On Wed 1 Sept 2010 the masses in Mozambique burst into an uprising over rising bread, water and electricity. The workers organised a general strike against the increased starvation that the global economic crisis has imposed on them. The uprising is against the Stalinist regime of Frelimo in Mozambique and over the heads of the trade union bureaucracy. In the street battles that followed the police killed at least 13 people including 2 children, while well over 400 were injured.

Pic: Police officers arrest protesters during a rally in the neighbourhood of Benfica, in the suburbs of Maputo, Mozambique Photo: EPA

The South African government immediately imposed a siege on the uprising, closing the borders and closing their embassy (thus preventing any of the resistance leaders from seeking refuge from the murderous Frelimo government). At least 6 of the resistance leaders were arrested while hundreds of workers were imprisoned as well.

The SA and Mozambican regimes tried to crush the uprising but they were fearful of another Madagascar where sections of the army sided with the people. Such an uprising could spread throughout the region.

The bureaucracy of the Cosatu unions in SA moved quickly to suspend the general strike of the 2nd September, in support of the public sector strike, but which was in reality another rebellion against the austerity measures; thus they left the Mozambican working class isolated and allowed their rebellion to be drowned in blood.

That the working class in South Africa managed to get a date set for a general strike shows that the masses are breaking from the ANC-SACP. With the discrediting of the Zanu-PF- MDC regime, and the overthrow of the US puppet, Ravalomanana, in Madagascar, there is now a strong trend in the working class towards a pre-revolutionary situation across Southern Africa.

The rising price of food is due to speculation on commodity prices by the same hedge funds and billionaires that caused the banking collapse. The uprisings by workers across southern Africa to take the power off these speculators and put food production under democratic control is the only solution to the food crisis caused by capitalism.