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Recent articles by Mandy Moussouris
Rebuilding the workers’ movement for counter-power, justice and self-m... May 28 19 [South Africa] Stop the repression of casualised/contract workers in E... Sep 29 18 South Africa: Minimum wages can’t end suffering when the rich abuse th... May 12 18 Woman in the Robertson Winery strike southern africa |
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 Friday December 16, 2016 23:19 by Mandy Moussouris - ILRIG
 Based on an interview with Shirley Davids In what will no doubt become known as a historic strike, women workers at Robertson Winery have played a key role, both because they form the majority of the striking workers but also as leaders of the strike. Women constitute more than 50% of workers at Robertson Winery. Traditionally, they have been employed to do the general work at the winery. This is because of patriarchal attitudes towards women and work that are strong in the rural areas of South Africa. Women are not employed as operators, forklift drivers or generally in higher paying jobs. Because women are generally employed to do non- skilled work they from the majority of lowest paid workers at the Winery making the struggle for a living wage even more important for them. The strike is particularly important for women not just because they earn the lowest wages but also because the mobilisation of workers has raised awareness not only around the issue of a just wage and better working conditions, but also around issues of equality. Women must be treated equally and given equal opportunities to do jobs like machine operators and fork lift drivers. Other unfair practices like people getting positions if their family work there are also issues that are coming to the fore as workers fight for a more just and equitable workplace. As leaders in the strike women have been at the forefront. Most of the committee leaders are women. The strike has set up different committees to deal with the different aspects that arise during strikes, these include fundraising committee, taxi/transport committee, education committee, lobbying committee and door to door mobilisation. This is ensuring that women’s voices are heard and their role in the strike, the workplace and the union is being valued. A strike is a huge sacrifice that workers make for justice now and in the future, none more so than for single mothers who have no other source of income. Their entire family relies solely on their low wages and whilst this is a huge hardship women have been very strong in the strike. Women more than most understand the importance of getting a living wage for them and their children’s futures. Any increase of R 6000 and above will at least be a living wage. Women are excited about getting a living wage and are willing to fight. The Commercial Stevedoring Agriculture and Allied Workers’ Union (CSAAWU) with support from other unions across the world and comrades in South Africa have been handing out food parcels which are helping. Women in the community are also showing strong solidarity to the striking workers, neighbours are helping and the community is making soup for hungry workers. One of the main purchases of the strike fund is nappies and milk to ensure that children do not suffer. The lesson that is coming out of the strike for women in particular is that we need to support each other in really hard times. Before the strike a lot of the women did not know each other and now they have learned from each other and are getting to know each other. Through workshops women are learning each other’s weaknesses and strengths. We are learning that it is important for women to work together and attend workshops because they build solidarity which keeps everyone going. Our Comrades at FOS SA interviewed Anell (29), a worker of Robertson Winery, who is demanding a living wage of R8 500, says: “I have been working for Robertson Winery for 8 years now. It is tough. We need to provide for our children. I am a single mother of a seven year old boy. I live with my sister because I cannot afford a home of my own. As a mother you sacrifice a lot. I will go hungry to bed if that means my son can have food for dinner.”
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Beginning on Sunday 28 August, Wits students have been littering parts of campus in solidarity with the cleaners’ strike. Cleaners throughout South Africa are demanding a living wage of R4 200 per month: this compares with less than R2 000 paid to cleaners at Wits, who are employed by outsourcing companies such as Supercare. The strike has been undermined, at Wits and elsewhere, by the presence of scab labour; Wits management and the outsourcing companies are striving for “business as usual”. This undermines the entire purpose of the strike, which is to compel exploiter-managers to meet workers’ demands by withdrawing their labour, by preventing the job from getting done – by making sure the campus is not clean.
A Melbourne Anarchist Commounist Group Statement in support of South African public sector strike
The Federation of Anarchists of Greece (OAE) is calling for a further action in terms of unity and organisation.
The Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Federation (southern Africa) supports the public sector strikers, not just in their demand for a wage increase of 12%, which has now been reduced to 10%, but also in their struggle to improve the standard of all public sector services.
The APF will be hosting a May Day Workers Rally in the community of Residensia (Sebokeng – Vaal Triangle) at Tshepo Themba School at 10h00 tomorrow in support of all the working class struggles in the country.
t is common amongst bosses to prefer workers coming from countries that are torn by civil wars or famine. This is because they do away with any responsibilities to cover for workers' health if exposed to health risk scenarios while working. Because these people are not citizens, the country's labour laws do not count for them. That way the bosses don't have to worry about precautionary equipment and measures expected by governmental labour standards
Don't abandon the unions, or take sides in inter-union rivalries. Build a serious, organised, non-sectarian project of democratic reform and political discussion that spans the unions, including a rank-and-file movement that fosters debate, and opens the treasure-chest of union and left history and theory. Recover the politics of disconnecting from the state as raised by, for example, Occupy and the Rojava Revolution. Replace reliance on the state and parties with struggle, and destructive inter-union rivalry with a serious project of working class counter-power.
There has been a lot of talk about the promise of a National Minimum Wage (NMW) in South Africa. This means wages cannot go below a certain level. But capitalists and politicians continue to eat the food of the workers, the poor and unfortunate. Why? In some cases, the NMW is an improvement – but generally, the NMW is not a “living wage,” meaning a wage on which you can live a decent life. Prices keep going up. This society is based on the maximization of profit, this is its logic, and this means wages are not linked to what the workers and poor need, but to what bosses and politicians need. Wages are a system of exploitation. We live a capitalist society of stress and fear and jealousy, rooted in a system of cheap black labour, and power and profits for the bosses and politicians. We need to fight for something more, take back our unions, and lay the groundwork for an anarchists society, with equality based on workers and community councils.
On 17 November 2017, the Minister of Labour announced the state intends to carry out a new round of attacks on workers and their rights. The attacks come in the form of three Labour Bills currently being considered by parliament: the Basic Conditions of Employment Bill, the National Minimum Wage Bill and the Labour Relations Amendment Bill. If passed, the changes to the labour laws these bills propose will be a major attack on workers’ rights, won through decades of struggle, and will further deepen and entrench inequality and roll back important democratic gains.
In these grim times, both globally and locally, it is important to reaffirm the centrality of workers’ education, and the need for a strong working-class movement. Ordinary people have immense potential to change the world, and steer it in a more progressive direction than that promised by capitalists, populists and the political establishment, writes Lucien van der Walt.
When we celebrate May Day we rarely reflect on why it is a public holiday in Botswana or elsewhere. Sian Byrne, Paliani Chinguwo, Warren Mcgregor and Lucien van der Walt tell of the powerful struggles that lie behind its existence, and the organisations that created it and kept its meaning alive, including its roots in the radical working class struggles.
Beginning on Sunday 28 August, Wits students have been littering parts of campus in solidarity with the cleaners’ strike. Cleaners throughout South Africa are demanding a living wage of R4 200 per month: this compares with less than R2 000 paid to cleaners at Wits, who are employed by outsourcing companies such as Supercare. The strike has been undermined, at Wits and elsewhere, by the presence of scab labour; Wits management and the outsourcing companies are striving for “business as usual”. This undermines the entire purpose of the strike, which is to compel exploiter-managers to meet workers’ demands by withdrawing their labour, by preventing the job from getting done – by making sure the campus is not clean.
A Melbourne Anarchist Commounist Group Statement in support of South African public sector strike
The Federation of Anarchists of Greece (OAE) is calling for a further action in terms of unity and organisation.
The Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Federation (southern Africa) supports the public sector strikers, not just in their demand for a wage increase of 12%, which has now been reduced to 10%, but also in their struggle to improve the standard of all public sector services.
The APF will be hosting a May Day Workers Rally in the community of Residensia (Sebokeng – Vaal Triangle) at Tshepo Themba School at 10h00 tomorrow in support of all the working class struggles in the country. more >> |
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