WSF (1999): “Libertarian Socialism (Anarchism): What we Believe – Libertarian Socialism and Workers Control”

From Workers Solidarity, magazine of the Workers Solidarity Federation, volume 5, number 1, second quarter 1999. Complete PDF is here

The WSF is founded on the basic principle that the Working Class (the workers, the unemployed, ordinary soldiers, and the families of these groups) must FIGHT the bosses and politicians and top government officials. The society we live in is based on the rich exploiting the poor.

The rich – the bosses and politicians and top officials – live off the sweat of the Working Class. The rich are what we call the Ruling Class. Together they RULE the country. Your vote means nothing. The real decisions are made by the Ruling Class. The government is not a democratic structure Continue reading “WSF (1999): “Libertarian Socialism (Anarchism): What we Believe – Libertarian Socialism and Workers Control””

International Struggles

From Workers Solidarity, magazine of the Workers Solidarity Federation, volume 5, number 1, second quarter 1999. Complete PDF is here

 

RUSSIA – WORKERS SIEZE & RUN FACTORY

RUSSIA after the fall of the USSR state capitalist dictatorship that pretended to be communist has become a group of private capitalist kingdoms run by a series of Mafia thugs where extreme fascist parties flourish and the ordinary people get poorer by the day. The workers and the poor are suffering under an International Monetary Fund plan that slashes social funding while giving the exploiters a free hand. Even people with jobs don’t get paid for months on end.

Last year, massive strikes, lead by miners, virtually shut down the entire country. Another rose among the thorns is the revival of the libertarian socialist (anarchist) movement and the tradition of true soviets (workers’ councils) which the Bolsheviks believed they had crushed forever in 1921. But the Russian secret police, the FSB, heirs to the feared KGB, have been cracking down on anarchist activists in Moscow and Krasnodar, Continue reading “WSF (1999): “International Struggles” (Russia – Workers Sieze & Run Factory/ Korean Workers Stop Retrenchments Through Mass Strike””

WSF (1999): “Zimbabwe Unions to Launch Workers Party: Is This the Way Forward?”

From Workers Solidarity, magazine of the Workers Solidarity Federation, volume 5, number 1, second quarter 1999. Complete PDF is here

It was announced in March 1999 that the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions is planning to launch a workers party to contest the 2000 elections. According to the announcement, the unions want a “strong and vigorous political party that could address these issues affecting us”. Clearly, this party is designed to intervene primarily in elections.

Workers Solidarity magazine has always covered the Zimbabwe workers’ movement in detail because we admire and respect the struggles of our fellow workers against hardships, the war in the Congo (costing 6 milion Zim dollars a day), and the repressive Mugabe regime. In March 1998, the unions organised a two-day stay-away against VAT. In August, September and October 1998, there were general strikes on a weekly basis against rises in the fuel price.

When DRC dictator Laurent Kabila arrived in early November 1998, he had to be protected from the working class with riot cops.The country is in a deep crisis — it is here that the working class must act to win a decent future: land, bread and peace.

SOCIALISM

The call for a workers political party reflects the growing power of the working class. It is quite clear that the unions are strong enough to launch a mass party that could win the elections. However, is a workers party the way forward in Zimbabwe?

We do believe in the importance of workers having political organisations to fight for socialism. In our view, the role of a revolutionary political organisation is to win the leadership of ideas: to win the majority of workers to the struggle for workers control, land and freedom. Won to such a programme, the working class can make the revolution through its mass organisations, such as the trade unions.

ELECTIONS?

However, the ZCTU’s proposed party is seen simply as an electioneering organisation, Continue reading “WSF (1999): “Zimbabwe Unions to Launch Workers Party: Is This the Way Forward?””

WSF (1999): “Reclaim Our Unions! No! to the ‘Checkoff'”

From Workers Solidarity, magazine of the Workers Solidarity Federation, volume 5, number 1, second quarter 1999. Complete PDF is here

WHAT IS THE “CHECKOFF”?

The checkoff system is the system where the bosses act as bankers for the union by taking union fees out of our wages and handing them over to the union. This is “protected” in the Labour Relations Act (LRA).

WHY “NO!” TO THE CHECKOFF

The checkoff system is a sign of the present position of the unions and their relationship with the bosses. Firstly, the checkoff breaks direct contact between union members in the workplace and the union officials. Secondly, it makes the union seem more like an outside thing that we hire, rather than our own organisation that we take part in and control and thirdly, it involves management in internal relationships that are none of its business.

