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southern africa / imperialism / war Monday January 22, 2007 19:29 byMichael Schmidt
In pursuit of its "long war" on terrorism and alleged terrorism, the US military is expanding into Africa's "arc of instability" - and striking secret pacts with regional powers like South Africa.
Those programmes include the “Next Generation of African Military Leaders” officers’ course run by the shadowy African Centre for Strategic Studies, based in Washington, which has “chapters” in various African countries including South Africa. The Centre appears to be a sort of “School of the Africas” similar to the infamous “School of the Americas” [ Nederlands] [ Ellenika] [Italiano]
zuidelijk afrika / imperialisme / oorlog Monday January 22, 2007 16:53 byMichael Schmidt
De voormalige koloniale macht Frankrijk heeft de grootste buitenlandse militaire aanwezigheid in Afrika gehandhaafd sinds de meeste landen in de jaren '50 en '60 soeverein werden...
southern africa / imperialism / war Tuesday January 09, 2007 16:49 byLucien van der Walt & Michael Schmidt
Southern African anarchist-communists would normally see the former British colony of South Africa as acting as a sub-imperialist power on behalf of the big capitalist powers and its own capitalist ruling class in the region, a sort of regional policeman as it were: if British interests in Swaziland are threatened by the democracy movement, we are sure that South African military might will intervene (as it did against Lesotho in 1998) to shore up the Swazi elite.
But the international scene is changing and today we can chart the rise of the People’s Republic of China as one of Africa’s most powerful kingmakers, whether backing the genocidal regime in Khartoum, or embarking on large-scale building projects including the new Luanda airport (in exchange for 10,000 barrels of crude oil a day) and the Number One Stadium in Kinshasa, a city that with its giant gold statue of a fat, Mao-like Laurent-Desire Kabila is looking like a city on the Yangtze River instead of the Congo (the DRC's mimicry of the Chinese national flag, before adopting a new flag this year, was too obvious to miss).
[Italiano]
southern africa / repression / prisoners Thursday January 26, 2006 00:57 byJonathan
A woman is dead as a result of the injuries incurred from her torture, by the Swazi police, for being married to a member of the Peoples’ United Democratic Movement
This appeal for international solidarity with Swaziland comes after 16 pro-democracy activists were arrested in December after a spate of firebomb attacks. There charges have now been upgraded to High Treason. They are awaiting their sentences of possible death or life imprisonment. We radicals and revolutionaries in South Africa and worldwide must remember that the people of Swaziland aided South African freedom fighters during the anti-apartheid struggle and now it is time to repay the favor.
southern africa / repression / prisoners Thursday June 30, 2005 22:30 byBukharin
Everyday the people of Zimbabwe pray that some miracle will save the country from degenerating into the curse of Malawi under Kamuzu Banda; Harsh brutal rule under a ruthless, insensitive, self-enriching dictator who lacked even the decency to die on time. Conversations are dominated by the talk of the Tsunami in reference of the devastation on ordinary peopleís lives caused by the government's so called "Operation Murambatsvina" [Sweep out the Trash] which is nothing but a senseless and callous attack on poor people of the townships.
