Power to the People features daily news and analysis written from a socialist and anarchist perspective, and commentary on culture, theory, history, and politics.
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We are happy to finally announce the long-overdue publication of the eighth issue of "Zabalaza - A Journal of Southern African Revolutionary Anarchism". Our organisation having recently undergone some changes, we hope to get back on track and to meet our goals of publishing Zabalaza twice a year.
In this long-awaited issue:
* Asgisa: A Working Class Critique * S.A. Public Sector Strikes * The 2010 World Cup * Protests Against University Privatisation * Introduction to the ABC * Vigilante Farmers Want Refugee Camps * Swaziland: The Assassination of Our Dear Comrade * Europe, Africa and the Neo-Liberal Strategy of Co- Optation * Fallacies of the Darfur War * The Congo's Dilemma * A New Guantanamo in Africa? * Misrepresentation of Self-Management in the Caribbean * Some Thoughts on Theoretical Unity & Collective Responsibility * Clarity on What Anarcho-Syndicalism Is * Towards an Anarcho-Syndicalist Strategy for Africa
Found this interesting post on the blog LeftSpot, please spread the word comrades. If you tried it out, let me know what you think.
I am very excited to announce the launch of Breakthrough's new free and downloadable video game ICED - I Can End Deportation. ICED lets you experience first hand the unfair nature of immigration laws on detention and deportation.
You can be Ayesha, the Green Card holder, who was deported for a school essay; or Marc, a Green Card holder, who fought for the country and ended up in detention.
Play the game, spread it far and wide, and visit the website for action ideas. I encourage you to get involved in the campaign for fair immigration laws. Because when we let the government deny due process and human rights to some people, we put all of our freedoms at risk.
Warm regards,
-Mallika
Dear Friends:
After two years of hard work and lots of support from many of you, I am pleased to announce that ICED is finally out. The game can be downloaded at www.icedgame.com and we would really appreciate your support in spreading this to your networks. We'd particularly be interested in reaching out to youth groups and educators with the upcoming curriculum. But please - everybody – download and play the game!
We've already started to get media coverage - here are a few links. Thanks for all the quick responses for the Orange County Register request.
Thank you again for all the support and input. I hope ICED will contribute positively to our struggle for due process and human rights in the United States.
This is probably the most important post I will ever publish on this Blog. This post goes beyond mere rhetoric and Pictures that capture the plight of a People. This will directly change a life and re-enforce the nortion of the Kenya that we know of loving, caring and a nation that believes we are family. A few weeks ago, we all saw the picture of Grace(below) shot in the head by a rogue Policeman as the security forces carried out Operations in Naivasha. In a baby crib beside her lifeless, bleeding body was a terrified 14 month baby crying in terror. The baby now identified as Brian had just witnessed his mother shot in the head.
In the light of this tragedy, I got together with Lillian Muthoni and Eddie Njogu, my contacts in Kenya and we all whole heartedly sought the whereabouts of Brian and His family. With earnest devotion, Lillian found the village this weekend and managed to meet with Jeremiah, Baby Brian’s father. She was able to get some important information that we desperately needed in order to get assistance for the family. So I commend her for her tireless work.
Folks, we have an opportunity to turn things around in the life of this family and more so, this innocent child! I know many of you visit this site from all over the world and many of your have written offering assistance for Brian. This is the time for that assistance. Carol has offered to pay for the Post-Mortem and I thank her for her kindness. The family needs this post-mortem conducted by a qualified pathologist who may be required to testify in Court. Jeremiah needs to bury his wife so we need funds for the funeral. We also need to get this family basic necessities like food, clothing and toys for Brian. This child’s life has become extremely personal to me and I believe its time to move beyond our dismay and actually do something.I am in this knee deep, but I cannot do this alone, I need you to partner with me. email me at josephkaroki@hotmail.com or get in touch with Lillian at loumso2002@yahoo.com. My Cell Phone numbers are 214-708-1554 and 214-208-4713.
