{"id":756,"date":"2019-09-18T15:32:16","date_gmt":"2019-09-18T13:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/marxistworkersparty.org.za\/?page_id=756"},"modified":"2019-09-18T15:54:29","modified_gmt":"2019-09-18T13:54:29","slug":"chapter-nine","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/?page_id=756","title":{"rendered":"Chapter Nine"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Crisis of the System<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The social and political crisis that has\nracked South Africa since the early 1970s has its foundation in the crisis of a\nsystem of production which is increasingly unable to provide for the most basic\nneeds of the population. The mounting intensity of resistance to the apartheid\ndictatorship is sustained by the mass of working people who more and more must\nstruggle in order to survive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bourgeois economists measure the health\nof sickness of an economy by the criterion of capitalist profit. They are\nblinkered by the narrow needs and interests of their class. The demands of the\npopulation as a whole enter their comprehension only as a \u2018problem\u2019 for the\nsystem and a potential threat. Their world is populated by inhuman forms \u2013 of\nstatistics, margins, flows and balances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Marxist approach, in contrast, concerns\nitself with the ability or inability of an economic system to provide for the\npeople as a whole the goods and services which are needed for a decent life. How\nwill developments in the economic situation affect the strengths and weaknesses\nof the capitalists in their battle to retain power? It is from this point of\nview that we study economic facts and figures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1974-75 was a turning point, not only in\nworld capitalism, but also in the development of the South African economy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between 1961 and 1974, production in SA\ngrew on average at the rate of 5,5% a year. But in 1975, against the background\nof the world crisis which had set in, the growth rate fell to 2%. In 1976-77 it\nwas under 2%. In 1977-78 there was an absolute drop in production of 0,25%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus the dependence of South Africa on the\nstate of the health of the world capitalism was sharply demonstrated. For a\ncountry with a rapidly growing population, with the majority sunk in poverty\nand already afflicted by large-scale unemployment, the effect was devastating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the factories and on the construction\nsites lay-offs and redundancies became commonplace. Black unemployment quickly\nrocketed to two million \u2013 and by 1976 was rising by 30 000 a month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because of the lack of any real\nunemployment benefit for the workers, the effect on working-class families was\nto force them to feed and support more people on fewer incomes. In the cities\nand the rural areas poverty, hunger and homelessness tightened its grip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile the capitalist disease of\ninflation continued to infect the economy. Prices rose, while people had less\nto spend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the workplaces, the bosses fought to\nraise profits by forcing longer hours and harder work out of fewer workers \u2013\nand for lower real wages. Because of the threat of unemployment, industrial\nstruggles became harder for workers to sustain. The trade unions faced an\nuphill struggle to defend their members, as the organised labour movement passed\ninto a period of lull.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to calculations by the chief\neconomist of Barclay\u2019s Bank, there was an average drop of 17% in the real\nincome per person, taken over the whole SA population, in the three years after\n1974. By 1977, living standards were below those of 1969.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was against this background that the\nintolerable burdens and tensions mounting up in the body of society broke\nfuriously to the surface in the Soweto uprising of 1976, and the nation-wide\nmovement of the youth and workers that followed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the crisis of capitalism does not\ndevelop in a straight line, and in the case of South Africa its course is\nparticularly convoluted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The cycles of the SA economy tend to run\nabout 12-18 months behind the advanced capitalist countries. The partial\nrecovery of world trade from 1976 onwards eventually began to have its effect\non the growth of South African exports.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, the turmoil in the international\nmonetary system (explained in Chapter 3) led to dramatic leaps in the price of\ngold. At the end of 1979, it reached $800 an ounce, and then eased to an\naverage of $615 in 1980. As the producer of half the world\u2019s gold, this meant\nan absolute bonanza for South African capitalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stimulated in this way, there was a strong\nrecovery of growth in the SA economy \u2013 just as the industrialised countries\nwere once again sliding into recession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u201cGolden decade\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Feeling immediately the upturn in\nproduction, and sensing the new wealth bulging in the pockets of the employers,\nthe black workers began flooding into the trade unions again and launched waves\nof struggle for higher wages and industrial rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For their part, the capitalists became\ndrunk with profits and proclaimed the 1980s a \u201cgolden decade\u201d which would usher\nin prosperity, peace and happiness for all South Africans! These were\nheady-days of ruling class confidence in their ability to bring about reforms\nof the system without endangering the continuation of their own rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this euphoria, in which the liberals\nparticularly were caught up, showed an utter blindness to the realities of\ntheir own class system. For the mass of working people \u2013 the blacks \u2013 the very\nyears of boom, from 1979 to 1981, have been years of record unemployment,\nrecord homelessness, record price rises and record poverty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A study carried out by a researcher at\nWitwatersrand University found that, in Soweto for example, the real incomes of\nblack families declined by about 20% between July 1978 and December 1980. In\nthe latter year, the share of net national income which went to blacks was\nproportionately less than in 1975.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In fact, in 1980, all employees together\ngot 7,7% less of the \u2018national cake\u2019 than in 1979 \u2013 and 1980 was the peak of\nthe capitalist boom!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With a growth rate of 8% in 1980, there was\na meteoric rise of profits for the bosses. The Anglo American Corporation, for\nexample, reported a 64% increase in the year up to March 1981. In fact, the Financial Mail<\/em> commented that any\ncompany unable to increase its earnings by more than 30% or 40% was in danger\nof being laughed off as an under-performer!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Worsen<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet, for the working masses, conditions\ncontinued to worsen atrociously. From 1977 to 1979 unemployment rose further by\nan estimated half million, and continued rising through 1980.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Mdantsane, for instance, 35% of the population\nwere unemployed in 1981; two-thirds of the people were earning R25 per week or\nless; and there was an average of 15 people per house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Conditions in the rural areas have grown\never more hellish. An organisation called \u2018Hunger Concern\u2019 estimated in 1980\nthat 50 000 children would die of hunger that year. Today more than half of the\n2-3 year old children in the Ciskei are malnourished. Half of black children in\nthe rural areas of the Transvaal are under-weight. Infant mortality in some\nBantustan areas is put at 400 per 1 000 in the first year of life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Doctors at King Edward Hospital in Durban\nreport that nearly half of the children admitted during the past 16 years\nsuffered from nutritional deficiencies, and a quarter of these died of chronic\nmalnutrition. Now, the onset of cholera in epidemic proportions in several\nreserve areas provides further graphic proof of the nightmare conditions facing\nthe mass of people under capitalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If there was ever a time when capitalism\ncould have ushered in reforms and raised the living standards of the working\npeople, the past few years of boom would surely have provided that opportunity.\nIts utter failure in this regard is conclusive proof of the incurable sickness\nof the capitalist system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why could the swelling wealth of the\nbourgeoisie not go to improve the life of the people as a whole? This is an\nessential question for our movement to confront, and to explain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The answer lies in the class system on\nwhich South African society is based; in the system of private ownership of the\nmeans of production, and an economy governed by the laws of private profit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pressures of this system, now in decay\ninternationally, make it impossible for capitalism in SA to produce and\ndistribute the goods and services needed by the mass of the population for a\ndecent life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In our epoch, investment in large-scale\nmanufacturing is the key to economic prosperity. Under capitalism, investment\ntakes place not on the basis of social need, but only where the capitalists are\nconfident of reaping future profits. This is the inherent law of their system.