One year after the Marikana massacre

Both capitalists and working class prepare for unforeseen turmoil Liv Shange, DSM (CWI South Africa) On August 16, 2012, at Marikana, a bloody line was drawn in South Africa’s political sand when police in cold blood shot dead 34 workers and wounded 78. The few seconds of the massacre that were shown on TV tore down decades of carefully nurtured illusions about the ANC government and the capitalist state. The state’s resort to the most brutal form of reaction against the striking Lonmin workers set in motion a new period of revolution and counterrevolution in South Africa. A year later, a mining bosses’ offensive against jobs and worker rights is gathering pace. With the lessons of Marikana imprinted on the consciousness of millions of workers and youth, the scene it set for further mighty upheavals centred on the mining industry. The massacre on August 16, 2012, was a carefully orchestrated operation calculated to crush the Lonmin workers’ deadly challenge to the government and the capitalist order. Provoked by days (and years) of repression, the thousands of workers gathered on the hill, ‘the mountain, outside Marikana were fenced in with razor wire, attacked from behind and from the air with water bombs, and automatic gunfire. Chased towards the five-meter opening in the fence, in front of TV cameras, a first group was shot down. The majority of those killed and wounded were hunted down, out of sight of the cameras, among the rocks and bushes at another small hill. Many were shot at close range, in the back or with their arms stretched up to surrender. Police deliberately destroyed the faces of the dead by running over their skulls with armoured vehicles. Less well-planned, perhaps, was the police ‘investigation’ of the scene which has been revealed as a clumsy cover-up attempt. The true story of Marikana was forced out in the open by the Lonmin workers’ defiant continuation of the struggle after the massacre and the industry-wide strike that followed. In the days immediately before and after the massacre, the public was washed over by a virtual flood of vicious propaganda against the Lonmin workers and their struggle. The workers who had been left, by the National Union of Mineworkers’(NUM’s) betrayal, with no choice but to take the fight for a decent wage into their own hands and for this crime were subjected to brutal repression were painted out variously as bloodthirsty criminals and murderers, muthi-possessed savages or hapless victims of manipulation by a ‘third force’. Jeremy Cronin of the South African ‘Communist’ Party (SACP) took the prize by publicly condemning the strikers a ‘Pondoloand vigilante mafia’. While the state and its appendices continue to hammer the refrain of police ‘self-defence’ at the Farlam Commission, this just shows how detached from reality this farcical show trial is since in the rest of society, these initial ‘truths’ were long overturned by the workers’ struggle. Bloody repression of working class struggles in general, and mineworkers’ struggles in particular, of course did not begin at Marikana. Just two weeks earlier, on August 1, 2012, for example, five protesting workers were shot dead by police at the Aquarius K5 shaft outside Rustenburg. Their murders warranted no more than a paragraph on the business pages. The scale and publicity of the violence meted out on the Lonmin workers, which shook SA and the world, were no accidents. This was the calculated response to the, up until then, most serious challenge to the foundations of the African National Congress’ (ANC’s) rule – a mineworkers’ uprising against the NUM, which throughout the democratic era has been the key to control the mineworkers and thereby the mining industry, the backbone of the SA economy; by so doing also becoming a bearing pillar of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) and the ANC-led Alliance. The threat was not just to NUM’s authority but to the ANC’s ability to maintain the capitalist ruling class’ confidence in its ability to ‘control the black working class’ (as a recent Business Day editorial so helpfully defined the ANC’s reason for being). ‘Concomitant action’, the expression used by ANC leader and Lonmin shareholder Cyril Ramaphosa to urge the crack-down, therefore had to mean asserting the state’s power through the barrels of automatic rifles. The attempt to drown the worker-led strike in blood, instead of shoring up these relationships, exposed them to millions with blinding and instant clarity. One of the key lessons of Marxism – that any state at its core consists of ‘armed bodies of men and women’ defending the ruling class, while also relying on ‘softer’ institutions (such as parliament as a means to reinforce illusions in the system on regular basis) and extended arms such as the trade unions, political parties and the media to justify the oppression of the many by the few – was suddenly understood way beyond the reach of committed socialists. Marikana spelled out that the ANC government is a party that exists to defend the interests of the capitalist bosses, that the NUM is the main tool to carry out this task, and that the supposedly neutral police, courts and media are in fact little more than the private securities and praise singers of big business. Flowing immediately from these conclusions is the search for a working class alternative. Mineworkers, first in the Rustenburg platinum belt and then throughout the country’s mines, immediately followed the Lonmin workers’ example of setting up independent strike committees. The NUM fulltime shop stewards, often earning ten times the wage of ordinary workers, were chased out of the union offices. Through the spreading, unification and coordination of the strikes the mining houses and the government were forced to instead recognise the workers’ committees. In the minds of the striking workers this was right from the start linked to the need to also take the government bosses out of their Union Building offices, and put in place a workers’ government. As workers regained the confidence in the ability to organise, fight and win, the idea of building a new party, a working class alternative to the ANC and all the established parties, took root as an urgent necessity. The development of the strike committees into the National Strike Committee by October 2012 and the formation of the Workers and Socialist Party (WASP) by December 2012 came out of these realisations. Marikana registered a new level of class consciousness within the SA working class, which is forced to fight on several fronts – in the workplace, in the community – on daily basis. When battles are now escalating again this is against the backdrop of the recognition that things cannot continue as before – both within the working class and the capitalist class. Again, SA’s political and economic contradictions come to their most concentrated expression in the mining industry. While the R15bn in lost sales as a result of the strike wave August-December 2012 is certainly an irritant to the bosses, this is not the cause of the looming onslaught on jobs. It is the relentless downturn in the world economy which have seen prices of e.g. platinum and gold plummet and eaten into the profits and room to manoeuvre of the mining multinationals. Their major objectives are to cut the ‘over-supply’ of minerals such as platinum and gold to restore profitability and to shoot down