PRESS PACK...a new power rising in the land. WORKERS & SOCIALIST PARTY Launching on Sharpeville Day 2013 WASP will be launched at a press conference in Pretoria on March 21st. Delegations from miners strike committees, miners communities and other supporters of WASP, will outline WASP s core policies, principals and future plans and take questions from journalists. Please contact WASP for the time & venue and to confirm your attendance. w: workerssocialistparty.co.za e: workersandsocialistparty@gmail.com t: 0813 667375
WASP SPOKESPEOPLE Mametlwe Sebei Sebei played a key leadership role in the mining industry unrest of 2012. He led the DSM initiative to unite the shaftbased worker-led strike committees in a national strike committee that could give decisive leadership to the miners movement. Hamilton entered politics through the Black Consciousness movement in the early 1970s. He endured two spells of imprisonment in solitary confinement, a banning order and housearrest. He went into exile in Botswana shortly after the Soweto Uprising. Continuing his political work in exile, he joined the Committee for a Workers International (CWI) in 1978, becoming a member of the Marxist Workers Tendency (MWT) within the ANC. Hamilton relocated to Britain in 1983 where he campaigned to create direct links between the emerging SA trade union movement and the British trade unions. He was part of the MWT team that discussed the promotion of socialist ideas within the NUM with then general secretary Cyril Ramaphosa. This resulted in the first visit to SA by a striking British miner during the 1984-5 British miners strike and the first ever donation to a foreign union by a SA trade union. In Rustenburg the miners of Marikana, and others voted Sebei on to the Rustenburg Joint Strike Coordinating Committee to represent the DSM. Sebei and the DSM were the only non-miners granted such an honour. Throughout 2012 Sebei gave dozens of media interviews rallying the workers to continue the fight for a living wage. Today, Sebei is WASP s spokesman and continues to participate in the miners national strike committee. From rural Limpopo, Sebei was the national president of the Pan-Africanist Student Movement of Azania (PASMA) from 2005-7 and before that vice-president of the Student Representative Council at the University of Pretoria from 2002-3. achieved in Eldorado Park since. Weizmann Hamilton In September 1994, after being forced out of his ANC office along with his team in a political witch-hunt, Hamilton joined Samwu as an organiser and was elected secretary of the Greater Johannesburg branch in May the following year. He resigned from Samwu in December 1997 after being witch-hunted for his opposition to privatisation and his opposition to Samwu and Cosatu s continued support for the Tripartite Alliance. Hamilton returned to South Africa in 1991, becoming chair of Eldorado Park/Kliptown ANC and full-time election agent during the crucial 1994 elections. Hamilton initially turned down this nomination, arguing that exile did not automatically qualify him for the role. The ANC executive he chaired led a campaign that resulted in a landslide victory. It was the only coloured township to achieve an ANC victory a feat never Liv Shange After the ANC adopted GEAR in 1996, Hamilton and the MWT concluded that the ANC would come into collision with the working class and that it would become necessary to found a new workers party. The MWT left the ANC and re-founded itself as the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM). Today, Hamilton is general secretary of the DSM (the South Africa affiliate to the CWI) and one of the founders of WASP. Originally from Sweden, Shange was an elected city councillor in her hometown of Luleå for the Rättvisepartiet Socialisterna (RS), the Swedish sister party of the DSM. Resident in South Africa for over nine years and fluent in Zulu, Shange became involved in South African politics as part of the Socialist Student Movement at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, helping organise the first demonstration demanding free education. Shange was heavily involved in the 2012 mineworkers strikes and played a leading role in uniting and coordinating the shaft-based worker-led strike committees. She is well known and respected by mineworkers across the country having addressed, in Zulu, mass meetings of thousands on a regular basis. In July 2013, in a compliment to Shange s indefatigable support for workers struggles in SA, the ANC government attempted to have her banned from the country. In what WASP is convinced was a political attack, the day after Shange left SA for a visit to Sweden, an investigation into her immigration status was announced. A domestic and international campaign supporting Shange s return forced the government to back down and Shange returned.
