Comrades Persist here ♦ Letter: Record Rains here ♦
Comrades Persist Despite Unprecedented Storms
EASTERN CAPE (South Africa), May 11— “This is the first time I’ve ever seen weather this bad,” said a comrade here.
Comrades continue our communist work despite a week of torrential rain and violent winds. Extreme flooding, extended power outages, shuttered schools, and closed roads are now officially considered a natural disaster.
But this unusual weather is anything but “natural.” The old weather models predicted a dry spell. Those models no longer serve. This disastrous weather is an example of the climate crisis created by capitalism. Imperialists and other capitalists are still making this crisis worse as their industries and wars dump more carbon into the atmosphere.
Burning fossil fuels, deforestation, and industrial processes release “greenhouse gases” (mainly carbon dioxide and methane) that trap heat in the atmosphere. This causes global warming and destabilizes weather systems worldwide. As imperialist confrontation intensifies, we’ll see a lot more of this.
The African continent has been warming even faster than the global average. Last December and January, extremely heavy rains killed at least 280 people and affected millions across southern Africa. A study by an international consortium of scientists and institutions found that the warming climate, combined with La Niña weather patterns, created an unprecedented rainy season.
Capitalists, bent on maximizing profits, cannot solve this problem no matter what scientists say. It can only be the working class that will begin to solve it with communist revolution. In communism, workers will plan production to meet our own needs, not some bosses’ profits. And one thing we need is a liveable planet!
We have been meeting in Uitenhage with fifteen to twenty comrades. We have prepared and shared food collectively. We have supplied drinking water to those in need. We have navigated flooded roadways to drive comrades to their jobs in factories like Volkswagen that demand they come in despite the crisis.
Our discussions have increased new comrades’ understanding of communism. We have made plans to expand distribution of the Red Flag newspaper.
“We have had several meetings focused on the internal struggle amongst the comrades, looking at our shortcomings and weaknesses,” explained another comrade. “We are looking at ways to strengthen commitment in the face of the things comrades are battling with.
“On the other hand, we have a lot of comrades who are very committed, especially young comrades and their friends who have embraced Red Flag,” he continued. “One thing they have identified is that they want to understand dialectical materialism. So, we are going to have another weekend outing later this month to study that.”
Letter: Record Rains Leave South Africans Thirsty
“Water, water everywhere/nor any drop to drink!” These are famous lines from Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s 1798 poem, “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner”. But this is reality, not just a cry of a voyager lost at sea. It calls for a communist revolution.
Large areas of South Africa recently witnessed some of the heaviest rainfall ever recorded, followed by devastating winds. Here in Port Elizabeth, we saw 130% of the average annual rainfall in less than a week.
Ironically, this caused millions to long for a drop of water. All the rain catchment areas are now releasing water into the ocean to prevent weak dams from collapsing. It is estimated that only 11% of water remains in the wintertime, and in some cases, as little as 1%. The result is a thirsty and angry population.
Corruption, greed for profit, and neglect of the masses are hallmarks of dying capitalism.
— Thirsty comrade
Learn about the communist philosophy of dialectical materialism here