the workers’ newfound confidence in struggle. Already before Marikana, the mining houses were testing the waters for reducing over-production by attempting the closure of some shafts around Rustenburg. Having been forced to retreat by the strike movement, they resumed the offensive immediately after the strikes were over, starting with the lock-out and eviction of 6000 workers at Harmony Gold’s Kusasalethu shaft in Carletonville on New Year’s Day 2013. Amplats, the world’s biggest platinum producer, followed two weeks later announcing the so-called moth-balling (closure with the possibility of re-opening later) of four shafts in Rustenburg, the closure of one mine and the retrenchment of 14 000 workers. Under pressure from government and the continued combativitiy of the mineworkers, the numbers have been reduced to three shafts and 6000 workers, for now. While the AMCU (Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union) is still busy with the company’s ‘consultation on this ‘strategic review’, the bosses are already acting on the plan and count on its finalisation within the second half of 2013. Anglo Gold Ashanti has announced a 300 000oz cut out of its total 920 000oz global production – in just one year, most likely concentrated to SA. Like Amplats, Glencore Xstrata is a pilot case for the ruling class. They too understand the working class truth that an injury to one is an injury to all. Throughout 2013, brief spontaneous worker-led strikes have continued to break out throughout the mining industry. At Glencore-Xstrata’s Eastern Chrome mine in Tubatse, Limpopo, 2000 workers struck in May in protest against the company’s protection of a white supervisor who had racially assaulted a black worker. The company acted immediately by having the strike declared illegal and dismissed the 2000 workers. Backed by SA mining bosses and international speculators united, the Glencore Xstrata bosses are hell-bent on consolidating a defeat for the workers, who are fighting for their reinstatement supported by the Workers and Socialist Party and the Democratic Socialist Movement. Bourgeois analysts speak of a possible cut of 200 000 mining jobs in the next five years (or three?). At the same time, the falling Rand, falling GDP growth rate, falling tax revenue and rising inflation, unemployment and government debt has the SA economy overall balancing close to a ‘tipping point’ which pro-capitalist commentators fear may trigger an all-out social crisis. In addition to the attacks on mining jobs, the ruling class is responding by pushing for the rolling back of the collective bargaining system and for the cementation of the repression to which they resorted in Marikana. A series of ‘peace accords’, under various labels, have been branded about in the aftermath of the massacre. The latest is the ‘Framework Agreement for a Sustainable Mining Industry’, developed in talks government-industry-union talks led by deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe (a former NUM GS). Just previous, completely ineffectual agreements, it contains vague promises to improve the standard of living in mining communities and more concrete undertakings to enforce law and order, e.g. through the permanent stationing of police and ‘other security forces’ at all mining operations. Workers and unions are made to take responsibility for maintaining ‘peace’ while the bosses are preparing for war. Meanwhile, threats and assassinations against worker leaders associated with AMCU have continued, often provoking bloody retaliation. The ‘Framework’ is part of the ANC government attempts to assure the mining capitalists and the ruling class as a whole that it can re-establish the grip on the situation after Marikana. It is of course no accident that it was drafted just at the start of wage negotiations in gold and platinum which are the most polarised in decades – e.g. a 120% increase demand versus a 5% offer in the gold industry – and the onset of the possible mass retrenchments. The attack on the Democratic Socialist Movement, attempting to scapegoat DSM EC member Liv Shange for so-called anarchy in the mining industry and effectively deport her from SA, also forms part of the efforts to undermine the fighting capacity of the mineworkers. Despite the ANC’s efforts, its ongoing internal rifts are evidence that its big business handlers are yet to be convinced that ‘the centre can hold’. While the Zuma-faction appears all-powerful for the moment, its paranoia indicates a recognition that others, e.g. around deputy ANC president Cyril Ramaphosa, may be biding their time. Increasingly however, the ruling class is shopping around for political ‘Plan Bs’ outside of the ANC. The formation of Agang-SA, a new political party led by former mining magnate and World Bank director Mampela Ramphele, is one such experiment. The right-wing opposition Democratic Alliance is aggressively attempting to swallow other parties into a ‘super-opposition’. Expelled ANC Youth League president Julius Malema is now the ‘commander-in-chief’ of the Economic Freedom Fighters hoping to capitalise on the new situation with a programme of radical demands. The ANC is widely expected to suffer big losses in next year’s elections to national and provincial parliament. A year after Marikana, on the threshold of turmoil that could shake SA to its core, the SA working class has only just begun the reconstruction of its class-independent organisations. AMCU, the union which took over the Rustenburg platinum belt and cut out a large chunk of NUM membership also in the gold industry in the wake of the strikes is yet to show how it will fare in the test that is already beginning with dismissals and retrenchments. So far, the lack of any apparent fight-back strategy is a great cause of concern. Cosatu, the trade union federation to which NUM belongs, appears unable to recover from its historical capitulation to the bosses at Marikana. Since the Cosatu leaders effectively condoned the massacre, and went on to endorse the directly responsible ANC leaders for re-election, the federation has not displayed any effective organising or campaigning work. Instead it stoops to new lows in bitter infighting on weekly basis. It is high time for workers, the unemployed, youth and students to act on the key lesson of Marikana – that there is no more powerful force than the working class independently organised and united in action. Izwi labasebenzi/ the Democratic Socialist Movement calls for the mineworkers National Workers Committee to work for a joint fight-back plan, coordinated across the different mining sectors and trade unions, to stop the mass retrenchments and fight for living wages and jobs. We also call for a national day of action against the job cuts, for the nationalisation of the mines, banks and big and big business under democratic control and management by workers and communities, for jobs and decent living conditions such as housing and education for all. Izwi labasebenzi/ the DSM campaigns for working class unity and urges all genuine working class fighter to come together in the building of the Workers and Socialist Party. The best honour we can pay to those comrades who were mowed down at Marikana is to craft the political weapon we will need to defeat their murderers once and for all – a mass workers party armed with a socialist programme. http://www.socialistworld.net/doc/6433

The inspiration of the Workers and Socialist party in South Africa

