A revolution foresaked or advanced: 2007 Polokwane aftermath

Introduction

I think it is always correct to start at the beginning, as all revolutions are subject to analyses to advance the progression on the struggle in its entirety hence the importance of also assessing and analysing of the Polokwane watershed congress in 2007. Prior Polokwane every one was up in arms defending, the bourgeoisies claiming they were defending the ANC from a communist take-over and the left forces rightfully rescuing our movement and the revolution from the hands of crocodiles. In reality comrades the first thing that comes to mind: The revolution is in danger! What do we do? We remove the custodian of the neo-liberal ideas from the highest office in South Africa as President. But we must be cautious it is easy to remove the person, but what about the seedlings he left to grow? Polokwane first and foremost owed history the responsibility to root out plants and its seeds of liberalism based on accumulating at the expense of African people who trusted the ANC with their lives. Question: did it fulfil that historic responsibility? That is yet to be discussed! The second task that Polokwane had was to reserve all ills of the bourgeoisie tendency, question arises, how? Thirdly and lastly re-affirm the alliance as the strategic political centre. The role of this paper to analyse and raise discussions on the progress of the Polokwane mandate four years down the line…

All questions raised in this paper are in fact one of the key strategic and tactical questions that are detrimental in determining the direction of the revolution, the NDR in particular. Having assessed that the South African revolution was under threat (according to the left forces), therefore the first progression towards saving the revolution was to out-vote the “Mbeki Mob” in ANC elective congress, but the second question that is dialectically connected to the first to the first one  is what about the seedling that this “mob” has left? Well I would argue that really a rush job was done in this regard. My assertions are a product of having assessed the current balance of forces within the African National Congress. The ousting of Mbeki in my fresh eyes never meant at any point in time that we have up-rooted all evil bourgeoisie tendencies in the ANC and little rotten seedlings of his accumulation regime. These seeds where left to grow in our ranks and the leadership of Jacob Zuma assisted in the process by watering them by deploying them in key strategic areas of governance; they are root causes of the current anarchy destabilized nature of the ANC. In essence the task of removing all that is about working-class exploitation and crass materialism, commoditisation of public enterprise and later entrepreneurism was left untouched. Then BOOM!!!! We have a problem yet again. The emergence of our “pop-star” Jacob Zuma has meant nothing to the progression of the revolution.

Revolution in danger

The South African Communist Party when it supported Jacob Zuma it was at the principle level and as eluded before in defence of the revolution, four years down the line we have almost all leaders of the Communist Party in parliament. What does it mean for Communists and the struggle for socialism and the Communist Party entirely? Is it progress or regress? Well taking microscopic analyses it has got the Party in weaken and the most vulnerable state in history, it has created a party that seems like a wing of the African National Congress. Meanwhile the socialist revolution itself is in jeopardy. The historic role of our beloved Marxist Party is to mobilize, conscientize and van-guard the working-class behind the struggle for socialism ultimately communism. Having assessed the current balance of forces in the current political epoch we far from that particular historic task, but that is an issue for another day! Still on the microscopic analyses of the South African politics as governed by the African National Congress, we had observed the same tendency we thought we had crushed mushrooming right between our legs. The rife tendency of tendertrprenuership, liberal economic policies e.g. New Growth Path and patronising of left forces through being given a piece of the pie to nibble on and keep quiet. Open your eyes, this is the same tendency we dreamed that were crushing in Polokwane. What went wrong? Now let’s introspect. On the removal of Mbeki as President of the Republic of South Africa a bunch of self-centred hell-bent on accumulating political hennas went to form their Mickey mouse quos-party claiming there are in defence of freedom.

But in reality we were in process of taking the ANC back to its rightful owners, the people! I think we had forgotten that our main task was to transform what we inherited from the “neo-liberalized state to a working-class dominated state. We still elected amongst other the “lap-dogs” of the same system, forgetting that this is a revolution not a revelation. As I had said earlier that one of our tasks that we have is to reverse all ills of the passing regime. How? Here’s how:

1. Nationalize all that was privatized
2. Scrapping the institutional autonomy: Preparing for a people’s education, through a government governed higher education.
3. Develop an economic policy focused on building a workers economy
4. Creating a public broadcaster: contesting the public domain, hegemonising our views as a movement
5. Introduction of free education.

