TAKING POWER SERIOUSLY Whither ANC? | Land and Radical Economic

TAKING POWER SERIOUSLY

South Africa’s new progressive magazine standing for social justice.

ISSUE No. 52 MAY 2017

ZUMA’S REGIME MUST GO

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Feature: anatomy of crisis Local struggles 26 |Reclaim the City Movement says: 05 |Zanufication or renewal: whither ANC? Build inclusive cities! No to spatial 10 |BEE out of the closet: Malikane’s alliance inequality! for “black” capitalism 05 Zanufication or renewal: 13 |What should we make of the SACP’s whither ANC? latest critical posture of the ANC rot: an Students audacity or a quagmire? 27 |A Popular Hegemony – Students and Class Struggle Just transition 15 |Is the Cape High Court judgement a International fatal blow to South Africa’s nuclear 28 |Some thoughts, self-criticisms and pretentions? proposals concerning the process of 16 |Why stopping Eskom’s closures can be change in Bolivia good for both unions and the environment 31 |French elections: the centrist cul-de-sac

Land 16 Why stopping Eskom’s closures can 18 |Land reform requires change to property be good for both the unions and the clause environment 20 |Land and radical economic transformation

22 Crossing the divide: Saftu’s challenge

10 | BEE out of the closet: Malikane’s alliance for “black” capitalism

18 | Land reform requires change to property clause

31 | French elections: centrist cul-de-sac

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Email your comments to [email protected] Visit www.amandla.org.za for additional articles, news and views. Cover Illustration: Donovan Ward A distinct variant has come recently from Chris Malikane – the new advisor to the new Minister of Finance. Interestingly, he has in the past been an advisor to both Cosatu and Numsa. But he doesn’t agree with either of them on this issue either. In his view, we must certainly take sides. We must support the predatory elite in their battle with “white monopoly capital”. They are completing the tasks of the National Democratic Revolution. Therefore we must join with them in “a broad anti-white monopoly capitalist united front”. There is a critique of this approach on Does it mean then we don’t care about the fight between the predatory Guptas on the one hand and established global capital on Page 10 . the other? Do we take sides? Which side are we on? It is quite true that the factions of the ANC represent Zuma’s regime the interests of different sections of capital. Zuma represents the looter capitalist section, a kind of lumpen bourgeoisie, the tenderpreneurs, the State- Owned Enterprise parasites. Cyril is closer to big, global capital – which is after all must gowhere he made and continues to make his magine. The political crisis Ramaphosa instead of Zuma? Does it money. is over. Zuma has resigned and make a difference? So if it is a war between fractions of been allowed to leave the country Clearly, the crisis in South Africa runs capital, why interfere? Let them destroy for the Philippines, where much deeper than Zuma. It is a crisis of each other. We will get on with our own President Duterte has said he can the economy as well as a crisis of politics. business with our one-day stayaway stay as long as he likes. TheANC Whatever the resolution of the political focused on our own demands. has elevated Cyril Ramaphosa to crisis, there will still be a crisis of de- There are three main reasons why we the presidency. A flood of new industrialisation, of jobs, of houses and disagree with this analysis: Iinvestment has poured into the SA bond provision of decent services. Most of all, 1. The eyk argument is that the looter market and the Rand is now trading at there will be the crisis of the extreme gap capitalists threaten democracy. Yes, we R11.55 to the dollar. S&P has just reviewed between the rich and poor. know it’s a limited form of democracy SA credit rating and upgraded the country that protects private ownership. But to BBB – back to investment grade. SA How do we respond it still provides better conditions for First has cancelled marches that were to this crisis? struggle than repressive dictatorship. scheduled to take place on June 16. Angus So does it mean then we don’t care The looter capitalists need to control Buchan, who led more than a million in about the fight between the predatory the justice and law and order arms prayer during the crisis, proclaimed that Guptas on the one hand and established of the state in order to be able to his people’s prayers had been granted. global capital on the other? continue looting. Zuma’s focus on God is bountiful. Interestingly, on this issue, Cosatu placing compliant people in these Imagine that you are one of the more and Numsa, noted rivals, seem to agree. positions is no accident. The global than 9 million unemployed people of A plague on both their houses, they say. capitalists, on the other hand, have South Africa. Your sister is one of the They are all thieves. no such need. They make profit in the 17 million South Africans who receive At odds with Cosatu and Numsa “normal” way –exploitation of labour. social grants. is the new General Secretary of Saftu, 2. The second reason is that the activities What difference does all this Zwelinzima Vavi. He has been clear for of the looter capitalists affect the hullabaloo about “credit ratings” make many months that the predatory elite is material conditions of life of the to your lives? What difference does this a key enemy and the toppling of its chief working class and the poor. Rising change make - from Zuma the Gupta representative in the state, Jacob Zuma, a interest and bond rates will have the lackey to Ramaphosa, the BEE millionaire? key task. most severe effect on the working class

Amandla! Issue No.52 2 MAY 2017 and the poor who are most dependent on the state for resources. 3. Thirdly, control of the Treasury gives the predators the means to prioritise unnecessary investment. They do this because it provides new opportunities for looting. Hence the war over the nuclear deal, in which the predators lost a battle, courtesy of the Cape High Court, just before Amandla went to press. Hence the trains that are too big, the inefficient but lucrative coal supplies to Eskom. Hence. Hence. Hence. The list is endless. So, we believe that the defeat of the kleptocracy is in the interests of the working class and the poor. But we don’t believe that “your enemy’s enemy must be your friend”. Waging war on the When the opposition parties marched together, it wasn’t the DA which dominated. It was the red berets and t-shirts of the EFF. kleptocracy does not for a minute represent support for what Malikane and others call “white minority capital”. On the contrary, fighting Do we join the dominated. It was the red berets and against the kleptocracy will strengthen the current protests? t-shirts of the EFF. working class in its life and death struggle If we do, are we just following the And our banners and placards could with neoliberalism and capitalism as whites? Or the middle class? They don’t say “ANC must fall”, “Capitalism must fall” a whole. jump up and down about poverty or etc. By being there, we would contest for exploitation. They only get really upset leadership of this “national” struggle. By But you are standing when you try to take away their control of staying away, we abandon the terrain. in the way of radical the Treasury. Let them get on with it. We That is why we have always fought for economic transformation! have other issues to pursue. the principle of the “united front”. That So goes the self-serving, We believe that we cannot afford to is what the united front is – a variety of opportunistic argument of the dominant isolate ourselves, as the working class and class forces combining around limited faction of the ANC leadership. Yes. the poor, from activism, just because it demands, all free, at the same time, to They are really trying to sell this story, contains significant middle class forces. pursue our own demands. incredible as it may seem. To believe On the contrary, our task is to lead those it, you would have to believe that forces. We know that we don’t have the Conclusion coincidentally, after 23 years in power, same fundamental class interests. But P olitics is about engagement. they have suddenly decided now to right now the middle class is also hurt by Studying, reading, issuing statements – change the course of macro-economic the same economic forces that attack the these are all necessary components of strategy completely. Of course, you would working class and the poor. They will be political activity, but in the end respect also have to reconcile this story, which poorer. Not poor, but certainly poorer. is won through engagement. It is only is for the South African masses, with the They will pay more for their credit – their through engagement with non-radical other ANC story that nothing will change. houses and cars. More for their utilities. forces over common interests that we That is the story they are telling the As long as we are able to express our can hope to convince others that really, ratings agencies and overseas investors. class interests within a mass movement, there is no alternative. As long as we are But this story is not innocent. It would that is where we should be, promoting permitted to speak our minds in popular be a joke if it wasn’t so serious. Imagine the self-activity of the oppressed layers movements, that is where activists “radical economic transformation” in the in society. should be. hands of the ANC. Imagine nationalisation Imagine if all the marches all over of the banks, for example, under the the country on Friday 7 April had been Disclaimer control of the ANC. Or the mines. supported by workers and workers’ Or other parts of the “commanding organisations. Whose banners would The views expressed in these articles do not heights”. What we see now at Eskom and have been the most prominent? Who necessarily reflect those of the Alternative Prasa would pale into insignificance in would have been there in the greatest Information & Development Centre, or the comparison. The sufferers again would be numbers? When the opposition parties Amandla! Editorial Collective. the working class and the poor. marched together, it wasn’t the DA which

Amandla! Issue No.52 3 MAY 2017 international

Violence against unionists in Honduras The Honduran agriculture trade union, STAS, is currently fighting multinational fruit company Fyffes for better working conditions. On 13 April, leader of the union Moises Sanchez and his brother Misael were cycling to their home in the village of La Permuta, when they were ambushed by a gang of six armed men. Misael was seriously wounded in the face by one of the criminals who attacked him with a Tribute to Kenneth Abrahams machete. Moises was kidnapped, beaten and threatened with death if he continued Amandla! was saddened to hear of the death the union work. of Kenneth Abrahams. Kenny was an activist Fyffes has been at the centre of a in the Non-European Unity Movement in the scandal involving labour rights abuses 1950s. As a member of the Ovamboland in the south of Honduras. Workers, the People’s Organisation, the precursor to majority of whom are women, are not Swapo, he was in a branch with many who paid the mandatory minimum wage, work became Swapo’s leaders. He was committed long shifts, are subjected to poor hygiene and safety conditions and are threatened to non-collaboration and internationalism. His with dismissals when they try to organise. struggle was to infuse the Namibian national Nice to see the high moral standards news liberation movement with democratic and of TNCs as they make their profits around socialist ideas. the world. Thus, today we say: Hamba Kahle Comrade Kenneth Abrahams. Rest in power. The More precarious stories briefs struggle for a socialist Namibia continues. A UK company charged a worker £800 (more than R13,000) for being off A full tribute is available on the Amandla! website. sick. It seems it is common for courier drivers to have to pay their company to hire a replacement if they are off sick. A “shadowy middleman”. He lives in a R65m car drove into Emil Ibrahimov as he was mansion, thanks to two directors of a JSE- delivering parcels. He ended up hobbling south africa listed IT company, EOH. EOH so far has around on crutches, unable to work. UK R300m in social development IT contracts Mail, the company he works for, says he and, Amabunghane says, “is positioning is self-employed, not an employee. So TNC merger will dominate itself to become a central player in a his sick note is irrelevant. And it cost seed market future social grants distribution system”. them £800 to hire a replacement while he It just shows how capital has learned to was off sick. So he must pay them £800. M onsanto and Bayer want to merge. make money from poverty. Meanwhile, UK Mail made a profit of These two seed and agrochemical £16m (R270m) last year. Their business companies dominate the global market. Nuclear price tag model for this profit is clear. Together they would control 30% of the global seed market. In South Africa, S ince the court ruling on the Zupta The R1 billion UK Election they would have an absolute monopoly nuclear power project, its protagonists on commercially available cotton seed. have made it clear that they see the ruling Theresa May came to office as the This merger can still be stopped and the as just a “bump in the road”. So, the UK Prime Minister promising there would Southern Africa Campaign to Dismantle campaign continues. We were interested be no early general election. She repeated Corporate Power is campaigning to to hear of a way of putting the R1 trillion that promise many times. Now she has achieve that. price tag into perspective. The entire asset called an early general election. Why? value of commercial agriculture in South Because she decided it’s necessary. That’s Making money from Africa is R393 billion. That includes land it. Changing her mind on a commitment social grants and fixed improvements, machinery and is neither here nor there. And then the livestock. That’s not much more than one- irony. The central plank of her election The investigative journalists, third of the price of the nuclear power campaign is to provide “strong and stable” Amabunghane, call Lunga Ncwana a that we don’t need. government. Some stability.

Amandla! Issue No.52 4 MAY 2017 FEATURE ANATOMY OF CRISIS Zanufication or renewal: whither ANC? This was the title of an Amandla Forum in Cape Town in April. There were four speakers:

Jeremy Cronin Jeremy Cronin: Deputy General Secretary of the SACP and Deputy Tony Ehrenreich Minister of Public Works Jeremy Cronin Mbuyiseni Ndlozi Noor Nieftagodien

Tony Ehrenreich Tony Ehrenreich: Provincial Secretary of Cosatu Western Cape

carries for bringing and sustaining Zuma Revolution, but he explains Cosatu’s in power and dividing Cosatu over the refusal to become involved in “Zuma alliance with the ANC. must fall” as a refusal to participate in “a It is disappointing that Jeremy Cronin squabble between thieves”. It is supported Mbuyiseni Ndlozi was only able to account for the failure of by forces who have never supported the National Democratic Revolution to working class issues. Mbuyiseni Ndlozi: National date by saying “unfortunately a different The EFF is clearly the biggest force on Spokesperson of the Economic Freedom dominant line prevailed within the ANC”. the left, able to mobilise thousands on Fighters (EFF) Support for Zuma at Polokwane was the streets. However, what is less clear “a marriage of convenience” that went is their strategy for getting rid of Zuma wrong. Despite all this, he sticks with and addressing the mammoth social the same strategy: “What we require is crisis faced by the mass of poor and a genuine second radical phase of the working people. National Democratic Revolution.” This It is concerning that they go into the Noor Nieftagodien leads him to propose a popular front, in “Zuma must fall” campaign as a single which the SACP seeks to build an alliance issue campaign, without trying to connect Noor Nieftagodien: AIDC Board of class collaboration between working that with a set of demands that address member and member of the Amandla class organisations and sections of the the economic and social crisis. This is an Collective. elite, under its leadership and programme. opportunity to radicalise the struggle, Tony Ehrenreich accepts that to extend the demands beyond “Zuma “Cosatu today is a fraction of what it must fall”. It is a chance to contest the was”. He advocates “unity of workers on dominance of liberal ideology and put he inputs represent the a non partisan basis”. Polokwane was “a working class issues at the forefront. As diversity of left views on the fundamental mistake… because we have Amandla!, we were also interested in current crisis. Amandla was personalised the issue.” He criticises EFF’s tactical alliances with the liberal Tparticularly interested in Cosatu for making again “the same opposition, particularly the DA, and understanding the stance of the SACP, mistake we have”, this time with Cyril. He its perspective of uniting with other in the light of the huge responsibility it doesn’t mention the National Democratic left forces.

