African National Congress:
In Government But Np
International Viewpoint #266 May1995 International Viewpoint #265 May 1995
South Africa people too.
This is the main reason we are so interested in the debate on a Workers Party. Is it possible to develop unitary political action, and generate a new pole of resistance, a new revolutionary project? How can we begin to build a "post-apartheid" and "post-April 94" labour movement? We need a labour movement which will not sink into supposed coresponsability in the enterprises, which will not naively try to reproduce a model developed in extremely productive capitalist Germany in a country with such marked racial oppression. We need a political movement which builds itself in opposition to the bureaucratic degeneration and business corruption of the current left leadership.
This long and difficult challenge cannot be done by avoiding the debates and contradiction within the SACP, COSATU and the ANC movement. Nor should we confine ourselves to sterile discussions. We must quickly find campaigns, activities and projects which interest women and men who want to do something, and which will give them back their confidence, even if their organisations are in crisis. The class interest of the majority can be stated, with regard to housing, unemployment, racism, poverty, land and health. The new political project must do so.
The Workers' Party cannot be a sectarian, reductionist project, like many SACP militants see their party. The struggle to come in South Africa will take the form of different struggles, different organisations, different social movements. So the debate "for a workers' party" must also be a debate about the trade union movement, about the women's movement and about all the social movements. The new left must be pluralist. We can reach a second stage of organisation, but only through the convergence of independent forces.
The challenge is enormous, but there is no reason why a core of militants convinced of the need for this new force shouldn't come together and start work. *
Notes
1. Karl Von Holdt, South African Labour Bulletin, November 1994
2. International Viewpoint #260, October 1994
3. The African Communist, 1st Quarter 1995
Mark Harper
"The course of the debate in South Africa on political economy has been extraordinary. Only 18 months ago the discussion focused on government intervention, on public works programmes and nationalisation. Now the discussion is centred on fiscal discipline on trade as the engine of growth and on privatisation"
(IMF Annual Assessment, quoted in The Sunday Time 9 April 1995)
The much maligned Winnie Mandela cut to the core of the problem when at the funeral of a black policeman she asked the leadership of the African National Congress (ANC) "whether we are in power or just in Government?" She touched a raw nerve for the ANC -setting off a series of events that was to lead to her eventual sacking from the government. She was pointing to the obvious fact — which her erstwhile comrades in the ANC and its allies, the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the largest trade union confederation COSATU have been reluctant to come to grips with that the mere occupation of government office although necessary is not a sufficient condition to ensure the transformation of SA society.
Implicit in Winnie Mandela's undisguised agitation against the government was another perhaps more important question, one which her estranged husband posed at the start of the ANC's last conference: "There can be no gainsaying the approach to use the negotiations process to capture beachheads within the power-equation; and then proceed to strengthen our forces from a new vantage point. [But] The challenge we face... is whether we are utilising the new positions we occupy effectively to bring about fundamental transformation?"
One year into the GNU and the implementation of the RDP a balance sheet can be made. The Taming of the RDP
The Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) was initiated by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), as a means of commiting the ANC, once in government, to ensuring that the social needs of the oppressed masses are met. A watered-down version of the RDP was incorporated into the 1994 election manifesto of the ANC. (See IVP # 260 October 1994)
Nelson Mandela used his April 1994 election victory speech to make it clear to the other parties who would make up the Government of National Unity, that the ANC as the dominant party in government would not tolerate any opposition to the RDP. Instead of rejecting the RDP out of hand, its opponents in the ruling class have attempted to capitalise on the vagueness and ambiguity of the Plan and interpret it in a way that supports their political and economic endeavours. For example, last year the automobile bosses and some government officials accused striking NUMSA miners of threatening the implementation of the RDP, by causing a loss of production. The same argument is being used today to get township residents to stop boycotting the payment of their municipal services. "the Reconstruction and
Development Programme is no longer the programme of the
ANC, it is the programme of all of us"
F.W. de Klerk, Nationalist Party leader
The conservative aspects of the RDP have been strengthened as it went through all the horse trading necessary for it to become the policy of the Government of National Unity. A COSATU spokesperson said at the time that the RDP White Paper was in danger of becoming "no more than a social net to cushion the impact of job losses and poverty". As it turns out, the effect of the White paper was to make the RDP the captive of conservative economic policy which emphasised fiscal discipline, cutting of government expenditure, promotion of export led growth, curbing of inflation, trade liberalisation and creating an investor-friendly climate.
