THE “NUMSA MOMENT”; A RENEWAL OF REVOLUTIONARY POLITICS IN SOUTH AFRICA
A Report of the NUMSA
International Symposium of Left Parties and Movements, August 7-10, 2014
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| Comrade Irvine Jim, General Secretary NUMSA, addressing the symposium |
INTRODUCTION
The National
Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) held an International Symposium
of Left Parties and Movements on August 7-10, 2014 with the theme: “Building Our Movement for Socialism:
Learning from the Lessons of Others”. The symposium was simultaneously the
Module 4 of the NUMSA Marxist-Leninist Political Schools for its 250-cadre Mbuyiselo Ngwenda Brigade (made up of
shop stewards and activists in the NUMSA provincial structures), and a milestone within the programme
adopted for effecting the December 2013 resolution of the union’s Special
Delegates Conference to establish a revolutionary
socialist party, forge a united front of revolutionary and radical parties,
movements and groups and build a movement for socialism. On the eve of this path-breaking
symposium, three NUMSA activists who were leading shop stewards in the Kwa-Zulu
Natal province were shot dead. These were: Njabulo Ndebele, secretary of the
Isithebe branch, Sibonelo Ntuli, the branch’s deputy secretary (who were both
to have been participants at the symposium) and Ntobeko Maphumulo. While
bothered by these apparent political assassinations, the NUMSA leadership was
not deterred and dedicated the challenge of moving forward to their
revolutionary memory. The symposium thus started with a sober mood of defiance,
even at a dark hour.
ATTENDANCE
79 persons,
parties, unions and groups were invited from 28 countries. 40 of these accepted
the invitation. Communist Parties in governments such as in Cuba and Vietnam
turned down the invitation to avoid souring relations with ANC, that of China
ignored the call, CGT (the French trade union centre with historic ties to the
French Communist Party) stated that it was no longer interested in socialist
politics and discourse, some parties like Lalit in Mauritania were very busy
with forthcoming elections, while some others particularly from southern Europe
said they were on (summer) holidays. The French Left Front comrade was turned
back at the airport (France had communicated its displeasure to NUMSA on French
citizens participating in a subversive meeting). Eventually 27 persons/groups
from 17 countries participated. These were from: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil,
China (Hong Kong), Ecuador, Egypt, El-Salvador, Ghana, Germany, Greece (Syriza
sent a 7-page position paper which showed intent to be physically present,
though absent), India, Nigeria, Philippines, South Korea, Trinidad and Tobago,
Uruguay, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
COSATU, NACTU
and the affiliates of these two federations were invited as were ANC and SACP
as well as other Left groups in South Africa which included: AZAPO, EFF, WASP,
DLF, PAC and SOPA. Not surprisingly, ANC, SACP and COSATU turned down the
invitation. EFF also issued a public statement that it would not participate
because: its leadership had tried to meet with NUMSA for some months, and; it
would not share platform with ANC (and SACP). The NUMSA National Treasurer
debunked the first reason that NUMSA’s Special Conference had resolved to give
priority to internal discussions on the way forward before engaging with other
Left groups. And one of the participants during a break-away session wondered
why it would be difficult for EFF to share a symposium platform with ANC while
it could seat with the party in parliament.
METHODOLOGY
The symposium
included blocs of: plenary presentations, panel discussions, breakaway sessions
and meetings of the Mbuyi Ngwenda
brigade to reflect on the presentations at both plenary and breakaway sessions.
Presentations
at the plenary sessions included: a briefing to international guests by the
NUMSA General Secretary Irvine Jim, “The
State of the South African Revolution and the Significance of the NUMSA
Moment”, opening speech by the NUMSA President Andrew Chirwa, “The South African Working Class, the NUMSA
Moment and the Importance of Global Solidarity” and a video presentation by
Samir Amin on “The Theory and Historical
Evolution of Organisational Formations Struggling Against Capitalism”. There were breakaway sessions to discuss
these, particularly that by Samir Amin.
The central
panel discussion was a “tri-continental” discourse on social-economic and
political developments with emphasis on the struggles and achievements of “socialist/communist
political organisations”. Fred Fuentes of the Socialist Alliance spoke on Latin
America, Firoze Manji of the Pan-African Baraza
on Africa and Andreas Geunther of Die
Linke (standing in for the Left Front’s Christophe Aguiton) on Europe. In 6
groups, participant’s discussed the panel’s inputs and each group presented 3
priority questions/comments to the plenary where further discussions took
place.
