{"id":1202,"date":"2020-03-30T16:55:56","date_gmt":"2020-03-30T14:55:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marxistworkersparty.org.za\/?page_id=1202"},"modified":"2020-04-23T11:38:56","modified_gmt":"2020-04-23T09:38:56","slug":"chapter-three","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/?page_id=1202","title":{"rendered":"Chapter Three"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Reform, Reaction and Civil War<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For most of this century the\npolicy of the SA bourgeoisie, in all its conflicting sections, has been\ndetermined above all by the need to control the rising black industrial\nproletariat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

White domination and racial\nsegregation has, of course, been characteristic of South Africa since colonial\nconquest. The relationship of master and servant, and the separation of the\nEuropean settlers and administrators from the native people under them, was\ntypical of British and indeed all colonial rule \u2013 in Africa, in the Middle\nEast, in India, in semi-colonial China, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, in South Africa, there\nhas been the erection of this unparalleled state structure of white minority\ndomination, under which South Africa moved to self-government and state\nindependence, and which has been systematically developed as apartheid during\nthe long rule of the National Party government since 1948.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That development was not\naccidental, nor has the creation of the apartheid system merely been the\nproduct of fanatical racist theories of the Afrikaners \u2013 which is the way it\nhas been presented by the liberals, and by the Stalinists, who have no\nunderstanding of (and do not wish to understand) the way in which apartheid and\ncapitalism are inseparably bound together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the liberal bourgeoisie\nalways objected to the apartheid policies of the Afrikaner nationalists, they\nhad laid all the foundations for that policy under their United Party and other\nearlier regimes of white domination and segregation \u2013 reserves, pass laws, etc.\nMoreover, by 1948 they could offer no convincing alternative policy to deal\nwith the black proletariat flooding into the urban areas as the result of the\nindustrialisation of SA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When apartheid appeared to \u2018work\u2019,\nthey basically reconciled themselves to it. At the same time they have been\nable to maintain the luxury of \u2018opposition\u2019, disclaiming all responsibility for\nthe horrors and atrocities of the regime \u2013 the inevitable outcome of their\nexploitative system which it is the state\u2019s foremost business to defend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rigidity of the system in SA,\nand the fact that the same apartheid regime has been in power without interruption\nfor thirty-seven years, is an expression of how limited are the alternatives\navailable to bourgeois society for the defence of capitalism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tremendous drawn-out mass\nstruggles of the 1950s were a demonstration that a qualitatively new stage had\nbeen reached in the rise of the urban proletariat, and in its struggle for\npolitical rights. Even with the minimum of real organisation, it constituted a\nrevolutionary challenge to the ruling class and to the state system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By this we do not mean that all\nthe conditions necessary for a successful revolution had matured in the 1950s.\nThe point is that the working class movement demonstrated a revolutionary\ncharacter, and was moving in action towards revolutionary conclusions. This was\nunderstood by the ruling class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is for this reason that the\nmovement was met by the turn of the regime to massacre, to mass arrests and the\nrepression of all the mass-based organisations of the black people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 1950s, as Inqaba<\/em> has explained in\nissue No. 13<\/a>, the Stalinist and middle class leadership of the\nCongress movement totally failed to appreciate the class issues that were at\nstake in the struggle for democracy. Thus, while basing themselves on the mass\nmovement, they repeatedly crippled it by calling-off effective actions and\nrushing to make \u2018peace\u2019 with the liberal bourgeoisie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Their belief was that the ruling\nclass was fundamentally split between its racist and liberal fractions, and\nthat by encouraging the liberals \u2013 and not \u2018frightening them away\u2019 \u2013 it would\nbe possible to turn state policy in SA towards a programme of democratic\nchanges. Thus, little by little, the African majority would gain its rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They failed utterly to understand\nthat the whole bourgeoisie was inevitably driven by the spectre of working class\npower to demand a strong government and vigorous repressive measures against\nthe mass movement whenever it began to gain a sense of its own potential\nstrength. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Liberal Deception<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The liberal capitalists, being\nmore sophisticated than the crude racist right-wing, simultaneously employed\nmeasures of deception against the movement \u2013 cultivating hopes that reforms\ncould be undertaken \u2018if only\u2019 the masses refrained from violence and waited\nupon the generosity of their masters instead of making \u2018impossible demands\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As always, the liberal\nbourgeoisie relied upon the foolish sincerity of bishops and humanitarian\ndo-gooders of all kinds to convey this impression to the masses. These worthies\nemployed as their conduit the CP and Congress leaders who were always falling\nover themselves for signs of favour from this quarter of official society.\nHaving not a revolutionary but a reformist outlook, these leaders were keen to\ntake the counterfeit promises of the liberals at their face value and pass them\non to the mass movement as good coin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Barely a year before the\nSharpeville massacre, the Communist Party\u2019s leading theoretician published an\narticle in which he asserted that South Africa could be one of those \u201cexamples\nin history\u201d where a democratic transformation of society could take place\nwithout violence; where, by a combination of other means the ruling class could\nbe compelled to \u201cgive way for urgent and overdue changes, without dragging the\npeople through the agony of civil war.\u201d[1]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If this was the \u2018theory\u2019 of the \u2018Communists\u2019\n\u2013 imagine the hopelessly confused outlook of the middle class Congress\nleadership in general. Nor did the PAC leadership, which split from Congress\nwith an ostensibly more radical posture, have any clearer an idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unfortunately, in a serious class\nstruggle, even the most outstanding and necessary qualities of personal courage\n\u2013 which have not only been present in abundance in the fighting rank-and-file,\nbut have characterised many of the movement\u2019s leaders then and since \u2013 cannot\nsubstitute for clarity of understanding, perspectives and strategy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus the mass movement was\nunprepared for the savage wave of reaction on the part of the state which\nopened with the Sharpeville massacre of 21 March 1960. There followed a decade\nof dark reaction in which every imaginable form of oppression and segregation\nwas introduced, tightened and refined.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even the trade union\norganisations of the African workers were eliminated \u2013 not banned formally, but\neliminated in reality. The cause of this lay mainly, though not solely, in the\narrests and bannings carried out by the state. In a disastrous move, with\ncomplete blindness, the CP and ANC leadership took the best working class\ncadres with them into exile, with the notion of waging a guerrilla war along\nthe lines of Algeria.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, with the Nkomati agreement\nbetween SA and Mozambique, the leadership\u2019s guerrilla strategy \u2013 which was\nalways based on false premises \u2013 has been more clearly exposed than ever before\nas the blind alley which Marxists have always pointed out it would be.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the main factor which gave\nstrength to the reaction of the 1960s was the long upswing in the development\nof capitalism. However, as capitalism grew, so all the more rapidly grew its\nfuture gravedigger, the black working class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the early 1970s there was the\nrevival once again of the working class movement. This revival was spear-headed\nnot by the exiled CP, ANC or PAC leaders (who in fact, after going into exile,\nhad turned their back on the working class and denied that anything could\ngenuinely be done in South Africa at that time), but by the independent\ninitiatives of rank-and-file militants at home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This, in fact, is what has given\nthe reawakened movement its enormous revolutionary vitality. Of historic importance\nhas been the building of the working class organisations by the workers and\nyouth themselves, no longer dependent as in the past upon petty-bourgeois leaders\nfor every instruction, for permission to do this and permission to do that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The revival was heralded by the\nblack student movement under the banner of \u2018black consciousness\u2019 from the late\n1960s. Then followed the industrial strike wave in Natal and the Transvaal, and\non the mines, in 1973, 1974 and 1975. There was the beginning of the rebuilding\nof independent trade unions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then came the youth revolt of\n1976 \u2013 beginning with the Soweto uprising. Following that were the political\ngeneral strikes in 1976 and 1977, but so far without real organisation\nunderlying them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the systematic building of\ntrade unions has advanced to the point where half a million African workers are\norganised in unions under their own control. The use of the school strike has been\ndeveloped as a tactic of the black working class youth \u2013 to the point where, in\nAugust 1984, the number boycotting schools reached a peak of one million. In\nthe black townships there have been the tremendous mass struggles over rents,\nover fare increases, and so on, during the past few years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The mass movement taking place\ntoday is absolutely unparalleled in its depth, its strength and its sweep. Even\nthe lulls over the last ten years can be seen in retrospect as pauses for the\ncatching of breath. For the first time it has begun to take on a fully\nnationwide character, extending from Pretoria to East London, from the Cape to\nNatal, from Vereeniging to formerly sleepy Grahamstown, from Uitenhage to\nisolated Beaufort West.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The township and youth struggles\ndraw strength from and in turn reinforce the strike movement of the workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1984, despite the deep\nrecession, South Africa had its record year for strikes. According to\ngovernment figures, 378,000 worker-days were lost in 469 strikes. But these\nfigures cover only the 180,000 workers involved in action over industrial\ndisputes. The figures do not include the 800,000 or more workers who took part\nin the two-day Transvaal general strike in November \u2013 the most important\npolitical strike in the history of Africa, and the high point of the movement\nso far in the way it combined the organised actions of workers and youth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A qualitative new stage was\nreached also in 1984 when the newly-formed National Union of Mineworkers (then\nonly two years old and already with some 80,000 members), confronted the\nChamber of Mines with the first organised strike action on the mines since\n1946. Skilful tactics by the NUM forced a climb-down by the Chamber, and gave\nthe union a partial victory in a situation where it was extremely dangerous to\nlaunch an all-out strike for which they were not yet adequately prepared. Now\nan even bigger confrontation with the Chamber looms. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Character of the State<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Throughout the past decade, the\nstate has continued to show its murderous character as the armed instrument for\nthe preservation of ruling class power and property against the black\nproletariat. The massacres of the youth in 1976, in which possibly a thousand\nwere slaughtered; the repeated police shootings and other brutalities against\nmineworkers in struggle; the Sharpeville Day massacre in Uitenhage this year \u2013 these\nare only the most outstanding of the horrors perpetrated daily against the\nblack working people. This is the reality which the mass of black people face.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It would be the most serious\nmistake, in any perspective on future developments in South Africa, to lose\nsight for an instant of the nature of the SA state as a formidable, ruthlessly\nengineered killing machine upon which the whole<\/strong>\nruling class relies for its preservation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The capitalist class is fully\nconscious of the need to have at its disposal effective, organised \u2018armed\nbodies of men\u2019 \u2013 in short, a powerful state apparatus \u2013 to hold down the\nworking class. It can never agree to weaken, let alone dispense with, this\napparatus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, the inability of the ruling class now to hold\ndown and cow the movement by repression alone <\/strong>is every day demonstrated \u2013 in\nthe townships, in the factories, and by the militant youth. This fact has\npropelled at least the major section of capital to seek the road of so-called \u2018reform\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is important not to dismiss as\nirrelevant or minimise the significance of the shifts in the policy of the\nruling class that are taking place. But their importance lies mainly in bringing\nto light the essential bankruptcy of the bourgeoisie\u2019s position; the underlying\nsplits that begin to tear them apart; and the contribution that these changes\nmake towards emboldening the mass movement, thereby stirring to action more and\nmore of the social forces of the revolution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Nature of \u2018Reform\u2019 Strategy<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It would be utterly naive to see\nin these \u2018reforms\u2019 the beginning of a progression towards genuine democratic\nrights for the black majority; to think that from these beginnings can come an\nevolutionary transformation of society, or transformation in the character of\nthe state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The important thing to understand\nis that the \u2018reform\u2019 policies of the bourgeoisie represent a development in its\nstrategy of counter-revolution<\/strong> \u2013 to\nbe combined with all the repressive forces available to it, and with the\npurpose of buying time for capitalism by diverting the proletariat from\nrevolutionary goals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although today\u2019s \u2018reforms\u2019 are\nsaid to be directed against the failed policies of Verwoerd, in a sense it was\nVerwoerd who pioneered \u2018reform\u2019 as a counter-revolutionary measure against the\nAfrican people. Put forward as a supposed \u2018alternative\u2019 to naked wit baasskap<\/em>, his policy was to create\nso-called \u2018self-governing\u2019 Bantustans as an \u2018outlet\u2019 for African political\naspirations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The tribal Bantustan policy was originated in the 1950s precisely in\nresponse to the rising movement of the detribalised urban black proletariat.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, because the mass movement\nhas flooded over the ramparts of the sandcastle erected by Verwoerd, the ruling\nclass rushes to find new means of diverting, dividing and obstructing the\nproletariat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the SABC now refers to\nVerwoerd\u2019s conceptions as \u201cnonsense\u201d it is only because the regime and ruling\nclass now need new methods to accomplish essentially the same class<\/strong> aims. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As already explained, it is\nimpossible for the ruling class to concede a genuinely democratic constitution:\none-person-one-vote in an undivided South Africa. That cannot be achieved this\nside of the overthrow of the bourgeoisie; this side of the victory of the\nproletarian revolution. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Horror of horrors to the\nbourgeoisie is the fact that the black workers and youth in the forefront of\nthe struggle naturally and immediately combine their democratic demands with\nthe stated aim of taking into common ownership the means of production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recent opinion polls, contrived\nto show a \u2018majority\u2019 of blacks opposed to nationalisation, scarcely convince\nthe ruling class which uses them as propaganda against socialism. The answer\ngiven in opinion polls depends largely on how the questions are posed, who\nposes them, and in what circumstances they are posed. Apparently most blacks\nwould even be opposed to nationalisation under a future \u2018black government\u2019!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But once the hitherto passive\nlayers of the black working class are themselves stirred to action; once the advanced\nworkers and youth explain clearly to the whole movement the realities of\nmonopoly power in SA, explain the real causes of the poverty of the working\npeople, and expound a programme of revolution through which the main productive\nforces and resources are taken into the common ownership of the people under\ndemocratic workers\u2019 control and management \u2013 then there would be a tidal wave\nof support for that idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Already in the 1950s, the Freedom\nCharter, under the pressure of the advanced workers, proclaimed as its goal the\ncommon ownership of the mines, banks and monopoly industries, together with the\nexpropriation and redistribution of the land. This was seen as a necessary\nfoundation for democratic change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If that was the understanding\nthen, what is the understanding now?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the launching of the UDF in\nAugust 1983, at a mass gathering attended overwhelmingly by working class black\npeople, the most enthusiastic response, greeted by five minutes of applause,\nchanting and revolutionary songs, was for a speaker who called for the working\nclass to take power in South Africa and take into common ownership the\nproductive forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In November 1984 one of the\nleaders of the Transvaal general strike, Thami Mali, and another militant\nSiphiwe Thusi, spelled out the same view in an interview with a Johannesburg\njournalist:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I [Graham Watts \u2013 the reporter] ask what it is they want. Is it one-man-one-vote in a unitary SA? Yes, but that\u2019s not enough. It must be a \u2018workers\u2019 state\u2019 based on the principles of the Freedom Charter, which they call \u2018a set of minimum demands\u2019. The Freedom Charter is … all about how \u2018the people shall govern\u2019 and how the land \u2018shall belong to all those who work it\u2019. So you want a socialist SA? \u2018Exactly.\u2019[2]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