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factional disputes but they have also become centres of procurement. To change that, to place the energies of the left to try and change that, is a dead end. What happened is that the Communist Party and Cosatu criminalised workers in struggle. The Marikana massacre was a high point of state violence. And in all of that, Cosatu and the Communist Party sided with the ruling party. It was a key moment and I would like to see Cosatu and the Communist Party look itself squarely in the mirror. If you are going to redeem yourself, I think you need to confront that question. The EFF is clearly the biggest force on the left, able to mobilise thousands on the streets. However, what is less clear A similar process occurred with is their strategy for getting rid of Zuma and addressing the mammoth social crisis faced by the mass of poor and Fees Must Fall. Blade Nzimande has working people. consistently criminalised the Fees Must Fall movement. Mbuyiseni Ndlozi from the EFF says would like to believe that it is capable of that “the only tool that is in the hands of renewal. I would certainly work as an the people…is the State”. The problem is ANC member not to push the ANC over The state, the corruption of the “democratic state”. the cliff. But with the pessimism of my redistribution The solution is to “build street by street intellect, I am obviously deeply uncertain an alternative, village by village, township about the prospects of the ANC having the and the National by township, and replace the draconian capacity, from within its structures, as it Democratic kleptocratic ANC.” In other words, the presently finds itself and on its current solution lies in building an alternative trajectory, to actually manage any kind Revolution political party to challenge for control of renewal. And frankly, on its current of the state, rather than a united front trajectory, it’s heading for steep decline, movement. fragmentation and possible implosion. Noor Nieftagodien from AIDC says categorically, “The fundamental crisis we Jeremy Cronin have is a crisis of the National Democratic Revolution. The NDR has run its course.” Jeremy Cronin: From 1994 to 1996 He criticises the two-stage belief “that Mbuyiseni Ndlozi was a period in which there was a radical once you capture the state certain break: the first phase of a national radical things will follow, that a kind of radical Mbuyiseni Ndlozi: The ANC, like phase of a national democratic revolution. transformation will follow”. He agrees that all liberation movements, has run its The institutions of white minority Polokwane was a marriage of convenience, course. It is not going to deliver on an rule were abolished. We introduced but asks, “Where was the class analysis?” agenda that will lead to genuine liberation. one person one vote, representative In place of a broad patriotic front, he In 2007, when capitalism went into crisis, democracy. proposes a “socialist left bloc”. “We must most working class formations couldn’t And what the SACP argued at the build movements door-to-door, street-by- take advantage of that crisis. They couldn’t time, and continues to argue, is that, street, not to become EFF members, not to score real gains. Why? Because the immediately following that breakthrough become Communist Party members…but working class formations are not united. of 1994 through to 1996, we should have to build movements”. Where are they? They are inside theANC opened up a new front of struggle: what In the next pages, we have selected fighting a lost hope of factionalism. we might now call a second radical phase four key areas on which the speakers Every ten years, every seven years or of the National Democratic Revolution. focused, and grouped some of their five years you are at this point trying to Unless we opened the new front of responses together. convince yourselves that a faction will struggle which addressed the structural save you. You have to disabuse yourself and systemic problems we inherited from that this tool called the ANC is ever going internal colonialism of South Africa, the The crisis in to come to the rescue of the working gains and advantages of the democratic the ANC class. It is not. Its time is done. It will only break-through would not be advanced or take us to securing the democratic state. even defended. And indeed we have also Beyond the democratic state it has no said at the time that the ANC itself would capacity to take us beyond. gradually erode in terms of its popular support, would lose its direction, unless it led a process of a second radical phase. Jeremy Cronin Now unfortunately a different dominant line prevailed within the ANC. Jeremy Cronin: The ANC, I think Noor Nieftagodien What later came to be called the “Third we would all agree, is suffering from a Way” – a centre-left politics, which very deep and systemic, not just personal Noor Nieftagodien: When you basically said that there are no alternatives individualised, crisis. Is it capable of look at many of the branches of the ANC, to neo-liberalism. Let’s embrace renewal? Well my optimism of the will they have become not only centres of globalisation and financialisation. They

Amandla! Issue No.52 6 MAY 2017 ANATOMY OFPlaceholder CRISIS text are the royal route to all things good and wonderful. But having embraced those things, we will also do some kind of redistribution. And there was redistribution through that period. The first kind of re-distribution was of course BEE - the redistribution of shares to a small privileged elite within the ANC and a kind of elite pact between dominant monopoly capital in South Africa and the new elite. And this was justified The Daily Maverick photoshopped key leaders of the Polokwane alliance as the three tenors. Jeremy Cronin calls Polokwane a “marriage of on the grounds convenience”. that what we are trying to do, what meant to address the problems in South have told us that the policy trajectory we the National Democratic Revolution Africa, which it clearly could never do. were on was clearly wrong. But this was was really about, is normalising and Black Economic Empowerment was the black elite within the ANC taking up deracialising South African capitalism. It essentially about the purchase of the the opportunities. is not about the radical restructuring of ANC’s soul. The ANC National Working the deep-seated colonial distortions of our Committee and many of the ANC MECs political economy. were taken on as partners in Black And from leading sections of the ANC Economic Empowerment deals. Nearly a still today the same thing is being said. 25% stake in these companies set aside to Mbuyiseni Ndlozi Radical economic transformation consists enrich the political elite, to make sure that in ensuring that blacks manage, own we can’t touch the wealth amassed under Mbuyiseni Ndlozi: What has and control the commanding heights of apartheid. really happened here in our view is that the economy. No talk about socialising But remember that these things came kleptocracy has come on fully. What the economy, no talk about worker about with very carefully constructed happened in 1994 is that the democratic empowerment, popular empowerment. So plans. While we were negotiating the movement got this one tool which is the it’s about de-racialising monopoly capital. transition and the mechanisms of state. It is the only tool that is in the hands Editorial Comment: A similar democracy at Kempton Park, Thabo of people. It is the reason why we are able stance was taken by Cosatu’s Mbeki was meeting at the Development to get RDPs, because of the democratic Tony Ehrenreich: Bank up in Sandton with white monopoly state. When you corrupt the democratic capital and essentially talking about how state, when it begins to be run by a family they were going to carve up the economy that was not even there in the struggle, and what was going to happen and that we you are taking the only thing out of the couldn’t touch a lot of the commanding hands of black people, out of the hands Tony Ehrenreich heights of the economy, to make sure we of the democratic forces. And that is why address many of the challenges that exist. the state of capture is the most dangerous Tony Ehrenreich: The Freedom They wanted to defend the legacy and thing that has happened in the last five Charter essentially said that what we have the ownership practices of apartheid and years in South Africa. And that is why we got to do is to ensure that we grow the they have been able to achieve that to a have got to unite and oppose it. economy but still carry out redistribution. greater extent. And those policies spoke There’s enough wealth in this country for about trade liberalisation and deregulation all of the people. We have to make sure of the labour market. So we have labour we find the mechanism to spread it more broking, outsourcing sub-contractors, evenly. It will grow the economy and it workers essentially earning half the pay Noor Nieftagodien will give everybody opportunities. they earned a year before without any of Two years into the marriage, we had the benefits. Noor Nieftagodien: I think that the ANC coming up with Gear. Gear said And so they impoverished the working what we need to understand is that the that there will only be redistribution after class and created the gap between the fundamental crisis we have is a crisis of growth. Some of the results of growth wealthy and the poor that was greater the National Democratic Revolution. will trickle down to the poor people. So than what existed under the days of TheNDR has run its course. And this classical trickle-down economics was apartheid. And if anything, that must is why in all the factional fights that we

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have had, we have not had anyone or any disappointed tenderpreneurs. These The problem here is much more component of the alliance being able to tenderpreneurs were not part of the inner than Zuma, clearly. The ANC’s National provide a vision, not only to address the charmed circle. They hadn’t benefited Working Committee defended Zuma. current crisis but also to provide a vision from the arms deal and all of those things Both Cyril and Gwede had to apologise of where we have to go to. and felt excluded by Mbeki. They wanted for some of the statements that they The problem is fundamentally what to get their hands on power broking. made, which clearly shows us that it’s not we debated in the 1970s and 1980s. It is just an individual. There are many in the the problem with this idea of the two NEC that’s also been bought already and stages - the belief that once you capture they are preparing themselves for the the state certain things will follow, that a December conference. kind of radical transformation will follow. Tony Ehrenreich Of course, that hasn’t happened. And the reality is that the ANC and its alliance Tony Ehrenreich: And so my partners are not capable of doing that. It’s comrade spoke about the convenient like we are being sucked into what we can marriage in 2009, when President Jacob Noor Nieftagodien Noor Nieftagodien: Karl Marx wrote famously, in the 18th Brumaire, that history repeats itself, first as tragedy and second as farce. It’s not simply about individualising the problem. It is, as Jeremy has said, not understanding what the fundamental crisis is. And therefore it is a problem that Cosatu has endorsed Ramaphosa. It is fundamentally wrong to repeat this error of placing our political eggs into the Ramaphosa basket. Because it doesn’t address the fundamental questions of why we have this problem. I hear that it was a marriage of convenience. But where was the class analysis? Many of us criticised Zuma. We knew what Zuma was about. Of course, we couldn’t pre-empt the extent of the kleptocracy that would take over. But there was analysis there. And yet the Communist Party, Cosatu and of course the ANC Youth League at that point were What happened is that the Communist Party and Cosatu criminalised workers in struggle. The Marikana the most vocal advocates of Zuma. So massacre was a high point of state violence. And in all of that, Cosatu and the Communist Party sided with the I think that we need to hear more of ruling party. the contrition and the recognition that what happened then was a fundamental call a kind of politics of purgatory - this Zuma came to power. And Cosatu for its mistake. second stage, that keeps on wanting to sins was part of that alliance, an alliance happen. It keeps on being given different that was disaffected, that wanted Thabo names as they are always about to launch Mbeki out because we felt that he was Broad Patriotic into the next radical stage. the problem. But surely we made a Front/unity fundamental mistake, because we have personalised the issue. The issues at of workers Polokwane that stage were clearly much more than individuals. It was about orientation, it was about vested interest and it was about the powers who are ruling the society in their own interest. Jeremy Cronin Jeremy Cronin Cosatu is opposed to the continuation of President Zuma. We want President Jeremy Cronin: There needs, in Jeremy Cronin: Basically, it was a Zuma out because of the problems that the first instance, to be a broad patriotic marriage of convenience between two he has caused. But we are making the front, and we saw that marching in the different sets of forces. On the one same mistake we have made when we streets in the last week. But that remains hand, Cosatu, the SACP but others also asked President Zuma to take over from the politics of the middle strata. We need in the ANC who opposed the neoliberal Mbeki. We are again personalising the also now to embed it into the issues that political macro-economic policies that issue. So we want Cyril Ramaphosa to take are struggled with, and mobilise action had prevailed, and which continue to over without dealing with the systemic of working class and popular forces… prevail, within government. And then issues that led to a corrupt cabal coming What we require is a genuine second on the other hand the right wing led by to power in the ANC that caused the radical phase of the National Democratic ANC Youth League elements who were problems that we are in today. Revolution.

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Tony Ehrenreich Tony Ehrenreich: Cosatu today is a fraction of what it was. The first thing we have to think about doing is to build a unity of workers on a non-partisan basis. Set the politics aside for a moment to make sure that unions are uniting, so that the working class has a much greater say in the kind of society we build and the choices of government policy in parliament… Today, we are largely unable to affect the political trajectory of the ANC and they are able to operate on their own with all of the troubles that we see. Cosatu said that they are not going to join these protests. And the reason why we are not joining the protests is because When you corrupt the democratic state, when it begins to be run by a family that was not even there in the struggle, you are taking the only thing out of the hands of black people, out of the hands of the democratic forces. And that is we think this is a squabble between the why the state of capture is the most dangerous thing that has happened in the last five years in South Africa. thieves. The thieves who had stolen under apartheid want to hold onto what they have stolen. The thieves who are stealing today with Zuma want the space to be solidarity for one day. You have been it is very important that even if we able to steal more. None of them ever holding that problematic solidarity for the come to the conclusion that there is no have concerns about what happens to the last twenty years. future with the ANC, we do not dismiss poor and the working class. None of them The biggest, most important question the fact that there are many people who in the main have marched for democracy, facing us as the left is our unity for the still have hopes in the ANC. That is not against labour brokers, or for land reform. agenda of a true transformation, readying to say that we need to go back into the They are not concerned about the issues the working class people on socialist ANC. I think that is a cul-de-sac. But it that build a more egalitarian society principles. And not just locally. At an means that the kind of politics that we where our people can come together in a international level, there is a bigger crisis produce must not be a sectarian politics. meaningful way. of uniting left forces. In the constitution of something new, Those who are funding the banners So what do we do? We have got to there will be many people in the ANC, in for a lot of the marches were guilty of the build an alternative - that is the decision the Communist Party, in Cosatu who we collusion around the bread prices and of the Economic Freedom Fighters. can’t dismiss. chicken prices and steel prices. Yet we are We put a challenge to the entire left We need to produce a kind of politics not talking about their corruption. Let’s formations. We have got to build street that will allow us to bring people who are make sure we are consistent. by street an alternative, village by village, critical – not only of Zuma, but of the township by township, and replace the fundamental systemic crisis - out into a draconian, kleptocratic ANC that has new a kind of movement. So we do need no interest but to constantly asphyxiate a socialist left bloc. That in my mind genuine transformation. is indisputable. Mbuyiseni Ndlozi It is true that we are on the streets at the moment, and we need to march Mbuyiseni Ndlozi: None of our strategically to get rid of Zuma. But where banners in the march that we had we need to place our energies is in the on the national day of action were Noor Nieftagodien creation of a left bloc. What we can’t have sponsored by people who are described is to channel this kind of energy, this new by comrade Tony. In fact I think that the Noor Nieftagodien: Let me just say energy, this kind of hope, the possibility EFF represents a very proper record of again, for the sake of brevity and perhaps of a new left politics into party politics consistency: we have marched against provocatively, that those people who only. That will be a fundamental mistake. the banks, we have marched against the believe that we shouldn’t march against We need to build movements. We must Chamber of Mines. We don’t march for Zuma are being sectarian. They don’t build movements door-to-door, street-by- the land – we occupy the land and people understand, as Mbuyiseni said, the street, not to become EFF members, not run to courts to make sure that we stop moment that we are in. We can have to become Communist Party members that business of occupying the land. discussions about the kinds of alliances – if they choose to be, so be it – but to All solidarities are questionable, that we need to establish. But this is one build movements. including the solidarity long held by of the key challenges we face today. It’s not Cosatu. In fact, your solidarity is much the only one but it’s a very important part more problematic. It’s not a street of the transition.

