Letter to Xolani Khoza

Athens, Greece
29 October 2025

Dear Xolani,

We send revolutionary greetings and congratulations from the Trotskyist Group of Greece—part of our international, which includes Spartacist South Africa—for the rare victory you had in beating back the GNU’s bogus charges of terrorism. The campaign for your freedom was a model, on a small scale, of the necessary kind of fightback against the dire threats faced by the workers movement not only in South Africa but internationally. We are proud to have taken part in your defense and think it’s important to share your victory with the working class and oppressed here in Greece.

We need to engage in defensive struggles for all those wrongly criminalized—whether pro-Palestinian activists, trade union militants, striking workers, immigrants or others. We must fight against these coordinated campaigns meant to silence and attack the whole left. As in South Africa, here in Greece the fight for national liberation and resistance to imperialism is the driving force that will ultimately bring about real progress for all the oppressed. The struggle against imperialist oppression is at the center of our efforts to unite the masses against our common enemy. To rid ourselves of imperialist enslavement, we need a party that combines the fight for national liberation with the need for class independence and workers power—one that will build a leadership of the working class that draws the lessons of past defeats. We must sharpen the contradictions between the anti-imperialist aspirations of the masses and the liberal and parliamentarist strategies of the current leaders including those who reject the struggle against imperialist subjugation.

Due to the defeats suffered by the workers’ movement because of these strategies, the Greek government is on the offensive. They have passed a law implementing a 13-hour working day, further aggravating miserable working conditions. As if not bad enough, other attacks are being planned, on pensions for example, which have already been dramatically reduced, forcing the retired to return to work and face dangerous working conditions to survive. It’s now normal for workers to die on the job with 142 workplace fatalities occurring before August this year. Although not as impoverished as the black South African masses, we too face dire conditions. The imperialist-imposed debt has led to even further decline in the standard of living for the masses. The deadly train crash in Tempi in 2023—caused by EU-imposed privatization (state-owned railway sold for nothing) and local corruption—claimed the lives of 57 people, mostly young, and brought the entire country into the streets demanding justice. However, the apoliticization of the movement and lack of proletarian leadership led the Tempi movement to defeat. We need to rebuild the movement with the working class taking the lead.

Regarding your case, we have heard recently that the state vendetta against you continues with the Hawks’ refusal to return your passport and phone. Now a government representative is declaring that the case was provisionally withdrawn pending new evidence despite having been unconditionally withdrawn in the courts. We must stand vigilant and redouble our efforts against the state’s continued persecution! It’s no coincidence that this further attack comes on the heels of the U.S. imperialists’ drive against oppressed countries and the South African government’s vicious attack against the EFF leader Julius Malema, who faces a possible 15-year prison sentence on bogus gun “safety” charges. The international labor movement must be made aware of this crackdown, and the greatest possible pressure must be brought to bear.

Even though nothing of the sort is happening right now, only mass struggle in South Africa—especially by the black proletariat—can push back against the GNU’s pro-imperialist agenda! We must build a genuine united front, like the one waged on your behalf by ourselves and EFF Ground Forces along with socialists and black liberation fighters representing dozens of organizations. This is the kind of campaign needed now, but on a massive scale.

Drop the Charges! Hands off Malema! Hands off the EFF!