What is understood now by the\nadvanced active layer of the masses will be understood and communicated in time\nto come to the masses as a whole. An awareness of this has already struck into\nthe marrow of the bourgeoisie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus they wail in the press that\nthe blacks do not understand the \u2018laws of economics\u2019 \u2013 which means they do not\ncare about the need of the employers to make a profit! They have \u2018no stake\u2019 in\nthe free enterprise system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Need to Change Race System<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The racial system which stabilised South African capitalism in the past\nhas now turned dialectically into a source of tremendous revolutionary conflict\nand of irreconcilable class struggle.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bourgeoisie is compelled to\ntry to move away from that racial system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For economic and political\nreasons, the big capitalists would like to be rid of apartheid altogether and\nrule on the basis of a \u2018non-racial\u2019 dictatorship. They dream of being able to\nbreak up the black proletariat, politically and geographically, and hold it\ndown by a combination of state repression and a formally \u2018non-racial\u2019 but essentially\nundemocratic<\/strong> constitutional system\nincorporating black middle class leaders. But dreams are one thing; facts are\nanother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ruling class is unable to\nmove decisively away from the racist system precisely because they would be\nunable to stabilise their rule on any other basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When, in decades past, the\nadvance of their economic system and the relative weakness of the proletariat\nwould have provided more room for constitutional reforms, they revelled under\nthe racist dictatorship, greedily squeezing every drop of profit out of the\noppressed black workers that they could. Now when they need to change their\nmethod of rule \u2013 when they have no alternative but to change \u2013 change is no\nlonger a workable alternative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Botha, speaking for the\ncapitalist class, declared that it was necessary to \u201cadapt or die\u201d. But in fact\n\u201cadapt and<\/strong> die\u201d will turn out to be\nthe reality for capitalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sickness of their economic\nsystem on the one hand, which necessitates material counter-reforms<\/strong> against the masses, and the accumulated power of\nthe black working class, on the other hand, is what makes revolution a\ncertainty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is why, alongside all the\ntalk of \u2018reform\u2019, the real political changes remain so measly, so miserly, so obviously\nanti-democratic in purpose, while repression by the state forces is all the\ntime stepped-up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still the challenge from below\nforces the capitalists to try to go further in the direction of political\nreform of the system \u2013 much, much further. But, having no confidence in any\nreform, finding their predicament at every step worse than it was before, they\nmust again and again recoil from it, all the time increasing the savagery of\nrepression. Finding themselves in complete disarray, and with the dawning awareness\nthat there is no viable way out for them, the ruling class will again and again\nsplit under the hammer blows of the mass movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has taken the regime more than\nten years to move from the policies of Verwoerd to the present policies of\nBotha \u2013 and even that has necessitated a split of the ruling party. This is an\nexpression of the difficulties facing the ruling class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fate of Botha\u2019s new\nconstitutional scheme of racial \u2018parliaments\u2019 for the whites, coloured and\nIndians, shows the fate that awaits future manoeuvres of the ruling class which\ndo not go (because they cannot<\/strong> go)\nto the root of the masses\u2019 demand for real political power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is clear that Botha turned to\nthis new constitution with essentially four aims: firstly to incorporate the\ncoloured and Indian middle classes into the system to reinforce white\nsupremacy; secondly to divide blacks against each other by drawing Indians and\ncoloureds to the side of the whites; thirdly to construct a bonapartist\nexecutive with tremendous powers, more able flexibly to manoeuvre between the\nracial groups and the classes and less tied down directly by the control of the\nwhite parliament; and fourthly, to provide a basis from which he could conduct\nfurther experiments in the direction of some political rights for Africans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From beginning to end there has\nbeen nothing democratic about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The structure of the new\nconstitution ensures that that party which has majority support amongst the\nwhites controls the Presidency and the whole system. The coloured and Indian \u2018parliaments\u2019\nare permitted to look after their so-called \u2018own affairs\u2019. The President\u2019s\nCouncil, dominated by the whites and the nominees of the bonapartist President,\ndecides everything of \u2018general\u2019 significance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But even on the basis of this\nundemocratic bonapartist structure, they could not afford to have a \u2018parliament\u2019\nfor Africans. The reason is obvious: if 73% of the population were permitted to\nelect their \u2018parliament\u2019, what possible moral pretext could the white minority\nadvance for retaining overall control in the structure?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Any form of directly elected\nparliament for the African majority would threaten to become a focus of even\nmore explosive discontent against the rule of the present government. Coming-up\nagainst the concrete obstacle of the white-based state machine, unable for that\nreason and because of the limitations of capitalism to carry through any of the\nessential material changes demanded by the masses, it could only have the\neffect of spurring-on the revolutionary struggle for a complete overturn of the\nstate power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Policy of Division<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is impossible for the ruling\nclass to concede direct representation to the Africans, at the level of central\ngovernment, in proportion to their numbers. Therefore, essential to the\nbourgeois strategy is the maintenance and extension of tribal and local\ndivisions \u2013 and the breaking-up of SA for political reasons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet this is bound to be rejected\nby the increasingly conscious black working class masses, demanding their national\nand social emancipation. The coloured and Indian \u2018elections\u2019 in 1984 were met\nby a tremendously successful boycott. In the coloured elections less than 20%\nof the 18-year-olds and above voted. In the working class townships less than\n10% voted. A similar thing happened in the Indian elections.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What was especially significant\nwas that the trade unions came forward, alongside the UDF, and the organised\nAfrican workers played a leading role together with the youth in approaching\ncoloured and Indian working class families in their homes and canvassing for\nthe boycott.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The result is that no thread of\nrespectability attaches to these puppets who have become \u2018honourable members\u2019\nof the coloured \u2018House of Representatives\u2019 or the Indian \u2018House of Delegates\u2019.\nQuite the contrary, they are discredited and disgraced as stooges, as much\namong their so-called \u2018own\u2019 people as among the Africans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They can achieve nothing of\nsignificance to provide a basis of popularity. Hendrikse may be \u2018prime minister\u2019\nof the coloureds. But, as a student journalist put it, what has he got for his \u2018own\naffair\u2019? 180,000 homeless coloured people!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If a member of the Indian House\nof Delegates wants even to question the law in the Orange Free State which\nprohibits Asians staying there longer than two months, it has become a matter\nof doubt whether this would be an \u2018own affairs matter\u2019 (in which case he could\nraise it) or a \u2018general affairs matter\u2019 (in which case he would be ruled\nout-of-order). \u2018General affairs\u2019 are for the President\u2019s Council.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such is the absurdity of the\nsituation that, for example, opposition members in the white parliament can apparently\nno longer ask the government for its per capita spending figures on white,\ncoloured, Indian and African population groups. It can only ask about its \u2018own\naffairs\u2019 \u2013 and about the affairs of the unfranchised Africans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The real measure of the changes\nbrought about by this new system is shown in the fact that eventually, after a\nlot of resistance, coloured and Indian MPs are now being allowed to dine with\nwhite MPs as the latter\u2019s guests in the white parliamentary dining room! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Forced to Go Further<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such is the fiasco of the new\nconstitution; such is its rejection by the vast majority of the population; so\nsurely has it inflamed the anger of the oppressed people \u2013 that Botha at the\nvery opening of the new parliaments had to announce plans to proceed further\nwith constitutional change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The necessity of this, he said,\nwas to give recognition to the permanence of at least \u2018some\u2019 of the African\npopulation within so-called \u2018white South Africa\u2019 \u2013 and the hopelessness of\nattempting to accommodate African political aspirations solely within the\nframework of the Bantustans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has announced the creation of\na new \u2018national negotiating forum\u2019, through which he hopes to achieve the incorporation\nof unelected African \u2018leaders\u2019 into responsibilities of government at national\nlevel. Yet even Gatsha Buthelezi has dismissed this as a meaningless sop!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That does not mean, however, that\nButhelezi wishes to entrust his fate to the democratic will of the African\npeople. Professor Lawrence Schlemmer, who acts as a ventriloquist\u2019s dummy for\nthe Inkatha chief, has in fact warned the bourgeoisie not to attempt the\nestablishment of a fourth parliament for Africans. That would merely lead to an\nexplosion of frustrations and release more resistance. So it should be \u201cavoided\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, says Schlemmer, \u201csome form\nof incorporation [of Africans] into a joint body at parliamentary or Cabinet\nlevel dealing with general affairs is essential.\u201d[3]<\/a>\nButhelezi, in other words, wants to be appointed a Cabinet Minister without\nhaving to be elected! Until Botha is ready to offer him that, he maintains his \u2018democratic\u2019\nintransigence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet for Buthelezi to enter any\nposition of central state responsibility would lead to the evaporation of any\nbasis of popular support, even among the most backward strata, which he\npresently retains. And Botha for his part would not be able to move this far\nwithout stirring up a big backlash of conservative revolt among the whites,\nfearing that their privileged status will vanish. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Regionalisation\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Botha\u2019s grand plan is believed to\ninvolve the development of new regional authorities, based on the eight\neconomic regions in the government\u2019s development plan. It is not clear whether\nor to what extent these authorities will intersect with or incorporate existing\n\u2018independent\u2019 Bantustans. Probably that is still a riddle to Botha himself at\nthis stage. However, it is most unlikely that the regime would be able or\nwilling to actually dismantle the Bantustan political structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government is reconsidering\nthe Buthelezi Commission\u2019s 1982 proposals for the joint administration of\nKwaZulu and Natal \u2013 and their possible extension to other areas. This\ncommission advanced a plan of \u2018consociational\u2019 administration for the region.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This idea is critically examined\nin a recent article in the SA Labour\nBulletin<\/em> (April 1985) on \u2018Regionalisation, Federalism and the\nReconstruction of the South African State\u2019, by Cobbett, Glaser, Hindson and\nSwilling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c\u2018Consociation\u2019,\u201d they write, \u201crefers\nroughly to the notion of a \u2018grand coalition\u2019 government between different\ngroups which retain a high degree of autonomy and enjoy proportional\nrepresentation and minority veto power. Consociation … is thought to be\nappropriate to maintaining stability in societies \u2018deeply divided\u2019 by\nlinguistic, cultural, racial, ethnic and other divisions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u2018brilliance\u2019 of this\nbourgeois political concept is shown in the fact that one of the more notable \u2018successes\u2019\nclaimed for it in the past has been the Lebanon! The strategists of capital in\nSouth Africa can have few illusions in its viability, even temporarily, in a\nsociety gripped by irreconcilable class antagonisms in which issues immediately\nbecome reduced to the language of naked power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Least of all, for this reason,\ncould \u2018consociation\u2019 be seriously adopted by the SA ruling class as a method of\nre-organisation of central<\/strong>\ngovernment. It is not accidental that there is nothing \u2018consociational\u2019 or\nsubject to \u2018veto power\u2019 in Botha\u2019s bonapartist Presidency. That is the whole essence\nof the new constitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the application of a \u2018consociational\u2019\nscheme to regional<\/strong> administration is\nnow being seriously considered. This would entail the working together of different\nauthorities, in some cases from different, racially segregated areas. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it should be borne in mind\nwhat the (unspoken) real basis was which underlay the consensus reached between\nButhelezi and the white capitalists in his commission report. The latter could\nonly consider sharing regional \u2018power\u2019 with even a committed bourgeois flunky\nlike Buthelezi because two very important conditions were fulfilled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the one hand he himself could\nhold out some<\/strong> promise of\ndisciplining KwaZulu through the mafia-apparatus of Inkatha, which has been\nconsolidated with immense capitalist funds over the past decade. And, on the\nother hand (and more importantly still), they\ncould continue to shelter under the power of central government and the armed\napparatus of the state<\/strong>, which would come to their assistance if ever their\nvital interests were threatened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, for every step in the\ndirection of decentralisation of administration in SA, we see two steps towards\ncentralising and reinforcing even further the military-police repressive power\nand the Bonapartism of the central bourgeois state apparatus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Centralisation of power is\ncertain and primary, decentralisation uncertain and secondary, in the policy of\nthe SA ruling class. Thus the powers of the white Provincial Councils, now to\nbe abolished, will be transferred first<\/strong>\nto central government, and only later<\/strong>\nto new regional authorities as and when these are established.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A continued effective monopoly of\ncentral state power will remain for the bourgeoisie the necessary condition for\nany moves towards a system of joint black-white administration at regional\nlevels. But that in itself does not guarantee the workability of the scheme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where else than in KwaZulu do the\nruling class have an Inkatha or a Buthelezi to lean on? No doubt there are\naspiring Buthelezi-type traitors, but none with the same base, none with the\nsame muscle. Even in KwaZulu\/Natal all Buthelezi\u2019s dictatorial measures have\nbeen unable to prevent mass explosions in the recent period. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

