Category Archives: 16 June

Blackwash will be joining the PPA tomorrow in the Soweto march….

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Blackwash will be joining the PPA tomorrow in the Soweto march….

Dear young black person,

Black youth living in South Africa today is in deep trouble. Even though we were promised a better life after 1994 by our black government, many of us still live in squatter camps and small RDP houses because white people still own more than 80% of South African land which has been stolen over the last 300 years. As young black people we have to ask ourselves what is stopping our government from improving our lives and is there a future for us if black people do not have land. Will black people not be trapped in squatter camps and townships forever if our government refuses to take our land back from whites?

Many of us do not pass matric because black schools do not have good resources like Model C and private schools, just like in the days of Bantu Education during apartheid. What have we done to deserve this? Some of us end up in prison because we are forced to steal and do other crimes to survive. Because young black people do not pass at school or do not have money for tertiary education, many of them end up doing crime and being locked up in prison. The poverty of black people means that many of us end up behind bars because we are forced to do what we can to survive and keep our families alive. Why is it that those who stole our land and continue to benefit from that are not seen as criminals? Why is the black person who steals a cellphone, a few thousands, a laptop or a pair of jeans punished more than those who live on stolen land?

Some of us end up doing drugs and drinking a lot of alcohol because we need to forget this hard life. A lot of the time we fight and sometimes even kill each other over small things because there is nothing else to live for. The reason our lives are like this is that white people have been oppressing us and controlling every part of our lives for a very long time. This is why our schools are of bad quality. This is why WE are poor and they aren’t. This is why we live in shacks or in RDP houses in townships. It is a pity that even our black government does not have intentions to change the bad conditions we live in. But we have not chosen to be poor or black!

The same people who are responsible for the way we live turn around and blame us as if we are personally responsible. We are told to go to church, study hard, play sports, or join cultural groups but all of these things do not help because our situation does not change. Even when we try, there are no fields or recreation centres in squatter camps and very few in townships. Because of this many young black people cannot use or develop their talents; they end up in shebeens or prison rotting away with those talents.

Some of us do go to good schools, get jobs, funds from Umsobomvu, buy cars or even become famous but this is a very small number compared to those of us who will live in poverty for the rest of our lives. Also, the few blacks who make it leave the township to live amongst white people and start behaving like them: they look down on black people and accuse them of being lazy (the same way white people have done since they arrived in this country). We must ask ourselves how much longer black people should suffer before things change for us.

With all this in mind, do you really believe our government when they tell us we are free? Where is this freedom they keep talking about when black people are this poor; when black youth is unemployed, in prisons or dying from Aids or drug overdose?

We are told we are free but this is a lie. We are told blacks and whites are equal but we know that whites live better lives than us in our own country. We also know that their lives are better because of the hard work black people do to build their houses, their suburbs, to look after their kids and wash their clothes. Whites people live like visitors who come to your home, kick you out and expect you to take care of their needs while they live in comfort in your house. They live like Gods on earth because there are blacks who are their slaves taking care of all their needs. Why are we this poor in our own country?

We are entertained with TV shows, concerts at stadiums, now the 2010 world cup so that we forget to ask WHY we must live the way we do. Most of this entertainment does not confront the truth about our black reality and does not encourage us to stand up and fight for ourselves against our oppressors. But even when black people fight and demand basic things for their survival, government sends the police to harass and shoot them. We are not told the truth about the history of our country so that we can see how it was sold to whites so they live better. We are told to be patient, but until when? Our parents and grandparents are still waiting. Many of our parents die as slaves in white farms and mines. Where did whites get all this land? If you ask them, they’ll tell you they worked hard for it and that black people do not want to work for anything. They will not tell you about the number of our black ancestors who died.

Many of our parents are forced to work so that they can buy food. Most of it is expensive because food companies, which are owned by whites, want to be rich. Forcing black people to starve when their land produces food is one of the many ways of oppressing us. Why is it that we don’t have enough to eat when our farms produce enough food; some of which is sold overseas or thrown away so that food prices are kept high? We must take our farms back and demand that government give us money and equipment to manage these farms so that black people can have enough to eat.

What must we do as the black youth to change this situation and everything else about black life? We must learn from the youth of ’76 which was influenced by Steve Biko’s Black Consciousness Movement. The things they learnt through reading his ideas on white power, black identity and black liberation made them decide that they could not carry on being controlled by white foreigners. As June 16 is being remembered, we must go back to Biko’s thoughts and use them the same way as the black youth of ’76 to stand up for ourselves, think about how we will free ourselves and like them shout “Black Power!” in the face of our oppressors.