If union treasurers receive money from the company for fees collected by checkoff, they might be more worried about the happiness of the company than our happiness

When we pay our fees, how do we know Continue reading “WSF (1999): “Reclaim Our Unions! No! to the ‘Checkoff’””

WSF (1999): “Your Boss Is A Killer! Figures Show 3 People a Day Die in Work-related Accidents” From Workers Solidarity, magazine of the Workers Solidarity Federation, volume 5, number 1, second quarter 1999. Complete PDF is here Figures show that 3 people die every day from accidents at work. This is according to the Department of Labour. Yet this same Department does nothing to stop … Continue reading WSF (1999): “Your Boss Is A Killer! Figures Show 3 People a Day Die in Work-related Accidents”

WSF (1999): “Victory! BTR-SARMCOL Workers Win 13-year Battle”

From Workers Solidarity, magazine of the Workers Solidarity Federation, volume 5, number 1, second quarter 1999. Complete PDF is here

ON MAY DAY 1985, workers at the BTR-Sarmcol rubber factory at Howick outside Maritzburg, KwaZulu-Natal, embarked on a wildcat strike. The following day, the bosses fired all 970 strikers, members of the then Metal and Allied Workers Union, which was not recognised by plant management. And so began the longest and one of the bloodiest labour battles in South African history. The community of Mophomeni was torn apart by the resulting conflict between strikers and the scabs hired by management to replace them. Since 1985, 39 people have been killed in fighting related to the dismissals. The dispute came at a very dangerous time in the province, when the first Inkatha units were returning from secret death-squad training in the Caprivi Strip in Namibia. The IFP-ANC battle for the heartland was about to begin and the laid-off workers at Mophomeni were in the thick of things.

SHOP-STEWARDS MURDERED

In December 1985, MAWU chief shop-steward Phineas Sibiya, a key Continue reading “WSF (1999): “Victory! BTR-SARMCOL Workers Win 13-year Battle””

WSF (1999): “Fight Privatisation”

From Workers Solidarity, magazine of the Workers Solidarity Federation, volume 5, number 1, second quarter 1999. Complete PDF is here

Privatisation is the policy of the ANC government and is organised by ministers such as Stella Sigcua, who has promised that the process will speed up. In the middle of August, Minister of Public enterprises, Stella Sigcau, said that privatisation must go faster in South Africa. She says that the big government-owned companies must be sold to big business companies.

The government companies that are going to be sold include

* ISCOR (iron and steel)

* ESKOM (electricity)

* Post Office

* Railways

* Sun Air

* Water services

* Government services like ambulances.

* Egoli 2000– government services in Johannesburg are set to be privatised by ANC.

Workers must fight privatisation because it means

* retrenchments and flexibility in privatised jobs

* It is not empowerment because it only helps the rich.

* cuts in social services (water, refuse collection, sewerage, electricity, trains etc.) to poor areas

Public sector unions are the key to fighting ANC’s privatisation plans. This requires trade union independence.

SAMWU: Fighting Privatisation In South Africa

In South Africa, the South African Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU) has been at the forefront of efforts to fight privatisation. SAMWU has managed to block the privatisation of refuse removal in Khayalitsha, Cape Town. It has also fought against privatisation in Nelspruit and on the KwaZulu-Natal Coast.

But every step of the way the union is being undermined by the ANC Continue reading “WSF (1999): “Fight Privatisation””

WSF (1999): “South African Labour Market Too Flexible, Says Report” From Workers Solidarity, magazine of the Workers Solidarity Federation, volume 5, number 1, second quarter 1999. Complete PDF is here The bosses and government always SA labour is highly protected. However, a recent report by the International Labour Organisation, which is part of the UN, says that despite advances in worker rights since parliamentary democracy … Continue reading WSF (1999): “South African Labour Market Too Flexible, Says Report”

WSF (1999): “Strikewave! South African Labour Flexes its Muscles”

From Workers Solidarity, magazine of the Workers Solidarity Federation, volume 5, number 1, second quarter 1999. Complete PDF is here

1998 was a record-breaking year for strike activity in South Africa, and this year looks set to be even more active on the militant labour front.More than 3-million persondays – the highest figure since the 1994 elections – were lost to capitalist exploitation last year as a wave of industrial unrest swept the country. The year was characterised by long, intense and often violent strikes, despite calls by COSATU to settle the issues at stake as soon as possible so as not to scare off foreign investment. But as can be seen with the looming shutdown Continue reading “WSF (1999): “Strikewave! South African Labour Flexes its Muscles””

WSF (1999): “Libertarian Socialist (Anarchist) History: The Industrial Workers of the World” From Workers Solidarity, magazine of the Workers Solidarity Federation, volume 5, number 1, second quarter 1999. Complete PDF is here The idea of one big union to serve all workers, no matter what industry they slaved in, was associated with the Industrial Workers of the World, a fighting union formed by workers in the … Continue reading WSF (1999): “Libertarian socialist (anarchist) history: The Industrial Workers of the World”

