Army deployed in S Africa strike

[ComradeR]

South African troops have been deployed outside schools and hospitals, as a strike enters its second week.
Some 2,500 soldiers in bullet-proof vests, with automatic weapons are trying to help stop clashes between strikers and those trying to work.

Police have again fired rubber bullets at strikers, wounding three people.

The unions say they will call a general strike next week, unless the government agrees a 10% pay rise for all public workers. It has offered 6.5%.

Inflation has risen to 7%, so unions say anything less is an effective pay cut.

Most schools and hospitals have been closed, as some 500,000 public workers have been on strike.

"Cosatu [Congress of South African Trade Unions] will not allow a defeat of the public sector strike. The implications of such a defeat to workers as a whole would be devastating," the union federation said.

It said all workers, such as those in the crucial mining and manufacturing sectors, will go on a "solidarity strike" starting on Monday, building up to a "complete strike" next Wednesday.

Mining, especially gold, is one of South Africa's major export earners.

Violence and intimidation

Army medical staff have already been brought in to provide care in some hospitals to try and cover what analysts say is one of the biggest strikes in the country's history.


The BBC's Mpho Lakaje in Johannesburg says the strike has been marked by violence and intimidation with more than 20 arrests in Durban.

Some school principals have received death threats, while the government is threatening to deploy the army.

The government has increased its offer from 6%, while the unions had originally wanted 12%.

But the government offer looks set to be formally rejected later on Friday, our correspondent says.

Striking nurses had been warned they would be fired unless they return to work by Monday.

South Africa has seen many qualified health professionals leaving the country for greener pastures abroad in recent years.

Cosatu is officially a partner in government but it has criticised the ruling African National Congress (ANC) for not doing enough to raise living standards of the poor.

The ANC is due to choose a new leader later in the year to succeed President Thabo Mbeki.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6733377.stm

[Spirit of Spartacus]

It is very encouraging to see the South African working-people rallying in such a determined manner for their rights.

I sincerely hope they can continue to resist the coercion, threats, intimidation and terror of the ruling-class, and win better pay and conditions of work.

It is from these day-to-day struggles that their proletarian class consciousness will be born, and from that, the proletarian revolution.

[bolshevik butcher]

After the ebb in the movement following the end of apartiead and the ANC's victory in 1994 it is encouraging to see class struggle returning to South Africa.

Clearly the working class is wakening up to the new reality in South Africa. Although officially aparteid has ended, all that has happened is a small black elite has been allowed to join the ruling class. The contradictions of capitalism remain in South Africa, and continue to grow.

[Avtomat_Icaro]

Capitalism stays, Apartheid is still present, just no longer officially. I had to write a theoretical paper (analysing theories from various social scientists) on education in South Africa and well...not surprising but apartheid is still present.

We are therefore not only dealing with a need for class emancipation, but also the continuation of the emancipation of the African people.

[ComradeR]

UPDATE

"Strike escalates in South Africa

Thousands of public sector workers have taken part in peaceful marches across major South African cities as unions stepped up strike action over pay.
Protesters in red T-shirts chanted slogans denouncing the government's handling of the 13-day strike which has seen most schools and hospitals closed.

President Thabo Mbeki has called for an end to intimidation by some strikers.

Negotiations between the unions and the government are in deadlock, complicated by the sacking of 600 health workers.

The unions have refused the government's revised offer of a 7.25% pay rise.

Workers, who had wanted a 12% increase, say they will not go below 10%.

The head of Cosatu, the country's largest federation of unions, Willie Madisha, hailed the strike as a success.

The BBC's Mpho Lakaje in Johannesburg says thousands of workers in red and yellow T-shirts danced and sang liberation songs through the streets of the South Africa's economic capital.

Police were out in full force and curious onlookers lined the streets, he says.

In Pretoria, an estimated 10,000 people marched to the union buildings, the official home of the president, and in Cape Town workers picketed parliament.


In the port city of Durban, protesters were also out in big numbers and those businesses that had opened, shut down fearing violence, local journalist Ncumisa Vandesi told the BBC.

The nearby city of Pietermaritzburg was as empty as a Sunday, she said.

Most taxis, buses and trains services countrywide supported the strike, making it difficult for many private sector workers to get to their offices.

The 43 marches countrywide were reportedly peaceful.

Private schools in Johannesburg have also shut their doors.

There have been reports that some workers are being intimidated into striking. The home of a teacher has been petrol-bombed and pupils have been kicked out of class.

Political battleground

President Mbeki condemned such actions.


"These strikes are massively important for the South African working class

Patrick, UK"


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"All of us should ask ourselves, what kind of society we are building and what moral lessons we are imparting when insults, violence against fellow workers and damage to property become the stock-in-trade during protests of this kind?" Mr Mbeki said.

The government says it is ready to deploy troops to protect those who still want to work.

The sacking of more than 600 striking nurses has not helped negotiations, our Johannesburg reporter says.

The unions say they will not agree to anything until the nurses are reinstated.

Striking workers will have their pay docked, and the threats of sackings have been dismissed by some strikers.

"You can't negotiate by the barrel of a gun," health worker Noluthando Mayende Sibiya told the BBC's Network Africa programme.

Cosatu is officially a partner in government, but it has criticised the ruling African National Congress (ANC) for not doing enough to raise living standards of the poor.

The ANC is due to choose a new leader later in the year to succeed President Mbeki, with deputy ANC leader Jacob Zuma as a candidate.

Some analysts feel the strike is really a battleground for the various camps within the ANC ahead the election."
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6747061.stm

This is an extremely encouraging development, and here's hoping it continues to spread. Does anyone here have any more info about the situation in S Africa?

[Qabane]

Yes ComradeR, I live in South Africa. We are in the midst of an enormous battle for the heart of the 1994 revolution, which has been hijacked by large capital in the country and by a rising wealthy elite that has captured the leadership of the rulling African National Congress (ANC). The ANC is a member of the Tripartheid Alliance with the South African Communist Party (SACP) and Congress of South African Treade Unions (COSATU - with more than a million members) - but this alliance is being abused and the left are in the process of being smashed ahead of the election of new ANC leadership at the end of the year. Whenever there are elections they trot out the popular left - but after that they bring out heavy neoliberal economic policies. We have had to fight privatization, the comodifying of public services and contractionary fiscal policy.

The strikers were offered 6% percent by the Government, that they help elect as members of COSATU in alliance with the ruling party, but inflation may rise to above 7% meaning a possibly reduced real wage. This at a time when the proposed wage increases for ministers is 50% and 100% for the president.

The terrible irony is that the president, the minister negotiating with the strikers and half the cabinet are former members of the South African Communist Party (SACP) but emphasis on former. But the strikers are losing hope, the government delayed their paychecks from previous work to try and break the back of the strike. Our people are very poor and the strike is very tough to maintain. Little concessions have been made by government - but they have been rejected.

The neoliberals will lose in the end even if we have to be patient..
Amandla Awethu!! (Power to the PEOPLE!!)