\nCapitalism can no more escape these constraints than a fish can choose to live\nout of water.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have already shown, in chapter 8, how\nbecause of the pressures of world capitalism, the system of the capitalists in\nSA and their \u201csuccess\u201d has necessarily been built on the exploitation of cheap\nlabour. They still depend absolutely on cheap labour; but increasingly this\nsystem is caught in its own contradictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Cheap labour has severely limited the\ndomestic market; the majority of workers are not paid the money to buy the\ngoods which increased investment would produce. At the same time, as world\ncapitalist production slows down, as the purchasing powers of workers\neverywhere is slashed by the capitalist class, as competition between\ncapitalists for the remaining markets intensifies, the South African\ncapitalists face increasing difficulties in exporting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, the narrow limits of the\ndomestic market, coupled with the unfavourable climate for manufactured exports\nin the world market, means that there is relatively less and less scope for the\ninvestment of capitalist profit in industrial development in SA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Profit-making for the SA bourgeoisie is\nbecoming more and more dependent on gold and other minerals; on speculation in\nproperty; on stock-market manipulations; on currency deals; and on loans and\ninvestments abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Already by the early 1970s, this relative\nlack of opportunities for profitable investment was becoming apparent in SA, as\nthe declining world market imposed a corset especially on manufacturing\nindustry. Gross domestic fixed investment continued rising (from 22% of Gross\nDomestic Product in the 1960s to 27% in the 1970s) \u2013 but this increase was\nalmost entirely in the state sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Investment<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Real fixed investment in the private sector\ngrew at an annual average rate of only 0,7% in the 1970s, compared with 7,7% in\nthe 1960s \u2013 and the bulk of this was in mining not manufacturing. The\nbourgeoisie was increasingly unsure of finding markets for manufactured\nproducts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the mid-1970s, as the world recession\nbit deeper, gross fixed investment in SA plunged. It fell by 7,5% in 1976-77;\nby 6% in 1977-78; and again by 5% in 1978-79. Despite expansion in the mining\nindustry (particularly gold and coal) private fixed investment dropped overall\nby 10%, 1%, and 11% during the same years. In the crucial metal and engineering\nindustry, investment fell 31% in 1978, while in iron and steel it fell 72%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although economic activity began to recover\nin SA towards the end of 1977, it was only in mid-1979 that the four-year slide\nof investment was halted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Taking the 1970s as a whole, the surplus\ngenerated in manufacturing grew at a slower rate than for industry as a whole,\nand little more than half the rate in mining. The rate of growth of fixed rate\ninvestment in manufacturing also lagged well behind mining, construction and\nelectricity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Private sector investment rallied during\nthe recent boom, rising by 22% in 1980 and an estimated 12% in 1981. But now a new\ndownturn in the economy has begun, with some of the bourgeois economists\nexpecting an absolute fall in investment once again in 1982.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the economic growth rate for 1982\nfalling to about 2%, there will be an especially fast drop in the manufacture of\nconsumer goods.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Foreign investment in SA industry is\nlikewise expected to stagnate this year, because a lower rate of profit is\nanticipated. In fact, the rate of return on foreign investment in SA has been\ngenerally falling since the 1960s, when this country was the most profitable\nfor such investment in the world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For the American bourgeois, South Africa\nhas returned a lower rate of profit on investment than the world average.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

British capitalists have recently been\ngiven a sombre prediction of likely returns on their purchases of SA shares in\n1982. While this is expected to be 28% in mining, industrial shares are thought\nlikely to yield only 9%. By comparison, their rate of return from Japan is\nexpected to be 22%, Hong Kong 39%, the USA 16%, and even the UK itself 13%.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Despite the advantage of cheap labour, SA\ncapitalism has been falling further behind the major industrialised countries.\nThus the Financial Mail<\/em> (1\/1\/82)\nreveals that the growth of productivity in South Africa has averaged only 0,3%\nper year in the period 1972-1980. In Japan, the comparable figure was 3,0%; in\nWest Germany 2,7%; in the USA 1,9%; and even in sinking Britain it was 1,5%.\n(In the same period Taiwan\u2019s productivity grew by 6,8% per year!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If this trend continues, it suggests a dire\nprognosis for SA capitalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Trade<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Already, because of the relative feebleness\nof SA\u2019s manufacturing industry, the country\u2019s foreign trade has been slipping\nfurther and further into deficit. Imports of manufactured goods (especially\nmachinery and heavy vehicles) have risen at a much faster rate than exports,\nparticularly during the boom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1979-80 the rise in the gold price more\nthan compensated for the difference, and SA began 1981 with a surplus of about\nR3 billion on the balance of payments. (I.e. it was owed more by other\ncountries than it owed to them in respect of the previous year\u2019s deals.) But by\nthe end of the 1981 financial year this is expected to have turned into a\ndeficit of R4 billion!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 1982, the slowing down of the economy is\nlikely to cool the growth of imports but still leave a year-end deficit of a\nfurther R2 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The whole situation highlights the lag of\nSA\u2019s manufacturing industry, and the economy\u2019s increasing dependence on the\nworld price of gold and on finding markets for the increase export of other\nminerals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The New Downturn<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The new economic downturn which has set in\nin SA is likely to continue right through 1983, especially if the current\nrecession in the USA delays and weakens the new world upturn.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again a period of lay-offs and\nredundancies, together with slow industrial growth, will lead to a spiralling\nof unemployment. Inflation is forecast to continue at almost the same rate as\nin 1981. Thus there will once again be catastrophic consequences for the real\nwages of the working class, and for the poverty of the masses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bourgeois economists \u2013 well-fed dogs\nyapping at the gates of their masters \u2013 are already warning that consumers will\nhave to \u201cpull in their belts\u201d. Meanwhile, the Standard Bank complains of\n\u201cexcessively high consumer spending\u201d in 1980 and early 1981 \u2013 this in a period\nof mass impoverishment and starvation!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The incurable disease of inflation\ncontinues to shrivel the pay-packets and gnaw at the measly pensions of the\nworking people. An overall inflation rate of 15-16% last year swelled to 20-30%\nfor township-dwellers. Since 1976 the price of chickens and tea has more than\ndoubled, eggs have doubled, and sugar has gone up more than three times. In\n1980-81 there were astronomical increases in the price of meat (70%) and in\nrents (30-40%). There is no prospect of relief from further rises in the new\nrecession.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While for the working people inflation is a\nlife-and-death concern, for the capitalists it represents a danger to the\nstability of their system. For instance, a rate of inflation higher than SA\u2019s\ncompetitors makes it harder to sell South African goods abroad, tends to weaken\nthe Rand, and would cause the economy to lag further and further behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Internationally the bourgeoisie is\npre-occupied with the problem of inflation. In SA, as in almost all capitalist\ncountries, the ruling class and the government have adopted stringent monetary\npolicies in the hope of curbing inflation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Chapter 3 we dealt with the effect of\ngovernment spending in pushing up prices. What is noteworthy in South Africa is\nthe high rate of inflation against the background of the most miserly state\nexpenditure on the welfare of the majority of the population.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between 1977 and 1981, despite all the\nrhetoric of \u2018reform\u2019 by the regime in the face of the insistent demands of\nworking people, real expenditure on housing and other social needs in fact fell\nwithout interruption.