Refugees are welcome here day of action Saturday 12 September

Refugees are welcome here - National Day of Action Saturday 12 September 2015,

London details - assemble 12pm, Assembly point Marble Arch 2pm Rally,Downing Street

National day of action, Called by Stand up to Racism, BARAC, Stop the War Coalition, Migrant Rights Network  War on Want, Peoples Assembly Against Austerity, Unite Against Fascism, Movement Against Xenophobia, Love Music Hate Racism and Black Out London
 https://www.facebook.com/events/1629390697300657/

Miners Shot Down - commemorating the Marikana massacre

 

Remembering Marikana - Friday 14 August 2015

On 16 August 2012 South African police opened fire with live ammunition on thousands of striking platinum miners at Lonmin’s Marikana mine in the North West Province of South Africa. One hundred and twelve miners were shot and of those 34 died. The actions of police at Marikana were reminiscent of the apartheid era - Sharpeville in 1960 and Soweto in 1976 - where black people were shot for protesting. The Farlam Commission of Enquiry which was set up to investigate these killings ...largely absolved the police, the state, and Lonmin of any responsibility for this event. To date the families of the miners killed at Marikana have received no compensation.

What made the events at Marikana so shocking is that these killings took place under the auspices of a democratic, post-apartheid state with one of the most progressive constitution and bill of rights in the world. These killings are part of a growing trend of violence by the state toward non-violent protest and dissent in South Africa. The increasingly authoritarian tendencies of the South African state are retrogressive. These tendencies are undemocratic and threaten the right to free expression and legitimate protest.

The struggle to end Apartheid was long and hard. Many people gave their lives to this struggle. Don’t let the deaths of the Marikana mine workers be in vain. Join War on Want to remember the miners and their families

Programme:

• 19:00 Opening Address by War on Want and representative from UNITE the Union
• 19:10 Screening of Miners Shot Down
• 20:10 Marikana: The Aftermath by James Nichol
• 20:30 Q&A with film maker, Rehad Desai

Book your tickets here

Read Ken Olende's piece about the cover up of the South African state here

Terence Ranger and Mike Marqusee

I was very sorry to read of the recent passing of both the English historian of colonial Africa Terence Ranger and also the American socialist journalist Mike Marqusee. There is a fascinating interview with Ranger about his life and work here while I once engaged with some of Marqusee's ideas on cricket on my blog here.  Both of them were thoughtful democrats and humanist thinkers who made important contributions to the fight against racism and imperialism over the course of their lives - and who could be counted on to side with the oppressed and exploited.  They will be missed - and my condolences to their friends and comrades.

Resist the racist offensive against Muslims

As well as Hassan Mahamdallie on levels of Islamophobia before the horrific Paris attacks (in this month's Socialist Review), see this week's  Socialist Worker for the anti-racist arguments more necessary now than ever to challenge the rising racist backlash underway - while there is also some useful commentary on Charlie Hebdo itself here, here and for some essential historical background see Robert Fisk - while on a related point Jim House and Neil MacMaster's work, Paris 1961: Algerians, State Terror and Memory recovers some of hidden history of another Paris massacre - one which saw 200 Algerian protesters killed by the police in Paris.

Nelson Mandela's words remain weapons

“How many times has the liberation movement worked together with workers and then at the moment of victory betrayed the workers? There are many examples of that in the world. It is only if the workers strengthen their organisation before and after liberation that you can win. If you relax your vigilance you will find that your sacrifices have been in vain. You just support the African National Congress only so far as it delivers the goods. If the ANC government does not deliver the goods, you must do to it what you have done to the apartheid regime.”
Nelson Mandela to South African trade unionists, September 1993. RIP Nelson Mandela.

Quick Xmas quiz question: Who was David Lammy, a black Labour MP, talking about in 2007 when he said this: 'I feel very strongly that he follows in the tradition of Nelson Mandela who talked about peace and reconciliation'. For a reminder of the shocking truth read here.

Stop the War protest on 15 February

Friday 15th February protest: 
Stop Western Intervention in Syria - Western Troops Out of Mali

The war on terror is in danger of spreading once again, with continuing threats of increased intervention in Syria, the ongoing war in Mali and a possible attack on Iran. Join us to say Stop Western intervention in Syria, Western troops out of Mali, Stop the spread of War.

