On the question
International Viewpoint 24 November 1986
SOUTH AFRICA revolution.
The end of 1985 and the start of 1986 were marked by new advances in the base organizations of the mass movement. Actions such as the boycott of white shops (the consumer boycott) and the boycott of the schools gave new responsibilities to the community organizations. The levels of activity varied considerably from place to place, but these actions were all tests for the ongoing discussions over structuring the national liberation movement as a
AFTER MORE than two years of tumultuous struggles by the oppressed population, debates have now opened up in the major political leaderships of the mass movement on political goals, which raises questions about the class nature of the South African revolution. The following article analyses one of these discussions in the ANC's press and its implications. PETER BLUMER
The state of emergency decreed in June 1986 has seriously mass movement. effects on the resistance struggles have been contradictory. It has seriobstructed the possibilities for struggle in the townships. But, at the same time, it has favored new forms organization. Insofar as the state of emergency was aimed at defeating the Black movement, not achieved its objective. On the contrary, events such as the strike of 300,000 miners on October 1 have confirmed the level combativity of the oppressed population. But this does not remove the problem of the heavy blows the various organizations and their leaders have been suffering in the last five government organize the movement by striking head, by jailing thousands of at its intermediary and making the functioning of the mass organizations precarious and complicated.
Now the legality of the United
Democratic Front (UDF) is under threat, with the government obviously linking this affair to the sanctions voted by the US congress and the financial aid coming from the United
States. (1) In these circumstances, it is no simple matter to assess the present phase of the revolutionary and emergency, combined with the objec- democratic struggle. The state of tive difficulties facing the mass movement, makes it difficult to gauge the relationship of forces. It is in this context that we have to situate the positions taken by the African
National Congress (ANC) and the power" that have been appearing in variations on the theme of "dual its press. There is no way of knowing at the present time whether a debate over orientation is in progress within the leadership of the ANC. For the moment what appears is a discussion on the evaluation of the movement of self-organization and what from it. However, while it is impossible to tell whether this debate involves the real practice of the ANC within the country and, if so, in what form, positions on the question are appearing outside the country in the exile leadership. The articles considered here, which were signed with pseudonyms, cannot be known to a broad public of activists on the home front, and cannot legally be quoted in the press. Discussion in the ANC press
The debate, therefore, is important insofar as it involves the leadership structures. On the other hand, it is impossible to speculate on consequences it might have in the ANC. To define still more pre- short run in actions undertaken by exchanges of arguments, it is useful to note that both the press of the
South African Communist Party and of the ANC are simultaneously resubstantial articles expressing the flecting the same concerns.
same concerns appeared a few weeks apart in Sechaba, the bulletin of the
ANC, and in The African Communist, the organ of the South African Com-
Most interesting, however, is that the subjects discussed in this debate questions of the relationship of forces and the forms of self-organization, as well as future perspectives for the South African organization (trade organizations), which after all were quite new. The degree of soliand internal democracy, the level of regional and national coordination and the link munities and unions are all points being discussed in an attempt to chart a way forward. The disturbing rise of "vigilante" organizations and executing activists led finally to a search for new forms of self-defence.
In this context, higher forms of appeared in the townships. In several cases, the first forms street committees. to appear were Their objective was to better organize the whole population of a neighborhood and, if possible, to coordinate the political campaigns. Such committees popped up in rather widely varying circumstances Elisabeth region, and in the Alexandra townships.
tion of already existing civic associations and the improvement of their relations with has often made unity at the base more real. But this evolution has repression and the disparity of the remained political situations in the different regions.
First of all, there were the problems in the Cape, where the dramatic outcome of the clashes in Crossroads, in the view of many dealt a blow to the mass observers, movement as a whole in the peninsula. (2) But there were also probenvisaged the possibility of banning The South African government recently which includes a good part of the the UDF, that sympathize with the ANC currents and religious the community associations. and democratic The govern- currents in ment wants to make a pretext of the funds particular the US, for threatening the UDF. that institutions the UDF and has organizations received from abroad, many in roads between the young the test of strength activists at Cross- of the see moint movement. UDF "New state and the local of emergency in 'International "vigilante" assails groups, View- the mass 'Work in Progress', No. No. 103, July 14, 43, August 1986, 1986. See also
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of dual power
International Viewpoint 24 November 1986
Inkatha movement continues to organize a section of the Zulu population and to threaten politically and even physically the people's move.
