On 17 January 1980, the ANC office in London made a public attack in the British press on four ANC members. It stated that Paula Ensor, David Hemson, Martin Legassick and Robert Petersen had been suspended from the ANC and faced possible expulsion for “factionalism” and for circulating a document allegedly “attacking the movement”.
The report of the ANC’s statement, first published in the Guardian, was immediately taken up by the South African press also, and later by the BBC World Service. Thus a political dispute, previously confined within the ranks of our movement and among sympathisers, was brought to the notice of the public.
In a statement to the press on 18 January, the four comrades who were specifically attacked defended themselves by explaining the political issues involved and correcting the false impression created in the original reports by the ANC spokesman.
But the attack is wider in its implications than these four comrades. It is directed against the entire Marxist left-wing of our movement, who stand for socialist policies. By labelling as an “attack on the movement” the discussion document The Workers’ Movement and Sactu – a Struggle for Marxist Policies, the leadership has declared its hostility to the ideas put forward there. Those ideas are not the property of individuals, but belong to the revolutionary workers’ movement itself.
To defend those ideas against this public attack, we are now compelled to bring the material in the original document before a wider readership. This will be demanded by all those comrades in South Africa and in exile who, in the months since the document was first produced, have associated themselves with its political line. It is hoped that publication will lead to a full discussion of the political issues throughout the revolutionary movement at home and abroad.
This booklet, then, is our defence against the allegations made to the press by the ANC office in London. It traces the development of a protracted struggle which began within the ranks of the South African Congress of Trade Unions, over the future course and development of that organisation. This struggle of Marxist activists in Sactu centred on vital questions concerning the policy and political direction of Sactu, in order for it to be built as a genuine workers’ organisation in South Africa.
We argued that Sactu should be built underground as an organisation of militant workers in their tens-of-thousands, in the mines, factories, docks, offices and on the farms. This would lay a basis for strengthening and extending the struggle for full and open trade union and political rights. In fulfilling this task, Sactu would be participating in the mobilisation of the workers for the ultimate victory of the socialist revolution.
The present exile leadership of Sactu, the ANC and the CP is opposed to the building of Sactu for this task. In a series of bureaucratic actions, the leadership repressed discussion on these vital questions. When all channels for debate were closed to us in Sactu, we produced the document entitled The Workers’ Movement and Sactu – a Struggle for Marxist Policies, for discussion within our movement’s ranks, and among active supporters. The material in this document is reprinted here in full.
Far from “attacking the movement” as the ANC office falsely claims, this document is a contribution towards building and arming our movement politically on Marxist lines. It raises questions not only crucial to Sactu’s own development, but crucial also to the success of the revolutionary struggle in South Africa as a whole.
The Sactu leadership has not responded to the document by taking up the political questions posed. Instead it has resorted to lies and personal slander in an attempt to undermine the thrust of our political argument.
On 26 October 1979 the Regional Political Committee of the ANC based in London suspended the four comrades named above from all ANC units and activities. This action was contrary to the ANC constitution, and was taken without giving the comrades concerned the opportunity to defend their point of view before fellow members of the ANC.
The ‘charges’ laid against the four comrades are contained in a letter sent to them by the RPC, a copy of which is reprinted here. The answer to these charges is set out in a letter from the comrades to the RPC in London, reprinted here.
As the letter to the RPC emphasises, the ANC leadership has not suspended these four comrades, as it claims, for their part in circulating a document. It has suspended them because of their political views – because of the profound differences which exist within our movement over the future course of the revolutionary struggle.
All the documents in this booklet raise the perspective of a socialist revolution in South Africa. We have argued that apartheid in South Africa is rooted in the system of capitalist exploitation. National liberation for the black majority can only be secured through the overthrow of capitalism – through the seizure of state power by the organised working class, drawing all layers of the oppressed behind them. Only on this basis, on the basis of a democratic workers’ state, can our country be freed from poverty, homelessness, unemployment and tyranny.
But the leadership of the ANC, Sactu and the CP are opposed to a socialist programme, holding out the perspective instead that it is possible to achieve national liberation on the basis of capitalism. This underlies the involvement of the ANC leadership with Chief Gatsha Buthelezi, an agent of capitalist interests and a figure upon whom the regime will increasingly lean in its attempts to hold back the tide of revolution.
The refusal of the leadership to advance a socialist programme explains their reluctance to build Sactu as a force within the workers’ movement in South Africa. It explains also the hostility of the ANC, Sactu and CP leadership to the activity of Marxists in the ranks of the movement.
We have stood for the need to arm the mass movement of the oppressed, led by the organised workers, against the apartheid regime of the employers. Every black worker knows that the struggle in South Africa cannot achieve victory without arms. But the working class must be organised and mobilised in their hundreds-of-thousands under a clear revolutionary programme and leadership, before the task of armed insurrection is placed on the order of the day.
The leadership of the ANC, Sactu and the CP opposes this perspective. Instead, it is torn between the policy of guerrillaism which is incapable of securing a revolutionary victory in South Africa, and leaning towards the pro-capitalist Buthelezi.
It is no accident that action is being taken against Marxists in the ANC at the same time that the leadership has been holding discussions with Buthelezi.
But such action will not succeed in separating the ideas of Marxism from the revolutionary movement. The ideas set out in this booklet are shared by increasing numbers of the rank-and-file comrades of our movement at home and in exile.
We will continue to struggle and win fresh support for these ideas within the ranks of the ANC, Sactu and the CP, and in the organisations of the working class and revolutionary youth at home, linking the perspectives of Marxism to the day-to-day fight of the working masses.
In the mines, docks, factories and townships there is an unprecedented thirst for a clear understanding of the way forward to victory over national oppression and capitalist exploitation. Hopefully this booklet will be a contribution towards clarity on this question and will play a part in the vital struggle for Marxist policies within the working class movement at home.
The action taken against comrades by the Sactu and ANC leadership is only one episode at a very early stage in an unfolding struggle. The forces of genuine Marxism contend with the forces of capitalism (however disguised) to determine the programme, strategy and tactics, and hence the future, of all the organisations of our movement. In the long run, this struggle will decide the victory of the coming revolution.
The ideas for which we stand have been developed and confirmed through generations of struggle of the working class internationally. In South Africa in the months and years ahead, as hundreds-of-thousands of oppressed workers and youth move into action again and again, through the experience of events far greater even than the uprisings of 1976, we are confident that the perspectives and tasks put forward in this booklet will be abundantly confirmed.
The working class faces the present period of struggle stronger than ever before in its history. With the ideas of Marxism prevailing in its ranks, enabling it to harness its forces scientifically, its power will become invincible and exploitation and tyranny will be swept from the face of South Africa.
February 1980
© Transcribed from the original by the Marxist Workers Party (2020).