• Tomorrow, Friday, 5.30pm
  
• Opposite Downing Street on Whitehall, London
• Share the Facebook event with your contacts
• Call 020 7561 9311 or email office@stopwar.org.uk for more information

New book on Marikana

MARIKANA: A View from the Mountain and a Case to Answer

by Peter Alexander, Luke Sinwell, Thapelo Lekgowa, Botsang Mmope and Bongani Xezwi

 

The Marikana Massacre in August 2012 involved the largest number of killings of South African civilians by the security forces since the end of apartheid.  Those killed were mineworkers who were on strike for a living wage and were simply demanding the right to speak with their employer when the police attacked.

The core of Marikana is a series of interviews conducted with workers who were present at the massacre. In addition, the book includes a narrative of the strike and the massacre, written from the perspective of the strikers; an analysis of context and political significance; and a list of all those who died at Marikana. The book also includes 5 maps and 14 photos.

"The book is an attempt to provide a bottom‐up account of the Marikana story, to correct an imbalance in many official and media accounts that privilege the viewpoints of governments and business, at the expense of workers.”
Prof Jane Duncan

, Highway African Chair of Media and Information Society, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa

“The Marikana massacre marked a watershed in the history of South Africa since the end of apartheid. In what may prove a classic work of engaged scholarship, this book helps the strikers themselves speak and be heard.”

Alex Callinicos, Professor of European Studies, King's College London

 

“No amount of capitalist brutality will deter our cause for a living wage. Workers should read this book about the struggle at Marikana.”

Joseph Mathunjwa

, President, Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union

 

Available from Bookmarks - see here

New Book: The Amistad Rebellion

 


















THE AMISTAD REBELLION: An Atlantic Odyssey of Slavery and Freedom
By Marcus Rediker
ISBN: 9780670025046

On June 28, 1839, the Spanish slave schooner Amistad set sail from Havana on a routine delivery of human cargo. On a moonless night, after four days at sea, the captive Africans rose up, killed the captain, and seized control of the ship. They attempted to sail to a safe port, but were captured by the United States Navy and thrown into jail in Connecticut. Their legal battle for freedom eventually made its way to the Supreme Court, where their cause was argued by former President John Quincy Adams. In a landmark ruling, they were freed, and eventually returned to Africa. The rebellion became one of the best-known events in the history of American slavery, celebrated as a triumph of the legal system in films and books, all reflecting the elite perspective of the judges, politicians, and abolitionists involved in the case. In this powerful and highly original account, Marcus Rediker reclaims the rebellion for its true proponents: the African rebels who risked death to stake a claim for freedom.

Using newly discovered evidence, Rediker reframes the story to show how a small group of courageous men fought and won an epic battle against Spanish and American slaveholders and their governments. He reaches back to Africa to find the rebels’ roots, narrates their cataclysmic transatlantic journey, and unfolds a prison story of great drama and emotion. Featuring vividly drawn portraits of the Africans, their captors, and their abolitionist allies, he shows how the rebels captured the popular imagination and helped to inspire and build a movement that was part of a grand global struggle between slavery and freedom. The actions aboard the Amistad that July night and in the days and months that followed were pivotal events in American and Atlantic history, but not for the reasons we have always thought.

The successful Amistad rebellion changed the very nature of the struggle against slavery. As a handful of self-emancipated Africans steered their own course to freedom, they opened a way for millions to follow. This stunning book honors their achievement.

Marikana Support Campaign Appeal

Marikana Support Campaign 

An Urgent Call for International Solidarity

On the 16^th August, South African Police fired live ammunition at striking miners at Lonmin’s Marikana mine, killing 34 and injuring 78. Many were killed were shot at close range while trying to surrender. The Marikana miners were demanding a tripling of their salary to R12,500 (£950 or €1100) per month.   

In the following days, 270 of the Marikana strikers were arrested and charged with the murder of their colleagues under the Common Purpose doctrine, a law last used under Apartheid. They were released on bail after public pressure forced the National Prosecuting Authority to provisionally drop the charges. Since the massacre the community of Marikana has lived under a virtual State of Emergency, with police patrols, raids and reports of unlawful arrests and harassment. Over half of the Lonmin Strike Committee due to testify before the Commission of Inquiry have been over the past days charged with murder.

To date not one police officer or official has been charged for the massacre at Marikana. Yet some of the miners still face the prospect of long prison sentences as the State intends to blame the miners themselves for the violence. Most of the miners who were killed and badly injured in Marikana were sole breadwinners and the loss of their earnings has left many of their dependents in a desperate situation.

The Marikana Lonmin miners secured a 22 percent pay rise. It was short of the R12,500 demand but the deal was hailed as a victory. What the miners have actually done is fight a brave fight for a living wage. They have drawn public attention to the gap between the wages of mine workers and platinum and gold sector bosses, many of whom earn 1000 times more than the average miner. The massacre and the victory have inspired strikes in other mines across the country. The Marikana Support Campaign has been endorsed by the various strike committees and this has raised the demand for campaign material.  

