WHAT WASP HAS ACHIEVED MARCH 2013 - MAY 2014 WITH MORE RESOURCES WE CAN DO SO MUCH MORE! VOTE WASP 7 MAY! Tshwane: WASP leads protest of labour broking workers As Tshwane Mayor Kgosientso Ramokgopa delivered his State of the City address today Thursday April 3 at a fenced-off, police-guarded red carpet event at the Tshwane City Hall, he was met with hundreds of angry protesters, toyi-toying on the street outside. The Workers and Socialist Party (WASP) led protesting workers of Capacity labour brokers who came out to remind the Mayor of the City’s broken promises to them. Hundreds of City of Tshwane workers, who have been left unemployed since the City failed to meet its promise to transfer them from labour broking contracts to permanent employment in May 2012 see no other way of raising their plight after almost two years of fruitless engagement with City officials. workerssocialistparty.co.za/820/ March against police brutality, xenophobia and racism on March 17 On January 17, Nigerian national Theddaus Duru was tortured unconscious and abducted by police in Benoni. That was the last anyone saw of him. It is high time to stand up against police killings, torture, intimidation and harassment – for all residents of SA, whether born here or not! Close to 1000 people die at the hands of the police every year in SA. Hundreds are raped, thousands report beatings, torture etc. Protesters are routinely shot and killed. Black immigrants and refugees are particularly vulnerable – daily subjected to threats of arrest, deportation, extortion of bribes and xenophobic and racist harassment. Government and the capitalist system are fueling xenophobia by treating black refugees and immigrants as criminals, by denying us all equal rights to housing, work and other basic needs and then exploiting the vulnerability they create for super-exploitation, abuse and extortion. Our response is to demand equal rights for all. There is enough wealth to provide for all – if only we as the working class take control of it! workerssocialistparty.co.za/march-against-police-brutality-xenophobia-and-racism-on-march-17/ Socialist Youth Movement takes TUT to court in fight against mass eviction of students The Socialist Youth Movement (SYM), the autonomous youth wing of the Workers and Socialist Party (WASP), along with other student leaders at the Tshwane University of Technology (TUT) is taking legal action against the TUT management after it has threatened to evict thousands of students from university residences. Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), via advocate Rudolf Jansen, will launch an urgent application to interdict the University’s action at the Pretoria High Court today at 13h00. workerssocialistparty.co.za/2014/02/ WASP condemns the police murder of Tshwane street trader, calls for protests The Workers and Socialist Party (WASP) condemns the murder of Tshwane street trader Foster Jan Rivombo by a Tshwane Metro Police officer on Wednesday. This is yet another attack in the war which the government is waging against poor working class people. From Tshwane to Johannesburg, the poor are punished for trying to make a living by selling on the streets when there are no jobs. From Marikana to de Doorns, workers are attacked for organising for living wages. It is high time that working class people across the country unite to put an end to the brutality. WASP is engaging with hawker organisations in Tshwane and elsewhere to organise a united response to this outrage. Rivombo was shot at point blank range by Metro Police officer on Wednesday after he refused to hand over his stock of bananas and apples. The police officer is still on duty. Four hawkers, meanwhile are appearing in court today after they were arrested when demanding that an ambulance be called (the police only called an ambulance after three hours, having taken Rivombo into a bakkie immediately after shooting him). workerssocialistparty.co.za/2014/01/ Victory at last for Johannesburg street traders! After two months of bitter struggle, the Workers and Socialist Party is today together with thousands of Johannesburg street traders and their organisations, celebrating a great victory: the Constitutional Court has granted with immediate effect our application for traders to return to the streets, for the City of Johannesburg to re-erect their demolished trading stands, stop all forced removals, harassment and confiscation of goods! The interdict application, which was brought by the Socio-Economic Rights Institute (SERI) with the South African Informal Traders Forum (SAITF) as the main application, had been turned down by the South Gauteng High Court on November 27. This scandalous and clearly politically influenced judgment, which amounted to saying the City rendering 50 000 people destitute and hungry is not an urgent issue, has now been set aside by the Con Court. workerssocialistparty.co.za/victory-at-last-for-johannesburg-street-traders/ Sikhokhele NUMSA: Time for the working class to build its own party Numsa The Workers and Socialist Party (WASP) congratulates the NUMSA leadership for recognising the changed political situation post-Marikana that necessitated the calling of a special congress and for tabling an agenda that addresses the key issues facing the working class. The NUMSA leadership’s stand is a reflection of the understanding that the NUMSA members themselves have of the worsening situation in South Africa, their frustration with it, but crucially the burning desire to act to change the course of events in favour of the working class. workerssocialistparty.co.za/2013/11/ Behind the City of Joburg’s purge of street traders: ANC patronage, corruption and xenophobia Over 5000 Johannesburg street traders have been left without an income for a month – parents and breadwinners who normally get by on a hand-to-mouth basis are now facing an unbearable situation. The havoc wreaked upon street traders lives is a result of the City of Joburg’s Clean-Sweep Campaign. A project championed by Mayor Parks Tau (ANC), the ‘clean-up’ has seen Metro Police remove registered and non-registered traders alike. After over 4000 street traders from across the city marched on the Mayor’s office on October 24, and a further march took place the following day, the Mayor’s office met with street traders’ organisations and march organisers, including the Workers and Socialist Party, on October 25. Together with the South African Informal Traders Forum (SAITF), the African Traders Committee (ATC), the One Voice of All Hawkers Association and the South African National Traders Association (Santra), WASP put up a simple demand: that all traders must be allowed back on the streets. Any cleaning or improvements in the city, we are convinced, could be undertaken with the street traders on site and participating. In response, the various MMCs present at the meeting claimed they were ‘taking back [their] streets’ and turning Johannesburg into ‘a World-class African City’. While they acknowledged that they had failed to communicate with the street traders’ elected representatives, they claimed that the ‘clean-up’ is undertaken in the traders’ best interest and that it would require their removal from the streets for another six weeks. For street traders, a total of ten weeks with losses – e.g through confiscated and destroyed stock – and no income will be completely devastating. WASP as well as all the street traders’ organisations have therefore rejected this. Further mass action will be called shortly. We are also considering legal action against the City. Behind the well-meaning façade of the City Council lurk very sinister real motives. During the Sep 25 meeting, Cllr Matshidiso Mfikoe (ANC), MMC for Infrastructure, Service delivery and Environment, argued that ‘people should work where they live’. On its own, this may sound like innocent common sense. But when echoed, as has been revealed to us through a report from an ANC member who attended an ANC branch meeting at Joubert Park earlier this month, by the ANC internally it becomes clear that this is code for ruling party patronage. According to the report, the local ANC has set down that to be allowed to operate as a street trader in a particular ward in the new regime which shall be built on the ruins of the livelihoods of the removed street traders, you will not only have to be a resident of that ward but you also an ANC member. In other words, the alleged clean-up is really an attempt to crush the traders and start a process of primitive accumulation, replacing them with ruling party loyals. The same ANC meeting reportedly proclaimed that it would put ‘our people’ on the streets, and it was said explicitly that ‘foreigners must go’. These shameful attempts at dividing the working and poor people of Johannesburg are also evident in the JMPD’s approach to the ‘clean-up’, which entails arbitrary arrests against any black African who is found without carrying an ID. MMC Mfikoe also stated that ‘just because these foreigners have IDs it doesn’t mean that we have to treat them…’ Xenophobia, racism, patronage, looting and corruption – these are the pillars on which the ANC is really basing its so-called ‘clean-up of Johannesburg, and its rule generally. It is this ugly underbelly of capitalism that should be cleaned away. As JMPD officers continue to harass traders and confiscate goods, in many instances irregularly – eg without issuing receipts, pocketing goods – WASP together with the various street traders’ organisations continues to mobilise for a people-driven clean-up. It is we who live and work in the City who need to take it back. Workers and Socialist Party encourages AMCU workers to investigate corruption claims The Workers and Socialist Party (WASP) has received reports from workers at Impala Platinum over corruption allegations against their trade union AMCU (Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union) representatives on shop steward level at as well as higher up in union structures. These allegations are of very serious concern to WASP, and we encourage AMCU to set up an investigation which must not only involve union officials but also a team of rank-and-file AMCU workers, who in our view should play the leading role in examining these claims in a transparent way. Mineworkers have flocked to AMCU to escape the corruption and treachery within the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). They need a union where getting into the pockets of the bosses is not only unthinkable but also made impossible through solid, democratic structures at every level – shaft, branch, region, province and national – and a ban on privileges to ensure that shop stewards and other union officials share the living conditions of the members they are elected to represent. This is what WASP has consistently encouraged workers to strive for in taking control over the building of AMCU, as well as other unions. As Marikana made clear, the task that has been thrown onto the shoulders of workers in South Africa is to rebuild and revive the entire labour movement on the principles of worker control, struggle and socialism. WASP is not calling on the Impala management or the police to investigate AMCU or its shop stewards. We believe union officials must account to the rank-and-file members and that is the workers who must drive any investigation into misconduct. Zero-tolerance for class collaboration, corruption and anything ‘about us without us’ will be critical for the maintenance of fighting unity as AMCU takes on the platinum giants in a battle for a R12 500 minimum wage. WASP wishes the union all the best in this struggle. As always, we will be active participants in and supporters of the upcoming strike action. Thousands of Johannesburg street traders unite in struggle against Mayor’s ‘clean-up’ Over 4000 street traders from across the City of Johannesburg today marched on the offices of Mayor Parks Tau (ANC) in protest against the mass eviction of traders from the city streets as part of the Metro’s “Mayor’s clean-up campaign”. Also the traders that have not been victimised joined in solidarity in a close-down of all markets in the city. Organised by the Workers and Socialist Party (WASP) and street traders’ organisations African Traders Committee (ATC) and South African Informal Traders Forum (SAITF), the march expressed the explosive anger of parents who find themselves unable to put bread on the table, pay school fees and rent. The Mayor received a clear message: by tomorrow all traders would return to the streets, and defend themselves against police brutality if necessary. workerssocialistparty.co.za/thousands-of-johannesburg-street-traders-unite-in-struggle-against-mayors-clean-up/ Sekhukhune College campaign: join the demonstration Workers and Socialist Party and Socialist Youth Movement will lead a learners’ stay-away and march to demand the reopening of Sekhukhune College in Fetakgomo, Limpopo. At 08h00 on Friday, 20 September, learners from throughout high schools in the Sekhukhune district of Limpopo will assemble at Ngwanamala Secondary School in Fetakgomo and march to the Fetakgomo Municipality Offices to demand the reopening of the closed-down teaching college in the area. workerssocialistparty.co.za/sekhukhune-college-campaign-join-the-demonstration/ Limpopo WASP Launch Workers, Communities and trade unionists unify their struggle On Wednesday August 3rd the Sefateng Stadium in Atok was filled with revolutionary worker songs. More than 700 people had come to the stadium to launch the Workers and Socialist Party in Limpopo. Mineworkers from Bukoni and Steelport, community activists from different towns and youth sang: “Limpopo when we are united, we can do miracles”. workerssocialistparty.co.za/limpopo-wasp-launch/ Thula ‘Mntwana residents to challenge eviction Suffering as elderly, infants are stranded in the winter cold with no water, with tents as only shelter Inline image 1Several families are spending their third week out in the cold after they were evicted on July 11. The 27 people who are now stranded with tents as their only shelter include a three-month old baby, a pregnant mother and elderly people. The cold and the lack of water cause suffering not least to the children of the community. The Workers and Socialist Party is supporting the Thula ‘Mntwana residents, who are organised in the Masakhane Transformation Forum which unites several communities south of Johannesburg, in challenging the eviction legally as well as through mass action. WASP and Masakhane have formed part of the Thula ‘Mntwana residents’ struggle against the rampant housing corruption for some time. workerssocialistparty.co.za/thula-mntwana-residents-to-challenge-eviction/ Repression defeated: Liv Shange back in South Africa A victory