Eugene Puryear's article is on the website of the Party for Socialism and Liberation (who? what?), apparently a new party in the USA. Here is their website: http://www.pslweb.org
What "left-wing forces outside the ANC" is he talking about? Does he mean the 'grass roots' that all ultra-leftists talk about, meaning only themselves and their friends? Why does he talk about divisions between the ANC, the SACP and COSATU, except to create the idea that the three should go their separate ways? Do these divisions exist beyond honest democratic debate within the alliance? James 2009/7/30 Dominic Tweedie <[email protected]>: > Where did you drag this "expert" from, Vusi? > Never mind, it's useful. > There is a contradiction here, but it is not the one that Mr Puryear writes > about. > The contradiction is between, on the one side, right-wing journalists like > Puryear, together with ultra-left political enthusiasts who think that all > worker action is revolutionary, or that it will gradually become > revolutionary if there is more of it. Their combined narrative is one that > says that government is a service-provider and the masses are clients, and > there is delivery. Or there is not delivery, take your pick. > On the other side is experience, plus the theoretical works of Marx, Engels, > Lenin and many others, which all tell us that trade unions are part of the > capitalist system and that the collective bargaining of wages works to > confirm the system, and not to subvert it. > This contradiction is a limited one, perhaps even a false one. If trade > unionism is overwhelmingly reformist and if successful trade unionism is > extra reformist, then the status quo is confirmed and there is no > "tightrope" or instability. > If the other scenario of the delivery state confronted with demand is taken, > then we still do not have a tightrope. As demands for "delivery" grow > louder, so at the same rate is the government confirmed as the sole > possessor of agency. This is the point that has been unpacked by Pithouse, > Mangcu and Friedman in the last week or so. Delivery corresponds to > clientism, whether it is fulfilled, or not. > Therefore what we have is a mass that has been trained to a kind of action, > whether as trade unionists or as a certain kind of township activists, that > is conservative and not revolutionary. This kind of mass movement is only > reproducing relationships that are condemned in the literature of > revolution. > This is not a conspiracy. It is only a circumstance or a conjuncture. These > masses have to raise their sights now, is all. Some commenters theorise that > the masses are spontaneously articulate, politically creative, visionary, > and possessing sufficient agancy. Unfortunately that argument is essentially > the same, in effect, as the argument of Economism, or of the "inevitability > of gradualism". The effect is to say that the revolutionary party is not > required. This is a mistake. > In my opinion the most revolutionary, agitational thing to do now is to dig > deep down into critical theory. The most subversive possible literature for > the time being is the "Classics". > A similar initiative that could be imagined, but is not apparent, would be > artistic. Theatre of the quality of Bertholt Brecht, or even Shakespeare if > done properly, for example. Art is art when it is revolutionary. Most of > what we have in the public realm is entertainment. The working class clearly > have the potential to take the lead. They have demonstrated this ability in > dance, song and spectacle. Where is this going? You tell me. > This is an incomplete critique. > What I am sure of is that we will feel a big hangover if we satisfy our > tactical goals but wake up finding that we took the strategic goals for > granted, only to find that they were not revolutionary, but were half-baked. > Then it's no use trying to blame somebody for your own hangover. > VC > > > > 2009/7/30 Vusi Nzapheza <[email protected]> >> >> South African workers erupt into renewed struggle >> Thursday, July 30, 2009 >> By: Eugene Puryear >> >> Hunger, deepening poverty spark popular anger >> >> Recent events have shown just how explosive the South African political >> scene is. Working people have again erupted in struggle; fighting for basic >> rights such as social services and higher wages. >> >> Since the African National Congress was swept back into power, the Jacob >> Zuma-led government has been walking a tightrope. On the one hand, Zuma has >> signaled to international capital that he will basically continue the >> neoliberal policies that ANC governments have pursued since first gaining >> power in 1996. On the other hand, the ANC made its most central campaign >> promise the reduction of poverty. This basic contradiction lies at the heart >> of recent political tumult. >> >> The end of apartheid was a highly progressive development, yet it has >> brought new contradictions to South Africa. Some Blacks have become rich, >> but at the same time the gap in wealth distribution has broadened. >> >> In