Friday, March 22, 2013

After the Boycott, Organise to Defeat the Popular Front!

Robert Mugabe and Hu Jintao

The referendum on the new constitution was held on the 16th of March 2013 with only around 40% of eligible voters, after massive inflating of the figures , voting on the acceptability or otherwise of the draft written by the three parties in government together with their imperialist masters through UNDP. Over half of the eligible voters boycotted the referenda in a clear sign of protest to the GNU and the brutal policies of the three parties that have wrecked the lives of the ordinary poor and using the referendum to create the political basis for further attacks on the poor masses through brutal austerity measures demanded by imperialism.

Of those who voted about 94% were in support of the document with only about 5% rejecting it and the remainder filled by protest votes and/or spoiled votes. Even on this fraudulent basis the draft cannot be regarded as legitimate given the number of people who one way or the other saw through the tricks of the inclusive dictatorship and rejected the referendum farce. All the parties in the GNU have welcomed the results as historic and now calling for the entrenchment of constitutionalism i.e. acceptance of the culture of capitalist domination. Those calling for a No vote have rejected the outcome and vow to continue to oppose the constitution until a democratic and people driven one is in place.

For us the number of people who boycotted the process represents a latent social force in Zimbabwe of workers and the ordinary poor who are opposed to the policies of the current regime but with no clear solutions given the historical domination of reformism and centrism. The popular front regime has brought untold suffering to the people and this must end through smashing the regime and its social basis in order to conquer the interests of the ordinary poor. Workers, students, poor farmers, poor resident, unemployed and the informally employed must mobilise now for a UNITED FRONT to oppose the popular front regime that is now preparing to launch another round of attacks on the living conditions of the poor.

In our campaign for a boycott among workers, students, poor residents and the ordinary poor we reiterated the urgent need to launch a UNITED FRONT to spearhead the responses of the poor and exploited masses with the two meetings we convened endorsing the call. To that end the RWG (Zim) will be agitating and organising for the creation of local struggle committees in unions and struggle organisations to call for the convening of the UNITED FRONT of struggle organisations and individuals dedicated to the defeat of the policies being championed by the regime and those being proffered by those intending to replace the regime without replacing the capitalist basis. We congratulate the ordinary people of Zimbabwe for boycotting the referendum and now call upon them to organise to smash capitalism and its various local agents.

Revolutionary Workers Group-Zimbabwe

22 March 2013

Sunday, March 17, 2013

PSTU sells out General Motors workers in Sao Paulo


Metalúrgicos da GM de S. José param por 24 horas para forçar recuo em demissões
We reproduce a condensed statement of the FLTI on the role played by the leadership of the Metal Workers Union and CSP-Conlutas, led by the PSTU-LIT (Morenoists) in the 'surrender agreement' signed between General Motors management and the workers of San Jose Dos Campos, Sao Paulo, Brazil.

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BRAZIL: IN GENERAL MOTORS OF SAN JOSE DOS CAMPOS: 
SUSPENSIONS, LAYOFFS, INCREASE OF THE LABOUR SHIFT, REDUCTION OF WAGES ARE IMPOSED AND THE AUTO INDUSTRY BOSSES GUARANTEED THEIR SUPER PROFITS 
...


THE LEADERSHIP OF THE METAL WORKER UNION AND CSP-CONLUTAS, LED BY PSTU-LIT MUST WITHDRAW THEIR SIGNATURE FROM THIS "AGREEMENT" 

Rank and File Assembly of the organizations that are part of Conlutas and all the worker organizations of CUT and other union central to repudiate, disregard and fight against this “agreement”! Emergency Congress right now of CSP-Conluta! The world crisis has entered into Brazil and MERCOSUR. The terrible attack against workers and the poor people by Dilma in Brazil and Cristina K in Argentina on behalf of Obama and the transnationals, this is how they testified. 

In General Motors of San Jose dos Campos the bosses launched a terrible attack based on the blackmail, threating with the closure of the factory and the assembly sectors to imposed layoffs, suspensions, decrease of wages and finish of the conquests. After GM, only in 2011 in the plants of Brazil, will get as net super profit 7.6 millions of dolards! 

Unfortunatly, the leader of the Metal Worker Union of San Jose dos Campos led by PSTU-LIT* echoed this blackmail and from August of last year allowed more than 500 volunteer retirements, these are disguised layoffs under the cover of “PDV” (Plan of Volunteer Dismissals, initial Spanish), so after January 26th, 2013 ended up signing an “agreement” under the exuce that “it was the only thing possible”. This is that PSTU-LIT says to the working class that “the only thing “possible” is to surrender in front of the bosses without fighting. 

