Miners Tell Comrades: “You must come back!”
April 21 — What happens when four comrades travel over 1400 km (870 miles) – 14 hours each way — to organize miners in South Africa? We talk and struggle about the need for communism. We read Mobilize the Masses for Communism and Red Flag.
One comrade is new, another is shy, and a third thinks long and hard about imperialist wars and how we can build communism. Everybody participates. Everybody learns. Everyone arrives at the Marikana mines feeling more confident about how communism will work.
On the first day, a few taxi drivers and a worker we have known for a few months gave us specific ideas to reach out to the miners.
We went to the mine shafts where workers go underground. We located ourselves to talk to as many miners as possible as they came out of the mines. This led us to the hostels. Thousands of miners who speak different languages live with each other. We gave them Red Flags, they opened their hearts.
They repeated many times, “you must come back”. They are thrilled about a society without the bosses. They want Red Flag in different languages. One miner could not believe that we had driven thousands of kilometers to build our party. He said, “People travel like this to make money. I want to join such organization,” as he understood money will play no role in communist society. Many miners eagerly gave their contacts for future meetings.
Simple Questions Lead to Profound Discussions about Communism
A comrade asked, “What happens when somebody is sick in a communist society?” When we tried to answer, the first question was “What causes a person to get sick?”
In capitalist society, bosses’ need for profit creates a toxic environment, unhealthy food and stressful work conditions. These compound to make hundreds of millions get sick, hungry and susceptible to wars, dangerous migration and preventable diseases. By eliminating the profit system, we will create housing, work, education, culture and healthcare for the needs of the masses.
We talked about the “barefoot doctors” in China and how we can do better in communism. In communism illness will have a collective resolution unlike in capitalism where insurance companies, doctors and hospitals try to make profit from the miseries of the workers.
We can give many such examples where workers asked us simple questions about day-to-day problems of living in the capitalist system. Each led to deeper understanding of how only communism can end exploitation and advance humanity.
Four Days, Four Comrades: Things Change Quickly
In spite of the fatigue of long travel, communism is what we breathed and discussed late into the night, only to get ready in the morning with Red Flag.
Things did change very quickly. Each comrade has written for Red Flag in a more collective way. A new comrade passionately spoke about how the unions always defend the bosses and how he joined ICWP. He played a leadership role because he also speaks the common language spoken around Marikana. Each one of us is more committed about building the party.
This experience gives us a clear vision of how to advance. The work of four comrades can and must multiply to tens, hundreds and millions. We are sowing the seeds of communist revolution deep. We can withstand any and all obstacles the bosses have in their arsenal.
We have a world to win.