fact, the majority of working people in South Africa face economic >> conditions not that much better than those under apartheid. In May of this >> year, unemployment stood at 23 percent. South African capitalism, too, has >> suffered from the worldwide economic crisis, with South Africa’s main >> industry, mineral extraction, hit by thousands of job losses. >> >> The ANC is based on the cross-class coalition that defined it during the >> liberation movement. The ANC pulls together elements of the South African >> capitalist class and the working class, represented primarily by the main >> trade union federation COSATU and the South African Communist Party. This >> base is built from the ranks of the poor and working class. Despite having >> grievances, these sectors supported the ANC in the April elections. >> >> Cosmetic changes? >> >> In a nod to his left-wing coalition partners, Zuma made a few changes in >> how the government was structured. The SACP had pressed for changes that >> would promote development and lay the groundwork for a governing approach >> that truly placed reduction of poverty and creation of jobs at the center of >> its agenda. >> >> But as the SACP has itself pointed out, the new changes could easily be >> purely cosmetic, a sop to the left. Indeed, left-wing elements outside the >> SACP have argued this is likely the case. The one area all forces on the >> South African left, including COSATU, can agree on is the need to intensify >> popular struggles. >> >> Not content to take politicians at their word, workers have taken to the >> frontlines several times since Zuma was elected. Notably, construction >> workers on World Cup stadiums struck in early July and won a 12 percent >> raise. In July, numerous townships erupted in protests demanding better >> delivery of services. Basic social services, such as water and public >> transportation, are inadequate or non-existent in the townships, which are >> predominantly working class. >> >> Additionally, protesters representing the unemployed movement seized food >> without paying from two Durban supermarkets. They were protesting the fact >> that a great number of South Africans continue to live in hunger more than a >> decade after the end of apartheid. >> >> On July 27, central Johannesburg was shut down as more than 150,000 >> workers, mostly municipal employees, went out on strike seeking a 15 percent >> wage increase. Workers are angry that Zuma has not lived up to his promise >> to take action on jobs and poverty. >> >> Similar tensions during the presidency of Thabo Mbeki brought the ANC >> alliance the closest it has ever been to a left-right split. Since 2007, >> members of the SACP have argued for running independent candidates to avoid >> being stained by the right-wing policies of their coalition partners. >> >> This underscores the fragile nature of Zuma’s coalition. His balancing act >> between left and right can only work if he can make both sides content. But >> faced with the current economic crisis, Zuma is leaning toward more >> concessions to international capital than to the urgent needs of workers. >> >> Can the left-wing forces both inside and outside the ANC present a common >> front that can strongly link these various struggles together and move the >> body politic in South Africa to the left? The SACP and COSATU face being >> hemmed in by their participation in the government. For those left-wing >> forces outside the ANC, the challenge is to build bridges with the left >> forces inside the ANC to present a common front of struggle. The SACP, too, >> must overcome the challenge of past divisions. >> >> For those closely watching the unfolding struggle from afar, the main task >> is to stand firmly behind the workers of South Africa as they struggle for >> the full promise of post-apartheid society. Victory to the townships and the >> strikers! >> >> On Thu, Jul 30, 2009 at 5:41 PM, Dominic Tweedie >> <[email protected]> wrote: >>> >>> Thanks, Claire. >>> I notice that WIVL's still quiet. >>> Let me put my cards on the table. When re-starting the CU a comrade wrote >>> asking for communist "basics". So, we are running "basics" on the CU while >>> the "strike wave" and so-called "service delivery protests" are happening, >>> more or less by chance. >>> What is most basic to Communism is the argument at the end of Marx's >>> Value, Price and Profit (see below) which ends with the words: 'Instead of >>> the conservative motto, "A fair day's wage for a fair day's work!" they >>> ought to inscribe on their banner the revolutionary watchword, "Abolition of >>> the wages system!"' >>> Lenin's argument against "Economism" in "What is to be Done?" is >>> essentially the same. >>> In other words the basic argument for a communist party is that without >>> it all of the workers' struggles are pitifully reformist and confirmatory of >>> the surplus-value-extracting deal that sustains the oppressor, Capital. The >>> difference between the cringing obsequious forelock-tugging prole who knows >>> his