Welcome to the latest issue of Workers World News issue 127 of Workers World News for 2024.
The theme for this issue was collectively agreed on as internationalism with a special focus on occupied Palestine. This has without doubt been a hell of a few months since the world seemed to implode on October 7th.
While Apartheid Israel slowly starves Gazans to death, the profiteers of war gamble with lives and use international power structures rather than the voices of the people to decide on arbitrary yet simple things as labelling a war a genocide. The powers that be remain centred on neo-liberal, capitalist, fascist forces who are there to fill their coffers while tiny coffins line the streets of Gaza.
At a time when patriarchy, misogyny, neo-liberal capitalism and the plague of gender-based violence and femicide globally, especially amongst marginalised LGBTQI++ /Queer communities, the various struggles of the proletariat intersect and continue in old, new and imaginative ways. In this country, activists are calling 2024 the new 1994. But do we really want another 1994, or do we want something new?
The lead article by ILRIG’s Dale McKinley, delves into the realities of this concept, of the sell-outs in the ANC Government, that brought hope back in 1994, but it seems the father of democracy, and those who came after him sold South Africa to the elite and for the working class here, and in fact, wherever you look, you will find some sort of cop out by politicians, Nobuhle Ajiti from Kopanang Africa Against Xenophobia, (KAAX) writes about the effects of xenophobia on voting and comes with a stern warning to not vote for politicians who preach xenophobic rhetoric. In our lead in the international section, Roshad Dadoo from BDS-SA, paints a context of the ongoing Nakba inflicted upon the Palestinian people by Apartheid Israel, and Boycott, Divest and Sanctions as a means of direct action against those corporations and industries that support it.
Nikita Ramkissoon a student of Gender and Journalism, explains how Apartheid Israel uses pinkwashing to write a fairytale of how their society is accepting and egalitarian, while the contrary is true. On the same wave, Noah Lubinsky, a sociologist and member of SA Jews for a Free Palestine and Queers for Palestine renders an ironic story of a forest named after South Africa in Occupied Palestine being paid for by the south African taxpayer through the JNF. In our Educational Series, ILRIG’s Shawn Hattingh examines the international union open to wage and salary workers in all industries, that left an indelible effect on the values and ethos of international working-class solidarity.
In November last year, ILRIG celebrated 40 years of rendering popular political education to activists and movements in South Africa and beyond and ILRIG’s Mthetho Xhali gives a comprehensive summary of the festival.
ILRIG also plays tribute to Ayanda Kota, (UPM), who recently passed away with a heart-felt poem from Mazibuko K. Jara. The centre-fold poster designed by ILRIG’s Anastasia Eli immortalises the words of Palestinian poet Refaat Alameer, who was killed by the IDF last year soon after he wrote the touching request in his poem “When I die”. Climate justice and PSA activist Sunny Morgan’s poem “Flat Bread” speaks to the capricious and cruel nature of dying in Gaza.
The lead poem selected is from the original The Internationale- but a shorter, more catchy song version by Billy Brag. If you are someone who considers themselves on the political left, anarchists, communists, socialists or even social democrats, you probably know the hymn The Internationale, the most widely translated and adapted ballad in the world, sung in over 115 languages in the spirit of global, working-class solidarity and remains the de-facto anthem of the global socialist movement to this day, spreading the same message of international unity in the struggle waged by the toiling masses of the Earth. There is no time like the present times that this song is more relevant to practice to “unite the human race”. Continues on next page. Pull-out poster ON PAGE 7 ‘Kites’ by Anastasya Eliseeva, 2024
For comments to the Editor, letters, or articles, or artwork, contact Lara Reddy