Red Alert: Faking fouls and diving in the box
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How comrades Moleketi and Jele try to win the argument
for a capitalist outcome to the NDR
By Blade Nzimande, SACP General Secretary
Jabu Moleketi
and Josiah Jele have attached their names to a 28-page document entitled
"Two strategies of the national liberation movement in the struggle
for the victory of the national democratic revolution". The "two
strategies" refer to the strategic forces organised historically
within our Alliance - "revolutionary democracy" (as represented
by the ANC) and "revolutionary socialism" (as represented, at
least until recently according to the authors, by the SACP).
The Moleketi and Jele piece is, in fact, the latest in a
series of sectarian interventions, designed to deflect debate from substantive
policy issues into witch-hunts. Over several years there has been a systematic
attempt by a handful of individuals from within our movement to destabilise
our Alliance. Where there are difficulties, these individuals rush in,
diving in the box, faking fouls, and generally doing their best to deepen
the contradictions and to inflame emotions. When intra-alliance processes
move constructively, the same group attempt to destabilise the process.
We believe that the great majority of comrades within our
broad movement, whatever their differing views on other matters, are thoroughly
sick of this style of intervention, this stirring up of crises and threats,
this reckless labelling of comrades, this creation of a permanent state
of emergency within our movement.
The Politbureau of the SACP calls on SACP members, and all
comrades in allied formations not to respond in kind to these deliberate
provocations. Let us expose sectarianism, while dealing rationally and
soberly with substantive issues.
Like its predecessors, the Moleketi and Jele intervention
pours sarcasm and scorn on to the widest range of forces within and outside
of our movement. However, in this case, the prime target is the elected
leadership of the SACP and the strategic perspectives currently articulated
by the SACP. The article concludes threateningly:
"Everything we have said throughout this pamphlet
demonstrates that the urgent challenge facing revolutionary socialism
[i.e. the SACP] is to act decisively against the ultra-left tendency.
This faction has succeeded to project itself as the true representative
of revolutionary socialism in our country." (p.28)
Moleketi and Jele are not referring to a "faction"
that is aspiring to take over the leadership of the SACP. It is a "faction"
that has succeeded in this objective.
"Revolutionary socialism owes it to itself,
the national liberation movement, the proletariat and the working people,
to fight against and defeat the vulgar democrats and the `left-wing communists'
Could this be an incitement to "regime change"
within the SACP? For a complete strategic re-orientation of the Party?
It comes just three-and-a-half months after the SACP has democratically
elected its leadership and re-affirmed its strategic perspectives at the
largest and most representative Congress in its 81-year history! So much
for their allegations of "factionalism", in fact their document
is factionalist in every imaginable way!
Factionalist tone and language
We welcome robust debate, but there is a world
of difference between comradely debate and this article. It accuses comrades
of "telling lies", of "deceitful schemes", of not
having an "iota of revolutionary morality", and of not being
"averse to such actions as the physical destruction of public buildings
and other public property, looting, violence
" etc. This is not an
intervention that is trying to build unity. It is not trying to foster
a culture of learning from each other. It is sowing hatred and a sense
of siege and conspiracy.
Factionalist origins and distribution
The document's central allegation is that there is an "ultra-left"
that has carved out a sectarian presence within the leadership of the
SACP. Yet this document has its own eminently factionalist relationship
to the official structures of our movement.
There are numerous forums and publications within our movement.
Moleketi and Jele have chosen to bypass all of them. This document, which
is not the view of any formal structure of our movement, which was not
published as a contribution in any discussion forum of the ANC or alliance,
was, nonetheless distributed by the hundreds, in a targeted way to the
structures of the ANC, to the head-offices of the SACP and COSATU, and
to the media.
Factionalist content - guilt by association
The entire document is riddled with accusations,
most of them too preposterous to merit a response. However, it is important
to underline the method by which Moleketi and Jele advance most of their
arguments.
The document uses the tactic of tarring everyone with whom
the authors disagree with the same clumsy brush, of "guilt by association".
