By Ailesh Dese

On 26 September the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) affiliate, the South African Society of Banking Officials (SASBO) was told by the courts that their planned strike against retrenchment is illegal. Workers are facing the highest rate of unemployment in ten years, and the Unions had asked the employers to consider retraining, etc. In order to save their members’ jobs … to no avail. SASBO complained about the obscenely gross bonuses that the managers received. The employers took the union to court and obtained a ruling that the strike would be illegal. The Union plans to appeal… (The ANC has not bothered to repeal the anti-worker, anti-Trade Union Laws on the books since the Apartheid era).

The Banks reckless risk taking has fleeced working and poor people, extorting nations with their toxic derivatives selling ponzi scheme. If there was any justice in this world they would all be in jail for life.

The economy is in a very serious situation, facing a meltdown, thousands of workers have lost their jobs mainly but not exclusively because of automation.

The SA ruling elite are no less criminal psychopaths than elsewhere – with their dedication to “Free” market economics, and “Free” trade to promote ‘development’. Freedom to mercilessly exploit others even at the expense of the ecology and the very existence of humanity.

The fact that the Democratic Alliance (DA) [1] (‘the Land Thieves Party’ says Andile Mngxitama, leader of Black Land First (BLF) [2]  was able to amass so many thousand votes is an example of the lasting, mind altering generational effects of European domination of African people….

The violence that beset SA has deep roots – decades of colonialism and imperialism. The most recent outburst of xenophobia is an absolute disgrace, the government and the police are doing very little to stop it. In fact, all the politicians, except (BLF) and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) have made disparaging remarks about immigrants in order to get cheap votes. They have made violence acceptable among a section of the population. The government is doing precious little about the social and economic conditions that foster violence. 25 years after the end of Apartheid Black people earn five times less than whites. Incomes for white SA households increased 88% in the last decade.

The President, Cyril Ramaphosa, (who has had corruption as his middle name for a very long time) has failed to grasp the fact that hunger and malnutrition aren’t statistics but a daily reality for the majority. During the election, the obscene tide of corporate money unleashed frenetic lobbying and buying of influence, which is still being ‘investigated’.

Ramaphosa makes a fuss about the need for the state to support the ‘private sector’ – a pack of crooks, profiteers and enablers of corruption.

The politicians have managed to divert anger at the recession and its consequent misery from capitalism itself towards immigrants. Without a fix to the economic system the minds of the people will be surrendered to hate. It is easy to whip up hatred among those who are left out of the system. Every fascist regime the world has ever seen started like that.

The people who are attacking immigrants from other African countries, have forgotten their history, the result of a colonized education, colonized religion, colonized mistaken identity and colonized culture, and the fact that the countries that these immigrants come from, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Mozambique gave considerable material support, (at great cost to themselves) to the ANC during the long and bitter struggle to end Apartheid.

In African Culture ingratitude is the greatest sin, one can do almost anything, but one cannot be ungrateful. The whole continent is shocked, appalled and disturbed at this behaviour.

Many comrades have said that they are uncomfortable with the characterisation of the unrest in SA as ‘xenophobia’, that this is scapegoating the oppressed to condemn their actions as totally irrational – that these small business owners are not totally innocent, they have ripped off the community, selling rotten food and engaging in other shady business practices which the Black community in Britain and in the US commonly fall victim to at the hands of Asian and Arab merchants. But when people are unorganised politically and get swept up in mob action, it is easy for innocent people to fall prey.

They quote Andile Mngxitama

“this is a secondary contradiction which can be resolved by dialogue, education, restorative justice, compromise, unity and understanding … the primary contradiction is between the people and White Monopoly Capital and that can only be resolved by the defeat of the enemy”

The ANC and the other political parties (except BLF) do not seek to establish a worker’s state, they are always making promises but, in the end, betraying the working class and the poor.

The Land Question

The scam run by ANC and EFF on the people re the restoration of the land to its rightful owners is utterly disgraceful. They claimed that restoration was not possible without a change in the constitution, and that it was too late in the previous Parliament to make the necessary changes before the election. They did not intend to change the constitution they just wanted to get votes….

The people must demand transparency and accountability. They must strike, occupy, protest against the exploitation of global imperialism.

Notes

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[1] The Democratic Alliance (DA) is the official opposition to the governing African National Congress (ANC). The present leader is Mmusi Maimane. He is a Black man who backs Zionism against the Palestinians. The party is based on the Cape Coloured population who are historically relatively privileged as against the black masses. It was founded in 2000 through the merger of the Democratic Party, the New National Party, the descendent of the old Apartheid ruling party, and the Federal Alliance. The New National Party withdrew in 2001.

[2] Black First Land First (BLF) is an unregistered black consciousness, pan-Africanist and revolutionary socialist political party in South Africa. It was founded in 2015 by Andile Mngxitama following his expulsion from the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), led by Julius Malema.