{"id":271,"date":"2019-08-27T10:44:54","date_gmt":"2019-08-27T08:44:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marxistworkersparty.org.za\/?page_id=271"},"modified":"2019-08-29T12:55:37","modified_gmt":"2019-08-29T10:55:37","slug":"marxism-vs-nationalism-what-ideas-do-the-youth-need","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/?page_id=271","title":{"rendered":"Marxism vs. Nationalism: What ideas do the youth need?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

by Shaun Arendse, 2016<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is renewed interest in black nationalist ideas\namong black youth, especially university students. This interest\nis driven by the glaring racial inequalities in society which the campuses give\na concentrated experience of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although black student numbers have increased, the high\ncost of university and the inadequacy of NSFAS loans to poor students mean that\nmany, who often come from poorer backgrounds, are disadvantaged. Poverty brings\ninferior accommodation, access to transport, books, printing and other\nresources. Even not having enough money to socialise, party, and relax is a\ndisadvantage.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dominance of languages of European origin further\ndisadvantages many black students. Historically white universities in\nparticular are still white-dominated at senior managerial and academic level.\nThe curriculum, culture and identity of these universities inflame a sense of\nblack exclusion. The burden of restricted access, debt and high drop-out-rates\noverwhelmingly affects black students.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whilst many white students are consciously anti-racist,\nothers show little solidarity, support or even sympathy creating the\nunderstandable feeling that \u201cwhites don\u2019t care about us\u201d. A minority turn racism\ninto an organised force in reactionary groups such as Afriforum. But if some\nwhites are retreating into a racist laager, they are doing so not in defence of\napartheid-style white domination which they know has been defeated never to\nreturn. Their racism, awful as it is, is an expression of fear of losing\ndiminishing privileges that the ANC\u2019s neo-liberal policies and corruption\nthreaten, just as the ANC\u2019s policies have plunged millions more black people\ninto poverty.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without the correct programme to unite students of all\nbackgrounds in struggle, all of the material is present for racial tension and\nconflict on the campuses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

A developing\nconsciousness<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Racial domination and class exploitation have an\nintertwined history in South Africa. The former served as an indispensable weapon\nso that capitalism could profit from land dispossession, colonisation and the exploitation\nof the black working class. But the preservation of capitalism was at the heart\nof the compromise reached by the ANC in the negotiated settlement with the\napartheid regime. This inevitably meant the preservation of the privileges\nenjoyed by white society, albeit unequally across the classes into which white\nsociety is itself divided.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For many black students, turning to nationalist ideas is\nunderstandable and reflects a genuine search for a way to fight against racism\nand inequality. Especially amongst working class students an attraction to\nnationalism often reflects a rejection of the capitalist status quo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, there is much in common between Marxists and\nthose nationalists who draw inspiration from the Pan-African ideas of the\n1950s-70s colonial revolution. The most radical Pan-Africanists linked the\nstruggle against colonialism and imperialism to the struggle for socialism;\nthey saw the \u2018African revolution\u2019 as part of the world socialist revolution;\nits leaders viewed the ideas of Marxism as crucial to the success of their\nstruggles even if we would differ with them over how Marxism was understood and\nhow liberation struggles were organised. With such Pan-Africanists it is\npossible to unite in struggle whilst having a meaningful and comradely debate\nabout the relationship between class, race and the struggle for socialism. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Demands for privilege<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

But these are not the only ideas that march under the\nbanner of nationalism today. A nationalism that stops at the appearance of\nthings, rather than examining their real substance, cannot point in the\ndirection of the thorough social transformation of society. It points instead\ntowards the reproduction of capitalism\u2019s class structure with only a different\nracial composition particularly at the top. Regardless of the radical nature of\nthe rhetoric, such nationalist ideas are reactionary, anti-working class and\nanti-poor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sections of the black middle class who aspire to a\nprivileged position in society use nationalism as an ideological battering-ram\nto attack the white middle class\u2019s dominance of better-paid high-status jobs.