Call for solidarity with the Swazi masses

On the 17^th May 2021 the death of student, Thabani Nkomonye, at the hands of the Swazi police, sparked a revolutionary uprising that is still sweeping across Swaziland. By the 28^th June the hated King Mswati III fled the country. The masses are demanding an end to the monarchy and for democracy and an end to unemployment and hunger.

Background to the revolution

According to D Hugh Gillis’s book, The Kingdom of Swaziland, the country used to be 10 times bigger than what it currently is today. If it was not for land grabs by the Boer republics and British imperialism, Swaziland would have included parts of Mpumalanga and KwazuluNatal provinces of South Africa.

The story of Swaziland is the story of Africa. By 1880 imperialism only controlled 10% of Africa. By 1913 it controlled 90%. It gained control by force, by lies, by subterfuge, by blatant robbery. The land had to be converted to capital; the masses had to be dispossessed and there had to be a creation of a reserve army of labour, a proletariat. That the different imperialist powers gained total control of the world by 1913 laid the basis for the fundamental decline of capitalism as the only way further expansion could now take place was through direct inter-imperialist war. This laid the basis for the first and second world imperialist wars that killed hundreds of millions of the masses. The epoch of war also laid the basis for civil wars and revolutions as the masses are not passive players in history.

10 Marikanas per day- the banning of Ivermectin in South Africa

On the 15^th August 2012, the then board member of Lonmin, Cyril Ramaphosa, urged the police, in an email, to launch ‘concomitant action’ against ‘criminals’, strikers who were gathered in an open field outside of company premises. On the 16^th August 2012, 34 mineworkers were shot down by tactical units of the police drawn from around the country. The current net worth of Ramaphosa is estimated to be R6.4 billion ($450 million). The effect of the Marikana massacre was to demonstrate clearly, that in time of crisis, when workers are demanding their democratic rights to a living wage, the ANC-SACP-Cosatu alliance and the ANC in particular, stands on the side of monopoly capital, for the profits, even over the dead bodies of the working class. The ANC stands for the continued enslavement of the working class. The annual declared profit of Lonmin is about R4.5 bn. The annual profits of the large companies in SA is more than R1 trillion or more than R1000bn.

The Department of Health in SA reported a further 300 covid 19-related deaths on the 24^th Jan 2021. This is roughly equivalent to 10 Marikana massacres occurring daily.

Yet there is an immediate prophylaxis (preventative) and treatment that could drastically reduce the numbers of deaths and the numbers of infections. Ivermectin. It is a very cheap treatment, costing virtually nothing, that has been thoroughly tested over the past 35 years, with minimal side effects and its impact and limitations are well established. It has recently been scientifically tested and there is overwhelming evidence of its usefulness to fight covid-19 infection. [1]. The Front Line Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC) recently made a submission to to the National Institute of Health in the USA on ivermectin. As a result, the National Institute for Health, NIH, changed its designation from being ‘against’ to being ‘neither for nor against’. This is a profound change as it puts ivermectin on a par with convalescent plasma (purified antibody extract from survivors of covid 19) which can both now be recommended on prescription by Doctors in the USA. This is such an important step as the cost of a tablet of ivermectin is less than R10. This fight has important international significance as a victory in SA can help open up assistance to the masses throughout the world who are currently being terrorised by the giant pharmaceutical companies and the international banks that control them. Health care is a public good and should be in public hands not in the hands of capitalist companies. On the other hand, the suppression of ivermectin shows that the ANC protects the interests of the international banks.  

Divisions in the ranks of US imperialism?

The question must be answered: On what social and political base does US imperialism rest and how has it evolved to now?

That segregation was overturned in the US only by 1965 means that the rise and development of US imperialism to world domination took place based on the continued enslavement of the black working class and broader black masses. Since 1965 the black ghettoes have largely remained. Black people form a much greater number in jail than the proportion in the US population. These factors reflect an ongoing slave capitalist relation that is inherent in US imperialism. The question is thus if the abolition of slave capitalist relations can be achieved within a capitalist framework in the current stage of imperialist decay. Or looked at another way, is it possible, in this period of capitalist decay, for democratic demands of the masses to be attained even in the imperialist centres, within the capitalist framework?  