Thus, a real “sliding scale of wages and shift hours”… but the other way around! was imposed. This is a sliding scale of suspensions, layoffs and reduction of wages, where the company keep their rate of profit and in this way increase of productivity with less workers, increasing the rate of surplus value and with reduction of salary almost 50%. It is about... the same agreement signed by the UAW of AFL-CIO in GM Detroit in USA in 2008, with catastrophic consequences for the US exploited, the continent ones and at world level, with millions of layoffs, work flexibility, so on.

We reproduce some main points of the agreement signed: 
-Investment of R$ 500 millions given to the areas of Powertrain (motors and transmissions), stamping and $10, during 2013 and 2017. -Production of Classics until December, with 750 workers. After that period there will be a new negotiation. -The ones that are in lay-off (suspensions), will have the extention of the process for two months. After that, if the company dismisses, it will have to pay a fine of three wages. The worker will choose to leave immediately and received five wages, beside the labour rights. -Discussion between GM and the union on the ways of anticipation retirement for whom will be close to be retired. -The shift days which allow two extra hours per day and extraordinary work on Saturday, alternatively. There could be able to have leaves until 12 days per year, which will be given back later. -Guarantee of the employment level until December 2013 in MVA (Assembly of Cars) and December 2014 for the rest of the plant of San Jose dos Campos. -Cut in the clause on the employment level in the area of use of materials, from 1203 to 900 employers. -Guarantee of new/extention of the agreement of differentiation shift of work (6 X1, rotative shifts and Sunday work paying extra hours and a free day during the week), this is for two years. -The agreement will last two years. 
(Source: Metal Worker Union of San Jose dos Campos and Region) 

...
Since the imperialist bosses started with the blackmail of the closure plan and launched the “Volunteer of Dismissals Plan” (PDV, initials in Spanish), what was posed was to call one and a thousand time, from CSP-Conlutas, to set up a Fighting Committee of all the auto factories, metal factories and steel factories in the country, where they could expressed all the worker organizations and all the workers with their demands, to fight as a single fist, because the demands of GM were the ones of the entire worker movement to fight against the dismissals, flexibilization, so on. In this way, fighting against and attacking the private property of the capitalist with the methods of the working class, calling to occupy the plant facing the first dismissals, setting to produce under worker control and fighting for everything, this was the only way to conquer however it is the most elemental demand. Thus, the workers of GM could have conquered better condition to fight. 

Unfortunatly, the leadership of PSTU-LIT chose to keep the problem of GM workers in the plant of San José dos Campos and to make a campaign so that Dilma makes a “law against dismissals”. This generates fake expectations that Dilma could resolve the problems of the workers, and in this way they prevented the workers to identify their enemies,the government partner of the slave bosses and the transnational company, from their allies, the workers of the country and even the world starting with the auto workers from Detroit in USA up to Rosario in Argentina. 

The leadership of Metal Worker Union of San José dos Campos, led by PSTU-LIT, must withdraw right now its signature form this “Surrender-Agreement” which goes against the interest of the workers. The worker rank and file and their fighting organizations of the entire Brazil must repudiate, not recognize and reject immediately this Surrender-Agreement and call to break with it, preparing a great fight for all the demands of the workers, poor peasants and militant students, otherwise, we will all end up being dismissed workers of the GM or producing under slave conditions. 

...

We cannot allow it any more, the leadership of PSTU-LIT/Conlutas put all its force at the disposal of this Surrender Agreement, as current that speaks in the name of socialism and as a trade union who claimed to be militant, to sign an agreement that pelega (lackey) bureaucracy of CUT or Force Sindical or CTB would not have the authority to impose. This surrender agreement only strengthened "Social Pact" regime with which the imperialist monopolies guaranteed the plunder with the super exploitation of the workers. 

To prevent that the Surrender Agreement signed in GM to to take effect in the whole labor movement, it is time to stand up: 
  • Not recognition of the agreement with the GM of layoffs, wage cuts and increased working hours! 
  • Down with the Social Pact! 
  • Hands the bosses and the state off the labor organizations! 
  • No trust in the Ministry of slave Labour! 
  • Enough of making the workers submit to the Ministry of Labour, the legislature, the judiciary and other boss institutions! 
  • Enough with impotent policies that subordinate the working class to their executioners! 
  • Enough that the bosses guarantee their profits at the expense of poverty, unemployment and hunger of the workers and their families! 
  • The Brazilian working class must fight to retake the path of the 70s-80s, with factory committees and strike commands that shook imperialism and the lackey bourgeoisie! 
The ones that today does not repudiate this agreement and do not call to fight against it, they would not be able to speak on behalf of the interests of the working class and even less of socialism. The organizations that are members of Conlutas and all the labor organizations that repudiate the agreement, they should call an emergency congress to ignore the agreement signed at the GM of San José dos Campos and thus prepare the conditions for the workers of GM to break it and spearhead the fight against the attack from the bosses and monopolies. 