We are called for a time such at this. If you are an attorney in Kenya willing to help or if you know of one who is willing to partner with us in bringing justice to this family, contact me ASAP. Tell your friends, your family, your coworkers. If you are a well wisher who would like to visit the family they are at Gwa Kanywa, Magumu village near Naivasha.
THE FOLLOWING IS WHAT IS NEEDED:
30,000 Kenya Shillings (US$425) for funeral and Mortuary expences
Milk for Baby Brian
Food for his siblings
Clothes, toys and Books
Well wishers to visit and encourage the family
A scholarship/educational fund for Brian and his siblings
A legal fund for the pursuit and prosecution of those involved in the murder of Grace Mungai
Those in Kenya can donate money at the following bank account at EQUITY 0200190674408 under the name Jeremiah Mungai, ID No. 7156255.
we will have a bank account open on Monday on behalf of the family for those in the United States. I would like to thank Lillian for doing a wonderful job this weekend and Eddie for joining me in this. In the meantime we have work to do. Looking forward to hearing from all of you!
February has seen it's fair share of working class action in Africa, particularly East Africa. Due to the ongoing economic depression in Zimbabwe and the political violence in Kenya, there has been a series of strikes and protests. Zimbabwe's labor movement continues to struggle on in face of State repression of the Mugabe regime. Due to the various trife that has occurred in East Africa, from the Rwanadan Genocide, Lords Resistance Army insurgency in Uganda to the Ethiopian and Somalia Civil Wars, Kenya and Tanzania are one of the few stable nation-states. Zimbabwe, Kenya, as well as Malawi are East African countries with the more stronger and viable labor movements.
Zimbabwe BULAWAYO – National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) workers have downed tools demanding salary increases of between 700 and 1 000 percent, ZimOnline has learnt.
Sources at the NRZ said the workers, who embarked on a go-slow last Friday, finally downed tools on Wednesday after management refused to bow to their demands.
The NRZ is said to have only agreed to hike the workers’ salaries by 230 percent, an amount the workers say is not enough given Zimbabwe’s massive hyper-inflationary environment.
...
Zimbabwean teachers, who have been on a two-week strike to press for more pay, say they will not return to work until the government increases their salaries to Z$1.7 billion a month.
Oswald Madziva, the national co-ordinator of the Progressive Teachers’ Union of Zimbabwe (PTUZ), said although the government had awarded salary hikes last month, the salaries were still way below their expectations.
Madziva said the strike by teachers had plunged the entire education system into chaos after hundreds of teachers failed to report for duty at the beginning of the term last January in protest over poor salaries.
Kenya About 30 casual workers at the Kenya Meat Commission in Mombasa yesterday(2/25/07) went on strike, protesting against poor terms of service and unfavourable working conditions.
They said they had worked as casuals since the plant reopened early last year and were yet to be considered for contractual employment. Speaking to Nation on condition of anonymity, the workers said at times they worked for only two or three days a month.
“Given that we are paid Sh310 per day, and with Sh200 National Social Security Fund (NSSF) deductions it leaves nothing to take home,” said one worker, claiming that the money had not even been remitted to NSSF. The workers also claimed that their seniors intimidated them.
...
The Kenya Aviation workers union has issued a 21-day strike notice to the ministry of labour.
The union says the move was precipitated by what it terms the ministry's failure to facilitate the continuation of the collective bargaining agreement negotiated between the Union and the management of the Kenya Airports Authority-KAA.
Secretary General Jimi Masege claims that several meetings held with the management have come to naught and that the KAA managers are avoiding contact with them due to the issue.
The Union represents over 400 workers in the aviation industry, including security workers, firefighters and parking attendants at all airports. Malawi Minister of Information and Civic Education Patricia Kaliati was this afternoon expected to hold a closed-door caucus with top management of Malawi Telecommunications Limited (MTL) to try assist resolve the crisis that has hit the company.
Employees at Malawi Telecommunications Limited (MTL) have today entered seventh day of their industrial action thereby completely crippling business in the country.
The strike has reached a crisis stage and Kaliati told Nyasa Times just before lunch hour she was not happy with the industrial action.
