Permanent Revolution & Black Labor in South Africa

1 Smash Apartheid Through Workers Revolution Permanent Revolution & Black Labor in South Africa The development of powerful trade unions rooted in various newspapers critical of the racist regime, and South Africa’s black proletariat is one of the brightest proposed anti-trade union legislation. chapters in the recent history of the international work- This defiant mobilization marked a new high point in ing class. Nowhere on earth have workers struggled the development of the organization and consciousness against more desperate conditions or faced a more pow- of the black workers, and demonstrated that they have erful, intransigent opponent. In the face of a fiercely not been cowed into submission. Despite the bannings, racist state, armed to the teeth and supported by the the beatings, imprisonment and murder, the black- overwhelming bulk of the privileged white population, based trade unions in South Africa are still fighting, and black workers in the apartheid hell-hole have organized winning substantial gains. themselves into one of the most powerful trade-union This massive display of the power of organized labor movements in history and wrested a series of conces- had a sobering effect on the apartheid regime. Immedi- sions from the white rulers. Their struggle has inspired ately after the strike, manpower minister du Plessis workers and the oppressed around the world. agreed to negotiate the Labour Relations Amendment While the hated system of apartheid privilege re- Bill with the unions. This was a real, though limited, mains intact, the continuing struggles against it----which victory. It signaled that the non-racial unions have the have assumed an increasingly proletarian axis over the strength to force the white rulers to back down. past decade----are living proof of the revolutionary ca- The growth and development of the black trade-un- pacity of the working class. The battle to uproot the ion movement has been conditioned by the nature of the entire system of apartheid is inextricably connected to apartheid system itself. Apartheid literally means apart- the struggle for workers power in the industrial dynamo ness or separate-ness. It has been the policy of the Na- of sub-Saharan Africa. Contrary to the hopes of the tional Party since it came to power in 1948 and is codified ‘‘liberal’’ imperialists and South African capitalists, the by a complex web of 317 laws, such as the Racial Classi- apartheid system cannot be peacefully reformed----it fication Act, the Bantu Education Act, the Separate must be smashed along with the whole social system of Amenities Act, the Factories Act, and various others. capitalist exploitation which produced it. Apartheid has its material basis in the super-exploi- The centrality of the fight for workers power in the tation of black labor. Historically, black workers have struggle to end apartheid----the perspective of perma- received as little as one-sixteenth of the wages of their nent revolution----is one which is as yet fully understood white counterparts. The differential goes to the South by only a tiny minority of those involved in the move- African capitalists. Obviously if South African mine ment. At the same time, in answering the concrete prob- owners can get away with paying their workers only a lems posed in this battle, the most advanced sections of fraction of the wages paid by their international com- the black workers movement have embraced aspects of petitors, while selling their product at the world price, this perspective. The lessons of the struggle to date, and their profits are going to be above average, or super their connection to the historical necessity to forge a profits. One of the key things to understand about South Bolshevik party to lead the black proletariat and its allies Africa is that the struggle against apartheid is necessarily in the struggle to smash the South African bourgeoisie linked to the struggle against capitalism. and establish a black-centered workers government, is The liberal section of the South African capitalist class the subject of the following article, which is based on a would like to do away with some of the most bizarre public talk given last fall in both the Bay Area and features of apartheid. But all the reforms which they Toronto by Bolshevik Tendency spokesperson Gerald advocate, like those implemented by the Botha regime Smith. during the past few years, are intended to preserve the system of economic exploitation which lies at the core of In June 1988, the black workers of South Africa staged the hated apartheid system. The few cosmetic reforms a three-day general strike that shook apartheid capital- offered to date have only fueled the anger of the strug- ism to its foundations. Despite the fact that such actions gling black masses because they have changed noth- are forbidden under the state-of-emergency