What the Campaign has achieved so far

The campaign and legal representatives have kept vigilant watch on the State sponsored Farlam Commission of Inquiry, pushing for transparency and forcing a postponement to ensure the presence of families so that the restorative objective of the commission can be met more effectively. In addition the campaign has organised legal representation for twenty six of the families, paid for a private forensic pathologist, kept close watch on biased media reporting and offered alternative analysis, mobilised for practical support and resources for the families of the strikers, organised placard protests of the inspection of the killing site as well as nationwide pickets and demonstrations demanding an end to police harassment and intimidation of the Marikana community, brought large numbers of people to Marikana to bolster locally organised protests and to attend strike and community meetings, produced campaign materials, badges, leaflets and T-shirts etc; organised striker and community representative speaking tours in cities and townships across the country.

All of this costs money. In the coming months we need to increase the pressure on the Farlam Commission of Inquiry through a coordinated national and international campaign that presses for a just outcome for the Marikana families of the deceased, the scores injured, and hundreds arrested.

Account Name: HRMT 1 for Marikana Support Campaign

Bank: Nedbank   

Branch: Constantia

Branch Code: 101109

Account No: 1011102366

Reference: Marikana Support Campaign

SWIFT: NEDSZAJJ

  

The Marikana Support Campaign is supported  by many organisations including: Amnesty International SA, Centre for Applied Legal Studies, Advocates For Transformation Centre for Study of Violence and Reconciliation, Equal Education Law Centre, Human Rights Media Trust, Lawyers for Human Rights, Legal Resources Centre, RAITH Foundation, Right To Know, Section 27, Social Justice Coalition, Socio-Economic Rights Institute, Treatment Action Campaign, Association of Mineworkers and Construction Union, National Council of Trade Unions, Marikana Development Forum, Wonderkop Women’s Group, Wonderkop Tribal Council, Alternative Information Development Centre, Soweto Concerned Citizens.

New issue of Revolutionary History

The latest edition of Revolutionary History is now available to order:

European Revolutionaries and Algerian Independence, 1954-1962

This summer will mark the fiftieth anniversary of Algerian independence. Anyone who has seen the film Battle of Algiers may well see certain clear parallels between past events and the present: “terrorism”, torture, organising anti-war activity in workplaces and the armed forces, attitudes to a Muslim-led nationalist movement, etc. Both the similarities to and the differences from the current situation are instructive. The war remains a question of current interest in France, and full information about the role of the French state, notably in the October 1961 massacre, has only recently been available. The book considers the course of Algerian War 1954-1962, and the response of the French left. It will give the fullest account in English of the role of the revolutionary left in giving political and practical solidarity to the Algerian liberation struggle. It presents substantial extracts from Sylvain Pattieu’s, Les camarades des frères (Paris 2002), and will gives the fullest account of the role of Trotskyists in this period, drawing on documents and interviews with participants. An Appendix considers how the war has been reflected in fiction.

Contents: Introduction, Translation of Sylvain Pattieu: The Comrades Of The Brothers, Chapters 3-6, with summaries of the other chapters. Additional documents: Article by Lambert, 16 December 1955; Article by Lambert, 17 October 1957; Note on the Comité pour la Libération de Messali Hadj ; Review from Lutte Ouvrière, 22 December 1979, of Les Porteurs de valises; Extract from a text presented at an Lutte Ouvrière public meeting in March 1985; Socialisme ou barbarie; Interview with H & C Benoîts; Letters from La Vérité des travailleurs, October 1955, on conscript resistance; Article from Vérités Pour on Lenin and desertion; Article from Vérités Pour on desertion; The MNA; The role of François Mitterrand; Austria; John Baird; Report to North African Interfederal Communist Conference 1922; Reply by Hadjali 1923; Reply by Robert Louzon 1923; Algeria and 1968; Bibliography; Appendix on fiction; Cover illustrations from woodcuts of Otto Rudolf Schatz Other Contents: Work in Progress, Obituaries, Reviews. Letters.

