The struggle for socialism is a vast historical struggle to shift the balance of class forces towards working people and other popular forces. This struggle has not been, and will not be, a simple evolutionary development, guaranteed by history. Taking place on the terrain of a world dominated by capitalism it is marked by unevenness, by moments of stagnation, by advances, by reverses and, no doubt, by decisive moments.
To understand this struggle as a simple contrast between revolution and reform does not help. Revolutions that Seize commanding heights and which install new ruling elites that force-match their societies into "Modernisation" and "development", using managerialist techniques that are little different (and sometimes much harsher) than those in capitalist production, are bound to fail the socialist project. This project is to seize commanding heights and transfer power without transforming the nature and institutionalisation of power. I want to take-up the debate of Ex-SAMWU member and current ANC councilor Cde. Hennie van Wyk. He argued for the need to break the ANC- SACP-Cosatu Alliance in a letter to Workers News June 1999, debate corner.
This state of affairs is not something that has suddenly emerged out of thin air. Since its inception in December 1985 Cosatu has recognised that to effectively fight on issues that were workplace related, it had to forge alliances with other democratic forces which were fighting for democratisation in all sphere of society. This included in the workplace. We argued the source of South Africa's exploitative and discriminatory laws and practices was the apartheid regime, supported by big business and this was declared a "crime against humanity". Therefore Cosatu decided to enter in an alliance with progressive forces with a track record based on these criteria Cosatu combined forces with ANC and SACP.
But, indeed the scene was already being set way back to strategically prioritise an ultimately narrow and elite managed negotiations process that would deliver a measure of political power and democracy while accepting the limitation of the objective condition under which the process was pursued.
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We argued the source of South Africa's exploitative and discriminatory laws and practices was the apartheid regime, supported by big business |
The ANC was constantly telling its supporters to be patient-once it possessed a degree of political power it would them be able to deal with the real problems associated with ownership of the means of production, redistribution of wealth and the meeting of basic material and social needs. The ANC argued that this was not a compromise but a strategy path that was part and parcel of the historic realisation of the National Democratic Revolution. As insurance the SACP and COSATU initiated the drawing up of a Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) that would ostensibly secure a political and programmatic commitment by the ANC government to meeting the basic needs of workers and the poor. After this process of drafts the RDP emerged publicly in early 1994 and was hailed by the Alliance leadership as the peoples programme which provide an integrated coherent and viable socio-economic policy framework (geared to meeting the needs of a new democratic South Africa and its people.
The document (RDP) rapidly achieved the status of an ANC election manifesto on which the ANC subsequently rode to victory in April 1994. It is without doubt that this approach is already relegated to the realms of a nice-sounding but impractical vision by an ANC government seemingly hell-bent on facilitating the interest of global and domestic capital. The RDP has all but disappeared as the programmatic ode on which the wheels of socio- economic transformation are now turning.
As South Africa enters its second term of the post apartheid transition COSATU finds itself in a strategic dilemma which is mostly of its own making. To put it simply, the Federation is seemingly unable or unwilling to recognise the political and socio-economic implications of the strategic choices made by the ANC government, and to thus mobilise the weapons necessary to lead a counter-offensive to reclaim a fighting spirit and confidence in an alternative socialist vision
The problem with the Alliance is that the engagement over the last years has turned out to be more confrontation than co-operation. Instead of hegemonising the RDP as a means to deliver the goods to workers and the poor, the Federation finds itself desperately trying to defend the RDP from being dumped in the programmatic rubbish bin along side past ANC commitments such as nationalisation, worker internationalist and collective organisational decision-making.
Our main task as communists in this period is to ensure that the progressive content of the RDP is not diluted. Our main strategic objective in this period must be of democratic implementation of the RDP which will provide us with the most immediate and concrete connection between democracy, women's emancipation and socialism in our country.
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The government threw a potential knock out punch in the form of GEAR which serves to confirm the government's growth-first path |
These strategic blunders are, above all, based on COSATU's consistent belief that it is through prioritising participation in an ANC government that the seeds of a socialist - RDP oriented agenda can be planted. This is seen to be done by deploying our best comrades who are intellectuals into government and the results have been a double blow to any nascent vision of a transformed South Africa. Gradually, the majority of deployed comrades themselves have become spokespeople for the new market democracy. An example of this is trade policy - in spite of and outside the context of the RDP which is potentially subject to a process of marginalisation. This is even before COSATU had responded to this frontal assault on its RDP strategic hopes. The government threw a potential knockout punch in the form of GEAR which serves to confirm the government's growth-first path and assumes that market-oriented policies will yield the desired outcomes of job creation, investment, growth reduced poverty and general inequality. All of this is combined an individualist / corporatist approach to capitalist accumulation and development.
Taking a closer look at GEAR clearly reveals what the South African government has in mind. It should be clear to all socialists that GEAR represents a specific ideological and strategic choice by Government.
It is not particularly enjoyable for any active socialist whether as an individual or collective to admit failure. There are at least two centrally important steps that the federation in this country must now take to begin a process of reclaiming a viable and dynamic socialist strategy that intersects with, and provides basic material and social struggles of the majority.
How are affiliate comrades deployed in government going to raise the necessary questions and be in a position to mobilise and organise the working and poor people in a socialist direction when they are being forced, as representatives or partners of a political organisation to perform the function of managers of capitalist social and economic relations?
The COSATU / SACP needs to stop acting as though their main role is to act as the custodian for mitigating the contradiction of contradiction on the workers and the poor. No matter how unfair and unequal the times may seem the struggle for socialism must not devolve into attempts to co-manage capitalist production and the redirection of its social surplus to the people in a search for some utopian middle ground.
