Dear Professor Jackie DiSalvo
In both South Africa and the United States, we face a common enemy: police brutality. Like the cases of Michael Brown and Eric Garner, the police literally get away with murder in our country despite the fact that we live in a so-called democratic country. As in the United States, police brutality in South Africa has a clear racial dimension since it is almost always Black working class bodies that face the wrath of police officers.
Make no mistake: the vast majority of Black South Africans hoped they would be free following the first democratic elections in 1994. Instead, we have experienced a growing divide between the rich and the poor and again it has been Black people, the majority, who have suffered the most. The Marikana massacre, which witnessed 34 miners on strike being killed for standing up for their rights, highlighted how far the current South African regime is willing to go to suppress working class struggles. In another major case, a literacy advocate and community organizer named Andries Tatane was killed by the police who gunned him down on national television during a peaceful protest - the police were let off without charges while Tatane's family and the young people who he had been mentoring continue live on without this genuine leader.
The South African liberation movement, with the power of the masses in our own country leading and the international anti-apartheid movement behind us, helped overthrow one of the most racist systems in the world. But, the South African government is no longer on the side of the people - it has adopted capitalist politics and betrayed us. All over the country, the South African Police gun down, jail and torture protestors. As I write, Black townships are on fire, and the police and the government itself are hunting down activists who organize and stand up for their rights to basic services like access to water, electricity, and housing.
We know our fellow African Americans face very similar obstacles when it comes to repression and brutality. Together, we gained the right to vote and certain political freedoms, but we did not obtain economic freedom, nor did we eliminate the racism which continues to permeate virtually every aspect of our lives.
Trevor Ngwane
Democratic Left Front
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We further request that you let your constituency know that we stand at your side in the fight against oppression and exploitation. We commit to sending you pictures of the march as soon as possible so you can see and feel our solidarity with you in action.
We hope that we can build further solidarity with U.S. comrades in the future. Let us know if you have any ideas. The march is organized by the Democratic Left Front (DLF) alongside the United Front which is led by the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa (NUMSA).
Political message:
The United Front, the DLF, and NUMSA stand with and support all the world’s oppressed and exploited. We are against racism and xenophobia. We oppose the criminalization of poverty, the militarization of the police and the violent imposition of an unjust capitalist order on the masses. African-Americans are Africans who were taken by force as slaves to the USA. After centuries of struggle and suffering, they are still not free.
Theme:
Black lives matter: No to racism! No to capitalist exploitation and oppression!
Slogans:
No to racism!
No to xenophobia!
Stop police brutality!
No to militarization of the police!
Don’t let the police get away with murder!
Stop the criminalization of protest!
Capitalist inequality breeds racism!
Forward with international solidarity!
Workers of the world unite!