This conservative approach is underscored by the Cabinet decision that the RDP would not be funded through increased government expenditure. The extent of this setback becomes evident when one considers that government plans to cut its expenditure within the next five years from 22% of GDP to 17% of GDP.
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International Viewpoint #266 May 1995 ot In Power
The direct financing of the RDP by the government budget, combined with the necessary control of the public deficit would have implied a vast redistribution of income in favour of the workers and the state.
Alec Erwin, long time trade unionist and left socialist, now Deputy Finance Minister in the Government of National Unity, proposes financing the RDP through the privatisation of state assets. Initially privatisation was raised in respect of state land, government buildings etc. Now however, key public utilities are being earmarked. This has provoked protest demonstrations by postal workers and railway workers who fear the worst. Erwin, a central figure in the struggle against the imposition of value added tax (VAT) a few years ago, now argues that privatisation of state enterprises represents a better means of achieving the goals of the RDP than zero rating basic food stuffs (exempting them from VAT). And when he suggests that the RDP will be funded through economic growth he confirms that business is regarded by the government as the engine for driving the RDP.
A feature of economic policy has been government's over-riding concern with creating an investor-friendly climate. This the means to fund development. The private sector must be encouraged to invest in housing and infrastructure water, electricity, telecommunications and roads. But unless capitalists can expect a good return on such investments, the present concentration of investment in the 'safe' sectors like real estate will continue. Government can only guarantee high meeting of basic needs has been the strict monetary policy applied by the independent Reserve Bank. In spite of projected economic growth of more than 3% this year, Reserve Bank Governor Stals has implemented two increases in interest rates and has hinted on a further two this year.
In March this year, Finance Minister,
President Nelson Mandela with Thabo Mbeki (ANC) and is the source of its anxiety over the
Frederik de Klerk (Nationalist Party) - AP continuing violence, high crime rate in the country and its threat to "get tough" with striking police who have implemented an over-time ban in demand of better wages. or students disrupting classes at various colleges and universities around the
As an incentive to prospective foreign investors SA has committed itself to a policy of trade liberalisation, open markets and the speedy lifting of trade and tariff duties. Trade and Industry Minister, Trevor Manuel has gone even further than the brutal liberalisation demanded by GATT officials, which has resulted in protest demonstrations by workers from the textile and automobile industries who see their jobs threatened. Manuel also rejects anti-trust legislation, which he says would cripple the capacity of South African business to compete on the world market.
Underlying government economic policy is the goal of attracting substantial foreign and local productive investment as levels of profit if they "deal with" the cost of labour. Business also bemoans the low productivity levels of labour. According to them, SA cannot compete in the world market unless there is a simultaneous reduction in wages and increase in output.
Efforts to curtail wages increases were seen in the way employers approached the annual wage negotiations last year, holding out for below inflation settlements even at the expense of bleeding their industries. This was particularly true of last years two main strikes i.e. the automobile and Pick in Pay (leading supermarket chain)strikes.
Therefore, while one may have been surprised that President Mandela chose the COSATU congress as the occasion to tell workers to tighten their belts, the call itself by the highest and most popular representative of the Government of National Unity was not.
A further setback to ensuring the
Liebenberg tabled the first of the so-called RDP budgets. No cause for optimism! If one takes into account the increase in inflation and population growth there is virtually no increase in social spending in the areas of health, education, welfare etc. The approach of the budget is to encourage business to grow - hope that this will indirectly reduce unemployment, and poverty. The Minister's announcement of planned meetings with the World Bank in regard to financing projects of the RDP is further cause for alarm. It also contradicts the original RDP document, which specifically opposed the financing of the RDP through foreign loans.
The conservative Financial Mail recently reassured its readers. The greatest virtue of the RDP is apparently its "modesty". After all, 'if the RDP had managed in 12 months to build 50 000 houses, a jobs boom and free schooling, alarm bells would be ringing." (Financial
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locality, the village, the work-place, etc."
(The African Communist, First Quarter 1995)
International Viewpoint #266 May1995
South Africa Mail 7 April 1995.)