The country is reeling under a massive economic crisis resulting from failed IMF/ World Bank neo-liberal economic policies that the government adopted under the Economic Structural Adjustment Program (ESAP) of 1990. Unemployment is widespread, now estimated at 80%. The formal sector continues to shrink with companies folding down everyday resulting in massive job loses. |
Thu 18 Apr, 04:28 Combatendo e Derrotando o Racismo Dec 10 06:11 1 comments Como anarquistas, lutamos pela criação de uma sociedade livre e igualitária, fundamentada na democracia de base e na igualdade socioeconômica. Defendemos a destruição de todas as formas de exploração e dominação. Somos contrários à autoridade coercitiva e sustentamos que o único limite da liberdade de um indivíduo deve ser que ele não infrinja a liberdade de outros. Acreditamos que apenas uma revolução protagonizada pelas classes produtivas e exploradas da sociedade (a classe operária, os pobres e o campesinato) pode criar um mundo livre, e reconhecemos que essas classes só podem ser mobilizadas e unidas com base na oposição a todas as formas de opressão. Pelas razões expostas, nós, anarquistas, somos inimigos declarados do racismo e dos racistas. Qualquer movimento por liberdade que não combata diretamente o racismo não passa de uma vergonhosa fraude. Ξεριζώνοντας τον... Dec 31 16:28 0 comments Ο ρατσισμός υπήρξε κατάρα στη Νότια Αφρική και παραμένει ενσωματωμένος στην κοινωνία. Αλλά πόσο επιστημονικές είναι οι ρατσιστικές ιδέες; Από πού προέρχονται; Και πώς μπορούμε να καταπολεμήσουμε τον ρατσισμό και να δημιουργήσουμε μια πραγματικά ισότιμη και δίκαιη κοινωνία; Τι πιστεύουμε εμείς ως επαναστάτες αναρχικοί; South Africa: Historic rupture or warring brothers again? Aug 03 21:28 21 comments Everything we are now is built upon all that we were and where we came from. The same can be said for countries, any analysis has to look backwards before it can begin to understand the influences and causes of the present. This makes analysis intrinsically complex and often, almost impossible. At some point we are forced to simplify, look for patterns and analyse situations with a focus on where the key locus of power lies. An analysis of the recent events taking place primarily in Kwa-Zulu Natal and Gauteng has to be done with this in mind. It is impossible to follow every strand of the complexity that is South Africa, but at the same time the link between the spate of large scale looting that took place and two very obvious conflicting ruling class power bases that currently exist in the country is undeniable. To claim that there was an exercising of working class power is to fundamentally misunderstand the powers at play and where the locus of power at this point in history actually lies. KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng are burning Jul 14 20:56 0 comments Abahlali base Mjondolo has always warned that the anger of the poor can go in many directions. We have warned again and again that we are sitting on a ticking time bomb. We have warned for too long that people cannot continue to live in terrible poverty only to be ignored year after year. We have made it clear that people will not allow their humanity to be vandalised forever. For too long we have been explaining that we are ruled with violence and that the public often accept this by their silence. Movie Review: ‘A United Kingdom’ (2016) Jan 14 18:27 0 comments A review of a movie about a cross-cultural marriage with political implications. Serious Concern at Escalating State Xenophobia in South Africa May 18 02:32 0 comments Since its formation in 2005 Abahlali baseMjondolo, which now has more than 70 000 members in good standing in Durban, has opposed xenophobia and sought to build a politics rooted in democratically run land occupations open to all. During period waves of xenophobic violence, always incited and sanctioned to some degree by the state, the movement has taken direct action to 'shelter and defend' people under attack. The relevance of the ICU of Africa for modern day unions and liberation movements Dec 12 14:58 0 comments The history of the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union of Africa (ICU), formed in South Africa in 1919, is replete with lessons for today's movements. The ICU, which also spread into neighbouring colonies like Basutoland (now Lesotho), Northern Rhodesia (now Zambia), Southern Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and Southwest Africa (now Namibia) was by far the largest protest movement and organisation of black African and Coloured people of its time. Influenced by a range of ideas, including revolutionary syndicalism, the ICU had both amazing strengths and spectacular failings. This piece explains. Ένωση Βιομηχανικ... Dec 08 