Mayday 2010 statement of the FLTI (Internacional Leninist Trotskyist Fraction)

To the workers of Zimbabwe, South Africa, the entire African continent, the workers in the heart of imperialism and the world over.

Today, the 1st May, we gather in our respective venues (across the world) to commemorate the day which comes to be after heroic fights by our class brothers and sisters over a century ago. As we commemorate we should reflect for a moment our challenges to realise and consolidate the achievements made so far. Day by day capitalism-imperialism, with the able assistance of fake Trotskyists, Stalinists, labour aristocracy and many other counterrevolutionary currents mushrooming in the entire modern world today, is violently reversing those gains.
Nevertheless, recent events proved that such dogmatic acts will never detour the working class from the revolutionary road, they would only succeed in delaying the revolution, the radical social revolution. The working class struggles in Europe, America, Asia, Africa and Australia show that the writing is on the wall. The world capitalist is in bankruptcy, its crisis is approaching a dead end. We are now passing through one of those great historic hours upon which the fate of the Zimbabwean working people, the fate of Africa, and in significant measure the fate of the whole humanity, will depend for decades.
Veteran revolutionary socialist fighter and theoretician comrade Leon Trotsky when describing the options of the Germany crisis in December 1931 in a perspective report "What’s Wrong With the Current Policy of the German Communist Party?" said; “If you place a ball on top of a pyramid, the slightest impact can cause it to roll down either to the left or to the right. There are forces which would like the ball to roll down towards the right and break the back of the working class. There are forces which would like the ball to remain at the top. That is a utopia. The ball cannot remain at the top of the pyramid. The (working class) want the ball to roll down toward the left and break the back of capitalism".

That is the situation approaching with every hour in Zimbabwe, the whole of Africa and the entire globe today. Today the world situation is pregnant with exactly, if not more ripened, Germany possibilities of 1931; the world working class no longer want to be ruled under the old order, they are questioning their loyalties to the popular front parties which, in Africa are fast replacing the discredited national liberation movements. In Africa, and in Zimbabwe in particular, there is an unholy alliance between employers and the government constituted by the three political parties namely; the two formations of Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) and Zimbabwe African National Union -(Patriotic Front) (ZANU(PF)), to attack the workers.
Recent utterances by some high profile figures, including the Finance Minister (Tendai Biti of the MDC) which gave license to employers / business to downsize so to continue maximizing their super-profits –coupled with now common practice by employers to refuse to pay or to stagger wages and salaries, the imposition of short time work schemes with loss of wage/salary, also the imposition of wage and salaries freeze of both public and private sectors– only point to one direction: attack on the working class who are the majority poor -serving the interest of capitalism-imperialism -Anglo-American imperialism in particular.

Indeed they (our class enemies-the government and the business) are aware the ball cannot remain on top of the pyramid for a while hence they want it to roll towards the right and break the back of the worker. Already some companies, in the textile, food, clothing, steel have started to heed the minister's call by sending workers home with some retrenching; why would they wait to begin acting when their protection is guaranteed? Workers and their leaders are victimized, persecuted, killed for demanding what is due to them.

