On 5 August 2022, the South African Federation of Trade Unions (SAFTU) convened a meeting of the Working Class Summit to focus on a national day of action to respond to the multiple crises of capitalism working-class communities are currently facing. As the working class across the world rises up against the skyrocketing cost of living, putting further strain on already empty pockets, this meeting was set to work out our urgent response. WASP members in trade unions, the Working Class Summit steering committee, SAFTU, youth and community organisations have pushed tirelessly for SAFTU to take the lead in a working class fightback. This fightback must be used to build a political alternative to the ANC and all other ruling parties.
At the meeting, SAFTU and its allies in communities proposed that the working class must unite to respond to the ongoing crises of unemployment, inequality, austerity, privatisation of state-owned enterprises, corruption, climate disaster, loadshedding, crime and gender-based violence in particular. The proposal for a national shutdown on 24 August was wholeheartedly supported by the hundreds of working class community, youth and labour activists in attendance. Since then, the mood of the class has been clear – it’s time for working class unity and action! Militant layers of the working class are taking the important step to respond to the ongoing crises of capitalism.
With countless unions and community formations releasing endorsements, posters and organising their own activities to mobilise for the day, there is a widespread sense that enough is enough. From public sector wage freezes to corrupt housing allocation to the need for a basic income grant – communities and workers are more and more recognising the need to fight together against attacks from the ruling class. We must build on this and make sure that 24 August is the first action in a programme of rolling mass action to push for a serious challenge to the capitalist system which has created this chaos in our communities.
This shutdown, followed up with further mass actions like strikes, occupations, and coordinated protests, would have the potential to show the ruling elites, and also the working class itself, who it is that really produces the wealth and makes society function; who it is that has the power to change society – the working class. It is the working class that will bring about the socialist transformation of society – saving all of humanity from the horrors of capitalism and looming environmental catastrophe as global warming threatens to make the planet uninhabitable.
It cannot be that with so much wealth in society, children are still going to bed hungry. It cannot be that young people are idle without any work, laying waste to so much human potential. It cannot be that women are scared to leave their abusers for fear of being destitute. It cannot be that children are dying in pit latrines because their schools have no in-door plumbing. It cannot be that workers, having worked for bosses all their lives, are retrenched with nothing to show for it.
Surviving this system is a constant struggle. The most recent reports from the Pietermaritzburg Economic Justice & Dignity group that tracks the prices of 44 core food items most often bought by lower-income households show that this food basket alone (excluding transport, health, and other expenses) stands at R4,748.08 per month. This while the minimum wage is a mere R23.19/hour which comes to R4016.50 if you are lucky enough to work a full week. This means that most working-class households do not have enough income for food, let alone the other expenses of life.
In fact, travel expenses make up a huge proportion of working-class households’ expenditure. Fuel and electricity prices have been rising rapidly throughout the year. SAFTU’s statement on the National Day of Action notes that “electricity tariffs increased by a combined 16,53% in 2022 and by 460% between 2007 and 2020. Petrol prices have now reached unprecedented levels with a litre of 93 unleaded petrol increasing by 52% since June 2021 and 72% since March 2020.” The reported small reduction in fuel prices in September would still leave the fuel price significantly higher than at the beginning of the year.
Ongoing retrenchments and wage freezes are not helping the situation as many households cannot make ends meet with each Rand buying less and less. Cuts in social spending on, for example, education and healthcare, place the burden of the crisis even more firmly on the working class.
Deepening inequality, unemployment and poverty also create the conditions for the kinds of social ills we see in our communities such as spikes in violent crime and significantly high rates of gender-based violence. The most recent reports from SAPS show that, between April and June this year, 9516 cases of rape were reported. That is approximately 105 cases reported per day! This devastating statistic is also a gross underestimation, as the vast majority of sexual assaults are not reported; as few as 1 in 9 rapes are reported according to experts. Only a socialist feminist programme that deals with the alienating roots of these crises can make our society truly safe for women and LGBTQI communities.
The situation is dire for the working class in South Africa and across the world, with the capitalist class and their cronies in government having nothing to offer to solve these crises. Their system does not work for the majority but serves the ruling elite. But we know that another world is possible and that is within our power to fight for it. By building a mass working class movement united in its aim to overthrow capitalism, we can solve the never-ending crises of a system that puts profit over people and the planet. The 24 August National Day of Action is a promising start to building the kind of fight the working class needs to push back against the brutality of the capitalist system. We need to build on this day, organising further rolling mass action to unite our struggles and build the organisations of the working class – its trade unions, civics, and youth wings.
The Workers and Socialist Party joins the chorus of support for this day of action and reiterates our ongoing call that the working class cannot rely on political parties who benefit from and support capitalism to solve our problems. We need our own political party with its roots in struggle. We need a mass workers party on a socialist programme which can unite all theatres of struggle – communities, labour and youth and fight for the fundamental transformation of society to socialism. We have to use the momentum of the current campaign to reconvene the Working Class Summit on a heightened political level, to ensure that the working class organisations have the platform and dedicated time to have the critical discussions necessary on how to build this mass workers party.
We say:
- End food price hikes! Unite against capitalist speculation and profiteering.
- Fight for a socialist just transition to overturn the crisis of climate change
- Free quality public services, including easily accessible free quality public education and healthcare
- Build a socialist feminist fightback to end GBV
- Fight for a living wage of R15000
- End unemployment with mass investment in a public works programme to build much needed infrastructure for housing, public transport, recreation, healthcare and education.
- Fight xenophobia and all attempts to divide the working class and scapegoat migrants for the capitalism.
- Nationalise the mines, commercial farms, factories and big business under democratic workers’ control so that the wealth and resources of South Africa can serve the needs of the majority instead of lining the pockets of the rich elites.
- Build a mass workers party armed with a revolutionary socialist programme
- Fight for socialism!