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 1981-2 budget contained a 40% increase\nin spending on the military instruments of repression. Overall, however,\ngovernment spending rose by only 2% in real terms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fundamentally because of the narrow basis\nof domestic industry and the cheap labour economy, the sources of tax revenue\nto the government are relatively small. Any major expansion of services would\nhave to be paid for by deficit financing, and thus lead to rampant inflation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The fall in the gold price to around $400\nan ounce in 1981 meant a decline in tax payments by the gold mines amounting to\na drop of 40% from 1980. Thus, even the stingy budget of 1981 meant a deficit\nof R2,7 billion which could not be covered by taxes. Total public debt rose to\nR19,9 billion, involving interest payments by the state of R1,48 billion a\nyear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 1982 budget reveals even more starkly\nthe squeeze on government spending with the gold price lowered and the world\neconomy in recession. Overall spending in real terms is budgeted to fall. Yet,\neven though tax rates have been raised, the budget deficit will again be over\nR2 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus rises in certain areas of government\nspending, such as education, will be more than cancelled out for the people by\nrising prices, taxes and unemployment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Inflation<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given a socialist transformation of South\nAfrica, with the nationalisation of the means of production and the\norganisation of a planned economy under democratic control, it would be\npossible to undertake a massive programme of public expenditure on health,\neducation, housing and welfare, without this leading to inflation. But on a\ncapitalist basis, any significant expansion of government spending in this\ndirection would send inflation through the roof.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This would be the situation facing any\ngovernment in the future, including an ANC government, if it remained on a\ncapitalist basis. This is a constraint existing independently of the existence\nof the apartheid political system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus, in 1981, the East Rand Administration\nBoard had an amount of R34 million \u2018idle surplus\u2019 which it wished to spend on\nhousing but could not, because of curbs imposed by the Treasury on public\nspending to limit inflation. At the time, the official housing shortage in the\nERAB area was 21 000 units.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the housing needs of the people are\ngrowing apace, the capitalist system is less and less able to finance the\nbuilding of homes. The government admits an official housing shortage of\n160 000 homes in urban African townships today. In greater Durban, for\nexample, half a million people (one-third of the population) are living in\nshacks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to a conference of the SA\nInstitute of Housing in September, 75% of the black population will be living\nin urban areas by the year 2000. Some three and a half million houses would\nhave to be built at a cost of R30 000 million to accommodate them. The\nachievement of this is absolutely ruled out on the basis of capitalism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The abysmal condition of education in South\nAfrica is a further example of the impasse of capitalism. In 1981 barely 10% of\nthe country\u2019s workers had Standard 10 or higher. 30% had no education at all,\nand 36% had only primary school education. Despite a 51% increase in spending\non black education, allocated in the last budget, there is still discrimination\nof 10 to 1 in the spending on the education of white and black children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A massive shortage of skilled labour has\naccumulated in the economy. There are now at least 20 000 artisan jobs\nunfilled, despite a big increase in white immigration. In 1980 only 82 blacks\nwere registered as apprentices, and this figure is considered unlikely to have\nrisen above 1 000 in 1981.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the capitalists are baying for further\nspending curbs in the hope of attacking inflation. In recession as in boom,\nthey can mount this attack only by lowering still further the desperately poor\nconditions of the working class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus the Financial Mail <\/em>(1\/1\/82) \u2013 an organ of the supposedly liberal\ncapitalists! \u2013 demands policies of greater austerity and says that this will be\npossible to impose because trade unions are weaker than in Europe and because\nthe state carries no heavy social security obligations. In short: \u201cHold the\nworkers down and kick them while we can!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Whether \u2018liberal\u2019 or \u2018fascist\u2019 in their\nindividual consciences, the SA capitalists are compelled by the logic of their\neconomic system to inflict further savage hardships on the mass of the working\npeople. With profits falling during the recession, the employers will lose no\nopportunity to slash at the real wages of the working class. The plight of the\nhomeless, the pensioners, the jobless and the hungry will inevitably grow\nworse.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the economic perspective for South\nAfrica, despite the confident predictions of the bourgeois of fresh prospects\nfor profit-making in the course of the 1980s.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capitalism is torn by internal\ncontradictions \u2013 but does not face imminent collapse. Although it is impossible\nto make a definite prediction, the mining companies are anticipating future\nrises in the gold price as high as $1 000 an ounce by 1987. In other\nsectors of mining (especially coal, where output could double in the course of\nthe decade) production could undergo sustained advance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Chronic<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

If, overall, imports continue to rise\nfaster than exports, South Africa\u2019s chronic balance-of-payments problem will\npersist. This is indeed the most likely perspective, given the general\nstagnation of the world market for exports and SA\u2019s undiminishing dependence on\nthe import of machinery from overseas. But in and of itself this would not\nprecipitate economic collapse, as the foreign bankers are likely to remain\nwilling to cover South Africa\u2019s deficits for a considerable period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nevertheless, it is indicative of the\nlunacy of capitalism that the government is obliged to borrow vast sums abroad\nat the very time that massive profits generated at home cannot be fully\ninvested in production.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The profits \u2018deluge\u2019 in 1979-80 led to\nmassive excess liquidity in the SA economy \u2013 large sums of money sloshing\naround in the banks and flooding the financial markets, unable to find avenues\nfor profitable, productive investment. It was for this reason \u2013 and because the\nhuge increase in the money in circulation was leading to runaway inflation \u2013\nthat the government was compelled to dismantle exchange controls and allow the\nbourgeoisie to send its money abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The movement of capital from South Africa\noverseas is likely to be an increasing trend on the part, especially, of the\nmining monopolies. The Anglo American Corporation, for example, which recently\nbid for control of Consolidated Gold Fields in Britain, is also investing\nheavily in Latin America, the USA and elsewhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The crisis facing South African society is\nrooted in the contradictions between the imperatives of the profit system and\nthe needs of the people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The working people cannot eat the gold, the\nshare certificates and the title deeds which make up the wealth of the\ncapitalist class. While the mass of people suffer in want of housing,\neducation, hospitals, decent wages, facilities and, above all, jobs, the\nbourgeoisie is sitting on an enormous heap of gold which it cannot devote to\nsocial spending and which it is less and less able to invest for productive purposes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, as production becomes more\nmechanised, even the investment which does take place is less and less able to\nprovide jobs for workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between 1960 and 1969, the rate of increase\nof capital stock per worker employed was 2,4% per year; and it increased at\n4,3% per year between 1970 and 1977. Thus a given amount of invested capital\ncreated fewer and fewer jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Total employment grew by only 3% in the\nwhole period from 1977 to 1980 \u2013 a rise of about 150 000 jobs. Yet it is\nadmitted that 200 000 jobs a year would have to be created just to stop\nunemployment rising.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This would need a consistent growth rate of\n6% or more without interruption. That was beyond the capability of capitalism\nin SA even during the spectacular boom years of the 1960s. As in the 1970s, so\ntoo in the 1980s, the crisis of capitalism as a world system bars the way to\nsuch development.