5 June 2020
SCIENTISTS AGAINST SCIENCE: THE CAMPAIGN TO OPEN “THE ECONOMY” IN THE TIME OF COVID-19
On 13 May President Ramaphosa addressed the nation and signalled that the country will soon be moving to Alert Level 3, further easing the lockdown restrictions. This led to a further pick-up of a debate about the removal or maintenance of the lockdown first imposed on 26 March, with a range of groups upping their campaigns to have the lockdown removed. …Read more.
25 September 2018
ANOTHER MILESTONE IN THE CHWS’ STRUGGLE FOR RECOGNITION
On 10 September more than 200 Community Healthcare Workers (CHWs) packed the second floor of the House of Movements in Johannesburg to listen to a battle over their future status as employees of the Department of Health. … Read more.
18 January 2018
THE ROAD TO NASREC: RAMAPHOSA’S RISE TO POWER & CLASS STRUGGLES IN THE ANC
This article before you was written shortly after Cyril Ramaphosa’s victory at the ANC elective conference at Nasrec at the end of 2017, but before revelations came to light of how his road to victory at Nasrec was paved with millions of rands. This article was originally part of a much longer article on South Africa’s (white) bourgeois oligarchy – otherwise known as white monopoly capital (WMC). …Read more.
12 March 2017
THE CORRUPTION OF A DREAM
The SASSA scandal curretly unfolding is probably the most dramatic expression of how far the African National Congress (ANC) has travelled since its days of opposition to apartheid. Under apartheid, its activists were associated with laying down their lives in defending and advancing the interests of the mass of the people – in particular the black working class. …Read more.
16 January 2017
THE LONG SHADOW OF THE DE KLERK REGIME
February 1990 stands out as the most important month in South Africa’s history. This month divides South Africa’s history into two parts. The first, 1652 to 1990, represents the period of institutionalised racism and political oppression of black and indigenous people. …Read more.
2 September 2000
HARRY O AND THE NEW COLONIALISM
JB Marks is a hero and icon of the National Union of Mineworkers. One wonders how he would respond if he were to hear the praise that Harry O received from the leaders of black mineworkers. …Read more.
July 1999
GEAR BLUES ON THE MORNING AFTER
Barely a few months ago practically everyone agreed that the world economy stood on the brink of its gravest crisis since the 1930s. Indeed, so real was this prospect that a serious questioning of the economic wisdom of our time – the neoliberal paradigm – began to be heard in the corridors of the very institutions that had been at the forefront of promoting and imposing this path. …Read more.
October 1998
A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF GEAR FROM A HUMAN RIGHTS PERSPECTIVE
In the recent past there has been a growing interest in the impact of the government’s macroeconomic strategy, the Growth, Employment and Redistribution – popularly known as ‘Gear’ – on human rights in South Africa. …Read more.
Circa 1998
EXILES AND HOMECOMINGS
The 50th conference of the African National Congress (ANC) held in December 1997 in the North West Province town of Mafikeng has been billed as the conference of the “changing of the guard”. The town of Mafikeng has two claims to fame in South African history. …Read more.
March 1997
THE POLITICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF GEAR: THE TRANSFORMATION OF THE ANC INTO A PARTY OF MONOPOLY CAPITAL
On 12 March 1997 the Minister of Finance of the ANC government presented his maiden budget speech to the South African parliament. Since the advent of the ANC-led government of national unity, the key cabinet portfolio of Finance has been held first by a leading businessman and secondly by a banker. …Read more
Circa 1996
HOPE AT THE CROSSROADS IN SOUTH AFRICA
Thus spoke South Africa’s first democratically elected President, Nelson Mandela, on the event of his inauguration on May 10 1994. Indeed, to witness the installation of South Africa’s first black president was to “confer glory and hope to a newborn liberty”. The road to freedom had been a long and hard one, but it has certainly not ended. ..Read more.
Circa February/March 1994
EITHER/OR… COUNTER-REVOLUTION AND CIVIL WAR IN NATAL
Since the collapse of the Mangope dictatorship in Bophutatswana the civil war in Natal has, almost to the exclusion of any other event, occupied the national consciousness. The outcome of the struggle in Natal will have profound consequences for the future of the struggle for democracy and socialism and for the working class in particular. … Read more.
Circa December 1993
A SOCIALIST RESPONSE TO THE POLITICAL SETTLEMENT
We have up to now examined the context of the settlement that was reached at the World Trade Centre, and we also examined the meaning of this settlement as well as the dangers it poses for the struggles of the oppressed and exploited. We saw that the settlement represents a serious defeat or setback for the mass movement in general, and for the working class in particular. … Read more.
Circa 1993
BUILDING EFFECTIVE SELF-DEFENCE
Since the eruption of the violence directed at black communities and their organisations, many resolutions and decisions on the need for self-defence have been taken within the mass movement. Different communities have in various ways tried to build effective self- defence. The sheer intensity of the violence has forced militants to take up arms and defend their factories, communities and lives. … Read more.
23 February 1993
A CONTRIBUTION TO THE STRATEGIC PERSPECTIVE DEBATE
It is now more than four months since Comrade Joe Slovo published his paper advocating power sharing between the ruling class, or at least elements of it, and the liberationmovement after the adoption of a new constitution. In the meantime the NEC of the ANC has adopted a similar, though vague, position on the question of the road to power for the liberation movement in South Africa. … Read more.
11 September 1992
AFTER BISHO, WHAT NEXT?
The cold-blooded massacre of at least 28 people at Bisho on 7 September has left a deep scar on the conscience of the nation. The massacre at Bisho is one of those events in the history of any struggle which become the yardstick for separating democrats from all forms of reaction. …Read more.
October 1990
WHERE IS SOUTH AFRICA GOING?: THE PRESENT SITUATION AND THE TASKS OF SOCIALISTS
In the last eight months we have seen far reaching changes in the positions that have been held by the ANC for the past 40 years. The speed with which the most dearly held positions of the movement, such as those contained in the Freedom Charter, have been thrown overboard by the leadership has caught even the ruling class by surprise, and has shocked many activists. … Read more.
Circa 1990
BUILD MASS BASED ORGANISATIONS! ENGAGE IN DISCIPLINED MASS ACTION!
Since the beginning of the defiance campaign in the middle of 1989 there has been a countrywide re-awakening of the masses in South Africa. Thousands upon thousands of our people have entered struggle throughout SA. … Read more.
Circa 1990
THE VIOLENCE IN NATAL: THE URGENT NEED FOR A PROGRAMME OF ACTION
The continuing violence in Natal has come to dominate the lives of workers throughout the province on a daily basis. Despite repeated calls from the leadership of the trade unions and mass movement for such violence to end immediately, actions continue in the townships even after uneasy truces have been agreed upon. … Read more.