Amandla! Issue No.52 9 MAY 2017 FEATURE Placeholder text

BEE out of the closet: Malikane’s alliance for “black” capitalism By Dick Forslund

Mbizana, an area which is a target for mining, resisted by the local community. How would Malikane’s “broad anti-white monopoly capitalist united front” work out in Mbizana?

and representatives of finance capital. is the political project he thinks should His first, longer paper “Concerning the be immediately realised now. And that is Current Situation” was followed by “Call support for the rise of the “tender-based We do not confuse exploitation for anti-imperialist workers to unite” in black capitalist class”, which “has no or exploiters with the colour of Sunday Independent. coherent historical international backing”. men’s skins; we do not want any In the latter article, the ANC When we put his ”broad anti- exploitation in our countries, not government is asked to come up with white monopoly capitalist united “a new National Economic Plan”. The front” under the magnifying glass, its even by black people. plan should outline how demands for essence is support for intensified Black “expropriation of white monopoly Economic Empowerment policy (BEE). – Amilcar Cabral capitalist establishments” (mines, It is a deepening of the project that banks, insurance companies, monopoly has destroyed the ANC, bringing the industries …) can “immediately be organisation into disrepute, into internal realised”. In the same vein, Malikane chaos and murderous lawlessness. rofessor Chris Malikane calls for “expropriation of all land Combining patronage with neoliberalism, at Wits is one of the advisors without compensation”. as it did, the really existing “National to the new and nervous Democratic Revolution” has been divisive, Finance Minister, Mr Gigaba. Intensified BEE that increasingly undemocratic and counter For this reason, Malikane’s destroys ANC revolutionary. It has pushed working recently published version M uch more important than what class communities and trade unions Pof “Radical Economic Transformation” Malikane thinks should “immediately be backwards with labour broking and caused an outcry from DA, business realised” by the ANC in a distant future, mass unemployment. Right now it is also

Amandla! Issue No.52 10 MAY 2017 ANATOMY OFPlaceholder CRISIS text threatening basic democratic gains from 1994. Still, Malikane writes: “in so far as the tender-based capitalist class has begun a war against the dominant white monopoly capitalist class, it has to be encouraged”. Well, this is what the Zuma faction is doing. Consequently, Malikane distances himself from the calls for President Zuma to step down, by simply not mentioning it. He sticks to “the main contradiction”, like Chairman Mao, as it were. We should step into a kind of stage where “white monopoly capital” for a long period is the only true enemy. It is a faction of the ruling class that is in coalition with “the credit-based black capitalist class”. Its “ownership and control of the state and the ruling party is being threatened by the rise of the tender-based black capitalist class”. That is why these tenderpreneurs should get our sympathies and support. MRC, the company which wants to mine in Mbizana, already runs a controversial open cast mine north of Cape Town. In the current situation, Malikane therefore proposes no measures against rebellion started in 1959-60? What are the the coastal villages with a fenced 100m rampant corruption. He sees no threats to class forces and where are the possibilities wide highway. democratic rights and to the rule of law. of progressive alliances? The same Mr X is a director in one of Meanwhile, even the security cluster is The tourist attraction, the Wild Coast the subsidiaries of the Australian mining becoming factionalised. Sun hotel and casino, was established in company MRC. MRC is the company which Indeed, in his first press conference, the 1980s by evicting over 100 families runs a controversial open cast mine north Finance Minister Gigaba stated that the from their land. Their land claim was of Cape Town. policy of tenders and outsourcing will be recently successful, but it is right now For 15 years MRC has fought for the “unapologetically” continued. Malikane’s under threat of being diverted by the right set up an open-cast titanium mine support for this was indicated by his mining lobby, the Amadiba chief, and of titanium minerals on the coast at answers to City Press in an interview on corrupt elements in the Land Department. Mbizana, against the will of the coastal 23 April. He defended Gigaba’s pledge Outsiders want a piece of the deal. Amadiba community. As a director of to corporations and finance capital The Wild Coast Sun is owned by the MRC, Mr X signs all the affidavits for the that nothing would change. He was transnational company, Sun International. company which is applying for the mining surprisingly quoted saying: “Investors The vast majority of close to 1,500 workers licence, TEM. The Amadiba chief is also a have to be assured that South Africa is a are casually employed, even those who director of TEM. destination for investment. The Cabinet have worked there for twenty years. The income to the BEE partner of reshuffle shouldn’t lead to doubts. The They have just organised themselves in the casino is supposed to be used by the ANC’s financial policy is still the same. We Amcu, after being let down by Satawu. Mbizana Trust for community projects, are on course.” The employer is unwilling to engage in but the trust has lately come under Malikane’s project for a “broad anti- negotiations. Many workers took part in community pressure, with suspicion of white monopoly capitalist united front” an unprotected strike over Christmas. embezzlement and mismanagement. Just or “broad anti-imperialist front” will serve We will see what will happen with this like almost all trusts in SA, its financials as the Zuma faction’s left flank. It will fit struggle for workers’ rights, permanent however are secret. The mining lobby well with Zuma’s latest speeches about employment and decent wages. controls who sits in the board. “foreign influence”. The BEE partner of Wild Coast Sun MRC (which has not left the Mbizana owns a 30% share in the casino (paid out mining project, despite what was Concrete analysis as a multi-million rand “management announced last year) and the rogue C oncrete analysis of concrete fee” in order to avoid tax). This share is business cabal is supported: circumstances is the living soul of controlled by the local mining lobby – a • by the Provincial Government Marxism, as Lenin once said. So, let group of about 15 local people, led by a • by Zuma’s Presidency (through its us take a concrete example and apply Mr X. Mr X has organised a faction in project of putting the N2 and mining Malikane’s strategic scheme. support of his projects in the regional supporter Zanozuko as the king of Mbizana is a municipality in Eastern structures of ANC. Some of these projects AmaMpondo) Cape. The largest private employer are public works programme tenders for • by SANRAL, with tenders and political is the Wild Coast Sun. Mbizana is the Mbizana Local Municipality (where cooperation also the municipality of the coastal they always pay about R500 below the • by the local SAPS (which time and again Amadiba community who are struggling legal EPWP monthly wage of R1,800 per is granting the mining lobby impunity against mining, in defence of their month, for some reason). for its attacks in the coastal community) communal land. The same group is also flocking • by Sun International through millions How would Malikane’s “broad anti- around SANRAL’s N2 Toll Road project. of rand going to its local BEE partner (an white monopoly capitalist united front” The road is planned to run between 3 and estimated R10m last year work out in Mbizana, where Oliver 5km from the coast, along the projected • by the Department of Tambo was born and where the Pondo open cast mining area. It will divide Mineral Resources (DMR)

Amandla! Issue No.52 11 MAY 2017 FEATURE Placeholder text

Black and Non-White

The concept non white appears in Steve Biko’s writings in The Definition of Black Consciousness (1971). The famous passage reads in full: The fact that we are all not white does not necessarily mean that we are all black. Non-whites do exist and will continue to exist for quite a long time. If one’s aspiration is whiteness but his pigmentation makes attainment of this impossible, then that person is a non-white. Any man who calls a white man “baas”, any man who serves in the police force or security branch is ipso facto a non-white.

• by important ANC figures in the region and MPs in the Cape Town parliament • by the Mbizana municipality leaders, who recently made an illegal change “The fact that we are all not white does not necessarily mean that we are all black. Non-whites do exist and will of the plans for the coast to include continue to exist for quite a long time.” Steve Biko. open cast mining. The change is being challenged in court. What is needed in Mbizana is not capitalism as such. It is there to whip These forces meet regularly and a phony “broad anti-white monopoly up support for corruption when fierce coordinate all moves (court cases, police capitalist united front”, promoting more opposition is what is needed. The WMC raids in the coastal community, allocation “black” shareholding in historically white slogan gets its persuasive power by being of tenders, nomination fraud in the companies. Indeed, the government (and opposed to Black. ANC before the local elections, plans in even the MRC) is already trying to play For that reason I have written “black” Mbizana planning documents, violent the “black” card in the community: Now in quotation marks before the word efforts to abolish the oppositionist coastal the “blacks” are taking over the mining “capitalist”, questioning whether there is traditional authority, and so on). from the Australians, halala! This BEE an attempted deception here. In reality, There is no clear-cut tender- or credit- move has been rejected with contempt there is no reason why “black capitalists” based “black” capitalist class in this story. by the community. The people laugh in should be supported by the black working There is the rot in theANC . There is the anger at the constant efforts to confuse class and rural poor. This is not the road. anti-community police force. There are issues. Malikane complains that the black Perhaps we should draw on Steve Biko. the intransigent officials ofSANRAL and working class is led into confusion if the Forty years ago he spoke of black police the DMR. There is MRC. White Monopoly Capital issue is not officers in service of apartheid as “non Here, as elsewhere, there is also raised. It is exactly the opposite. white”. We can stop speaking of Malikane’s a fourth component coming to the “tender-based” and “credit-based” capitalist party: “business kings, chiefs A different alliance capitalist class as “black”. and headmen”, a process the Zuma What is needed in Mbizana, as in We can speak of them as non white. government is trying to underpin with other places, is an alliance between We can point to the fact that when they new legislation called the “Traditional the workers and the rural community, aspire to be rich they stand in opposition Khoi-San and Leadership Bill”. overwhelming the enemy with mass to the cheap labour of black workers that We cannot know, of course, what democratic action and education. For they exploit. They are a part of the South squabbles there are between the forces decent work and wages, for the kind of African racist capitalist system. This might in that “alliance” about their share in the development and modernisation that serve to defuse some of the spin doctoring profits and projects: the local mining people want. in ANC’s factional battle and shed more lobby and traditional business leaders, For people’s power against the enemies light on the BEE policy (or rather the Non the new “black” capitalists, on the one of the people: the broad capitalist rainbow White Economic Empowerment policy) hand, and MRC and Sun International alliance, that hates progressive laws and that has destroyed the ANC. This policy (or SANRAL), on the other. But there is democracy itself, always tries to stop is blocking the whole black working no “anti-imperialist”, “black” capitalist economic emancipation of the majority class and rural masses from advancing. fight against any “white monopoly and always rule by deception, confusion The burning issue is the crisis of racial capital” to support. To propose such a and violence. capitalism and capitalist oppression. campaign or front would be a dark joke. It is perhaps a paradox that it is Steve Should we campaign for the “black” Our new capitalists as Biko who can help us, putting colour- capitalists to have a larger share in the “Black” or Non-White? coding in the service of understanding Wild Coast Sun casino? More tenders W hatever historical or present class division, fighting confusion and from SANRAL? These are the same value the term has as an analytical capitalist propaganda. But this is people held responsible by the anti- tool, “White Monopoly Capital” South Africa. mining community for the assassination (WMC) is increasingly used as a slogan. of Bazooka Radebe in March last year, It is supposed to fool workers and allegedly backed by MRC. communities so that they don’t oppose Dick Forslund is an economist at AIDC.

Amandla! Issue No.52 12 MAY 2017 ANATOMY OFPlaceholder CRISIS text resignation would have had a political What should we make impact by shaming and condemning JZ. It would make it clear that the SACP was now drawing the line that they can of the SACP’s latest no longer tolerate any of the corruption antics by JZ. It is clear that the reshuffle was more about capturing the National critical posture of the Treasury as part of the Guptaisation of our state institutions by JZ. A mass resignation would earn them some of the ANC rot: an audacity respect they lost when they were active participants in the Zuma inner circle, since Polokwane, until recently when they or a quagmire? fell out of favour. By Gunnett Kaaf TheSACP has done some of the most despicable things as part of the Zuma group. They defended the unpardonable Marikana massacre, and called the striking workers “vigilantes”. They defended Nkandla saying that it is a “rural development” project and that the criticism is mainly “a propaganda by white people”. They led the charge for the expulsion of NUMSA from COSATU. Ironically this was for being critical of the JZ rot, pretty much the same as they themselves are doing now. Not enough The current noises by the SACP, though correct, are not sufficient. The SACP is squandering an opportunity to break away into a new independent political mode and chart a way forward that would help the country not to slide into a tragic impasse as a result of the ANC crisis. Of all the ANC groupings (101 Veterans, MK Council, COSATU etc) After the cabinet reshuffle, the SACP openly called for the President to step down. They even participated in civil that are openly critical of the ANC rot, society marches demanding Zuma’s resignation, which attracted tens of thousands of demonstrators, on 7th April. the SACP is the most objectively placed to make a meaningful and impactful ver the last two years, cabinet reshuffle in which the Finance contribution. What makes the SACP the South African Minister and his Deputy were fired on uniquely privileged is that they are an Communist Party (SACP) account of a dodgy intelligence report. independent political party. They are has been growing extremely They initially threatened to resign en not an ANC structure (or a trade union critical of the ANC rot. masse from the cabinet if Pravin Gordhan like COSATU). They are therefore not After the State of Capture was fired. After the cabinet reshuffle, constrained by the ANC internal discipline OReport by the Public Protector last year, they openly called for the President to that has been polluted by the increasing they came out guns blazing on President step down. They even participated in power of dominant factions within the Jacob Zuma and his corrupt relationship civil society marches demanding Zuma’s organisation, ahead of the December with the Guptas. They openly said he resignation, which attracted tens of elective conference. That’s why courage is should cut all ties with the Guptas. They thousands of demonstrators, on 7th April. indispensable for the SACP. Sadly, lack of were so scathing in their criticism of JZ, So what should we make of the courage is their biggest weakness. that they only stopped short of calling SACP’s latest posture? Are they becoming They keep on criticising, without ever for his resignation at the time. The courageous, such that they will soon embarking on an action to really shake dropping of three prominent SACP Central break out of the alliance impasse? Will things up within the alliance or break Committee members from the cabinet they independently forge ahead with out of the alliance, in an audacious way, after the 2014 elections seems to have an audacious programme guided by and chart an independent socialist path. soured relations between the ANC and the social demands of workers and the Only calling for Zuma’s resignation and SACP. The increasing dominance of the poor? Or are they getting trapped in a bemoaning the ANC rot will not shake Premier League within the Zuma group, quagmire of noises that will not bear any up things for the better within the ANC. after the 2014 elections, is another factor meaningful result? This is a make or break moment for the that led to the alienation of the SACP from SACP because the ANC can no longer be the JZ inner circle. SACP goes along as usual renewed from within. The rot is way too This year, theSACP grew more critical They have since capitulated on deep. Ordinary ANC members have been of the ANC and JZ’s leadership, particularly their threat to resign en masse from effectively sidelined. They don’t have a in the run up to the recent midnight the cabinet after the reshuffle. A mass say in the affairs of the organisation. The