Where does WASP fit in the political life of South Africa? The political processes that gave birth to WASP have long been recognised by commentators, pundits and the organised labour movement... a power [is] rising in the land over which the majority black establishment (of which the NUM and the ruling African National Congress and the union umbrella The short, snappy, smart-arse answer to the question of when the alliance will split note the if not when is when the interests of Cosatu are leaders) have no influence, and which itself has little or no respect for the powers that be Business Day editorial, 2012-08-17 Cosatu s members are sufficiently divergent from those of the ANC. Stephen Grootes, Daily Maverick, 2011-12-13 It may be that it is only once the left forms an alternative political movement that the ANC will finally accept that it is now very similar to other political parties on the continent. - Martin Plaut, Who Rules South Africa?, 2012 DISCONTENT IN COSATU... As far back as 1998, a Cosatu survey of their shop stewards showed 30% in favour of Cosatu forming a workers party. In 2000 a resolution was adopted by the conference of the municipal workers union calling for discussions to find an alternative to the alliance. A 2010 Cosatu paper recognised that the organised working class is not the motive force in the ANC at this point and raised the option to start a new working class party. The Director of the Centre for the Study of Democracy s view on WASP s prospects... Steve Friedman has said that the fact that the party was emerging from an industrial conflict was an important plus in building a strong movement. But such strength would not be automatic, as the party would have to work hard if it was to have any effect. Mr Friedman said there definitely is room for the expression of worker interests outside the alliance between the ANC, the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party (SACP). But he remained sceptical about the party s prospects. Is there a constituency? Yes, in the abstract and that begs a whole lot of other questions. Does it have the organisational capacity? Can it be anything more than a locally based party? Mr Friedman asked. (Quoted from Business Day, 2013-01-09) WASP would like to invite Mr Friedman and his colleagues to attend WASP s launch in an attempt to help him answer his questions. On Mamphela Ramphele s Angang initiative... Hamilton says: I originate from the same tradition as Ramphele, the difference between us is that I have not betrayed my principles and sold out to big business. Ramphele became no less that a mine boss! I challenge Ramphele to debate what kind of party the masses of South Africa really need. For interview & comment with any of WASP s spokepeople, on any issue, please contact WASP.
WASP MANIFESTO & PROGRAMME OF ACTON Inroduction The was born out of the strike wave in the mining industry in 2012. The watershed of the Marikana massacre conclusively demonstrated the gulf between the ANC and their allies, and the mass of working class people they pretend to represent. There is no going back. The working class needs to reclaim its political independence. We need a party that can unite our struggles and champion our interests as workers. We need a party based on our struggles, rooted in workplaces and working class communities, with a mass membership. We believe WASP can be such a party. WASP will base itself on the combativity of the working class evidenced in mass workplace struggles, mass service delivery protests, and student struggles against financial and academic exclusion. WASP will be a party of struggle, of unity and socialism. WASP s five point manifesto Kick out the fat-cats. Nationalise the mines, the farms, the banks and big business. Nationalised industry to be under democratic control of workers and working class communities. Democratic planning of production for social need, not profit. End unemployment. Create socially-useful jobs for all those seeking work. Fight for a living wage of R12,500 per month. Stop cut-offs and evictions for massive investment in housing, electricity, water, sanitation, roads, public transport and social services. For publicly funded, free education from nursery to university. For publicly funded free health care accessible to all. WASP s principals We reject outright the corruption of pro-capitalist politicians and political parties. All WASP candidates for publicly elected positions whether councillors, MPLs or MPs are elected subject to the right of immediate recall. For workers representatives on workers wages. All officials elected on the basis of the WASP manifesto will only take the wage of an average skilled worker. The remainder will be donated back to WASP. WASP s programme of action We are campaigning for a one-day general strike against mine closures. We will campaign for rolling mass action across mining communities to build up towards a one-day general strike. We will extend solidarity in action with all workers and working class communities in struggle whenever the need arises. We aim to collect one million signatures in support of building WASP by August 16, 2013. We will campaign to recall councillors who do not fight for the interests of those they are supposed to represent. We will formally launch WASP on March 21, Sharpeville Day, 2013.
