Workers Solidarity : the voice of anarcho-syndicalism l1

foreignersEvery worker must condemn attacks on

On September 3, 1998, a march organised by theconservative "Unernployed Masses of South Afriea"organisation murdered three immigrants on a train nearPretoria, The marchers were carrying placards with signssuch as "We Want Jobs, Not Foreigners", and threatenedto "take steps". These "steps" included the brutal murdersof three Senegalese: one was thrown out of a window, andhit by an oncoming train; the other two were electrocutedon the train roof when they tried to escape.Every worker must oppose this thuggery. /f is fhe bosseswho fire the workers, not the immigrants. The foreignersare workers, like ourselves. They have the same concernsas we do- so why should we murder our fellow-workers? lfwe spend our time hating the immigrants, we forget thereal enemy, the bosses who mercilessly oppress and

exploit us. The bosses are mostly South African- but this doesnot give us anything in common, lnstead of fightingimmigrants, we must fight the bosses who control the country.And in this fight, we must UNITE with the immigrants. So longas the immigrants are unorganised, discrirninated against, andterrorised by the police, they can be used by the bossesagainst other workers.It is the old game of DIVIDE AND RULE. The bosses wantworkers to fight immigrants to make the unions weak, As soonas we organise the immigrants, and fight for their basic humanrights, we become stronger, and the mighty working-classmovement for socialism grows. AN INJURY TO ONEWORKER IS AN INJURY TO ALL WORKERS,

ONE: This thing of immigrantscausing crime is a blatant lie. ln1996 only 257 Mozambicans, 65Zimbabweans and 94 Lesothocitizens were arrested for criminaloffences. And only ONE Zairianand SEVEN Nigerians werearrested for drug dealing. Thisshows that the vast majority ofcrime is by South Africans. Themain reason why immigrants arearrested by the police is for nothaving the proper papers. That is,they are arrested for not carryinga pass. This is absolutelyunacceptable in a post-apartheidSouth Africa.11lO: lmmigrants actually benefitthe country they come to. Manyhave skills or money, and creatework for other people. lmmigrantsalso buy goods in the economy, andthis helps boost the economy andcreate jobs in the industries thatproduce these goods.THREE: Foreign workers havehelped to build this country. Eventoday these workers are veryimportant to the mining industrywhich is the lifeblood of theeconomy. lt is the mining industrywhich raises money for the countryto import the machinery needed toindustry and farming. So theseimmigrants are important tosustaining the amount of jobs wehave at the moment.

FOUR: Unskilled immigrants do workfor very low wages. However, thisproblem is caused by greedy bosseswho want to sweat blood from

workers, The solution to this problemis not to attack the immigrants. lt isprecisely because the immigrantshave no rights, and are always livingin fear of the police that they arewilling to accept these bad wages. lfthey try to organise for betterconditions, then the boss threatensthem that he will call the police. lfSouth African workers also opposethe immigrants, they become evenmore vulnerable, and therefore evenmore attractive to greedy bosses. Thesolution is to organise the immigrantsinto the trade unions and fight for theirrights. lf we oppose the immigrantswe play into the bosses' hands, we dotheir dirty work of making theimmigrants into cheap labour.

FIVE: We are all workers and we muststand together. lf we are divided, we areweak. A working class united will never bedefeated. Therefore if we organise and

unite with the imrnigrants we will bestronger. lf we are with theimmigrants, all workers will benefitbecause the bosses will not be able todivide us and rule us. We all have thesame basic interest: organising tofight for a better life. We are one elassof people.SIX: On principle we must oppose allracism in the workers movement. Wemust not be like the white workers in

1922 wha went on strike against theblack miners getting jobs. Nol Wehave long fought against racism. Letus not now be racist against other

workers just because they come fromanother country or because they speakanother language.SEVEN: Workers don't own the country-the bosses do. And the government actsto help the bosses. lf we think of ourselvesfirst and foremost as South Africans, thenwe can easily forget that our real enemy isnot the foreigners, our real enemy is athorne-the bosses. We are not one nationwith one common interest- the SouthAfrican nation is deeply divided into richand poor, and to fight for a common SouthAfrican interest is to fool ourselves"South African and foreign workers mustunite againsf fhe bosses " All people shouldbe free lo go where they please, without adompas in the form of an lD boo4.

Lucien van der Walt, 1998, “Every Worker Must Condemn Attacks on Foreigners,” Workers Solidarity, volume 4, number 2, fourth quarter 1998.