Umsebenzi Online Volume 24, Number 7

Red October holds a sacred place in the political calendar of communists worldwide. It is a call to memory, a tribute to the courage of the Bolsheviks in 1917, and an assertion that another world is possible — not through reform, but through rupture. For South African communists, Red October has long been more than a commemorative gesture. It is our annual rallying cry to advance the struggle for socialism in a society still scarred by apartheid colonialism.

But what does Red October mean in 2025? What does it mean when slogans outlive their substance, when revolution is remembered but not renewed?

We find ourselves at a crossroads. Thirty years after the democratic breakthrough, the working class remains on the margins of economic ownership, political decision-making, and cultural power. Unemployment is sky-high. Inequality is written into the very architecture of our cities and their slums. The state is buckling under the weight of corruption, austerity, and incapacity. For many, socialism feels like a fading promise rather than an urgent project.

And yet it is precisely in this moment of despair that the relevance of Red October becomes more acute. It reminds us that history does not bend on its own. It must be seized and shaped. That no matter how dominant capital may seem, it remains dependent on the exploitation of labour — and vulnerable to the collective power of organised workers and the poor.

The SACP remains the oldest and most consistent voice for socialism on the continent. Our legacy is formidable. But legacy alone will not carry us through the storm. Our challenge is not just to defend the past, but to earn our place in the future. That means rebuilding the Party as a living, breathing, organising force — not just a think tank, not just a shadow behind the ANC, not just a commentator on state failure. We must be present where the people are, and relevant to the battles they are already fighting: for electricity, for food, for land, for dignity.

Red October must therefore be reclaimed as a period of political mobilisation, not nostalgia. It must ignite a deeper reckoning with the state of our movement, our country, and the global system that binds them. It must generate fresh energy — not just statements and seminars — toward building a mass, democratic, revolutionary socialist party that is feared by the powerful and loved by the people.

The truth is: we have allowed the state to become the primary terrain of our struggle, at the expense of the street, the union, the school, the village, the WhatsApp group, the spaza shop, the burial society. We have measured progress by appointments, not by mass mobilisation. In doing so, we have risked becoming institutionalised — legal, yes, but not always legitimate.

To mark Red October meaningfully this year, we need to return to base-building. We need to reignite the Red Brigades as active community organisers. We need to take the People ’s Caravan from theory to tar road, as we are increasingly doing, not least with our most recent week of activities in Mqhekezweni Village in the Eastern Cape (about which there is more in this issue of Umsebenzi Online). We need to make Umsebenzi a site of ideological contestation, not just internal affirmation. We must recruit, educate, organise, and agitate. This is not a rhetorical flourish — it is a survival strategy for the left.

In the face of imminent war, climate collapse, digital surveillance, and widening inequality, socialism is no longer a distant utopia. It is a practical necessity. But it cannot be proclaimed from podiums. It must be built in practice, through patient organising, bold leadership, and the humility to learn from the people.

This Red October, let us recommit to the hard work of revolutionary renewal. Let us remind ourselves that no revolution is ever complete, and that every generation must take up the torch anew. Let us speak to the present — and the future — in a language filled with ideological clarity, working class courage, and a march to working class victory.

Because Red October is not a calendar entry. It is a line in the sand.

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ISSUED BY THE SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNIST PARTY,
FOUNDED IN 1921 AS THE COMMUNIST PARTY OF SOUTH AFRICA.