Ahead of Freedom Day and May Day, the need for a political alternative to the capitalist parties has never been greater. Right wing extremists have seized on the ANC’s failures and embarked on xenophobic campaigns with the aim of turning workers against one another. The murder of Elvis Nyati is a wake-up call for the working class to unite and build solidarity against reactionary forces. We call on working class people to raise their sights and face the class enemy.
Working Class Summit: towards greater worker unity
In 2018, comrades in WASP played a key role in campaigning for a working-class summit that would bring together organised labour, community activists and young people. We envisioned that this would be a way to link up campaigns in the three theaters of struggle and begin building towards a mass workers’ party on a socialist programme, forming the basis for a mass revolutionary party that could transform society. The summit was convened by SAFTU, which included unions that had made the important decision to step away from the tripartite alliance. One thousand delegates representing 147 different working class organisations attended.
Out of the summit, a declaration was drafted which outlined the discussion and mood. The participants of the summit resolved to “build a mass working class movement that is independent and democratically built from the bottom-up”. The summit committed to launching provincial structures and local assemblies to discuss how to unite the struggles of the poor and to co-ordinate their actions. Another important resolution made in the working-class summit was the need for the working class to build towards a mass workers’ party on a socialist programme, birthed out of the struggles of the working class as we work to unite the campaigns of communities, workers, and the youth. There is now a call for another summit to continue where the last left off. It aims to include mass working class organisations, trade unions and student and youth movements to discuss how to best coordinate our struggles on the ground.
These discussions will take place in a context of crisis for the working class in South Africa, which is still one of the most unequal societies in the world. The most recent statistics show unemployment rising at a rapid pace, with almost half the country without work. Youth between the ages of 15 – 24 years old face a stunning 77% unemployment rate. Cuts in education budgets are resulting in fewer than 50% of youth reaching Grade 12, and even fewer have any prospects of entering higher education and training. In addition to rampant joblessness, communities are suffering as service delivery by local municipalities worsens. Of the 278 municipalities in South Africa, 163 municipalities are in financial distress, 40 are battling to deliver basic services, and 102 had adopted budgets for 2021/22 that they could fund. People who have access to electricity and water face year-on-year increases in tariffs, whilst load-shedding has become a regular feature of life, with ESKOM estimating up to 100 days of load-shedding for the coming winter months. The pandemic has stripped away any illusions that the public healthcare system works for the 84% of people in South Africa who rely on it. The bosses have become more arrogant in their mission to cut wages and benefits in the name of profits. The ongoing Covid pandemic has accelerated the jobs bloodbath in the past two years – hundreds of thousands of jobs are being shed every month. All of this is in the context of the threat that climate change poses to our ability to survive on this planet.
The ANC betrayed the liberation struggle
In almost three decades of rule, the ANC government has consistently sided with the bosses against the working class. They have rolled back hard-won labour rights through LRA amendments and blunted the strike weapon. Obtaining a strike certificate is now a drawn-out, demoralizing process. They have instituted a poverty minimum wage, while cutting on socially necessary services. With the current parties in power, married to the capitalist system of exploitation and oppression, it is clear we need a new political alternative that will fight for the working class.
Despite all pretenses about continuing the legacy of the liberation struggle, the ANC is presiding over the destruction of public services through austerity measures and neoliberal policies. The working class must recognize that the settlement signed by the ANC in 1994 did not signal the completion of its historical task. Instead of raising the majority out of poverty, the ANC took the place of the previous oppressors. Leon Trotsky explained how revolutions arise from such contradictions.
The working class have not been taking the attacks from the bosses and the government lying down. We have seen workers take strike action at Clover, L’Oreal, South Point, public hospitals, as well as the steel and engineering and mining sectors. There have been protests for safe working conditions and wage increases. Communities come out in struggle in service delivery protests and against exploitative mining companies. Women have taken to the streets against gender-based violence. Youth are fighting for free education and against climate change. These actions, in their silos, can and have won important victories. But without a united struggle that brings the very question of the capitalist system to the fore, we will not be able to put an end to that system.
In addition to the ANC’s attacks on the working class, the effects of climate change are becoming more visible. Extreme weather events such as the recent floods in KZN affect the working class severely. We need to come up with solutions that will serve the working class. We must fight for a mass jobs programme, focusing on the creation of green jobs and a socialist transition to renewable energy as part of the fight against climate change. The ruling parties cannot deliver the transition we need.
Forward to a mass workers’ party
We believe the best way to unite all these struggles taking place is in the form of a mass workers’ party. This party must be a party of struggle – for the working class and by the working class. A party of struggle must be forged in struggle itself. It must strive to bring in left formations, trade unions, community organisations, civics, youth organisations, students and more. It must be a place where everyone can participate actively and democratically. A party of the working class demands a vibrant internal democracy, where we can all raise our ideas about strategy and forge a fighting programme to unite the struggles of the working class and build towards a socialist world. The leadership of such a party must be democratically elected, and we argue that all those in elected positions in the workers movement – be it government, unions, civic organisations – should receive no more than the wages of an average skilled worker. This means the representatives of our class stay firmly rooted in the experience of the working class with no room for political careerism. It is only with maximum unity in struggle that we can dispose of this cruel capitalist system and build a society where all our basic needs are met.
After the momentum of the 2018 SAFTU General Strike, the Working-Class Summit drew in the fighting layers of the working class and resolved that we must start building a party for the working class, rooted in our united struggles. The Covid-19 pandemic conditions have made this task even more urgent. We argue that all campaigns that fight for the working class and poor must put the question of building a mass party of struggle at the forefront. The planned 2022 working-class summit serves as a good platform to unite the struggles of the working class and have the important discussion on how we take the struggle forward. As WASP, we will continue to campaign and raise the banner for a mass workers’ party and we encourage all organisations of the working class to join the working class summit process so we can build it together.
