revolution marks time
WITH THE LATEST clamp-down on the freedom of the press in South Africa - which gives the Commissioner of Police the right to prohibit the publication of anything which he considers 'undesirable' - the apartheid state can definitely be classified as a police state. The recourse to the law courts which have hitherto blocked a total censorship has now been stemmed. It is the South African police, dominated by supporters of the government — and by elements of the far right — who now have absolute control over what people can read, see on TV or hear on the radio.
The state of emergency had two objectives. Firstly to cripple the liberation movement. Secondly, to try and heal the disarray in the ruling class. Botha thought that the limited programme of reforms would soften the criticism from the "liberal' wing of South African and international capital and that his selfimposed limits — the retention of segregation in education and through the Group Areas Act, and the continued disenfranchisement of the black (African) majority — would be sufficient to slow down the growth of right-wing Afrikaner politics (the Conservative Party, HNP and AWB). He has failed in both objectives.
The ruling class remain divided about the right way to tackle the growing insurgency of the South African masses. Sections of local capitalism, headed by the glant Anglo-American corporation and, with some exceptions, international capital, with huge investments in South Africa, are looking fearfully at a post-apartheid South Africa. They are anxious to see a structural change which will do away with the racism of apartheid while 12 safe-guarding 'free enterprise'
S O THAFRICA The South African The recent wave of repression in South Africa has highlighted the
divisions in the ruling class, but
it has also taken its toll on the
forces of resistance. CHARLIE
VAN GELDEREN argues that
this underlines the need to base
resistance on the broad forces in
the trade unions.
Recently both the British foreign office and the US Secretary of State met leaders of the ANC. This could be said to reflect the legitimacy of the ANC's claim to be the representative of the South African liberation movement. On the other hand it could be that the wiser elements in the imperialist ministries believe that only the A.VC could be relied upon to safeguard at least some of their interests in post-apartheid South Africa.
It is in an attemnt tr resolve these contradictions that Botha decide 1 to call a general election two years betore it was due in order to get a fresh mandate from the white electorate. The immediate effect of this was further splits from the ruling National Party, emphasising the disunity which is wracking the ruling class. These elections, of course, have no validity for the black masses. Knowing this, Botha has wisely decided that the two non-white houses of parliament would not be dissolved, despite the fact that only a small number of blacks would participate in the election for them.
Gideon Mendel/Reflex
There can be no doubt that the emergency has dealt the liberation forces a severe blow. Thousands of national and local leaders have been arrested or detained without charge. The security forces are in the townships in massive strength. The mood of euphoria which expected a quick victory has largely given way to a realisation that the state is still powerful; that the struggle is going to be prolonged and that there will be set-backs as well as advances before the final victory.
These past two years have been years of militant struggle in the townships, in the schools, in the mines and factories and in the countryside. They have also been the years in which the ANC recovered and consolidated its position of pre-eminance in the national liberation movement. Even if the ANC, as such, did not initiate all the activities in the schools and townships, there can be no doubt that the majority of the 'comrades' conceived of themselves as supporters of the ANC. This is reinforced by government propaganda which credits the AVC with every act of violence and insurgency. Although the Communist Party is in close alliance with the ANC and exerts great influence at exile leadership level, there is little evidence that it shares the mass support which the ANC enjoys.
In the Statement of the NEC of the ANC on the Occasion of the 75th Anniversarys of the ANC (8 Jan 1987), presented by President Oliver Tambo, and the accompanying What is to be Done, the successes and failures are frankly assessed.
In 1986, Tambo set his movement the task of further activating the underground army, Umkhonte we Sizwe and of 'drawing in millions of our people into combat'. Now he
International No 9 March/April 1987
Stevedores in Durban. Most are migrant workers living in a men's compound International No 9 March/April 1987
concedes that In this regard we must say that we have not progressed as far as we can'. One of the failures that Tambo highlights is the failure to link up the cells of trained guerillas sent into the country and the large number of discontented black youths. In short, the call for a 'people's war' could not be translated from propaganda into reality.
It could also be added that while the ANC (and other liberation organisations) have supported the building of alternative forms of popular government in the localities, the overwhelming armed power of the state has prevented the linking up of these local committees nationally into a genuine form of dual power. The slogan 'power to the people' remains exactly that — a slogan.
While the emergency has dealt serious blows to the political wing of the liberation movement (UDF; National Forum) by the prohibition of meetings, rallies, even mass attendance at funerals, plus the arrests of its leaderships and the severe censorship (although there has been a marked increase in guerilla activities), the trade union movement has shown a remarkable resilience. The main reason democratic unions in contrast to the highly centralised and bureaucratic leadership of the UDF.
The position is put very clearly in the November/December issue of Saspu National, the organ of the South African Students Press Union: 'Workers have drastically changed the balance of power in the workplace and in society as a whole. Trade unions have grown and Cosatu's formation allows for more coordinated action on political and economic fronts'
Commemorating Cosatu's first year, its General Secretary, Jay Naidoo, stressed the increasing importance of the working class, which has not confined its struggles round the issues of wages and working conditions but played a leading role in national politics. 'Debates in Cosatu have placed socialism very firmly on the agenda; the growth of working class politics is clear. It is reflected in the methods and content of struggles being waged by democratic structures from village committees to street committees, from shop steward councils to SRO S.
