by Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front
Tuesday, Aug 5 2008

The Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front (ZACF) expresses its solidarity with the rank and file workers of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), as their national campaign of rolling mass action against the electricity crisis culminates in a national strike and stayaway throughout the country on Wednesday, 6th August.

Mass action on one issue…

We share Cosatu’s concern that Eskom’s 27.5% increase in electricity prices (which can be increased still further by municipalities) as allowed by the National Energy Regulator of South Africa, to help fund Eskom’s R343-billion expansion plans, will be felt most heavily by the poor and working poor. This increase in tariff will put thousands more jobs at risk as, already confronted by large increases in fuel prices and interest rates, companies will try to maintain their profit margins by retrenching workers, and may even be forced to close operations.

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The Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front wishes to express its heartfelt solidarity with Mr Jerome Daniels and Mr Ridwaan Isaacs – two Delft Anti-Eviction Campaign members who, on Wednesday 2nd July, were sentenced to 12 months in prison for their political and social activism.

The two – one of whom was not even present in the community when the incident in question took place – maintained their innocence in the face of charges of malicious damage to property; although it is clear that what was really on trial was their role as community activists in the Delft-Symphony Way settlement. The testimony of one Mrs Evelyn Mokoena, who was speaking in defence of the accused, was repeatedly interrupted when the magistrate questioned the defendants about their involvement in the Anti-Eviction Campaign, a grassroots and autonomous social movement.

In passing his verdict Magistrate Van Graan said that he was holding Mr Daniels and Mr Isaacs responsible for the actions of their community; which dismantled the tent of one of its residents after a person the owner, Elmory Isaacs, allowed to stay in her tent threatened other community residents with violence. She acknowledged, however, that when the evicted occupants of the Delft Symphony N2 Gateway homes began their pavement encampment they agreed – as a community – to remove anyone who threatened or used violence against other community members. When it became evident that it was the community as a whole which took the decision to dismantle Ms Isaacs’ tent the magistrate said “I can’t understand under what circumstances does the community take a decision? […] Is this what is happening in this country? Is this thing justifiable?”.

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Joaquin has been known to us for some years now as a voice of militancy and reason in the Los Angeles area, working with Cop-Watch LA, Anarchist People of Color, and Revolutionary Autonomous Communities. His arrest at the end of June on a felony charge of possession of a concealed weapon – a legally-purchased firearm kept in the boot of his car while he was driving it – appears to be concocted by members of the Los Angeles Police Department who have come under the uncomfortable community scrutiny of Cop-Watch Los Angeles.

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by Gender Working Group – ZACF

We, Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front (ZACF), were recently shocked to hear about another homophobic murder in Johannesburg and extend our sympathy and solidarity to the LGBTI (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex) community of South Africa, that has had to suffer from oppression and discrimination so often within a short period of time. The murder of drag queen Daisy Dube is yet another horrible chauvinistic murder and adds to the escalating number of people killed in homophobic violence in South Africa in recent times, including 10 lesbians killed since just 2006.

We deeply regret this and all the other murders and hope that the case of Dube’s murder be solved soon, although we do not have much faith that the police will do so. Dube and others who speak out in such a chauvinistic environment – that not only verbally discriminates against people who are seen to be ‘different’ or ‘abnormal’ but also physically, including raping and killing them – should be seen as heroic. LGBTI people who know they are targets but still stand up for their gender identity and fight for their rights need our full support. It is such people, who stand up against oppression and discrimination, who will change the world.

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Friday, 23 May 2008

As the media, the politicians and the “experts” rack their brains in search of the cause of the “criminality” and “xenophobia” that has killed 42 people in 10 days and driven 15 000 from their homes, organisations of the working class have come closer to the truth than any of these wise men and women.

Abahlali baseMjondolo tell how “the anger of the poor can go in many directions”. They tell how fury is stirred up by “the rats and the fires and the lack of toilets”, by unemployment, homelessness and mandrax. They tell how people are “damaged” in a world where few are rich and many are poor.

The demon that has been unleashed in Gauteng, that is spreading to Mpumalanga and other provinces, is the demon of poverty. It is the child of the demon of capitalism, of the demon of exploitation.

But another demon has also been unleashed. This is the demon of NATIONALISM.

Abahlali point out that all the poor, all the workers, face “the same kind of oppression”. They call on all the poor and the workers to join in struggle against this oppression. The Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front joins this call.

But against this unity of the working class appears another unity, a false unity, the unity of nationalism. This is a false unity between the rich and the poor, between the oppressor and the oppressed. It is a false unity that divides those who should be united. It proclaims that because the master and the slave were born in the same country, they have something in common, from which the slaves of other countries must be excluded.

