[Analysis in translation] Lucien van der Walt, 2016, “Πώς ο ιμπεριαλισμός και η μετααποικιακή άρχουσα τάξη καταλήστευσαν την Αφρική: Η ταξική πάλη και η αναρχοκομμουνιστική λύση”

July 6, 2016 Leave a comment

Πώς ο ιμπεριαλισμός και η μετααποικιακή άρχουσα τάξη καταλήστευσαν την Αφρική: Η ταξική πάλη και η αναρχοκομμουνιστική λύση

From the Greek anarchist street paper Apatris, number 34, 2016 here

*This is a translation of Lucien van der Walt, 2015, “How Imperialism and Postcolonial Elites have Plundered Africa: And the Class Struggle, Anarchist-Communist Solution,” Tokologo, numbers 5/6, pp. 17-19, which is here

Citation: Lucien van der Walt, 2016, “Πώς ο ιμπεριαλισμός και η μετααποικιακή άρχουσα τάξη καταλήστευσαν την Αφρική: Η ταξική πάλη και η αναρχοκομμουνιστική λύση,”Apatris, number 34, http://apatris.info/pos-o-iberialiounistiki-lysi/

Κείμενο της Αφροαναρχικής κολεκτίβας του Tokologo (Ν. Αφρική)

Πριν από περίπου πενήντα χρόνια είδαμε την αποξήλωση των περισσοτέρων ευρωπαϊκών αποικιακών αυτοκρατοριών στην Αφρική. Τα «νέα έθνη» που ξεπήδησαν γέννησαν υψηλές ελπίδες – και βέβαια η αλλαγή από την αποικιακή κυριαρχία με το ρατσισμό της, τον εξωτερικό έλεγχο και τις εξορυκτικές οικονομίες υπήρξε ένα βήμα προοδευτικό.

Απογοητεύσεις της Ανεξαρτησίας

Παρόλα αυτά, οι ελπίδες αυτές εξαφανίστηκαν σύντομα. Από πολιτική σκοπιά, τα περισσότερα ανεξάρτητα Αφρικανικά κράτη κινήθηκαν προς τον σχηματισμό δικτατορικών και μονοκομματικών καθεστώτων, συνήθως διοικούμενων από το εθνικιστικό κόμμα, που είχε πάρει την εξουσία τη στιγμή της ανεξαρτησίας – με την πάροδο του χρόνου, ο στρατός έγινε επίσης σημαντικός παράγοντας. Πολλά από αυτά τα καθεστώτα ήταν εξαιρετικά διεφθαρμένα, ακόμη και ληστρικά, και έτσι το χάσμα μεταξύ της ανερχόμενης τοπικής (ιθαγενούς) κυρίαρχης τάξης και των μαζών διευρύνθηκε ακόμα περισσότερο.

Αυτά τα χάσματα δε δημιουργήθηκαν κατά την αποικιακή περίοδο, καθώς πολλές αφρικανικές κοινωνίες ήταν ήδη

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Filed under Africa (other), anarchism/ syndicalism, From 2010s, race and national liberation struggles, union strategy

[ANALYSIS] +PDF: Lucien van der Walt, 2015, “Imperial Wars, Imperialism and the Losers: A Critique of Certain ‘Labour Aristocracy’ Theories” (Zabalaza: A Journal of Southern African Revolutionary Anarchism)

July 6, 2016 Leave a comment

Lucien van der Walt, 2015, “Imperial Wars, Imperialism and the Losers: A Critique of Certain ‘Labour Aristocracy’ Theories,” Zabalaza: A Journal of Southern African Revolutionary Anarchism, number 14, pp. 26-28.

Also here

pdflogosmallGet the PDF here. Text below.

 

As the 100th anniversary of the outbreak in August 1914 of World War One fades, let us remember that imperialism harms all working class people – including those in imperialist and Western countries, and the white working class.

It is often said that Western workers benefit from imperialism, or imperialist profits, or that welfare in the West is funded by imperialism – but all of these claims fall in the face of realities like World War One (1914-1918). This war – between Germany and Britain and their respective allies – was, at least in part, fought for a re-division of the European-ruled colonies.