Revolution: forward and never backward

Having analysed microscopically the political state of South Africa after 2007, one would ask, what is to be done? Remember this paper seeks not to bring a diplomatic thesis on the revolution of South Africa but rather serves as a tin-opener to a look like rotten tin full of worms that cover the ultimate goal that is the realisation of the NDR transitional to socialism. The South African working-class is left in dismay of wether we are moving forward or backward, I myself am asking the same question comrade Thobile Ntola President of SADTU asserts the following during the public sector strike in 2010 “No strike is apolitical… A public sector strike pits workers against the government as the employer. When that government has patently failed to address the basic needs of the workers and the poor, the strike is political” this clearly indicates that the government as led by the ANC has forsaken their primary due to serve its people. Look around… the masses are revolting against a government as led by its own liberation movement. This tells you clearly that the gains we were dreaming that we had achieved in Polokwane were nothing but hallucinations written down as resolutions of the ANC 2007 Polokwane Congress.

“All for the revolution and nothing else” As we are to celebrate 100 years of existence of the African National Congress, all revolutionaries have a historic task to advance, the task of re-configuring the leader of the Revolutionary Alliance in advancing and broadening the National Democratic Revolution that seeks to a path to socialism not a prosperous state for a few…as hallucinated by Jual Natshitenze. Our first mission as we moving to the first century is to create an educated nation; through de-commoditisation of education and the state taking an active role of the education system… secondary to that we need to assess if its for the betterment of the socialist revolution for Party leaders to all flock in parliament if not, they must come back! Must we must further move on to fast-track the process of the Nationalization of all economic height of South Africa, the South African Communist Party taking centre stage in advancing the working-class struggles  and the poor. “…the national liberation of African people in particular, and the black people in general, the destruction of the economic and political power of the ruling class and the establishment of one united state’s power in which the working class will be the dominant force and which will move uninterruptedly towards social emancipation and total abolition of exploitation of man by man”

Propelling the struggle for the socialist revolution.

As I conclude in my brief note… we must agree as much as we were in high spirits after the outcomes of the 2007 water-shed congress it has become apparent that it was not much of a battle won in Polokwane. But a few points scored toward winning the actual fight, the fight continues and the battle is zone would be Bloemfontein Mangoung… the working-class and the left must assert its rightful place in the African National Congress. But more importantly re-affirming that the Alliance as led by the ANC is the strategic political centre!

Sibusiso Maneli is Branch Chairperson of SASCO in Claude Qavane Branch Western Region. E.C writes on his own personal capacity

NDR and Education Transformation

“Whoever sides with the revolutionary people is a revolutionary. Whoever sides with imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat-capitalism is a counter-revolutionary. Whoever sides with the revolutionary people in words only but acts otherwise is a revolutionary in speech. Whoever sides with the revolutionary people in deed as well as in word is a revolutionary in the full sense.” –Mao Tsetung. Whoever sides with imperialism, feudalism and bureaucrat-capitalism is a counter-revolutionary. Whoever sides with the revolutionary people in words only but acts otherwise is a revolutionary in speech. Whoever sides with the revolutionary people in deed as well as in word is a revolutionary in the full sense."