What of the social promises contained in the RDP? The school nutrition programme has been most successful — a peanut butter sandwich providing 25% of a child's daily nutritional requirements is now provided for an estimated 5.5 million children. The R485m programme of free health care for pregnant women and children under 6 is also generally seen as a success, although it has created a severe strain on the inadequate health services for the black majority. And, although very much in its planning and preparatory stage, the R200m project to provide 1.4m people in rural communities with clean water has started to get off the ground.
Most attention has been focused on the RDP's housing programme. By the end of February just 876 houses were completed and these were aimed at higher income buyers who qualify for bond finance and Waiting for reconstruction and development in a government subsidies. One of the reasons for the slowness in the provision of houses has been the delay in putting in place a builders warranty mechanism, a guarantee against faulty construction, without which the banks will not lend to low-cost housing projects. Other reasons include delays in the approval of a bill intended to speed up land delivery, and the fact that the Housing White Paper itself is still bogged down in discussion, with amendments likely. Many other RDP projects are in a similar position.
The recent announcement by the new Commissioner of Police George Fivas that the RDP fund would be used to support the building of more police stations illustrates the way the implementation of the RDP is quickly losing its progressive content. ANC Conference
The challenge confronting the ANC's 49th conference in December last year
Johannesburg suburb - CK a forum where rank and file delegates could voice their concerns. The celebratory mood of the conference tended to push to the side the criticisms and concers delegates might have had.
Having maintained that the compromises contained in the negotiated settlement and which had delayed the achievement of full democracy were a product of the balance of social forces which existed at the time it was incumbent on the ANC to spell out a strategy to change those unfavourable balance of forces. And key to such a strategy would be spelling out a role for the popular forces organised in the mass movement as well as its own grass-roots structures. Yet nowhere in the conference resolutions or documents is reference made to a strategy involving the popular forces in mass campaigns and mass mobilisation. Almost all the resolutions relating to the tasks of taking forward democratic transformation spell out what the ANC must do in government and in parliament. Relating to, harnessing and broadening the continuing struggles in the work-places, in the townships and squatter settlements to strengthen the position of the ANC in government was not considered. In reality the reverse was the case: "our character as a broad based movement should facilitate the implementation of government programmes to transform our society", says the conference Declaration.
A recent struggle against racism illustrates the point. In February this year POPCRU, the police and prison wardens' trade union embarked on militant action to challenge the extreme racism practised by
"... Without mechanically transposing other was whether they could stop popular experiences, we need to look at mass programmes demands of the masses from falling off the which have been implemented in other end of government's agenda and come up revolutionary transitions, such as Nicaragua and with a strategy that would ensure that the
Cuba. The fact that we have had a 'negotiated interests of the oppressed majority revolution' doesn't mean that we can't mobilise predominate.
national campaigns around literacy, inoculation,
Prior to the conference, tension inside land reform, and housing, which involve the masses the ANC was beginning to emerge. There of our people. We need to mobilise all our sectors were complaints that the leadership, which and local structures, just as we did in the UDF now found itself in high office was losing touch with the masses, replacing their campaigns, and the campaign of rolling mass struggle clothes for smart suits as they action, in a national campaign which everyone jumped on the government gravy train.
contributes to according to their local conditions.
There was also dissatisfaction in the slow
To be successful a Front for Reconstruction and rate at which the RDP was being
Development has to have as its basic unit the implemented.
However, the Conference was first and foremost a celebration of the organisation's electoral victory rather than
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International Viewpoint #266 May 1995 senior white police officers. As the struggle escalated and spread the union was pressured by the ANC leadership to call off its activities for fear of provoking a rebellion in the ranks of the security forces.
Transforming the economy now boils down to endorsing the approach formulated by government. Consider the following Conference contribution by the ANC Commission on the Transformation of the Economy:
"Given that the economy is relatively small we have limited bargaining power on our own. The reality of the global economy is that it is being shaped by a unipolar world with countries such as the USA and Japan and trading blocks like the European Union dominate. To effect the objective of transformation we must adhere to the course which we set, mindful of the power of international capital. If we ignore these realities, the people of South Africa will pay a clear price and transformation will be elusive. We are called upon to act in a responsible manner - we must observe the constraints in our expenditures."
In this the first ANC conference since the ANC entered government there was no reference to the Freedom Charter with its radical proposals of nationalisation, land reform etc. under which the ANC became hegemonic in the mass popular movements.
