EFF STATEMENT ON WORKERS’ DAY

01 May 2016

The EFF marks the International Workers’ Day as an important reminder that workers will only be free when the phenomenon of wage labour and class is eradicated. Only when production and distribution is for people and not for profit, will the worker be free. This holiday is therefore first and foremost a socialist and communist holiday and must be associated with the Communist Manifesto.

We reaffirm the need for an international unity of the working peoples of the world in line with the theme of the Communist Manifesto which says, “Workers of the world unite, for you have nothing to loose but your chains”. There is no ending of wage labour and exploitation of the workers without worker unity. Any movement that brings about the disunity of the workers is anti-revolutionary and only advances the capitalist grip on our people.

As we mark May Day, we express concern about the reality that the independent labour movement in South Africa has suffered great divisions, loses and regressions. The agenda of socialism, a class less society, has been abandoned for petty directionless factionalism, self-enrichment and careerism. In our universities, it is no longer trade unions that fight fearlessly, tirelessly and selflessly for workers' interests, but workers and student activists.

In South Africa workers are defined by low wages, precarious labour contracts that are characterised by long working hours without benefits and a permanent contract. In South Africa workers are also racially discriminated against on the basis that they are black. Black workers in South Africa earn less than their white counterparts for the same job, in the same company or factory, simply because they are black. It means the apartheid organisation of work remains in tact in my industries.

The EFF calls for a total ban on labour brokers who are the foundation of many precarious labour contracts everywhere. We call on the legalisation of a R4,500 minimum wage for all industries so that no one works for less than R4,500 anywhere in the country for anything.

Only socialism will end the strife of the working class. Only when society ends the rule of the principle of production for profit and profit maximisation and produces for peoples’ needs will the exploitation that many of the people in world end, particularly in the developing countries.

The EFF is the only party in parliament that represents this agenda and seeks the socialist overthrow of capitalism through the attainment of economic freedom in our lifetime.

Statement issued by the Economic Freedom Fighters, 1 May 2016