place, and the bold defiant street-trashing prole, turns out to be of >>> little consequence when both are settling for the same system. >>> The accidental coincidence of the CU's study with the street dramas make >>> these reflections unavoidable. >>> The obvious answer is to repeat Lenin's exhortations to build the >>> revolutionary party. (WIVL can't do that, of course, because WIVL has >>> already denounced the revolutionary party.) >>> But even if, let's say, workers can see the limitation of overturning the >>> very same concrete dustbins every few years, for example, for the sake a >>> receding hope of substantial improvement. Let's say that they can see that >>> and consequently they line up to join the SACP in droves. >>> What happens next? >>> This question needs a qualitative reply, comrades. >>> It is not the case that more action is better action. Morale has to do >>> with agency and agency has to do with real change. In my opinion the 2007 >>> public service workers' strike was outstanding, not because of the >>> settlement, but because it cracked a huge part of the credibility of the >>> Thaobite regime. >>> Nothing like that is happening today. Today we have some catching up >>> being done, explicitly so, but no future perspective in these negotiations. >>> Working class culture has to move out of the limits of negotiation. >>> There has to be something more. What is that more? >>> VC >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> >>> From Chapter 14 of Value, Price and Profit: >>> >>> " >>> >>> 'These few hints will suffice to show that the very development of modern >>> industry must progressively turn the scale in favour of the capitalist >>> against the working man, and that consequently the general tendency of >>> capitalistic production is not to raise, but to sink the average standard of >>> wages, or to push the value of labour more or less to its minimum limit. >>> Such being the tendency of things in this system, is this saying that the >>> working class ought to renounce their resistance against the encroachments >>> of capital, and abandon their attempts at making the best of the occasional >>> chances for their temporary improvement? If they did, they would be degraded >>> to one level mass of broken wretches past salvation. I think I have shown >>> that their struggles for the standard of wages are incidents inseparable >>> from the whole wages system, that in 99 cases out of 100 their efforts at >>> raising wages are only efforts at maintaining the given value of labour, and >>> that the necessity of debating their price with the capitalist is inherent >>> to their condition of having to sell themselves as commodities. By cowardly >>> giving way in their everyday conflict with capital, they would certainly >>> disqualify themselves for the initiating of any larger movement. >>> >>> 'At the same time, and quite apart form the general servitude involved in >>> the wages system, the working class ought not to exaggerate to themselves >>> the ultimate working of these everyday struggles. They ought not to forget >>> that they are fighting with effects, but not with the causes of those >>> effects; that they are retarding the downward movement, but not changing its >>> direction; that they are applying palliatives, not curing the malady. They >>> ought, therefore, not to be exclusively absorbed in these unavoidable >>> guerilla fights incessantly springing up from the never ceasing >>> encroachments of capital or changes of the market. They ought to understand >>> that, with all the miseries it imposes upon them, the present system >>> simultaneously engenders the material conditions and the social forms >>> necessary for an economical reconstruction of society. Instead of the >>> conservative motto, "A fair day's wage for a fair day's work!" they ought to >>> inscribe on their banner the revolutionary watchword, "Abolition of the >>> wages system!"' >>> >>> >>> http://www.pslweb.org/site/News2/920755924?page=NewsArticle&id=12625&news_iv_ctrl=1261 >>> >>> >>> >>> 2009/7/30 claire ceruti <[email protected]> >>>> >>>> Yes, most likely all the unions will settle and industrial peace will >>>> follow. But there will be something else following the strikes too, which >>>> is >>>> a new balance of class forces. If the settlements are low or mediocre, the >>>> balance will lean to capital. If a lot of strikes win, workers can feel >>>> confident when they face the next attacks. That is going to have a big >>>> effect on who pays for the crisis, which means these strikes are not at all >>>> ordinary despite the way they fit into the normal round of wage bargaining. >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> What do I propose to do about it? Get my shoulder behind the wheel to >>>> support them however I can, as I expect all of you are. For a start, we >>>> could take on the notion that littering=violence in our organisations. >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> ________________________________ >>>> >>>> From: [email