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.
Unite all Struggles Around A Launch Date for Workers Party
On 10 and 11 May (provisionally), nearly three since it first met, the Working Class Summit (WCS) will reconvene. This has the potential to be an enormous step-forward for the working class, one for which the MWP has campaigned for more than two years.
Saftu convened the original WCS in July 2018. 1,000 delegates attended representing 147 working class organisations drawn from trade unions, other worker campaigns, community groups and youth structures. At the time we described this gathering as “an historic step forward”.
City Press Editor Mondli Makhanya’s article “Beware the Entryists of the ANC” reflects the growing alarm within society over the threats posed by the ANC’s RET faction. … Makhanya seizes upon an entirely superficial analysis, drawing a parallel between the reactionary political activities of the RET faction and the Marxist Workers Tendency of the ANC (MWT), forerunner of the MWP. By binding them together in the equivalent of a “doctrine of common purpose” to take over the ANC through the crime of “entryism” – he sows confusion.
We believe that the vast majority of students will be watching the protests with sympathy, hoping for victories, but will be completely repulsed by the political affiliation and methods of those currently dominating the leadership.
Those students watching with itchy feet, eager to hit the streets, but currently holding back, as well as any genuine activists in Sasco, EFFSC etc. must make the call for the building of a new and independent mass socialist student and youth movement. This is the unfinished business of 2015’s #FeesMustFall.
There is no absence of struggles, even in the time of Covid, which display elements of revolution. Again and again working class women are at the forefront.
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