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capitalism in South Africa, along with\nworld capitalism, is passing into its death agonies. The disease of the system,\nexplained by Marxism, is reflected in South Africa in the growing disparity\nbetween parasitic wealth and mass impoverishment; between the growing\nsophistication and fantastic potential of the productive forces, and the\nsinking of the world population into destitution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Absurdities<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The impasse of capitalism as a social\nsystem of production is perhaps summed up in South Africa by a ruling class\nwhich attempts to launch a television industry, and a special television\nchannel for \u2018blacks\u2019 \u2013 when the mass of the black urban population do not even\nhave the benefit of electricity!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Similar and more intolerable absurdities\nwill be more and more revealed in the coming decade. As the sickness of\ncapitalism weighs down more and more ruthlessly on the condition of life of the\nmasses, so the resistance to tyranny, to poverty, to homelessness and low wages\nwill mount. The deluded hopes of the liberals and reformists for the\nachievement of \u2018peace\u2019 between the classes on a capitalist basis will be\nshattered. Through all its twists and turns, the class struggle will inexorably\nrise in intensity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Our people \u2013 the oppressed working people \u2013\nhave no choice. For the sake of survival, we are forced to take the road to\nrevolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The Regime in Crisis<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The new era of economic decay of\ncapitalism, and the hammer-blows of mass struggle, have driven the regime into\nthe gravest political crisis in its history. Features of this crisis are the\ngrowing dissension, class division and turmoil among the white population\ngenerally, together with division and confusion in the ranks of the ruling\nclass.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As Trotsky put it, the wind blows the tops\nof the trees first. Often the first indication that a revolutionary storm is\nbrewing can be seen in the splits which emerge at the top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fundamental divisions in the ruling class\nare an indication of the fact that capitalism has no way forward \u2013 that the\nbourgeoisie can neither continue to rule in the old way nor find a new and\nstable basis for its rule.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Divisions always exist within the\nbourgeoisie, as they do within all classes. Different sections, or fractions,\namong the capitalists contend for policies most favourable to their particular\ninterests. But in conditions when capitalism in general is advancing, despite\nthe political squabbles between the opposing sections of the ruling class,\nthere exists at root a firm cohesion among them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus in the 1950s and 1960s, for example,\nwhile policy differences were intensely disputed within the ruling class, while\nthe \u2018liberal\u2019 big capitalists publicly condemned the extreme racist policies of\nthe Nationalist government \u2013 all sections of the class became basically more\nand more reconciled by the success of the regime in containing the movement of\nthe black workers and in securing the profitability of capitalism as a whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every worker who has taken strike action\nknows the readiness of even the most \u2018enlightened\u2019 employer to rely on the\npolice and officials to repress the workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Compared with the past, however, the\ndivisions in the bourgeoisie from the mid-1970s have taken on a new\nsignificance. On the surface, there has appeared a greater unity than ever\nbefore between bug business and the leading spokesmen of the government, with\nthe emergence of the \u2018verligte\u2019 or \u2018reformist\u2019 element within the Nationalist\nParty and the cabinet. But in reality the whole ruling class has never been\nmore deeply disunited internally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The capitalists are consumed by doubts and\nfears at every step. Like a gang of thieves chased by an angry crowd up a blind\nalley, they discover to their desperation that neither retreat nor advance\noffers any way out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The established methods if undiluted\nbaasskap, of white supremacy and police dictatorship, have proved insufficient\nto hold down the black working class. Yet, as the bourgeoisie now realises, to\nattempt to change their method of rule would require reforms which their\neconomic system cannot sustain, and which would spur on the onslaught of the\nmass struggle against them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is the rising power of the workers which\nunderlies the crisis of the system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Against the working class, the ruling class\nwould like to extend its social base by incorporating as collaborators growing\nsections of the black middle class to curb the movement of the workers. The\nliberal wing strains in this direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But to be able effectively to do this, the ruling\nclass would be obliged to extend to the whole (or at least most) of the black\npopulation democratic, wage and welfare concessions which would threaten the\nvery foundations of capitalism, Simultaneously, given the explosive latent\npower of the working class, the historical weakness of the black middle class\nmakes them too feeble an instrument for the sure domination of capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Moreover, the bourgeoisie cannot afford to\nweaken its established basis of support among the white middle class and labour\naristocracy. The cohesion of the state apparatus depends on this. Yet every\nmove towards \u2018reform\u2019 raises among the white middle class and workers\nwell-grounded fears that their privileged position will be whittled away.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The ruling class thus finds itself entangled\nin hopeless contradictions. Hence its own irreconcilable splits, its zig-zags\nand paralysis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Its inability to solve these contradictions\nimpels the bourgeoisie towards destruction, and society as a whole towards the\nsocialist revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Without a doubt the bourgeoisie faces\ntoday, as never before, the pressing need to reform. But in SA today there is\nfundamentally no way out of the impasse of capitalism. The bourgeoisie can\nundertake no concerted reforms and give no convincing lead. Racism is bound to\nfester in the impasse of the capitalist economy and the decay of the social\norder. It will be reinforced among wide sections of the whites in their\nrearguard actions to defend old privileges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u2018Reform\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brought face-to-face with its own political\nbankruptcy, the capitalist class nevertheless contrives to hide this fact from\npublic view. Using its control of the major section of the press, bug business\ncontinues to strut about as the champion of \u2018reform\u2019. Private enterprise is\nadvertised as a \u2018force for change\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The very economic system which has brought\nSouth Africa to its present condition is offered as the basis for a new\nsociety!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The essential barrier to change has been\nsaid to be the right wing of Afrikanerdom \u2013 the \u2018verkrampts\u2019. The country\u2019s future\nis said to depend on the outcome of the battle for pre-eminence between the\n\u2018verligtes\u2019 and the \u2018verkramptes\u2019. The capitalist press preoccupies itself with\nevery shift in the balance of forces between them. Every compromise on the\n\u2018verligte\u2019 Botha\u2019s part, every temporary stalemate, is attributed to the\nliberals solely to the power of the \u2018verkramptes\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus the capitalist class diverts attention\nfrom its own incapacity to change, and mystifies the fundamental crisis of the\nsystem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capitalism has developed historically on\nwhite domination in SA \u2013 and will continue to do so. The wishful thinking of\nthe \u2018liberal\u2019 bourgeoisie, severed up in tons of newsprint, cannot alter the\nharsh realities of class power on which capitalist rule depends. If this is temporarily\nhidden from the masses, the grinding pressure of the class struggle will\ninevitably expose it more and more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The crisis of the Nationalist Party\ngovernment merely gathers together in especially concentrated form the elements\nof the crisis of capitalist rule itself. This is because for an entire\ngeneration the NP has been the historical instrument of white domination which\nhas provided the main pillar of the system of bourgeois dictatorship in SA.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Class Divisions Among the Whites<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