It follows that the core of the base of US imperialism is the ‘slave holder’-minded/’overseer mentality’ white worker and white middle class. In the context of the slave capitalist relations in the USA, the white working class also played the role of a labour aristocracy.

It is this core of reaction that has underpinned many invasions and toppling of bourgeois democratic regimes in the semi-colonial world after world war 2. The ongoing class struggle in the US and around the world against slave capitalist relations, bringing with it greater democratic measures up to the point of having a black president and incorporating sections of the black workers and black middle class into the state apparatus has brought with it a tension with the reactionary white core that US imperialism historically rests upon.

On the class character of the Morales regime and a response to IWL-FI statement of 12th Nov 2019

The International Workers’ League (Fourth International) claims that it is the biggest Trotskyist group in the world. Its statement on Bolivia of the 12^th Nov 2019 (Down with the coup in Bolivia! Organise the resistance to defeat the coup! For free elections!) shows a lack of faith in the working class in determining its own destiny. In fact, it bows to a bourgeois framework and directs the mass action of the working class into a bourgeois dead-end, elections.

Here is an organization that has work among the working class sectors in Bolivia. Yet these sectors are tied behind a call for bourgeois elections. The IWL also calls for no support for Morales, even though they say that he should be allowed to participate. In other words, the workers should not vote for Morales and are left to choose between the other bourgeois candidates, including the right wing ones and the ones behind the coup. There is no call even for preparing the grounds for a general strike.

On the coup in Bolivia

On the 12^th Nov 2019 Evo Morales was forced by the Bolivian military and police, to step down as President, even though his term officially ran until January 2020. Try as they did to argue that it was not a coup, the Economist demonstrates the opposite. Further evidence of a coup is that by the 12^th November 2019, even though there was no parliamentary quorum, Jeanine Anez declared herself acting President. There has been no evidence of electoral fraud to the scale that would justify a second round of the bourgeois elections. The US, the EU and Russia have recognised the coup regime under Anez, showing how desperate imperialism is to prop it up.

Here is a practical programme to root out gender violence :

We publish below a discussion article produced for the SRWP (it is not their official position). 

The roots of gender violence, how it is sustained and how to fight it

A brilliant source is the work by Engels and Marx on ‘The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State’. It is our duty as revolutionary Socialists to study this work. A copy can be downloaded from: https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/download/pdf/origin_family.pdf

We summarise the origin of the family and how it developed over time and how the state developed as a means of perpetuating violence against women.

It is interesting that the word ‘family’ has Greek origin:

‘Familus’ means domestic slave of the man

‘Familia’  means a group of the man’s slaves

The rise of the gens/ clan.Group marriage/ ‘Punaluan’ relations

Relations within society are influenced by the level of technical and economic development.

Homo Sapiens can be traced to Morocco (300 000 years ago), to Sterkfontein (Homo Naledi, 250 000 years ago) and Ethiopia (200 000 years ago). They were all using stone tools but the Morocco remains show smaller brain size. The predecessors of Homo Sapiens had been around for millions of years. From Ethiopia, Homo Sapiens spread into Europe and the rest of the world.  There is evidence of Homo Sapiens mating with their predecessors, the Neanderthals. There were several different human species at the time but they all died out and only Homo Sapiens survived.

The stone age lasted until about 12 000 years ago, even though their use of stone tools and weapons still persisted in lesser form even by 1066 (the battle of Hastings), but by then it was not in widespread use. Even in the period from 300 000 years ago until 12000 years ago there was the gradual discovery of metals and development of metalwork (copper and bronze) and the gradual development of techniques of domestication of animals and growing of food. These led to the development of villages and towns, which began to replace the migratory groups.

Racism at Stellenbosch University- a working class perspective

In March this year 5 white, female researchers from Stellenbosch University published an article in an international journal. They argued that women of colour are less intelligent than white people. It turns out that several of the staff have written similar articles. In fact it seems they have made a career out of racist ‘science’. It should be remembered that racism is a social tool of violence by international capital and imperialism to justify their domination and control.

Another group of 5 researchers, from outside the University, which included a provincial executive member of the SRWP, launched a counter-offensive. They launched a petition calling for the article to be withdrawn. Within a short space of time the petition gathered over 10 000 signatures.

