SEATTLE, July 14— Two hundred twenty thousand South African Metalworkers have been on strike since July 1.   Hundreds of arrests and propaganda deploring strikers' "violence" have not slowed them down.

The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa is the country's largest union. The strike has shut down the GM and BMW auto plants, strangling production by cutting off the supply of parts. South African Business Day worries that it could "paralyze almost a third of the manufacturing sector." 

The international press insists it's a wage dispute. Pay is important, but other issues create the most heat. The workers want the contract to last one year, not three. They don't want a prohibition on strikes around working conditions while the wage agreement is in place. They demand an end to the despicable practice of hiring workers through labor brokers that continuously steal a portion of the workers' wages.

What we are really talking about here is: "Who has the power?"

This is a burning question for Boeing workers and the whole working class.

Boeing workers in the Puget Sound (Seattle) area will note that even the details are similar. Some subcontractors in the US recruit new hires from employment agencies that also take a cut of workers' pay. Workers are forced to tolerate this thievery in hopes of eventually being hired by the companies they actually work for.

US bosses tell on-site subcontractor workers not to talk to regular Boeing employees!

The new Boeing 787 factory in Charleston, SC regularly hires contract labor to catch up production.

Last January, Boeing Machinists lost our defined-benefit pension, reflecting our powerlessness in the face of a full frontal attack by the company, its allies in the national union headquarters and the government.

The national headquarters openly sabotaged workers when they revolted. We are left tied to longer and longer contracts that impose a de facto no-strike regime.

Trade union ideology accepts that the capitalist has the power.

This is what South African president Jacob Zuma praised when he spoke at the glitzy launch of a new Chinese car and truck assembly plant in the midst of the strike.

"All parties know how to go about resolving any disputes that arise using the country's effective and efficient labor relations and dispute resolution mechanisms," he assured international imperialists. These "effective and efficient ... dispute resolution mechanisms" are as much a part of the bosses' war on workers as are the cops, tear gas and arrests.

If we want power to win this war, we have to go beyond the usual trade union solidarity. We have to build internationalism that takes aim at the capitalist system that wages war on us.

Solidarity, as defined by unions, has us cheering from the sidelines for one group of workers against another or one group of bosses against another..  Communist internationalism puts us in the game. Every workers' struggle becomes our fight.  We must make that a fight about communist workers' power and who should run society.

Communist internationalism shows that we can have the power.

Who has the power?  We can answer this question unequivocally by mobilizing the industrial working class for communism worldwide.  Right now that means building communist international solidarity with striking metalworkers in South Africa.

Boeing workers and all workers should follow the lead of our comrades in South Africa by joining the International Communist Workers' Party (ICWP).  Our friends in the plants, and on the outside, can help by distributing the new Party pamphlet on the opportunities presented by the expanding numbers of industrial workers worldwide.

Boeing workers will be circulating a letter to our South African brothers and sisters to build the internationalism we need to wage this class war. Sign and distribute it! We encourage other workers to do the same.

Who has the power? We can have the power when we mobilize the masses for communist revolution!

Contact ICWP  (see information below). Send letters to our P.M.B. and we will forward them to our Party branch in South Africa.

Join the International Communist Workers' Party   (ICWP)

www.icwpredflag.org  — (310) 487-7674

E-mail: icwp@anonymousspeech.com

Write to:  P.M.B. 362

3006 S. Vermont Ave., Los Angeles, CA 90007, USA

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