South Africa: NUMSA calls for new movement for socialism, end to ANC alliance

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Delegates to NUMSA's special congress greet suspended COSATU general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi (centre).

[For more on NUMSA, click HERE. For more on South Africa, click HERE.]

Declaration of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) Special National Congress, held in Boksburg, December 17-20, 2013. This document had been abridged.

This and other congress documents are available in full at http://www.numsa.org.za.

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1. Introduction

NUMSA’s Special National Congress convened from December 17 to December 20, 2013. It was attended by 1200 delegates representing 338,000 metalworkers from 50 Locals throughout the provinces of South Africa. NUMSA was proud to announce in the congress that it is the biggest union in the history of the African continent. In the last 17 months, since our 9th Congress in Durban, we have grown from 300,000 members to 338,000 members. We are ahead of schedule in our goal to organise 400,000 workers by the time of our 10th Congress in 2016.

2. The passing of Madiba

The congress started by paying tribute to Comrade Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela as a giant in our struggle for liberation. His passing marks the end of a political era in our journey towards full freedom. The congress agreed that, if we are to truthfully and fully honour Mandela and his comrades, his passing must herald the birth of our renewed commitment to intensify the struggle for full economic sovereignty, for complete economic freedom of the working class and the rural poor. His passing must spur us to fight even harder for the attainment of all the ideals he stood for: liberty, freedom, dignity, democracy and full social and economic equality of all human beings. Not to do so will be to betray him and his comrades. The congress remembered vividly the words Madiba offered to the COSATU Special National Congress in 1993, when he said:

You must be vigilant! How many times has a labour movement supported a liberation movement, only to find itself betrayed on the day of liberation? There are many examples of this in Africa. If the ANC does not deliver the goods you must do to it what you did to the apartheid regime.

3. Unity

There was a lot of talk, in the build-up to our Special National Congress, about how divided NUMSA is. Much was made of the resignation of our former president, Cedric Gina. Stories were spread of a union dominated by a single individual. There were even stories, which became the subject of much humour in the congress, of NUMSA’s leadership comprising business people who were simply firing up the militancy of the union for personal gain. In the last five days NUMSA has shown those stories to contain not one atom of truth. The most notable feature of the congress has been its unity. Even independent analysts and media commentators have confirmed the remarkable unity of the membership and the leadership in the congress. The delegates have been solidly united in their approach to the current crisis of the working class. There has been vigorous debate on detail, but absolute agreement on the key decisions that the congress faced. NUMSA emerges from the congress in the same condition as we went in – united in our militant determination to use our strength to win fundamental change in the policies and strategies of government as the only way to solve the triple crisis of poverty, unemployment and inequality.

4. Origins of the congress and its democratic process

In the view of the NUMSA National Office Bearers and the Central Committee, the situation in the Alliance [which comprises the African National Congress, the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party] and in COSATU had reached a point which required the leadership to consult our members. The decisions of our 9th Congress were no longer enough to guide us. The situation had changed to a point where we needed a new mandate from the membership. The NUMSA Central Committee therefore called this Special National Congress and NUMSA’s democratic process swung into gear. Discussions were held in all 50 locals and all 9 regions. The debate was consolidated at national level and sent back for further discussion. By the time we arrived at this Special National Congress on Monday evening, the delegates were all well aware of the issues on which there was agreement and the issues on which there was a need for more debate. The congress was founded on a solid base of discussion and debate throughout the structures of the union.

5. The crisis of deindustrialisation and unemployment

Both the NUMSA president and the general secretary set out very clearly and at length the context for the deliberations of the congress. The global crisis of capitalism continues and offers a bleak future for any emerging economy that fails to build its own manufacturing industry. South Africa is not only failing to increase industrialisation. The ANC government, including its component from the leadership of the SACP, has presided over a dramatic decrease in the levels of industrialisation in the country.

This is not an accident; it does not come from incompetence or inefficiency on the part of the ANC and SACP leadership. It comes from the fact that the leadership of the ANC and SACP is protecting the interests of white monopoly capital and imperialism against the interests of the working class. The ANC and SACP leadership defends the ownership and control of the mines, banks and monopoly industries in the hands of white monopoly capital and imperialism. The manipulation of the resolution by the ANC branches on nationalisation by the leadership, the deputy president of the ANC (and others), exploit the black working class in alliance with white monopoly capitalism and imperialism.

That is why South Africa has been steadily deindustrialising. It is not in the interests of mining and finance capital to invest in manufacturing industry, especially that part which does not affect the MEFC. That is why South Africa has such high levels of unemployment. It is in manufacturing industry that large numbers of jobs can be created. That is why our comrades died as they did at Marikana and de Doorns. It was not incompetence on the part of the police. It was the conscious, deliberate support, by the armed forces of the state, for the interests of shareholders and against the interests of workers.

6. Four key developments since NUMSA’s 9th Congress

Many things have happened since NUMSA’s 9th congress. We will highlight four of them in this declaration: The ANC has adopted a strategic programme – the National Development Plan (NDP). The fault of the NDP is not that it is technically flawed or in need of adjustment and editing.

On the contrary, it is a very competent and detailed document. Its fault is that it is the programme of our class enemy. It is a programme to continue to feed profit at the expense of the working class and the poor. It is a strategic plan that will benefit white monopoly capital, imperialism and the comprador black capitalist class, not us. In the order of priorities of the ANC, the NDP has replaced the Freedom Charter. A militant, popular programme which challenged property relations in South Africa has been replaced by a neoliberal programme which entrenches existing property relations and attacks the working class and the poor in the interests of mining and finance capital.

The ANC leadership has clarified that it will not tolerate any challenge. The ANC leadership has demonstrated without doubt, at Mangaung, that they will not allow anybody else to challenge their direction. The National General Council of 2010, and Policy Conference which preceded the Mangaung Conference, had a clear majority in favour of nationalisation. That majority was transformed by the ANC leadership into majority support for a fundamentally opposed position in which the National Development Plan focuses on reducing the role of the state rather than increasing it. COSATU has experienced a sustained, vicious attack on its militancy and independence COSATU has become consumed by internal battles between forces which continue to support the ANC and SACP, with its neo-liberal agenda and those which are fighting for an independent, militant federation which stands for the interests of the working class before any other.

In the process NUMSA has been continuously vilified and smeared by those opposed to its militant approach, in Cosatu itself, in the ANC and in the SACP. The state attacked and killed workers on behalf of capital Both at Marikana and in the farmworkers strike in the Western Cape, the armed forces of the state intervened in support of the owners of capital against striking workers. In both instances the result was the murder of workers whose only crime was to refuse to sell their labour for less than a living wage.

In summary, the ANC has been captured by representatives of an enemy class. It has adopted the strategic plan of that class. Its leadership has shown that it will not let the small issue of democracy get in the way of defending its control. As well as the continued poverty of the majority of the working class, the result of this has been the slaughter of workers. It is clear from this picture that the working class cannot any longer see the ANC or the SACP as its class allies in any meaningful sense.