On the other hand the different gangs of all the bourgeois parties and the capitalists are busy plundering and sharing the country's natural capital amongst themselves. The objective is self-enrichment; they, in the name of addressing historical injustice take land and distributed amongst themselves, however, as usual they did not dare touch the land of imperialist nor their mines and factories. Their target was the property of some small capitalists. They are in Chiyadzwa where the different gangs are quarreling about who should be in charge of the diamond fields on behalf of Anglo-American/JP Morgan Chase. In the ZANU (PF) mouthpiece (the Herald) it was reported that "the government appointed company (IDC) could extract diamond worth over USD650 000 per week when fully capacitated". If these mineral and the proceeds from the sale of the precious stone were properly planned for, the country could feed not only its citizenry but the entire population of the continent. There would be no need to freeze wages / salaries of the civil servants, our children could enjoy free education, free access to health etc. While Biti is calling for companies to downsize (workforce and the wage / salary bill) the Prime Minister (Tsvangirai) and the President (Mugabe) are calling Zimbabweans in foreign lands where they are subjected to slave-like conditions offering cheap labour to return arguing that the economic and political situation has improved / stabilised. The Labour Minister too is quoted saying many companies are applying for retrenchment, but does this mean companies are operating at a loss? No, it is their policy to pay slave like wages / salaries, in fact they want free labour. The same Finance Minister went further to attack the few minimal 'favourable' provisions of the labour laws of the country (Zimbabwe), which he describes as too protective; clearly the minister as a servant of Anglo-American/JP Morgan Chase, wants the ball to break the workers’ backs.
While all this is said, they continue milking from the very meager income of the toiling masses got from selling wares and from the flat envelope they receive from the insane employer, the government, through its various departments are charging astonishing exorbitant, anti-poor fees / rates.  We have repeatedly warned that workers will painfully pay for these secret deals this capitalist-imperialist government is entering with imperialist corporations. The government receive with much ululation the news that Zimbabwe's voting rights have been restored, it welcomes with enthusiasm the IMF delegation last year and receive with no hesitation the IMF loan of USD500million – ooh who does not know the negative impact of the policies of these so-called good Samaritans (International Financial Institutions)? they reap where they did not sow. Least we forget the effects of ESAP(Structural Adjustment Programmes) which has contributed wholesomely to our present suffering, including operation Murambatsvina.  Now we are paying by our blood; massive retrenchments, wage / salaries cuts, freeze of wages / salaries and low (no) expenditure by government on public services. It’s a death penalty, under these conditions, if remained unchallenged, we are therefore only living on hired time.
The workers of Zimbabwe likewise their class brothers and sisters internationally always enter the revolutionary path but as usual the counterrevolutionary, reformists, fake Trotskyists, Stalinists strangle and divert the agenda of the working class by collaborating with the workers’ class enemy. They impose their minimum, class collaborationist programme to be the ultimate mission of the struggle of the working class. They confuse workers by adulterating Marxism, by reducing the struggle for the conquest of power to pure economic struggle. The period we are, the period of capitalism-imperialism decay, is a period when even the ‘democratic’ demands have to be fought for. 
But the workers cannot achieve these 'democratic' demands by reconciling with imperialism – no, we don’t reconcile with our class enemies, butchers of the mine workers in Shabani, of poor masses who are panning (for minerals) for survival in Chiwadzwa. We cannot reconcile with counterrevolutionaries who are our enemy within – they are the most dangerous type as they, for crumbs, are the servants of capitalism-imperialism. The workers of Zimbabwe, of the world have ahead either barbarism or socialism: the fight against imperialism barbarism is a matter of life and death. We are the only class with class interests to take the fight for total liberation (economic, social and political), to its logical conclusion through the conquest of power by the proletariat. Only when the working class organised independently, becoming the leader of the broader masses through taking power into its own hands, then we can have democratic demands (jobs, shelter, education, health, a people driven constitution) met, being themselves transitional demands towards socialist demands. The suffering poor people want a different society, a socialist society order; they are sharply opposed to the parasitic system of imperialism-capitalism.
 “But it is not enough to want; one must know how". Let us calmly reflect once more: is the policy carried on at present by the leadership, of MDCs or ZANU(PF) correct or incorrect? Who are they serving, who benefits from their policies, which are frankly anti-working people - the majority poor? Can we say recommending companies to downsize is pro-working class/poor? Can we say evicting tenants from their houses is pro-working class/poor.  Can we say freezing wages / salaries of the ordinary civil servants pro-working class/poor? The government, instead of taxing the rich to fund pro-poor developmental projects, is doing the opposite. The Finance Minister in his monetary policy, categorically stated that the government gets over (50%) of its income from the workers as PAYE while companies are paying a small (14%). Zimbabwean workers are the highest taxed in the continent if not the world over! If the government taxed the big monopolies such as the diamond, platinum, cotton, tobacco companies at even 50% of their profits, that would immediately take Zimbabwe out of its crisis; but even this minimal bourgeois democratic measure is something the government will not do.
To the world producers of the wealth, let’s calmly reflect once more, where are they (managers of capitalism-imperialism and their counterrevolutionary friends) heading us? – capitalist barbarism or socialism. Enough is enough comrades – we have nothing to lose but the chains of bondage; we organize or we starve!
The policies of all the political parties in Zimbabwe and internationally are pro-capitalist-imperialism and they could continue as such unless and until the working class break with these bourgeois, popular front, liberation movement parties. The workers can only triumph by conquering power through organising by themselves independently and without any grain of class distortions/contradictions. In Zimbabwe, the workers must build an alternative, revolutionary independent working class movement for workers' power alternative to both formations of MDC and ZANU(PF).
To avoid or to guard against a replica of the results of the previous Working Peoples’ Convention where the process was from the onset hi-jacked by servants of capitalism, a correct policy is necessary.
That is, we need a policy appropriate to the present situation, to the present relationship of forces, and not to the situation that may develop in one, two, or three years, when the question of power will already have been decided for a long time.  We must remove any illusions to say MDC this or that is a better evil than ZANU(PF). The struggle is not to put a better evil in power but a workers' and peasants government in power. Recent developments have proved that these political parties are serving the same masters - imperialism.
 “There are seven keys in the musical scale. The question as to which of these keys is “better” – do, re, or sol – is a nonsensical question. But the musician must know when to strike and what keys to strike”. The abstract question of who is the lesser evil – Mugabe or Tsvangirai – is just as nonsensical. It is necessary to know which of these keys to strike. Is that clear? For the feeble-minded let us cite another example. When one of my enemies sets before me small daily portions of poison and the second, on the other hand, is about to shoot straight at me, then I will first knock the revolver out of the hand of my second enemy, for this gives me an opportunity to get rid of my first enemy. But that does not at all mean that the poison is a “lesser evil” in comparison with the revolver”, argued Trotsky.

