#South african politics

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

The Southern Hemisphere, where it’s winter, has been really hot too

Brazil, Argentina, South Africa, and Australia had heat waves in the past few months. Now spring begins.

It’s been a hot, brutal, record-breaking summer across much of the world, and it’s not quite ready to let go as late-season heat waves bake parts of the United States, the United Kingdom, North Africa, and the Middle East.

The long goodbye is a fitting cap to a season of deadly heat that contributed to severe drought in some areas and torrential rainfall in others. High temperatures also set the stage for wildfires in Greece and Turkey, Canada, Hawaii, and Louisiana.

But at least people north of the equator can look forward to some relief as autumn and winter set in. The 850 million people in the Southern Hemisphere, on the other hand, are emerging from some of their hottest winter temperatures on record and bracing for even more heat as the warmer seasons begin.

In fact, the weather was pretty much like summer in June, July, and August across parts of South America, Africa, and Australia. Peruvians went to the beach last month as temperatures reached 82 degrees Fahrenheit. Similarly balmy weather engulfed Paraguay and Chile. Buenos Aires, Argentina, reached 86°F, the hottest August temperature in at least 117 years. The heat was downright dangerous in Brazil as thermometers ticked above 100°F. Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology confirmed this month that Australia experienced its hottest winter since record keeping began more than a century ago. Even down near the South Pole, warmer air and water have led to the lowest sea ice extent on record around Antarctica.

“Some of these set new records by a large margin, also known as ‘record shattering’ extremes,” explained Michael Grose, a senior research scientist at CSIRO, Australia’s government science agency, in an email.

Continue reading.

[comrade-onion]

Might wanna start a local ANTIFA chapter. What do yall think?

[claraameliapond]

South African politician expertly pointing out the logical action: " None of these political parties made a single statement directly condemning and asking Israel to stop blowing up these children and these hospitals. 75 years negotiations have been taking place; nothing has been achieved. So what negotiations are we talking about? What do you want to negotiate? The only way you can negotiate is by putting pressure on them to come to the negotiating table, and that is what we are doing. We are now putting pressure today: 'Let's have a ceasefire'; Why is there this thing about going on killing and killing and killing? Why can't we stop it and say let's sit down and talk about it? They could have played a pivotal role, chairperson, in bringing pressure to the Israelis, together with all of us and say let's find a peaceful solution. They're not interested in that. Do you know why? It's all about the money that they get. This is what it is. They've sold their souls."

[bimdraws]

South Africans for a free Palestine 🇵🇸🇿🇦

[choppedpainterchaos]

The world is broken.

That much is stating the obvious, whether that is on a personal level focusing purely on the everyday relationships we maintain or not. Whether that is on the slightly broader spectrum of your surroundings/your place of living, your province/state, your country, the continent or even the world, problems are staring us in the eye at almost every turn with no obvious solution in sight.

The world is broken, and honestly, I'm struggling to believe it can be fixed. I'm struggling to keep my hope for my future, for the future of my generation, for the future of the communities I am a part of and the ones I'm not, and for the future of our species.

However, I refuse to believe the world is fucked.

I don't have some groundbreaking way to solve all the world's problems (sorry 'bout that ).

It's pretty easy to point out the wrongs of the world.I have no struggle recognising the so-called "flaws" in the "system."

It's easy to realise something is wrong; all you really have to do is listen to the people suffering from those flaws.

However, I struggle to find a solution.

How do you fix systemic problems in a way that pleases everyone?

I'd like to say that I believe all we can do to fix the world is make our environment a kinder place, but what do you do when that doesn't feel like enough?

How do you speak in a way that offers hope when you yourself are steadily losing what little you had to begin with?

How do you live without feeling an insurmountable guilt for not doing more? How do you live aware of a problem when you have nothing you can do to help?

That being said.

The most important thing a human can do is survive.That has to be something we as a species can agree on.

