FOR MILITANT WORKING CLASS ACTION IN DEFENSE OF NAMIBIAN MINE WORKERS’ LEADERS! CAPITALISM MUST BE SMASHED FOR WORKERS TO SURVIVE!
The following statement is from the Revolutionary Workers Group of Zimbabwe (Section of the International Leninist Trotskyist Tendency) and was read at the International Labor Solidarity Committee for the Namibian Miners speakout at the San Francisco Chinese Consulate on May 19th:
In September last year the Chinese state owned enterprise, China National Nuclear Corporation Rössing Uranium Limited (CNN/RUL) fired nine union leaders who belonged to the Namibia Mineworkers Union Rössing Branch for organising workers to resist the attacks on the workers conditions of service which would result in a worse off situation for the mine workers. The new Chinese mine owners, who bought the mine from Rio Tinto, demanded that the workers make concessions on their health benefits in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic. They also undermined the working conditions of the Namibian workers by improperly bringing in Chinese workers working long and dangerous shifts. In so doing, they were reneging on their promise to abide by the union contract and the national labour laws. The company even went to the extent of attempting to bribe the Rossing Mine union Chairman and leadership.
The dismissal of the union leaders is not accidental. It is a direct response by the Chinese imperialist bosses, just as their western counterparts have made, to the global and structural capitalist crisis made worse by the Covid-19 pandemic. The crisis demands that the bosses shift the burden of paying for the crisis to the workers through attacks on their working conditions and wages. The unlawful and unprocedural dismissal of the entire branch executive shows how far the bosses are willing to go to protect their profits at the expense of workers. This is not peculiar but a necessary expression of the nature of class antagonisms and tasks. The workers, poor peasants, urban poor, poor youths and unemployed must realise this and respond accordingly.
The Revolutionary Workers Group of Zimbabwe (RWG-Z), the Zimbabwean section of the International Leninist Trotskyist Tendency (ILTT), demands the reinstatement of the dismissed union leaders without loss of income. We further demand that the Chinese bosses honour the union contract and national labour laws. We fully support the solidarity actions across the globe in support of the fired union leaders and the workers they lead being organised by the United Front of workers unions and worker’s organizations across the globe. Reliance on the rule of law and adherence to bourgeois law alone ultimately leads to defeat and demoralisation. Class struggle methods must be utilised. Organised militant mass action, leading to a general strike, which is organised and defended by the ordinary working masses, is a must if our class is to conquer its interests through smashing capitalism.
Internationalist Workers oppose all nationalist chauvinism against immigrant workers and nationalities. Workers in semi-colonies like Namibia and Zimbabwe are being played as pawns in the Great Game between competing imperialisms whose wrestling matches for control of the resources and labor around the world are the lead up to inter-imperialist wars. We call on workers in the various imperialist countries to unite with the workers of the world for permanent revolution against imperialist war and to always speak out and act on the understanding that your main enemy is your own ruling class!
Reinstate immediately all dismissed union leaders without loss of benefits!
-Stop the victimisation and persecution of workers and their leaders!
-For the full right to strike, protest, assemble and expression!
-Organize immigrant workers into local unions -same work same contract!
-For survival, workers need to assert control of all PPEs and use masks at work and in street actions, strikes and assemblies!
-A living Wage! Workers fight for a living wage and better working conditions through mass action controlled by ordinary workers!
-Against unemployment and destitution we demand a sliding scale of working hours to provide decent jobs for all through massive public works programs to provide housing, education and medical care for all!
-Against the ever rising prices and inflation we demand a sliding scale of wages!
-For free, comprehensive and secular education for all!
-For free quality health for all!
-Workers take back your unions!
-Organise the unorganised! Form unions of the unemployed as fully affiliated unions!
-Militant workers to form class struggle caucuses in the unions to fight for this program!
-Workers to form strike committees to lead the resistance to the growing attacks on the wages and working conditions of the poor and the livelihood of the majority poor!
-Workers to form workers defence guards for defence against state and bosses violence!
-A national strike committee to organise and plan for a general strike!
– For a workers government on the basis of the armed people to implement decisions that benefit the workers and the poor!
-Nationalisation of all companies without indemnification to the big shareholders under workers control!
-Land to be distributed to all poor peasants together with a state bank to provide inputs to all small farmers!
-A workers state that defends workers, peasants and the poor masses against the local and foreign capitalists!
-An African socialist revolution as part of the international revolution that alone can guarantee a better life for all!
-A new WORLD PARTY of socialist revolution based on the TRANSITIONAL PROGRAM of 1938 to lead the revolution to end capitalism and open the road to socialism!
Revolutionary Workers Group of Zimbabwe (Section of the International Leninist Trotskyist Tendency)
15 April 2021
Harare, Zimbabwe
