On the attacks on freedom of the press in South Africa

We condemn the long ongoing attacks against journalists by the capitalist editors, we condemn the attacks on progressive journalists, such as Suna Venter, by organised thugs and by Motswaneng and co,  we also condemn the attacks by the fascistic BLF on their hit list of journalists who range  from reactionary to bourgeois democrat. All of these attacks narrow down and attempt to roll back the gains won by the working class through revolutionary mass action in the late 1980’s. Two states of emergency could not put out the flame of revolution. The masses unbanned their organizations through mass resistance and won the space of freedom of expression. Marches and protests were a daily occurrence.The formal unbanning of the liberation organizations by the apartheid state and the negotiated settlement that followed in its wake, placed a limit on freedom of expression. This is fundamentally because freedom of expression was tied to private property. The masses have won the formal right to freedom of expression but as the masses do not have access to stocks of paper, printing presses, radio and television broadcasting, the negotiated settlement has limited the right of freedom of expression from the beginning. There are a few community radio and television stations but they are limited in scope and are dependent on capitalist sponsors or donor funding.

Imperialism prepares a palace coup against Zuma

When Zuma had a mass reshuffle of his Cabinet in the middle of the night (evening of the 30th March) the Rand dropped in value from R12, 84 to the dollar to R13,42. A drop of about 60 cents. Yet when imperialist rating agency, Standard and Poore, downgraded the SA credit rating to junk status, the Rand only weakened to R13,60, a drop of less than 20 cents. How do we explain such changes?

Zuma must fall- forward to a general strike

If the Mandela Rhodes Foundation and the SACP are calling for Zum to fall, then it means that imperialism has already lined up a candidate in the wings. Rather interesting that the SACP statement of 31.3.2017 only criticises Allan Gray and Remgro (Anton Rupert) for their role in the Net 1 robbery of the poorest of the poor (Sassa grant scandal), yet they fail to criticise the role of the imperialist World Bank. The World Bank is not only the biggest shareholder in Net 1 but they bought their stake after the Constitutional Court found the relation between Sassa and Net 1 to be corrupt. The World bank now wants Net 1 to rob the entire Africa

Disband parliament - set up action committees

We condemn the wholesale removal of 20 Cabinet Ministers in the same vein as we condemn the policies of the ANC government. Parliament has shown itself incapable of holding Cabinet or the Presidency to account. Parliament approved of a false report on Nkandla; Parliament approved of cuts in pensions, they refused to raise the tax on company profits and refused to stop the imperialists from stealing trillions. As a result millions are dying early deaths due to poverty and exploitation. Free, decent housing for all is possible; free education, health care for all is possible. But the old and new Cabinet stand for the safeguarding of international monopoly capital. The World Bank is stealing the bread from our pensioners mouths; they are making illegal deductions from the 17 million grantholders; the government is supporting the World Bank’s efforts to steal from the impoverished throughout Africa.

Hands off our pensions and grants

Net 1/CPS are robbing the poorest of the poor

• Every month, CPS is paid R16,44 for each grant they pay out (For the 17 million grants paid out each month, this is R3,4 Billion for the year or R280 million each month).

• Now Net 1 is wanting to get R25 per grant (R425 million per month or R5,1 Billion for the year!)

• Net 1 has their own loan shark company, called Moneyline. They charge 34% over 6 months. For each R1000 you borrow you must pay back R1340. This means that for each R1 million CPS lends, they receive R1 340 000 in 6 months.

• Net1/CPS has sold the private information of the grantholders to other companies; so now many people are having electricity, airtime, funeral policies and other deductions made that the people did not ask for; sometimes deductions continue after the period agreed;

Response to John Pilger on Syria

[This is a response to the article by Pilger: ‘This time it’s Syria, last time it was Iraq’, which appeared on the Stopthewar.uk.org website]

In this article by Pilger, he discusses everything else except what is really happening on the ground in Syria. He makes sweeping generalizations which are out of context. We attempt to deal with his main arguments:

1. He compares Syria today to Iraq 2003. In 2003 the US military invaded Iraq with over 50 000 troops and toppled the Saddam regime. In Syria, the US has sent 500 troops to assist the Kurdish YPG and KDF (Kurdish Democratic Forces). In Syria, the US troops have concentrated on supposedly fighting Isis, NOT the Assad regime. It is true that US proxies, the Saudi and Turkish regimes have been supplying weapons to the forces fighting against the Assad regime. However these weapons have been pea shooters and the supply of these arms have been with conditions, namely that the fight be waged against Isis.

