CHAPTER 5
TAKING FORWARD THE STRUGGLE FOR SOCIALISM -- WITH AND FOR
THE
WORKERS AND THE POOR
The SACP remains deeply committed to the strategic objective of advancing, deepening and defending the national democratic revolution. The strategic goals of the NDR are crucial objectives in their own right, but, in South African conditions, and from the strategic perspective of the SACP, they also represent the most direct route towards a socialist transition.
At the SACPs 1995 9th National Congress, in addition to reaffirming our strategic commitment to the NDR ("Advance, Deepen and Defend the Democratic Breakthrough"), we also adopted another strategic slogan: "Socialism is the Future, Build it Now".
What does it mean, and why has the SACP adopted this strategic slogan?
THE NDR, SOCIALISM AND THE STRATEGIC SLOGAN: "BUILD SOCIALISM NOW!"
By the 1990s the SACP had long abandoned (if, indeed, it ever fully accepted) a mechanical "two stage" approach with a Chinese wall (or rather, with another revolutionary seizure of power) in between a progressive NDR and a transition to socialism. Nonetheless, elements of stageism persisted in our theory and practice. It was in this context that, through the early 1990s, we debated how best to conceptualise the strategic relationship between the national democratic revolution and the transition to socialism. It was in this immediate context that we adopted our new programmatic slogan. This adoption did, indeed, mark a conceptual and programmatic shift in the theory of the SACP.
This shift was informed by several factors, both external and internal to our country:
The collapse of the Soviet bloc
Among the most important of these factors was the collapse of the Soviet bloc of socialist countries at the beginning of the decade of the 1990s. Through the 1960s, 70s, and 80s, in the analysis of both the SACP and ANC, the existence of this socialist bloc created an important global counter-balance to the dominant imperialist bloc. This counter-balance, we argued, established conditions in which progressive national liberation movements in the South, having achieved power, had much greater prospects for advancing radical national democratic revolutions which were characterised as "non-capitalist", or as having a "socialist orientation".
Both the ANC and SACP argued that a more radical NDR of this kind was not only more possible (given the counter-balancing socialist bloc as a global reality), but absolutely essential to overcoming the legacy of colonialism of a special type within our country. In theory, then, the less favourable global balance of forces that prevailed after 1990 should not have impacted on the persisting necessity for a radical NDR with a "non-capitalist" or "socialist-orientation" even if the prospects for successfully advancing such a programme had diminished.
However, in the course of the 1990s, there was a danger of re-defining what was necessary in the light of what was possible, and worse still, of doing this without effective and collective strategic assessment and analysis. The programmatic slogan "socialism is the future, build it now", was, in part, an attempt to insist on the continued relevance of socialism to the NDR and to the resolution of the legacy of CST, even if the advancing of a radical NDR had become considerable more difficult, post-1990.
Analysis of the successes and failures of the Soviet system
A second important factor that led to the SACP adopting the strategic slogan "socialism is the future, build it now" in 1995 was our analysis of the successes and failures of the Soviet socialist system itself. This was an analysis which we debated within our party, and which was (and is) also a collective endeavour which we have shared with a wide range of other Communist, worker and progressive international parties and formations in a great number of bilateral and multi-lateral forums.
Our analysis includes the growing conviction that part of the reason for the collapse of the Soviet bloc was an inadequate grasp of the profound inter-connections between a socialist transition and a globally dominant capitalism. After 1917, through a combination of deliberate imperialist isolation and ongoing destabilisation and strategic choices made in the Stalin years ("socialism in one country"), the construction of socialism in the Soviet Union was increasingly envisaged as a project more or less cut-off, more or less insulated from the globally dominant capitalist system.
After 1945, the strategic choice of building "socialism in one country" was extended (although not without many internal contradictions, including serious Sino-Soviet differences) to attempting to build "socialism in one bloc". In the Stalin period, the Marxist perspective of socialism emerging dialectically on the terrain of a dominant capitalism ("within the womb" of capitalism) was abandoned. It was asserted that socialism could only be built after a proletarian "seizure of power" and under the auspices of a "dictatorship of the proletariat".
