STEVE BANTU BIKO SAID IT BEFORE On being asked what type of future does Biko envision for his beloved Azania? He simply responded: an egalitarian society! As if not fully satisfied by the simple answer given, the question was rephrased: you speak of an egalitarian society. Do you mean a socialist one? With neither fear nor hesitation the answer remained: yes, I think there is no running away from the fact that now in South Africa there is an ill-distribution of wealth that any form of political freedom which does not touch on the proper distribution of wealth will be meaningless. Today 37 years after his callous murder by the brutal racist regime of yester-year, and exactly half that number of years into the new democracy, Bikos ideas have come to haunt the current not so Black rulers. Indeed, these are the results of the bitter fruits gleaned at the sacrificial sell-out altar a la Kempton Park Codesa settlement ensured that the current political freedom continues to favour the predominantly white owners of land and wealth to the disfavour of Blacks. Simply put the South African democracy in its refusal to go beyond political freedom to the substantial issues of economic emancipation for the majority makes mockery of the very democracy it espouses. This democracy can only be attained in the context and content of a socialist transformation of society. As SOPA, we see the debate on nationalisation in this context. In the first instance, South Africa is in a capitalist state. This translates into the following: The land and all the wealth that accrues there from is owned by a small minority of people, their families, trusts and friends. These minute minority also owns and controls banks, factories, mines, monopolies including goods and services These people are historically white; since 1994 there has been a sprinkling of blacks who really own nothing comparatively save to give capitalism a human not humane face-capitalism cannot be humane. These are the people with real power. They own control the economy of the country. We say they own and control the means of production, distribution and exchange. They are, therefore the capitalist class, the upper class if you like. Yes, indeed they even control the prices of what you eat, drink, wear etc. Now unfortunately the capitalist class cannot do hat they are in business for all on their own. They are in the business to make profit. However they need workers to make their profit. So they exploit the labour of the very people that keep them in business. They are in the majority yet they cannot make major decisions on the production distribution and exchange of goods and services which they actually produce. They re alienated from the fruits of their production to make profit for the bosses they are exploited. We call there them the working class. They are at the bottom of this system. They are the proletariats. Historically, the majority of them are Black in this county. In between these two you get the middle class. These are the mainly Professionals artisans etc. they tent to have a vaccilatory and nature but in the main choose to gravitate otherwise. In any case they do not constitute a majority. The less said about them the better. We call them the petit bourgeoisie. Now the question is if democracy is rule by and for majority why is it only restricted to anything except control of the economy. Is it not democratic for the workers by virtue of they being the majority to be in control of the means of production. Ironically, it is those that scream the loudest about democracy who are so against nationalisation, Let alone socialism. To be exact nationalisation in itself does not necessarily constitute socialism. It is a necessary and crucial step towards socialism. More importantly under a workers state and certainly not under the current capitalist state; Herein lies some of the dangers of this current debate. To state but one not so obvious danger by way of an example: some of the mines in this country have been so severely exploited over the decades/years and have accused such as yet unmeasured havoc to life limp environment and as such future sustainable livehood that to nationalise them without proper redress is skating on thin ice. And we know where there exploits have landed we are left with. SOPA says yes to nationalisation of the commanding heights of the economy. But more importantly we need to socialise the means of production. This means amongst other things: Workers must take over state control of the economy Workers must put in place efficient accounting allocation and management. In short, workers by virtue of being in the majority and at the forefront of wealth creation must take over control of society as a whole. That to us is the true meaning of democracy. This in a nutshell is why Steve Bantu Biko had to be murdered for his ideas! Ironically, he himself encapsulated it in his immortal words: it is better to die for an idea that will live forever than to live for an idea that will die.
Posted on: Thu, 11 Dec 2014 13:08:37 +0000
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