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Volume 13, No. 24, 19 June 2014 |
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Red Alert No born frees: The struggle continues |
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By Alex Mashilo
Let's first start by asking you to allow us to quote from those revolutionaries and working class theoreticians who analysed society scientifically, and since then gave us the direction we must arm ourselves with to combat the forces of false consciousness, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels:
"The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles.
Freeman and slave, patrician and plebeian, lord and serf, guild-master and journeyman, in a word, oppressor and oppressed, stood in constant opposition to one another, carried on an uninterrupted, now hidden, now open fight, a fight that each time ended, either in a revolutionary reconstitution of society at large, or in the common ruin of the contending classes."
This analysis, that all written history of human society is the history of the epoch of classes, the oppressors and the oppressed, and class struggle between them, which is constant and uninterrupted, remains true of our society to this day. The class of 1976 fought against colonialism and apartheid. This was part of the class struggle between the oppressors and the oppressed in our country. In 1994, we defeated the oppressors. Unfortunately, not all of them. The fundamental oppressors, that is the capitalist class, remain in charge of the monopoly of economic ownership and control, and continue to exploit the working workers. In the same way as national oppression was exercised by a minority over the majority, class exploitation is exercised by a minority over the majority.
In our current day society the capitalists who are a tiny minority, own and control the wealth that is produced by the working class who constitutes the majority. In the ultimate analysis, this wealth is the socially consolidated labour of the workers, nothing less. The workers work to produce this wealth, which the capitalists heap up in the form of profit. This is then transformed into capital and accumulated under the name of the so-called private property. This capitalist private property supposedly exists independently of the workers from who it is alienated. The capitalists derive the formidable political power that they have over governments, working class and the poor, from this economic and social injustice, in one word, oppression. In fact inequality, unemployment and poverty, which in our case affect mostly the youth, are the necessary conditions, products and levers of the accumulation of wealth on a private basis. The capitalist class is the motive force and driver behind the existence and reproduction of these problems, this on both the national and the international scale based on the system of imperialism.
For so long as this regime of socio-economic and political injustice continues, there can never be anyone in our society who is said to be a born free; for so long as society is divided between the oppressors and the oppressed, and is characterised by class struggle between them, no one can be referred to as a born free.
Comrades, it is now common knowledge, given our intervention to change old order mining rights into new order mining rights, that in our country the mineral wealth beneath the soil has been transferred to the ownership of our people as a whole with the state serving as the custodian. These minerals are not mined by the capitalists. They are mined by workers. It is workers, and not the capitalists, who go underground, deep in the belly of the earth, dig, drill, blast and extract these minerals. But once these minerals reach the surface of the earth from beneath the soil, they are no longer belonging to our people as a whole. Neither are the wages paid to the workers equal to the value of the labour they expend in mining these minerals, which as things stand are predominantly exported. Still, the labour involved in this exportation, as it is in the entire production process and exchange, is the labour of the workers and not that of the capitalists. Its value is never paid to the workers. It is separated from them and accumulated as the "private property" of the capitalists.
Similarly, we also part ways with our mineral resources, whose balance in value terms is accumulated as the "private property" of the capitalists. In this sense, not only is the labour of the workers exploited, but our mineral resources too. As it is in other sectors of the economy, what remains behind is some meagre value, derived from taxes in various forms. By the way, workers pay taxes too.
There is lot of wealth that is generated from our mineral resources in the prevailing capitalist exchange regime. This includes scarcity value, which is derived from the balance of forces between supply and demand. This, too, the capitalists accumulate as their "private property". In this scheme of things, exports are lucrative. In South Africa we are subjected to buy our own minerals at international export prices, called Import Parity Pricing (IPP), as if they don't come from our country. In this way, our strategic advantage being host to the world's largest reserves of minerals in many areas is liquidated into thin air. We are as without these minerals, except in the main for the mining activity and some few beneficiation activities as others are elsewhere. In fact, those who have lot of money and who can afford international export prices, are in a better position than us in relation to our own minerals, hence they are predominantly exported to them to drive industrialisation and associated employment in their shores. Britain as our former coloniser benefitted a lot from this colonial system that it designed, and of course it was later joined in the loot and overtaken in competition by other economies in the imperialist world.
Economic exploitation as a system of oppression prevails in other sectors and is the general characteristic of our economy. There can never be anyone who is said to be a born free when we still suffer from this and the problems it has caused and continues to reproduce in our country, racialised and gendered economic (i.e. class, including income) inequality, unemployment and poverty. Even those who benefit from our exploitation cannot to be free if this means being free from classes. They are affected and will continue to be affected by class struggle until justice is achieved, that is they are overthrown. Ours, in fact, is to make sure that they, along with their beneficiaries, do not enjoy the fruits of our labour as the exploited, the unemployed and the poor without being challenged.
It is only when we have eliminated classes and class exploitation, altogether with the phenomenon of the existence of the oppressors and the oppressed, consequently oppression itself – that for the first time we shall have a society of free individuals and therefore, the born frees. In our country we are distant from this universally emancipated society. We are still suffering, in addition to fundamental class exploitation, from the legacy of colonialism and apartheid which we are yet to obliterate.
Dear comrades, the value of labour belongs to those who labour, that is the working class.
Return to Caesar what belongs to Caesar!
The struggle continues!
Collective bargaining in the mining sector
Dear comrades, in the YCLSA we have members with experience in collective bargaining. The entire organisation has a strict focus on collective bargaining as a site of struggle notwithstanding its limitations. As we all know, collective bargaining only addresses the sharp edges of economic exploitation and mitigates its impact; it doesn't do away with it.