The government has handed Sassa grants over to American loan sharks and is robbing the poorest of the poor

For years the government has claimed it has been helping the poorest of the poor. Now, research by ILRIG (International Labour Research and Information Group), has shown that the government has given over control of the Sassa grants to the hands of an American loan shark called Net1. This company was set up in Florida, USA, in 1997. This American loan shark is parasiting on workers in Iraq , South Korea, UK, Namibia, Nigeria, Malawi, Cameroon, the Phillipines, India and Columbia. Net 1 has partnered with Grindrod to set up Grindrod retail bank, a loan shark. Your Sassa grant is paid into a Grindrod account. Grindrod also owns Moneyline lenders. They offer loans to Sassa grantholders at 68% per annum interest.

Workers International Vanguard League/Party condemns, in the strongest terms, the march by the Mamelodi Concerned Residents scheduled for Pretoria/Tshwane on Friday 24th February 2017. 

Exploding the myth of Syria being ‘anti-imperialist’ – the working class needs to mobilise independently to seize power

Syria has a population of 21 million, of which about 54% are urbanised. This means that the working class has a much greater weight in the Syrian revolution today than 50 years ago. From the 15^th March 2011 up to the current date, much of the urban working class have not participated in the uprising against the Assad Baathist regime. The main reason for this is that the regime has managed to posture as ‘anti-imperialist’. Further, in March the regime gave a 20-30% wage increase to public sector staff and workers to attempt to curb the current revolt. But the central reason why the Assad military dictatorship has managed to sustain

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Continued imperialist plunder as an obstacle to free education

[EDITORS’ NOTE: This article suggests that access to education in South Africa is dependent on the unequal relationship between South Africa’s economy and imperialist global capitalism. Without solving the question of socio-economic plunder and inequality, we will not get free education.]

The UN Conference on Trade (UNCTAD) just published a report in July on invoice fraud by mining monopolies in Africa, including SA specifically. They reported that virtually all the gold between 2000 and 2014 left the country unreported. This amounted to $113,6 bn or (R1,7 trillion). Also guilty of fraud were the platinum, iron ore and silver mines. UNCTAD estimates $50bn leaves Africa every year through illegal trade. This amounts to over $700 bn over the past 14 years (about R10,5 trillion!). Here was the funds for free education, free health-care, housing to all, etc; this is separate from the reported profits. Yet we find that the government does not lift a finger to to tackle the imperialist mining companies but pursues poor students for not repaying NSFAS loans, while others are excluded for financial reasons.

11/01/2017

Syria

Aleppo, the capital city of the resistance, has fallen

√ The genocidal forces of Bashar the dog and Putin mercilessly slaughtered the people of Aleppo

√ The generals of FSA and Al Nusra openly sold it out

√ USA freed the area and air space of Syria so that Al Assad and Putin, with their missiles and barrel bombs, demolish the Syrian cities and Aleppo in particular

√ The Reformist left isolated the Syrian masses from the world working class. Their war cry: "ISIS is the enemy"; while Al Assad with his mercenary forces under the command of Putin and Obama were crushing the heroic 2011/2012 workers and peasants revolution

***

Aleppo did not surrender! Aleppo was sold out!

 First of all a big salute to all the students who stood up in the fight for free education, against high fees and an end to outsourcing. A big salute to the worker-student and staff alliance that was growing day by day. There are so many lessons that these struggles can teach us all. This breakthrough moment has come through many battles over the years, some partial victories and several defeats.

The activists Dinah Makheta, Sipho Mangane, Dan Molefe and Pulane Mahlangu are political prisoners of the capitalist state. We demand their immediate release. We call for all working class organizations to take up this

call to campaign for the over-turning of their sentences,for an end to the criminalisation of protest and for the arrest of the bosses of Anglo American, Lonmin and other mining giants that have stolen hundreds of billions over the years that could have been used for decent housing for all, jobs for all, free, quality health care for all, free, quality education for all and all the needs of the entire masses. More than 63% of deaths of children are caused by hunger. Hundreds of thousands of people are dying from diseases of poverty. Millions are crowded into small dwellings and shacks. More than half the youth that start school drop out before matric because of poverty conditions. Our pensioners are starving; this year they received only a 4% ‘increase’, which is a cut in real terms. Meanwhile Anglo American and other mining giants not only take hundreds of billions of Rands of profits out of the country and the region, they also do not pay the taxes that they should.