The Psychology Society of South Africa and the Psychology Department at Stellenbosch also called for the article’s withdrawal. Naturally there was and still is widespread anger at the racist article. The editors withdrew it and the university has just adopted measures for modules on anti-racism for all first-year students, new guidelines for research by staff as well as taking steps to establish full departments on Gender and Critical race studies. These are all substantial steps forward. However, important questions and challenges remain.

Response on the Draft Expropriation Bill 2018

Introduction

Contrary to the name of the Bill, namely ‘Expropriation’, it is actually a draft that protects private property of monopolies, the banks and mining houses. It defines the terms of compensation for land expropriation as being with compensation that is linked to market value and must be ‘just and equitable’ as per section 25 of the Constitution. In other words the commanding heights such as banks, mines, and other monopolies are safe from expropriation  as the state would not be able to afford the ‘market value’ which is currently artificially so much inflated that only imperialism would be able to afford to pay for it.

Furthermore the mineral rights are specifically excluded from all forms of expropriation, even in terms of the so-called public interest clauses.

There is only a narrow list of cases where compensation can be excluded.

Thus the draft Expropriation Bill is a sham aimed at fooling the masses that their democratic aspirations for land, housing, jobs, a decent life for all, is going to be addressed with this legislation.  In other words it serves as a means for imperialism capitalism to buy some time to remain in control and to continue to plunder SA and the rest of the continent.  We also respond to Pallo Jordan’s recent position on the land question.

We deal with the clauses below, exposing also the misleading position by the EFF on land and outline our proposals for our approach.

On the Sudan revolution

Danger to the Sudanese revolution

What has brought the fall of dictator al Bashir has been the working class and revolutionary youth in Sudan. It has not been the political leadership of the ‘opposition parties’. Yet these same ‘opposition parties’ now have signed a highly problematic agreement that keeps the military in direct control for the next 2 years and keeps the security forces, including the army and the rapid support forces (janjaweed), in the hands of the very military leaders who have been responsible not only for the massacre of 3^rd June 2019 but for the past decades of rule of Omar al Bashir. In effect the next 2 years is set to be a continuation of the Al Bashir regime but without Al Bashir.

The rank and file ‘bread and dignity’ committees around the country should discuss the proposed ‘deal’ and set their own conditions.

There cannot be bread for all if the large food, oil and mining companies are still under the control of the generals and other capitalists.

There cannot be dignity and peace while Sudanese militias are in Yemen fighting on behalf of the Saudi regime and imperialism.

An urgent task is the setting up of a national coordinating centre of the revolution, comprised of delegates from the rank and file ‘bread and dignity committees from around the country. The hand of friendship should also be extended to the local committees in South Sudan. Delegates should be elected on the basis they are subject to instant recall and not earning more than the wage of an average skilled worker. This national coordinating committee can coordinate struggles as well as be the watchdog over any developments in the country.

We republish an old article from 2007, which is still relevant today. We wish to emphasize that Eskom has sufficient income. There is no reason for any debt and there is no reason for any increase in tariffs for household users. Rather the central theme should be that the subsidy to big capital, who still pay less that 20 cents per KWh, should be ended. Currently househols pay over R1.60 per Kwh. Business uses 80% of electricity but only pay for 57% of the cost. Eskom should be placed under workers control, not privatised. we have updated some elements of the article, such as our email address. It's lessons are still relevant. Unfortunately no one took us serious in 2007. Hopefully the workers' movement can wage an intense struggle to stop the privatization of electricity and for expanded subsidy to the unemployed, pensioners and working class. Essentially, it need a political solution, namely the removal of the ANC-DA governments from power. 

WIVL 15.2.2019

The Blackout scam- How workers are subsidizing big capital

It costs Eskom 16 cents per KiloWatt Hour (KWh) to produce electricity. It charges industry only 16 cents per KWh while the general public has to pay 44 cents per KWh. Large customers of Eskom like BHP Billiton, pays even less, about 12 cents per KWh. This means that the working and lower middle class are subsidizing the electricity cost of big capital. Residential use of electricity is only 19%, while industry uses about 80% of the overall total. But in terms of cost, residential users pay 43% while industry pays only 57%. In the past year BHP Billiton made a profit of R 6 Billion. Clearly the entire working class are subsidizing their profits.

