“Recruit Me to Your Party – I Want to Join”
GQEBERHA (South Africa), April 18— “My crew of six workers transports about 2000 VW cars to the shipping containers bound for the US,” said Xolani. “We work 12-hour shifts. This is a very stressful job. We have to learn to drive on the left side. The space between two cars is very tight. If the car has even small scratch, you can’t load it. And you are fired.”
This is contracted labour. There is no overtime, unemployment benefits, insurance, paid holidays, health care, or guarantee of work the next day. The capitalist bosses call it “Just in Time” production, where inventory and finished goods are delivered precisely when they are needed.
Xolani said he makes R200 ($11) when he is called to work. His transport cost is R40, so there is hardly anything left for food, rent, clothing, or health.
Xolani had long ago formed a close bond with a comrade in his neighbourhood. He started reading Red Flag. He joined ICWP three years ago, when he was convinced he was a wage slave and that only communism could emancipate the working class.
Comrade Xolani participated in May Day activities. He initiated discussions about dialectical materialism at two ICWP overnight camps. He said that dialectical materialism taught him that quantity (distributing more Red Flags) can turn into quality (building communist relationships among the masses).
He and others have formed a collective in their township. They recruited several other comrades to discuss building a mass base of communism there. One new comrade, Siya, is a mass organizer who has close relationships with many people.
Siya’s husband works in a factory that produces automobile batteries. He produces three pallets of 1,000 batteries each day. They retail for approximately R2000. The capitalists make enormous profits from the workers’ labour.
Siya’s husband read our newspaper very carefully and said, “Recruit me to your party. I want to join. If you can recruit me, I will confidently recruit other workers.”
We met with new party members in another collective near the VW plant. This collective has been meeting for about a year. They are enthusiastic about communism and ICWP.
One is a hospital cleaner. She said her work is essential because, without sanitation, the doctors cannot do their jobs. She sees that only communism will create conditions where the healthcare of the masses will be primary. Without money, the masses’ needs will be satisfied. Another comrade is a nurse. She arranged to attend our camp in May to talk more about organizing her workplace.
Comrades related the hospital work to the horrific images of utter devastation in Gaza. This will never happen in communism. “We will take care of each other, not create wars,” one said. “I have children, and it is heartbreaking to see what is happening in Gaza.”
Thembisa leads the VW collective. She is very active in Uitenhage. She has recruited her sister and many others. She learned about ICWP from a party leader. The first time she asked Thembisa to join, she was not convinced. She asked her again, and the third time, she said, “I join, I join.” She is organizing May Day activities.
Another party leader recently got a factory job. Three comrades now work there. His group regularly discusses Red Flag and dialectical materialism.
Our struggle here shows the revolutionary potential of the masses. Comrades like Xolani, Thembisa, and Siya joined ICWP due to their close relationships with party members. Such relationships, combined with Red Flag and the struggle to form collectives, will prepare the masses for communism.
Many more workers will, like Xolani, understand that they are wage slaves and that only communism can emancipate the working class. They will see the communist power of the international working class.
This May Day, we will march more vigorously and more determined to end the worldwide terror of imperialists. We will more resolutely fight to usher in a communist society.