Ken Davis

The International AIDS Conference in Durban in July is shaping up as a time of political confrontation. It is the first time the world conference will take place in a "developing" country, where over 4 million people live with HIV. Just kilometres away from the beach-side conference centre, millions of people live in townships such as kwaMashu and Umlazi, very poor communities with tens of thousands of people with HIV.

Though South Africa has a highly developed medical system, this was largely privatised during the last years of Apartheid. Most people with HIV-related illness now can only access very minimal primary health care and symptom control, treatment for only few of the opportunistic infections, and no anti-retroviral therapies.

Hospitals are overwhelmed, and often cannot admit patients with AIDS. The local clinics also have overflowing waiting rooms, and lack staff and essential medicines. Nurses are rarely available for home care, even of the dying. With very high rates of STDs and TB in South Africa, the rapid spread of HIV makes it vitally important to maintain and upgrade sexual health, TB and maternal/child health services, yet in many areas, services are under strain and less accessible now than a decade ago.

Only the very rich can pay $1000 (Aust) per month for combination antiviral therapies at pharmacies in the most opulent suburbs of Cape Town and Johannesburg. $1000 is twice the yearly income of the majority of the population.

The South African epidemic emerged much later than the other southern African countries. When Botswana, Zimbabwe and Zambia were reporting infection rates of young women of 20% or more by the late 80s, South Africa still had less than 1% nationally in 1990. At the time of the first democratic elections in 1994, almost 8% of pregnant women were testing HIV+. Now in the eastern and northern provinces, a quarter of young adults are HIV+.

It is only in the last year or so that communities across SA have begun to experience the trauma of significant numbers of people with serious illness, and a noticeable increase in deaths.

Although 20 million of South Africa’s 43 million people live in poverty, the country has one of the most developed economies in Africa. Half of all the motor vehicles, plane flights, electricity, and telecommunications for the whole continent are in Gauteng, the small province around Pretoria and Johannesburg. The implications of such a devastating epidemic interacting with such an advanced capitalist infrastructure are unprecedented.

Since the early 1990s, SA demographers and economists have been predicting the impact of HIV on life expectancy, insurance, the health system, the labour market and education. Now all their worst predictions are coming true. For example, recent press reports estimate that a majority of mine workers and members of the SA Defence Forces are HIV+.

The rapid spread of HIV was understandable under the conditions of late Apartheid regime, with its migrant labour system, which kept the workers in cramped hostels, and their families hundreds of kilometres away in ten homelands, supposedly separate countries. The Apartheid regime also disrupted township life through sponsoring mass terrorist violence from right wing or anonymous "third force" groups. In one instance, discussed in the Truth and Reconciliation hearings, the secret police deliberately recruited men to infect sex workers in Johannesburg, in order to spread HIV in the urban black communities.

In the context of the Apartheid regime, which had promoted condoms to lower the African birth rate, it was hard for people to see AIDS as anything other than a racist plot, and the government’s early fear-based anti-sex messages lacked any credibility.

The Apartheid regime also left an enormous international debt, so South Africa, like the countries to its north, now honours its creditors with more money each year than it can spend on keeping its citizens alive.

There were enormous hopes that during and after the democratic transition, the African National Congress would be able to mount an effective response to the epidemic. While still in exile the ANC leadership had mandated democratic resistance structures inside the country to begin work on AIDS education. Despite some inspiring rhetoric from the leaders, the record of the ANC-led coalition governments has been poor.

During the first elected government under President Mandela, Health Minister Nkosazana Dhlamini-Zuma built hundreds of clinics, offered free treatment to children under six and pregnant women, declared war on the tobacco industry and tried to introduce cheap generic drugs, provoking threats from the USA. But on HIV, Zuma’s record was very tarnished, by a scandal of allocating the bulk of one year’s AIDS education budget to a play "Sarafina II", and by the tragic declaration by the Cabinet that SA had discovered the cure, Virodene, an industrial solvent that not only proved ineffective against HIV, but was sometimes fatally toxic.

After the second democratic elections in 1998, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang became health minister, under President Thabo Mbeki. The refusal of this government to provide AZT or Neviripine to pregnant women to minimise HIV transmission to their babies has generated widespread anger. In addition, the public toying with American HIV-denial theorists (Duesberg and the schismatic ACT-UP San Francisco) by president Mbeki is causing alarm both locally and internationally.

The new constitution has guaranteed legal protection against discrimination, but the harsh economic polarisation of South Africa means that the situation of people with HIV in terms of employment, housing and health care is very bleak. Most people attend traditional healers, and few believe in germ theory, so ideas that AIDS is a punishment or a dishonour remain strong, and those brave enough to become publicly visible as people with HIV have often suffered very violent persecution in their communities. One kwaZulu-Natal woman activist, Gugu Dlamini, who came out on World AIDS Day 1998 was killed by her neighbours.

On the other hand, it is important not to underestimate the commitment vast numbers of ordinary South Africans have shown in the struggle against AIDS. In each township, school, church and workplace, community activists have been involved in education, and efforts to mobilise solidarity with their sisters and brothers living with HIV. In every community non-government structures are trying to provide volunteer care and support for affected households.

Over the last year, despair and frustration among PLWHAs, health workers and community activists at the lack of access to health care has spurred the formation of a vibrant Treatments Action Campaign, which aims to take on the drug companies and their super-profits which stand in the way of Africans accessing life-saving medicines.

