GQEBERHA (South Africa), February 16— “Welcome comrades,” said Comrade Q. “We are excited to host you and see you again. Since we had a ‘closing’ meeting last year, this is our ‘opening’. Our plan is to double our numbers this year”.
Yesterday we had a great meeting. It was the first time the larger collective met this year. We had planned the meeting in order for as many comrades as possible to attend. For different reasons, some comrades were not able to. But ten comrades came, seven female comrades and three males.
This is a positive direction in the fight against sexism as in the past we were a male-dominated group. Over the last year we have put into practice the fight against sexism. This is due to the leadership role played by the female comrade who hosted us in her house.
“Yes, comrades, welcome!” said Comrade S. “This year we will focus on our political line. We will have collective studies, camps, and regular dialectical materialism meetings. We will focus on expanding our understanding of our communist line, so that we have confidence when we go on the streets and mobilise.
“But in addition to that, to enable us to be proactive and see the world for what it is. To see connection in what otherwise seem like isolated events. All major shifts and wars are part of the system of profit. In order to dismantle it, we have to understand it. And to do that we must have a political understanding and always present our line to the masses”.
Comrade C added, “Absolutely, comrades. Having quantity with no quality is not always helpful, although there is a dialectical relationship between the two. As we know from dialectics, quantity can lead to quality. However, if we have a large number without our line, they would go out and misrepresent our line if we do not guard and sharpen it within the collective”.
“Indeed comrades,” Comrade Q added, “that’s why meetings and collective and individual reading of the Red Flag is imperative. It is our weapon. Before or after May Day, we will make sure we have these classes to collectively struggle about our political line with the new and the old comrades”.
“Yes, we need it,” said N, a new comrade. “We need that so that we know what we are talking about to the people, so that we have confidence. So that I won’t have to call other comrades to mass recruit. So that I can explain the party and communism on my own in a way that gives confidence”.
“I agree,” said another new comrade, D. “That’s why I think these meetings must be regular”.
The discussion went on. Comrades talked about the need for communist political education and the struggle to sharpen our line. And recruiting huge numbers of workers, not just in Gqeberha (Port Elizabeth) but the whole of South Africa.
To this, B, a new comrade, said, “We have to have, in terms of the bigger picture, even if it’s on the web, an option to translate into different languages as many people do not speak English or Xhosa. In the future we must have Zulu, Sotho, Afrikaans translations, and more”.
Another comrade agreed and suggested that special pamphlets should have translation. This is what comrades will look to do more often this year. As he put it, “We should be accessible to the masses. We should go and adapt to the masses instead of them adapting to us. It should be us who make the effort to be with the masses”.
The meeting mostly focused on plans for the year, and what we want to achieve as a collective this year.
We ended by promising to meet again as a larger collective. Next time, hopefully, with the rest of the comrades also able to join. We hope that at least forty comrades will pitch up.
We are excited for the May Day ahead, with more female comrades leading the charge. We say “Aluta continua”.
Read ICWP’s Manifesto: Mobilize the Masses for Communism here