No Viable Basis<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, how could regional\nauthorities of this kind possibly be effective unless there were viable lower\nauthorities underpinning them?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The proposed \u2018regional service\ncouncils\u2019 to jointly administer water supplies, electricity and sewerage are\nthemselves to be based on the existing racially segregated local authorities.\nYet, in most African townships, these local authorities have already either\nbeen demolished by the masses or face the imminent prospect of the same fate. \u201cSince\nthe unrest began on 3 September,\u201d writes Allister Sparks in the Observer<\/em>,[4]<\/a>\n\u201c109 councillors have been attacked and five killed, including a mayor and two\ndeputy mayors; 66 have had their homes burnt down; and 147, including the\nentire councils of seven townships, have resigned.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Sebokeng, sixteen homeless\nLekoa councillors are now living in a protected compound, behind a high\nsecurity fence of barbed wire with heavily-armed guards at the gate. They are\nrefugees from the people they are supposed to represent. The locals refer to\nthem disparagingly as \u201cthe government in exile\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover the council, which had\nbegun its life by raising rents, is financially crippled by a rent strike maintained\nsolidly since September by more than 90% of the 350,000 residents of the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the Eastern Cape, puppet\ncouncillors have been hurriedly resigning their positions in order to escape\ndeath at the hands of the enraged populace. This is a symptom of the\nrevolutionary polarisation which has taken place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the main, the government will\nbe compelled to maintain direct control over the administration of the\ntownships, and will be unable to establish to any significant degree stable\nlocally-elected councils for these areas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus how can the \u2018tiers\u2019 of\nregional and sub-regional administration be made viable? Throughout, the regime\nwill be able to staff the structure only with the most disreputable black\nstooges. Even now these have to think twice, or rather ten-times, before going\nin for collaboration, since the burnt homes and businesses and the charred\nbodies of councillors have shown that the fruits of office do not consist\nentirely of perks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As if these were not sufficient\nobstacles to its scheme, the government is determined to add more. So afraid\nare they that any measure of real power in determining policy could pass into\nthe hands of the black people, even at the level of the \u2018regional service\ncouncils\u2019 , that Botha is taking steps to render this impossible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the composition of these\nauthorities, apparently, the various townships together with the white suburbs,\netc., are to be given representation in proportion to their contribution to the\nrevenue! (Where, we might ask, is the brotherly \u2018consociation\u2019 here?!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Black workers in SA have taken up\nthe cry of the American Revolution: \u201cNo taxation without representation!\u201d Now\nBotha discovers a slogan for the bourgeois counter-revolution against\ndemocracy: \u201cNo representation without taxation!\u201d This can only ensure the even\nmore determined rejection by the masses of this scheme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is necessary to see the whole\nprocess dialectically, and not to give credence in an empirical way to the new\ninitiatives and ingenious subtleties of the bourgeoisie as they search desperately\nfor ways to \u2018reform\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The authors of the article in the\nLabour Bulletin<\/em> are right to point-out\nthat the \u2018reforms\u2019 are designed to enable the ruling class to move \u201cbeyond\nformal racialism without capitulating to what is termed \u2018majoritarianism\u2019.\u201d This\nis precisely what will make them unworkable. The whole crux of the issue in\nSouth Africa is majority rule<\/strong> \u2013 not \u2018formal<\/strong>\u2019 departures from racialism but\nthe demand of the black majority that real power to determine the government of\nthe country should pass into their hands. By whatever pretext, this cannot be\nevaded; by whatever route, all evasions will fail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The above-mentioned writers have\nput together valuable research on the developments in SA towards federalism \u2013 and\nin particular on the regime\u2019s \u2018regionalisation\u2019 policy. But they are quite\nwrong when they conclude:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This re-conceptualisation and re-organisation of spatial forms, if synthesised into a coherent policy programme, as some reformers in the state and capital envisage, could provide a basis for a long-term strategic offensive aimed at reconstituting the relations of exploitation and domination in South Africa.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

