[WSMDiscuss] Fwd: [Abahlali] Unite Against Xenophobia (Abahlali baseMjondolo)

Mon Jul 13 17:47:51 CEST 2020

Monday, July 13, 2020

Viruses in movement…, South Africa in movement…, Care in movement…, Resistance in movement…

[And here is a message, also from South Africa, but from the ground; another view, another way of looking, at the world around us…

[This one though, is from a few days ago (apologies for the delay in my posting this), and in some ways may seem to be overwhelmed by the repeat shutdown of the country from tonight South African time (as in my previous post, just a short while ago), because of the surge in COVID19 cases.  But I suspect not, because the xenophobia that this post is about is now only likely to intensify, because of the shutdown and the panic – and where this also-grave threat is something that the President of the Republic did not talk about, in his speech yesterday :

Unite Against Xenophobia

Abahlali baseMjondolo

            In solidarity,

            JS

fwd

> Begin forwarded message:
> 
> From: "Abahlali Press" (via abahlali Mailing List) <abahlali at lists.riseup.net>
> Subject: [Abahlali] Unite Against Xenophobia
> Date: July 9, 2020 at 10:24:34 AM EDT
> To: abahlali at lists.riseup.net
> Reply-To: abmpress at gmail.com

Thursday, 9 July 2020
Abahlali baseMjondolo Press Statement

Unite Against Xenophobia

Since our movement was first formed fifteen years ago we have opposed all forms of repression. We have opposed capitalism, and its enclosure and commodification of land. We have opposed political gangsterism in party politics and the government which turns the state into a killing machine used by politicians to get rich. We have also taken an internationalist perspective and organised in solidarity with comrades in countries like Palestine, Haiti, Turkey and elsewhere.

We have also opposed forms of repression that occur within oppressed communities such as violence against women and xenophobia. We understand who our oppressors are. We have never been confused by those who want us to fight among ourselves as the poor. We have said that a neighbour is a neighbour and a comrade is a comrade irrespective of the country or province in which they were born.

Powerful people in the government and the twin monsters of the ANC and the DA try to divide the poor by turning us against each other. Many people have been told that they are unable to receive services, houses or jobs from government because of “foreign nationals”. As a result, there is a sometimes a strong hatred for people who are born in other countries that regularly erupts into violence. 

The poor have always lived in a state of crisis. That crisis is now getting much worse due to the coronavirus situation, retrenchments and increasingly violent evictions – sometimes including the army. People are already hungry. People have already been killed by the security forces.  Thousands of people have already been evicted across the country. Thousands are being retrenched. The government is responding with an austerity budget and more soldiers on the streets so the crisis will get even worse in the coming months.

In this situation some forces are using social media to call for new attacks on people born in other countries. One poster gives a deadline for all “foreigners” to leave South Africa. We have heard reports of attacks on truck drivers who are considered to be “foreigners”.

This is a clear attempt to try and make sure that the poor fight among themselves rather than organising to build their power against the state, the political elite and capital. We live in a society in which the five richest people have more money than millions of impoverished people. We live in a society in which millions of people are without land, work or homes. We lie in a society in which impoverished people who organise themselves to be able to participate in decision making about their own lives and communities face serious repression. This is the problem. A neighbour from Mozambique or Pakistan is not the problem.

The enemy are those who have killed our fathers, uncles, brothers, and husbands in Marikana. The enemy are those that give the orders to evict us every day. The enemy are those that are responding to an economic crisis with austerity. The enemy are those that oppose a living wage. The enemy are those that repress the struggles of the oppressed.

The enemy are those that use the state to get rich instead of allowing it to be used as a tool of the people. The enemy is the corrupt and violent political class in South Africa. The enemy is capitalism. The enemy is imperialism, which organised and supported the coups in countries like Haiti and Bolivia and continues to support the oppression of the Palestinian people.

We were not made poor, or kept poor, by people who have come to South Africa from other African countries, or Asia, to work. We were made poor by colonialism and racial capitalism and kept poor by capitalism and the ANC and its mixture of neoliberal economic policies and political gangsterism. If we are not able to correctly identity our enemies, and if we allow our enemies to turn us against each other, we will stay poor for ever.

A person is a person where ever they may find themselves. Every human life must be counted as a human life. South Africa belongs to all who live in it.

Those who encourage xenophobia and ethnic prejudice are dividing the oppressed and doing the work of our oppressors. In this time of crisis we call on all progressive forces to unite against xenophobia. Let us work to build the democratic power of the oppressed from below.

Waziwa isitha sakho. Know your enemy.

Mqapheli Bonono 073 0673 274
Nomsa Sizani 081 005 3686
S’bu Zikode 083 547 0474

-- 
Land & Dignity!

TO UNSUBSCRIBE from this list, receive a single daily digest, or change your list preferences please visit http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/abahlali <http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/abahlali>

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Abahlali baseMjondolo http://www.abahlali.org <http://www.abahlali.org/>

AbM Facebook Group:http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&gid=19659923423 <http://www.facebook.com/group.php?v=wall&gid=19659923423>

http://www.abahlali.org <http://www.abahlali.org/>
https://www.facebook.com/abahlalibasemjondolo <https://www.facebook.com/abahlalibasemjondolo>

TO UNSUBSCRIBE from this list, receive a single daily digest, or change your list preferences please visit http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/abahlali <http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/abahlali>

Land, Housing, Dignity!
Umhlaba Izindlu neSithunzi!

____________________________
Jai Sen

Independent researcher, editor; Senior Fellow at the School of International Development and Globalisation Studies at the University of Ottawa

jai.sen at cacim.net <mailto:jai.sen at cacim.net>
Now based in New Delhi, India (+91-98189 11325) and in Ottawa, Canada, on unceded and unsurrendered Anishinaabe territory (+1-613-282 2900) 

CURRENT / RECENT publications :

Jai Sen, ed, 2018a – The Movements of Movements, Part 2 : Rethinking Our Dance. Ebook and hard copy available at PM Press <http://www.pmpress.org/>
Jai Sen, ed, 2018b – The Movements of Movements, Part 1 : What Makes Us Move ? (Indian edition). New Delhi : AuthorsUpfront, in collaboration with OpenWord and PM Press.  Hard copy available at MOM1AmazonIN <https://www.amazon.in/dp/9387280101/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1522884070&sr=8-2&keywords=movements+of+movements+jai+sen>, MOM1Flipkart <https://www.flipkart.com/the-movements-of-movements/p/itmf3zg7h79ecpgj?pid=9789387280106&lid=LSTBOK9789387280106NBA1CH&marketplace=FLIPKART&srno=s_1_1&otracker=search&fm=SEARCH&iid=ff35b702-e6a8-4423-b014-16c84f6f0092.9789387280106.SEARCH&ppt=Search%20Page>, and MOM1AUpFront <http://www.authorsupfront.com/movements.htm>
Jai Sen, ed, 2017 – The Movements of Movements, Part 1 : What Makes Us Move ?.  New Delhi : OpenWord and Oakland, CA : PM Press.  Ebook and hard copy available at PM Press <http://www.pmpress.org/>
SUBSCRIBE TO World Social Movement Discuss, an open, unmoderated, and self-organising forum on social and political movement at any level (local, national, regional, and global).  To subscribe, simply send an empty email to wsm-discuss-subscribe at lists.openspaceforum.net <mailto:wsm-discuss-subscribe at lists.openspaceforum.net>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <https://lists.openspaceforum.net/pipermail/wsm-discuss/attachments/20200713/4e60021a/attachment.htm>