Note of solidarity with the eKhenana Commune, the Abahlali baseMjondolo and the memory of comrade Lindokuhle Mnguni

“Violence destroys what it claims to defend: the dignity of life, the freedom of the human being”.

The Movement of landless rural workers and its Samora Machel Brigade on the African continent stands in solidarity with all the comrades of the Abahlali baseMjondolo (ABM), together with the families of the eKhenana Commune who last weekend violently lost comrade Lindokuhle Mnguni.

Mnguni is now a seed! He will be forever planted in the hearts of the people with whom he shared the trenches of the struggle and will remain forever planted in the imagination of all the fighters of the people, from now until the day of human emancipation, which will surely come, as the fruit of the ground we plant, of the seeds we sow for a better and more just world, must come.It is known by all that violence against the fighters of the people exists in all parts of the world. In Brazil we have already lost hundreds of comrades, leaders, people who gave their lives for the struggle, comrades who fell knowing that others would take the flag from their bloody hands to follow the inevitable march of freedom.

We fight because we believe that a new world is possible, but we fight above all because we know that a new world is necessary. It is necessary to put an end to all the barbarism practised by the owners of power, to put an end to all racism and all kinds of oppression practised by the bourgeoisie and legitimised by the capitalist relations of production.

Comrade Mnguni was a great internationalist and for this reason he knew that the struggle of any oppressed person in any part of the world was also his struggle. The MST struggles for the emancipation of the families in the ekhenana Commune, the ABM struggles so that the workers of Brazil have access to land and dignity, the whole of Africa struggles so that Mnguni will always be remembered and serve as an inspiration to the next fighters who will take our banners from us and carry them forward.

We will continue singing, we will continue dancing, we will continue fighting with revolutionary joy and with the certainty of victory. We wish that the eKhenana Commune finds the strength to continue resisting and that all the dreams of comrade Mnguni are fulfilled through his comrades.

To our dead, not a minute’s silence, but a lifetime of struggle!

Landless Rural Workers Movement, 23 August 2022

Attachments

Solidarity statement from the MST