From there on, it's unique. Our idea of survival is unique, and many people are more informed than I am about particular subjects. And I'm glad about that.

Personally, my idea of surviving and thriving even lies in learning. There is little that brings me more joy than learning.

This is kind of my way of saying please survive. Begging even. If what makes life worth living is commonly viewed as silly, dumb, a waste of space, freaky, or cringeworthy, it is not. Unless it actively harms someone, it is not any of that. It is important purely because it keeps you alive.

I understand looking at the mountains of problems this world throws at us and feeling overwhelmed by it.

So this is me extending my hand towards the world.This is me sitting on my proverbial porch with a beverage made explicitly for you, saying, "I see you. And I'm here for whatever it might be you need" Feel free to contact me.

Now, you might wonder why I'm doing this? Because I genuinely care about the state of the world and the well-being of my fellow humans. And this is the only way I can see myself able to help the world, broken as it might be.

[neighbourhood-rambler]

i just tripped out during this study session and i don't know where this chat ends.

disclaimer/s: first, most of these are one-liners/mostly incomplete thoughts because, again, this is in between trying to actually get information in and trying to not copy the whole textbook on these sheets of paper, and actually trying rest during a study break. secondly, this whole thought sits closely to the importance of language to any self-identifying adult, the concept of community itself, and to africans entirely.

i asked myself: 'what is the broader south african coloured community's stance on the events of 16 june 1976?'

quick context: 16 june 1976, also known as 'june 16'/'soweto uprising'/'youth day' is a day on which the youth of south africa took to the apartheid-thick streets to protest against being taught in the afrikaans language - which, although indigenous to south africa and spoken by most if not all of the coloured community as a first language, was (and continues to be by most people) considered as 'the oppressor's tongue'. reports say 'about 200' people died in soweto that day after the apartheid police opened fire on literal children.

a couple of things went through my head after that:

there were coloureds in support of that movement. (in whatever capacity) so they must've been able to detach themselves, right?

this whole 'oppressor's tongue' name is weird too, right? because the coloured community has developed an entire culture with whatever history has thrown at them. for sure having that as a basis of a movement must have sat funny with some coloured folk.

not all coloured people identify as 'coloured'. some identify as 'ethnically coloured & politically black'. in fact not all coloured people are 'coloured'. some are bi-racial and none of their parents are afrikaans-speaking. so what is these individuals' significance in this conversation?

should they feel a type of way about it? while it would be weird to say being coloured was 'forced on them', (insert the full history of coloured people with the dark and bright parts) it would also be remiss to not include the white man's involvement in the creation of the community. should they champion and protect their own oppression?

does it continue to become their 'oppression' once they have owned it and made it theirs? or does it just become a part of history?

while all of that is happening, a thought that i have shared with my friends in the past resurfaced. it basically says: 'the day south africa has a true and honest conversation regarding the coloured community is the day the relationship between the minorities in the country will start getting better or horribly worse.'

as i type this post i am asking myself 'does south africa even need to have that conversation in the first place? does the coloured community need to be re-legitimised beyond what we known them?'

yes? becuase in doing so, we get to clear some politcal grey areas?

no? because it is not our (non-coloured folk) place to decide what is worth talking about regarding their community and identity? especially just because it doesn't make full sense to us.

[holyarcadeglitter]

Hi in case you don't know, here in South Africa we've been warned of a possible terrorist attack on the 29th of October. This is also the day that were having our 33rd annual pride. Which, how absolutely coincidentally, is taking place at the location wherein the alleged terrorist attacks have been warned to be.

Source

Source

This is still a developing story, and things may change and be brought to light, but at the moment, here's just a heads up

[head-post]

Steenhuisen alliance vows to save South Africa

South Africa’s elections this week should provide a great opportunity for the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) and its leader John Steenhuisen, according to Reuters.

Meanwhile, the African National Congress (ANC), Nelson Mandela’s party in power for the past 30 years, showed little success. South African unemployment is among the highest in the world, the economy has barely grown and infrastructure is crumbling.