ment. In this region, the UDF has needs to demonstrate a great political adeptness to defend its authority within the Zulu working on the other hand, where it has been possible to reinforce coordination at the base, new forms of self-organization have appeared. Thus, most often initiative of youth organizations, surveillance organizations and "people's tribunals" have emerged, responsible for settling the conflicts and abuses in the daily life of the The struggle against the collaborators and the attacks on Black members of local institutions have led to the disappearance or quiescence of a great many structures linked to the
Finally, in clashes with the army in some townships youths have been
Kalashnikov rifles and, according to journalists, have displayed a real military adeptness.
these circumstances that the government decreed state of emergency and jailed thousands of activists for more or less lengthy periods. This has not failed to have an effect on the movement's capacities for mobilization, especially civic associations.
most politicized activists have been often been impeded in their mass work. Assessment of forms of self-organization
It is from a precise evaluation of elements that an analysis of the relationship of forces could be based. It is true that in the most recent period, new forms of selforganization have appeared in some
But, in addition to the geographical extension of these are three other problems that have been explicitly raised by the debate in the ANC press:
What function and political end should be assigned to the selforganization structures in the town-
Can the forms of organization in question be termed "dual power"?
If it were judged that these advances were still far too embryonic and far from a situation of dual power, should not the stress be put 14 tasks, rather than keep up the illusion of dual power?
ANC's main delivered a message in the name of the organization's National Executive
Committee defining the movement's tasks. He judged on that occasion that
"the Botha regime has lost the strategic
That initiative is now in hands." And he added: "In a struggle, we lifted the ban on our vanguard movement, the ANC."
Atter giving this assessment of the relationship of forces at the start of
1986, Tambo laid out clearly and emphatically what he thought was the democratic aim the people's movement in the communities:
establishment power in these areas, however rudimentary and precarious, is of great significance for further advancement of our struggle. In the past, of our rejection of apartheid comcouncils, management and for democratic, non-racial municipal councils. We must take up this demand
• • • For every town and every city, there must be one local authority, elected by all residents, both black and white, on the of one person, one vote. We shall have to engage in struggle to achieve this goal and will have to consider such actions is the time to take action to realise the objectives of one democratic council for each municipality, elected on the basis of one person, one
This declaration by Oliver Tambo raised interesting problems. It implied that, on the basis of the present relationship of forces, it was possible to get representative and non-racial institutions on the local level. Moreit posed this objective as immediate democratic demand without reference to the oppressive nature state apparatus as a whole. It therefore implied that it was possible to make tactical use of certain openings in the local institutions.
What could have been the concrete basis for this political perspective in January 1986? First of all, there was the movement for boycotting white stores. In certain localities, this movement brought real pressure to bear on sections of the white bourgeoisie.
May 1986 issue of South African Labour Bulletin, Rolan White described what he thought flowed this protest movement. stressed first of all that the boycott "pressurizes a wide range of middle-class interests within the ruling bloc," especially because "the most numeri-
Oliver Tambo president of the ANC (DR)
cally preponderant element in the category of 'white retailers' - the white petty bourgeoisie - is the most economically vulnerable."
according to him, the mass movement was setting up instruments for vigilance in the boycott and
Playing the foundations for people's control in the townships.
Then he specified that in the Port
Elisabeth region: "Most obviously the Port Elisabeth Chamber of Commerce and the Midlands Chamber of Industries have become increasingly disillusioned both with respect to the state's handling of uprising and consumer boycott. ... More significantly, though, business in Port Elisabeth has conceded in principle to the demand for a non-racial municipality."
In fact, during the boyeott in
Elisabeth and Port business institutions and also Nationalist Party members of parliament into discussions with the local leaderships of the UDF. The liberal Cape city also put out some feelers about non-racial local struc-
The Weekly Mail of August 29 noted that "the development has led some liberal observers and business leaders to the conclusion that locallevel leaders are prepared to negotiate local solutions to local proband 'Weekly Mail,' July 18, 1986. On the 'Work in Progress, ' No. 41, April 1986. experiences in Mamelodi township,
International Viewpoint 24 November 1986 lems — the so-called local option'...."