Amandla! Issue No.52 13 MAY 2017 FEATURE ANATOMY OF CRISIS

The main reason the SACP lacks courage is because it has no political independence from the ANC. It has no independent socialist programme worth the name. dominant factions have appropriated all should go beyond the trappings of and rural communities. The alliance the power to themselves. patronage networks, wherein they rely (COSATU and SACP), the Youth League, In fact, these dominant ANC factions on ANC deployment to prop-up their ANC branches, students, civics and other have constituted themselves into a political careers. mass formations could have insisted on a bourgeoisie that is based on accumulating The main reason theSACP lacks radical social transformation programme wealth, using the state in corrupt ways. courage is because it has no political that has a strong economic redistribution That’s why the moral condemnations of independence from the ANC. It has no element for workers and other poor strata the ANC corruption, which is what the independent socialist programme worth from the black community. Sadly, that did SACP’s criticism amounts to, can no longer the name. For most of post-1994, they not happen. have any impact. TheANC corruption is continued the sterile mode, inherited Now the ANC has become fully effectively linked with the class power from the exile years, of operating within bourgeois and, on top of the embrace of relations within the state as well as the the ANC, without a real independent neoliberal policy, increasingly corrupt. post-94 social power relations. The black socialist programme. They continued It is rotten to the core, and that’s no bourgeoisie is a subaltern ally of the to pursue their struggle for socialism longer reversible. established white bourgeoisie that owns within the ANC political framework of the If the SACP had an independent and controls monopolies across all the National Democratic Revolution. political programme for advancing sectors of the economy. The alliance has failed because it is socialism, it would have used it to TheANC is imploding in a chaotic way, based on the ANC political strategy, the meaningfully to bargain within the like an “Empire of Chaos”, to borrow a NDR, which is not radical, despite the alliance. It would have insisted on phrase from Samir Amin. This implosion radical sounding rhetoric. The ANC is not radical policy measures for the whole is going to continue until the ANC loses radical, in that it is not anti-capitalist, and alliance. Instead, the SACP mainly sought power. It manifests through endless does not support socialism or any other accommodation within the alliance. corruption scandals, policy incoherence, form of egalitarian society. TheANC is Even their criticism of GEAR policy loss of a sense of strategic management, trapped within the capitalist framework. and neoliberalism did not come from and the ANC decline in prestige and Historically, particularly during the a firm standpoint of a sound socialist electoral support. struggle against apartheid, the ANC was programme. That’s why they were easily That’s why only audacity will save revolutionary in that it fully opposed co-opted after Polokwane into the the SACP’s relevance in our politics. For apartheid. TheANC understood that conservative Zuma inner circle. And they instance, since the SACP has already apartheid could not be merely reformed, then defended the neoliberalism and called for JZ to resign, they should easily it had to be destroyed. So there was a the rot. mandate all of their members who are MPs potential to be radical if the ANC had TheSACP are trapped in a quagmire. to vote for the motion of no confidence elaborated a post-apartheid South African Only courage and audacious measures in the president when it comes up in society from an anti-capitalist stance, will save them. Otherwise they are going parliament. But they will not do so, with a meaningful social transformation to perish from the political scene, as the because they lack the courage of their perspective beyond political conquest. ANC continue to implode like an Empire own convictions. TheANC did not do so, and thus after 94 of Chaos! it made a full bourgeois capitulation and No independent embraced neoliberalism. Gunnett Kaaf is political and community activist political programme The other potential for the ANC to based in Bloemfontein. He has previously held The question is why does the SACP be radical stemmed from its popular leadership positions in the SACP Free State and in lack courage? The answer to this question social base of black workers, township the YCL nationally.

Amandla! Issue No.52 14 MAY 2017 just transition

Koeberg can), and the opening up of giant Is the Cape High Court coal burning plants at Medupi and Kusile. We produce more than we currently consume, allowing us to export electricity judgement a fatal to our neighbours. Eskom also has plans to close six coal burning power stations. Recent studies from the University of blow to South Africa’s Cape Town’s Energy Research Centre have shown that we do not need to consider nuclear for another twenty years. nuclear pretentions? The CSIR has developed models showing that new nuclear is likely to By David Fig be much more expensive than coal or renewables in our energy mix. Now that we have been rated as junk investment status, it is unlikely that our economy can afford the debt burden. Zuma’s enthusiasm for the deal has led to suspicions of his motives. One source of pressure might be the Russians. Another is more than likely the Gupta family. The Guptas control Shiva uranium mine on the West Rand. It can’t produce at current low prices. They may be banking on a future expansion of nuclear energy to make their investment more viable. In her report on state capture in November, the Public Protector pointed to overlapping directorships between Gupta-owned companies and Eskom. Eskom CEO Brian Molefe was compelled to resign after his close relationship with the Guptas was revealed. Zuma’s son and other relatives are directly employed by the Guptas. Zuma is relatively isolated in his quest for nuclear procurement. The ANC is clearly divided on it. The The Guptas control Shiva uranium mine on the West Rand. It can’t produce at current low prices. They may be private sector is against the idea. Most banking on a future expansion of nuclear energy to make their investment more viable. scientists, except for those with a stake in nuclear, have advised against it. n 26 April 2017, process to detailed public scrutiny. The The list of civil society organisations coincidentally the 31st regulator will have to have a series of opposed to nuclear expansion goes well anniversary of the public hearings before the country can beyond the environmental lobby, and Chernobyl disaster, endorse its historically highest ever spend includes foundations, trade unions, faith the Cape High Court on infrastructure, estimated at well over communities, human rights campaigners, presented its judgement R1 trillion. The international agreements defenders of the constitution and many Oon the case brought by Earthlife Africa will have to be brought before the scrutiny other citizen groups. Johannesburg and the Southern Africa of parliament. Will Zuma and Eskom accede to Faith-Communities’ Environmental All this will take time. Time that the verdict, or will they challenge it, Institute. The twoNGO s were challenging President Zuma does not have. He while continuing to overturn the rule of how the state determined that we should threw out two Ministers of Finance who law? Not only would this subvert our be purchasing 9,600 megawatts of extra clearly opposed the deal, as well as his constitution and our democratic form nuclear power. The judge used terms like relatively loyal Minister of Energy. But the of government, but it would illegally “unconstitutional” and “illegal” to refer to procurement cannot happen in June, as deny popular participation in energy the state’s behavior, and declared invalid: planned by Eskom. In fact it is unlikely to democracy. The stakes are high, but the • The state’s decision that the nuclear happen before Zuma leaves office in two president’s own future is part of those build go ahead years’ time. Meanwhile the facts about the stakes. Will he continue to treat the • The state’s handing over of the deal will become open and public, and will country’s future with impunity? Or will procurement process to Eskom demonstrate that we cannot afford and do this judgement symbolise the roll-back • The automatic endorsement of the not need more nuclear energy. of the democratic dispensation envisaged state’s plans by Nersa, the regulator, and by the authors of our constitution? The • The secretive agreement with Russia, Nuclear expensive issue of nuclear procurement has become and two other agreements with the and not needed one of the key markers of our nation’s US and South Korea on nuclear co- S ince 2011, Stats SA has revealed political health. operation. that we are consuming far less energy • Eskom’s request for information from than before the power crisis of 2008. This David Fig is a fellow of the Transnational Institute nuclear vendors. is a result of the economic downturn, in Amsterdam and works out of Johannesburg as Government will have to start all these the higher price of electricity causing a researcher and trainer with progressive social procedures again if it is serious about more to save energy, the rapid roll out of movements. He is author of Uranium Road: going ahead. It will have to open up the renewables (now producing more than Questioning South Africa’s Nuclear Direction.

Amandla! Issue No.52 15 MAY 2017 just transition against environmentalists, farmers, ranchers and indigenous people. Such was the case of the brave struggle of the Standing Rock Sioux in North Dakota in the US, where construction union leaders represented workers building the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL). But the US is not alone. Unions in Argentina and the UK are divided on fracking. In Canada there is tension between unions over whether (and how) to exploit the bitumen in the Alberta tar sands, one of the world’s largest deposits of so-called “unconventional fuels.” In Germany, unions have sided with lignite coal producers and done their part in obstructing the steady advances made by the wind and solar companies. And Norway’s unions are not entirely united in their opposition to arctic drilling. Opportunity for broad- based campaign The Eskom closures struggle is Medupi power station. Global coal use has doubled during the past thirty years and claims that coal is in terminal hardly unique. But it is one that has the decline are dangerously premature. potential to give impetus to a different kind of broad-based campaign. This could lead to breakthrough victory for the kind of class based environmental politics that Why stopping Eskom’s could resonate beyond South Africa. How can this be done? The first thing is for environmentalists to acknowledge closures can be good that the Eskom closures are not a definitive test of where unions and social movements stand on the environment and climate protection. Defending workers for both unions and in coal is not the same as defending coal use. Similarly, defending the expansion of renewables should not involve supporting the environment renewable energy companies and their privatisation, anti-public, and profit- By Sean Sweeney driven agenda. Just as unions in the energy sector are sometimes enlisted to do the bidding of o the story goes like this: into the national grid. Defending this the employers, many large environmental Eskom announces the early approach, Greenpeace states, “Renewable NGOs have been comfortable with, and closure of five coal-fired energy is the only technology currently often materially assisted by, large wind electricity plants, beginning delivering new electricity capacity on and solar companies. They like to depict in 2020. It points the finger at time and on budget to South Africa’s the old utilities as social dinosaurs. renewable energy companies constrained grid…Eskom is clearly Both unions and environmental S(Independent Power Producers, or IPPs) running an anti-renewable energy groups must therefore take an for producing unreliable, expensive campaign, which must be stopped in independent approach. This is the basis power that is compromising Eskom’s its tracks.” for a real and powerful unity. market dominance and generating excess capacity. Unions (Num and Jobs or the environment? Dispelling myths Numsa and the two union federations, The reactions to the Eskom Energy systems are rapidly Cosatu and Saftu) oppose the closures. closures therefore appear to reflect the changing, but it is important to be clear They criticise Eskom for its inefficiency, conflicting “jobs versus environment” about what is changing and what is not. mismanagement and corruption. They priorities of progressive forces. Given the There is considerable confusion. commit themselves to saving the jobs of established health- and climate-related For example, the growth of renewable as many as 30,000 workers working in the impacts of burning coal, are the unions in energy is often believed to be at the power stations at Hendrina, Kriel, Komati, this case not putting jobs before serious expense of fossil-based power like coal, Grootvlei and Camden. environmental concerns? And are not the oil, and gas – something that generates These unions are also united in calling environmentalists (again) advocating for wild applause from environmentalists. But for a “just transition” for workers. This “renewables by any means necessary” in this is far from true. With global energy is a concept that was written into the order to save the planet, regardless of the demand growing every year, all forms preamble of the Paris Climate Agreement, immediate costs to working people? of energy generation and consumption after tenacious union pressure. Unlike a decade or so ago, energy is are increasing. The lion’s share of new Environmental groups mostly today at the centre of huge social and demand is being met by fossil fuels. True, stayed quiet about the closures and the political conflicts in many parts of the coal use has slipped several percentage threatened job losses. They criticised world, and the number of struggles is points since 2013, mainly due to the Eskom for using the proposed closures to growing. Unfortunately, there are still too economic slowdown in China (which wage war on government commitments many instances where organised workers consumes 50% of the world’s coal). But to integrate renewable sources of power have lined up with large energy employers global coal use has doubled during the