\nTheir nationalism does not speak for all<\/em><\/strong> black people but is simply a\nclaim to privileges for<\/em><\/strong> their class<\/em><\/strong>. Some are quite open about this, saying it is the\nduty of black people to become rich. It means arguing that a \u201cnormal\u201d society would\nhave more black billionaires and more white maids. Nationalist ideas that do\nnot aim for socialism and attack Marxism can only be described as middle\nclass capitalist nationalism<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whist ideologically insignificant, this layer stifles\ngenuine debate, dismissing Marxism as a \u201cwhite European import\u201d that is\n\u201cirrelevant to Africa\u201d. Their real objection to Marxism is that it unmasks their\nelitist class aspirations. They champion anything and everything \u2018black\u2019\nregardless of the class forces involved. Anti-working class dictators like\nRobert Mugabe are celebrated, while those attracted to Marxist ideas are labelled\n\u201ctraitors\u201d with \u201ccolonised minds\u201d. The reactionary nationalist Andile Mngxitama\nhas even come to the defence of Zuma against the imagined plots of \u2018white\nmonopoly capital\u2019. For Mngxitama, simply being a black<\/em><\/strong> president makes\nZuma worthy of defence!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Fuelling the confusion<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Middle class capitalist nationalism is reinforced by anti-Marxist\nacademics in the media. Superficial concepts about \u201cthe black body\u201d, \u201cblack\npain\u201d and \u201cthe black child\u201d do not provide a scientific understanding of the\nclass origins of racism and inequality. Whereas the \u201cblack pain\u201d of working\nclass exploitation can only be eradicated by ending capitalism, that of the\nmiddle class is often a cry for privileges that depend on the continuation of\ncapitalism<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lack of class content in these ideas reduces racism and inequality to moral issues separate from the class structure of society. Without a perspective to break with capitalism the liberal white middle class has no solution to racism beyond begging those guilty of it to \u201cthink long and hard about their thoughts and actions\u201d. The black middle class either joins this chorus or emphasises white \u2018collective guilt\u2019 passed down the generations for which historical reparations must be paid in the form of shared privileges in capitalist society. \u00a0From different standpoints, but of the same class<\/em><\/strong>, these ideas defend middle class privilege in general<\/em><\/strong> by down-playing or ignoring the root of racism in the same class inequalities from which middle class privilege derives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The working class &\nnationalism<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Campus nationalism is too abstract to impact significantly\non the black working class. It offers no way forward in the struggle for higher\nwages and better conditions.  Workers on\nthe factory floor will not feel the burden of class exploitation less because\ntheir manager is black, likewise with profiteering shareholders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although the national liberation\nof the black majority topped the agenda of the anti-apartheid struggle, it is a\nserious misunderstanding to reduce that history to a simple case of black vs.\nwhite. The majority of black \u2018homeland\u2019 leaders, many black police and\ninformers, and some African capitalist states, supported the white-minority\nregime.  The working class drew lines of\ndivision in the struggle against apartheid based overwhelmingly on class because\nnationalism could not distinguish friend from foe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the workplace, black workers experienced national\noppression simultaneously as class exploitation. From the struggle for higher\nwages and improved living standards they drew the conclusion that the struggle\nagainst apartheid was simultaneously against capitalism. Both were defended by\nthe same state machine. Socialism thus became the dominant idea in organised\nblack working class consciousness from the 1980s. But nationalism demanded that\nthe working class dilute their class demands to accommodate blacks opposed to\napartheid but not to capitalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, the black ANC government defends the right of\ncapitalists to exploit workers.  Their\nneo-liberal policies guarantee unemployment, inequality and poverty for the\nblack majority whilst BEE policies enrich a small black capitalist class. \u2018Tenderpreneurs\u2019\nare amongst the most ruthless exploiters. Black political deployees in the\nstate stand alongside whites defending capitalism against the working class, as\nthey did at Marikana.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course many black workers suffer daily racist abuse at\nthe hands of white bosses. But ultimately nationalism asks the working class to\nview their white exploiters as fundamentally different<\/em><\/strong> to their\nblack exploiters. Day-to-day experience tells the working class this is not\ncorrect. However, ideas are not immediately put to the test in the same way on\ncampuses as in the workplace. Thus, the limitations of nationalist ideas are\nnot always obvious. Workplace class<\/em><\/strong> exploitation is outside of most\nstudents\u2019 experience. This, and the campus \u2018bubble\u2019, helps to disguise the\nanti-working class agenda behind many nationalist arguments and for the\n\u2018Marxism vs. nationalism\u2019 debate to rumble on in the abstract.