"The situation is critical"

Socialist Action, Vol. 9, No. 3, March 1991 · scan pp. 9–10 · about 2,673 words

Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 9 →

Read from the scan by machine and not corrected: expect misread words, and now and then a caption or a line from a neighbouring story. For anything you quote, read the scan.

Scan page 9

it strengthens :lass and will er to build the 'OSA not a :al pluralism nd thankfully h the collapse iA, as it was n of a Native › stage theory, › traditions in italinist view, r struggle is oppression or apartheid has a struggle for he view that e foundations re in order to abined permappression and put in place a represent the blated from ho support the ANC, ngress)

ce a daunting nass political ly the ANC, ve mass supations such as ist society. It is the workers who produce the wealth of that society. And while we are producing that wealth, the capitalists are stealing from us the fruits of our labor. This is the heart of the never-changing battle under capitalism.

Of course this gives workers a special interest. It is the workers, differently from all others in society, who have the most direct interest in getting rid of capitalism. Because it is the workers who are daily exploited, who labor for poor wages, while the capitalists go home to their big houses to enjoy the luxury produced by others.

So it is this special place in our society which makes us say that the workers organizations must always be independent from all other organizations. Our organizations must be free at all times to defend our interests in the factories, in the mines and on the farms.

This is important because we know that there are other forces which want freedom for the country but not freedom for the workers.

The independence of the working class can ultimately only be achieved with the building of an independent political organization of the working class that fights for a socialist society in which the working class controls the state and the economy for the benefit of all.

This is why WOSA has been launched to start the process of building such a powerful independent socialist organization of the workers.

What is WOSA's position on the negotiations?

We believe that these negotiations between the government and sections of the liberation movement will not succeed in deThe following is an editorial from the August 1990 issue of Workers Voice, the quarterly magazine of the Workers' Organization for Socialist Action (WOSA).

Often you hear comrades say: "we agree with you that negotiations cannot lead to fundamental change, but what is your alternative? Under what circumstances do you see this powerful state surrendering power to the mass of oppressed people?"

The National Party [The main white party] is involved in the risky rescue operation known as apartheid from above.

Massive opposition is growing amongst the white middle and working class to the De Klerk reforms. In the English-speaking constituency of Umlazi over 5000 voters voted for the far right-wing of the Conservative party, failing by a mere 500 votes to win this safe seat from the Nats [the National Party].

Talk abounds amongst the far right of the "third freedom war" [this refers to the tradition of the Boer wars]. Some right-wing groups have not only begun to arm themselves, but have even started armed attacks. Notable was the attack on Melrose House, symbol of the Boer War defeat and the recent bombing of the NUM [National Union of Mineworkers] office in Welkom. Yet for fear of causing bitter malcontent in the armed forces, the government is powerless to act against the far right.

On the other hand the reforms that De Klerk has made have not been enough to quell the rising tide of social unrest engulfing many of the Bantustans, black townships, factories and schools. Demands for higher wages have led to major strikes in the public and private sector. Notable have been the SATS, the hospital strikes and the OK Bazaars strike.

In Natal the situation is critical with the civil war making it impossible for schooling to continue. Discontent in gutter education continues to paralyse education in many township schools. In Soweto, the lack of books, desks and other basic necessities for teaching are causing uncontrollable anger amongst students who are impatient at the intransigence of the DET.

The social unrest, the growing strength of the right wing, the lack of spectacular progress on the international level and the realisation that there is no quick fix, are making many a Nationalist Party] MP very uneasy. How long before this whole project of reform explodes in their face?

De Klerk knows there are definite limits to how far his reform initiatives can go. The social base in which he draws his support will not allow him to negotiate power away. Less than full and equal democratic rights for all will not dampen the determination of the masses to struggle for fundamental socioeconomic change.

The only means of overcoming the opposition to change amongst whites might be under military rule... In such a scenario, the state will begin to fracture, opening possi. bilities for the mass movement to become the decisive force in preventing the "Lebanonisation" of the country.

The seizure of power by the oppresser masses would not only become possible bu could be the only means of establishing ar alternative stable means of rule.

In this situation the existence of a politi cal organization of the workers for the work ers could mean the difference between bring ing about a successful transfer of power to the workers and/or a massive defeat for the workers movement, from which it could take decades to recover.

Such an organization would have to be committed to promoting at all times the class interests of the workers and to directing the struggle in a way that strengthens the strategic position of the working class.

Such an organization would have to br armed with a social theory capable of grasp ing all the complex strategic and tactica problems our liberation struggle will have tr face. It would have to be fully and com pletely involved in the mass struggles of ou people.

It is for this reason that we have launcher WOSA, to begin the process of buildin! such an organization. For we believe that i the next few years our country is going to bi shaken by class struggles in ways that wi have never experienced before.

In such a period, it will be of the utmos importance that the Black working clas should be able to look towards its ow! independent political organizations if there i to be any hope that the workers, and no their capitalist class enemy, will pluck th fruits of victory.

Scan page 10

'It is the workers who produce the wealth of that society. And while we are producing that wealth, the capitalists are stealing from SOCIALIST ACTION MARCH 1991 South Africa to ensure that the struggles of the people are not compromised.

As part of this process of democratic debate, we call for a Constituent Assembly based on universal franchise. Before that happens, no organization can claim the right to negotiate with the government on our behalf and speak in the name of all of us.

In the light of what has happened in Eastern Europe how does WOSA see the future of socialism?

As a political tendency, we always warned against equating socialism with what existed in Eastern Europe, China and the USSR. We stood by the understanding that socialism meant an even more democratic society than what exists in the most democratic of capitalist states.