The ZACF does not deny or reject bonds of language, culture and tradition. But in the greatest of struggles, the struggle against poverty, exploitation and oppression, we proclaim that class unity, the unity of all the oppressed and exploited, must come first.

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ZACF Statement on Zimbabwe, Xenophobia and Food Prices

The Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front (ZACF) recognises that the crisis in Zimbabwe, ongoing xenophobic attacks and rising food prices are of great importance to the working class, both in South Africa and internationally. Resolving these crises in favour of the poor and working poor will require mass direct action and solidarity.

We stand by the right of Zimbabwean people to be free from violent repression, intimidation, arbitrary arrests, torture and murder by state forces and others allied to the despotic Mugabe regime.

We support the right of all people to be free from hunger, malnutrition and easily preventable sickness caused lack of healthy food.

We support people’s right to freedom of movement under any circumstances, especially when seeking a better future for themselves and their families when the political and economic conditions in their places of origin to do not allow for their wellbeing.

We support the right of people to satisfy their basic needs, such as electricity, housing and other basic services.

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A comrade fighting for water and housing in Sebokeng, south of Johannesburg, was murdered by police on the night of April 30. The ZACF condemns the latest outrage in a long tale of repression of working class movements, and calls on the oppressed to stand firm in struggle.

On 1 May 1886, the workers of the United States went on strike for the eight-hour day. It was not long before they faced the wrath of the police, the repressive forces of the state, the defenders of capital. The cops murdered four workers at a picket in Chicago on 3 May. A peaceful gathering was held the following day in Chicago’s Haymarket Square to protest; the cops ordered the workers to disperse; an unknown person threw a bomb at the forces of repression; the defenders of capital opened fire; at least 50 people were killed, including several cops who shot at each other. Eight anarchists were charged with the bombing. There was never any evidence that any of them had anything to do with it; but in a farcical trial, all were convicted, for no other reason than their commitment to the liberation of the workers. Four were executed.

Every May Day, the workers of the world remember the martyrs of the struggle for the eight-hour day. But the struggle continues. And to this day, the cops, far from defending justice and the rule of law, remain ready to murder working class militants in defence of capital.

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Towards a new international movement of the exploited,
Against neo-liberalism, against war, against hunger and poverty,
For peace, food and housing for all, for safe and secure jobs,
Towards the libertarian alternative!

A harsh reaction has been unleashed by States around the world against the cycle of social, labour and political struggles which have been carried on by the movements of opposition to neo-liberalism since the late 20th century, with a consequent general worsening of living conditions for millions of proletarians who are increasingly enslaved by capitalist exploitation.

In every country, the primacy of finance as the motor of the economy, with its lethal rules based on interest rate increases, credit clampdowns and social dumping, is provoking a grave crisis. Its results can be seen in millions of families falling further into debt and impoverishment and losing their homes and their economic security. The workforce is being concentrated into more intensive and highly flexibilized units of exploitation in order to strengthen supply and competition in macro-economic areas (EU enlargement, the re-launch of Mercosur and ASEAN, the WTO crisis, etc.). The concentration of production into monopolies on an international basis (motor industry, energy, telecommunications, agro-chemical/pharmaceuticals, etc.) is destroying social wealth and jobs and producing a food crisis without precedent. Economic development is tending to create a neuron-like network of privileged sites and related corridors of capital and raw materials around which public and private investment can coagulate, thereby impoverishing the large areas in between. And the background to all this is the state of endemic war generated by the USA for control over the system of imperialist dependencies, the increasing use of militarism and nationalism (and all its religious and ethnic varieties) in order to control/de-stabilize an area which goes from the Middle East throughout Asia and Africa and to destroy the autonomy of the exploited classes by forcing them to side with a particular State, religion or elite to whom they entrust their present and future destiny of exploitation.

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We welcome and support the decision by the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union for their workers neither to unload nor transport the shipment of Chinese-made armaments destined for Zimbabwe. This is a very encouraging sign of working class solidarity and internationalism, and we hope that such actions will indeed prevent this weapons consignment from reaching its destination – the Zimbabwean Defence Force.

At the same time, if the transport workers should fail, if President Robert Mugabe’s friends should find a way to bypass their resistance, all who stand with the Zimbabwean people should be ready to take a stand. Should the action taken by Satawu fail to prevent the armaments from being transported across South African territory to Zimbabwe, we call on all progressive elements across the country to intervene.

On 29 March 2008, parliamentary, presidential and local elections were held in Zimbabwe. This represented the last-gasp attempt of the Movement for Democratic Change to oust the 28-year-old regime of incumbent President Robert Mugabe, after a series of contestations since 2000 had resulted in an impasse.

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