organising

CSAAWU: Plea for assistance

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Help keep CSAAWU’s doors open – An injury to one is an injury to all!

CSAAWU

Dear Comrades,

We are writing to you out of solidarity for CSAAWU, a union based amongst farmworkers in South Africa with which we have relations. In 2012/3 South African farmworkers rebelled against the deplorable conditions in the sector – for which hundreds were dismissed and victimized. CSAAWU is one of the few unions that organises in this difficult and under-represented industry. In the aftermath of the rebellion it took a decision to take up the struggle, including by defending close to 100 workers in the labour court.

Unfortunately the union lost two of the cases and has been issued with cost orders in excess of R600 000 (US$ 53 500 or EUR 43 000). This is a very high amount in South Africa, one that is potentially fatally crippling for a smaller union like CSAAWU. (Anyone needing more information can have a look at this article)

We are therefore forwarding you their plea (see below) and hope that you will consider supporting their request for help. Please also considering forwarding this to sympathetic organisations and/or publishing it widely.

Red and Black regards,

The ZACF

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TAAC Statement of Intent (isiZulu)

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Tokologo LogoA. TAAC ke eng?

Tokologo African Anarchist Collective ke mokgatlo o o ekemetseng wa di anarchist (go ipusa ga batho) le ba ema nokeng ba go ipusa ga batho ba e reng ba batla phetogo setjhabeng le ditirong. Ba tsa karolo ba dira jaaka barutisi TAAC e kopana gangwe le gape go ithuta le go atisa megopolo ya go ipusa ga batho mo bathong ba ba di kobo khutswane mo Afrika borwa.

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The International Socialist League: laying the foundations

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The International Socialist League: laying the foundationsCompiled by Warren McGregor (TAAC, ZACF)

What was the ISL and what were its aims?

The International Socialist League (ISL) was a revolutionary syndicalist political organisation founded in Johannesburg in 1915. Many founders were militants who had broken from the South African Labour Party (SALP) over its support for the British Imperial war effort in World War I. They were opposed to capitalist war and imperialism.

The ISL aimed to organise “One Big Union” of the entire South African working class to fight for the overthrow of capitalism and the taking over of society by the working class, for the working class.

What did the ISL say about race?

Key to this project in the South African context was the breaking of the racial divisions within the working class. This required raising the specific demands of black workers for equality with white workers, in order to practically unite all workers and to enable them to work together toward “their common emancipation from wage slavery.”

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Why is it important to build an anarchist political organisation

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Why is it important to build an anarchist political organisationby Bongani Maponyane (TAAC)

Anarchism is a socialist ideology aiming to bring about a radical change, involving getting rid of the state and capitalism. We aim to change the current economic system that is backed up by state officials, and based on maximizing the profits of the elite few.

We the majority, are currently victims of our fate and mere pawns in ruling class economic and political games, but it does not have to stay like that. We want a world based on freedom, liberation, anti-authoritarianism and anti-statism: a world free of all forms of domination, capitalism and the state.

Sharing this ideal is one of the most important requirements for joining the anarchist movement. We want to build a non-hierarchical stateless society that will rise through a revolution, from the ground up. What we need is a free society, not a declaration of freedom but freedom from the reality of a class-divided society.

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