There is a lot of fighting we must do before things change in our favour. As Steve Biko said, “You are either alive or proud or you are dead, and when you are dead, you can’t care anyway…” We must put pressure on government to change things for the better. If they won’t meet our demands, then we must make life for them and the white people they serve difficult.

If as a young black person you agree that the conditions black people live under must change and that we must fight against white power protected by our black government, please contact us because we would like to get in touch with you too.

We must educate ourselves about these things because whites and blacks who benefit from our rich country will not. They want to keep us in the dark so that we carry on blaming ourselves for a situation that THEY created. We must educate each other so that we can rid ourselves of the curse faced by blacks and young blacks in particular. The government, TV, schools, churches and universities do not teach us the truth. We are on our own!

Yours sincerely and for the love of black people

Blackwash

073 914 1471

blackwashproject@gmail.com

APF Joins Landless People’s Movement for June 16th March in Soweto

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Press Statement (Sunday 14th June 2009)

APF JOINS LANDLESS PEOPLE’S MOVEMENT FOR JUNE 16TH MARCH IN SOWETO

On Tuesday June 16th , the APF will be joining with the Landless People’s Movement (LPM – Gauteng) under the banner of the Poor People’s Alliance (a collection of radical, community based organisations across South Africa) for a march from Morris Isaacson High School to the Hector Pieterson Museum in Soweto. The march will start from 10h00

The LPM Protea South will hold a night vigil of students/youth and their parents on 15th June at the Peacemakers Ground in Protea South, Soweto.

The march is part of reclaiming June 16th for all in our country (and abroad) who fought for the freedoms that rang in the hearts of the students/youth who covered the same route in 1976. Over the years since 1994, the events and actions of June 16th 1976 have been largely de-politicised and official commemorations have become little more then meaningless public relations exercises for the ANC/government.

Remembering June 16 1976

The Soweto uprising started on June 16th 1976 when students marched through the streets of Soweto demanding the scrapping of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction in schools. The uprising spread to other parts of the country. Students in places such as Cape Town, Klerksdorp, Bothaville and Port Elizabeth engaged in militant action which challenged apartheid education and apartheid as a political system. The events of 1976 were also important in boosting the morale of all those who were struggling against apartheid and capitalism. It is these events and struggles that produced a cadre that staffed the liberation movement in exile and the trade union and civic movements that were vital in the struggle for democracy.

The struggle for free education continued in the 1980s

The banning of student organisations – SASO and SASM – in 1977 as well as the killing of activists and mass detentions, did not succeed in destroying the spirit of resistance among students for long. In 1980 the Committee of 81, a committee of representatives from schools in the area, led a Western-Cape wide school boycott which also spread to other parts of the country. In the mid-1980s the Congress of SA Students (COSAS) and the Azanian Students Movement (AZASM) led student struggles against the high failure rate in matric, corporal punishment, age restrictions and the shortage of teachers and equipment. Unlike 1976 though, students made a concerted attempt to build alliances with workers and communities. In the 1980s, students saw workers as important agents of socialist change. Students and the youth played an important role in building strong local structures which went a long way in rendering apartheid and capitalism ungovernable.

33 Years on, the ANC Government betrays the traditions and spirit of 1976

Today, the contribution of students/youth to the struggle for democracy, equality and justice as well as the historic people’s struggles of 1976 and the 1980s have been undermined by the politics and economic policies of the ANC government. Since the inception of the neo-liberal economic policy (GEAR) in 1996 relative overall spending for education has declined, education has become increasingly commodified and there has been further private sector involvement in public education. Instead of raising and effectively disbursing adequate revenue and redressing the racial and class imbalances in education provision, the ANC and the government it controls have implemented policies that favour the wealthy and that do not fundamentally address infrastructural and content inequities in education.

As a result, the education system at all levels continues to be in crisis. Government argues that primary and secondary education are free but the reality is that working class parents, many of whom are unemployed, are forced to pay user-fees in schools. The same parents are also compelled to buy uniforms and equipment for their children. There remains a huge shortage of teachers, textbooks as well as classroom and recreational equipment at most schools, especially those in poor communities. There continues to be a high prevalence of HIV-AIDs amongst students and the problem of sexual harassment and abuse of female students continues unabated. Meanwhile, higher education is becoming more and more inaccessible to students from working class communities while education bureaucrats get fat off outrageous salaries.