regulations ing----except whetting their appetite for real social jus- that are still in force, nearly two million workers stayed tice. away from work, supported by tens of thousands of Simultaneously, the National Party is under fire from students. The strike was called to protest the banning of its own base. Hardline supporters of apartheid, such as 17 anti-apartheid organizations, the closing down of the Conservative Party and the neo-nazi Afrikaner Re- 2 sistance Movement (AWB), are opposed to any and all white ruling class. It is unthinkable that the South Afri- concessions. To maintain this delicate balance is far more can bourgeoisie would make the kind of concessions difficult than it may seem. which were made a decade ago in Zimbabwe----yet for the average black worker or peasant in Zimbabwe, the Permanent Revolution: Program replacement of Ian Smith by Robert Mugabe has for Liberation changed very little in their conditions of life. The politics of the ANC can only lead the black One of the ironies of apartheid is that the superprofits masses into a blind alley. The ANC’s basic program is gouged out of the black workers in the past few decades the Freedom Charter, which says, ‘‘the people shall gov- have led to significant economic expansion, which in ern.’’ But who are ‘‘the people’’? And how will they turn has produced a parallel growth in the strength of ‘‘govern’’? One left-wing South African trade-union the black proletariat. But, contrary to liberal capitalist militant, Moses Mayekiso, said this about the Freedom theorizing, the development of this capitalist economy Charter: has not significantly eroded apartheid. Many militants ‘‘The [ANC’s] charter is a capitalist document. We need a refer to South African capitalism as ‘‘racial capitalism.’’ workers’ charter that will say clearly who will control the This is because the extreme form of racial oppression farms, presently owned by the capitalists, who will con- imposed upon the black masses is inextricably bound up trol the factories, the mines and so on. There must be a with the entire structure of South African capitalism. change of the whole society. Apartheid capitalism cannot be reformed----it has to be ‘‘Through the shop-steward councils people are opposed smashed, through the revolutionary struggle of its vic- to this idea that there will be two stages toward liberation: tims. that we must clean up capitalism first, then socialism. It’s a waste of time, a waste of energy and a waste of people’s But if the workers and insurgent black masses man- blood. age to make a revolution, and succeed in smashing the ‘‘Apartheid is just an appendage, a branch of the whole state which safeguards this bestial system of racist pi- thing....’’ racy, why should they then hand power back over to a ----Socialist Worker Review, October 1985 section of the white capitalist class and a thin layer of In criticizing the program of the ANC, we do not privileged black hangers-on? Why shouldn’t they or- disparage the courage and dedication of the thousands ganize this powerful industrial economy in such a way of active members of the South African Communist that it benefits the people whose sweat and blood have Party, the South African Congress of Trade Unions created the fabulous wealth that is presently monopo- (SACTU) or the ANC. All of these organizations have lized by the ‘‘randlords’’? In other words, why shouldn’t fought against apartheid and many of their militants they establish a workers government which can proceed have lost their lives in the struggle. We have no doubt to create an egalitarian, socialist society? that the future Socialist Republic of Southern Africa will This may seem elementary for socialists. But support- honor the memory of these heroic militants. Neverthe- ers of the largest supposedly-socialist organization in less, personal courage cannot substitute for a correct South Africa, the Communist Party (SACP), who play a program, which in turn can only be derived from a clear very influential role in the African National Congress perception of reality. Ever since the victory of the Stalin- (ANC)----the main anti-apartheid organization----pursue ist political counterrevolution in the Soviet Union in the a different strategy entirely. They think that South Afri- 1920s, Stalinism has corrupted the thinking of would-be can capitalism can be reformed, and they therefore seek revolutionaries the world over. an alliance with a section of the apartheid capitalists. South African capitalism provides a powerful vindi- Their willingness to appease the ruling class has been cation of Leon Trotsky’s theory of permanent revolu- exposed through their meetings with the Anglo-Ameri- tion. In this epoch, the epoch of imperialist decay, the can Corporation (the biggest single exploiter of black international capitalist system as a whole is in decline.

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