Capitalists the enemy - Cosatu

2008-05-17 20:04

Johannesburg - South Africa's working class was turning its anger against immigrants instead of the "true enemy", the capitalists, several socialist organisations said at a march held in Johannesburg on Saturday.

Speaking at the march, organised by the Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu), the letf-winged organisations agreed that foreigners and South Africans should unite against the problems of underdevelopment.

About 200 people had joined Cosatu and its affiliates at the Library Gardens in the Johannesburg CBD to protest against recent xenophobic attacks in Gauteng, the situation in Zimbabwe and soaring food prices.

While holding Cosatu banners saying "Africans United" protesters sang struggle songs and listened to speeches.

SA National Civics Organisation (Sanco) president Mlungisi Hlongwane said: "The issue of Xenophobia should end and it should end now."

'Let us unite'

He called for "man-made boundaries" of countries to be "demolished" to ensure all Africans free movement through the countries.

"Let us unite," he said.

"African people should understand that we are all brothers and sisters."

As Hlongwane spoke, South African, Ronald Rudzani living in Dobsonville said he was afraid his shack would be burned down.

"People came to my shack yesterday (Friday), saying they would burn it down.

"They thought I was from Zimbabwe, even after I showed them my identity papers," he said.

The men did not believe the papers were legitimate, Rudzani said.

In the meantime, Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front (ZACF) handed out pamphlets saying a divided working class would win nothing, but more than exploitation and oppression.

Referring to the "crisis" of housing in South Africa, ZACF said: "A battle between South Africans and immigrants over who gets the houses will only prolong the crisis."

Government blamed

The organisation Keep Left blamed the government for underdevelopment saying it had been slow to meet its promises.

"If government had kept their promises to deliver houses and jobs, then no one would be fighting over these."

Keep Left said government should have set an example "long ago" about treating immigrants as "brothers and sisters".

"They were not loud enough condemning police attacks on immigrants in the Johannesburg Central Methodist Church (JCMC)."

The organisations Spartacist, a section of the International Communist League, expressed a dissenting opinion on South Africa's underdevelopment issues.

While most organisations present supported Cosatu, Spartacist characterised the union federation as "pro-capitalist misleaders" and the ANC as "bourgeois".

"It is the ANC, SACP, Cosatu Tripartite Alliance government that oversees neo-apartheid capitalism under which the overwhelming majority are locked in grinding poverty and black people remain at the bottom," it said in a pamphlet.

Empty words of sympathy

Spartacist said ANC president Jacob Zuma had cloaked the crack down on immigrants with "empty words of sympathy", while police were regularly showing xenophobia themselves, encouraging mob attacks such as those in Alexandra this past week.

ZACF also said police were "no friends of immigrants", referring to the JCMC crackdown in the beginning of this year.

"(The police) is the force of repression that randomly takes people off the streets ... checking for ID (identity) books and papers as they checked passes under the old regime."

The marchers left the Library Gardens heading for the Checkers supermarket around noon to hand over a memorandum expressing concern about high food prices.

From there they marched to the Home Affairs office to hand over another memorandum calling for "decisive action" on the crisis in Zimbabwe from the Southern African Development Community, the African Union and the SA government.

The memorandum said the Zimbabwean Electoral Commission no longer had any credibility as the guardian of democracy and that if the proposed run-off elections would be held, there must be no further delays.

- SAPA