Over the last few weeks and months I have been hugely inspired by our CWI comrades in South Africa. With the launch of the WASP the Workers and Socialist Party in South Africa shows what can be achieved with very small resources and numbers of comrades on the ground. The launch of the Workers & Socialist Party was the direct outcome of the struggles of the mineworkers of South Africa throughout the course of last year. With thanks to Democratic Socialist Movement (CWI in South Africa) reporters The Marikana massacre, where police armed with automatic weapons opened fire and killed 34 striking miners, was a watershed in post-Apartheid South Africa. Echoing this, one headline covering the launch read “born in post-Marikana anger, Workers & Socialist Party enters SA politics”. The most significant feature of the 2012 mineworkers’ strikes was the organisation of independent rank-and-file led strike committees outside of the existing unions and bargaining mechanisms. Across the country – in the platinum belt, the gold fields and elsewhere – shaft after shaft created their own organisation and pushed forward a new militant leadership. The National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) which had collaborated with the mine bosses were evicted at a stroke. On the initiative of the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM, CWI South Africa) these shaft-based committees organised first across the mining heartland of Rustenburg and then into a national mineworkers strike committee. The ANC government and their Tripartite Alliance partners – the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) of which NUM is the largest affiliate – refused to support the mineworkers. Not only was support refused but the mineworkers were vilified and demonised by the very organisations that claim to represent them. There is no doubt that in their campaign against the mineworkers’ independent strike committees the groundwork for the Marikana massacre was laid. The recognition by the mineworkers that they stood alone and without a political voice was decisive in the emergence of WASP. The mining industry is the mainstay of the SA economy and the mineworkers the backbone of the working class, but it is not just here that the class struggle rages intensely. The farmworkers of the Western Cape have risen up in several waves from late 2012 to demand higher wages. They followed the model established by the mineworkers and moved to organise independent strike committees and they too forced concessions from the government and the big business farmers. In community after community, service delivery protests are held daily, in demand of roads, sanitation, electricity and water. In Sasolburg, the community exploded in a mass movement against attempts to cut funding even further. In the public sector, under the pressure of a growing budget deficit, mighty battles over pay and outsourcing loom. This is the South Africa that the ANC governs. Raised to power on the backs of the mass workers struggles up to 1994, its support had already eroded before Marikana for its failure to satisfy the aspirations of the masses. Now, in the aftermath of Marikana, and mired in corruption, it has lost whole swathes of its ‘traditional base’ amongst the working class and poor masses. Cosatu is riven with division and the process of disintegration is progressing. Workers are not allowing the slavish support for the Tripartite Alliance by the Cosatu leadership to hold back their struggles. New independent unions are being created and discontent amongst Cosatu rank-and-file and shop stewards is simmering. Against this background, and with a continuing widespread support for socialism amongst the masses, the Workers & Socialist Party has emerged. The launch event and the aftermath have given a clear indication of how WASP has emerged organically from the conclusions workers have drawn from the betrayals of the ANC and the recent experience of struggle. As one of the speakers at the launch, a workers’ committee member from the Carletonville gold mines south of Johannesburg said: “This is the time to build and prepare to fight… During the strike we saw the NUM, Cosatu, the ANC and SACP – none of them came to defend us. Instead they attacked us. It was the DSM alone that came to us when we were on the mountain, and stayed there with us to fight.” The mineworkers embrace WASP as “our” party. It was in these terms that delegates from different mines pledged their support at the launch. Speakers included workers’ delegates from Klerksdorp Uranium, Kumba Iron Ore, Bokoni Platinum, Gold Fields KDC, Harmony Gold, the Mpumalanga coal mines and Anglo Gold Ashanti. As the launch was broadcast on TV, a mineworkers leader from a mine that was unable to attend the launch phoned to report that dozens of workers had turned up at his office demanding to know: “how do we join OUR party?!” The president and executive members of the new National Transport & Allied Workers Union (NATAWU) attended and spoke from the top table. NATAWU is a left-split from the Cosatu-affiliated SATAWU transport union and is already out-stripping them in membership because of their willingness to decisively lead struggle in a series of strikes in the transport sector over recent weeks. The turnout at the launch far exceeded expectations. Pretoria/Tshwane is outside of the mining heartlands. The bulk of the 600-strong audience were Tshwane Municipality workers who, alongside the DSM, waged a struggle against dismissal and won. Hundreds walked miles in order to attend the launch of THEIR party. Already WASP is establishing itself as a party of struggle that can win victories. Students and young people also travelled from far to attend the launch. As Elmond Magedi, a DSM activist and initiator of the new Socialist Youth Movement that is being formed, said in his speech at the launch, young people are at hit by the hardest blows of a system in crisis – mass unemployment, a dysfunctional education system, rape and violence – and have a key role to play in building WASP to fight for a socialist future. And it is not just in South Africa that WASP is making waves. A teacher from Namibia – a member of the teachers’ worker committee – travelled days to attend the launch, despite the death of his son days earlier. Since the launch WASP has been contacted by, amongst others, a group of farmworkers and a group of health workers asking to join and help build WASP. Big business and the capitalist class in SA recognise the discontent amongst the working class and the vacuum that exists and are scrambling desperately to renew the credibility of their system by promoting “new” faces in the ANC, the neo-liberal Democratic Alliance and now also the newly announced Agang, led by one of Africa’s richest women capitalists, Mamphela Ramphele. WASP will sting the hopes of rallying any substantial mass around such attempts. While the ruling class has mostly responded with deafening silence, the few attempts at discrediting WASP by bourgeois analysts nevertheless reflect their warranted unease. The working class response is off to a good start with the launch. A worker from the Sishen Kumba Iron Ore mine in the Northern Cape summed up the mood in his speech – “We are so fortunate to be here today to launch our organisation which is we must build into a force to fight for us. Now we must go back to all shafts and build.”