These contacts and discussions, however, were not independent of a broader debate also running through the government apparatus over redefining urban policy and reform of Influx control. (3)
That was the context of Tambo's declaration. The objective he set for the movement was clearly democratic, although that in fact opened another debate over whether up municipal structures and the liberal lobbies in the country had any the real autonomy, or whether this was just a fiction. But Oliver Tambo confirmed at least in his message
The gave to such the importance tasks, which could perhaps serve a tactical purpose.
Dual power or not...?
In Sechaba of April 1986, quite another perspective was presented signature of "Alex under Mashinini" in the article entitled power and the creation people's committees." This time the "Dual emphasis was no longer put on immediate democratic or tactical objectives. The author asked:
"What, then, are the immediate tasks of the vanguard movement at the present stage of our revolution?" He answered: "We shall confine ourselves here to the issue of the emerging embryonic forms of self-government and popular power and the creation of people's committees."
While Tambo pointed still rudimentary and precarious character of the people's organizations, Mashinini judged that "apartheid is increasingly becoming unworkable, and the country is rapidly degenera. ting into a state of complete ungovernability."
There is a lot of room for discussion on a judgement like that. It is one thing to say that "the enemy no longer rule in the same old way" and quite another to go on to as a whole is beginning to be paralyzed.
maintained a certain caution in his judgement. "As a result," emerged (but not yet on a national scale) a peculiar form of dual power, not in an administrative, but a political sense. ... we are far from implytwo [original emphasis] governments exist in South Africa
Contradicting his initial assessment of the relationship of forces, that these organizational experiences in fact represent "no-go areas," and that it is necessary in the revolutionary bases" in order to form "people's committees, as a rallying slogan, and also as government and popular power, and as organs of insurrection."
in South assessment of the by the people's movement.
But this in no way detracts from the forms of self-organization posing the question of power. Alternative power experithrough ad-hoc structures set up to solve day-to-day and a real situation of power would arise from an accumulation of experiences of this type. A perspective of setting a cenpolitical objective structures is correct, if only on the level of propaganda, because it in fact poses the question of seizure of power and insurrection.
For years, the anti-apartheid movement has mulled over the means for weakening the regime. So it is natural now that the new situation stimulate very wide-ranging thinking over the strategy for the seizure of might think, unlike Alex country is still "ungovernable."
nonetheless possible, on the basis of these last two years of intense strugto discuss the forms seizure of power might take. Such a discussion is not outside the realm of reality.
However, in pursuing this discussion, you cannot avoid also entering into a discussion on the social content of the "people's power" in question. That, in fact, is what Alex Mashinini does. The social nature of "people's power"
Inasmuch as Oliver Tambo stressed democratic and objectives, he could avoid this aspect of the problem. But from the moment one starts to talk about the existence of dual power, even circumspectly, it necessary to make clear who the social protagonists are.
how can you define socially the premises for a counterpower from the standpoint of the nature of the present state power? These are the questions raised immedi-
Many reference, not, to a situation of dual power.
It would in fact be very difficult to portray the present self-organizastructures as revolutionary struments of the people and at the same time assign to them only the tasks of representative democracy for a future state that, while reformed, would remain bourgeois.
is why Mashinini poses the People's Communes?" In other words, is this a proletarian power in formation? He answers his own question:
•.. while we value the rich experience of the Paris Commune, we should, at the same time, not live in the memories of the past."
He somewhat sidesteps his own question by replacing the question of the class nature of the emerging power with that of tasks that this power will have to accomplish:
will call them," he
"Revolutionary People's Committees, precisely because they address themessence of the and democratic nature of our revolution, which seeks to blish a People's Power ... and seek to implement the democratic
People's Charter the Freedom Charter!"
If the answers flowed so naturally from the question, why did he have to raise the problem of terminology and the term "People's Commune,' which has no precedent in the litera.
ture of the ANC? In order to understand this, it is necessary to look at
"Influx Control" is the body of nection with their jobs and places of resi. laws populations 3. that govern within the the movement of Black country in condence.
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International Viewpoint 24 November 1986 the debates initiated by the Communist Party itself.
