Stilfontein- another Marikana massacre in the making?
The police have laid siege to the informal mineworkers at Stilfontein, cutting off their food, water and even medication. About 3000 are at risk of dying.
The police are even defying a court order to allow food and water to these mineworkers.
The police unit, Vala Umgodi, is supposedly leading this attack on the mineworkers.
We, as part of the working class, are cognizant that these open shafts were opened under the extreme exploitation of the migrant black labour system. We are also aware that these shafts are on the land which was illegally taken from the indigenous communities without any form of compensation. The minerals obtained under such illegal and brutal forceful removal of the indigenous people were taken to Western Europe and the USA to enrich the colonizers and bribe the European and North American Working class, hence creating a division within the international working class by artificially creating chauvinist schism between the European and the black working class.
We totally reject the bourgeois government of South Africa and the mainstream media houses that the working class efforts to make a living must be considered as illegal miners. The working class have a right to do everything in their power to make a living from these shafts.

We stand with the informal miners at Stilfontein and other areas
Workers International Vanguard League (WIVL) condemns the ANC-DA GNU for their blatant starvation tactics on the informal miners currently underground at Stilfontein. Cutting off their water and food supply and threatening to attack them is reminiscent of the tactics of the genocidal Zionist thugs and their US imperialist backers.
For those with short memories we refer to the exposure by Ashman, Fine and Newman in the Journal of Southern African Studies on the grand scale illegal capital flight by the official mining companies, such as Anglo American, etc. They report that illegal flows as a result of these mining corporates and international banks were of the scale of 5,4% per annum of GDP from 1980 to 1993; 9,2% pa from 1994 to 2000; 12% pa from 2001 to 2007 and only in 2007 itself, when Mbeki was president, a massive 20% of GDP was stolen by the imperialist mines.

Unite to defeat the imperialist in their murderous attacks on the masses of Lebanon and Gaza/West Bank

Over the past year US imperialism has killed and maimed about 200 000 of the Palestinians in Gaza and many others in the West Bank. This slaughter of 10% of the population in Gaza by US imperialism has been assisted by French, UK, German and Japanese imperialism. This mass slaughter US imperialism wants to extend to the masses in Lebanon. We have to examine the reasons why US imperialism is on this path so that we can strategize how to defeat them.

In 1916, during imperialist world war 1, the Sykes-Picot agreement divided up the Middle East largely between French and British imperialism. However, by the 1930s already, US imperialism was the major imperialist power in the world. As the entire globe had been divided up among the imperialist powers by then, the only way each imperialist power could expand was through overpowering other imperialists. It was this inter-imperialist rivalry that led to world war 2. US imperialism triumphed and defeated German and Japanese imperialism. British and French imperialism were weakened. Even today both Germany and Japan are occupied by over 100 000 US troops. Today, through coups and war, US imperialism controls the regimes of Egypt, Turkey, Iraq, Jordan, the entire Saudi Arabian peninsula, except for most of Yemen. Lebanon is being disputed by US and French imperialism. US imperialism was defeated in Lebanon in 2000 and 2006. Libya was under Italian imperialist control but is now under US imperialist control.

Forward to an international General Strike to stop the genocide

Response to the RCIT conception of ‘Settler colonialism’

The Revolutionary Communist International Tendency (RCIT) wrote to us insisting that Israel be classified as a ‘settler colonial state’. We think they are making a fundamental error, which seems to be quite widespread. This is response is meant to clarify the matter for the proletarian vanguard elements the world over and thus for the proletariat as a whole.

Unwitting support of a ‘2-state solution’

The RCIT, by limiting the struggle of the Palestinians to areas of Gaza and West Bank, no matter how Red they claim they want Palestine to be, is actually support for a permanent division of the working class and a de-facto support of the imperialist notion of a ‘2-state solution’. They refuse to make any call on the masses in ‘Israel’ to join with the Palestinian masses in struggle against the Zionist state and against imperialism. The weekly marches of Israeli masses and the mass protests and strikes of 31 August, 1^st and 2nd September against the Zionist regime, is ample evidence of their mistaken policy.

