in South Africa.
PETER BLUMER
ACH day brings its share of sur-
E prises in terms of overtures by the regime or new possibilities for the opposition to express itself openly and massively.
In July 1989, in Lausanne, a seminar on
"post-apartheid" society brought together
South African officials, members of the
African National Congress (ANC), Soviet and East German experts, and Afrikaner economists !.
On 1 October, in London, AN leaders met representatives of the Broederbond, symbol for decades of Afrikaner power.?
How will change be structured?
On 11 October, after three hours of discussion with Desmond Tutu, Alan Boesak and Frank Chikane (leaders of the "moderate" wing of the mass movement), De
Klerk declared, "We need to bridge that gap created by mistrust... We are really no longer arguing about the fact that all South
Africans must have a vote, that all South
Africans must become involved in all decisions affecting their life. What we must now start talking about is how we structure that".
Walter Sisulu (a historic leader of the
ANC) and seven other political prisoners, sentenced to life imprisonment, were freed on 15 October. On 29 October, tens of thousands of black people rallied in Johannesburg, at an occasion recognized by everybody as the first legal mass meeting of the ANC and the South African Communist Party.
In themselves, these facts are sufficient to show that a new political situation has opened up in South Africa, and that the concrete conditions in which the Black movement is waging its struggle are changing radically. How should this fast evolution be interpreted?
ANC seeks to divide partisans of regime
For several years, the ANC has had contacts of differing kinds with the white liberal establishment, reform-minded Afrikaner sectors, or even government representatives. In the midst of the mass upsurge, this corresponded to a change in the relationship of forces and the need for the ANC to divide the partisans of the regime and obtain concessions.? The government, for its part, always responded belatedly to the pressures of the mass movement. It introduced various reforms, but continued to impose a severe repression.
Meanwhile, the ANC gained a credibility that extended into the highest spheres of the South African bourgeoisie. It required the second state of emergency, together with new and still more repressive labour laws (the Labour Relations Act), for the bosses and the regime to regain a capacity for political initiative in relation to the Black movement.
Today, the contacts and the "talks about talks" are situated in another context. They are not simply an extension of to "talks about talks" and the search for a consensus on "post-apartheid society" The contacts between the ANC and the government are not yet at the stage of open negotiations for concrete constitutional change. This adds up then, more or less, to a first round of exploration, where the form of the contacts remains more important than the content of the dialogue.
The problems to be resolved by the constitutional road are so numerous and complex that, whatever happens, a long period of negotiation and transition would be necessary to "peacefully" reform South African society. And such "democratic transition" would, in any case, require taming the workers movement so that social demands be brought little by little within bounds of the reformers' schemas.
Talks at the top difficult to control
Whatever the tempo of the "negotiations" in the period ahead, the mass movement is henceforth in a situation where it will be very difficult for it to exercise control over the dialectic between rank-and-file struggles and talks at the top. How will the mobilizations be used to influence the official discussions, and what will be the effect of the latter on the mass movement - these are the questions that are going to be discussed in the organizations.
What lies behind these sudden develop ments? For the past seven years the coun try has seen the largest mobilizations in its history. The 1980s have seen the development of an unprecedented level of consciousness, organization and activity. Moreover, this fantastic radicalization has combined with a long economic depression and has obviously aggravated it. The ruling class has been profoundly divided by this, and the imperialist governments are themselves divided over what attitude to adopt towards their South African ally.
The Black movement is more and more 1. A very open meeting of the same type will be held at the end of November in Paris. 2. The Broederbond, which might be compared to a kind of Afrikaner freemasonry, has been in crisis for several years. It has become "reformist" and in June 1989 published proposals for a reform of the system 3. The ANC thus played a supportive role in the mediation launched by the Commonwealth in 1986, with the delegation of plenipotentiaries which became South African govemment that was responsible for the 17 known as the "Eminent Persons Group". It was the failure of this first initiative.
Extracts from an OAU resolution proposed by the ANC
International Viewpoint #75 • December 11, 1989
SOUTH AFRICA organized around a majority that is socially proletarian, in the trade unions but also in the communities. The repression has hit very hard, and a relentless attack has been to cut down the organizational capacities of the movement. But this has never succeeded in pushing back the average level of consciousness of the Black population. Finally, with the passing of time, experience has led broader broader sections of the working class and youth to pose the problem of socialism as the sole means of breaking definitively the mainsprings of racial segregation.