Some irresponsible striking municipal workers (who were censured by their
own union) happen stupidly to trash city streets, this becomes evidence
that the entire "left" is "not averse
to trashing public
places" (p.12)
The SACP and COSATU occasionally get positive appraisals
in the commercial media for our stand on HIV/AIDS, or our critique of
the outrageous "conspiracy" allegations levelled against cdes
Ramaphosa, Sexwale and Phosa in 2001. These occasional positive appraisals
are held up, by Moleketi and Jele, as "evidence" that we are
working hand-in-glove with the "class enemy".
But for every positive appraisal of the SACP or COSATU,
you will find fifty more praising government for its "tough stand
against the left and the unions", for its "sound macro-economic
policies", and for its "commitment to privatisation". MEC
Moleketi often receives very favourable coverage in the financial media
- but we, for our part, are not going to simply counter-punch. We will
treat the arguments, perspectives and programmes of comrades and allied
structures on their own merits.
Factionalist in timing
Finally, the document is factionalist in the most
shallow of all ways. It was rushed into print, and hurriedly distributed
to structures and the media, by-passing all formal channels, in the very
week in which ANC Regional General Councils nationally were finalising
their nominations for the ANC's December National Conference!
So how should we respond to this intervention?
The SACP has responded over and over to the allegations
made against us here. The SACP has not rejected NEPAD; the SACP is not
trying to turn the ANC into a socialist organisation; the SACP does not
advocate macro-economic populism, or rampant inflation, etc. We have said
these things a hundred times. Is there anything useful that could possibly
emerge from a substantive engagement with the Moleketi and Jele paper?
Actually, we think that there is.
Their intervention, with all of its chronic sectarianism,
serves one very useful purpose. Unintentionally, by setting up their argument
by taking us back to the Party of Kotane and the writings of Lenin, they
have opened up a crucial debate. Indeed, they unwittingly expose their
own agenda. All the sound and fury, all the allegations about others "betraying"
the traditions of our revolutionary alliance, are so many distractions
to obscure a simple fact. It is Moleketi and Jele who are attempting a
radical departure from long established Alliance traditions. They are
attempting to invent a "third strategy" - a capitalist strategy
- an entirely new trajectory for our NLM. But it is a strategy that dares
not utter its own name out clearly, in broad daylight.
The role of the SACP in the midst of the NDR
The Moleketi and Jele pamphlet makes nasty implicit
references to the SACP's perspectives, but it seldom quotes anything directly.
On page 14, however, there is, finally, a brief engagement with direct
references to current SACP perspectives.
Their argument goes like this:
STEP ONE - CLAIM THAT THE SACP MISTAKENLY PUTS THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC
TASKS OF THE SOCIALIST REVOLUTION AHEAD OF THE POLITICAL TASKS
"The ultra-left tendency [i.e. the current leadership
of the SACP]
believes that `socialism is, in the first instance, an economy
in which social ownership is the preponderant form of economic ownership'".
[Some insist that we are being "over-sensitive"
and that Moleketi and Jele are not referring to the SACP leadership when
they refer to "ultra-leftism". The sentence above gives the
game away. The quoted definition of socialism is taken directly from the
Political Programme of the SACP, adopted by our Congress in July 2002.]
"It [the 'ultra-left tendency'] does not accept
that `socialism is, in the first instance, the transformation of the proletariat
into the ruling class.'"
STEP TWO - ARGUE THAT, AS A RESULT OF THE ABOVE "DEVIATION"
- PLACING THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC TASKS OF THE SOCIALIST REVOLUTION AHEAD OF
THE POLITICAL TASKS - THE CURRENT SACP LEADERSHIP IS GUILTY OF CONCERNING
ITSELF WITH SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC MATTERS
"Because of this, it does not conduct a struggle
for the formation of the proletariat into a class for the overthrow of
the bourgeois supremacy, for conquest of political power by the proletariat
from the bourgeoisie, as Marx and Engels put it. Rather, it focuses on
`building socialism now', understood as relating to the question of property
relations. It therefore busies itself not with the matter of the socialist
revolution, but with various projects such as `rolling back the capitalist
market', `transforming the market' and `socialising the ownership function'."