19:32 0 comments Η Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union of Africa (Ένωση Βιομηχανικών και Εμπορικών Εργατών Αφρικής - ICU) ιδρύθηκε στο Κέιπ Τάουν το 1919. Το 1920 συγχωνεύθηκε με την επαναστατική συνδικαλιστική ένωση, Industrial Workers of Africa (Βιομηχανικοί Εργάτες της Αφρικής) και άλλα συνδικάτα. Μεγάλωσε ταχύτατα στη Νότια Αφρική μεταξύ της έγχρωμης και μαύρης εργατικής τάξης και των εκμισθωτών γης. Εξαπλώθηκε επίσης, τις δεκαετίες του 1920 και του 1930, σε γειτονικές χώρες. Class struggle, the Left and power – Part 2 Sep 08 06:04 0 comments The first part of this series stated that, despite various well-intentioned efforts by forces on the extra-Alliance and independent left over recent years to unite working class struggles in South Africa, these largely have and will continue to fail to resonate with the working class, help build unity in struggle and form the basis of a new movement because of the theoretical understandings of class and power – and their strategic implications – on which they are founded and which are prevalent on much of the left. This article will give a basic overview of these theoretical understandings of class and power and their strategic implications and limitations and why it is therefore necessary to refine and develop understandings of class and power more capable of responding to the context of the neoliberal restructuring of the working class in order to advance the class struggle in pursuit of socialism. [Part 1] Should the Anti-Capitalists Contest Elections? Sep 08 05:38 3 comments This is a lightly edited transcription of a talk given by Prof. Lucien van der Walt on a panel on the eve of the 2019 national elections in South Africa: the International Labour Research and Information Group (ILRIG)/ Workers World Media Productions (WWMP) Public Forum, Isivivana Centre, Khayelitsha, Cape Town, South Africa 25 April. «Le soldat est tombé»: disparition de Mandla Khoza, militant anarchiste-communiste et acti... Aug 28 04:06 0 comments Le compagnon Mandla Khoza ( "MK", somme ses amis et camarades le connaissaient) est décédé le vendredi 26 juillet 2019 dans sa ville natale de Siphofaneni, au Swaziland (Eswatini). Il souffrait depuis longtemps de diabète sucré. Il laisse quatre enfants. Il fut l’un des membres pionniers de la Fédération Anarchiste Communiste Zabalaza (ZACF) fondée en Afrique du Sud le 1er mai 2003. MK était engagé dans une révolution sociale qui placerait le pouvoir et la richesse entre les mains de la classe ouvrière, des paysans et des pauvres. Comme il le disait souvent: «Peu importe que vous changiez qui siège sur le trône: vous devez vous débarrasser du trône lui-même.» Cette notice nécrologique commémore sa vie de militant. [English] “The soldier has fallen”: Mandla Khoza, ZACF anarchist-communist and Swaziland activist, 2... Aug 22 07:30 1 comments Comrade Mandla Khoza (or "MK," as his friends and comrades knew him) passed away on Friday 26 July in his home town of Siphofaneni, Swaziland (Eswatini). He had long suffered from sugar diabetes. He leaves behind four children. One of the pioneering members of the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Federation (ZACF) founded in South Africa on May Day 2003, MK was committed to a social revolution that would place power and wealth in the hands of the working class, the peasants and the poor. As he would often say: “It doesn’t matter if you change who sits on the throne: you have to get rid of the throne itself.” This obituary commemorates his life as a militant. [Français] Moving from Crisis in South Africa's Municipalities to Building Counter-Power Jul 19 22:09 3 comments Across South Africa, municipalities are in crisis. They are under-funded, anti-working class, anti-poor and anti-township, and riddled with corruption by elites. The working class is oppressed by the state - as well as the private bosses - and we say "Enough is Enough!" We need to build an alternative: organs of counter-power, which can demand changes and lay the foundations for a deep redistribution of wealth and power to the mass of the people: the working class and poor. After the election dust settles: Class struggle, the Left and power Jun 25 22:09 0 comments Twenty-five years into democracy the black working class majority in South Africa has not experienced any meaningful improvements in its conditions. The apartheid legacy of unequal education, healthcare and housing and the super-exploitation of black workers continues under the ANC and is perpetuated by the neoliberal policies it has imposed. The only force capable of changing this situation is the working class locally and internationally. Yet to do so, struggles need to come together, new forms of organisation appropriate to the context are