Generated by All in One SEO v4.9.8, this is an llms.txt file, used by LLMs to index the site.## Sitemaps - [XML Sitemap](https://marxistworkersparty.net/sitemap.xml): Contains all public & indexable URLs for this website. ## Posts - [50th Anniversary of the June 16 Uprising…](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=7843) - A new struggle is necessary – for the overthrow of capitalism and a socialist society The Marxist Workers Party marks the 50th anniversary of the heroic uprising of working class youth with the publication of a platform and programme of action. The aim is to re-unite the youth, rekindle the revolutionary fire that animated the - [The 70th anniversary of the Freedom Charter](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=6142) - We republish the article we produced to mark the 69th anniversary of the Freedom Charter. In our view, it retains its validity and requires no more than a few additional points to reinforce the analysis. It is also necessary to place the debates on the Charter in the workers movement in the context of the - [Now that Saftu has rejected the SACP Conference of the Left…](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=7746) - SAFTU must Convene the Working Class Summit to implement the 2018 Declaration to form A MASS WORKERS PARTY ON A SOCIALIST PROGRAMME “The SACP’s planned Conference of the Left, co-convened with the EFF and inviting the ANC, MKP and bourgeois institutions, is not a step towards working-class unity but another attempt to entrench class collaboration. - [Stop Xenophobia: Unite Against Capitalist Exploitation](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=7740) - For a National Day of Action against xenophobia! Saftu (SA Federation of Trade Unions) must set a date for the reconvening of the Working Class Summit The xenophobia sweeping across the front pages of the media in South Africa and internationally is causing shock waves worldwide especially in Africa. There is understandable disbelief that a - [SUDAN | Three Years of Counter-Revolutionary War but Struggles Continue](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=7701) - The civil war in Sudan has entered its fourth bloody year. It has brought death, the massive displacement of peoples, hunger and famine to the people of Sudan. The eighteen-month siege of the city of El-Fasher, and the genocidal massacre of tens of thousands after its fall, stands amongst the most barbaric atrocities of this - [US/Israel War on Iran Part 2](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=7597) - The war’s impact on Iran “… that it is precisely the international strength of the US and her irresistible expansion arising from it, that compels her to include all the powder magazines of the whole world into the foundations of her structure, ie, all the antagonisms between the East and the West, the class struggle - [Xenophobes provide cover for crimes of capitalist class and its political parties](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=7575) - In this, our final part 5b of our five-part series on xenophobia we deal with how in South Africa today, xenophobic forces fuelled by desperation and amplified by political opportunists like Operation Dudula are serving as unwitting pawns for the ANC-led GNU and its capitalist backers. Far from addressing the root causes of crumbling services, - [The US-Israel war on Iran Part 1](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=7559) - “… that it is precisely the international strength of the US and her irresistible expansion arising from it, that compels her to include all the powder magazines of the whole world into the foundations of her structure, i.e., all the antagonisms between the East and the West, the class struggle in Old Europe, the uprisings - [SANDF Cadre Group’s programme - a manifesto for xenophobia and far right policies PART 5A](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=7544) - In this final part of our five part series divided into parts 5a and 5b we focus on the SANDF Cadre Group and their manifesto to rid the country of foreigners and to introduce measures that will strip citizens of their socio-economic rights. Many of their ideas especially relating to foreigners are echoed by almost all - [IWD 2026 | Women’s Movements Today](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=7446) - For International Women’s Day 2026 we are publishing a speech by Christine Thomas, CWI England & Wales, at a recent meeting with sympathetic co-thinkers of the CWI on the state of the global movements against women’s oppression. Next year is the tenth anniversary of the #MeToo movement which became symbolic of the global movements that - [2024 election unites GNU in xenophobic common purpose](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=7358) - In this Part 4 of our 5-part series on Xenophobia wecontinue to argue that xenophobia is being used as a tool by the political elite to distract from systemic failures to divide the working class. The article end by exposing five myths of xenophobia and refutes each of those claims. In Parts 5a and b - [Uganda: Museveni’s 40-year rule extended through election marred with irregularities, apathy and heavy repression](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=7356) - Ugandan’s Yoweri Museveni had his 40-year rule extended in January 2026 through an election marred with irregularities, apathy and heavy repression of opposition, especially members of the National Unity Platform (NUP) led by activist Bobi Wine. Museveni, before the election, had boasted that he would win the election with a figure not less than 80% - [The ANC leads GNU partners in reigniting the flames of xenophobia](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=7347) - In Part 3 of our five part-series on Xenophobia we analyse how the ANC and its partners in the GNU have increasingly adopted and promoted xenophobic and anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies, echoing apartheid-era tactics and blaming migrants for socio-economic crises, while undermining constitutional rights and failing to address the root causes of poverty and service - [Nigeria: Protester shot, socialist arrested – Lagos police attack rally against demolition and eviction](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=7342) - Hassan Taiwo Soweto, a leading member of the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM, CWI in Nigeria) and spokesperson of #EndBadGovernance Movement Lagos, was arrested today at the Lagos State House of Assembly, probably with other protesters. This was at a protest against the unjust demolition and forced eviction of Makoko, Oworonshoki, Owode Onirin and other poor - [US Imperialism out of Venezuela! End US state terror!Overthrow capitalism! For global workers unity and a socialist world!](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=7331) - The kidnapping of Venezuelan President and his wife Cilia Flores marks the most brazen exhibition of state terrorism, and the lengths US imperialism is prepared to go to arrest its decline as a global hegemon in recent years. The US regime’s claim that the injuries that especially those visible on Cilia Flores’ face during their The kidnapping of Venezuelan President and his wife Cilia Flores marks the most brazen exhibition of state terrorism, and the lengths US imperialism is prepared to go to arrest its decline as a global hegemon in recent years. The US regime’s claim that the injuries that especially those visible on Cilia Flores’ face during their - [Part 2 - Apartheid Laboratory for Xenophobia](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=7326) - In the introduction to our five-part series on the rise of xenophobia in South Africa, we highlighted how anti-immigrant sentiment has evolved from rhetoric to organised action and state complicity. We argued that xenophobia is being used as a tool by the political elite to distract from systemic failures to divide the working class and - [Part 1 - Xenophobia – the new “swart gevaar"](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=6875) - In this series of articles on Xenophobia in five parts, we set out the historical, geo-political and economic background to the rise of the far right which has placed anti-immigrant xenophobia at the centre of their programme today and conclude with a strategy to fight it. In this introduction we examine the rise of xenophobia - [Enough Is Enough — Jobs for All, Not Jobs for Some](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=6784) - South Africa is drowning in unemployment, poverty and inequality. Millions are desperate for work and services are collapsing while a narrow elite captures the spoils of public budgets and municipal contracts. The struggle against apartheid united the overwhelming majority across the racial and ethnic boundaries consciously constructed by the white minority regime as part of - [From Soweto Uprising to Present-Day Struggles](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=6796) - As we approach the end of 2025 and matric exams conclude, South Africa faces a deepening crisis in access to higher education. Youth unemployment remains alarmingly high—recent figures from Statistics South Africa estimate that over 59% of people aged 15–24 are unemployed. In this context, a university degree is increasingly seen as essential for improving - [Enough Is Enough — Jobs for All, Not Jobs for Some - Press Release 19 November 2025](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=6793) - The suspension of Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality Head of Traffic and Licencing, Warren Prins on trumped-up charges, is a clear indication that the municipality’s disciplinary process is abused to eliminate skilled workers and tarnish their good names. Weizman Hamilton, Marxist Workers Party General Secretary and organiser of an international solidarity campaign to stop the unfair - [Tribute to Comrade Dave Hemson](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=6757) - Trade unionist and soldier of the working class with a lifelong commitment to socialism We express our deepest condolences to his wife, Suzanne, his former wife Trish, his children, his family as a whole, including his brothers Crispin and Jonathan. Suzanne and his stepdaughter Soraya supported him with unstinting dedication on his last journey after - [Appeal for Solidarity: Reinstate Gayle Grootboom and Kupido Baron. Reject racism!For Workers!](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=6552) - The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality (NMB) this year dismissed Senior Work Study Practitioner, Gayle Grootboom, and Municipal Media Liaison Officer, (municipal spokesperson), Kupido Baron on trumped up charges of gross insubordination. They had served NMB for respectively 27 and 20 years of commendable service with spotless disciplinary records. Their dismissals were the culmination of ordeals - [Youth and Student Platform](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=6650) - The fragmentation of struggles—whether in education, labour, gender justice, or community resistance—has allowed the capitalist state to isolate and suppress dissent. The working class must respond with unity, clarity, and organisation. The formation of sectoral movements is not merely a tactical necessity; it is a strategic imperative for building a mass workers’ party rooted in - [Commemorate the Marikana massacre. Part 2 (b) Post-apartheid capitalism revives desire for Socialism](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=6545) - Although the working class entered the democratic era without its own independent workers party, socialism and the yearning for such a party survived the SACP’s onslaught. As the end of apartheid came into sight, a healthy class suspicion towards the ANC still ran through the outlook of the leading layers of the organised working class - [Commemorate the Marikana massacre. Part 2 (a) Socialism and the workers party before the democratic era](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=6522) - “What has developed in South Africa is a very powerful tradition of popular or populist politics. The role of the great political movements such as the ANC and the Congress Alliance has been to mobilise the masses against the repressive minority regime... Where virtually all the population is voteless and oppressed by a racial minority - [Commemorate the martyrs of Marikana. Build a mass workers party on a socialist programme](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=6510) - Part 1 The messages emanating from the various annual commemorative Marikana massacre events rightly denounced the bloodletting on the day as the ANC’s worst act of suppression since the Sharpeville massacre of the apartheid regime. It was the ANC’s most bloody act of class warfare against the black working class since it came to power. - [CWI 14th World Congress | New Era of Capitalism in Crisis and the Struggle for Socialism](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=6469) - The following thesis on perspectives for world capitalism was agreed at the 14th World Congress of the Committee for a Workers’ International, which convened in Berlin, Germany, from 27 to 31 July 2025. Delegates attended in person from Europe, Asia, Africa and North and South America and online from Australia. The Congress also hosted guests - [No to Xenophobia! For Workers Unity!](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=6192) - The Marxist Workers Party commends the strong turn out of the social movements and organisations that came out in solidarity with Kopanong Africa, Abahlali baseMhjondolo, the Inner-City Federation and the South African Informal Traders Forum. The successful demonstration proved that xenophobia is not supported by the majority of working-class people when they overshadowed the small - [Ramaphosa at the White house Part 2](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=6055) - Trump’s simultaneously economic and political offensive against SA is not unique. It is US imperialism’s modus operandi against a legion of countries. The political attacks on SA have not fallen from a clear blue sky. Trump ordered an inquiry into alleged white farmer killings and mass expropriation as long ago as his first presidency initially - [No Future for Youth under Capitalism – Socialism the only way forward](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=6047) - We republish below the statement we published on the tenth anniversary of the Youth Uprising of 1976. It is accompanied by an introduction to an analysis of the crisis facing youth and students today that will be followed by a programme, platform of demands and a programme of action to overcome the crisis in a - [The 1976 Soweto Uprising](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=6031) - Originally appeared in Inqaba Ya Basebenzi No. 21-22 (September 1986) under the pen name Basil Hendrickse. by Weizmann Hamilton At about 7 am on 16 June, 1976, thousands of African school students in Soweto gathered at pre-arranged assembly points for a demonstration. They launched a movement that began as a local expression of opposition to the - [No to the Israel–Iran War](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=6025) - by Shahar Benhorin, Socialist Struggle Movement, Israel-Palestine The Netanyahu–Trump gang is expanding regional conflagration in service of the occupation and the rule of capital Advance broad protest, refusal, and strike action with the call: No to the Israel–Iran war, an end to the war of extermination in Gaza, overthrow Israel’s ‘government of death’ — yes - [Ramaphosa capitulates to US imperialism at the White House](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=6015) - The events that unfolded n 21st May 2025, have generated praise for Team Ramaphosa’s performance from big business and ANC loyalists, and condemnation from the most activists, left formation and trade unionists. It has raised a number of questions and allegations of(i) white genocide (ii) white famer land expropriation (iii) racial discrimination against whites by - [Trump’s Second Coming PART 1: The bankruptcy of global capitalism underlined](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=5995) - A coordinated working class counter-offensive needed to create a socialist world Trump’s economic and political policies in his second coming as US president have opened up a qualitatively new and decisive phase in the economic and simultaneous political crisis of US and global capitalism. On “Liberation Day” Trump swung the wrecking ball he came armed - [A tribute to Peter Taaffe](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=5988) - "Uwile umthi omkhulu" – A Great Tree Has Fallen The Marxist Workers Party expresses its deepest condolence to Peter Taaffe’s ’s family – his partner and comrade-in-arms Linda, daughters Nancy and Katie, grandchildren and great-grandson. In the passing of Peter Taaffe, the Committee for a Workers International working class and the oppressed worldwide have lost - [Marxism and the Second World War](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=5981) - And I can’t help but wonder now Willie McBride Do all those who lie here know why they died? Did you really believe them when they told you the cause? Did you really believe that this war would end wars? But the suffering, the sorrow, the glory, the shame – The killing, the dying – - [Trump’s 2.0 - A titanic conflict between the classes impends](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=5969) - May Day was born out of the militant struggles of the US working class for an 8-hour day. It was adopted by the working class internationally. This year’s May Day coincided with the 50th anniversary of the victory of the Vietnamese masses over the US. The interview outlined that this year’s May Day coincided with - [Labour law amendments most serious attack on worker’s rights yet.. Trade unions and working class must unite to reject them.](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=5948) - The bosses and the government have tabled a new Draft Code of Good Practice on Dismissal at NEDLAC, an institution that brings together, government, labour, business and community organisations to discuss socio-economic issues that directly impacts these Acts: Labour Relations (LRA), Basic Conditions of Employment (BCEA), National Minimum Wage. - The new Draft Code was - [Support MWP South Africa Send a Comrade to the CWI World Congress](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=5921) - Dear Comrades and Supporters The Committee for a Workers International, that the Marxist Workers Party is affiliated to, is holding its fourteenth world congress this year. The MWP is appealing to supporters and sympathisers for support to finance our delegate’s attendance. The CWI congress is taking place at a time when Trump 2.0 has acted - [Wathinta abafazi wathinta mbokodo’ You strike the woman, you strike a rock](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=5900) - How can we Unite the Struggle for Gender Equality? This year’s International Women’s Day takes place against a backdrop of unprecedented geo-political upheavals. Donald Trump, defined legally as a sexual predator after being found guilty by a New York jury of having sexually abused magazine writer E Jean Carroll and then defamed her by branding - [GERMANY | Federal Election Disaster for Establishment Parties](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=5880) - By Sascha Staničić, federal spokesperson, Sol - Sozialistische Organisation Solidarität (CWI Germany) Germany The Left is the ray of hope against cuts and racism The result of the federal election is a slap in the face of the established, pro-capitalist parties. The only parties that won were those that many do not consider to be - [DR CONGO | Major Escalation in Decades-Old Conflict](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=5866) - By Sean Figg, CWI On 27 January, the March 23 Movement, backed by the Rwandan government, announced the capture of the Congolese city of Goma and on 17 February of Bukavu. These cities, both provincial capitals, sit on the Rwandan border. Their capture marks a dramatic escalation in the decades-old conflict. Life is again being - [Part 4: The political significance of Stilfontein](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=5845) - Xenophobia’s cold-blooded indifference on steroids In this final part of our four-part series on the Stillfontein massacre we draw attention to the danger of xenophobia for the working class, why it is being consciously inflamed and point to the looting and pillaging of the country by foreign multinational and their local collaborators. Apartheid Justice - [Part 3 Stilfontein: Premeditated Slaughter](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=5817) - In this third article we continue what has become a four-part series on the Stilfontein crisis. In the first part which you can access here and the second part here we focused on the government’s response and the media’s coverage of the crisis and offered an analysis of the place of illegal mining in capitalist - [Fight Trump and the Right With a Mass Workers’ Movement](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=5800) - US Marxists., International Socialist Group, co-thinkers of the MWP, South African affiliate of the Committee for a Workers International, comment on Trump’s presidency and how the working class can fight back. The election of Donald Trump, a right-wing populist with strong ties to the far-right, has prompted fear of what his agenda could have in - [Trump’s second presidency begins: Interview with a US socialist](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=5797) - US Marxists., International Socialist Group, co-thinkers of the MWP, South African affiliate of the Committee for a Workers International, comment on Trump's inauguration as president. Interview with Clare Bayler, from Independent Socialist Group. Donald Trump is being inaugurated on 20 January. Lots of people in Britain are repulsed by his reactionary rhetoric and find it hard to understand - [Part1: Stilfontein...Nationalise the mines under workers control and management!](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=5752) - This is a two-part article about the zama zama crisis at Stilfontein in the Northwest, 52 km from Johannesburg. In the first part, we discuss the government's response to the crisis aided by the media in inciting hysteria in an attempt to dehumanise the trapped workers as foreign criminals. But their hypocrisy was exposed when - [Part 2: Mining industry bosses and government are the real criminals to blame for the zama zama crisis.](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=5761) - This is a two-part article about the zama zama crisis at Stilfontein in the Northwest, 52 km from Johannesburg. In the first part, which you can access here we discussed the government's response to the crisis aided by the media in inciting hysteria to dehumanise the trapped workers as foreign criminals. But their hypocrisy was - [FOR A UNITED SOCIALIST CIVIC FEDERATION CAMPAIGN MEETING](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=5747) - Meeting to be held will discuss the launching of the socialist civic federation campaignaimed to bring together community, youth/student and workers' struggles. Click on the link below to join the meetinghttps://us06web.zoom.us/j/82895701875 - [FOR A UNITED SOCIALIST CIVIC FEDERATION](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=5701) - This platform for community struggle and action is the first of four that outline a common platform and a programme of action the MWP proposes for each of the three main theatres of struggle we have identified: communities, workers, students and youth. We are also adding a platform and programme of action for women. In - [Trump declared President-elect for a second right-wing, anti-worker term](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=5686) - Donald Trump was declared the winner of the 2024 presidential election early this morning (6 November). Once again, the Democratic Party’s pro-corporate agenda failed to win enough votes to stop Trump, the right, and far right, despite the lesser-evil argument that the Democrats are the best hope to beat the Republicans. The limits of capitalist - [CAMPAIGN FOR A SOCIALIST MASS WORKER PARTY](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=5665) - Organised workers, working class communities, women, youth and students must unite! The outcome of the May 29th elections represents far more than just a defeat for the ANC, important as that is. In the final analysis, it was also a rejection of all the parties that constitute the entire post apartheid political dispensation. Every single - [Weizmann Hamilton, general secretary of the Marxist Workers Party: Solidarity with #EndBadGovernance activists. Protest Nigerian government persecution.](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=5626) - https://marxistworkersparty.net/wp-content/uploads/2024/09/Youth-Rights-Campaign-YRC-in-Nigeria.mp3?fbclid=IwY2xjawFaVAlleHRuA2FlbQIxMAABHfFrQd6YLke-OMLEsqS-YH0ThSf89dKre10tZS_H0FsqFXXthxTMU7NzvQ_aem_xbfm0_ztPFxnN16CfwiyQg - [END BAD GOVERNANCE NIGERIA](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=5607) - Please join the MWP as it will be hosting Hassan "Soweto" Taiwo on the 21st September 2024 to discuss the #EndBadGovernance Nigerian campaign. Please click on the link below to join the meeting: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/87984624635 - [Working Class Women Must Unite and Reclaim National Women's Day](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=5552) - by Sheri Hamilton This year’s National Women’s Day was dominated by media headlines about the controversy of the nationality of one of the contestants of the Miss South Africa beauty pageant. As a result of mainstream and social media pressure incited by the new xenophobic Patriotic Alliance Minister of Arts and Culture, Gayton Mckenzi, and - [Why a GNU instead of other coalition forms?](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=5522) - In Part Two of our article, we continue our perspectives on the GNU and outline why the glue that holds it together is the common purpose of all the parties to maintain political stability. The strategists of the capitalist class fear the instability that could follow following the electorate’s rejection of all the parties, especially - [Under the GNU - what way forward for the working class?](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=5510) - In this two-part article, we give our perspective on the new Government of National Unity which has been widely marketed as expressing ‘the will of the people’. In Part One, we offer our analysis of what the GNU represents and the reasons behind how it came to be constituted. In Part Two we outline why - [Soweto ’76: re-building a revolutionary movement of students and youth](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=5243) - The militant and determined struggle of the youth in Kenya that forced President Ruto to withdraw the controversial Finance Bill 2024 demonstrates once more the revolutionary potential of the youth in igniting struggles that can develop into revolutionary situations. The taxes the Bill threatened to impose against a range of goods and services including sanitary - [The 1955 Congress of the People & the Freedom Charter](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=5234) - Blueprint for socialism or capitalism? One year ahead of the 70th anniversary of the congress of the people, the political landscape has been changed decisively by the outcome of the 29th May elections. The party that made the freedom charter its manifesto for the mobilisation of the masses, lost its majority for the first time - [GNU and “Progressive Caucus” both capitalist. For a socialist mass workers party](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=5219) - [Working class rage brings ANC’s three decades long majority to a humiliating end](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=5197) - In a shattering rejection, the ANC, elected in an atmosphere of heady euphoria with an overwhelming 62.7% majority in 1994 to mark the end of white minority rule and apartheid, has been brought to its knees with a humiliating 40.2%. The ANC may have emerged from these elections with the largest share of the vote, - [Why a capitalist GNU-coalition will not serve working class interests.](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=5200) - Click on the link below to listen to the podcast: - [After the 2024 General Elections: Campaign for a Socialist Mass Workers Party](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=5176) - The 2024 elections, more than any other in the democratic era, have highlighted, on the electoral plane, the sharp polarisation between the classes. The elections will be completely dominated by parties that, whatever their political campaign’s main message, from radical economic transformation posturing, xenophobia, racism, tribalism, anti—LBTQI, provincial secession or just plain unadulterated neo-liberal capitalism, - [MWP Saturday Meeting](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=5162) - Please click on the link below to join the meeting https://us06web.zoom.us/j/81443732407 - [Ulonyulo luka 2024 nombutho - Labour Party – wenyunyoni i-AMCU (Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=5152) - UNobhala JikeleleWe-South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU)Ingqalelo: Isigqeba sekomit yelizwe, ikhomishini yopolitiko neyemibono, kwakunyenekomiti yengqungquthela eqhubayo yabasebenzi10 th April, 2024 Qabane Zwelinzima Vavi Ngomhla we-16 March, 2024, uSaftu ubize intlanganiso eyandisiweyo yengqungquthela eqhubayo yasebenzi eza kuba ngomhla we-17 March, 2024. Sicacisile ukuba yimposiso ,lihlazo nokungcatsha abasebenzi ukuthi kungathethwa ngolonyulo olubalulekileyo ngakumbi ukusukela ngo-1994 nokusekwa - [The 2024 Elections and AMCU's Labour Party](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=5110) - After a week since the Greater Eldorado Park Civic, the Kapok Residents Association and the Gauteng EPWP Forum wrote to the Saftu NEC and the Working Class Summit Steering Committee, there has been no response; not even an acknowledgment of receipt. This is despite the Extended Steering Committee of 17 March, at our request discussing - [How can a Workers party on a socialist programme be built?](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=5053) - With over 200 parties contesting the 2024 elections pro-capitalist, more misery lies ahead. The 2024 elections are widely viewed as the most important since the dawn of democracy in 1994.Voted into office with a majority of 62.9% in 1994, the ANC has held an outright majority in every election in the post-apartheid era. For the - [Gauche Révolutionnaire (Revolutionary Left – the CWI in France) interview of Weizmann Hamilton, general secretary of the Marxist Workers Party.](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=5040) - On January 19, 2024, Gauche Révolutionnaire (Revolutionary Left – the CWI in France)interviewed Weizmann Hamilton, general secretary of the Marxist Workers Party, the SouthAfrica section of the Committee for a Workers’ International, the International that GaucheRévolutionnaire is part of. GR: Weizmann, why did South Africa file this complaint? Weizmann: Looking at the brief put together by the legal - [Nigeria: End the prosecution of socialist activist, Abbey Trotsky!](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=5006) - National Labour Council (NLC) and TUC must take action to halt the persecution of Abbey with the immediate commencement of a serious campaign against casualisation and related indecent labour practices in workplaces The Campaign for Democratic and Workers’ Rights (CDWR) calls on trade unions, pro-masses’ organizations, and activists to support the demand for an immediate - [Brutal Israeli-state offensive continues, threat of regional spread grows](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=5003) - Over 2 million Palestinians in Gaza are suffering a horrific situation on a daily basis, with nowhere safe to go. Bombing continues and Israeli ground operations continue in the south – the area where people were once told to flee to safety. Almost the entire population is going hungry. Famine could result within the next - [Biggest ever strike in Northern Ireland set for 18 January](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=4999) - Northern Ireland will see its biggest strike wave ever on 18 January, involving over 150,000 workers. Across the public sector, workers are demanding pay rises, as well as ensuring pay parity, where relevant, with public-sector workers in Britain. The strike action will hit education, public transport and healthcare among other services. An economist estimates the - [The roots of the Israel-Palestine conflict and the war on Gaza](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=4969) - December 8, 2023 Judy Beishon from Socialism Today, monthly magazine of the Socialist Party (CWI England & Wales The world’s imperialist powers have always intervened in the Middle East for their own political, strategic and economic interests. On the one hand dishing out investment, aid, trade deals and promises of protection, and on the other hand - [Zimbabwean Elections 2023](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=4795) - By Weizmann Hamilton Zanu-PF’s blood-stained regime retains power After the 23rd and 24th August 2023 elections for the president, legislators and councilors, Zimbabwean African National Union – Patriotic Front (Zanu-PF) retained power continuing its 43- year-old reign since independence in 1980. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission (ZEC) declared Zanu-PF’s Mnangagwa, 80, the winner of the presidential - [The DA in crisis](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=4780) - This article continues the series we began over a month ago with the first part (1a) on the ANC. In this article, part (1b), we examine the electoral prospects of the DA, which is followed in part 2, by the EFF and the final part 3 on the way forward. The DA’s post-apartheid evolution The - [The Johannesburg Inferno – Working Class must unite](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=4758) - The inferno that claimed the lives of 77 people, the majority burnt beyond recognition, is one of the worst indictments not just against the City of Johannesburg (CoJ), but the ANC government itself. 12 of the deceased were children. This was an accident waiting to happen. The CoJ has been warned for years about a - [A Socialist Approach to the Emancipation of Women](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=4735) - By Sheri Hamilton The struggle against Gender Based Violence Women’s month drew to a close after the month-long ritual of renewed commitments from government to emancipate women in general and to fight gender-based violence (GBV), in particular. Ramaphosa has claimed his commitment to the cause by describing GBV as a pandemic. Many will greet such - [Part 1A - the ANC](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=4718) - ANC - loss of overall majority in 2024 could tear it apart. By 2024 the ANC’s shall have been gripped by factional divisions for more than half of the years since it came to power in 1994. After two splits, Cope’s in 2008 and the EFF’s in 2012, a third split, cracked open by the - [6th Post-Apartheid General Election - A Crisis of Political Representation for Capitalist Class and Working Class](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=4693) - A call to the left PreambleOne of Italian Communist Antonio Gramsci’s most quoted phrases is his 1930 statement in the Prison Notebooks that ‘the crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born; in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear’. It describes accurately the multifaceted crisis - [Employment Equity Act will not end inequality, mass unemployment and poverty](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=4633) - The amendments to the Employment Equity Act (EAA) signed into law by President Cyril Ramaphosaand due to take effect on 1st September 2023, has given rise to a new flare up of racial tensions.The DA, with the support of the Freedom Front+ and Solidarity have denounced the 2023 EEA. Theyargue that it discriminates against the - [Sudan | Revolutionary masses must end generals’ counter-revolutionary violence](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=4519) - A brutal power struggle is under way in Sudan. On 15 April, heavy fighting erupted between different factions of the armed forces. Civilians have abruptly found themselves in war zones, especially in the capital Khartoum. The death toll is already in the hundreds, and thousands are injured. A refugee crisis is developing as civilians rush - [Will Saftu’s support for EFF shut down take working class struggle forward?](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=4347) - By Weizmann Hamilton The Saftu leadership has listed a catalogue of disasters that face the working class, from the downward spiral of the economy, to the rise in crime, gender based violence, mass unemployment, corruption etc. The federation’s first National Executive Committee of 2023 at which these were discussed concluded emphatically that SA is a - [International Women’s Day 2023](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=4311) - South Africa is rated the most unequal country on the planet by the World Bank. It is also the mostviolent towards women. According to the Africa Health Organisation, Femicide is five times higher inSouth Africa than the global average and it has the fourth-highest female interpersonal violence deathrate out of the 183 countries listed by - [Public sector indefinite strike - Mobilise for a National General Strike](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=4292) - 10% NOW! – NO JOB LOSSES! – DEFEND COLLECTIVE BARGAINING! Name date for Working Class Summit – launch socialist mass workers party The announcement of indefinite strike will be warmly welcomed by the whole working class. The unions should be applauded for standing firm in the face of the government’s insolence. It is determined to - [ANC CONGRESS | No Help for South Africa’s Working Class](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=4252) - by Shaun Arendse The ANC’s December congress re-elected Cyril Ramaphosa (CR) as party leader for a second five-year term. He will therefore almost certainly lead the ANC into national elections in 2024. Although CR remains ‘the most electable’ ANC leader, the party is expected to lose its governing majority next year, opening-up an unstable era - [PUBLIC SECTOR PAY | Name Start Date for All-Out Indefinite Strike!](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=4196) - 10% NOW! – NO JOB LOSSES! – DEFEND COLLECTIVE BARGAINING! Cosatu out of the Tripartite Alliance Unions must lead creation of a socialist mass workers party Re-convene the Working Class Summit to Name Workers Party Launch Date Below is the text of a pamphlet that will be distributed by Marxist Workers Party members on the - [10 NOVEMBER STRIKE | Now Organise a United All-Out Public Sector Strike](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=4173) - On 10 November the first national strike action against the ANC-government’s assault on public sector pay took place. The Public Service Association’s (PSA) one-day downing of tools followed a week of lunchtime pickets. Marches in several towns and cities may not have had a mass turnout but they ensured the voice of public sector workers - [SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN | End Repression in Sri Lanka!](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=4163) - The Marxist Workers Party, South African affiliate of the Committee for a Workers International (CWI), sends its support and solidarity to all protesters in Sri Lanka and supports the demands of the Aragalaya movement and the Movement for People’s Councils. An International Day of Action is taking place today with protests and pickets taking place - [Lungiselela Ugwayimbo Jikelele LweCandelo LikaRhulumente](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=4150) - Manyanani Ngokunqamlezayo iiManyano! Bandakanyani neMiphakathi yasekuhlaleni! Iziganeko zale veki iphelileyo zizise icandelo likarhulumente kumda wesitrayiki ekudala silindelwe. Abasebenzi kufuneka balixhakamfule ithuba lokutshintsha ngokugqibeleleyo ulungelelwaniso lwamandla kuluntu lube ngecala labo. Urhulumente weANC uqhubeke wakwenza nzulu ukuhlaselwa kwabasebenzi kuhlahlo lwabiwo-mali lwale veki. Uhlaselo lwemivuzo yabasebenzi becandelo likarhulumente luza kuqhubeka. Kumboniso omtsha wokuzigwagwisa nokujongela phantsi intshukumo yabasebenzi,“isibonelelo” se-3% - [Prepare For a Public Sector General Strike](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=4137) - Unite Across Federations! Unite with Communities! The events of the past week have brought the public sector to the threshold of long-overdue strike action. The working class must seize the opportunity to shift the balance of forces in society decisively in its favour. The ANC-government continued and deepened its attacks on the working class in - [Community Programme of Action](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=4095) - - Organise Our Communities – Build a Countrywide Socialist Civic Federation - Organise and Struggle for Jobs, Homes and Service Delivery for ALL - Fight Crime & Corruption with Mass Democratic Community Campaigns & Mobilisations The Marxist Workers Party is active in communities. In a number of areas we have led the building of broad - [New Phase in the Ukraine War Fuels Instability of Global Capitalism](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=4086) - The following is a statement by the International Secretariat of the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI) on the new phase in the Ukraine war; a conflict that is partly a result of the intense tensions between world capitalist powers, and which, in turn, is greatly adding to the instability of global capitalism. World capitalism - [REVIEW: AUGUST 24 SHUTDOWN | Enormous Potential to Build a United Mass Movement Against the ANC Government and Capitalism Must be Seized](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=4047) - The growing demand for working class unity took a step forward on the August 24 National Shutdown. The merger of the Cosatu and Saftu rallies on the lawns of the Union Buildings was a powerful statement of class solidarity and one of the most welcome sights since the 2015 split in the workers’ movement. Relenting - [Make August 24 First Step in Campaign of United Rolling Mass Action](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=4025) - Strike again in September! Demand the trade union leaders name the date now for further united action. The ANC government must go! Build a unifying, democratic and open socialist mass workers party. Reconvene the Working Class Summit before year-end to set a launch date for the workers party. The National Shutdown is potentially an important - [MARIKANA 10 YEARS ON | The Historical Significance of the Mineworkers Uprising](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=4003) - by Weizmann Hamilton There can be no tribute more fitting to the martyrs of Marikana than the SA Federation of Trade Unions’ planned National Shut Down on 24 August 2022 which is attracting support across the workers’ movement. A commemoration worthy of the fallen in the bloodiest confrontation between the working class and the capitalist - [AUGUST 24 SHUTDOWN | Organise August 24 as First Step in a Campaign of Rolling Mass Action](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=3990) - The Saftu trade union federation is organising a National Shutdown on 24 August. The leadership has appealed to the leaders of other trade union federations to support it. As part of the preparations Saftu is calling Provincial Shop Stewards Committees over this coming weekend. Below is the text of a pamphlet that Marxist Workers Party - [WORKERS DAY 2022 | Unite ALL Struggles](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=3983) - The following is the text of a pamphlet distributed at Saftu's Workers Day event held in Pretoria. FOR A UNIFYING & DEMOCRATIC SOCIALIST MASS WORKERS PARTY – Set the Launch Date! BUILD FOR THE WORKING CLASS SUMMIT 25 & 26 JUNE A second Working Class Summit will be held on 25 & 26 June. The - [WORLD PERSPECTIVES | New Era of Turmoil and Upheaval not Witnessed for Generations](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=3978) - The following statement by the International Secretariat (IS) of the Committee for a Workers International (CWI), looks at the main trends in the world today – economic, political, environmental, geopolitical and class relations. It was prepared as background to the CWI Cadre Summer School, which took place 29 July to 1 August in London, UK. - [Hello world!](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=7217) - [SAFTU’S SECOND CONGRESS | The Ideological, Organisational and Political Re-Armament of the Working Class Must Begin](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=3903) - by Weizmann Hamilton The note of optimism and determination of the declaration delegates issued at the end of Saftu’s Second Congress (23-26 May 2022) will be greeted with a sense both of relief and encouragement by Saftu members and the working class as a whole. Its commitment to “stand shoulder to shoulder with the working - [Heroic Sibanye Strike Highlights the Tactical Issues Facing the Workers’ Movement](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=3888) - by Shaun Arendse The temperature of the class struggle is rising. 2022 has already seen a whole number of strikes in mining, metal, manufacturing, on farms and in the public sector. Some have been brief skirmishes as workers test their strength against the bosses. Others have been bitterly fought and protracted battles lasting weeks and - [SAFTU’S SECOND CONGRESS | Time for a Counter-Offensive Against Bosses and Government](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=3828) - Saftu’s second congress is taking place at a time of the sharpest escalation of the struggle between the classes in the post-apartheid era. Over the nearly three decades since the defeat of apartheid and installation of the ANC in office, the dreams, hopes and aspirations of the working class lie shattered. The ANC government was - [OPERATION DUDULA: CAPITALIST REACTION | How should we understand organised xenophobia and how should the working class respond?](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=3783) - The majority of people have reacted with horror at the violent death of Elvis Nyathi, stoned and burned to death by a murderous mob in Diepsloot. According to his wife the mob had broken into their dwelling and demanded R300. When she offered them the only money she had, R50, they turned on him, pursued - [ESWATINI | A Discussion on Strategy, Tactics and Programme in the emaSwati Revolution](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=3757) - In recent months the Marxist Workers Party has taken part in a series of discussions with activists from eSwatini. The comrades are at the forefront of the struggle against the Mswati-dictatorship which erupted in a fresh wave of protests in the course of last year (see here). We have welcomed the opportunity to deepen our - [WORKING CLASS SUMMIT DEBATES | The Workers Party Discussion Paper & the Crisis in Saftu](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=3743) - Over the last few weeks momentum towards convening a second Working Class Summit has been regained. The first Summit, convened by the Saftu trade union federation, took place in July 2018 and was attended by 1,000 delegates representing trade unions, communities, youth and other organisations. Most importantly the Summit “…agreed on a need to build - [SAFTU CRISIS | What lies behind the attempt to oust comrade Vavi? How should Saftu respond?](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=3735) - The attempted suspension of Saftu secretary general, Zwelinzima Vavi, by National Office Bearers who are members of the Numsa-sponsored Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party (SRWP), threatens to throw Saftu and the entire workers movement into an even deeper crisis than it is in already. It is not just an attack on comrade Vavi, but on Saftu - [The Russian invasion of Ukraine and the New Era of Global Capitalism](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=3726) - by Tony Saunois, CWI Secretary The world has been plunged into another catastrophe on top of the COVID-19 pandemic, following the murderous Putin regime’s invasion of Ukraine. The war, which has raged for more than two weeks, has brought with it carnage and human suffering not experienced in Europe since the Balkan wars in the - [CWI WORLD CONGERSS | European Capitalism’s Insoluble Problems](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=3717) - The 13th congress of the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI) took place from 22-25 January 2022. International travel difficulties because of COVID restrictions meant that most comrades participated via Zoom. Nevertheless, the congress was a great success. Over 80 delegates and visitors participated from across Europe, Asia, Africa and South and North America, discussing perspectives and - [CWI WORLD CONGRESS | Turmoil, Revolution and Counter-Revolution in Asia, Africa and Latin America](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=3696) - The 13th congress of the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI) took place from 22-25 January 2022. International travel difficulties because of COVID restrictions meant that most comrades participated via Zoom. Nevertheless, the congress was a great success. Over 80 delegates and visitors participated from across Europe, Asia, Africa and South and North America, discussing perspectives and - [CWI CONGRESS | World Relations: Capitalism Confronted with Multiple Crises](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=3679) - The 13th congress of the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI) took place from 22-25 January 2022. International travel difficulties because of COVID restrictions meant that most comrades participated via Zoom. Nevertheless, the congress was a great success. Over 80 delegates and visitors participated from across Europe, Asia, Africa and South and North America, discussing perspectives and - [CLOVER STRIKE | Build Workers Unity in Struggle to Defeat Clover](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=3666) - Support Workers’ Demand for Nationalisation As well as the entire dairy and broader agriculture industry dominated by big business The MWP salutes the combativity, courage and determination of the Clover workers as their strike, enters its third month, against plant closures, retrenchments, salary cuts and degraded working conditions. The destructive effect of these callous acts - [BURKINA FASO | “Popular” Coup Marks New Turn in Revolutionary Process](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=3651) - by H.T Soweto (CWI Nigeria) On Monday 24 January 2022, a group of military officers toppled President Roch Kabore-led government in Burkina Faso. The junta, which is named the “Patriotic Movement for Safeguard and Restoration (MPSR)” and led by Lieutenant Colonel Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, has suspended the constitution and the National Assembly. It has also - [Hello world!](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=6973) - [Hello world!](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=7266) - [Hello world!](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=7196) - [ESWATINI | The Struggle Must be for Democracy AND Socialism](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=3573) - by Shaun Arendse Over the last several months protests have rocked eSwatini. The masses have taken to the streets to end the dictatorship of King Mswati III with greater militancy than ever before. In two waves of protests this year the youth have been in the frontline. More than 80 protesters have been killed and - [Ramaphosa, Diko, the ANC and the Rise of the ‘Covidpreneurs’](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=1884) - For a mass workers party on a socialist programme! by Shaun Arendse In a thirty minute speech on 23 July, President Ramaphosa spent nearly one-third of it (eight minutes and twenty-seven seconds!) promising action against Covid-related corruption and profiteering. Every person watching that broadcast knew that he was, first and foremost, addressing the members and - [LOCAL ELECTIONS 2021 | Working Class DEMANDS a Political Alternative](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=3554) - The 2021 local government elections (LGE21) outcome marks the end of an era. For the first time since 1994 the ANC, the “party of liberation” has crashed below 50%. The working class has punished the ANC in successive elections over the last decade, but never like this before. The quantitative accumulation of working class rejection - [Solidarity with Steel and Engineering Workers Strike](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=3411) - The Marxist Workers Party stands in solidarity with the steel and engineering workers who began national strike action on 5 October. This action on pay is being led by Numsa, the dominant union in the nearly half-million strong workforce. Marches have taken place in Johannesburg and Durban with one journalist, reporting live from the Johannesburg, - [Gauteng EPWP Workers’ CCMA Case Hearing on 4 October](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=3397) - On Monday 4 October Gauteng EPWP workers will return to the CCMA in Pretoria. The Commission will hear the case on the March 2020 dismissal of over 3,000 workers by the ANC-run Gauteng Department of Infrastructure. The workers had been employed for seven years. (See here for a detailed account of the Gauteng EPWP Workers - [WORKING CLASS SUMMIT DEBATES | What ‘type’ of party does the working class need?](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=3322) - “Vanguard Party” or “Mass Party? The Marxist Workers Party welcomes the re-convening of the Working Class Summit on 23-24 October. It could not come at a better time as the economic and political crises of SA capitalism continue to deepen. By building unity around a clear programme of action the Working Class Summit (WCS) has - [SA AFTER THE RIOTS | What are the prospects for SA’s capitalist economy?](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=3307) - This is the first in a series of planned new perspectives articles following the watershed events of July. by Shaun Arendse Mining profits are booming. June saw the biggest trade surplus on record. The banks are paying dividends to shareholders again and StatsSA reports that the economy is 11% larger than thought. But unemployment has - [2017 ANC Conference](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=439) - United they stand, divided they fall by Weizmann Hamilton After the most tumultuous run-up to any conference in ANC history, watched across the world, with over a thousand journalists in attendance, and the markets moving up in anticipation of the results, Cyril Ramaphosa has ascended to the presidency of the ANC after a bitterly fought - [CWI African Commission Discusses Perspectives and Building a Socialist Alternative](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=3269) - 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. - [PUBLIC SECTOR WAGE AGREEMENT | Majority of Union Leaders Capitulate to ANC Austerity](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=3261) - Trade union leaders with a majority in the Public Service Co-ordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC) have agreed to sign a wage agreement with the ANC-government on behalf of South Africa’s 1.2 million public sector workers. All of Fedusa’s public sector affiliates (including Hospersa, Naptosa and the PSA) have agreed to sign. Cosatu is divided. Teachers’ union - [MOZAMBIQUE | Military Intervention Will Solve Nothing](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=3235) - Only the masses organised in socialist mass workers parties can resolve the crisis by Shaun Arendse The 23 June Summit of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) agreed to the deployment of a military force to northern Mozambique. This was the belated response of the regional elites to an armed insurgency that has been underway - [EYEWITNESS | Community Self-Defence in Katlehong, Zone 3](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=3223) - by Shaun Arendse & Executive Mukwevho 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. This is the last shopping complex in the area still - [RIOTS AND LOOTING A DEAD END! | Build Working Class Unity to Win Jobs and Services for ALL](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=3209) - Set the Launch Date for a Socialist Mass Workers Party Marxist Workers Party statement 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. - [CONCOURT RULINGS | Judiciary Clears the Path for Ramaphosa as Capitalism’s Crisis Deepens](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=3185) - On 29 June the Constitutional Court found former-president Jacob Zuma guilty of contempt of court. He has been sentenced to fifteen months in prison without the possibility of appeal. Less than 48-hours later, on 1 July, the ConCourt cleared President Ramaphosa of any wrong doing in relation to a R500,000 donation, from the notoriously corrupt - [YOUTH DAY 2021 | Re-Build the Revolutionary Traditions of the Youth!](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=3132) - On the 45th Anniversary of the Soweto Uprising: An Appeal to Young People 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 Marxist Workers Party. Together with a number of comrades from Noordgesig, a township on - [Conflict in Jerusalem Widens Across Israeli Cities and To War On Gaza](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=3018) - by Judy Beishon, CWI International Secretariat Weeks of repressive, brutal Israeli policing of Palestinian gatherings and protests in East Jerusalem have led to a new round of bloody conflict. Rather than just being confined to Jerusalem, this time the Israeli authorities are facing a Palestinian revolt on a much wider scale, on multiple fronts. Outrage - [An Era of Capitalist Turmoil](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=3000) - Only Socialism Can Offer Humankind A Future 28 April 2021 (1) One year into the Covid-19 pandemic - with over three million dead including one million in Latin America - global capitalism has been plunged into a series of inter-connected multiple crises: health, economic, political, social, geopolitical and environmental. Despite introducing massive stimulus packages and - [WORKERS DAY 2021 | Seize the Opportunities to Build Working Class Unity](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=2917) - For a rolling programme of public sector general strike action uniting national, provincial and municipal government workers and SOE workers. Build strike planning committees bringing together the rank-and-file of all public sector workers regardless of union affiliation. Build for the Working Class Summit on 12-13 June. Set the launch date for a mass workers party. - [Ensure the Working Class Summit is a GENUINE Parliament of the Working Class!](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=2747) - Unite all Struggles Around A Launch Date for Workers Party On 10 and 11 May (provisionally), nearly three years 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. - [A Reply to City Press’s Mondli Makhanya](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=2724) - – the RET Faction, the MWT and “Entryism” by Weizmann Hamilton City Press Editor-in-Chief Mondli Makhanya’s article “Beware the Entryists of the ANC” (14 March 2021) reflects the growing alarm within society, especially, but not exclusively, within the capitalist class over the threats posed by the ANC’s Radical Economic Transformation (RET) faction. Working class people - [STUDENT PROTESTS | Build an INDEPENDENT Mass Socialist Student & Youth Movement](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=2700) - Free education – NOW! No to Financial Exclusions Cancel ALL student debt – current and historic No