Date: Mon, 2 Dec 1996 18:23:27 GMT
From: itusc-AT-gn.apc.org (Keith Standring)
Subject: M-G: CYRIL RAMAPHOSA-- a study in betrayal


This message is from the International Trade Union Solidarity Campaign
(ITUSC) at:-
e-mail:        itusc-AT-gn.apc.org
webpages:  http://www.gn.apc.org/labournet/itusc/
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Tel/Fax:  ++ (0) 1372  817 778
_____________________________________________________________________

CYRIL RAMAPHOSA---A STUDY IN BETRAYAL		
A few weeks ago, one of our activists in Durban, the chair of a large
township community, comrade NM, was shot and seriously injured by a group of
masked gunmen in an evident attempt on his life. This brutal action was not
dissimilar to that taken against ITUSC activist, comrade Bongani Mkhungo,
for nothing more than leafletting the COSATU 10th Anniversary Rally, with a
call for support for the striking nurses in ex-Transkei and a demand that
COSATU remain independent of the state. The COSATU stewards who carried out
the attack on comrade Mckhungo were clearly directed by the ANC, whose role
against the progressive elements in the workers' movement of South Africa
imitates the role of Stalin's GPU in the Spanish Civil War. This isn't too
surprising given that the ANC security forces were trained under the
auspices of the former Soviet Union.
These activities by the ANC against the workers' movement, raise massive
concerns about the aims of the ANC and its leadership. One case in point is
Cyril Ramaphosa, who was trained by the British TUC (amongst others) ,and
was much vaunted by its self-seeking social democratic bureaucracy.
Ramaphosa has come full circle, from General Secretary of the National Union
of Mineworkers (NUM) in South Africa, to General Secretary of the ANC, chief
ANC negotiator at the World Trade Centre talks, chair of the Constituent
Assembly and left Parliament to serve on the Board of New Africa Investments
Ltd. (NAIL). His first job at NAIL was to spearhead a bid for
Anglo-American's 48% holding in Johnnic -a company that has interests in the
media, food, motor vehicle manufacturing and brewing industries, as well as
in the retail sector. In the event, Ramaphosa succeeded in securing a 20%
holding in Johnnic, and as part of the deal some R1.5 billion was paid in
October. Trade union pension and provident funds were raided to help make
this payment.Most of the union money came from the miners and the Railway
and Harbour Union. In all these positions, Ramaphosa has remained true to
the class he elected to serve -the black middle class.
As General Secretary of the NUM he was part of the COSATU bureaucracy, which
up to this day suppresses the fight of the working class for socialism. We
only need to recall the events of 1987 when the mineworkers launched their
strike, which shook South Africa's capitalist class to their very bones. The
strike grew so rapidly in scope that the workers were threatening to
challenge the capitalists and the state for control of the mines. The mining
bosses panicked. How to stop this strike was the life and death question
that every capitalist took to bed each night. They produced the age-old
method used by capitalists the world over -offer a compromise which contains
a few privileges for the leaders, but leave the basic relationship between
boss and worker unchanged. It was Ramaphosa and his bureaucratic friends who
accepted this compromise. It was they who stopped the strike, even though
the best fighters of the workers' revolution rejected this.
We can see the results of this betrayal. The workers still work and die
under the same conditions in the mines. The revolution was derailed. The
capitalists still own and control the mines. Their profits continue to pile
up each year. The black middle class demonstrated its worth to the
capitalist class. For the right price, they could be used to deflect the
workers' revolutionary struggle at every step. Cyril Ramaphosa's "successful
career" and the "respect" that the capitalists show him is due to this fact
and to nothing else.
As General Secretary of the ANC and at the World Trade Centre, Ramaphosa
continued on the same path. The negotiated settlement was aimed to divert
the masses from revolutionary struggle. It aimed to get the people to drop
their reliance on their own, independent organisations and militant action
to solve their problems." Continue with your normal lives while we negotiate
to solve your problems" is what the ANC tried to teach the people. But to
continue normally as before meant to continue to work for the bosses, "not
to disturb the fragile economy", to accept that the capitalists will exploit
you for ever. The elections and the government which came out of these
negotiations aimed at precisely this. It ensures the ruling class position
of the capitalists by safeguarding their ownership of all the means of
production -the mines, the factories, the farms, everything. It also tries
to ensure that the working class will remain a poor and exploited class. The
South African constitution does the same thing. It contains all the rights
and rules needed to protect the interests of the bosses and the capitalist
system  as a whole.
It contains none of the rules and rights important to give the working class
majority the chance to take control of society. The liberation of the
working class from exploitation is illegal under the constitution. Cyril
Ramaphosa and his friends have served capital well.
His move onto the Board of NAIL means that he has become a capitalist
himself. It also completes the project which the local and foreign
capitalists launched in the 1980's. That project was to make the ANC and the
aspirant black middle class which it represents, part of the system, and to
get them to help suppress the fight for a revolution.
Anglo-American and the imperialists had to give them a chance to become "big
businessmen" as well. In other words, to give them a chance to share in the
exploitation of the labouring masses. This is what the members of the of the
black middle class really dream about -to become rich capitalists
themselves. For this dream, they will sell out the workers, suppress their
struggle, simply do anything to please their benefactors. They are the
enemies of the South African worker. Let no worker forget this for one minute.
In their struggle to rebuild the trade unions and workers' movement on the
basis of independence from the state, democracy within unions and workers'
internationalism, comrades Mkhungo and NM stand tall whilst Ramaphosa and
his ilk grovel abjectly before capital.


  
 
 
Keith Standring    (itusc-AT-gn.apc.org)



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