Date:         Sun, 29 Dec 96 22:39:39 EST
From: Walter Daum <WGDCC-AT-CUNYVM.CUNY.EDU>
Subject: M-G: revolutionary campaign in south africa



This article appears in the Winter 1997 issue of Proletarian Revolution,
magazine of the League for the Revolutionary Party.

Revolutionary Workers' Campaign in South Africa

The class consciousness and organization developed by the masses
during their struggle against apartheid, together with the
weakness of the ruling class, combine to suggest that the South
African proletariat will likely play the leading role in the
coming world revolution. So we continue to play close attention
to the class struggle in South Africa.

Readers of Proletarian Revolution will be familiar with the
Workers International group. Unlike every other socialist group
in South Africa, the WI has combined a consistent fight for the
independence of the working class from the capitalist ANC with an
intransigent fight for a revolutionary workers' party as opposed
to a reformist one.

However, we have cautioned readers to consider the WI's
affiliation to the international political tendency centered on
Cliff Slaughter's Workers Revolutionary Party (WRP) of Britain,
the Workers International to Rebuild the Fourth International
(WIRFI). The WIRFI has a rotten record of political support for
bourgeois parties -- most recently displayed by the dissolution
of the WRP into a reformist pseudo-party front -- which directly
contradicts the revolutionary direction of the WI's policies.

Thus in PR 50 we wrote:

"The WI(SA)'s development toward revolutionary politics cannot
continue with its allegiance to the WIRFI: either they degenerate
into the right-centrist swamp that is the WIRFI, or they see
through the WIRFI's opportunism and break from this international
tendency. Only then will we be able to determine the real
character of the WI(SA)."

Our arguments received a furious response from the WIRFI's
Namibian affiliate, to which we replied in our previous issue.

Since then we have learned that the WI's section in Cape Town,
which has been responsible for publishing the group's newspaper
that so impressed us, has been conducting a protracted political
struggle against the WIRFI leadership. In July this culminated in
its split from the WIRFI, along with comrades in Durban.

Future editions of PR will discuss this political fight and the
new socialist group formed in South Africa, as their documents
become available. This discussion deserves the attention of all
revolutionary workers. Readers interested in this new group can
reach them by writing to: WI, 103 Palace House, Malta Rd, Salt
River 7925, South Africa.

WI CAMPAIGNS IN LOCAL ELECTIONS

This year saw the first post-apartheid elections to local
governments in South Africa. Elections in most provinces took
place in October of last year, but voter registration fraud by
the Inkatha Freedom Party in KwaZulu/Natal and manipulation of
electoral boundaries by the National Party in the Western Cape
delayed those votes to May of this year.

After two years of rule by Nelson Mandela's African National
Congress (ANC), these local elections represented an important
test of the masses' attitude toward the government. While the ANC
won most local polls, the results indicated growing disaffection.
All major parties received fewer votes than in the 1994 national
elections, and two-thirds of the electorate chose not to vote at
all. The most significant increase in votes went to the so-called
independents, who many workers voted for as a protest against the
main parties.

The WI's Cape Town group ran four candidates for posts as
councillors in the Western Cape, although the other sections of
the WI did not participate. Below we reproduce the WI's election
manifesto. We do so for two reasons. First, it is an opportunity
to better acquaint our readers with this important group. And
second, because in all essentials -- its anti-electoralism, its
arguments on the need for the socialist revolution to satisfy the
masses' basic needs, as well as its insistence on the need for a
revolutionary party to lead the independent workers' struggles --
the WI's election campaign stands as an example to revolutionary
workers everywhere of how bourgeois elections can be used to
advance the revolutionary interests of the working class.

We have some criticisms of the WI's manifesto. Most important is
its lack of clarity on how the election campaign fits into the
overall class struggle. This can be seen in the WI's main slogan
for the elections, "Vote, Unite, Organize and Fight," which they
never precisely explain. This criticism is minor compared to the
outstanding achievement the WI comrades' clearly revolutionary
campaign represents.