for the whole working class On Sunday July 14, Liv Shange was able to return to South Africa. She had been threatened to be kept out of the country because of the political role she played in the mineworkers’ struggle. The Workers and Socialist Party launched the Liv Shange Defence Campaign to put pressure on the authorities against this threat. So far they had to back off and let Liv and her three children back in. workerssocialistparty.co.za/repression-defeated-liv-shange-back-in-south-africa/ Campaign for Liv Shange takes off Mineworkers strike, DSM and WASP activist Liv Shange is threatened with a deportation act. This is not only an attack against a WASP member but against the working class movement as a whole and the miners in particular. WASP launched the Liv Shange Defence Campaign and calls on everybody to sign the Online-Petition. Within two days already more than 330 people signed the Petition and declared support. (List of supporters) In Capetown activists against the Obama visit honoured Liv Shange with the Freedom of Cape-Town award. The author Don Mattera who was living many years in Sweden declared his support for the Liv Shange Defence Campaign. Member of the European Parliament Paul Murphy wrote a letter to the Ministry of Home Affairs: Dept of Home Affairs Workers and Socialist Party condemns xenophobic attacks in Orange Farm In response to an M&G Online-article posted today, the Workers and Socialist Party (WASP) wishes to put the record straight on our uncompromising opposition to xenophobia. Whilst the article represents our views on xenophobia accurately, by linking the WASP-supported housing protests in Thula ‘Mntwana – during which no xenophobic incidences occurred – with unrelated xenophobic attacks that took place in other parts of Orange Farm and nearby Sebokeng, the M&G nevertheless gives the impression that WASP was involved in the latter protests which are tainted with xenophobia. This is a matter of grave concern to us, making it vital that we be allowed the right to respond to clarify the facts and restate our role in the struggles that are currently taking place south of Johannesburg. The community of Thula ‘Mntwana is engaged in disciplined and non-violent resistance against threatened mass evictions. Neither during Friday’s protest, nor at any point in the course of this struggle, has there been a single incident of xenophobia. The communities where it is alleged that looting of foreign-owned shops took place are far away from Thula ‘Mntwana. Neither the community of Thula ‘Mntwana nor the Workers and Socialist Party has anything to do with these incidents. We distance ourselves from all xenophobic attacks which we condemn in strongest possible terms. workerssocialistparty.co.za/workers-and-socialist-party-condemns-xenophobic-attacks-in-orange-farm/ WASP launch a huge success Over 500 Tshwane workers, mineworkers’ delegates, trade union and community activists packed Lucas Van Den Bergh Community Hall in Pretoria for the launch of the Workers & Socialist Party on March 21. The hall could not accommodate the turnout and attendees over-spilled onto the neighbouring field. The launch surpassed all expectations. It is without a doubt that WASP is striking a chord with working class people. Today’s launch will have worried many in the establishment – the ANC and their partners in government, the Cosatu leadership and big business. A new power is rising. The working class are getting organised and they are preparing a mighty challenge to the status quo. The ideas of socialism are being re-embraced. The meeting was chaired by Weizmann Hamilton, the general secretary of the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM). Headline speakers included Mametlwe Sebei (WASP spokesman & DSM executive member), Elias Juba (chairman of the national mineworkers committee), Ephraim Mphahlela (president of the National Transport Movement NATAWU), Elmond Magedi (Socialist Youth Movement), Liv Shange (DSM) and Joe Higgins (Socialist Party MP in Ireland). Speakers from supporting organisations included workers’ delegates from Klerksdorp Uranium, Kumba Iron Ore in Northern Cape, Bokoni Platinum, Gold Fields KDC, Harmony Gold, Mpumalanga coal mines, Anglo Gold Ashanti amongst others. WASP will now prepare for its next phase of development. WASP will shortly announce a date for convening of a conference to establish democratic structures, a leadership and flesh out its manifesto. There are many other fronts WASP plans to open up: a campaign to re-call corrupt councillors, taking up the issue of labour broking, the collection of one million signatures in support of WASP, and preparing the ground for a general strike should the mine bosses and government dare to enact mass retrenchments in the mining industry. workerssocialistparty.co.za/wasp-launch-a-huge-success/
Posted on: Tue, 06 May 2014 19:34:55 +0000
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