Argentina: Release all the protestors arrested over opposition to the ‘Ley Bases’ of Milei

On the 12^th June 2024 there were mass protests against the new ‘Ley Bases’ (Restructure law) in Argentina, while the upper house went ahead and approved it. The law now goes to the lower house for further ratification.

33 protestors were arrested on false charges of ‘sedition’. Most have been released except 5.

What is at stake with the Restructure Law?

When Milei was elected he promised to privatise all public entities. This ‘Ley bases’ aims to give total power to Milei for 1 year to restructure the administrative, economic, financial and energy divisions of the state. All international/multinational (imperialist) companies in the mining, energy, tourism, steel and oil and gas sectors will be exempt from paying taxes. A number of direct workers gains will be cut: Pregnant women will be forced to work  until just 10 days before childbirth; probation will be extended to 6 months and up to 1 year for smaller companies, thereby enabling bosses to fire workers more easily. When workers are retrenched the companies will not pay severance pay but the pay workers receive will actually come from their own money. They also want to make it more difficult for workers to qualify for state pension.

Who built Tel Aviv ? Open letter to the Israeli youth

The heroic Refuser Solidarity Network recently reported that over 100 young IDF members had committed suicide since Oct 8^th last year. These youth took this drastic step because they don’t feel heard. They feel do not agree with the genocidal war. They feel there is no organised opposition strong enough to stand up to the Israeli state. There may even be some that are following in the footsteps of Aaron Bushnell but whose messages of protest is being silenced by the state. The longer the war goes on the more likely this number will get to 200 or even more. It follows that it is important to build and strengthen the movement against the Israeli state. It is important to encourage the dissident youth to join this movement.

One of the most recent to commit suicide was Eliran Mizrahi , a disabled soldier who had already served in Gaza and had been twice wounded. Despite being disabled through the war and suffering from PTSD he had been called up to go again into Gaza. What type of army calls up disabled soldiers? Eliran leaves behind a wife and four children. The IDF command has refused a military burial and has distanced themselves from him, saying that he was no longer a soldier. To the IDF you are just a number, to serve without question.

Elections 2024 – The ANC is no longer a liberation movement- they are bombing us with unemployment. Every day it is Gaza in South Africa

The 2024 ANC election Manifesto confirms that the ruling party has been fully transformed into a bourgeois movement. Nowhere is there even a reference to the Freedom Charter. No reference to houses for all, a 40 hour week, nor when unemployment and slave wages will be abolished. Nationalisation of the commanding heights? Nowhere to be seen. On many policy points they are very similar to the policies of the right-wing DA (Democratic Alliance). The transformation has been coming for some time now. On the 16^th August 2012 the ANC government under Zuma perpetrated the Marikana massacre, shooting down 34 mineworkers in cold blood. The massacre occurred after Lonmin Director, Cyril Ramaphosa, had urged the state to take ‘concomitant action’ against the strikers who were only demanding a living wage of R12000 per month. Billionaire Ramaphosa soon became head of the ANC and President of the country.

The masses fought the apartheid regime to be free from slave capitalist relations. Today, 30 years later, the old apartheid group areas still exist. 60% of the youth are unemployed. The vast majority of the working class still earn poverty wages. The Journal of Southern African Studies reports that every year the imperialist class from the US and UK and elsewhere steals about R200bn of the wealth produced here. This is besides the trillion Rand in declared profits, much of which is carried offshore every year. This means that unemployment is artificial. That means that with the help of the ANC and the DA governments the imperialist is bombing us with unemployment. The health system , electricity , water , schools, housing are all being privatised. Here comes the ANC of 2024 that promises to help create 2000 more Ramaphosas. This is like the Marie Antoinette moment in France when she told the starving masses: ‘Give them cake!’. The ANC wants to give us more billionaires like Ramaphosa. This is the same capitalist nonsense as the DA that proposes making the bosses rich so the working class can get more crumbs.