But is such an analysis sufficient to explain the situation today? Are the overtures and concessions made by De Klerk only the expression of a relationship of forces unfavourable regime, as the AN maintain?
Four great periods of struggle can be distinguished in the course of the last ten
The first ended in 1984, after the great boycott of the elections for "Coloreds" and "Indians". The mass movement was very strongly structured and highly mobilized. The second period is that of the school boycott, the great strike movements, the boycott of white businesses,
Renewal of big mobilizations against elections
Then followed the period of setbacks, with the second state of emergency, the fall in the number of strikes, the weakening of the United Democratic Front (UDF). Finally, a new conjuncture has opened, starting from August 1989, with a renewal of the big mobilizations against the elections to the "white", "Colored" and "Indian" chambers 4.
But it is insufficient to look only at the recent mobilizations. The imperialists, to begin with the Americans and the British, and the South African government have certainly noted on this occasion that the Black movement still has enormous reserves of combativity. But these two or three months, in themselves, have not provoked the dramatic turn of events in South African political life and the great turning point today. We have instead to hark back to the period of setbacks in 1987-88.
At that time, the mass movement was suddenly faced by the regime regaining a capacity for initiative — the state of emergency, selective repression, winning over the employers through a program of deregulation and despite the extent of the confrontations in the preceding period, the state apparatus had not suffered any lasting damage, and no real weaknesses had emerged within the army. The regime was undermined, but the Black movement, for its part, was unable to solve the problem of the seizure
This dilemma was aggravated by the 18 the pap, ganda or the here had claimed fact that, throughout the years 1985-87,
TOGETHER with the rest of the world, we think that it is essential, before any negotlation can take place, that a climate favourable to negotiations be created. The apartheld regime has the urgent responsibility of responding positively to this universally held desire and thus of creating this climate
Consequently, the regime today must as a minimum.
- unconditionally release all prisoners and political detainees without imposing any restrictions
- liff all banning orders and restrictions on all organizations and persons;
withdraw all troops from the townships;
put an end to the state of emergency and repeal all legislation, such as the internal security law, which limits political activity;
- end all trials and public exe-
These measures are necessary to create the conditions for a free discussion - an essential condition for ensuring that the people themselves will participate In the process of rebuilding our country. The above measures must then precede any negotiations,
Guide lines for negotlations
We share the viewpoint of the South African liberation movement according lo which, after the creation of such a climate, the negotiation process must begin along the following lines: that it was becoming impossible to administer apartheid, that a situation of dual power existed, and that the final stage had been reached in building a peo-
The middle cadre, and above all the young militants of the townships, were convinced then that the end was near. For all that, the question of power was not on the agenda. The armed struggle of the ANC had been a particular form of propagandism, which galvanized the youth, but did not represent a convincing
It suddenly became necessary to pose the question of the lines of retreat and of defending the gains of the movement. It was already too late to stabilize the movement in the townships. Such questions as the links with the trade unions, structures and instituting democratic procedures within the mass movement had been neglected?. A turn towards a more long term strategy had to be made.
Problems emerged then even in the ranks of the ANC leadership in exile. The
- discussions must then take place between the liberation movement and the South African regime leading to the suspension of hostilities between the two sides by a mutually binding cease-fire agree-
- negotiations must then lake place in order to establish the basis for the adoption of a new constitution, in accord with, amongst others, the principles laid down above;
- the parties, after agreeing on these principles, must then negotiate the necessary mechanisms to draw up a new constitution;
- the parties must agree on the role which the international community will play in order to ensure a successful transition towards a democratic order;
the parties must agree on the formation of an interim government to supervise the process of drawing up and adopting a new constitution; to govern and administer the country, as well as to effect the transition towards a democratic order, including the holding of elections:
- after the adoption of the new constitution, all armed hostilities will be considered as formally terminat-
- for Its part, the International community will lift the sanctions which have been imposed against apartheid South Africa,
— the new South Africa will have the qualitles required for member. ship of the Organization of African debate became public, between those who began to evoke the possibility of partial victories against apartheid, and those who developed above all the line of "armed struggle", advocating a perspective of a revolutionary arming of the masses, and
It is significant that this intense debate, occurring at the very heart of the ANC, was not replicated in any form either in the other political organizations or, above all, in the trade union movement. While the question of tactical retreat was raised in 4. See V, 170, October 2,1989 5. However problems have recently emerged within the police force. The impact of the campaign against military service should not be forgotten either, although the essence of this initially was above all the refusal to go and fight in Angola and Namibia. (see IV, 147, 19 September, 1988). 6. This judgment was not generally shared by the principal trade union leaderships. 7. This question was at the centre of the report of the COSATU secretariat to the federation's special congress on 14 and 15 May 1988. 8. The public debate in the ANC's review, Sechaba, was officially closed with the issue of August 1989. 9. The Kabwe conference.
