South Africa 1956 Women leading the struggle against apartheid pass laws
Fighting Capitalism’s Racism and Xenophobia Then and Now
CAPE TOWN (South Africa)—On the 21st of March,1960, some ten thousand workers and youth rallied at the police station in the segregated Black township of Sharpeville. They planned to turn in the hated internal passports that defined them as “foreigners” in their country of birth.
The capitalists’ brutal cops attacked the unarmed crowd with tear gas, batons, machine guns, rifles, and military planes. They killed 69, including children, and wounded over 180 more.
Thousands defiantly took to the streets with protest marches, strikes, and riots across South Africa. The racist and xenophobic Apartheid regime declared a “state of emergency.” It jailed over eighteen thousand people. It outlawed the then-pacifist Pan-African Congress (PAC) and African National Congress (ANC).
The struggle against Apartheid spread internationally. Within South Africa, repression turned the movement from pacifism to militancy. Today, South Africans celebrate March 21 as Human Rights Day. The Sharpeville massacre reminds us of the courage of the working-class struggle against racism and xenophobia.
Communists Fight Racism and Xenophobia Today
This racism and xenophobia, which effectively is fascism, continues today in South Africa because of the reformism of the old movement. It continues to intensify as the crisis of capitalism intensifies.
The capitalist bosses seek to divide the working class through nationalism, racism, and xenophobia. They seek to break our bonds of unity to make it easy to continue with their perpetual exploitation of the working-class while pitting workers against each other.
In South Africa, the crisis of capitalism is reaching unprecedented heights. Unemployment is among the largest in the world, poverty and hunger are on the rise, and crime. Discontent is also rising. These provide opportunities and challenges for us.
Many who are disillusioned by the system can be won over to communism. However, the bosses are spreading racist and xenophobic ideologies. They claim that immigration causes unemployment, and that “foreigners” are “stealing jobs” from locals. This is entirely false.
Workers are fleeing wars, poverty, and starvation caused by capitalism. The crisis of overproduction is what causes unemployment. As capitalists compete for maximum profits, they cut jobs and wages and automate, causing massive worldwide unemployment.
To end unemployment, xenophobia and racism means fighting to get rid of capitalism. We fight and struggle against these ideologies because we are fighting for a communist society, which is only possible with international working-class unity. This requires a practical and theoretical struggle against racism and xenophobia.
March 21, 2022: Communists Celebrate Courageous Spirit of Sharpeville
Comrades in South Africa will bring communist politics to the mass demonstrations against racism and xenophobia this year. These demonstrations are not the communist revolution we need but they provide practical experiences where we engage concretely with workers in struggle.
Mobilizing the masses for communism is our marching line and our daily slogan. Communist revolution requires international working-class solidarity. Comrades of the International Communist Workers’ Party (ICWP) will be holding events in El Salvador, the USA and elsewhere to celebrate the heroic struggles against racism and xenophobia in South Africa and to build for May Day, the international holiday of the working class.
Long live international working-class unity! Long live ICWP!
Commemorate the Heroic Sharpeville Fight Against Apartheid
Prepare for a Communist May Day 2022
End Capitalist Massacres of Workers!
SOUTH AFRICA: TBA
LOS ANGELES, USA: Zoom Forum, Friday, March 18, 7:00 pm
SEATTLE, USA: Potluck Dinner, Friday, April 1, 7:00 pm
EL SALVADOR: TBA
Contact your local ICWP branch for details or email icwp@nym.hush.com
Let us know if you plan another event.
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