South Africa

Global strikes and solidarity

The Hong Kong Confederation of Trade unions (HKCTU) held a solidarity rally on 1 October at a Government office in Hong Kong. The demonstration called for the release of Wu Guijun, imprisoned for organising with co-workers against job losses when the furniture factory where they worked re-locates. According to the IUF trade union federation: “The workers downed tools on 7 May and petitioned the local government to intervene. On 23 May, 300 workers were besieged by the police while marching to the City Government; more than 20 workers were arrested and detained, including Wu Guijun. All were...

Solidarity with South African agricultural workers!

For the last few months, thousands of farm workers in South Africa's Western Cape region have been on strike. Western Cape is one of the most profitable agricultural regions in the world with its wines, grapes, and apples filling supermarket shelves in Britain and around the world as part of £850 million export industry. The around 500,000, mainly black, agricultural workers work in dreadful conditions and for very low pay. The minimum wage is the equivalent of under £5 a day. Workers often are poorly housed as tenants on the farms themselves. Human Rights Watch listed serious problems such as...

The Establishment Blues

Sixto Rodriguez is a Mexican-American singer-songwriter from Detroit. His life story is incredible. A construction worker who drifted around the city’s working-class districts writing about poverty, alienation, drug abuse, and class struggle, he was discovered by Detroit-based music producers in the late 60s who hailed his songwriting talent as comparable to that of Bob Dylan’s. When his two albums, released in 1970 and 1971, flopped in America, he went back to construction work and relative anonymity, going on to gain a degree in philosophy and stand as a candidate in local government...

Farm workers join South Africa strike wave

The South African labour war spread to agriculture last week as farm workers struck against low wages and poor living conditions. Like the Marikana miners’ strike, the farm workers’ actions have met with severe state repression. A worker was shot dead on 14 November when police opened fire on a protest in Wolseley, 70 miles northeast of Cape Town. While the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) was quick to claim leadership of the strike wave, and attempt to moderate its demands, independent unions not affiliated to COSATU have been integral to the actions. These include Sikhula...

The genetics of the ANC

In her criticism of my article on South Africa (“ANC and the working class”, Solidarity 263) Jayne Edwards notes that I think the ANC had no choice but to govern in the name of capital because the movement was not yet ripe, and points to the misuse of an Engels quote from 1850. I do broadly agree with her analysis, but perhaps there are nuances here. In the original version of the article, I point to the fact that it was Neville Alexander who originally used Engels quote to understand what was happening in South Africa from 1994. I accept that Jayne is absolutely correct that the key question...

Marikana Support Campaign

The Marikana Support Committee was launched in the wake of the massacre of 34 striking mineworkers on 16 August at Lonmin's Marikana platinum mine in South Africa. It is working to: support the fight for justice at the Commission of Inquiry set up to investigate the massacre support the familes of the arrested, injured, or slain support the mineworkers' struggle for a living wage . It appeals for donations to: Account name: HRMT1 for Marikana Support Campaign Bank: Nedbank. Branch: Constantia Branch code: 101109. Account no: 1011202366 Reference: Marikana Support Campaign SWIFT code: NEDSZAJJ...

ANC and the working class

I am writing to disagree with one of the arguments Martyn Hudson made in his article on the current situation in South Africa in Solidarity 262 (26 October). Martyn introduces the article with a quote from Engels in which Engels was discussing the peasant war in Germany. The quote says that “the worst thing that can befall a leader of an extreme party is to be compelled to take over a government in an epoch when the movement is not yet ripe for the class which he represents ... what he ought to do cannot be done...he is compelled to advance the interests of an alien class.” The quote is used...

Capital versus labour in South Africa

At the KDC East gold mine outside of Johannesburg 8,000 workers were sacked this week for refusing to return to work. At the same time, the commission of inquiry into the killings of the 34 miners at Lonmin platinum mine in Marikana was opened. Initial evidence presented to the enquiry indicated that 14 of them were shot in the back as they turned to run from the police gangs. As the inquiry opened there were several shocking detentions of Marikana leaders and the leader of the local Marikana solidarity campaign. The police wanted to intimidate those giving evidence about the police and the...

South African labour war spreads

The labour war which has gripped South Africa’s mining sector has spread. Workers at a Toyota plant struck for four days, and a strike by Johannesburg truck drivers prevented fuel giant Shell from making deliveries. Mo Ibrahim, the Sudanese born billionaire and philanthropist, has now waded in against the ANC government in South Africa for losing its sense of direction and attacking striking workers! He criticised the ANC for perpetuating extreme right policies as he awarded Desmond Tutu a new prize last week. The controversies within the ANC and the hostility to any media penetration into...

Workers of the world

Mass protests in Portugal have forced the right-wing government to back off from one of its plans for meeting debt bail-out conditions. The government wanted to increase workers’ social security contributions by 7% and cut bosses’ contributions by 5.75%. The effect would be a 7% cut in net pay, mostly to the benefit of the bosses. On 24 September prime minister Pedro Passos Coelho said he would abandon the plan. South Africa The miners’ strike in Marikana has ended with striking workers accepting a 22% pay increase. The dispute – during which 34 miners were massacred by police – was a product...

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