{"id":639,"date":"2019-09-12T14:17:30","date_gmt":"2019-09-12T12:17:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marxistworkersparty.org.za\/?p=639"},"modified":"2019-09-12T14:33:29","modified_gmt":"2019-09-12T12:33:29","slug":"only-workers-unity-can-overcome-xenophobia","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/?p=639","title":{"rendered":"Only Workers Unity Can Overcome Xenophobia"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Marxist Workers Party statement<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over\nthe past month, capitalism has once again bared its barbaric underbelly. 13\nhave died so far. Struggling small businesses, foreign national and South\nAfrican alike, have been destroyed. Many are displaced. The MWP joins those who\nhave condemned the xenophobic killings and destruction. We support the planned 14\nSeptember march organised by the People Coalition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Full\nresponsibility for this and the gender based violence that has reached new\nlevels of barbarism, must be laid at the door of the Ramaphosa ANC government that\nthe capitalists bought for R1bn, as well as the opposition parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whilst\njoining the chorus of condemnation, ANC politicians reinforce the false\nnarrative that foreign nationals steal jobs, are responsible for crime, drugs, strain\nsocial services and are illegal. They have followed the lead of the DA\u2019s City\nof Joburg Mayor, Herman Mashaba, who claimed foreign national make up 80% of\nthe city\u2019s population. The real figure is 26.6%. Whilst serving as Health\nMinister, Home Affairs\u2019 Aaron Motsoaledi claimed foreign nationals compromise infection\ncontrol in public hospitals, leading to an illegal instruction that foreign\nnationals pay or be denied treatment. In a fit of xenophobic hysteria, Deputy Police Minister Bongani Mkongi claimed\nthat \u201cthe whole of South Africa could be 80% dominated by foreign nationals and\nthe future president of South Africa could be a foreign national\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fulfilling\nPresident Ramaphosa\u2019s election promise to end \u201cillegal\u201d trading in townships, Gauteng\nPremier David Makhura has introduced legislation to ban foreigners from trading\nin certain sectors. Foreign nationals defending themselves against the violence\nof corrupt police was used to manufacture outrage across the media with absurd claims\nthat SA\u2019s sovereignty was threatened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Police\nraids in the Joburg CBD to confiscate \u201ccounterfeit goods\u201d and on businesses\nemploying foreign nationals in Cape Town were deliberately used to stoke\nxenophobic sentiments.  The violent\nevictions of foreign residents by organised gangs in Alexandra, as well as the\nlooting and burning of their shops has been fueled by the semi-official\nsanctioning of such acts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For\nthe ruling political and economic elite, xenophobia serves the useful purpose\nof divide-and-rule by pitting the poor against the poor. Its purpose is to\nthrow dust into the eyes of the working class, distracting attention from the\ndisaster their capitalist policies have created.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nlatest wave of xenophobia, simmering since the first major outbreak in 2008, has\nbubbled to the surface sporadically in 2010, 2012, 2015 and 2017. The 2008\neconomic crisis, the worst globally since the 1930s, cost a million jobs. As in\nmost countries worldwide, the SA economy has not recovered. At an anaemic growth\nrate of below 3% for most of the decade globally, SA\u2019s economy is floundering\nat below 2%. Two of the three rating agencies have SA on junk. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\nis not foreign nationals, who make up only 5% of SA\u2019s population that are\ntaking away jobs or taking the country\u2019s wealth \u2013 it is the capitalist class\nand their political management \u2013 the ANC government. Foreign nationals are\nfleeing from civil war and economic devastation caused by the plundering elites\nin their countries acting in collusion with SA corporate elites facilitated by\nthe ANC government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since\n1994 the ANC government has invited foreign multinationals to loot the country.\nAlthough only about 2,000 of the 1.2-million businesses in SA are foreign-owned,\nthe top 10% account for 98% of the total annual estimated tax loss of R7.8bn.\nThrough profit shifting they avoid tax by understating their true profits by as\nmuch as 80%. According to a 2014 Global Financial Integrity (GFI) report, SA is\nin twelfth place out of 151 countries plundered by big business through illicit\ncapital flows, losing R147bn a year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nFinance Ministry\u2019s economic policy proposals will only worsen the disaster \u2013 calling\nfor privatisation of SOEs, mass public sector retrenchments, full-blown\nausterity with spending cuts of 5%, 6% and 7% from 2020 to 2022. The\ngovernment plans to create a mere one million jobs over ten years. Even if it\nsucceeds, with 400,000 joining the jobs market annually, this will actually\nincrease unemployment from 10m+ today, to 13.2m. Yet it demands Eskom and the\npublic sector shed 30,000 jobs each and cut wages by 10%. With unemployment already\nat record levels, the Mineral Council threatens to add to the bloodbath with over\n100,000 mining industry job cuts alone when the carbon tax takes effect next\nyear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rising food and\nenergy prices, collapsing infrastructure, non-existent service delivery,\nrampant crime, corruption and violence \u2013 these are the flammable ingredients into\nwhich the lighted match of the ANC and DA\u2019s semi-official xenophobic utterances\nwas thrown.  Xenophobic politicians have\nprovided a cover for formations with different agendas: gangs out to loot; anti-Ramaphosa\nforces in the ANC\u2019s ongoing factional civil war, as well as outfits using \u201cradical\neconomic transformation\u201d as a pretext for burning trucks, attacking foreign\nnational bus drivers, and taking over construction works at gunpoint.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If these\nevents have proven anything, it is that the ANC government and opposition\nparties cannot point a way out of the economic impasse facing society. In\nthe 2019 election campaign, fearing the loss of their majority, the ANC joined\nthe DA in the sewer of xenophobia. Driven by the opportunities for\nself-enrichment through corruption, it is in the interests of the EFF champions\nof Pan Africanism and open borders to leave Mashaba and the DA in office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite saturation\nmedia coverage, the majority of working people oppose xenophobia. It is a\nminority sentiment on which even smaller numbers are prepared to act. It\ndominates in a vacuum created by the silence and lack of organised working\nclass action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nWorking Class Summit Saftu convened in July 2018 can provide a class\nalternative \u2013 the coordination of all sections of the working class of all\nraces and nationalities in a united struggle against their common enemy \u2013 the\nbosses and the capitalist government in SA and the continent. Implementation of\nthe WCS resolution to launch a mass workers party on a socialist programme is urgent.\n   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saftu must\naddress the crisis by placing working class unity and socialism centre stage in\nWCS to:<\/p>\n\n\n\n