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Class War and Imperialism in Greece

Class war and Imperialism in Greece

by Shawn Hattingh (ZACF)

As the crisis in Europe has intensified, class war and imperialism have deepened in Greece. Indeed, the Greek working class has been subjected to further attacks from the local ruling class – comprised of capitalists and high ranking state officials – and imperialist powers. In order to receive the latest ‘bailout’ from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and European Central Bank (ECB), a bailout that goes straight to the banks that own most of the Greek state’s debt, the Greek state was told by the German, French and US ruling classes to once again reduce pensions by more than 15%, to fully privatise public utilities, to yet again cut social spending, and to implement more wage cuts, including a 22% reduction in the minimum wage. By 2014 it is planned that the Greek state would have cut spending, mostly on social services, by a further 12 billion Euros. All of this has come on the back of earlier rounds of austerity measures and the Greek working class has been under severe pressure: homelessness has been growing at a rapid rate and the unemployment rate has shot past 20%.

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Posted by Griffin | April 12, 2012 | Categories: Articles by SA Anarchists | Comments Off

The 2012 Budget: by the Ruling Class for the Ruling Class

by Shawn Hattingh (ZACF)

Once again much media fanfare has broken out in aftermath of the South African state’s budget speech. The budget, however, is yet more proof of the ANC’s ruling class agenda: free markets, budget cuts for the poor and subsidies for the rich. From the budget and other utterances it is clear the ANC has, despite media hysteria, no interest in nationalisation. The state will, therefore, try and deal with the global economic crisis largely through business-as-usual.

The business media, however, has fallen all over itself with the news, from the budget, that the state will be spending billions of Rands on infrastructure and the development of ‘Special Economic Zones’, supposedly to create employment and help the poor to find a job. Much too has been made of the state spending over 50% of the budget on social services. Messages, from the state and the private media, and from the party leaders of the SACP and ANC, have been about how the budget is intended to help the poor and drive job creation. The Minister of Finance, Pravin Gordhan, has been presented as giving hope to the dispossessed, and as giving a helping hand to the most marginal sections of society through the budget. Since, however, the budget does nothing to remove the causes of poverty, the welfare part of the budget is in reality about providing tiny grants and propping up crumbling state hospitals and township schools.

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Posted by Griffin | March 2, 2012 | Categories: Agitate!, Articles by SA Anarchists | Comments Off

Towards a Truly Democratic Left: An Anarchist Assessment of the DLF at COP17

by Jonathan Payn (ZACF)

Failures of democracy have been a big part of the history of the DLF. We in the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front (ZACF) have had to raise such challenges several times (see “DLF structure: concerns and proposals” by ZACF). We have long been troubled by the lack of proper democratic structures, by a leadership that consists far more of middle-class intellectuals than of grassroots militants, and by a programme that seems to be determined in advance by the academic and NGO interests of these intellectuals instead of by the immediate needs of the workers and the poor.

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Posted by Griffin | December 27, 2011 | Categories: Agitate!, Statements | Comments Off

Not Another Fucking COP Out!

[Download A4 PDF leaflet here]

At the time of writing, ruling class scum (the rich, big bosses, politicians and state managers) from across the globe are hopping on fancy planes to descend, like fleas, onto the posh air conditioned Durban Convention Centre for the COP 17 meeting. In between living in luxury, posing for press pictures, attending cocktail parties, closing business deals, and flashing fake bleached smiles; we are told – by these very same ruling class parasites – that they are coming to Durban and COP 17 to solve global warming. To be sure, the ruling class scum want us to believe that they are Armani-clad superheroes who care about us and who are flying in to save us all. But hold the applause and cheers, because nothing could be further from the truth.

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Posted by Griffin | November 28, 2011 | Categories: Agitate!, Statements | Comments Off

International Libertarian Statement of Solidarity with the Egyptian popular Struggle

On the weekend 19-20th a new wave of mass protest all over Egypt broke out because of the systematic violence of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) against the Egyptian masses. People are tired of its dictatorial behaviour, the use of extreme force against protesters, the military trials that in 10 months have ended up with 12,000 comrades rotting in jail, their censorship, the torture, kidnappings and selective murder of activists. People are tired of the military council hijacking the banners of our revolution to continue the same old dictatorship through other means. People are tired of the sectarianism they promote to divert us from our real fight for justice, equality and freedom.