In the pamphlet announcing their participation in the elections,
the WI explained their campaign in unambiguously anti-
electoralist fashion, almost unique among left electoral
campaigns anywhere:

"We shall stand not for the sake of getting votes or to jump on
the gravy train [of government corruption], but to expose to the
working class and its fellow poor the true nature and limitations
of the local government elections ... that these are part and
parcel of the capitalist system which oppresses the poor. But at
the same time we shall use the elections and the councils to
fight for the interests of the working class and its fellow poor.
For instance, when our candidates get onto councils, they will
vote against measures which benefit the bosses, and will at all
times use their position to fight for issues which are beneficial
to the masses, and they will be accountable to the community.

"The right to vote was won by the masses through a long and hard
struggle. But the vote does not put food on the table, or solve
problems such as unemployment. The Workers International believes
that intervening in the elections and elected councils is very
important, but the main focus of our activity is outside of
electoral politics ... in the mass struggle of the working class
and the building of independent organizations of the working
class. Only by waging an all-sided struggle against the
capitalist system, and by understanding that its independent
activity is the most important aspect of this struggle, will the
working class be able to win its main demands. The most important
condition for this victory is the building of a truly
revolutionary, truly Marxist workers party to lead all the
struggles against capitalism.

"When going to vote, it is important to do so without illusions.
Expect nothing from elections under this rotten capitalist
system."

The WI succeeded in distributing ten thousand copies of their
manifesto along with an even greater number of leaflets to
workers at factories, meetings and in their communities. The WI
even appeared on television with their revolutionary socialist
message. That this is a great achievement is reinforced by the
facts the WI's membership consists almost exclusively of poor
workers from the townships and squatter camps, and that their
campaign received practically no support from their international
tendency. Moreover, they were prevented from campaigning openly
in the "African" townships by the threat of violence from the
ANC, which regularly uses thuggery and even assassination to
silence political opponents in the townships.

The Nationalist Party (the old apartheid party) won the elections
in Cape Town by encouraging fears among whites, Indians and so-
called "coloreds" in particular, that an ANC victory would mean
attacks on their living standards in favor of "Africans." The WI
received 1,576 votes, a significant increase over the 855 they
won in the Western Cape in 1994, when three times as many people
voted.

No other left group participated in the elections. The Workers
Organization for Socialist Action (WOSA) and its Workers List
Party (WLP) boycotted the elections on the grounds that they were
based on racist electoral boundaries and other arrangements. This
is true, but the 1994 elections, in which they did participate,
were based on even more racist foundations; participating in
those elections was not only permissible for revolutionaries but
the best way to challenge their racist character. WOSA/WLP's real
reason for boycotting this year was the collapse of the WLP,
whose reformist program failed to attract popular support among
workers in the last elections. The WLP continues to be a moribund
front for WOSA, which does not have the political courage to
admit its failure and drop the pretense of being part of a larger
organization.

The International Socialist Movement (ISM) and the International
Socialists of South Africa (ISSA -- part of the Cliffite
International Socialism tendency) both supported the bourgeois
ANC. The Comrades for a Workers Government (CWG) did not take a
clear position on the elections, but did not support the ANC as
they have done in the past.

Workers International Election Manifesto:
Vote, Unite, Organize and Fight!

Preamble

Workers Unite! We have nothing to lose but our chains. Only under
the leadership of the working class can society be reconstructed
to end the dictatorship of the capitalists and to bring an end to
poverty, starvation and exploitation. We call on all workers,
socialists and democrats to vote for the Workers International on
the 29th May 1996, on the basis spelled out below:

The parties of the Government of National Unity (GNU),
spearheaded by the ANC-SACP [South African Communist Party]
alliance, made a lot of promises to the masses before the April
1994 elections. They gave it a name -- RDP [Reconstruction and
Development Program]. But the RDP is a miserable failure, and
failed to make meaningful changes to people's lives over the past
two years. We have always maintained that the RDP will not
deliver. In order to mask this failure, the government and media
tries to squeeze the maximum mileage out of every contribution
made by the RDP. We see on television the great hullabaloo when a
rural community's piped water is turned on thanks to the RDP.
Water is of course very important, but if this is the main thing
the RDP has achieved in two years with still very many
communities without piped water to this day, then the situation
does not look half bad. We note the presidential projects under
the RDP (free health care for pregnant mothers and under six
year-olds, school feeding scheme, and other), but despite massive
problems with each of these schemes, taken together they are only
a drop in the ocean of the needs of the masses. But why is the
RDP failing?