very implicit.
14. See /V, 158, 6 March 1989.
11. "The mineral wealth beneath the soil, the banks and upsurge, with a view to the seizure of power. 15. "The ANC wants political negotiation, I must tell you. There is no need to push them on that. But it takes trolled to assist the well-being of the people". a whole. All other industry and trade shall be con- monopoly industry shall be transferred to the people as ichin, Harare, March 1989, cited in Transformation two to tango". Soviet secretary of State Anatoly Adam-
13. Recently, one of the principal leaders of the metal- 12. See IV, 111, 22 December, 1986. 16. So Work in Progres number 61, September 1989, 19 Johannesburg. number 9, Durban.
December 11, 1989 • #175 International Viewpoint some trade unions, nonetheless when the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) met in conference proposed on the strategy to follow.
The debate within the ANC has not been one of abstract theories of "militarism" versus "realism". For the first time, some protagonists have explicitly defended the objective of partial from an assessment of failure in the years 1984-87. Taking account of the movement, it would have been difficult to keep these questions from having practical consequences. And the problem of temporary tactical retreat,
HITE GROUP R
WELCOME to let the mass movement get a second wind, did not relate to the questions being raised in the ranks of the
ANC. It was not on the same level, and could not prepare people for the reorientation underway.
So, the ANC was to demonstrate that it the overthrow of the capitalist system!?.
De Klerk is accelerating his overtures, it is has the decisive say in the political orienbecause, tation of the Black movement. Neither the enjoys new conditions and guarantees.
trade union left nor the other political currents have, for the moment, been capable movement from 1987, and the ANC's of taking initiatives in the debate opening search for a rapid but partial solution have up or of offering as practical a perspective harmonized with Soviet pressure 15.
as the ANC's new orientations.
ANC puts accent on armed
In the 1988 text, there is an explicit scheme for a mixed economy, leaving no room for ambiguity about some anticapitalist dynamic 13.
Impact of Kremlin's new realism
None of this can be explained without reference to the new international situaat the international level, he
The impasse of the entire liberation
South African stock market crash in October struggle
In 1985, the national conference of the solely by reference to a weakening of the
ANC9 put the accent on the armed strugapartheid regime is then very one-sided.
gle. In 1988, its leadership made public a
Certainly, the economic situation is bad — draft of a constitution for a South Africa on 16 October, there was a stock market without apartheid (see box). In August crash of 10.6% — despite the satisfaction
1989, it got the Organization of African displayed by business about the new polit-
Unity (OAU) to endorse a document lay.
ical situation. But industrial and financial ing down the conditions for negotiation.
sanctions have not had the expected
This political turn took place at a time impact. The South African economy has when, on the ground, the mass movement used them to accelerate its restructuring, was experiencing profound difficulties. 1° and the country has obtained a reschedui-
The Constitutional Guidelines do not ing of its foreign debt, for a total of eight offer activists a coherent project of an million dollars.
alternative society. Whilst the text con-
The system has obviously an urgent tains all the elementary democratic guarneed for reforming, in order to restore a antees (elimination of all references to higher rate of profit. Apartheid, as a sysrace, the right to organize, the right to tem of social regulation, has definitively strike, etc.), fundamentally it constitutes a ceased to serve the interests of capital.
clear turning point in relation to the socio-
And the regime's interest in reform is economic content of the Freedom Charter explained, in part, by these new needs.
(the ANC's programmatic document).