The wish of the bourgeoisie to introduce\nchanges or adaptations in the existing system of rule has resulted not only\nfrom the untamed movement of the black workers. It results also from the fact\nthat capitalism, over time, has found it more and more difficult to pay the cost\nof maintaining its old basis of white support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even before the crisis began to bite in the\n1970s, cleavages began to widen between capitalists and white workers.\nShortages of skilled labour, created by the rapid growth of the economy in the\n1960s, led to erosion of the \u2018job colour bar\u2019 which has protected the position\nof the white aristocracy of labour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Increasingly, the capitalists have sought\nto fill \u2018white\u2019 jobs with trained black workers. This has most often taken the\nform of job fragmentation: artisans (mainly skilled whites) are replaced by a\nnumber of semi-skilled workers, each doing part of the former skilled worker\u2019s\njob. In every case the same work is done by black workers at a lower rate of\npay. This is how the capitalists interpret the \u2018rate for the job\u2019!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Usually the white workers have been\npromoted into supervisory or white-collar jobs. While apparently raising their\nstatus, the effect has been to weaken their bargaining position as they cease\nto perform work central to the process of production itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sharpening of the economic crisis has\ndriven a deeper wedge between the capitalist class and the mass of the white\npopulation. The capitalists have been obliged to undermine not only the job\nprivileges, but also the standard of living of the white middle class and\nlabour aristocracy as a whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many small businessmen and farmers, already\noperating on the margins of profitability, at the mercy of finance and monopoly\ncapital, have been pushed to the edge of ruin and beyond. For example, the abandonment\nby whites in the past few years of some 4 000 farms in the Transvaal, and 60%\nof those along the Botswana border, has been the result mainly of economic\nbankruptcy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, in their battle to raise\nprofit rates and maintain competitiveness on the world market, the capitalists\nare intent on lowering the cost of labour. The relatively high wages paid to\nwhite workers are considered a \u2018luxury\u2019 which the economy is now less able to\nsupport.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Already leaders of white trade unions, such\nas Bornman of Yster en Staal, complain that their members have lost 23% in\npurchasing power since 1975. White teachers have responded angrily to the fall\nin their real incomes extending over several years. Civil servants complain\nthat since the early 1970s pay increases have fallen at least 40% behind the\nrising cost of living.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attacked in this way, the white workers and\nsalary earners have inevitably begun to respond. The organisations, especially\nthe white trade unions, which have served in the past as vehicles of concession\nand control from above, have been the first instruments through which the white\nworkers have attempted to mount resistance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, however, the white\nworkers find themselves severely weakened in the confrontation with the\nemployers by the effect of decades of class-collaboration. There is always a\nbitter price to be paid by workers for collaboration with the class enemy.\nAfter a long postponement, and in a confused way, the white workers are\nbeginning to discover that price.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the black workers have proved (for\nexample in the motor industry and in engineering) that militant and united\naction can secure impressive gains, the white workers discover the feebleness\nof their tiny, racially exclusive organisations. As the crisis worsens, the\nageing bureaucracy of the white unions find it more and more difficult to reap\nrewards for their members from collaboration with the ruling class. Having no\nalternative policy to cling to, they look increasingly absurd and pitiful\nbefore their own rank-and-file.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is only with the greatest reluctance\nthat any of these unions have turned to struggle. Here the Mineworkers\u2019 Union\nhas made the most noise \u2013 not surprisingly, since the rupture of the old \u2018pact\u2019\nof class peace between the white bosses and white labour has been clearest in\nthe mining industry since the late 1960s. But despite the belligerent bluster\nof Paulus and his racist clique, the Mineworkers\u2019 Union \u2013 an organisation of\nexclusivist privilege \u2013 has only shown its ineffectiveness in its confrontation\nwith the bosses\u2019 Chamber of Mines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Reactionary\nstrike<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The reactionary strike in March 1979,\ncalled by the Mineworkers\u2019 Union leadership in an attempt to preserve job\nreservation intact, was an unadulterated failure. Even the union\u2019s membership\nfailed to give general support to the strike \u2013 let alone the remainder of the\nwhite workers on the mines.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The white Confederation of Labour (and the\nracist trade unions in general) are a blight on the whole labour movement and\non their own members \u2013 but no alternative is offered by the \u2018pragmatic\u2019\nleadership of the Trade Union Council of South Africa. In place of the extreme\nracism of the confederation, which the TUCSA leaders consider suicidal, they\nhave nothing to propose to the more privileged workers except to follow the\nlead of the so-called \u2018progressive\u2019 bourgeoisie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This means accepting capitalist attacks on\ntheir living standards without any perspective of future advancement. Already\nin 1975 the TUCSA leaders were rushing to sign a so-called \u2018anti-inflation\u2019\npact with employers and the state, and were urging their affiliates to restrict\nwage demands to less than the rate of price increases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is little wonder that all these\ncapitulators to capitalism can offer nothing but gloom to their members. While\nGrobbelaar of TUCSA was wailing impotently about the \u2018inevitability\u2019 of rising\nunemployment, Paulus declared that 1980 marked the beginning of the end for the\nwhite worker!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With the power of the white unions\ndwindling, and with the Nationalist government less and less willing to come to\nthe aid of white workers in their confrontations with employers, these workers\nhave turned their attention increasingly to the political plane, along with\nmany disgruntled white teachers, farmers, small businessmen, dominees and\nAfrikaner intellectuals. Out of this current there has emerged an extreme\nreactionary opposition to the Nationalist government.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Splits in\nthe Nationalist Party<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

In the Nationalist Party there is an\never-widening gap between the leadership and the rank-and-file members and\nsupporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The NP has always been a bourgeois party,\nrepresenting from the outset the aspirations and class interests of emergent\nAfrikaner capitalists. Its historical \u2018mission\u2019 has been to promote the\ndevelopment of a class of Afrikaner industrialists, financiers and mine-owners\nas partners with the imperialists and English-speaking capitalists in the\nexploitation of the working class.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Nationalists\u2019 rise to power, however,\ndepended on the ability of the leaders to mould together a coalition of small\nfarmers, urban middle class and workers under the banner of the \u2018volk\u2019. The\ncement for this coalition was the guarantee of material privileges, protection\nof jobs, higher wages and the provision of social welfare for whites. It promised\nthe defence of the mass of the whites against, on the one hand, the pressures\nof big business, and, on the other hand, the rising demands for equality from\nthe black majority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But nothing stands still. The very\n\u2018success\u2019 of Afrikaner nationalism \u2013 the achievement of wealth and power by the\nAfrikaner bourgeoisie, the exhaustion in this sense of the original aims of the\nNationalist movement \u2013 has undermined the class coalition on which it was\nbuilt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Economic growth, especially during the\n1960s and early 1970s, has led to the social and economic integration of the\nAfrikaans- and English-speaking bourgeoisie, weakening the cohesion of\nAfrikaner nationalism. The upper layers of the middle class have been drawn\ntogether, and separated more and more from the lower layers of white society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only has the class division in the\nNationalist Party opened into an unbridgeable growth; the commanding stratum of\nthe state apparatus has increasingly been consolidated and refined as the\nreliable instrument of big capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is most noticeable in the case of the\narmy, where, since the 1960s, the old general staff have been systematically\nretired and replaced by a new and politically more flexible generation of\nofficers to carry out the policies of the bourgeoisie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

White\nparliament<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