TAC has recently had a major victory, with Pfizer offering to supply the anti-fungal fluconazole free to people with HIV and cryptoccocal meningitis in South Africa. Until now it cost approximately $60 (Aust) per tablet, and many people have been dying of meningitis or oesophageal thrush without effective medications.

TAC is mobilising thousands of people to march on the Durban conference on 9 July to demand affordable HIV treatments and health care for all. The march has the backing of all three SA trade union federations, the international trade union movement, and several international NGOs.

Visit the TAC website: www.tac.org.za

By Kevan Myers

Torrential rain over the New Year period has devastated the already struggling Latin American nation of Venezuela. 50,000 was the estimated death toll as entire communities were swept away. As has been seen throughout the world this natural disaster has been multiplied because of the effects of deforestation and the development of shantytowns with little structural support.

Although it is impossible to predict how many lives could have been saved it is undeniable that numerous dwellings were substandard particularly those built around the capital Caracas.

Hugo Chaves the radical president elected in December 1998 has been pushed further to the left following this new crisis. The Movement for a Fifth Republic, Chaves political base, is a coalition of left-wing trade unionists, community groups, liberation theologists, sections of the armed forces, as well as sections of the ruling class who recognised the need for political and economic reform after years of crony capitalism.

Thus far Chaves has taken an interventionist line in political and economic affairs, which goes against the policies pushed by the World Bank and the IMF. Although not directly calling for socialism the enormous crisis has lead to a number of policy statements, which have scared international capitalism.

For example he has threatened to expropriate land and seize the necessary finance from the capitalists insurance funds to pay for the rebuilding of the country. At this stage however Chaves is still wedded to the idea of modernising Venezuelan capitalism.

Constitutional changes, which allow for public ownership to be expanded in the public interest, together with increased rights for workers and peasants, have given Chaves massive popular support. However the lessons of history show that unless a decisive break with capitalism occurs it is impossible to consolidate such reforms and improve the living standards of workers and peasants. At a certain stage Chaves will have to choose between supporting the interests of the masses or to bend to the pressures of international capitalism.

The building of a mass revolutionary movement based on a clear socialist program will determine the outcome of events not only in Venezuela but also throughout Latin American. Mass movements have already occurred in Peru and Bolivia reacting to the economic crisis and policies of the global capitalism. At this stage such movements have not developed a clear-sighted revolutionary leadership but with no end in sight from the miseries of capitalism this becomes the most urgent task.

As we have seen throughout the developing world the possibility of creating a democratic capitalist system where the rights of peasants and workers are ensured is an illusion. The spectre of military coups, communal violence and environmental destruction is the only future under capitalism.

by Matt Wilson

Low Pay demonstrations in Melbourne last month gave young workers a space to voice their discontent with the conditions of youth employment. Two stalls were organised outside McDonalds stores to highlight the hypocrisy of the fast food giant which, on one hand, claims to offer young people a great opportunity for work, whilst on the other hand paying extremely low wages and actively opposes union organisation of its workforce.

Both stalls quickly turned into snap rallies as young workers from all walks of employment joined in. The overwhelming message conveyed by those who attended was that youth wages made young people feel like second class citizens, that living on youth wages is a day-to-day struggle and that young people are sick death of being exploited.

These experiences appear to be common for youth, even official Government statistics cannot hide the incredible disparity between young workers and their elder counterparts. The gap in wage rates has increased steadily over the last ten years with an average drop in youth wages of $50. Young people are now earning around 30% less than adults for the same work.

The figures get worse the younger the workers. On average, Fifteen to Nineteen year olds can expect a despicable $10 per week. Overall, 56% of all youth earn less than $200 per week including Government "benefits".

Some people would claim that these wages are fine for young people, since most of them are studying and enjoy the luxury of being supported by their parents. Again the figures appear to contradict such myths.

The number of youth struggling to support themselves is on the increase, currently 1.5 million young people are living independently, in many cases providing for their partners and children.

To make matters worse, the cost of living is higher for youth than for any other age group. Young people are paying on average $110 per week for accommodation alone. The cost of living is crippling young workers who are attempting to study. The university drop-out rate is increasing for low income earners. Universities need not worry about cutting places for subsidised students, low youth wages are solving the problem for them. Working students are being pushed into disgraceful industries just to get though their courses. It is estimated that 25% of prostitutes in Melbourne are university students.

The only way to raise youth wages is for young people to stand up to their bosses with the backing of their unions and fight. However this is made difficult by the casualised nature of youth employment. Strong, well-organised unions are usually based on a workforce where workers are in stable employment, working with the same work-mates and a single union for many years.

Young people have no time to form these connections; stable employment is rare within the service and hospitality industries where most youth find work. Consequently unionisation of 15 to 24 year olds is lower than for any other working age group.

The low pay campaign activities have started to raise awareness over the critical situation of youth employment. However there is much to be done. The most encouraging sign is that the young people who walked into McDonalds to have their say are currently working in different jobs all over Melbourne. Their show of solidarity for McDonalds workers comes from an understanding that young people must stand united in a fight for better wages and conditions.

In order to breakdown the isolation of young workers, the Socialist Party has established the Young Workers Association.

The group, which is run entirely by young people, will provide legal support and information for young workers, a 24-hour contact line, access and information about the relevant unions that young people should be joining. The Young Workers Association is designed to act as a permanent reference point for young workers no matter where they find themselves employed. Most importantly, when all attempts to negotiate with bosses fail, we will be able to provide the mass support of young workers from many industries to guarantee that those workers involved in a dispute are successful. For too long employers have reaped millions out of the exploitation of young workers. Its time to demand our share of the take.