En Passant

In September 1993 Mandela made a remarkable speech to trade unionists. He declared, “How many times has the liberation movement worked together with workers and then at the moment of victory betrayed the workers? There are many examples of that in the world.

“It is only if the workers strengthen their organisation before and after liberation that you can win. If you relax your vigilance you will find that your sacrifices have been in vain.

“You just support the African National Congress only so far as it delivers the goods. If the ANC government does not deliver the goods, you must do to it what you have done to the apartheid regime.”

Once more Mandela had courageously told the truth.We mourn his passing. We remember his great sacrifice. The struggle goes on.

The death of Nelson Mandela closes the life of a heroic resistance figure who devoted his very being to the struggle against apartheid even though this came at immense personal cost writes Tom Bramble in Red Flag.

Mandela was, also, however, the saviour of South African capitalism, which condemned so many of his countrymen and women to continuing terrible hardship even after the destruction of the apartheid regime.

The best way to remember the murdered workers would be to build stronger opposition to the mine bosses—and to the ANC leaders who back them.

There is something truly inspiring about seeing thousands of mostly black South Africans blockading roads and hurling rocks at police in Soweto, Johannesburg, again, writes Ben Hillier in Socialist Alternative. In the same district that saw the historic June 1976 uprising, which was the beginning of the end for apartheid, dissent and rebellion is once […]

 There are strikes or threatened action in the following sectors in South Africa: Gold, Platinum, Coal, Municipal workers, Paper and Chemicals, Rail, Communications, Doctors, the SABC.  Couple this strike wave with the first recession since the downfall of apartheid and the anger in the townships over the conditions people are forced to live in and the situation […]

Claire Ceruti, the editor of Socialism from Below magazine in South Africa, spoke to Ken Olende from the UK paper Socialist Worker about the significance of the general election this week. The article was written in anticipation of the election and contains a good class analysis. Why is this election causing so much excitement in South […]