Israeli Strikes in the Gaza and South Africa

 

In recent days, a series of strikes by the Israeli military, including air strikes and military bombardment, have claimed the lives of some 83 people.  There is an outcry in South Africa against the ‘barbarity’ of these attacks.  Of course, there are arguments on both sides, but the argument of the Israelis, that they cannot simply stand by as the Hammas terrorists (give them their true description!) consistently rain rockets on Israeli cities, cannot be ignored.  The Israelis must respond, and, in true Israeli fashion, they have chosen to make targeted strikes against relevant targets – the leaders of Hammas.  There can be no doubt that Hammas must have expected that reaction, just as the ANC must have expected the reaction of the South African Police when they sent the young Black students against armed Police lines in their fight against Apartheid.  The real criminals are the leaders of Hammas, who set up the population of Palestine as targets.

In comparison, the strikes at Marikana in South Africa, resulted in the death of at least 47 people.  The strikes in the Hex River Valley have resulted in at least 2 deaths so far.  The question of political Party involvement in Marikana is not as obvious as it is in Gaza, but the ex-ANC Youth League President, Julius Malema was clearly visible exhorting the workers to ‘demand their rights’, and the actions of various Cosatu and SACP leaders subsequent to the riots have been notably on the side of the workers.  In the case of the Hex River Valley, there have been warnings by the ANC Youth League that it would ‘make the Province ungovernable’, warnings that echo the tactics of the ANC during the years of the ‘Struggle’.  This comparison seems to imply that South Africa is still locked in a war, undeclared, and fought without any clear rules, but with thousands of victims each year.  Can it be that this war is being fought out between Capitalism and some other system?  Certainly the response by the Government has been clearly that the fault lies at the feet of the White Capitalists, the mine owners, the farmers, those people who control the capital of the country and who deny a ‘reasonable living’ to all of the oppressed workers.  This argument overlooks the fact that the vast majority of the workers who are, apparently, so deprived, have chosen to do the work that they now claim pays so poorly!  No-one forced the Zimbabwean workers to take the seasonal fruit-picking jobs.  No-one forced the migrant workers on the platinum mines to travel from Lesotho and the Eastern Cape to take the badly-paid jobs in Rustenburg.  Surely they made the choice themselves, taking into account the advantages and disadvantages of that job compared with all the other alternatives.

And that is where the real question lies.  Do the workers who wind up in the mines in Rustenburg or on the farms and packing plants of the Hex River Valley have any alternatives?  The answer must be that there are no alternatives.  If there were, those workers would not have taken the jobs that are now so disparaged.  They would have had the chance to decide between the jobs they now have and other jobs, rather than between those jobs and starvation. The free market would have acted to balance the demand and the supply.  The real fault, the blame for the poor pay and the bad living conditions, lies in the abject failure of the Government to ensure that the jobs to provide the alternatives to those workers do not exist.  The fault lies with politicians, like those in the Eastern Cape, who believe that an unemployment rate of ‘only 69%’ is not a cause for concern.  It is more important for the South African Communist Party leader to condemn the criticism of a State President who has clearly demonstrated his lack of suitability as well as lack of capability to manage a complex economy such as that of South Africa, than to make proposals to alleviate the massive unemployment that forces the millions of workers into poorly-paid and unpleasant jobs, rather than to suffer the privations that are the daily fare of so many South Africans.  It is more important for Cosatu to consolidate its control over South African industry that to stand aside to permit more people to work.  If there is a war in South Africa, it is a Cold War between the investors, who create the jobs, and the Tri-Partite Alliance, who are interested in doing something only when there is a benefit in it for themselves.