On 17 November, BLAC (Bishop Lavis Action Community) and APDUSA hosted another public meeting in Bishop Lavis, Cape Town. These meetings are aimed at broad political education of working class communities. They also aim at uniting working class organisations to fight in their own interests, guided by their own political objectives. The event coincided with a memorial for a slain policeman who was killed in a suspected gang related assassination.  The meeting observed a moment of silence for this fallen community member and then proceeded with its own business.

Quoting harrowing statistics, the BLAC speaker painted a bleak picture of how the South African state’s policies have been ravaging working class communities in ongoing class warfare. The state has dismally failed these communities regarding their fundamental human right to live their lives in physical safety.  The speaker quoted a figure of 21 022 deaths in the country  due to murder,  for the financial period 2018 – 2019; an average of 58 murders a day (2018-19; Stats SA Report – Crime Statistics). The sophistication in the operations of gangs in the Western Cape; their involvement in the narcotics trade ; their ability to procure weapons through  SAPS and SANDF linkages and the impunity with which they are allowed to kill and maim was highlighted by the speaker. The impact of Operation Lockdown in tandem with the deployment of the anti-gang unit (AGU) in solving or at least alleviating the violence suffered by communities living in these undeclared war zones, is yet to be demonstrated. The proven rotten judicial system of the South African state more often than not actually guarantees that those guilty of terrorising communities are not charged, prosecuted and imprisoned for crimes committed. This corruption, the meeting was informed, is happening at all levels of state, with those who loot, conspire and terrorise walking the street without a care. Demands presented to the authorities by organisations like BLAC have been consciously and consistently ignored. This means that the intensity and scope of these struggles have to be increased: of the working class correctly identifying who its class enemies are and relentlessly fighting these class enemies.

The Apdusa speaker focussed on the need to develop a broader, indeed an internationalist perspective on the link between gangsterism and the operation of the capitalist system. In certain countries, the militarisation of working class neighbourhoods and communities by the state is done by using gangsterism as a pretext to terrorise and suppress these communities generally. This has been aptly illustrated in the extreme, in the Philippines. Here the extreme right-wing Duterte government has been on a killing spree, ostensibly to rid the country of drugs. Similarly, in Brazil and Mexico state sponsored execution campaigns against desperately poor working class citizens, as well as journalists who report on these atrocities are noted for their viciousness. In aforementioned countries the involvement of the army and specialised police units in supposedly keeping ‘law and order’ is therefore a smokescreen for actually terrorising communities into a state of paralysis and inaction so that they themselves cannot and do not rise against the scourge of gangsterism themselves. This can only be to the advantage of the ruling elite and the minority bourgeois class. The call by the Democratic Alliance (DA) for the deployment of the SANDF in Cape Town townships must therefore be understood in this context. The conclusion reached by the speaker was that the working class needs a social revolution to overthrow the capitalist system in order for its own class interests and well-being to be advanced.

The contributions from the audience, which included community representatives from Cape Town townships like Hanover Park and organisations like Housing Assembly were very supportive of the speakers’ contributions. Some contributions were also fairly critical of the broader community for not showing greater support in numbers for this initiative. Audience members gave personal accounts of how gangsterism is daily seen to be brazenly part and parcel of a network of criminality involving various sections of society. It was pointed out in discussion that communities ought to raise their level of organisational efficiency so that gangsters’ operational space is reduced. The overwhelming support for united action by organisations bound by a clear programme of action crystallised from the contributions and responses that were forthcoming. The importance and urgency of a political leadership of and for the working class to emerge, permeated exchanges of ideas in the meeting. The idea was raised that middle class elements who occupy the leadership of workers’ organisations is problematic, but that these individuals also do make substantial, progressive contributions to advance working class political interests.

The meeting concluded with an open invitation to all working class activists, organisations and supporters to become part of “a conversation” on how to take the struggle for total liberation forward; a conversation rooted in politically principled and united action based on the self-organisation of the working class. In this context the three 2019 “shut –down” initiatives (Bonteheuwel, Bishop Lavis and Hanover Park) and the resultant memoranda presented to authorities, were considered as a point of departure for immediate action. In the spirit of advancing the cause of working class liberation it was proposed that a summit or a community assembly on gangsterism be convened in the immediate future. For this to happen it is crucial that more progressive organisations – operating on the principle of independent and self organisation –  be drawn in to become part of the planning and organisation of this evolving working class coalition. The meeting wholeheartedly supported these resolutions.