STEP THREE - PRESENT THESE PERSPECTIVES OF THE SACP
AS AN ILLEGITIMATE ATTEMPT TO HIJACK THE NDR
"It views the democratic state as the principal
instrument that it must use to ensure the success of these projects. Accordingly,
it seeks to present these projects, intended to `build socialism now',
as an integral part of the national democratic revolution."
STEP FOUR (the most ludicrous of all) - PRONOUNCE THE
CURRENT SACP LEADERSHIP GUILTY OF ULTRA-LEFTISM BECAUSE IT IS STRUGGLING
FOR SOCIALISM!
"The ultra-left tendency is therefore seeking to
transform the continuing national struggle into a struggle for socialism."
Of course we are! We are doing this out in the open, and
not by way of conspiracy, or by sectarian manoeuvre. One simple example
- we think that the dogmatic application of the capitalist market "user
pay" principle is a disaster for a society confronting our huge challenges.
We have engaged with the ANC, openly advocating the rolling back of the
capitalist market in the provision of basic water and electricity to the
poor. The majority of ANC comrades agree, and the ANC has been leading
the implementation of this programme. For us, this is a socialist-oriented
reform that introduces potentially anti-systemic elements into the currently
dominant capitalist system. For non-socialists in our movement, these
progressive measures may be seen simply as redressing historical inequalities,
without any other systemic implications. That's fine. We are not working
with non-Party comrades only on condition that they accept our socialist
perspectives. We are not sectarian, but nor are we ashamed of our socialism.
As the NDR unfolds, the SACP will continue to critique capitalism
and underline the impossibility of consolidating the NDR itself within
the strait-jacket of a dominant capitalism. We may fail to persuade a
majority of comrades, or we may succeed. While retaining our own independent
policies, we will respect the view of the majority within our alliance,
and the integrity of our alliance and its different components. But if
the SACP was not seeking to transform the continuing national struggle
into a struggle for socialism, then what on earth would it be doing?
The most basic thesis of Marxism
Let's dig a little deeper into this strange argument
advanced by Moleketi and Jele. When the SACP programmes of 1998 and 2002
argue that "socialism is, in the first instance, an economy in which
social ownership is the preponderant form of economic ownership",
Moleketi and Jele choose to interpret the phrase "in the first instance"
to be referring to a time sequence! In fact, of course, we are
evoking the most basic principle of Marxism. We are arguing that socialism
(like capitalism) is defined primarily (in the first instance) by the
predominant form of economic ownership. We are obviously not saying: in
the first instance build a socialist economy, then, in the second instance,
build workers' state power!
So why do Moleketi and Jele misread this elementary
piece of Marxism? They want to disqualify, as "sectarian", any
socialist engagement with economic policies in the present phase of the
NDR. The SACP shouldn't "busy itself" with these matters. We
should occupy ourselves, instead, with dreaming about some distant workers'
seizure of power. Put bluntly, this argument amounts to saying that the
NDR must be left to the bourgeoisie, that this is a phase of "capitalist
consolidation". Once that is "complete", the SACP is free
to advocate for the seizure of power by the working class.
This is ludicrous in all kinds of ways. If, indeed, we were
planning to overthrow the present democratic state (even if in the distant
future) then THAT would be an ultra-left conspiracy!
Faking fouls
Moleketi and Jele clearly believe, but cannot quite
say, that we should completely revise our approach to the NDR, and see
it as strategically oriented to the consolidation of a de-racialised capitalism.
They should declare this honestly. They should argue the case in broad
daylight, and without feeling the desperate need to fake Marxism, or the
traditions of our alliance.
Above all, they should not recklessly flout organisational
discipline. They should not systematically undermine the careful alliance
building work we have been conducting over many decades. They should not
manufacture crises within our movement, like a pair of melodramatic football
strikers who spend the whole afternoon diving in the box. They should
cease trying to manufacture penalties against comrades and argue, instead,
on its own merits, their perspective of a "third strategy",
the strategy of a capitalist-orientation for the national democratic revolution.
If this is what they believe, then this is the perspective they should
present to the ANC's National Conference in December.
See also: Bua Komanisi,
Vol.2, No.4, November 2002
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