Imperialism has dictated an “orderly transition” to democracy in Egypt. The military have shown themselves obedient in implementing this design. The people in Egypt demand an end to dictatorship and the uprooting of all the remnants of the hated Mubarak regime. People in Egypt want to feel, at last, that they have a country run by themselves for themselves.

The anarchists in Egypt, and the international solidarity movement with the libertarian revolutionaries, wholeheartedly support the just struggle of the Egyptian people to continue their revolution and deplore the massacre of protesters that shows that the SCAF is no different to Mubarak.

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Posted by Griffin | November 25, 2011 | Categories: Agitate!, Statements | Comments Off

Tribute: last to witness Algerian anarchism, Léandre Valéro has passed away

Bigger than life, the militant and syndicalist path trodden by Valéro took him from the struggles in support of Indochinese independence to that of Algeria. From 1954 to 1956, he was also to play a pivotal role in the North African Libertarian Movement (MLNA)

Among the last of the well-known MLNA militants of the ‘50s, Léandre Valéro, died in Auxerre , France, on the 21^st of August.

Son of an Andalusian anarchist, Léandre was born in the town of Oran, Algeria, on the 12^th of October 1923. He owed to his multiple origins the ability to speak Spanish, Arabic and French, all as fluently.

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Posted by Griffin | November 24, 2011 | Categories: Announcements | Comments Off

Bourgeois Nationalists are Destabilising the Working Class in South Africa

by Jonathan Payn (ZACF)

Anarchism is an idea that stands for the reorganisation of society and the economy in order to meet peoples’ needs and not for profit, according to the principle, ‘from each according to ability to each according to need’. It stands for a world in which there are no longer bosses and workers, masters and slaves; a world in which everyone is a free worker, and exploitation and oppression have been abolished.

It was recently reported by various newspapers that ‘a “notorious gang of anarchists” with links to cash heists is attempting to destabilise the Gauteng ANC’. Newspaper articles [*] quoted ANC provincial secretary David Makhura as saying that an ANC investigation would ‘expose the hidden hand of business people who are fuelling and financing activities that seek to disrupt the functioning of the ANC’.

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Posted by Sifuna Zonke | November 23, 2011 | Categories: Agitate!, Articles by SA Anarchists, Zabalaza News | Comments Off

Zabalaza: A Voice for Organised Anarchism in South Africa

The following article was recently published in the CNT periodical
(http://www.cnt.es/sites/default/files/cnt_381_web.pdf)

The Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front, or ZACF – Zabalaza meaning ‘struggle’ in isiZulu and isiXhosa – is a specific anarchist political organisation based in Johannesburg, South Africa. It is a unitary organisation – or federation of individuals, as opposed to a federation of collectives – whereby membership is on an individual basis, by invitation only. This is because we have seen – through our own experience, as well as that of global anarchism historically – that we can accomplish more as an organisation, and be more effective, when our members share a certain level of theoretical and strategic unity, and collective responsibility.

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Posted by Sifuna Zonke | November 6, 2011 | Categories: Agitate!, Articles by SA Anarchists | Comments Off

Cleaning out super-exploitation

By James Pendlebury, ZACF

How can the most harshly exploited workers fight back against the bosses?

Cleaning workers throughout South Africa have been on strike since Monday 8 August. They are demanding a living wage of R4 200 per month, as well as a 13^thcheque and shorter hours.

Many of these workers are now paid R2 000 per month or even less, and work under the harshest conditions. The vast majority are black, and a great many are women; their supervisors are often racist and sexist bullies of the worst kind. They are frequently compelled to use dangerous chemicals, without even the protection of gloves; these chemicals can make them sick, and some have died as a result.

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Posted by Sifuna Zonke | September 14, 2011 | Categories: Articles by SA Anarchists | Comments Off

Anarchist Economics (a Brief Introduction)

by Warren McGregor (ZACF)

Comrades, this presentation covers the themes of global redistribution, economic growth of a new type, and renumeration and what these may mean in an economy based on anarchist principles. I was mandated to examine how these themes related to the two required readings for this week:

(i) Read’s Kropotkin: Selections from his Works, and
(ii) Albert’s Parecon

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Posted by Sifuna Zonke | September 8, 2011 | Categories: Articles by SA Anarchists, Various presentations etc. | Comments Off