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.
Tokologo African Anarchist Collective
The Way Forward for South Africa: Class Struggle and Anarchism
The Way Forward for South Africa:
Class Struggle and Anarchism
by Nkululeko Khubisa (TAAC)
Published in “Tokologo: Newsletter of the Tokologo African Anarchist Collective”, numbers 7/8, November 2017
South Africa is in a mess. That is clear, more than 20 years since the end of apartheid. We have won many things. It was our struggle that beat apartheid laws and the old government. But we are not free yet. Corruption, poverty, job losses, hatred, violence, the apartheid legacy are all part of the mess.
What is the way forward for South Africa? It is struggle by the masses of the people for a better society.
What does that require?
EDUCATE!
The way forward is unity and solidarity, but that means we need knowledge. People need to be mobilised and taught about politics – real politics, not the party system – and this process needs to take place at all levels.
If everybody among the working class and poor could be informed and alert, and
The Cheap Politics that Destroy Our Communities: Conflicts in Sebokeng
The Cheap Politics that Destroy Our Communities: Conflicts in Sebokeng
by Nonzukizo Mute (TAAC, ZACF)
Published in “Tokologo: Newsletter of the Tokologo African Anarchist Collective”, numbers 7/8, November 2017
Political fighting has destroyed the peace in Sebokeng township in the Vaal. Politicians are using government resources for private purposes, and parties and factions are fighting over which politicians get the most.
WARD 17 SPLITS
There has been no peace in the Emfuleni Local Municipality’s Ward 17 since the August 2016 municipal elections. Ward 17 is a ward in Sebokeng, and consists of Eskom Village, Hostels 1and 2, the Masiza Flats and other places, as well as Zone 20. Emfuleni municipality is part of
Bill Andrews and South Africa’s Revolutionary Syndicalists
by Lucien van der Walt
Published in “Tokologo: Newsletter of the Tokologo African Anarchist Collective”, numbers 5/6, November 2015
If W. H. “Bill” Andrews (1870- 1950) is remembered today, it is usually as a founder and leader of the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA, today the SACP). In that role, he served as party chair, member of the executive of the Communist International, leading South African trade unionist, visitor to the Soviet Union, and defendant in the trial of communists that followed 1946 black miners’ strike.
Umzabalazo wenqanaba labantu ayina kususwa ngaphandle kokunyanzela endlela yenqcinga zenguquko kompakathi
by Tokologo African Anarchist Collective (TAAC)
Published in “Tokologo: Newsletter of the Tokologo African Anarchist Collective”, numbers 5/6, November 2015
Umzabalazo wenqanaba labantu abaxhomekeke kwimpilo yomsebenzi e-S.A. ngumzabalazo ophikisana nobugqili kuhlangene nohlelo lwe-capitalism ononqxowankulu abacandelo lolawulo buyyebi kunye nombuso. I-capitalism ononqxowankulu abacandelo lolawulo buyyebi kunye nombuso uhlelo lwaleyongcosana ebusayo. (amacapitalist abaphathi abasemazingeni aphezulu, osopolitiki abaqeqeshiwe) eqonde ukuxhaphaza iphinde icindezele iningi elingabasebenzi (abasebenzi bawowonke amazinga; imindeni yabo, amasotsha; abangaqashiwe kanye nemphakathi ehluphekayo yasemaphandleni). Lezinhlobo zombili zinenhloso ezehlukile zivaleleke emzabalazweni wangokwezinga.
The Struggle of the Working Class Can’t Be Ended Unless We Radically Change Society
by Tokologo African Anarchist Collective (TAAC)
Published in “Tokologo: Newsletter of the Tokologo African Anarchist Collective”, numbers 5/6, November 2015
The struggle of the working class in South Africa is a struggle against the slave bondage of capitalism and the state. Capitalism and the state are based on the ruling class minority (capitalists, generals, top officials, professional politicians) exploiting and oppressing the working class majority (workers of all grades, our families, rank and file soldiers, the unemployed, and the rural poor). The two classes have totally different interests: we are locked in class struggle.