WSF (1999): “One Big Union! South Africa’s New Giants of Labour”

From Workers Solidarity, magazine of the Workers Solidarity Federation, volume 5, number 1, second quarter 1999. Complete PDF is here

FEBRUARY 24, 1999, was a red-letter day for the labour movement in the sub-continent, when two of the largest and most militant trade unions joined hands to form a new mega-union, the Chemical, Energy, Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers’ Union (CEPPWAWU). Mega-unions, that is, industrial unions based on a single sector, were one of the recommendations of COSATU’S September 1997 national congress. Formed from the ranks of two powerful COSATU affiliates, the Chemical Workers Industrial Union (CWIU) and the SA Paper, Printing, Wood and Allied Workers’ Union (PPWAWU), the new giant pools the muscle and minds of 92,000 workers into a force to be reckoned with. The CWIU embarked on one of the most militant strikes over wages last year, with more than 47 000 workers (more than 20 000 of them CWIU members) downing tools at nearly 300 plants and blockading oil refineries in Western Cape, Eastern Cape and KwaZulu-Natal. Newly appointed CEPPWAWU general secretary, Muzi Buthelezi, the former CWIU general secretary said the new union would have greater resources and its sheer size would force employers to show it respect.

“STOP THE COUNTRY” MEGA-UNIONS: WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR SOCIALISM?

SA Communist Party (SACP) general secretary, Blade Nzimande, is CEPPWAWU’s new honorary president. Whether this move could be an indicator of the future formation of a communist-labour political party to the left of the ANC remains to be seen.

But workers must not put their faith in this. Remember that political parties, even left-wing ones, continue to exploit the working class because they don’t abolish the exploitation of the working majority by a small elite, Continue reading “WSF (1999): “One Big Union! South Africa’s New Giants of Labour””

WSF (1999): “ANC’s 1999 Budget Makes the Bosses Smile”

From Workers Solidarity, magazine of the Workers Solidarity Federation, volume 5, number 1, second quarter 1999. Complete PDF is here

A number of progressive organisations have claimed that the 1999 budget was a “people’s budget”. For example, the South African Communist Party issued a statement saying that the budget “is one more decisive step in the ongoing transformation programme of the ANC-led alliance”. Nothing could be further from the truth. Delivered in Cape Town on the 17 February, the ANC’s budget made the bosses jump for joy. First of all, it cuts tax on the companies by 5%. This means that the bosses will get R2.5 billion more in profits.

GEARs GRINDING

This is directly in line with the GEAR programme of the government. GEAR is committed to promoting the profits and the interests of the bosses. GEAR is based on the ridiculous idea that more profits for the bosses will mean more jobs and wages for everyone else. Continue reading “WSF (1999): “ANC’s 1999 Budget Makes the Bosses Smile””

WSF (1999): “Voting is your right but have NO ILLUSIONS IN PARLIAMENT”

From Workers Solidarity, magazine of the Workers Solidarity Federation, volume 5, number 1, second quarter 1999. Complete PDF is here

RIGHT TO VOTE

The WSF supports the right to vote. Working class people fought and died for this right. Any working class person should be free to vote for whoever they want. It is better to live under a democratic government than under the apartheid government. But we must have no illusions in the parliamentary system. As we have seen after nearly 5 years under this sort of government, parliament cannot be trusted. Even the best comrades sent to government have changed drastically.

SWEET LIFE

This is for a simple reason. Continue reading “WSF (1999):“Voting is your right but have NO ILLUSIONS IN PARLIAMENT””

WSF (1998): “PAC leader says ‘ban the trade unions’” From Workers Solidarity, magazine of the Workers Solidarity Federation, volume 4, number 1, first quarter 1998. Complete PDF is here The PAC [Pan-Africanist Congress of Azania] is sometimes seen as a radical alternative to ANC. However, in an interview in The Sowetan, PAC leader Bishop Stanley Mogoba said that South African workers are too lazy. He … Continue reading WSF (1998): “PAC leader says ‘ban the trade unions’”

WSF (1998): “EDITORIAL: Unite the Workers’ Struggle!” From Workers Solidarity, magazine of the Workers Solidarity Federation, volume 4, number 1, first quarter 1998. Complete PDF is here From coast to coast, a greedy class of anti-worker fat cat bosses abuse and oppress us- the workers. Our masters want privatisation, free trade, mass retrenchments in the public sector, “flexible” labour (hire and fire at will), minimal … Continue reading WSF (1998): “EDITORIAL: Unite the Workers’ Struggle!”