Thus it is a combination of the social and
In the latter, the perspective of nationalistructural crises that has been impelling zation of the essential means of producthe regime, since the beginning of the tion left the door open to different
1980s, to adjust apartheid, and then to put interpretations of the social foundations of the new state. The South African econo-
10. The South African Communist Party has just promy has had, until now, a very strong state workers' union and of COSATU, Alec Irwin, argued duced a new program in which it introduces the possisector, whilst also being marked by powfor a socialist project of democtatic planning (Work in bility of a negotiated transfer of power. Speaking of
Progress, number 61, Johannesburg). But the debate erful private monopolies. A project for possible "compromise" and a negotiated settlement, it with the Constitutional Guidelines of the ANC remains nationalizing the enterprises, as conceived adds contradictorily that these must be the result of a by the Charter!!
thus objectively raised the debate over a transformation of social relations. Certain left interpretations of the Charter have thus been able to develop, over an entire period, claiming that the application of the Charter would require tion. It is almost two years since Soviet officials began to propagate the Kremlin's new realism. The departure of Cuban troops from Angola Namibian independence process directly into the framework of the settlement of regional conflicts to which Gorbachev is so attached. After having had to close its main bases in Angola, the ANC has also been forced to reduce its presence in Zambia. These are the effects of international negotiations. Those who believe that the Namibian affair was essentially brought to an end by the Cuban military victory against the South Africans at Cuito Carnavale in Angola hardly think of this aspect of
The nature of the USSR's support for the ANC has thus changed. Having been the trump card in the ANC's diplomatic and military policy for 20 years, Soviet aid is now entirely directed towards the project of a short term negotiated settlement with the apartheid regime. And, if and a heightened revolutionary
To explain today's "talks about talks"
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SOUTH AFRICA 'THE DOORIS OPEN- YOU DONT RAVE TO BREAK IT DOWN! - de Klerk.
International Viewpoint #75 • December 11, 1989
SOUTH AFRICA it in question.
This deepgoing evolution has confronted the workers' movement with new probemploying class delighted with new labour laws more repressive than the previous ones which at the same time offers Black workers shareholdings? How to respond to a state apparatus that, at the national level, has maintained until recently a very repressive policy but which, at a local level, is opening negotiations little by little with representatives of the people's associations!6? How to conceive a long term strategy when, alongside the continuation of dire poverty for the Black majority, a layer of small entrepreneurs and black yuppies is growing very rapidly, who aspire to reach the level of consumption of the white majority?
Well before the beginning of the great debate on negotiations, the question of partial gains was present in the minds of leaderships. the1984-87 movement did not open the way for the seizure of power, it was then necessary to devise a new strategy to safeguard the workers' movement. scenario envisaged at that time was not one of reforms negotiated at the top.
Workers' Charter not put forward as socialist
At COSATU's July 1989 congress, the debate on the "Workers' Charter" trated this evolution. Before then the trade union left had presented the Workers' Charter as an overall socialist project. But now it was put forward as a program of democratic and social demands, certainly basic, but not in itself constituting socialist project. It is easy to understand the views of those workers' leaders who, convinced that the question of power is not on the agenda, believe it necessary to fall back on a more modest project of defending the working class. However, as a result the Workers' Charter becomes in fact a supplement to the Constitutional Guidelines, in the same sense as the
ANC's Charter on education or on women. It is no longer seen as providing the working class with an overall program 17
Today's openings provide radically different conditions for the everyday struggles. The demonstration authorized at the
Cape on 13 September, and the rally in
Johannesburg on the 29 October, symbolize the new margins for manoeuvre the mass movement has at its disposal. It is essential to recognise this in order to understand how the overwhelming majority of the mass movement are going to relate to the ANC's new policyl. The rank and file militants are going to perceive the new situation as an opportunity to bring down apartheid.
Already, important debates are going on in the most advanced sectors: 20 fional Guidelines as a project which the — the ANC has presented its Constitumass movement must freely debate. At its July 1989 congress COSATU passed a resolution on the negotiations process, necessary "to ensure in the event of negotiations taking place that the masses of our people are involved in shaping the process so that no negotiations take place without the democratic participation of the people" and "that only a sovereign mandated by the people and accountable to the people as a whole can have the authority to develop a new constitution and decide on the method of implementation"
What can be the basis for representing the mass movement in a genuine process of negotiation? How open will it be? How is COSATU going to reconcile its project of uniting with the other trade union federation, the National Council of Trade Unions (NACTU), with its adherence to the Mass Democratic Movement (MDM), in which the ANC is strongly Charter current faces choice on unity
In principle, the big unity conference "for a democratic future" must clarify these questions. Either unity is preserved, and all the workers' and revolutionary currents can participate as foreseen, or there will be a return to the old sectarianism, and the Chartist current will reduce this meeting to a front between itself and the bourgeois democratic currents 19.