7. The tasks of the congress

The congress had to discuss how to respond to this situation. NUMSA has a proud record of support for the ANC and SACP over the last 20 years that it has been in government and for long before that during the struggle. For more than 20 years we have been urging our members to swell the ranks of the ANC and SACP. We have been convinced that it is in our power to move the ANC and SACP in a direction that supports the working class and the poor. The evidence, leading up to this special congress, was that our existing strategy was becoming outdated. Swelling the ranks has merely resulted in delivering more working class victims, like lambs to the slaughter by the ANC’s bourgeois leadership.

8. Marikana

The Marikana [massacre] is a turning point. Since the first post-apartheid massacre took place in Marikana, it has been the view of NUMSA that what happened on that day, similar to the 1922 Rand Revolt and the 1960 Sharpeville massacre, marked a turning point in the social and political life of South Africa. What happened in Marikana is one of the reasons why we convened this Special National Congress. As a union we said that after the mowing down of 34 miners in Marikana, it can’t be “business as usual” in South Africa. How do we explain the killing of striking workers in a democracy?

As a union we have conducted a sustained and thorough analysis of the political meaning of Marikana. What we wanted to do at this congress was to look closer home and ask what Marikana means for trade unions and the entire labour movement. We wanted to do this introspection because as NUMSA we sincerely believe that as a union we are not immune from the mass desertion by members of a traditional union to a new union. Marikana was a deliberate defence of mining profits and mining capitalists!

Delegates at this congress were shown a new documentary that gives an alternative narrative to what we have been fed; that the police in Marikana were acting in self-defence. What we saw was that Marikana was a well-planned and orchestrated strategy by the state to defend the profits of mining bosses. With all this evidence, delegates at this Special National Congress resolved as follows:

To call for a full and impartial investigation of the causes of what happened in Marikana as the 11th National Congress of Cosatu had called in September 2012. This investigation, unlike the Farlam Commission, would look not only at who pulled the trigger or who gave instruction to murder the workers in Marikana but would also investigate the root causes of the massacre such as the persistent migrant labour system and super exploitation of labour by capital in South Africa.

To call upon the South African government to make available all the necessary resources and requirements to the Farlam Commission of Inquiry into the massacre, and more especially, accede to the demand for necessary assistance to the families of the miners and the injured miners and their lawyers.

To call for the dismissal of the Commissioner of Police, General Riah Phiyega.

To demand that all the politicians and individuals who are in complicity with the police and state in the murder of the Marikana miners be brought to book.

To demand that the mining bosses accept full responsibility for the deaths of all the workers on the mines, and that where appropriate, necessary prosecutions must follow.

To demand the immediate absolute dropping and withdrawal of police charges against all the arrested Marikana miners.

To call on our trustees to investigate how workers, through withdrawal of pension fund monies, can punish those involved in the massacre.

The Special National Congress had a word for the media. It noted the poor media coverage of the massacre, which in the main serves the interests of private capital. You as media, like us, need some introspection. International Day of Action The Special National Congress committed, on behalf of the entire membership of NUMSA, that if the above demands are not met, we commit ourselves with our allies to an International Day of Action in support of our demands.

NUMSA and delegates and staff raised R350,000 for Marikana families. Through personal pledges by worker delegates at this congress and the entire staff of NUMSA, we collected an amount of R80,000 from worker delegates, R70,000 from NUMSA staff and R200,000 from the NUMSA Investment Company (R350,000 in total) which will be donated to victims and the children of victims of the massacre. The National Office Bearers (NOBs) have been asked to investigate what is the best trust in this regard.

9. On the Alliance analysis

The congress noted the history and current situation of the Alliance and its partners: the Alliance is dysfunctional and captured by right-wing forces The Alliance is dysfunctional, in crisis, paralysed and dominated by infighting and factionalism. It has been captured by rightwing forces.

As a result: the Freedom Charter, which we understood as the minimum platform of the Alliance, has been completely abandoned in favour of rightwing and neoliberal policies such as the National Development Plan (NDP). Those who are perceived to be against neoliberalism or to be advocates of policies in favour of the working class and the poor are seen as problematic, isolated or purged. There exists little common understanding within the Alliance of the real objectives of the National Democratic Revolution.

The Alliance does not lead struggle

Although there are protests everywhere and every day in the country, the Alliance is not an instrument in the hands of these struggling masses, nor does it provide leadership to these struggles, which are largely leaderless struggles. The reality is that there is a political vacuum and the working class is on its own.

The Alliance is just for elections

The Alliance operates only during election periods. It is used to rubber stamp neoliberal policies of the ANC and not as a centre of power that debates policy issues and implementation. It is our experience that the working class is being used by the leader of the Alliance – the African National Congress – as voting fodder.

The ANC is the only strategic centre

The ANC has resisted the reconfiguration of the Alliance into a strategic political centre where issues of policy, deployments into government and programmes are jointly decided upon by all Alliance components. Our strategy of swelling the ranks has not worked and all resolutions of COSATU congresses in relation to how the Alliance should function have not been implemented by the leaders of the Alliance. In practice the Alliance is still in the hands of one alliance partner, the ANC. The ANC is the centre and implements government programmes and policies alone, with little or no consultation with other components of the Alliance. It has made it very clear that it has no intention of allowing this situation to change.

As evidence of this, the recent alliance summit still failed to make fundamental changes to the NDP and had no significant impact in changing policies in favour of the working class and the poor. This is a common development in post-colonial countries.

The treatment of labour as a junior partner within the Alliance is not uniquely a South African phenomenon. In many post-colonial and post-revolutionary situations, liberation and revolutionary movements have turned on labour movements that fought alongside them, suppressed them, marginalised them, split them, robbed them of their independence or denied them any meaningful role in politics and policy-making.

There is no chance of winning back the Alliance or the SACP

There is no chance of winning back the Alliance to what it was originally formed for, which was to drive a revolutionary programme for fundamental transformation of the country, with the Freedom Charter as the minimum platform to transform the South African economy.

The South African Communist Party (SACP) leadership has become embedded in the state and is failing to act as the vanguard of the working class. The chance of winning it back onto the path of working-class struggle for working-class power is very remote.

The working class needs a political organisation

For the struggle for socialism, the working class needs a political organisation committed in theory and practice to socialism.

Decisions

The congress therefore resolved the following:

Call on Cosatu to break from the Alliance

NUMSA calls on COSATU to break from the Alliance. The time for looking for an alternative has arrived.

Establish a new United Front

NUMSA will lead in the establishment of a new United Front that will coordinate struggles in the workplace and in communities, in a way similar to the United Democratic Front of the 1980s. The task of this front will be to fight for the implementation of the Freedom Charter and to be an organisational weapon against neoliberal policies such as the NDP. For this to happen our members and shop stewards must be active on all fronts and in all struggles against neoliberal policies, whether these policies are being implemented in the workplace or in communities.

