Workers’ Solidarity was the Magazine of the Workers Solidarity Federation, published from 1995 to 1999.  In total, 8 issues were published.

Contents of Volume 4, Number 1

• Editorial: Unite the Workers’ Struggle!
  We need to unite the workers struggles in our region. We need to mobilise our unions in solidarity with each other, resisting the bosses’ onslaught.
• What we believe
  Society is divided into two main groups- the working class and the tiny ruling class. The two classes are locked in a class war
• Peter Mokaba attacks socialism
  We expect anti-socialist talk from racist bosses who lived off our sweat and blood under the apartheid regime. But it is still a shock to hear the same nonsense from the mouth of a comrade who fought in the struggle
• The Basic Conditions of Employment Act
  The Basic Conditions of Employment Bill was passed as an Act of Parliament on 7 November
• Mobilise against job losses
  Jobs in the manufacturing sector fell by almost 4% since June last year despite growth in manufacturing output this year
• Workers organise general strikes for decent working conditions
  Millions of workers’ supported COSATU’s call for a week of rolling mass action starting August 18 to demand changes to the Basic Conditions of Employment Bill
• Defend, consolidate, advance!
  2,300 worker delegates attended the Congress of SA Trade Unions 6th National Congress in September 1997
• Class Struggles in Africa
  • Swaziland: phambili basebenzi!
    The pro-democracy movement has lead to open street battles between demonstrators and the Royal Swazi Police, to detention and beating of unionists and human rights activists, to a media blackout, to brave acts of sabotage and to two successful general strikes this year!
  • Zambian workers and poor under attack
    In Zambia, the working class is being brutally attacked by the twin forces of capitalism and imperialism. Wages are falling, education and health are being cut back, food prices are increasing, and at least 100,000 jobs have been lost in the 1990s
  • Mass revolt in Zimbabwe
    Mass action has shaken the ruling class headed by Robert Mugabe. The general strike of 9 December 1997, called by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) paralysed the country and was the most successful since Independence in 1980
  • Defend COMSA union at UDW
    The Combined Staff Association at the University of Durban-Westville is under attack. COMSA is a militant independent union that organises 70% of workers and staff at UDW
  • Explosive union growth in Southern Africa
    Trade unions in South Africa, Swaziland and Zimbabwe are among the fastest growing in the world
  • Kenya: the resistance grows
    In October 1997, striking Kenyan teachers won their wage demands. 1997 has also been a key year for the struggle against Kenya’s billionaire dictator, Daniel Arap Moi
  • International unions launch campaign to free jailed Nigerian worker militants
    The ICEM has launched a campaign against Nigerian oil exports aimed at winning the release of two Nigerian union militants
• Libertarian socialist (Anarcho-Syndicalist) Q & A:
  • What causes women’s oppression?
    The root of women’s oppression lies in the division of society into classes. Women’s oppression is in the direct interest of capitalism and the State
  • How can we organise to end women’s oppression?
    We fight against women’s oppression. We fight for workers unity. An injury to one is an injury to all. Only through libertarian socialism can women be truly freed, as the causes of women’s oppression will be removed
• Libertarian socialist (Anarcho-Syndicalist) History
  • A history of fighting for women’s freedom
    The libertarian socialist movement long fought against women’s oppression. And many prominent figures in the women’s movement were anarchists
• The ANC and the South African White Right in Mozambique
  The Mosagrius agreement between President Nelson Mandela and Mozambique’s President Joaquin Chissano has opened the door for the white right to exploit Mozambican peasants
• Growing dissatisfaction with ANC government
  An HSRC survey has found widespread dissatisfaction with the ANC-lead government
• Class struggles in Asia
  • Should we copy the “South Korean miracle”?
    Studies show that South Korea has the longest average working week and the highest industrial accident rate of anywhere in the world.
  • Indonesia: down with Suharto’s police state
    On the 20 November 40 COSATU members were arrested outside parliament. Their crime? Protesting against the visit of Indonesian dictator Mohamed Suharto
• International Libertarian socialist (Anarcho-Syndicalist) News
  • International Revolutionary Conference, IFA ’97
    In October 1997, the International Anarchist Federations (IFA) held its sixth Congress in Lyon, France
  • Hamba Kahle Gerard Ali Khanifar 1950-1997
    This French comrade of African Arab origin died 21 February 1997
• COSATU accuses!
  The key motive for Apartheid was the “perpetuation of a super-exploitative cheap labour system”
• Do immigrants cause crime?
  Although the media and the police paint immigrants as evil criminals, the facts show that immigrants are hardly ever involved in crime
• SA dockers join international day of action
  In South Africa, thousands of workers attended a mass rally in Durban, and there was a national day of port action in support of dockers’ struggles in Australia and Liverpool.
• Mass retrenchments by Mzi Khumalo’s JCI
  More than 4,100 workers face retrenchments at the hands of JCI
• PAC leader says “ban the trade unions”
  The PAC is sometimes seen as a radical alternative to ANC
• Readers’letter
  • No to privitisation!

  [above links take you to the old WSF archive pages at
  flag.blackened.net]