The DA, the country’s second largest party, enjoys greater popularity in the Western Cape. According to pre-election polls, the party received about a fifth of the vote in the last general election in 2019. Despite campaign missteps and the DA’s attempts to broaden its support, Steenhuisen could still secure a parliamentary majority.

Some recent polls show that support for the ANC is as low as 40 per cent. Such a rate could make it difficult to form a coalition with smaller parties.

Despite Steenhuisen’s promise to dismiss the ANC, he still has not ruled out a post-election deal if it does not allow Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and former president Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK) into government. The EFF reportedly plans to nationalise industry and confiscate land owned by whites.

I’m not ruling out anything depending on what the election results are going forward.

Read more HERE

[dailyanarchistposts]

This is a time to embrace working-class unity and challenge the status quo of capitalist oppression.

May Day – a call to build an international movement of working class and poor people across lines of race, nation and religion for workers’ control and democracy from below, social justice and freedom from political and economic oppression – remains critical. In a country racked by anti-immigrant violence, racial and ethnic tensions, the fragmentation of the labour federation Cosatu, corporate scandals and political corruption, it is time to remember May Day’s roots and aspirations.

The day has become an institutionalised festival, yet its origins lie in powerful struggles for a united, anticapitalist, bottom-up, global justice movement, affirming the common interests of people, worldwide, against ruling elites and their divide-and-rule policies.

With the 2015 May Day set to be a showdown between South Africa’s rival union blocs, it is time to remember its roots and aims. Working-class unity is the only way to overcome problems such as class inequalities and national oppression in South Africa, a country ruled by the 1% and racked by periodic anti-immigrant violence.

Posing the problem as psychological – as in Police Minister Nathi Nhleko’s claim that recent violence is “Afrophobia” driven by “self-hate” – ignores attacks on Asian foreigners and assumes a natural state of African unity. It completely ignores the role of class and capitalist systems in which divisions between rich and poor, powerful and powerless, exist within races and nations. A Zimbabwean worker, a Pakistani worker and a South African worker have more in common with each other than any of them has with the Zimbabwean, Pakistani and South African upper class.

Ruling classes pit people against one another by means of economic policies that entrench historic inequalities, political mobilisation on the basis of race and nation by parties, states, ideologues and propaganda. Suburbs that are home to the black and white middle and upper classes sleep peacefully, far from the chaos and misery that arise from these policies, whereas the working class and poor turn on each other.

South Africa’s incomplete transition out of apartheid has left deep racial inequalities and national divisions. The legacy of apartheid and segregation is visible everywhere: the black, coloured and Indian working class and poor are doubly oppressed, by race and by class; the main political parties provide no solutions, but are part of the problem.

Radical changes are needed. Those proposed by the Federation of South African Trade Unions (Fosatu) and, before it, the International Socialist League (ISL), Industrial Workers of Africa and the International Working People’s Association (IWPA) include placing power, including self-managed control of the economy, into the hands of a multiracial working class and poor majority, rather than in parliaments or corporate boardrooms.

Changing statues will not address the issues. Indeed, political mobilisation of this sort, delinked from a radical programme of working-class rule, will simply reinforce the myriad divisions – immigrant versus national, race versus race, country versus country – that are the key to the power of the 1%.

Radical changes require a dynamic labour movement with a radical project, allied to other popular sectors altogether outside the party system and the electoral arena. These positions lie at the radical roots of May Day, which began as a commemoration of and protest against the 1887 execution of four IWPA anarcho-syndicalist labour organisers from Chicago.

One of them, August Spies, declared from the scaffold: “If you think that by hanging us, you can stamp out the labour movement – the movement from which the downtrodden millions, the millions who toil and live in want and misery – the wage slaves – expect salvation – if this is your opinion, then hang us! Here you will tread upon a spark, but there and there and behind you and in front of you and everywhere, flames will blaze up. It is a subterranean fire. You cannot put it out.”