Amandla! Issue No.52 16 MAY 2017 just transition

Members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and their supporters opposed to the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) confront bulldozers working on the new oil pipeline. There are still too many instances where organised workers have lined up with large energy employers against environmentalists, farmers, ranchers and indigenous people. past thirty years and claims that coal become more divided and in conflict with losses, fight the partial privatisation is in terminal decline are dangerously each other. of Eskom by involving independent premature. Work needs to be done on the union power producers, step up the campaign Yes, “modern renewables” (mostly side too. Cosatu, Num and Numsa against nuclear energy and develop a wind and solar) have grown fivefold in have all condemned the announced position on transition to socially owned terms of installed capacity in just a single closures, and the partial privatisation renewable energy.” decade. However, they still only generate of Eskom by way of the IPPs. But there The problems of cost and intermittent about six percent of global electricity are differences that will need to be supply are not, as Num suggests, supply. At this rate, they may barely addressed. For example, Num’s position intrinsic to renewables. High costs reflect reach ten percent of electricity supply on renewables is problematic, “As profits and borrowing expenses. Social by 2030. Gas use has grown far more much as we support green energy,” says ownership, combined with a massive dramatically than wind and solar over the Num, “we cannot ignore scientific facts scale-up of renewables will create past ten years or so. Furthermore, global that green energy is not as cheap as it economies of scale and supply chains greenhouse gas emissions are rising, is portrayed by the capitalist who are that will bring costs down. Aware of the not falling. dealing with it. We know that capitalism negatives, Cosatu should reconsider its Meanwhile, the Paris Climate is about profit maximisation.” Num also support for IPPs. Currently, Cosatu’s Agreement, negotiated in late 2015, expressed concerns about the problem of support for IPPs, however critical it might acknowledges the need for global intermittent supply. be, will undermine the argument for an warming to stay “well below 2 degrees Cosatu echoed some of Num’s alternative approach that can give both Celsius”. In 2013, Price Waterhouse concerns, including the enormous costs the climate and workers a fighting chance. Coopers’ (PWC) annual Low Carbon of renewables under the IPP system. But, The present course – both in South Africa Economy Index reported that the unlike Num, it did not criticise renewable and globally – will lead to more splits and 2 degree Celsius target was “highly energy as a source of power, and declared conflict within progressive forces. unrealistic.” If it was highly unrealistic itself “not hostile to the introduction Both environmentalists and unions then, it has clearly not gotten more of (IPP’s) by Eskom “as long as the IPPs should therefore obstruct Eskom’s closure realistic since. behaved responsibly by creating jobs and plans. Strike actions and mobilisations skills for South African workers”. should be given full support. Chipping SA approach fatally flawed away at the market share of fossil fuels will When viewed against this sobering Social ownership the key not deliver the energy transition needed backdrop, South Africa’s flawed and While supporting militant action by South Africa and the whole world. essentially neoliberal approach to to halt the closures, Numsa’s call for The struggle around the Eskom closures driving renewable energy is failing, and replacing the IPP system with social can win if it is grounded in a positive, will continue to do so. Its commitment ownership of renewables is the critical forward-looking vision that could to energy transition is – in common ingredient around which a compelling anchor a united and powerful campaign. with many developed and major approach to energy transition can be Today, building social power is the only developing countries – a commitment developed. This approach was echoed way of protecting both workers and to privatisation. Globally, the growth of in the founding statement of the recently the environment. renewables is having a disruptive and launched new trade union federation, negative impact on the “incumbents” like SAFTU: Sean Sweeney is Director of the International Eskom. But this on its own is no cause “We shall mobilise workers to oppose Program for Labor, Climate and Environment, for celebration – especially if the levels Eskom’s planned closure of five Murphy Institute, City University of New York. of renewables are inadequate. The costs coal-powered power stations, which He is the global coordinator of Trade Unions for of power rise, and progressive forces could produce 30,000 – 40,000 job Energy Democracy (TUED)

Amandla! Issue No.52 17 MAY 2017 land

Liberal white intellectuals and lazy black thinkers warn that radical land reform will bring calamity of Zimbabwean proportions to this country. Land reform requires change to property clause By Lubabalo Ntsholo

ddressing the opening The mainstream debate on the land Three fundamental of the House of Traditional question is drowned in a large number questions Leaders in Parliament of liberal narratives, using various To avoid further confusion over in February, President scarecrows to defocus us from what in how we approach the land question, we Zuma spoke passionately South Africa is the central issue. need to ask why we need land reform and about the land question • The first of these narratives is the how we carry it out. Ain South Africa. He said that political warning by liberal white intellectuals Why we need land reform: I think parties representing mainly black people and lazy black thinkers that radical a large section of the South African should never argue about the need for land reform will bring calamity population, apart from a few people like radical economic transformation. And at of Zimbabwean proportions to Lekota and Steve Hofmeyer, recognize the centre of that transformation is the this country, leading to more that land dispossession was a great return of land back to black people. He impoverishment than social and injustice done to black people in this argued this, of course, after the African economic emancipation of the country. It set in motion most of the National Congress in Parliament had shot very people land reform ought social ills we now have: problems of down a motion by the Economic Freedom to emancipate. inequality, differential access to good Fighters for a constitutional amendment • Secondly, they argue, as Jackson quality education and to jobs, as well to Section 25 of the Constitution to Mthembu and his ANC caucus did, that as the gendered dynamics in our socio- allow for land expropriation without the Constitution is an enabler for land economy. So, the land question is in this compensation. reform, not an impediment, and that sense about restorative justice, not merely Mr Zuma is well aware that 23 years tampering with the Constitution will redistributive justice. Land was taken, and of ANC rule have managed to transfer lead to anarchy. it must now be returned. The manner of only about 8% of the land back to black • Thirdly, and more absurdly, is the reform therefore, must consider this fact people, at astronomical costs to the argument advanced by Terror Lekota of historical injustice. National Treasury. But what do Zuma and the white right wing, questioning How to carry out land reform: and his group in the ANC mean by radical even the validity of land dispossession Taking this imperative for land reform land reform? as a factor in the debate on land reform. into account, most people have

Amandla! Issue No.52 18 MAY 2017 land acknowledged that land reform since 1994 was not an aberration at all; it rests land reform programme must expropriate has not worked in South Africa. This is very comfortably with the Constitution, in secluded areas, which have been because of the overbearingly legalistic especially with respect to its provisions enclaves of white elites. This will make manner in which land reform has been for compensation”. land available even in city centres for low conceptualised since 1994. Of utmost Radical land reform therefore is cost housing for the majority. importance here is the constitutional and can only be found outside of the Commercial agriculture: much has protection of private property rights, current constitutional framework. Private been made of the nature and structure of guaranteed by Section 25 of the property rights, and the requirement the agrarian economy in this country. It Constitution, the so-called property that the State pay for land reform, is made up of about 37,000 commercial clause. The property clause is the most are anathemas to comprehensive farmers, producing about 90% of the schizophrenic section of the Constitution, land reform. This is what makes a food. These are then complemented by and is indicative of the general state constitutional amendment to Section 25 subsistence farmers, found mostly in the of confusion bedeviling the ANC on of the constitution critical. Without that former reserves. They contribute about matters of redress, and recently, on amendment, we basically have no land 10% of our food. Of the commercial matters relating to their so-called radical reform programme, but a massive land farmers, only 20% are considered economic transformation. purchase programme. productive, and 5% are producing about • Section 25 (1) guarantees the 70% of our food. Of course, the majority inviolability of private property rights, Not just agricultural land of these farmers are white. most of which are a direct product of Ls a tly, there is a wide-spread These farmers feed into corporate colonial and apartheid dispossession. misconception that agricultural land is retail sales, which in return have stringent • Section 25 (2) does provide for the State all that land reform should be concerned requirements for the control of plant to expropriate land for land reform with. This misses the point on the multiple diseases. These requirements close off purposes, but unambiguously obliges layers of the land question in South access to this market for small scale the State to pay compensation. Africa. For the purposes of this article, I farmers who cannot meet them. As a • Section 25 (3) requires result, former cooperatives the compensation to be such as SENWES, AFGRI and “just and fair”. It must NWK control about 74% of be calculated taking a maize handling and storage number of factors into capacity in the country. This account; they include is but a tip of the iceberg. the current use of the It shows how a few people property, history of have consolidated control acquisition, the market over our agrarian economy value of the property, over time. extent of direct state investment and subsidy Restructuring previously received. the economy I argue, as many others and society do, that this section of the R adical land reform constitution provides for two must be able to dismantle irreconcilable imperatives. these systems of control. On the one hand, it Radical land reform therefore is and can only be found outside of the current constitutional It is more than just the provides a constitutional framework. question of land, primary as commitment to land reform. that may be. It is essentially It recognises in the preamble about restructuring the and to a limited extent in Section 25 (7), highlight just three, and these are: nature of our economy, of our geography that current rights to property are a result • The land question in the former and of our society as a whole. More of a systemic and systematic process of reserves fundamentally, the land question is about race-based dispossession. • The land question in urban areas the creation of a new society based on Professor Lungisile Ntsebeza provided • The land question in commercial values of humanity and freedom. a nice rebuttal of the Property Clause in agriculture. Without land, there is no freedom. his paper “Land Redistribution in South The former reserves: these are Because the ANC has prevaricated for over Africa: The Property Clause Revisited”. He inhabited by approximately 17 million 23 years on addressing this matter, South questions whether radical land reform is people. There is a very strange land tenure Africa remains a neo-colonial society. possible within the current constitutional arrangement. Land in those areas is legally And as Fanon says in The Wretched of framework. He argues that, of the owned by the State, but administered, the Earth, “For a colonised people the factors that need to be taken to account with impunity, by traditional leaders, most essential value, because the most when compensation for expropriation without any accountability. Land concrete, is first and foremost the land; is concerned, only the market value allocations are done through systems of the land which will bring them bread and is quantifiable. patronage, and women are mostly denied above all, dignity” A more comprehensive rebuttal opportunities to access land. Radical land The talk on radical economic however is provided by Professor Fred reform would have to take away control transformation by the ANC is artificial. Hendricks. He criticises Ntsebeza for of land from these feudal lords and give It is not genuine, because there isn’t acceding to Ruth Hall’s argument. She it over to democratic citizen based land now, and there never was before, any says that perhaps land reform could committees. commitment to uproot the vestiges of be pursued more radically without The urban areas: no attempt has been apartheid and colonialism embedded in changing the constitution. She believes made to restructure in any significant our economy. Land inequality is the single that the Constitution provides for way apartheid architecture, which has most important of these vestiges. radical land reform. Hendricks argues condemned black people to overcrowded, that “the adoption of the willing buyer- rat infested and flea-ridden squatter Lubabalo Ntsholo is an EFF parliamentary willing seller model for land reform camps called the townships. A radical researcher. He is writing in his personal capacity.

Amandla! Issue No.52 19 MAY 2017 land Land and radical economic transformation By Ben Cousins

alliance partners) by focusing on an issue that they will never agree on. Land is fundamental This helps, but it is not the whole answer. Land in Africa is fundamental, even in countries that are relatively industrialised and urbanised. It resonates powerfully because of widespread and chronic poverty and the continuing significance of both rural and urban land in the livelihood strategies of migrant workers, small-scale farmers and petty entrepreneurs in the informal sector. In South Africa, our bitter history is of dispossession of land by a state serving the interests of white settlers. It includes recent experience of forced removals. The “land question” strikes a chord for many people, and serves as a potent symbol of persistent poverty and structural inequality. These are legacies bequeathed to the post-apartheid era but only partially addressed since 1994. The widely acknowledged failure of land reform means that land remains a key political resource, available as a key grievance for mobilising political constituencies. This will be the case for as long as the distribution of land continues to be racially skewed. Whichever party or alliance of parties holds power, the land question will have to be addressed, Sophiatown 1955. In South Africa, our bitter history is of dispossession of land by a state serving the interests of like it or not. Unfortunately for the ANC, white settlers. It includes recent experience of forced removals. its land reform programme is in deep trouble, and vulnerable to accusations of incompetence, elite bias and corruption. and has moved to the At the same time, the ruling party centre of political discourse has refused to support a proposal by the Awkward facts in recent months. At the Economic Freedom Fighters that the In 23 years, land reform has barely same time, allegations of constitution be amended to remove the altered the agrarian structure of South state capture by the Gupta requirement for compensation. What Africa. It has had only minor impacts on family have created a storm on earth is going on? How should these rural livelihoods. The national budget Lof controversy and placed the presidency developments be interpreted? for land reform has never been much under immense pressure. Leading One way to understand the ANCs more than 1% of the total, and is usually politicians from the ruling African increased emphasis on the land question less. Around 9% of farmland has been National Congress portray land as a key is in terms of political tactics and the transferred to black people through a focus of so-called “radical economic 3 “Ds” – Distract, Deceive and Divide. combination of land restitution and transformation”. One common measure Distract citizens with an issue that redistribution, but many “settled” proposed is expropriation of land without takes attention away from your own restitution claims (perhaps 15,000) compensation. Others within the ANC misconduct. Deceive society using fake have not been fully implemented. Post- disagree. This is a symptom of internal information or false promises. Divide your settlement support has been absent disarray within the party. opponents (such as opposition parties and or ineffective.

