The Marxist Workers Party commends the strong turn out of the social movements and organisations that came out in solidarity with Kopanong Africa, Abahlali baseMhjondolo, the Inner-City Federation and the South African Informal Traders Forum. The successful demonstration proved that xenophobia is not supported by the majority of working-class people when they overshadowed the small number of counter demonstrators of the xenophobic Operation Dudula.

The MWP stands in full solidarity with these organisations and movements taking a stand against Operation Dudula and its campaign of xenophobic harassment and intimidation directed at foreign-born workers and poor communities. We commend the legal challenge supported by the Socio-Economic Rights Institute (SERI) as a necessary and principled intervention to defend the dignity, rights and safety of our fellow workers, regardless of their place of birth.

Operation Dudula’s actions are not isolated incidents of “community frustration” — they are part of a deliberate and dangerous strategy to sow division within the working class, by targeting the most vulnerable and scapegoating foreign nationals for the deepening crisis of unemployment, poverty and inequality in South Africa. The anti-immigrant sentiment is a worldwide phenomenon exploited by Trump and his right-wing populist supporters whose policies are responsible for hundreds and thousands of job losses his cuts in aid and exorbitant tariffs are causing.

We must be clear: xenophobia is not the voice of the working class. It is a tool of the ruling class. It is being stoked to divert attention from the real source of our suffering — the capitalist system and the political elite who uphold it. The same government that fails to provide jobs, housing, healthcare and safety for the people is enforcing relentless austerity, cutting public spending, privatising services, and entrenching neoliberalism — all while protecting the profits of a wealthy minority.

The solution to our crisis will never be found in turning workers against each other based on nationality or immigration status. It will be found in uniting across all borders to build a powerful, organised working-class movement that fights for jobs for all, a living wage, decent public services, and an end to the capitalist system that breeds xenophobia, inequality and oppression.

We echo the words of Karl Marx: “Workers of the world, unite!” Our struggle is international and so must be our solidarity.

We demand:

• An end to all xenophobic violence, intimidation and scapegoating;
• The protection of the rights and dignity of all workers, regardless of origin;
• A halt to austerity policies and real investment in public services and job creation;
• Unions must support the struggles against xenophobia and stand by the principles upon which they were founded of ‘an injury to one is an injury to all’;
• The unity of the working class in the fight for a socialist alternative.