While none of the steps outlined above will, in themselves guarantee that the socialist vision will emerge victorious - they will however go a long way to ensuring that the COSATU / SACP alliance does not marginalise itself. The dialectical relationship between the objective balance of forces and the activity of those seeking to liberate themselves and fundamentally alter that balance, is part of a historically fluid process in which there are no absolutes nor impenetrable barriers.
In other words COSATU in particular must turn the next revolutionary corner and begin to believe in a renewed socialist programme and vision, and in those it professes to struggle for and with. The sounds of the retreat can echo a different beat.
Alfred Stipple presently works for South African Municipal Workers Union and is a member of the SACP - Potgietersrus branch executive committee.
By EZROM MABYANA (SATAWU - national treasurer)
Worker's control is one of the most important theoretical and practical conquests of the South African trade union movement in the struggle against apartheid and capitalism. This vital weapon in the economic and political struggle of workers for their own emancipation had (and still has) two sides to it; on the one hand, workers controlling their own trade union organisations and leaders; on the other hand, their limiting and ultimately smashing the bureaucratic power of the bosses at the workplace and replacing it with workers' democracy.
With regard to the unions themselves, mandates, accountability, accessibility, recallability, and so on, were emphasized by the membership on the leadership. The main aim of the workers was to ensure the effectiveness of their organisations in the struggle against the bosses. The black working class was quite aware of the toothlessness of overseas, particularly American, trade unions in defending and advancing workers interests against the bosses.
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Without workers' control, the gains black workers have made in this country both at the factory floor and in broader society would have been impossible |
Even here, in South Africa, many workers had been through the negative experience of the sweet-heart, bureaucratic Trade Union Council of South Africa and its affiliates. Workers' control was the only way of making sure the unions served the workers, not the bosses. Indeed, the black working class was swimming against the stream, internationally. In 'socialist' countries, Western Europe, not to mention America, trade unions were heavily bureaucratised. By advancing workers' control, black workers were basically revolutionising the trade union movement so as to be able to meet the great challenges ahead. Without workers' control, the gains black workers have made in this country both at the factory floor and in broader society would have been impossible. Even under apartheid repression, black workers managed to build progressive trade unions that were independent of the capitalists and their apartheid state machinery. In fact, this independence was won in combat against the racist bosses and their racist state! Without workers' control, the gains black workers have made in this country both at the factory floor and in broader society would have been impossible!
As already stated, the other side of workers' control was directed against the power of the bosses at the workplace. This aspect of workers' control derived from the socialist leanings the black trade union movement had. Socialism has a rich history in this country too. The emergent union movement in the 1970s could ignore the history of its predecessors at its own peril. Furthermore, the world political situation was characterised by, among others, the Cold War between socialism and capitalism. Above all, the black working was learning through bitter daily struggles that apartheid and capitalism were its mortal enemies. The very conditions of existence of black workers, their struggles against the bosses and the state, the kind of political knowledge they acquired in struggle, the kind of alliances they forged internationally, all assisted in moulding them in a socialist direction. Inevitably, workers' control became an important weapon in fighting the bosses.
At the present moment, there is a need on the part of the labour movement to re-think the organisational side of workers' control, i-e-, workers controlling their own organisations -
Trade unions in this case. The victory of the democratic forces, led by the African National Congress, over the apartheid regime has completely has opened up new avenues of struggle which the trade unions have to exploit in furthering the interests of their members. As a result of the establishment of democracy in this country trade unionists had, and still have, to engage in a whole range of civil society' institutions to advance workers' interests. Most importantly, many trade unionists are in government and in the business sector. This 'deployment' has in many cases led to a detachment of many longstanding and experienced unionists from their constituency and organisations. Hence, the so-called brain drain outcry. New leaders had to take over the reigns whether fully prepared for that or not.
The courage displayed by the new leadership cannot be doubted. For example, COSATU has continued to grow in numbers despite all the difficulties. At the same time, the inexperience and lack of training on the part of some of the present leaders of the federation and its affiliates has caused serious problems politically and organisationally. Yet, the deployment' and 're-deployment' is going to continue. Moreover, some unionists, once they have established their credentials within labour movement, simply opt for greener pastures. In a way, many careerists and opportunists use the trade unions as a launching pad to bourgeoisdom - getting top positions in big companies, opening up consultancies, establishing union investment companies and their subsidiaries, and so on. Of course, capitalists actively support this political 'maturity' by labour leaders. Some unscrupulous politicians also participate in this misleading of unionists. The bosses and their political representatives want to politically and organisationally weaken the union movement. This is one way, perhaps the most effective under a democracy, of entrenching the hegemony of the capitalist class over the working class. Therefore, it is no use lamenting over this; steps must be taken to counter this reactionary phenomenon.
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COSATU has continued to grow in numbers despite all the difficulties |
An intensive and continuous programme of political education, training and development is critical here. Shopstewards, members, officials and staff should undergo this programme. Its content should be such that leaders not only grapple with organisational matters fast, but also clearly understand the tasks facing the labour movement now. In fact, this leadership has to guide the movement in defining these tasks. Structures to carry out this programme have to be set up at all levels of the unions, local, regional and national.
Every effort must be made both to strengthen the trade union movement and also equip those operating in other fields (government, business, etc.) to consistently advance the interests of the working class. Yes, unionists and working class activists in general should not just remain in the labour movement 'pure and simple', but also move to other spheres and actively fight the capitalist class.