Market: General, Undergraduate and Post-graduate; Student Reading List; Library Keywords: Colonialism, Anti-colonial struggles, Left, France, Algeria Bic: HBTQ, HBTV, JPFF, 1DDF, 1HBA 234x156 mm; approx. 410pp ISSN 0953 2382 Pbk ISBN 978 0 85036 665 5 GB Pounds £20.00

Edited to add: Ian Birchall, editor of this volume of Revolutionary History will be speaking about 'European Revolutionaries and Algerian Independence' at Marxism 2012, which will also see another meeting - 'Celebrating the 50th anniversary of Algerian independence' with Samir Amin, Ian Birchall & Hamza Hamouchene

Leo Zeilig on Frantz Fanon

Frantz Fanon by David Macey who sadly passed away this year

Leo Zeilig, author of a forthcoming study Frantz Fanon: The Militant Philosopher of Third World Liberation remembers the life and work of Frantz Fanon one of the greatest anti-colonial revolutionary humanists of the twentieth century, the Caribbean intellectual who went to fight for the Algerian Revolution, and who died fifty years ago this month. Zeilig concludes:

Today revolutionary change has shifted again to North Africa. We should once more return to Fanon for his extraordinary insights into revolutionary change and his insistence on waging a relentless battle against the "caste of profiteers" who seek to control and break our movements...

London protest in solidarity with Zimbabwean socialists

From here:

Please join the protest outside the Zimbabwean embassy this Friday 11 March, 12 noon – 1.30pm, Zimbabwe Embassy, 429 Strand, London, WC2R 0JR.

Six socialist activists in Zimbabwe face the death penalty for watching a video about the revolt in Egypt. Munyaradzi Gwisai, Hopewell Gumbo, Antonater Choto, Welcome Zimuto, Eddson Chakuma and Tatenda Mombeyarara are charged with treason. Treason is punishable by death.

Charges against another 39 people who attended the meeting were dropped this week.

A new website has been set up for the Free the Zimbabwean Treason Trialists campaign. Go to www.freethemnow.com

The campaign urgently needs money. Make payments to:

Account: CDL– MINE-LINE Worker Solidarity Fund,
Deposit reference “Zimbabwe Treason Trialists Solidarity Fund”,
NEDBANK, Killarney Branch, Johannesburg.
Branch code: 191 60535,
Current Account number: 100 185 3784,
SWIFT CODE NEDSZAJJ

When you make a donation please email us at zimtreasontrial@gmail.com to tell us who it is from and how much it is

Solidarity with Zimbabwean Socialists

As the Libyan people continue their heroic fight for democracy, out of the spotlight plenty of other dictatorships are now clamping down hard on dissent before the wave of revolution spreads to them - in Zimbabwe for example members of the International Socialist Organisation are currently in detention facing a possible death sentence for treason - and some have been tortured for trying to “organise, strategise and implement the removal of the consitutional government of Zimbabwe...the Egyptian way.”

Rush messages of protest against the arrests

Solidarity with the Tunisian Revolution

'If, one day, a people desires to live, then fate will answer their call.' - Abul-Qasim Al-Shabi, the great early 20th century Tunisian poet whose statement adorns this new solidarity T-shirt from Philosophy Football. There is extensive excellent coverage of the Tunisian Revolution, easily the most exciting and important 'regime change' to happen this year so far on, among other places, Lenin's Tomb.

The Literary Trotskyism of Stieg Larsson

Basically, it seems the late Swedish novelist was a bit of a legend politically, and not just for his anti-fascism...

New book on Malcolm X

Malcolm X: Visits Abroad April 1964-February 1965
By Marika Sherwood

Malcolm X (El-Hajj Malik El-Shabazz) after a troubled childhood and imprisonment, became a Muslim on his release in 1952. A gifted speaker he became the major preacher and national spokesman for the Nation of Islam, indicting white America in the harshest terms for its crimes against African Americans. But tension between Malcolm X and Elijah Muhammad, head of the Nation of Islam, led to Malcolm X's resignation in March 1964. He now made the pilgrimage to Mecca, became a Sunni Muslim and disavowed racism. While he had crisscrossed the USA many times for the NOI, Malcolm now travlled widely in the Middle East and throughout Africa, and also paid a number of visits to England and France, addressing Muslim, student and political organizations.
An erudite man of great charisma and intelligence, he was a national and international figure when he was assassinated in New York on 21 February 1965.
This book is an introduction to Malcolm's travels in Africa, Europe and the Middle East, taken from his travel Notebooks, autobiography, FBI papers and local newspapers.

ISBN: 978-0-9519720
Special sale price £5
Email Savannah Press: savannah@phonecoop.coop.

Marika Sherwood will be launching her fascinating book - which among other things has details of Malcolm's visits to not just the London School of Economics and Oxford University but also Birmingham, Sheffield and Manchester - at a Black and Asian Studies Association seminar on Tuesday, September 14 (room G37) at 6pm, Senate House, University of London, Russell Square, London WC1. Everyone is welcome - for more info see here.

