Greetings from South Africa!

[Loony]

:)

[Mass Grave Aesthetics]

Welcome:)


"This guy is talking about what I have been thinking my whole life!"

I also thought that to myself occasionally when I first introduced myself properly to the works of Marx and Engels. Some things finally made sense.


Being left was never a conscious choice for me as I had never been interested in politics.

Same here. I have still no interest in politics as such, I just see the need for social change. Politics (especially in the narrow mainstream sense) is among the most boring and repelling stuff there exists to me. It´s just impossible for me to close my eyes to the contradictions of capitalism and the social injustices and instability they cause.

Have a good time here.

[Vyacheslav Brolotov]

Hi everyone!

I'm a white female from South Africa.

Getting to this site has been quite a journey! I joined a another forum about a month ago, thinking that I would come across an open-minded community but was sadly mistaken. I was tackled quite heavily be other members for that for saying that we are all equal human beings who all deserve a right for an eduction, at least basic housing, that I feel that the first 12 years of education should be free and that tertiary education, if anything, should at least be subsidized by the state. Everyone deserves at least the basic requirements for living such as water and electricity.

Being left was never a conscious choice for me as I had never been interested in politics. When I started reading a little about Karl Marx, though my husband who did a degree in sociology it was like a little light went on. My first reaction was, "This guy is talking about what I have been thinking my whole life!"

So I hope that I will be a little bit more acceptable to this community as I would like to become a contributing member without having to deal with attacks from the right.

I look forward to learning more.

:)

Firstly, welcome? :) Secondly, were you born in South Africa before 1994?

I hope you learn a lot on RevLeft and enjoy your stay!

[Loony]

Firstly, welcome? :) Secondly, were you born in South Africa before 1994?

I hope you learn a lot on RevLeft and enjoy your stay!

Yes, I was.

[Loony]

I think perhaps I should talk a little more about where I come from and why I think the way I do.

My maternal family is German and Polish. When my German grandmother married my Polish grandfather Germany took her citizenship away because she was marrying a "communist". They had my mom in Germany and then immigrated to South West Africa (Namibia). The Nationalists were still in power at that time and my mom was nearly jailed when she pelted the Nationalist politicians with stinkbombs and raised a rubbish bin up with the old South African flag.

She married a South African man but got got divorced a few years after my birth because she just couldn't tolerate the right-wing attitude any more.

My mom purposefully spent the extra buck she had to put me in a private school. Not so much for the education but because they accepted children of all races and she did not want me to experience Apartheid and shield me from it as best she could.

I was already in high school in 1994 but because my family was not political per se, it passed me by quite unnoticed. Other than that I had two weeks off school at the time of the elections because everyone thought war was going to break out.

Subsequently the ANC ruled South African government paid for my entire tertiary education, gave me a place to live and paid me a small salary to study that I could afford to buy food. I lived in the slums and know full well what is going out there.

I work in the health industry and have experienced first hand how people are exploited at the expense of another. I have seen terrible squalor and people desperately ill and dying because the state run medical facilities are shocking. The rich can afford to get well in luxury whilst the poor die lying in the corridors. The rich can go to expensive schools whilst the 13 year-old whose parents have died of HIV, is supporting her little brothers and sisters on her own without help.

There is a huge imbalance and the social divide is terrible. The middle class is becoming poorer, the poor stay poor and the rich are getting richer at the expense of others.

My conscience cannot allow me to see people live like this.

There has been progess with the new ANC government. Small community projects are taking off. It's not happening fast but its happening. Rome also wasn't built in a day.

I am not in favour of violence because I believe one cannot fight fire with fire. It's easy in the moment but one makes oneself equally guilty as those we are opposing.

That's about all I'll say for now, but if you would like to ask questions I will happily answer if I can. :)

[Prometeo liberado]

What ever happened to Joe Slovo? Welcome Comrade!!

[Loony]

What ever happened to Joe Slovo? Welcome Comrade!!

Goodness. Haven't heard of him in ages. I think he died sometimes in the 90's. Just after the elections if I'm not mistaken. :confused:

[Loony]

I know I have only been here for a day, but I must say that I am really impressed with this forum.

I will probably irritate a lot of you in the future with all my questions! Apologies in advance!

:D

[Left Leanings]

Welcome to RevLeft.

Good to have you here :)

[Yuppie Grinder]

I am not in favour of violence because I believe one cannot fight fire with fire. It's easy in the moment but one makes oneself equally guilty as those we are opposing.


I don't think many on revleft will agree with you. If you're a Marxist, how do you suppose workers would carry out a revolution if not by force?

[Mr. Natural]

Loony, Welcome to Revleft and the fray. I believe we are quite short of South Africans here, and I appreciate learning of your political realities.

I'm a Marxist revolutionary, and looking at the situation in the US, I can only see relatively nonviolent approaches succeeding in developing revolutionary approaches out of capitalism into anarchism/communism.

I look at the already massive and relentlessly developing police/surveillance state in the US and cannot see violent organizing tactics and strategies succeeding. We must be smart, instead.

Welcome! My red-green best.

[OHumanista]

Welcome friend, I hope you enjoy and learn more from your stay here.
Ask me if you need anything.

[maskerade]

Welcome!

I've been to South Africa a fair amount of times, beautiful country with some horrific contrasts - the gated communities of Pretoria compared to large parts of Soweto come to mind. Nevertheless there is a tremendous potential for far reaching social change there: shackdwellers movement and the large scale mobilizations against Mbeki's neoliberalism, for example, suggest some hope for social transformation. Great to hear you'd want to be a part of those changes!

Hope you enjoy your stay here at revleft! :)