Jeremy Cronin
The key achievement of the South African Communist Party through the 1990s has been to rethink the communist project, neither abandoning nor being complacent about our legacy.
We have carried through this rethinking, not as an intellectual curiosity, but in the midst of making ongoing, sometimes decisive, contributions to one of the great (though still incomplete and undecided) social transitions of our times.
In the late 1980s then SACP general secretary Joe Slovo had begun an internal party debate on the systemic shortcomings of the Soviet system. This debate was to surface publicly in 1991 in Slovo’s booklet, Has Socialism Failed? He argued that it was not socialism that was failing in the Soviet Union, but a gravely distorted version of it.
In particular, Slovo argued that the key weakness in the Soviet system was a tragic undermining of democracy. Multi-party democracy, a democratic Constitution, a Bill of Rights, an independent judiciary, a free press there was nothing inherently capitalist about these things; indeed, everywhere in developed capitalist societies, these popular, historical advances were being blunted by the power of capitalist corporations.
Socialism should be about deepening and extending democratic participation in conditions in which the majority is increasingly liberated from the tyranny of “market” forces.
Unbanned in February 1990, after 40 years of illegality and persecution, the SACP embarked into a new decade more popular at home than it had ever been and yet confronting the reality of a collapsing Soviet bloc.
Through these paradoxical past 12 years, the guiding thread of SACP thinking and action has been to hold on to the essential Marxist critique of capitalism.
We continue, likewise, to hold on to the essential Leninist critique of imperialism. It is that the waves of capitalist global expansion evident in the mid-19th century, in the early decades of the 20th century and again over the past 25 years, are neither entirely positive nor negative realities. Instead, they are both, simultaneously. Development in parts of the globe is dependent on systematic underdevelopment in other parts. For the survival of human civilisation, capitalism and globalisation cannot simply be joined, de-racialised, or caught up with; they have to be transformed.
Slovo’s conviction that socialism has to be an integral component of the democratic struggle has guided the SACP’s contribution to the democratisation process in South Africa over the past decade. Some of our contributions have been decisive, like the acknowledged role the party played in the deadlock-breaking, transitional power-sharing package in the multi-party negotiations in 1993.
In the midst of the negotiations, however, the party, sooner than others, also identified and characterised the nature of the violence unleashed on townships. It was not individual “rotten apples” in the apartheid security apparatus, nor even a shadowy “third force”, we argued. It was a deliberate low-intensity conflict strategy, part and parcel of the regime’s negotiating tactics. It was not the “third” but the “first” force itself that we were up against. For negotiations to succeed, we argued and Chris Hani was in the forefront we had to help communities defend themselves. We had to expose the character of the violence and we had to mobilise popular forces continuously. These, too, were major contributions made by the SACP at the time.
Since the April 1994 democratic breakthrough, the SACP’s concerns have shifted more substantially to the challenging areas of social and economic transformation. We do not imagine that South Africa is about to embark upon a major socialist revolution; unfortunately, global and national realities are too stacked against us for the moment. But we in the SACP are not prepared to see ourselves as reserves on the bench, warming up occasionally on the touch-line, waiting for our time to come.
We are convinced that a socialist analysis of national and global realities remains essential. The core weakness in the growth, employment and redistribution macroeconomic policy predictions is its assumption that globalisation is a unequivocally benign and crisis-free reality and that national alignment with its strictures will guarantee a generous, expanding flow of foreign direct investment.
We believe that a democratic, people-friendly public sector needs to be fostered, defended and expanded. We have not always won this argument within our alliance. But the recent doleful experiences in, for instance, the post office, Umgeni Water and South African Airways will help, we believe, to foster a fundamental rethink.
We are even convinced that it is possible (and necessary) to introduce elements of socialism into the present. This is why the party has begun to actively build a people’s cooperative movement. It is also why, since 1994, the SACP has maintained a consistent critique of the World Bank argument that the delivery of social services should be based on the “user-pays” principle. Instead, we have argued that the market must be rolled back. For this reason, it was the SACP in 1996 that pioneered the call for a free basic quantity of water and electricity for all households.
It is a matter of considerable satisfaction, and amusement, to find the Democratic Alliance-controlled Cape Town metro council today competing with ANC councils to be the first to implement this essentially socialist measure. But we are not complaining unlike capitalism, socialism imposes no copyright restrictions.
Jeremy Cronin is assistant general secretary of the SACP
@We’re too worried about ‘delivery’
Partnerships with communities could prevent another Bredell
worm’s eye view
Steven Friedman
The hills are alive with the sounds of jerking knees. The cause of this involuntary reaction in which people who take part in public debate substitute rhetoric for reason is the Bredell land invasion that, we are repeatedly told, is the result of a “failure of delivery”. Activists and public commentators explain that the government’s failure to release houses and land quickly enough to the poor is the cause of the problem.
