Date: Mon, 25 Aug 1997 17:11:56 +0100
From: Chris Burford <cburford-AT-gn.apc.org>
Subject: Re: M-I: Critique of Cronin's article


I accept the clarification by Sid and Jim that the following passage I
criticised -


>> the ruling bloc produced (with imperialist assistance) a leader who was
>> prepared to
>> sacrifice the political form of apartheid in order to protect the rule
>> of the bourgeoisie. 

- was a reference by Jim to de Klerk, not Mandela. 

Yet I think there is a reason for my mistake. If the bourgeoisie needed a
de Klerk, they needed a Mandela even more. Mandela appears to stand above
society, for the purpose of moderating the conflict that continues to go
on. It is a highly contradictory situation. Cronin and the SACP are not
seeking the ultimate reconciliation of classes but are posing the question
of which class will have hegemony in the national democratic state. 

There is no point in Jim and I getting personally indignant with each
other. Of course I understand that he considers himself to be a
Marxist-Leninist. I do not expect him to regard me as such, since I do not
present myself as such.  Nor do I present myself as a communist.  It is
possible to regard Lenin as a great marxist, but still at the end of the
20th century to regard him as having stamped a particular definition on
marxism that was one sided and unproductive under conditions of
representative democracy. 

JH clearly does not accept the sunset clauses compromise that Joe Slovo
offered the whites  nor the compromise of allowing the international wing
of capital its own way in return for the abandonment of the fascistic rule
of local apartheid capital. JH presumably considers the SACP should have
walked out of the the government of national unity, and should aim to
provoke a split in the triple alliance at the forthcoming conference of the
ANC. 

It is obviously abstract to criticise the SACP for not leading an armed
revolution for the seizure of state power under a dictatorship of the
workers and peasants against a government headed by Mandela. So the ground
of course would have to be prepared first. I suppose the question would
then be how to organise a revolution against Mbeki, so that state power can
be smashed. In the meantime why not try what democratic openings are
possible to see if the repressive nature of state power can be transformed.
No one can predict with certainty whether or when a revolutionary
confrontation will come about. Meanwhile the struggle to transform the
state may help unite people to be clear about what sort of state structures
they want once the old ones have been smashed. 

Perhaps if JH has access to sources in South Africa who have got what he
considers to be a revolutionary marxist-leninist approach he would let
these lists share the information.

Meanwhile it is not self-evident to me that we should criticise Cronin for
being un-marxist in working to deepen reforms - including calling for a
democratic restructuring of the security and intelligence services - in the
interests of working people in South Africa.

Chris Burford

London 







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