Not Their Causes
The fighting, of course, was largely done by the working class – against the working class. Those who insist that Western workers benefit from imperialism should remember the 37 million who died: the 10 million-plus soldiers, 7 million civilians, and 23 million wounded were heavily drawn from the Western working class; the others were drafted in from colonies like Senegal, South Africa and India. This followed a string of wars, including in Southern Africa, from the late 1800s, like the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879, and the Anglo-Boer War (or South African War) of 1899-1902.

It was ordinary people who formed the armies and the victims in all these conflicts; they fought in wars they did not create, driven by mighty empires that ruling classes controlled. The conquered peoples, like the Zulu and Afrikaners, fought for national independence and lost. Their ruling elites, however, made peace with the empires: Read more of this post

Filed under anarchism/ syndicalism, From 2010s, race and national liberation struggles, union strategy

[Analysis in translation] Lucien van der Walt, 2016, “Bill Andrews ed i Sindacalisti Rivoluzionari in Sud Africa”

July 6, 2016 Leave a comment

Lucien van der Walt, 2016, “Bill Andrews ed i Sindacalisti Rivoluzionari in Sud Africa”
From: http://www.anarkismo.net/article/29211#comment16268

Trans. of Lucien van der Walt, 2016, “Bill Andrews and South Africa’s Revolutionary Syndicalists,” Tokologo: Newsletter del Tokologo African Anarchist Collective, numbers 5/6, p. 24

Oggi, W. H. “Bill” Andrews (1870- 1950) viene solitamente ricordato come fondatore e dirigente del Partito Comunista del Sud Africa (PCSA, oggi SACP). In quel ruolo egli fu segretario del partito, membro dell’Esecutivo dell’Internazionale Comunista, dirigente sindacale sudafricano, visitò l’Unione Sovietica, imputato nel processo ai comunisti che seguì allo sciopero dei minatori neri nel 1946.

Tuttavia, agli inizi, Andrews era stato una figura dirigente nella Lega Socialista Internazionale (ISL) di ispirazione sindacalista rivoluzionaria. Nato nel Regno Unito, Andrews era un metalmeccanico qualificato e proveniva dagli ambienti sindacali. Dopo una breve esperienza parlamentare per il Partito Laburista sudafricano, Andrews aderì insieme ad altri radicali alla ISL rifondata nel 1915.

Nella letteratura del Partito Comunista sudafricano, l’ISL appare di solito come una sorta di esperienza propedeutica al partito, composta da solidi marxisti. In realtà la ISL faceva parte- al pari di molte altre esperienze di sinistra radicale in tutto il mondo- della grande tradizione anarchica: in questo caso del sindacalismo rivoluzionario. La ISL puntava all’unità dei lavoratori, neri e bianchi, in un solo grande sindacato per abbattere il capitalismo e lo Stato, l’oppressione razziale e nazionalista, per mettere i posti di lavoro sotto il controllo diretto dei lavoratori.

Andrews aveva lavorato Read more of this post

Filed under anarchism/ syndicalism, From 2010s, labour history, Non-English, race and national liberation struggles, union strategy

[Analysis in translation] Lucien van der Walt, 2015, “Dal Salario di Esistenza al Contropotere della Classe Lavoratrice”

July 6, 2016 Leave a comment

Dal Salario di Esistenza al Contropotere della Classe Lavoratrice

Trans. of Lucien van der Walt, 2015, South African Labour Bulletin, volume 39, number 2, pp 35-39

From here

Pur facendo parte della lotta, il salario di esistenza in sè non dovrebbe esserne il fine, bensì dovrebbe essere collegato alla più ampia lotta della classe lavoratrice per costruire quel contropotere che rovesci l’esistente struttura di potere.

IL SISTEMA SALARIALE
Il sistema salariale è il cuore della subordinazione della classe lavoratrice nel suo senso più ampio: i lavoratori, le loro famiglie, i disoccupati. Non possedendo nè indipendenti mezzi di esistenza -per esempio terreni o macchine produttive- nè potere di governo – per esempio una reale capacità decisionale- la classe lavoratrice è costretta a lavorare per un salario, per poter sopravvivere.

