May 1997
Debate Within the Alliance
GEAR
AND THE CLASS AGENDA BEHIND IT
The SACP welcomes debate within the Alliance over economic policy,
and the Growth, Economic and Redistribution (GEAR) macro-economic strategy
in particular. But, it is the balance of class forces that will determine
the actual outcome of economic transformation. As we struggle to build
socialism now, let us ground our engagements firmly within the parallel
struggle to build working class hegemony!
Comrade Chris Hani
was fond of quoting a saying from the Chinese philosopher Confucius:
"The beginning of wisdom is calling things by their right names".
In the case of recent debate around government economic strategy and policy
we would wise to call it a component of our class struggle.
Despite attempts by some to depoliticise and de-class the relationship
between different social forces in our society, we know that the basic
relationship under capitalism (between capital and labour) is one of inequality
and exploitation. In our country this relationship has been underpinned
by a history of racial oppression and dispossession. While our political
transition has undermined much of the space for the latter, the basic class
conflicts characteristic of a capitalist society have not disappeared.
In relation to the Alliance debates around GEAR this means we must intensify
a vibrant engagement with many of the assumptions that inform GEAR. For
example, GEAR assumes:
- that redistribution will emerge from growth;
- that present structures of production and ownership need not be socialised;
- that reducing the deficit is a fiscal priority;
- that labour 'flexibility' is needed for job creation;
- that an export-led growth and trade strategy will spur productive investment;
- that privatising state assets will provide more economical and efficient
service delivery.
Specifically, we must ask why GEAR contains no clear industrial policy?
How is our society going to redistribute resources and power when GEAR
privileges the present economic structure dominated by privately-owned
mining and financial conglomerates? The macro- economic policy enshrined
in GEAR is hostage to these social forces and their accumulative needs.
The results are clear to see; an economy that lacks a dynamic diversity,
low domestic investment, jobless growth, overly technocratic budget processes
and an all too willing tendency to accept the notion that there is no alternative.
And yet, it is not enough to critique GEAR, to merely focus on the macro-economic
level. We must fight for a clear and conscious industrial strategy that
privileges public sector-led infrastructural and human development and
that prioritises people before profits. The struggle for socialism now
demands that, through class organisation and struggle, we advance concrete
alternatives to what is being offered at all levels. This can be done through
creative projects and campaigns focusing on:
- a redistributive and interventionist state;
- collective forms of ownership;
- labour-intensive production;
- democratisation of the workplace;
- decommodification of basic social needs;
- internationalist foreign policies.
While continuing to contest GEAR's one-sided interpretation of the character
of economic transformation, we must, as part of our broader class struggle,
link this debate to key strategic challenges around rebuilding working
class organisation through our 1997 Programme of Action. We need to
build working class formations that are capable of breaking the class power
of capitalist forces.
FORWARD WITH A PEOPLE'S ECONOMY!
SACP May Day Message Alongside communists from all over our globe,
|
Rethinking
Crime and Punishment
The need for serious reform in the criminal justice system
Much of the approach to crime and punishment (the penal system) lacks
a clear strategic purpose. Instead, there has been a tendency towards re-active
policy and opinion that panders to populist prejudices. A socialist approach
is grounded in an understanding of the brutal legacies of the apartheid
system combined with an analysis of the socio-economic context within which
our population finds itself. There can be no short-cuts to an effective
and just solution!
"Crime out of
control!"; "Prison system in chaos Privatise Now!";
"Bring back the death penalty!" such is the stuff of bourgeois
press headlines. While we can be thankful that newspapers don't make public
policy, they certainly do shape it. And, it has been such perspectives
that have, unfortunately, played an important part in recent approaches
to the issues of crime and punishment.
These approaches most often treat the present situation as if the life-long
experience of racist oppression and exploitation of most South Africans
ceased to exist after 1994; as if massive unemployment and under-employment
have little social and psychological impact on people; as if throwing more
money and more bricks at the 'problem' will "stop crime in its tracks";
and the list goes on. The result has been a highly publicised, one-sided
view of crime. This view has, in turn, been given practical application
by overly re-active policy formulation.
We are constantly bombarded by the notion that the 'crime problem' is
simply one of violent acts (high-jackings, robberies, murders etc.). While
these acts are criminal, and while they do constitute a sizeable component
of overall crime, the more subtle, but equally devastating acts of 'white-collar'
crime are virtually ignored, as are the links between the two. We must
ask why thousands of infants are dying in South Africa every year from
preventable diseases when there are plentiful medicinal supplies to eradicate
these diseases, and while private pharmaceutical companies rake in record
profits? How many South Africans are now jobless and destitute due to massive
corporate diversion of profits outside the country rather than in socially
productive domestic investment? Are these 'problems' not related?