protected] >>>> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Dominic Tweedie >>>> Sent: 30 July 2009 04:30 PM >>>> >>>> To: [email protected] >>>> Subject: [YCLSA Discussion] Re: Anti-poverty protests in SA ? >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> All you super-revolutionaries are going overboard for a set of deals to >>>> sell Labour-Power for survival. >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> All of the unions will settle and then there will be industrial peace. >>>> The status quo will be confirmed. >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> Please read the latest Communist University post on Negotiation, >>>> comrades. >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> Then tell me: What do you propose to do about it? >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> VC >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> 2009/7/30 claire ceruti <[email protected]> >>>> >>>> Hmm. I think I agree with one part of what you say, Martin. But in these >>>> strikes it seems to me the union leaders are also bolshier than before, not >>>> only the members. People are saying things from the SAMWU platform such as, >>>> “the recession is not our fault, workers have been in recession for years >>>> without respite” and “its not our responsibility to sort out the problems >>>> but governments”, and they are quite right. Let’s see how the comrades >>>> stand >>>> up now that Msholozi is threatening arrests before addressing the issues, >>>> eish! “You have the right to protest…” – we won the right to protest >>>> decades >>>> ago, what we need now is the better life! >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> ________________________________ >>>> >>>> From: [email protected] >>>> [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of WIVL >>>> Sent: 30 July 2009 02:31 PM >>>> >>>> To: [email protected] >>>> Subject: [YCLSA Discussion] Re: Anti-poverty protests in SA ? >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> Cdes >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> I think the point Ceruti makes is that in 2001-2003 the Cosatu leaders >>>> had to call the strikes in order to keep their positions; this time however >>>> they act in concert with big capital to keep workers off the streets; in >>>> this sense the strikes show that the hold of the Stalinist leaders over >>>> Cosatu workers, is loosening. >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> Viva the workers' revolution! >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> -------Original Message------- >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> From: Mxolisi Mlatha >>>> >>>> Date: 2009/07/30 01:11:02 nm >>>> >>>> To: [email protected] >>>> >>>> Subject: [YCLSA Discussion] Re: Anti-poverty protests in SA ? >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> Cde Ceruti >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> I dont think that the current strikes, which essentially >>>> >>>> symbolize industrial action are any different than others >>>> >>>> elsewhere except for the nature of their militant >>>> >>>> charecter. We have had much more political strikes in the >>>> >>>> past around the period of 2001 - 03,against the Macro >>>> >>>> Economic Policy and particularly privatization that was the >>>> >>>> dominant thinking at the time. >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> --- >>>> >>>> Sent from UnionMail Service [http://mail.union.org.za] >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> __________ Information from ESET Smart Security, version of virus >>>> signature database 4290 (20090730) __________ >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> The message was checked by ESET Smart Security. >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> http://www.eset.com >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> >>>> -- >>>> >>>> Blog at: http://domza.blogspot.com/ >>>> Communist University web site at: http://amadlandawonye.wikispaces.com/ >>>> Subscribe for free e-mail updates at: >>>> http://groups.google.com/group/Communist-University/ >>>> Library of documents (CU "CD") at: http://cu.domza.net/ >>>> [email protected] >>>> >>>> >>> >>> >>> >>> -- >>> Blog at: http://domza.blogspot.com/ >>> Communist University web site at: http://amadlandawonye.wikispaces.com/ >>> Subscribe for free e-mail updates at: >>> http://groups.google.com/group/Communist-University/ >>> Library of documents (CU "CD") at: http://cu.domza.net/ >>> [email protected] >>> >>> >>> -- >>> The greatest part of our happiness depends on our dispositions, not our >>> circumstances. >>> >>> >>> > > > > -- > Blog at: http://domza.blogspot.com/ > Communist University web site at: http://amadlandawonye.wikispaces.com/ > Subscribe for free e-mail updates at: > http://groups.google.com/group/Communist-University/ > Library of documents (CU "CD") at: http://cu.domza.net/ > [email protected] > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You are subscribed. 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