South Africa and the ANC - What happened to the new era?

[Angry Young and Red]

(I thought of this while watching a movie on the TV about the ANC and the struggle against Apartheid)

So, think of the 90s in South Africa. It was a dictatorship with big poverty and unemployment under a disgusting systematical racist system, Apartheid. The militant socialist party ANC, which was banned, had millions of active members. Thanks to their struggle, the political prisoners, such as Nelson Mandela, was released, and the Apartheid system was brought down. It looked like a new era was about to start in South Africa.

And now, 18 years after the release of Mr Mandela, with a South Africa under an ANC government we must ask ourselves... What really has really changed? Violent crime is rampant, there has not been any actual change in the poverty rate or the income disparities, racism is still widespread, though not as directly as under Apartheid. Corruption is a plague.

There hasn't been much of a change at all. None of those we usually see under a leftwing government in a third world country, such as the developments we've seen in Brazil, Venezuela, Uruguay, Argentina and more for the last decade.

I'm wondering... What happened? The South African working class, especially amongst the black communities, was pretty well organized back in the 90s... How come that there's been almost no response after the very same government expected to bring about a new era to South Africa has failed to make almost any major changes?

Sorry for not talking more clearly, I'm just wondering if anyone on here can explain it to me, or send any links with good analysises on the subject.

[Tim Cornelis]

It began when the Communist Party lead the negotiations to introduce liberal democracy in South Africa instead of pushing towards an escalation of class struggle in Southern Africa.

I wouldn't say there has "almost be no response". Look at the Abahlali baseMjondolo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abahlali_baseMjondolo), an anticapitalist, grassroots, social movement that, according to The Times, "has shaken the political landscape of South Africa." It has tens of thousands of members in the province of Kwazulu Natal. They boycott elections, use direct action, use prefigurative politics, have few to no hierarchy within its ranks.

The Communist Party has denounced Abahlali baseMjondolo as "anarchist and reactionary" for using road blocks against the bourgeois government.

Never trust a Communist Party

[bricolage]

what makes you think the anc was ever a 'militant socialist party'?

[Angry Young and Red]

It's just what I thought they were back in the 90s. Not outspoken socialist perhaps though. But I'm not well-read on the subject, unfortunately, so if I'm mistaken, correct me please:)

Nice to hear about the Abahlali baseMjondolo, I'll look into them.

What I'm wondering though is why we haven't seen any major changes at all. Say what you want about the leftwing governments in South America, but atleast we've seen some actual change in for example the poverty and unemployment situation under them...

[tachosomoza]

The ANC wasn't a "militant socialist party". It was more of a black nationalist/populist party.

[bricolage]

It's just what I thought they were back in the 90s. Not outspoken socialist perhaps though. But I'm not well-read on the subject, unfortunately, so if I'm mistaken, correct me please:)

Nice to hear about the Abahlali baseMjondolo, I'll look into them.

What I'm wondering though is why we haven't seen any major changes at all. Say what you want about the leftwing governments in South America, but atleast we've seen some actual change in for example the poverty and unemployment situation under them...
I know this is a really lazy way to do things but I'm pretty sure anything I'd write would just be repetition and anyway I can't remember as much now as I did then... so here are two threads where I argued about this quite a bit, you might be able to find something useful in it or if not when I have more time I might be able to pick out some of the good stuff.

http://www.revleft.com/vb/support-mandella-anci-t136594/index.html?
http://www.revleft.com/vb/sacp-speaks-t134794/index.html?t=134794&

[Prometeo liberado]

It began when the Communist Party lead the negotiations to introduce liberal democracy in South Africa instead of pushing towards an escalation of class struggle in Southern Africa.

I wouldn't say there has "almost be no response". Look at the Abahlali baseMjondolo (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abahlali_baseMjondolo), an anticapitalist, grassroots, social movement that, according to The Times, "has shaken the political landscape of South Africa." It has tens of thousands of members in the province of Kwazulu Natal. They boycott elections, use direct action, use prefigurative politics, have few to no hierarchy within its ranks.