The CP has never specified the class nature of the future new state that is supposed to accomplish the most immediate national and demo. cratic tasks. The alliance that it has made with the ANC - and within the ANC - has always been justified by the democratic character of the present stage of the South African revolution. But the question has become much more complicated as struggles and political events have
First of all, the question social nature of the state is not only an academic question in this country discussed by a few circles of initiates. Hundreds of activists in all the mass starting with the trade-union movement, are today debating this problem and posing the question of a struggle for socialism. an ally of the ANC. It is an integral component of it. Its general secretary, Joe Slovo, for example, is a member of the top leadership of the ANC. These political relationships obviously raise new theoretical problems, in particular about the respective roles in the present phase of the struggle of Life in the Transkei bantustan (DR) 16 a movement like the ANC and a party
Resolving this problem making a judgement about the relationship between the classes in the people's movement. In 25 years, the CP has never modified its formula of a national and democratic revolution, but it has never ceased to present itself as the only vanguard party representing the working class
Therefore, whatever the limitations attributed to the present revolutionary struggle, the concrete growth of the mass movement had, at one point or another, to give mentary character" of the ANC and CP leaderships.
On the occasion of the 65th anniversary of the CP, in fact, the ANC National Congress and South African Communist Party, leading the people in action" in order to represent a sort of two-headed leadership.
This is the framework in which the discussion is developing on the "People's Communes." But it is also the source, as we will see, of a sort of upping the ante in the analysis of the relationship of forces.
This summer, the Communist Party journal published an article signed
Sisa Majola and entitled "The beginnings of people's power - a discussion of the theory of state and revolution in South Africa." A few weeks later in the ANC journal Sechaba, an article entitled "Building people's power"
and signed Mzala appeared. The latter article also indicated from the outset an intention to center the debate on "the theory of the state."
Both articles in fact had the same tenor, took up the same questions and came to the same conclusions.
While Mashinini's article might seem to have greatly exaggerated the relationship of forces at the beginning of 1986, the articles I have just mentioned for their part considered that assessment a serious underestima-
Appealing to "up-to-date writers,"
Mizala, for example, envisaged turning the clock forward. He argued: "People have now turned towards themselves in order to govern themselves...
These liberated' districts are a kind of re-creation, in the South African context, of Karl Marx's Paris Commune." Therefore, he expressed explicit disagreement with Mashinini's
Where do the differences lie?
Mashinini had specified that there was a sort of dual power in the
"political" but not the "administrative" sense. Thus, he held that the population was not running its own affairs but to a large extent paralyzing the present state apparatus.
Mzala thought to the contrary:
"There is a form of dual power in an administrative sense." He added, moreover, that the context of the
Freedom Charter was in the process of being applied. He also thought that Mashinini paid too much attention to more backward sectors: calling for creation of People's Committees, however, only has relevance to those areas of our country where none exist as yet, and where there is still direct rule [by the racist regime] in the townships."
Without qualification, Mzala went on to say, "one power is the actual government of the racists and the other is the People's Communes .. already linked (even though indirectly) with MK [Umkhonto we Sizwe], the People's Army."
If Mzala thought that Alex Machinini had so profoundly underestimated the situation, what might be said of Oliver Tambo's remarks about democratic municipal councils? And what finally are the tasks of the day?
In any case, few leadership of the UDF, the unions, people in the the National Forum and all the other organizations share the following view expressed by Sisa Majola: "The time will soon come, if it
International Viewpoint 24 November 1986 has not come already, when we shall have to measure the level of development of our revolution no longer by the number of strikes the workers have had per year, nor by the number of military battles we have waged during any given period, but instead by the number of people's communes we shall have helped organize in both town and countryside, building them on the ruins of the apartheid structures."
On the contrary, the people's movement is going to have to count up a lot more strike days to measure its strengths and its weaknesses. No real leadership in the entire democratic movement has yet come out with the analysis that there has been such a change in the South African political
It would be interesting, to know the facts on which these leaders, whose signatures have authoritative weight in the ANC and CP press, based such a prognosis. It seems, in any case, that despite the development of a form of self-organization in the townships, the tasks of the day remain centered on factory strikes, boycotts and mass democratic Which theory of the state?