It is failing because the new South Africa ensured that Apartheid
is removed from the law books, but did nothing to break the
stranglehold of the capitalist minority over the economy. The
wealth of our country remains in the greedy control of the tiny
minority of bosses who enriched themselves on the backs of
apartheid practices and oppression. The wealth generated by our
economy goes into the coffers of this tiny elite and not to the
masses, who are living on the brink of starvation, many,
especially among the unemployed are actually starving. On top of
this, all social surveys show, that after two years of the ANC in
power, the income and resources of the country still go mainly to
the white community. For instance, blacks (87% of the population)
get 41.5% of total income, whereas whites (13% of the population)
takes 58.5% of the total income. 87% of the land is still in the
hands of whites. Infant mortality among Africans is 10% and among
whites it is 1%. The picture is the same on every social
indicator. These racist inequalities were created by apartheid,
but remain unchanged after two full years of the ANC/SACP in
power.

The RDP cannot really address any of these problems, because it
is part of and accepts this undemocratic system of the bosses,
called capitalism. The RDP ensures therefore that the profits of
the bosses are protected, and that only the remaining crumbs,
left over after the feast of the capitalists, are thrown at the
working class. This is why the RDP cannot be implemented. But
even if it is fully implemented, it would still not make major
changes in the living standards of the masses, because it is too
limited, a drop in the ocean.

After telling us that the RDP can only be implemented when the
local government is sorted out, Mandela closed down the RDP
office early this year. This is an admission that the GNU cannot
and will not deliver on its RDP promises. They hope that by
shutting down the RDP office the expectation the people have of
the GNU will die down with it. But their tricks will not work any
longer.

The SACP in its program, in order to cover up for the RDP's
weaknesses, claims that the RDP can be a step towards socialism.
But this is a lie. The reforms promised in the RDP cannot lead to
socialism, because in the first place, no reforms of any
significance (mass housing, free health care and education for
all, etc.) can be achieved without massive inroads into the
wealth of the ruling class (which the RDP does not propose).
Socialism is not a gradual accumulation of reforms, but needs a
revolution led by the working class against the capitalists and
their system.

We do not reject reforms, but when we fight for them, the main
point is that in achieving reforms, the power and the confidence
of the working class in its own strength is built up, in
preparation for the revolution. Reforms also help to defend the
living standards of the masses.

After two years we have seen that the GNU is opposed to the
interests of the working class. For instance, it is busy
privatizing state companies as well as municipal services. This
will lead to retrenchments, higher prices and higher profits for
the bosses. By passing the anti-worker Labor Relations Act, the
GNU has exposed its anti-worker bias. The same can be said of the
GNU's acceptance of GATT and the IMF and World Bank, which are in
the lead of the massive attacks against the poor worldwide.

The GNU's anti-worker politics has also been clearly revealed by
attacks by the police and army on strikers and students, and by
the mass dismissal of strikers, for instance the 6,000 nurses in
ex-Transkei. Now, the RDP is part of the program of a government
which is against the working class using and building its
independent strength in struggle to win gains from the capitalist
enemy. Therefore we call on the working class and its allies to
not vote for any of the parties that use the RDP to try and
deceive the struggling people.

In our previous manifesto we explained that even the most basic
needs of the masses cannot be adequately addressed under this
rotten and miserable capitalist system. These needs can only be
catered for under a system where there are no capitalists. Where
the big factories, mines, banks and other big companies are
nationalized and are under workers control. Only then, can the
wealth generated by society be applied to the uplifting of all
people under a plan controlled by the working class and its
allies. Such a society is what we call a socialist society, which
must not be confused with what existed in the former Soviet Union
and Eastern Europe. These countries were Stalinist, and used
socialist rhetoric and pretensions to fool the working class, but
in reality they were anti-working class dictatorships. For us,
standing in the election and serving on councils is not a
principle but only a part of this overall struggle for socialism.

Workers, democrats, socialists, we must not forget for one minute
that the local government structures are part and parcel of the
capitalist state, which as a whole defends the bosses' system
against the working class and its fellow poor. Therefore we must
have no illusion in the ability of local government under
capitalism to adequately address the needs of the people.

Therefore, we say that for us the elections are part of a wider
struggle. We do not make any promises but call on the working
class and its allies to use the elections to take the struggle
for their rights, which is part of the broader struggle for
socialism.