In the realm of policy the approach has tended towards seeking simplified
'law and order' solutions more cops, more force, more prisons! The
recent plan by the Correctional Services Ministry to supplement existing
prison facilities by privatising the construction and running of more prisons
(with no prior consultation with the unions) only serves to confirm such
an approach. Likewise, statements equating convicted criminals with animals
entrench existing class and racial prejudices.
While there are no simple answers, there is the dire need for a serious
rethink on a holistic approach to dealing with crime. We need a vibrant
public sector-led reform process grounded in our movement's historic commitment
to human rights, equality before the law, meeting basic material and social
needs and justice. In other words, BUILDING SOCIALISM
NOW!
| Political Education |
The
Basics of Marxist Economics
At the core of our understanding of capitalism and socialism are
the economic writings of Marx. Below is a broad outline designed to provide
cadres with a firm grasp of the basics of Marxist economics.
From the philosophical
basis he had constructed (see April issue of Umsebenzi) Marx set out to
explain the workings of capitalist economics. Starting from the fact that
the worker has to sell his/her labour power to the capitalist in return
for a wage, Marx shows that the workers' labour must become a commodity
(to be bought and sold). The workers wage is the 'price' of the commodity
and is determined by the competition within capitalism over the labour
power of the worker and the product which that worker produces. In relation
to the specific patriarchal relationship between men and women, Marx &
Engels also pointed to the importance of (hidden) domestic work performed
by women as affecting the 'price' of wages, particularly as they apply
to women labourers.
Thus, the combination of the workers' labour and the capital from the
boss - an input (itself a product of the workers' labour) produces
a product which in turn, produces profit by being bought or sold on the
market - an output. The increase in the value of the capital employed,
resulting from the transaction, is surplus value - the bosses get richer
in relation to the workers' increased poverty. The amount of surplus
value is thus determined by the degree of exploitation as applied
to workers' in the first instance and women's (hidden) labour as well.
Marx thus argued that any rise in productivity in nothing other
than another way of augmenting the boss's capital, and as a result the
workers poverty. Even if workers get more salary they get poorer (in relation)
to the bosses. Thus the rise and fall of wages and profits stand
in inverse ratio to each other - i.e., capital's share, profit, rises in
the same proportion as labour's share, wages, falls and visa versa.
The proletariat's relationship with capital is thus that of one class
of producers against one class of exploiters - i.e., capitalist economics
is essentially based on class conflict. The character of this economic
relationship is itself based on private property (in the hands of
the capitalists) which must be constantly replenished by the expropriation
of surplus value from the labour of the proletariat. In so doing, capitalism
creates the very conditions for its own demise - it is wholly unable
to stem the accumulating crises that it generates and solve the problems
of humanity.
It's to to TWO THUMBS DOWN to the United ONE THUMB DOWN to the National |
PROVINCIAL
FOCUS
| Mpumalanga |
Consultation should be consultation with our People!
Matthews Hlabane, SACP Mpumalanga Provincial Organisor, discusses
the issue of lack of consultation involved in the Dolphin and Maputo Corridor
development projects in the province.
Even with the recent
so-called "revision" of the deal between the Dolphin Group and
the Mpumalanga Parks Board it remains a bureaucratically-driven development
project. After the MEC for Environmental Affairs led a "review team"
to London to reevaluate the deal some small changes were made which included
the reduction of the lease period from 50 years to 25 years and a recognition
that consultation needed to take place with affected communities.
However, the "review" has actually not brought about any concrete
changes in the overall process of reaching a consultative development agreement.
Indeed, the agreement has already been signed without any consultation
with our people. As the SACP, we believe it is completely unacceptable
to sign agreements with capitalists and then proceed to 'consult' with
the people afterwards.
There is a clear difference between consultation and just informing.
Meaningful consultation consists of providing information, ensuring people's
participation in evaluating the project, receiving a mandate to move forward
and reporting-back on the process. As it stands now, the process has left
the people of Mpumalanga behind. They have not participated in its formulation.
