Jhe mid-1980s upsurge in South Africa was the culmination of a twentyyear struggle of the black masses which made old-style apartheid unworkable. The National Party leadership under de Klerk has moved radically to destroy this old system. Parliamentary democracy on a universal franchise is being introduced. If this process is carried through successfully against the resistance of the l right wing and Inkatha, however, the central core of the system - racial capitalism - will survive intact. When ANC leaders say that expectations among the masses are 'too high', they understand the reality of the situation. Formal democracy will not meet the needs of the masses for jobs and houses and the township system will remain intact. The debate between revolutionary and non-revolutionary sectors of the mass movement revolves around the goals of the struggle. From this perspective there is nothing necessarily unprincipled in negotiations with the government to introduce formal democracy. The real debate is not negotiations versus non-negotiations: the crucial issue is whether or not to make an 'historic compromise' with racial capitalism - ie to call off the struggle. It is this question which has led sectors of the popular movement to refuse to participate in these negotations.
The peace deal underway in Palestine poses parallel problems. Rabin's Labour Party government has produced minimal concessions not to dismantle the national oppression of the Palestinian people, but to guarantee it. The object of the exercise is to demobilise and call off the Intifadah struggle. Even if the deal is imposed, there is no I question of evicting the Zionist settlers who have taken 60 per cent of the land in the West Bank. There is no question of bringing back the majority of Palestinians who live outside Gaza and the West Bank. There is no question of any change in the status of the Palestinians as subordinate to the Zionist state.
Once again the issue' is not for or against negotiations; the issue is whether or not to make an 'historic compromise' and call off the struggle.