Open letter to the workers and youth in the USA- Break with the Democrats and Republicans- Unite for the defence of the Palestinians; for an immediate Ceasefire and the convening of a Constituent Assembly in historic Palestine

One of the central lessons of the ongoing the genocide against the Palestinians is that there is no fundamental difference between the Democratic Party and the Republicans.  That there is a genocide by US imperialism against the Palestinians is backed up by research of the Boston, Cornell and Yale Schools of Law as well as the Centre for Human Rights at the University of Pretoria. They also reference the highest number of journalists killed and the highest number of UN workers killed in a war since world war 2. By US imperialism deliberately targeting and killing UN aid workers they have declared war on the masses of the world. By US imperialism deliberately killing over 100 Palestinian journalists US imperialism is trampling on all the supposed democratic values they claim to stand for. By perpetrating genocide against the Palestinians, US imperialism is declaring war on the masses of the world.

Both Republican and Democratic parties have supported the genocide every step of the way. They are two different sides of the same coin. Whenever there is a crisis of big capital the two parties act together. These parties are in essence representatives of the dictatorship of the capitalist class, the giant monopolies and banks. There are millions in the USA who live in abject poverty while many millions are enslaved through debt to Wall Street. For decades these parties have played the game of fake opposition to each other in order to fool the masses for another 4 years until the next election. It is time for a political alternative. It is long overdue for a party that really represents the interests of the working class and the broader masses. It is time for a workers’ party.

Why is imperialism invading Rafah? A discussion and some suggestions

Every single weapon being used by the Zionist army in the attack on the unarmed Palestinian masses in Gaza has been supplied by imperialism, directly and indirectly. The jets are being maintained by teams from imperialist companies and the jet fuel comes directly from US arms companies. Imperialism is invading Rafah and is perpetrating the genocide there.

The bourgeois media, many governments and even the UN and its various arms have criticised the Palestinian resistance for 'hostage-taking'. They lose sight of the fact that Palestinians live under military law of Israel. This means that thousands have been and still are arrested without charge. Thousands of Palestinian prisoners are held in the zionist gulags without charge for months and sometimes years. If Palestinians disagree with any Israeli policy they could be assassinated, again with no recourse to any court anywhere in the world. The case of journalist Shireen Abu-Akleh, is but one of many examples. She was killed by an Israeli army sniper two years ago while merely reporting the news. Once again, no bourgeois structure in the world holds the zionist state accountable. The killers are still part of the state, often even getting promotion for their acts of violence. There is NO legal means for Palestinians to challenge the systemic mass hostage-taking by the Israeli state. The method of the  Palestinians taking captives from among the zionists has been the ONLY way to force the release of some of their comrades. It has been going on for many years. Note the contrast. The Palestinian resistance, despite their little resources, have always treated their captives well. On the other hand, the zionist regime have often subjected the Palestinian prisoners to torture, abuse, denial of medical treatment, and yes, in several cases the prisoners have suffered sexual assault at the hands of their captors. If anyone has any legal method of stopping the zionist method of military rule, let them propose it. There is none. Military law over Palestinians must end. 

The question has to be answered as to why imperialism is invading Rafah at this moment?

A call to the workers and masses in the Middle East and to the masses in the imperialist centres- Help stop the genocide against the Palestinians

We salute the youth on the campuses and high schools in the USA and those across the globe that have taken up the cause of the fight against the imperialist-directed genocide against Palestinians. We need to unite the actions of the masses in the imperialist centres with the masses in the Middle East.

Updated on 8 May 2024, the second day of the US-backed Israeli invasion of the Rafah region of Gaza, which currently hosts 1.5 million displaced Palestinians. Israel has closed all food and medical supplies and threatens to impose a border control of the US military. So it is clear that Israel is acting out the wishes and aims of US imperialism. By fake tears and empty words the regimes in the region claim to support Palestinians but their actions show them to be tools of imperialism.

