12 October 2004, Port Elizabeth
Speech by Blade Nzimande, SACP General Secretary
Cde President Johnson and all national office bearers of FAWU, leaders of our alliance partners present, our international guests and other invited guests, comrade delegates. We bring revolutionary greetings to this 2004 Tri-Annual National Congress of FAWU.
We have decided to focus our address today primarily on matters relating to our 2004 Red October Campaign, since we believe that our closest partner and ally in this campaign is your union, FAWU. You have recently merged with SAAPAWU and therefore the question of the organisation of farmworkers, which is one of the key components of our campaign, is now your primary responsibility.
However let us start by locating the land and agrarian question, and the challenges facing the working class, within the context of the challenges of the NDR in the wake of the ANC-led Alliance massive electoral victory and as we begin the second decade of our freedom.
Some of the Immediate Challenges facing the working class in deepening the National Democratic Revolution and in the struggle for socialism
Our point of departure is that ours is a struggle for socialism. All else we do as workers and trade unions must be guided by the reality that our freedom and democracy will be incomplete for as long as our society remains capitalist. But what do we mean by this?
The current phase of our struggle is that of consolidating and deepening the gains of the national democratic revolution. The principal motive force of the national democratic revolution is the working class. Whilst organised workers do not constitute the entirety of the working class, it is the most critical, most organised layer of the working class with the necessary muscles and revolutionary traditions to be at the head of the revolution. The key challenge in this regard is to ensure that workers have a consciousness and understanding that their struggles, whilst rooted on the shop-floor, go beyond that into the political realm itself.
The centrality of the working class in the national democratic revolution also lie in the fact that it is the only class that is best capable to ensure that the logical deepening of the national democratic revolution leads to a transition to socialism. However in saying this as the SACP we are neither saying the NDR in itself is not important, nor that the struggle for socialism should be postponed. The goal of the national democratic revolution in themselves are important for both the working class and the overwhelming majority of our people. The fundamental goal of the national democratic revolution is the liberation of black people in general and Africans in particular, and in this context build a democratic, non-racial and non-sexist society. This is an important objective for the black working class in particular, and create the necessary conditions to wage the struggle for socialism.
The struggle for socialism is not something that needs to be fought for in some distant future, but it must be fought for now. Hence our slogan, “Socialism is the future, build it Now”. We must fight for elements of socialism now, and it is indeed possible to win socialist measure in the current period. In any case the very consolidation of the NDR requires socialist measures and the rolling back of the capitalist market in the provision of basic services and developing our economy.
In other words there is a dialectical linkage between the NDR and building elements of socialism now. To deepen the NDR requires some socialist measures, and the most direct route to socialism is a working class led national democratic revolution. It is within this context that we should be locating all the struggles of the workers and the poor of our country.
The key challenge particularly in the wake of the overwhelming victory of the ANC in the 2004 elections is to ensure that the working class is in the forefront of implementing the progressive ANC Manifesto. The 2004 electoral victory is essentially a mandate from the workers and the poor to accelerate transformation to their benefit. However, other class forces may be lining up to steal this victory from the workers and the poor and try and turn it into “The ANC having to deal with its left wing allies decisively”, as some media commentators have been saying, or into some narrow BEE. For workers this means, amongst other things, being at the head to drive the GDS resolutions and a broad based, and transformational BEE.
Transforming the economy: Capitalism has failed our democracy The priorities of the first decade of our freedom was to build and stabilise new institutions of our democracy, national reconciliation, isolating and defeating the counterrevolution and laying a firm foundation to tackle poverty. The primary challenge of the second decade of our freedom is to transform the current accumulation path in our country as a basis for deepening the NDR. It is our submission that unless the current accumulation regime is radically transformed, the NDR itself risks stagnation and a possibility of defeat.
The experiences from our first decade of freedom show that whilst our democracy has created the best conditions for accumulation for South African capitalism, capitalism has signally failed our democracy. South African capital has, over the last decade, generally experienced high levels of productivity, high mobility globally and on the continent, as well as being flush with cash. But what has it done with all these gains? It has generally embarked on an investment strike – not investing back into the economy – and embarked on massive restructuring that has seen massive retrenchments, casualisation and outsourcing. For us this is proof enough that capitalism is incapable of solving the problems facing our country, hence the struggle for transforming the current accumulation regime and for socialism.
