This was issued by the Workers Solidarity Federation (WSF) at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits), in early 1997, and condemned proposed cuts by the state to public universities.  It holds up very well: 20 years onwards, the university system is underfunded, marked by job insecurity and outsourcing, and substantial exclusion of black working class students. The division between historically advantaged (“white”) and historically disadvantaged … Continue reading “Education is a Right, Not a Privilege!”: WSF leaflet for university struggles (1997)

The leaflet below was issued by the Workers Solidarity Federation (WSF) in thousands of copies at a Women’s Day march in Johannesburg, probably in 1996. As was typical of WSF, it takes a no-class-struggle-without-women’s-freedom and no-women’s-freedom-without-class-struggle line. Continue reading “Working and Poor Women Unite Against Oppression!”: WSF leaflet ca. 1996

The (undated) leaflet below was issued by the Workers Solidarity Federation (WSF) section in Durban, in the latter half of the 1990s. The original text was sourced from elsewhere. The leaflet opposes xenophobia and the persecution of working class immigrants, illegal and otherwise, a problem that still bedevils South Africa, as the horrors of the May 2008 riots (and many before and since) show. The … Continue reading “Tear Down the Borders”: WSF, Durban, latter 1990s

A leaflet written by the Workers Solidarity Federation (WSF), for union activists. It takes a generally pro-trade union line but argues that the existing unions must be reformed to be more democratic structurally, and more revolutionary, ideologically. In effect, it advocated transforming the existing unions into unions on anarcho-syndicalist lines, as vehicles for a current battles, as well as a final showdown in the form of … Continue reading “Revolutionary Trade Unionism: road to workers freedom” – ca. 1997 – Workers Solidarity Federation (WSF)

PDF online here This was a leaflet issued by the Workers Solidarity Federation (WSF), for a national university student protest in Pretoria. It argued for free university education, pointing to the class and national / racial effects of current policies; it also raises again the WSF slogan of the “Workers University.” Given that the student movement was (and is) fragmented into student wings of major … Continue reading Student protest 1995 – For Free Democratic Anti-Racist Education – Workers Solidarity Federation – 1995

This leaflet was issued by the Workers Solidarity Federation (WSF), and advocated an anarcho-syndicalist approach to trade unionism. It was directed to, in reality, to rank-and-file members of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU).  Another version here. While “anarcho-syndicalism” in certain English-speaking countries has come to be tied to a strategy of “dual unionism” (the formation of brand-new unions on a purely anarcho-syndicalist … Continue reading Revolutionary Trade Unionism: road to workers’ freedom – Workers Solidarity Federation ca. 1997

In 1997, the young African National Congress (ANC) government – which had been in the Transitional Executive government in 1993, then swept the 1994 general elections,  and the 1995 local government elections – continued its implementation of neo-liberal measures. These had surprised many people, because the ANC was elected on a largely Keynesian social democratic platform (exemplified by the Reconstruction and Development Programme, or RDP). … Continue reading “Last Call: Time for Action” – students fight budget cuts, 1997 – Workers Solidarity Federation

To: Minister John O’Donogue

On behalf of the Workers Solidarity Federation of South Africa I would like to convey our organisation’s anger at the attempts of Irish government to scapegoat harrass and deport asylum seekers.

I would further like to express our organisation’s solidarity with the day of action called for the 25 April in opposition to these government policies.

Asylum seekers are fleeing economic social and political oppression. To visit further persecution upon them is unjust. To deport them back to the horrors from which they are seeking to escape is unjustifiable. That almost all deportees are drawn from working and poor social groups further underlines the bias in such actions. Continue reading “Statement in support of Irish National Day of Action against Racism and Deportations – WSF, 1998”

Friday 21 August 1998

Greetings to our fellow workers,

We have heard of your struggle against the attacks by Metro.

We send solidarity greetings. We wholeheatedly support your struggle.

Across the world, workers are under a concerted and brutal attack. Union-bashing, casualisation, wage cuts and longer hours- these are the hallmarks of capitalism in the 1990s.

Against the “globalisation” of business, and the economic rationalism of capitalism and the governments, workers must fight for the “globalisation” of resistance, and international solidarity in defence of basic rights. Continue reading “In Support of Metro Strikers – WSF, August 1998”