> Date: Fri, 22 Jun 2001 06:32:48 +0100
> From: Chris Burford <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To what extent is there still relevance in the ANC/SACP concept of the
> National Democratic Revolution?
Concept is great. Problem is, some of the key actors are "talk-left,
act-right" sell-outs.
> Is there indeed scope for radical democratic initiatives that take the
> National Democratic Revolution forward and have a socialist content or
> prepare the ground for socialism?
Yes but they're not being supported by the ANC. In fact,
things like the TAC attack on Big Pharma was actively undermined by
Mbeki and ANC functionaries.
> If uneven development on a world scale and within a country like South
> Africa, runs into crises of accumulation and if these tendencies have
> intensified with the international dominance of neo-liberalism, does it not
> suggest that there is a democratic agenda at a global level as well as at
> the level of individual countries?
Yes absolutely, to spin that broken record of mine, the international
democratic agenda can only be, in my view (given the existing
balance of forces), to rid the world of the most powerful
transmission agents of neo-liberalism, especially the WB/IMF/WTO, to
give some breathing space to national-scale movements making demands
on their nation-states. (We'll agree to disagree Chris.)
> Critical though South African radicals may be about how former
> anti-apartheid leaders have been bought off, this is also a reflection of
> the material reality of the balance of forces and the shift of the struggle
> to one of revolutionary reforms versus reformist reforms.
Hey that's been exactly the line since Kagarlitsky and Saul came
visiting in the early 1990s.
> What reforms are most relevant now for South Africa, domestically, *and*
> internationally?
There's a long list in my book Elite Transition (Ch.3) which we got
into the Reconstruction and Development Programme (will send it
offlist).
> Or should left wingers just rally under the abstract red flag of socialism,
> and hope others will join them?
Yes, we must do that too.
> Chris Burford
>
> London