Of course all this is taking place within the context of an increasingly hostile imperialist global environment. We are seeing a capitalism increasingly willing to wage wars in order to deepen its hold over global resources and its economic dominance. It is for this reason that we need to deepen our international worker solidarity work as the only basis for confronting imperialism and advance our own developmental national goals. That is why we strongly condemn the actions of the Nigerian government in harassing the Nigerian Labour Congress and trade unions in that country. It is time that some of the African leaders stop treating the workers and the poor as their mere voting fodder, but instead must seek to strengthen these forces as the main motive forces for African renewal and development.
Making BEE broad-based and transformational As the SACP we have welcomed the recent speech by the Secretary General of the ANC to the BMF. Cde Kgalema Montlanthe's speech, the recent speech by the General Secretary of COSATU, Cde Zwelinzima Vavi, to the SACTWU Congress. These mark a significant Alliance convergence around Black Economic Empowerment. They also underline the urgent need to deepen the debate both within the Alliance and in the broader public arena.
As workers we have to face to the reality that what has passed for ‘black economic empowerment’ over the last decade has been essentially the accommodation of a small elite. There has been nothing broad based nor transformational about it. It has been about changing some of the leading agents of the existing system, leaving intact the entire system itself, a system that generates and reproduces inequality in our country. Racialised capitalism persists.
For us we must not just be moralizing about this nature of the BEE. Instead we need to argue that for BEE to be broad based and transformational, it must contribute to the development of forces of production in our economy, create jobs and generally benefit the overwhelming majority of our people. What has happened thus far is far from this, and reinforces our argument that BEE and transformation are not necessarily the same things.
The challenge for the working class is to intervene in these debates much more forcefully. We are pleased that FAWU has recognized this and has indeed robustly challenged the empowerment model in the wining industry for instance. Further debate on BEE must ensure that we undertake some comprehensive review of all policies and practices, both in the public and private sectors. We are also deeply concerned that there are no explicit conceptual and programmatic linkages between BEE and transformation of gender relations in South Africa's workplaces. This should central take into account the partriarchal nature of South Africa's workplace regimes and the fact that the most oppressed, exploited and marginalised stratum of our society is black working class, rural and poor women. BEE has to speak this reality to be in line with the overall objectives of the national democratic revolution.
Another critical area that requires serious debate and review is that of the drafting and adoption of various charters by business. Our own experiences with the Financial Sector Charter have given us some vital insights in this regard. The approach to formulating sectoral transformation charters is ad hoc and dependent on the forces driving the charter agenda. There is also confusion as to whether these are transformation or BEE charters.
Hardly any of these charters have involved mass and labour organisations in their drafting. With perhaps the exception of the Financial Sector Charter, in itself after a protracted battle, none have representative and inclusive oversight and supervisory mechanisms.
Furthermore we are seeing, in the case of the financial sector charter, about R50bn of the R122bn set aside for investments, being earmarked for equity shareholding. This is simply unacceptable, as you cannot equate buying of shares by a few individuals with the dire need for investment in infrastructure and low cost housing for the majority of the people of our country. Money set aside in this Charter for agricultural development is also miniscule – R1,4bn – given the scale of inequalities in our agricultural sector. It is for this reason that will oppose these proposed targets in the Charter Council next week. Prioirities are priorities; the needs of the overwhelming majority of our people, the workers and the poor!
Cde President and cde delegates, allow me now to turn to the fundamental issue of the land and agrarian questions in our country, and the challenges facing the working class and a union like FAWU in this regard.
On the land and agrarian question The history of South Africa can be said to be a history of land dispossession! Like the rest of the South African economy, the accumulation regime in agriculture has not fundamentally changed over the last ten years. Indeed, South Africa’s agriculture and its accumulation regime still represent some of the worst features of the political economy of land and agriculture under apartheid.
