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.
Tag: NUMSA
Lessons from the 1984-85 Vaal Uprising for Rebuilding a United Front of Communities and Workers Today
When we talk about people’s power we are not thinking about putting our leaders into the very same structures. We do not want Nelson Mandela to be the state President in the same kind of parliament as Botha. We do not want Walter Sisulu to be Chairperson of a Capitalist Anglo-American corporation.
So said a United Democratic Front pamphlet called “Building People’s Power” that was produced in the 1980s. It continued, “We are struggling for a different system where power is no longer in the hands of the rich and powerful. We are struggling for a government that we will all vote for.” The UDF, formed in 1983, was a coalition of anti-apartheid community, church, worker, youth, sports and other groups. Along with forces like the “workerist” Federation of South African Trade Unions it played a key role in resistance.
What the UDF wanted sounds like almost the exact opposite of what actually happened: more than 20 years later, it is not Sisulu who is chairperson of Anglo-American Corporation, but the ANC’s Cyril Ramaphosa, the Butcher of Marikana, who is a shareholder on the capitalist Lonmin Corporation. Even though people have the right to vote now, fewer and fewer people are actually voting because they don’t get what they vote for; and power and wealth are still in the hands of the rich and powerful.
What went wrong, and what lessons we can draw? What are some of the similarities between the 1980s and today? What is the way forward?
Renewal and crisis in South African labour today: Towards transformation or stagnation, bureaucracy or self-activity?
South African unions are large but fragmented, substantial but politically weak. They represent different political traditions and all are marked by serious organisational problems. They have little impact on the official public sphere. The unions need to work towards realizing a stateless, classless, self-managed society without hierarchy, based on political pluralism and freedom.
Photos: Anarchist presence at various events [other ]
![Anarchist banners at World Conference Against Racism, Durban, 2001 [1]](https://zabnew.files.wordpress.com/2016/01/anarchist-banners-at-world-conference-against-racism-durban-2001-1.jpg?w=150&h=99)
Revolutionary New Year’s Greetings for 2016 from Zabalaza
Zabalaza #14 (August 2015)
[Download the PDF here]
Contents:
Southern Africa
- South Africa and the DRC: Has Rhodes passed on the baton? by Shawn Hattingh (ZACF)
- Class Rule Must Fall! More Statues, More Working Class by Leroy Maisiri
- For How Long can South African Elites Keep Misleading the People? by Philip Nyalungu
- SPEECH: Working Class Struggle, Blazing a Path to Freedom by Lucien van der Walt
- The General Approach of Anarchists/Syndicalists to the United Front and NUMSA by Jakes Factoria and Tina Sizovuka
International
- In the Rubble of US Imperialism: The PKK, YPG and the Islamic State by Shawn Hattingh (ZACF)
- The State of Climate Change by Bongani Maponyane (ZACF)
- Building a Mass Anarchist Movement: The Example of Spain’s CNT by Thabang Sefalafala and Lucien van der Walt
- Imperial Wars, Imperialism and the Losers: A Critique of Certain ‘Labour Aristocracy’ Theories by Lucien van der Walt
Black Stars of Anarchism
- Domingos Passos: The Brazilian Bakunin by Renato Ramos and Alexandre Samis
Book Review
- Review: Spanish Revolution Remembered: Peirats’ “The CNT in the Spanish Revolution” by Jakes Factoria
Theory
- The Anarchist Road to Revolution by Bongani Maponyane (ZACF)
- Putting Politics into Practice: The Importance of Democracy and Education in Unions by Pitso Mompe (ZACF)
Counter-Culture
- Anarchism and Counter-Culture: The Centrality of Ideas by Warren McGregor (ZACF)
Regular:
The General Approach of Anarchists/Syndicalists to the United Front and NUMSA
by Jakes Factoria and Tina Sizovuka (ZACF)
In this section we address questions that have been posed to ZACF militants. We are sharing these discussions because we think these are important and pertinent issues in Southern Africa. If you have questions you would us to address in our next issue, please get in touch!
In this column, comrade Themba Kotane, a union militant, asks:
Will the United Front (UF) address the crises we are currently facing in South Africa? I am concerned about how the UF works and who leads it. In my own view we don’t need a leader, we need to all have equal voice. How can we build the UF as a basis for a stateless, socialist, South Africa?
Jakes Factoria and Tina Sizovuka respond:
Continue reading “The General Approach of Anarchists/Syndicalists to the United Front and NUMSA”