Anche coloro che non hanno un lavoro salariato dipendono, tramite i legami familiari, da coloro che hanno un lavoro dipendente; i disoccupati sono, soprattutto, lavoratori senza lavoro. In questo senso, la classe lavoratrice è composta da “schiavi del salario”: ma diversamente dagli schiavi acquistati dai loro padroni, gli schiavi salariati devono cercarsi i loro padroni a cui vendersi all’ora. Read more of this post

Filed under anarchism/ syndicalism, From 2010s, Non-English, union strategy

JOURNAL [+PDF]: van der Walt, 2016, “Global Anarchism and Syndicalism: Theory, History, Resistance,” ‘Anarchist Studies’

June 29, 2016 Leave a comment

Lucien van der Walt, 2016, “Global Anarchism and Syndicalism: Theory, History, Resistance,” Anarchist Studies, volume 24, number 1,  pp. 85-106

pdflogosmallGet the PDF here.

GLOBAL ANARCHISM AND SYNDICALISM: THEORY, HISTORY, RESISTANCE
Lucien van der Walt

ABSTRACT: The discussion below is a lightly edited transcription of a talk given by the author at the Ay Carmela, Rua das Carmelitas, in São Paulo, Brazil, on 2 November 2010. This article provides a global perspective on the history and theory of anarchism and syndicalism, arguing against views that treat anarchism as simple ‘anti-statism’ or a natural human ‘impulse’, in favour of the argument that the current is a socialist, working class tradition dating to the International Workingmen’s Association (the ‘First International’), 1864-1877. An international movement in intent, conception and membership from the start, it drew on a range of modernist, rationalist socialist ideas, and developed a powerful base in many regions of the world by the 1940s. Spanish anarchism was undoubtedly important, as was the anarchist Spanish Revolution of 1936–1939, but Spain provided but one of a series of mass-based, influential anarchist and syndicalist movements. Barcelona was only one in a chain of red-and-black anarchist and syndicalist strongholds, and the Spanish Revolution only one of a number   of major rebellions, revolutionary rehearsals and actual social revolutions in which anarchism/ syndicalism played a decisive role. Although public attention was drawn  by the spectacular actions of the movement’s marginal ‘insurrectionist’ wing, it was the ‘mass’ anarchist approach – based on patient mass organising and education – that predominated. The movement’s immersion in mass movements – especially through syndicalism, peasant and civil rights struggles, fights against racism and women’s oppression, and anti-colonial and anti-imperialist struggles – can also only be properly appreciated from a global perspective – one in which the movement’s rich history in the colonial and postcolonial world is placed centre-stage. The real history of the movement should not be confused with the mythological, propagandistic history of anarchism that sections of the movement subsequently promoted, centred on claims that ‘anarchism’ existed across all human history, was ‘natural’ etc.

KEYWORDS: anarchism, syndicalism, labour, anti-colonialism, Bakunin, Kropotkin, class struggle, radicalism, anti-globalisation, global labour history

p. 86
A preliminary note on terms
Please note that when I use the term ‘syndicalism’, here I am using it in the English sense of specifically meaning revolutionary syndicalism and/ or anarcho-syndicalism, not in the Romance language sense of meaning unions in general. And when I just say ‘anarchism’, I am usually including ‘syndicalism’ (both anarcho- and revolutionary syndicalism) because it’s a variant of anarchism. Revolutionary and anarcho-syndicalism, are forms of anarchist trade unionism, rooted in the anarchist tradition, constituting strategies for anarchism, rather than a separate ideology or movement.

One of the key issues that must be addressed for a project like this – a project which looks at anarchism and seeks to do so in a truly global and planetary way, rather than through a narrow focus on parts of Europe (which is how the history of anarchism is often done) – is that you have to think very carefully how you define Read more of this post

Filed under anarchism/ syndicalism, From 2010s, labour history, race and national liberation struggles, union strategy

[TALK] Message from Lucien van der Walt to the National Union of Metalworkers (NUMSA) 2015 graduate class at Wits University, Johannesburg, 11 March 2016

May 2, 2016 Leave a comment

Message from Lucien van der Walt to the National Union of Metalworkers (NUMSA) 2015 graduate class at Wits University, Johannesburg, 11 March 2016

redfistDear comrades,

It is with deep regret that I am not here with you in person – please know that I am here with you in heart and soul.