The developments in Venezuela shows how the lack of a revolutionary working class party leads to imperialism and capitalist forces filling the vacuum with its own agencies. The key to the Socialist revolution in Venezuela lies in the establishment of such a party. The central motive force is, despite all the plans and wishes of imperialism, the working class and its struggles and level of organization and consciousness. The revolutionary working class party is nothing else but the organization of the best vanguard working class elements, leading and/or vying for leadership of the struggle, in the interests of the working class, namely for the establishment of Socialism. Such a party still needs to be established in Venezuela today. At the same time it is not sufficient to only have such a party in Venezuela but of necessity in the rest of Central and South America and the neo-colonial world but also in the imperialist centres. The party of Chavez, the PSUV (Socialist Workers Party Unified- Venezuela), despite its name, is a nationalist party, which with Socialist rhetoric, gives a few social gains to the working class, while perpetuating conditions for imperialism-capitalism to extract its super-profits. Its control over the oil industry is a form of state capitalism as there was no workers control anywhere in the commanding heights of the economy. The continued imperialist plunder of Venezuela under Bolivarianism/Chavism is the central reason for its lack of broad industrialisation and development. It is a neo-colony of imperialism. Due to the long stagnation of the world capitalist economy, any real development in Venezuela would mean a decline in the rate of profit in the imperialist centres. Rather than support its own potential competitor, imperialism ensures the permanent subjugation of the masses in Venezuela. The form that it takes is dependent on the working class struggle and the extent that imperialism is able to keep it under control. When one agency is unable to maintain control over the masses for imperialism, they seek other forms. This is why they are preparing a coup. It is all about installing, by any means, a regime that can guarantee continued plunder of the oil and minerals of Venezuela under increased exploitation.

Updates and where to find older articles

We apologise for the long delay in adding our older articles to this site. We will prioritise this in the first 6 months of 2019. Meanwhile we have created a link to the hundreds of articles which we have written over the years. 

We will also be updating our website more regularly henceforth. 

We welcome feedback, comments and criticism on any of our work. 

Note that while we have changed our name to Party, we are still very much a League. For us, our strategic objective is to help build the Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party (SRWP) while maintaining our perspective of rebuilding the Fourth International. 

To access our older articles, go to www.workersinternational.org.za/workersold 

14.1.2019

Statement on Zimbabwe crisis

Workers International Vanguard League condemns the use of live ammunition and other repressive methods to suppress the masses who were protesting against the election results in Zimbabwe. At latest count 6 unarmed protestors were killed in cold blood by the military.  Mnangagwa was at pains to deny that he had taken power through a military coup, yet at the first sign of protests he unleashes the army to shoot down opposition protestors. Under the guise of an election, imperialism is continuing with a military dictatorship. Down with the military dictatorship of Mnangagwa.

In 2017 there was yet again an intensification of the class struggle.  Both MDC and Zanu-PF are long discredited. The Zanu-PF leaders had split and there was every possibility of the struggle developing into a revolutionary uprising. Imperialism responded by a military coup to remove Mugabe, who, up to then, had been their trusty and loyal servant. Neither MDC nor Zanu-PF offered any hope of advancing any of the democratic and Socialist aspirations of the masses. Both these parties offered only a capitalist option.

THE LEADERSHIP OF SAMWU PURGE  WORKERS DEMOCRACY- a workers’ view

The workers in the municipality sector were demanding a decent wages increase of roundabout 15% and the capitalist ANC/SACP government has been offering the workers a meagre 4.4% increase for a multi year period plus 1% CPI , Consumer Price Index. Accordingly, these meagre wages increases would mean the workers will not keep up with the escalation in the price of food , electricity and transport cost. Currently in the public sector the treacherous leadership accepted a 7% increase and that is the demand of the imperialist IMF (International Monetary Fund) and World Bank (WB) to cut workers’ wages and for the capitalist government of ANC/SACP to divert more funds to the pockets of imperialism. Subsequently, the workers’ demands were dropped by the treacherous leadership of SAMWU.and they agree on a similar wage agreement as the public sector and that is a 7% increase , plus 1% and CPI in the next 2 years and that is without the mandate of the workers, who still demand 15%. There was no consultation with the workers; they have to find out by hearsay from their fellow workers, some were confused and found out on certain radio stations, or see it by accident on emails.

