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> Datum: den 22 februari 2000 17:02
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> Network Africa - Sweden (NAS)
>
> >From Africa and Thr World, January 2000
>
>
> SOS SOUTH AFRICA!
>
> IS THE ANC INVOLVED IN A PLOT TO BETRAY AFRICA?
>
> Dr Jean-Claude Njem, LLD., activist, scholar and attorney-at-law, is a
> native of Cameroon, living and practising in Stockholm, Sweden. He has
> spent many years of his life fighting for freedom of Africa from
> colonialism, neo-colonialism and imperialism, has been vocal and
> uncompromising in the struggle against apartheid and racial oppression in
> South Africa and elsewhere, and a firm supporter of the ANC in the years
of
> struggle. Today, Dr. Njem is very deeply disillusioned and alarmed at the
> neo-colonialist policies of the ANC which is fast transforming itself
into
> a principal ally of international imperialism engaged in a relentless
fight
> to disorganise the African revolution and open up the continent even
wider
> to further exploitation and humiliation.
>
> In the analysis that follows, Dr. Njem shows a deep insight into current
> situation prevailing in South Africa and on the whole African continent,
> and about the state of Africa´s relations with the outside world, in
> particular with the West. He also suggests practical and urgent steps
that
> need to be taken to ward off the imperialist assault and prevent South
> Africa from sliding further down the path of betrayal.
>
> The reader may not agree entirely with the position taken by Dr Njem on
> certain issues. Nevertheless, his position is unequivocally clear, and
his
> arguments are persuasive, backed as they are with historical facts and
> concrete examples. The article has been published with the permission of
> Dr. Njem.
>
> Preface
> I undertook my first trip
> to post-apartheid South Africa in the same mood as for a Muslim
> accomplishing pilgrimage to Mecca.
>
> Hundreds of years of European tyranny had ended with the triumph of
forces
> which led the struggle for a society where equality would reconcile
mankind
> with itself by reinstating humanity in social relationships. Of course, I
> was aware of the complexities of the post apartheid situation where
freedom
> fighters were given the formal control of the govern-ment while the State
> super-structure of violence as well as the entire economic basis of the
> society remained submitted to the will of the forces of social
oppression.
> Since 1994, I have been one of those who maintained that the forces of
> progress in South Africa should be given a délai de grace before being
> jud-ged, that Mandela should not make the same mistake as Allende made
by
> carrying out a frontal attack against the ruling economic interests
before
> consolidating the control of the revolutionary forces over the State
> instruments of violence.
> But this position would be justified only on condition that concrete
> measures are taken by the new government that will gradually weaken the
> material and ideological bases of apartheid as the specific mantle in
> which western imperialist domination in South Africa clothed itself,
> measures that will create the political conditions enabling a qualitative
> change in the economic and social life of the country.
> After staying about three months in the country, after following day
after
> day the different prominent events and their protagonists, after
observing
> the main orienta-tions of the economic, social and political policies of
> the ANC led government, I came to the bitter conclusion that despite the
> formal commitment to socialism by the South African working class, the
real
> life of the society is gradually dominated in all its main aspects by the
> alliance between the Black petit-bourgeois elite and the forces of
> apartheid. Instead of gradually weakening the monopoly of the
> Anglo-American corporation and other western financial and industrial
> oligarchies involved in the exploitation of the countries tremendous
> natural resources, the government has embarked n a course of privatising
> those sectors which even the apartheid system itself found it necessary
to
> place under the ownership of the State, a course of privatisation to
which
> the country´s entire population of Black swindlers in all their
varieties
> are being associated thanks to a growing corrupt system where most of the
> key posts in the administration and the management of economy are awarded
> to family rela-tives, friends and co-swindlers. The most illustrative
> example of this policy is that of a former Secretary General of the
> National Union of Mineworkers and of the ANC now running several
im-portant
> private companies. As a rule, the exercise of a high position within the
> ANC constitutes today a springboard for promotion as a Black businessman.
> One important consequence of this is that most of the cadres of the ANC
> have abandoned politics and turned to business.
> This new, growing Black bourgeois elite finds a community of
> interests with the still dominant apartheid system and on the main
internal
> and external issues they share almost the same views even though they
have
> certain differences in style.
> So, for instance, on the very important issue of violence which
leads
> every year to over 20 000 registered killings, the government refuses to
> realize that the forces of apartheid are the main instigators of violence
> which they use against whoever is considered to be a threat to the
> bourgeois system. As these forces are still controlling the security
> forces, no political murder has ever been cleared up. The assassi-nation
of
> the main leader of the communist party, Chris Hani, has for instance not
> led to any serious investigation. In many cases, after carrying out a
> political assassination, the security forces attribute it to the victims,
> as for instance the Muslim orientated self-defence group called PAGAD
which
> was targeted by the govern-ment as the agent of violence after the group
> organized a peaceful demonstration against the visit of Tony Blair just a
> few days after the Anglo-American bombings of Iraq, a demonstration
during
> which one member of the PAGAD was killed and many others injured.
> Almost the entire apparatus of political and ideological education and
> propaganda has been abandoned to the reactionary forces of imperialism.
> Neither the ANC nor any other progressive force in the country has a
single
> daily newspaper. There is nobody within the ANC to take charge of writing
> or publishing a newspaper as nobody is interested in doing so. The forces
> representing the working class lack the financial means to carry out
their
> duty. There is not a single school in the country for po1itical or
> ideological training of ANC cadres, or even for the cadres of the
communist
> Party. The youth and the rest of the masses know about and appreciate
every
> event from the voice of America and their surrogates in the country.
> In the pages that follow I try to raise an alarm about the threats that
the
> most promi-sing revolutionary force of Africa is subjected to and the
> challenge that these represent to the further development of the
> anti-imperialist struggle of the peoples of our continent.
>
> Stockholm, April 8 1999.
> Jean-Claude Njem
>
>
> Comments and remarks on the ”Draft Programme and Discussion Documents”
> adopted by the Central Committee of the SACP and published under the
title
> Forward to the SACP 10th Congress”, African Communist No 149, Second
> Quarter 1998 (with certain critical views on South African foreign
policy).
>
> fter reading through the entire document, I have, first of all, to
express
> my full adhesion to the proposed programme which confirms the fact that
the
> SACP remains a socialist vanguard within the world revolutionary movement
> against imperialism and solidly carries the banner of social justice.
> The greatest achievement of the South African Communist Party
> throughout its long and glorious history is without doubt the ability it
> has shown in making the ideology of socialism a central issue in the
> political and ideological debate among the South African working classes,
> and to have succeeded in maintaining the prestige of the doctrine of
> scientific socialism even after the disappearance of the Soviet Union and
> in spite of the general counteroffensive of the bourgeois ideology which
is
> trying to put the anti-imperialist movement against the wall in the
> European countries and other parts of the world and which has given a new
> impulse to revisionist and reformist ideologies among the working class
in
> the imperialist countries.
> It is a real blast of fresh air any genuine revolutionary
socialist
> receives when, arriving in Johannesburg, Soweto or Cape Town from Europe
or
> from most parts of Africa, and firmly bearing in mind all the
> renun-ciations, all the treasonable statements and insults which the
ideals
> of socialism are systematically subjected to within these areas, one
finds
> oneself in a country where paroles and songs to socialism flourish in
> newspapers, documents and meetings of workers, youth, students and women,
> even though the main media of the country are still so outra-geously
> dominated by the bourgeois propaganda.
> In spite of its strong commitment to socialism as a necessary and
> rational alternative to the capitalist society, the theoretical analyses
> outlined in the Draft Programme are not, in my view, free of
misjudgements
> and errors, this apparently being dictated by a conscious effort on the
> part of the party to avoid being included in the ranks of those
criticised
> for “pretending that nothing had gone wrong”.
>
> Fulfilling what one might accept as an obligation to theoretically
> admit that the ”real” or the then ”existing socialism” in the Soviet
Union
> and other European states made mistakes - without any further deep-going
> criticism of these societies (especially of the of the Soviet Union) -
> limits, to some extent, the powerfulness of the analyses done by the SACP
> in the Draft Progra-mme, and the revolutionary strategies defined in it
for
> the liberation of the people of South Africa from social exploitation and
> oppression.
> It appears therefore to me as an unavoidable task for the SACP as
well
> as for other revolutionary movements who have remain committed to the
> anti-imperialist struggle, to make an all-sided analysis of the Soviet
> experience, to identify the real antagonistic context in which the
struggle
> for socialism was carried out by the Soviet people and to point out both
> the tremendous social economic and political achievements of the Soviet
> state in accelerating the process of History, on the one hand, and the
> objective and subjective factors of the decline of this historical
> experience, on the other.
> The inability by the communist movement in the advanced capitalist
> states, to carry out this imperative theoretical task, has made it
> impossible for them to propose any practical alternative to capitalism
> which social democratic reformism presents as the only rational mode of
> production in a modern society the only task of the working class and
other
> non-privileged social classes in the bourgeois society being to ask for
the
> improvement of their welfare and without any consideration given to the
> fact that this welfare is the direct result of billions of peoples in the
> capitalist periphery being condemned to slavery, misery and diseases.
> In spite of the ideological bankruptcy of the communist parties in
> Western Europe, where several parties, as in Sweden, for instance, have
> renounced to bear the name “communist”, the SACP Draft Programme affirms
> that in the conditions of growing globalization, working class and other
> progressive forces in the developed countries “are also more inclined to
> work in solidarity with progressive forces in the “South”. In reality,
> nowhere in Western Europe can one witness today what is called in the
Draft
> Programme (p.71) “close solidarity” of the Volkswagen workers in Germany
> with workers in Brazil Mexico or South Africa.
> On the contrary, the various aggressions and threats of aggression the
> imperialist powers resort to against peoples in the former Yugoslavia, or
> against Iraq, Libya, Iran, Sudan, etc., are seen as non-events among the
> working class in Europe. It is only when the whole progressive movement
> remains silent, and entire bourgeois propaganda machinery is mobilised
to
> its support that the USA can have the audacity to persistently dictate to
> the rest of the world that Libya is a terrorist state, that the US and
> British criminal bombings of Iraq’s territory is aimed at protecting the
> people of Iraq, that North Korea, India or Pakistan have no right to
> improve their military defences, while the USA itself, Turkey, France and
> many USA friends can, without any limitation or control, develop their
> military arsenals; that the USA and its allies can call Palestinians, the
> valiant fighters of Northern Ireland and Kurdish nationalists in Turkey
> terrorists, while the real terrorists in Iraq and in Kosovo, Angola and
> Congo are called national liberation movements and enjoy full support
from
> USA and its allies.
> The fact is that no party in the developed capitalist countries is doing
> anything whatsoever today to mobilize the working class and other
> progressive forces in the society for confrontations with the bourgeois
> state. The appeals made from time to time for the “defence of
> the interests of the workers” do not restrain the bourgeois state from
> going on with its privatization process, with its attendant ills of
> unemployment. Railways, mines, telecommu-nications, air transport and
other
> strategic sectors where decades of state owned enterprises have shown
great
> successes, are arbitrarily being privatized despite limited protests
from
> different circles.
> The appreciation given in the Draft Programme, of the new social
movements
> such as anti-racist, ecological, peace movements, human rights groups of
> all kinds, gender groups, etc., is likewise super-ficial, if not
subjective.
> The reality is that the role of these movements and groups is in many
> concrete cases to divide or weaken the working class and the
> anti-imperialist movement as a whole, to de-politicize the opposition to
> the capitalist state, or to just condemn, as does so often the
CIA-created
> “Amnesty International”, the violation of human rights and the pollution
> of the environment “wherever they occur”, while concentrating their
attacks
> on North Korea, China, Cuba, Libya, Iraq, etc. Without denying certain
> isolated actions by some of these groups, in support of a progressive
> movement in the South, it seems to me unjustified to raise these
movements
> to the rank of an internationalist movements of our time.
>
> Capitalism has lost any vitality as an independent economic system.
> The analysis made of the concept of globalization, although identifying
> certain characteristics of the pheno-menon, fails to capture its main
> element or characteristic: namely, the fact that the conquest, by the
> capital of the advanced industrialized countries, of entire continents,
and
> the transformation of the resources in these continents, into economic
> resources of imperialist metropolis in North America, Japan and Western
> Europe, is not and cannot be an objective consequence of the development
of
> the capitalist mode of production at world scale in the process of
History,
> but rather a consequence of a sum of subjective acts of violence by which
> the capitalist states have during the past five hundreds years, occupied
> countries of Asia, Africa and South America, with their natural and human
> resources being violently transformed into the main source of
development
> of the national economies of the imperialist states.
> This état de fait is not more objective than were the economic systems of
> slavery and serfdom (some of whom are today’s capitalist aristo-crats
which
> means, among other things, that the former slaves and serfs were not
bound
> by any objective force independent from the human will but rather by a
> political, military and religious (ideolo-gical) apparatus of violence in
> the service of the exploiting class.
> The present world situation is likewise a mere consequence of the balance
> of forces between the exploiting capital ist powers-which lack any
> resources of their own, necessary for maintaining the capitalist
domination
> over millions of workers in the capitalist metropolis-and the peoples of
> Africa, South America and Asia-who are deprived of their economic
> resources as factors of their development, which resources constitute the
> essential factor of vitality of the imperialist economy- a situation
which
> implies the retention of an oppressive and costly military, political and
> financial oligarchy at world scale. The transitional, historical
character
> of this sub mission of entire continents to a handful imperialist states
is
> evidenced furthermore by the fact that billions of peoples in the
occupied
> continents as well as millions of pariahs of the false prosperity of the
> national state in the capitalist metropolis, are rejecting the
imperialist
> system and are struggling in various ways to put an end to it.
> The main contradiction of capitalism, as a mode of production, is
that
> between the social character of the production and the private form of
> appropriation of the product of the social labour. In terms of the
present
> capitalist world system, the main contradiction is between the world
> character of production and the monopolistic form of appropriation by big
> financial and industrial groups in a handful of capitalist metropolis, of
> the product of the labour of billions of workers around the world. It is
> obvious for any one with common sense that such an unjust and cynical
> social system at world scale cannot survive except by violence.
> It follows that the main weakness of the capitalist mode of production in
> its imperialist stage lies in its parasitic character; in the fact that
its
> survival implies the exclusion of 3/4 of humankind from the benefit of
the
> tremen-dous progress of the material and scientific achievements of
> civilization. In other words capitalism has lost any vitality as a mode
of
> production at a national scale It keeps its vitality only as a world
> system, its survival in the capitalist metropolis inseparably depen-ding
on
> the appropriation of the resources of the countries of its periphery for
> which access to progress is closed even when they choose the capitalist
> option.
>
> Capitalism cannot survive if cut off from its periphery
> Another conclusion to be drawn from this is that the capitalist system
> could not survive more than a year in Western Europe, U.S.A, Canada,
Japan,
> the present North-South system of economic and commercial relationships.
> The end of this world system would deprive capitalism of its imperative
> source of vitality, of the only condition of its existence in modern
times
> with, as a major consequence, the simultaneous victory of socialist
> revolutions in the capitalist metropolis. On the contrary, no victory
over
> capitalism is possible, as far as Africa, Asia and South America and the
> Pacific continue to be nothing but reserves of cheap labour, raw
materials
> and cheap agricultural products for industrialized countries, as
consumers
> of imported indu-strial products from the capitalist metropolis.
> Furthermore, the main contradiction between world capitalism and the
> countries of its periphery is antagonistic, in the sense that the
progress
> of one of the two sides of the contradiction implies the regression of
the
> other. Any compromise for the benefit of both sides is objectively
> impossible. It is therefore an imperative task for the peoples of the
> capitalist periphery as well as for the anti-imperialist forces in the
> capitalist societies, to unite in each country and interna-tionally, for
a
> total and syste-matic struggle against imperialism.
> This task must be given priority over any other by the forces of progress
> and, above all, by the vanguard of the workers movement in each country.
> This task can in its turn be achieved only through the liquidation of the
> political and economic factors of imperialism in developing countries,
> through the conquest of the economic and political power by the
> anti-imperialist forces in these countries.
> The consolidation of the forces of socialism must therefore be the
constant
> concern of the revolutionary forces in each country. This task cannot be
> carried out with success without a systematic political and ideological
> education of the masses, without a systematic struggle against the
> bourgeois ideology in all its forms.
> Parallel with actions aiming at consolidating the factors of the
socialist
> revolution in each country must be developed actions aimed at supporting
> and strengthening the anti-imperialist movement in the developing
countries.
> The appreciation done in the SACP Draft Programme, on the so called new
> objective realities and the subsequent opinion that “globalization holds
> opportunities for South Africa and other developing countries”, that
“these
> opportu-nities arise from the fact that world trade is expanding and that
> globalization has been associated with a communica-tions and
> info-technical revolution, that rapid expansion of world
> trade has created certain possibilities for a country like South Africa
to
> boost its economic growth by increa-sing exports as well as
simul-taneously
> achieving or diversifying exports that could reduce our dependence on
> primary products” have, in my view nothing in common with the reality.
The
> question concerning the existence or non-existence of opportunities for
> South Africa and other developing countries, created by the process of
> globalization, cannot logically be appreciated from the fact that world
> trade is expanding, that globali-zation has been associated with
> communications and info-technical revolution, or from the assumption
that
> it has created certain possibilities for South Africa to boost its
economic
> growth by increasing exports, etc. What is to be given key importance are
> the conditions under which the said expansion of trade communications and
> info-technical revolution, etc., have been achieved.
> The ongoing process of globalization of capitalism does not imply any
> expansion of the capitalist system to all countries and continents, but
is
> rather an attempt to create a unified world system as mentioned above,
with
> a handful of capitalist countries, with 10 % of the natural and human
> resources of the world prospering by appropriating 90% of the resources
of
> the countries of the South, where billions of peoples
are
> compelled to backwardness and misery and to a non-capitalist, agrarian so
> -ciety.
> It is also wrong, from the historical point of view, to situate from the
> late 60s, the emergence of the transnatio-nalisztion of capital. At the
> beginning of the 19th century, revolutionary thinkers descri-bed
> imperialism as the new phase of the evolution of capitalism,
characterized
> by the concentration of the capital, by the primacy of financial capital
> over industrial capital and linked with this, an increasing process of
> capital export, etc.
> An example: in spite of the growing antagonism covering the entire period
> stretching between the two world wars-between France and Britain, on the
> one hand, and Germany, on the other-the process of concentration and
> internationalization of capital between the three countries was
> perma-nently increasing. On the eve of the Second world war, certain
French
> and British financial and industrial circles linked with German big
trusts
> refused to support France’s and Britain’s policy of confrontation with
> Germany.
> The ongoing globalisation is therefore nothing but the
> expansion of that same process, the most important aspect of the new
phase
> being the political unity of the imperialist states in their ambition to
> impose this process as a rule of an international legal system legalizing
> the inclusion of the non capitalist countries, as periphery, into the
world
> capitalist system.
> The assertion that “in societies like South Africa, socialism will
> have to be built in a country, a region and a world dominated by
> capitalism” is an obvious assertion, but this should not imply any
> legitimization of reformism as a possible substitute to socialist
> revolution. One of the most important tasks to be carried out for the
> psychological preparation of the masses and the revolutionary forces for
> crucial battles against the neo-colonialist state-is a clear indication
> that the goal of the revolutionary movement in its various forms and
areas
> is the abolition of the capitalist system and the conquest and exercise
of
> power in the society by the masses themselves.
> The fight within the Alliance to impose the socialist orientation as the
> common goal for all the partners in the Alliance-beginning with the
ANC-is
> a point that needs to be clarified, a condition for the survival of the
> Alliance as a revolutionary social move-ment. It is evident that if the
> ANC, as the main political force (numerically) within the Alliance, is
not
> by its political program, committed to socialism, the pro-bourgeois
forces
> within the ANC will be gradually strengthening their positions- which
> would unavoi-dably lead either to more political frictions within the
> Alliance, or to a non-socialist, neo-colonialist orientation of the
> general policy of the Alliance, with a gradual isolation of the forces
> representing the interests of the working classes.
> Once the final goal of socialism is clearly indicated to the masses, the
> next task of the forces of socialism is to carry out a sustained action
in
> all the key sectors of the society: state apparatus (army,
> administration... ),economy, education (formation of highly qualified
> cadres) mass media-aimed at accumulating the strategic factors enabling
the
> shift of the balance of class forces in favour of socialism.
> The fact that certain elements of the African bourgeoisie had supported
the
> anti-apartheid struggle should not be exploited to justify failure to
apply
> a systematic struggle against bourgeois ideology within the society in
> general, and especially within the ANC-a systematic denunciation of every
> attempt by the bourgeois elite and specially, the African bourgeoisie, to
> consolidate their positions with in the state structures as well as
within
> the economic structures of the country, in alliance with both the
external
> and internal forces of imperialism. The longer one waits before carrying
> out the ideological and political struggle against the corrupt African
> elite the more real the danger that the broad masses, especially the
youth
> will be de-politicised. One of the most illustrative evidences of this
> process is the policy carried out of promoting Black businessmen, a
policy
> which has been welcomed by the apartheid private sector. There is not a
> single example in History (except in the post Soviet Russia and in former
> socialist countries in Eastern Europe) of capitalists being created by
> decisions of government. The policy of creating Black businessmen means
> that instead of buying shares in the privately owned industries or banks,
> the government is supporting the transfer to a number of Black citizens
> picked up from 40 million South Africans equally entitled to be
capitalist,
> 30 % or more shares in the exploi-tation of the country’s mineral
> resources. It is not surprising that the financial
> oligarchies also support this policy while they are systematically
> discou-raging any participation of the state in the ownership over
> national resources. It is even more significant that former leaders of
the
> ANC, trade un-ions and government are the recipients of this scandalous
> capitalist promotion.
> The political and ideo-logical struggle against the danger of corruption
of
> the African elite must be syste-matically carried out within all the main
> social groups-workers, youth, students, women-which implies a systematic
> fight against any form of trade unionism”, in the sense that
> the revolutionary elements must play their mobilizing role within each
of
> these social groups, making it clear for women, students, youth or
workers
> that their specific rights as individual groups can never
> be guaranteed within the framework of the capitalist system - the best
> justification of this assumption being the billions of women, men, youth,
> students and workers in the countries of the capitalist periphery, who
are
> condemned to unemployment, misery, intellectual backwardness and
diseases,
> as a direct and necessary consequence of the world
> capitalist system- and that the struggle against unemployment, gender
> discri-mination, social segregation in its diverse aspects can gain
> momentum only if it is linked with the political struggle against
> capitalism - the system to which unemployment, gender discrimination and
> other forms of social discrimination are bound as fruits are attached to
> the tree that bears them. This implies that all the revolutionary forces
> in each country and worldwide, and especially, the revolutionary forces
in
> the industrialized countries, must explain in a systematic manner to the
> workers, women, youth, students, unemployed people that as an economic
> system within national borders, capitalism has lost any vitality and
could
> not survive a single year without its inhuman plunder of tremendous
natural
> resources in Asia, Africa, South America and the Pacific, where billions
of
> peoples are main-tained in slavery; It has to be systematically explained
> to the masses that more than 55 % of the national income of major
> countries like the USA, Japan, and other imperialist states, come today
> from activities of American, Japanese compa-nies and other imperialist
> powers abroad, that private companies from these imperialist powers
control
> 80 % of world production and trade of oil and other main strategic
mineral
> resources such as gold, diamonds, platinum, cobalt, copper, chrome, etc.,
> 90 % of which are found in Asia, Africa, South America, the Pacific and
the
> former Soviet Union.
> The liquidation of the present world system of commer-cial and economic
> relation-ships and the introduction of a new world system guarantee-ing
the
> equality of partners and the balance of trade terms between the
industrial
> products on the one hand, and raw materials and agricultural products on
> the other, would show the objective limits of capitalism as a national
> economic system, generalize and hasten the fall of capitalism in the
> industrialized countries. The liberation of the tremendous resources of
> Africa, Asia, South America and the Pacific from the practical ownership
> over them, by big capitalist companies in 20 industrialized countries,
> appears therefore, for any genuine socialist, as an imperative factor of
> the socialist revolution in these countries.
> The impetus of revolutio-nary movements and revolts in Africa, Asia,
South
> America and the Pacific, against imperialism must therefore become one of
> the main strategic tasks of the anti-imperialist move-ment in its
present
> compo-sition. This option is the only one which responds to the objective
> needs of harmonizing the tremendous progress of science and the material
> production capability at world scale and the material and spiritual
> liberation of the entire human kind. The alternative option is that which
> has been followed up to now-which departs from the wrong and subjective
> assumption that capitalism conserves sufficient internal forces enabling
it
> to survive as a leading mode of production in the so-called
> post-industrialized society- a subjective assumption which has been
fuelled
> by the defeat of the Soviet Union in the ”cold war”.
> Another conclusion follo-wing from the analysis above is that the Soviet
> Union and other socialist states in the leading industrial countries have
> been engaged in a global conflict with world imperialism under such
> conditions where the balance of economic forces between the antagonistic
> blocs was to a considerable extent so detrimental to the socialist bloc
> that its defeat was unavoidable as far as the imperialist econo-mies were
> controlling 80% of the natural and human resour-ces in the non-socialist
world
> Instead of pointing to certain evident subjective mistakes which have
> occurred in the course of the Soviet Union’s evolution, it is the
> objec-tive, material balance of forces, the marginal place the socialist
> economies were occupying in the exploitation of and trade with the
economic
> resources of the planet which must seen as the real causes of the defeat
of
> socialism in the cold war.
> A deep-going and scientific analysis of the emer-gence and survival of
> imperialism as the supreme stage of capitalism and the identi-fication of
> the necessary factors of that emergence and sur-vival lead to the
following
> conclusions, among others:
> 1. The transformation of capitalism into imperialism is a necessary
> condition of its survival;
> 2. Imperialism is impossi-ble without the prerequisites that give birth
to
> it, that is, among other things, the territorial and political occupation
> by the imperialist states, of large parts of the under-developed
countries
> through-out the world and the appro-priation, by violence, of the means
of
> production of these countries.
> 3. The victory of socialism over capitalism as a mode of production in
the
> process of History will remain an utopia as far as the imperialist system
> retains its control over the largest part of the world´s means of
production.
>
> The peoples of the Third world as well as the peoples in the imperialist
> states must then answer the question: how long will the entire human kind
> remain condemned to poverty and wars for the sake of entertaining a
number
> of parasites who limit the progress of the sciences and material
production
> in order to maintain their privileges and egoism?
> The world revolutionary forces have no reason to define their
strategies
> from a position of weakness, but, on the contrary, from their full
> acknowledgement and conviction that in the era of the triumph of the
> sciences and human creativity, capitalism has become the exclusive
obstacle
> to the creation of an eman-cipated, peaceful, prosperous and happy human
> society.
>
> The prerequisites for a successful struggle against imperialism in South
> Africa
> South Africa can develop as an independent capitalist society only
through
> its transformation into an imperialist state, through its financial,
> industrial and commercial expansion over continents-at the cost of
> prevailing financial, industrial and commercial oligarchies of North
> America, Japan and Western Europe. It follows that South Africa, within
the
> framework of the capitalist division of labour, can develop only in the
> direction of South Korea, Taiwan or Brazil-which means, as an extension
of
> American, Japanese and West European financial and industrial groups,
with
> the transfer of technology to areas where they enjoy sharply reduced
costs
> of labour, raw material, sharp cuts in taxes on profits, etc.
> Taking into account its high population, one can conclude that South
> Africa, in this respect, would more likely follow the example of Brazil,
> with foreign financial and industrial trusts expanding in the country
while
> millions of citizens live in total misery. With the liquidation of
> apartheid as a political system stricto sensu, Blacks will now in growing
> numbers, integrate into the well-established structures of the
> neo-colonialist state, both within public administration and civil
society,
> within the management not only of the dominant private sector, but also
of
> the state and parastatal companies.
> The economic interests of this new Black elite will more and more come
into
> conflict with the interests of the majority of the population resulting
as
> a necessary consequence, in the gradual strengthening of the objective
> alliance between the Black elite and the dominant neo-colonialist,
> post-apartheid system. This evolution of the Black elite-from a component
> of the anti-apartheid forces, into an ally of imperialist forces in South
> Africa is inevitable, as social classes cannot define their position in
> political struggles in opposition to their material interests. As a
matter
> of fact, it is not social consciousness that determines social being, but
> rather social being that deter-mines social consciousness.
> The unavoidable confron-tation between the working masses and the new
> alliance of Black bourgeois elite with imperialist forces post-apartheid
> South American society must therefore start without delay, before the
> strengthening of the political and economic influence of the Black
> bourgeois elite as a social strata under the cover of which the
> neo-colonialist state will try to stabilize and legitimize itself.
> The working classes and all the victims of the imperialist system must,
> without delay, resort to systematic action aimed at gradually
strengthening
> the anti-impe-rialist forces within the state apparatus as well as at
> controlling the economic life of society. More concretely, in controlling
> the means of produ-ction-this being a necessary factor for weakening
> imperialist foundations in society. Any delay in the execution of this
task
> would only result in an increasing weakening of revol-utionary
potentials.
>
> African Unity: a categorical imperative of socialist revolution in South
> Africa
> Another weakness in the Draft Programme of the SACP is the lack of any
> reference to what I consider as one of the most important tasks of the
> South African revolutionary movement, namely: the task of
> supporting and providing an impetus to the anti-imperialist movement in
> Africa, of uniting the revolutionary forces of our continent in the
> struggle for achieving the political inde-pendence of African countries
as
> a condition of achieving the economic and political
unity
> of Africa, taking as an example the ongoing process of econo-mic and
> political unity of Europe.
> Co-operation within the framework of the OAU under its present form, as
> elaborated in the Draft Programme, can only lead to an acceptance of the
> changes in 1965 that led to a transformation of the OAU from a
> revolutionary, anti-imperialist movement of the African peoples, into an
> instrument for stabilizing the neo-colonialist status-quo in the majority
> of African states, as a result of the organization being dominated, since
> that date, by a majority of pro-imperialist puppet states and the
> aban-donment by the organisation, of the anti-imperialist line of action
> of the then “Casablanca Group”.
> The experience of the 35 years of the OAU clearly bears witness to the
fact
> that this organization has been unable to expose and still less, solve
the
> remotest problem regar-ding African unity. Not a single road, not a
single
> runway or telephone line has been built, not a single joint economic
> programme has been introdu-ced with the view to creating the conditions
> enabling our young and weak economies to resist foreign domination. The
> only accountable achievement of the OAU remain to this date, the annual
> summit meetings of African heads of state, leaving in their trail heavy
> financial costs to the participant countries.
> We share the opinion that in spite of its economic potentials, South
Africa
> could not achieve the goal of building a socialist economy as an isolated
> experience, within an African geo-economic spacium- remaining in the
> periphe-ry of imperialism.
> South Africa is, in fact, the last hope of the African revolutionary
> movement. Due to its enormous natural resources and its relatively
> developed industrial produc-tion base, and in a joint action with the
rest
> of the continent which contains a big part of the economic resources
> available on the so-called free market, South Africa has the capacity of
> giving a push - in a clever manner-to important political changes in
> African countries- in the sense of reinforcing the progressive
> forces-without facing direct aggression from Western powers in form of
> military intervention or eco-nomic and commercial embargo. The promotion
of
> anti-imperialist changes in the rest of Africa is one of the guarantees
of
> the success of a socialist experience in South Africa. On the contrary,
the
> integration of South Africa into the neo-colonialist system of the OAU
> would only lead to a non-principled position of South Africa on major
> political issues linked with the further development of both South Africa
> and the rest of the continent, to the loss by South Africa, of the
> tremendous capital of trust it enjoys today throughout the continent.
> In order to fulfil its task as the most important detachment
(economically)
> of the African liberation movement from the imperialist yoke, South
Africa
> must define its attitude on any political conflict within a given African
> country or between different African states, in the interest of the
> consolidation of the anti-imperialist forces and the weakening of the
> pro-imperialist forces, no matter under which cover they hide
them-selves.
> South Africa could not act in the interest of the consolidation of the
> anti-imperialist forces in South Africa and the rest of the continent by
> taking on different political conflicts in Africa a position of
neutrality
> or “wisdom”, which would result in isolating those African states which
are
> resisting the intervention in their domestic affairs by imperialist
powers
> which encourage or create civil wars or wars between African states and
by
> so doing, contribute to aggra-vating the economic fragility of these
> countries.
> South Africa must assume leadership of the anti-imperialist move-ment of
> the African Peo-ples
> One of the weapons used by the imperialist powers in trying to maintain
the
> econo-mic dependence of African states on western powers is the creation
> of all kinds of opposition groups, including military groups, whose
> objective is to create political unrest and economic chaos. So, for
> instance, under Haile Selassie, the separatist movement in Eritrea was
> labelled a terrorist organisation and combated by all western powers
> without exception. After the fall of the feudal and obscurantist regime
and
> the installation of the socialist regime led by Mengistu which started a
> deep-going programme of economic and social transformations-with the
> nationalization of the country’s main means of production, a land reform
> and the empowerment of rural and urban masses through the creation of
> “Kebeles”-forms of people’s collectives-western powers declared war on
> Ethiopia and created altogether 5 new separatist military groups in
Tigre,
> Oromo, Ogaden, etc. which joined the already existing Eritrean separatist
> movement now called a nationalist movement.
> An American army general was sent to Sudan to organize and supervise the
> military operations against what was called “the totalitarian regime of
> Mengistu”.
>
> One of the consequences of these artificially created wars was to render
> impossible the implementation of the vast programme of economic and
social
> transformations laun-ched by the country which was forced to allocate a
big
> part of its already limited financial resources to finance the national
war
> effort. The socialist experience could now survive only with the
increasing
> support of the entire socialist block, mainly the Soviet Union, Cuba,
GDR,
> Czechoslovakia. With the fall of the socialist block in 1989, there
> remained no material force to support the socialist regime in the
> conditions of generalized civil wars.
> The revolutionary forces in Africa and the rest of the world cannot,
> therefore, be reinforced through a policy consistent with joining the
> western propaganda machinery in denouncing dictatorship states which, no
> matter how weak their commitment to socialism may appear, are facing
> desta-bilizing groups in the service of neo-colonialist forces.
> The recent “Amnesty International” report concerning “massive
> abuses of human rights in Congo”-published, as if by coincidence, a day
> before the opening of the so- called Franco-African summit in Paris,
28-29
> November last year (where President Kabila was to appear), and largely
> broadcast through all the Western TV and other media-including South
> African-is a brilliant example of the malicious undermining propaganda
> western powers always resort to in the attempt to discredit and weaken
the
> position of a developing country with ambition of trying to freely chose
> its own way of development.
> We must therefore express our concern with regard to the present world
> situation when imperialism shows its unity in dealing with the major
> international issues affe-cting the sovereign rights of all peoples and
> nations to self determination and progress-like issues concerning the
> former Yugoslavia, lraq, Congo, Libya, etc.-while the anti-imperialist
> forces respond by a silent approval or by holding unprincipled speeches
on
> democracy in general, dicta-torship in general, peace in general or
human
> rights in general; for instance, talking- on the present war in the DR
> Congo- of “the necessity of sitting and discussing” with rebels,
including
> soldiers from the former Mobutu army or a “national liberation front” of
a
> certain “son of a Congolese billionaire” who opened his own war front in
> November last year.
> The ANC government and other progressive forces in South Africa should
> never forget where they come from and what the conditions and
> factors were of their final victory over the fascist regime of
> apartheid and its creators and supporters as they
should
> never ignore the categorical conditions of transforming the end of
> apartheid (which was not the ultimate goal per se of the anti-apartheid
> struggle) into a point of departure of the struggle for the liberation
> of the country’s gigantic natural resources and the masses
> from imperialist domination, from social exploitation and
oppression-which
> is still the dominant characteristic of the South-African socio-economic
> situation.
> By putting up an attitude of indifference toward what is going on in the
DR
> of Congo, in Angola or in Zimbabwe, by refusing to identify the forces
> which stand behind Savimbi, the worst of apartheid’s puppets, or behind
the
> former soldiers of the Mobutu regime, another faithful ally of apartheid,
> or the white colonialist interests behind the present anti-Mugabe
campaign,
> the ANC led government would practically show itself to be no more than a
> continuation of the apartheid regime as a stronghold of imperialism in
its
> destabilizing policy against African states, a policy designed to keep
the
> neo-colonialist status-quo in these states. And the ANC government could
> not apply such a political line in the name of the progressive and
> deprived masses of South Africa, because such a political line would only
> be an expression of the consolidation of the links between the leading
> forces within the ANC government on the one hand, and on the other hand
the
> forces of neo-colonialism and imperialism which had found in the
apartheid
> system an appropriate form of a neo-colonial state enabling the
> preservation of the domination of the international financial and
> industrial oligarchies-above all, the Anglo-American- over the tremendous
> natural resources of Southern and Central Africa. This is unfortu-nately
> the case to day with the situation in most of the so-called fron-tline
> States who suffered tremendous material and human losses as a
conse-quence
> of the full support given to the ANC in the struggle against apartheid.
In
> Angola, Savimbi gets his main military help from pro-apartheid forces in
> South Africa with the ANC Government doing nothing to stop it. Savimbi
has
> a representation in South Africa where he owns many properties,
inclu-ding
> a hospital. On the issue of internal conflicts in Congo and Zimbabwe or
in
> Caprivi (Namibia), South Africa finds itself even here on the side of the
> forces of destabilization.
> After the fall of the apartheid regime, there remains only two
alternative
> political lines in South African society: the capitalist,
neo-colonialist
> line-in alliance with the world imperialism-on the one hand, and the
> anti-imperialist, socialist line, on the other. Any other line in the
kind
> of preaching “unity between the poor and the rich” leads only to
diverting
> people and rendering the necessary economic, political and social changes
> for which hundreds of thousands of South African sons and daughters have
> given their lives.
> The agreements sign-ed recently between the United States and the ANC-led
> Government by which US imperialists were given the task of training the
> military and security for-ces of South Africa is one of the indication of
> the bourgeois orientation cho-sen by the present South African
Government.
> It is deeply depressing to state the fact that South African leaders seem
> to have chosen the way of folklore dances and large and noisy Nigger
> laughters in front of the cameras while the imperialists are planing to
> maintain their plunder of our resources for thou-sands of years to come.
> The ideology of “negritude” must definitely be banned from our continent.
> Africa needs more visionaries of the calibre of Khadafi, Nasser,
Um
> Nyobe, Nkru-mah...
> The key role of the ANC and South Africa in the anti-imperialist struggle
> of the African peoples does not lie in any imaginary inventions about
some
> “extremists” or some “Muslim groups aiming at destabilizing South Africa”
> as a main ANC leader put it. The ANC´s role in the anti-imperialist
> struggle of the peoples of the world has been perceived and underlined by
> the ANC throughout the long struggle against the colonial system of
> apartheid. In its political report to the Morogoro Conference of the
> African National Congress April 25-May 1,1969 in Tanzania, The national
> Executive Committee stated very clearly that “The unity of all
progressive
> forces against imperialism and the mobi-lization of the vast masses of
the
> people into a united anti-imperialist front will constitute a mighty and
> invincible force for the destruction of imperialism”.
> Reaffirming that ”the African National Congress is deeply interested in
the
> unity of the anti-imperialist movement”, the Morogoro Conference further
> stated:
> “We of South Africa have taken charge of a sector that is vital to the
> success of the struggle against imperialism. The whole of the
revolutionary
> forces of the world look upon us to play our role in this struggle. Our
> international duty is clear. Let us march against the enemy” (In “The
> African Communist”,No 38,Third quarter 1969).
> Three decades later, the imperialist hegemonic ambi-tion over Africa and
> the world is more determined than ever before. The task of the
> anti-imperialist struggle of the peoples of South Africa and the rest of
> our continent has become more imperative. But ANC leaders pretend that
the
> interests of the majority of the South African people can be reconciled
> with the uncha-llenged domination of Anglo-American trusts over the human
> and natural resources of Southern Africa with the integration of a
handful
> of fabricated Black businessmen.
> It is also without any basis in the historical reality and certainly due
to
> predetermined and metaphysical, “anti-dogmatic” indignation to assert as
> is done in the Draft Progr-amme,p.77, that “instead of approaching the
> social reality of the religious belief- with historical, class and
> dialectical understanding, communists tended to approach religion
> metaphysically-it was seen mechanically and dogmatically as a “rival”
> belief system to be defeated at all costs”.
> Marxist theory and communist experience in different countries have never
> dealt with religion per se, cut from class struggles throughout History.
> Contrary to the above mentioned asser-tion in the Draft Programme of the
> SACP, Marxism is the only ideology which has done an historical,
> anti-metaphysical study of religions. Faithful to the marxist principle
> according to which any social activity has to be judged always from the
> answer to be given to the question: in whose interest the said activity
is
> carried out, communists have never made any study or any pronounce-ment
on
> religion without any link to concrete political strugles in which
> religion has been used in a way or another by the reactionary classes
> either as an integrated part of political and military actions against
the
> oppressed classes, or in an attempt to divert the oppressed masses from
any
> political commitment.
> Throughout History, Western religions have shown themselves not as
thoughts
> on the belief in the primacy of God, but as part of the whole social
> apparatus of oppression.
> One of the most illustrative examples of that reality is given by
> Christianity, which bears the name of one of the greatest and most
glorious
> oppositions to the phenomenon of social and political oppression in
> History. After having crucified Jesus and his followers, the Roman Empire
> and later on, the different states which arose from the dissolved
Imperium,
> succeeded in transforming the formidable spiritual force of Christianity
> into the main ideological instrument in the service of the ruling classes
> in their attempt to impose their political and social domination over
> peoples throughout continents- under the feudal and later, the capitalist
> systems.
> The Roman Church was first used both to conquer other continents under
the
> banner of crusades and then to fight the growing opposition to feuda-lism
> which culminated in the movement of Protestantism and the Saint
> Bartholomew Night massacres. Later on, the Roman Church allied itself
with
> almost all the tyrannical regimes which followed each other in different
> dominant states of Europe, in spreading their supremacy in the form of
> colonial conquests and wars.
>
> upport to Hitler, the Roman Church declared war in 1947 on what was
called
> the “Bolschevic totalitarian state” which was accused by Pope Pius XII of
> “opposing the order established by the Creator”, by the very fact of
> abolishing private property and social hierarchy.
> In a little country like Cameroon, the national libera-tion movement
> against French colonialism-the Union of Peoples of Cameroon- UPC, was,
in
> 1951 - 3 years after its creation- declared “the repre-sentative of Satan
> on the Earth”, in an “episcopal letter” issued by a council of bishops in
> all French colonies meeting in Dakar, Senegal. This, in spite of the fact
> that several UPC leaders were active adepts of Islam or members of the
> Protestant Church which had no direct links with the French colonial
lobby.
> More recently, at the end of November 1998, one of South Africa’s TV
> channels showed a big religious meeting in New York or Chicago, during
> which one of the speakers, a lady from India, denounced, under applauds
> from the public, what she called the three enemies of mankind at the
> present time: “Communism, nationalism and racism”. Such are some of the
> historical realities which, throughout the recent History, brought about
> different clashes between Commu-nism and religion.
> On the other hand, it has to be pointed out that freedom of religion was
> guaranteed by law in the Soviet state even though religions had no right
to
> break the law in force or to preach against the existing social system.
> Furthermore, religions did not bear any responsibility for the education
of
> the youth, which fell, by law, within the exclusive prerogative of the
state.
> It is likewise subjective and in opposition to the reality it is assumed
in
> the Draft Programme of the SACP that “the institutionalization of
socialism
> in the Soviet Union in the Stalin years established a tradition of
> Marxism-Leninism that sought to be all-embra-cing, total”, that
> Marxism-Leninism “became a “science” of everything” or that metaphysics
and
> speculative philosophy came to be enshrined with Marxism-Leninism”. These
> assertions are altogether nothing but arbitrary judgements.
> For instance, the Soviet State has never imposed uniformity in literature
> or arts. The Soviet literature glorifies both Pushkin, Lermentov or
Gorki.
> The marxist realism in art produced geniuses like Eisenstein in cinema,
> generations of great classic dancers sportsmen who never profited in
> practising dance or sport or were paid millions of dollars for being good
> boxers, or good classical dancer.
> Of course the Soviet art was based on high moral principles. Cinema, mass
> media, just as dance, were to serve the aim of creating a world of peace
> and harmony between peoples and nations-within every society as well as
> between different nations. In the name of these high moral principles,
> films showing individual violence, killings, individual heroes against
> collective interest, or calling for race contempt, for prostitution and
> other forms of humiliation of women were of course forbidden-not only in
> words but also in deed-as also were the manufacture and sale of war toys
> for children, drugs, homosexuality and the like.
> All these measures can only honour the Soviet state and communism as a
> historic social experience. A compara-tive social system based on high
> moral values is the present Jamahiriya society in Libya which is to day
the
> most peaceful, equal, humanist and happy society for both women and men,
> cut off from the exaggerated permissiveness of the western way of life.
> Inculcating in the masses -workers, youth, women a sense of
> responsibility, educating them systematically in the high moral values
of
> socialism, their permanent involvement in the fights against the
bourgeois
> social system, ideologies and way of life, were sought to be higher
social
> necessities, which dictated an appropriate individual and collective
> discipline. The experience of struggle for a new society, in an
environment
> of a capitalist hostile world is something other than metaphysical
> speculations on the ideal form of socialism-which will be possible only
> once socialism has become the dominant economic mode of production at
world
> wide. The building of a socialist society does not follow a broad and
easy
> highway. It implies the transformation of the old society into a new,
> through an historical period during which the forces of progress are not
> the only actors on the scene, where the struggle embraces all the
spheres
> of social life-economy, politics, culture, ideology, media. Experience
has
> shown that the Soviet Union had never succeeded in transforming the
> agrarian feudal economy inherited from tsarism into an advanced
industrial
> society-independent from the capitalist world economy-without the strong
> and consequent political line which was applied and which consisted,
among
> other measures, in protecting the working masses and especially the
youth,
> from the corrupting influences of the western way of life. These are also
> the principles guiding the building of the present Libyan Jamahi-riya.
>
> Johannesburg January 1 998. By Jean-Claude Njem, Attorney at-Law, from
> Came-roon.
> Address:
> P.O.. Box 5022,16305
> Spånga (Sweden)
>
> or
> B.P. 19, ESEKA
> (Cameroon).
> Tel.& Fax in Sweden:
> 46-87957368.
> Tel. in Cameroon:
> (237) 37 46 73
> or 237-226222.
>
> ”Unity of the progressive forces against imperialism and
the“mobi-lisation
> of the broad masses of the people into a united anti-imperialist front
will
> constitute a mighty and invincible force for the destruction of
imperialism.
> We of South Africa have taken charge of the sector that is vital to the
> success of the struggle against imperialism. The whole of the
> revolutionary forces of the world look upon us to play our role in this
> struggle. Our international duty is clear: Let us march against the enemy
> (from the Political Report of the National Executive committee on the
> anti-imperialist Movement.”.
> African National Congress April 25-May 1, 1969). Morogoro Conference
> (Tanzania)
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ______________________________________________________________________
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