The parties to this discussion all say that they are basing themselves on a correct theory of the state. But at the end of the day they leave the impression that this "dual power"
was created by the simple and sole fact of neutralizing the community local committees linked to the state. While I would not want to underestimate this victory the people, situation has, to be judged in a more measured way.
The isolation of the dummy councils in the townships and the recent strikes have not yet led to an absence of the central power. It is still definite-
"no-go areas" reflect an initial and partial crisis of state, but are not the expression of an alternative to the central power.
Perhaps, in this connection, should re-examine the CP's positions about an "internal colonialism, tends to juxtapose societies (an oppressor society and an oppressed society) without defining the social relations in society, which is controlled by one and the same apparatus.
In fact, the semi-neutralization of administrative power townships is not a semi-liberation of
"colonized" society. On oppressed will have to cut deeply into the "society of the oppressors"
(to use the CP's terminology) in order to start liberating itself.
It is, moreover, possible to pose the debate in another way by raising other questions.
Could a situation of dual power in South Africa take a merely territhat is, of liberated zones existing for a prolonged period? Or is there a strong possibility that it also take the form of urban which is necessarily of shorter duration, since it rapidly poses military organization and combines with forms of workers' control in the factories?
No one has yet moved forward in this debate in South Africa. The question is obviously not so simple you try to base yourself on the experiences underway and not on speculation. But there is an additional reason to approach all these stories about "liberated zones" in the townships with caution.
Sisa Majola even attributed to these "liberated zones" a capacity for selfspecifying: "Our immediate is to provide administration for our newly liberated districts. • And when we have built people's power in the whole of South Africa, having expropriated all foreign monowe shall also have enough money in our coffers to hire skilled technicians and scientists to keep our industries going."
After that, he went on to "People's Communes aim at seizing control of every facet of life in their district. Schools, rent offices, clinics, sports stadiums, beerhalls and other state-owned infrastructures as the townships should be transferred into the hands of the community, so that these services will cease to operate under the aegis of the apartheid state."
Again on the social question
The more you talk about the existence of a dual power, the more you have to specify what its class nature is. That is why Mzala returns to the same question posed by Mashinini about the term "commune"
"dictatorship of the proletariat," as Marx saw
In the end, Mzala answers in the same way that Mashinini did, despite their apparent terminological differdeliberately use "Commune'
'communism' or deny the national socio-political character of these township organisations."
In other words, this dual that is supposed to be emerging now
Africa is to set to work representing all layers oppressed population without distinc tion, and not any special proletarian social power.
This conception of things merits a serious debate. In fact, if you just take the case of the UDF, it is unquestionable that its most visible leaderships include broad layers of professionals, teachers and clergy. But such leaderships cannot be presented as organs of counter-power in the poorest townships!
On the other hand, even a cursory analysis of South African society shows that a great part of the unemployed poor, women and youth who live in the shantytowns alongside the industrial workers have more in common with the proletariat than with petty-bourgeois staff or traders. Thus, the best experiences of street committees, as in Alexandra, pointed up the social hegemony of the working class in the broad sense of the term.
The most dubious point in the debate I have referred to is not, finally, the talk about a multiclass counter-power. It is rather that dual power is discussed without even men-
Many social class. A revolutioning tionary situation in a country such as South Africa will combine various forms of self-organization. But in any case, it will be impossible to avoid question of the self-activity of the the Black proletariat in the factories and the neighborhoods.
discussion of dual Therefore, a power cannot avoid the question of workers' control over the workplaces, even if we are far from that today.
It is strange to see a debate on this whole business that has not made any reference to the workers in the factories, the working-class population in the townships and the workers' and trade-union movement in general.
Mzala and Sisa Majola, moreover, implicitly raise these questions: "If these People's Communes remain within the confines of these ghettos, and if they will have to constantly put questions to the white city councils about electricity, about water..
then they will remain a plaything and will amount to very little in the equacannot exist permanently in a single tion of revolution. Two powers state."
Not only does this caution bring the relationship of forces back to modest proportions but it also shows that the question of the proletariat in general cannot be avoided. Likewise, it shows that new, more complex and daring tasks lie ahead for the mass movement before it will be possible to talk about a genuine "second government."