Everybody agrees now on demand for a "non-racial" South Africa, that is to say without any law making reference to racial or ethnic origin. The old "nationalities" or of "nations" in South Africa is now closed, at least for the time being. But, what will a South Africa genuinely free of all discrimination look like? What definition to give to the term "equality"? Formal equality before the law? Equality of opportunity to claim a place within a market economy 20?
— The question of the land is inextricably linked to the question of the Bantustans: How is this essential part of apartheid to be dismantled? What do the
ANC's Guidelines mean by an agrarian reform conducted by the existing state?
- Numerous statements, notably from the Chartist current, reaffirm that the working class must be the central force of change. But what kind of social and political hegemony is it to exercise? How, for example, in the current situation, can the trade unions conserve and defend their independence, as well as their unity and
- The debate on the mixed economy has been introduced by the ANC and the
Soviets, with the examples taken being
Nicaragua and the Soviet Union. Is it not curious to treat as identical three radically different situations: that of a small dependent country, at the beginning of the transition to socialism, that of a highly industrialized country after seventy years of "socialism", and finally that of a country like South Africa, for which the ANC's project is not one of a revolutionary state?
— Will the regime try to combine negotiations with partial constitutional overtures? Should the local elections be boycotted or not? Should the regime's constitutional gestures be totally opposed or, on the contrary, should a line of generalized boycott be upheld? Problem of compromise over government
- The principle of an interim government proposed by the ANC raises the problem of compromise at the highest levels of state power. But nothing has yet been specified about what the composition of such a government should be. What concrete content does the ANC want to give to this plan? And what are the risks for the mass movement?
In these debates, those who continue to uphold a struggle for socialism as their objective will face two interlinking problems. On the one hand, how to propose concrete and unifying objectives for the mass movement, in the present circumstances in which the ANC dominates and the majority are hoping for a rapid end to apartheid. On the other hand, how to construct a strategic long term project capable of attracting all forces, including those in the Chartist current, that seek to take advantage of the new conjuncture to pose in new terms the question of anti-capitalist
17. Moses Mayekiso, leader of the metalworkers union NUMSA, explains this change, but continues to defend the necessity, in other respects, of a socialist perspective. South African Labour Bulletin, number 2,
18. The initial positions adopted by the Pan African
Congress (PAC) are, from this point of view, ridiculous and dangerously ultra-leftist. A notable example is when its principal leader, Zephania Mothopeng, criticized the big mobilizations of the campaign of deli-
170, October 2, 1989), claiming that they have been "only of value to the govemment which gained great political capital from them". It is correct to say that the regime has developed its own strategy of cooptation and negotiation.
but it would be a grave error not to understand that the new democratic mobilizations offer important opportunities for political activity, including, ultimately, for those who do not adhere to the dominant Chartist positions. The latter currents run the strong risk of becoming isolated if they do not comprehend the new tasks of the united front and instead pine for the good old
19. This conference, initially scheduled for October, has now been put back to 9 December.
20. The ANC is fully conscious of this problem, as is evident when it employs the term "positive action" to designate the elaborate mechanisms needed to correct the disadvantages suffered by black people, particular-
ANC's Constitutional
December 11, 1989 • #175 International Viewpoint guidelines
WE publish below the Constitutional Guidelines drawn up in 1988 by the leadership of the African National Congress (ANC), which have been put forward to be debated by all the mass organizations. DOCUMENT
T HE Freedom Charter remains
today unique as the only South African document of its kind that adheres firmly to democratic principles as accepted throughout the world. Amongst South Africans it has become by far the most widely accepted programme for a post-apartheid country.
The stage is now approaching where the Freedom Charter must be converted from a vision of the future into a constitutional reality.