to police brutality! Demilitarise the police Student protests have dominated headlines over the past two weeks. The brutal and senseless killing of Mthokozisi Ntumba by police as he exited a clinic, unwittingly stepping into a confrontation between protesting - [IWD 2021 | Women’s Struggles in a time of Covid Crisis](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=2643) - by Clare Doyle, CWI A year has passed since the last celebration of working women’s struggle for a better deal in life. What a year of misery, death, and destruction! But what a groundswell of hostility to the system of capitalism is building up! Covid-19 has swept across continents and oceans, destroying lives and livelihoods - [IWD 2021 | Women, Covid-19 and the Struggle Against Gender-Based Violence in South Africa](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=2640) - by Sheri Hamilton The announcement of the most vicious cuts in social spending since the fall of apartheid, while simultaneously cutting taxes on big business, is a declaration of war against the working class, especially women. The budget has been announced against a background of a war on women. As is the case throughout the - [FEB 24 STRIKE | Let the Working Class Counter-Offensive Begin!](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=2614) - The South African Federation of Trade Unions (Saftu) will embark on a Section 77 ‘general’ strike on Wednesday 24 February, the day that the budget is tabled in parliament. Because of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic the strike will overwhelmingly take the form of a ‘stay away’, with workers asked to remain at home. The Marxist - [ANNIVERSARY | One Year Since EPWP and CHW Union Buildings Slave Revolt](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=2602) - The Marxist Workers Party is marking the one year anniversary of the Gauteng Community Health Workers and EPWP workers’ march and sleep-over at Union Buildings. This took place on 12 and 13 February last year, during Ramaphosa’s 2020 “State of the Nation Address”. Attended by 2,000 workers, there were marches through the Pretoria CBD on - [SSA | Zuma’s Parallel State & ‘Dirty Tricks’ Campaign Against the Workers’ Movement](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=2586) - Last week the Zondo Commission heard alarming testimony on the extent of corruption within the State Security Agency (SSA) under Jacob Zuma’s presidency. This had gone so far that elements of a parallel state had begun to be built to further the interests of Zuma and his allies – the ‘Radical Economic Transformation’ faction of - [The Garissa Massacre, Al-Shabaab and US imperialism](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=2557) - by Shaun Arendse On 2 April, the Somali based al-Qaeda affiliate al-Shabaab carried out a horrific massacre of 148 university students in Garissa, Kenya. The 15 hours of carnage saw Muslim students separated from Christian, with the latter lined-up and executed. Later, parents trying to identify their murdered children found it almost impossible to recognise - [UGANDA | 2021 Election & the Rise of Bobi Wine](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=2553) - by Shaun Arendse President Yoweri Museveni has returned to power after claiming victory in Uganda’s 14 January presidential elections. The Uganda Electoral Commission awarded Museveni and his ruling-National Resistance Movement (NRM) 58.64% of the vote (5.8 million votes) and laughably rejected accusations of vote-rigging. Museveni retains the odious title of one of Africa’s top-five longest - [REVIEW: OCTOBER 7 GENERAL STRIKE | An Opportunity Missed for Saftu](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=2212) - The 7 October general strike called by Cosatu came against the background of an all-out assault on the working class by the ANC government and the bosses over the six months of the lockdown. The government had refused to pay public sector workers the increase agreed in the three-year 2018 collective agreement – a wage - [EPWP BULLETIN #12 | EPWP Workers CAN Win Permanent Jobs](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=2172) - The Gauteng Government Must Extend the Agreement to Insource CHWs to All EPWPs Protest on Monday 12 October in Johannesburg at the Office of the Premier The campaign of Community Health Workers (CHW), led by the Nupsaw trade union, has resulted in a partial-victory. In August the Gauteng Department of Health agreed to implement a - [ANC Government’s Vaccine Fiasco](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=2525) - Building on last year’s PPE-corruption scandal, the ANC government has made a complete fiasco of vaccine procurement and roll-out. In general, South African capitalism is proving itself incapable of dealing with the second-wave of the pandemic. There are record-levels of new infections and a rising death-toll, now standing at over 33,000. The ANC government’s priority - [2020 – A Turning Point: An Explosive and Uncertain Decade has Begun](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=2460) - by Tony Saunois, CWI Secretary As the year 2020 comes to a close the turmoil and convulsions that have shaken global capitalism continue. The year has been a turning point in history, affecting every aspect of society. Commentators and historians will henceforth reference what was ‘pre-COVID’ and what was ‘post-COVID’. An explosive and uncertain situation - [Pro-Trump Supporters’ Attacks on Capitol Hill – A Socialist Response](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=2463) - by International Socialist Group On January 6th, the Congress of the United States formally certified the results of the Electoral College, which Joe Biden won. On the same day, President Trump gave a speech to a rally outside the White House, where he continued to claim victory in the 2020 election. This speech was one - [Local Elections Message – Need For a Mass Working Class Party](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=2436) - by Weizmann Hamilton 3 August 2016, will go down at an electoral level, as a turning point in the ANC’s post apartheid history – a point at which the arrow of its political fortunes is now firmly pointing south. As events since the elections have demonstrated, the aura of the ANC as the all-conquering party - [The 2016 Local Government Elections](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=2432) - The 3 August local government elections come against the background of the worst crisis the ruling capitalist class has faced since the ANC came to power. On the one hand, the crisis in capitalist rule is reflected on the political front in the intensification of the struggle for control of the ANC and a realignment - [ANC’s MTBPS | Working Class Must OPPOSE Sovereign-Debt Repayment](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=2271) - Last Wednesday, 28 October, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni, on behalf of the ANC government, announced the following: The wages of all public sector workers will be frozen for the next three years. This will affect teachers, nurses and other health workers, police officers, and workers in all other government services. This pay freeze comes on - [NUPSAW DAY OF ACTION | EPWPs Struggle for Permanent Jobs Continues](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=2191) - On 12 October the workers on the ANC government’s slave-labour Expanded Public Works Programme (EPWP) continued their struggle for permanent jobs and a living wage. Hundreds of EPWP workers took part in a day of action which was initiated by the National Union of Public Sector and Allied Workers (Nupsaw), an affiliate of the Saftu - [STRIKE | Forward in Unity Against Capitalism!](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=2179) - Reinstate the public sector wage rise! For a public sector & SOE general strike. For unity in action. Deepen the links between the rank-and-file of different federations. Create workplace- and area-based industrial locals to unite workers regardless of union affiliation. Convene a second Working Class Summit uniting all workers and communities in struggle. Implement the - [OPEN LETTER TO SAFTU | PART 2: The Crisis in Saftu, the Struggle for Class Independence & the Workers Party](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=2095) - Dear comrades, In Part I of our Open Letter we put forward our views on what we believe must begin to emerge from Saftu’s 25 August NEC in order to take forward working class struggle against the unprecedented health, economic and political crisis. But the fact that the NEC meeting is taking place almost a - [OPEN LETTER | To Saftu Members](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=1983) - Campaign for a public sector and SOE general strike Call a one-day Section 77 strike Convene a Working Class Summit II Implement the Saftu and WCS resolutions for the creation of a mass workers party Dear comrades, On 25 August the National Executive Committee of Saftu will sit. Every member of the federation must take - [CHIEFLY CORRUPTION | In the Grip of Poverty in the Rural Areas](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=2123) - by Thamsanqa Dumezweni, Eastern Cape The Eastern Cape, particularly the rural parts thereof, is the epitome of the ANC’s betrayal of the rural people who are unable to breathe as they are daily chocked by poverty, unemployment, lack of clean water, access roads, healthcare facilities, decent sanitation, proper housing, proper school education and functioning transport. - [OPEN LETTER TO SAFTU | PART 3: The Crisis of Programme](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=2116) - Dear comrades, In Part 2 of our Open letter we described the obstructionist role of an “SACP Mark II”-grouping inside the Numsa and Saftu leaderships that is blocking the working class’s struggle to reclaim its organisational, political and ideological independence. We appealed to genuine members of the SRWP, one of the obstacles created by this - [MARIKANA ANNIVERSARY | Honour the Martyrs - Build a Mass Workers Party](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=1962) - To honour the memory of the martyrs of Marikana.... Build a mass workers party on a socialist programme by Weizmann Hamilton It is eight years since the Marikana massacre. Although the number of dead, at 34, was just under half of the 69 slaughtered by the apartheid regime in the 1960 Sharpeville massacre, the Marikana - [ANNIVERSARY | A Tribute to the Marikana Martyrs from the New Generation](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=1927) - by Kamogelo Mofihli, MWP , Marikana The Capitalist agent CR17 – President Cyril Ramaphosa – showed us that capitalism was and still is the cancer of this nation. The tragic events of the Marikana massacre could have been avoided by acknowledging the Marikana mineworkers’ demand for a R12,500 p/m basic salary. This would have prevented - [NEW MEMBERS | Why I joined the MWP #2](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=1918) - by Mofihli Kamogelo, Marikana, North West When Vladimir Lenin saw the atrocities caused by the First World War and the suffering of the working people he knew that it was time for revolution. The Russian Imperial dynasty was overthrown. This was done by the working class, led by the Bolsheviks. The Russian revolution was a - [NEW MEMBERS | Why I joined the MWP](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=1910) - Why Marxism is the Solution by Katlego Sokopo, Soweto It does not take much for a person to be apolitical and ahistorical in South Africa. One needs only to look at the pathetic, corruption-laden tenure of the ruling party in order to understand that the neo-liberal economic leaning of the country is only worsening the - [WORKING CLASS DAY OF ACTION | The ANC’s PPE-tender Corruption is the last straw!](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=1897) - The working class must take control of the management of the pandemic The symbolic protests by left activists taking place on 1 August have been called because of a growing feeling that something must be done. The country has been in lockdown for over four months but we are only now entering the ‘peak’ of - [Sassa Crisis Capitalism and Corruption: Two Sides of the Same Bloody Coin!](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=1158) - by Weizmann Hamilton The contract awarded to Cash Paymaster Services (CPS) to distribute social welfare grants to 17 million people reveals everything that is rotten in the capitalist system and the Zuma-led ANC government. It has exposed a web of corruption connecting CPS, its parent, the US-owned Net1 UEPS, BEE front men, the Minister of - [Return to School: Safety Must be Priority](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=1746) - As with the economy, the government’s approach to the management of the impact of the pandemic on education, is to rush towards reopening for reasons other than the health and safety of learners, educators, staff, parents and communities. To proceed with sending learners back to school especially when Covid cases are surging is criminally irresponsible. - [CAMPAIGN | Organise Against Unemployment](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=1726) - FOR A NATIONAL DAY-OF-ACTION WITH MARCHES IN EVERY MAJOR CITY South Africa’s unemployment disaster is now speeding-up and heading down the road to catastrophe. The latest figures show that unemployment has reached 30.1% of the working-age population. A massive seven million individuals. When the two million so-called “discouraged job seekers” are counted, the true rate - [“All changed, changed utterly” – A New Era of Class Struggle & Capitalist Crisis](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=1659) - Statement by the International Secretariat of the CWI 8 June 2020 The words of W.B Yeats, from his poem ‘Easter 1916’, sum up the current world situation: “All changed, changed utterly.” 2020 is the opening of a new era, as we have explained in the previous CWI analysis. Fundamental changes are taking place in the world - [EPWP BULLETIN #11 | Back to the Streets for Permanent Jobs](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=1643) - Assemble 09h00 Gauteng Provincial Legislature, Wednesday, 17 June. On Wednesday 17 June EPWP workers will protest outside the Gauteng Legislature in Joburg. This will be the first EPWP action since the 9/10 March protest at Corner House. Workers’ won an important concession then – the opening of negotiations. Then the Covid-19 pandemic hit and the - [USA | What’s next for the anti-racist movement?](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=1631) - Originally published on 7 June 2020 on socialistworld.net by T.R. Whitworth Independent Socialist Group (CWI USA) In my opinion, the young generation of whites, blacks, browns, whatever else there is, you’re living at a time of extremism, a time of revolution, a time when there’s got to be a change. People in power have misused it, - [USA | Anti-racist Movement Reignited by Death of George Floyd](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=1634) - Originally published on 29 May 2020 on socialistworld.net by Jai Chavis and Nicholas Wurst Independent Socialist Group (CWI USA) On 25 May, police in Minneapolis choked George Floyd, an unarmed black man, who subsequently died. His death was disturbingly reminiscent of the NYPD killing of Eric Garner in 2014. A released video recorded by bystanders shows - [COVID-19 Response](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=7075) - All the countries we are supporting are starting to impose restrictions to slow the spread of the virus. We have sent relief goods to over a thousand families to help them survive this pandemic. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim - [Book for kids](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=7074) - For a lot of communities, access to books is a luxury. The past month, we held a “give a book for a child” project where we found overwhelmingly generous turnouts. We have sent over 10,000 books to children and communities Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore - [They need us](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=7073) - Now more than ever, our fight to end poverty needs to be stronger. United Nations released the 2020 report on Sustainable Development Goals, which reflects a very sobering data Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud - [Education for kids](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=7072) - With school shutdowns around the world due to the pandemic, children and their families in poverty are impacted due to the lack of resources to attend classes online Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation - [Art in Fundraising](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=7071) - Sharing art for a cause has allowed artists, art organizations and non-artists charities to approach art-based projects. Last year alone, we have hosted 20 art-fundraising events to help children and their families have access to Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut - [Volunteer in time of isolation](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=7070) - The past couple of months have been a reality check on a number of things we have taken for granted, and also a reality check on how much communities and families need out help now more than ever Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore - [Donation For Kids on Street](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=7069) - We have shared many stories on how we allocate our resources to helping communities and families escape poverty. This year alone, we have housed over 100 kids living on the streets with their families, giving them access to water and food Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut - [Sharing Happiness](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=7068) - The world has changed for children in the past years, all thanks to your help and your fight to uphold the rights of children. This year, we have saved 1000 children from abusive homes, human trafficking Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. - [Give the gift of bible](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=7067) - In these uncertain and unprecedented times, we hope to spread peace and refuge through the scriptures. The past month, we have received 500 bible donations to send out to countries who do not have access Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut - [Donation for poor kids](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=7066) - Nearly 4,000 Canadians came together to bring tangible hope to children and families. Monetary and physical donations were sent out to 10,000 poor kids all over the world. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud - [Fundraising for child refugee](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=7065) - Will you help provide much needed help for refugees? During this time, we need to come together to help refugees survive the pandemic. Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam, quis nostrud exercitation ullamco laboris nisi ut aliquip - [New Era of Capitalist Turmoil & Social Upheaval Opens](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=1440) - Statement by the International Secretariat of the CWI 15 May 2020 The corona crisis has entered a new phase, in terms of health, the economy and geopolitical relations. It has confirmed the main trends outlined in previous statements produced by the CWI (23 March and 21 April). A new era of capitalist turmoil and social - [EPWP FORUM OPEN LETTER|To Judge President of the Labour Court](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=1430) - On the 5th May, 2020, the Judge President of the Labour Court rejected an application for an urgent interdict by submitted on the 27th March, 2020, by the National Union of Public Servants and Allied Workers on behalf of Extended Public Works Programme (EPWP) workers against the Gauteng Provincial Government’s Department of Infrastructure Development (DID). - [The Covid Crisis & the Way Forward for the Workers Movement](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=1251) - Convene a Saftu Congress and a second Working Class Summit before the end of May to re-arm the working class with a clear socialist programme for the new period of global pandemic and capitalist crisis by Shaun Arendse In our 16 March statement the MWP warned that Ramaphosa’s appeal for South Africa to face the - [For Workers’ Control of SAA. Restructure in the Interests of SAA Workers & Passengers NOT Moody’s](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=891) - Sack the board! End outsourcing! The Marxist Workers Party stands in full solidarity with SAA workers!! The SAA management and the Ramaphosa government are determined to defeat the SAA strike. From her comments at the SAA board’s press briefing on 19 November it is clear that Thandeka Mgoduso, SAA’s acting chair, along with the rest - [SAA Workers Victorious in Wage Battle – But War Continues](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=902) - by Weizmann Hamilton & Bongani Nkosi The outcome of the SAA strike is a victory. The Cabin Crew Association of South Africa and Numsa deserve the applause of all aviation workers and the working class as a whole. In picketing in support of a strike co-led by a union not affiliated to the federation, Saftu - [SAA: A Warning to the Working Class](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=1295) - Marxist Workers Party statement Whilst South Africa has been on a lockdown, aeroplanes grounded and at least one airline worldwide liquidated, the struggle for the future of South African Airways has continued. Under the whip of big business, the ANC government is set to take full advantage of the global aviation industry crisis the pandemic - [CAMPAIGN LAUNCH | Aviation Industry Crisis](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=1410) - Fight retrenchments and pay cuts Abolish outsourcing Industry-wide R12,500 minimum wage Organise and fight for the socialist nationalisation of the whole aviation industry The cost of the Covid-19 industry-wide shutdown is being passed to workers in unpaid wages, compulsory leave and retrenchments. Comair has followed SAA and SA Express into business rescue. Cabin crew and - [Organising Working Class Communities Under Pandemic & Lockdown](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=1372) - Marxist Workers Party statement Two mile queues for food parcels. Corruption and patronage in their distribution. Shops being looted. Schools vandalised and burned. Collapsing household income. Confusion over accessing social grants. Tens-of-thousands of arrests and fines. Harassment, beatings, and even killings at the hands of state forces. The Covid-19 pandemic and lockdown has heaped new - [Covid-19 and Crisis in Sub-Saharan Africa](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=1365) - Statement by the International Secretariat of the CWI Lenin once said that with the 1917 Russian revolution, “Imperialism broke at its weakest link”. Today, the deadly combination of the Covid-19 pandemic and the rapid development of an almost unprecedented worldwide economic catastrophe is producing potentially explosive social, economic and political situations around the world. By - [Budget 2020: Analysis](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=1180) - by Weizmann Hamilton The budget announced by Tito Mboweni, signifies the most serious attack on the working class since the ANC came to power. The capitalist class, backed by the opposition parties, including the EFF ‘radical economic transformation’ posturers, welcomed the budget. The majority of them had wished for more brutal cuts but praised Mboweni - [Global Pandemic, Capitalist Crisis & Bitter Class Polarisation in the US](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=1267) - Statement by the International Secretariat of the CWI 21 April 2020 The devastating consequences of the covid-19 pandemic and the unprecedented economic global capitalist crisis which it triggered, has continued to ravage all continents. It could cause the onset of one of the deepest recessions, with elements of depression, in the history of capitalism. The - [WORKERS DAY 2020: Covid-19 Exposes Capitalist Barbarism & Need for Global Socialism](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=1347) - CWI statement The Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI) extends revolutionary socialist greetings to workers and the oppressed everywhere. This year’s May Day takes place in extraordinary circumstances. The Covid-19 pandemic has fully exposed, in the words of Lenin, capitalism’s “horror without end”. The criminally reckless approach of capitalist governments to the Covid-19 outbreak has - [Eskom & the Loadshedding Crisis](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=1169) - For an Independent Working Class Programme by Shaun Arendse What does resolving the Eskom crisis look like for the working class? A reliable and uninterrupted supply of affordable electricity in every household, community and workplace. Job security, decent wages, and workers’ rights for all Eskom employees, including those of the contractors that depend upon it. - [EPWP BULLETIN #9: ANC’s Gauteng Government Starving Workers](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=1234) - Lockdown Used to Dismiss EPWP Workers The 5,000 EPWP workers falling under Gauteng’s Department of Infrastructure Development have not received their April stipends. These stipends of R2,200 are completely inadequate in normal times. They are below even the poverty-level national minimum wage. But under the harsh conditions of the lockdown whole families and communities have - [Cuba’s Medical Brigade & “Socialist” Cuba](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=1314) - On 27 April, 217 Cuban health workers arrived in South Africa to assist in the fight against Covid-19. After a period in quarantine the members of this ‘Medical Brigade’ will fan-out across the country. Cuba’s achievements in public health are a historic legacy of its 1959 revolution and break with capitalism. Free education allows the - [COVID-19 #3: Crisis Shakes Chinese Regime](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=1142) - Originally published on 19 February 2020 on socialistworld.net by Clare Doyle, CWI China World-wide the number of dead and infected from the Coronavirus appears to have reached a peak. But fears persist that large numbers could still die because of the impossibility of knowing before the symptoms develop that someone is carrying the virus. In Britain, nine - [COVID-19 #2: World Economy Infected](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=1145) - Originally published on 10 March 2020 as the editorial of The Socialist, weekly paper of the Socialist Party (CWI England & Wales). The biggest one-day fall in stock markets since the financial crisis; an oil price war between Saudi Arabia and Russia; and the fastest drop in the cost of oil for 30 years. The impact - [Coronavirus Plunges Capitalism into Global Turmoil](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=1165) - The Need for a Socialist Alternative Statement from International Secretariat of the CWI 23 March 2020 1. The outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic has plunged world capitalism and society into an entirely new era of turmoil and upheaval. In country after country, as the pandemic has taken hold, it has rapidly exposed everything that is - [COVID-19 #1: The Class Struggle Continues](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=1148) - Reject Class Collaboration – Build Working Class Solidarity Marxist Workers Party statement Since the end of January South Africans have watched the corona virus spread around the world with growing concern. High levels of HIV, TB and diabetes, not to mention poverty and malnutrition, puts millions of South Africans in the “at risk” category. Together - [LOCKDOWN! Covid-19 Exposes Bankruptcy of ANC’s Capitalist Policies](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=1173) - Prepare a Mass Workers Party on a Socialist Programme by Weizmann Hamilton The 26 March countrywide lockdown president Cyril Ramaphosa announced in an emergency attempt to contain the spread of the corona virus, has been hailed as the decisive intervention the pandemic required. Worldwide the number of infected is rising to half-a-million. The death toll - [Militarised Lockdown for the Working Class & Poor](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=1220) - by Shaun Arendse & Weizmann Hamilton There is growing concern over police and military brutality in the enforcement of the regulations for South Africa’s twenty-one day lockdown. Videos have circulated on social media of soldiers beating up and kicking residents in informal settlements, forcing them to do frog jumps and roll in the mud as - [International Women's Day and the Struggle Against Oppression](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=1123) - by Clare Doyle, CWI Women's oppression is not new. It is as old as history and the division of society into classes. It takes many forms and so does the fight against it. It is significant that women who feel the urgent need for change have been to the fore in all the recent uprisings - [There Can be No Capitalism Without Corruption!](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=1154) - For Regime Change! For System Change! For a workers government on a socialist programme Nkandla, Guptagate, the arms deal, failed local government audits, fraudulent qualifications, the slanderous attacks on the Public Protector, cover-ups. A poisonous stench of corruption is now flowing out of every pore of the Zuma-led ANC administration that resembles a broken sewage - [EPWP BULLETIN #8: DID Humiliated in Labour Court](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=1136) - Agreement in Place for Negotiations but Workers Must Remain on High Alert On 9 and 10 March EPWP workers protested in Johannesburg and Pretoria outside offices of the Department of Infrastructure Development (DID). Outside the DID’s Corner House head office in Johannesburg workers refused to leave until they got clear answers from management. The protests - [PODCAST #1: The Class Struggle in 2020](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=1073) - Interview with Weizmann Hamilton, General Secretary of the Marxist Workers Party. In the following interview, Hamilton draws a balance sheet on the class struggle in 2019 worldwide and in South Africa, and looks ahead to 2020. With the threat of a Moody’s sovereign-debt downgrade hanging over South Africa, and the ANC government’s policy of appeasement - [PODCAST #2: The ANC’s Historical Mission](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=1088) - The Defence of Capitalism A fierce factional struggle is being waged around the ruling ANC between the supporters of President Cyril Ramaphosa and so-called ‘white monopoly capital’, and the supporters of former-President Jacob Zuma, whose siren-call is ‘radical economic transformation’. Both factions however defend the capitalist system. In essence, their argument is about the best - [PODCAST #3: A Brief History of the International Marxist Movement & the Revolutionary Programme (Part 1)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=1111) - The MWP is organising a series of day schools to introduce each of these to new members and supporters. The first took place on 22 February 2020. This podcast is a recording of the introduction at that workshop. The YouTube version (see below) includes visual material too. The workshop covered how the capitalist class first - [INTERVIEW: EPWP Workers' Struggle for Permanent Jobs](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=816) - At the end of October the MWP interviewed a leader of the Gauteng EPWP workers about the situation facing them since their last round of marches and protest action. A new struggle will almost certainly be necessary as contracts come to an end on 31 March 2020. In the interview, a planned meeting between the - [PART TWO: For Mass Working Class Struggle & a Bold Socialist Programme to Break with Capitalism](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=851) - One working class – one struggle. For a trade union united front against job losses, privatisation and austerity. What role should Saftu play? by Shaun Arendse The announcement of major job losses at SA Airways on 11 November was a deliberate and calculated provocation. The government has provoked strike action to test the response of - [PART ONE: SA’s Economic Crisis – No Way Out for the Working Class Under Capitalism](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=837) - by Weizmann Hamilton South Africa is going through its most serious economic crisis of the democratic era. What characterises this crisis, probably more than any other before it, is that there is no solution on a capitalist basis. The crisis has been produced by the very policies the capitalist class has enforced on their executive - [INTERVIEW: Midrand Workers' Reinstatement Campaign](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=1017) - In 2018 a 24 year campaign for the reinstatement of Johannesburg municipal workers ended in an agreement for their reinstatement. Today the Midrand Workers are all members of the Democratic Municipal Workers Union of SA (Demawusa). We spoke with STENA MOLEPO, convenor of the Midrand Workers, for an update on the reinstatement process and other - [SAA: ANC Government & Big Business Retaliate](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=976) - Workers Movement Must Oppose Business 'Rescue' MWP statement Late on 4 December, the South African Airways board placed the state-owned national airline in ‘business rescue’, along with all of its subsidiaries – Mango, Air Chefs and SAA Technical. This is the first time this legal mechanism has been used for an SOE. It sets a - [CWI STATEMENT: A World of Explosive Social Upheavals and Inter-Imperialist Turmoil](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=828) - The following statement was agreed at a meeting of European CWI sections and supporters, along with visitors from the USA and Nigeria, which was held earlier this week, in London. The world situation is marked by explosive social upheavals and turmoil. Even since the re-founding meeting of the Committee for a Workers’ International (CWI), last - [The Midrand Workers: A hard won victory!](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=885) - A 24 year campaign for reinstatement of municipal workers dismissed for exposing corruption has finally ended in victory. Izwi spoke to Stena Molepo, convenor of the Midrand Workers. Q. When, why and how many Mid-Rand workers were dismissed? A. Close to 600 workers were dismissed for exposing corruption in the now-defunct Midrand town council in - [Zuma Ousted](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=448) - by Weizmann Hamilton Inside two months following his election as ANC president at the party’s December 2017 national conference, Cyril Ramaphosa has realised the ambition he reportedly set himself whilst still at high school according to a close childhood friend – to become the country’s president. If his victory in the ANC presidential succession race - [VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN - How should organised workers respond?](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=642) - Marxist Workers Party statement The rape and murder of student Uyinene Mrwetyana was the final spark that lit a new wave of protests demanding an end to violence against women. Uyinene’s body was discovered following a slew of reports of murdered women. Many of them had police protection orders against the abusive partners that killed - [Mugabe – body laid to rest as contested legacy finds new life](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=804) - by Weizmann Hamilton The empty seats at the National Sports Stadium in Harare at Robert Mugabe’s 14 September official funeral ceremony spoke volumes about the views of the Zimbabwean people. The circumstances of Mugabe’s death symbolically captured the real relations between this alleged hero of the liberation struggle and the masses. That he died in - [Only Workers Unity Can Overcome Xenophobia](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=639) - Marxist Workers Party statement Over the past month, capitalism has once again bared its barbaric underbelly. 13 have died so far. Struggling small businesses, foreign national and South African alike, have been destroyed. Many are displaced. The MWP joins those who have condemned the xenophobic killings and destruction. We support the planned 14 September march - [The Ramaphosa Presidency](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=443) - Can CR save the ANC in 2019? by Shaun Arendse The ANC has admitted that they could lose their majority in next year’s national elections. A leaked internal report says the possibility that the ANC will only remain in power in a coalition with other parties is “high”. It does not rule-out being forced out - [What role can Saftu play in uniting the working class?](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=63) - For a socialist programme of militant struggle – time for workers to take the offensive against the bosses’ attacks by Shaun Arendse Workers are under attack by the bosses and the politicians that defend the capitalist profit system. There have been tens of thousands of job losses on top of existing mass unemployment. To boost - [2019 Election Results](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=1) - Disillusionment with political establishment the winner! by Weizmann Hamilton The 2019 general elections will be seen, in time, as the most important since the advent of democracy. For the first time since 1994, less than half of the voting age population cast their ballots. There are 35.8 million eligible voters. Of these 26.8 million are - [Reserve bank nationalisation: ANC window dressing](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?p=130) - Nationalise ALL banks and finance institutions as the foundation for a socialist economy by Shaun Arendse On 7 March President Ramaphosa announced in parliament that the ANC government will nationalise the Reserve Bank. He explained that the ANC had taken a “clear resolution that the Bank should be owned by the people of SA”. This ## Pages - [What We Stand For](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=925) - The Programme of the Marxist Workers Party What We Stand For Fighting for the socialist reconstruction of the economy and the rebuilding of society in the interests of the working class majority. Manifesto Index Work & Unemployment Trade Union Movement Social Crisis Working Class Unity Economic Crisis Working Class Power Join the Struggle Stand with - [Join Us](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=6928) - Join the Struggle Become a Member Stand with the working class. Fight for a socialist future. Our Program Why We Fight The Marxist Workers Party is dedicated to organizing and uniting workers, youth, and communities to challenge capitalism. 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Phone & WhatsApp 081 366 7375 Call or send a WhatsApp message to connect directly - [Program](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=7222) - brz-root__container - [News](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=7223) - Voice of the Working Class Articles & Analysis Perspectives, campaigns, and theory from the Marxist Workers Party. HISTORY & THEORY 50th Anniversary of the June 16 Uprising… PUBLISHED June 16, 2026 A new struggle is necessary – for the overthrow of capitalism and a socialist society The Marxist Workers Party marks the 50th anniversary of - [#FeesMustFall & the Struggle for Free Education (2015-17)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2656) - Contents Part 1 – Student Uprising: Struggle for free education now! (21 October 2015) Part 2 – How can we take forward the struggle for free education? (27 October 2015) Part 3 – Solidarity with Students – Struggle for Free Education (21 September 2016) Part 4 – Reject the Heher Report (15 November 2017) Part - [About](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=7221) - brz-root__container - [Home](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=6974) - brz-root__container - [Our Team](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=7255) - brz-root__container - [Press](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=75) - brz-root__container - [Case Studies](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=44) - brz-root__container - [Careers](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=61) - brz-root__container - [Contact](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=87) - brz-root__container - [FAQ](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=56) - brz-root__container - [About Us](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=26) - brz-root__container - [Contact](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=45) - brz-root__container - [Home](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=7218) - brz-root__container - [Contact](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=94) - brz-root__container - [News Details](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=7225) - brz-root__container - [About](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=7180) - brz-root__container - [Pricing](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=6976) - brz-root__container - [Project Details](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=72) - brz-root__container - [Projects](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=7257) - brz-root__container - [In The Press](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=7256) - brz-root__container - [Join Us](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=7254) - brz-root__container - [Projects](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=7181) - brz-root__container - [Join](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=7182) - brz-root__container - [Gallery](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=7267) - brz-root__container - [Project Details](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=57) - brz-root__container - [Contact](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=6977) - brz-root__container - [Pricing](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=7268) - brz-root__container - [Services](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=6975) - brz-root__container - [Home](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=7179) - FEATURED PROJECTS Haven of Hope Orphanage MOMBASA, KENYA We need some helping hands! JOIN US Clean Water GAFSA, TUNIS Home For Children MOMBASA, KENYA Orphanage Shelter TRINIDAD, BOLIVIA Nullam in dui mauris. Vivamus hendrerit arcu sed erat molestie vehicula. Sed auctor neque teus. WE SUPPORT OVER 0 PROJECTS 0 COUNTRIES 0 VOLUNTEERS 0 DONATE FOR - [Campaign](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=6924) - [Cookie Policy](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=6690) - This page provides comprehensive information about how we use cookies on our website to enhance your browsing experience, improve website performance, and deliver personalized content. Cookies are small text files that are stored on your device when you visit our site. They help us understand how visitors interact with our website, allowing us to offer - [Join us](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=200) - Please complete the form below and we will contact you as soon as possible to discuss membership of the Marxist Workers Party. Thanks! - [Phantsi kwe-GNU - yeyiphi indlela eya phambili kubasebenzi?](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=5599) - Kweli nqaku linamacandelo amabini, sinika imbono yethu ngoRhulumente omtsha woManyano lweSizwe othe wathengiswa ngokubanzi njengovakalisa 'intando yabantu'. KwiCandelo lokuQala , sinikezela ngohlalutyo lwethu lokuba i-GNU imele ntoni kunye nezizathu ezibangela ukuba yenziwe njani na. KwiCandelo leSibini sichaza ukuba kutheni iglu ebambe i-GNU kunye nenjongo efanayo yawo onke amaqela ukugcina uzinzo lwezopolitiko. Amaqhinga ongxowankulu boyika ukungazinzi okunokuthi kulandele kulandela ukukhaba - [Onder die GNU – watter pad vorentoe vir die werkersklas?](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=5595) - In hierdie tweedelige artikel, gee ons ons perspektief op die nuwe Regering van Nasionale Eenheid wat wyd bemark is as die uitdrukking van 'die wil van die mense'. In Deel Een bied ons ontleding van wat die, GNU verteenwoordig en die redes agter hoe dit tot stand gekom het. In Deel Twee skets ons waarom die gom wat die - [Ukuphikiswa kwabasebenzi Olwe Workers Control Democracy and Socialism](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=5589) - I-Fesatu, inyunyana enkulukazi kuleli, enomlando njengenye yezidlamlilo ezithuthuke kakhulu kwezepolitiki, ibhekene nenkinga enkulu kusukela yasungulwa ngo-1987. Imiphumela yokuwohloka ingabuya kuyo yonke inhlangano yabasebenzi ejulisa ukuhlukana nokuhlukana kanye nokudideka kwayo ngokwemibono nepolitiki. Kuye kwabekwa izinqubo ezintsha zenhlangano ezimele ukuphikwa kwemigomo eyasungulwa yinyunyana yobumbano lwabasebenzi, ukulawulwa kwabasebenzi kanye nentando yeningi kanye nendima yayo njengabathwali besibani benhlangano yesigaba - [IsiZulu](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=5581) - [Donor Dashboard](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=7056) - [Donation Failed](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=7059) - We're sorry, your donation failed to process. Please try again or contact site support. - [Donation Confirmation](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=7060) - [give_receipt] - [Chapter One](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=721) - A World Ripe for Socialism The world is passing through a period more turbulent and disturbed than any in history – a period of social convulsions, revolutions and wars reaching into every area of the globe. It is also the most complex period in history, because more than ever before the continents of the world - [Bonapartism, Reaction, and the Crisis in White Politics](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1835) - Class Basis of the Revolution 1. As the history of slave society shows, oppression in and of itself, however monstrous and cruel, does not automatically lead to revolution. It is not in the first instance the horrors of racial oppression in South Africa, or indeed the crisis of capitalism, that have brought into being this - [Community Programme of Action](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=4106) - Organise Our Communities – Build a Countrywide Socialist Civic Federation Organise and Struggle for Jobs, Homes and Service Delivery for ALL Fight Crime & Corruption with Mass Democratic Community Campaigns & Mobilisations The Marxist Workers Party is active in communities. In a number of areas we have led the building of broad community organisations, working - [Eskom & the Loadshedding Crisis](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=4113) - For an Independent Working Class Programme by Shaun Arendse What does resolving the Eskom crisis look like for the working class? A reliable and uninterrupted supply of affordable electricity in every household, community and workplace. Job security, decent wages, and workers’ rights for all Eskom employees, including those of the contractors that depend upon it. - [OPERATION DUDULA & CAPITALIST REACTION | How should we understand organised xenophobia and how should the working class respond?](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=4110) - The majority of people have reacted with horror at the violent death of Elvis Nyathi, stoned and burned to death by a murderous mob in Diepsloot. According to his wife the mob had broken into their dwelling and demanded R300. When she offered them the only money she had, R50, they turned on him, pursued - [Marxism, Racism & the Class Struggle](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=264) - by Shaun Arendse, 2015 Part I Introduction More than twenty years have passed since the end of white minority rule and the racist segregation system of apartheid that maintained it. But for the black majority, the more things have changed, the more they have stayed the same. To all intents and purposes white privilege never - [Online Membership Form](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3986) - [ninja_form id=4] Please pay your sub directly into the MWP's bank account. Account name: Izwilabasebenzi Bank: FNB Branch code: 250805 Account number: 62027185489 IMPORTANT: Please use "your initial" + "your surname" as the reference. - [Frederick Engels (1895)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3927) - ngokubhalwe, nguV.I. Lenin Enjani yona itotshi ukufumana impendulo ngokuqiqa emise ukukhanyisa, Enjani yona intliziyo emise ukubetha! Nge-5 zika Agasti ngo-1895 u-Frederick Engels wasweleka e-London. Emva komhlobo wakhe u-Karl Marx (owasweleka ngo-1883), u-Engels wayengocolekileyo umfundiswa netitshala yodidi lwabasebenzi bamaxesha angoku kumazwe onke empucuko. Ukususela ngelixa ulwazelelo ludibanisa u-Karl Marx no-Frederick Engels, abahlobo ababini banikele ubomi babo - [Lenin Ngezitrayiki (1899)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3925) - ngokubhalwe, nguV.I. Lenin Kwiminyaka yakutsha nje izitrayiki zibe nokuxhaphaka kakhulu eRashiya. Akukho nesinye isithili esineshishini esingahlelwanga zizitrayiki eziliqedlana. Kwizixeko ezikhulu izitrayiki azipheli. Kuyaqondakala ngoko ke ukuthi abasebenzi abaqiqileyo ngodidi labo nabaxhasa-soshiyalizim bazifumana kaninzi bezibuza ngobaluleko lezi zitrayiki, nangendlela yokuzibhexesha, nangemisebenzi yabaxhasa-soshiyalizim abathatha inxaxheba kuzo. Sinqwenela ukuzama ukuyila ezinye zezimvo zethu kule mibuzo. Kwiphepha lethu lokuqala - [IsiXhosa](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3930) - 1. Isikhumbuzo Somnyaka Wokugwintwa KukaTrotsky sama-80, ngokubhalwe nguTony Saunois, (2020) 2. Izimvo Zika Karl Marx Kulamaxesha Wethu, ngokubhalwe nguLeon Trotsky (1939) 3. Iiyunyoni Zenguquko, ngokubhalwe nguShaun Arendse (2018) 4. Lenin Ngezitrayiki, ngokubhalwe, nguV.I. Lenin (1899) 5. Frederick Engels, ngokubhalwe, nguV.I. Lenin (1895) - [The Class Struggle and the Struggle for Democracy](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3873) - Originally published in Inqaba ya Basebenzi No. 9 (February-April 1983). by Richard Monroe The Coloured Labour Party’s decision at Eshowe, to participate in Botha’s new constitutional scheme, draws its leaders into responsibility for enforcing the regime’s racial ‘divide and rule’ dictatorship. This directly attacks the basic interests of the working class. “We can’t fight for - [The United Democratic Front](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=960) - Contents Background to the UDF's Launch - Botha's Constitutional Reforms 1. Botha's Constitutional Proposals - Reinforcing a Cracking Dictatorship (1982) 2. Koornhof Tightens Influx Control - As Bosses Slash Jobs (1982) 3. The Class Struggle and the Struggle for Democracy (1983) Launch of the UDF and the Approach of the MWT 4. UDF Conference: Workers - [The Armed Struggle](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=780) - Contents Part 1 - Guerrilla Struggle and the Workers’ Movement (1982) Part 2 - Armed Struggle and Workers’ Power (1982) Part 3 - The Pretoria Bomb Blast – Can these methods lead to liberation? (1983) Part 4 - Arming the Workers’ Movement – a reply to Comrade Tambo (1983) Also see Maseru Massacre - What strategy now? (1983) and - [Maseru Massacre – What strategy now?](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3859) - Originally published as the editorial of Inqaba ya Basebenzi No. 9 (February-April 1983). The slaughter by the SADF in Maseru follows the killing of black miners in July and more murders of detainees. For all the talk of ‘power-sharing’ and ‘reform’, it is these continued horrors which show the real nature of the apartheid state. - [Lesotho: Workers Must Join in SA Revolution for their Liberation](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3865) - Originally published in Inqaba ya Basebenzi No. 9 (February-April 1983). by R. Molapo The memory of the unbridled savagery of the SADF in the early hours of 9 December, when 42 ANC refugees and Basotho civilians were slaughtered, will remain with the Basotho for a long time. The massacre underlined, as it was intended to - [The Struggle for Southern Africa](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3242) - Contents 1. Unite for a Socialist Southern Africa (1981) 2. Kaunda and Botha - Talks Will Not Help Them (1982) 3. Maseru Massacre - What strategy now? (1983) 4. After Nokomati - Where is Southern Africa going? (1984) Lesotho 1. Lesotho: Workers Must Join in SA Revolution for their Liberation (1983) Swaziland 1. Swaziland – - [Neil Aggett – Trade Union Militant](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3853) - Originally published in Inqaba ya Basebenzi No. 6 (May 1982). Neil Aggett, “found hanged” in his detention cell at 1.30am on 5 February, is believed to be the 51st person to die in the custody of the security police since 1963. At his death, aged 28, he was Transvaal organiser of the Food and Canning - [The Trade Union Movement in the 1980s](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1021) - Contents Workers' Struggle in the Early 1980s 1. Strike Wave Pounds Bosses (1981) 2. The 1980 Johannesburg Black Municipal Workers Strike (1981) 3. New Dispensation is in Tatters (1981) 4. Hands Off the Trade Unions! (1982) 5. Neill Aggett - Trade Union Militant (1982) The Trade Union Unity Talks 6. Build the Trade Union United - [Kaunda and Botha – Talks Will Not Help Them](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3839) - Originally published in Inqaba ya Basebenzi No. 8 (August 1982). by Headman Sasa On 30 April President Kaunda of Zambia and Prime Minister Botha met, at Kaunda’s request, in a mobile caravan carefully placed on the Botswana-SA border. What made Kaunda want to talk to Botha, and what made Botha accept the request? After all, - [The Youth Movement in the 1980s](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1606) - Contents 1. Lessons of the 1980 Youth Movement (1981) 2. What Way Forward for Black Consciousness? (1981) 3. Youth and Workers Join Forces! (1981) 4. BCM, the Struggle for Democracy and the Workers’ Movement (1982) 5. Is AZAPO a Way Forward for Socialist Youth? (1985) - [BCM, the Struggle for Democracy and the Workers’ Movement](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1614) - Originally published in Inqaba Ya Basebenzi No.7 (August 1982) under the pen name Basil Hendrikse. by Weizmann Hamilton Large numbers of today’s struggling youth have had their political baptism of fire under the banner of the black consciousness movement. For over a decade BCM was the vehicle through which successive classes of youth, in ever - [No to Botha-Swazi Land Deal!](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3833) - Originally published in Inqaba ya Basebenzi No. 7 (August 1982) as part of the “Southern Africa Notes” feature. by Gerald Desai The decision by the SA government to hand over KaNgwane and the Ingwavuma district of KwaZulu to Swaziland, and the dissolution of the KaNgwane toy ‘government’, has left the Bantustan collaborators wailing with powerlessness. - [Swaziland – Rulers and Bosses Get Rich While Workers Starve](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3814) - Originally published in Inqaba ya Basebenzi No. 8 (November 1982). by Florence Bosch It is just over 14 years ago (on 6 September 1968) that British imperialism was forced to grant political independence to Swaziland. Independence has meant the enrichment of the foreign monopolies and traditional rulers. But, for the Swazi masses, impoverishment has increased. - [Izwi La Basebenzi](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1389) - Current Issue: MWP ISSUE No. 4 - Autumn 2022 Previous Issues: MWP ISSUE No. 3 - Autumn 2021 MWP ISSUE No. 2 - Winter 2020 (Covid-19 Pandemic Special) MWP ISSUE No. 1 - Summer 2019/20 - [Revolutionary Trade Unionism](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2408) - Who we are, what we fight for and why you should join us “In the epoch of imperialist decay the trade unions can be really independent only to the extent that they are conscious of being, in action, the organs of proletarian revolution.” Leon Trotsky, 1940 by Shaun Arendse (2018) Contents Introduction 1. Capitalism and - [Iiyunyoni Zenguquko](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3594) - Singobani, silwela ntoni, kungani ufanele ukusijoyina “Kwisigaba sexesha lokuphelelwa kwenkqubo yokuqulathwa kwamanye amazwe ngamanye iiyunyoni zinganakho ukuzilawula ngenene ngokuqonda kuphela ukuthi ngezenzo zizizixhobo zenguquko yabasebenzi.” Wabhala uLeon Trotsky ngo1940 Ngokubhalwe nguShaun Arendse (2018) & iguqulelwe nguWelile Notha (2021) Iziqulatho Intshayelelo Inkqubo Yobungxowankulu Neeyunyoni Oongxowankulu Bayilawula Bayithabathele Kubo Njani Intshukumo Yabasebenzi Isoshiyalizim Neeyunyoni Zenguquko Intshayelelo Kungani - [EPWP Workers' Struggle](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3582) - 2020-02-12 – EPWP Bulletin No. 5 2020-02-05 – EPWP Bulletin No. 4 2020-01-20 – EPWP Bulletin No. 3 2019-11-19 – EPWP Bulletin No. 2 2019-10-30 – EPWP Bulletin No.1 - [8. The Struggle for Power in the Communist Party](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3463) - The Kronstadt uprising underlined the explosive resentment that had built up among the peasantry at the sacrifices, shortages and forced requisitions imposed on them during the war years. There was no prospect of an immediate breakthrough by the working class in the west. Clearly, it was impossible to continue the regime of war communism without - [7. Party Democracy](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3458) - The exhaustion of the Soviet working class placed a critical responsibility on the Communist Party and its leadership to defend the gains of the revolution. War conditions destroyed the soviets, the basic organs of the workers’ state. By 1921, even the Executive of the Congress of Soviets was meeting only three times a year. “Sovnarkom” - [6. Bureaucracy and the Workers’ State](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3454) - Lenin, shortly before the October revolution, brilliantly explained the nature of the workers’ state in his book The State and Revolution: Alongside of an immense expansion of democracy, which for the first time becomes democracy for the poor ... the dictatorship of the proletariat brings about a series of restrictions on the freedom of the oppressors, - [5. The Exhaustion of Soviet Democracy](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3450) - The Russian workers’ state survived the civil war, but at a terrible cost. By 1920, the output of large-scale industry was down to 14% of the 1913 level, and manufacturing output to less than 13%. Agricultural production fell by a further 16% between 1917 and 1921. Steel production stood at 5% of the 1913 level. - [4. Setbacks in the International Struggle](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3444) - In the mighty class movements that followed the October revolution, the overthrow of capitalism throughout Europe was on the agenda. The victory of the working class in the developed countries, in turn, would provide a basis for overcoming Russia’s crippling economic backwardness, and remove the threat of imperialist attack. International organisation was essential to unite - [3. How the Bolsheviks Defeated the Counter-Revolution](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3440) - The survival of the Russian workers’ state was made possible, in the first place, by the support of the working class internationally in the enormous movements following the October revolution. Brilliantly confirming the Bolsheviks’ perspective, Europe was plunged into a period of revolution. The road to victory opened up before the working class in one - [21. Conclusion](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3510) - Under the spreading terror of Stalinism in the Soviet Union and fascism in Western Europe, the forces of Marxism were decimated or extinguished during the 1930s. Only the genius and determination of