'More and more, these democratic structures are
drawing the link between the oppression they are
fighting and the overall methods of political control of
the working class in our society. They are drawing
this link not only in theory but in action, and the
tactics and targets. This is heightening the crisis of
control for the ruling class. These organs of people's
power are important for advancing mass struggle
now; but they are also important to ensure that we
really govern ourselves after change.
'We believe workers experience of democracy in
the unions is contributing to building working class
leadership more broadly?
In the 7,000 words of the anniversary statement, Tambo devotes only 150 to the role of the working class and in the tasks for 1987 there Is no attempt to co-ordinate the workers' struggle to that of the general struggle for people's power. While the ANC make the usual genuflection to the 'leading 14 role of the workers' it gives no content to this
SOUTHAFRICA Louis Le Grange, South African Minister of Police - thumbs up for repression leading role. Almost the same importance is given to the call to the white people to join the struggle against apartheid
How different the position of Vaidoo: 'Workers are more directly confronting the issue of the redistribution of wealth; tactics like sit-ins have also put the issue of control of the means of production on the agenda.
Cosatu's vice-president Chris Dlamini also spelled out how the 'leading role of the working class' must be given a succinct political programme if it is to have any meaning: "The unholy alliance of apartheid and capitalism has become obvious and concrete. One cannot expect 1o eradicate it simply by removing apartheid, nor can economic transformation come about merely by organising workers into unions and demanding a living wage and good living conditions.
•What we are talking about is the total change of the present system in its entirety. This change can never be brought about as the result of a change of. heart from big business or a softening of attitudes by the regime or when Thatcher discards her attitude. It will only come through the struggles waged by all progressive forces of our people...I am convinced that the links with all progressive organisations of our people need to be concretised now.'
In strong contrast to the AVC's scant reference to the role of the working class, as a
class, in the liberation struggle, the South African white capitalists are becoming only too aware of the growing strength of organised labour and its effectiveness as leader and organiser of the struggle against apartheid. Many of the 'enlightened' leaders of big business are becoming convinced that capitalism will not survive in South Africa if it does not distance itself from apartheid. The Federation of Industry (FCI) actually proposed that workers and management should form a united front (sic) against the state of emergency. Cosatu gives them a dusty answer: 'We would not consider a united front with the employers because capitalism is protected by apartheid, often at gunpoint.
'How can workers who are fighting tooth-andnail battles with the bosses in their factories be expected to see them as allies on any level? We believe we would weaken the growth of the working class movement by entering a united front with monopoly capitalism. Instead we have pressurised them to grant us rights in the factory that would allow us to regroup on our own terms. But their response has been fairly larne.'
The Cosatu statement goes on to say that while the FCI proposed a united front, many FCI affilliates have been reluctant to guarantee job and income security to detained workers. Cosatu unions are fighting ongoing battles on this front. There speaks the authentic voice of a working class prepared to play its historic role and place itself at the head of the struggle for national liberation and social emancipation.
All available information shows that despite the severity of the repression, the struggle in South Africa continues, though, perhaps, at a slower tempo. Although handicapped by the denial of bases in neighbouring states, there has been, as stated above, an increase in guerilla activities within the country.
The state has responded to this, not only by direct military and police assault, but by organising squads of counter-revolutionary vigilantes, the so-called 'Wit Doeke' so that the media can portray the struggle as black against black.
The Afrikaner dominated state machinery now has no other option than a military solution. Despite the increased use of armed guerillas, the liberation movement is not in a position for an all-out military confrontation with the state. This would indicate the need for the greater utilisation of the industrial muscle of the organised workers than appears implicit in the A.VC's strategy for 1987.
While the ANC has rightly retused to renounce violence at the behest of us Secretary of State Shultz, it has always been careful to cultivate the alternative — pressure from international capitalism and the "liberal' bourgeoisie in South Africa to bring the government to the conference table. It is perhaps no accident that the A.VC leadership has compared its present situation with that of ZANU in the 1970s - which culminated in the Lancaster House conference, where Britain ceded power in Zimbabwe to an African nationalist regime - which defended and maintained capitalism. B
International No 9 March/April 1987
Self-determination
MARXISTS HAVE have traditionally, at least since the time of Lenin, been in the forefront of those who demand the right of self-determination for oppressed nations. They have also correctly said that this could only be achieved if it was combined with the fight for socialism. But when it has come to considering smaller nations on the periphery of imperialist states, or oppressed nations which are not underdeveloped and actually integrated into imperialist states (for example Scotland or Euzkadi), they have often had a much more equivocal position.
An argument often heard is that in these countries the national question is a 'diversion' from the 'real' class issues and the fight for socialism. What this means in practice in Britain is that everything depends on the willingness of the English working class to !... his Anglo-
Socialism' to lauon in Scotland and Wales (and in some cases, like Militant, even in Ireland) fails to take account of the progessive role this democratic demand can