For more than a decade, behind the backs of\nthe white population, the limited racial \u2018democracy\u2019 of the white parliament\nand of the Nationalist Party itself has been whittled away. The focus of\ndecisions has shifted more and more from parliament to the executive, and\nwithin the executive from the cabinet as a whole to a narrow ministerial\nclique.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the 1970s the secret cabal of\nVorster\/Mulder\/van der Bergh became notorious. Today Botha manipulates a\nvariety of cabinet committees, playing off rivals against each other while\nconcentrating executive power more and more firmly around his own axis with\nGeneral Malan.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This bonapartist development in the\ncharacter of the regime stems from the growing need of the capitalist class to\nconcentrate the levers of power more directly in the hands of their own chosen\nagents, more and more out of reach of the white electorate as a whole. As their\nold social base in the white population becomes less and less compliant and\nmore and more unstable, the ruling class can only elevate the state machinery\nfurther above society, while resting its rule ever more directly on the\nmilitary and police apparatus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is the purpose behind the attempt to\ntransform parliament by various constitutional amendments into a mere\ntalking-shop. It is also one of the key reasons for Botha\u2019s attempts to\nrestructure government around a collection of racial councils and committees at\nso-called \u2018presidential\u2019, \u2018confederal\u2019 and \u2018cabinet\u2019 levels, giving freer rein\nto bourgeois manipulation from the top.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus the hostility of the bourgeoisie to\ndemocracy \u2013 which has been the lifelong experience of the black population \u2013 is\nnow reflected also in the attempts to water down the effects of the franchise\nof the whites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The growing crisis and instability of the\nregime is clearly reflected in the processes taking place in the Nationalist\nParty. The rank-and-file is feeling the pinch economically, and is gravely\nworried by the uncertainties of the political situation. But the \u2018verligte\u2019\nleaders, expressing the need of the capitalist class to \u2018adapt or die\u2019, are\nobliged to commit heresies against the enshrined racial \u2018principles\u2019 of old party\ndogma, as they grope in search of new policies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Afrikaner nationalism\u2019 in the mouths of\nthe leadership has become a mere defensive cry for maintaining a semblance of\nunity \u2013 for papering over the widening class chasm that has opened in the\nranks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As their economic position comes under\nattack and their privileges begin to be eroded, many among the small farmers,\nurban petty bourgeois and workers who make up the majority of Nationalist Party\nmembers react in a backward-looking rage and panic. \u2018Reforms\u2019 and \u2018concessions\u2019\nto the blacks \u2013 pathetic as these have been \u2013 are seen as the root cause of\ntheir problems! This offers a fertile field for the ambitious demagogues of the\nultra-right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a whole period in the past, the\nconferences of the NP and its parliamentary caucus served the leadership as\nclearing-houses where capitalist policies, secretly formulated by the\nBroederbond hierarchy, were translated into the language of the white\nelectorate and rubber-stamped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Political struggles, where they occurred at\nall, were generally muted by the conditions of the economic boom and hidden\nbehind closed doors. Then, as the crisis deepened, the forums of the Party\nbecame the arena where conflicting interests were bitterly vented. Gradually,\nhowever, as vital parts of the party apparatus were gathered into the hands of\nthe \u2018verligtes\u2019, even the NP conferences increasingly became hollow shells,\nwith many ordinary delegates either not bothering to attend, or walking out in\nfrustration and anger.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again, however, the process has not run in\na straight line. While the Cape and OFS divisions of the NP are now under\n\u2018verligte\u2019 control, the Transvaal party machinery has served as a base for the\n\u2018verkrampte\u2019 counter-attack. This is because, from the outset, The NP\norganisation in the Transvaal has been more directly under the influence of the\nlower layers of the middle class, while the Cape NP was always in the hands of\nthe rich.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

\u2018Verkramptes\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

By capturing the Transvaal leadership,\nTreurnicht emerged as the rallying-point for \u2018verkramptes\u2019 within the\nNationalist Party. This, however, did not halt the Party\u2019s loss of membership\nand electoral support.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 1981 white election saw a 14% swing to\nthe ultra-right HNP, which, while it gained no seats, attracted 200 000 votes.\nOne-third of all white voters in the Transvaal voted HNP!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the face of this development the\n\u2018verligte\u2019 wing of the NP retreated. Their problem was summed up in the words\nof the Minister of Manpower, Fanie Botha: \u201cThe government must have the total\ntrust of the country\u2019s (white) workers. It would not have come to power if it\ndid not have that trust.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Biding his time in the face of the\nverkrampte upsurge, P.W. Botha back-pedalled on all his promises of reform.\nThen in February 1982, taking advantage of a temporary ebb in the verkrampte\ntide to forestall Treurnicht\u2019s advance within the NP, Botha staged a showdown\nwith Treurnicht\u2019s advance within the NP, Botha staged a showdown with\nTreurnicht and routed him in his Transvaal stronghold.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Driven out of the NP but with an important\nfoothold in parliament, Treurnicht and his followers will serve as a rallying\npoint for the forces of ultra-right racism. This will continue to put pressure\non the regime, forcing Botha and his successors to constantly adapt their\ntactics to the mood of the most reactionary whites, whom they cannot afford to\nalienate completely. More Nationalist M.P.s, anxious for their seats in the\nnext election, could well crumble towards the right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The capitalist class at the present stage\nare pinning their hopes on Botha\u2019s attempts to manoeuvre between the\nconflicting class pressures in society. The last thing they want to see is a\ngovernment that would provoke the black people into generalised resistance and\nthreaten to plunge the country into racial civil war \u2013 at a point when the\nruling class is by no means confident of winning such a war.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If Botha is able to hold the bulk of the NP\ntogether for the time being, this is because most whites are afraid and\ndemoralised at present before the awe-inspiring power of the black mass\nmovement, and hope to postpone for as long as possible the inevitable\nconfrontation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Maybe\u2019 Reagan and Thatcher will come to\ntheir assistance; \u2018maybe\u2019 moderate black leaders will prevail; \u2018maybe\u2019\u2026. While\nthis mood of fearful hesitation persists, Botha may continue to command if not\ntheir confidence then at least their passive support \u2013 for as long as he seems\nable to safeguard their existence in privileged, sheltered suburbs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this precarious balance could change\nvery rapidly under the pressure of events.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social crisis is generally characterised by\nsplits and polarisation between the classes, within the ruling class and also\nwithin the middle layers on which the ruling class leans for support. The\npresent drift to the right among the whites has its counterpart in the rise of\nthe \u2018liberal\u2019 PFP at the other end of the narrow, white political spectrum.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Since the mid-1970s there has been a steady\ngrowth of PFP support especially among the better-off, more educated sections\nof the white middle class. In their eyes the PFP is the party of compromise\nwith the forces that threaten them, of \u2018gradual change\u2019 towards some miraculous\nstability \u2013 in a word, of \u2018evolution\u2019 instead of \u2018revolution\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Swing<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus in the recent period the swing towards\nthe HNP has been matched by a swing of similar numerical proportions to the\nPFP.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the policies of the PFP can hold no attraction\nfor the vast majority of whites. Beneath all the rhetoric of \u2018peaceful change\u2019\nthe PFP stands purely and simply for the protection of capitalist interests at\nall costs. It cannot meet the demands of the black people \u2013 but white workers\nand lower middle-class are deeply suspicious that it could and would compromise\ntheir privileged position in an effort to reach agreement with black leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It is thus towards the right that the fears\nand frustrations of the broad mass of whites will tend to find expression\nwithin the existing political framework.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the next chapter we will deal with the\nconditions for the growth \u2013 and for the defeat \u2013 of white reaction in the\nunfolding revolution. Here the point to stress is that the potential threat of\nthe ultra-right inside and outside the NP constitutes a growing problem for the\nruling class and the regime.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Although, under the pressure of the mass\nmovement in the coming years, there will be new lurches and zigzags by the\nregime in an attempt to adapt the system, fundamentally it is paralysed by\nthese internal and external contradictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In turn, the more the regime reveals its\nown impotence, the greater will become the volatility among the whites. Under\nconditions of social and economic crisis, with no alternative visible to them,\nextreme racist and reactionary tendencies will be strengthened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Ultra-right<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over the past stormy decade, ultra-right\ngroups have proliferated \u2013 from the HNP to the National Conservative Party,\nAksie Eie Toekems, the Wit Kommando, the Kappie Kommando and the Afrikaner\nWeerstand Beweging.