The Communist Party has denounced Abahlali baseMjondolo as "anarchist and reactionary" for using road blocks against the bourgeois government.

Never trust a Communist Party

If you think that Joe Slovo and company, after torturous years in prison and enduring the execution of many members, had a grand plan to hand over the reigns of power(that they never really held) back to their oppressors than you need to reexamine the whole issue. Nothing is ever that simple. When all the dust had settled the ANC held popular power but the hands of capital remained the same. The CP was relegated to a minor ministry post in, I think, Education.

[bricolage]

If you think that Joe Slovo and company, after torturous years in prison and enduring the execution of many members, had a grand plan to hand over the reigns of power(that they never really held) back to their oppressors than you need to reexamine the whole issue. Nothing is ever that simple. When all the dust had settled the ANC held popular power but the hands of capital remained the same. The CP was relegated to a minor ministry post in, I think, Education.
not really, the sacp remained pretty important and was integral in propelling zuma to power. I think it's less them being relegated than as was so beautifully summed up by one of their mps, ‘Life looks different when you are being driven around in a BMW with tinted window. You move so fast sometimes you can hardly see the shacks anymore. You almost forget.’

[tachosomoza]

If you think that Joe Slovo and company, after torturous years in prison and enduring the execution of many members, had a grand plan to hand over the reigns of power(that they never really held) back to their oppressors than you need to reexamine the whole issue. Nothing is ever that simple. When all the dust had settled the ANC held popular power but the hands of capital remained the same. The CP was relegated to a minor ministry post in, I think, Education.

Not entirely correct. The European based companies that had been exploiting Africa, like De Beers, remained in European hands, but the local capital was taken from the white minority and placed in majority (black) hands. The ANC was a bourgeois national liberation movement who had no actual critique of capitalism at the root, when they obtained popular power in the 1990s, there was massive expropriation of white capital and the redistribution of it into black hands. Essentially, same shit, different color. Instead of a white bourgeoisie, you've now got a black/colored bourgeoisie.

[jake williams]

The most charitable explanation is that the leadership of the anti-apartheid movement (mainly in the ANC, partly in the SACP and elsewhere) wanted to end apartheid without an expansion of the civil war, because people were tired of violence. This gave cover to the right wing of the leadership (Mbeki and, to an extent, Mandela) to gut the economic demands of the mass movement and simply offer people nominal civil rights, rather than economic rights, which they argued would have led to an attack, military and economic, on the new state. There's probably some truth to this, of course. The base of the movement was in a state of shock at the end of apartheid and it took awhile to realize they had been betrayed, and, after that, awhile to get over the fact that they had been betrayed after working so hard.

Of course, there are less charitable explanations, along the lines that the ANC (or the SACP) is simply a corrupt bourgeois machine, or at least became it.

[blake 3:17]

The most charitable explanation is that the leadership of the anti-apartheid movement (mainly in the ANC, partly in the SACP and elsewhere) wanted to end apartheid without an expansion of the civil war, because people were tired of violence. This gave cover to the right wing of the leadership (Mbeki and, to an extent, Mandela) to gut the economic demands of the mass movement and simply offer people nominal civil rights, rather than economic rights, which they argued would have led to an attack, military and economic, on the new state. There's probably some truth to this, of course. The base of the movement was in a state of shock at the end of apartheid and it took awhile to realize they had been betrayed, and, after that, awhile to get over the fact that they had been betrayed after working so hard.

Of course, there are less charitable explanations, along the lines that the ANC (or the SACP) is simply a corrupt bourgeois machine, or at least became it.


I think the latter is the case. South African comrades, both inside and outside of the ANC, are appalled by the arrogant corruption shown by many leading figures from the ANC.

It is worth noting that apartheid fell shortly after Soviet Union disintegrated.