economic freedom

" 1.     Our decision is to fight for the economic emancipation of the people of South Africa, Africa and the world. Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) locate the struggle for economic emancipation within the long resistance of South Africans to racist colonial and imperialist, political, economic, and social domination. This glorious resistance started with the Khoi and San people rising against colonial domination, marked by the arrival of settler colonists in 1652 in the Cape. This basically represents more than 350 years of Africans’ resistance against colonial and economic domination and exploitation.

2.     The EFF recognises that, despite temporary victories in this or that battle, Africans were defeated, humiliated, and enslaved by colonial settlers, thereby symbolising colonial victory over the indigenous people of the South African territory. The EFF draws inspiration from the gallant fight those who came before us have mounted, generation after generation, against the superior firepower of the colonists. The EFF intend to elevate this resistance to a decisive victory to vindicate the justness of the cause of liberation wars and to pay tribute to all those who perished fighting for the liberation of the African people and all the oppressed people of our land.

3.     Those who fought the gallant wars of resistance did so to resist forced dispossession of land, wealth, livestock and heritage, which they had cherished and inherited from their forebears. More than 350 years later, the war of resistance has not been won, and the battles that were fought almost represent nothing, because 20 years after the attainment of formal political freedom, the black people of South Africa still live in absolute mass poverty, are landless, their children have no productive future, they are mistreated and they are looked down upon in a sea of wealth.

4.     While relatively developed, South Africa like many other colonies is still trapped in the colonial division of labour as supplier of primary commodities to the coloniser nations. This colonial feature cannot and will never be broken by continued economic dominance of private corporations, particularly in the natural and mineral resources sector. Multinational and private ownership of South Africa’s commanding heights of the economy should be discontinued in order to

stimulate State-led and aided industrial development.

5.     Our indignation at the continued economic domination of the people of South Africa and the extreme exploitation of the black working class explains where we come from, where we are, what our mission is, what our character is, and what is to be done to emancipate the black people of South Africa, the working class in particular, from economic bondage. The solutions we provide represent a coherent ideological tradition and draw inspiration from developments around the world on what has been done to advance the development and betterment of people’s lives in the aftermath of the defeat of colonialism and against imperialism.

6.     South Africa is rooted in the alliance between British and Afrikaner capital. From its inception, capitalism in South Africa was underlined by racism, segregation, and sexism. It discriminated and oppressed the black majority. It discriminated and oppressed women. South African capitalism continues to be characterised by the extreme exploitation of the black working class. In short, the black majority, whatever their class location, are integrated into the mainstream of the economy in a subservient position relative to white people. While the legalistic forms of colonial-apartheid domination have been eroded 20 years ago, the economic system that marginalised, oppressed and exploited the black majority is still intact, with a few individuals benefiting, but only because they have been co-opted to portray a wrong picture that all is and will be well in our country.

7.     The EFF note and appreciate the role played by generations of political freedom fighters who sacrificed their lives, were imprisoned, exiled, banished and separated from their families in pursuit of freedom. The reality, nonetheless, is that the political freedom attained symbolically in 1994 through inclusive elections have not translated into economic freedom, which must empower and assist the oppressed and exploited people of South Africa to be liberated from economic and social bondage. This feature of South Africa justifies our struggle for economic freedom and is also directed at the emancipation of the African continent."