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also among English-speaking whites, there\nis a development towards the right. An estimated 28% already support the\nNationalists, and a significant minority even the HNP and the AWB.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u2018liberal\u2019 English press deluded itself\nwhen it pointed to the shambles at the founding conference of Aksie Eie Toekoms\nas a sign of the impotence of the extreme right. That organisation was the\n\u2018brainchild\u2019 of fogbound intellectuals, without the slightest idea where they\nwere going or how to get there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Far more serious and dangerous are the\norganisations which base themselves on a perverted \u2018class\u2019 appeal to white\nworkers and the lower middle class. It is the hallmark of a fascist movement to\ncombine rabid appeals to \u2018blood\u2019 and \u2018culture\u2019 with pseudo-\u2018socialist\u2019 demagogy\ndirected against big business. This is the stock-in-trade of both the HNP and\nthe AWB. \u201cWassenheimer\u201d has come to replace \u201cHoggenheimer\u201d in the agitation of\ntoday\u2019s ultra-right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The AWB, with its open use of Nazi\nsymbolism, uniforms, storm-troopers, etc., has recently had notable success in\nattracting Afrikaner and even some English youth, and in recruiting among the\nlower ranks of the army, police and civil service.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now it is most likely that all these\nreactionary forces will be over-shadowed in the short term by Treurnicht\u2019s\nparty or drawn behind it. Combined with the incapacity of capitalism to sustain\nreforms and improvements in the living conditions of the masses, the revolt of\nthe right-wing adds an enormous political obstacle to change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The government can no longer tame its white\nconstituency by the methods of the past. Sharp shocks, sudden turns, division\nand fragmentation will be more and more the features in the political camp of\nthe whites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From the long-term perspective of\nrevolution, this situation can be turned (given correct policies) into an\nimmense advantage for our movement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time, even in the short run, it\nwill more and more expose the hopeless incapacity of the present regime to\nusher in any fundamental change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, even the smallest changes are barred\nby the fear of the regime provoking the right wing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus the recommendations of the De Lange\nCommission for a single educational system for all races is dismissed out of\nhand. The desire of the Stellenbosch students for a referendum on a proposal to\nopen the university to blacks is blocked from above and the scheme cancelled.\nBotha\u2019s own lap-dogs in the \u2018President\u2019s Council\u2019 have their recommendations on\nPageview and District Six humiliatingly vetoed. The regime cracks down\nruthlessly on the black families who have breached the Group Areas Act by\nmoving into empty accommodation in \u2018white\u2019 areas. At the same time the general\nintensity of repression against workers, \u2018squatters\u2019, etc., is stepped up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus the pious liberal hopes of \u2018reform\nfrom above\u2019 lie in ruins. Time and again those hopes will be revived \u2013 only to\nbe shattered by new retreats and lurches to the right on the part of the\nregime. It is a sign of the times that the Broederbond, which previously booted\nout those of its members who supported the HNP, has recently been obliged to\nrescind the expulsions!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Capitalism has created in South Africa the\nmonster of white racism. For generations it has served the bourgeoisie as the\nmeans of maintaining its dictatorship over the working masses \u2013 the blacks. Now\nthe black working class is rising to its feet and hammering at the gates for\nliberation. The bourgeoisie can neither give up its instruments of repression\nnor survive by them alone. It can neither slay the beast of reaction nor\nsatisfy its appetites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus the ruling class is caught in the\nterrible contradictions of its own making. These are contradictions which only\na socialist revolution can resolve.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

The Bankruptcy of Compromise<\/strong><\/h4>\n\n\n\n

As far as the mass of black people are\nconcerned, it has long been clear that the regime, for all its declarations of\nintent, and all its commissions investigating \u2018change\u2019 in every field, has been\nable to produce only the most trivial gestures of reform \u2013 sops in the main to\nthe tiny layer of black businessmen, potential home-buyers and the like. Even\nthis layer is driven to distraction by the constant frustration of its hopes.\nMeanwhile the experience of the masses has been of the constant tightening of\nthe screws.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But it is not only the so-called\n\u2018verligtes\u2019 of the government who expose their impotence to change. Few among\nthe black population now believe in the ability of any \u2018alternative\u2019 white\nparty \u2013 of which the PFP is the most notable \u2013 to accomplish change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The gain of votes and seats by the PFP in\nthe last white election was confined mainly to the better-off \u2013 to the upper\nlayer of the white middle class, professionals and the business elite. The PFP\nhas never had a significant base among white workers or the lower middle class,\nand can never gain one. This section of the whites can never be attracted to\nany programme of democratic change \u2013 however half-hearted \u2013 which is put\nforward on the basis of the capitalist system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simultaneously, the PFP is in the process\nof a subtle, but nonetheless significant, evolution toward the right. There was\nalways a tension in the Progressive Party between the \u2018humanitarian\u2019 and\n\u2018liberal\u2019 emphasis most prominently represented by Suzman, and the more\n\u2018pragmatic\u2019, business-oriented wing led by Eglin, which controlled the party\nmachinery. Heavily financed by Oppenheimer, the latter systematically built the\nparty as a pressure-group of big-business interests, with a platform in\nparliament.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

PFP<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The amalgamation with the \u2018Young Turks\u2019\nemerging from the disintegration of the UP and the formation of the PFP has\naccentuated this development towards pragmatism and readiness to compromise.\nThe PFP has no prospect of ever winning an election and forming a government.\nThis reality is more and more governing the manoeuvres of its leadership, while\nat the same time causing confusion in its lower ranks (particularly the more\nidealistic youth section).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Under the leadership now of Slabbert, the\nPFP is projecting itself as a potential partner in a coalition government with\nthe \u2018verligte\u2019 Nationalists. At the recent congress of the PFP, Slabbert went\nso far as to spell out conditions for such a coalition. At the same time, he\ndefended the South African military, and attacked was resisters among the\nyouth, on the incredible pretext of maintaining the SADF as a strong force for\nthe purpose of ensuring \u2018peaceful change\u2019!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus is the \u2018liberalism\u2019 of big business\nrevealed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But even liberals of the \u2018old school\u2019 can\nno longer evade the implications of the impasse of the SA capitalist system.\nWedded to the politics of \u2018free enterprise\u2019, more and more aware that this is\nincompatible with a democratic society, they are obliged to turn their backs on\nthe ideals of liberalism itself.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus Alan Paton executes a\nright-about-turn, and comes out publicly against his own former policy of \u2018one\nman, one vote\u2019. Quoted in the Sunday\nTimes<\/em> (15\/11\/81), he declares: \u201cThe concept of majority rule is purely\nhypothetical (!). If it were imposed (!!) on the country tomorrow it would mean\nthe end of white South Africa and the end of much of the prosperity of the\ncountry.\u201d (!!!)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is symptomatic of the inevitable\nbankruptcy of all \u2018liberals\u2019 and \u2018democrats\u2019 who base themselves on the\ncapitalist system. The importance of this lesson should be hammered home in the\npropaganda of our movement in order to ensure that its implications are fully\nunderstood by all activists and clearly explained among the masses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unable to hide its nakedness in the realm\nof political change, the big business establishment turns instead to\nproclaiming the need for private enterprise to \u2018take the initiative\u2019 in reforms\nof the social plane. But the endless new organisations of the liberal\nbourgeoisie, such as the Urban Foundation, quickly reveal themselves as little\nmore than benefit agencies mainly for the purpose of promoting the black elite,\nand intended to defuse the militant mood of the majority.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Increasingly, it is to middle-class\nelements among the blacks themselves that the bourgeoisie is forced to look to\ncarry the banner of \u2018peaceful reform\u2019 and compromise before the working people.