successful socialist party 2013 congress

Just over 300 delegates and visitors took part in a very successful Socialist Party annual congress in Clacton-on-Sea from 2 to 4 March. The congress, the Socialist Party's main decision-making body, showed a party deeply involved in and often leading working class struggle in the areas, workplaces and unions where members are based. Congress provided the opportunity for delegates, elected by party members in branches throughout England and Wales, to discuss and vote on resolutions covering the main political issues in Britain today, and the work of the party. The enthusiasm to participate in this vital process was reflected in the numbers who wanted to contribute - with most sessions over-subscribed. Here we report on four of the sessions. Resolutions and amendments had been submitted by the party's national committee and by many of the branches. The resolutions agreed will serve as guidelines for the party's work in the coming year. In keeping with our democratic traditions a national committee was elected to lead the work of the party in between this congress and the next. Steve Score, regional secretary for the East Midlands, made the appeal for fighting fund and congress raised a very impressive £10,843. Sacrifice and commitment to the struggle for socialism and internationalism was again in evidence when Clare Doyle from the Committee for a Workers' International, the CWI world socialist organisation to which the Socialist Party is affiliated, made an appeal for funds to support our sister organisation in South Africa. This raised over £5,000. Over £300 a month of increased monthly donations (party members' subs) were also pledged. A moving memorial tribute to Robbie Segal and Roger Mackay who died last year was made by Bill Mullins, former industrial organiser. Visitors from sister sections of the CWI in Greece, Scotland, and Ireland contributed to the debates. The congress concluded with a very inspiring report of the work of other sections of the CWI. With CWI members in 49 countries - CWI general secretary Tony Saunois couldn't report on all of them - but his report touched on Europe, the US, Brazil, Pakistan and Tunisia, among many others. Capitalism 'has failed and has to be changed' Sarah Sachs-Eldridge "Portugal has entered a recessionary cycle that has no end in sight. [...] Worst of all, people have no reason to believe the future will be any better. The programme has failed and it has to be changed." Introducing the first session at the congress, Peter Taaffe, Socialist Party general secretary, quoted the Portuguese daily Público. But, as Peter and the discussion which followed showed, Portugal is far from alone in the recessionary cycle and it is capitalism that has failed and has to be changed. Devastating facts and figures stand testimony to the parasitic nature of 21st century capitalism: Peter reported that by 2020 the world's financial assets will outbalance its gross domestic product by ten to one. There will be $900 trillion of financial assets, compared to $90 trillion of GDP. According to the Economist the result will be a world economy "structurally awash with capital - and a corresponding shortage of places in which it can be invested". In this situation pro-big business governments across the world have legislated for mass privatisation of public services. Of course this leads inexorably to a social catastrophe but the capitalists demand a super-profitable outlet for their cash piles. Robin Clapp, regional secretary for the South West, among others, pointed out how none of the problems which led to the financial crash of 2007-8 have been solved, far from it. Robin quoted IMF boss Christine Lagarde when she expressed in passing the largely unspoken fear of the capitalist class: that they may have underestimated the cost of inequality. Examples of the impact of prevalent gross inequality were mentioned by many speakers: homelessness in Athens, the capital city of Greece where the crisis in Europe is most developed, has skyrocketed to 40,000, up from 2-3,000 two years ago. Katarina from Xekinima, the CWI in Greece, told a heart-breaking story of five university students who, among the thousands who can't afford to buy fuel, attempted to heat themselves with a homemade fire. Two died and three are in a coma with carbon monoxide poisoning. Leadership But the working class does not yet have mass parties with a leadership to draw the necessary conclusions from this - that there is no solution on the basis of capitalism and a struggle for power must be conducted to stop the ruthless destruction of living standards. A member who has participated in events in Egypt spoke about how the working class did make a revolution in 2011, only to see it stolen from them by the Muslim Brotherhood. However, the recent movements in both Tunisia and Egypt show that the working class has not given up on the idea of struggle. He explained that socialists must do all they can to increase the confidence of the working class to act as an independent movement for itself. The working class in Italy, a frontrunner in the closely fought contest to be the 'sickman of Europe', as Elaine Brunskill, Northern regional secretary, explained, has just registered its opposition to on-going austerity in the elections there. Clare Doyle, from the International Secretariat of the CWI, and Gianni, a new Italian member in Bristol, spoke about the Five-Star Movement of Beppe Grillo. Among its 25% vote are millions searching for a political voice for the working class. Danny Byrne, who is working with Socialismo Revolucionario, the CWI in Spain, spoke about the intensification of struggle there against eye-watering cuts to living standards. Such is the level of resistance that it is necessary for the SR to demand that the IU united left party and the left nationalist parties build a united front on the slogan of power to the working class. Moves towards building a new leadership for the working class are most advanced at this stage in South Africa. There the life or death struggle of the miners' mass strike movement indelibly etched the need for a new mass party of the working class in the minds of those involved. The Socialist Party's sister