There is no room now for a \u201cstrategic\noffensive\u201d of reform by the bourgeoisie. They are incapable of \u201csynthesising a\ncoherent policy programme\u201d. Their policies constitute a defensive<\/strong> response to the rising threat of workers\u2019 revolution.\nTheir real nature was summed up in a recent Rand\nDaily Mail<\/em> cartoon showing Botha in the role of King Canute, facing an\nadvancing tide of black influx which had clearly ignored his orders to stop. \u201cWell\nin that case I order you to come in only half way,\u201d he declares! <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Effect of Recent \u2018Reforms\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The recent scrapping of the Mixed\nMarriages Act and Section 16 of the Immorality Act, which prohibited sex\nbetween people of different races, is clearly understood by the majority to be\nmere cosmetic change. Nevertheless this has been enough to give a propaganda\nhandle to the ultra-right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The right to freehold tenure in\nplace of mere leasehold, recently \u2018granted\u2019 to urban Africans with permanent\nstatus in the townships, is likewise generally seen as a pathetic sop. Even the\nthin stratum able to afford to buy their homes will not thereby be given any \u2018stake\u2019\n(as the bourgeois imagine) in the \u2018free enterprise system\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Firstly, the socialist revolution\ndoes not threaten to take people\u2019s homes away from them. On the contrary, it\nalone can guarantee all people a home. Secondly, as examples in many countries\nhave shown, homeowners with mortgage debts are just as much threatened with\nhomelessness when unemployment and economic recession hit. In Britain\u2019s Broad\nGreen constituency, for example, a high level of home-ownership among workers\nhas not deterred them from electing an avowed Marxist and Militant supporter as\ntheir Labour MP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To South Africa\u2019s impoverished\nworking masses, in fact, this \u2018reform\u2019 by the regime only adds insult to\ninjury. The \u2018right\u2019 of some Africans to own property is conceded when the\nsubstance of property has vanished from almost all Africans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same applies to the\nconcession that, after all, a minority of the African people are to be allowed\nto keep their South African citizenship. Blacks are now left to ponder which is\nworse \u2013 no citizenship, or citizenship without citizens\u2019 rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of more immediate impact is the\ngovernment\u2019s intended amendment to the Mines and Works Act to permit Africans\nto qualify for blasting certificates. Coming at a time when the NUM had placed\nthe issue squarely on the table in this year\u2019s dispute with the Chamber of\nMines, this concession will be felt by the black mineworkers as a recognition\nof their potential power. They will be emboldened by it. While only momentarily\ngiving relief to the mine bosses, this change will further alienate support for\nthe government among white miners, and so can only deepen the contradictions it\nfaces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pending repeal of the\nImproper Interference Act to allow mixed-race political parties is hardly an\nearth-shattering change as far as the black masses are concerned \u2013 for their\ngenuine political organisations are banned or otherwise persecuted and, in any\nevent, have turned their backs decisively on the puppet \u2018parliaments\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most immediate impact of the\nrepeal is expected to be that it will allow fusion between the white PFP and\nco-thinking bourgeois collaborators in the coloured and Indian \u2018parliaments\u2019.\nThere is press speculation that this might even put the PFP in a majority in\nthe Indian \u2018House of Delegates\u2019, thus giving it a seat in the cabinet!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most likely effect of that\nwould be to undermine still further remaining illusions among the blacks in the\nbeneficence of the white PFP liberals. Possibly Botha is calculating on such a\ndevelopment to implicate the PFP indirectly in governmental responsibility and\ndeepen the incipient split already evident within it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the minimal nature of all\nthese \u2018reforms\u2019 from the standpoint of the masses, it would, nevertheless, be\nwrong to conclude that the ruling class can introduce no more than token\nchanges or changes of trivial importance politically.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government\u2019s \u2018suspension\u2019 of\nforced removals (although no reliance should be placed on it) is a step of\ngreat significance \u2013 because it is an acknowledgement of the power of the mass\nmovement and expresses the fear of the regime to provoke that movement further.\nSimilarly significant is the campaign now going on among a section of the big\nbourgeoisie for doing away with the pass laws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capitalism has been built in\nSouth Africa on a foundation of migrant labour, on total state control of the\nmovement of the black proletariat as a necessary measure for maintaining the\nsystem of cheap labour. Influx control has also served to weaken the pressure\nfor social spending in urban areas, and the pressure of the working class for\npolitical rights, by confining the families of millions of workers to the rural\ndumping grounds of the reserves.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, the inevitable process\nof urbanisation has continued all the same. Industrial labour has increasingly\nbecome settled in the cities. Black workers have secured through struggle at\nleast some basic trade union rights and recognition, and migrant workers\nthemselves have become organised in the unions. Despite all the pass arrests\nand forced removals, \u2018squatter\u2019 settlements of working class families have\nmushroomed on the edges of the \u2018white\u2019 cities. In all these respects influx\ncontrol has miserably failed, or at least begun to fail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A Financial Times<\/em> survey on South Africa[5]<\/a>\ncomments:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the reality is that millions of blacks ignore the pass laws … and the rest of the influx control laws like water passing through a sieve, would it not make sense to scrap them? Nothing would do more to improve the image of South Africa abroad or to convince South Africa\u2019s black majority that talk of reform was more than mere rhetoric.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Studies by the Urban Foundation\nand by academics argue that influx controls have become so ineffective that\nthey will make a difference of only about two million in the total urban black\npopulation of SA by the year 2000. Thus, argue the liberals, they should be\nscrapped in an attempt to pacify the blacks and the \u2018international community\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This view is finding some support\nwithin the bureaucracy. The director of the so-called Population Development\nProgramme has concluded that the best way to deal with SA\u2019s rising population\nis \u201crapid urbanisation of the impoverished black population and the subsequent\nupgrading of living standards with particular emphasis on education, health and\nhousing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to the Financial Mail<\/em>,[6]<\/a>\n\u201cMost leading SA businessmen seem cautiously in favour of abolishing influx\ncontrol \u2013 given adequate preparation and\ninfrastructure in the urban areas, plus increased development in the rural ones<\/strong>.\u201d\n(Our emphasis.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But here lies the rub! What they\ntake as \u201cgiven\u201d is precisely the thing which is not given. If they could \u201cupgrade\nliving standards\u201d all-round in South Africa, there would indeed be very\nsignificant scope for \u2018reform\u2019. But, as our economic analysis has shown, and as\nwill increasingly dawn upon the whole bourgeoisie itself, they are compelled by\nthe imperative logic of their profit-system in crisis to further attack<\/strong> the already unbearable living standards of the\nblacks. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Cynical Calculation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact Anglo American\u2019s Gavin\nRelly, who favours doing away with influx control, cynically emphasises that\nmore unemployed in the urban areas will help the employers to drive down wages.\nOnce the capitalists favoured pass laws as a means of preventing organisation\nof the workers and thus holding down wages. Now that the working class has\nestablished its permanence in the urban areas and begun to consolidate its\nunions all the same, this exploiter\u2019s main concern has become to break their\nbargaining power through unrestricted influx! However, that will not work\neither.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether with or without influx\ncontrols, the bourgeoisie faces a revolutionary movement of the black\nproletariat in the urban as well as the rural areas. It is those among the big\nbusiness spokesmen who still retain the most ludicrous illusions in the \u2018wonders\u2019\nof the \u2018free enterprise system\u2019 who are most fulsome in their calls for the\nscrapping of influx control. Others, however, are far more cautious and realistic\nfrom their class point of view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus a spokesman for Assocom\nsays:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Assocom believes there must be complete mobility of labour. Thus [!] influx control in its present form<\/strong> must be abolished. However, this could give rise to various socio-economic problems which need to be borne in mind. Our view, therefore, is that the influx of people into the cities should be dependent purely upon housing and employment [being available] and, once there, those people should be free to move anywhere in SA.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

So much, by the way, for \u2018complete\u2019\nmobility of labour!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Federated Chamber of Industries\npresident says:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The FCI takes a very pragmatic view of the effects of influx control and also of the consequences attendant upon anything less than an orderly transition<\/strong> to unrestricted mobility… From a business viewpoint the capacity of SA\u2019s urban areas to absorb large numbers from rural areas will put pressure on existing resources; an unplanned movement undoubtedly will over-burden transport, health, housing, law-and-order and other services<\/strong>\u201d \u2013 \u2018law-and-order\u2019 a \u2018service\u2019, that\u2019s a new one! \u2013 \u201cand depress living standards.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The president of the Afrikaanse\nHandelsinstituut says bluntly:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The immediate phasing out of influx control is unacceptable in the light of the present economic, labour and social conditions in urban areas. Influx control serves an essential and beneficial regulatory purpose until such time as housing and employment can be provided for the influx of thousands of blacks into the urban areas… Any reconsideration of this policy under present depressing economic conditions is totally misplaced.<\/strong><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

The president of the SA Foundation\nand chairman of Gencor says: \u201cAt this juncture, I do not believe that we should be increasing the potential for\nconflict in the country. I therefore feel I should not comment.<\/strong>\u201d[7]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here we have a really classic\nexpression of the impasse in which the bourgeoisie finds itself. On the issue\nof influx control, as will be the case with more and more fundamental issues in\nfuture, the bourgeoisie is unable to produce a coherent policy. Each side is\nable to prove conclusively that the other\u2019s policy will not work. And in this,\nboth are right!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the immediate aftermath of\nSharpeville, in 1960, the regime felt it necessary to suspend the enforcement\nof the pass laws for about six weeks. This was because they feared to provoke a\nrevolution. It is entirely possible that we shall see such suspensions \u2013 and\nmuch longer suspensions \u2013 of these laws again in future, under the pressure of\nthe mass movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, were there now to be a\nreally determined, well-organised and resolutely led mass campaign of\npass-burning, the complete defiance of influx control laws, and attacks on pass\ncourts and records offices, this system could be thoroughly wrecked. However, to\nthe extent that the matter is left to the ruling class to decide, it is most\nunlikely that they could move to the abolition of these measures. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Fear to Show Weakness<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The main reason is the one implied in the above quotations. They will\nfear to give such a signal of their weakness and disarray to the black working\nclass, because that would stir it to even more vigorous struggle and the assertion\nof ever more far-reaching demands.<\/strong> This fear will increase as the mass\nrevolt intensifies \u2013 as will the pressures towards abandoning the pass system.\nSo the dilemma of the ruling class will become more acute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We should not be surprised if, in\nthe coming period, even some of the most vociferous bourgeois spokesmen in\nfavour of abolishing influx control change their position once again on this\nissue. But somersaults vice versa are also possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, what is likely\nis that the regime will attempt to modify<\/strong>\nthe operation of the pass laws by partial exemptions, and by tying it in with\nthe plans for \u2018regionalisation\u2019 of administration. Recently, they have slightly\nbroadened the conditions for Section 10 rights and extended the mobility of the\nminority who qualify.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the idea that we can be\nentertained to a period of genuine \u2018free mobility\u2019 of black people in SA\nthrough the good offices of the ruling class is shown to be absolutely\nludicrous at a time when townships are being surrounded by troops, and people\nentering and leaving are stopped, checked and searched.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again, for every move in the\ndirection of changing or dismantling an old measure of state control over the\nblack population, there will be two or three new measures of repression and\ncontrol introduced. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Essential Barrier<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again and again to the fore comes the essential barrier to the\ntransformation of society \u2013 the racist capitalist state machine itself.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The big capitalists \u2013 the\nso-called \u2018liberals\u2019 \u2013 would like, and indeed need, to change the racial\ncharacter of the state. They are frightened half witless by the spectre of\nrampaging white soldiers and riot police, carrying out \u2018unnecessary\u2019 provocative\nmassacres and so whipping-up the revolution. They want to give the state a \u2018broader\nbase\u2019 among black people, in the hope of making its repressive function more \u2018acceptable\u2019\nto the masses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But they are caught on the horns\nof a contradiction from which there is no escape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Marx and Engels explained that\nthe bourgeoisie rules, in the final analysis, by relying on \u2018armed bodies of\nmen\u2019 together with their appendages in the shape of courts, prisons, the bureaucracy,\netc. This is what the state basically is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the bourgeoisie, having\ncreated a state in one form, cannot simply at its discretion exchange it for\nanother. If there were a hundred years of peaceful capitalist evolution ahead\nof them in South Africa, who knows what changes they could gradually bring\nabout in the racial complexion of the state? But the reality today is that they\nare facing a revolutionary challenge to capitalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The state which they have built is founded in white domination and privilege.\nIt is a state whose whole essence is to defend capitalism against the black\nproletariat by the method of guaranteeing and defending the privileges of the\nwhites.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It has been shaped and honed over\ngenerations for this purpose. This is reflected in the character and composition\nof all the commanding strata of the bureaucracy, the judiciary, etc., and in\nthe make-up of the armed forces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Half of the police force may be\nblack; coloured, Indian and later even African people may be drawn into the\narmy \u2013 but essentially the army rests and will remain resting on white working class\nand lower-middle class troops, organised by a commanding hierarchy of white\nupper-middle class and bourgeois officers. And it is the army which, as we have\nseen increasingly in the townships, is the ultimate weapon of power and repression\nwielded by the ruling class against the blacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of the challenge of the\nblack proletariat from below, the ruling class have to try to reform the state\nsystem; they have to try to change the state itself. But they cannot afford to\nweaken the repressive power of the state in the face of this black challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To the limited extent that they\ncan \u2018blacken\u2019 the state forces, they render the state potentially unreliable to\nthem; and at the same time this drives to disaffection the reliable white\nforces they have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With everything in turmoil around\nthem, they have no choice but to keep the snarling wolf-hounds of the white\nstate apparatus in readiness for action, and again and again unleash their ferocity\nagainst the people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The feebleness of the black\nmiddle class, and the advanced stage of racial and class polarisation and\nconflict, makes it all the more impossible to extend the basis of the state to\nincorporate blacks on any reliable foundation. This has been shown by the fate\nof the collaborator councils, for example. Now the black police themselves are\nunder pressure from the masses to resign their jobs or face grisly reprisals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The regime cannot recruit \u2018popular\u2019\nblack figures into the system, because the system is obliged to carry-out\nopenly anti-working class and counter-revolutionary policies and actions which\nguarantee that any \u2018popular\u2019 figure who entered would become unpopular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus they have all the more to\nretain the old white basis of the state in\nits essentials<\/strong>, and step-up repression. It is imperative that we never lose\nsight of this fact through all the twists and turns of events that will unfold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The policies and manoeuvres of\nthe regime and the ruling class will become increasingly chaotic. There will be\nfurther \u2018determined moves\u2019 and \u2018new initiatives\u2019 in the direction of reform;\nthere will be false starts, retreats, savagely increased repression, temporary\nretreats from that, attempts to combine reforms and repression in new ways, new\nfailures of that, and the long-term undermining of morale and cohesion in the\ncamp of the bourgeoisie and of the whites generally. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

