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Zabalaza #13 Editorial A Journal of Southern African Revolutionary Anarchism [BCBMB[B “From each according to ability, to each according to need!” j No. 13 j February 2013 “Workers need... to use struggles for reforms, such as winning higher wages, to build towards seizing the land, mines, factories and other workplaces themselves so that they can run them through worker self-management for the benefit of everyone in society.” CONTENTS j CONTENTS: j Zabalaza #13 Editorial ...................................................................................................... 2 Southern Africa: j Whose State is it; and What is its Role? by Shawn Hattingh (ZACF) ......................... 4 j Who Rules South Africa?: An Anarchist/Syndicalist Analysis of the ANC, the Post-Apartheid Elite Pact and the Political Implications by Lucien van der Walt ......................................................................................................... 7 j All GEARed Up for a New Growth Path – on the Road to Nowhere by Shawn Hattingh (ZACF) ................................................................................................. 13 j Alternative Needed to Nationalisation and Privatisation: State Industries like South Africa’s ESKOM show Working Class deserves better by Tina Sizovuka and Lucien van der Walt ....................................................................... 20 j Get Rich or Lie Trying: Why ANC Millionaire Julius Malema posed as a Radical, why he lost, and what this tells us about the Post-Apartheid ANC by Tina Sizovuka and Lucien van der Walt ...................................................................... 28 j Municipalities, Service Delivery and Protest by Oliver Nathan .............................. 36 Africa: j Egypt: the Lost Transition and the Libertarian Alternatives by Yasser Abdullah .............................................................................................................. 41 International: j A Close Look at the Syrian Revolution: An Anarchist among Jihadists by a Syrian comrade ............................................................................................................. 43 Black Stars of Anarchism: j T.W. Thibedi (1888-1960): The Life of a South African Revolutionary Syndicalist by Lucien van der Walt .................................................................................. 45 Book Review: j My Dream is to be Bold: Our Work to End Patriarchy reviewed by Jonathan Payn (ZACF) ........................................................................................................ 47 Theory: j Linking Environment Activism and Other Struggles: An Anarchist Analysis by Warren McGregor (ZACF) .............................................................................. 51 [BDG!DPOUBDU EFUBJMT POST: Postnet Suite 47, Private Bag X1, Fordsburg, South Africa, 2033 EMAIL: [email protected] j WEBSITE: www.zabalaza.net j PHONE: +27 72 399 0912 ZABALAZA: A JOURNAL OF SOUTHERN AFRICAN REVOLUTIONARY ANARCHISM - No. 13 j 1 j EDITORIAL Zabalaza #13 Editorial Red and black greetings, comrades! t’s been well over a year since the last issue of Zabalaza comrade from the ZACF’s sister organisation in Montreal, and much international attention has focused on the Union Communiste Libertaire (UCL), in Zabalaza #14. I socio-economic problems facing the European Union. De- Locally, the South African ruling class has continued its as- spite the ravages of capitalism, and its neo-liberal form, the sault on the rural and urban working class (the organised, European ruling classes have responded, generally, with unorganised and unemployed). A range of measures have more of the same: increased attacks on the working class been proposed or implemented in an effort to alter labour and through propagating greater austerity measures, and less community laws – won through bitter struggle – that offer money spent on social welfare on the one hand, and bail-outs workers a semblance of protection from the bosses and com- and more tax breaks for the rich on the other. As is to be ex- munities a bit of say in their locales. One example is a pected, however, the European working class has not taken Constitutional Court ruling holding unions liable for property this lying down; resistance to austerity imposed from above damage during strikes and protests. Ideologically the working has been widespread. In recent months we have witnessed, class finds itself unable to buttress these challenges. Its lead- in Greece, a one-day general strike on October 18 and a 48- ers and spokespeople continue to offer tried and failed ideas hour general strike on November 6 and 7. Promisingly, and and strategies to counter economic deprivation and political for the first time in the wake of the global economic crisis of weakness. Inevitably they promote nationalism and other 2008 – we have also witnessed a common European response such reactionary ideologies, seek to promote reliance on the in the form of a general strike on November 14 that affected state. Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal, with solidarity actions oc- Climate change and environmental degradation were on curring across much of the continent. the agenda for a range of activists at the end of 2011 as South These global conditions have unleashed greater waves of Africa hosted the COP-17 conference. We look at working opposition to socio-economic and political domination. Yet, as class priorities and their relation to fights for ecological con- with protests and uprisings elsewhere over the last few years, servation and improvement, and conclude that these must be most have resulted in technical alterations at most, and not intrinsically linked to secure a better future – one of safe and in the fundamental dismantling of systems of exploitation healthy work and leisure. and domination. The sooner the working class realises that More recently, the police massacre of 34 striking mine- elections can never bring about freedom from social and eco- workers at Lonmin’s Marikana mine in Rustenburg un- nomic oppression, the sooner we can march towards a free leashed a wave of condemnation, but confusion still abounds. and equal, or anarchist society. In this issue we address the role of the state as the defender Inspired by the Arab Spring, the year 2011 was – in the of property and privilege in capitalist society. Since West at least – characterised by the emergence of a number Marikana, wildcat strikes and sit-ins have spread across the of “Occupy” movements modelled on the Occupy Wall Street platinum belt and into other mining sectors. In the Western movement. Not surprisingly, however (and with the notable Cape province farmworkers – who, together with mine-work- exception of Occupy Sandy, which played a significant role in ers, perhaps suffer the harshest consequences of the legacy providing popular self-managed emergency response and of apartheid – have also gone out on strike in pursuit of im- relief to victims of Hurricane Sandy in the United States) – proved living and working conditions and higher minimum a lot of these have by now faded away without being very suc- wages. As with Marikana and the strikes in the mining sec- cessful either in winning improvements for the popular tor, their just struggle has been met with harsh repression at classes or building sustainable movements in struggle. This, the hands of the state and farm bosses. Unfortunately at this again, highlights the centrality of ideas in the class struggle stage we cannot offer a South African anarchist analysis of and the necessity for strategic perspectives of building a rev- the strike wave that predated and followed the Marikana olutionary working class counter-power and counter-culture. massacre – for a variety of reasons. Partly we feel that the Similarly, 2012 was marked by massive student struggles significance of this period in our history and for future war- in Quebec, Canada, that also saw workers and communities rants a far deeper and closer look than was possible. Conflict- coming out in a general strike alongside students. Unfortu- ing reports and analyses continue to be released almost daily, nately, due to space limitations, we do not publish anything many of which are not drawn from honest reflection and on the Quebec students’ strikes in this edition of Zabalaza. study. However, we hope to look more closely at the strike However, we intend to publish an analysis thereof by a wave in more detail in the next edition, after the dust has 2 j ZABALAZA: A JOURNAL OF SOUTHERN AFRICAN REVOLUTIONARY ANARCHISM - No. 13 EDITORIAL j settled.These are times of oppression and uncertainty for the militant T.W. Thibedi, whose efforts nearly a century ago to working class. They have also further revealed the confusion organise black workers around class politics still deserve to and disorientation within the ranks of the authoritarian left. be remembered as a revolutionary alternative to nationalism We are offered fertile ground for anarchist agitation and ed- and class collaboration. ucation. We need to seize it! Anarchism has always stressed Such an understanding and strategic orientation, based on the necessity of directly democratic organised, coordinated critiquing both the past and present, is surely the ammuni- struggle and commitment. As such it was with great enthu- tion we need to beat back the devastation of economic oppres- siasm that the ZACF sent a delegate to the 10th anniversary sion (capitalism in all its forms, whether state or free of the Brazilian Forum of Organised Anarchism
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