...

Under this perspective it was and is raised today for all the workers’ assemblies to move motions: 
  • Stop the layoffs and unemployment! Immediate reinstatement of all the dismissed workers under the PDV blackmail! 
  • Sliding scale of salaries and working hours! 
  • That the crisis be paid by the capitalists! 
  • Reduction of the working day, without salary reduction, so as to put all available hands to produce! 
  • Minimum, living salary of R$4,000 for everybody, indexed according to the cost of living, measured by workers’ organizations! 

That is to say, 180 degrees opposed to the policy defended by Zé María and the PSTU-LIT. In his report Zé María, last candidate for presidency for the PSTU and current national leader of the CSP-Conlutas, on January 29th said:
 “Agreement in the GM prevents factory from closing, but the struggle against the attacks continues”, states: “It was the only possible agreement, under the existent balance of power. It isn’t the agreement that we wanted to do. The extension of the suspensions for two more months guarantees that there aren’t any more dismissals now, but it doesn’t prevent the assemble from firing this fellow workers within 60 days (with the exception of the injured and the workers who are nearing retirement), paying a fee of 3 salaries for each one. It was the best we could get, thanks to the mobilization of the workers, the resistance from the union and the support we received from several entities in Brazil and other countries. So, we got to prevent the closure of the factory, but the fight against the layoffs of the workers that are now suspended isn’t over yet”. 

On the other hand, this is how Luiz Moan, director of GM in Brazil, celebrated the signed agreement: 
“I end the day satisfied. Today (Saturday) is the anniversary of GM in Brazil, 88 years, and I made a joke that I should receive a gift, but the ones who are receiving it are Brazil and the society. I can say that we from GM try to revert the already taken decision (of stopping the Classic production) according to the orders we receive (...) Classic is the higher cost of production, but we decided to contribute to the dialogue with the union. Keeping this level of relationship was essential. We hope that in future periods we will be able to keep this level, so that we can defend jobs and investment, and who knows, get successive negotiations, with the GM having here not 7,5 thousands employees, but figures we already had, near 13 thousands”. (Web page of the Época magazine, Business section, 01-27-2013) 

...


The PSTU-LIT in the leadership of the union and the CSP-Conlutas –who lead and influence more than 3 million workers throughout the country- hasn’t called any serious struggle, or called an emergency meeting to the ELAC (Latin American and Caribbean Workers’ Meeting) to prepare a great unified struggle beyond any border, from Detroit, USA, to Buenos Aires, Argentina.

They just organized a mobilization towards the San José Dos Campos town hall to tell the mayor and traders to pressure GM since the economy of the city would be paralysed with all the dismissed workers... What a shame! As if the traders and the petty bourgeoisie lived of what “the workers consume” and not the surplus value that the bosses rip from the working class, and as if the middle classes pressuring the mayors could stop the savage attack of the automotive imperialist monopoly... 

Suppose the union leadership called for a Struggle Committee and the entire automotive and iron and steel worker movement to send delegates to that Committee, to all the workers whether they belong to the CUT or Conlutas to send delegates there to struggle to stop the layoffs, suspensions and salary decrease, and that thousands of delegates gathered in a struggle Committee to raise a single tender of demands. Suppose all this had been done and afterwards the conditions hadn’t been enough to defeat the bosses’ attack. 

... 
When the Bolsheviks after the seizure of power in October 1917, keeping the enormous distance from all analogy, signed the peace with the German imperialism in Brest Litovsky in 1918 at the end of World War I, before the German proletariat uprising, the first thing they did was to call the North American and European working class to revolt against that pact, absolutely favorable to the Junkers. The PSTU-LIT, of course, is in opposition with this revolutionary policy. Not only they did the not make a serious call for struggle or devoted all their forces to prepare, in the unions they lead, the conditions for the victory, but also in the defeat they don’t tell the truth to the workers: that this agreement is against the workers and the entire working class has to repudiate it, and revolt against that agreement and never sign a similar agreement, and that as soon as the GM workers get in better conditions they must break that agreement. The PSTU-LIT and the CSP-Conlutas leadership instead of preparing the conditions to struggle, they devoted themselves to pose that there were no conditions and that we had to accept the attack and barely restrain it. Thus, they do nothing but to apply the recipe of the union bureaucracies from the North American AFL-CIO, the Spanish UGT, the French CGT, the Greek Stalinist union bureaucracy, etc. 