The same criticism can be levelled at the Maputo Corridor development
project. Despite the potential of the project to enhance popular development
initiatives and job creation in our province, there has been little consultation
with the people. While most people have heard about the project and have
seen road construction bypassing their towns, it is only the privileged
few who are privy to the ins and outs of the project.
When any development project proceeds without consultation with our
people, it ends up failing the very people it is intended to serve. Instead,
it is the informed and the wealthy few that benefit. There is the need
for the ANC-led liberation movement to admit errors that have been committed
and be able to move forward without leaving the masses behind.
The SACP in Mpumalanga wants to build on our democratic principles in
driving this transformation. We must struggle to ensure that we put people
first and reject programmes that will end up benefitting individuals in
the name of development and job creation. Let us ensure that forums for
consultation with our people form the cornerstones of our programme of
action.
| Western Cape |
Hands
of the SACP!
SACP Western Cape Provincial Secretary, Philip Dexter, reports on
the recent spate of press disinformation and under-handed manoeuvres directed
at the SACP. Party members must remain vigilant and disciplined against
attempts to sow disunity and weaken the organisation.
Members of the Party
in various parts of the country are by now aware of the vicious attack
on the Party in the Western Cape. Journalists in the conservative and mainly
Afrikaans press, acting on information from 'unnamed sources' have portrayed
the Party in the province as being in crisis, ridden with factionalism,
at loggerheads with the ANC and in a general state of disarray. Nothing
could be further from the truth.
The party is growing, planning to launch two new districts, has made
inroads in to organising in the trade unions and has had successful activities
over the last few months. These include a well attended PGC, a provincial
political education school and Chris Hani commemoration activities. The
only truth in the press coverage was that the former deputy Provincial
Secretary had resigned.
What is clear is that the Party has been targeted for serious attack
by reactionary political forces. It has been spied on, documents have been
stolen from the offices and there is a concerted campaign by individuals
to plot against the Party in the province and discredit it.
It is clear that there are links to the old security structures, in
the media and more generally.
The activities against the Party are planned, well orchestrated, and
whilst they have failed, have damaged the Party in some respects. Attempts
to portray these and other events in the province as being 'internal' to
the movement are naïve and simplistic. We should never believe that
certain things just happen, particularly when a pattern begins to appear.
The Western Cape has a history of communism and anti-communism. Attempts
are regularly made to split the Alliance and sow disunity. In response
the PEC has investigated the leaking of correspondence and the giving of
reports to the press. A full report will be presented to SACP Head Office
in due course. In the meantime members of the Party have been urged to
remain vigilant and disciplined. It is the NP and its allies and agents
that would benefit from disunity in the Party, the ANC and the Alliance
and who attempt to promote cliques and weaken the organisation.
|
NUM National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) Research Coordinator, Devan Pillay, The NUM National Congress The NUM has always been one of the most loyal ANC supporters within adopting the Freedom Charter in 1987. From the beginning it married Congress called for an ANC branch to be built at every mine, and an At the 1997 Congress however, the union was unhappy about the way the Everything else is similar to World Bank and IMF policy, and "is The union, however, did not let itself and the labour movement as a NUM President James Motlatsi also called attention to the undemocratic They were telling their political leaders: we are prepared to give you The ball is clearly in the ANC leadership's court. The politicians dare |
US
politics in Africa
The New Imperialism
The USA has openly declared a new aggressiveness in Africa, writes Jeremy
Cronin. It is an aggressiveness that seeks to ensure a major new role for
the US in Africa's political and economic affairs. We need to be clear
about the real intentions behind such movements.
Commentators
still write endlessly about the "marginalisation" of Africa,
about "Afro- pessimism", and of the "neglect" with
which Africa is being treated by the major capitalist countries. It is
true that the African continent has been and remains massively underdeveloped.
But talk of "neglect" suggests that this plight has to do with
Europe and North America "walking away".
In fact, the poverty of Africa has a great deal to do with the ongoing
active involvement of imperialist governments and corporations. There is,
even in this post-Cold War period, still a significant external military
presence in our continent. In particular France maintains 8 200 soldiers
in bases in Africa. So much for "neglect".
This is not to say that there have not been some significant shifts
in imperialist policy in the course of the 1990s. In particular, the rivalry
between imperialist powers, and specifically between France and the US
has sharpened. The US, at present, only has 7% of the market for African
imports, compared to the 41% of the European Union. But the Clinton administration
has made no secret of its intention to play a much more aggressive economic
and political role in Africa. Recently, the late Ron Brown, then US Secretary
of Commerce, declared that "from now on the US is not going to give
way on African markets to the old colonial powers."