Spies stressed popular self-emancipation: nonracial mass organisations to fight the state, capitalism and all forms of oppression and to establish a participatory, self-managed, democratic socialism, without state or corporate rule. This “Chicago idea” became part of the anarchist movement, especially in the Global South.

All states, all parties, were seen as betrayers of the working class, elections as futile choices between lying politicians – an insight many South Africans now accept. Even a workers’ party could not escape the logic of incorporation into a state machinery serving political and economic elites.

The IWPA practiced what it preached. IWPA militants such as the former slave Lucy Parsons, immigrants such as Spies and Samuel Fielden, and Americans such as Oscar Neebe and Albert Parsons led the main unions and working-class associations of Chicago, published radical newspapers and organised armed self-defence units. The IWPA took a leading role in a titanic 1886 general strike by black and white, immigrant and foreigner, centred on Chicago, and hence the organisation was targeted for repression. Eight IWPA militants were charged and four hanged.

In commemoration, the Socialist International, formed by anarchists, Marxists and others in 1889, launched May Day as a global day of action – in effect, it was to be a global general strike to build global labour unity.

May Day in South Africa started in the 1890s, among immigrant European workers. Early Witwatersrand events were whites-only affairs, ignoring the reality that the state felt no particular loyalty to white workers: more than 20 were shot down in the 1913 general strike, and martial law was used to suppress workers’ uprisings in 1914 and 1922.

An alternative May Day tradition emerged in 1904 from Cape Town, where local unions and the anarchist-led Social Democratic Federation (SDF) brought coloured and white workers together. The syndicalist ISL, formed in 1915, and Industrial Workers of Africa, formed in 1917, resolved to organise black workers, fight pass laws and secure complete equality through “one big union” fighting against segregation, capitalism and the state: the “Chicago idea” on the Highveld.

In 1917, the ISL organised a joint May Day rally in Johannesburg with the Transvaal Native Congress – the first local May Day with African speakers, including the ANC’s secretary general of the time, Horatio Mbelle. The Communist Party of South Africa, as it was then, continued the SDF-ISL tradition of May Day with a series of nonracial rallies to oppose race and class oppression. In 1922, the communist party demanded May Day become a paid public holiday, a demand taken up by the syndicalist-influenced black and coloured Industrial and Commercial Workers Union of Africa.

Massive May Days were held from the 1920s onwards, but the tradition withered under apartheid repression. May Day was revived by the South African Congress of Trade Unions in the 1950s and by the new unions of the 1970s. By the mid-1980s, May Day was again a day of mass action, as pushed by Fosatu and then Cosatu.

But, if the tragic origins of May Day are still commemorated today, its grander aspirations remain unfulfilled. The enormous power of a united working class remains shackled.

Labour-led organisations achieved surprising victories in difficult and divided contexts. These movements provide a resource base for ideas and strategies. By specifically organising among immigrants and by focusing on issues that disproportionately affected some groups of workers (racial oppression, for example), they built working-class counter-power, counterculture and solidarity.

This is a far cry from the situation today. The Cosatu labour movement has not succeeded in addressing its internal divisions. Indeed, its alliance with the ANC and the South African Communist Party has led to numerous splits, from the attack on figures opposed to President Jacob Zuma, such as then-president Willie Madisha, by Zwelinzima Vavi in 2007, to the expulsion of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) from Cosatu on the flimsiest grounds.

Within South Africa’s borders, ANC-driven neoliberal policies such as the Growth, Employment and Redistribution strategy and the National Development Plan have deepened poverty and inequality, creating a breeding ground for tensions on all sides. Regionally, South Africa is an imperialist power, deploying its superior economic power and military and political muscle across the continent, alongside the expansion of private and state-owned corporations in Africa.

South African military actions in the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of Congo from 2013 onwards are protecting ANC-linked businesses. South African silence on corrupt candidates in fraudulent elections (the DRC in 2001, Nigeria in 2007, Zimbabwe in 2011) is governed by crude ruling-class interests.