On the Farlam Commission report and the Marikana massacre

The leadership of the SACP, NUM, Cosatu and the ANC would have us believe that the striking mineworkers at Marikana were ‘violent’, that they were thugs. The Farlam Commission report, limited as it is, shows the contrary.

Despite the political manipulation of the conclusions of the Farlam Commission by imperialism and the ruling party, the evidence is very clear that the ANC leaders, the NUM leaders and the Lonmin bosses worked together to massacre the striking mineworkers’ leaders.  

A central point made by the Commission was:

‘ It is clear from the evidence that either none, or very few, of the strikers who were killed had been shooting at the police.’ [page 375, paragraph 1083 of the Farlam final, published report]

If you consider that none of the police suffered a single gunshot wound, nor even a scratch and that not a single bullet was found from the supposed shots fired by workers, we can only conclude that not a single worker, who was killed by the police, had shot at the police.  

The police claim that the original plan was to roll out the barb wire all at once, early in the morning and then surround and disperse the few strikers who had come to the koppie.  

The police claimed the one set of barbed wire was to protect the residential area. We know now this was not true. It seems that the real aim of rolling out the barbed wire in 2 directions was to create a channel to direct the strikers to the police with R5 rifles, where they were to be machine-gunned down. The barbed wire was rolled out bit by bit so that the rank and file striker were allowed out. The police knew the leaders would remain behind until the mass of strikers had dispersed safely. The police knew that if they rolled it all out at the same time, there would be a mass of strikers and the leaders would be mixed with the rank and file and there would be no chance to execute them.

After Mthunjwa spoke the miners on the 16th Aug 2012 they were already dispersing. Yet, the police still carried out their attack. Teargas was shot into the leadership group, splitting it, driving the front group with Mambush towards the TRT(Tactical Response Team) team who cut them down in a fusillade (firing squad).

The NUM officials were well aware the RDO’s at Lonmin were underpaid but signed a two year agreement with Lonmin, where they were the sole bargaining union, which excluded addressing the wage demands of the RDO’s. This agreement was due to last until late in 2013. The NUM leaders were thus an instrument of the bosses, holding back the wage demands of the workers.

The Farlam report debates whether NUM could have prevented the strike. The NUM leaders admit they could have raised the demands of the demands of the Rock drillers with the management. They refused to do so. Right up to a few minutes before the massacre took place the Lonmin bosses refused to come to the Koppie to meet with the workers. At stake was not just a meeting of a group of workers, but the entire labour relations system which is based on cheap labour and has the unions in a subjugated role of being the policemen within the workers’ movement to hold back workers demands. If management agreed to negotiate with the workers directly, the next day at Amplats and every other mine and every other workplace, the workers would brush their unions aside and negotiate directly with the bosses using mass action methods. This is further evidence that Anglo American was indeed behind the massacre as they had the most to lose (Anglo controls the SA economy).

The Farlam Commission is part of the capitalist instruments of violence against the masses

The Farlam Commission lists as a central theme:

‘The Commission is of the view that the first „game changer‟ was another

decision by the strikers, to enforce the unprotected strike by violence and

Intimidation.’ (p512).

In other words, they argue that the strikers were violent and thus the heavy militarisation of the police was justified. If the strikers were really intent on killing then there would have been many deaths. The vast majority of the 44 deaths were strikers, killed by the state. 34 workers were gunned down on by the state on the 16th Aug; 2 workers were gunned down by NUM officials on the 11th Aug and a further 2 workers were gunned down by the police on the 13th August.

Despite the claims that strikers were heavily armed on the 16th Aug, not a single police suffered even a scratch. No bullet from any weapon of the strikers was found. The workers were unarmed.

The Commission also blames the workers for refusing to disarm. But the workers had no guns. The only ones who had guns were the police. The workers had sticks and spears. The police could easily have allowed the strikers to leave but their insistence on them putting down the only defensive weapons they had was a pretext for the state to carry out its plan of massacre.

On the #Totalshutdown 1 Aug 2018

Gender-based violence is an international scourge and it is sustained by the world capitalist system. It is a task of the workers' movement to spearhead the total eradication of it. We support a general strike against all forms of gender-based violence (ie violence against women and all gender non-conforming groups).