The case of the Jordanian monarchy

The Jordanian monarchy has been professing to be critical of Israel, yet it imports weapons from them and also received $3.2 Bn in weapons from the USA since 2000. These weapons are to protect US interests and Israel. That is clear. Rafah is burning and Palestinians are being  killed like flies. Starvation was always the means of imperialism to force their plans onto the masses. They don’t care about the lives of anyone including any Israeli. Israelis are used as expendable cannon fodder.

October 2023

United States

Open letter from rank-and-file members of the UAW (International Union, United Automobile, Aerospace and Agricultural Implement Workers of America)

Dear UAW International and Fellow Unionists,

We, rank-and-file members of the UAW and allied community members/organizations, stand unequivocally in solidarity with the Palestinian people. Following the call by Palestinian Trade Unionists to end complicity in their oppression, we call upon workers everywhere, our union leadership, and the UAW International to demand an immediate end to Israel’s brutal siege and bombardment of Gaza and all military funding going toward Israel.

We watch with horror as the U.S. sends American troops to assist in an Israeli ground invasion of Gaza. We mourn the loss of civilian life. We categorically reject U.S. support of the murderous Israeli regime in its ongoing genocide of Palestinians, which has killed over 7,000 people and injured 16,000 more in airstrikes since October 7, and has cut off water, food, and power to Gaza’s population. We stand in solidarity with Palestinian workers who have renewed their call for academic institutions and unions worldwide to stand with the Palestinian people.

We call on the UAW to endorse and implement the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) call from Palestinian civil society, which urges nonviolent pressure on Israel until it “meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people's inalienable right to self-determination and fully complies with the precepts of international law by:

1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall
2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and
3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.”

October 16, 2023

An Urgent Call from Palestinian Trade Unions:

End all Complicity!

Stop Arming Israel!

APPEAL TO ACTION

 BOYCOTT THE HISTADRUT

Israel has demanded that 1.1 million Palestinians evacuate the northern half of Gaza, whilst subjecting them to constant bombardment. This ruthless move is part of Israel’s plan, backed by unwavering support and active participation from the US and majority of European states, to carry out unprecedented and heinous massacres against 2.3 million Palestinians in Gaza and to ethnically cleanse it altogether. Since Saturday Israel has indiscriminately and intensively bombarded Gaza, and cut off fuel, electricity, water, food, and medical supplies. Israel has killed more than 2,600 Palestinians—including 724 children—leveling whole neighbourhoods, wiping out entire families and injuring more than 10,000 people. Some international law experts have begun warning of Israel’s genocidal acts.

Mayday greetings to all the masses in struggle around the globe

Message of support to the student occupations across the US, from South Africa

We salute you for your bravery in standing up against US-perpetrated genocide against Palestinians. A little over 3 years ago it was widely publicised as if a vote for Biden was a sure step against fascist and anti-democratic tendencies of Trump. Even we made the error of calling for a vote for Biden without political support for him or his party, recognising that both were imperialist parties. Our argument that that the democratic space under Biden would allow greater opportunity for defeating both imperialist parties. How wrong we were.

The campaign against Palestinians, the genocide against them, has been led from start up to now by US imperialism, both of their parties. The campaign against the Palestinians is fascist. For decades the Israeli masses have been force-fed on Zionist ideology, training every day for the extermination of Palestinians and suppression of the broader masses in the Middle East. This was a genocide-in-waiting, all fostered by US imperialism through yearly grants of $3 bn in weapons and other billions of dollars of support by the giant banks and monopolies around the world. Every act of the Zionist regime has been supported by imperialism since 1948. The mass uprisings and general strikes of the 1930s in the Middle East posed a threat to imperialist control of the region. This is why israel was created, to act as a military base for imperialism in the region.

Israel has called for an urgent UN Security Council meeting on 14 April 2024, wanting the IRGC, the armed wing of the Iranian regime to be declared a 'terrorist group' because of its drone and missile attacks on 13 April 2024 on it. 

