[Marxism] South Africa: The left and Zuma: be careful what you wish for

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www.mg.co.za

The left and Zuma: be careful what you wish for

Mazibuko Jara: POLOKWANE BRIEFING

02 December 2007 11:59

In SACP and Cosatu parlance we are now on the verge of dislodging the 
1996 class project represented by Thabo Mbeki.

Or are we?

This is an opportune time for the left to confront some hard questions 
-- and they should start with interrogating the allegedly progressive, 
democratic and transformative policy credentials of a Jacob Zuma-led ANC.

Without a doubt the succession battle has created conditions for a more 
democratic ANC. But how deep is this process, how long will it last and 
just how progressive is it? Is political space being sought only for a 
new elite of alliance leaders, or for people at the grassroots?

Stephen Friedman has observed that it is normal for changes in the 
Presidency to be limited to the next level of the political elite. As 
the SACP and Cosatu, we must demonstrate how our anti-Mbeki, pro-Zuma 
project will prove to be different. Have democratic and pluralistic 
practice flowered or suffered in the SACP and Cosatu during the pro-Zuma 
mobilisation?

The fact is, despite its “democratic” colouring, the anti-Mbeki 
challenge has not been consistently driven by a progressive politics.

The left needs to reinvigorate the traditions and practices of popular 
democracy and mobilisation that can truncate anti-democratic capitalist 
relations. We need pluralities of democratic power: if the Presidency or 
Parliament fail, our hopes and aspirations must not collapse alongside them.

Going beyond personality-driven drama, holding political office needs to 
be thought of as a revolutionary task in a wider, transformative process 
of social and economic change that champions popular interests.

Yet to a large degree the anti-Mbeki challenge has been about what 
Jeremy Cronin critiqued last year as a “counter-politics of 
demagogically glued-together grievances, and of … messiahs”.

The politics of grievance inevitably spirals up to plots, 
counter-­conspiracies, hype and sensation, all driven by the need to 
deliver the next blow against the other side. The end result of such a 
detour is systematic political demobilisation, loss of democratic values 
and undermining democratic impulses in broader society. Politics becomes 
a kind of theatre in which the people are disempowered spectators with 
the periodic illusion of choices: which show to watch, when to applaud, 
failing which they can grumble in protest or fall asleep.

This story line foretells the death of progressive democratic politics.

Progressive politics demands that the SACP and Cosatu should be held 
politically, organisationally and ideologically accountable by the 
constituency we claim to represent. In this way, we can test the popular 
applicability of our strategic and tactical choices, including whether 
we have a radical programme to confront a socially and ecologically 
disastrous economic system. Only in this sense -- and not through 
insider trading -- can we really shift policies.

This brings us to the hard and patient task of rebuilding a political 
and organisational base to contest power relations on the basis of what 
we are for, not merely what we are against. Could the neoliberal project 
not have been more sustainably challenged on this principled basis? Why 
on a questionable Zuma horse?

What difference will a Zuma presidency make? How can Zuma overcome the 
structural constraints imposed by the liberal democratic framework on 
the sweeping economic and social transformation that South Africa 
requires? That is, of course, assuming he wants to embark on such a 
course -- an assertion for which there is no evidence. In his current 
seduction of business Zuma is clearly affirming the continuity of the 
1996 class project. It is therefore doubtful whether a Zuma-led ANC can 
rupture the axis between the state and capital.

The succession race has been marked by claims of an ANC shift to the 
left since the June policy ­conference. But what evidence is there for 
this assertion where it counts the most -- in the daily lives of the 
majority? How will the resolutions address structural unemployment, 
water cut-offs, the housing crisis, the failing public health system, 
the crisis of public education, and the completely absent public 
transport system? How different will the state be from the current 
neoliberal model?

The draft resolutions seem consistent with a capitalist developmental 
state. In the interests of its own preservation, such a state recognises 
increasing socioeconomic inequality and political dissatisfaction among 
the poor. So we have seen greater infrastructural spending, slight 
increases in social grants, incremental increases in public-sector 
salaries and some rhetorical critique of the “free market” by Mbeki 
himself. Yet in the absence of evidence of a substantive shift, the 
alliance left has to demonstrate what policy differences will emerge 
under a Zuma-led ANC.

South Africa also requires leadership to challenge the anti-democratic 
impulses in our socially conservative society -- to mobilise against 
sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, racism and ethnicity. We have to face up 
to the reality that a Zuma-led ANC holds the prospect of reinforcing 
much of this backwardness.

Our current strategy strongly suggests a serious drive to rebuild a 
radical, democratic and left-oriented ANC. This is advanced as the only 
possible strategy. But ironically, it was not just the 1996 class 
project that isolated socialist struggles. Our own strategy must share a 
portion of the blame.

Whatever happens in Polokwane, our strategy opens us to the risk of 
co-option (deliberate or not) into what may be a better ANC, but one 
that merely aspires to reform, not revolution.

Mazibuko Jara, a member of the SACP Cape Town district committee and 
co-managing editor of Amandla Publishers, writes in his personal capacity