To prevent this defeat the working class must stand up as it did in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s. 

WE MUST SET UP AGAIN THE STRIKE COMMITTEES AND THE UNIFIED STRUGGLE COMMANDS OF ALL THE INDUSTRIES IN THE COUNTRY! 

The fact is that under these conditions of the bosses’ attack in every line against the working class and the exploited from Brazil and worldwide, the time has arrived for the working class to weigh again in the political scene, to unify its ranks and guarantee the worker counter-offensive to stop the attack. 

Until yesterday, to save the capitalism in ruins, it was the Union Force and the CUT the ones that signed those agreements, while the Conlutas leadership pressured from outside to get “something more”, restraining left-wing movements that were breaking up with the bureaucracy. With this kind of “agreements”, like the one signed in the GM, the Conlutas will end up being another treacherous trade union, spokesman of the bosses’ interests, a worn photocopy of the CUT. We can’t allow that! 

For that reason every union from the CSP-Conlutas, every worker organization from Brazil, Latin America and the world who doesn’t call to condemn this Surrender Act signed in the GM in San José dos Campos, which is a true class collaboration agreement like the AFL-CIO did in Detroit in 2008-2009, will never be able to speak again in the name of the interests of the working class and socialism worldwide.

Committee for the Refoundation of the 4th International, from Sao Paulo Brazil Member of the International Leninist Trotskyist Fraction.
February 14th, 2013. 

* PSTU-LIT: Partido Socialista de los Trabajadores-Unificado. Morenista current that in the 80s was called Convergencia Socialista, which became internal tendency of Partido de los Trabajadores (PT) after founding in 1980, until they split in the foundation congress of PSTU in 1994. It is the strongest section of the Liga Internacional de los Trabajadores (LIT).

** CSP-Conlutas: Central Sindical y Popular -Conlutas, one of the so many worker central union of Brazil, this one was born in 2005 under the name of Conlutas talking a split process of worker layers with the lacley bureucracy of CUT and PT, at that time in the gocernemt from 2002. 

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Thursday, March 14, 2013

Hugo Chavez’s Death and the Way Forward for the Venezuelan Revolution

Hu_Jintao_Hugo_Chavez_April_2009
While Chavez hand-in-hand with Hu JinTao in April 2009 cut oil deals while trumpeting the “New 5th International” and the building of “21st Century Socialism” the Chinese Development Bank (CDB) had something else altogether  in mind.

 With the following observation from the thespec.com we hope we can dispense with the illusions of what  ‘Bolivarianism’ and ‘21st Century Socialism’ are presented as and  identify the actual class character of the state that the Partido Socialista Unido de Venezuela (PSUV) administers,  what road-blocks still exist for workers on the path to socialism, and what defending and advancing the social gains already made in the anti-imperialist struggle means and how it can be done.

Read On: 

Friday, March 01, 2013

Build a United Front Defence of the Syrian Revolution!


kafranbel-banner-november-2_12
 

For International Labor defense to stop the massacre of the Syrian workers and masses at the hands of the butcher Al-Assad!

Build international demonstrations political strikes and labor actions!

US/French/NATO/Russia: Hands off the Middle East and North Africa!

No to UN intervention! Defend the Palestinians!

 

The LCC calls on the international working class, all socialist and leftist organizations to build a united front defense of the Syrian masses, who rose up in 2011 as part of the Arab Spring and have been under brutal attack by the al-Assad regime. We call on workers in the US and on all continents and especially those of Turkey and Lebanon to rally our class’s resources in defense of the oppressed Syrian masses.

The life or death situation of Syrians with democratic aspirations could not wait for the emergence of a revolutionary proletarian vanguard party to defend themselves and advance their liberation. The Arab spring moment presented the Syrian masses with a once-in-a-generation opportunity to attempt to put an end to the murderous regime.

Al-Assad maneuvers between imperialisms but always at the expense of the masses. For years he has been the go-to guy for US imperialism which outsourced torture to his secret prisons. At the same time US intelligence and media helped the Zionist gendarmes reign in Syria’s nuclear program. US imperialism/NATO/UN have tolerated al-Assad as long as he helped contain the Arab masses in general and the Palestinian revolution in particular.