There were, it should be noted, a number of theoretical inconsistencies that developed within this position. For instance, in the light of revolutionary experiences in the South in the course of the 1960s, 70s and 80s, the hybrid concepts of a "non-capitalist" path, and "socialist-orientation" were developed. These envisaged progressive liberation movements in the South building capacity for socialism, momentum toward socialism and elements of socialism, in situations where the working class was still not the majority class force, and in which political power was held, not by a "dictatorship of the proletariat", but by a multi-class, radical national democratic bloc of forces.
The defence of socialist gains in Cuba and the PRC
This critical reflection within the SACP on socialist construction and on the reasons for the collapse of the Soviet bloc, coincided with significant practical and programmatic efforts in countries like Cuba and the Peoples Republic of China to defend their socialist gains, and to renew their socialist analysis in the context of the more unfavourable global situation after 1990.
In these, and other cases, the defence of socialism, and the renewal and re-invigoration of socialist strategy, involved an active and strategic engagement with global capitalism, but NOT, as was to happen in Yeltsins Russia, a surrender to global capitalism.
In Cuba the defence and renewal of socialism, it was realised, had to be conducted, at least to a certain extent, from "within the womb" (or rather on the terrain of) a globally dominant capitalist system, and not in an isolated bloc.
In the PRC this strategic perspective had already been partially adopted as early as 1978. These living experiences further reinforced the SACPs conviction that the socialist future was one that had to be defended and built in the (capitalist-dominated) present.
Practical international experience of communist parties in capitalist countries
The 1994 democratic breakthrough in our own country and the new governing challenges confronted by our movement, also compelled the SACP to pay much greater attention to the actual socialist practice and real socio-economic gains achieved by Communist Parties (and other progressive forces) following electoral successes in countries that remained dominated by capitalism.
We have been studying and actively interacting with examples as diverse as communist- or progressive-controlled municipalities in France and Brazil, regions once controlled by the former Communist Party in Italy, the co-operative movement in Cyprus, and the examples of the Communist-controlled states of Kerala and West Bengal in India.
These and many other inspiring cases of major socio-economic transformations are, we believe, examples of the active construction of momentum towards, capacity for, and even elements of socialism on the terrain of societies still dominated by capitalism. These examples reinforced our conviction of the correctness of our "build it now" programmatic perspective.
Social democracy
The decade-and-a-half preceding 1990 had witnessed not just the growing stagnation and collapse of most of the Soviet socialist formations, but also the rolling back of many of the major progressive social-democratic gains achieved in some of the advanced capitalist countries.
Following two-and-a-half decades of post-war reconstruction and development after 1945, national capitalist corporations in Germany, Italy, Sweden, the UK, etc. were increasingly globally mobile and less dependent upon, and therefore less inclined to submit to, the discipline of national social accords. Under the impact of "Reagonomics" and "Thatcherism" (as neo-liberal policies were then called), following centre-right electoral victories in many of these countries, social democracy was itself increasingly rolled back.
These trends have produced contradictory outcomes within social democracy, the other major socialist legacy tracing its origins back to Marxism in the 19th century. On the one hand, the narrow electoral opportunism identified by Lenin and others as a key feature of social democracy has been accentuated in some cases, with the illusory pursuit of a "third way", and the abandonment of any reference to socialism ("social values" and "equity" not equality- have become the new vogue concepts in some of these circles).
However, the attempts to roll back social welfare gains, the disastrous privatisation of social utilities, the de-industrialisation of major parts of the developed capitalist world, deepening unemployment, casualisation, labour market flexibility and transnationalisation of production have also resulted in a wide-range of progressive campaigns and organisational mobilisation originating in formations linked, or formerly linked to social democratic traditions. These have included many joint campaigns involving workers in the South and North (often employed by the same transnationals).
COSATU is now a leading affiliate of the ICFTU and the ANC is a recent, but active and prestigious member of the Socialist International. The ICFTU and SI were, of course, during the Cold War period, the leading international organs of the international social democratic movement, actively opposed to communism and communist parties. In the context of the new global realities, the SACP has welcomed the participation of our two alliance partners in these international bodies. A critical but open-minded analysis of the successes, limitations and failures of social democracy is also of great importance in seeking to renew the socialist project.