How Imperialism and Postcolonial Elites have Plundered Africa: And the Class Struggle, Anarchist-Communist Solution
by Lucien van der Walt
Published in “Tokologo: Newsletter of the Tokologo African Anarchist Collective”, numbers 5/6, November 2015
Roughly 50 years ago we saw the dismantling of most of the European colonial empires in Africa. High hopes greeted the “new nations” that merged – and certainly, a move from colonial rule, with its racism and external control and extractive economies, was progressive.
However, many of the hopes were soon dashed. Politically, most independent African states moved in the direction of dictatorships and one-party systems, normally headed by the nationalist party that took office at independence – and, over time, the military became a major player too. Many of these states were highly corrupt, even predatory, and the gap between the rising local (indigenous) ruling class, and the masses, grew ever vaster.
“Seek Ye First the Political Kingdom”? Learning from Kwame Nkrumah’s Failures in Ghana
by Tokologo African Anarchist Collective (TAAC)
Published in “Tokologo: Newsletter of the Tokologo African Anarchist Collective”, numbers 5/6, November 2015
CONTRIBUTORS: LUCKY, MTHAMBEKI, NKULULEKO, NONZUKISO, PITSO, SIXOKA, WARREN
Ghana, West Africa, was a British colony called “Gold Coast” until 1957. It became the first independent country in “black” Africa after reforms and struggles in the 1940s and 1950s. The new president, the brilliant Kwame Nkrumah, and his Convention People’s Party (CPP), had fought for independence. Now they aimed at major changes in the society, even speaking of socialism. And Nkrumah proposed a united African government for the continent: Pan-Africanism.
But by the mid-1960s, hopes were fading. There were good reforms in education and services and self- respect for Africans that helped remove colonialism’s damages. But the CPP has become a dictatorship, with a personality cult around Nkrumah. Unions and struggles were suppressed. The economy was in trouble. A new elite hijacked independence and resources. When the military seized power in 1966, people celebrated in the streets. Today Ghana is one of the poorest African countries.
What went wrong and what can we, anarchists in Africa, learn from this experience?
To Cure Africa’s Heart-Rending Misery, we Need Working Class/Peasant Counter-Power, Anarchism
Contributors: Bongani, Dikeledi, Khayalethu, Lucky, Mzee, Nkululeko, Nonzwakazi, Nonzukiso, Siya, Warren (TAAC)
Published in “Tokologo: Newsletter of the Tokologo African Anarchist Collective”, numbers 5/6, November 2015
“Africa today lies prostrate, bleeding, and embattled on all fronts, a victim of capitalist and, to a great extent, state socialist ambitions. The heart-rending misery of its peoples, the conditions of abject poverty, squalor and disease in which they live, exist side by side with the wanton luxury, rapacity, and corruption of its leaders.”
Sam Mbah and I.E. Igariwey, 1997, African Anarchism: The History of a Movement, Sharp Press: Tucson, Arizona.
Our vast continent, Africa, is the poorest in the world, host to dozens of wars and conflicts, and marked by instability and inequality. The root causes of the instability lie in political corruption and the profiteering system run by local and international elites.
The local ruling classes are interested in making profits and getting wealthy, by any means necessary. The elites are not promoting the development of the working class and peasants (small farmers), but only worsening our conditions. If the choice is between building a road in a poor area or pocketing the money, they will pocket the money.
Yini i-Anarcho-Syndicalism?
Published in “Tokologo: Newsletter of the Tokologo African Anarchist Collective”, numbers 5/6, November 2015
I-Syndicalism uhlelo oluzama ukwehluka kunezihlelo ezejwayelekile zokuphatha nemibuso, ngamanye amazwi i-capitalism nohhulumeni. Ekuqadeni uhlelo lwe-capitalism ubukhomanisi badala into esabeka kakhulu ngokubeka amandla omnotho ezandlani zikehhulumeni kuphela. I-Syndicalistm ishiya emuva zonke izinhlelo zokuphatha esezidale ukucindezelwa noku xhashazwa komuntu ngomunye umuntu futhi. I-syndicalism ibuye izame ukwakha inhlangano eyakhiwe phezu kwezidingo zabantu hhayi izifiso zeziphathimandla futhi eyakhiwe phezu kokubambisana kwabantu abazibusayo, abalinganayo okubhekele ekutheni izidingo zika wonke wonke zifezeke, hhayi zabasezikhundleni.
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