PHATSE JUSTICE PITSO
The intellectual scope on the formulation of the theoretical thesis about the formation of the Government of National Unity spawned a nightmare of intense debate across the political and socio-economic spectrum of South Africa.
The fiercest polemics of predilection and predisposition on the form and the content of the Government of National Unity symbolised the Berlin Wall, which came to represent the ideological divisions of the Cold War era.
The defining moment of the ideological differences was between the intellectual forces of bourgeois democratic revolution and the intellectual forces of the national democratic revolution. The growing perception became to be that the national democratic revolution, led by the black political parties, represents the aspirations of the black people in general and the African people in particular whilst the bourgeois democratic revolution, led by the DA and the Freedom Front Plus, represents the aspirations of the renegades of the former racist apartheid regime.
The political conundrum brings to the fore the fundamental historic question of the necessity of a revolutionary change of society from one social order to the other. The dilemma is that most of the writings of scholars and historians elucidate the tales of bourgeois democratic revolutions such as the Dutch revolt, English Civil war, French Revolution, Meiji Restoration of Japan and less about epochal working-class revolutions, such as the slave revolts of the Palmares of Brazil, Haitian revolution, Bambatha rebellion, Great October revolution, Vietnam war, and the battle of Cuito Cuanavale.
The difficulty is that they transliterate history, cognisant of the fact that the struggles for the development of human society was never about the chapters of history as they overlap each other, but about the complex material conditions of the universe, the diverse phenomenon of nature and its relationship with mankind. The fundamental question was never about bourgeois revolution or the working-class revolution, but the universal progress and greater freedom for humanity.
In The German Ideology and The Poverty of Philosophy, Karl Marx, gives a fascinating erudition on the philosophical and ideological question, of the necessity of our struggles, for the freedom of all humanity. He argues that ”the English revolution of 1648 and the French revolution of 1789, were not just English or French revolutions, they did not represent the victory of a particular class, or section of society, but they proclaimed a political order of a new European society.
“The victory of the bourgeoisie was the victory of a new social order, the victory of the bourgeois ownership over feudal ownership, of nationality over provincialism, of competition over the guilt, of division of land over primogeniture, of enlightenment over superstition, of bourgeois laws over the medieval privileges.”
The fundamental question of the freedom of all humanity, the freedom of society, was never homogeneous, but a complex contested ideological terrain, by intellectual forces of bourgeoisie and working-class revolutions. This requires of us a deeper analysis and understanding of the history of the evolution of human society, from the ages of the hunters, the shepherds, agriculture and commerce.
Over the historical period, many of the Marxist historians and philosophers, and the academia from the radical left, have not come to appreciate the historic role of the bourgeoisie in the struggles for the development of human society. Therefore the only correct Marxist Leninist perspective is to demystify the myth that the bourgeoisie cannot be revolutionary on their own behalf.
I am breeding the theoretical exposition that it is never enough to throw stones and call it by its name, but to understand the pros and cons of the phenomenon, its strength and weakness, its mould, analysing concrete material conditions of the time, strategy and tactics, how to crystallise the intellectual milieu of the epoch. Revolutionaries are the first to appreciate that our theory is not a horoscope of the history of the development of human society.
Even during his first years in exile, the leader of the Great October Socialist revolution, Vladimir Lenin, was attracted by the shining lights of the cities of Finland and Switzerland, from the conditions of backwardness of feudal Russia, he was impressed by the development of capitalism in Europe. This is the antithesis of the falsehood revisionists hold, as if the bourgeois revolutions did not shape the political and socio-economic architecture of the contemporary world.
There is an overwhelming synthesis by some of the distinguished Marxist scholars and historians that bourgeois revolutions are bourgeois, not because they are led by by the bourgeoisie, but because they make possible the development of bourgeois society. The premise is on the basis of the base and the superstructure anchored on the theoretical foundations of the capitalist mode of production.
The idea was never about being black or white, or being represented by the so-called black parties or parties led by the renegades of the former racist apartheid regime, it was never about the DA or the FF+, it was never about the ANC or uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP), IFP or the EFF, but its contribution towards the capitalist mode of production, how it extracts surplus value and fosters the existing bourgeois property relations.
The fundamental question is not to ask ourselves why the ANC entered into a Government of National Unity with parties like the DA and the FF+ or IFP and ActionSA and other parties at the national, provincial and regional levels, but the overarching compelling factors which led to our dismal performance during the recent national general elections. This is the pertinent question we have to ask ourselves in a more robust, honest and frank manner, without fear and any prejudice.
We have to ask ourselves this hard question in order to give a critical appraisal of our strength and weaknesses, to find ways and means of improving on the weak state of the affairs of our movement, its leadership and organisational structures. Taking stock of both the subjective and the objective factors of the time, the ANC is at its weakest stage in the history of its existence over a century ago.
We need to restore the confidence of our people that the ANC remains the only political party with the capacity to carry their wishes and aspirations of a better life, by ensuring that we accelerate socio-economic transformation, fighting crime and abuse of women and children and confronting the perceptions of corruption and the inability of our public representatives to serve in the best interest of our people.
We must ask ourselves difficult questions why the Communist Party has lost its strategic thrust as the vanguard party of the struggles of the working-class and the poor, what has debauched its revolutionary discipline, theory and leadership. The unity and the renewal of the SACP as the clue that holds the revolution together and a vanguard led by the most advanced elements in society is of historic importance.
The political fragmentation and disintegration of the largest trade union movement, Cosatu, is the sad story in the history of the struggles of our people. We need to find ways of rejuvenating the giant organisation of the working class, building on the momentum of the unity of all the organised working-class formations in the country. The unity of the working class is the unity of our national democratic revolution.
How do we strengthen the South African National Civic Organisation and other progressive civil society formations, youth and women organisations? How do we recommit ourselves to the moral regeneration of society, how do we foster nation-building and formation, accelerating socio-economic transformation of our democratic society?
We contribute to this debate highly inspired by the revolutionary notion that ideas, thoughts, and concepts determine and dominate men, their material conditions and real life. The task before all of us is the unity and renewal of our movement and the revolution.
Phatse Justice Pitso is a member of the ANC and a former South African Ambassador to Cuba. He writes in his personal capacity.
The Star