Dear
Français readers translation
We need 300 new
Deutsch subscribers in 1995 to sub-editing secure International
Viewpoint's future. The
Español coupon on page two explains how to sales subscribe and how
Nederlands much to send as a minimum contribution.
proofreading
In solidarity
Hrvatski
The editorial board artwork
Region
Belgium
We need your help!
Denmark
France
Germany
Greece
Great Britain
International
Ireland
Netherlands
Viewpoint seeks
Norway
Sweden young and
Total Europe ambitious trouble-
Canada
United States
90 makers in all parts
Total Americas
Hong Kong
21 of the world
Japan
Total Asia
Contact your IV
Australia
8 seller, or Jan
New Zealand
Total
Malewski in our
South Africa
Total Africa
To advertise your
The 1994 bound collection of conference or
International
Viewpoint is now publication in available -price
International the addresses on page two. Bound
Viewpoint call or volumes for previous years fax our Paris office cost $US15/£10
INTERNATIONAL INSTITUTE FOR
RESEARCH AND EDUCATION
Lean Production: A Capitalist
Utopia?
by Tony Smith
• Innovative ways of organising production and marketing are eliminating antagonisms between capital and labour, between producers and consumers, and between different companies. "Lean production" is uniting companies, workers and consumers in the harmonious persuit of common interests.
• Too good to be true? Of course it is!.
In this pamphlet, Tony Smith analyses the current transformation of relationships between employers and employees, between producers and consumers, and between different firms, and shows that, fundamentaly they have not altered the nature of capitalism.
• The author goes on to show how a socialist economy based on grassroots participation and democratic coordination could match the dynamism of lean production, and keep lean production's broken promises of cooperation and harmony.
Tony Smith is professor of philosophy at
Iowa State University in the U.S.A. and an advisory editor of the magazine
Against the Current send payment to giro account
CER/NSR 1757114. Amsterdam.
Netherlands, or send a regular cheque (not an Eurocheque) in US$ or sterling to P. Rousset, IIRE
Postbus 53290, 1007 Rg. Holland
REDaction
A new French-language magazine for revolting youth
Produced every two months by members of the JGS, a youth organisation linked to the
Socialist Workers' Party
(POS/SAP).
29 rue Plantin, 1070 Brussels tel. (+32) 2/523 4023 fax (+32) 2/522 6127
Rest of the world 250 BEF, SUS 8)
B
D
H
S
A
C
U
Internationale (PECI), BP 85, 75522 Paris CEDEX 11, France.
fax (+33) 1/43792961, e-mail inprecor@igc.apc.org
International Viewpoint #265 April 1995
R
S
гтизтиор
A catastrophe in the making
HOTE TOGETHER FOR
JOBS
PEACE
South Africa
INGN
2 0E mbiN
NT SE
I PE nuC
TREEDOM
South Africa - One year after apartheid This dossier discusses some of the questions being asked on the South African left one year after the country's first democratic elections. Leaders of the African National Congress (ANC) have two kinds of discourse. On the one hand they subordinate the satisfaction of the demands of the majority to the economic performance of the country, measured in classic capitalist terms. And yet on the other hand they charge the masses with the central responsibility in the "reconstruction" of the country. If this double discourse has any logic, the new South African state would have to be, in its essence, a state which represents, or belongs to the popular masses. It doesn't. The only "link" between the masses and the state is the massive enthusiasm witnessed during the April 1994 elections. Not that the "April effect" can last indefinitely in such an oppressive and violent place as South Africa. *
International Viewpoint #266 May1995
The last few months have seen strikers in various sectors refuse to place their "responsibility" of solidarity with their leaders ahead of their own immediate demands. The gap between the way those in power try to legitimise their rule, and the way that rule is experienced by the black population is growing
The leadership of many mass movements wants to quieten the social antagonisms inherited - unchanged -from apartheid. But they can't stamp out the effects of social pressure within the ruling layers of the political and trade union organisations. For three years now there has been a debate about the "double hat" accumulation of mandates by leaders. The new crisis is one of corruption pure and simple. Former left critic of the ANC. trade union leader John Copelyn, earned almost R1 million in royalties in 1994 on the basis of the legal business undertakings of "his" textile workers union. A 'regular trade union full-timer would have earned
----- pull-quotes on this page -----
02 A ni A by Peter Blumer
----- photo credits and running heads -----
4
Internationa/ Viewpoint #266 May 1995 less than R50,000 in the same period.