The political ascendancy in the ANC of a "realistic" leadership which has lost the political will to assert the interests of its mass working class bases has been confirmed by this Conference. In setting out to reform the state, the state is beginning to reform them. NEDLAC and the new Labour Relations Bill
As mooted during the ANC conference, government has now set up the National Development and Labour Council (NEDLAC) — a forum where government, labour and capital can agree on economic and industrial strategy. Behind the ANC's commitment to tripartite concensus lies the belief that through the politics of social consensus it is possible to channel all forces towards the reconstruction of the country. Class struggle has to give way to social contracts and negotiated accords.
Headed by former trade unionist Jayandra Naidoo, (not to be confused with Jay Naidoo the former general secretary of COSATU and now RDP minister), NEDLAC brings together the old National Manpower Commission and the National
Economic Forum. It is made up of four chambers: Public Finance and Monetary Policy, Trade and Industry, Labour Market
Development. Representative organisations of "civil society", including SANCO, the national civic organisation, will be included in the Development chamber. One of the criteria for membership is the extent to which an organisation can ensure its membership adheres to the decisions and agreements of NEDLAC.
The business press is speculating that one of the likely agreements to be made at NEDLAC will be a social pact "which would combine wage restraint in exchange for training programmes delivered by business and RDP benefits delivered by the government" (Cape Times 7 April 1994). COSATU has welcomed the formation of NEDLAC saying that it puts an end to unilateral action by the government.
COSATU is generally in favour of codetermination seeing in it an extension of trade union rights. However, a discussion is still proceeding as to whether workplace forums are the best form in which co-determination should take place.
Nevertheless the leadership of COSATU, in line with the ANC's Conference theme, "from resistance to reconstruction" is moving away from what British socialist Alex Callinicos calls 'militant abstentionism' in the hope of having an influence on government economic policy. "The promise of such control or influence may, however, be highly effective in containing proletarian insurgency." (Alex Callinicos, Between Apartheid and Capitalism p147.) The Mass Movement and the Way Forward
The mass movement which generally supported the AN is key to any strategy to putting working class interests back on the agenda. Unfortunately, there has been a substantial weakening of the mass single most telling factor in the declining balance of forces has been the way the transition has left mass organisations without a strategic vision of how to defend the interests of their members. The absorption of a part of the movement into the state is no small factor in this. Thousands of leading trade union, civic and other community activists are either members of parliament, part of the government or located in one government department or another. Not only has their move left a vacuum in the popular movement but their current activity is
South Africa orientated to defending and implementing government policy.
The result has been a rapid slide by a large section of the leadership of many mass organisations to the politics of pragmatism, gradualism and realism where nothing beyond building the co-operation of conflicting class forces in the national interest is seen as important. Their commitment to any militant and radical paradigm has been in most cases shelved.
Crucial to renewing the militant traditions of the popular movement is back its political and organisational independence. The major part of this task revolves around developing mass campaigns in defence of members' interests. The social promises made in the RDP are a good starting point. The trade unions, civics, women, youth and student organisations need to take seriously the challenge to make the RDP people driven. The general secretary of COSATU, Sam Shilowa, in a recent bilateral meeting with the SACP made some useful remarks around this very task: "The RDP won't become mass driven through some magical process. We need appropriate structures and programmes to harness people's creativity. Most of all we need to recapture our revolutionary imagination which somehow seems to be lost..."
An RDP front undertaking mass campaigns...? This would be a very important step forward. But such an initiative would come up against the orientation of the ANC in government. The ANC-led GNU has either ignored or tried to render passive the mobilisations of the masses by explaining that things should be left to the government to do what it has to do.
The other part of the task in the struggle for the independence of the mass movement is the existence of a political leadership rooted in the mass organisations with the legitimacy to challenge those forces seeking controlled and carefully managed reform from above.
For the left, the challenge is to build a credible pole of analysis and intervention, capable of responding to the new struggles in South Africa, and responding to the discontent and partial ruptures which can be expected in the vast, disparate ANCSACP-COSATU current *
Note
1. There are a number of factors which account for the weakening of the popular movement. Here is not the place to give a full analysis of them, suffice as to identify the impact of repression during the state of emergencies, third force and communal violence, turning on and off of mass struggle during the negotiating period.]
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