Explore establishment of a Movement for Socialism

Side by side with the establishment of the new United Front, NUMSA will explore the establishment of a Movement for Socialism as the working-class needs a political organisation committed in its policies and actions to the establishment of a socialist South Africa. NUMSA will conduct a thoroughgoing discussion on previous attempts to build socialism as well as current experiments to build socialism. We will commission an international study on the historical formation of working-class parties, including exploring different type of parties – from mass workers' parties to vanguard parties. We will look at countries such as Brazil, Venezuela, Bolivia, Greece. We will examine their programmes with the aim of identifying elements of what may constitute a revolutionary programme for the working class .This entire process will lead to the union convening a Conference on Socialism.

Set a deadline for this process

This work to explore the formation of a Movement for Socialism must be regularly reported to constitutional structures and the work must be finalised by the first NUMSA Central Committee in 2015. Look for electoral opportunities In addition, in all the work being done, whether on building a new united front or exploring the formation of a Movement for Socialism, we must be alert to gains that may present possibilities of either the new united front, or any other progressive coalition or party committed to socialism, standing for elections in future. The NUMSA constitutional structures must continuously assess these developments and possibilities.

10. Special resolution on possible inappropriate use of taxpayers’ money to upgrade the President [Jacob Zuma]’s home in Inkandla

There are allegations that taxpayers’ money has been inappropriately used to build a home costing more than R200 million for the President of the Republic of South Africa [Jacob Zuma]. This alleged use of the taxpayers’ money takes place in the sea of poverty in our country. When asked in parliament in 2012, the president told the whole nation that development of his house was from his family’s own pockets. Since the allegations on use of taxpayers’ money for renovations of the president’s home, there have been concerted attempts to squash the truth about the expenditure including the classification of the Inter-Ministerial Report on Inkandla, the use of the notorious and apartheid-style legislation such as the National Key Points Act of 1980 as well as the attempt by the security cluster ministers to interdict the Public Protector.

NUMSA’s National Executive Committee has called on all facts on Inkandla to be put on the table and in public. This is not an isolated instance. President Zuma’s administration has been marked by one scandal after the other if one considers the landing of the Gupta Group from India at a National Key Point which posed security risks for the country and the presence of the president’s family in business deals.

President Zuma’s administration continues to be characterised by lack of transparency and attempts to hide the workings of the state from the Public. An example of this lack of transparency is the passing of the so-called Protection of Information Bill or Secrecy Bill.

Neoliberalism dominates

President Zuma’s reign has seen the continuation of neoliberalism through policies such as the National Development Plan (NDP), the Employment Tax Incentive Bill, Youth Wage Subsidy, Labour brokers and E-tolls [road tolls].

It was correct that the NUMSA president in his opening remarks raised the question of whether it is appropriate to agitate for the recall of the State President if the final report of the Public Protector proves that taxpayers’ money was used inappropriately. As a country, we have a recent experience where the former State President was recalled for pursuing neoliberal policies. The Zuma administration not only pursues neoliberalism but it is characterised by scandals, nepotism and patronage.

The Public Protector’s report has the potential to destroy the image of the State President and send a negative image about this country.

Decisions

The Congress condemns attempts to hide the truth

The congress condemns all the attempts that have tried to block the truth on Inkandla, such as the classification of the report by minister of public works Thulas Nxesi, as well as the interdict of the Public Protector by the security cluster ministers.

President Zuma must resign

The congress called on President Jacob Zuma to resign with immediate effect because of his administration’s pursuit of neoliberal policies such as the NDP, e-tolls, labour brokers, youth wage subsidy, and the track record of his administration which is steeped in corruption, patronage and nepotism.

11. The situation in COSATU

The federation is currently in a complete state of paralysis and about to implode if no serious measures are undertaken to save it, unify it, rebuild it and reclaim it from forces who want to destroy or liquidate it. COSATU is no longer a campaigning federation. There has been a failure to implement congress resolutions such as the resolutions for a campaign against the banning of labour brokers, against e-tolling and the proposed youth wage subsidy. Since September 2012, there has been a failure to carry out the revolutionary programme adopted in COSATU’s 11th National Congress.

There are two voices, crystallised into two camps, coming from within and amongst COSATU’s top leadership: a camp that wants COSATU to continue to fight for socialism and against neoliberalism, and another camp that wants a COSATU that acts as the “labour desk” of the ANC, thereby consciously or unconsciously advancing the neoliberal project underway in South Africa.

The divisions in COSATU are about the soul and the character of the federation. At the centre of these problems are concerted efforts to turn the federation into a conveyor belt that feeds ANC-led government policies into the working class and thus turn COSATU from a revolutionary, militant and independent union movement into a “yellow federation”.

Certain leaders of the Alliance are deeply involved and are in fact the main drivers of the divisions in our federation. The SACP is leading this attempt. Instead of uniting the labour movement, the South African Communist Party (SACP) has been the leader of criticising those who are for an independent and campaigning COSATU, labelling them as counter-revolutionary. Motivating the SACP to launch this attack is the official criticism that COSATU levelled at the party, arguing that since party leaders went into government, the SACP has been absent in mass struggles and has become an apologist of the government. Irritating the party more than anything else was the call for the general secretary and provincial secretaries of the party to leave government and be full-time in the organisation.

The SACP congress in Ongoye openly resolved to intervene in COSATU, which is supposed to be an independent formation of the Alliance, to isolate and defeat us. Ever since then, the political crisis in COSATU deepened and COSATU divisions worsened.

We need unity in action around a revolutionary agenda

There is no priority more important than safeguarding the capacity of the working class to act in its own interests. The unity of the working class is critically important, but it has to be based on unity in action. We need to continuously assert, in action, that we need a united, independent and campaigning COSATU that is able to implement its own resolutions without favour or fear. For this assertion to happen in action, the unity and independence of COSATU is sacrosanct and of paramount importance.

COSATU must at all times advance a revolutionary agenda. We need to capture the masses through the Freedom Charter and its implementation because many people and affiliates want to see that happening.

We need an accountable COSATU leadership

We need COSATU leaders that are first and foremost accountable to the federation, who adhere to its constitution and are committed to implementation of the federation’s policies, resolutions and programmes. COSATU leadership, affiliates and members should champion policies agreed upon in constitutional meetings and not turn them into individual members’ or leaders’ mandates. There must be immediate implementation of both the 11th National Congress and March 2013 Collective Bargaining Conference resolutions of the federation.

Decisions

We must fight for a militant, independent, unified COSATU. NUMSA shop stewards must continue to be visible and active in all COSATU structures and leadership positions in order to deepen our ideological perspectives, to change mindsets and to develop a clear understanding of the challenges confronting COSATU. We must fight for the unity and independence of COSATU. It should not be influenced by outside forces and that we must resist COSATU from being reduced into a toy telephone.