WASP OPEN LETTER TO COSATU MEMBERS
What is WASP s analysis of the state of the nation? THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE MARIKANA MASSACRE Marikana was a watershed. It will be remembered as the most significant event in the politics of SA since 1994. Marikana has exposed the betrayal of the working class and masses of SA by all sections of the Tripartite Alliance. Before Marikana there were discussions between the Lonmin bosses, senior ANC leaders, government ministers, former NUM general secretaries and shareholders. Marikana was premeditated and could not have proceeded without the authorisation of the ANC government. The NUM, Cosatu s largest affiliate, condemned the strikes, denounced the workers demand for R12,500 per month and described the increase won as setting a bad precedent. Workers describe NUM as the National Union of Management! Cosatu launched a hands off the NUM campaign to reclaim Rustenburg out of the hands of counter-revolutionaries. They were describing their former members attempts to fight for a living wage! The SACP condoned the massacre when commenting that s what the police have guns for. WORKING CLASS REASSERTING ITS POLITICAL INDEPENDENCE The establishment of worker-led rank-and-file strike committees in mines and shafts across the country in 2012 and the decisions to maintain them after the strikes - indicates the willingness of the working class to re-establish its political independence. Mine workers broke free from the restrictive collective bargaining system. They overthrew and evicted the NUM union from shafts for colluding with management. The farmworkers of the Western Cape used the same methods of independent organisation is their struggle which, like the miners, forced a major concession on pay. SA is the world capital of protest. These movements are just waiting to be united under one banner. The passive political act of staying away from the polls is being replaced by active intervention in politics with the establishment of WASP. STATE OF THE NATION SA is the most unequal country on the planet. This is the real result of nineteen years of democratic rule. The post-1994 era of democratic illusions is ending. Mangaung saw the ANC take a further significant step to the right. The ANC electoral base is in steady decline. In 2004, 12 million did not vote; in 2009 the ANC lost votes in every province except KZN. As long as the capitalist system continues, conditions for the majority will not improve. The ideas of socialism are being rediscovered by the masses.
About WASP WASP S LAUNCH PLANS Launch of WASP 21 March. As WASP finalises its registration with the IEC, a press conference in Pretoria will be attended by delegations from WASP s supporting organisations. Launch of re-call campaigns 1 May & 17 June. In a series of regional rallies (tbc) WASP will launch a campaign to recall councillors who have betrayed their constituents by not fighting for their interests or siding with the bosses. Launch of 2014 electoral challenge 16 August 2013. WASP will hold a rally on the one year anniversary of the Marikana massacre, laying out its plans for the 2014 elections. Where did WASP come from? On the 15th December 2012, delegates representing the strike committees and dismissed workers committees of six different mines, from the provinces of Limpopo, the North West and Gauteng, together with a delegation from the Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM), founded WASP. The watershed of the Marikana massacre conclusively demonstrated the gulf between the ANC and their allies, and the mass of working class people they pretend to represent. The working class needs to reclaim its political independence. The working class needs a party that can unite its struggles and champion the interests of workers. The working class needs a party based on struggle, rooted in workplaces and working class communities, with a mass membership. We believe WASP can be such a party. WASP will base itself on the combativity of the working class evidenced in mass workplace struggles, mass service delivery protests, and student struggles against financial and academic exclusion. WASP will be a party of struggle, of unity and socialism. WHO SUPPORTS WASP? HOW IS WASP ORGANISED? WASP is a federal organisation. It was founded by: 1. KDC West (Goldfields), workers strike committee 2. Anglo Gold Ashanti, Mponeng shaft workers strike committee 3. Bokoni Platinum, workers strike committee 4. Harmony Gold, Kusasalethu shaft, workers strike committee 5. Royal Bafokeng Platinum Rasimone (out of work) 6. Murray and Roberts Kroondal (out of work) 7. Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) WASP is in discussions with more than a dozen other organisations. As a bottom-up project, WASP cannot prejudice the democratic discussions taking place in these organisations on the question of their support for WASP by naming them publicly. Prior to the formal adoption of a constitution and structures, an interim working group has been established to guide the foundation of WASP. The group is made up of a delegate from each founding organisation and is also attended by those organisations WASP is in discussion with.