Our countryside provides a stark insight into the enclave character of our economy. Apart from the two distinct urban/rural enclaves in our economy, South Africa’s countryside is in itself divided into two very distinct enclaves shaped over more than a century of proletarianisation of the black rural masses and the massive land dispossession of the majority by both the colonial and apartheid regimes. The one enclave is that of the former Bantustans, and the other is that dominated by agri-business and small and medium sized farms, owned in the main by white farmers and/or their families.
The ‘white’ countryside The South African agricultural economy is dominated by large agri-business companies that span the entire production process and marketing. It is principally, though not exclusively, in this agricultural and food chain within which you organise. This sector underwent massive changes since the 1973 global economic crisis. It embarked on large-scale mechanisation and increasing export orientation resulting in, amongst other things, massive retrenchments and the eviction of black farm workers. However, the process of evictions had already started in the earlier decades of the 1950s and 60s, as the apartheid regime reconfigured the racial landscape of South Africa in line with what later became the “Group Areas”.
Liberalisation and export orientation of commercial agriculture has deepened rather than lessened post 1994, thus ensuring the growing dominance of agribusiness and very minimal opportunities for the emergence of new, particularly small and co-operative, farming. Government’s economic policies seem to have strengthened rather than transformed this accumulation regime since 1994. For example, according to South African Standard Industry Database, as cited in the Human Development Report, 2003, the real profit rate of agriculture, forestry and fishing rose from 100 in 1995 to 143 in 2002. This increased this industry’s share of total profits from 67,8% in 1995 to 72,7% in 2002. Labour productivity in this industry rose from 123,6 in 1996 to 151,9 with an average annual growth rate of 3,26 in 2002.
Despite this performance in agriculture, forestry and fishery, black, mainly African, farmworkers have suffered greatly and have borne most of the brunt of the continuing accumulation regime in agriculture. They still represent what is, perhaps, the most exploited section of South Africa’s working class. For instance, this industry’s share of total employment declined from 10,7 in 1996 to 9,9% in 2002. The wage share by this industry has further declined from 32,2% in 1995 to 27,3% in 2002.
A further reality in the agricultural sector is that what we have on commercial farms is not just workers but families on farms. Not only are these workers being paid starvation wages, but they are, in many instances together with their families, daily subjected to all forms of abuse including violence. Some of these abuses include the following:
Long working hours that are not compensated Impounding of their livestock by farmers. In fact the fines imposed on impounded livestock are deducted from their wages, as part of the many deductions made by farmers from the new statutory wage, thus continuing to pay the workers the same old slave wages Less than human living conditions No access to basic services like water, electricity and sanitation Widespread violence as a routine form of discipline and including murders. This is complicated by an untransformed justice system that does not even take up those cases that are reported to them against white farmers Since 1994, our government has made a number of progressive interventions in the agricultural economy. Some of these include the land redistribution and restitution, legislation on security of tenure, significant labour market reforms including minimum conditions of service, the Agricultural Credit Scheme to assist small-scale farming and the AgriBEE Charter.
The flagship of government’s land and agrarian reform has been land reform and land restitution. This has seen some land being transferred to the majority of our people. However this is far from enough, hence our Red October campaign. Furthermore the “willing buyer, willing seller” model has not accelerated land reform. It is being abused by farmers who charge inflated price for land, and also tends to be patchy, thus making even the transferred land less usable
We have generally welcomed the recent publication of a draft agricultural charter as emphasising the urgency of land and agrarian transformation and as a useful pressure point on capital. Our task is to ensure that the voices of the workers and the poor are heard in the discussion and finalisation of this charter. Together with FAWU, we have a huge responsibility to ensure that this indeed does happen.
We should however not blame government alone for all these weaknesses, rather to also work towards the building of social motive forces for rural transformation. The principal weakness remains the absence of progressive motive forces for transformation in this white countryside, particularly the lack of organisation of farm workers. Together with FAWU we should intensify our effort to organize the estimated 1 million unorganized farm workers. We hope this Congress will take some detailed resolutions in this regard.
