younger comrade to visit there next year. We want key comrades from South Africa to visit other places.
If you have discretionary income, please think hard about how much more you can give the party monthly. And about who else we will ask to give regularly.
Resolving Contradictions Internal to ICWP
The contradictions of capitalism are starkly revealed in Gqeberha. Masses see them. Masses are eager to know more about our plan to resolve them with communist revolution. Dozens of workers, soldiers, and youths are stepping up to learn and to lead.
Speaking for myself: My work includes helping to guarantee that Red Flag explains our line carefully and clearly. Some of us came to this line the hard way. We did political work for decades around a line that we now see as wrong in important ways. I want us to save newer and younger comrades from making the mistakes we made. And they want to learn from us.
That’s fine. But seeing the work in South Africa first-hand has helped me to understand that we must focus on learning from their practice today. Our communist political line, like everything else, is a process, not a final result. I, and other older comrades, must reflect more on how Red Flag and our practical work can advance by learning from the rich experiences in South Africa (and elsewhere).
And the comrades (in South Africa, but not only there) who are breaking new ground are still too reliant on old-timers for guidance. Dare to struggle, dare to win!
ICWP work in South Africa is critical to our entire international party. Let’s mobilize the whole party to study it critically, learn from it, and support it.
Previous sections of this report: