Nelson Mandela

The past two weeks the media has been filled with the death of Mandela and the tributes to his life. One radio station even discussed the possibility of sainthood for him but likely would have been hard-pressed to find the two requisite miracles. Leaders from around the world rushed to get in on the photo opportunities and profit from the political clout that came from association with Mandela. Not bad for someone who, until quite recently, was considered a terrorist by the world's powers and would certainly be highlighted as such by today's security agencies.

Mandela was born into the Thembu royal family and attended Fort Hare and Witwatersrand Universities, studying law. He was, then, not typical of the average black inhabiting South Africa. He became involved in fighting against colonialism throughout Africa and particularly the apartheid laws of the ruling, white-dominated South African National Party. He secretly joined the South African Communist Party that was committed to overthrowing their white masters and was not averse to using sabotage methods. Mandela eventually ran afoul of the law and was tried and convicted of conspiracy against the state and jailed where he spent twenty-seven years.

Mandela deserves our respect for his life-long struggle against the injustices perpetrated against the Africans by the colonial powers; for his tenacity in enduring almost three decades in a prison system that would not have been sympathetic; for sticking to his fight and for helping to break the apartheid government and establish a democratic system. He became the first black president of South Africa and the first to be to be there through a democratic election. Socialists see this as a step towards socialism as, theoretically, the possibility of electing a socialist government now exists. The working class of South Africa now has a choice, assuming that socialism gets on the ballot.

Unfortunately, as we look at the state of the poor black in South Africa today, all of the above has not translated into security and wealth for the general population. Indeed, poverty has risen, unemployment is still at least as high, and recently government troops fired on striking miners killing dozens. Socialists contend that governments in a capitalist system must uphold the rights of the capitalist class over those of the working class and this is exactly what the black dominated government of the country did. At Mandela's memorial, current president, Jacob Zuma was roundly booed showing the depth of displeasure at current affairs. Apart from the poverty and unemployment among the masses, Zuma stands accused of failing to address the AIDS problem and of corruption and spending $21 million in renovations to his home. Recently, the largest South African union, The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, withdrew its support of President Zuma's ANC Party.

So what went wrong? Unfortunately, socialism as understood by the World Socialist Movement - a society based on the common ownership of the means of producing and distributing wealth, organized democratically in the interests of all mankind - was not on anyone's agenda. The fight was a narrow one to end the excesses of apartheid and domination by the white ruling class. Of course it would be nice to free the workers from economic poverty, establish proper health, housing standards, and give economic opportunity to all. This is not on the agenda of the capitalist system. Ever vaster sums of wealth must be funneled, through the giant corporations, to the large investors. It is a competitive system that pits corporation against corporation in a never-ending scramble for investment by paying higher returns on investment. Everything else must be sacrificed - quality, health and safety of the workers, the environment - or pay the consequences of going out of business or being taken over by bigger fish. This was not clearly understood by Mandela and his party and once in power they were forced to operate much as any other government does or see economic collapse in their country.

Capital dominates, absolutely. Many other so-called socialist governments have met the same fate after the initial euphoria - Chavez in Venezuela and the Brazilian Workers' Party come to mind. The road to good intentions is paved with the dead bodies of Left Wing governments. In capitalism, they cannot compete with their business- oriented opposition who simply want to do what is best for business and therefore receive all the benefits that money can furnish. Mandela and his successors, then, are doomed to failure because they never had a truly class/socialist consciousness. Rather than fighting the effects of colonialism and apartheid, he and his compatriots should have been fighting for a system change from capitalism to socialism that would have ended not just the two main objects of their efforts, but the domination of capital altogether.

The World Socialist Movement is the only non-capitalist alternative that will, once power is gained, disband the nation state and its central government and devolve power to locally elected councils and, indeed, disband itself as political parties are expressions of class and once common ownership is established, there will not be any classes.

Socialist Party of Canada

2014

Mandela's Promises Broken

While Obama, Cameron, Hollande and Merkel cry crocodile tears for Mandela’s passing they will conveniently turn a deaf ear to many of his observations.

“Massive poverty and obscene inequality are such terrible scourges of our times -- times in which the world boasts breathtaking advances in science, technology, industry and wealth accumulation -- that they have to rank alongside slavery and apartheid as social evils.
Overcoming poverty is not a gesture of charity. It is an act of justice. It is the protection of a fundamental human right, the right to dignity and a decent life. While poverty persists, there is no true freedom.” -- Mandela during a 2005 speech on global poverty at London's Trafalgar Square

It is a pity that Mandela and the ANC failed to address the poverty problem and inequality remains South Africa’s greatest issue.

White South Africans, who account for 8.7 percent of the population of 53 million, on average earn six times more than their black counterparts and still have access to better education, medical care and housing. Just 8.3 per cent of blacks over the age of 20 had some post-secondary education in 2011, compared with 37 percent of whites.  The Gini coefficient, a measure of income inequality, has risen to 0.63 in 2009 from 0.59 in 1993, making South Africa one of the world’s most unequal societies. Unemployment is around 26%. according to official figures  but is much higher.  Youth unemployment exceeds 50%. About 80% of unemployed young people never worked or had jobs longer than a year.

During the first decade of ANC rule, around two million South Africans lost homes. Another one million lost farms. Shack dwelling increased 50%.  One-fourth or more of South Africans have no running water or electricity. Around 40% of schools have no electricity.  About 50% of South Africans have inadequate sanitation. Around 40% have no telephones.

HIV/AIDS remains a major problem. South Africa has the world's largest number of affected people. Officially it's over five million. It's more than in North America, Latin America, Eastern Europe and Central Asia combined.

Post-apartheid, life expectancy declined by 13 years. In 2011, it was 58, according to the World Health Organization.

Mandela could have made a difference. He could have fought honestly for a genuine socialist society. He chose instead the policies of the IMF and neo-liberalism. He relegated millions of black South Africans to permanent destitution, unemployment, hunger, malnutrition, homelessness, lost futures and early deaths. Accommodation with capitalism trumped the 1955 ANC's Freedom Charterthat declared "South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and that no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of all the people." and that  "The people shall share in the country's wealth!"  and "The land shall be shared among those who work it!"

the new face of money

“They never freed us. They only took the chain from around our neck and put it on our ankles.” - Anti-apartheid activist

It is not altogether fair to say that Mandela “sold out.” There is simply no escape from the “web” spun by global capital. Indeed, at the national level there is no escape. Capital is global. That is its trump card against any attempt to defy its dictates that is confined within national boundaries. The resistance to capital must also be organised on a global scale if it is to have any chance of success.

South Africa is to issue a complete set of banknotes bearing the image of its first black president, Nelson Mandela. It may seem churlish to begrudge Mandela his current little luxuries or his present adulation after 27 years in prison. But what are his benefactors’ motives?

In South Africa, a number of people with black skins appear to have done very well out of the change-over from white domination apartheid, and become a new elite in control of the toilers.

Mandela pleads for charity

Seems rather than seeking political and social solutions to poverty , Nelson Mandela is now making moral appeals to the benevolence of the capitalist class .

“There are many people in South Africa who are rich and who can share those riches with those not so fortunate who have not been able to conquer poverty,” Mandela said.

But he is certainly 100% correct when he stated "If you are poor, you are not likely to live long,"

Only sheep need leaders

From the Independant

"Do you find yourself staring at the television and pining for a good leader – a person who will rise and make the world right again? Do you long for a Mandela, a Churchill, a Gandhi? Then grow up. Our political debate – what passes for it – increasingly focuses on a search for an elusive Messianic leader who will show us the way. This is the opposite of rational politics...

...Apartheid was not just a system of laws; it was an economic system where a tiny white elite owned almost everything. By 1990, the elite realised they could no longer maintain the laws – but they fought desperately to maintain economic control. They demanded that the land and resources they had stolen from poor blacks be recognised in the constitution as theirs, and never redistributed. They demanded that the new democracy pick up all of apartheid's debts, making spending to lift up the poor majority impossible. They demanded the recognition of "intellectual property rights", making the distribution of cheap Aids drugs unaffordable. They demanded their apartheid finance minister and head of the Central Bank continue in position. Western governments, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank piled in behind them in support.

Mandela agreed to it all. He discreetly buried the ANC's Freedom Charter, with its commitments to clean water, free healthcare and land for all. The result is that today whites own 70 per cent of the South African economy, despite being only 10 per cent of the population. Mandela believed this deal was the only way to prevent white flight and increase poverty. But he was wrong. Since the fall of apartheid, average life expectancy has fallen by 13 years. The black unemployment rate has doubled. This isn't because white ruled ceased; it is because it continues today, with a new black corporate logo..."

Socialists have always been wary of placing our faith , more importantly , placing our political power into the hands of individuals . The American socialist Eugene Debs who several times stood for the presidency of the United States tried to make workers aware of the danger of trusting leadership .

" I never had much faith in leaders. I am willing to be charged with almost anything, rather than to be charged with being a leader. I am suspicious of leaders, and especially of the intellectual variety. Give me the rank and file every day in the week...I would be ashamed to admit that I had risen from the ranks. When I rise it will be with the ranks, and not from the ranks. "

and again more poignantly he also said:-

"I don't want you to follow me or anyone else. If you are looking for a Moses to lead you out of the capitalist wilderness, you will stay right where you are. I would not lead you into this promised land if I could because if I could lead you in, someone else could lead you out."

Today , the World Socialist Movement doesn't have a leader, and nor do any of the Companion Parties, because leadership is undemocratic. If there are leaders, there must be followers: people who just do what they are told.
In the World Socialist Movement, every individual member has an equal say, and nobody tells the rest what to do. Decisions are made democratically by the whole membership, and by representatives or delegates. If the membership doesn't like the decisions of those it elects, those administrators can be removed from office and their decisions overridden.
Only when people have real, democratic control over their own lives will they have the freedom that is socialism.

Still in Chains

From the March 2008 issue of the Socialist Standard

"They never freed us. They only took the chain from around our neck and put it on our ankles." Anti-aparthied activist Rassool Snyman to Naomi Klein.

The fight against the system of racial segregation and white supremacy called apartheid ("apartness" in Afrikaans) was one of the great liberal and left-wing causes of my generation. It was a fight not only for political democracy in South Africa but also for socio-economic reform.The Freedom Charter, adopted by the African National Congress in 1955 (http://www.anc.org.za/), called for "restoring national wealth to the people" (understood as nationalization of the mines, banks and "monopoly industry"), "re-dividing the land among those who work it to banish famine and land hunger," improved pay and working conditions, free healthcare, universal literacy, and decent housing for all.

Apartheid as a political and legal system was dismantled in the early 1990s. South Africa's capitalists did not on the whole object. Apartheid had brought them immense profits from the exploitation of a cheap captive labour force. But it had its drawbacks. By denying training and advancement to a large majority of the workforce, it created a growing shortage of skilled labour. Capitalists are often willing to accept a measure of social change, provided that they can set its limits.

Little change
Although apartheid is gone, economically South Africa is still one of the most unequal countries in the world. Almost all the land, mines and industry remain in the same (mostly white) hands. Almost half the population lives below subsistence level. Unemployment is widespread; children scavenge on dumps and landfill sites from sunrise to sunset seven days a week. Life expectancy is falling (a drop of 13 years since 1990) as AIDS, drug-resistant TB and other diseases spread.

Even segregation still exists in practice. The wealthy take shelter in "gated communities" from the violence pervading the shantytowns. As the wealthy are no longer exclusively but only predominantly white, the proper name for this is class rather than race segregation.

True, efforts have been made to improve living conditions. Close to two million new homes have been built. (Whether they count as "decent housing" is another matter.) Water, telephone and electricity networks have been expanded. But while millions were rehoused, millions were also evicted for rent arrears.

Nine million people were connected to the water supply, but during the same period ten million were disconnected as the price rose out of their reach.

Caught in a web
How did the main reform goals of the Freedom Charter come to be abandoned? Political journalist William Mervin Gumede tells the story in his book Thabo Mbeki and the Battle for the Soul of the ANC (Cape Town: Zebra Press 2005).

While political negotiations, conducted in the glare of publicity, moved the ANC toward government office, parallel and almost unpublicized economic negotiations, led on the ANC side by Thabo Mbeki (now president), ensured that when the ANC did take office it would be unable to act against white business interests. A new clause of the constitution made all private property sacrosanct. Power over economic policy was ceded to an "autonomous" central bank and international financial institutions.

"The ANC found itself caught in a web made of arcane rules and regulations… As the web descended on the country only a few people even noticed it was there, but when the new government … tried to give its voters the tangible benefits they expected the strands of the web tightened and [it] discovered that its powers were tightly bound" (Naomi Klein, The Shock Doctrine pp. 202-3).

Relentless pressure
The ANC hierarchy came under "relentless pressure" from local and international business, the (business controlled) media, foreign politicians, the World Bank and IMF, etc. It was "an onslaught for which the ANC was wholly unprepared" (Gumede, p. 72). This does not mean that crude demands and threats played a crucial role. It was a process more of seduction than intimidation, aimed at integrating a set of new partners into the institutional structure and social milieu of the global capitalist class.

This meant providing opportunities for ANC officials to go into business or train at American business schools and investment banks. Leading figures were lavished with hospitality:

"Harry Oppenheimer [former chairman of Anglo American Corporation and De Beers Consolidated Mines] was eager to entertain Mandela at his private estate, while Anglovaal's Clive Menell hosted him for Christmas (1990) at his mansion . . . While separated from his wife, Mandela's home for several months was the palatial estate of insurance tycoon Douw Steyn . . . His daughter Zinzi had a honeymoon partly financed by resort and casino king Sol Kerzner, and Mandela spent Christmas 1993 in the Bahamas as a guest of Heinz and Independent Newspapers chairman Sir Anthony O'Reilly." (Gumede, p. 72).

It seems churlish to begrudge Mandela a little luxury after 27 years in prison. But what were his benefactors' motives?

The markets: stern taskmasters
Nevertheless, the most effective form of capitalist influence was the impersonal pressure of "the markets." As Mandela told the ANC's 1997 national conference:

"The mobility of capital and the globalization of the capital and other markets make it impossible for countries to decide national economic policy without regard to the likely response of these markets" (Klein, p. 207).

And the markets punished the slightest sign of deviation from the "Washington consensus" with capital flight and speculation against the Rand.

Mbeki was the first to grasp what was needed to win the markets' confidence. Precisely in order to live down its "revolutionary" and "Marxist" past, the ANC leaders had to prove themselves more Catholic than the pope. "Just call me a Thatcherite" – quipped Mbeki as he unveiled his new "shock therapy" programme in 1996.

South Africa could not afford the protectionist measures with which Malaysia, for instance, warded off the Asian financial crisis of 1997. Orthodoxy, however, was never rewarded with the hoped-for flood of foreign investment. The markets are stern taskmasters: they demand everything and promise nothing.

A sell-out?
It is not altogether fair to say that Mandela or Mbeki "sold out." They simply saw no escape from the "web" spun by global capital. Indeed, at the national level there is no escape. Reformers in other countries, such as the Solidarity movement in Poland and Lula's Workers' Party in Brazil, have gone through much the same experience on reaching office. Socialists have long said that socialism cannot be established in a single country. Now we also know that under conditions of globalization even a meaningful programme of reform cannot be implemented in a single country.

Capital is global. That is its trump card against any attempt to defy its dictates that is confined within national boundaries. The resistance to capital must also be organized on a global scale if it is to have any chance of success.

Stefan

Remembering

Britain honored Nelson Mandela by unveiling a 9 feet (2.7 meter) bronze statue showing the anti-apartheid leader gesturing during a speech .

Fellow socialist bloggers on Socialism Or Your Money Back had posted an earlier story about their attitude to this politician .

The same blog also posted an article on another part of South African history which should be remembered , yet , no statue has been raised in London to those now anonymous and nameless workers who died under a hail of police bullets to oppose apartheid .

On both issues , for us socialists , the question is how long will it be before the great oppressed in South Africa (but everywhere really) come to realise that swapping one ruling class for another, regardless of their skin colour, does not end exploitation ? The poor in South Africa are as poor as they were under apartheid , the wealthy just as rich . The poor have exchanged one master for another and they both conform to the stereotypes of capitalism. We own; you do not. We control; you do not. We live in luxury; you live in poverty. Nothing changes; everything stays the same. Mandela notwithstanding.

We refer you to a related previous posts on this blog -Rand-Lords , Comrade Capitalist , ANC - Repressive Force

If Socialist Banner doesn't suffice to persuade then this story may :-

"...It is now 13 years since South Africa turned its back on the oppressive era of apartheid and, in a remarkably peaceful transition, embraced democracy...many of the fruits of freedom have gone to the former black revolutionaries who now hold cabinet posts, sit in Parliament, and hold other government positions with substantial salaries and perks...Shantytowns have not been replaced with affordable housing. Water and electricity and other basic requirements of the infrastructure to support democracy are still lacking for many. Official agencies are sometimes bastions of bureaucratic incompetence and corruption...Though opportunities have arisen for some upper-class blacks to prosper in business, many others still live in squalor. For many, the jobs that they thought would come overnight with democracy have never materialized. Unemployment is running around 25 percent.Thus the big cities such as Johannesburg have become seedbeds for robbery and violent hijacking, making crime South Africa's biggest problem...Crime is apparently not racially motivated. It is black upon affluent black as well as black upon affluent white. It is the war of the have-nots against the haves..."