The Pre-Interim Phase Fiasco

The period from the formation of the transitional councils till
the first inclusive local government elections, is called the
pre-interim phase. Councilors in this phase were not elected, but
appointed. The Workers International has from the outset rejected
these councils (which included SACP councilors), which turned out
to be just as undemocratic as expected.

The Basic Needs and Principles We Shall Fight for

1. Against Racist Boundaries

The manner in which boundaries were drawn for the election was
plain racist. Whites by and large have their own wards. Wards of
white areas are also bigger with much more resources than wards
in other areas. Whites are also given more wards in relation to
their population total than blacks. This racism is perpetuated in
the rural areas. We stand for the end of all practices related to
apartheid. Forward to non-racial boundaries!

2. One City, One Tax Base

This is an important basis on which the favoring of white and
rich areas can be stopped. All municipal taxes must be centrally
collected and distributed equally to all local authorities on the
basis of the number of residents. The same principle must be
implemented in the rural areas.

3. Accountability to the Community

Councilors must be made accountable to their constituencies. We
stand for regular mass meetings where councilors must report back
to the community.

4. Jobs For All or a Living Unemployed Benefit

The ANC, SACP and other parties in the GNU have proven that they
are not serious about tackling unemployment. In fact, the problem
continues to grow under the GNU. In the 1996 Budget, for
instance, the GNU had a lot to say about unemployment, but did
not allocate funds to deal with the problem. Instead of tackling
this problem head-on, the ANC and SACP leaders are using
unemployment to attack workers, telling them to be grateful for
their starvation wages because they at least have work! Work at
decent wages and conditions is a right, and not a privilege, as
these leaders want us to believe.

Capitalism can never provide jobs for all, therefore the struggle
against unemployment is at the same time a struggle against
capitalism. Our Councilors will fight for local government work
schemes, and will support and promote co-operatives. We stand for
the subsidization of housing, services and transport for the
unemployed, pensioners and the disabled. Even though the issue of
a living unemployed benefit is a matter for a national
government, our councilors will use their positions to fight for
this important need. We stand for a special levy on every
business, except small business, to assist with the financing of
this program. We maintain that the creation of jobs for all is
the responsibility of the state, and we will mobilize the
employed and unemployed against the regional and national
government in the struggle against unemployment.

5. Scrap All Arrears

We stand for the scrapping of all rent, rates and service arrears
in all working class areas (including white) until the day of the
elections. We shall fight against the practice of charging people
for services that are not provided (as in many townships) and for
these to be at affordable levels determined by the community.

6. Tax the Capitalists More

VAT is a tax which attacks the living standards of the working
and middle classes. It is a means to allow the government to
subsidize the capitalists whose tax burden has been decreased
>from year to year. As part of our overall struggle against this
parasitic tax, our councilors will fight for the abolition of VAT
on all matters related to housing (rent, rates, bricks, etc.) and
services. The capitalists need to be taxed more to finance local
government.

7. Housing

Despite all the promises and hullabaloo, the government is
failing to provide houses for the masses. Now, in the 1996
Budget, the GNU reduced the housing allocation by more than half
of the previous year's amount. They justify this by pointing to
the billions which the housing department could not spend. We
reject the concrete slabs which the GNU is selling to our people
as houses. We oppose the continuation of segregated areas,
created by apartheid, and continued by the GNU. We stand for
decent and quality houses in and near the cities. Empty houses,
flats and blocks of flats that belong to absentee landlords, must
be confiscated by the council and redivided among the homeless.

8. Adequate and Equal Services

Many working class areas still do not have adequate services. Our
councilors will fight against this situation, and will campaign
seriously for the adequate and equal provision of municipal
services (water, roads, drainage, toilet facilities,
electricity).

9. Community Facilities

All communities must be provided with proper and adequate
schools, clinics, day hospitals, libraries, sport fields,
playgrounds, parks, meeting places, child care facilities, after
school care facilities, extramural educational and cultural
activities. Trees and lawns must be grown in all working class
areas.