Perhaps the biggest weakness is absence of an industrial strategy for agriculture, and this matter seems not to enjoy equal attention (as shown by the GDS) as modern manufacturing and services sectors, again partly a reflection of lack of strong organisation and voice for the workers and the poor. The SACP looks forward to working together with FAWU and government towards the development of such a strategy.
At this point we also want to say to Agri SA and the Transvaal Agricultural Union, that instead of wasting their time by writing meaningless letters to our President, they must simply answer these questions: Why is more than 80% of productive land still in the hands of some 46 000 white corporations and farmers? Why less than 3% of this land has been transferred over the last ten years? What have they done about this, and what are they planning to do to correct this huge social, political and economic injustice?
As the SACP we are not going to succumb to their moral and political blackmail that if we raise these issues we are accused of inflaming emotions. If emotions are inflamed it is not the SACP that is responsible for this, but the reality of gross inequalities in land and agriculture. We challenge these unions to answer these questions and come up with concrete plans to address this unsustainable reality.
The former Bantustans
The other enclave of our countryside is that of the former Bantustans where the vast majority of the rural population in South Africa still reside. There are very minimal accumulation processes of any significance taking place here. However this does not mean there is no accumulation at all, and perhaps the very minimal accumulation taking place needs to be looked at closely as a possible springboard to create sustainable rural livelihoods in the former Bantustans. The population in the former Bantustans still occupies a structural location of being dumping grounds for those who can’t find employment or eke a living on the fringes of the urban economy. (Though they are now largely a permanently unemployed section of our population).
A number of studies show that about 80% of income in rural areas comes from wages, mostly remittances from the urban areas. Pensions are the second most important source of income, contributing between 10% and 20%. The third is income from some sort of agricultural activity, also estimated at about 10 and 25% in some areas.
Yet there are very real possibilities to generate some form of accumulation in these areas, given a systematic focus and strategy. For example the livestock in the hands of many rural families, as highlighted above, is something that can be used as a basis for generating some sustainable income and an accumulation process to fight poverty. Government has also made some significant policy and legislative interventions in this enclave of the rural economy since 1994. Some of these include social grants for the poor, new policy framework on traditional leaders, integrated rural development and public works programmes.
The integrated rural development programme has been one of the most significant interventions by government. However, there is very little extensive evaluation done on the impact of these on rural poverty, and the picture seems to be very uneven. Some of the questions we need to pose is whether this programme is fundamentally based on transforming the accumulation regime in the countryside, both in the major agricultural sectors and the former Bantustans? Again, together with the trade union movement we have major responsibilities in this regard.
Some of the key political challenges
It is because of these challenges that our Red October Campaign this year has three central demands:
Access to productive land for household based subsistence, small scale farming and agricultural co-operatives Farmworkers’ rights and access to basic services, including farmers opening up their farms to trade union organizers as this is a basic right of workers to join unions. A national land summit, possibly preceded by provincial summits, to evaluate the first ten years of land reform, set a programme for its accelaration and for the voice of the workers and rural poor be heard
This we are going to do by convening farmworkers’ forums, rural people’s tribunals, marches and demonstrations, principally targetted at commercial agriculture, culminating in a national day of action on 30 October 2004. Some of the outcomes we want from this campaign, which will go beyond October, is the building of people’s land committees made up of farmworkers, agricultural co-operatives, small farmers and generally the rural poor. It is clear to us that unless the rural people are organised to take up their own problems, land and agrarian reform will be postponed forever.
The most critical challenge for our countryside is the mobilisation of the social motive forces for rural transformation, principally farm-workers, the poor and agricultural co-operatives and other forms of small-scale farming.
REMEMBER, THE HAMMER AND THE SICKLE OF COMMUNIST PARTIES STANDS RESPECTIVELY FOR FACTORY WORKERS AND THE PEASANTS OR RURAL POOR. OUR CAMPAIGN SEEKS TO CEMENT THE HAMMER AND THE SICKLE!
WE ASK FAWU TO JOIN US FULLY IN THIS CAMPAIGN!
With these words we wish you a successful Congress!