Logic suggests that something is radically wrong with this argument. To insist that “slow delivery” is why people are willing to occupy land implies that it would be possible for the government to ensure by now that no one lacks a place of their own and that all are therefore unavailable for land invasions.
This is clearly nonsense. No government could resolve the backlog inherited in 1994 within seven years even if it comprised the most efficient technicians imaginable and was willing to confiscate large chunks of the suburbs (which would cause enough economic havoc to wipe out any benefits for the poor, but that is another story). So, whatever the government does, for some time to come, some of our people will, alas, be homeless. And there will thus be people with a reason to heed politicians who want to develop a following by organising people to invade land.
Indeed, the call for “delivery” may make life more difficult for the poor and future Bredells more likely.
Why? Because if we look simply at numbers which is what those who charge “slow delivery” presumably want us to do much has been delivered. One of the constant clichs of the first post-1994 administration was that the government was hopelessly behind its one-million houses target. But if we include subsidies approved for housing as well as homes built, it came surprisingly close. Indeed, the real problem may be that too much has been “delivered”.
In an attempt to counter the “slow delivery” complaint, the government became obsessed with numbers and so it rushed to release houses and plots even if that meant, as it often did, foisting on people shoddy dwellings or homes sited far away from buses, schools and shops.
For some, “delivery” means not only that more houses must be built, but that they must be of a higher quality. That means that they cost more and so can be “delivered” to fewer people. One such scheme is due for “delivery” now: it was agreed at the job summit and will “deliver” to a few, leaving many available for the next Bredell-type invasion.
The government is indeed partly responsible for Bredell. But it is culpable not because it is not worried enough about delivery, but because it is too concerned with it. Indeed, Bredell might signal that the obsession with delivery has now reached a cul de sac.
The government is presumably aware that it cannot deliver a house to everyone who needs one. Why, then, has it built its strategy on claiming that it can?
At least since 1999, and probably before, the government has staked its political credibility on the ability to deliver. There is nothing wrong with that in principle. But it has done this in a way which has relegated citizens from active participants in shaping our future to passive receivers of that which the government sees fit to deliver.
The point was illustrated by the African National Congress flagship radio advertisement during last year’s local elections, which invited voters to enter a partnership with it. Some of us pricked up our ears after all, an alliance between government and citizens is precisely what we need if we are to address our challenges. It becomes possible if the government sees voters as an important resource, as a source of ideas and energies which can help us achieve common goals. But that is not at all what was being offered: rather, the ad suggested, the voter’s role was to vote for the ANC which, in return, would “deliver”. There was no mention of any role for citizens in deciding what would be delivered, let alone in helping to ensure that it was delivered. The implied message was clear judge us not by whether we represent your interests or give you a say: sit back and let us deliver.
The problem, of course, comes when you cannot deliver, no matter how hard you try. Because the people you promised delivery to are then entitled to become irate when they sit back, wait and nothing happens. And that is when they become eager to invade land.
There is an alternative. Instead of sending a message to citizens that they should hush and let the experts get on with attending to their needs, the government could minimise the chances of further Bredells by trying to form a real partnership with voters, one in which the gap between housing needs and available resources becomes a common problem one which people are therefore more likely to treat with understanding.
The key to this is a willingness to take grassroots people into the government’s confidence. Instead of a barrage of bombast about delivery, citizens could be told what the constraints are and what the government plans to do about them.
Equally important, the next step would be to listen as people respond. That means getting representative government to work while much effort has been devoted to simulating democracy by setting up “public participation processes”, a great deal of time and effort could be saved if those who were elected to represent people spent a large chunk of their time listening to and working with them.
This would not speed up housing delivery it might even slow it as we waited for people to make choices instead of having a product dumped on them. But it would begin to ensure an active, aware citizenry able to tell the difference between a cheap gesture such as a land invasion (which gives land to those who happen to be in the right place at the right time, not necessarily to those who need it most) and a housing strategy.
But how are grassroots people to understand their choices, given that many cannot read or write, let alone recite the latest policy jargon? Because there is overwhelming evidence that lack of education is not stupidity, that people at the “bottom” of society are able to work out what their interests are if they are treated as adults by having their choices explained to them.
In its haste to “deliver”, the government has neglected its most important resource the people it was elected to serve. If it wants fewer Bredells, it will need to recover its respect for them.
@The truth is often stranger than fiction
LETTERS TO THE BEST MAN
Dear Dr Pahad
What I am about to confide must not at this stage be repeated to our leader. You are, presumably, familiar with stories in publications like National Enquirer, which illustrate that truth is often stranger than fiction. A common theme is the deception suffered by individuals who do not realise the truth about spouses and close friends. Examples abound of apparently honourable members of society who have been exposed as serial killers, paedophiles and talk-show hosts.
