on an SACP member and eader for offering open and Gelderen that seek to take forward and JOHN strengthen working class strug * The last several years of keeping have seen a whole range of new challenges and conditions confronting both the working class and the main political the organisation claiming to represene the aspirations and interof that working class, the 'Many of the challenges that have confronted the SACP the fact that its Allance part- throw ser, the ANC, has gradually but systematically embraced a deraciaised capicalism. the "The fact that this has been a focal point of much debate and opposition both within and outside the Alliance, does not Tabo the take away from its realty.
"It is this reality, alongside the concomitant political and organisational principles underSing serence, far that sade it both strategically and ctically necessary for SAC members to actively and vigorously struggle for a anti-capital. counter-hegemony. ANC Lessons watchwords of all active and dediated revolucionaries in antry: the contemporary period have Despite een that if we do not learn the demned to repeat them.
The tragic consequences of opportunistie stifling of open from and honest critique and debace throughout the 20th century are there for all of us to see and learn from.
"There are too many strategic and theoretical challenges to confront, too many working class struggles to wage and too based, anti-capitalist mobilisa cion to grasp for organised rev- metanhor tor olutionaries to repeat the devastating mistakes of the "As that wonderful revolutionary saying goes - "class consciousness is knowing what side of the fence you're on. population SACP has to have both."
liberal logic of global capital*There is absolutely no reaSAUL. whose son to assume Toronto-based South African majority of Report, played a big role in the world informed Africa will find improved by the about South African affairs that are being : in the days of apartheid, has just left South Africa after a their name by the present ANC government...
"Is it the fact that... capiUniversity the Witwatersrand. He has come talism is everywhere hegemonic and away bitterly disillusioned.
As someone close to the has been more or less oblitmovement for liberation, he crated, which explains this outcome? sions within it; about what He refers to the grim epimishe happen after the overe gram of the Polish-American apartheid theorist, Adam Przeworski: (stalinist) theories of 'colonialism of a special type and socialism is unteasible: in seemed to signal as much," "two-stage revolution" the real world people starve -the conclusions reached are not encouraging He quotes from an article president, How cise can : "Capitalism is irrational?
you Canadian Joarnal of African situation in South Afric (but it is also true on a global scale) where the vast majorparty. It has never pretended "The ANC is not a socialist ity of the people are desperRate in their porerty for a to be one, it has never said it was, and is not trying to be. It will not become one by goods and services on the one hand and a very large decree or for the purpose of pleasing its "left' critics." percentage of people (most often the same people are Mbeki stressed that the Represented the qually desperate for jobs, or notion of both an all-clas thro common front and deict- outh African puzzie simpl mined mobilisation of the black proletariat and peas- be put together? Why must they be joined growing scepti- ciently through the circuits cism about the revolutionary of global capital and the provocation of the ANC leadersupporters like John cess of generating surpius ralue (profits) for the few Saul thought that enoug with the power to dictate even below not let had been released terms and guarantee their massive cut of the action?* the burgeoning trade union There is no movement, that radical and Saul, contends, even socialist outcomes were reminded of these facts - not in a world where the share of Balance sheet the world's income of the Saul's conclusion, his bal- richest 20% of the world's ance sheet on the "South population has risen to 85%, African Revolution' is that whilst the share of the poorBest 20% has declined to 1.4% *a tragedy is being enacted in South Africa, as much a Wider gap our times as In South Africa itself the Rwanda and Yugoslavia... For, in the teeth of high already rich and poor has vast expectations arising from 3 successful struggle against a to siden since 1994 *True, a few more blacks malignant apartheid state, & have joined the whites at the very high percentage of the Stop of the table. But is there - among them cally much consolation to the most desperately poor in be found in that? .... the world -are being sacri- outcomes are - there is no ficed on the altar of the neoother Union struggles toere key so rictory oor aparthrid: but now ANC opposes strikes and seeks to maintain "non-racial" capitalism tional.... In the "real world" of South Africa people do starve."
that the Paul Sal and Colin Leys people in South recently produced a survey of the capitalist prospect in policies Africa, in which they conadopted in cluded that the Africa is relegation to the margins of global economy, with no visible prospect for continental accopacat socialism, as a along capitalist Africa's development the dynamics of global capitalism geat, if they ever were But what of South Africa itself? Because of its size, the irrational; sees more room for manoeuvre within global capitalism than is the case casewacre on we have the continent.
Abyss explain a But he concludes that South Africa avoid being pushed aside from the harsh competition will, like its ravaged neighbours, fall into "the abyss of exclusion. a mat is tae real Problem for Sand lie Colin President of Wits University acknowledged some aro that to hold out the central pieces to the prospect of a socialist trans- formation in South required a "leap of faith." But, he continued, and ineffi- "To imagine that a mildermannered capitalist orach can secure a decent future Africans - or that deracialising bourgeois rule will meet the aspirations of exploited and oppressed people - now need, John that really requires a leap of about then?" asks Saul. "In princi pie it makes a lot or scase. surely: From each according according to their needs. "Unfeasible?... tives to neo-liberalism proosed it South Africa between continued call for nationalisations on the very day he was released from prison in 1990 (soon retracted in the name aocalerated privatisation. such growth through re-distribufor it, irra- posal once used in ANC circles to suggest a possible first step towards challenging capital and prioritising the mass of the population within the proluctive process The present Governor of for Bank, Tito in 1992, stated: *The ANC believes that a 0080R appropriate path for the and South Africa In our growin pata, accumula tion depends on the prior redistribution of resources. take place in existing power dition for this new growth path." Even in 1994, Mandela said We are convinced that left to their devices challenge facing us.... envisage occasions when it will be necessary to interSCHE growth and development require such interventions." Today, all this is forgotten. "Black empowerment" now means the creation of a black years geoiste. Capitalist Africa, "Ours," says President Mbeki, "is a capitalist socicty: the objective is the deracialisation of the ownership of productive property. That, he says "is the key to of South the struggle against racism in our country are not made easier by those who seck that poverty in our country continues to carry racial hues; who argue that wealth and socialism income disparities among black people themselves are as wide between black and white. Simply put, the rich are rich whether they are black or very white. The poor are while. For those former liberation fighters who now sit on the boards of the big corporations, this is the best of all POSSIble Worlds of As Saul puts it: "Where once they asked *what can example, ask what can we do for capiOutlook