\nThe ruling class looks not simply for puppets but for leaders who can mobilise\na measure of support among the masses and whose authority can be turned to\ncontrolling and disorienting the movement of the workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The strategists of capital seek black\nallies who may sincerely loathe the existing system, and who may give voice to\nradical opposition to apartheid, but who at the same time fear the workers\u2019 revolution\nas a \u2018fate too ghastly to contemplate\u2019. Because many of these elements\nthemselves suffer oppression at the hands of the state, they can gain for a\ntime a certain authority among the people. The less conscious workers,\nparticularly, can temporarily fall under their spell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But under the impact of the struggle, such\n\u2018leaders\u2019 must inevitably expose themselves as agents of the enemy, betraying\nthe real interests not only of the working class, but also of the black middle\nclass, whose oppression cannot be ended without the seizure of power and the\nsocialist transformation of society under the leadership of the organised\nworkers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most conservative middle-class figures\nhave already exposed themselves as outright lackeys of white supremacy, resting\nas they do on the Bantustan machinery of the apartheid state. Helping to\nexercise the dictatorship of the bourgeoisie over the working people,\nMatanzima, Sebe, Mangope and other Bantustan puppets, as well as the\ncollaborationist Coloured and Indian figureheads, are already deeply hated by\nthe masses. Only the repressive machinery of the state protects them for the\ntime being against retribution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Camouflage<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile Gatsha Buthelezi, the Coloured\n\u2018Labour\u2019 Party leaders, and others of this kind, have maintained a posture\napparently to the left of the Matanzimas, etc. They have been able to\ncamouflage their essentially conservative policies of compromise and\nnegotiation, by means of verbal denunciations of the regime and hypocritical\nappeals to the masses. But in the face of every militant mass struggle \u2013 as was\nclearly shown in 1976 \u2013 these \u2018leaders\u2019 rush to restore \u2018law and order\u2019 in\nco-operation with the authorities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Again, it is the state repression of the\nmasses which alone has so far enabled these elements to weather the storm of\nthe class struggle, and survive the penetrating criticism especially of the\nrevolutionary black youth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The most ambitious of the opportunists has\nundoubtedly been Gatsha Buthelezi. Mounting heroic phrases about freedom,\npretending to stand for national liberation, and waving the colours of the ANC,\nin reality he has made himself the willing agent of the bourgeoisie and\nimperialism in their efforts to prevent the revolutionary overthrow of the SA\nstate.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buthelezi has some support among the\noppressed people \u2013 but this is mainly confined to the older generation among\nZulu-speakers, and to the least conscious workers who have not yet been drawn\ninto struggle. Even this following is maintained only by his careful balancing\nact, but is at the same time constantly undermined by his inability to deliver\nany material improvements to the people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The essential theme of his speeches when\naddressing mass meetings is the military might of the SA state. Claiming to be\nits implacable enemy, he maintains that it cannot be forcibly overthrown.\nInstead he offers the illusion of \u2018peaceful change\u2019 and compromise as a\nsupposed alternative to revolution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the same time he has been skilful enough\nto equip himself with a greater force than oratory. Using the Bantustan\napparatus in KwaZulu, he has been able, with big-business aid, to construct the\nInkatha organisation with several hundred thousand members. This is intended to\nimpress the population with his \u2018authority\u2019, to give him a bargaining lever\nwith Pretoria, and to convince the ruling class that he can be relied on to\ncontrol the masses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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

Inkatha<\/strong><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the head of Inkatha is a loathsome\nmiddle-class mafia, which uses its control of employment, housing, etc., under\nthe Bantustan machinery to blackmail people into membership and intimidate them\ninto obedience. The Inkatha leadership relies on backward prejudices to whip up\nviolence and terror against its opponents. Under the shield of the SA state,\nButhelezi has been engaged in building an armed corps specifically for use\n\u2018against insurrection\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yet Inkatha is full of contradictions. It\nis riven with class division and held together by fear and ignorance. For most\nof its working-class members, it is the only legal avenue allowed for political\norganisation and mass activity. This Inkatha\u2019s viability depends absolutely on\nthe maintenance of state repression over the masses in South Africa as a whole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Even in the short term, the intensification\nof the mass struggle must produce rumblings and rifts in Inkatha, with deepening\ndivisions between its collaborating leadership and its working-class\nrank-and-file. In the longer run, the crippling of the SA state in a\nrevolutionary situation by the explosive force of the mass movement, will also\nblow the lid of Inkatha.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There will be a mass gravitation of the\nInkatha membership to link up with a national revolutionary movement. This will\ninevitable gather behind the banner of the ANC. In these conditions Buthelezi\ncould move verbally far to the left, in a bid to retain his authority in order\nthe more effectively to obstruct the movement. But it is more likely that he\nwould be cast aside and trampled to dust by his own former supporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On the other hand, if the ANC leadership\nwere to repeat its recent error of dignifying Buthelezi by apparently\nco-operating with him, he could succeed in covering his treachery with a\n\u2018revolutionary\u2019 mantle precisely at the most dangerous hour.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Meanwhile Buthelezi (as he is well aware)\nremains a key element not only in the strategies of imperialism, but also in\nthe \u2018total strategy\u2019 of Botha and Malan. Unless they can incorporate him in\ntheir \u2018constitutional dispensation\u2019, designed to divide the oppressed people\nalong ethnic and regional lines, the entire obnoxious scheme will remain\nobviously lifeless.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Behind the scenes, emissaries from the\ngovernment, PFP leaders, the Urban Foundation, Oppenheimer and the big business\nestablishment, together with agents of the US and other imperialist powers,\nlabour to involve him in their various plans to obstruct the struggle of the\noppressed. If Buthelezi so far avoids more blatant collaboration, it is not\nfrom any personal aversion to compromise. Rather it follows from the inherent\nrottenness of all the ruling-class schemes and their inability to bring real freedoms\nand material improvements to the working people.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buthelezi understands that to ensnare\nhimself prematurely would quickly strip away even the narrow basis of support\nhe still has in sections of the African population. Thus he must continue to\nbalance precariously, and wait in hope for a more favourable opportunity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Buthelezi is a particularly cunning and\ntreacherous exponent of the bankrupt policy of \u2018peaceful change\u2019 and of\nillusions in a \u2018negotiated settlement\u2019 of the conflict between oppressed and oppressor,\nexploited and exploiters in South Africa. But among our people there are, of\ncourse, others who hold to these illusions quite sincerely, out of ignorance,\nconfusion or fear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the course of the coming years, as\nsociety polarises and the mass struggle mounts, the bankruptcy of compromise\nwill more and more clearly be revealed. There is no middle way, and only\nconscious traitors and deceivers of the people will be left proclaiming that\nthere is.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Instead, the oppressed working people will rally more and more to the task of preparing their forces for the revolutionary overthrow of the regime, as the only means of reforming and rebuilding society.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Continue to Chapter Ten<\/a><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Crisis of the System The social and political crisis that has racked South Africa since the early 1970s has its foundation in the crisis […]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":709,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-756","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\/756","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=756"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/756\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":763,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/756\/revisions\/763"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/709"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marxistworkersparty.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}