INTRODUTION
The education system is the reflection of the social system; therefore the political epoch within the Higher Institutions of Learning is product of social conflict. This political epoch did not fall from the sky but it is a product of historical injustices, the education system was in form and character exclusive racially and economically but that was not because of the hate of white people for black people but a manifestation of the current production system which is capitalism but it was used in the form of race to exclude the majority from economic participation to favour the white minority. The defeat of the apartheid was in fact not the end of the struggle but capitalism reconfigured to new form. Transformation then is needed to integrate the previously disadvantaged portion of the society which is the blacks in general and the Africans in particular. The transformation we seek to achieve must be dynamic and national in character but paramount to that it must be able to respond to challenges faced by the society in general.
“We locate our vision of a transformed tertiary education system within the overall vision of the NDR, and that vision rests on the following five principles; equality, democracy, non racism, non sexism and redress.”
THE NDR THEORY OF TRANSITION
First and foremost we must understand what the NDR is and what it seeks to achieve, but paramount to its conceptualisation it must be within the parameters of how SASCO interpret the NDR and it must be guided by the content within the terrain of Marxism-Leninism. The National Democratic Revolution is a revolution which is meant to answer the three strategic contradictions in our society which are Race, Gender and the Class question. The fundamental contradiction in society is the class contradiction and as the communist manifesto says “The history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggles”. The understanding of the National Democratic Revolution should be also find expression in the education landscape “The objectives of the NDR are the challenges that drive the progressive forces that are engaged in the transformation of our country and education in particular.”  The South African educational system and the social content are products of class contradictions in the society therefore up until such time that the class question has be resolved transformation of the Higher institution will remain liberal and in favour of the ruling class which is capital. The National Democratic Revolution seeks to create a non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous society for all but predominantly the liberation of black people and Africans in particular. The understanding that transformation must seek to equalise the inequalities of the past as a product of apartheid and should then be able to respond to questions of socio-economic constraints. Transformation must be approached in the manner stated above, taking into account the historical background of the Higher Institutions of Learning in the apartheid era, you had your White Institutions and your Black Institutions where black students from the working—class background whom were only taught to such that they could manage their societies not rebel against the state and those who studied in the White Institutions were given the type of education that they could manage mange the economy of the country and the country as awhile. But also we must highlight that blacks in general and Africans in particular were excluded from economic participation hence the type of education they were fed.
Therefore the National Democratic Revolution must answer upon those questions when it speaks unto issues of transformation, in the education system particularly. It must address issues of the quality of the education system, transformation, redress and how do we inculcate matters of economic participation of the youth.

TOWARDS PROGRESSIVE REVOLUTIONARY TRANSFORMATION.
Transformation as anything scientific is two-folded; from my view transformation can be used to legitimise the emancipation of a few bourgeois by the notion of deracialisation of the previously known white capital and creating a black of the petty bourgeois. But the transformation we advocating for at this current point in time is the one which I would call PROGRESSIVE REVOLUTIONARY TRANSFORMATION. The kind which seek to eradicate the gender, race and ultimately the class contradictions in our society. The progress made since the attainment of political freedom can never be measured by how many black millionaires, how many black students are in university and how many black people are BBE’s because there could never be any comparison between an interval of 300 years of exploitation and 16 years of political democracy. It can not be inherent that the working-class and its off-spring will automatically know that their exploited and know where they stand in the social system but both the strata and the class need to be conscienticed by their van-guard parties, in this instance SASCO to van-guard working-class off-springs in the HI’s of Learning across South Africa. Mikhail Bakunin raises a question, “will it be feasible for the working masses to know complete emancipation as long as the education available to those masses continues to be inferior to that bestowed upon the bourgeois, or, in more general terms, as long as there exists any class, be it numerous or otherwise, which, by virtue of birth, is entitled to a superior education and a more complete instruction?” In responding to this fundamental question raised, I would say the complete emancipation of the working-class and its off-spring can never be realised so long as there is class division, because so long as there are classes in society there will always be a need for the periphery which is the working-class and the core which is the capital.

Therefore in essence when we speak of transformation of the Higher Institutions of learning and the society in general we ought to approach in the manner in which will enhance development and integrating the previously disadvantage to the economic system. Taking into account the current socio-economic conditions, they did not fall from the sky but a product of the historical process.

THE ENSAVAGED DESTINATION
National Democratic Revolution and the transformation of the education system are inherently two different things but the NDR is the framework as to approach the transformation of education and the Higher Institutions of learning particularly. Therefore integration of the previously disadvantage people, the rejuvenation of active participation in the economy of working-class and transforming the commanding heights of the economy to serve the people should be on the core of the transformation. And education is will be the liberating and tool for the South African youth, hence the call for deco modification of education but to social service where everyone will be able access Higher Institutions.
And the curriculum that will be able to equip our people is not what is taught now, to be selfish and look down on other people but an integrated curriculum that will respond to crises of our societies. We then ought to have a framework of transformation that will seek to route out academic exclusions; the inconsistent changing of curriculum but that framework must also be able to answer the contradictions of our society and the only way as to resolve the race and the gender question to resolve the class question. That type of NDR is the NDR which is socialist in character preparing our road towards a classless society. That is the kind the kind of transformation we ensavege.



Free education and socialism in our life. . .
Amandla!!!!!!!!
Sibusiso Maneli is Branch secretary of SASCO in Claude Qavane Branch NMMU, P.E


“The aim of education shall be to teach the youth to love their people and their culture, to honour human brotherhood, liberty and peace;
Education shall be free, compulsory, universal and equal for all children;
Higher education and technical training shall be opened to all by means of state”