party, the Democratic Socialist Movement, was involved in the struggle and able to make conscious this urge and help form the new Workers' and Socialist Party. Alec Thraves introduced himself as the "revolutionary ambassador" from South Africa after his recent visit with Peter. He had the congress hanging on his every word. He reported his trepidations about visiting crocodile-infested Limpopo. On arrival the would-be predators were in the form of local discredited ANC councillors attempting to obstruct a DSM meeting. Far from being intimidated the determined members used the opportunity of the meeting to pledge to build a hundreds-strong organisation - in that region alone. Danny and others commented on the complications of the national question that are emerging - which in reality can be workers' expressing the need for fundamental change to the capitalist system. In replying to the debate Lynn Walsh, editor of Socialism Today magazine, explained that the crisis in the EU showed how capitalism was incapable of overcoming the limitations of the nation state. He also reiterated that the present crisis is a deep structural crisis and that capitalism cannot be reformed into a better fairer system. In the post-war period the existence of the planned economy in the USSR, ie an alternative model (in our view not socialist due to the absence of workers' democracy), helped the workers' movement in the west to force concessions out of capitalism and there was a certain redistribution. But since the collapse of Stalinism triumphalist capitalism has shown its true parasitism - even the capitalists have given up on the idea that they can overcome their system's problems. 'We won't be a lost generation' Bob Severn "The conditions faced by young people today are creating a powder keg that could explode at any time," said Socialist Party national youth organiser Claire Laker-Mansfield, when introducing the discussion on youth and student campaigning. There have already been explosions - student protests against £9,000 fees and EMA cuts in 2010, the riots in 2011, the Occupy! movement. The lack of a strategy by the National Union of Students contributed to the 2010 movement dissipating, but anger is now swelling against the results of the Con-Dems' higher education policies. Jack Poole reported on meetings, protests and an occupation at Sussex Uni against privatisation and job cuts. Kyle Williamson reported on the Socialist Students campaign against the University of East London's "three strikes and you're out" draconian attendance policy. Edmund Schluessel from Swansea University spoke on why he and Neil Moore from Belfast Metropolitan are standing for the NUS executive elections. They are the only ones proposing that NUS organises a mass national student demo. Many others reported on how Socialist Students' campaigning record and openly socialist programme were winning improved votes in local union elections and higher number of NUS conference delegates for over a decade. Mike from Leeds explained that the small drop in unemployment figures hid the rise of insecure and low-paid jobs. Ian Pattison, Socialist Party youth organiser, in his reply to the debate, reiterated how young people often expect such jobs to be stop-gaps but, with no decent jobs available, they become permanent fixtures. This is why Youth Fight for Jobs is launching the 'Sick of Your Boss?' initiative to fight for basic rights - such as breaks, decent pay - and trade union rights. Matt Whale from Hull said there was an "instinctive togetherness" among young people, with the potential to unionise workplaces and find new, combative, union branch and workplace leaders. The highest support for the 30 November 2011 public sector pensions strike was among young people. Jamie from Cardiff spoke about getting a fast food job and how, with support from Socialist Party members, unionisation could be possible. Call-centres are today's equivalent of 19th century 'dark satanic mills'. Tracy Edwards, a full-time organiser for the PCS civil service union, reported that there was now 95% union membership at HMRC call-centres. There, young workers are fighting to improve the "crap" conditions, with gains won on flexible working hours. The young Socialist Party members who spoke in this session showed how fighting for a decent future means fighting for a socialist alternative to the profit driven capitalist system. At least 40% of young people are either unemployed or underemployed 1 in 28 workfare programme participants have become employed as a result Britain: beware volcanoes of anger below the surface Dave Carr What are the key economic, political and social issues which will shape Britain in the coming months? In particular, what effect will the recessionary crisis, government austerity measures, and the trade union leadership have on workers' struggles and hence, the campaigning work of the Socialist Party? Socialist Party deputy general secretary Hannah Sell introduced the session by making the point that although the scale of the capitalist crisis and class struggle in Britain is not on the level of southern Europe there is, nonetheless, a groundswell of anger beneath the surface which could explode at any time. Delegate Jim Thomson, in the discussion, characterised 2012 as "the year of them and us". Even if the road to widespread struggle, including general strikes, is blocked at this stage by the right in the trade union leadership, local struggles are still breaking out. Hannah pointed to the recent large protests over the NHS and council cuts and anger over the 'bedroom tax'. These issues were added to in the discussion with contributions from Claire Job, Roger Keyse, Gavin Marsh, Phil Culshaw and others. Evidence of anger at the rotten political establishment and the widening inequality in society abounds. However, in the absence of a mass working class political alternative such anti-establishment sentiments can be hijacked by parties such as Ukip who promote divisive anti-migrant worker policies and right-wing nationalism. At the same time they, and the capitalist-owned press, present themselves as a repository for protest against the hated main parties. Despite the government's credit rating downgrading and