Trotsky (murdered by a GPU agent in 1940), and a very small band of followers, remained to re-educate a coming generation in the - [20. Rivers of Blood](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3507) - Inside the Soviet Union, the sharpening contradictions between the bureaucracy and the working class led to the liquidation of the remnants of the Bolshevik cadre. The “Communist” parties internationally were presenting the Soviet Union as the happy fatherland of socialism. Stalin’s successor, Krushchev, at the 20th party congress in 1956, lifted a corner of the - [2. The Counter-Revolution](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3435) - Marx and Engels had thought it most likely that capitalism would be defeated first in the developed countries, where the working class was most powerful, and the industrial basis existed for the transition to socialism. Instead, in October 1917, the chain of world capitalism broke at its weakest link. The Bolshevik government inherited a backward - [19. ...to the “People’s Front”](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3504) - The changed alignment of class forces in Europe rapidly pushed the Soviet regime into a new U-turn. Germany under Hitler posed a far more immediate threat to them than the western imperialist powers. Above all, Stalin feared war and the effect it would have on the Soviet masses. To avoid war, he calculated, it was - [18. From the “Third Period”...](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3501) - Foreign policy flows from domestic policy, serving the same interests. The bureaucracy’s violent break with the kulaks and the right-wing of the party was accompanied by an equally violent swing to ultra-leftism in the international arena. Recoiling from the opportunist line that had led to disaster in Britain and China, Stalin moved to salvage the - [17. Proletarian Bonapartism](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3498) - From the late 1920s onwards the policies of the Soviet bureaucracy went through a series of bewildering zigzags, creating enormous confusion in the labour movement internationally. The regime’s supporters applauded each contradictory new turn as a “correct” and “necessary” measure to defend “socialism” in the USSR. Some opponents, despairing at the hideous travesty of “Leninism” - [16. The Defeat of the Joint Left Opposition](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3494) - In a major document entitled The Platform of the Joint Opposition (1927), Trotsky drew a balance sheet of ten years of Communist government, and reasserted the policies of Marxism in contrast to the blind opportunism of the bureaucracy. The Platform called for the revival of the soviets, the restoration of workers’ democracy, and a bold program of - [15. Tragedy in China](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3491) - Zinoviev and Kamenev, with their supporters, joined forces with Trotsky and the Opposition in 1926 in a struggle to pull the party back from Stalin’s increasingly anti-Marxist course. Stalin, for his part, joined forces with the extreme-right, pro-kulak wing of the party, headed by Bukharin, for the purpose of defeating the United Left Opposition. This - [14. What “Socialism in One Country” Really Meant](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3487) - The Soviet Union could not overtake capitalism and advance to socialism because it did not dispose over the “highest productive forces” within its boundaries. Even basic necessities for survival could only be obtained through trade with the imperialist powers. The immediate challenge was to catch up with capitalism, to conquer the “commanding heights” of the - [13. Why Marxism Stands for Internationalism](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3483) - Trotsky demonstrated that the program of internationalism (now labelled “permanent revolution”) had never been challenged in the Bolshevik Party prior to 1924. Stalin’s crude challenge, however, made it necessary to once again explain the question fundamentally. Trotsky started with the basic ideas of Marxism. Civilisation, he explained, advances through the development of the productive forces - [12. “Socialism in One Country”](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3478) - On the strength of three quotations plucked from Lenin’s voluminous writings, Stalin in December 1924 put forward the unheard-of idea that socialism could be built in Russia without the victory of the working class in the developed countries. This idea went counter to everything Lenin had tried to explain, even in the documents Stalin quoted. - [11. The Invention of “Trotskyism”](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3475) - The party bureaucracy resorted to vote-rigging to exclude Opposition delegates from the thirteenth conference in January 1924, where the inner-party debate was to be decided. In Moscow, for example, the Opposition had majority support in most of the cells (branches). In the regional elections, despite ruthless weeding out of Opposition supporters by Stalin’s appointed secretaries, - [10. The Defeat of the German Revolution](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3471) - Germany’s precarious stability was shattered in January 1923 when French troops occupied the Ruhr industrial area to extract, at gunpoint, the “war reparations” which the German imperialists were being forced to pay as the price of their defeat in the World War. The German economy slumped. Inflation, already skyrocketing during 1922, became astronomical – probably - [1. The October Revolution](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3431) - Petrograd, capital of Russia, on the night of 25 October 1917. With the First World War raging on the battlefields of Europe, the Russian Revolution has reached its deciding moment. Armed detachments of workers and soldiers, organised by the Bolshevik Party, have taken control in the city. The pro-capitalist Provisional Government, discredited and isolated, has - [How the Bureaucracy Seized Power (1987)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3421) - Contents Introduction PART ONE: THE RUSSIAN WORKING CLASS TAKES POWER Chapter 1 – The October Revolution Chapter 2 – The Counter-Revolution Chapter 3 – How the Bolsheviks Defeated the Counter-Revolution PART TWO: ISOLATION AND DEGENERATION OF THE WORKERS STATE Chapter 4 – Setbacks in the International Struggle Chapter 5 – The Exhaustion of Soviet Democracy - [9. The Turning Point](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3467) - 1923-24 marked a turning point in the Soviet Union: a period when the contradictions in the state and the party erupted into a decisive political struggle. By the end of 1922 Lenin was seriously ill after suffering a series of strokes. It was no longer certain when or if he would return to political activity. - [Introduction](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3428) - A young South African activist, 20-year-old Comrade Bongani of the underground movement in Tumahole township, reflects the attitude of serious fighters the world over towards the need for socialist theory. Asked by a journalist what “people’s education” meant, he is reported with answering: I mean the type of education whereby all the people are satisfied - [Marxism & the Land](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=275) - by Shaun Arendse (2017) The dispossession of the African people of the land was a historic crime. Land dispossession under colonialism destroyed the economic foundation of pre-capitalist African societies and forcibly dragged millions into the super-exploitation of the capitalist world economy. The 1913 and 1936 Land Acts remain notorious to this day. Under apartheid, control - [The EFF: Populism Not Socialism (2014)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=217) - by Shaun Arendse The Economic Freedom Fighters received 1,169,259 votes (6.35%) in the 2014 national elections, with 48% of those votes coming from the urban metros, giving them 25 MPs in the National Assembly. In the provinces they won 30 MPLs and are now the official opposition in the North West and Limpopo. In addition - [Has the EFF presented the Left with a "Revolutionary Moment"? (2015)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3362) - A Reply to the EFF by Weizmann Hamilton In the October 2015 (no.42) edition of the left magazine, Amandla, Economic Freedom Fighter deputy president, Floyd Shivambu, bemoans the “Failure of the Left to seize the revolutionary moment presented by the EFF” warning that this “might inhibit the struggle for socialism”. Under the sub-head “Theoretical purity leads - [The 2016 Elections & the EFF’s Mistaken Tactics (2016)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3373) - This article is an edited extract from “Local Elections Message – Need For a Mass Working Class Party” (2 September 2016). by Weizmann Hamilton “The masses have spoken” all political parties are saying. But what did they say? The consensus amongst analysts is limited to a recognition of the undeniable reality that these elections represent - [EFFSC Damages Tshwane Outsourcing Struggle](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2324) - How can workers defeat outsourcing and win R10,000? A critique of Tshwane EFF Student Command’s abuse of APSA 20 June 2017 by Shaun Arendse A strike of outsourced workers is underway at the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT). It began on 22 May and is now in its third week. It has been organised under the banner - [EFF Silent on Metro Job Losses](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2326) - A dress rehearsal for propping up capitalism 26 January 2018 In 2016 the EFF assisted the DA to power in Tshwane, Johannesburg and Nelson Mandela Bay (NMB). In recent weeks they have threatened to collapse the same DA-led minority administrations. This has raised important questions about the tactics needed for using elected positions in the - [The EFF is 5… and at Sixes and Sevens (2018)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=219) - by Weizmann Hamilton The EFF has turned five, but it finds itself at sixes and sevens. The VBS corruption revelations may be shocking, but they are no aberration. This is but the latest example of the EFF’s mounting contradictions. The timing could not have been more embarrassing. Having played a major role in determining Zuma’s - [On the EFF](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3370) - Contents 1. The EFF: Populism Not Socialism (2014) 2. Has the EFF Presented the left with a “Revolutionary Moment”? (2015) 3. The 2016 Elections & the EFF's Mistaken Tactics (2016) 4. The EFF is 5… and at Sixes and Sevens (2018) 5. EFF Student Command Damages Tshwane Outsourcing Campaign (2017) 6. EFF Silent on Metro - [An Opportunity for Principled Fighting Unity: WASP and the EFF](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2019) - 15 October 2013 The birth of first the Workers and Socialist Party and more recently the Economic Freedom Fighters has presented an historic opportunity to advance the struggles of the working class and deal the ANC government and its capitalist masters a major blow in the 2014 elections. After the watershed of Marikana the working - [Unite for a Socialist Southern Africa](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3352) - Originally published as the editorial of Inqaba ya Basebenzi No. 2 (April 1981). The murderous enemy strike in the night on the ANC in Maputo is an attack on all those who struggle for liberation in Southern Africa. This aggression goes hand in hand with the stepping up of SADF raids on Angola and the - [Izimvo Zika Karl Marx Kulamaxesha Wethu](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3344) - Kananjalo, siqhubeka neliphulo lokuguqulela kwilimi ze-Afrika, ngoku sazisa isiqingatha sesibini sencwadi ka Leon Trotsky yanaphakade: “Marxism in Our Time”. Ukutyhola Umthetho Ngolwazi Ongenalo Umtshutshisi omel’umbuso wangaphambili, uHomer S Cummings wathi, ngoNovemba ka1937,” Ngaphandle kokuba siphelise uxhamla-wedwa, uyakusoloko efumana indlela yokuchitha-chitha konke ekulungiswayo ngentlalo de agqibele edobelela phantsi umgangatho wentlalo kawonke-wonke. Xa esothuswa ngamanani abonisa ukuba - [Izimvo Zika Karl Marx Kulamaxesha Wethu](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3299) - Ngokubhalwe Ngu Leon Trotsky Le ncwadi ishwankathela ngokubumbeneyo, ngamazwi kaMarx ngokwakhe, isiseko esibalulekileyo ngeemfundiso zakhe ngezoqoqosho. Noko akukabikho mntu uchaza le ngcingane ethi ulutho ngumsebenzi ngokucacileyo ngaphezulu kukaMarx. Ukufinyezwa komqulu wokuqala kaMarx obizwa i-Capital, isiseko senkqubo yonke iphela yoqoqosho, nguMr Otto Ruhle kwenziwe ngokukhulu ukunakekela njengomntu obewuqonda ngokuphangaleleyo umsebenzi ajongene nawo. Uqale ngokukhupha imizekelo nemifanekiso - [Isikhumbuzo Somnyaka Wokugwintwa KukaTrotsky sama-80](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3282) - Tony Saunois, uSosiba weCWI Ngosuku lwa 21 kuAgasti ngo1940 umlwela nguquko yokwakha isoshiyalizim wasweleka emva kokuhlaselwa “yinkabi” ka-Stalin ngezolo. Kunye noLenin uTrotsky wayengeyona ephambili inkokheli yobhukuqo-mbuso ukuze kwakhiwe isoshiyalizim lwango Oktobha 1917 eRashiya. Kwakuqalisa ukubuyiselw’emva kwale nguquko eSoviet Union okwakukhokhelwe nguStalin, okwatshabalalisa nentshukumo yamakomanisi ezizwe – Umbutho Wamakomanisi Wezizwe WesiThathu – uTrotsky waqalisa ukwakha ngakutsha - [Re-Build the Revolutionary Traditions of the Youth! (2021)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3274) - On the 45th Anniversary of the Soweto Uprising: An Appeal to Young People 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 Marxist Workers Party. Together with a number of comrades from Noordgesig, a township on - [After Nkomati – Where is Southern Africa Going?](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3249) - Part 1 was originally published in Inqaba ya Basebenzi No. 14 (June-August 1984) under the pen name Basil Hendrickse. by Weizmann Hamilton Part 1 The signing of the Nkomati Accord has set the workers’ movement and the oppressed masses throughout Southern Africa a stern test. For the South African regime it appears a resounding diplomatic - [“Sabotaging machinery” is not the Workers’ Method](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1741) - Originally appeared in Inqaba ya Basebenzi No. 18-19 (February 1986) A broadcast by the ANC’s Radio Freedom has called on workers to “intensify their strike actions by sabotaging machinery, destroying documents, and making sure that commodities coming off assembly lines are useless...”[1] “By so doing we will force the capitalists to realise that ours is - [Why a National Convention Cannot Transfer Power to the People](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3028) - Originally appeared in Inqaba ya Basebenzi No. 18/19 (February 1986). by Richard Monroe Last year, Van Zyl Slabbert and Gatsha Buthelezi established the National Convention Movement, whose “eventual objective”, states its manifesto, is “the calling of a National Convention by the government of the day at which representatives of all the people of South Africa - [The 1980 Johannesburg Black Municipal Workers Strike](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3050) - The Garbage “Strong-arm” Originally published in Inqaba ya Basebenzi No. 1 (January 1981). by P. Qubulashe[1] In eight days, a strike of ten thousand black workers in the pay of the Johannesburg City Council was crushed. In terms of both the duration of the strike and the staggering number of workers involved this sounds incredible. - [Strike Wave Pounds Bosses](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3042) - Originally published in Inqaba ya Basebenzi No. 1 (January 1981). by Ken Mark The strikes which have swept through South Africa in 1980 have shown that the black workers are determined to put an end to their crushing oppression by the bosses and their state. Never has it been clearer that the working class itself, - [The 1976 Soweto Uprising](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=372) - Originally appeared in Inqaba Ya Basebenzi No. 21-22 (September 1986) under the pen name Basil Hendrickse. by Weizmann Hamilton[1] At about 7 am on 16 June, 1976, thousands of African school students in Soweto gathered at pre-arranged assembly points for a demonstration. They launched a movement that began as a local expression of opposition to the - [Youth and Workers Join Forces!](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3120) - Originally published in Inqaba ya Basebenzi No. 4 (October 1981). by Yusuf Fakir and Paul Storey Black youth have demonstrated time and time again their willingness to sacrifice their lives to free themselves from racism, oppression and capitalist exploitation. Capitalism has brought to the overwhelming majority of black youth nothing but permanent unemployment, grinding poverty, - [Lessons of the 1980 Youth Movement](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3117) - Originally published in Inqaba ya Basebenzi No. 1 (January 1981). We now have in existence a nationwide mass black youth movement, as a youth wing of the black working class movement. This youth movement, however, has yet to develop its inner machinery of coordination and its national leadership. That is a task of the present - [How the Bosses Control and Co-opt the Workers Movement](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=229) - Part I: The Capitalist State The capitalist class understands that the class struggle cannot be wished away. If they want to keep control of society it is therefore necessary for them to try and manage it. They are prepared to use force and violence to do this. In the 2012 mineworkers’ strikes the ANC government - [Introduction](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=222) - Why did you join a trade union? Or, why are you thinking about joining one? Maybe it was the low pay or the long hours. Perhaps the humiliating searches, breath-tests and lie-detector tests. Maybe it was a bullying supervisor, a sexist HR or a racist manager. It would not be unusual if it was all - [Socialism & Revolutionary Trade Unionism](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=233) - The heart of revolutionary trade unionism is recognising that there is an alternative to capitalism and understanding what that alternative is – socialism. Instead of settling for never-ending conflict with the bosses, with the occasional unstable compromise, revolutionary trade unionism poses the necessity of linking day-to-day workplace struggles to the struggle for the socialist transformation - [Build the Trade Union United Front!](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1024) - Originally appeared in Inqaba Ya Basebenzi No. 4 (October 1981) by Jake Wilson and Rocco Malgas Despite sharp crackdowns by the police there has been a magnificent increase in the activity and struggles of the independent trade union movement. Through strikes, and the consolidation of union membership, workers are winning a whole spate of recognition - [Hands Off the Trade Unions!](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3082) - Originally published in Inqaba ya Basebenzi No. 5 (January 1982). by Gerald Desai and Jake Wilson The announcement by the regime that SAAWU and CUSA trade unionists, among others, are to be put on trial is a challenge to the whole working class of South Africa. Over the last few months there has been a - [A Brief History of the Marxist Workers Tendency](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=284) - The Marxist Workers Tendency (MWT) was an organised revolutionary Marxist/Trotskyist group that operated inside the ANC. Active both in exile and within South Africa the MWT was an affiliate of the Committee for a Workers International (CWI) participating with them in the struggle for socialism worldwide. This included fighting for direct links between the international - [Cosatu’s Socialist Standpoint Should Be Boldly Publicised](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2757) - Originally published in Inqaba ya Basebenzi No. 20/21 (September 1986). 26 September 1986 Cosatu has renewed the hopes of millions of workers throughout Southern Africa on account of its potential to realise the as yet unfilled aspirations of the workers... Today as another State of Emergency engulfs the country, Cosatu through its affiliates has shown - [Bosses’ Press Attacks](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3059) - Originally published in Inqaba ya Basebenzi No. 2 (April 1981). by T. Phiri Supporters of Inqaba and activists in the liberation struggle may or may not have seen a hostile and vicious attack which appeared in the Rand Daily Mail on 16 February, 1981 under the heading “ANC whites start splinter worker group”. Essentially it - [New Dispensation is in Tatters](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3056) - Originally published in Inqaba ya Basebenzi No. 2 (April 2021). Business International is a journal which advises the bosses of the multinationals on what tactics they should use to protect their profits. Recently, they gave some advice to the bosses in South Africa, which shows how they have been taken unawares by the rising movement - [Koornhof Tightens Influx Control – As Bosses Slash Jobs](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=3034) - Originally published in Inqaba ya Basebenzi No. 8 (November 1982). by P. Qubulashe Every worker in this society precariously lives and works only by permission of the bosses. The very existence of a worker depends upon the capitalists’ greed to make profit. In 1952 the Nationalist Party government, through the ingenuity of the then Native - [Botha's Constitutional Proposals – Reinforcing a Cracking Dictatorship](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2940) - Originally published in Inqaba ya Basebenzi No. 8 (November 1982). by Richard Monroe P.W. Botha’s package of ‘constitutional reform’ has been put forward as a step towards ‘power-sharing’ between the white minority and the black majority, and a means of stabilising SA society against revolution. These measures have been forced on our rulers by the - [The 2007 & 2010 Public Sector Strikes](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2934) - 28 Days the Shook South Africa The Lessons of the Public Sector Strike Originally published as a special edition of Izwilabsebenzi (June 2007). On 28 June 2007, the leadership of the majority of public sector unions announced their acceptance of the government’s final 7.5% salary offer. This effectively ended the politically most significant strike since - [‘UDF militants’ – a Voice for Workers’ Democracy in the Movement](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2889) - Originally published in Inqaba No. 18/19 (February 1986). The revolutionary struggles of black workers and youth these past 18 months have caused a turn by the most active layers to socialist ideas. This is reflected in the rich crop of legal, illegal, and semi-legal publications produced by hundreds of groups and organisations in the movement - [BTR Workers in Britain Say: “Our Brothers and Sisters in South Africa Must Talk to Us”](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2894) - Originally published in Inqaba ya Basebenzi No. 18/19 (February 1986). BTR, the British-based multinational, sacked 1,000 black workers at Sarmcol in Howick in May 1985. Their struggle for reinstatement and recognition of their union, the Metal and Allied Workers’ Union (Mawu) continues. Campaigning work in the British labour movement is beginning to attract support from - [Memorandum on Strategy](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2881) - Originally published in Inqaba ya Basebenzi No. 16/17 (February 1986). Circulated to some activists in South Africa by the Inqaba Editorial Board on 11 November 1985. 1. In evaluating strategy, beginning with the general situation, it is essential to recognise that a turning point has taken place. Despite the continued explosions of heroic resistance by - [The General Strike: Vital Weapon in Our Struggle](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2793) - Originally published in Inqaba ya Basebenzi No. 16/17 (January-June 1985). by Richard Monroe Once again – in the Transvaal in November, in the Eastern Cape in March, and then again in the Transvaal in May – the stay-away (or general strike) has been brought to bear as a weapon in the struggle. The two-day November - [Build a Mass ANC on a Socialist Program!](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2886) - Originally published as the editorial of Inqaba ya Basebenzi No. 18/19 (February 1986). The fiery movement of 1984-85, still unquenched, has revealed to the black working class (and to the world) its own giant potential as a revolutionary conqueror. We have seen the inability of the regime to crush the revolutionary movement by brutal repression. - [The Revolutionary Upsurge of 1984-85](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2789) - Part 1 - South Africa - How close to revolution? (November 1984) Part 2 - The General Strike - Vital Weapon in Our Struggle (June 1985) Part 3 - Memorandum on Strategy (November 1985) Part 4 - Build a Mass ANC on a Socialist Programme! (February 1986) Part 5 - REVIEW | The Revolutionary Upsurge - [Organise round Cosatu’s ultimatum to Botha: “Six Months to Scrap The Pass Laws – Or The Passes Burn!”](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2872) - Workers and youth! Originally published in Inqaba ya Basebenzi No. 16/17 (February 1986). Inqaba Editorial Board Statement, 2 December 1985 The launch last weekend of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) brings under one banner 34 non-racial democratic unions with over 500,000 members. This historic advance is of far wider importance than the - [UDF Call for “National Unity” with the Bosses is Wrong](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2864) - Originally published in Inqaba ya Basebenzi No. 20/21 (September 1986). Issued by the Editorial Board of Inqaba ya Basebenzi 8 September 1986 Inqaba supporters urge fellow activists on the left in the UDF to combine in opposing the “proposed joint statement” of the UDF leadership on “national unity”. We call for united action by the - [Kinross Disaster – Mine Bosses are Guilty](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2857) - Originally appeared in Inqaba ya Basebenzi No. 20/21 (September 1986). “A Thousand ways to die” is the title of a safety manual just produced by the NUM. Even before it was released, its message was horribly underlined by the disaster at Gencor’s Kinross gold-mine on 16 September, in which 177 mineworkers died. The disaster highlights - [The 1988 Crackdown](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2800) - After the Crackdown – How to advance? Defy the bans! Build the locals! Build the ANC! Originally published in Inqaba ya Basebenzi No. 26 (April 1988). Editorial Board Statement 15 March 1988 Botha’s 24 February crackdown on 18 organisations including Cosatu, Sayco and the UDF, is not a sign of strength. It is a sign - [The Revolutionary Upsurge of 1984-85](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1049) - Originally appeared in Inqaba Ya Basebenzi No. 18-19 (February 1986) under the pen name Basil Hendrickse by Weizmann Hamilton In the preface to his masterly History of the Russian Revolution Trotsky wrote, The most indubitable feature of a revolution is the intervention of the masses in historic events. In ordinary times ... history is made - [The Negotiated Settlement & the 1994 Elections](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=297) - From Slavery to the Smashing of Apartheid Published in 1994 by Militant Labour (CWI Britain) just one month after the first democratic elections in South Africa. The article draws on interviews carried out by the author during a visit to South Africa in September and October 1993, organised by the Marxist Workers Tendency (CWI South - [The Counter-Revolutionary Role of the SACP](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1677) - Contents Part 1 – Does the SACP support our socialist revolution? (1987) Part 2 – SACP’s ‘Left Turn’ to the Right (1987) Part 3 – Top Soviet Official on SA: Socialist Revolution May Have to Wait a Century! (1987) Part 4 – How ‘democratic’ are big bosses? (1986) Part 5 – Why did the SA - [CAMPAIGN | Organise Against Unemployment](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2720) - FOR A NATIONAL DAY-OF-ACTION WITH MARCHES IN EVERY MAJOR CITY 25 June 2020 South Africa’s unemployment disaster is now speeding-up and heading down the road to catastrophe. The latest figures show that unemployment has reached 30.1% of the working-age population. A massive seven million individuals. When the two million so-called “discouraged job seekers” are counted, - [The Working Class Summit – An Historic Step Forward (2018)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1893) - 21 September 2018 by Weizmann Hamilton The Working Class Summit convened by South African Federation of Trade Unions over the weekend of 22-23 July 2018, was potentially the most important political development in the workers movement since the dawn of the democratic era. A thousand delegates representing 147 community organisations responded to the call. The overwhelming - [The Rise and Fall of the Zulu Kingdom](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2685) - Originally published in Inqaba Ya Basebenzi No. 28 (January 1990) by Richard Monroe Inkatha claims to be a national liberation movement of the Zulu people – following in the traditions of resistance established under the leadership of the Zulu royal house in the nineteenth century. This article re-examines this claim. It explains how the Zulu - [Defeating Inkatha](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1321) - Contents Part 1 - Inkatha – This Spear of Counter-revolution Must be Broken (1985) Part 2 - How To Fight Uwusa (1987) Part 3 - “Peace Talks” with Inkatha - a Wrong Policy (1988) Part 4 - The Rise and Fall of the Zulu Kingdom (1990) © Transcribed from the original by the Marxist Workers Party - [Free Education for All Now!](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2677) - 19 December 2017 The announcement