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Old debate, new period<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the working class became the decisive class in\nsociety, growth in nationalist ideas has ebbed and flowed with the class\nstruggle in every generation. In the past, just as today, nationalism emanated\noverwhelmingly from middle layers in society, often students. For example, the\nset-backs suffered by the ANC-led defiance campaigns of the 1950s based on mass\nworking class action produced the PAC, led by the more educated and relatively privileged\nyouth. In the 1970s, Black Consciousness (BC) emerged in the universities and\nfor a period was the main challenge to apartheid. But by the early 1980s when\nthe working class became the decisive force in the anti-apartheid struggle BC\neither swung behind the workers or faded into the background.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today is no different. The 2012 mass mineworkers\u2019 strikes,\nthose of farm workers in 2013 and the break of the metalworkers\u2019 union Numsa\nfrom the ANC which flowed from this, put working class politics and methods of\nstruggle centre stage. But the best traditions of the mineworkers\u2019 struggle were\nsuppressed and the Numsa leadership\u2019s steps towards a new trade union\nfederation and a new workers\u2019 party have been confused and hesitating, slowing\nthe forward march of the heavy battalions of the working class. In turn this\nhas allowed parties like the Economic Freedom Fighters the space to set a\nnationalist tone to the widespread opposition to the capitalist status quo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lessons of history show that it is<\/em><\/strong> first\nand foremost the absence of a mass working class socialist alternative<\/em><\/strong>\nthat gives space for nationalist ideas to grow. We can say with confidence that\nthey will be cut across in the future by mass working class struggle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nebb and flow of mass action on the campuses also impacts on the development of ideas.\nThe nationalism of #RhodesMustFall was pushed to the side by #FeesMustFall as\nwhite and black students united in mass struggle against fee increases.  After winning a one year fee freeze the mass\nmovement ebbed, demoralising those students who wanted to continue the fight.\nUnfortunately, this led to impatience and many abandoning the slow methodical\nwork needed to organise and remobilise the mass movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The results were acts of isolated violence on some\ncampuses, such as burning buildings. On other campuses, the EFF Student Command\nand other nationalists tried to manoeuvre black students back into action by\nmisusing legitimate language grievances, polarising and dividing students. Rather\nthan building unity, the slogan #AfrikaansMustFall encouraged racial divisions that\nthe mass #Feesmustfall had begun to overcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Ending \u2018white privilege\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the basis of capitalism attempts to end \u2018white\nprivilege\u2019 overwhelmingly means a fight between black and white over limited\njobs and services. Even if every white in South Africa were \u201cdealt with\u201d as\nsome crude nationalists demand, poverty, inequality and unemployment would\nremain. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, under socialism, \u2018white privilege\u2019 will be ended\nnot by lowering the living standards of the average white but by massively\nraising the living standards of the black working class. For Marxists, the\nanswer to \u2018white privilege\u2019 is not \u2018black privilege\u2019 but the<\/em><\/strong> abolition of privilege <\/em><\/strong>through\nguaranteed high living standards for all, including a guaranteed job with a\nliving wage and universal free education. Only under socialism and the\nnationalisation under democratic control of the banks, mines, commercial farms,\nbig factories and big businesses is this possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But that does not mean shrugging our shoulders at racism under\ncapitalism today. Wherever racism and discrimination exists, workers and young\npeople must organise to defeat it. But anti-racist campaigns must have a clear\nprogramme based on mass working class struggle and link their demands to campaigns\nto raise living standards and the struggle for a socialist society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ending the inequalities in living standards between black\nand white will end the prejudices that see black skin as inferior. In turn this\nwill end the social conditions that maintain racism and \u2018white supremacist\u2019\nideas. The struggle for socialism is the struggle against racism.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Shaun Arendse, 2016 There is renewed interest in black nationalist ideas among black youth, especially university students. This interest is driven by the glaring […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":424,"parent":262,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-271","page","type-page","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","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\/271","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=271"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/271\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":434,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/271\/revisions\/434"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/262"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/424"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}