needed; and they need both to be infused with a revolutionary progressive politics and to learn from the mistakes of the past. Outside the ANC alliance, there have indeed been many efforts to unite struggles – but these have largely failed to resonate with the working class in struggle and form the basis of a new movement. Nowhere is this more evident than with the newly-formed Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party (SRWP) – which got less than 25 000 votes in the national elections, despite the fact that the union that conceived it, Numsa, claims nearly 400 000 members. [Part 2] Rebuilding the workers’ movement for counter-power, justice and self-management May 28 17:53 0 comments Don't abandon the unions, or take sides in inter-union rivalries. Build a serious, organised, non-sectarian project of democratic reform and political discussion that spans the unions, including a rank-and-file movement that fosters debate, and opens the treasure-chest of union and left history and theory. Recover the politics of disconnecting from the state as raised by, for example, Occupy and the Rojava Revolution. Replace reliance on the state and parties with struggle, and destructive inter-union rivalry with a serious project of working class counter-power. A ZACF Anarchist in the Landless People’s Movement, South Africa Apr 06 00:57 0 comments Lekhetho Mtetwa, a member of the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front (ZACF) discusses his role in the Landless People’s Movement (LPM), formed in South Africa in 2001. While the LPM was affiliated to Via Campesina, and linked to the Landless Workers Movement (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Sem Terra: MST), its activities centred on urban squatter communities, rather than farm occupations or organising alternative agrarian systems. Then-living in a squatter camp in Protea South, Soweto, Mtetwa served as the local secretary; by 2013, this was the key LPM branch. Several attempts were made by political parties to capture Protea South LPM, using patronage and promises, leading to the eventual implosion of the branch. Mtetwa provides an essential analysis of the rise and fall of the LPM, and the role that anarchists can play in such social movements. Surviving Zimbabwe: An anarchist critique Mar 19 06:33 0 comments This article, with the guidance of anarchism as a theory, provides a critical analysis of Zimbabwe and its current state, arguing against simple analysis and going beyond individual politics. The real, underlying problem is a society governed by a class system under the control of a predatory state that cannot survive a day without the exploitation of its people. It is essential to organize and educate the masses for a revolution they can claim as their own, against all forms of oppression and that builds on everyday struggles to improve the deplorable conditions of Zimbabwe. A Workers’ Party and Elections or Class Struggle? Feb 26 17:32 0 comments The question of state government elections and running a Workers or Socialist political party continues to be raised in the working class movement and the Left globally. As we may know, there was excitement about the rise of Jeremy Corbyn in the Labour Party in Britain, left political parties in certain parts of Europe and Latin America and, more recently, certain shifts to more centrist positions in the United States amongst a section of the Democratic Party calling themselves “Democratic Socialists”. In South Africa, many workers and some activists seem cautiously optimistic by NUMSA’s formation of the Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party that will seek to participate in the 2019 general elections. Construyendo un contrapoder de la clase obrera negra contra la opresión estatal, capital y... Feb 11 08:38 0 comments Entrevista con Warren McGregor, del Frente Anarquista Comunista Zabalaza (ZACF), Sudáfrica. Warren McGregor es un activista nacido en los municipios de color de Cape Flats, ahora vive en Johannesburgo, donde participa en la educación de la clase obrera y sindical. Unidade Da Esquerda Ou Frente Classista? Feb 04 18:56 0 comments Um apelo à unidade da esquerda socialista é amplamente ouvido em toda África do Sul, mas ele é frequentemente interpretado como um chamado à unidade da práxis (unidade no programa teórico e na ação). Isso muitas vezes é enquadrado como a transcendência de velhas divisões (estas vistas como antiquadas, sectárias ou descartadas como dogmáticas), e outras vezes como unidade a fim de agir (retoricamente posta como o oposto da teoria de gabinete). O que nós, anarquistas revolucionários, pensamos? English Genocidio In Namibia Jan 07 16:53 0 comments Con oltre un secolo di ritardo la Germania si scusa per il genocidio commesso