by President Zuma that government will provide free education for poor working class and lower middle class students, with family incomes of less than R350,000, has understandably been met with cynicism and repugnance for its opportunism. It is nevertheless a major concession to the #FeesMustFall movement and represents a milestone - [Student Uprising: Struggle for free education now!](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2661) - 21 October 2015 #capitalismmustfall! #Zumagovernmentmustfall! #workingpeoplemustrise! Demand 0% increases! Demand free education! Down with police brutality – defend the right to protest! Convene a national student assembly to build a united country-wide socialist youth movement Workers & students unite – for a national day of action Unite the struggles of students, workers & communities – - [Solidarity with Students – Struggle for Free Education](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2667) - 21 September 2016 The second round in the struggle for free education is underway. Campuses across the country were shut-down on Tuesday as protests began against the ANC government’s announcement that universities would be allowed to determine fee increase for the next academic year. At the end of 2015 the #FeesMustFall movement inflicted a heavy - [Reject the Heher Report](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2670) - Struggle for Free Education Must Continue 15 November 2017 After mounting pressure, president Zuma has now released the long awaited Heher Commission report on the feasibility of free higher education. Located firmly within the framework of “free market”, that is, neo-liberal capitalist economics, its conclusion that free education is unaffordable comes as no surprise. The - [How can we take forward the struggle for free education?](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2664) - 27 October 2015 The #FeesMustFall movement made history. After just ten days of struggle the ANC government was forced to agree to 0% fee increases in 2016. This was a major victory – the most humiliating defeat of the ANC government since it came to power! At campus level many other concessions have been wrung - [OPEN LETTER | To Saftu Members (2020)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2599) - Campaign for a public sector and SOE general strike Call a one-day Section 77 strike Convene a Working Class Summit II Implement the Saftu and WCS resolutions for the creation of a mass workers party Dear comrades, On 25 August the National Executive Committee of Saftu will sit. Every member of the federation must take - [Subscribe to Izwilabasebenzi: The Podcast](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2566) - Our regular “News Bulletin” podcast brings reports and analysis of the news from a working class and Marxist perspective. The News Bulletin is supplemented by regular “Struggle Specials” covering campaigns and struggles that the Marxist Workers Party is involved in. To receive Izwilabasebenzi: The Podcast via a YouTube alert, please subscribe to our YouTube channel - [EYEWITNESS| Smuggling Revolutionary Marxist literature into Apartheid South Africa](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2545) - Originally published in Izwi Labasebenzi, October 2016-January 2017. Support for the anti-apartheid struggle was a worldwide phenomenon, especially by the 1980s. At that time, the new South African trade unions were increasingly playing a dominant role in the struggle. Workers and their organisations across the world responded to this with class solidarity. Izwi reporters spoke - [The Struggle for the Land](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2540) - Originally published in Inqaba ya Basebenzi No. 4 (October 1981). by Florence Bosch and Themba Sikhakliane For the toiling people in South Africa, the question of who owns and controls the land is completely bound up with who owns the factories, mines, farms and other workplaces, and with who controls the state which protects the - [Marxism and the Land](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1978) - Contents 1. The Struggle for the Land (1981) 2. Marxism and the Land (2017) 3. Will land expropriation without compensation end inequality? (2018) - [Inkatha Chief Attacks Inqaba](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2516) - Originally published in Inqaba ya Basebenzi No.26 (April 1988) It wasn’t the first time (or the last) that peace talks with Inkatha collapsed. But what made headlines in the weeks before Christmas was that an “obscure document” (so the Sunday Star called it), unexpectedly introduced and denounced by Buthelezi, brought the talks to a sudden - [Workers’ Power and the Crisis of Leadership](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2478) - Originally published in Inqaba ya Basebenzi No.12 (November 1983-February 1984) Nimrod Sejake was, from 1954, organiser for and then secretary of the Transvaal Iron, Steel and Metal Workers Union, which affiliated to Sactu. According to Sactu’s official history, Organise or Starve!: At the time of Sactu’s formation, the Tvl IS&MWU was the only viable trade - [When Ivin Malaza Died](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2514) - Originally published in Inqaba Ya Basebenzi No.24/25 (October 1987) Not only at BTR and Zincor, but also at a number of other workplaces, leading worker militants have been murdered by Uwusa. Comrade Ivin Malaza, a supporter of the Marxist Workers’ Tendency of the ANC, was one of those killed. A close comrade of Ivin’s spoke - [Trade Union Struggle in the South African Revolution](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2470) - Originally published in Inqaba ya Basebenzi No.1 (January 1981) by Richard Monroe Last year a number of activists in Sactu published a pamphlet: The Workers’ Movement, Sactu, and the ANC – A Struggle for Marxist Policies. It explained their position in a political dispute within Sactu which the organisation’s leadership had refused to allow to - [Provide a Strategy for Victory – Don’t Attack the Marxists in the ANC](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2498) - Originally published in Inqaba ya Basebenzi No.24/25 (October 1987) At the Cosatu Congress in July, the two key-note speakers, UDF leader Comrade Murphy Morobe and SAYCO President Peter Mokaba, devoted a large part of their speeches to attacking the Marxist Workers’ Tendency of the ANC. Bernard Fortuin, active since 1976 in building Congress youth and - [OBITUARY | Lawrence Jongintaba Notha](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2476) - Originally published in Inqaba Ya Basebenzi No.16/17 (January-June 1985) On 8 January 1985, Lawrence Jongintaba Notha, activist and Marxist for many years, passed away in Serowe, Botswana at the young age of 57. Born in Mount Ayliff in the Cape, he completed his formal education, in which he had excelled throughout, by obtaining a B.Sc. - [Labour MP Protests Suspension of Marxists by ANC](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2487) - Originally published in Inqaba Ya Basebenzi No.16/17 (January-June 1985) When invited to contribute to discussion at an ANC meeting in London on 8 January, British Labour MP and Militant supporter Dave Nellist raised questions about the suspension of four South African Marxists from the ANC in 1979 – but received no satisfactory answers. The meeting, - [Isolate the Apartheid Regime – Solidarity with South African Workers](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2505) - Originally published in Inqaba ya Basebenzi No.6 (May 1982) Inqaba Editorial statement The unity of the workers of all countries is a necessity arising out of the fact that the capitalist class, which rules over the workers, does not limit its rule to one country... Capitalist domination is international. That is why the workers’ struggle - [Four ANC Marxists expelled – SA ‘Communist’ Party Strikes Factional Bow](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2493) - Originally appeared in Inqaba ya Basebenzi No. 18-19 (February 1986) Statement issued in London, 31 July, 1985, by expelled comrades. Inqaba has received the following statement (dated 31 July 1985) by Marxists recently expelled by the ANC in exile. We reprint the statement for the information of our readers. We also demand the unconditional reinstatement - [Expelled Marxists Welcome Readmission to ANC](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2496) - Originally published in Inqaba Ya Basebenzi No.23 (April 1987) Four Marxists suspended from the African National Congress in 1979 and expelled in 1985 have welcomed an announcement by ANC President Oliver Tambo as signifying their readmission. At the ceremony in Lusaka on January marking its 75th anniversary, the ANC publicly invited back into membership those - [Build Direct Links with the Workers’ Movement in Other Countries!](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2508) - Originally published in Inqaba ya Basebenzi No.6 (May 1982) by Paul Storey In building workers’ unity workers have found it necessary to do more than link their organisations together ‘at the top’. In each region and industry, we strive to meet with our fellow workers from other factories and unions to discuss directly how we - [Attack on ANC Marxists is an Attack on ANC’s Socialist Youth](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2490) - Originally appeared in Inqaba ya Basebenzi No. 18-19 (February 1986) by Bernard Fortuin Editor’s note: The author has been active in pro-ANC youth and community organisations in SA since 1976. Like many others of his generation of fighters, he has been imprisoned repeatedly by the security police. Here he answers the recent barrage of attacks - [REVIEW | The Spirit of Marikana](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2451) - Originally published in Socialism Today, No. 205 (February 2017), journal of the Socialist Party (CWI, England & Wales). Reviewed by Weizmann Hamilton Luke Sinwell and Siphiwe Mbatha’s book is the first to highlight the role of the Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union (AMCU), the Democratic Left Front (DLF) and the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) - [The Marikana Report – A Whitewash](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2447) - by Weizmann Hamilton 27 June 2015 Under severe pressure from the families of the victims of the Marikana massacre and threats of legal action, President Jacob Zuma has released the report of the Farlam Commission of Inquiry. Not unexpectedly, the report completely exonerates the government and specifically deputy president, Cyril Ramaphosa, former Police and Minerals - [Marikana Massacre Ignites the Mass Movement](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2442) - by Weizmann Hamilton 21 September 2012 At the end of July the signing of a three-year salary agreement between the government and the public-sector unions was greeted with relief and hailed as historic. The possibility of a repeat of the massive public-sector strikes of 2007 and 2010 had been averted for the next three years - [Marikana and the 2012 Mineworkers' Strikes](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=244) - Originally published as After Marikana in November 2013 by the Democratic Socialist Movement, a forerunner of the Marxist Workers Party. Build a democratic fighting worker-led AMCU Struggle for a R12 500 monthly minimum wage Nationalise the mines under workers’ control and management Learn the lessons of Marikana Support the Workers and Socialist Party Introduction The - [The Lessons of Marikana](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=247) - by Weizmann Hamilton*, 2013 The murders of 34 workers at Marikana on August 16 last year, and the tumultuous events that ensued, illuminated with blinding clarity all the accumulated political and social contradictions in SA society. It clarified relations between the classes like no other event before and threw the political role of the ANC - [The Legacy of Leon Trotsky (1990)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=574) - by Richard Monroe & Philip Masters Contents Introduction (1990) Chapter 1 – The Theory of the Permanent Revolution Chapter 2 – The Rise of Stalinism Chapter 3 – The Nature of the Soviet Regime Chapter 4 – World Relations Since World War II Chapter 5 – The “New” SACP’s Explanation of Stalinism Chapter 6 – - [Capitalism and the Trade Unions](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=227) - We live in a capitalist society where the banks, the mines, the farms, the big factories and the big businesses – like Absa Bank, Anglo American, Rainbow Chicken, SCAW Metals, Vodacom, and Shoprite – are privately owned. This splits society into two main groups of people – the minority capitalist class (the bosses) that own - [SALEP’s Socialist Education Work – Why does the Labour Party NEC want to ban it?](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2333) - CONTENTS Introduction 1. What Is SALEP And What Work Has It Done? 2. The NEC’s “Charges” Against SALEP’s Educational Work 3. The NEC’s “Political Charges” Against SALEP 4. The Struggle for Direct Links 5. SALEP and Direct Links: The NEC’s “Charges” 6. The NEC’s Other “Charges” Against SALEP 7. The Tasks for the Labour Party - [What is SALEP and what work has it done?](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2343) - The South African Labour Education Project was formed in March 1980 to provide socialist educational material for the workers’ movement in South Africa of a kind that could not be produced openly in the country. It was founded at the request of activists inside the country, but, to carry out this work, established its central - [The Tasks for the Labour Party](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2363) - The proscription of SALEP by the majority on the Labour Party NEC, it is unfortunately but clearly the case, is motivated by a hysterical bureaucratic vendetta against Marxist ideas in the South African workers’ movement being orchestrated by the leadership clique of the Communist Party. It is being carried out by those who, wittingly or - [The Struggle for Direct Links](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2352) - If it is the case that exiled leaders of the ANC and Sactu are implicated in these charges against SALEP, it would not, unfortunately, be the first time that they have set themselves – under SACP influence – to try to mould Labour Party policy against the demands of the workers’ movement inside South Africa. - [The NEC’s Other “Charges” Against SALEP](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2360) - Enough has been said to demonstrate that the NEC report is not merely politically incompetent, but shows a readiness to ignore, suppress and falsify all evidence which does not fit in with its preconceived conclusions. It is necessary, however, to take up some of the other distorted and falsified “charges” that are levelled against SALEP - [The NEC’s “Political Charges” Against SALEP](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2349) - Is SALEP’S “interpretation of events ... completely outside the spectrum of mainstream progressive opinion, both within and outside South Africa?” This is the political ‘accusation’ levelled against SALEP in the NEC’s report. Even were it true, it would in no way justify the bureaucratic decision to try to proscribe SALEP from the Labour Party. SALEP, - [The NEC’s “Charges” Against SALEP’s Educational Work](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2345) - The Labour Party International Department which compiled the NEC’s report was fully aware of all this educational work. Yet it suppresses most of this information. No mention is made of SALEP’s publications in African languages, nor of its audio-visual productions. No mention is made of SALEP’s material on Zimbabwe. No mention is made of SALEP’s - [SALEP and Direct Links: The NEC’s “Charges”](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2355) - The International Department report claims to uphold the NEC Advice Note No. 7 (February 1983): it “should continue as policy.” At the same time it makes the astounding claim that SALEP’s policy regarding direct links is somehow entirely different: SALEP’s new call for [undefined] direct links ‘at all levels’ is fraught with problems... No trade - [Introduction](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2340) - On 27 March 1985, the NEC of the British Labour Party resolved that: “Regions, CLPs and affiliates have no contacts with SALEP, do not use its materials or allow it facilities and publish an Advice Note outlining the NEC’s principal criticisms of SALEP.” This decision was bulldozered through the International Committee and the NEC, with - [Appendix: South African Labour Education Project Appeal](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2366) - As trade unionists in this country will readily agree, workers’ education is a vital aspect of trade union and political organisation. In South Africa it is even more vital. Legislation proposed by the South African government, following the report of the Wiehahn Commission, is aimed at forcing African trade unions to register with the Department - [The Changing Political Landscape: What organisational conclusions should WASP draw?](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2081) - This discussion document was adopted unanimously at WASP’s National Bosberaad on 14 February 2015. Comrades came to call the change in tactics outlined in the below document ‘the Bolshevik Turn’. It was published for the first time in August 2020. Discussion Document for the Workers & Socialist Party by the DSM Executive Committee 19 January - [WASP to Be Re-Founded as a Revolutionary Party](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2069) - 18 February 2015 On 14 February 2015, on the eve of its second anniversary, activists of the Workers & Socialist Party gathered in Johannesburg for a bosberaad (national meeting) to take stock and to discuss the future of the party. The meeting took the historic decision to begin a new phase in the life of - [WASP Launch a Huge Success](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2012) - 26 March 2013 Over 500 Tshwane workers, mineworkers’ delegates, trade union and community activists packed Lucas Van Den Bergh Community Hall in Pretoria for the launch of the Workers & Socialist Party on March 21. The hall could not accommodate the turnout and attendees over-spilled onto the neighbouring field. The launch surpassed all expectations. It - [WASP Has Registered for the 2014 Elections](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2073) - 13 March 2014 The Workers and Socialist Party (WASP) has registered for the elections to the national assembly and for the provincial legislatures of North West, Limpopo and Gauteng. The national candidate list was made public at a press conference in Johannesburg today, March 13, 2014 The presidential candidate and number one on WASP’s national - [Vote “No” Campaign Is No Solution to Anger with the ANC](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2048) - 15 April 2014 The Workers and Socialist Party welcomes the recognition of the comrades launching the ‘Sidikiwe! Vukani! Vote “No” Campaign’ that the ANC is failing the working class and poor. We also appreciate their desire to do something about it. But we disagree with the campaigns founding statement because it does not offer a - [The ANC’s Gwede Mantashe Continues Attacks on WASP](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2056) - South African ‘Communist’ Party and the ANC Blame Wasp for Platinum Strike Killings 20 May 2014 The latest chapter in the concerted strike-breaking efforts by the anti-worker troika – the mining bosses, the state and the ruling party – is the accusation that the Workers and Socialist Party (WASP) is behind the intimidation and violence - [Only Socialism Means Freedom](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2043) - Preamble On the anniversary of twenty years of democracy, the political settlement established in 1994 is breaking down. The end of the dominance of the ANC can now be imagined without entertaining a fantasy. The link between the working class and poor masses of South Africa and their former liberation movement is in an advanced - [Mining Strike, DSM And WASP Activist Liv Shange Faces Deportation](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2016) - 25 June 2013 by Weizmann Hamilton In a sinister development, ANC General Secretary, Gwede Mantashe’s claim – made to a business forum in Sandton on Tuesday 11th June, 2013 — that foreigners from Sweden and Ireland were behind what he described as “anarchy in Marikana”, has been followed by an attempt to throw leading Democratic - [Mineworkers Back Launch of Wasp](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2002) - 11 March 2013 At a meeting in Rustenburg on Sunday March 10, the mineworkers’ national strike committee gave its backing to the launch of the Workers and Socialist Party (WASP). Delegates were present from mines in Rustenburg, Limpopo, Gauteng and Northern Cape. The national strike committee was founded in October last year and united the - [Metalworkers Strike Must Take Forward Call For New Workers’ Party](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2060) - 16 July 2014 Last week the Workers & Socialist Party issued a statement replying to the bosses’ accusation, repeated continuously in the media as a fact, that the metalworkers’ strike and the platinum strike before it are ruining the South African economy. To its credit, Business Report, the bosses’ financial daily newspaper, carried our statement in - [Manifesto Launch Success!](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2030) - 29 March 2014 On Saturday 29 March the Workers and Socialist Party launched its 2014 election manifesto at a rally in Katlehong, Gauteng. Liv Shange, deputy general secretary of WASP chaired proceedings. Weizmann Hamilton, WASP’s general secretary, spoke on WASP’s history and the desperate need for the working class and poor to have their own - [Invitation to Discuss the Way Forward](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1999) - 23 January 2013 Dear Comrades, South Africa is rotten ripe for an alternative. Locally and internationally capitalism is in a severe and protracted crisis that is not showing signs of recovery. Like their counterparts internationally, workers here have shown their willingness to struggle against the consequences that the crisis is wreaking on livelihoods as seen - [Elections 2014 Analysis](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2053) - 9 May 2014 The African National Congress has been re-elected with 62% of the vote. This represents a marginal decline with the shedding of a few hundred thousand votes in absolute terms and the loss of 3.5%. Given the scandal filled five-year term of president Zuma, not least of all the Marikana massacre and Nkandla-gate, - [An Open Letter to Cosatu Members](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2009) - 14 March 2013 Dear comrades, There is an urgent task facing the working class and labour movement, the tackling of which can no longer be postponed. That task is the necessity to rebuild the political independence of the working class. In the mining sector strike wave of last year the NUM, the ANC, the SACP, - [Mining and Steel Industry Crisis (2015)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=2112) - Deals Protect Bosses’ Profits Not Jobs Struggle for Workers Nationalisation Needed Originally published in Izwi la Basebenzi (September 2015). by Shaun Arendse Capitalism is again demonstrating its complete inability to overcome mass unemployment and poverty. Private sector big business is at the forefront of worsening the already terrible situation facing the working class. Both the - [The Workers and Socialist Party (2012-15)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1994) - The Democratic Socialist Movement, a predecessor of the Marxist Workers Party, played a crucial role in the 2012 mineworkers’ strikes for a R12,500 living wage. It was the DSM that co-ordinated the independent strike committees that had been improvised by workers at different companies, linking them up into the National Strike Committee (see here for - [Struggle for a Mass Workers Party](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1992) - Contents Part 1 – Workers and Socialist Party (2012-15) Part 2 – Open Letter to Cosatu Members (2013) Part 3 – Numsa’s Special National Congress (2013) Part 4 – After Numsa’s Congress (2014) Part 5 – Numsa Expulsion: Rebuild Trade Union Movement on Socialist Principles (2014) Part 6 – Vavi’s Expulsion Opens New Chapter in - [Massive Opportunities for Working Class Struggle Despite United Front Postponement (2015)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1975) - 27 June 2015 Activists across the country will be disappointed over the postponement of the launch of the United Front, for the second time in six months. The conversion of the original launch in December 2014 into a Preparatory Assembly was understandable and necessary. Then structures were not in place and there was uncertainty over - [Will land expropriation without compensation end inequality?](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1980) - 11 July 2018 by Weizmann Hamilton The ANC’s May 2018 Land Summit has referred a proposal to amend its Expropriation Bill to its NEC to allow for expropriation of land without compensation (EWC). Then the Constitutional Court will be asked to test it for compliance with Clause 25 – the Property Clause. Malema has offered - [The 1955 Congress of the People & the Freedom Charter](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=295) - Blueprint for socialism or capitalism? This is an edited version of an article originally published in 2015 to intervene in debates taking place within the workers movement about the relevance of the Freedom Charter. by Weizmann Hamilton, 2015 The ANC has always portrayed itself as a multi-class party with the leadership insisting that, whilst it - [Numsa Expulsion: Rebuild Trade Union Movement on Socialist Principles (2014)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1954) - 20 November 2014 The pro-ANC right-wing of the Cosatu leadership has accomplished what the apartheid regime could not and split the 2.2 million strong trade union federation. On the night of 7/8 November – dubbed the ‘night of the long knives’ in the press – Cosatu’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) voted 33 to 24 in - [Vavi's Expulsion Opens New Chapter in Working Class Struggle (2015)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1951) - 31 March 2015 Twenty years of class collaboration as part of the Tripartite Alliance has finally produced an irreversible split in the Cosatu trade union federation. On 30 March, Cosatu’s Central Executive Committee (CEC) expelled general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi, a vocal critic of the anti-working class policies of the ANC government for his 16 years - [Workers Summit: how can we make the new federation a success? (2016)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1959) - 29 April 2016 For a socialist programme For accountable and transparent leadership For bold and militant struggle For a socialist mass workers party On Saturday 30 April a workers summit is taking place in Johannesburg to discuss how to take forward the creation of a new trade union federation. Some 3,000 worker delegates are expected - [Time for a Socialist Trade Union Federation (2014)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1947) - 14 February 2014 Cosatu is convulsing in its death throes as the once mighty federation’s long drawn out death agony nears its conclusion. The pro-ANC wing in Cosatu’s leadership, at this week’s Special Central Executive Committee (SCEC) plumbed new depths in their long standing betrayal of the working class. The meeting in effect read Cosatu - [The Workers Party We Need (2018)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=215) - 17 July 2018 by Sheri Hamilton The SA Federation of Trade Unions’ 25 April national strike potentially signals a decisive shift in working class struggle. The estimated 100,000 workers silenced Saftu’s critics. Millions now look to Saftu as an alternative to Cosatu and as a point of reference. This was in fact the first conscious - [Open Letter to Cosatu Members (2013)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1942) - Zuma Faction Poised to Split Cosatu Working Class Unity Threatened – Time to re-unite under the banner of struggle, solidarity and socialism 18 July 2013 Dear Comrades, We write to you and all trade-union, community and student activists because the current developments in Cosatu, after the seismic events of the Marikana massacre – the most - [Has the Numsa moment passed? (2016)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=249) - 26 April 2016 by Weizmann Hamilton The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa’s, (Numsa) December 2013 Special National Congress was historic. In announcing that it would not campaign for the ANC in the 2014 general elections, denouncing the SA Communist Party and withholding its Cosatu subscription, Numsa took the first political step on to - [After Numsa’s Congress (2014)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1937) - Seize the Historic Opportunity of the 2014 Elections 30 January 2014 The decisions adopted at Numsa’s Special National Congress (SNC) in December have positioned Numsa to be at the heart of working class struggle in the next period. If acted upon boldly, this stand is potentially epoch defining in the life and struggles of the - [Numsa's Special National Congress (2013)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1932) - Most Important Labour Meeting Since Founding of Cosatu Below is the text of an open letter from the Workers and Socialist Party (WASP) to Numsa members published on 13 December 2013. Dear Numsa comrades, The Workers and Socialist Party salutes Numsa for calling this special congress. We condemn in the strongest possible terms the personal - [Mandela's Release (1990)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1862) - Mobilise a Mass ANC to Overthrow the Government! Originally