The decisions announced by President De Klerk in his speech in parliament on February 2, taken together with the release from prison of Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and other `lifers', can undoubtedly be accepted as a genuine advance by the force of liberation in South Africa. The bans on the ANC and the SACP have been lifted, and restrictions on organisations and individuals under the emergency regulations eased. There is still some uncertainty as to how far these `concessions' go, but it is hoped that they will make possible political activity by the various organisations of the liberation movement on a scale unknown since the Suppression of Communism Act was passed in 1950.
In his February 2 speech De Klerk spoke in a tone quite different from that of his predecessors, indicating a realisation by those who hold power in our country that old methods have to be abandoned and a new course charted if South Africa is to escape from its present crisis. He said:
"Our country and all its people have been embroiled in conflict, tension and violent struggle for decades. It is time for us to break out of the cycle of violence and break through to peace and reconciliation. The silent majority is yearning for this. The youth deserve it."
Nelson Mandela says he accepts that De Klerk is a man of integrity, and we have no doubt he is sincere in hoping that he has done enough to bring everybody to the conference table where a new constitution will be drawn up providing, in his words, for:
"universal franchise; no domination; equality before an independent judiciary; the protection of minorities as well as of individual rights; freedom of religion; a sound economy based on proven economic principles and private enterprise; dynamic programmes directed at better education, health services, housing and social conditions for all".
The problem is that nothing in De Klerk's speech indicates that the regime, and the white minority that buttresses its power, is yet prepared to concede the demands put forward by the liberation movement as basic to the achievement of peace and stability.
`Universal franchise', for example, must mean one person one vote in a united non-racial democratic South Africa. Everybody must have an equal right to vote and stand for election to an undivided Parliament without distinction on the grounds of race, religion, sex or any other limiting factor.
Is the slogan `no domination' consistent with `the protection of minorities'? Is not the concept of `protection of minorities' a cover for the maintenance of racial division and the preservation of white minority power? As Nelson Mandela has stressed in his speeches since he came out of prison, white fears of black majority rule have to be addressed but cannot be advanced as an excuse for the denial of democracy to the majority.
As for the `proven economic principles of private enterprise', have they not led to the development of an unsound economy, financial crisis and an enormous gap between the haves and the have nots? Does not the parlous state of our economy justify the retention of the clauses in the Freedom Charter providing for control by a popularly elected government of the `mineral wealth beneath the soil, the banks and monopoly industry' so that `the national wealth of our country, the heritage of all South Africans, shall be restored to the people'?
And as for improvement in services, we do not merely demand that they shall be `better', but that the present inequalities be totally eliminated. We want equal educational, health, housing and social services for all South Africans in the shortest possible time.
APARTHEID PILLARS STILL STAND
It has been pointed out by almost every commentator that De Klerk's concessions, welcome as they may be, leave the main pillars of apartheid intact. With the disgraceful exception of Mrs Thatcher, most government leaders abroad have indicated that more must be done to eliminate apartheid before they would feel justified in curbing or abolishing sanctions. The ANC and SACP have called for the pressure against the regime to be stepped up on all fronts, including that of armed struggle.
De Klerk says he is prepared to talk about all this at the negotiating table, but for our part, we are not convinced that he and his supporters have yet accepted in their heart of hearts that they must concede power. They still think that by adroit diplomacy they can manipulate their opponents, inside and outside the country, into some form of compromise which will fall far short of majority rule.
Let us not deny the regime credit for what it has done. Compared with everything that has gone before under Malan, Strijdom, Verwoerd, Vorster and Botha, De Klerk has taken a big step in a different direction, realising that reliance on force alone has, far from demoralising the opposition, only toughned and tempered it into a mighty force for liberation.
But let us also assure De Klerk that, in our view, he is wrong to expect that what he has done so far is enough to ensure peace and security in South Africa. On the contrary, confrontation and conflict must inevitably increase unless something more is done to satisfy the legitimate aspirations of the majority of the population. So long as the state of emergency remains in force, it does not help De Klerk to claim that he has reduced the period of detention without trial to six months. We went through all that in 1963 when 90-day detention was introduced, and we discovered the hard way that the 90-day period was renewable indefinitely, with prisoners rearrested as soon as they stepped outside the jail walls.