The industrial action, which started last Friday, is as a result of the company's failure to pay its junior employees their pension money accrued from 1997 to February 2006 when MTL went under new management.
The junior employees claim that all senior managers got the benefits and yet are failing to give them their dues.
But MTL top management has insisted the strike is illegal and has asked all striking employees to resume work or risk unspecified action.
Nyasa Times' visit to MTL offices at the Chichiri Stadium Exchange, Ginnery Corner and Head Office in Livingstone Towers in Blantyre revealed few workers present just chatting.
...
Union members called for a strike against security company G4S to begin Wednesday, January 30, but the company was able to obtain an injuction against the strike late Tuesday night. The workers and union complain that the company's wage proposal will only deepen their poverty.
Last July, G4S recognized the Textile and Securtiy Services Workers Union in Malawi, and by October, the union and the company started to negotiate an agreement for G4S’ 13,000 workers there.
G4S is the largest private sector employer in Africa , and the second largest private employer in the world. But the role they are playing in Africa is to maintain the poverty of their workforce, rather than to use their economic might to raise standards across the continent. Today, G4S employees in Malawi can barely afford to eat and rarely live in decent housing.
As the civil war continued and the situation in Somalia continued to deteriorate, K'naan's mother, Marian Mohamed, petitioned the US embassy for an exit visa . In 1991, on the last day the US embassy remained open as the government of Moh Mohamed Siad Barre was collapsed, their visa was approved, and they boarded the last commercial flight out of the country.[2] They joined relatives in Harlem, New York City, before moving to Rexdale, Ontario, where there was a large Somali Canadian community,[3] and his family still lives. In his new country, K'naan began learning English—and also began to start rapping. He dropped out of school in grade ten to travel for a time, rapping at open mic events, and eventually returned to Toronto, Ontario.
My Old Home
By K'naan.
My old home smelled of birth, boiled red beans, kernel oil, and hand me down poetry. It's brick white washed walls widowed by first paint. The tin roof top humming songs of promise. The wind locked in to demonic rhythm with the leafs. Hugging them, loving them a torturous love. The round cemented pot kept the rain drops cool. Neighbors and dwellers spattering their foreheads softly. Loud children playing football with a sanded sock. No one knew they were poor. All innocent of greed's judgment. The country was combusting with life like a long hibernating volcano.
Farmers, fishers, fighters, even fools had a place in production. The coastal line, the coral reefs, the elastic shore, the sand's hue, the glorious mosques, the magical night collapsing willingly over it's inhabitants, the sun of june, the guarding moon, the nap at noon, the freedom poets, the rampant wisdom, the magnetic tongue: Somalia selfishly blanketed vicious ownership over the world's most intense beauty.
Then one day it came. It came like a message, Like a heart attack sudden. And with a cancerous fume. Selling proud folly. But with a diligent mock. A morning, a night, or a mythical tale. Brief and long, unjust and wrong. A blow, a sound, a deafness in glee. With warning, without and certain in doubt. A shock, unfathomed like caves beneath. They came, they maimed, they raped and killed. They took, they stole, and prayed in filth. We flew, we walked, we begged in shame. We ran, we pled, we shed our names.
Oh I must tell you. Our roads have seen electric hate. Our women labor beneath stubborn fate. Our farms produce guilty grub. Our kids depend on shifty luck. Our fled are fed on by desert carrion. Our news is life for death is old. So don't blame me for truth i've told.
See they rack bodies not grain. Chop limps not trees. Spend lives not wealth. Seek vengeance not truth. Moist pain not plants. Sharpen feuds not minds. Defend kinship not honor.
Nothing is left of my old home. Goodwill is looted. Religion is burnt down. Kindness is shackled. Justice is raped. Murderers hold post. The land vomits ghosts. There are, Pistols with eyes. Corruption and lies. Suspicious newborns. Flaming flowers. Trusted snakes. Death without brakes. Bandits are leaders. Rumors are law. Sedatives are faith. Rapers are praised. Demons dress well. Infants are nailed. Spirits are jailed. Grudges grow tails and wings and. Things aren't easy at my old home.