published in Inqaba ya Basebenzi No.28 (January 1990) under the pen name Basil Hendrickse by Weizmann Hamilton The character of the social regime, and consequently the character of every revolution, is determined by the character of the class that holds the power in its hands_ The - [What is “workerism”? (1988)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1857) - Originally published in Inqaba ya Basebenzi No.27 (November 1988) by Peter Fisher and Richard Monroe The term “workerism” has acquired a certain currency among activists in our movement. But what is “workerism”? In 1986, the UDF journal Isizwe (Vol I, No. 3) – to which many activists have looked for theoretical guidance – published an - [Introduction (1986)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1827) - [bg_faq_start] Original Editors’ Note This document is intended to supplement the previous perspectives published by Inqaba, which have been borne out in all essentials. Comrades are urged to reread South Africa’s Impending Socialist Revolution (March 1982); The Coming World Revolution (published with issue 14 of Inqaba, June-August 1984); and particularly Workers’ Revolution or Racial Civil - [South Africa – How close to revolution? (1984)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1847) - Originally published as a supplement to Inqaba ya Basebenzi No. 15 (September-December 1984) Editorial Board Statement 12 November 1984 The magnificent struggles of the black proletariat in South Africa – unsurpassed in heroism and sacrifice anywhere in the world – have undoubtedly opened a new stage on the road to revolution. The mass movement against - [Letter from the RPC of the ANC (26 October 1979)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1809) - This letter was received by each of the following comrades: Paula Ensor David Hemson Martin Legassick Robert Petersen RE: Suspension from all ANC Activities and Units It has come to the attention of the Regional Political Committee (RPC) that you are a signatory to a Document entitled “The Workers’ Movement and Sactu – a Struggle - [South Africa’s Socialist Revolution Has Begun (1986)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1821) - Originally published as a supplement to Inqaba ya Basebenzi No. 20/21 (November 1986) Contents Introduction (1986) Bonapartism, Reaction, and the Crisis in White Politics © Transcribed from the original by the Marxist Workers Party (2020). - [Workers' Revolution or Racial Civil War (1985)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1186) - Originally published as a supplement to Inqaba Ya Basebenzi No.16/17 (May 1985) by Paul Storey Contents Introduction Chapter One – The Economy – Basis of Perspectives Chapter Two – Character and Tasks of the Revolution Chapter Three – Reform, Reaction and Civil War Chapter Four – Strategy and Tasks © Transcribed from the original by - [Project](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=7049) - [Donation History](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=7057) - [donation_history] - [Donation Failed](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=7058) - We're sorry, your donation failed to process. Please try again or contact site support. - [Letter to NEC from Members of Sactu Technical Sub-Committee (17 July 1979)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1780) - (Copies to the Secretariat and to other Sactu formations with responsibility for work.) Comrades, We have, over the past few days, been informed of the decision of the NEC (London) to close-down the Technical Sub-Committee which was established only six months ago. We have been told that the reason given by the NEC for its - [The Workers’ Movement, Sactu and the ANC – a Struggle for Marxist Policies](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1753) - The contents below were originally published together as a booklet in 1980. Contents Introduction (1980) Foreword (August 1979) Resisting the Wiehahn-Riekert Attacks Memorandum to the Sactu NEC from the Editor of Workers Unity Letter to NEC from the dismissed Editor (17 July 1979) Letter to NEC from members of Sactu Technical Sub-Committee (17 July 1979) - [Forward to Freedom – United Under Workers Leadership](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1802) - Editorial from Inqaba ya Basebenzi, No. 1 (January 1981) A storm of struggles has engulfed South Africa, much bigger and more widespread than anything yet seen. The workers’ head-on collision with the bosses of industry had already sent 50,000 workers on strike in the first three months of 1980. In the months that followed new - [Foreward (August 1979)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1762) - What is the way forward? This is the question uppermost in the minds of all militant workers and students, and all who have shown their courage through the great events of the past months. To answer this question correctly is the task of all leaders at every level, in the factories, schools and organisations of - [Introduction (1980)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1759) - On 17 January 1980, the ANC office in London made a public attack in the British press on four ANC members. It stated that Paula Ensor, David Hemson, Martin Legassick and Robert Petersen had been suspended from the ANC and faced possible expulsion for “factionalism” and for circulating a document allegedly “attacking the movement”. The - [Resisting the Wiehahn-Riekert Attacks](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1767) - – A contribution to the discussion in the workers’ movement from Marxist activists in the South African Congress of Trade Unions At this time, the single most important struggle of the workers’ movement in South Africa is to resist the Wiehahn-Riekert strategy of the bosses and the apartheid regime. The Wiehahn and Riekert Commissions, and - [Letter to NEC From the Dismissed Editor (17 July 1979)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1776) - (Copies to the Secretariat and to other Sactu formations with responsibility for work.) Comrades, My dismissal as editor of Workers Unity by the NEC, at its April meeting in Dar es Salaam, is of very little personal significance. I have always been willing to make my contribution to the workers’ struggle in any capacity. This - [Letter to RPC (UK) of the ANC from Four Suspended Members (27 December 1979)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1787) - Comrade Y Zungu Chief Representative of the ANC and Chairman of the Regional Political Committee (UK) For attention of the Regional Political Committee Comrades, Re: Our suspension from all ANC activities and units We have received your letter of 26 October with feelings of great disappointment and sadness. We believe that the decision of the - [The Workers’ Movement, Sactu and the ANC – a Struggle for Marxist Policies](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1771) - MEMORANDUM TO: The National Executive Committee of Sactu FROM: The editor of Workers Unity Comrades, After an absence of fourteen years, Workers Unity reappeared in January 1977 as the official newspaper of Sactu, to present our ideas and policies to the workers of South Africa and to the world. Now, more than two years later, - [Lessons of the 1950s](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=324) - Originally published in Inqaba ya Basebenzi No. 13 (March-May 1984) by Richard Monroe Contents Chapter 1 – The Victory of the Nationalist party in 1948 Chapter 2 – The Lack of a Workers’ Party Chapter 3 – The Rise of the ANC Chapter 4 – The Role of the Communist Party in the ANC Chapter - [Arming the Workers' Movement – a Reply to Comrade Tambo](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=791) - Originally published in Inqaba Ya Basebenzi No. 11 (August-October 1983) by P. Qubulashe After the Pretoria car bomb blast in May a rare interview with Comrade Oliver Tambo appeared in the British press. In a large centre-page article in The Guardian (6/8/83), he explained the strategy of armed struggle put forward by the ANC leadership. - [Why did the SA Communist Party lie?](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1708) - Revelations of dictatorship and corruption in the Soviet Union raise the question: why did the SA Communist Party lie? Originally published in Inqaba Ya Basebenzi No.27 (November 1988) by Sean Kelly Developments in the Soviet Union under Gorbachev have come as a shock to many workers and youth in South Africa. It is now openly - [Top Soviet Official on South Africa: Socialist Revolution May Have to Wait a Century!](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1699) - Originally published in Inqaba Ya Basebenzi No.24/25 (October 1987) by Gavin Jantjies In the last issue of Inqaba we criticised proposals put forward by Gleb Starushenko, a Soviet ‘expert’ on Southern Africa. He said that “the ANC should not advance plans for a broad nationalisation of capitalist property” and should be “willing to give the - [SACP’s ‘Left Turn’ to the Right](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1683) - Originally published in Inqaba Ya Basebenzi No.23 (April 1987) by Paul Storey Haven’t we all been behind a motorist who indicates a turn in one direction… and then promptly turns in the other? When that happens in the political steering of our movement it is all the more dangerous. Brest roll down the window and - [How ‘democratic’ are the big bosses?](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1704) - Originally published in Inqaba Ya Basebenzi No.20/21 (September 1986) In the last two years millions of black working people have risen to their feet in struggle to end the miseries inflicted by apartheid and capitalism. If the State of Emergency has thrown our movement temporarily on the defensive, it has proved totally incapable of crushing - [Does the Soviet leadership support our socialist revolution?](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1680) - Originally published in Inqaba Ya Basebenzi No.23 (April 1987) by Richard Monroe Many youth and workers look to the SACP to put forward in the ANC the standpoint of the working class for workers’ power and socialism. In our struggle to overthrow the SA apartheid state and end capitalism, many also count on full support - [Is AZAPO a way forward for socialist youth?](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1618) - Originally published in Inqaba Ya Basebenzi No.16/17 (January-June 1985) by Alan Green Historically, youth have been at the forefront of every great movement for change. In the Russian Revolution, Lenin was mocked by his opponents for leading a party of ‘boys and girls’. In the recent British miners’ strike, it was especially the young miners - [What way forward for Black Consciousness?](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1609) - Originally published in Inqaba Ya Basebenzi No.2 (April 1981) by Zakes Ramushu The Black Consciousness Movement started as a movement of radical nationalist confrontation. It arose out of the soil of undisguised national oppression, the foundation and source of cheap labour. With the igniting slogan “Black Power”, the student youth from the bush colleges were - [Portfolio](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=7050) - [Contact](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=7061) - [News](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=7052) - [About](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=7063) - [PART 1 | Marx & Engels](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1484) - SERIES INTRODUCTION The Marxist Workers Party fights for socialism where the dog-eat-dog exploitation and oppression of capitalism is replaced with social solidarity in a society based on the rule of the working class and its allies – the rural and urban poor. Socialism will be a superior form of economic organisation of society’s productive forces - [POLITICAL EDUCATION SERIES | Introduction](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1477) - The Marxist Workers Party fights for socialism where the dog-eat-dog exploitation and oppression of capitalism is replaced with social solidarity in a society based on the rule of the working class and its allies – the rural and urban poor. Socialism will be a superior form of economic organisation of society’s productive forces – of - [READER #1](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1524) - Contents The Communist Manifesto (Marx & Engels) Address to the Communist League (Marx) Capital, selections (Marx) Introduction to The Civil War in France (Engels) - [READER # 2](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1543) - Contents Introduction to Dialectical Materialism The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism (Lenin) Preface to the Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy (Marx) On Historical Materialism (Engels) - [The Materialist Conception of History](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1557) - by Friedrich Engels, 1890 The following is an extract from a letter written by Friedrich Engels on September 21, 1890 to Joseph Bloch, the editor of a socialist journal. According to the materialist conception of history the determining element in history is ultimately the production and reproduction in real life. More than this neither Marx nor - [Preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1551) - by Karl Marx, 1859 The following is an extract from Marx’s preface to A Contribution to the Critique of Political Economy. In the social production which men carry on they enter into definite relations that are indispensable and independent of their will; these relations of production correspond to a definite stage of development of their - [The Three Sources and Three Component Parts of Marxism](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1546) - by V. I. Lenin, 1913 Throughout the civilised world the teachings of Marx evoke the utmost hostility and hatred of all bourgeois science (both official and liberal), which regards Marxism as a kind of “pernicious sect”. And no other attitude is to be expected, for there can be no “impartial” social science in a society - [Capital, selections](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1530) - Chapter Four The General Formula for Capital The circulation of commodities is the starting-point of capital. The production of commodities, their circulation, and that more developed form of their circulation called commerce, these form the historical ground-work from which it rises. The modern history of capital dates from the creation in the 16th century of - [Introduction to The Civil War in France](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1535) - by Frederick Engels, 1891 I did not anticipate that I would be asked to prepare a new edition of the Address of the General Council of the International on The Civil War in France, and to write an introduction to it. Therefore I can only touch briefly here on the most important points. […] On May - [Address to the Communist League](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1525) - by Karl Marx, London, March 1850 Brothers! In the two revolutionary years of 1848-49 the League proved itself in two ways. First, its members everywhere involved themselves energetically in the movement and stood in the front ranks of the only decisively revolutionary class, the proletariat, in the press, on the barricades and on the battlefields. - [The Communist Manifesto](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1521) - by Karl Marx and Frederich Engels, 1848 A spectre is haunting Europe — the spectre of communism. All the powers of old Europe have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre: Pope and Tsar, Metternich and Guizot, French Radicals and German police-spies. Where is the party in opposition that has not been decried - [After the mineworkers’ strike: where does the revolution go from here?](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1470) - Originally published in Inqaba Ya Basebenzi No.24/25 (October 1987). Editorial Board Statement Four weeks after the mineworkers’ strike was called off, the realisation has set in among many activists that the cornerstone has been removed from the 1987 strike movement. This is causing frustration, and even depression among some. Among some sections of workers, doubts - [Could the mineworkers have won?](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1465) - Originally published in Inqaba Ya Basebenzi No.24/25 (October 1987). The 1987 mineworkers’ strike which began on 9 August was the most important strike in the history of the black workers’ movement. For three weeks 340,000 mineworkers struck against the most powerful bosses in South Africa. In the course of the dispute nine strikers were killed - [Part Two](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=668) - The Method of Marxism - Dialectical Materialism Marxism like all ideas is a product of historical development. But no idea comes into existence in a vacuum but develops out of and even expresses itself in the language of ideas it is preparing to replace. On the development of Marxism, Engels explained that: Modern Socialism is, - [Introduction to Dialectical Materialism](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=659) - by Shaun Arendse, 2015 Contents Part 1 – Why Do We Need Theory? Part 2 – The Method of Marxism – Dialectical Materialism Part 3 – The Tools of Dialectical Thought Part 4 – The Historical Development of Marxism Part 5 - Summary - [Part Three](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=679) - The Tools of Dialectical Thought Dialectical materialism is a method. It is not a master key that automatically gives us knowledge about the world. Dialectical materialism simply teaches us where to look for objective explanations. There is no shortcut around finding and studying the facts of all the things that we want to understand, including - [Marx the Revolutionary](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=800) - This is an edited version of an article that originally appeared in Inqaba Ya Basebenzi Supplement No. 10 (May 1983). by Brian Ingham "The philosophers have only interpreted the world in various ways. The point, however, is to change it". These now famous words were written by Marx in 1845. They fully convey the spirit - [“Peace Talks” with Inkatha - a Wrong Policy](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1336) - Originally appeared in Inqaba Ya Basebenzi No. 26 (April 1988). Events have delivered their verdict on the policy of peace talks with Inkatha, pursued by the UDF and Cosatu leadership: A TOTAL FAILURE. The civil war goes on – now with the UDF virtually banned, Cosatu restricted, and the murderous Inkatha warlords not only untouched - [Inkatha – This Spear of Counter-revolution Must be Broken](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1330) - Originally published in Inqaba Ya Basebenzi No.16/17 (May 1985). by Peter Davies and Daniel Lakay “Like never before, Inkatha has shown its true colours. They are not green, yellow and black. They are blood red.”[1] The flag of Inkatha is smeared with the blood of trade unionists, students and political activists who have challenged its - [How To Fight Uwusa](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1332) - Originally appeared in Inqaba Ya Basebenzi No. 24-25 (October 1987). Uwusa [United Workers Union of South Africa] was launched by Buthelezi’s Inkatha in May 1986. It is not a union. It is not even a “tribally-based union”. It is an armed gang created for no other purpose than to break strikes and unions. For all - [The 1973 Durban Strikes](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=932) - Contents Part 1 - Ten Years Ago: The Durban Strikes (1983) Part 2 - The 1973 Natal Strike Wave: How We Rebuilt the Unions (1990) © Transcribed from the original by the Marxist Workers Party (2019). - [Cosatu's Founding Congress](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1036) - Durban, 30 November - 1 December 1985 Originally appeared in Inqaba Ya Basebenzi No. 18-19 (February 1986) “U-Cosatu-Sonyuka naya ’masingena enkululukweni...” (Cosatu – we'll rise with you as we advance towards freedom...) These words, sung at the mass rally after the congress, tell more clearly than any description what the founding of Cosatu has meant - [Trade Union Unity](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1032) - Originally appeared in Inqaba Ya Basebenzi No. 12 (November 1983-February 1984) Editorial Board statement which was circulated in South Africa on 20 February 1984. At the trade union unity talks last October, long-standing differences of attitude towards the formation of a new federation came sharply to the surface. The occasion for the open-rift was not - [Trade Union Unity – Which way forward now?](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1027) - Originally appeared in Inqaba Ya Basebenzi No. 7 (August 1982) by Rocco Malgas and Paul Storey In mountaineering, the dangers in a false step become the greater the higher up a cliff one succeeds in going. So it is in the class struggle, where all kinds of unforeseen barriers, crumbling footholds and sudden high winds - [Trade Unions and the UDF](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=972) - Originally appeared in Inqaba No. 11 (August-September 1983) by Paul Storey The editorial in this issue of Inqaba calls on the organised workers in the independent unions to go into the United Democratic Front – to build it, transform it, and lead it on a clear program against apartheid and capitalist rule. This position needs - [UDF Conference: Workers Demand Struggle for Jobs, Homes and Freedom](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=966) - Originally appeared in Inqaba No. 11 (August-October 1983) by Inqaba correspondents Press coverage of the launching of the United Democratic Front at Mitchell's Plain on 20 August has concentrated on the declaration of principles adopted and the main platform speeches. Little was conveyed, however, of the real life of the conference proceedings or the issues - [The Organised Workers Must Build and Lead the United Democratic Front](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=964) - Editorial from Inqaba No. 11 (August-October 1983) The 20 August launching of the United Democratic Front is the most important advance in the working class movement since the Durban strikes. Those strikes, ten years ago, signalled to the whole of South Africa that the black working class had re-awakened to struggle after the paralysing setbacks - [The 1973 Natal Strike Wave: How We Rebuilt the Unions](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=945) - Originally published as a Congress Militant booklet in 1990. by David Hemson David Hemson was a leading organiser of black workers in Natal in the early 1970s, involved in the formation of the trade unions after the Durban strikes. He was banned in March 1974 and went into exile in 1976. He spent his years - [Ten Years Ago: The Durban Strikes](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=941) - Originally published in Inqaba Ya Basebenzi No. 9 (February-April 1983) by D. H. The dispute of the 2,000 African migrant workers at Coronation Brick & Tile Co., outside Durban with their employers in January 1973 was over pay. As events turned out, their action marked the beginning of the Durban strikes – the biggest post-war - [Chapter Four](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1207) - Strategy and Tasks In a sense, the South African revolution has begun. We have now entered upon (in Trotsky’s words) “a series of battles, disturbances, changing situation, abrupt turns, constituting in their entirety the different stages in the proletarian revolution.” But that does not mean we are in a ‘revolutionary situation’ – i.e., that the - [Chapter Three](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1202) - Reform, Reaction and Civil War For most of this century the policy of the SA bourgeoisie, in all its conflicting sections, has been determined above all by the need to control the rising black industrial proletariat. White domination and racial segregation has, of course, been characteristic of South Africa since colonial conquest. The relationship of - [Chapter Two](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1199) - Character and Tasks of the Revolution The character of a revolution is determined by two things. On the one hand, by the problems which have brought society to a revolutionary impasse; by the real obstacles standing in the way of social progress; by the nature of the changes that must be carried out in order - [Chapter One](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1195) - The Economy – Basis of Perspectives As with all societies, we will find the roots of the present political crisis in South Africa in the soil of the economy: in the way the productive system has developed and in the contradictions and crisis which grip that system now. The interlinked crisis of all sectors of - [Introduction](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1192) - In the volcanic movement of the black working class in the townships of Uitenhage and Port Elizabeth can be seen the outlines of South Africa’s coming revolution. General strike action; mass marches and demonstrations; unbridled massacre by the police; in response, a flaming fury of revolt spearheaded by the youth and fanning-out to wider areas; - [Are the coloureds marginalized?](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=268) - by Weizmann Hamilton, 2017 On 8 May 2017, working class discontent exploded in the coloured township of Eldorado Park, south of Johannesburg, and spread rapidly to coloured townships to its north, south, east and west. Although the protests came to be dominated by the housing question, this was in reality a rebellion against the misery - [South Africa's Impending Socialist Revolution (1982)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=709) - Contents Introduction PART ONE: HISTORICAL DELAY OF THE WORLD REVOLUTION Chapter 1 – A World Ripe for Socialism Chapter 2 – The Russian Revolution and the Rise of Stalinism PART TWO: THE INDUSTRIALISED COUNTRIES Chapter 3 – The Crisis of the Capitalist Powers Chapter 4 – The Crisis of the Stalinist States PART THREE: THE - [Perspectives of the MWT](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=1190) - [Home](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=7054) - [Sanctions & Disinvestment](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=301) - Originally published in Inqaba Ya Basebenzi No. 18-19 (February 1986) by L Reed Isolate the bosses! Build links between workers! Disinvestment and sanctions against South Africa have been hotly debated—in the bosses' press at home and overseas, as well as inside the workers' movement. Can economic sanctions contribute to forcing change in SA? Should the - [The Pretoria Bomb Blast](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=787) - Can these methods lead to liberation? Originally published in Inqaba Ya Basebenzi No. 10 (May-July 1983) by P. Qubulashe Killing 18 people and injuring 217, the car bomb blast in Church Street, Pretoria, on 20 May [1983] produced more dead and wounded than any other action by the ANC since the turn to 'armed struggle'. - [Guerrilla Struggle and the Workers' Movement](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=784) - Originally published in Inqaba Ya Basebenzi No. 5 (January 1982) by D. Sikhakhane & R. Monroe This is the first in a series of articles on armed struggle. In order to fully understand this question, it is necessary to examine guerrilla war as it developed in the revolutionary upheavals in Asia, Africa and Latin America. - [Armed Struggle and Workers’ Power](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=303) - Originally published in Inqaba Ya Basebenzi No. 7 (August 1982) by D. Sikhakhane and D. Hugo In the present period, the struggle for power between the forces of capitalism and the forces of the working class is opening up in countries around the world. In South Africa over the last decade, the workers and youth - [The Founding of the Marxist Workers Party](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=635) - …and the split in the CWI and WASP 6 September 2019 Today we announce the formation of the Marxist Workers Party and the re-founding of the Committee for a Workers International (CWI) in South Africa. At the same time, this is an announcement that the Workers and Socialist Party (WASP) has split. In a different - [The SRWP & the 2019 Elections](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=210) - by Weizmann Hamilton* 27 April 2019 On 7 April 2019, the Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party (SRWP) held its three-day inaugural congress. About a thousand delegates attended claiming to represent a membership of 20,000. Many working class activists may heave a sigh of relief. After many false starts and delays, maybe now, a serious trade union-based - [Instagram Demo - Customizer](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=878) - [my-instagram-feed user_id='' skin_id='877'] This is a mif demo page created by plugin automatically. Please don't delete to make the plugin work properly. - [Facebook Demo - Customizer](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=882) - [efb_feed fanpage_id="106704037405386" show_like_box="1" post_limit="10" cache_unit="5" cache_duration="days" skin_id=879 ] This is a Facebook demo page created by plugin automatically. Please do not delete to make the plugin work properly. - [Identity Politics and the Struggle Against Oppression](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=108) - by Hannah Sell, CWI International Secretariat, 2015 In the search for a way to fight against discrimination and oppression, many young people in particular embrace identity politics. It can be an important first step towards the development of socialist consciousness – if it leads on to an understanding of the class nature of capitalist society - [Violence Against Women - How should organised workers respond?](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=866) - Marxist Workers Party statement 12 September 2019 The rape and murder of student Uyinene Mrwetyana was the final spark that lit a new wave of protests demanding an end to violence against