Amandla! Issue No.52 20 MAY 2017 land

contrast, farm owners will receive massive windfalls of public money to prop up their businesses. The re-opening of the land restitution claims process in 2014 was clearly aimed at catching votes in that year’s general election. But it also opened the door for chiefs intent on expanding their control of territory and resources. In February of that year, they were openly invited to submit large land claims by President Zuma. Corruption: Corruption in the land sector is increasing. This is clearest in relation to traditional leaders who enter into crooked business deals with mining companies in the platinum belt. Government remains intent on transferring communal land into the private ownership of unaccountable traditional councils under chiefs. Current policy documents explicitly envisage In 23 years, land reform has barely altered the agrarian structure of South Africa. It has had only minor impacts on these institutions striking business deals rural livelihoods. with investors. A number of recent newspaper No systematic data on impacts are for sale that are located on the edges of stories report cases of dubious deals available. Case study evidence suggests densely settled communal areas, or land at for redistributed farms. One has it that that around half of rural land reform the urban edge). Minister Nkwinti introduced a Luthuli projects have brought improvements in Elite bias: Research findings point House comrade to one of his officials the livelihoods of beneficiaries – but often to the capture of the South African land at a land summit. Eight months later‚ these are quite limited. reform programme by aspirant elites. For Bekendvlei Farm was bought for R97 Tenure reform has been badly example, the “Pro-active Land Acquisition million and handed over to Errol Present neglected. Farm workers and farm Strategy” (PLAS) and the State Land Lease and a business partner. The senior official dwellers remain vulnerable to eviction. and Disposal Policy of 2013 replaced all had bypassed required procedures. A day Thousands of labour tenant claims have previous forms of land redistribution. after the deal went through‚ Nkwinti was been ignored for the past 17 years, and These are openly oriented towards the speaker at Present’s lavish wedding. only court action brought by an activist medium and large-scale black commercial NGO, Association for Rural Advancement farmers. They assume that there will be Political misdirection (AFRA), has forced the department to only one lessee per farm, and farms will and its come-uppance commit itself to resolving them. not be subdivided. The beneficiaries are The argument that the key Communal tenure reform policy often relatively well-off and hold other constraint on land reform is the continues to be focused on the transfer of business interests, but strategic partners property clause rings very hollow, given land ownership to traditional leadership and mentors in fact gain much more government’s record of weak leadership, a structures and chiefs, with new policies than beneficiaries. tiny budget, poor planning, incompetent proposing to offer community members The Recapitalisation and Development implementation, increasing capture of only “statutory use rights”. The lack Policy Programme (“Recap”) of 2014 the programme by emerging elites, and of accountability of such structures is replaced all previous forms of funding for corruption. The current turn to radical not addressed. Nor is the fundamental land reform, including settlement support populism is an attempt to divert attention problem that apartheid-era boundaries grants for restitution beneficiaries. Recap from the ways in which the budget for are being imposed. beneficiaries must have partners recruited land reform is being used as a resource for Incompetence: Some problems from the private sector, as mentors or “co- political patronage, rather than as means are due to poor management and managers”, who write their business plans. to address structural inequality, as well as incompetence. The current land reform The Presidency’s mid-term evaluation of to divide the opponents of state capture. programme is ad hoc in character, lacks the programme reveals that large sums The current focus on the land question coherence and is poorly co-ordinated. are spent on relatively few beneficiaries, is much like the call for “radical economic The relevant government departments few jobs have been created, and access to transformation” by those elements of are well known as some of the weakest markets for produce remains limited. In the ANC intent on lining the pockets of amongst the weak. Agricultural and land the six provinces assessed, around R3.5 a class of “tenderpreneurs” (or aspirant policies have not been clearly linked, million was spent per project, around bourgeoisie). It is meant to deceive and water reform and land reform have R520,000 per beneficiary. Job creation the population into thinking that the barely touched sides. Little support for cost R645,000 per job. dominant faction in the ANC remains black smallholder farmers is on offer, A policy on “Strengthening the concerned with social change. But land and no land reform farms have been Relative Rights of People Working the questions cannot be manipulated quite so officially sub-divided. Land”, also known as the “50/50”policy, easily - they are more likely to blow up in Informal agricultural markets are is now being piloted. Each farm owner your face. TheANC may not be able to rely ignored, despite the fact that they offer is to retain 50% ownership of the farm, on its rural vote for very much longer. real potential for market-oriented ceding the other 50% to workers. While smallholders taking possession of couched in “radical” language, this in fact Ben Cousins holds a Research Chair in Poverty, redistributed land. There has been no offers workers very little. It is unlikely that Land and Agrarian Studies at the University of the spatial targeting of land and people in dividends will ever be paid, and wages will Western Cape, funded by the National Research zones of opportunity and need (e.g. farms remain at the legal minimum at best. In Foundation.

Amandla! Issue No.52 21 MAY 2017 labour Crossing the divide: Saftu’s challenge By Edward Webster

long standing union leaders with a new generation of unionists, disillusioned with the ruling party and its Alliance partners, Cosatu and the SACP. With nearly 700,000 members, it is the second largest federation in South Africa. But the challenges facing this attempt to “cross the divide” between organised workers and the growing precariat will require more than patience and the ability to listen. It will require a strategic leadership willing to move out of the comfort zone of traditional unionism, recruit unfamiliar constituencies and experiment with new ways of organising. Challenges The first challenge will be to break with the bureaucratic practices that have seen union leaders gradually distanced from their members. With the exception of Numsa and Fawu, all the affiliates are either break-aways from established Former Cosatu General Secretary, Jay Naidoo, addressing the launching congress of Saftu. unions or small, often recently formed, locally-based unions. If past “business union” practices are to be challenged, he long awaited launch of old”. The carefully crafted report of the then union investment companies and the the South African Federation Steering Committee, set up after the gap between the salaries of some union of Trade Unions (Saftu) Worker Summit on 30 April 2016, made leaders and their members will need to be in Boksburg on 27th April clear the intention to build “a broader revisited. There has been no systematic Tpromises to be a voice for labour movement, not a narrow trade attack on income inequality in post- the growing numbers of unorganised union for wages of the employed”. The apartheid South Africa in spite of Section and marginalised workers. But, as the report promised that it will “give a voice 27 of the Employment Equity Act that Secretary of the South African Informal and represent the workers employed employers “must” address the “apartheid Traders Alliance (Saita) warned delegates by labour brokers…knit together the wage gap”. Despite this legal opportunity, at the launch, “don’t break our hearts with struggles of those who receive regular labour has neglected this section of the false promises”. salaries and benefits with the struggles Act. Saftu could make its mark within Many have become cynical over of the workers in the informal economy”, the labour movement by taking life-style the idea of a new federation. It was and struggle “hand in hand with issues seriously and, in particular, the conceived over two years ago in the unemployed workers”. wage gap within its own ranks. wake of the expulsion of Numsa from The opening day was a heady moment. The second challenge is around Cosatu, followed by the dismissal of the All three past General Secretaries of political diversity. What was striking at Cosatu general secretary, Zwelizima Cosatu were present: the founder and the launch was the wide range of political Vavi, in March 2015. But the idea of a first general secretary of Cosatu, Jay and ideological views. An illustration was new federation is not the outcome of a Naidoo (1985- 1999), Sam Shilowa (1993- the lively debate over the relationship surge in worker militancy. Instead, it is a 1999), and Zwelinzima Vavi (1999- 2015). between Pan-Africanism and Marxist- response to the failure of existing unions Naidoo caught the mood of the delegates, Leninism. But there was consensus to provide an adequate voice and service with a combination of homage to the past that there should be no party political to its members. Saftu is the product of the with a call to grasp the new opportunities affiliation. It was agreed that Saftu should crisis in representation facing traditional created by information technology. He be politically independent, although trade unions argued that we need to replace fossil fuel there was a strong appeal for a workers capitalism with new forms of renewable party from one speaker. The challenge The launch got off energy. We need to harness the new will be for Saftu to be a genuine forum to a good start. technology, so that workers can, Naidoo for political debate, respecting different Hope was in the air with over 1,800 romantically declared, become the “new views, and even allowing different mainly young delegates singing - rather creative class” with time on their hands ideological factions to be institutionalised hesitatingly - those stirring words from for art, music and books to read”. within the federation. the Internationale, “We can bring to A strength of the federation will be The most difficult challenge arises earth a new world from the ashes of the its ability to combine the experiences of from the shift from industrial unions to

Amandla! Issue No.52 22 MAY 2017 labour

As newly elected General Secretary, Zwelizima Vavi, pleaded: “Do not fight each other over the 28% already organised: our challenge is to organise the 72% who are unorganised.

general unions. NUMSA led the way when This is likely to be an on-going debate as Labour scholar, Rina Agarwala, has it extended its scope to include a variety of the federation tries to build unity between challenged the conventional view that economic activities beyond metalworkers very different sized unions. informalisation is the “final nail in the including, for example, university cleaners A difficult challenge is how to labour movement’s coffin”. Informal and bus drivers. Furthermore, many of respond to the demand for “radical workers in India, she demonstrates, are the Saftu affiliates are general unions. economic transformation”. On the one creating new institutions and forging a How to deal with the danger of internal hand, Saftu endorsed the call for Zuma new social contract between the state “poaching” was extensively discussed at to resign but, on the other hand, they and labour. She shows how informal the launch. Will the protocols proposed are equally critical of “post-apartheid worker movements are most successful in the report of the Steering Committee deal making, deindustrialisation and when operating within electoral contexts prevent divisive conflict in the future? financialisation”. It is difficult to detect any where parties must compete for mass As newly elected General Secretary, clear economic policy in the report of the votes from the poor. Agarwala calls this Zwelizima Vavi, pleaded: “Do not fight Steering Committee. “competitive populism”. These informal each other over the 28% already organised: worker organisations are not attached to our challenge is to organise the 72% who Organising informal workers a particular party, nor do they espouse a are unorganised”. The leaders of the new federation specific political or economic ideology. A major challenge facing Saftu is are confident that a number of Cosatu It is too soon to pronounce on the the need for innovative strategies on affiliates will join, or if the unions do not, future of Saftu. But what is clear is new ways of organising. It is not clear their members will come across to a Saftu that increasingly workers are rejecting how Saftu intends to recruit the new affiliate. To organise the low paid and traditional trade unions and forming new constituencies of women, immigrants, low the precarious is an ambitious task, but types of organisations that bring workers paid service workers, outsourced workers, there is growing evidence that innovative together to promote their rights and and the growing numbers of workers in strategies to bridge the informal-formal interests. Saftu needs to draw on these the informal economy. Experiments in “divide” are emerging in the Global South. experiences if it is to fulfil the promise of organising precarious workers, such as the There have been successful attempts at its launch. Casual Workers Advice OfficeC ( WAO) in collective organising of informal workers. Germiston, need to be carefully examined Alliances are emerging and growing Edward Webster is professor emeritus in the as they could provide ways of crossing the across this divide in other parts of Africa. Society, Work and Development Institute (SWOP) divide between the old and the new. An example of a new organising strategy at Wits University. He will be launching next Linked to the fragmentation of unions in Ghana is an alliance of informal port month a collection of research-based essays is what many delegates called the “big workers with national trade unions. on precarious work in India, Ghana and South brother syndrome”. Do you continue with Through the alliance with the national Africa, Crossing the Divide: Precarious Work and the past practice of unions voting on the union, the local union of casual workers the Future of Labour, Edward Webster, Akua basis of their size, or do you introduce the gained the necessary political status to O. Britwum and Sharit Bhowmik, University of principle of equal votes between affiliates? improve their working conditions. KwaZulu-Natal Press.

Amandla! Issue No.52 23 MAY 2017 labour Nothing For Us Without Us! New forms of self-organisation by workers in the informal economy By Pat Horn

organisations such as the ILO and the organisations of the international trade union movement. The International Domestic Workers‘ Federation (IDWF) has 59 affiliates of membership-based domestic workers organisations (including domestic workers‘ trade unions) and associations in 48 countries. It was similarly launched in Montevideo, Uruguay, on 28 October 2013. In 2011, ILO Domestic Workers Convention 189 was adopted through the international unity and strength of an organised sector of workers. This means that strong and viable representative organisations of workers in these sectors of the informal economy are alive and well at national level. There are also strong worker organisations in other sectors of the informal economy, such as waste pickers, home-based workers, informal transport Ghana StreetNet Alliance march for rights and social security on International Street Vendors Day. StreetNet workers, subsistence fisherpeople and International has over 600,000 members in 54 affiliated membership-based organisations in 49 countries in Africa, rural workers. Asia, the Americas and (mainly Eastern) Europe. Organisations of waste pickers and other sectors I n Brazil, for example, many or kers in the Informal workers cooperatives and associations of informal economy are organised catadores (waste pickers) are part of the usually hear about Today we have international (Movimento Nacional dos Catadores de themselves in the organised groups of democratic, Materiais Reciclaveis (National Movement third person. They membership-based organisations of of Collectors of Recyclable Materials are referred to as workers in the informal economy. Some (MNCR)) who organise informal workers Wunorganised, vulnerable workers and are registered as trade unions. Others in their sector into worker-controlled victims of globalisation and neo-liberal work like trade unions but are unwilling cooperatives. MNCR developed strong capitalism. or unable to register due to short-sighted policies to maintain worker control This is despite the fact that workers in legislative regimes. of the cooperatives/associations and different sectors of the informal economy StreetNet International has over the movement. have been self-organising since the 1970s. 600,000 members in 54 affiliated • All elected leadership, no matter how • In 1972 the Self-Employed Women’s membership-based organisations in 49 senior, have to be working members of Association in India started to organise countries in Africa, Asia, the Americas cooperatives/associations and to earn women vegetable vendors and home- and (mainly Eastern) Europe. It was their income directly from this work, on based workers in Ahmedabad, after the launched in Durban, South Africa on an equal basis with other members of collapse of the textile industry. Today it 14 November 2002, a day which is now their cooperatives. is registered as a trade union, with over celebrated as International Street Vendors‘ • Negotiations with government and 2 million members. Day. StreetNet is an international municipalities is done directly by • In 1979 the General Agricultural federation of organised street vendors, elected catadores leaders and not by Workers‘ Union in Ghana started to informal market vendors and hawkers. technocrats, who can assist only in a organise informalised agricultural These are mostly “own-account” workers, support role. workers and peasant farmers. This as defined by theILO . It was deliberately • At local and regional levels the happened after the Internatonal Labour initiated in the global South, so that MNCR has sub-committees which Organisation (ILO) officially recognised the organisation would be led, and negotiate directly with state and local rural workers whose employment its founding policies formulated, by governments, with varying levels relationships had been eliminated by organised informal workers from the of success. the Structural Adjustment Programmes global South. This was done to avoid the At federal level, however, an inter- of the IMF and the World Bank. element of northern domination in global ministerial committee was established