You sec, we believe that it is necessary to renew the concept of socialism. Therefore, there cannot be the slightest doubt that for more than 150 years there was a consistent definition of socialism, among the overwhelming majority of Marxist and non-Marxist socialists alike, which did not equate socialism with the disappearance of private ownership of the means of production.

Socialism meant for all these scholars and political agitators a society qualitatively superior to capitalism in terms of average standard of living, of social equality, of human freedom (including political freedom and civil rights), of pluralistic democracy and cultural diversity and of weakening of institutionalised authority (the state, the bureaucracy and its "secular army").

For Marxists, that implied a withering away of commodity production, of market economy, of social classes and of the state, in short it meant a classless society. Only in the late twenties and the early thirties was that consensus broken in favour of a radically reductionist definition of socialism, identifying that new social system with the abolition of private property in the means of production. That reductionist definition was produced by Stalin.

In Eastern Europe (and in China to a more limited extent) what occurred were indeed mass uprisings of the workers and youth.

That they have taken on a direction of restoring capitalism can be understood when one examines the consequence of [over] 40 years of Stalinist rule that has led to these economies being wrecked, to them lagging far behind the West European economies and to the continued fall in the living standards of the people. It is understandable therefore that the masses identify prosperity with the market.

on is critical' Klerk has made have not been enough to quell the rising tide of social unrest engulfing many of the Bantustans, black townships, factories and schools. Demands for higher wages have led to major strikes in the public and private sector. Notable have been the SATS, the hospital strikes and the OK Bazaars strike.

The social unrest, the growing strength of the right wing, the lack of spectacular progress on the international level and the realisation that there is no quick fix, are making many a Nat[ionalist Party] MP very uneasy. How long before this whole project of reform explodes in their face?

The only means of overcoming the opposition to change amongst whites might be under military rule... In such a scenario, the If we take this together with the way the Communist regimes acted to depoliticize the people as a means of retaining their control, (as can be seen by the ease with which the Hungarians have embraced South Africa)

then we can realize the extent to which the cause of socialism has been damaged in the short term.

However, in the medium term we believe that the future of socialism is assured. This is not simply because of the continued existence of revolutionary socialist organization[s] in most parts of the world. It is mainly because of the continued class struggle that arises out of the inherent contradictions of capitalism.

The periodic attacks on wages, the sackings [laying off] of millions of workers in the interests of profits, the growth of social inequality to the point that it provokes state will begin to fracture, opening possibilities for the mass movement to become the decisive force in preventing the "Lebanonisation" of the country.

The seizure of power by the oppressed masses would not only become possible but could be the only means of establishing an alternative stable means of rule.

In this situation the existence of a political organization of the workers for the workers could mean the difference between bringing about a successful transfer of power to the workers and/or a massive defeat for the workers movement, from which it could take decades to recover.

Such an organization would have to be armed with a social theory capable of grasping all the complex strategic and tactical problems our liberation struggle will have to face. It would have to be fully and completely involved in the mass struggles of our people.

It is for this reason that we have launched WOSA, to begin the process of building such an organization. For we believe that in the next few years our country is going to be shaken by class struggles in ways that we have never experienced before.

In such a period, it will be of the utmost importance that the Black working class should be able to look towards its own independent political organizations if there is to be any hope that the workers, and not their capitalist class enemy, will pluck the fruits of victory.

the fr mass revolts, the way international capitalism subjects the toiling millions of the so-called Third World to lives of misery, homelessness, starvation and illness—all of these are examples of the contradictions as they play themselves out concretely in practice.

It is these inevitable contradictions of capitalism that ensure the continued growth and spread of a political current that goes beyond the immediate demands and incorporates those demands in a program that seeks to restructure society in the interests of the producers the workers and poor peasants of the world. Because of this, because of the inevitability of the class struggle under capitalism, the future of socialism is assured.

What are the major challenges and tasks confronting WOSA?

Omar Badsha We believe that our first task is to elaborate an alternative strategy to that of negotiations. It is not enough to denounce those who seek to resolve the conflict in South Africa if we are unable to chart a clear alternative.

For us, this means putting perspectives foward that aim at strengthening the strategic position of the working class.

To take the question of the education crisis for example, it means not only encouraging the students to go back to school, as all now agree. But it also means winning in the schools the space for the operation of democratic SRCs [Student Representative Councils] and PTSAs [Parent/Teachers Associations] that can campaign against all the inequalities of bantu education and can put forward alternative methods of education —non-racial and non-sexist education.

Of course all of that is meaningless if we are unable to develop strong roots in the working class. For us this means not only proclaiming that we defend working class politics but to be an organization of the workers.

We see that the only means of establishing an influence amongst the working class is by defending their mass organizations and supporting their struggles.

Here, we see defending the independence of the trade union movement as crucial. The decision by the COSATU leadership to form a strategic alliance much like the relationship between the Congress Alliance and SACTU [South African Congress of Trade Unions, the CP controlled labor apparatus] presents a great danger.

Again we don't see defending the independence of the trade union movement by denouncing the leadership of COSATU, NACTU, etc. We will attempt to do this by supporting the campaigns of the labor movement and through promoting maximum unity in action.

We see as a priority the need to contribute to the Workers Charter campaign both in ensuring the greatest participation of all workers and by making an input into the Charter itself so that working class perspectives such as workers' control, workers' unity, workers' leadership are concretized around an anti-capitalist program of demands.

As important will be our ability as an organization to assist our members in carrying out this work in the mass movement. Here political education that is aimed at combating the unevenness in the consciousnessness of our members will be crucial. We hope that our newspaper Ukani Basebenzi' (Arise Workers) and our journal 'Workers Voice' will play a positive role. M

----- pull-quotes -----

VICTORYS OURS