The 1994 democratic breakthrough
Our programmatic slogan was influenced by many considerations of the kind noted above, but it was also, above all, a response to the new challenges, and the considerably more favourable terrain that prevailed within our country after the 1994 democratic breakthrough.
Moreover, in the analysis of the Party (and of the ANC), the 1994 democratic breakthrough had brought into power a radical democratic bloc of forces, representing a range of oppressed classes and strata, but in which the working class was acknowledged as the key motive force. A mechanical two-stage approach might have led us to the erroneous (and divisive) conclusion that a socialist transition required another political revolution in which the working class, in the name of "socialism" overthrew its own national democratic state, and marginalized its own closest allies.
Whilst our slogan "Socialism is the future, build it now" does not call for an immediate transition to socialism, it underlines the fact that the 1994 democratic breakthrough provided a situation where momentum towards, capacity for, and even elements of socialism could (and needed to) be struggled for in the present as an integral part of advancing, deepening and defending the NDR.
Building elements of socialism
From the SACP perspective, all of the programmatic tasks elaborated in this document are part and parcel of advancing the NDR and building momentum towards, capacity for, and elements of socialism. Building elements of socialism includes the following core components:
-
Consolidating worker-led popular power by consolidating a national
democratic, developmental state that is characterised by its strategic capacity
to lead the struggle against capitalist under-development; -
Rolling back the capitalist market the decommodification of basic
needs. Water, electricity, health-care, housing, transport, culture and
information should primarily not be commodities. The SACP is committed to
struggle against the overbearing supremacy of the capitalist market, which
seeks to turn everything into a commodity, and all of us into simple buyers
and sellers. We must struggle for the decommodification of increasing spheres
of society; -
Transforming the market the decommodification of key areas of
our society does not mean abolishing the market altogether, but rather the
rolling back of its empire. Insofar as markets continue to be an important
regulator of distribution, we must also engage with them. Markets are not
some "neutral" reality, merely reflecting the "free play"
of supply and demand. Present markets reflect the accumulated class power
of capitalists. We need to intervene with collective social power on the
markets to challenge and transform the power relations at play within them.
Struggles to transform market power include:
- developing an active labour market strengthening the power of trade
unions, skills training and adult basic education. These are all measures
which change, to some extent, the terms on which workers confront capitalists
on the labour market;- the effective use of state subsidies, tendering policies, regulatory
controls, community re-investment legislation, etc. to transform and democratise
markets;- the establishment of effective consumer negotiating forums and ombud
bodies.
- Socialising the ownership function we have already noted the several
ways in which the ownership function must be socialised, including:
- building a strong public sector in the context of consolidating a
national democratic, developmental state;- fostering an extensive co-operative sector;
- more effective strategic worker control over social capital
(like pension and provident funds).
- A moral renewal of our society based on solidarity, with and for
the
workers and the poor the dominant moral values of capitalism in our
epoch (rampant individualism, the apeing of the most backward and commercialised
made-in-the-USA assumptions, self-advancement as a combination of voluntarism
and the lottery, patriarchy and militarism, the flaunting of wealth and conspicuous
consumption, cynicism about public institutions) are impacting on our own
society with extremely negative consequences. The reaction to this aggressive
and "globalised" value-system is often a retreat from modernity
into one or another conservative fundamentalism, or into a narrow and individualised
"moralising" that is removed from wider socio-economic realities.
These kinds of retreats are absolutely inadequate for the grounding of a relevant
moral renewal of our society. In the view of the SACP, the affirmation of
socialist values of egalitarianism, liberty and solidarity with and for the
workers and the poor need to play a critical role in the "RDP of the
soul" which is integral to our overall NDR.
The strategy of the Party can be summarised as being:
- to advance, deepen and defend the NDR as a foundation for and as the most
direct route to building socialism; and - to build momentum towards, capacity for and elements of socialism as the
most consistent means for advancing, deepening and defending the NDR.