in Namibia contro le popolazioni indigene. A quando il turno dell'Italia per Libia, Etiopia, Jugoslavia...? South Africa’s polluting giants: it’s about profits and class Dec 07 19:20 0 comments When it comes to greenhouse gas emissions, South Africa falls within the 15 biggest polluters in the world. But there is also a class dimension when it comes to pinning down which sections of society are responsible for air pollution – the major polluters in South Africa are the ruling class (capitalists, politicians and top state bureaucrats) and their state and corporations (including state corporations), continuing an economy based on cheap black labour, mining and externalising costs. State-backed”empowerment” firms — for Afrikaners from 1948, and blacks from 1994 — are deeply involved. Building black working class counter-power against state, capital and national oppression Nov 13 19:11 0 comments Interview with Warren McGregor of the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front (ZACF), South Africa. Warren McGregor is an activist born in the Coloured townships of the Cape Flats, now resident in Johannesburg, where he is involved in working class and union education. Έφυγε ένας Νοτιο^... Sep 01 14:21 0 comments Ο Selby Semela, ηγετική φυσιογνωμία της εξέγερσης του 1976 εναντίον του απαρτχάιντ, πολιτικός εξόριστος και συγγραφέας (με τους Sam Thompson και Norman Abraham έγραψε το «Reflections on the Black Consciousness Movement and the South African Revolution» - «Σκέψεις για το Κίνημα Μαύρης Συνειδητοποίησης και τη Νοτιοαφρικανική Επανάσταση»), πέθανε την Τετάρτη, 22 Αυγούστου 2018, σε ηλικία 60 ετών. A South African Revolutionary Passes: Jabisile Selby Semela, 1958-2018 Aug 30 08:14 0 comments Selby Semela, a leading figure in the 1976 revolt against apartheid, political exile, and author (with Sam Thompson and Norman Abraham), of “Reflections on the Black Consciousness Movement and the South African Revolution”, passed away on Wednesday, 22 August, 2018, aged but 60 years. [South Africa] Renewed appeal for Solidarity with the Boiketlong 4 Aug 15 07:09 0 comments On the 21st April 2015 the Magistrates Court in Sebokeng sentenced 4 community activists from Boiketlong, to a total of 16 years in prison. The activists are: Dinah Makhetha, Sipho Mangane, Dan Molefe and Pulane Mahlangu. Key witnesses could not even identify the 4 but the courts sought to use the apartheid law of ‘doctrine of common purpose’ to jail them. They were found not guilty of ‘public violence’ but guilty of ‘assault, arson and malicious damage to property’. Tearing racism up from its capitalist roots: An African anarchist-communist approach Aug 10 22:21 0 comments Racism has been a curse in South Africa, and remains embedded in the society. But how scientific are racist ideas? Where do they come from? And how can we fight racism and create a truly equal and fair society? What do we as revolutionary anarchists think? Left unity, left cooperation or a working class front? Jul 21 05:45 2 comments A call for socialist Left unity is heard widely today in South Africa, but is usually taken as a call for unity of praxis (unity in theoretical programme and action). This is sometimes framed as transcending old divides (these seen as outdated, divisive or dismissed as dogmatic), and sometimes as unity in order to have action (rhetorically set up as the opposite of “arm chair” theory). South Africa: Minimum wages can’t end suffering when the rich abuse the poor May 12 19:31 0 comments There has been a lot of talk about the promise of a National Minimum Wage (NMW) in South Africa. This means wages cannot go below a certain level. But capitalists and politicians continue to eat the food of the workers, the poor and unfortunate. Why? In some cases, the NMW is an improvement – but generally, the NMW is not a “living wage,” meaning a wage on which you can live a decent life. Prices keep going up. This society is based on the maximization of profit, this is its logic, and this means wages are not linked to what the workers and poor need, but to what bosses and politicians need. Wages are a system of exploitation. We live a capitalist society of stress and fear and jealousy, rooted in a system of cheap black labour, and power and profits for the bosses and politicians. We need to fight for something more, take back our unions, and lay the groundwork for an anarchists society, with equality based on workers and community councils. Abahlali baseMjondolo to hold their annual UnFreedom Day rally tomorrow Apr 22 02:43 0 comments Freedom Day is a national public holiday in South Africa. Each year Abahlali baseMjondolo, which has more than 50 000 paid up members in good standing, holds a heretical 'UnFreedom Day' to contest dominant ideologies. più >> |