Inqaba ya basebenzi Number 2 April 1981 - DISA

YA BASEBENZI
The murderous enemy strike in
(he night on (he ANC in Maputo is
an attack on all those who struggle
for liberation in Southern Africa.
This aggression goes hand in hand
with the stepping up of SADF raids
on Angola and the reinforced
military occupation of Namibia.
Yet behind the firepower of the
armoured trucks and helicopters
which spew oul their uniformed
thugs, stands a ruling class with its
back to the wall.
Threatened by the masses on all
sides, seeing the storm clouds of
resolution gathering on the horizon,
the South African capitalists grow
more divided and desperate- Faced
with the task of defending Southern
Africa for capitalism, the weakened
apartheid regime launches out in
barbaric adventures abroad.
Fur generations the capitalist class
in South Africa, sheltering under the
umbrella of imperialism, has taken
all Southern Africa as its God-given
backward.
In the merciless search for plunder
and profits, the SA monopolies
i bound up with the Western
monopolies) have spread their tentacles
as far afield as Zambia, Malawi,
Tanzania and Zaire. The obscene
wealth of the Oppenheimers has
been sucked from the cheap labour
of millions of workers across the
sub-continent. How many villages do
not know Jo'burg?
I he workers* labour has made the
Witwatersrand a powerhouse of
industry. But, in the process, (he
capitalist system has inflicted poverty
and hardship on the masses not
only in South Africa but in a dozen
surrounding countries.
This Has the case even during the
world-wide capitalist boom. Today,
with world capitalism in crisis, the
profit system can only survive in
Unite for a Socialist
Southern Africa
Southern Africa by threatening mass
famine and epidemics. A Zambian
MP declared recently that his district
was reduced to the "conditions of the
Stone Age**.
In the decades since the Second
World War, the struggles of the
workers and peasants have overthrown
colonial rule in country after
country of Southern Africa. But,
except in Mozambique and Angola,
these victories have not broken (he
rule of the profit system,
Yel also in Mozambique and
Angola the inheritance of very low
levels of production, the economic
dominance of South African capitalism,
and the attacks of the South
African regime, remain huge obstacles
to progress.
Only the destruction of the power
of capitalism in South Africa Itself
can break these chains which bind
the sub-continent, opening the way
to real control by the peoples of
Southern Africa over their lives.
Amassing wealth through the
development of industry, the South
African capitalist class could not
help but bring into being that force
which will destroy it—the working
class of Southern Africa.
The mines, farms, factories and
docks have been schools of struggle
in which anger against the exploiters
has been welded into steel determination,
and spread along a thousand
channels to the townships and
villages of the whole region.
In every country of Southern
Africa (he struggle for a better life
boils down to the struggle for
workers* rule. In the victory of this
struggle alone lies the solution to
even struggle of the masses—against
racism and national oppression;
against poverty wages and rising
prices; for land, jobs, homes,
education and health; for an end to
the pillage, rape and murder by (he
hired thugs of the SA ruling class.
Against the Motal slralegv* of the
South African bosses, the working
people of Southern Africa need mass
unity in action to realise their
common aims. We must break
through the divisive colonial borders
upheld bv imperialism.
The foundation for building this
unity is in the network of migrant
labour —the very system the enemy
has created to draw workers together
in common exploitation across the
national borders.
To mobilise now for unity is the
rcsponsibilit) of the leaders of (he
trade unions and political organisations
of the masses throughout
Southern Africa. To bring it into
being is (he direct task of every
activist.
In South Africa, the leaders and
(he rank-and-file cadres of the ANC
and SACTU must put themselves in
the forefront of this work. At every
opportunity we must raise with our
fellow -stragglers the need to strengthen
(he practical bonds with
militants in other countries.
Here lies the road (o defeating (he
South African capitalist class.
Against military, economic and
political domination by the SA ruling
class, we fight for the right of the
peoples of Southern Africa to
genuine self-determination. Against
the imperialist schemes for a constellation
of states' under the heel of
South Africa, we can set as our aim a
federation of Southern African
workers' states, expressing the real
community of interest of our
peoples.
This would raise a beacon for the
working masses of all Africa. In
unity with the whole international
working class, it would open the way
to the building of socialism.