Comrade, there is no attachment to this text. It is all in the e-mail. If an attachment is showing it is probably just the Umsebenzi Online logo, depending on how your set-up handles graphics.
But there is no Word document or PDF. What do you think of Dr Blade's message in that edition? It was pre-Polokwane (just) but it anticipated these problems we are having now, did it not? A luta continua Domza, VC 2009/7/28 Mantla, Mzwabantu <[email protected]> > your attachment is not opening > > ------------------------------ > *From:* [email protected] [mailto: > [email protected]] *On Behalf Of *Dominic Tweedie > *Sent:* 27 July 2009 02:44 PM > *To:* [email protected] > *Subject:* [YCLSA Discussion] Dual Power, Blade Nzimande. Build it now! > > *Relevant to debate on local protests.* > > <http://amadlandawonye.wikispaces.com/Plug-in+City+On-line+Publications#AD> > > * > * > > *Umsebenzi Online, Volume 6, No. 20, 7 November > 2007<http://www.sacp.org.za/main.php?include=pubs/umsebenzi/2007/vol6-20.html> > * > > > > > > *Dual power - The living legacy of the Great October Revolution* > > > > > > *Blade Nzimande, General Secretary, SACP* > > > > > > November 2007 marks the 90th anniversary of the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution. > Beginning on November 7, 1917, in ten days that famously shook the world, > workers and peasants, many of them in the threadbare uniforms of soldiers > and sailors, organised by their soviets (organs of local popular power) > poured out from their working class neighbourhoods, from their factories, > battleships and garrisons, and marched upon the seats of power. > > > > They overthrew the bourgeois state that had been installed in February of > that year. That state owed its existence to the popular revolt against the > feudal autocracy and the imperialist war. Compromised by its class > allegiances, the bourgeois government had been unable to even begin to > deliver on the most basic demands of the popular masses. And so, on November > 7th 90 years ago, under the banner of “Bread, Land, Peace!”, and shouting > the slogan “All Power to the Soviets!”, workers and peasants, for the first > time in world history, abolished bourgeois rule and embarked upon a > socialist revolution. > > > > It is impossible now in 2007 not to view those events, at least partly, > through the lens of the eventual collapse of the Soviet Union and its East > European bloc in the late 1980s and early 1990s. It is also imperative, not > least for those of us who are communists, never to forget the epochal crimes > committed in the name of “communism”, particularly in the Stalin years – > crimes amongst whose victims were numbered many hundreds of thousands of > communists. As we commemorate the 90th Anniversary of the October > Revolution, we should remember that a revolution can devour its own > children. We need to draw the appropriate lessons, so that we, in our turn, > are not condemned to repeat history. > > > > But if gross distortions and eventual collapse are part of the story, they > are very much only a part – and even that part owes a great deal to external > factors, in particular, the unceasing hostility and destabilisation of the > Soviet Union by the imperialist powers. > > > > Contrary to the Hollywood version of the Second World War, the epicentre of > that war was the Eastern Front. It was on the outskirts of Leningrad and > Moscow, and street by street, building by building in Stalingrad, that the > tide of Nazism was halted, turned and finally routed. 20 million Soviet > citizens lost their lives in that war alone. Without the Soviet Union, the > second half of the 20th century might have been a half century dominated by > a real (and not fictional) axis of evil. > > > > Let us also not forget the pioneering socialist measures introduced in the > Soviet Union – an eight-hour working day, free health-care, free education, > free crèches for workers’ children. Without the defeat of Nazism in Europe, > and without the example of Soviet social achievements that inspired working > class movements in the West, it is doubtful the welfare states that > flourished in parts of the developed capitalist north after 1945 would ever > have existed. Without the counter-balancing global presence of the Soviet > bloc, would India have been decolonised, would China and Vietnam have been > liberated, would the Cuban revolution have survived its initial years? And > without all of these advances, Southern Africa could still be in the grip of > white minority regimes. > > > > While acknowledging the huge impact the October Revolution has had on the > past century, we need to ask: What are the key lessons we need to derive for > the present? > > > > We suggest that there are two key lessons: > > > > *One: It is possible (and imperative) to press ahead with > socialist-oriented transformation right now in the present. * > > > > The pessimists, those who lost their will to struggle with the collapse of > the Berlin Wall, those who lost faith or who never had faith in the popular > masses to begin with, those who were socialists when it was the flavour of > the decade – they all keep telling us that “the global balance of forces is > now unfavourable”. Socialism is something to be deferred until capitalism > has been “fully developed”. > > > > But when the Bolsheviks in November 1917 led the workers and peasants of > Russia, along with dozens of oppressed nationalities, into battle for > socialism – they, too, were plied with the same negative sermons. “Russia