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International Viewpoint 24 November 1986 changes in South Africa's property relations, racist rule intact in all its essential features. Such an outcome (to which our Congress can never be a party, of course) would fall far short of a natural democratic revolution." (4)
The fact remains that the Communist Party has never made clear what considers necessary, at least not in Marxist terms of social relations.
Coloured BLECKS KEEPS DOWN of the Catholic ghettoes in Northern Ireland indicates the difficulties rather well. It shows
"no-go areas" can last rather a long time without state power really being put into question.
these cases, there is neither a real territorial dual power, making it possible to lay the foundations of an alternative state, nor an insurrectionary dual power making it possible to prepare for the final military
The Irish case is very interesting for the discussion in South
However, reference to dual power also raises the question of the political leadership of the people's movement. Mashinini, for his part, pointed out that "the creation, consolidation development of Revolutionary
People's Committees [will] serve as indicators to ... how loyal the people are to democratic ideals, programme and leadership of the vanguard movement, the ANC."
who on the other hand dual power, fails to mention the role or place of his organization in the
"embryos of our future democratic
The only organization tioned in his article is Umkhonto we
Sizwe, the armed wing of the ANC, everything else is brought back to the question of building up "deand autonomous munes to a fully fledged people's The ANC's orientation today
In his January 1986 message, Oliver Tambo laid out quite a modest democratic perspective for the base organizations in the townships. He did this, moreover, in a period where the mass But eight or nine months later, movement was on the offensive. situation has evolved, and no one can the seriously think that the state of emergency has led to a qualitative leap in mass organization. But it is in this 18 new context that ANC and CP cadres are talking about dual power.
Obviously, counterpose the two theses put forward. Oliver Tambo, because of his special responsibilities, could make a speech directed in part at cratic and liberal circles. The ANC leadership might leave to others the task of providing a more combative and subversive line. There could be a sort of division of labor.
African Communist related to the
UDF. An example is when Sisa to the theory of state and revolution our approach in South Africa must proceed far an abstract projection of a 'democratic' future in the Our method guidelines for immediate revolutionary practice, because revolution has already called forth organs of popular self-government."
question of local objectives: "People's
Committees must refuse to be corrupted with agreements by the neighbouring white municipal councils, some of whom have already realised the impossibility of destroying these communes suddenly showing eagerness render them politically sterile, seeking to incorporate them into their petty administrative strategy. ... Our demand is no longer to participate in the present Johannesburg, Cape Town or Durban City Council ... We are not fighting just to liberate and control Soweto, Gugulethu or Lamontville. Our final intention is to form a people's government in the whole
• that makes us different from the liberal democrats and reform-
The attack on the liberal current is made quite clear a little further on in the article when the Progressive Federal Party, the main liberal party, is described as an ally of Chief Buthel-
The same article, moreover, denounces any reformist solution: "Without some of these fundamental
Deliberately leaving aside the possibility that a deepgoing debate may be in progress in the ANC, we are left perplexed by certain formulas analyses in the articles tioned. No one thinks that the ANC's own capacities within the country have been seriously impaired by the state of emergency and the repression. It is, moreover, possible that the movement is preparing to wage a new political and military offensive.
The sharpening of sanctions against the South African economy no doubt also opened up new political opportunities inasmuch as it divides the white ruling class a bit more. But no one today thinks that it is reasonable to expect a general offensive mass movement in the short term.
Already in 1985, the ANC radio at the themes of making apartheid "non-workable" and
South Africa "non-governable." This made a widespread impact on the youth and found an outlet in some actions in the school boycott. However, by the end of 1985, the UDF leaderships were trying to get the movement back in hand and stop certain disorderly actions.
The discussions at the National on Education held in
December 1985 in Johannesburg were precisely over a more temperate and reasonable analysis of the relationship
The main slogan of the before liberation," was strongly challenged. This slogan in fact was based on the feeling that victory was possible in the short run.
The conference decided to send the youth back to classes, which was however in contradiction to the analysis that the country was then ungovernable. So, the articles in the ANC press are very important if they condition here and now the ANC's concrete activities in South Africa.
The coming months may provide an answer to this question. Such a have to involve new and special tasks, judgement of the situation would in particular in the military field. The situation in the coming months will be a test for assessing the relationship of forces and the tasks of the 4. This refers to the ANC.
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