This cannot be separated from South African contempt for fellow Africans and attitudes to the rest of Africa.

Numsa’s return to a radical project, with some roots in Fosatu, its break with the tripartite alliance and its formation of a United Front revives the original spirit of the movements and struggles that made May Day. Let us hope Numsa carries forward the radical spirit of May Day by way of bottom-up, participatory trade unions at a distance from Parliament, capitalism and the state. May Day needs to be linked back to its radical roots, its one-time internationalism and the vision of an inclusive socialism from below.

[allthebrazilianpolitics]

South Africa government green-lights yellow maize imports from Brazil

In some coastal areas of South Africa, it is cheaper to import yellow maize from South America than sourcing it locally.

Fears of a possible shortage of yellow maize have been averted with a decision by the national department of agriculture to allow yellow maize imports from Brazil.

The National Agricultural Marketing Council estimated earlier this year that it might be necessary to import 383 000 tonnes of yellow maize – a crucial ingredient in animal feed – amid shrinking local production and rising prices brought about by lower rainfall in the country’s maize-producing regions.

While price increases have moderated since the 19% rise between January and May, it is still R275-R300 per tonne cheaper for animal feed manufacturers in the Western Cape, Eastern Cape and possibly also parts of KwaZulu-Natal to import yellow maize than transport it locally from the production areas.

Continue reading.

[bluebean09]

The most stupid thing my country could possibly do right now is try to boycott the elections. It is exactly what they are doing right now. Fuck this shit. This will not help with anything, only make things worse

[thinksoutlouder]

Politicians have convinced people in South Africa that politics or changing political leaders is the solutions to their problems. In various social media platforms are filled with content and videos of people expressing their political views and saying that things will change once the current government is removed. This information is useful to some people but it is misleading to majority of people because it takes people, especially young people away from being responsible for their own lives. Young people have the belief that all their problems are caused by politics or political leaders. While it is somehow true that the current government is not doing enough to run the country, we often forget as the youth that life is individual, and we cannot rely on organizations, political parties or government systems that we don't even understand to determine our personal lives. There are many young people that have achieved things and reached their childhood dreams, and they continue to prosper not because of the government but because they faced their dreams head on, even when it was tough. The youth just needs organization that will encourage them, give them motivation, and most importantly give them information that will help them take the right steps and the right direction towards their dreams

[trolledu]

[ieatwormsandtheytasteverygood]

MAJOR CW FOR TERRORISM AGAINST MARGINALISED GROUPS

quite a heavy post, but. some of you may be aware that the us embassy issued a terror alert, that coincided exactly with the location and time of the annual joburg pride parade. they did not explicitly state that pride was a target.

in fact, they did not explicitly state pretty much fucking anything. apparently, they also didn't tell the south african government about this before fucking posting on their website about it. yay.

I haven't really seen any international ppl talking about this, but what is happening is 1. fucking terrifying, and 2. potentially the US trying to undermine our sovereignty and instill fear in various minority groups.

SUPPOSEDLY this is a threat made by fucking ISIS, because of south african intervention in the north of moçambique. we have been left with nothing but speculation, and the only actual fucking conclusion that most businesses, organisations and government sources have come to, is that the US is speaking out of their arse.

potential (but not actually stated) targets are a jewish comedian, pride, and some ethiopian peace talks. yes, it is possible that it could be real, but the majority of sources have discounted it as hearsay. far more likely, is that a fascist regime is trying to scare a community it's attempting to enact genocide upon, in a sovereign nation. this is completely fucked up.

if this is not a real threat, then my fucking god the US is violating international law. I am not even fucking joking. this is completely, completely out of line, and while I am definitely not a credible news source, people really need to know about this.

screenshots below if you're too lazy to google:

[oncanvas]

Anti-Apartheid Movement poster, International Defence and Aid Fund, London, 1978

[menandwomanofhistory]

Nelson Mandela