That was an open declaration of a new US aggressiveness in Africa. It
is an aggressiveness that is now being played out in the rivalry between
the US and France in the Great Lakes region, and Zaire.
Both France and the US have backed Mobuto for three decades. This backing
was central, amongst other things, to the ongoing destabilisation of Angola,
and to the buttressing of reactionary regimes in Rwanda. Now, however,
the US has done a somersault, declaring the Mobuto regime a "dictatorship"
and advising him to go. The US is effectively exploiting, for its own purposes,
the extremely reactionary African politics of France. It is no secret that
Laurent Kabila's forces have been heavily backed and assisted by the US.
Our own South African attempt to broker peace in Zaire seems to be routed,
a great deal of the time, through
Washington, with key SA government representatives travelling to the
US almost on a fortnightly basis.
This is not to say that the Kabila rebel offensive, or our own government's
peace endeavours can be reduced to a simple "US agenda". The
Kabila offensive clearly enjoys overwhelming popular support, certainly
in the eastern half of Zaire. If the US is prepared to back a genuine democratisation
process, so much the better.
But we need to be extremely vigilant about other agendas. Even as we
go to press there are some signs that Washington is now becoming alarmed
that Kabila and his forces might just be too popular. Washington would
prefer a much more stale-mated situation to emerge in Zaire. They would
like to see Mobuto out and French influence drastically reduced. But they
would not like to see a genuinely popular movement capable of sustaining
an independent Zaire.
From the South African side, we need to be careful that, in our support
for democracy and for a minimisation of conflict in Zaire, we do not play
into someone else's agenda.
Albania
Capitlism unmasked!
Electoral fraud, an economic crisis, the collapse of financial organisations,
an armed uprising, manoeuvring by discredited political parties and the
recent arrival of a United Nations (UN) 'stabilisation' force such
has been the lot of Albania over the past year! It comes as no surprise
that the real culprit behind this state of affairs is the deadly duo of
the International Monetary Fund-World Bank (IMF-WB) and their programme
of so-called "free market" capitalism.
The beginning of the
end for the latest experiment of "free market" capitalism (Albania
being the 'patient') began in mid-1996. National elections held in May
of that year were marred by massive irregularities, voter fraud and political
intimidation. None of this made much difference to the western capitalists
who vigorously backed the 'pro-western' strongman Sali Berisha, who subsequently
'won' the election.
Berisha adopted an IMF-WB plan to 'de-regulate' and liberalise the economy.
The Albanian government acceded to the IMF's 'advice' to abolish guarantees
on bank deposits and liberalise the banking system such that pyramid schemes
(with a 100% monthly interest rate) became possible. As one Albanian political
activist commented, this was a "deliberate attempt to encourage the
primitive accumulation of capital Albania's fledgling bourgeoisie so badly
needs." Despite the lack of job creation and productive investment,
the IMF-WB argued that Albania was a "model" of growth, and Berisha
was hailed as a neo-liberal hero.
By the end of 1996 these pyramid schemes had taken in over US$2 billion
(80% of Albania's GDP) from ordinary Albanians desperate to raise their
standard of living. When the schemes collapsed most Albanians were left
penniless and unemployment rocketed to 80%. The resultant armed uprising
by large sections of the Albanian population (not just confined to the
South) represents the people's complete rejection of the crude capitalism
imposed on them as well as Berisha's corrupt and undemocratic regime. Establishing
self-management and self-defence organs in numerous towns and villages,
participants in the uprising have sought to create a situation of dual
power whereby Berisha's discredited regime would be ousted, free elections
held and lost investments recovered.
While the uprising has been marked by lack of organisation and revolutionary
leadership, reports by the western media that Albania has been locked in
a state of civil war and anarchy are simply untrue. What has happened resembles
more of a military and political stalemate between the popular uprising
and the remnants of Berisha's regime loosely allied with a weakened Socialist
Party.
As a result, we are now witnessing the deployment of a UN 'stabilisation'
force, no doubt designed to prepare the ground for the 'normalisation'
of Albania's political and economic affairs. Given the recent history of
western involvement in Albania, one can well imagine what such 'normalisation'
will mean. Meanwhile, most Albanians struggle to survive. Isn't capitalism
wonderful?
Regional Briefs Umsebenzi begins an occasional column of briefs on worker struggles MALAWI SWAZILAND
|