Amandla! Issue No.52 24 MAY 2017 labour by President Lula, in response to the development of the MNCR movement. This was an advisory committee which met monthly with elected MNCR leaders, and every year in December, while the Brazilian Workers’ Party (PT) was in office. The President met with the catadores to evaluate the progress of the Inter-Ministerial Committee. MNCR has a policy of political independence. Their perception is that the trade unions all have political affiliations, and therefore they have avoided trade union affiliation as well. In the sector of organised waste pickers and recycling workers, a regional network Red Latinoamericana de Recicladores (LACRE) was established in Bogota on 1 March 2008, a day which is now celebrated as National Day of Waste Pickers and Recycling Workers. There are also regional networks in other sectors of the informal economy, such as HomeNet South Asia and HomeNet South-East Asia Waste pickers (“catadores”) in Equador. In Brazil, many cooperatives and associations of catadores (waste pickers) are part of the Movimento Nacional dos Catadores de Materiais Reciclaveis (National Movement of Collectors of . The International Transportworkers’ Recyclable Materials). Federation (ITF) has informal transport workers’ organisations as affiliates, and other Global Union Federations vendors, rather than employers) and formal workers to set all the demands have also accepted membership-based new collective bargaining strategies and the agenda and expect the support organisations of workers in the informal and demands. of workers in the informal economy economy as their affiliates. 5. Women leadership: overcoming when there is nothing in it for them. the traditional male bias in formal 9. Tackling globalisation: workers Challenges for the trade sector trade unions in order to have confronting the negative consequences union movement significant leadership by women. It is of globalisation in a unified way. However, the trade union women who are in the majority in the Formal and informal workers should movement in many countries is still informal economy, especially in the identify their common ground and struggling to come to terms with lowest income-earning work. organise around that, organising workers in the informal 6. Learning from those doing it 10. Civil society: taking a lead in civil economy on equal terms with the already: by means of exchange society. If trade unions are sufficiently traditional organised sectors. That visits or other engagements, unions representative of the working people means with the same recognition of learning from the experiences of (which is usually the majority of their rights to representation by their those who are already organising in adults) in any society, they are the own democratically elected leadership. the informal economy, avoiding some natural leaders of any civil society It means embracing the membership- of the mistakes and replicating the or social movement. They become based organisations which arose from more successful strategies. There much more representative of the self-organisation, and were not organised are many different models operating wider working class if they genuinely by the unions themselves, into the wider successfully. Sometimes a combination represent the workers in the informal trade union movement. of different models can work where economy, They are then much better These are the key challenges: no single one fits exactly. equipped to take up a leading civil 1. Political will: getting trade 7. Organising workers in the society role. union leadership to prioritise the informal economy as workers So the part of the trade union organisation of workers in the and as equals: avoiding a tendency movement which recognises all informal economy, and to make for formal workers to want to do workers (including “own-account” human and financial resources things on behalf of informal workers, workers) as workers, can and should available to implement this. instead of organising for them to promote the right of all workers to 2. Legal changes: if a country’s laws represent themselves and set their represent themselves through their own are an obstacle to organising workers own organisational agenda. Workers democratically-elected representatives. in the informal economy, unions in the informal economy are more This may mean developing new models struggling for the necessary changes to marginalised. They often have lower of statutory bargaining forums suitable the laws. levels of formal education. Formal to the new sectors of workers being 3. Constitutional changes: changing workers need to be conscious to organised. It must be in line with the trade union constitutions where they avoid this tendency. They must principle “Nothing For Us Without Us”. are the obstacle to organising informal remember their own struggles to The working-class alliance of trade unions workers. represent themselves instead of being and worker-controlled cooperatives needs 4. New organising strategies: learning represented by others. to work together for the promotion of an new organising strategies which are 8. Joint campaigns: including demands alternative political economy to replace more appropriate for workers in the set by the workers in the informal the current neo-liberal capitalist models informal economy. This could mean economy as well as the demands of existing in most countries. identifying new negotiating partners the formal workers, for successful (e.g. municipalities in the case of street joint campaigns. It will not work for Pat Horn is StreetNet international co-ordinator.

Amandla! Issue No.52 25 MAY 2017 Local struggle Reclaim the City Occupation is a peaceful strategy which we will continue to use in this fight Movement says: against spatial inequality and injustice. What inspired the occupation? Build inclusive cities! O ccupying land has been part of land struggles in South Africa for centuries - pushing the boundaries of private land ownership and demanding No to spatial inequality! land to address the pressing housing needs of people. Land occupations through setting up shack settlements are part of the history of our urban and peri-urban landscape. Occupying vacant or derelict buildings happens across inner cities, to address the lack of affordable, well-located housing. There are even some buildings in the inner city of Cape Town that are being secretly occupied. This occupation is not something new. We are using the occupation as a way to leverage broader land and housing demands of Reclaim the City. We want to remind government of its obligation. Section 26 of the constitution states that everybody must have access to adequate housing. Government must therefore provide the policy and plans, with timelines, to demonstrate its commitment to providing adequate housing for all. There are vacant public buildings Reclaim the City protesters on Long Street in Cape Town in 2016 in the inner city. Therefore it is our task to remind government about its Amandla! interviewed the Campaign to 3. Put an end to urban evictions and commitment to provide adequate and Reclaim the City and the movement to reverse the gentrification that pushes affordable housing. occupy the inner city. people to the outskirts of the city We have written over 900 letters to 4. Fight for land for people not for profit; provincial government to remind them an end to private-public partnerships of their own plans. We have demanded What inspired the 5. Bring back people to the inner city that the Western Cape Department of formation of the Movement through a social housing program Human Settlements use the Tafelberg site to Reclaim the City? 6. Secure a firm commitment and for social housing. Government has even The movement formed in Cape Town timelines for social housing from done a feasibility study that indicated in February 2015 to right the wrongs of government. that the social housing project is in fact the Group Areas Act and other apartheid Apartheid spatial planning does not financially viable. The reason government policies that led to the forced removal of just mean that poor people live far away does not want to develop social housing in black, coloured and Malay people from from the city centre. It also leads to socio- the inner city is not economically related. District 6 and other areas. economic exclusion. We ask ourselves Reclaim the City recognises that many how long will black and “coloured” people What are the risks of the black and “coloured” people in Cape be displaced and excluded from the cities occupation strategy? Town remain displaced even 23 years and from the economic centre of the city? The activists are occupying at after democracy. The movement therefore great personal risk. We are seen as aims to bring back the right to the city for What is Reclaim trespassers, so we could be arrested. these people. the City doing? Government has tried to demobilise the C urrently the movement is movement. We are adamant that we want Reclaim the City list occupying Woodstock Hospital and to continue struggling for adequate and of demands: the Helen Bowden Nurses home, also affordable housing for all. R ecently the Western Cape potential sites for social housing. We We know that we cannot win this Provincial government decided to sell are focused on urban evictions and fight alone so we welcome help. We don’t the Seapoint site of Tafelberg school for occupation because of scope and lack of want to burn or destroy. We want to learn private development rather than social capacity. However there is a deep sense and build. housing. Reclaim the City’s demands of solidarity with farm workers and those We are calling for mass support include reversing this decision. in rural areas who experience the same and mobilisation in solidarity, so that Our primary objectives are to: struggles. The struggle to Reclaim the the movement evolves into a mass 1. Desegregate Cape Town City is not confined to the areas where we movement that has the power to demand 2. Address the spatial inequality and are occupying. The movement exists to adequate and affordable housing for all spatial violence desegregate the whole of Cape Town. South Africans.

Amandla! Issue No.52 26 MAY 2017 students

persistently, if spontaneously and sporadically, resisted in the numerous “service delivery” protests, strikes and land occupations. The restructuring of labour, and downward pressure on wages, dramatically boiled over in the tragic massacre at Marikana. Universities and students have not been immune from the effects of “rationalised” government - reduced funding, cost recovery, corporatisation and the restructuring of labour at universities. The ANC has been and continues to be at the forefront of an attack on the capacity of the state to deliver on a historical promise to transform the lives of the working and popular classes. TheANC abuses the political power the popular classes have given it. Unity must be the watchword. It must be a unity forged in struggling for immediate demands such as accommodation, food, security It is no longer willing or able (particularly for women and those who experience gender and sexual violence). to tackle the fundamentally unjust economic, social and political structure of South Africa. The effect is to leave contradictions of race, gender and class unresolved and A Popular Hegemony – aggravated. It is captured by the petty-bourgeois and opportunist elements Students and Class Struggle which have been part of the decimation of organised forces By Chris Morris of the people. These include once gigantic institutions such as COSATU, as well as grass-roots movements, which ntering a new round of To be sure, the transition to at their height comprised the United struggles, bruised and smarting democratic rule in itself presents a major Democratic Front of the 1980s. Today the from a defeat, students across victory for all South Africans. Civil war petty-bourgeois and opportunist elements Ethe country are coming to realise would have resulted in the decimation at the universities, in typical fashion, are that this year may prove decisive in the of the country and its people. Avoiding loudly and with disastrous consequences battle for free, decolonised education. that, together with the ushering in of a laying claim to these struggles of the The current lull in protest presents an democracy in which political freedom popular classes. opportunity to take stock, understand is guaranteed, was no small feat. The the problems and search for prospects. problem is that the economic and social Fallism, Struggle and What are the conditions in which we are policy pursued by the hegemonic ANC revolutionary praxis struggling? What do we hope to achieve? since then has not taken us beyond the If we are to remain faithful to Importantly, how do we get there? terms of the compromise. Twenty years Amilcar Cabral’s famous call, then More importantly, how do we counter on, and this failure is quickly causing the we must be careful not to claim easy the petty-bourgeois, bourgeois and disintegration of the ANC’s hegemony. victories. Fallism has become a part opportunist elements of fallism? These It is in fact the ANC’s failures over the of our vocabulary. But that is more as elements have not only played straight past twenty years which are at the root a result of the sound and fury which into the hands of a government dedicated of what Saleem Badat calls the “organic animates the protests than the united to neoliberal rule. They also provide no crisis” of universities. Determined to and organised mass power of students. strategic guidance and employ disastrous pursue a neoliberal governance and Without dismissing the creative potential tactics, such as seen at Kempton Park. economic path, the ANC has straight- that the movement and students jacketed itself. Its policies simply do not possess, the lack of patient, persistent A Shaking Hegemony allow it to break free of the power of and thorough organising on the part of Fsir t though, a note on context. It international and local capital of any kind, Fallists has resulted in the defeat of last should come as no surprise that the crony or monopolisitic. year. Despite some valid and some not so student uprising has been led by the first TheANC ditched the social democratic valid criticism of the National Education generation of “born-frees” - those born Reconstruction and Development Plan Crisis Committee, celebrity Fallists and around the transition from Apartheid. We (RDP) and turned to the neoliberal opportunists from the political parties were raised under the myth of a rainbow Growth Employment and Redistribution brawled on live television. A united nation. We have matured in a reality far (GEAR) and National Development Plan student movement, with mass support, from the dreams sold in 1994. (NDP). This “social extractivism” has been including strategic allies, and a clear

Amandla! Issue No.52 27 MAY 2017 International strategic and tactical approach should have used the platform to drive forward the demand. Easier said than done... Putting Some thoughts, aside identity, political and ideological differences in order to build mass support for Free Decolonised Education will require more than a theoretical or self-criticisms even moral argument. Building a mass movement requires patient and persistent work. Students cannot come together at the end of the year and expect everyone to and proposals be on board because of the obvious justice of our position. We need to use the time we have now to build a movement with mass support of students, organic links concerning the with popular movements in communities, the unions and rural movements, and a politically independent stance. This must ensure that the goal of free decolonised process of change education is not sacrificed at the altar of opportunism. Spontaneity and drama are good for bringing an issue to the fore. But building a movement capable of pushing in Bolivia forward an alternative requires unity of By Pablo Solón purpose and identity. Unity was must be the watchword. But it must be a principled and programmatic unity. Our interests as students, particularly as black working class students, do not lie with opportunists and sexists. They lie in working together to carry through programmes that bring change to the material and spiritual life of students. It must be a unity forged in struggling for immediate demands such as accommodation, food, security (particularly for women and those who experience gender and sexual violence). It must be a unity which includes constant strategising for longer term goals, and building of a new political culture, symbolism and mass support. Unity must also extend beyond the ivory towers. Beyond the political parties, students must seek out those movements and grass-roots organisations, workers, high school learners and communities engaged in the fight against neoliberalism, capitalism and the oppressive systems of patriarchy and racism. The higher education crisis is only one instance of a generalised crisis we are experiencing at the moment. It will be imperative The highland mining town of Huanuni. Toxic runoff from the mine still slides into the local river and stinking raw that we make the links to forge unity sewage runs through the streets. across divisions rather than within them. Political opportunists, Zuptamites, petty- bourgeois elements and celebrity fallists must be out-organised by the mass of This is Part 2 of a two part article. the old rich. The only way to resist those students, conscious of their interests and We published Part 1 in Amandla! 51. nouveaux riches and new middle classes unwilling to be distracted by divisiveness, of popular origin is, once again, through empty rhetoric and poor strategy having strong social organisations. and tactics. The nouveaux riches However, when these organisations are In almost all revolutionary weakened and co-opted by the state, there processes in this and the past century, is no counterweight to the new sectors of there is a process of confrontation with economic power that begin to influence in the old displaced sectors. But after this, a decisive way the decisions that are taken. Chris Morris is a Politics Student at the there arise, within the revolutionary By the beginning of the government’s University Currently Known as Rhodes (UCKAR). process, groups of “nouveaux riches” and second mandate, in 2010, it was clear He is a member of Asinamali and writes in his bureaucrats who want to enjoy their new that the major danger for the process personal capacity. status. To do so, they ally with sectors of of change did not come from outside. It