The US has deliberately stopped the supply of Surface to Air Missiles (SAMs) reaching the Free Syrian Army (FSA) for fear they would be used against Israel. The street fighters remain in large part dependent on munitions captured from Syrian regulars. Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Kerry promises $60 million of “non lethal aid,” dangling a carrot in front of the comprador forces assembling around the leadership of the SNC. Russia and China are supporting Assad and US/Israel are trying to negotiate a solution to prevent a revolution that could destabilize US/Zionist rule in Middle East and North Africa (MENA.) At the same time there remains a layer of social-chauvinists among the left currents who are calling on US, EU, UN to intervene. 


No to US/NATO intervention!
While opposing any imperialist intervention and fighting to stop military aid to Assad by the Russians and Chinese the workers united front would not stop military support sent to the rebel army by Obama or his proxies rather it would seek to redirect armaments (hot cargo) to the Local Coordinating Committees (LCC’s) and secular fighters.

The international working class has a side in this civil war. Instead of abstentionism or siding with Assad, socialists, anti-capitalists and all workers need to support the turning of the Arab street’s opposition to dictatorial regimes and against imperialism into labor actions and mobilizations of the entire international working class to support the uprising. Yet despite their pretenses to being the representatives of and defenders of the working class’s interests, the American “left,” the trade union bureaucracy, social democrats, Stalinists, Castroites, Bolivarians, anarchists and the renegades of Trotskyism have all been silent, are abstentionists or are openly supporting al-Assad.

The working class’s interest is in increasing the power of the democratically controlled militias and turning the Local Coordinating Committees (LCCs) into workers councils. As the task for the international working class is to support the armed struggle against the regime, a united front of workers organizations is needed to bloc militarily with the secular opposition to the brutal Syrian Ba’ath regime.

While doing so the working class united front defense of the Syrian Revolution must give absolutely no political support to the comprador bourgeois and petty bourgeois intellectuals, especially the ex-Assad generals who will act to abort the revolution and pave a path to power for the new wanna-be lapdogs of imperialism gathered as the SNC. Likewise the united front should refuse any political support to the Jihadist opposition groups! They are a reactionary anti-democratic force which is already attempting to impose Sharia law, pull down the FSA flags, arrest people, etc. The task of the workers united front is to elevate the strength and power of the secular and working class forces at the bourgeois comprador and Islamist Jihadists’ expense
and to deny the Jihadists military support when they attack the secular FSA..

It is urgent that the masses break from the dead-end leadership of these elements and that the Syrian and Middle Eastern working class organize as a class and rise to the leadership of these struggles, expanding them into a fight for workers power.

We call on the international working class to mobilize in defense of our class brothers and sisters in Syria and the Middle East against imperialism and their own ruling classes (and for those in the imperialist countries in the first place their own ruling class.) Adopting the proposals emerging from the advanced combat detachments in Libya, Tunisia, and Palestine, our united front must advocate for and build up self-defense pickets of the internationalist working class who initiate actions of solidarity, such as rallies, mass mobilizations, political strikes, and labor interventions in the distribution of military supplies.

In concrete terms an internationalist labor defense of the Syrian masses needs to materially confront imperialism in Syria. In Russia and China this means workers must unite to oppose their own government’s support for Assad including taking labor actions to stop arms shipments to the regime. The key tasks of a united front in the US and EU is for workers to organize and provide military aid to the revolution. Without man portable surface to air missiles and other SAMs the masses are at the mercy of Assad’s air force.

From the United States to Spain to South Africa to China and Syria, the working class is under all-out assault by capital. Build independent working class opposition to the brutal dictatorship in Syria and to the imperialist paymasters who subject to masses to slaughter. Build this as the defense of our class as a whole.

Defend the Syrian masses! Form up local committees, link them nationally and internationally and take action to provide assistance to the secular and independent working class fighters. 


Contact the LCC to help initiate this united front.

Statement of the Liaison Committee of Communists

Integrating the RWG (Zim), CWG (A/NZ), CWG (USA)

March 1, 2013

Boycott the Referendum! Smash the Popular Front! Statement of the RWG (Z)


zimbabwe-rally
 

Zimbabwe is still reeling under the effects and impact of the more than a decade long socio- economic crisis that has impoverished the working people and the ordinary poor. Most workers were thrown out of employment with those few in employment facing starvation wages and increased attacks on their conditions. Students have witnessed the erosion of the right to education whilst the poor residents face the wrath of expensive and unavailable social services. Inspite of the so called land reform poor peasants continue to suffer with no meaningful provision of inputs. Those in the informal sector are being harassed on a regular basis by the police and authorities for exercising the right to earn an income.

