By Tom Mhlanga THE STATE OF THE SOUTH AFRICAN WORKING CLASS ‘The Communists do not form a separate party opposed to other working class parties. They have no interest separate and apart from those of the proletariat as a whole’- Communist Manifesto In this piece, I will attempt to look at the current state of the South African Working Class especially since the dawn of democracy. I will also look at the effects of the neo-liberal agenda and how it shaped South Africa’s politics in particular the influence of the Bretton Woods Institutions. Over the years since the release of the former state president, Dr Nelson Mandela the nature and character of our politics had changed. People were anticipating lot of positive change economically, socially and politically. Yes, the ANC did a good job in changing the lives of the people for the better. But a lot still needs to be done to achieve the dream of a better life for all. But what has delayed this progress? Many debates were held during the times of exiles on whether the post-apartheid state should be capitalist or socialist. But there was one common starting point used by both sides, that national domination is linked to capitalism which in the case of South Africa Whites were and still are at helm of the commanding heights of the economy. One of the biggest arguments was the two-stage theory which claim that the ANC should lead the struggle for national liberation and the party to lead the socialist revolution. Valid as both argument may seem, it is important to note that South Africa was (and still is) two-nation state characterised by colonialism of the special type. These debates have since lost momentum amid the capitalism being at its highest stage of crisis, particularly due to the global economic crisis which brought many countries to its knees. It is high time we bring back these debates to revive the character of the working class and its leadership. The party should in fact be at the forefront of these debates so as to play its vanguard role to the working class of South Africa. These debates are more relevant now than ever before especially in South Africa where workers are becoming more class conscious. But there is a big threat to the cohesion of the working class and its leadership. The biggest threats come from two angles, the neo-liberal agenda and vulgar-Marxist-Leninist sloganeering coming from the ultra-left in the form of EFF, NUMSA, AMCU and WASP to mention but a few. It is important to note that since the struggle for liberation in South Africa and other African countries, Bretton Woods Institutions (IMF, World Bank and WTO) have never lost interest in Africa. Poor African countries have been subjected to a lot of structural adjustment programmes (SAP) by these institutions and the results of these has been privatisation, poverty and high levels of inequality. South Africa, as one of the leading economies in Africa has been of much interest of these institutions. The evidence of this is how they seek to influence our politics, media, academic institution and pseudo-liberal parties like the DA, AGANG, COPE and many others who are hell bent to see the ANC losing power. Their biggest fear is the close relations of the ANC, COSATU and the SACP. To them this alliance is a stumbling block for their profit maximization agenda. In South Africa the media has been used as the weapon to dismantle this alliance. Sensationalization of news to discredit the ruling party and government, bias reporting towards opposition parties, the DA in particular is a clear indication that Marx was correct to argue that ‘the ideas of society will, in every epoch, be the ideas of the ruling class’ in this case being the media bosses. On the other hand, since the implementation of GEAR, the SACP has been subjected to media-black-out to render it irrelevant. Recently the media has been hallucinating about the division in COSATU and the broader alliance and about the ANC losing power. This is nothing but part of the neo-liberal agenda that seeks to influence the masses to lose confidence in the ANC led alliance. On the other hand there is also a rise in ultra-leftist politics led by EFF, NUMSA, AMCU and WASP to note a few. These pseudo-Marxist parties rely on populism to woo and divide the working class in South Africa. The result of this is workers killing each other and the high level of political intolerance within the working class. The working class at the moment is very fractured and misled by populist-sloganeering-individuals and people who use the media for their selfish interest. Marx and Angels reminded us in the Communist Manifesto that ‘The Communists do not form a separate party opposed to other working class parties. They have no interest separate and apart from those of the proletariat as a whole’. Now one question need to be asked is at whose class interest these pseudo-Marxist parties are benefiting. The working class should wake up and realise that sloganeering is not going to serve their interest, a divided alliance will never benefit them and only the party with a clear revolutionary theory is their true political home. “WORKERS OF THE WORLD UNITE, YOU HAVE NOTHING TO LOSE BUT YOUR CHAIN” Tom Mhlanga is the student doing BA at Wits. He is writing on his personal capacity. 076 8132 613
Posted on: Thu, 30 Jan 2014 14:53:14 +0000
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