Amandla! Issue No.52 28 MAY 2017 International

The Incahuasi gas field. Have we become addicted to extractivism and the rentism of a basically export-oriented capitalist economy? came from within the leaderships and From “Vivir Bien” that the state now has eight times as much new power groups that were forming in to extractivism income, rising from $673 million in 2005 the municipalities, governorships, state to $5.459 billion in 2013. enterprises, public administration, armed Vivir Bien means, literally, “living well”. It is a This enormous increase in revenue has forces and government ministries. The philosophy associated with the indigenous allowed a leap in public investment. There distribution of the rent from the gas has been a series of cash grant social peoples of the Andean countries of South between all of these entities opened up an programmes. Infrastructure projects have incredible opportunity to do business. America. It is a guiding principle of the state been developed. Basic services have been In the higher spheres they were in the new constitutions of Ecuador and extended. There has been an increase in aware of the danger. But efficient ways Bolivia. It includes a commitment to live in international reserves and other measures. of monitoring the state apparatus were harmony with the Earth and the needs of a Compared to past decades, there has not adopted in time. The dominant sustainable ecology. undeniably been an improvement in logic came to be that of public works the situation of the population, and that followed by more public works, in explains the support the government still an effort to win more popularity and To reinvigorate and renew the has. thereby be re-elected. That is how new process of change, it is fundamental to However, the question is where is sectors of economic power came to the know what country we are building. We this model taking us? Have we become fore - political and union leaders, and must be very sincere and self-critical. addicted to extractivism and the rentism contractors who began to climb socially The achievements of the last ten years of a basically export-oriented capitalist thanks to the state. Added to them were are undeniable. They have their origin in economy? merchants, smugglers, cooperative the increased income of the state resulting The original idea was to nationalise miners, coca growers, “transportistas” from the renegotiation of the contracts hydrocarbons in order to redistribute the (bus and truck owners) and others. They with the petroleum transnationals. This wealth and advance from extractivism obtained a series of concessions and took place at a time of high hydrocarbon of raw materials to diversification of the benefits. As a result, they represented prices. Strictly speaking, it cannot be said economy. Now, ten years later, there major sources of electoral support. that it was a nationalisation - even today, have been some economic diversification To renew the process of change, it two transnational enterprises (Petrobras projects. But we have not overcome the is necessary to reinvigorate old social and Repsol) handle 75% of the production trend. We are even more dependent on organisations and create new ones. Today of natural gas in Bolivia. exports of raw materials (gas, minerals there is no assurance that those who were What happened was a renegotiation and soy). Why have we stalled at the the key actors a decade ago will be the key of contracts. As a result, the share of total halfway point and made ourselves virtual actors of tomorrow. It is foolish to think profits of these transnational companies addicts of extractivism and exports? that it is possible to resume the process of declined from 43% in 2005 to only 22% Because this was the easiest way to obtain change simply with a change of personnel. in 2013. It is true that the petroleum resources and to retain power. The process is more complex, and transnationals remain in Bolivia and make Of course there were other options. requires the reconstitution of the social three times what they were making ten But obviously, none of them would have fabric that gave rise to it. years ago. But the other side of the coin is quickly generated the revenue from

Amandla! Issue No.52 29 MAY 2017 International

country can leap stages if it knows how to read the real possibilities and dangers of the 21st century and leave behind the old developmentalism of the 20th century. No one is thinking of putting an end to the extraction and export of gas immediately. But we can’t be making plans to extend extractivism when there exist alternatives. Perhaps in the short term they are more complicated to implement. But in the medium term they are much more beneficial for humanity and Mother Earth. Instead of promoting referendums for the re-election of two people, we should be promoting referendums on GMOs, nuclear energy, megadams, deforestation, public investment and many other subjects that are crucial for the process of change. The process can only be renewed through a greater exercise of real democracy. A misreading of what has occurred can lead to more authoritarian forms of government and the emergence of a new neoliberal Right, as is happening Rally in support of a 2014 Bolivian government law that grants rights to Mother Earth. Advancing toward an agro- in Argentina. No doubt there are right- ecological Bolivia would have been a road much more consistent with Vivir Bien and care for Mother Earth. But wing sectors operating both from it would not have guaranteed in the short term large amounts of economic revenue. And it would have led to a confrontation with the big agro-industrial sector founded on GMO-based soy production and export. the opposition and from within the government. Nor can we close our eyes to the fact that sectors of the Left and social movements have let themselves foreign exchange that would build popular Instead of subsidising diesel for agro- be co-opted by power and we have been support for the government. Advancing industrial interests, that money could be unable to articulate a clear alternative toward an agro-ecological Bolivia would invested to help lower-income Bolivians programme. have been a road much more consistent generate solar energy on their roofs. The The renewal of the process of with Vivir Bien and care for Mother Earth. generation of electrical energy would be change involves: But it would not have guaranteed in the democratised and decentralised. • critically and pro-actively discussing short term large amounts of economic Vivir Bien will begin to be a reality the problems of unviable late capitalist revenue. And it would have led to a when society is economically empowered developmentalism underlying the confrontation with the big agro-industrial (as producers and not only as consumers government’s Patriotic Agenda for 2025; sector founded on GMO-based soy and recipients of social welfare grants) • evaluating, explaining and adopting production and export. and activities are promoted to recover our actions inside and outside of the state lost equilibrium with nature. in order to confront the problems Another Bolivia is possible The true alternative to privatisation and dangers generated by the logic of D ays before the referendum it was is not statisation. It is the socialisation of power (authoritarianism, clientelism, reported that a solar energy plant would the means of production. State enterprises contentment with the status quo, be built in Oruro. It will generate 50 often behave like private enterprises when nouveaux riches, spurious pragmatic MW of power and cover one half of the there is no effective participation and alliances, corruption, etc); demand for electrical energy in the social control. Generating solar energy • overcoming the contradiction between department of Oruro, for an investment based on community, municipal and what we say and what we do, and of about $100 million. The news attracted family efforts would help empower society implementing, in real life, the rights little attention, although it is a small in place of the state. And it would help to of Mother Earth and projects that indication of how “Another Bolivia reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that substantially contribute to harmony is Possible”. produce climate change. with Nature; and Bolivia can gradually let go of The topic of community and family • being self-critical with ourselves and extractivism and put itself in the vanguard solar energy is just a small indication with the very same organisations of a real community-based solar energy of how we can think outside of the and social movements that in some revolution. If it were to invest one traditional patterns of “development”. cases reproduce damaging autocratic billion dollars it could generate 500 MW Similarly, we must recover the proposal practices and unwarranted prerogatives of solar energy, which is about one- for a Bolivia of ecological agriculture for a few. third of the present national demand. and forestry. The true wealth of nations The transformation can be much in the decades ahead will not be in Vivir Bien is possible! more profound if we consider that the the destructive extractivism of raw government has announced it will spend materials. It will be in the preservation a total of $47 billion on investments of our biodiversity, in the production of Pablo Solon was a social movement activist between now and 2020. ecological products, and in coexistence who was Bolivian ambassador to the United Furthermore, Bolivia could support with nature, in which we have a great Nations from February 2009 to July 2011. This community, municipal and family legacy through the indigenous peoples. article was translated by Richard Fidler and first solar power that would turn electricity Bolivia must not commit the same errors published in English on his blog http://lifeonleft. consumers into energy producers. of the so-called “developed” nations. The blogspot.co.za.

Amandla! Issue No.52 30 MAY 2017 international

Le Pen Marine Le Pen took over from her father in 2011 as the head of the FN. She has tried to position it as a more normal, mainstream party, while keeping its emphasis on anti-immigrant racism and Islamophobia. Under Marine, the FN has dropped some of the rhetoric around holocaust denial, while unapologetically attacking Muslims. She’s tried to expand the party’s base from its traditional centres of support – the petty bourgeoisie and the families of repatriated settlers from Algeria – to the working class. Since the 1980s the FN has seen its vote totals go up again and again. She is a right-wing populist who’s attacking the European Union and immigration, and also saying “neoliberal globalisation is destroying French workers.” She’s often Marine Le Pen at a rally during the election. She has tried to position it as a more normal, mainstream party, while keeping its ambiguous about what she emphasis on anti-immigrant racism and Islamophobia. wants to defend in the French welfare state, but she’s very clear in her rhetorical attacks on neoliberalism. French elections: How we got here What we see now is the product of thirty-five years of neoliberal transformation. The big breakthroughs for the centrist cul-de-sac the FN have consistently come at moments By Jonah Birch in which Socialist governments pushed through neoliberal reforms. The first big breakthrough happened after François Mitterrand’s U-turn This is an edited version of an interview towards austerity in 1983. TheFN suddenly with Jonah Birch which was published French Presidential saw a surge of support. Then, in the early in Jacobin magazine. Jonah Birch is election system 2000s, the “Plural Left” government tried a contributing editor to Jacobin. to push through neoliberal reforms like French presidential elections have two privatisation, as well as weakening its n the second round of the rounds. In the first round, any number of promises on labour law improvements. presidential election you have candidates can stand. If one candidate gets In the 2002 presidential elections, Jean- Emmanuel Macron, a neoliberal, more than 50% of the vote in the first round, Marie Le Pen made it to the second round Iruling-class consensus choice, against they are elected. If no candidate gets more of voting for the first time ever. He got Marine Le Pen, until Monday the leader of than 50%, the two candidates with the most destroyed in the second round, amidst the far-right National Front (FN). huge protests against the FN. But it was a votes stand against each other in another moment where support did also rise for Macron election two weeks later. the FN. F rom 2014 until August of last year, The presidential elections are separated from Over the last five years the FN Emmanuel Macron was the finance the parliamentary elections. These will take has been able to make real gains by minister under Prime Minister Manuel place this year in June. positioning itself as the alternative to Valls and President François Hollande. the neoliberal Socialist government of Macron oversaw their very aggressive François Hollande. The Left has not been programme of neoliberal reforms, able to counter that effectively. including significant deregulation. He is a former investment banker who’s never François Fillon (the candidate of the right- National Front been elected to any office, but at this point wing Les Républicains). transformation he is clearly the consensus candidate of It’s part of Macron’s message that he The FN first came to prominence in the French ruling class. transcends the left-right divide. He wants the 1980s, and they were a hard neoliberal After the first round results were to position himself as the candidate of party. Jean-Marie Le Pen’s programme announced, he was quickly endorsed by the neoliberal centre. He’s very close to was privatisation, deregulation, stop everyone from Benoît Hamon on the employers, so there’s a lot of support for socialism, fight the Marxists and the centre-left (of the Socialist Party, SP) to him among ruling-class circles. Soviet threat, and so on. In the 1990s,

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at the end of the Sarkozy administration, the Socialist Party swept into every level of government. Hollande won the presidency, they won the parliamentary elections, and they had a majority of regions as well. They were the dominant party. Government continued along the path that had already made it so unpopular, which was a complete and utter failure to deal with the crisis of French capitalism. The economy has barely grown since 2008. Unemployment is startlingly high, and the government hasn’t managed to put an end to all of that. TheSP ’s strategy has been to pass these incredibly unpopular neoliberal reforms. They are essentially trying to eviscerate the labour code Dockworkers marching against the El Khomri law, the most recent of neoliberal reforms, which raised the number of hours in the which protects employees. It’s work week and limited unions’ ability to fight. been a losing strategy. But there is a gap between what happens at the national as the far-left parties went into decline, headway. Certainly not like they have in level in politics and what happens at the the FN essentially reversed themselves. recent decades. local level. In the municipalities there are Suddenly they began claiming they were places where the SP still has very strong the champions of French workers (not all Neoliberal globalisation bases. We’ll have to see what happens workers), and they positioned themselves the catalyst in the parliamentary elections. They’re in opposition to neoliberalism. So it can’t simply be the presence of definitely going to take a big hit. But there This is very complicated for them foreigners, or even the presence of racism, are a lot of people, who for their own because there are lots of competing that explains the increasing traction the local reasons, have a lot invested in the tendencies inside the FN, and the far right far right has enjoyed since the 1980s. maintenance of this party. still has a middle-class base which does Instead, you have to look at the not want more regulation. But they have neoliberal reforms and direction of French What about the left? been really effective in making inroads capitalism during this time. France’s M élenchon got very close. He has into the working-class vote by positioning traditional stability, with full employment, built up a base for himself. For instance, themselves as the opponents of neoliberal expanding welfare state, improving living in 2012 he got 17 percent of the vote in globalisation. standards, has disappeared. Over the last the Department of Seine Saint-Denis, It’s part of their opportunism that couple of decades, France has increasingly a very large, heavily working-class area they’ve made that reversal. They talk had a two-tier economy where people in north of Paris containing a lot of the about “national preference” in jobs, which more stable, full-time jobs are able to rely traditional “red suburbs.” It was 35 percent requires that companies prioritise French on a whole range of social protections that on Sunday, and he came in first in the citizens over foreigners for jobs. They come with those jobs. There’s a big gap department this time around. call for the “voluntary repatriation” of that’s opened up between that group and His campaign was called France immigrants, and so forth. the growing numbers stuck on the edge of Insoumise (France Unbowed), and there the labour market. is clearly going to be an effort to turn that Immigration In this situation, given this into some kind of party. What that will There is a lot of assumption that increasingly precarious and segmented look like is not entirely clear. He appeared far-right anti-immigrant sentiment is welfare state and labour market structure, with Pablo Iglesias of Podemos at an event driven by the increasing prevalence of those people are really easy to stigmatise. on the Friday before the election, and he Muslim immigrants. There has been It’s easier for the far right to get a clearly wants to model what he’s doing politicisation of immigration and in hearing when they claim that “it’s those on what Podemos is doing. But there is particular attacks on Muslims, like scroungers living off basic assistance who no “movement of the squares” in France, the ban on headscarves in public schools are stealing the bread from your mouth as there was in Spain, to give legs to such – an absurd and racist measure passed and are the reason why your benefits are a party. in 2004. under threat.” Finally, there is concern for the future. At the same time, mass immigration The direction of neoliberalism in There is a danger that even if Macron from the Arab and Muslim world, and France has encouraged these kinds of wins, five more years of neoliberalism will from the French colonies, has been a divisions among workers. only further increase support for the FN. permanent feature of post–World War Until now the FN has had very limited II life. The numbers kept increasing in The Socialist Party representation in the French Parliament. the decades following that war. There candidate was destroyed In the coming elections we may see them was a lot of racism during that time. The Socialist Party (SP) did make big gains. But throughout all of this, the far right historically badly – their candidate, never managed to make sustained Hamon, got 6.5 percent. But In 2012,

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Amandla! is published by the Alternative Information & Development Centre (AIDC). Socialism is not about big concepts and heavy theory. Socialism is about decent shelter for those who are homeless. It is about water for those who have no safe drinking water. It is about healthcare, it is about a life of dignity for the old. It is about overcoming the huge divide between rural and urban areas, it is about a decent education for our people. Socialism is about rolling back the tyranny of the market. As long as the economy is dominated by an unelected, privileged few, the case for socialism will exist. — Chris Hani