In the face of this society based on injustice and inequity, on exploitation and oppression, a society with burning national and social questions, struggle is needed.

The right to life is not given, it is taken. Every right we have, every gain we have made, has been through struggle. It is through struggle and will that we remake the world. It is by courage and love that we can stand tall.

The highest gift is freedom, and we must defend it with honour, with faith.

It is the working class alone, which can provide, through its power, its numbers, its social role, and the justness of its struggle, the force to end the injustice and inequity, the exploitation and oppression, and answer the national and social questions with justice and equality and solidarity.

It is the working class alone, which can usher in a new society, based on freedom and equality, on democracy – real democracy – where we live and work, not just through voting every 5 years. A universal human community, based on meeting needs, on ending inequality and oppression, based on self-management and freedom.

So I appeal to you, to never give up, to struggle, to fight on.

To fight and win, and, in the words of a great revolutionary, to win, but not “in order to repeat the errors of the past years, the error of putting our fate into the hands of new masters; we will conquer in order to take our destinies into our own hands, to conduct our lives in accordance with our own will and our own conception of the truth.”

It has been an honour and a privilege to teach you.

I look forward to remaining in contact, and I salute your achievements.

Thank you.

Lucien

Filed under From 2010s, race and national liberation struggles, union strategy

[NEWS] D. Sikwebu and J. Mdumo, 2011, “Opening Doors of Learning to Workers” (‘NUMSA News’)

May 2, 2016 Leave a comment

Dinga Sikwebu and Judy Madumo, July 2011, “Opening Doors of Learning to Workers ,” NUMSA News, 2011

Report on the course I co-teach, and which I helped design, and co-coordinate, for the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA), at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.

pdflogosmallGet the PDF here.

 

NUMSA class of 2010In April and June [2010], a group of Numsa worker leaders caused a stir at the University of the Witwatersrand as they walked around corridors of the uni­versity in their colourful union t-shirts and caps. A worker at the university cafe­teria who could not contain her curiosity asked one of the Numsa members whether a union conference was being held at the university. She was surprised to hear the answer. They said that they were students at the institution. Clearly, the cafeteria worker could not imagine active unionists being university students at the same time.

Eighteen Numsa worker leaders are registered with the university and are do­ing a Sociology department certificate course in social theory and research. They were on campus in April and June as part of four week-long block-releases from work. The course is part of the union’s campaign to make uni­versity education accessible to workers.

Numsa’s 8th national congress in 2008 decided that the union should actively devise ways to open the doors of institutions of higher learning and ensure that workers have access to uni­versity education. Since then, the union’s  education  department has been negotiating with vari­ous universities to implement the congress resolution. The Wits cer­ tificate course is the fruit of these negotiations. The course, equivalent to a first-year sociology module, started last year and 13comrades graduated at the end of the year. Seven of these union members are registered for bachelors’ degrees at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, Wits and Unisa.

Certificate in social theory and research
Block 1:  Debates on working class strategies
Block 2:  How capitalism works
Block 3:  Global capitalism
Block 4:  Alternatives to capitalism

“This certificate empowers us to advance the struggle of the working class. It enlightens us on contradictions that exist within capitalist society,” said one of this year’s students, Western Cape treasurer Vuyo Lufele. The course helps in heightening participants’ understanding of how capitalism works, a sentiment that was echoed by other participants. “Most of us were not aware of environmental and ecological issues,” said Ekurhuleni treasurer Gabriel Kheswa. “After the course we will not only con­centrate on production-related issues but also environmental issues.”

While this year’s intake is happy with the political nature of the course, some students in the group are still uncertain about how the course will equip them do deal with shopfloor issues. “To be honest the course is brilliant for worker leaders. The only issue is that what we have done up to now has not fo­cused on an analysis of the shopfloor,” says participant and Springs local secre­tary Leepile Khumalo. The Isipingo local secretary and national deputy secretary of the  Numsa   national  youth  desk, Khonzeni Mkhize, has a similar view. “The course is beneficial except that it should  accommodate crisis in compa­nies,” Mkhize said.

Filed under From 2010s, race and national liberation struggles, union strategy

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