These two dimensions of our strategy, the national democratic and the socialist, are not contradictory but mutually reinforcing.
OUR APPROACH TO SOCIALISM
We have referred to the building of capacity for, momentum towards, and even elements of socialism in the present. But what do we mean by "socialism". Socialism is, in the first instance, an economy in which social ownership is, both in strategic capacity and in actual GDP terms, the preponderant form of economic ownership. The socially-owned sector will include a diversity of ownership forms including state (both national, regional and local) ownership, parastatals, social capital (e.g. worker-owned and controlled funds) and various forms of co-operative ownership.
A socialist economy is, itself, a transitional, mixed economy, and from the perspective of the Communist Party, it is a terrain on which, using the preponderance of social ownership, there are the real possibilities of greatly enhancing the democratisation of society, of overcoming the systemic exploitation built into capitalist accumulation, and of progressively abolishing patriarchy and of progressively empowering women.
The long-term objective of the SACP is to move through a socialist transition to a communist society involving the abolition of all forms of capitalist exploitation both within our country, and, indeed, on a global scale.
In political terms, a socialist society is one in which the working class and its allies have constituted themselves into a ruling bloc, with massive popular support as the bedrock for weathering the inevitable attempts to punish or destabilise such an advance. It will be this working class-led ruling bloc, in a democratic dispensation, that will determine the manner in which social surplus is distributed in favour of the overwhelming majority of the people, with a particular focus on overcoming class, national and patriarchal oppression.
The development of a theory and programme for a transition to socialism could not and should not involve a blue-print. The manner in which each society will proceed in the struggle for socialism will be determined by its own conditions, and the path to be followed will be shaped by these.
In our South African conditions the democratic breakthrough of 1994 provides us with the space to embark on massive socialist education and propaganda amongst the working class and the overwhelming majority of our people who stand to benefit from a socialist economy.
The existence of a large, organised and militant working class one of the largest on the African continent that is relatively well organised and deeply steeped in the traditions of struggle is a huge asset that the Party needs to constantly to engage with and mobilise behind a socialist programme. The largest trade union component, COSATU officially stands for socialism, an asset upon which we must advance. Our task is that of building the political consciousness and political confidence of the working class, not in abstract terms, but by taking up concrete struggles on issues affecting the daily lives of working people and the poor.
The legacy of colonialism and apartheid capitalism has created fertile ground for socialist consciousness, ideas and propaganda. The fact that capitalism is currently deepening, rather than overcoming, the many national, class and gender aspects of the apartheid legacy, particularly for the mass of the working and people of our country, is an additional reason why there is a deep-seated and relatively spontaneous sympathy for socialism. The scale of unemployment, retrenchments, the increasing feminisation of poverty and of casualisation, despite major labour reform gains, is impoverishing and informalising the working class, particularly its African majority.
Linked to the fertile ground for extensive socialist education and propaganda is the need to extend, broaden and deepen the independent programme of the SACP to reach, and be owned by, the widest possible sections of the working class and the landless rural masses. For instance, our current campaign for the transformation of the financial sector should be explicitly linked to the capitalist character of the financial sector and the need to create an alternative socialised financial services sector, capable of responding to the needs of the working people and the poor. Our programme should also aim at harnessing the already existing socialist experiences of stokvels and burial societies to link this to the broader consciousness of building a socialised financial sector.
All our campaigns transformation of the financial sector, building a strong and accountable public sector, building co-operatives, a developmental industrial policy, provision of free basic services must be consciously linked to a critique of, and education about the evils of capitalism and gender oppression, the rolling back of the capitalist market, the decommodification of the provision of basic needs and to building elements of socialism in the current period.
Underpinning these campaigns must be a renewed focus on the production and
distribution of party literature within the ranks of the working class and mass
of the people of our country. All our structures need to understand that without
effective distribution of party literature our vision and struggle for socialism
is severely compromised. The coming few years should focus on developing more
creative mechanisms for distributing our literature as an indispensable component
of building socialist consciousness and building the political confidence of
the working class.
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