A-Infos (en) South African, Soweto, [anarchy_africa] 'Community' - writing by Sowetan anarchists

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Joe Black <blackalternative-A-africamail.com> To: anarchy_africa@yahoogroups.com
Motsoaledi is a community where the workers, unemployed and
children live. This makes Motsoaledi our home. The community is the
home of everyone. We all need a roof over our heads with a
guaranteed future, electricity, water, schools and proper sanitation.
For the ten years we have lived here none of these needs have been
met. Everyone now has the same concern. When are the houses
promised by the government coming?
Electricity lines run as close as 10 metres from our shacks but still we
don&#8217;t have electricity. Our neighboring communities have
flushing toilets, electricity and proper infrastructures. We are still
using bucket toilets, no electricity and no houses. This gives us no
security about our stay here in Motsoaledi, even though the councilor
gives us repeated assurance that we won&#8217;t be forcefully
removed. But until today no one has a title deed, which means no one
owns the land they have occupied for 10 Christmases.

For us, the poor, the lesson we learned fighting apartheid is that only
our own struggles can change our conditions. Because if we fold our
hands and wait for a messiah to save our lives we will wait forever
and it will get worse. There is no messiah. We are all messiahs of our
own lives. People of Motsoaledi, let&#8217;s unite to struggle for the
life we need. We can send the message across for other communities
to unite against the common enemy. We all know what we want but it
has been always impossible to meet our demands. Let us make no
excuses or accept any excuses. The message is very clear. Everyone
knows without a blink of an eye or scratching of their&#8217; heads
that there is nobody who was born to suffer or can choose to suffer.
We have worked hard for this world. Everything before our eyes and
the wealth controlled by the few comes from the sweat and blood of
our forefathers, parents, brothers and sisters. That we have to suffer
and wait only to die is daylight r
  obbery of our human identity.

The same people who exploited our lives are the same people today
who are controlling the basic services such as water, electricity,
waste removals and housing. Because we are the consumers and
workers at the same time, with the high rate of unemployment today
people are unable to spend money. The reason these exploiters are
now taking over basic services is because they know very well we all
need such services, employed or unemployed. Their only interest is to
make profit, not to save lives. This means you cannot live if you
don&#8217;t have money to pay.

Where do you get money from after we&#8217;ve been robbed for so
long through slavery, colonialism and apartheid? Today imperialism
allows the multinational corporations to take over the control of basic
services in their own interest, so that they can carry on sucking the
last drop of our blood. Therefore we cannot isolate ourselves from the
communities which&#8217; are directly affected by this product of
slavery we always come across in the newspapers, TV and radio. In
real life people are being forcefully removed, evicted and their water
and electricity cut off. These are ordinary people like us. We are them.
We must stay in solidarity to strengthen our struggle. We are many
and powerful.

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