The workers must act independently from the leaders or policies of the political parties that represent the bosses and imperialism; they must defend their worker agenda. There is no harmony in the communities, in the factories, mines etc; workers are being attacked ruthlessly by capitalism-imperialism. We need to defend ourselves against this unholy alliance in the factories and our communities. For how long shall we drink and queue for untreated water? For how long shall our children remain out of school? For how long shall we continue destroying our forests for firewood? For how long shall the employers stagger our wages/salaries? For how long shall employers refuse to pay a wage/salary in line even with the minimal poverty datum level? For how long shall we remain without jobs? For how long shall we remain on short-time work schemes? For how long shall we live in darkness - without electricity? For how long shall we continue receiving anti-poor bills - we don't even consume what we are billed. For how long shall we remain beggars in our own country of birth? For until when shall we live in the open without a roof above and a decent floor under our bodies? For until when shall we watch our beloved class brothers and sisters die from hunger and curable diseases?

In the meantime, as we endure hunger and misery, the rich land in Zimbabwe which could feed the entire Southern Africa is still in the hands of the imperialist companies, aided by their fascistic lackeys, the ‘white’ commercial farmers and the new agrarian bourgeoisie, who expropriated a portion of the best land for the officers of the bourgeois army of Mugabe and company. Small peasants see that they cannot live from their tiny plot of land. The agricultural workers are used as slaves in the plantations of the transnationals and the big agrarian bourgeoisie. We cannot continue like this! Enough with hunger, misery and ruin for the working class, the poor peasants and the rural workers! Enough with opulence and concentration of the wealth in the hands of the transnationals and the native bourgeoisie!

AN APPEAL OF THE INTERNATIONALIST TROTSKYISTS OF ZIMBABWE ON THIS MAY DAY TO FIGHT TOGETHER WITH THE INTERNATIONAL WORKING CLASS

This is why we are calling all workers of Zimbabwe, the region, the continent and internationally to unite and rally together under one banner, the banner of the international proletariat, of the urban and rural working class, which for us, is the Fourth International.

We call to set up, against the bosses, the exploiters’ and the imperialist parties, a new internationalist revolutionary party of the working class, a new revolutionary party, a real General Staff of the working class and their allies, in order to put an end to the catastrophe that looms upon our heads and is killing us day by day.

Far from being gravediggers of this rotten and smelly capitalist system in crisis, the world reformist left currents are tending it as caring nurses. After having long supported capitalism, now, when it is facing a thorough bankruptcy, and throwing its burdens over the backs of the working class and the oppressed people of the world, these traitors have unified their forces against the working class and in defense of the exploiters’ private property.

Those wolves, dressed as sheep are calling now to set up “anti-capitalist” parties, but the “anti-capitalist” is just in name, as they refuse to touch a single interest of the transnationals, the banks and imperialism. Alas!... The workers do not deserve new obstacles on their path or new betrayers who speak on the name of socialism in order to better betray them.

Workers who do not get their wages, enslaved rural workers in the plantations, workers who must migrate to work as slaves to neighbor countries: we must raise our fist on this May Day and take the lead to set up an internationalist revolutionary alternative.