ALL SUPPORTIVE COMMUNITY ORGANISATIONS, SOCIAL MOVEMENTS AND INDIVIDUALS ARE INVITED TO BE PART OF THE MARCH. THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERATION IS FAR FROM OVER!

THE SPIRIT OF 16TH JUNE 1976 LIVES ON!

For more information please contact Coordinator Bongani Xezwi from LPM Protea South @ 071 043-2221

Our Struggle for Liberation Remains….

Update: Click here for pictures of the march.

Poor Peoples’ Alliance to Re-enact June 1976 Soweto Uprising March

The Poor Peoples’ Alliance (PPA), made up of radical community-based organisations across South Africa, is to march from Morris Isaacs High School to the Hector Pieterson Memorial in Soweto on the 16th June 2009 to re-enact the 1976 march.

We as the Poor Peoples’ Alliance will not celebrate this day, as the government does, but commemorate it by reflecting on the struggle for liberation by the youth still being fought for by poor communities 15 years into our so-called democracy.

A night vigil will take place on the 15th June in Protea South and we invite all those interested, regardless of their political affiliation, to be part of this event and march. Because we continue to be denied our most basic human rights, we refuse to let the government, and the rest of the world, ignore that our struggle for liberation is far from over.

Bongani Xezwi – PPA co-ordinator 071 043 2221
Audrey Leo – PPA co-ordinator 083 340 7635
Maureen Msisi – LPM Gauteng Chairperson 082 337 4514

This march will also be supported by the Anti-Privatisation Forum and Blackwash.

Landless People’s Movement to March on June 16th to Repoliticise the Meaning of the 1976 Uprisings

Landless People's Movement Press Statement
27 May 2009

Landless People's Movement to March on June 16th to Repoliticise the Meaning of the 1976 Uprisings

The Landless People's Movement in Gauteng will march from the Maurice Issacs High School to the Hector Peterson Museum in Soweto on the 16th June 2009 to repoliticise the meaning of the 1976 Soweto Uprisings.

We, as the Landless People’s Movement, met with different social movements in Gauteng on 18 May 2009. Decisions were taken that the march should be done as a coalition, under the banner of the Poor People’s Alliance. We took this decision as we are trying not to own this march as the LPM. We are trying to revive the history of 1976. As part of this we will be holding workshops with the youth communities in Soweto.

For more information contact:

Bongani Xezwi – youth Coordinator LPM Protea South Branch – 071 043 2221
Maureen Msisi – LPM Gauteng Chairperson – 082 337 4514
Or by email: bongani.xezwi@gmail.com

For more information on this march, see our previous press release (below):
http://abahlali.org//////?p=5135

Landless People’s Movement (LPM) to have Liberation March on 16 June 2009 to Commemorate 1976 Soweto Uprisings

The LPM is organising a march from Maurice Issacs High School to the Hector Peterson Museum in Soweto on the 16th June 2009 to repoliticise the meaning of the 1976 Soweto Uprisings. This march is a response to the ANC’s hijacking of the 16th June as they have turned it into a bourgeois event. We as the LPM believe we should not celebrate this day, as our government does, but commemorate it by reflecting on the struggle for the liberation of the youth that is still being fought for by poor communities 15 years into our so-called democracy. We would like to invite all the civic organisations and social movements, regardless of their political affiliation, to be part of this march.

We are asking comrades to attend our meeting on the 18th of May 2009 at the Jubilee offices on the 4th floor of the Vogus House, 123 Pritchard Street (cnr. Mooi), Johannesburg. We request that all organisations email or phone us by the 14th May to confirm their attendance at our meeting. Please bring ideas and an open mind and also forward this message to others who may be interested so that we can make this march have a strong impact. Because we continue to be denied our most basic human rights, we refuse to let our government forget that our struggle for liberation is not over.

Our parents will also be doing a night vigil on the 15th June in the hope that the march on the 16th will help set us on the path towards a renewed liberation for the youth in South Africa.

For more information contact:

Bongani Xezwi – Youth Coordinator LPM Protea South Branch – 071 043 2221
Maureen Msisi – LPM Gauteng Chairperson – 082 337 4514

Or by email: bongani.xezwi@gmail.com