women. Uyinene’s body was discovered following a slew of reports of murdered women. Many of them had police protection orders against the abusive - [#OutsourcingMustFall Forces Joburg Mayor to Insource](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=251) - Now we step up the campaign to end all precarious work! by Weizmann Hamilton, 2018 The Workers and Socialist Party welcomes the announcement by the City of Johannesburg that 4,000 security guards will be insourced. We look forward to the full implementation of this commitment after a long, and in our view, unnecessary delay. We - [The Lessons of Building #OutsourcingMustFall](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=242) - by Shaun Arendse, 2016 The strike of outsourced cleaners, landscapers, security guards and caterers that began in Tshwane colleges and universities on 11 January under the banner of #OutsourcingMustFall opened a new round of campus protests. Developing into a rolling strike, major victories were won in Tshwane even as new strikes began at campuses in - [Crisis in the Middle East (1982)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=771) - by Daniel Hugo Part One Originally published in Inqaba Ya Basebenzi No. 8 (November 1982) The Israeli invasion of Lebanon has resulted in a shattering military defeat for the Palestinian Liberation Organisation. Leaving 50,000 dead – mostly Lebanese civilians – and hundreds of thousands homeless, it has added a savage new twist to the spiral - [Capitalist Power and ‘White Minority Rule’](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=293) - This is an edited version of Chapter 8 of South Africa’s Impending Socialist Revolution, published in 1982 by the Marxist Workers Tendency. It has been edited to present a concise summary of the roots of the apartheid regime in the historical development of South African capitalism. South African capitalism has never been able to provide - [Chapter Ten](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=760) - The Struggle for Power There is no country where/the movement of the oppressed working people to transform society faces more formidable obstacles, or a more vicious and entrenched enemy, than is the case in South Africa. That the struggle for liberation has proceeded thus far—that the regime and the ruling class already face so serious - [Chapter Nine](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=756) - The Crisis of the System The social and political crisis that has racked South Africa since the early 1970s has its foundation in the crisis of a system of production which is increasingly unable to provide for the most basic needs of the population. The mounting intensity of resistance to the apartheid dictatorship is sustained - [Chapter Eight](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=752) - The Nature and Tasks of the Revolution In South Africa, the industrial powerhouse of the sub-continent and bastion of white privilege, the ruling class is faced with a rising tide of revolt. More and more it overshadows even the greatest struggles in the neighbouring countries. The working class has recovered from the wounds of old - [Chapter Seven](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=748) - Southern Africa Over the past decade the mighty struggles in Southern Africa—in Mozambique, Angola, Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa itself—have been a flame of inspiration for the whole of the African continent, and for oppressed people everywhere. Like the war of liberation in Vietnam, and like the struggles in Central America today, the unfolding revolution - [Chapter Six](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=744) - Africa The great European powers which plundered and colonised Africa have left it with the most crippling legacy of poverty and under-development. The complex political developments on the continent are beyond the scope of this document except in the most general terms. What is essential as the starting point of any analysis of politics in - [Chapter Five](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=740) - The Colonial Revolution More than two-thirds of the world's population live in countries which were formerly colonies or semi-colonies of the imperialist powers. Here, over the past three to four decades, there has been permanent instability and a process of enormous upheavals, wars, revolutions and coups in one country after another. The turbulence of the - [Chapter Four](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=734) - The Crisis of the Stalinist States Despite the subsequent degeneration of the Russian revolution, its effects continue to reverberate around the world. By overturning the barriers of capitalism in an area covering one-sixth of the earth, the revolution allowed a backward country to rise in the space of two generations to what is now the - [Chapter Three](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=730) - The Crisis of the Capitalist Powers The upswing of capitalism after the Second World War became the main determining factor of world history for an entire generation. It is essential to understand that the precondition for this upswing was the defeat of the revolutionary wave at the end of the war. The development of the - [Chapter Two](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=725) - The Russian Revolution and the Rise of Stalinism The Russian Revolution of October 1917 stands out as the greatest event in history. The seizure of power by the working class, the overthrow of capitalism, and the creation of the first workers' state changed the entire international situation, and its repercussions continue to reverberate around the - [Introduction](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=718) - For a decade the mass movement against racist baasskap and capitalist exploitation has been reawakening. From the early 1970s, wave after wave of struggle has battered against the fortress of the bosses' power. The workers' strikes of 1973-74; the youth uprising of 1976-77; the militant trade union struggles of the past two years—these have been - [Part One](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=664) - Why Do We Need Theory? Marxism is the revolutionary theory of the working class. It is sometimes called a “philosophy”. The word philosophy comes from the Ancient Greek language and means ‘love of wisdom’. A philosophy is a system of ideas used to try and understand the world. But today, ‘theory’ is a clearer description - [Part Five](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=697) - Summary The need for the working class to organise a revolutionary party to overthrow capitalism and create a socialist society is the most important conclusion of Marxism. If dialectical materialism and its tools of dialectical thought allow us to answer the question of ‘why?’ things are the way they are, this conclusion, drawn from the - [Part Four](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=691) - The Historical Development of Marxism In Parts Two and Three Marxism was explained largely as a reasoned (or abstract!) argument. This was done to simplify the ideas in order to introduce them. But Marxism, like all ideas, is a product of historical development. The breakthroughs in thinking that culminated in Marxism were achieved under the - [Marxism](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=657) - [In Defence of Socialist Feminism](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=68) - by Christine Thomas, 2019 As the age of austerity arising from the great crash of 2007-08 enters its second decade, a new movement of women struggling against their oppression is taking shape. But mistaken ideas on how oppression can be ended have resurfaced too. The ideas of socialist feminism are ever more relevant. Feminism is - [Donate](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=50) - Please send donations to: Name of account: Izwilabasebenzi Bank: FNB Branch code: 250805 Account number: 62027185489 For email us at marxistworkerspartysa@gmail.com to notify us. THANKS! - [Chapter Six](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=605) - Tasks of the South African Revolution The drama of the South African revolution is unfolding in a decade likely to prove the most explosive in the history of the century. Despite eight years of upturn in the advanced capitalist countries, despite the turn of the Stalinist bureaucracies back towards capitalism, the boasts of the ideologists - [Appendix](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=609) - The SACP and the Case of S.P. Bunting S. P. Bunting was a founding member of the Communist Party of South Africa, as the SACP was then called. He became its chairman in 1924. He edited the Party paper, The International. He was one of those responsible in the 1920s for turning the party away - [Chapter Five](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=601) - The “New” SACP's Explanation of Stalinism The South African Communist Party has now been relaunched on an open basis within the country. It claims it will shed the heritage of Stalinism, and advance the struggle for socialism. As part of this "renovation", General Secretary Joe Slovo has published a pamphlet titled "Has Socialism Failed?", as - [Chapter Four](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=597) - World Relations Since World War II Against the blindness of the Soviet bureaucracy, who even placed trust in a "peace" pact with Hitler, Trotsky in the 1930s all along warned of the inevitability of war between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. He believed that this war would settle the fate not merely of the - [Chapter Three](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=593) - The Nature of the Soviet Regime Neither Marx, Engels nor Lenin ever imagined that a state with the grotesque totalitarian character of Stalin's dictatorship would arise in the course of the world transition from capitalism to socialism. Marxism has always rejected the idea put forward by capitalists and every brand of reformism: that the state - [Chapter Two](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=589) - The Rise of Stalinism On October 25, 1917, the Provisional Government was overthrown in Petrograd. The Russian working class took state power. The Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers Deputies, highest organ of workers' democracy, was in session in the capital. Following Lenin, Trotsky spoke there: "We rest all our hope on the possibility - [Chapter One](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=579) - The Theory of the Permanent Revolution Leon Trotsky came to adulthood in Russia at the turn of this century – when the working class was rising to its feet in a struggle to end the semi-feudal dictatorship of the Russian Tsar (emperor). He was a member of the Russian workers' party, the Social Democratic Labour - [Introduction (1990)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=577) - Leon Trotsky – leader with Lenin of the 1917 Russian Revolution and organiser of the Red Army that defeated the imperialist invasion against it – was assassinated fifty years ago, on 20 August 1940, on the orders of Stalin, who had become ruler of the Soviet Union. To his death, Trotsky fought against capitalism and - [Can Capitalism Develop Zimbabwe? (1990)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=522) - Originally an lzwi/llizwi publication. Contents Chapter 1 – The Government’s Programme… and Policies Chapter 2 – Zimbabwe in the Grip of Imperialism Chapter 3 – Development or Robbery? Chapter 4 – The “Big Two” Chapter 5 – The Government is Forced to Step In Chapter 6 – State Ownership and the Capitalist Market Chapter 7 - [Zimbabwe Perspectives (1986)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=477) - Originally published in Inqaba No. 22 (December 1986). Contents Preface Introduction Chapter 1 – Zimbabwe and the World Chapter 2 – The Independence Struggle Chapter 3 – The Economy Chapter 4 – The Political Situation Chapter 5 – Leadership or Bureaucracy? Chapter 6 – The Labour Movement Chapter 7 – Women Chapter 8 – The - [Zimbabwe – “Two-Stage Theory” On Trial (1981)](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=472) - by Jake Wilson Originally published in Inqaba No.2 (April 1981). Throughout Southern Africa revolutionaries have been debating the lessons of Zimbabwe. A few months after the ZANU-ZAPU government came to power, Comrade Oliver Tambo, ANC President, compared the developments in Zimbabwe with his perspective for the future of South Africa: "Before they took power, the leaders had certain theories of - [Chapter Five](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=538) - The Government is Forced to Step In This, then, is the reality of the capitalist market in Zimbabwe -- domination by a handful of multinational bosses. The government has followed the prescription of those who say that capitalism is the way to economic growth. It has imposed heavy sacrifices on workers, peasants and youth in - [Chapter Six](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=540) - State ownership and the capitalist market When confronted with the brutal truth about Zimbabwe's domination by the multinationals, the Zanu(PF) leaders often change their argument. Dropping their praise of the "free market", they claim that through the state-owned sector of the economy, plus state regulation, it is possible to safeguard the interests of the masses. - [Chapter Seven](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=542) - The Socialist Alternative To sum up: the government's "socialism" exists in words only. Its real policy --promoting capitalism--has failed miserably to bring growth. Instead it has left the economy at the mercy of the multinational exploiters. The "socialism" of the Eastern European states--Stalinism--clearly offers no alternative. Bureaucratic misrule has brought their economies to the verge - [Chapter Four](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=536) - The "Big Two" Two multinationals above all have secured a stranglehold over Zimbabwe's economy. They have built multi-million dollar empires which reach into every sector of the economy: mining, agriculture, industry, banking. They exploit and oppress their workforce, as the examples on these pages will show yet both have enormous influence over the government. Both - [Chapter Three](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=534) - Development or robbery? Capitalism in today's world, we have seen, means the tyranny of the multinationals, the banks and the imperialist powers. How can this create the conditions for healthy growth in the under-developed countries or in Eastern Europe? Defenders of the "market" argue that foreign investors provide machinery, jobs and skills; in return they - [Chapter One](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=525) - The Government's Program... and Policies As Zimbabwe enters its second decade of independence, historic changes are taking place on the world scene. Political revolution has swept Eastern Europe, toppling Stalinist regimes in one country after another. In the USSR the revolt of the national minorities, and the stirrings of the mighty Russian working class itself, - [Chapter Two](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=530) - Zimbabwe in the Grip of Imperialism The mainspring of capitalist development has been the accumulation of the means of production (tools, material, technology and labour) in the hands of private producers (capitalists). The capitalists use the means of production to produce goods which they sell for their own profit. They employ workers to produce goods - [Appendix](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=544) - [Mugabe has gone – but his regime remains in power](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=469) - by Weizmann Hamilton & Tinovimbanashe Gwenyaya The takeover of power by the Zimbabwe defence force is a military coup in all but name. It represents a turning point in post-independence Zimbabwe and the almost certain end of Mugabe’s reign. The military take-over was precipitated by the dismissal of Mugabe’s most loyal henchman for the past - [Preface](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=480) - This document, produced by Zimbabwean socialists a year ago, has recently came into our hands. We publish it to give it wider circulation, particularly among South African workers and youth. Discussion on the way forward for Zimbabwe and the Zimbabwean revolution—and the tasks which flow from this for the South African movement—is made more urgent - [Introduction](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=482) - Since the Lancaster House agreement in late 1979, the people or Zimbabwe have experienced many important changes. Most important has been the achievement of black majority rule and the end of the war which cost the lives of 30,000 people. In the period following, many peasants were able to build permanent houses for the first - [Chapter One](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=484) - Zimbabwe and the World By 'perspectives' we mean an understanding of the most likely economic and political developments ahead, internationally and nationally. Without clear perspectives, the working class cannot he prepared for its historical task of taking power and making an end to dictatorship, poverty, and ignorance. But the task of working out perspectives is - [Chapter Two](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=488) - The Independence Struggle Political leadership of the black majority in Zimbabwe was historically in the hands of a black middle-class leadership, closely tied to the missionaries and liberals. These exhausted every possibility for negotiation and compromise before reluctantly concluding that they had to mobilise the masses in order to struggle for a position in government. - [Chapter Three](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=492) - The Economy The significant manufacturing base of the Zimbabwean economy appears to be in contradiction with the general stagnation and lack of development in ‘third world’ countries. At the time of independence because of this base, there were great hopes among the bourgeois that capitalism in Zimbabwe could show the way forward to the crisis-ridden - [Chapter Four](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=494) - The Political Situation Political developments since independence have basically flowed along the channels laid down in the Lancaster House agreement although there have been some new features. Formally speaking, the Lancaster House agreement established in Zimbabwe a parliamentary democracy based on universal franchise (though with the concessions to the whites in terms of reserved white - [Chapter Five](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=496) - Leadership or Bureaucracy? The explosive pressures building up from below after the elections can be seen both in the demonstrations which were mounted against councillors in many towns before the elections, and in the near-riots and victimisation of supporters of minority parties by women supporting ZANU(PF). These demonstrators vented their frustration about their poor prospects - [Chapter Six](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=498) - The Labour Movement Although the youth have the energy and time for political discussion, they do not have the strength in production of the employed workers. The question which is on the mind of all genuine strugglers is how the great potential of the workers for resistance to the compromisers and the capitalists can be - [Chapter Seven](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=500) - Women In the future we will also see movements of working-class women whose energies up to now have been diverted into party strife and punishment of ZAPU supporters in the East and Midlands. Working-class and peasant women are used by the leadership to enforce the dictatorship of the party over half-hearted party members and supporters - [Chapter Eight](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=502) - The Peasants It is reported that many peasants at the moment are feeling there has been an improvement in their life. Most are loyal to the ruling party, and the squatter movement is very quiet. As a class the peasants have all the problems of putting forward their common interests when they are scattered and - [Chapter Nine](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=504) - Prospects for the Future The demand for change from below—from the youth, workers, women, and peasants—will build up a pressure-cooker atmosphere in ZANU(PF) in the future. There are two trends taking place within the party, going in precisely opposite directions: the masses suffering landlessness, unemployment, poverty wages, a shortage of housing: weighed down by all - [Chapter One](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=326) - The Victory of the Nationalist Party in 1948 The African National Congress (ANC) arose as a mass organisation in the 1950s as the black working class struggled to defend itself against attacks by the ruling class and the Nationalist Party (NP) government, elected in 1948. The victory of the NP in 1948 was a victory - [Chapter Seven](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=338) - 1957-58: The movement in a crucial phase By 1957 any relative lull in the mass struggle in South Africa had completely evaporated. This reflected itself partly in a rise of strike action, from the low point of the decade in 1953 to a high point in 1955-57. But the weakness of the workers' organisations meant that - [Marxism vs. Nationalism: What ideas do the youth need?](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=271) - by Shaun Arendse, 2016 There is renewed interest in black nationalist ideas among black youth, especially university students. This interest is driven by the glaring racial inequalities in society which the campuses give a concentrated experience of. Although black student numbers have increased, the high cost of university and the inadequacy of NSFAS loans to - [What can Sobukwe teach us for today’s struggle?](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=273) - by Shaun Arendse, 2016 Millions are disappointed and angry that the end of apartheid did not bring about a fundamental transformation in living standards. After 22 years of ANC-ruled ‘democratic’ South Africa the distribution of wealth is more unequal today than under apartheid. Inequality still appears first and foremost as a division between black and - [Build a United Campaign of all EPWP Workers](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=240) - The Expand Public Works Programme is a so-called government ‘job creation’ scheme. It officially employs 330,000 workers. But in reality it is a slave-labour scheme that enriches profiteering ‘middle men’ through the exploitation of workers and the looting of public funds. As if to prove this, EPWP workers are excluded from the new national minimum - [#OutsourcingMustFall](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=385) - [Obituary: Winnie Madikizela-Mandela](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=382) - by Weizmann Hamilton, 2018 A warrior in the anti-apartheid struggle With the passing of Winnie Nomzamo Madikizela-Mandela, the ANC has lost arguably the most beloved and certainly one of the greatest of the leaders of her generation. Denied an opportunity in life to acknowledge her role, she is now being celebrated in death by the - [Obituary: Nelson Mandela](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=377) - by Weizmann Hamilton & Thansanqa Dumezweni The article below was written in August 2013 when Mandela was seriously ill. He passed away in December. Heroically leading ANC to power but struggle tragically into dead-end Integrity and commitment Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela is rightly revered worldwide as a statesman ranking along great figures of history like Mohatma - [Chapter Two](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=328) - The lack of a workers' party The industrialisation of South Africa brought into ex­istence the massive black working class concentrated in the urban centres, and in so doing entirely changed the conditions in which the struggle - fought for many generations against colonial conquest, dispossession, ex­ploitation and national oppression of the African people - could - [Chapter Three](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=330) - The Rise of the ANC When the mass movement recovered at the end of the 1940s, the vacuum left by the failure of the Communist Party to build a mass workers' political organisation was being filled by the African National Congress. Though the CP leaders played a role in the 1950-51 general strike calls, it - [Chapter Four](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=332) - The role of the Communist Party in the ANC In 1950 the Communist Party, faced with banning under the Suppression of Communism Act, dissolved itself as an open organisation - but was reconstituted underground in 1953. Those active workers who remained in the CP, or joined it underground in the 1950s, did so because they - [Chapter Five](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=334) - The Freedom Charter The Freedom Charter, a programme which still embraces many of the essential aims of our struggle, was adopted at the Congress of the People, held on 26-27 June 1955. Attended by some 3,000 delegates, the Congress of the People was one of the most representative gatherings ever held in South Africa. Like - [Chapter Six](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=336) - The Birth of SACTU The formation of a trade union federation based on the African workers and upholding clear principles of non-racial workers' unity, was long overdue. The South African Congress of Trade Unions, founded in March 1955, thus held enormous promise for the working class. The old "official" trade union movement was dominated by - [Chapter Eight](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=340) - The politics of Congress in the late 1950s Writing in Liberation (June 1956), Nelson Mandela stated that the Freedom Charter was "more than a mere list of demands for democratic reforms. It is a revolutionary document precisely because the changes it envisages cannot be won without breaking up the economic and political set-up of present South Africa." - [Chapter Nine](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=342) - Division weakens the movement During the 1950s Congress activists had built, if not strong workplace organisation, at least strong bases in many townships. But, as one such activist reflected later: What was disquieting in the closing years of the 50s was that even in these townships active support for the movement was slipping away. A - [Chapter Ten](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=344) - Sharpeville and its aftermath In the early months of 1960 the PAC leadership launched a campaign against the pass laws. The aim was for a mass turning-in of passes at police stations, beginning on 21 March, to be supported by a stay-at-home, until the pass laws were abolished. The campaign was hastily called, ill-organised, and - [Chapter Eleven](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=346) - SACTU in the Congress Alliance Despite the isolation and consequent defeat of the March-April 1960 Cape Town and Vereeniging strikes, despite the banning of the political organisations looked to by the mass of the workers, the working-class movement had not yet suffered a defeat that was crushing or conclusive. The trade unions built by SACTU - [Chapter Twelve](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=348) - Blind alley of guerrillaism After the May 1961 stay-at-home, Mandela wrote: Of all the observations made on the strike, none has brought so much heat and emotion as the stress and em­phasis we put on non-violence. Our most loyal supporters, whose courage and devotion has never been doubted, unanimously and strenuously disagreed with this ap­proach… - [Chapter 13](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=352) - Conclusion The philosopher George Santayana wrote: "Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it." Just as the defeat of the movement of the 1950s was not inevitable, so the victory of our movement today will not be inevitable either. It will depend mainly on the ability of the active, advanced layer - [The Struggle Against Apartheid: a Marxist Analysis](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=282) - [Marxism & the Land: Appendix](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=278) - We have outlined the Marxist approach to the land question. We will leave it to our readers whether they think that the nationalists or the Marxists have ‘the edge’ on this issue. We have looked through the websites and the latest manifestos of the nationalist organisation to try and find their most developed programme and - [Race & Class](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=262) - [The Struggle for a Socialist Mass Workers Party](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=212) - [Home](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=155) - https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=155 - [International Women’s Day 2019](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=117) - End oppression with fight for socialism by Clare Doyle, CWI International Secretariat On Friday, 8th March, women across the globe are striking, marching, protesting and celebrating International Women's Day in unprecedented numbers. In a welcome development, they will be accompanied by more men than in the past who see the need to fight the special - [Women's Struggle](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?page_id=66) ## My Templates - [Homepage Auto Detailing](https://marxistworkersparty.net/?elementor_library=homepage-auto-detailing) - DETAILING NEWS Ceramic coatings, paint correction, and premium interior detailing now available Premium Auto Detailing That Restores Your Vehicle’s Shine Experience professional paint correction, ceramic coatings, and deep interior cleaning from our certified detailing specialists. 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