For workers to achieve real democratic demands we call for;
•       the formation of workers' defense committees in factories and in every workers neighbourhood - to defend against; dismissals, retrenchments, short-time work scheme, victimization of workers leaders, staggering of wages / salaries, wage / salary freeze, slave like wages / salaries, evictions and against power and water disconnections, i.e, against the general attack by imperialism. At the same time we must unite our struggles with the struggles of our class brothers and sisters in South Africa, UK, USA, Greece, Italy etc, where they work as slaves and second-class workers,  and demand ‘equal pay and equal work’. One single class, one single struggle!  Work for all! No more unemployment! The doors of the COSATU must be opened for all the African brothers and sisters to organize ourselves in a common fight! Migrant workers committees to send delegates to all the branches of COSATU!
For unemployed committees to send delegates to all unions, the National and regional workers congresses to join hands to fight for decent work for all and to share the work among all who can work!

•       expropriation without compensation and put under workers' control all companies; closing down, put workers on retrenchment, victimizing workers and workers' leaders, stagger wages / salaries, paying slave like wages / salaries, impose short-time working scheme. Hundreds of thousands of workers are being dismissed in Zimbabwe by the bosses and by ZANU-PF and the MDC, and they have to migrate as outcasts in their own land to get a miserable job to sustain their starving families. To conquer food, clothing, education and all our demands, we need to expropriate all imperialist assets, without compensation and place them under workers’ control. Nationalise the land and expropriate all commercial farmers, without compensation, put them under workers control; create model worker collectives and invite all the poor peasantry to join such collectives.

•   They want to make us believe that there is no money. It is a lie. The parasites, the exploiters and imperialism are awash in money and wealth plundered from Africa! The question is clear: It is us or them. It is necessary to expropriate and nationalize the banks without compensation merging them into a single State Bank put under workers’ control.

•   That bank will be able to give cheap credit to the poor peasants, furnish cutting edge machinery to the plantations and nationalized land expropriated from the big agrarian bourgeoisie.

•       (workers) factory occupation on all companies that stagger wages / salaries, pay starvation wages / salaries, closing, retrenchment, victimize workers and workers leaders, impose short-time work scheme

•       an Independent Movement for Workers Power with the following steps:
first a call for factory committees in every workplace whose task is to gather demands of the working class, to take on the tasks of organising self defence and to take steps to organise production under workers control; second, the formation of labour forums (committees of delegates) in working class communities and in all industrial areas to prepare for the convening of a National Workers Congress of delegates (1 per 100) of employed and unemployed workers, revolutionary students / youths, disabled and other socially disadvantaged groups including HIV / Aids groups, rural poor peasants and the rank and file soldiers. It is only this National workers Congress that can guarantee that the Hundreds, thousands, of exploited are already realizing that the bosses’ parties are able/willing to solve absolutely nothing for them. We internationalist Trotskyists affirm that only a government of the workers, supported by the exploited sectors and poor peasants’ can give a solution to the crisis that has abated on us.
From the International Revolutionary League (IRL-FI), we fight to build that party in Zimbabwe, in the entire Southern Africa, in the whole world and that party is for us the 4th International, which fights for the international socialist revolution.
We know that our small nucleus will not be able to fulfill this task without hundreds of thousands of exploited and revolutionary students taking it in their hands as their task. To set up this party where there will be no place for bosses or exploiters, or for careerists or opportunists; a party rallying the defenders of workers democracy and the fighters for the international revolution.

•       break (trade unions, student organisations and other workers' organisations) with bourgeois parties (MDC, ZANU(PF), fake ‘Anti-Capitalist’ ) of the bosses that starve us. Break with their (MDCs) anti-workers pact with the ZANU(PF) and form an Independent Movement for Workers' Power. We must break the siege against the masses in Madagascar, imposed by Stalinists reformists and the agents of the bourgeoisie within the workers movement, the same siege imposed in Zimbabwe and in every decisive struggle by subordinating the working class to the bourgeoisie! Enough! Break with the bourgeoisie! One single class, one single struggle in the whole Southern Africa! Out French and US-UK imperialism from Madagascar! Our class brothers from Greece and their magnificent general strike against the attack of the capitalists and the Greek imperialist regime, junior partner of Goldman Sach/JP Morgan Chase, shows the way to all the world working class on how to fight against their exploiters. A congress of workers, poor peasants and soldiers of all Southern Africa could put on the agenda, starting from the revolutionary fight of the Greek workers, conquering the general strike that surpasses the borders, paralyzes the African continent and puts into question who owns the wealth  that is daily plundered (by imperialism): either the exploiters or the working class (the real producers in Africa). The imperialist, the exploiters -since they take the bread, land, work away from us, they enslave us, they starve us, our children and our families to death- they deserve what our class brothers and sisters did in Kyrgyzstan. Facing the 200% increase of the basic products and the services, they paralyzed the country with strikes, barricades, picket lines and fighting in the streets. They disarmed the murderous police when they repressed, kicking out the government of  the starvation and slavery, demolishing the institutions of the exploiters.

