Mobilization At Youth Day Commemoration of the Soweto Uprising
It started on a worrying note that there was no mention of any event for Youth Day, which commemorates the day that youth in South Africa rose up against apartheid. Normally there are events everywhere in the country for this day. But this year only one event was mentioned. It was to take place in Johannesburg in a location called Soweto—where the mass uprising began in 1976-1977.
My collective and I did not know where we were going to attack these capitalists. We wanted to go to a place where masses would be – since the capitalist vultures use this day on which students died to their advantage. They turned this day into a day of recruiting the working class to join their capitalist political parties.
I then remembered that someone in a political group called DA (Democratic Alliance, an electoral party) approached me to join their party. He invited me to workshops, rallies, meetings, etc. He sent me an invitation for an event that would take place in the northern areas (known as coloured areas) for Youth Day.
I then informed my collective. Most of them just got jobs and can’t afford to stay out of work—as we still live in a capitalist world. We then had to dig deep. We remembered that we do have some other comrades who are in the collective but who are not as active as they would like—due to their jobs and other duties.
We could not just sit and do nothing on this day as students lost their lives and many others were injured fighting for what they believed in. It pained my heart that they were willing to do so only for a change of language. They fought against being forced to be taught in Afrikaans, the language of the apartheid rulers.
Why would we not be willing to do so for the change of communism, which would change the lives of millions all over the world?
The place where we were going was known for its gangsterism, for killings and robberies. I took five comrades with me. We got there on time. When I went to greet the organizer who had invited me with my comrades, some of whom were wearing our ICWP T-shirts, his face turned sour.
But we proceeded to engage the masses, distributing Red Flag to anyone who was willing to listen. Some were open to our ideas. Some were reluctant to talk to us, as they belong to the DA political party.
Having known the area myself, I advised the comrades to leave any devices at home: rings, watches, cell phones, wallets, etc. We were on our way out when we were approached by four thugs, two with guns and two who proceeded to search us.
I had been the victim of such a crime more than once. This made me very angry. I retaliated. I tried to defend my comrades by pulling them behind me and shouting at the culprits and calling to the police who were near—just a few steps away from us.
What did they do? Nothing.
As I pushed one of the gang members, I got a slap across my face, which stopped me for a second. The questions are still running through my head. Did the police not help us simply because of our T-shirts, or because we were blacks in a coloured area? If anything, this has brought us comrades to the conclusion that the police serve the bosses at every turn and that only communism can end and will stop such attacks. The working class will build our Red Army. During communist revolution and in communism, we will deal with any and all fascist, racist attacks on our class with mass communist workers’ power.
We distributed about 160 Red Flags and got 16 contacts who we will all follow up. One man who was about 50 years old had many questions about the paper and ICWP. We explained that it is a communist paper written by communists in South Africa and from around the world. When he asked what we are promising the people, we explained that in communism the masses will decide collectively what we all need and will produce and distribute it.
Crime will not stop us from doing the work. We will fight and die for what we want, which is a communist society.
Reading Red Flag at Youth Day, 2016