STOP THE GENOCIDES IN GAZA, SUDAN AND THE DRC

The lone protestor outside the Israeli consulate in Atlanta, Georgia

On the 1^st December 2023, a female protestor, engaged in an extreme act of protest outside the Israeli consulate in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. She set herself on fire as a symbol of rejecting the genocide. She was protesting against the ongoing genocide by US imperialism and its Zionist allies, of the Palestinians. She was holding up a Palestinian flag. A security guard helped smother the flames. The protestor survived but with 100% burns. We pause for a moment on the extreme act of protest and the factors that motivated her. We pause to note that she is probably in extreme pain, every moment of every day since then. Her sacrifice should not be in vain. That she felt that her step was the only way she could express her anger and outrage and to protest against the horrendous violence of imperialism against the Palestinians, is an indictment on us as the Left.  We have failed to build a credible political alternative to the current bourgeois parties. The mainstream media have done their best to minimise and erase her contribution.  There have been too few debates or discussions connecting her actions to the necessity to stop the genocide. That needs to be corrected.

It remains a central task to build a revolutionary workers party in the USA as part of a revolutionary International in every country of the world. This article is a step in that direction.

Voices against genocide in Gaza and the West Bank- an urgent appeal

In 1994, over a period of 100 days a million Rwandans were murdered while imperialism sat by and did nothing. Hundreds of thousands of machetes from China found their way into Rwanda just before the genocide. In the aftermath the new Rwandan regime is out and out a tool of US imperialism. Over many decades Belgian colonial powers deliberately and carefully divided the population on the lines of ethnic divisions, Hutu and Tutsi, with many of the Tutsi elevated to positions of privilege in the state. Imperialism laid the basis for the genocide. The complicity of the UN forces in the genocide against the Bosnians and their role in Sbrenica is a factor not to be forgotten. 6 million were killed by pro-imperialist forces in the DRC as they cleared the land between 1997 and 2003 and grabbed the bulk of the minerals used for the cellphone and tech industry. The tech industry is based on genocide. The role of imperialism in genocide is a central point to consider as is the pivotal role of the working class leadership in their complicity with imperialism.

Time to wage peace- Occupied Palestine- Political considerations at 17 Jan 2024

The annual expenditure on weapons globally is $2,2 trillion of which the USA spends the most, some $801 bn. This is by far the biggest of any country in the world. The global expense is also connected to other countries to whom the US imperialists sell arms. Thus the actual weight of US imperialism is by far the biggest in the world.

It follows that US imperialism needs war every year otherwise their arms industry would collapse. This would impact on the rest of its economy and its banks because they rest on the arms industry.

The 2003 invasion of Iraq by US imperialism and the subsequent murder of 1 million Iraqis on the fake notion that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction, marked a new qualitative low in the capitalist epoch. US imperialism spent $3 trillion on the war, giving huge profits to the arms manufacturers and the banks that underpin them. Thus we entered the period where wars were created out of nothing for the sake of capitalist imperialist profits.

On rape as a weapon of struggle- Palestine vs Zionism

On the 7^th October 2023 and the days thereafter, the Zionist media, echoed by the mainstream media  and several governments and even activists raised the serious concern that Hamas militants had allegedly gang raped Israeli civilians in the area just outside Gaza. Hagai El-Ad, the former director of B’Tselem, a human rights group that is reputed for defending Palestinians, also repeats the same allegations as if they are true. The ICC prosecutor charged with investigations in this genocide, in a visit to Cairo a month ago, also refers to ‘rapes’ as a fact, not even alleged- This is rather surprising for someone supposedly trained in law and international law. Did he get the required evidence? No. So why does he speak this way? It raises serious questions over his bias as well as the bias of the ICC as a tool of imperialism.  His approach to the allegations as if they were fact actually provided a cover for the Israeli state and imperialism to wage a genocidal onslaught against the Palestinians and the Palestinian resistance. The burnings he also spoke of as fact have now been proven to be the result of tank shells fired from IDF tanks- Hamas was not responsible at all.