In
our last lesson we spoke of the Bantu or Native Republic of South
Africa, for which the African workers and peasants will fight
under the leadership of the Communist Party. We must now answer
two questions. Pirstly, what will be done in the Bantu Republic,
what will it give to the workers and peasants, how will it help
the Bantu? Secondly, how will the Bantu Republic be brought about?
In this lesson we shall answer the first of these questions.

The Bantu republic will do away with the racial oppression of the
Bantu. It will make South Africa an independent country, not ruled
over by the English or any other imperialists. It will mean that
the black majority will have MAJORITY RIGHTS in their own country.
It will mean "Mayibuye", the return of the land to the
Bantu people, from whom it has been stolen by the imperialists.
The Bantu Republic will use the land, the mines, the riches of
South Africa for the good of all the workers and toiling people
in South Africa, both black and white. It will fight against the
imperialist oppressors and will not allow them any longer to rob
the people of this country. When people are oppressed because they
belong to a certain nationality, they do not only ask for equal
rights, but also the right to rule themselves: because they thank
that this is the only way to make sure that they will not be oppressed.
And so the Bantu are asking and will ask more and more for the
right to rule themselves, to have their own government of black
people. (The Dutch Afrikaners also said in the past that they were
oppressed by the English and they wanted an Afrikaner Government.)
The Bantu know that while they are ruled over by another race they
will never be sure that they will not suffer because of the colour
of their skins. Therefore the Communist Party fights for the right
of the Bantu to rule themselves; therefore it fights for an independent
Bantu republic.

In this republic for the first time the Bantu will be able to
enjoy real freedom as a nation in South Africa. They will be
able to come and go freely without passes. They will not be kept
out anywhere on account of their colour, neither from the schools
and universities, nor from the trams and trains, nor from the
cafes and bioscopes and towns halls, nor from the libraries and
museums and zoos. There will be no law to stop the Bantu becoming
skilled workers and engineers, lawyers, doctors, magistrates
and judges, professors and directors of business and industry.
Of course at first there will be very few black men and women
about to do the most highly skilled work, because the Bantu under
imperialism have not been allowed to enter the schools and universities
and become skilled workers like the whites. But this will only
be at the beginning. Very soon thousands of Bantu will take advantage
ofthe schools and factories which will be open to them under
the Bantu Republic, and they will begin to push their way up
and to show what they can do. All this will be possible only
when there is a Bantu Government and not before.

In industry the Bantu Republic will also bring big changes in
the life of the black, coloured and Indian workers. For the first
time they will have the right to organise into trade unions,
and once they have this right they will be able to improve their
wages and conditions a great deal. The land workers will no longer
suffer under the sjambok of the farmer; the Contract Law, the
Master and Servant Law, will be gone. People will no longer be
forced by poll tax and land hunger and starvation to go and work
down the mines. The standard ofliving ofthe Non-European workers
will increase. The Bantu Proletariat will grow stronger. The
differences between white and black workers will grow less. A
united proletariat fighting for socialism will come into being.

The life of the peasants will also change very much. The land
will be taken away from the rich land-owners and imperialists
and every Bantu peasant and his family will be able to have as
much land as they can use. The Land Act of 1913, which does not
allow Bantu to own land except in reserves, will be gone. Everyone
who wants land will be able to get it, and so no one will have
to starve. The people's government will help the peasants in
many ways, with ploughs and tractors and oxen and seed and with
irrigation works. The whole nation will unite to fight the drought
and the locusts, and these pests will no longer cause misery
and death to thousands.