the deepening unpopularity of the coalition, it's 'business as usual' for Chancellor Osborne as far as continuing austerity is concerned. Big business also wants the government to persevere with this failed policy. British capitalism is ailing and all the 'fixes' of quantitative easing, more bank loans, a devaluing currency, etc, are not reviving the economy, which continues to flat line. But why then is UK unemployment not as high as elsewhere in Europe? This is partly due to government measures bolstering 'zombie' companies. But it is also due to 'labour hoarding', in the false hope that this is a temporary crisis, while cutting workers' pay and conditions. There has been an increase in part-time casual work and people abandoning the jobs search and registering as self-employed. Young workers Helen from east London spoke about how young people, at the sharp end of this process, are being politicised by it. Having done what they were told, studied hard, they find themselves struggling in rotten jobs with no hope of anything better. This can lead to more young workers drawing the conclusion that they will have to organise and fight to improve their working conditions. Politically, Cameron is also under conflicting pressure over Europe, migration and 'modernising' the Tory party. Many of his backbenchers want out of the EU in a referendum and also oppose same sex marriage. Big business largely opposes leaving the EU. The Tories' third place in Eastleigh will increase this pressure. And as the fault lines deepen between the Tories and Lib Dems in the Coalition, a government collapse still couldn't be ruled out. The independence referendum in Scotland can provide another complicating factor. Although Labour retains its lead over the Tories in opinion polls there is little enthusiasm for Labour among working class people. And, as Hannah remarked, the Labour leadership's continued commitment to cuts may mean they are not be able to marshal the anti-Coalition mood at the next general election, which could still take place before 2015, such is the instability in the situation. Nick Chaffey pointed out in the discussion that Labour spectacularly failed to pick up the opposition protest vote in the Eastleigh byelection. Despite this many trade unions continue to financially back Labour as the 'only show in town'. However, some militant sections of the organised working class understand the need to construct a new mass left formation rooted in the trade unions. In replying to the debate, Clive Heemskerk dealt with amendments to the national committee's document on Britain and resolutions, including on the 2014 European elections. Clive pointed out that, at bottom, the EU exists to facilitate the multinationals at the expense of the working class. Indeed, neoliberalism is enshrined in its constitution. Ukip may well make gains in this election but it is not guaranteed that it will remain the receptacle for the growing protest vote. Encouraging trade unionists and anti-cuts campaigners to stand for the Trade Unionist and Socialist Coalition can help to make the case that workers should represent themselves. Nancy Taaffe referred to the magnificent 30% vote for the Socialist Alternative candidate in Seattle last November. She reported that CWI supporters had initially underestimated the support, even within the Obama vote, for socialist policies until a stand was made. The session made clear that, while we may be in a temporary and relative lull in the class struggle, we must be prepared to play an increasingly important role in a situation that can change rapidly. Let's build on our successes Sarah Wrack An excellent Party Building session introduced by Judy Beishon and replied to by Jane James, both from the Socialist Party's executive committee, showed that in many areas of the country and in many types of work, the Socialist Party is going forward. Judy pointed out that we have more Socialist Party branches meeting more regularly and with bigger meetings than at the same time last year. She also suggested steps that could be taken by branches, as well as by the national centre to continue our growth such as assistance with Marxist education. All branches should have a strategy for developing in size and influence, setting targets as a guide. The discussion made clear that the 'year of the branch' launched at last year's congress had a big effect in many areas. JP from Coventry informed congress of the launch of the new Coventry North branch and Tom from Bristol outlined steps taken by the three Bristol branches, such as having a day time activity team and regularising the Bristol district committee meetings. Socialist Party branches are thinking hard about which campaigns they focus on. Some suggestions were made. For example Chris from Stroud raised the idea of organising opposition rallies around the country when the Health and Social Care Act comes into force in April. Several speakers spoke about work among specific groups. For example, Mary from Walthamstow talked about campaigning at colleges and suggested trying debates and outdoor meetings. Becci from Nottingham described how the Rape Is No Joke campaign and other initiatives Socialist Party members have taken part in can attract women. Senan outlined the important work being carried out by Tamil Solidarity, especially making an appeal for trade unionists to attend the 20 April conference (see www.tamilsolidarity.org). The vital need for finance was also an aspect of the discussion. Dave, fighting fund organiser for Llanelli and West Wales branch, said that the key to their success has been taking the attitude that "nothing short of meeting the target is acceptable". Two thirds of their fighting fund comes from supporters of the branch's campaign in opposition to NHS cuts. Producing and selling a pamphlet on historical struggles in the local area also helped. Dave also suggested Socialist Party members keep their eye out for any money-raising opportunity - he rents his garage out for £20 a month for the fighting fund. The session was supplemented the following day by a separate discussion on the role of the Socialist. Congress agreed that 2013 will be 'the year of the paper'. See future issues for details of this.