We in the African National Congress submit to the people of South Africa, and all those throughout the world who wish to see an end to apartheid, our basic guidelines for the foundations of government in a post-apartheid South Africa.
and democratic debate on these guidelines will mobilize the widest sections of our population to achieve agreement on how to put an end to the tyranny and oppression under which our people live, thus enabling them to lead normal decent lives as free citizens in a free country.
The immediate aim is to create a just and democratic society that will sweep away the country's old legacy of colonial conquest and white domination, and abolish all laws imposing racial oppression and discrimination. The removal of discriminatory laws and eradication of the vestiges of the illegitimate regime are, however, not enough. The structures and institutions of apartheid must be dismantled and be replaced by democratic ones. Steps must be taken to ensure that apartheid ideas and practices are not permitted to appear in old or new forms.
In addition, the effects of centuries of racial domination and inequality must be overcome by constitutional visions for collective action which guarantees a rapid and irreversible redistribution of wealth and opening of facilities to all. The constitution must also be such as to promote the habits of non-racial and non-sexist thinking, the practice of anti-racist behaviour and the acquisition of genuinely shared patriotic consciousness.
The constitution must give firm protection to the fundamental human rights of all citizens. There shall be equal rights for all individuals irrespective of race, color, sex or creed. In addition, the constitution must entrench equal cultural, linguistic and religious rights for all.
Under the conditions of contemporary South Africa, 87% of the land and 95% of the instruments of production are in the hands of the ruling class, which is drawn solely from the white community.
It follows, therefore that constitutional protection for group rights would perpetuate the status quo and would mean that the mass of the people continue to be contrapped in poverty and remain as outsiders in the land of their birth.
Finally, the efficacy of the constitution will, to a large extent, be determined by the degree to which it promotes conditions for the active involvement of all sectors of the population at all levels in government and in the economic and cul-
Bearing these fundamental objectives in mind, we declare that the elimination of apartheid and the creation of a truly requires a constitution based on the following principles:
(a) South Africa shall be an independent, unitary, democratic and non-racial
(b) Sovereignty shall belong to the people as a whole and shall be exercised through one central legislature, executive, judiciary and administration. Provision shall be made for delegation of the powers of the central authority to subordinate administrative units for purposes more efficient administration and democratic participation.
(c) The institution of hereditary rulers and chiefs shall be transformed to serve the interests of the people as a whole in conformity with the democratic principles embodied in the constitution.
(d) All organs of government, including justice, security and armed forces, shall be representative of the people as a whole, democratic in their structure and
SOUTH AFRICA functioning in accordance with the principles of the constitution. Franchise (e) In the exercise of their sovereignty, the people shall have the right to vote under a system of universal suffrage based on the principle of one person, one vote.
(f) Every voter shall have the right to stand for election and to be elected to all representative bodies.
National identity
(g) It shall be state policy to promote the growth of a single national identity and loyalty binding on all South Africans. At the same time, the state shall recognize the linguistic and cultural diversity of the people and provide facilities for free linguistic and cultural development.
Bill of rights and affirmative action
(h) The constitution shall include a Bill of Rights based on the Freedom Charter. Such a Bill of Rights shall guarantee the fundamental human rights of all citizens, irrespective of race, color, sex or creed, and shall provide appropriate mechanisms for their protection and enforcement.
(i) The state and all social institutions shall be under a constitutional duty to eradicate race discrimination in all its
(j) The state and all social institutions shall be under a constitutional duty to take active steps to eradicate speedily the economic and social inequalities produced by
(k) The advocacy or practice of racism, fascism, nazism or the incitement of ethnic or regional exclusiveness or hatred
(1) Subject to clause (i) and (k) above, the democratic state shall guarantee the basic rights and freedoms, such as freedom of association, though, worship and the press. Furthermore, the state shall have the duty to protect the right to work and guarantee the right to education and social security.
(m) All parties which conform to the provisions of (i) to (k) above shall have the legal right to exist and to take part in the political life of the country.
(n) The state shall ensure the entire economy serves the interests and wellbeing of the entire population.
(o) The state shall have the right to determine the general context in which economic life takes place and define and limit the rights and obligations attaching to the ownership and use of productive capacity.
(P) The private sector of the economy shall be obliged to cooperate with the state in realizing the objectives of the Freedom Charter in promoting social well-being.
(9) The economy shall be a mixed one, with a public sector, a private sector, a co- 21 operative sector and a small scale family