As NUMSA, we should continue driving and championing all COSATU campaigns that are relevant to the workers and the working class at large. With all our strength and intelligence, we must continue the fight to keep our federation independent and on the path of militant action in the interests of the working class. We must guard against any splinters in COSATU and the fragmentation of the federation; instead we must continuously engage other affiliates of COSATU, winning over those that are on the other side of the trenches.

In striving for unity within the federation, we must ensure that we alleviate the social distance between the leadership and the general membership.

We must fight for a COSATU Special National Congress

Only a Special National Congress of COSATU can help us move out of the current crisis in the federation. Failing the convening of the COSATU Special National Congress by the president we will invoke clause 3.3.2.2. of the federation’s constitution. This clause states that the COSATU Central Executive Committee (CEC) can appoint a convenor for the Special National Congress.

In case we fail to have the CEC appoint a convenor, as NUMSA we must explore other routes beyond possible legal avenues that will lead to the COSATU Special National Congress being convened. We must develop a better understanding of COSATU’s crisis.

NUMSA must conduct further work in order to deepen our understanding of the crisis in COSATU.

This work must explore, among others:

  • The evolution and historical development of the federation
  • The history of and the developments around different unity talks
  • COSATU’s strategies of engagement and its programmatic manifestations
  • The shifting class composition and the shifting values within the federation.
We will withhold affiliation fees until the Special Congress is convened

As part of the fight, NUMSA should adopt the tactic of withholding our subscriptions to COSATU as an ultimatum for the convening of the Special National Congress of COSATU.

We will mobilise around a programme of action for a militant, united COSATU

While we want to guard against splinters in COSATU and the fragmentation of the federation, we may not under the circumstances succeed. We must continuously engage other affiliates of COSATU, winning over those that are on the other side of the trenches. If COSATU is incapable of remaining united around a militant programme of action we should begin the process of forming a new federation. But not before embarking on the following programme of action:

  • We will organise a march to COSATU House to push the COSATU leadership to accede to the clarion call for a Special National Congress and the withdrawal of charges against the COSATU General Secretary [Zwelinzima Vavi]. The march should coincide with the first COSATU CEC in February 2014.
  • We will consistently mobilise the rank and file to build capacity and enhance confidence amongst all workers and encourage other affiliates who support the call for an independent, militant and campaigning COSATU to follow NUMSA’s approach in terms of ensuring a wider and broader involvement of members. This must include producing a pamphlet about the crisis facing COSATU, for circulation to the rank and file across all affiliates.
  • We will engage the broader mass democratic movement to appraise them about the impact of the challenges facing COSATU together with the collective affiliates behind the COSATU Special National Congress.
  • We give a mandate to the NUMSA Central Committee to assess and to make strategic decisions from time to time towards the COSATU 12th National Congress in 2015 as part of our struggle to reclaim the federation.

12. Elections

This is how the congress summed up NUMSA’s view of the ANC:

We have traditionally supported ANC in elections

Since 1994, NUMSA has invested resources and personpower towards ensuring an ANC victory in elections. The Alliance led by the African National Congress (ANC) expects the working class as the motive force of the revolution to go all out and campaign and mobilise communities to vote for it, and to put resources into its 2014 election campaign as they have done in the past.

ANC dominates its Alliance partners

The ANC continues to undermine the Polokwane resolutions to make the Alliance a strategic centre of power. In addition, its national leadership is part of the agenda to turn COSATU into its labour desk through targeting loyal working-class leaders within COSATU.

ANC imposes anti-working class measures

It has just passed anti-working class laws and policies such as e-tolls, the Employment Tax Incentive Bill, and the regulation instead of banning of labour broking.

ANC has abandoned the Freedom Charter and any change in property relations

The Freedom Charter, as the basis of our existence as an Alliance, the glue that brought the Alliance together, has not found expression in government policies. In fact the ANC no longer adheres to it. The ANC has not only departed from the Freedom Charter, but also from the Morogoro Conference core values and the Reconstruction and Development Plan (RDP). The ANC-led government continues to ignore and duck the question of how to fundamentally change property relations in the country.

ANC imposes neoliberal policies including the National Development Plan

The African National Congress as the ruling party, particularly since 1996, has and implemented, and still implements, neoliberal policies against the wishes of its Alliance partners, particularly organised labour.

The ANC-led government has imposed the National Development Plan (NDP), which is a neoliberal policy embedded in the failed Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) strategy of 1996. It will not address the triple crisis of unemployment, poverty and inequality. In fact, it has the potential to reverse working-class gains, even those secured under apartheid.

As the NDP is now the policy of the ANC it has been made abundantly clear by the ANC leadership that the National Development Plan will be the ANC government’s strategy until 2030. It will be government’s blueprint according to which all government departments and ministries must develop their budgets for 2014. Part of neoliberal policies is the South African Reserve Bank’s continued targeting of inflation instead of jobs. This has produced massive joblessness.

There is a history of broken ANC promises

Given its track record of not delivering on its manifesto promises, there is no guarantee that, even if the ANC comes up with a “progressive” platform for 2014, that manifesto will be implemented.

Decisions

Therefore the congress decided the following:

  • NUMSA as an organisation will neither endorse nor support the ANC or any other political party in 2014.
  • Although endorsing no political party, the union however recognises the constitutional right of its members to vote.
  • Officials and shop stewards who feel the need to campaign for the ANC or any political organisation will have to do this in their own time and using their own resources.
  • Any individual member is entitled in their own time to be active in any political party including getting elected to leadership positions. However, no NUMSA Office Bearer is allowed to hold any office bearer position in any political party.
  • NUMSA will cease to pay into the COSATU/SACP political levy.

[For the full unabridged document go to http://www.numsa.org.za.]

Resolution on Challenges Facing the Alliance

Adopted by NUMSA Special National Congress, unanimously by 1050 delegates.

1. Noting that;

1.1. The Alliance is dysfunctional, in crisis and paralysed. It is dominated by infighting, factionalism and fails to meet regularly.

1.2. Although there are protests everywhere and every day in the country, the Alliance is not an instrument in the hands of these struggling masses nor does it provide leadership to these struggles which is largely leaderless struggles. The reality is that there is a political vacuum and the working class is on its own.

1.3. The Freedom Charter which we understood as the minimum platform of the Alliance has been completely abandoned in favour of rightwing and neo-liberal policies such as the National Development Plan (NDP).

1.4. There exists little common understanding within the Alliance of the real objectives of the National Democratic Revolution (NDR).

1.5. The Alliance operates and works during election periods and it is our experience that the working class is being used by the leader of the Alliance – the African National Congress (ANC) - as voting fodder.

1.6. The Alliance has been captured and taken over by rightwing forces. Those who are perceived to be against neo-liberalism or advocates of policies in favour of the working class and the poor are seen as problematic, isolated or purged.

