Thomas Sankara to speak in Durban and Soweto?

Only just heard about this, we have been advancing in Latin America, could a green socialist politics from the grassroots have the same effect in Africa?

Ecology and justice on the model of the late great Thomas Sankara could sweep out corrupt elites married to mineral extracting corporations in Africa.

Its going to be difficult to even get the cash to register as a party but this blend of black consciousness veterans, real greens and committed socialist really deserves some solidarity.

The ANC has been committed to capitalism, Zuma is to the left but has a number of unsavoury associations...think of the HIV rape trial and the arms industry.

The new party which has split from the ANC is clearly to the right....so we need an ecosocialist party which emerges from the barrios, I mean the town ships.

So people get ready.

Absolutely gutted to have missed the Green Socialist Coalition meeting in London (UK London!) on March 1st.

Here is a report from my good comrades in Socialist Resistance


Well-known South African activist Trevor Ngwane addressed a fascinated public meeting in central London on March 1, explaining the launching of the Socialist Green Coalition. He introduced the discussion by talking about the election of an ANC-led government in the first democratic election in 1994 and the disillusionment among the masses that followed. This was as a result of the neoliberal policies pursued by the government, which left the vast majority of blacks impoverished. This has been compounded by rising unemployment, completely inadeqaute housing provision and unaffordable water and electricity. The enduring tripartite alliance of the ANC, South African Communist Party (SACP) and COSATU (the trade union federation) has ensured the political dominance of the ANC.

The formation of the Socialist Green Coalition is a challenge to the parties supporting the status quo, in the general elections to be held in April. It was essentially brought about by a merger of two bodies: the Operation Khanyisa Movement arising out of the Anti-Privatisation Forum in Gauteng (the province where Johannesburg is) and Ecopeace, an independent party in Durban, devoted to protecting the environment. Residents associations and left wing organisations such as the Socialist Group, Keep Left Socialism from Below, the Democratic Socialist Movement and the Workers Party with links to the Black Consciousness Movement have also joined the coalition.

Its programme is a fusion of socialist and ecological demands. It stands for the interests of the working class in society and in running the state. It advocates measures against pollution of the environment and the replacement of fossil fuels by renewable energy resources. It believes that inherent in capitalism’s quest for profits is the harm it causes nature. Its slogans are “red must be green and green must be red”.

Ngwane explained that South Africa has the biggest carbon footprint in Africa because of the central role that mining plays in the country’s economy. He spoke about the way climate change was causing migration from other parts of the continent in particular Mozambique.