Furthermore, even if the state of emergency is completely lifted, the Internal Security Act with all its obnoxious provisions for indefinite detention without trial and other repressive clauses will remain on the statute book. And detention without trial is a euphemism for solitary confinement and torture, as was acknowledged by Vorster when introducing the 90-day law in Parliament in 1963.
"It is not a very nice thing to see a human being broken. I have seen it... The man taking these powers must take the responsibility for them".
The number of political prisoners known to have been murdered in detention since 1963 totalled 72 by mid-February this year. The retention of detention without trial betrays an intention on the part of the regime to continue to resort to force if necessary to impose a solution acceptable to white South Africa... and De Klerk will have to accept responsibility for the consequences.
OUR FUTURE
We do not wish to appear negative or churlish. We welcome the opportunity for the ANC and SACP to function legally in South Africa once again. And one not unimportant by-product of these developments is that it may soon become possible for the first time since it was founded in 1959 for The African Communist to be published and distributed legally in South Africa.
De Klerk's initiative presents the liberation movement with a great challenge. The ANC and SACP and all sections of the Mass Democratic Movement must rise to this challenge and step up the level of struggle to the point where it becomes irresistible, bringing about the transformation of South African society on the lines for which so many have sacrificed so much over the years.
BUILD A STRONG SACP
The following statement was issued by the Central Committee of the South African Communist Party last February:
The Central Committee (CC) of the South African Communist Party has met to consider the new challenges and opportunities facing our Party. Forty years after banning us, the apartheid regime has been forced to concede that it can never uproot communist organisation and communist ideas from the soil of South Africa. Today our Party is emerging from the underground with massive prestige and popularity. The CC is fully aware of the weighty responsibilities this prestige and popularity place upon our Party and upon each one of our militants.
Although our Party has been unbanned, the illegitimate apartheid regime remains in power. Highly repressive legislation remains on the South African statute books. FW de Klerk has implemented some important first steps, but his regime is committed to a brutal economic policy that is anti-worker, and indeed against the interests of the majority of South Africans. His policies of privatisation, especially in the specific conditions of entrenched racial oppression, are handing over ever greater chunks or our national wealth to a small circle of white capitalists.
Over the past year the regime, in collusion with the bosses, has launched a brutal offensive against the organised working class. All too often labour relations are being conducted at gun-point. In a period in which De Klerk has proclaimed his concern for negotiations, his government has been tinkering with the anti- worker Labour Relations Act without once consulting with the progressive trade union movement.
Precisely because communists espouse the immediate and long term interests of the working people, we have no doubt that, as our Party emerges from illegality, communists will remain prime targets for all kinds of repression - legalised and informal. We shall not be deterred. We are determined to seize the time, making creative use of the new opportunities, rising to the new challenges.
A major objective of the coming months will be the building of a strong, legal SACP rooted among the working masses of our people. A concerted campaign of mobilisation and organisation will be undertaken, with its focus upon the tens of thousands of militant workers and youth who have, over the last years, openly associated themselves with the traditions and ideals of the South African Communist Party. To this end the SACP is in the process of consulting our underground and other structures, and we shall shortly be announcing a public SACP leadership core within our country. We shall also be despatching Communist Party members into the country determined to really all those within our country who are genuinely committed to a socialist future. Now, more than ever, the place of all socialists is within the ranks of the South African Communist Party. In building a powerful, above-board Party let us avoid all forms of sectarianism, elitism and dogmatism. Let us spread and deepen a liberating and democratic socialist culture within our country.
The CC reaffirms the SACP's firm commitment to our revolutionary alliance with the ANC. The new situation will present us with opportunities for creatively deepening and extending still further this alliance. A major task facing all Party militants in the coming months will be not only that of building our Party, but of assisting with the construction of a mass-based ANC, the leading organisation in our national liberation struggle.
The CC wholeheartedly endorses the February 16 statement of the ANC NEC, and we commend the initiative to present, face-to-face with De Klerk, those outstanding preconditions that need do be implemented in order to create a negotiating climate.