The naive strategies of some militants are astounding. According to Karl Von Holdt, "clearly the relation of COSATU [Confederation of South African Trade Unions] to the new government is a complex and nuanced one. It has different relationships with different ministers and officials, and it can expect a different kind of interaction with different ministries, departments and issues. COSATU resolved to build its capacity to influence and lobby the ANC component of the Government of National Unity, and to resist government decisions that challenge its interests. For the majority of affiliates [affiliated trade unions] the Tripartite Alliance (ANC-COSATU-South African Communist Party) is the best vehicle for this complex process of shaping and engaging in struggle over government
History isn't going this way. Not in South Africa any more than in any of the other countries where a left leadership has tried to subordinate a progressive social project to a political alliance dominated by the opposite social dynamic. "Realistic" is turned on its head. The problem is not simply evaluating the balance of forces and the room for manoeuvre in order to set the rhythm of the possible. The problem is in the social dynamic at work and in the direction which the policies being implemented actually lead. Things are going 'too slowly.' They are going the
Jeremy Cronin, General Secretary of the Communist Party (SACP) goes to great lengths to ignore this problem. He talks calmly of the propositions of comrades Alec Erwin and Ronnie Kasrils in terms of the debate on the rhythm, tactical choice and temporary compromise necessary for the movement. Except that the first man is a key advocate of privatisation as an instrument for macro-economic transformation and the second man wants to increase defence spending. The social content of these orientations is clearly contradictory with the whole traditional anti-apartheid project.
We don't share Jeremy Cronin's conviction of his party's rupture with the mistakes of the past. Stalinism wasn't just a habit of "tail-ending" the Soviet "socialist motherland". It was also a mishmash of contradictory doctrines which each Stalinist Party adapted to justify the twists and turns of Soviet policy. How should a Communist Party operate in a mass movement (is the Party a means, or an end in itself? What should be the relationship between the masses and the state? Why do bureaucratic mechanisms exist, and what interests do they represent?
Has the SACP really emerged from the
Stalinist maze? Consider the following questions:
• "The "mass-driven character' of the
Reconstruction and Development
Programme (RDP)? is, at this stage, a total myth, " COSATU General Secretary
Sam Shilowa wrote recently.
"Involvement of the people in the process is spontaneous and, where it happens, it happens by accident rather than by design. " 3
How can Communist leaders be so 'discreet' about the need for mass campaigns, self-organisation, and propaganda aimed at re-launching the mass movement? How can you present yourselves as the principal (the only!?) working class political force, and yet be so modest about your role when it comes to defining a concrete policy for opposing neo-liberal measures? SACP militants say they must bear in mind the Party's responsibilities in the government, and that in any case we must wait and see. But the presence of Communist ministers in the Government of National Unity is a consequence of SACP policies more than an explanation of them!
• The SACP has never developed its position on the nature of the 'democratic state which it placed at the centre of its strategy. This enabled militants and leaders to describe this goal in quite ditterent ways, depending on the expectations and fears of the audience. But what is the nature of the South African state today? The average SACP militant does not have a clear answer. But he or she almost never describes the current state in the terms used until April 1994, as the "democratic state' the Party struggled
• The SACP used to present the struggle as having two stages — first democratic, then socialist. What "stage" of the democratic revolution is this? Prominent Party members are telling everyone that the struggle is suddenly "more complex" - and slower. And the first stage sometimes sounds a lot like efficient management of South African capitalism!
• The South African state structure is clearly that of a bourgeois state, whatever the character of the ANC leadership at this time. The Party has not clarified the link between this state and the masses - Party leaders sometimes cast it as a democratic state forged by the victory of the mass movements, and sometimes present it as the forum for a transitional social struggle. There is massive confusion in the Party over these questions.
"Reconstruction" as the SACP presents is very close to the policies of the Italian and French Communist Parties after the second world war. The National Union of Miners of South Africa (NUMSA) has even proposed that COSATU lead a campaign for "a voluntary contribution by workers, with matching funds by employers" to finance the Reconstruction and Development Programme, and that "all production output on selected public holidays, including workers' earnings and employers' profits" be contributed to the RDP.
SACP leaders must know that all this is leading the Party towards a catastrophe. Sooner or later the function of the Party will be called into question by a section of the membership. The (sometimes realised) goal of being the pilot of the whole ANC will finally loose all credibility. There will be propositions for dissolving the Party or transforming it quite thoroughly. These won't be pure theoretical questions -many participants in the debate will have a social interest in the outcome. Some SACP members have "excellent" positions in government
Old theories about the nature of the state, the strategy for its transformation, and on class alliances — without being questioned —are contributing to a political and social integration of the Party into the 'system' — a transformation which the rank and file of the SACP is totally opposed to. How else can we explain that the so called reconstruction of the country" and "construction of the nation" are accompanied by a real "deconstruction" of the ANC and an unprecedented identity crisis in all the organisations which shared and defended the ANC 'line.' This isn't a difficulty of the transitional period or a quirk of history we are talking about. This is a problem with rational, social causes.
Why are we so interested in these problems ? Why are we so insistent on debating these questions with members of the SACP, COSATU and ANC? Because the "private" crisis of the SACP can develop into a much larger catastrophe for the mass movement. In South Africa, just like in many other countries recently, the crisis of the dominant left party does not automatically provoke the birth of a new organisation to take its place. The SACP, and the militant left of the AN in general, are not simply a political current in that organisation. They are also a reference point for thousands of people who identify with their way of thinking, view on the world, and political references. The current identity crisis is demoralising all these
5