White Living Standards Attacked<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time that capitalism\nis compelled to drive down the living standards of the mass of black people, it\nis forced also to attack the material privileges of the whites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now even white living standards\nare persistently falling or showing a tendency to fall. Where they can be\nmaintained at their old levels, this is only by running down savings, or\nrunning up debts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four years ago whites were saving\n11 cents out of every rand in their pockets; now they are saving 2 cents.\nReliance on hire-purchase and other forms of consumer credit has gone up\nastronomically. The majority of the bank credit in SA is consumer credit, and\nin the recent period it has been growing by R1 billion per quarter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bank overdrafts and HT debt now\ntotal R14 billion. In 1984 there were 385,065 civil judgements for debt \u2013 the\namount involved having increased 60% in a single year. This year a record\nnumber of families are going through the courts, filing for bankruptcy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pockets of real poverty are now\nbeginning to reappear among working class whites as a result of recession,\nnecessitating in some cases feeding schemes at white schools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time the imperative\nneed of the capitalist state to cut public expenditure has driven the regime to\ntry to take back the relatively large wage increase given to civil servants in\n1983-84, and to begin to drive down their real incomes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One-third of economically active\nwhites are employed by central government or the provincial administrations. If\nparastatal corporations are taken into account, this figure rises to an\nestimated 60%. Whether directly or indirectly, all attacks on the living\nstandards of the whites inevitably introduce instability into the foundations\nof the state itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When, in March this year, Botha\nannounced a one-third cut in the Christmas bonus for state employees \u2013 a\nmeasure affecting about one million people \u2013 there was an immediate outcry by\nwhite railway workers, postal workers, teachers, clerks, etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An angry meeting of 1,000 white\nrailway workers in Johannesburg on 5 March (typical of many across the country)\nthreatened labour unrest if the cut was not rescinded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The workers were unimpressed by\nBotha\u2019s appeal to \u2018their \u2018patriotism\u2019. \u201cThe time has now come,\u201d he said, \u201cto do\nwhat we sing in our anthem: Ons vir jou,\nSuid-Afrika<\/em>.\u201d It is beginning to dawn on the white workers that the\nbourgeoisie\u2019s \u2018nation\u2019 and \u2018country\u2019 are not in reality theirs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is a case of the rich\ngetting richer and the poor getting poorer,\u201d declared a leader of the white\ntransport unions. The Minister of Transport was accused of \u201ctreating the\nrailway workers like his farmhands.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bonus cut was described as\nthe worst setback for white workers since the 1922 cuts \u2013 the occasion of the\nonly serious white working class revolt in the history of SA. The 1922 revolt\nwas a key factor leading to the state\u2019s strategy of buying the loyalty of the white\nworkers with job security and material privileges. Now the ruling class has no\nchoice but to undermine these privileges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The era of the tame white working\nclass is coming to an end. But because an\nindependent class movement<\/strong> is impossible among a privileged aristocracy of\nlabour seeking to defend their position against<\/strong>\nthe demands of the low-paid and oppressed mass of the workers \u2013 this revolt\namong the whites inevitably falls at first into the clutches of the most\nreactionary bourgeois and petty-bourgeois nationalist politicians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A typical headline in the Herstigte\nNasionale Party\u2019s (HNP \u2013 Reconstituted National Party) Die Afrikaner<\/em> reads: \u201cWegbeweeg van diskriminasie die oorsaak van\nekonomiese krisis<\/em>\u201d (the move away from discrimination is the cause of the\neconomic crisis). Treurnicht\u2019s Conservative Party puts precisely the same line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a declining economic \u2018cake\u2019,\nthey point-out, any material advances by, or political concessions to, the\nblacks must be at the \u2018expense\u2019 of the whites. This argument makes crude but\nclear \u2018sense\u2019 to the majority of whites remaining trapped within the blind\nalley of capitalist society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One of Treurnicht\u2019s favourite\nplatform tricks is to tell his audiences that, when they see the President on\ntelevision wagging his finger, it is because he is counting the furniture in\ntheir living rooms to give it away to the blacks!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This filth flourishes nonetheless\nin a situation where a white child can expect to use ten-times<\/strong> the financial and physical resources available to a black\nchild. This when the state, in 1984, spent R1,385 on the education of each\nwhite child, and R192 on the education of each African child. Yet a\nConservative MP can gain popularity by declaring in the House of Assembly: \u201cThe\nordinary white person is sick and tired of being the milk-cow (for the blacks).\u201d[8]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here is summed up the absolute\nimpasse and revolting sickness of bourgeois society; the horrible polarisation\nand race conflict which has been engendered by capitalism in SA. From this\nthere is no way out except revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the crisis of society\nintensifies, and as the movement of the black masses takes on a more and more\nrevolutionary character, inevitably the great majority of small farmers, urban\nmiddle class and working class whites must be propelled in the direction of\nultra-right racist reaction. So far we have only seen the beginnings of this\nprocess. It affects not only the Afrikaners, but the English-speaking whites as\nwell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The process exhibits many\ncontradictory features. It will develop not in a straight line, but through\nsudden turns and sharp changes, and while there are tendencies in the opposite\ndirection at the same time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the white workers we can\nsee, simultaneously, moves in some sections of their unions even towards the\nproposed new non-racial federation, while in politics Treurnicht is gathering\nwhite worker support. The overall line of development will be towards the\nright.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Botha, it is true, secured a 66%\nmajority in the white referendum of 1983 for the introduction of his new \u2018reform\u2019\nconstitution. This was despite the National Party itself having only about 50%\nsupport in opinion polls, and against the combined opposition of the PFP (on\nthe government\u2019s left) and the Conservative Party\/HNP (on the extreme right).\nThe explanation for this is twofold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the one hand, the great\nmajority of whites sensed the unviability of the old system in the face of the\nrising movement of the blacks. On the other hand, they were reluctant to weaken\nthe government in the face of this challenge and were prepared to give an\nopportunity to Botha to test-out the programme to which he had committed the\ngovernment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, at the same time, most\nwhites (including all sections of the bourgeoisie and probably even Botha\nhimself) had no genuine faith in the long-term viability of the new scheme\neither. To get the necessary support Botha had to present the constitution to\nthe whites as an effective guarantee against\nhaving to make concessions to African political demands<\/strong>. Now already, this\nis shown to be nonsense. The discrediting of Botha\u2019s \u2018reform\u2019 programme \u2013 including\nits rejection by the blacks \u2013 now repels increasing numbers of former\ngovernment supporters towards the right. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Depth of Revolt<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The depth of the revolt now\nbeginning in the subsoil of white society is shown in the rough reception given\nto NP politicians in the white working class and lower-middle class\nconstituencies. It is shown also in the desperate tones in which these\npoliticians appeal for continued support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A report in the Rand Daily Mail<\/em>[9]<\/a>\nillustrates what is taking place:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Addressing a rowdy meeting in Mayfair, Mr Meyer [National Party MP for Johannesburg West] … said South Africa was becoming more and more difficult to govern.<\/p>

\u201cIt is the responsibility of every person to remember that. If we are not going to solve the problems of this country, fires are going to start that we won\u2019t be able to put out.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cWe all know the explosiveness of the situation, even in this suburb, as a result of the tension between races. This is true for all of South Africa.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cThe tension in black areas is high, the economy is at a low point… It is the responsibility of the government to see that we have the maximum chance of stability and peace.\u201d<\/p>