From Marikana to a new workers party in South Africa

The recent determined struggle of South African miners, who have braved bloody repression by state forces, has created political shockwaves throughout the country. The intensification of working class struggles has exposed not only the ruthlessness of the capitalist system but also the rottenness of the ruling ANC government and its allies in the trade union bureaucracy. Weizmann Hamilton of the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM), the Socialist Party's sister party in South Africa, spoke to the Socialist about how these developments have propelled the beginnings of a new workers' party with a socialist programme, onto the political agenda. There cannot be any question about the historical significance of the recent strike movement of the miners; specifically, the massacre that took place on 16 August at Marikana when 34 Lonmin workers were mowed down by police. It is no exaggeration to say that that single event constitutes an historical faultline in the post-Apartheid history of South Africa (SA). The impact of the event on the consciousness of the entire population, but especially the working class, will determine the country's future political course. Because what was revealed in those 300 seconds of gunfire - the biggest atrocity in the country since the 1960 Sharpeville massacre - was the role played by all the key political and social forces inside the country. It clarified in the minds of the working class the class character of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) government and its relationship to the mining bosses and the role of the state and the trade union leadership. All of these things were laid bare by the massacre in a way that no other event could have, ie it sharply posed the nature of the tasks and the challenges that face the working class in SA. One thing is clear, the massacre was the result of a plan that had been thought through by the state, together with the bosses, and carried out as a premeditated act. It is inconceivable that the decision could have been taken to try and drown the strike in blood without it having been authorised politically by the tops of government. In that sense the administration of president Jacob Zuma has the blood of the Marikana workers on its hands. The manner in which the trade union leadership of Cosatu (Congress of South African Trade Unions) and, principally, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), has reacted to these events, has reinforced the conclusions that workers had been drawing prior to the massacre about what the NUM had been turned into. There is a widespread understanding - even expressed in the media by capitalist commentators - that the NUM has revealed itself as a 'baas boy' union, ie a union of the bosses. There is a widespread contempt for the leadership of the NUM. Everything they did subsequent to the massacre was to reinforce those conclusions. The historical tragedy of these events is that the NUM - the most powerful and influential union, whose history confirmed the most militant traditions of Cosatu - was revealed to be the conduit through which everything that is rotten about the trade union movement has been channelled. The NUM leadership has degenerated to such a level that even after the Lonmin workers, despite the massacre, courageously continued the struggle, forcing management to capitulate into conceding a wage settlement ranging from 11% to 22% - at the highest end, not far off the miners' original demand for R12,500, the NUM leadership could not bring themselves to acknowledge that achievement. On the contrary, they denounced the agreement! The NUM general secretary, Frans Baleni, earns R100,000 (£7,000) a month from the subs of his members and yet he had the temerity to go to the workers and say to them that the demand for R12,500 a month is unrealistic and that it will do damage to the economy! 'Intolerable' In the first instance, the workers had risen up in support for a demand for a decent living wage. And given the substantial profits of the platinum bosses and throughout the mining industry, then the demand for R12,500 a month was entirely realisable. But it was the fact that the miners rose up against the entire arrangement for the perpetuation of their own slavery; that is the most significant aspect of the strike. They were also rising up against the authority of the NUM as the principal instrument for the maintenance of their own subjugation by the mining bosses. This was why the strike was 'intolerable' to the mining bosses and the state and why they deemed it necessary to try and crush the strike in blood. But of course it has had the entirely opposite effect because, now, the NUM is hated beyond the platinum mining industry. With that this has led to a precipitous decline in the authority of Cosatu itself. Cosatu and the NUM leadership has completely failed to appreciate the historical significance of what took place on 16 August. Instead they have attempted to restore the NUM as the recognised organisation of the miners. They even went to the extent of actually organising a "hands off the NUM" demo on 27 October in Rustenburg to, in the words of the Cosatu president, S'dumo Dlamini, 'reclaim Rustenburg out of the hands of counter-revolutionaries'! So against who was this demo being directed at? The workers themselves and, of course, the DSM. Strike committees Fortunately the clashes between the mineworkers and the Cosatu officials were not as bad as we had feared. Nonetheless, it was a humiliating experience for Cosatu's leadership. For a long time they were prevented by their own former members (miners in Anglo Platinum) from getting to the stadium for a rally and could only hold it under the protection of the police! Similarly, when Cosatu's general secretary Zwelinzima Vavi attempted to address thousands of striking miners at the Orkney Mine in Klerksdorp he was chased away. He later blamed, falsely, the DSM for this humiliation. This is the beginning of the end of the NUM in the platinum industry and in the whole of the mining industry but it is also potentially the beginning of the unravelling of Cosatu itself. This is not a certainty but if the leadership does not change course, combined with its failure to address the critical class issue in SA and in particular its determination to remain inside the trap of the Tripartite Alliance (ie the ANC, Cosatu and the SA Communist Party), then it is likely that it will completely disintegrate. The SACP reaction to the Marikana uprising was to say that the workers were being misled by a 'Pondoland vigilante mafia'. In other words workers are incapable of comprehending their own oppression and exploitation! There are a whole host of 'conspirators' who the Cosatu, NUM and SACP leaders identify for the Marikana uprising. They blamed the Chamber of Mines for creating Amcu, attributing the strikes as arising out of rivalry with the NUM. In fact, AMCU is the accidental beneficiary of the collapse of authority of the NUM. Some workers have joined AMCU but now have misgivings because AMCU does not have a radical alternative programme to the NUM and because the main leadership in the mines is the independent workers' strike committees. It is these committees where a framework for the embryo of a new trade union federation exists. As far as the DSM is concerned the committees need to become the repositories for the restoration of the militant traditions of the working class in the trade union movement. The DSM's role in developing workers' struggles Our role is, partly, to be the memory of the working class so that it can retie the knot of history between the old traditions that created Cosatu in the struggle to defeat apartheid, and the new tasks facing the working class today. Last year we took the initiative of calling an Assembly for Workers' Unity (AWU). Its purpose was to face one of the most important challenges in front of the working class. There are three main theatres of struggle. One is the protests against corruption and poor service delivery, which are growing in intensity and frequency. There have been some 11,000 protests over poor service delivery this year. Then there has been an enormous increase in workplace action among organised workers. And then there are protests by students against debt and academic and financial exclusions, in particular over the unaffordability of tuition fees and of student accommodation for working class students. There is a permanent class war taking place along these fronts in the country. However, there is no coordination of the service delivery protests and even of the