Is the Revolutionary Alliance REALLY still leading the poor masses, or have we perhaps become reactionary ourselves? The mere existence of grass root movements (of which the vanguard SACP is suppose to be) like Abahlali baseMjondolo, Landless Peoples Movement speaks volumes about the Parties abilities to lead the workers struggle for a more humane and just socialist society. Let us critically consider the question, who is the real vanguard of the working, working poor and poor?
The killing of the Abahlali supporters and the lessons for the working class On the 26thSeptember 2009, in the evening, a group of about 40 armed thugs attacked the community in Kennedy rd, Durban. The thugs were armed with guns and pangas (bush knives). Two residents were killed. This community is organised independently of the ANC-SACP-Cosatu alliance under the banner of Abahlali baseMjondolo (literally Shackdwellers movement), which has built up a support base of 20 000 among the working class. The police did nothing while the attacks took place despite the police station being within minutes of the area. Instead of arresting the thugs, 13 of the leadership of the ABM. The ABM has been championing the right to housing and has on numerous occasions successfully opposed attempts by the state at forced removals. The ABM opposes all political parties and while it makes full use of the democratic space within the bourgeois courts to fight its case, it lays itself open to the danger of actually believing that the courts are democratic and will in the final instance, defend them. Weeks before the attacks, the ANC branch in the area declared that soon they would be shutting the Abahlali office (in Kennedy rd) and the flag of the ANC would be flying there. In the same week after the attack, the government announced new plans to develop Kennedy rd. The police spoke out against the attempts by the community to enforce a curfew for shebeens and taverns in the area. Cosatu, SACP and SACP Youth League leaders maintain a chilling silence, while the 13 leaders of the ABM are denied bail and are still, even today, kept in the notorious prison system in Durban. Four days after the attacks, WIVL personally raised the issue with a meeting of 40 Cosatu workers and officials, attending a CEPPWAWU providend fund meeting in Durban- the workers promised to take it up but nothing has materialised to date. The International context To understand the background to the fascist attacks in Kennedy rd, we have to look at the international context and draw the lessons. The greater stagnation of the world economy over the past 30 years has dumped world capitalism into a massive crisis; if industry is not growing, the only way forward for the imperialists is to take back more from the working class, increase the rate of exploitation, and intensify the rivalry for markets. This means greater attacks on the world working class. The middle ground falls away as the possibility for small reforms are greatly reduced; there is greater desperation by the governments that are lackeys of imperialism, to fight over the few crumbs that imperialism throws their way. While there is greater radicalisation of the masses as they have no choice but to take the path of resistance, the imperialists take measures increasingly bonapartist, fascist, increasingly openly counter-revolutionary. Under these circumstances the leadership of the trade unions and the mass organizations openly side with the capitalists, directly and indirectly. Imperialism has dumped over 1 billion people into absolute starvation by the artificially high price of food- no resistance offered by the trade union leaders, Stalinist parties and nationalist organizations; more than 50 million workers have been dismissed by the bosses world wide- no resistance offered by the trade union leadership, Stalinist leaders and nationalist organizations; in fact these very leaders are negotiating away rights of workers, allowing big capital to steal billions from workers pensions and forcing workers to accept lower wages. In other words, in this time of crisis, the trade union leaders, the Stalinists and nationalists become the open agents of imperialism within the workers movement. In many instances where the Stalinist parties have been discredited, fake trotskyist organizations step into the vacuum to compete to be the new darlings of imperialism. Yet, the crisis is not that there is too little food, or of drought, or climate change, but one of too many goods, too much food, too much capacity, and too little avenues for the capitalist to invest (to continue to make profits). Trillions of dollars are found in an instant to bail out the imperialist banks but they cannot even find US$40 billion to put back to feed the very starving who they continue to steal hundreds of billions from each year. To pay these trillions of bailouts the imperialist has to make the world working class pay- this is why they have launched their world wide offensive and the high food prices, mass retrenchments and attacks on the working class in South Africa are part of this process. For imperialism to carry out their attacks against the world working class they have drawn the lessons of the uprisings in Madagascar and Guadaloupe a few months ago; in Guadaloupe the masses rose up, formed a united front- a semi-soviet structure and the only way to defuse the situation was through the intervention of fake trotskyists to turn the workers eyes from taking power, grant the working class a 200 euro (R2000 approximately) increase. In Madagascar the army took over the main military bases and declared that they were with the people and would not shoot on their protests- the army even dispatched tanks into the city to ensure the police did not attack the protestors. Later, through lack of revolutionary leadership, imperialism is slowing regaining control. Imperialism realised that if there are similar uprisings elsewhere there is a possibility of a workers revolution succeeding; thus they have accelerated their efforts to create centres of counter-revolution as far as possible. Under these conditions we have the republicrat Obama launching a military coup against the Bolivarian bourgeoisie in Honduras in June this year, in part to try and re-establish in Honduras the same base of counter-revolution as in the decades of the military dictatorships in South America (imperialism had previously used the Honduran army to invade and topple regimes that opposed them); the wars in Afghanistan, Iraq and Pakistan reinforces the imperialist counter-revolutionary core in the Middle east, ready to act against any working class uprising; At the same time, the US plans to open 7 new military bases in Colombia, on top of their existing 130 world wide. The US plans to open its Africom military headquarters in Ghana. Let us not forget