In 2012 large sections of the media, so-called economic analysts and commentators, told us following the strikes in the Rustenburg platinum belt that workers on their own or alternatively a new union that emerged in that area, achieved a demand of R12 500 which led to the strike. This propaganda was used to campaign for the death of your union the NUM, which death, we are happy as the YCLSA, never occurred.
What happened two years later, now in 2014?
Workers in the Rustenburg platinum belt went out on a strike in January, demanding what was said in 2012 they have achieved, that is R12 500. Until now that strike is still going on, almost five months later. It is clear that the strike is about to be concluded, compared to where it comes from. Let's guard against the 2012 propaganda. Let's study the agreement that will seal the deal to find out what it means to the workers and the mining industry. We must pay particular interest whether the R12 500 has been achieved. This is because the leaders of the new union in that area said when their union emerged, that the employers wanted to give workers this R12 500 but the NUM sold out – of course this was a BIG lie. Let's find the truth in the new agreement that will seal the deal, whether there is a minimum wage of R12 500 with an increase in other benefits. As we do so we must bear in mind that it is common cause that as a series of collective bargaining rounds takes place over the years, within a reasonable period the mark of R12 500 will be reached and surpassed.
The YCLSA supports workers' struggles against the exploiters wholeheartedly. What worries us is when a section of workers intimidates, unleashes violence, maliciously damages the reproductive property of others, and in the extreme even kills other workers. We call on workers to unite! United we will win! Divided we will fall. Let's fight on against economic exploitation. For we have nothing to lose but the chains of oppression!
Alex Mashilo is YCLSA Deputy National Secretary, this is the edited version of the YCLSA message he delivered on June 16 at the NUM Youth Forum, 38th Anniversary of June 16, 1976
The Education Generation: Youth Moving South Africa Forward!
By Yershen Pillay
On the 16th day of June 1976, thousands of youth from across the country marched for a better education and a better future. They clashed with the police and in the ensuing violence approximately 700 hundred people were killed most of whom youth. Hector Pieterson was one of those brave, bold and courageous young people killed by the merciless forces of the Apartheid regime. The burning image that Sam Nzima captured of Hector Pieterson's limp body being carried while his sister ran beside him remains a permanent reminder of the great sacrifices made for all that we have today. This globally celebrated picture would later symbolise the role played by young South Africans in defeating the brutal, oppressive and unjust system of apartheid.
This year we commemorate the 38th anniversary of the 1976 youth uprisings under the theme, "Youth Moving South Africa Forward." We live in a country where 42% of the total population is under the age of 35 and young South Africans continue to be at the forefront of political activism. The Youth Development Index for 2013 indicated that South African youth are the fourth most politically active in the world. The potential for galvanizing the youth movement behind a common agenda of socio-economic development and prosperity for all is therefore immense. To address the socio-economic challenges of our country without seeking to address the challenges in the education system would not yield tangible and meaningful results in terms of overall development as the two do not exist in isolation but are in fact dialectically interlinked.
Our generation in particular can aptly be characterized as the ‘education generation' given all the time, energy and effort we spend on discussing and advancing quality education for all. Our long history in the struggle for quality education can be traced back to the 1953 campaign against Bantu Education, the 1976 youth uprisings, the 1980 school boycotts and various other demonstrations and mass protests. We have experienced education being used as an instrument of oppression during the dark days of Apartheid and we continue to shape and re-shape education into an instrument of liberation in the bright days of democracy.
Today we spend billions on improving access and success in education yet we are still confronted with the legacies of Apartheid and its policies of unequal education. The poor and rural youth seem to have suffered the most and continue to suffer from the lack of basic infrastructure combined with inadequate teachers and learning materials. This is not to negate the fact that much progress has been made in addressing the historical inequalities of the post-Apartheid education system. Today we have more than 7 million young South Africans in no fee schools receiving free education and R9.6 billion has been allocated to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme or NSFAS to improve access and success in higher education.
When President Jacob Zuma launched the NYDA Solomon Mahlangu Scholarship Fund in March of this year to promote excellence in education and encourage more rural youth to access higher education, it was of no surprise that the NYDA was inundated with thousands of applications from poor, rural youth meeting the requirements under conditions of extreme poverty. The myth that poor youth cannot excel in their studies was immediately dispelled. The story of a young lady who achieved five distinctions in a community plagued by poverty and unrest was quite inspirational.
Potlako Makua is 19 years of age and a beneficiary of the NYDA Solomon Mahlangu Scholarship. She resides in the community of Sebokeng in the Gauteng province and while most young people either complained about government or took to the streets in protest, she decided to study hard and access the myriad of opportunities available to many young people today. Potlako has always wanted to be an Astrophysicist after reading and understanding more about the profession while at school. For many in the community of Sebokeng, higher education is only but pipe dream. For Potlako, it became a reality in January 2014. After exceling in her studies she applied to the NYDA and was offered the NYDA Solomon Mahlangu Scholarship to study Astrophysics at Wits University. Today she is pursuing her passion because of her own hard work and government's support.
It is of the utmost importance that young South Africans follow in the footsteps of Potlako and start to take their education more seriously. More time and resources must be invested into making education fashionable. For every young South African, the book must be your most potent weapon for defeating unemployment and a life of poverty. The book is an instrument of liberation and prosperity. It is more important than the bottle and more powerful than the gun.
Young South Africans must spend more time in libraries reading, educating and empowering themselves for it is only through education that we can win the war against youth unemployment, poverty, inequality and underdevelopment. Let us place a higher premium on education as we seek to build a better, safer and more prosperous country. Our former President Nelson Mandela is often quoted with these famous words referring to the power of education, "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." Let's start by changing our country as we work towards ensuring a more educated, empowered and employed youth in the next five years.
Yershen Pillay, YCLSA National Chairperson, by virtue of this capacity SACP Central Committee Member, he is also NYDA Executive Chairperson, writing in his personal capacity.