With the global economic crisis showing no sign of abating, the hope that the GNU will provide respite to workers and the poor has been shattered as the civil servants and workers in the private sector are still earning way below the living wage and face intensification in the attacks on their working conditions and livelihood. Instead all the parties in the GNU have shown their true colours and intentions to intensify the attacks in order to stabilise the capitalist system and semi colonial dictatorship on behalf of their imperialist masters through putting the burden of paying for the crisis on the shoulders of workers and the ordinary poor. The draft constitution finally agreed upon by the three parties together with their imperialist masters as well as the coming elections will act as the political basis to further entrench exploitation and brutality on the masses.

The draft Constitution, a result of a long imperialist scheme, was finally agreed upon in January this year paving the way for a referendum on the 16th of March 2013. It is clear to everyone that the final document is a result of negotiations and compromises by the parties on secondary political aspects after having agreed on the basic capitalist nature of our society and their mission to manage the capitalist state through oppression of the masses and outright lies reflected by the initial July 2012 draft. Both parties are claiming that the constitution is a product of the people’s views but at the same time promise their supporters to change it once elected into office. So the three political parties in the GNU and an array of civic organisations in tow are calling for a Yes vote on the draft as the best way forward in terms of resolving the challenges facing the country.

This is not surprising, the civic groups aligned to ZANU (PF) who have benefitted from the patronage system and those aligned to the MDC receiving funds from the same imperialist donors are clamouring that the people accept the charter so that they protect their privileges and also continue to receive donor funds. That the imperialist masters have agreed to raise funds for the referendum and the elections testifies as to whom the draft seeks to protect and the capitalist nature of the political regime that is a popular front of the national bourgeoisie and petit bourgeoisie.

On the other hand the NCA,ISO,PTUZ,ZINASU,ZCTU and other civic organisations are calling for the rejection of the draft through a No vote at the referendum and they have formed a ‘United Front “ for the purpose. Their main contentions are that the draft is a result of an elitist driven process and besides this the draft itself is not a reflection of what the people said as well that the draft is not democratic and further does not protect the interests of the workers and the masses. Instead they are calling for the government to facilitate the convening of an independent commission to spearhead the drafting of a “people driven” constitution. On top of that the NCA is challenging the referendum date saying it does not offer the people enough time to look at the draft and make an informed decision.

As the Revolutionary Workers Group(RWG) we strongly reject both the call for a Yes or No vote meant to hoodwink the workers, poor peasants, students and youth, informal workers and the poor masses into believing that a good constitution can ,in a capitalist society , advance or even protect their interests. A No vote simply suggests that proposed draft is not good for the ordinary poor and therefore must be rejected so that pressure is put on the government to incorporate the wishes of the people or that a new so called people driven process is instituted. This is utterly wrong and misleading to the working people and the poor masses that have to be told that a constitution will not offer them a living wage or a decent life but only an independent struggle by the workers and the poor can conquer their interests.

Our position from the inception of the constitutional reform process has been to urge for a boycott of the whole process calling for the setting up of independent working class action organs to fight for jobs, land, free education and real democracy. The reform process has been used by both the national bourgeoisie and their imperialist backers to stabilise the capitalist regime using the popular front government supported by various civic groups and pseudo leftist groups who have been exposed by their participation in the process and now are calling for a Vote No and thereby seeking to protect the basis of the popular front and capitalist oppressions. We call on all struggle organisations to meet as soon as possible and constitute a United Front to spearhead the demand for an active Boycott of the referendum. 


The RWG calls for these demands:

1) Active BOYCOTT against this referendum!

2) Break with the MDC and ZANU (PF) popular front that serves in Zimbabwe the plans of the imperialist super exploiters!

3) Build an independent organisation of workers, students, poor peasants and urban poor based struggle committees coordinated nationally to prepare for a National Congress of Delegates of all organisations in struggle.

4) Forward to a national General Strike and Workers and Poor Farmers government based on struggle committees.

5) Forward to the expropriation without compensation and under workers control of all the assets of imperialism and the national bourgeoisie.

6) Forward to a Federation of Socialist Republics of all Africa.



REVOLUTIONARY WORKERS GROUP (RWG) Zimbabwe 25 February 2013