\u201cDon\u2019t set things alight when we will all burn,\u201d he said.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It is in areas such as this that\nthe erosion of the Group Areas Act is beginning to take place. The white\nworkers and lower-middle class have long accepted the argument of the\nultra-right (formerly used by the Nats) \u2013 an argument couched cynically in\npseudo-class terms \u2013 that the liberals only oppose apartheid because they do\nnot need it. They have the money to buy their separation. Instead of catching\nbuses, they ride to work in limousines. If they had to rub shoulders with the\nblacks, they would see things differently… etc.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the worthy citizens of Sea\nPoint, well-to-do English-speaking liberals in the main, who elect a PFP MP and\ncouncillors, have demonstrated the correctness of this argument to the white\nworkers. When blacks began to ignore beach apartheid and came in busloads to\nuse the beaches of Sea Point, a flood of protests from the white residents\nensued.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Letters to the Cape Times<\/em> complained of blacks\nurinating in the sand, running about naked, smoking dagga, drinking and\nvomiting, and of women swimming in bras and panties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The few \u2018saner\u2019 voices were\nswamped. A PFP councillor commented: \u201cWe whites finally got a chance to see how\nthe other half lives, and it\u2019s been a shock.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More of the reality of South\nAfrica\u2019s race- and class-divided society is summed up in these events than in\nall the preachings of the liberal politicians, academics and clergy. As\nBoraine, the PFP MP admitted, for whites \u201cgoing into the township situation is\nlike going into a foreign country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The transformation of South\nAfrica into a non-racial society, democratically governed and controlled by its\npeople, cannot take place peacefully or \u2018under anaesthetic\u2019 \u2013 the patient will\nbe fully awake, kicking and screaming throughout the operation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because, when it comes down to\nit, the class issues are so inseparably bound-up with the race issues, the\ngreat majority of whites will inevitably recoil from the implications of real\nchange and try to cling onto their present privileges so long as it is at all\npossible to do so. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Trying to Avoid and Delay<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most of those who support \u2018reform\u2019\ntoday do so mainly to avoid<\/strong> and delay<\/strong> the advent of fundamental change.\nA similar thing motivates those who believe that \u2018reform\u2019 is but a slippery\nslope to disaster. Surveys have shown that a majority even of HNP supporters\nbelieve that South Africa will have a black government in their lifetime. But\nthey want to put off the evil day as long as they can, hoping that perhaps it\nwill not come!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is because \u2018reform\u2019 will fail\nand turn into chaos that the prospect of an increasing swing from the NP\ntowards the Conservative Party becomes a virtual certainty. This will take\nplace among English as well as Afrikaans-speaking whites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At some point the revolt of the\nwhites is likely to induce a revolt among the backbench NP politicians. While\nBotha may manoeuvre to the right to head this off, a further split of the\nNational Party is entirely possible \u2013 which could put Treurnicht in a position\nto capture a majority in the white parliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fearing electoral setbacks which\nwould suggest a weakening of the government, Botha has used the introduction of\nthe new constitution as a pretext for extending the life of the parliament to\n1989. The last white elections were in 1981. Now the English press has mooted\nthe possibility that each further stage of \u2018constitutional reform\u2019 could\nprovide an opportunity to defer elections even further.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If a white election were held\nunder the present constitution, the governing party need lose only 35 seats in\norder to forfeit its outright majority. Recent by-election results have\nsuggested that at least 50 NP-held seats are vulnerable to the Conservatives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Such a situation could lead to\nthe PFP holding the balance of power in the white parliament. Already there are\nmarked signs of a trend in the right-wing of the PFP towards coalition with the\nleft-wing of the Nationalists. A coalition strategy has been in Slabbert\u2019s mind\nalready for several years. If coalition became a real prospect, however, the PFP\nwould almost certainly split.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, a split in the\nNationalist Party would not necessarily depend upon an election or a move by\nthe \u2018verligtes<\/em>\u2019 towards a deal with\nthe PFP right. In perspectives, it is necessary to guard against what Marx\ntermed \u2018parliamentary cretinism\u2019. Even if Botha could contrive by re-delimitation\nor other legislative manoeuvre to forestall a Treurnicht electoral victory,\nonce the right-wing backlash among the whites reached sufficient proportions\nand became a powerful extra-parliamentary revolt, large numbers of Nationalist\npoliticians would go over. A series of fiascos in the government\u2019s \u2018reform\u2019\nprogramme could easily lead to such a situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bourgeoisie would fear a\nTreurnicht government, mainly because of the provocative signal this would give\nto the blacks, and because there would be correspondingly less control over the\nwhite reaction. It would lay in ruins all present plans for further \u2018reform\u2019,\nand increase the tendencies towards racial civil war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They would therefore manoeuvre\nfuriously to prevent Treurnicht coming to power. But would they go over to a\ndirect military government as a means of forestalling this? That cannot be\nruled-out, but it is not the most likely perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When faced with the situation\nconcretely, the capitalists would realise that Treurnicht himself would not be\nable to proceed on an uncontrolled course of reaction. After all, what further\nrepressive power would be at his disposal than the government possesses now? A\nTreurnicht regime would still, in the final analysis, have to defend capitalism\nand respond to the almighty pressures of the world economy and the SA economy\nin the grip of crisis. It is impossible in this epoch for any bourgeois\ngovernment to achieve real autonomy from the dictates of finance capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, even a Treurnicht\ngovernment would probably have to employ many of the same devices of \u2018reform\u2019\nand operate within the framework of the existing constitution. But it would be\neven more ludicrous and unworkable as a result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, to resort to\nmilitary dictatorship against<\/strong> the\nwill of the whites \u2013 to prevent the replacement of a failed NP government with\none further to the right when this was demanded by a clear majority of whites \u2013\nwould be a course fraught with immense dangers for the bourgeoisie. Even if all\nthe senior officers could be relied on, their power would prove to be a phantom\nif they were unable to rely on the loyalty of the rank-and-file troops and\npolice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The army is a reflection of\nsociety \u2013 in SA\u2019s case a reflection mainly of white society. To use the state\nagainst the whites would be impossible except within very narrow limits.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus such an adventure could lead\nto crippling splits in the apparatus of the state itself. That in turn would\nspur forward the revolutionary movement. For these reasons it is unlikely that\nthe bourgeoisie would attempt to keep Treurnicht out by means of a military\ncoup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In a serious constitutional\ncrisis affecting the whites, the first concern of all<\/strong> the bourgeois politicians will be not to open the door to the\nblack revolution. Thus, if the parliamentary road is denied to Treurnicht by\nthe NP regime\u2019s manoeuvres, it would not follow automatically \u2013 indeed it is\nunlikely \u2013 that he would lead an extra-parliamentary bid for power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More likely, he would try instead\nto control his own ranks and manoeuvre behind the scenes for a deal. But in\nthat event a split of the Conservative Party, with a section moving further to\nthe right, would become a distinct possibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It could not be ruled-out that,\nat some stage, possibly even with the agreement of the Conservatives, the\nbourgeoisie might have to turn to a military regime \u2013 in an attempt to combine\nrepression and \u2018reform\u2019 more effectively against the blacks, while trying to\nhold the whites together through military discipline. But it would lead\neventually to the same inevitable splits, and begin to affect the army itself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

State as instrument of change?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the state machine cannot be\nused effectively against reaction<\/strong>,\nconversely it cannot be used as an effective instrument of reform<\/strong>. Yet this is precisely the idea put forward by such\nluminaries as Van Zyl Slabbert of the PFP, and his echoes among the academics.\nApparently a \u201cstrong Defence Force\u201d etc. is needed for the very purpose of\nbringing about \u201cpeaceful change\u201d! This hypocritical nonsense of the liberal\nbourgeois is really nauseating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Afrikaans academic, Hermann\nGiliomee, has become an interesting writer to watch as a weather-vane of the\nideas of the left-wing of bourgeois society. Having had the courage to break\nwith Afrikaner orthodoxy, he often expresses matters in terms of their fundamentals\nto a greater extent than the woolly English liberals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, in an article in the Rand Daily Mail<\/em>,[10]<\/a>\nhe sets out a list of sound reasons showing that the basis for viable political\nreform in South Africa has been destroyed. But when he approaches the awful\nimplications of this fact, suddenly he can go no further. He springs back. He\nmust find some \u201csolution to gloom at the top\u201d! Thus he offers a conclusion in\ncomplete contradiction to what he has just proved:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is silly to suggest that any attempt to reform South Africa will be \u2018too little, too late\u2019. The basic structures of the South African state are still stable.<\/strong> (Our emphasis.)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

But the stability of the SA state\nis precisely the result of the cohesion built-up between the different classes <\/strong>of white society over\nthe past decades. The basis of that cohesion is racial domination and\nprivilege.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the state to undertake\nreform, the state itself has to be reformed. Precisely because there is no objective\nscope for viable reform of South African society, attempts to reform the state\ncan only render it unstable without any prospect of it regaining stability on a\nnew basis. Stability of the South African state therefore stands in\ncontradiction to reform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the bourgeoisie, for its\nsurvival, requires both stability and reform. In attempting to reconcile this\ncontradiction, as it must, it will end up moving from \u2018reform\u2019 to\ncounter-reforms and from a \u2018stable\u2019 to an unstable state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The class struggle has an\nimperious logic. Radical critics of the bourgeoisie and of the regime, if they\ndo not break decisively with bourgeois society and cross to the stand-point of\nthe black working class, can only end up as abject apologists of the\nblood-soaked state machine itself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Incipient Civil War<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

To a certain extent, the movement\nof the black working class has begun to make South Africa \u2018ungovernable\u2019 by the\nregime. But it would be totally naive to conclude from this that conditions are\nemerging for a negotiated \u2018settlement\u2019 of the question of power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reality of the matter is that\nSouth Africa has entered a period of incipient civil war. At the present time,\nhowever \u2013 and it may appear strange to say this in a country notorious for\nviolence and massacre \u2013 we are still in a relatively\npeaceful<\/strong> period compared with what lies ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the situation is\ncharacterised by vicious violence of the state against the black working\npeople, it has not so far been characterised by direct inter-racial violence\nbetween the white and black communities themselves. This is mainly because the\nwhites can still look with confidence to the state to subjugate and repress the\nblacks on their behalf. So far the violence of the system remains \u2018institutionalised\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But once the mass movement of the\nblack people begins to overwhelm the capacities of the state forces \u2013 and\nalready troops and even railway police have to be used to reinforce the police\nin the townships \u2013 this situation will begin to change. It will change all the\nmore with the splits of the bourgeoisie and in the camp of the whites\ngenerally, resulting divisions within the state, and the partial paralysis of\nits striking power.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This will be a situation on which\nthe ultra-right reaction feeds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the November general\nstrike, the right-wing spread rumours among the white communities that blacks\nwere planning to embark on a campaign of terror and violence directed against them.\nStickers and leaflets forged to appear as though they emanated from the movement,\ndeclared: \u201cRape a white woman; kill a white child!\u201d and called for armed\nattacks on white schools and the firebombing of white homes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe result of these damn\nrumours,\u201d wrote Percy Qoboza in the Johannesburg City Press<\/em>, \u201cis that many white people, particularly in this town, were\nmoving around the streets with loaded guns.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A gun dealer in Johannesburg\u2019s\nnorthern suburbs told the press that there had been an upsurge in orders,\nespecially during the previous two weeks. \u201cUsually people want handguns,\u201d he\nsaid, observing that pistols are as commonplace in white homes as toasters. \u201cBut\nall of a sudden we have customers wanting shotguns, pump-action shotguns. That\u2019s\nhow I know people are scared.\u201d[11]<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the recent unrest at Vaal\nReefs Mine, NUM general secretary Cyril Ramaphosa reported that white miners\nwere going underground with loaded pistols and pointing them at the black\nmineworkers. Most probably, black mineworkers in this period will be discussing\nmeasures of self-defence against the police and racist white miners \u2013 measures\nwhich will eventually have to involve obtaining and using arms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The whole logic of the developing\nsituation will lead inevitably to the arming of the revolutionary movement of\nthe black workers and youth for their defence. That in turn will precipitate more\nvicious state attacks and so add to the spiral of civil war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Already the fascist Afrikaner\nWeerstandsbeweging (AWB \u2013 Afrikaner Resistance Movement) leader, Terreblanche,\nhas seized the opportunity to announce that his white storm-troopers will be\navailable to act alongside the state in murderously repressing the blacks. At\nthis stage, of course, that would not be permitted by the regime, because it\nwould lead to the blacks arming themselves even more rapidly. Nor is there any\nquestion in SA of the fascist forces ever obtaining state power. But we can\ncertainly envisage, over the next five or ten years, situations in which they\nwill act, as in Chile and other countries, as jackals running at the heels of\nthe army and police. Already they have penetrated significantly into the lower\nranks of these state organs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perspectives always have to be\nvery conditional, and all the more so in the extremely complex situation of\nSouth Africa. We have to be especially cautious on questions of timing, for it\nis impossible to forecast the precise conjunctures of all the factors and\nevents that will occur. Nevertheless, it is quite possible to draw-out in\nperspectives the basic lines of development which are inherent in the South\nAfrican situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There will inevitably be a serious\nfurther development in the direction of racial civil war. It will not be a war\nfought by great armies from opposing territories (as, e.g., in the American\nCivil War), or between opposing regimes (as, e.g., between Republican and\nNationalist Spain), but rather the development of a state of \u2018siege\u2019, of armed\ncamps and no-go areas, of street fighting, of massacres, of reprisals, of\nbloody inter-racial clashes, of chaos, decay and disintegration.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In all this the main bulwark of\nthe bourgeoisie will continue to be the state<\/strong>,\nthe organising force of capitalist reaction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Once the real issues and\ninterests at stake in the SA revolution are starkly posed, the main body of the\nbourgeoisie will resort to the most extreme measures of counter-revolution. At\nthe same time, because that reaction will inevitably be racist in character,\nthe big bourgeoisie will manoeuvre in order to disclaim direct responsibility\nfor it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the full force of the state \u2013\nincluding its massive armoury of aircraft, bombs, tanks, artillery,\nmachine-guns, etc. \u2013 will when necessary be wheeled into action. We should be\nunder no illusion that the ruling class will shrink from slaughtering\nhundreds-of-thousands, and even millions, once the chips are down.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The horrors we have seen in the\ncivil war in the Lebanon will seem like a picnic in comparison with what can\nhappen in South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nor will the \u2018opposition\u2019 of US\nimperialism to the methods of the SA regime continue on their present course\nindefinitely and under all circumstances. In the final analysis, it is the threat\nof the black workers gaining power \u2013 the spectre of communism \u2013 which will dictate\nthe policy of imperialism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The SA ruling class will say, \u201cWe\ntried to reform, but the blacks want communism!\u201d Inevitably the United States\nwill find ways, mainly underhand ways, short of direct intervention, of\nmaterially assisting and reinforcing the SA state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Soviet bureaucracy, fearing a\nhealthy proletarian revolution anywhere in the world (and particularly in this\ndecisive industrialised country of Africa), and fearing to complicate its\nsearch for \u2018peaceful coexistence\u2019 with US imperialism, will hold back from\ndirect involvement while urging the leaders of the movement in SA to find a\ncompromise settlement with the capitalist class and with the whites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Negotiated settlement?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Already a section of the\ncapitalist class has moved to the position of advocating \u2018talks\u2019 with the ANC.\nRecently Afrikaans journalists and academics have gone on safari, to Lusaka to\ntest the ground for possible future negotiation. Although Botha has repudiated\nthese initiatives, it is probable that he gave at least tacit approval\nbeforehand. Meanwhile, Anglo American bosses have been eagerly keeping up their\ncontacts with ANC exiled leaders abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tony Bloom, chairman of Premier Group,\nargues that \u201cour new dispensation\u201d will not achieve credibility unless credible\nblack leaders like Mandela and Tambo can be brought into it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A dramatic move towards the establishment of credibility would undoubtedly be the opening of tentative dialogue, on the proviso (and I stress this proviso most strongly) that it renounces violence as an instrument of policy, with the African National Congress. It is difficult to establish just how great the support for the ANC is among the blacks in SA, but I venture to suggest that it is very, very substantial… <\/p>

