{"id":352,"date":"2019-08-28T08:56:55","date_gmt":"2019-08-28T06:56:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marxistworkersparty.org.za\/?page_id=352"},"modified":"2019-08-28T08:56:55","modified_gmt":"2019-08-28T06:56:55","slug":"chapter-13","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/?page_id=352","title":{"rendered":"Chapter 13"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The philosopher George Santayana wrote: “Those who do not\nlearn from history are doomed to repeat it.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just as the defeat of the movement of the 1950s was not\ninevitable, so the victory of our movement today will not be inevitable either.\nIt will depend mainly on the ability of the active, advanced layer of the\nworking class, now building organisation among the youth, in the communities,\nand above all in the democratic trade unions, to unite and guide the struggle\nby a means of a scientific understanding.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 1950s was a period rich in lessons for today – lessons that\ncan be found in every phase and facet of it: in the tremendous energy and force\nof the mass movement; in the heroism and self-sacrifice of the many thousands\nwho rose to confront the bosses and the state; in the hard-fought advances of\nthe movement as well as in its eventual crippling and defeat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These lessons, we believe, have a common connecting thread. They\nreveal that the struggle for national liberation and democracy involves, if it\nis to triumph, a struggle to overthrow the capitalist system itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They reveal that every real step forward in this struggle depends\non the mobilisation and organisation of the working class. They show that this\nclass, and no other, has the potential force to drive the ruling class into\nretreat, to weaken and divide the ranks of its supporters, to unite all the\nblack oppressed and draw to their side exploited sections of whites, and\nultimately to overwhelm the state.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The central lesson of the 1950s is surely this: that our\nrevolutionary movement, struggling for national liberation and democracy, must\nbe firmly and deliberately built as a class-conscious movement of the working\nclass for socialism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every significant defeat of the 1950s, every wrong step with\nserious consequences for the people, resulted from the failure of the\nleadership of the movement at that time to grasp this reality and use it as the\nbasis for perspectives, strategy and tactics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The unwillingness to mobilise and concentrate the full power of\nthe mass movement in nationwide action; the failure to build systematically the\nworking-class organisations necessary to sustain it and defend it against\nrepression; the repeated confusion and demoralisation in the movement, and its\neventual splitting between rival organisations and leaderships; the disarming\nof the working class by the futile turn to an “armed struggle” by\nguerrillas – all these had a common root.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They stemmed from the mistaken belief of a middle class leadership\n– reinforced in this by the “Communist” Party – that democratic\nconcessions could be won through the support of the liberal or\n“progressive” capitalists.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was upon these hopes, and not upon the power of the working\nclass, that the leadership in the final analysis relied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hence it sought again and again, in tireless futility, to\naccommodate the demands and aspirations of the working class within limits\nacceptable to the capitalists – and it ended up, in consequence, paralysing its\nown real forces, frustrating its own democratic aims, and going down to defeat\nwith the workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Only if there had existed in the 1950s a strong, conscious Marxist\ntendency within the ranks of the Congress movement, based especially among the\norganised workers in the trade unions, could that tragic course of events have\nbeen averted. Such a tendency did not exist. Today, however, at least the first\nbeginning has been made to try to fill that need.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The defeat of the movement was suffered at a tremendous cost to\nthe working class. Yet that cost will not have been wasted if the working-class\nmovement in the 1980s can draw to the full the lessons from it, and so prepare\nthe way to victory.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Conclusion The philosopher George Santayana wrote: “Those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it.” Just as the defeat of the movement […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":324,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-352","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\/352","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=352"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":353,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/352\/revisions\/353"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/324"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}