is > too backward”. “Wait for the advanced capitalist countries like Germany to > make their socialist revolution”. “Russian capitalism must first modernise”. > “Wait for the Russian working class to mature”. > > > > Lenin was portrayed in some “socialist” circles as a voluntarist, an > ultra-leftist. But Lenin and the Bolsheviks understood that Russia would > always remain backward within the imperialist world system, that the Russian > working class and the democratic revolution (not least the national > democratic liberation of dozens of oppressed nationalities) would always > remain stunted unless a decisive break with a dependent and semi-peripheral > capitalism was made. In fact, the impediments to Russia becoming a > competitive capitalist power in 1917 were far greater than the > (considerable) impediments to making a socialist revolution. > > > > What about the global situation? Let us never forget that when the Russian > workers and peasants of November 1917 rose up against bourgeois power, there > was no external Soviet bloc to support them. This is not to say that the > international balance of forces is irrelevant, but should we understand the > construction of socialism as a “competition between two systems”? Writing > in a recent issue of Monthly Review, Claudio Katz (“Socialist Strategies in > Latin America”) critiques this position: > > > > “This approach is a remnant of the theory of the ‘socialist camp’ > proclaimed by supporters of the old Soviet model. They gambled on defeating > the enemy by means of a series of economic successes and geopolitical > achievements, forgetting that one cannot defeat capitalism at its own game. > Peripheral – or less industrialised – economies in particular can never > triumph in a competition with imperialist powers that have controlled the > world market for centuries. The success of socialism requires a continuous > sequence of processes that undermine global capitalism.” > > > > For a number of reasons, the “two camps” approach had a strong resonance > for southern African liberation movements (and the SACP) in the 1960s, 70s > and into the 1980s. With the collapse of the “socialist camp”, > demoralisation was a likely (if mistaken) outcome. In Latin America in that > period, by contrast, many major left movements (all with their own strengths > and weaknesses) were less inclined to base their strategies on the existence > of an alternative socialist bloc. This is surely one of several reasons why > an important (but, of course, complex and uneven) wave of popular, > anti-capitalist socialist renewal is now welling up across Latin America, > from Mexico through Bolivia to Argentina. > > > > The world of 2007 is not the world of 1917. But like 1917 it is not a world > of one-way traffic for the imperialist powers. The world’s “hyper-power”, > the United States, despite its massive military superiority, is bogged down > in Afghanistan and especially Iraq. Its Middle East military adventures are > rejected at home by a growing majority. Its triumphalist 1990s neo-liberal > “solutions” are discredited in Eastern Europe, Latin America, and in many > parts of Africa and Asia. Structural adjustment programmes have given rise > to mass-based social movements, indigenous peoples’ struggles, and electoral > defeats for comprador elites across the developing world. In Latin America, > in particular, the power of local elites (“national” bourgeoisies) have been > hollowed out by trans-nationalisation and privatisation to multi-national > corporates. In the face of rising popular mobilisation, the traditional > recourse of the Latin American elites to military coups or one or another > anti-democratic authoritarianism has been weakened (although it can never be > entirely ruled out). It has been weakened by the earlier popular defeat of > military regimes whether in Argentina, Chile, Brazil or Uruguay. The new > popular mobilisation is frequently democratic and constitutional (see for > instance the centrality of the Bolivarian constitution as a mass reference > point in Venezuela), and no longer presents itself primarily as a rural or > urban guerrilla. The popular, and increasingly anti-capitalist movement in > Latin America, contests the class struggle on the terrain of electoral > democracy, the constitution, human rights, media and social development, > frustrating counter-revolutionary endeavours to locate the struggle back on > the terrain of military contest. The Cold War, anti-communist “excuses” for > repression have also evaporated. This is especially the case in Latin > America (with some exceptions like Colombia), but equally (although with its > own specificities) here in post-1994 South Africa. > > > > What are the key motive forces, or (to use Latin American terminology) what > are the key subjects of this contemporary anti-capitalist struggle? This > brings us to the second key legacy of 1917. > > > > *Two: Dual power re-visited* > > > > When Lenin and the Bolsheviks advanced the slogan of all power to the > soviets in 1917 they saw in these spontaneously formed local councils of > worker power the seeds of an alternative state. The bourgeois state, with > its “façade of multi-party, parliamentary democracy” and a “liberal” > constitution, was to be replaced by a different state, soviet power. The > soviets of 1917, like the soviets that emerged in the 1905 Russian > revolution, bore many resemblances to the spontaneous popular structures of > the 19th century Paris Commune that Marx and Engels had studied and > celebrated as harbingers of a different kind of proletarian state. They were > characterised by various forms of direct and participatory democracy. > Elected representatives and officials were revocable by popular assemblies > and none was paid more than the average wage of a worker. > > > > Between February and October 1917 in Russia a dual power situation > increasingly developed – with the bourgeois “liberal” (in practice, not so > liberal) parties controlling the Parliament/Duma and the key organs of > state, with an alternative centre of power developing in the > soviets/councils of workers and soldiers – in working class neighbourhoods, > in factories, and barracks. It was these alternative self-organised centres > of power, influenced largely (but not entirely) by the Bolsheviks that were > a critical locus of power in the October Revolution. > > > > But although the state that emerged from the October revolution came to be > described as “soviet”, it increasingly bore less and less resemblance to the > spontaneous organs of localised working class power on which it supposedly > rested. This was the result of many realities, including the drastic > depletion of the seasoned working class cadres in a bitter Civil War and the > challenges of a massive industrialisation drive and the administration of a > huge country. The “soviet” state became increasingly bureaucratic, > hierarchical, centralising, authoritarian, and staffed by a self-reproducing > elite of apparatchiks. > > > > Marxists were not wrong to recognise in the organs of popular power that > emerged spontaneously in the Paris Commune and in the Russian revolutions of > 1905 and 1917 a critical revolutionary reality and a key component of any > future socialist state. But we tended to see these organs as the totality of > socialist state power and as “alternatives” to, and abolishers of, the > bourgeois state and “its” associated institutions – a separate standing > army, courts, parliament, etc. In practice, in subsequent decades in the > Soviet Union, bureaucratic state power displaced participatory and direct > democracy. > > > > What is beginning to emerge in, for instance, the Venezuelan revolution, > what has always been at least an important residual reality in the Cuban > revolution, and what is latently present in our own South African reality is > a new conception of dual power. This is “dual power” not as a transitional > reality, but as a permanent feature of an anti-capitalist revolution. Here > organs of popular power co-exist with, buttress, check and balance other > apparatuses of progressive democratic power (an army and police force, the > administrative apparatus, a parliament). Organs of popular power need to act > as a constant counterweight against the dangers of bureaucratisation, > elitism, corruption and corporate capture that constantly beset the state > apparatus, including a socialist state apparatus. These tendencies need to > be constantly abolished. But localised organs of popular power, practising > more direct and participatory forms of democracy, also have limited > capacities to run a modern socialist economy, or, in isolation, defend the > country against imperialist destabilisation. > > > > The point is not that the one locus of progressive power should abolish the > other, but that they should act to complement each other - as was seen, for > instance, in the combination of armed forces, popular militias and mass > mobilisation in the very rapid defeat of the 2005 imperialist-inspired > attempted military coup against the democratically-elected Chavez > government. > > > > Here in South Africa, we developed strong “soviet” traditions, organs of > popular power, a legacy of self-governance, in the midst of our struggle – > particularly in the 1980s. These traditions have not evaporated, but > post-1994 we have not really mastered the art of combining democratic state > power with organs of popular power. > > > > To take one of countless current examples - faced with the imminent > extinction of our abalone (perlemoen) shell-fish stocks, as a result of > poaching activities by criminal syndicates with international links, the ANC > Minister of Environment and Tourism last week announced a total ban on > perlemoen fishing. In the face of popular concern, with the livelihoods of > coastal communities threatened, the Minister has backed down for three > months. The Minister, of course, has science on his side. Perlemoen, a food > source for communities along our coastline, stretching back to the > beginnings of modern human civilisation, is about to disappear forever > unless poaching is stopped. “And we cannot put a policeman every twenty > metres along the shore-line”, the Minister has explained. > > > > That is true enough. But with or without a ban on perlemoen catches, an > overstretched police force and a very weak and under-resourced Sea Fisheries > Inspectorate is not going stop the elimination of our stocks. Why have we > not organised the local fishing communities themselves to form democratic > vigilance units, to safe-guard (along with the organs of the state) their > own local legacy passed down through many generations? > > > > As we mark this 90th anniversary of the first socialist revolution in world > history, let’s honour it - not as a museum exhibit – but as a living legacy > that has every relevance for our challenges in the present. > > > > *Asikhulume!* > > > Volkswagen of South Africa (Pty) Ltd. 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