Kick over this statue

The legendary 1980s band The Redskins once had a hit of sorts with a song entitled 'Kick Over the Statues' - not a bad sentiment, particularly in a country like Britain where one does not have to look too far for statues honouring various bloodsoaked ruling class 'heroes' - as chronicled by the late Colin Gill and Leon Kuhn in their marvellous little book Topple the Mighty.

It is therefore encouraging to see that a campaign has sprung up in the North East Welsh town of Denbigh against plans to build any new sculpture to pay tribute to a local ruling class 'hero', a particularly brutal imperialist adventurer HM Stanley, of 'Dr Livingstone, I presume?' fame and a central figure in the late nineteenth century European 'scramble for Africa'. As the campaigners letter of protest notes:

'We call on the people of Denbigh not to erect any statue to 'honour' the imperialist HM Stanley. A statue would convey uncritical approval and celebration of all aspects of Stanley - something not possible for such a controversial figure today. It is wrong to romanticise the African "adventures" of Victorian era imperialists. The racist ideas of the day led to hundreds of thousands of Africans being killed or mistreated - Europeans believing that their supremacy entitled them to confiscate land and exploit natives and resources.'

The nineteenth century diarist, W.S. Blunt, once recorded the following note after reading Stanley's autobiography, which gives some indication as to why Stanley became such a racist barbarian after arriving in Africa:

'Stanley, before going to Africa, though ill-bred and ill-educated, was a decent working man with a modest opinion of himself and a good heart, but the position he found himself in in Africa filled him with the usual idea of being the representative of a superior race, with right of command over the people of the country he was travelling through, and little by little he got into the way of shooting them if they did not obey his orders, or provide him with food. All of his later writing is an attempt to show that he had a high motive in excuse for these violences, the cause of Christianity, civilisation and the rest, till he became a contemptible humbug.'

Invictus

I went to see Clint Eastwood's Invictus the other day. I haven't got a great deal to say about it, and what I do have to say will certainly be way too soft - for a serious Marxist critique see the piece by Louis Proyect - but for someone for whom the 1995 Rugby world cup was a distant schoolboy memory, and at the time almost certainly an event viewed purely as a dramatic sporting spectacle (and I fear, probably if supporting onyone, then supporting the England side of if I remember rightly Will Carling and Jeremy Guscott - these being my 'pre-Marx' days) it was a little enlightening. Moreover, given Michael Moore's new film is going to be bloody hard to track down at the British box office, it ain't a bad film to see (though if you can still catch it, definitely check out A Prophet). The heady mix of race, sport and politics which runs throughout Invictus put me a little in mind of such epics as Escape to Victory, and while perhaps coming close to being a tiny little bit grating in one or two places, its gentle, liberal anti-racist message is timely at a time when fascist parties in Britain are standing on a programme and propagating policies rather akin to those in apartheid South Africa. For a sense of contemporary South Africa, with its grotesque inequalities and poverty, on film, one is much better off seeing a film like Tsotsi, while something of the power and glory of the anti-apartheid liberation struggle is captured in Amandla!.

Free Nelson Mandela

Though I was a little too young to really remember the occasion myself, and indeed my only real connection to the man himself was being part of a mass crowd that welcomed him to Leeds in I think 2004, this week marks the anniversary of the freedom, after captivity for 27 years, of Nelson Mandela who was finally released by South Africa's Apartheid regime on 11 February 1990. This year, the country, which he was democratically elected President of, celebrates 20 years of freedom as well as hosting Africa's first World Cup. Back in the eighties The Specials sang Free Nelson Mandela. The people over at Philosophy Football have produced a timely T-shirt that both celebrates this message that inspired a generation to dance, march and boycott but also South Africa' achievements in its two decades of freedom. Plus the shirt helps raise funds for Action for Southern Africa successor to the Anti-Apartheid Movement - which is nice.

Hubert Harrison on how to review books

'In the first place, remember that in a book review you are writing for a public who want to know whether it is worth their while to read the book about which you are writing. They are primarily interested more in what the author set himself to do and how he does it than in your own private loves and hates. Not that these are without value, but they are strictly secondary. In the next place, respect yourself and your office so much that you will not complacently pass and praise drivel and rubbish. Grant that you don’t know everything; you still must steer true to the lights of your knowledge. Give honest service; only so will your opinion come to have weight with your readers. Remember, too, that you can not well review a work on African history, for instance, if that is the only work on the subject that you have read. Therefore, read widely and be well informed. Get the widest basis of knowledge for your judgment; then back your judgment to the limit.'
Quoted in Harrison Redux: The resurrection of a pioneering cultural journalist by Scott McLemee