10. Subsidized and Efficient Transport

Our councilors will fight for more efficient and subsidized
transport to and from work. Transport for the unemployed,
students, disabled and pensioners, must be fully subsidized. In
the past transport subsidies enriched the bus companies. We need
an approach which will benefit the community. Many workers spend
long hours on the road to and from work. This is a result of the
apartheid practice of housing the oppressed far away from the
city centers and industrial areas. As an interim measure,
upgrading and expanding the public transport system is the best
way of overcoming the negative effects of this situation. The
long term solution is for people to be housed close to their
places of work. The bosses must be made to pay to subsidize
better transport for the workers, because they benefitted most
>from dumping the oppressed on the barren landscape. The only
solution that will resolve all problems with transport, is the
nationalization of the transport system under workers control.

11. Better Community Health and TB Treatment

Our councilors will fight for improved primary health care. All
areas should have adequate health facilities (clinics, day
hospitals, ambulances), with sufficient medical supplies, nurses
and doctors. TB is the health scourge of the Western Cape. We
stand for special TB clinics in every area where it is a problem,
and every family which is affected by TB must get full state
support until healed. TB is a disease linked to poverty, and is
caused by the capitalist system which keeps the majority of the
population in abject poverty. In the fight against TB the only
meaningful solution is the eradication of poverty, which can be
achieved only by struggle for socialism.

12. No Society Is Free While Its Women Are In Chains

The oppression of women is rooted in the conditions of the
capitalist system. Women have a secondary social status, and are
discriminated against in the economy, in many cultures, and in
politics. They are projected as sex objects, existing mainly for
the pleasure of men. The important domestic work done by women is
a vital contribution to the functioning of society. But this work
is regarded as of low significance, as of no real value, and as
unworthy of "men." Women have been forced into the role of
domestic servants over many, many centuries, and this cannot be
tolerated any further. We reject all discrimination against
women.

But the liberation of women from domestic labor will not be done
through the sharing of house work alone, though this is very
important. The long term answer lies in the socialization of
domestic work. This means that the state must provide adequate
and properly subsidized child care facilities, laundries and
community eating houses. These must be non-profit making and
subsidized by the state. The standards and quality must be of the
highest. Our councilors will fight for the implementation of
these basic rights, and will oppose all forms of women's
oppression. Workers International says: Free the women from
domestic drudgery so that they can take up their proper place in
the struggle for socialism.

13. No to Privatization of Municipal Property & Services

The privatization of municipal property and services in the last
years of apartheid, has been a serious attack against the working
class and the community. It led to retrenchments, higher prices
and more profits for the rich. Now the ANC-led government is
continuing this anti-working class practice. Recently, the
Cabinet agreed in principle to continue to privatize our water,
electricity, roads and other services. We reject and oppose this
completely. We stand for the confiscation of all municipal
property so privatized. We stand for the taking over by the
councils of the services that were put in the hands of the
capitalists.

14. Full Rights For All Council Employees

These workers (and all others) are entitled to a living wage and
humane working conditions. Our councilors will fully support this
struggle of the municipal workers for better conditions and
wages. We support fully the right of council workers to strike,
and we will defy the new capitalistic Labor Relations Act in
support of the workers.

15. No to the Olympic Bid

The bid for Cape Town to host the Olympics in 2004 is already
heaping more burdens onto the working class and its fellow poor.
Much needed funds are diverted away from the needs of the masses.
Only the bosses stand to benefit from the bid, because they will
get contracts. Our councilors will use their positions to oppose
the bid.

These Are Not Promises, but a Statement of Intent and a Call to
Action!

Should any of our councilors be elected, we will fight for each
and every one of these issues. We will fight against any
undemocratic and racist practice, and we will expose the deals
made behind the backs of the community. We will fight for local
government to break its ties with big business. We call on the
working class and their fellow poor to not allow our councilors
to be isolated by the capitalists. Vote for our candidates, and
actively support them in the struggle to implement the views
spelt out in this manifesto. The role of our councilors will be
important, but the active support of the working class and its
allies will be decisive!

The Struggle Continues: Vote, Unite, Organize and Fight!
Build Independent Working Class Organizations!
Build the Revolutionary Working Class Party Now!
----------------------------------------------------------------
Subscriptions to Proletarian Revolution at $7.00 may be ordered
>from Socialist Voice Publishing Co., P.O. Box 3573, New York, NY
10008, U.S.


     --- from list marxism-general-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---