1.7. Dominant classes in society have swayed the Alliance in their favour.

1.8. The ANC has resisted the reconfiguration of the Alliance into a strategic political centre where issues of policy, deployments into government and programmes are jointly decided upon by all components of the Alliance.

1.9. The strategy of swelling the ranks has not worked and all resolutions of COSATU congresses in relation to how the Alliance should function have not been implemented by the leaders of the Alliance.

1.10. In practice the Alliance is still in the hands of one alliance partner, the ANC. The ANC is the centre and implements government programmes and policies alone with little or no consultation with other components of the Alliance.

1.11. There is strong opposition from the ANC to an alliance agreement or pact. The movement has told us in no uncertain words that the ANC is the political centre. They have also argued against the pact, quoting OR Tambo when he said at the SACP’s 60th anniversary in 1981: “Ours is not merely a paper alliance, as created at conference tables and formalised through the signing of documents and representing only an agreement of leaders".

1.12. As NUMSA we have been detecting an abuse by the ANC of other Alliance partners.

1.13. The alliance is used to rubber stamp neoliberal policies of the ANC and not as a centre of power that debate policy issues and implementation.

1.14. The treatment of labour as a junior partner within the Alliance is not uniquely a South African phenomenon. In many post-colonial and post-revolutionary situations, liberation and revolutionary movements have turned on labour movements that fought alongside them; suppressed them, marginalised them, split them, robbed them of their independence or denied them any meaningful role in politics and policy making.

1.15. The recent alliance summit still failed to make fundamental changes to the current proposed NDP and had no significant impact in changing policies in favour of the working class and the poor.

2. Further noting that;

2.1 There is no chance of winning back the Alliance to what it was originally formed for; which was to drive a revolutionary programme for fundamental transformation of the country with the Freedom Charter as the minimum platform to transform the South African economy.

2.2 The South African Communist Party (SACP) leadership has become embedded in the state and is failing to act as the vanguard of the working class.

2.3 The chance of winning back the SACP onto the path of working class struggle for working class power is very remote.

2.4 For the struggle for socialism, the working class needs a political organisation committed in theory and practice to socialism.

3. Therefore resolve that;

3.1 In light of the above as NUMSA, we should call on COSATU to break from the Alliance. The time for looking for an alternative has arrived.

3.1.1. that our members and shopstewards must be active on all fronts and in all struggles against neo-liberal policies whether these policies are being implemented in the workplace or in communities.

3.1.2. that in all our constitutional structures, there should be a standing agenda item on community struggles, their nature and NUMSA’s attitude to these community struggles.

3.2 As NUMSA, we must lead in the establishment of a new UNITED FRONT that will coordinate struggles in the workplace and in communities; in a way similar to the UDF of the 1980s. The task of this front will be to fight for the implementation of the Freedom Charter and be an organisational weapon against neoliberal policies such as the NDP. For this to happen it requires:

3.3. Side by side to the establishment of the new UNITED FRONT, we in NUMSA must explore the establishment of a MOVEMENT FOR SOCIALISM as the working class needs a political organisation committed in its policies and actions to the establishment of a socialist South Africa.

3.4. In order to execute the task of exploring the establishment of the MOVEMENT FOR SOCIALISM, as a union we must do the following:

3.4.1. In line with the existing NUMSA resolution, convene a Conference on Socialism

3.4.2. Leading up to the this conference, NUMSA must conduct a thoroughgoing discussion on previous attempts to build socialism as well as current experiments to build socialism

3.4.3. Commission an international study on the historical formation of working class parties. As part of this study we need to explore the different type of parties – from mass workers parties to vanguard parties. We must look at countries such as Brazil, Venezuela, Bolivia, Greece and any other experiments.

3.5. This work to explore the formation of a MOVEMENT FOR SOCIALISM must be regularly reported to constitutional structures and the work must be finalised by the first NUMSA Central Committee in 2015.

3.6. In all the work being done whether on building a new united front and exploring the formation of a Movement for Socialism, as NUMSA we must be alert to gains that may present possibilities of either the new united front or any other progressive coalition or party committed to socialism standing for elections in future. The NUMSA constitutional structures must continuously assess these developments and possibilities.

Submitted by Terry Townsend on Sun, 12/22/2013 - 22:27

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Dear Comrades,

On behalf of the South African Municipal Workers Union we give our very warmest fraternal greetings to our friends and comrades of the Mighty NUMSA at its Special Congress being held from 17–21 December 2013.

A Great Leadership Example Has Been Bequeathed To Us!

There is no doubt that the Special Congress comes at a very appropriate time for the movement as a whole. We have just said our last farewells to one of the most inspirational and exemplary leaders of modern times, in the form of Comrade Madiba. There can be no doubt that his passing has brought into sharp relief the meaning and character of effective leadership at all levels, both in our own movement and the country as a whole. We take this opportunity to salute a leader, who above all else remained true to his principles, and who has shown that it is possible to lead with integrity.

The Crisis in COSATU

The Special Congress is also taking place when our beloved Federation COSATU is in the midst of a paralysing and divisive crisis. A crisis we believe is a result of the struggle of contending class forces. At its sharpest, the struggle in COSATU is between those who want to see COSATU as a clear independent and unambiguous champion of the working class and the poor, and those who prefer COSATU to be reduced to nothing more than a glorified labour desk.

We believe the continuing attacks on Comrade Zwelinzima Vavi are little more than an attempt to curtail the power of our Federation, and to render it powerless. The pushing through recently of E-Tolls and youth subsidies and the public marginalisation of COSATU are indicative of what will happen if we allow COSATU to be diverted away from its historic task of building working class power for socialism.

We know that our NUMSA comrades are not ones to walk away from the class struggle, and that they will fight with all of their might to preserve the independence and fighting spirit of COSATU. We know they will continue to work alongside SAMWU and other unions to fight the divisiveness that is currently blighting our movement!

Listening to the Workers Only Way Forward!

We have no doubt that the vast majority of workers of all COSATU unions support a COSATU that is forthright on corruption, that challenges neo-liberal policies and is prepared to put socialism on the agenda now. We know that if given the opportunity, workers everywhere would insist on the reinstatement of Comrade Zweli because he represents these views, and is not compromised by the promise of higher office! We believe this explains the time wasting and organisational obstacles being put forward to prevent a COSATU Special Congress.

We wish also to state that we have been particularly shocked by the attacks that have been made on NUMSA by forces claiming to be on the left. These attacks have been nothing short of slanderous, and do not belong in the workers movement. Those who penned them have forever exposed themselves and their class interests, and should be deeply ashamed.

Every Obstacle is an Opportunity : Chairperson Mao Zedong

In the face of all the above, SAMWU wishes to congratulate NUMSA for having the courage, and commitment to workers control and democracy in going ahead with this Special Congress. Unlike other organisations that claim to be democratic, you have put the important questions you are discussing to the membership, and not in a conveyor belt manner. Instead you have consciously empowered NUMSA members, to discuss and debate and give the NUMSA leadership a mandate. If other unions and organisations did the same we might not be in the mess we are in today!

