Farm workers in South Africa are currently on strike to demand higher wages and the right to organise in the face of a programme of suppression and intimidation by the predominantly white farm owners and in defiance of the political and Trade Union establishment.
North London Solidarity Federation reproduce a powerful statement by Ayanda Kota - a member of the militant South African shack dwellers organisation, Abahlali baseMjondolo, in protest at the murder of 45 striking miners by the South African police force and the role played by the ruling ANC party (once presided over by Nelson Mandela) in allegedly facilitating the police to carry out such acts of violence.
If you wish to express your anger at this, consider phoning the South African embassy in London at 0207-451-7299 and emailing them at london.general@dirco.gov.za .
Politics is the art of
governing mankind by deceiving them.
Benjamin Disraeli
One of the defining tenets setting libertarian socialism apart from authoritarian political traditions of both left and right, is an unshirking commitment to the principles of direct democracy. This is the means advocated by anarchists for exercising and enabling genuinely participative decision making in all domains of human life. Rejecting hierarchical organisation, we argue that both parliamentary “democracy” and totalitarianism have the same intensions – to maintain the distinction between leaders and led, rulers and ruled. Both, in the final analysis, are designed to ensure our passive acceptance of a system that oppresses us.