There is an historical inevitability about talking to the ANC \u2013 it is not a question of if, but rather when.[12]<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

What Bloom\u2019s \u2018proviso\u2019 in reality\nmeans is that the ANC must openly renounce the revolutionary overthrow of the\nstate and agree to knuckle down under a system in which the capitalist class\nretains the monopoly of power defended by the present state monopoly of armed\nforce.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This no black leadership could\npossibly accept without immediately appearing as sell-outs before the people.\nIt is noteworthy that Botha\u2019s manoeuvre in offering to release Mandela was made\nconditional on a similar \u2018renunciation of violence\u2019. Quite correctly, Mandela\nrejected it decisively.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is not \u2018violence\u2019 which is at\nstake, in reality, but power<\/strong>. No\nruling class surrenders its historical position of power without a fight. The\nANC leadership cannot yield to the bourgeoisie\u2019s claims without losing its own\nmass base of support and rendering itself impotent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because a transfer of power to\nthe black majority cannot take place without the revolutionary overthrow of the\nstate in SA, it will be impossible for talks to succeed. That will remain the\ncase even if the ANC leadership, on the one hand, and the SA regime on the\nother, wished to achieve a negotiated\nsettlement with each other<\/strong>. Quite probably Botha himself \u2013 even while he\nputs the UDF leaders on trial for treason \u2013 dreams of reaching such a\nsettlement eventually!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is impossible because the\nconstituencies, the respective class bases, on which the two sides rest are\nirreconcilable, even temporarily, in South African conditions. However, that\ndoes not mean that talks at some future stage will not take place. The question\nof \u2018talks\u2019, the \u2018urgency of talks\u2019, the \u2018imperative need for talks\u2019, will hang\nlike a ghostly light over all the successive phases, turns and zig-zags in the\ndeveloping situation of civil war. Receding at times from sight, it will again\nand again reassert its presence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The more the revolution clutches\nat the throat of the ruling class, the more desperate will they become to find\na negotiated way out. But all the attempts will break down under the objective\nimpossibility of reconciling even temporarily the real material class conflicts\nand racial antagonisms in this way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It could not be ruled-out, at\nsome future juncture, that right-wing elements will split off from the ANC in\nsearch of a compromise. Opportunities for negotiation may open-up also during\nthe inevitable periods of lull, despair, and even severe partial defeats which\nwill be suffered by the mass movement during the long struggle ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At some stage, even semi-official\nand perhaps official talks directly between the regime and ANC leaders could\nnot be ruled-out. But agreement could not be arrived at, or be made to stick. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Why not like Zimbabwe?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is a prevalent myth in\nSouth Africa, which has a hold also within the workers\u2019 movement, that this\ncountry can go the route of Zimbabwe \u2013 that there can be a negotiated\nsettlement on the lines of Lancaster House. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the objective conditions that\nmade that possible in Zimbabwe are not present in South Africa; on the contrary\nSA conditions rule it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The vast majority of Zimbabwe\u2019s\npopulation are peasants, scattered over the country, and not urban working\nclass. Moreover, the independence war was fought as a rural guerrilla war,\nbased on the peasantry. For this reason (and others which we have dealt with\nelsewhere \u2013 see, e.g., South Africa\u2019s\nImpending Socialist Revolution<\/a><\/em>), the proletariat remained passive during the decisive stages of the\nstruggle leading up to independence. In the revolution so far it has played no\nrole<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, the Rhodesian\nstate rested on a weak foundation of a white minority making up only one in\ntwenty of the total population. Financially and industrially weak, it was\ncrucially dependent upon South African backing, and the latter depended in turn\nupon the secret support of the imperialist powers (particularly the USA during\nthe war itself) to sustain the Smith regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was when Kissinger went to\nVorster and together they threatened to pull the rug out from under Smith that\nhe was compelled to give way to the Muzorewa government \u2013 a nominally \u2018elected\u2019,\nnominally \u2018black\u2019 government but on the basis of the old state remaining\nessentially intact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The guerrilla war continued to\nthe point where the state was stretched almost to the limit. Whites began to\nleave in significant numbers. South Africa would either have had to commit\ntroops directly to the war, or accept the ultimate collapse of the Rhodesian\nstate after perhaps another five or ten more years of attrition.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These were the main factors which\nprovided the basis for the Lancaster House agreement. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Only by a Whisker<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even so, that agreement was\nachieved only by a whisker. The initiative, let us recall, was by that stage in\nthe hands of South African and British imperialism (supported by the USA).\nSmith and Muzorewa, lacking real independent power, were forced to play along.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even without a mass movement of\nthe working class, the capitalists were afraid to concede majority rule and the\ntransition of power into the hands of the Patriotic Front (Zanu and Zapu)\nbecause of the weak social base of capitalism in Zimbabwe. They feared that a\nmass movement could easily break out and, finding support among the guerrilla\nfighters, compel the nationalist leaders to carry through the overthrow of\ncapitalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However the assurances of Mugabe\nand Nkomo that they would, if they won the independence election, maintain\ncapitalism as the basis of the economy and state, eventually satisfied them.\nThe main \u201cassurance\u201d in this respect, however, consisted in confining the guerrillas\nto \u2018assembly points\u2019 preparatory to disarming them. Thus the existing\ncapitalist state apparatus could remain basically intact, at least as the\nskeleton for the post-independence state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But had there been a\nrevolutionary mass movement of the working class, it would have been absolutely\nruled-out for the imperialists and capitalists to make this concession. On the\nother hand, had the guerrilla war continued to the end and resulted in the\ncollapse of the Rhodesian state, Zimbabwe would have ended up in the same way\nas Mozambique and Angola \u2013 with capitalist property expropriated. This\nprospect, with all its likely repercussions internationally, was the main\ninducement to the bourgeois to settle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So slender was their \u2018success\u2019\nhowever that, if Mugabe had merely raised his little finger \u2013 had merely called,\nafter his election victory, upon the workers and peasants to seize the\nfactories and land, and defend the revolution arms in hand \u2013 capitalism would\nhave been finished in Zimbabwe. Only an invasion by South Africa \u2013 a very risky\nventure \u2013 could have possibly rescued it, and then only temporarily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, as transpired later,\nofficers of the Rhodesian army, headed by General Walls, were conspiring before\nthe elections to take power by means of a coup. Had they done so, it would have\ncompelled a revolutionary response from the black nationalist leaders and\nprobably led to the overthrow of capitalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus we can see that even in the\nconditions of Zimbabwe, the Lancaster House agreement was possible only by virtue of a peculiar conjuncture of\ncircumstances<\/strong>. That conjuncture was in turn only possible because, in\nZimbabwe, the proletariat remained passive and allowed the social or class\nissues at stake in the struggle to be separated, partially and temporarily,\nfrom the political issue of \u2018majority rule\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is what has allowed the\nestablishment of a black government on a capitalist basis. Now, having reconsolidated\nthe capitalist state, the \u2018Marxist\u2019 Mugabe finds himself obliged to attack the\nrights and standards of the working class, preside over a process of\ncounter-reforms, and move towards a viciously repressive one-party\ndictatorship. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

SA Conditions Different<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In South Africa the whole situation\nis and will be completely different. The SA revolution is from beginning to end\na proletarian revolution. Every advance in the struggle is achieved through the\nrising strength and mass action of the black working class. Reformist leaders,\nanxious to compromise with capitalism, are not a sufficient guarantee to the\nruling class that the masses can be held back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, the white\nminority, making up just less than one-fifth of the population, is a much\nstronger basis for the state than was the case in Rhodesia. Moreover the SA\nstate is less directly reliant on outside imperialist support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although significant numbers of\nmiddle class and bourgeois elements will leave South Africa when the struggle\nreally heats up (thus reducing, incidentally, the number of white \u2018democrats\u2019\nin SA), the majority of working class and lower-middle class whites who provide\nthe fighting forces of the bourgeois state will have nowhere else to go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So long as the SA bourgeoisie has\nthe weapon of a formidable state power to lean on, it cannot resort to gambling\nwith its own fate. At the same time, for the reasons explained, the forces of\nwhite reaction will be strong enough to prevent any concession of real power to\nthe black majority \u2013 until the movement of the black majority (the working class\nmovement) is strong enough to take power by force.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