At this time, a united and powerful COSATU is an absolute necessity. In all of the sectors where we are organised, there are moves to marginalise workers and to roll back the gains of the past. There are attempts to make sure that workers do not have an independent voice, but are instead represented by those who are not accountable. At the heart of the socialist transformation of our country must be the organised working class, and not just those claiming to represent them! Workers must not sub-contract their power to others, but be a central player in the unfolding class struggle.

Despite the many obstacles we face, we believe in the dictum of Chairperson Mao Zedong, that every obstacle is an opportunity. We believe that NUMSA can address the challenges we all face at this Special Congress. It can help to chart a way forward that can empower workers. It can ensure that we move towards having a Government that once and for all reflects the needs of workers and the poor, and decisively acts in favour of them. That we begin the vital task of building a society where the organised working class, and all of the poor and marginalised are united in their struggle for a South Africa that our beloved Madiba would have been proud of.

Long live the Might NUMSA Long live

Long live the comradeship between NUMSA and SAMWU Long Live

Long Live a United and Independent COSATU Long Live

Long Live the Struggle for a Socialist South Africa Long Live!

Signed by Comrade Walter Theledi General Secretary, SAMWU

Submitted by Terry Townsend on Mon, 12/23/2013 - 13:35

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By Terry Bell

http://terrybellwrites.com/2013/12/22/revisiting-a-cde-moss-vision/

December 22, 2013 -- The name of Moses Mayekiso — Comrade Moss — has surfaced once again in the turmoil surrounding the decisions made by the National Union of Metalworkers (Numsa) to “go back to basics”. What does this mean? In 1985, Comrade Moss spelled out one vision that is now being revisited (it is published below). The dramatic story of Comrade Moss is recounted in Comade Moss — a political journey, a 113-page paperback available from belnews@telkomsa.net for R50 (p&p paid).

Here is one of the comments being revisited:

“We need a workers’ charter that will say clearly who will control the farms, presently owned by the capitalists, who will control the factories, the mines and so on. There must be a change of the whole society.

“Through the shop steward’s councils, people are opposed to this idea that there will be two stages towards liberation; that we must clean up capitalism first, then socialism. It’s a waste of time, a waste of energy and a waste of people’s blood.

“Apartheid is just an appendage, a branch of the whole thing — the tree of oppression of capitalism. Then, if you chop the branch, the tree will still grow. You have to chop the stem, straight, once and for all. South Africa’s economy is at an advanced stage, where the workers can take over and direct the whole thing.”

Submitted by Terry Townsend on Mon, 12/23/2013 - 15:00

In reply to by Anonymous (not verified)

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Here's just one example:

Ramaphosa’s controversial Swiss partner
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Glencore Xstrata | Linked to the notorious Marc Rich, the global giant is dogged by dispute

Glencore Xstrata is the most controversial company in the industrial metals and mining sector

GLENCORE Xstrata’s main coal operations in South Africa consist of joint ventures and consortiums in which Cyril Ramaphosa, the deputy president of the ANC, is a main stakeholder.
Picture: MARIANNE SCHWANKHART AT THE COALFACE: Much of the coal mined by workers such as these is exported from the Richards Bay Coal Terminal in which Cyril Ramaphosa and Glencore Xstrata have stakes

Glencore Xstrata is a Swiss company that listed on the JSE in November 2013. It is the largest commodities trader in the world, and after the buyout of mining giant Xstrata in December 2012 it became the fourth-largest global mining company.

Through a series of mergers and acquisitions that began in 2006 but gained significant momentum since 2011, Ramaphosa’s black empowerment mining companies and Glencore Xstrata have become one of the main producers of coal in South Africa. Between them, they also hold the largest export capacity for the industry in Richard’s Bay Coal Terminal.

The core of the BEE partnership between Cyril Ramaphosa and Glencore Xstrata has been Shanduka Coal (previously Lexshell 668 Investments), in which Shanduka Resources has a 50.01% share and Glencore Xstrata 49.99%. Ramaphosa is the chairman and founder of Shanduka Resources and his family trust owns 30% of this private company.

The first mergers and acquisitions made by Glencore Xstrata and Shanduka Resources involved buying companies with collieries in Witbank, — Graspan in 2006, Wakefield in 2007 and Springlake in 2009 — which are now operated by the joint venture.

By 2011, the purchase of a majority interest in Umcebo Mining and Mopani Coal through a special purpose vehicle, Lexshell 826 Investments, allowed Glencore to own an effective 43.66% shareholding. Umcebo operated three mines and a stand-alone coal beneficiation plant, and had a 1.5 million tons per annum allocation capacity in the Richards Bay Coal Terminal, with an additional one million tons allocation through the phase-five expansion project.

Lexshell 826 is composed of three shareholders: Glencore, through its Netherlands subsidiary Dremalo BV, with 29.441%; Moxitorque Investments, with 20.459%; and Lexshell 827 Investments, a BEE company, with 50.1%.

Among the six members of the board of Lexshell 827 are Clinton Martin Ephron, who is responsible for all Glencore’s coal activities in South Africa, and Phuti Mahanyele, CEO of Shanduka Resources. Mahanyele is a protégé of Ramaphosa and replaced him on Lonmin’s board of directors after the latter’s resignation earlier this year.

Ephron and Mahanyele have been, as heads of the energy and coal divisions of Shanduka Resources and Glencore in South Africa, main players in the day-to-day development of this partnership.

In 2012, Glencore (through its wholly owned Netherlands subsidiary, Piruto BV) and Ramaphosa (through his wholly owned company Lexshell 849 Investments) acquired a 67% share of Optimum Coal. Optimum had two mines and nearly 12% of Richards Bay Coal Terminal’s total export allocation. Ramaphosa and Ephron are members of Optimum Coal’s board.

Glencore Xstrata, through its own mergers and acquisitions and through the partnership with Ramaphosa’s companies, now controls 31% of Richards Bay Coal Terminal.

According to the British risk consultant RepRisk, Glencore Xstrata is currently the most controversial company in the world’s industrial metals and mining sector.

This index is based on reports by media and non-governmental organizations on activities that breach the UN Global Compact, “a strategic initiative whose purpose is to encourage businesses worldwide to adopt sustainable and socially responsible practices by aligning their strategies, operations and policies with 10 universally accepted principles in the areas of human rights, labour, environment and corruption”.

Glencore was created in 1994 after Marc Rich, the notorious oil trader, sold all his shares in Marc Rich & Co AG to the management, and the new shareholders renamed it Glencore.

Rich, who died on June 26 this year, was indicted in the US in 1983 for 65 criminal offenses, among them tax evasion and trading oil with Iran during the embargo.

