The African Commission of the Committee for a Workers International (CWI) met by zoom in July. The CWI is an international socialist organization that aims to build national sections which intervene in struggles in individual countries but are also part of a worldwide struggle of the working class against capitalism and for a socialist alternative [...]

Trade union leaders with a majority in the PSCBC have agreed to sign a wage agreement on behalf of public sector workers. This is a serious setback rather than an outright defeat. It is entirely possible to recover from it [...]

A disaster is unfolding in Cabo Delgado. In 2020 alone there were 570 “violent incidents”. Nearly 3,000 have died so far and over 700,000 have been displaced. Atrocities against the local population are being committed by both the insurgents and the Mozambican army and security forces. For many the SADC intervention may seem necessary to put an end to the possibility of the insurgency spreading. But it will not only fail; it will aggravate the crisis [...]

On 21 July MWP members visited in Zone 3 of Katlehong, Gauteng. We had learned through the media of the brilliant work of residents to defend their community from rioting and looting, in particular the Motse wa Lijane mall [...]

Since the imprisonment of former president Jacob Zuma, SA has witnessed the most widespread unrest in decades. Tens of thousands of the poor, the destitute and the hungry have raided supermarkets and shopping malls for food, clothes and other consumer goods. The looting and rioting have seen instances of police outnumbered by the crowds, being pelted with stones and put to flight [...]

The ConCourt judgement is a warning to the different factions of the ruling class not to over-reach themselves as Zuma and the RET faction did. The judicial-wing of the capitalist state has substituted itself as the ruling class’s “executive committee”, given the paralysis of its executive- and legislative-wings as a result of the factional divisions in the ANC, to bring some stability to SA capitalism on the terms of the capitalist class [...]

On the 45th anniversary of the school students’ revolt of 1976 we are re-publishing in a new booklet The Soweto Uprising by Weizmann Hamilton, general secretary of the MWP. Weizmann’s 1986 article draws-out the lessons of the historic 1976 youth revolt. It was originally written to arm the working class youth struggling against apartheid with the ideas and method of Marxism. The youth movement of the 1970s and 1980s is still rich in lessons for young activists. This new introduction by Shaun Arendse takes these lessons and applies them to the situation facing young people today [...]

At the time of writing, Israeli missiles have slaughtered over 60 Gazans, including 16 children, some of them inside or near residential tower blocks that have been destroyed. The CWI strongly condemns this horrific, massive Israeli bombardment, which is causing enormous terror and devastation in the densely populated Gaza strip [...]

The 2020s is set to be a decade of explosive developments and upheavals in all countries. There is not a country where political and social turmoil are not present to one degree or another. The lightning speed at which events are unfolding is a feature of the era we have entered. Capitalism is in its deepest crisis since the 1930s with crucial changes in the world situation and economy. The capitalist classes will be confronted with crisis management, stumbling from one crisis to the next. Conversely the working class and revolutionaries are faced with the task of rebuilding the workers’ movement- building combative trade unions, constructing mass parties and revolutionary parties to resolve the crisis of leadership which currently exists [...]

Workers Day 2021 marks the 35th anniversary of Cosatu’s 1986 stayaway. At least 1.5 million workers took part in that general strike of thirty-five years ago. Topping the list of workers’ demands was the recognition of 1 May as a public holiday.The accelerated pace of events in the coming years will cut both ways. The working class will more rapidly be able to test-out different programmes and organisations. The looming public sector showdown will be a vital, potentially decisive, test that will redefine the relationship of class forces of the 2020s [...]