The question I ask is this: is our leader really the person we think he is? You, more than anyone, know. Can you say with confidence that the man who returned to South Africa in 1990, and is now president of South Africa, is the son of Govan Mbeki and the chap who left South Africa in 1962?
I am not sure whether the perspective I am about to share with you falls within the realm of the paranormal. Without our leader’s resources, I have found regular consumption of Johnnie Walker Black Label beyond my means. I have, therefore, started producing an indigenous brew drawing on recipes for skokiaan and witblits.
At the very commencement of the solar eclipse, I left a bunch of ripe bananas in an oak barrel for four weeks. After a fortnight, I became impatient with the slow pace of fermentation and added five bottles of methylated spirits, a tin of paint stripper and some battery acid.
Last night I sat down at midnight, outside my front door, and took the first tentative sip. The concoction was forceful, perhaps brash, with an arresting acid tang in the finish, a strong nose and bracing fruity bouquet. As my palate wrestled with its complexity, I became aware of a blinding light. A strange craft descended and two aliens emerged, one green, the other purple, both with antennae on their heads.
They instructed me to take them to my leader. I explained that he was inaccessible behind a R34-million security system. They exchanged knowing glances. The green one remarked, “Let me guess. He goes by the name Thabo Mbeki and lives in mortal fear of all with ability.” I reluctantly conceded the point.
The purple one then asked if our people were afflicted by a viral plague and whether my leader had created confusion as to the cause. When I nodded, the green one said they had reason to suspect that the man I serve was an incorrigible cosmic rogue who had, for millennia, moved from planet to planet, assuming the physical form of the locals and passing himself off as a popular leader. The effect, my visitors said, was always the same: unemployment increases, public resources are transferred to a minority, and disease is allowed to proliferate.
My visitors produced Cosmic Bureau of Investigation ID cards and informed me that, if my leader was the charlatan they suspected, he was wanted for questioning on 23 planets in five galaxies. They mentioned the suspect’s penchant for challenging science, referring to his legacy on Neptune where no life remains. I declined to answer as to whether my leader had provided employment for his Best Man and surrounded himself with yes-men.
When it became clear to my visitors that I would not betray my leader, they headed off with the chilling words: “We’ll be back for you.”
Medical opinion I’ve just obtained suggests that last night’s experience was a hallucination. This diagnosis is not, however, credible. Outside my front door are footprints that defy zoological classification, and there are crop circles on the lawn.
I must now leave home and head into hiding while I consider whether to back our leader or those who police the cosmos. I will have to avoid further communication with you.
Yours on the run …
Craig Tanner
@Verbatim
“Give our love to other children and tell them we’re proud of them because they are our future leaders. You’ve made my day and I could not have asked for a better present.” Former president Nelson Mandela, addressing pupils from a nearby school at his Houghton offices on his 83rd birthday
“Everybody knows that if you want to sell in the arms trade you have to bribe.” Professor John Paul Dunne, British military economist, at a Johannesburg seminar on arms control
“There was a criminal element in the crowds but I was sure the situation could have been brought under control.” George Stainton, Ellis Park general manager, at the commission of inquiry into April’s soccer tragedy
“A world where some live in comfort and plenty, while half of the human race lives on less than $2 a day, is neither just, nor stable.” United States President George W Bush, reiterating the US committment to ending poverty
“We cannot comment on allegations that he died at a prostitute’s home. These allegations come from a mother who does not care that her child is a prostitute.” Obed Maila, Nokeng ya Taemane executive mayor, reacting to reports that councillor Ronnie Sutherland collapsed at a prostitute’s house
“Transformation and this includes rugby is non- negotiable. I make no apologies for questioning the lack of black players in the provincial teams and the national squad.” Minister of Sport and Recreation Ngconde Balfour on the Springboks
“What compounds the refugee problem in Africa is that people who are supposed to bring about a solution politicians are part of the problem … their lust for power, as demonstrated in their involvement in war crimes, know no limits.” Judge President Bernard Ngoepe, at a regional conference on refugees
@Press clippings
A father of nine imprisoned for refusing to pay child support will be barred from having any more children for five years unless he changes his ways, Wisconsin’s Supreme Court ruled on Tuesday.
The divided court turned down an appeal of the unusual sentence, which prohibited David Oakley who fathered his children with four different women from having more children during his five-year probationary period.
Having served a sentence for not paying more than $25 000 in child support, Oakley could be returned to prison to serve out a suspended six-year term if he fathers another child.
The four-judge majority reasoned that if Oakley had been ordered to spend the six years in prison, that would make it difficult for him to father children anyway. Citing the crisis created by “deadbeat parents” that has relegated many children to poverty because of the chronic failure of many fathers to fulfil their obligations, the court upheld Oakley’s 1999 sentence.
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