He was pardoned by the then president, Bill Clinton, during the last days of his administration, but Glencore was intent on drawing a line between itself and Rich.

Glencore is not Marc Rich & Co — it is much bigger. In many ways, under South African CEO Ivan Glasenberg’s leadership it has become a true creature of the globalised world. As the largest commodities trader and commanding a fleet larger than the Royal Navy, Glencore trades more than 90 different commodities in more than 100 countries.

Before Glencore went public in 2011, the public knew little about it. “The largest company you have never heard of” was a phrase that was repeated in the media. In 2008, the company won the Public Eye Awards — a “prize” for irresponsible corporate behaviour given by leading business ethics academics, environmentalists and international lawyers — because of secretive practices and “unacceptable” labour conditions at its Colombian coal mine.

The Supreme Court of Justice in Colombia ruled last year that paramilitary units killed 18 farmers and displaced 48 families in 2002 so that the land could be sold to Glencore for coal mining.

Although Glencore has denied owning the land or having a commercial interest in it, several parcels are titled to Prodeco, its Colombian subsidiary, and the company uses some of them for mining activities.

In Zambia, Glencore has been criticised for allegedly manipulating copper prices to avoid tax payments and for causing severe air pollution; in the Democratic Republic of Congo it has been accused of pollution, tax evasion and using child labour; and an investigation by The Guardian in April this year revealed that Glencore sold metals, wheat and coal worth $659million to Iran during 2012, including aluminum oxide used for Tehran’s nuclear centrifuge program