-Labour aristocracy and bureaucracy out of our organizations! For workers’ democracy! Bourgeois state and its regulations on the unions out of the workers organizations! The only aim of the state of the exploiters and their laws is to corrupt the workers’ leaders with crumbs, in exchange for misery and the worst attacks against the large majority of the workers.
Bureaucrats out of the workers organizations! They, as the Stalinist bureaucracy, have sold out the gains of the former workers states to the world economy, becoming a new exploiting class!
Castroite restorationist bureaucracy out of Cuba! It has strangled the workers and peasants revolution in Latin America, made an agreement with Obama for subordinating the US working class, and now it is preparing to take new steps in the capitalist restoration in the island!

-Close to our shores, less than a year ago, the workers and peasants in Madagascar have staged an uprising. They, organized together with the soldiers’ committees that refused to repress the people, knocked the hatred government of Ravalomanana down. They caused the whole bourgeoisie and the exploiters of our continent to tremble. All the forces of the bourgeois parties, of the imperialist powers, as well as that cynical “African Union” which is a ministry of colonies, came out to fence that heroic revolution that had started, in which Rajoelina and the rest of the bosses, servants of the French imperialism, put themselves on top of it to try expropriating and blocking it from developing.
Subordinating us country by country to our own bourgeoisies, so far they have prevented us to fight and take decisive steps as our class brothers in Madagascar did.
Rajoelina out! French and US imperialism out of Madagascar, South Africa and the entire Southern Africa! We must break the fence that the Stalinists, reformists and all kinds of agents of the bourgeoisie in the workers movement have imposed to the masses in Madagascar, the same that they have imposed in Zimbabwe and in every decisive fight by subordinating the proletariat to the bourgeoisie! Enough is enough! We must break with the bourgeoisie! One single class, one single fight in the whole Southern Africa!
As we say in this manifesto, it is about uniting the whole working class in the entire Southern Africa in a big workers’ congress  supported by the poor peasants and soldiers, which will have the honour of set a chair to their class brothers and sisters of Madagascar, so that they can spark the flames of revolution over the whole Africa for the victory of the proletarian revolution and the defeat of imperialism. Workers, unemployed, revolutionary students, poor peasants, rank and file soldiers, from across the region need to send delegates to such Workers Congress.

Long live the revolution in Kyrgyzstan! Long live the revolution in Madagascar! Long live the general strike in Greece! That’s the way to achieve victory in the entire Southern Africa that the International Leninist Trotskyist Fraction (FLTI) is proposing, while fighting for re-founding the world party of the whole working class, the Fourth
International!  The Stalinists and reformists want us to believe that our strength is in the unity with the bourgeois parties, with the lackey bourgeoisie, with the NGO’s which, from the UN and the imperialist powers, corrupt
the working class and a small sector of their ranks to sell out our struggles. No more! Our strength is in the unity of the African working class with the working class of USA and Europe!  

In 1886 the militant workers of the First International , led by the US working class rose up for a 40 hour week; some were executed for their actions, but the uprising sparked the resistance that is continuing on a world scale today. Many workers have conquered even a 35 hour week. We call on the workers in the US, UK , France, Germany, Japan, to rise against your own imperialist who are today plundering China, Africa, Latin America. To free Zimbabwe the working class needs to take power into its hands in Southern Africa. Forward to a federation of Soviet Socialist republics in Central (Sub-Saharan) and Southern Africa. This goes hand in hand with the struggle for a Soviet USA, Soviet UK, Soviet France, Soviet Germany and Soviet Japan, otherwise we shall forever be in chains. 

The working class have already taken steps to establish that unity by taking the lead in the fight of the strike across borders in Europe, called by the migrant workers committees, led by African workers. There our strength is! For the international unity of the working class! No more subordination of the exploited to their executioners! The water and fire don’t mix!
One class, One struggle, One revolution! Together at once!
 The solution - ONE revolution!
Political Committee of the Revolutionary Internationalist League-FI (Zimbabwe)
Political Committee of Workers International Vanguard League (South Africa)
Comprising together the African Secretariat of the FLTI

Supported by the International Co-ordination Secretariat of the FLTI
28.4. 2010