the over 4 million people who died in the DRC since 1996 while the US and French imperialist powers scrambled for coltan and cassiterite (base materials for cellphone components)- the US military has also strengthened their presence in Rwanda and Uganda during this period; the UN will not prosecute the Israeli regime for the massacre of 1400 people in Gaza at the beginning of this year; the UN does not even put on the agenda the war crimes committed every day by US imperialism around the world. The message from imperialism is that we will kill who we want, when we want, whoever even opposes us even slightly. Hamas is not socialist and was prepared to accept a long term partition of Palestine, yet imperialism is collectively punishing Palestinians for having dared to vote for someone other than their own puppet (Abbass). In Argentina, when workers went on strike to get hygienic conditions to counter the swine flu, the workers at Kraft (the second biggest food company in the world), a US multinational, dismissed 168 workers, the main activists. When the workers occupied the factory, the trade union leaders worked together with the bosses to get the workers out and now production has re-opened with 12 hour shifts, under police guard, inside the factory! The message from imperialism is that we will employ whom we want, under any conditions and we will dismiss whom we want. In South Africa Imperialism controls South Africa- whoever claims otherwise is either naïve or deliberately trying to fool the working class. For example, most of the gold mines are controlled by the Bank of New York; JP Morgan Chase controls not only Anglo American but the SA Reserve Bank, etc etc. Imperialism-capitalism has been putting the burden of their crisis on the working class since 1996 to date, with the help of the ANC-SACP-Cosatu alliance; imperialism has realised (according to a study by the Institute of Strategic Studies) that by 2008 the government had a crisis of legitimacy- in other words that the masses had lost faith in the ANC. When imperialism, through Business Unity SA, called for a political solution to the Zuma case, they gave their blessing for him to act as their saviour to contain the masses. But imperialism still needed a base of counter-revolution to act against the masses when the next uprising comes. Thus they developed plans to dismiss all the progressive forces in the army (through HR2010 and HR2020 and the threatened mass dismissal of 1400 of the active core); when they were temporarily defeated through the workers closing ranks at the Cosatu Congress, the government immediate announced plans for a militarised police, hoping that this will act as the core to smash the working class; in addition the whole policy of shoot to kill is nothing else but a preparation to give the space to the police to shoot down any workers uprising. In Kennedy rd, if the so-called shoot to kill policy was to defend the masses, why did the police do nothing while armed thugs of the ANC attacked the Abahlali? This confirms that the shoot to kill is, under the guise of being against criminals, to shoot down the working class activists in uprising! What the Kennedy rd attacks are showing is that the reactionary core is not only the police but also armed gangs organised by the middle class and bourgeois class in the ANC. What the strikes of the municipal workers, the postal workers, the transport workers, the uprisings in the community all over the country, and the attacks on the Abahali, all show is that the working class are the victims and targets of the fascist bands and the police, irrespective if you are ANC, IFP, SACP, DA, or whatever party you may belong to. While the masses are being shot down the ANC-SACP-Cosatu leaders will either do nothing or actively side with the state. The intelligence force and police are staffed by many in the SACP. While the Slum Act was a test case in Kwazulunatal, the killings and attacks against the Abahlali is also a test case for the masses of what the plans of the state are. The ANC regime is attempting to show imperialism that it is trustworthy and it will take all the necessary measures to crush any independent threat against their interests. The so-called threats by Al Qaeda against the 2010 world cup shows that US imperialism is prepared to create any cover for the crackdown on the working class, including funding their agents to set up Al Qaeda here to start a cycle of bombing of civilians here. Al Qaeda is nothing but an imperialist front set up to deviate the masses from targeting imperialism and its system of exploitation. Already, while the right wing Christian Democrats and Liberals now gain ascendancy in Germany, fascist groups are opening marching there; we cannot allow such reactionary tendencies to rear their heads here again. Way forward 1. While uniting workers irrespective of political party, it is important that committees of action be set up in every working class community and in every factory; these committees should be independent from the ANC and SACP and SANCO and should unite working class communities who are currently in uprising with the rest of the working class; 2. These same committees should set up and prepare for workers self-defence against attacks by the police and the fascist groups that imperialism may fund against the masses, whether directly or indirectly; 3. there should be an urgent call for a national meeting of delegates from the employed and unemployed and soldiers from all such workplaces and communities and communities in struggle, to plan an urgent action in defence of the working class against all the capitalist attacks; 4. such national meeting should make all the plans for a general strike against the attacks of imperialism; 5. decent housing, food and jobs for all! Expropriate all imperialist assets, without compensation and place them under workers control! Down with the government of instant billionaires and BMW ministers! Forward to a workers government! 6. there should be immediate mass protests against the attacks on the Abahlali and calling for the unconditional release of the Kennedy rd 13. The International Leninist Trotskyist Fraction calls for the urgent convening of a new Kienthal and Zimmerwald , an international conference, to regroup the fighters to strengthen the world counter-offensive against the imperialist-capitalist attacks. -- Shaheed Mahomed Secretary Workers International Vanguard League 1st Floor, Community House 41 Salt River rd Salt River South Africa 7925 ph 0822020617 fax 0865486048 [email protected] web www.workersinternational.org.za affiliated to the International Leninist Trotskyist Fraction (sections in Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Brasil, Chile, New Zealand, USA, South Africa) 18 Oct 2009
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