Peter Taaffe, Socialist Party (CWI in England & Wales) General Secretary “I look at my 11 month old son and I am fearful for his future if I am retrenched [dismissed],” commented one mineworker at the historic conference of the Democratic Socialist Movement of South Africa (DSM). Another mineworker defiantly declared: “You cannot buy the bravery of the South African mineworkers: no surrender!” The conference, attended by mineworkers from all the mining areas of South Africa as well as representatives of struggling communities and other workers, pledged to continue the fight against the brutal mining bosses and ruthless South African capitalists. Standing behind the bosses and defending them to the hilt is the corrupt and increasingly discredited African National Congress (ANC) government of Jacob Zuma. The task which this conference set itself was to assist in developing the colossal latent power of the mineworkers, in alliance with other workers, expressed through their rank-and-file strike committees, in which the DSM played a key role and which succeeded in paralysing the bosses and their government in a month-long strike last year. It also means a struggle to replace the bankrupt and corrupt ‘unions’ – the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), which has been found firmly on the side of the bosses in opposing the legitimate demands of the working class – with new fighting and democratic forms of union organisation. Above all, the mineworkers and the working class generally crave their own party, free from the shackles of the ANC and its pro-capitalist policies. Therefore, the new mass party of the working class – the Workers And Socialist Party (WASP), already launched – was enthusiastically endorsed and a timetable for collecting signatures to allow the party to register, together with many other practical tasks, were agreed unanimously. Retrenchment – “punishment” following miners’ strikes Forced to give concessions last year, the mining bosses may seek revenge through victimisations and sacking of militants, including the use of the capitalist courts and prison sentences for mineworkers. At the conclusion of the DSM conference, I asked one mineworker from Rustenburg if he was returning to work the next day and he answered: “No – I’m going to court.” “What is the charge?” I asked, and his answer was chilling: “Attempted murder, aggravated assault, etc.” These charges were thrown out by the court and this worker was released! Lest it be thought that this mineworker may be guilty as charged, let us recall that the ANC government and its murderous police force accused the mineworkers – and actually charged some of them – of being responsible for the infamous Marikana massacre of 34 mineworkers on 16 August! By striking and demonstrating – by exercising their legitimate rights in ‘democratic’ South Africa – they seemingly ‘provoked’ the police into callously killing a total of 43 mineworkers at Marikana alone– many shot in the back. Following this slaughter, the South African state has sought to impose apartheid-type measures – banning orders – against the workers. They seek to prohibit mineworkers from discussing with one another, forcing them to go straight from the mine shaft to their homes without discussion and with the sanction of fines, dismissal from the job, etc. if they disobey the dictatorial edicts of the bosses and their hirelings. The bosses have sought to ban mass meetings and, in one mine, tried to impose 18 new conditions. This just served to harden the resolve of the mineworkers: “What have we got to lose? You cannot hit me and then tell me how I should react,” said one mineworker defiantly at the DSM conference. The ultimate punishment meted out to the working class for carrying out the magnificent and successful strikes is the threat of widespread retrenchment. Already in Amplats, the platinum giant, 14,000 mineworkers have been threatened with this fate. South Africa has about 80% of the world’s proven platinum reserves and platinum is a critical component of the country’s mining industry. It is the country’s biggest export earner, its largest employer – with almost 200,000 workers involved in its production. However, the crisis in the world economy has cut the demand for platinum and the employers are using this to attack the workers. Gold mining is also traditionally a vital industry and still accounts for something like 150,000 employees. CWI’s Sebei addressing mass meeting In fact, the South African economy rests on the twin pillars of mining – and therefore of the arduous and dangerous work of the mineworkers themselves – and agriculture. The DSM conference illuminated how the mineworkers’ struggle sparked the uprising – because that is what it was – of the agricultural workers themselves, particularly in the Western Cape. The farmers, described by unions representing the workers as vengeful and arrogant, have benefited hugely in the post-apartheid era with a stellar tenfold growth in production and fabulous profits, while wages and conditions deteriorated. Striking workers have been dismissed in ‘truckloads’. Previously, more than one million farm-workers were evicted from their property: “They remain slaves in the land of their birth.” [The Guardian, 25 January 2013.] The bosses have traditionally used non-union labour to break strikes, but a new determination has been shown by the workers in the strike, which cost the big farmers an estimated R300million in lost production. The unions have called for a worldwide boycott of South African wine. Leading role of DSM Delegates from the Western Cape reported to the conference that when they visited the strike areas, they were greeted enthusiastically with the cry: “We were waiting for you!” They had seen the decisive role of the DSM in the successful mineworkers’ strikes. The trade union leadership was decidedly not as welcoming to the fighters of the DSM! The reaction of other workers as well as the mineworkers gives the lie to the legend disseminated by the NUM leadership that there was a “third force” behind the strike, egging it on. “Somebody was behind the forest.” [NUM president Senzeni Zokwana, The Citizen, 8 February]. There was no “third force” – unless it was the intervention of strike breakers, shamefully with support from the NUM leadership themselves. The DSM gave expression to the legitimate anger and the revolt of the mineworkers who were ‘waiting’ for a leadership able to articulate their demands, both in the ferocious industrial battle that was under way as well as reflecting the widespread feeling amongst the mineworkers and other workers for a new mass party of the working class, revealed in WASP. The mine bosses now wish to replace courageous class fighters with their own stooges. This has led to bitter clashes in recent days, with one mineworker killed and others injured at Amplats, where the NUM was found on the side of the bosses. This only serves to further instil hatred for the NUM, which is utterly discredited as an organisation, as is Cosatu, purporting to represent the mineworkers. The mineworkers have exploded in rage against their conditions as well as their own organisation’s complicity in this. The current strike wave and social upheavals are the biggest since the collapse of the apartheid regime, with South Africa now registering the highest number and the most violent strikes in the world. Force and repression by the state – more visible in South Africa on the streets through the “armed bodies of men and their material appendages” of repression, as expressed by Friedrich Engels – will not alone hold the masses in check. Eruptions – revolution to give it its right name – will inevitably follow the present upheavals. Moeletsi Mbeki, brother of former president Thabo Mbeki, and now a political economist, has predicted that South Africa will face a “Tunisia day” by the year 2020! His diagnosis is accurate; the date when a mass uprising will take place may be sooner than he thinks. All the ingredients are already present for South Africa to emulate the Middle East and North African revolutions. State of constant struggle and upheaval South African capitalism has historically risen to become the strongest economy in the whole of the African continent. Its very development has created a powerful industrial working class. And yet the fruits of this labour have never been passed to the working class. The day-to-day reality of South Africa is virtually a state of constant upheaval. The mineworkers’ strike is just the latest but most important and starkest expression of this process. Many other sections of the working class, not just the mineworkers – like car workers, nurses, teachers, have taken or threatened strike action. Also, a virtual permanent state of semi-insurrection in the townships is indicated, ironically, by registered police reports. These show that an estimated 3 million people took part in protests against the lack of services that elicited a police response in 2008-09. This involved 5% of the total population forced to physically confront the police in order to achieve basic services. About 100 policemen die every year, usually as a result of crime but this ultimately has social roots; 57 were killed in 2012, up to the Marikana massacre. These figures do not take account of workers and civilians killed by the police themselves, symbolised by the Marikana killings. And the anger since then has not abated but has grown. Indeed, the endemic violence which characterises South Africa is symbolised by the recent death of the girlfriend of the well-known Paralympic competitor, Oscar Pistorius. Privileged whites, as well as, increasingly, the richest black elite, protect themselves from the anger which this engenders behind gated communities, which are armed to the teeth. Virtually every house in a white neighbourhood, we observed, warns of “armed response” in the event of break-ins. This is an indirect expression of the catastrophic social situation: “South Africa is the most unequal society on the planet.” Youth unemployment at over 50% is on the scale of Greece or Spain. The average worker supports up to eight people on the minimum wage. 50% of all workers earn less than R3,000 a month ($350): “Many of these workers are the sole income earners in their household.” [Jay Naidoo, Financial Times, 27 August 2012.] Fifteen million South Africans are only saved from starvation by the social grants they receive every month. The mineworkers do not inhabit leafy suburbs – where the black elite comfortably rubs shoulders with the white elite – but reside in townships in squatter camps, without basic resources, sometimes even without electricity living in miserable shacks which pass for homes. On the other hand, the Lords of the ANC inhabit a world far from that of the masses. President Zuma himself lives in a palace – a compound – which had an upgrade recently at the cost of£18 million, with rich South African businessmen reported to be secretly financing his lavish lifestyle. So removed is he from the mineworkers and the poor masses that when he visited the scene of the massacre in Marikana, he did not even visit the mines or the shacks of the mineworkers themselves. Unbelievably, he sought to excuse the massacre, on the grounds that, “How many other people would have died if, for example, police did not move to disarm these people?” These “people”, striking mineworkers, had been shot down like dogs by Zuma’s police. Zuma’s answer was the setting up of a judicial review: “You would not have had that during apartheid days. That’s the beauty of democracy, because it doesn’t mean that when you have got democracy, there will be no such mishap”. {Guardian, 14 December 2012.] A “massacre” is just a “mishap”. You cannot eat “democracy”; democratic rights – above all, the right to strike and vote – are for the working class weapons to fight for a better life. But under failing South African capitalism, when they exercise their rights, they are met with repression. Momentum for WASP - a workers’ alternative to capitalist ANC Marxism has long predicted such a development. We wrote in 1994 at the very beginning of ANC rule: “How long will it be before an ANC government sends in police and army units against striking workers or rebellious inhabitants of the African townships?... The ANC has a majority, will be subject to remorseless, contrary and counter-class pressures.” [‘South Africa: From slavery to the smashing of apartheid’, 1994] Sometimes it takes decades for Marxist perspectives to be borne out but borne out they have been! The gulf between the insurgent masses of South Africa and their rulers is of Grand Canyon proportions. It is impossible to reconcile the class forces that oppose each other in this explosive situation. The ANC, the capitalist establishment that it now represents, which also includes the so-called ‘Communist’ party (SACP), and the corrupt trade union leadership have all been rejected by the South African masses. A new mass workers’ party – WASP – is not just an idea, but is becoming a reality in South Africa today. The capitalists have long recognised that the ANC is discredited. Fearing that the ground is shifting decisively beneath their feet towards the left and that the political vacuum could be filled by a party like WASP, the Economist magazine recently urged the formation of a ‘liberal’ new party. This they believe could head off the development of a new fighting socialist party of the masses. In answer to this call, a former anti-apartheid activist and ’soul mate’ of Steve Biko, murdered by the apartheid regime, Dr Mamphela Ramphele, has launched a ‘platform’ around which such a party she and the capitalists hope could emerge. She is a former managing director of the World Bank and was, until recently, chairman of the mining company Goldfields. This party – ‘Agang’ (‘Build South Africa’ in the Sotho language) – has no clearly defined policies. The Financial Times clearly sees this new party’s prime role as forcing the ANC into a coalition with this party and others after the 2014 elections: “The prize would be to force the ANC below the 50% threshold it needs to govern alone.” The working class needs a clear, independent political class alternative, not another pro-capitalist one. While it is not excluded that ‘Agang’ can become a temporary political home for refugees from the ANC, it will not find a big echo amongst the masses. The social situation and the newly-arisen workers’ movement do not provide fertile soil upon which such a party can grow and develop. Nor will the ANC be able to burnish its image as a vehicle for the masses by the demise or removal of Zuma and his replacement by somebody like Cyril Ramaphosa – who bid £1.4m to buy a prize buffalo – to save it. Its days are numbered. Despite the claims of Zuma that it will last for another hundred years, splits and divisions will occur in the ANC as well as in Cosatu. The best and most fighting elements of the South African working class will find the road towards WASP. The idea of a new mass workers’ party has existed in South Africa almost from the first days of the ANC government. For instance, the metalworkers union (NUMSA) came out in favour of a mass workers’ party in 1993, before the ANC came to power! It still remains pledged to this idea whose time has now come. The future belongs not to the discredited ANC and its allies, who are propping up the old order, but for a party which represents real socialist liberation, WASP.