workplace disputes and no coordination of the student strikes. The student formations have become a mirror image of their political counterparts because they operate as the student wings of the ANC and PAC (Pan African Congress) etc. They have become training academies for the new post-Apartheid elite. At their conferences you see luxury cars in the parking lots. And yet these formations are meant to be representative of the working class! So our approach was to encourage the coordination of struggles within each theatre and across them. This is the concept behind AWU. The AWU pulled in organisations like the Thembelihle Crisis Committee, and invited the Socialist Civic Movement in Mpumalanga, and others, to promote a common programme and platform of action, for example a single day of action for service delivery protests starting in the regions, then provincial and finally on a national basis. We didn't get the response we were hoping for but nonetheless it laid down a marker for future struggles. And it is this same approach that we developed among the striking mineworkers. Our first tactic was to bring together all the efforts of the struggling miners; because up to that point the Lonmin workers were protesting on their own, as were the Anglo Platinum workers. There was a common determination to struggle but no common demands and without any coordination. So we did the obvious thing and encouraged the establishment of strike committees and on a coordinated basis to campaign, firstly, for a general strike across Rustenburg, and then to call for a wider general strike of the miners within the country. At the same time we promoted the idea of unity between the working class communities surrounding the mining areas and the strikers. In Limpopo we have had great success in getting the communities on board not only to support the mineworkers but also the idea of a mass workers' party, which was endorsed at a mass meeting of 5,000. The current 'balance of forces' in the mining industry As far as the recent strike wave is concerned, most areas have returned to work. The only mine still out on strike is Bokoni in Limpopo, where the key members of the local strike committee, (including the chair of the national strike committee) are in jail at the moment. Last week we were able to bring local Cosatu structures on board and stage a protest over the detention of the strike committee. At Anglo Platinum the return to work agreement was signed by the strike committee which is highly significant as officially no provision exists for such recognition in the collective bargaining arrangement in the mine. Although they didn't achieve their demand for R16,500 a month wage they did receive a R4,500 and 'incentive' (partly a loan) which breaks the 'no work, no pay' principle. In reality they have been paid for going on strike! The bosses have also agreed to bring forward pay negotiations which weren't scheduled until May 2013 and to withdraw the threat of mass dismissals. The mining bosses have been forced to recognise the reality of the change in the balance of power in the industry. It represents a defeat for the state and for the mining bosses and for the Cosatu and NUM bureaucracies. The bosses are hinting at massive retrenchments in industry in 2013 so the battles lines are being drawn for a new wave of struggle. There is now a breathing space for the workers to coordinate and develop their organisations and their strategic and tactical plans. Building a new mass workers' party on a socialist programme The strike has elevated the question of a political alternative for the workers firmly and irrevocably onto the agenda. The idea of a new mass workers' party is now part of the political discourse inside the country. Many commentators recognise that this demand has been injected into the political situation by the DSM. The DSM is now taking the initiative to take matters forward. On 15 December plans to launch the new mass workers' party will be announced by the DSM and the miners' national strike committee. Already, at a meeting in Limpopo, 5,000 workers endorsed the call for a mass workers' party. A press conference, preceded by a rally of the mineworkers, will proclaim the political independence of the working class from the tripartite alliance in which they have been incarcerated. The new party will target the 2014 elections. The press conference will happen the day before the ANC's conference, the run up to which has exposed sharp factional conflicts and is likely to prove to be the most divisive conference certainly since 2007 and the eviction of Thabo Mbeki as president. The ANC's authority is in such decline that the strategists of capitalism are encouraging the historically-white liberal opposition Democratic Alliance to "change its demographics", ie elect more blacks to leadership positions to give it greater appeal to black workers, as well as other political alternatives. A resolution proclaiming a new mass workers' party has been discussed by all the miners' shaft committees. The idea will be to launch the new party on 23 March 2013, coinciding with the Sharpeville massacre anniversary. Before that there will be various events, rallies, marches, and a recall campaign of councillors so that they can be substituted with real fighters from the new party. It will be a broad formation with provision for the participation of existing organised political entities. We will be approaching a number of organisations to be part of this process. We are confident that such a new party will fill the political void that has long existed on the left in SA. This will be the crowning achievement of the Marikana uprising. Marikana Commission of Inquiry According to Jacob Zuma the motivation for the establishment of the Marikana commission into the massacre is 'to establish the truth', because no one, apparently, knows why it happened! Prior to the massacre on 16 August, ten people had died at Marikana. Consequently, the workers took the decision to relocate away from the mine and to go to a nearby koppie (small hill) and demanded that management should come and discuss with them. The forces of the state had prepared by portraying the miners who carried traditional weapons as being provocatively armed. A radio interview on 15 August, between management, the NUM and AMCU, publicly stated that negotiations would take place the following day. When AMCU turned up management was nowhere to be found. Later management said that all negotiations were off. It is clear that the decision had been taken overnight to end negotiations and that the strike was going to have to be crushed. Three thousand police were deployed from the tactical response unit with military firepower. Armoured vehicles were deployed, helicopters with snipers and reels of razor wire to trap the workers. Incidentally, the majority of the 34 dead miners were not killed at the spot shown on the TV footage when police opened fire, they were killed elsewhere. Some had bullet wounds to the head suggesting executions. Evidence has also been tampered with. What revelations have so far emerged at the commission completely confirms what workers knew. It is clear that the tops of the ANC and NUM regarded the situation as an 'intolerable' defiance of state authority. The ANC's Cyril Ramaphosa, in particular, is implicated in the massacre. Beforehand he had described the strike as an 'act of criminality'. Ramaphosa is the former general secretary of the NUM who sits on the board of directors of Lonmin (he has a 9% share in the company paid for by Lonmin itself!). Ramaphosa's reputation has been tarnished irreparably. This is a man who was once a leading worker militant who has become one of the world's richest individuals. The role of the commission with its four-month long investigation is partly to take the sting out the situation but is also to cover up the government's culpability. It will probably result in some naming of scapegoats, in all likelihood junior level police officers. The overwhelming mission is to ensure that the government is not held responsible. Even in advance of the commission's outcome Cosatu's leadership has confirmed its political support for president Jacob Zuma. Marikana represents the biggest atrocity since Sharpeville and yet Cosatu has not organised a protest but instead tried to rehabilitate the discredited NUM, whose shop stewards at Lonmin, incidentally, have their offices next to the police station! This article was first published in issue 746 of the socialist the weeky paper from the socialist party of England and Wales detailing workers struggles at home and around the world and pointing the way forward.