No \u2018Popular Front\u2019 Government<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is for these reasons that we\nwould go so far as to say that there could never in South Africa be a coalition\ngovernment between the ANC and the bourgeoisie \u2013 though many ANC leaders might\nearnestly desire it. Put another way, we cannot conceive of conditions which\nwould permit the creation of an ANC government on a bourgeois basis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because the capitalist state in\nSA cannot be transformed into a democratic non-racial state, but will remain a\nstate of white domination and reaction, it follows that there can be no ANC or\nany other genuinely \u2018popular\u2019 government ruling on the basis of this state. An ANC government would first necessitate\nthe dismantling and replacement of this state.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But capitalist reaction centres\nupon the state. While the whites will be split and thrown into turmoil, and\nwhile the state will thereby be weakened to its foundations and tend to\ndisintegrate, it will be the army and white police apparatus which retains\ncohesion longest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because the state is \u2018armed\nbodies of men\u2019 in the final analysis, this means that the SA state will remain\nfundamentally intact until the armed forces have been defeated or shattered. If\nthat can be achieved, it will mean that the power of the bourgeoisie will have\nbeen completely broken; unrestricted power will have passed into the hands of a\nvictorious and armed revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By breaking the main barrier to\nthe democratic transformation of society \u2013 the state \u2013 the main barrier\npreventing the overthrow of capitalism would also have been broken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What would be the situation then?\nIt would depend on the route by which the victory was achieved.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the struggle in SA is fought\nout to the end purely as a black-white conflict \u2013 as a racial civil war \u2013 there\nis no certainty whatsoever that the blacks would win. The probability is otherwise.\nThe wealth, technology, modern arms and destructive power which the state,\ncapitalists and white minority have at their disposal is a formidable\nadvantage. If the reaction is not defeated politically and these destructive\npowers rendered unusable, they will be used to the full.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the event that the blacks,\nfighting on this basis through a long war of mutual destruction, were able ultimately\nto defeat the state nonetheless, what would be the situation faced by the\nleadership? The victory would have been gained at the cost literally of\nmillions of (mainly black) lives, and of laying waste the productive forces \u2013 the\nbasis of civilised existence which has been created by the labour of the working\nclass. On a mountain of corpses, on the ashes of industry, an ANC leadership\ncould not then, even if it wished, establish a coalition with the defeated\nbourgeoisie or maintain capitalism as the basis for a new regime under such\ncircumstances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even if, as in Eastern Europe\nafter World War Two, or in China after the victory of the Red Army, a nominal \u2018Popular\nFront\u2019 with the defeated or fleeing capitalist class was put forward, in\nreality the leadership would rule by means of its own military forces, and\nwould be compelled to move to nationalising the main means of production and\ndistribution, thus snuffing out capitalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leaning on a war-shattered and\nprostrated proletariat, what would come into existence would be a deformed workers\u2019 state<\/strong> \u2013 a regime of\nproletarian bonapartism on Stalinist lines. That would not be a rosy \u2018democracy\u2019\nin which all live happily ever after, but a new form of enslavement of the\nworking class under a privileged bureaucratic dictatorship \u2013 on ruined\nproductive foundations, but nevertheless on a higher level historically than\ncapitalism and apartheid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, let us repeat, the prospect of a \u2018victory\u2019 on such lines is\nvery remote indeed. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Victory of Class-conscious Proletariat<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let us consider, on the other\nhand, the more real prospect: a victory of the revolution under the class-conscious\nleadership of the black working class, which proves able to split the whites\ndecisively on class lines, ultimately cripple the army, and carry through the\ndefeat of the state by means of an organised and armed mass insurrection.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In that event, a coalition with\nthe bourgeoisie would be absolutely ruled-out. Nor could any leaders of the\nmovement, even if they wished, sustain capitalism in South Africa then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Power would in reality be in the\nhands of the black working class; all leaders would in the first instance have\nto reckon with that \u2013 or be pushed aside. The immediate material demands of the\nworking people would demand satisfaction \u2013 something possible only through the\nexpropriation of the means of production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The factories, mines and big\nfarms would already be in the hands of the proletariat, through armed seizures\nand occupations carried out in the course of overthrowing the state. It would\nbe impossible to displace the armed proletariat from its conquests save by\nmeans of armed counter-revolution \u2013 but the state, the only possible instrument\nfor such a counter-revolution, would have been destroyed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus all the prerequisites for\nthe revolutionary achievement of national liberation and democracy are at the\nsame time the prerequisites for the overthrow of capitalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, however, it will not be possible to defeat the SA state in\nthis way unless the revolutionary working class movement fights on a clear\nprogramme for the socialist transformation of society, and with a conscious\nMarxist leadership.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe perspectives of our\nrevolutionary struggle must never be blurred,\u201d says the ANC NEC in a statement\nof 9 May this year. Quite so. But a hopeless blurring of perspectives \u2013 a\ncomplete failure to appreciate the class issues and real dynamics involved in\nthe South African revolution \u2013 is shown in their very next words: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

We are determined to destroy the criminal apartheid system, root-and-branch, and on its ruins build a true non-racial democracy. To reach this goal we must attract into the arena of struggle all democratic forces drawn from all racial and class sections of our population. On this principle there can be no compromise.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

In a statement of 25 April this\nyear, the ANC NEC wrote:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We call on the white community in whose name racist barbarities are being perpetrated daily against the black majority, to move away from its support of apartheid and to increase the ranks of the growing number of democratic whites who are participating in our liberation struggle.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

It would be difficult to compound\nmore confusion and error within a few sentences. In these statements there is\nnot a word about the need to overthrow capitalism; to break the power of the\nbourgeoisie; to prepare the conquest of power by the black working class; to\nwin over whites on a class basis in order to cripple and eventually smash the\nstate. All the words that are here point in exactly the opposite direction \u2013 the\ndirection of complete muddle and wishful delusions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The apartheid system is treated\nas a thing-in-itself quite independent of capitalism. It is something that can\nbe destroyed \u201croot-and-branch\u201d \u2013 without overthrowing capitalism! \u201cOn its ruins\u201d\na beautiful \u201ctrue non-racial democracy\u201d is to be built \u2013 without bothering for\na moment about the nature of the socio-economic or class foundation<\/strong> on which \u2018democracy\u2019 is to be erected!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201cforces\u201d for this\nrevolutionary struggle are to be drawn from all<\/strong> \u201cclass sections\u201d of our population \u2013 including the\nbourgeoisie!? We are to have one happy family of \u201cdemocratic\u201d South Africans of\nall classes and races, in a liberation struggle which whites will join in a \u201cgrowing\nnumber\u201d (now that they have been \u201ccalled on\u201d to do so) regardless of the\nmaterial self-interest they may have in the present system!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On this basis the lion will lie\ndown with the lamb, the capitalist with the worker, the white with the black,\nand make a new start upon \u201cthe ruins\u201d! Compared with this, the miracle of the\nloaves and fishes was mere child\u2019s play.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This would all be laughable if it\nwasn\u2019t tragic \u2013 tragic that such nonsense is put forward by the leadership of a\ngreat and heroic revolutionary movement; tragic that such ideas today can claim\nthe backing of so-called \u2018Marxism\u2019 or \u2018Communism\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The approach necessary to win\nover whites in significant numbers<\/strong>\nto the side of the revolution in South Africa is a deadly serious matter. It\nrequires a scientific understanding and not \u2018democratic\u2019 wishful thinking if it\nis to be successful. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Realities Must be Faced<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The white bourgeois class is\nfundamentally hostile to genuine democracy, however much its liberal representatives\nmay pretend. Above all, it is hostile to revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As we have shown, too, the\npolitical evolution of the vast majority of whites \u2013 the workers and lower-middle class<\/strong> \u2013 will initially be, not \u201caway\nfrom\u201d apartheid, but further to the\nright<\/strong>. These whites will have to be won to the side of the black masses in\nthe course of a civil war developing inevitably on racial lines at the outset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only by grasping all this firmly, and not shrinking from its\nimplications, can we find the key to success.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is because the mighty\nstruggles opening up in South Africa hold out the prospect of appalling\ndestruction and attrition \u2013 it is because they will cast in doubt all security,\nall privileges, all benefits that the whites have hitherto enjoyed \u2013 that the\nmass of whites will recoil and seek an alternative way out instead of a racial\nwar to the bitter end. But they can do\nso only if a real alternative is shown.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

That alternative does not<\/strong> lie in sugary phrases about \u2018democracy\u2019,\nor in appeals to their moral sense. Nor<\/strong>\ndoes it lie in the making of any concession to white privilege, property, power\n\u2013 to so-called \u2018group rights\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There should be the protection,\non a basis of majority rule, of the rights of all individuals and of all\nminority groups to their language, culture, etc., and against discrimination.\nBut an undertaking to protect \u2018group rights\u2019, in the sense in which that is put\nforward today by middle class politicians, journalists and academics, means the protection of special minority\nprivileges<\/strong>. It means, moreover, the\nmaintenance of capitalism<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That is not only an intolerable\nretreat from the democratic demand for the national liberation of the majority\n\u2013 it will also be completely futile in its intention of \u2018winning over\u2019 whites to\ndemocracy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All the verbal \u2018guarantees\u2019 would\nnot persuade the capitalists or the whites generally to concede majority rule\nas long as power<\/strong> remains in their\nhands. Indeed, the search for compromise with capitalism and with white\nprivilege is precisely what will guarantee their intransigence and lead to the\ncertainty of a bloodbath of racial war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Vision of Future Society<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If the only vision of a future \u2018liberated\nSouth Africa\u2019 which is presented to the whites is the nightmare that they can\nsee in the African continent to the north \u2013 poverty, starvation, one-party military-police\ndictatorships, corruption, stagnation and decline (examples of the \u2018national\ndemocracy\u2019 beloved of the Stalinists?) \u2013 then the whites will undoubtedly fight\nto the end for what they have. And, we should make no mistake about it, they\nhave an immense amount for which to fight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, on the other hand, if the\nblack working class can show by its enormous physical power and courage, by its\ndemocratic organisation and unity, and by the clarity of its revolutionary\nprogramme, that it is determined to\nfight to the end to change society<\/strong>; if it can show, together with the\nworking class internationally, that workers\u2019 power will lay the foundations of a new socialist civilisation<\/strong>, capable\nof giving a decent life to all, free of the horrors of capitalism \u2013 then and\nthen alone will it be possible to win over a significant body of the whites, to\nbreak the loyalty of the white troops, to defeat the state power politically so\nthat it can be forcibly overthrown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A programme of workers\u2019 socialist revolution is the only way to achieve\nthe national liberation of the black people; it is also the only possible way\nout of the horror of a full-scale racial civil war. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Double Danger<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Popular Frontist ideas \u2013 ideas of\nthe \u2018unity\u2019 of all classes<\/strong> under the\nbanner of \u2018democracy\u2019; ideas of subordinating the revolutionary class<\/strong> movement of the black workers and\nyouth to a hoped-for compromise with capitalism \u2013 serve as a double danger to\nour liberation struggle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While they guarantee the\nintransigence of the mass of whites against the liberation movement of the\nblacks, at the same time they prevent\nthe full and conscious mobilisation of black working class power<\/strong>. These two\naspects are closely interlinked.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are millions of oppressed\nblack working class people still to be roused to action if the revolution is to\nsucceed. Yet passivity and backwardness is engendered among the people by the idea\nthat revolution is \u2018impossible\u2019 \u2013 that the white regime is too powerful to overthrow.\nButhelezi, for example, cultivates this paralysing idea when he points out \u2013 correctly\nin the context of a purely black-white\nstruggle<\/strong> \u2013 that the whites will \u201cscorch the earth\u201d rather than concede\npower. Therefore<\/strong>, he argues, don\u2019t\nfight but negotiate for whatever paltry deal you can get. It is the task of\nrevolutionaries to put forward a clear and convincing\nanswer<\/strong> to this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is when the masses as a whole see, by the example of the most advanced among their number marking out the road in action, that the movement has the power, has the policy, has the methods, and has the leadership to divide the whites and then smash the oppressor\u2019s power, that the full flood of the revolution will begin. Thus it is of absolute importance that the activists of the movement arm themselves and then arm their fellow strugglers with a clear, scientific conception of the perspectives and tasks of the revolution, and a coherent strategy for the victory of the working class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00a9 Transcribed from the original by the Marxist Workers Party (2020).<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continue to Chapter Four<\/a><\/h4>\n\n\n\n
\n\n\n\n

[1]<\/a> Africa South<\/em>, January-March 1959<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[2]<\/a> Sunday Express<\/em>, 11 November 1984<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[3]<\/a> Rand Daily Mail<\/em>, 26 November 1984<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[4]<\/a> 12 May 1985<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[5]<\/a> 10 May 1985<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[6]<\/a> 21 September 1984<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[7]<\/a> All these quotations from Financial Mail<\/em>, 21 September 1984; our\nemphasis throughout<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[8]<\/a> 12 February 1985<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[9]<\/a> 28 February 1985<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[10]<\/a> 16 April 1985<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[11]<\/a>  Guardian<\/em>,\n28 November 1984<\/p>\n\n\n\n

[12]<\/a> Article by\nBloom in Financial Mail<\/em>, 16 November\n1984<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Reform, Reaction and Civil War For most of this century the policy of the SA bourgeoisie, in all its conflicting sections, has been determined above […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":1186,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1202","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"acf":[],"_hostinger_reach_plugin_has_subscription_block":false,"_hostinger_reach_plugin_is_elementor":false,"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1202","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1202"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1202\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1277,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1202\/revisions\/1277"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1202"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}