There were 4 “socialist
stations” which were working commissions where international participants
provided insight of their experiences to Mbuyi
Gwenda brigade cadres and other local participants. These were structured
to encompass: current socialist/left parties in governments (Bolivia, Ecuador,
El Salvador, Uruguay); socialist/left groups that have not formed government
but have mass following/energy (Germany, Greece, India, Philippines); where
trade unions have established workers/labour parties (Egypt, Nigeria, South
Korea, Trinidad and Tobago, Zambia, Zimbabwe); where there are ongoing
“socialist/leftist experiments” but without any party representative of such
present at the symposium(Brazil, Peoples Republic of China (Hong Kong),
Venezuela).
In socialist
stations 1 & 2 where official party officials spoke, there were also
“critical voices” from outside the party structures to give alternative views.
This was the case in particular with India and Egypt. And in station 4,
leadoffs on the Brazilian situation were made by both members of the Landless
Peoples Movement MST (a critical ally of the ruling PT) and Conlutas, an
alternative trade union federation to the dominant trade union federation
allied to the PT, i.e. CUT and with ties to the United Socialist Workers Party
of Brazil.
The symposium’s
conference documents also included 6 “core reading materials” some of which the
MG Brigade cadres had studied in the course of the 3 earlier modules. These
were:
·
Samir
Amin: “Popular Movements Toward Socialism: Their Unity and Diversity”, in Monthly Review, June 2014
·
Charles
Post: “What is Left of Leninism? New European Left Parties in Historical
Perspective”, in Leo Panitch, Greg Albio and Vivek Chibber (2013), Socialist Register
·
Ernest
Mande: “On Vanguard Parties” Address made at the Marx Centenary Conference – Marxism: The Next Two Decades, March
1983
·
Marta
Harnecker: “A New Political Instrument to Build a New Hegemony”, Part 3 of A World to Build: New Paths toward
Twenty-first Century Socialism, Monthly Review Press (coming November 2014)
·
Vladimir
Ilyich Lenin: “The Primitiveness of the Economists and the Organisation of
Revolutionaries”, Chapter 4 in What is to
Be Done?, 1902
·
Mao
Tse Tung: “Part II: The National Democratic Revolution”, in Revolutionary Thought in the 20th
Century, 1980
IN LIEU OF A CONCLUSION
The
International Symposium was a milestone within the process NUMSA is unfolding
towards establishing a revolutionary working class alternative to the class
collaborationist politics of the tripartite alliance. The next major step would
be a Conference on Socialism, scheduled for March next year. At the closure of
the symposium, the union’s president opined that theorization on the way
forward, resting on lessons learnt from the symposium and the lived and living
experiences of NUMSA and its membership would inform discussions at this
forthcoming conference.
There are great
possibilities for the unfolding situation which the NUMSA moment reflects. But
these go with huge challenges as well. In conclusion, these are considered
briefly, below.
The long shadow
of the ANC is obviously tainted by the “four legs good, two legs better”
metamorphosis of its napoleons, but it still has many a boxer’s loyalty.
Drawing further from animal farm, the Marikana massacre clearly revealed the
erosion of differences between the faces of the pigs and former white male
masters. NUMSA will have the opportunity of this erosion of confidence in what
used to be a national liberation movement. But it could be an uphill task in
the short-term; particularly with the older generation that still have a
nostalgic attachment to ANC. This would most likely include violent fight back
by the dying leviathan.
The united
front is a critical element of the thrust of the NUMSA moment. Most of the
political groups that appear set to forge such with NUMSA are small and with
near negligible influence. The challenge of winning the confidence of EFF
fighters, to be actively part of such a front-in-practice, at the very least
cannot be overemphasized, if it is to be robust, in today’s South Africa, in my
view. NUMSA youths would have a central role to play in appealing to the rank
and file “fighters” of the EFF through struggles from below in the communities
(and even some workplaces).
“What kind of
party do we want to build?” is a question that NUMSA will have to answer in
theory and practice. The answer will not necessarily be as simple as it is
often posed on the Left in general; “vanguard or mass party?” Luckily, so to
speak, NUMSA will not be starting (in either theory or practice) from a point
of zero. Discussions at the Symposium, the reading materials circulated and the
unfolding reality of crises and revolts we are living through provide nuggets
of answers.
In my opinion,
something to be guarded against is the tilt towards compromising revolutionary
programme with the massification of Left parties as they get sucked into the
labyrinth of electoral politics. Avoiding the reefs of reformism on one hand
and sectarianism on the other can best be rooted in revolutionary programme
that posits reforms not as an alternative to revolution, or part of a National
Democratic Revolution, but as rungs in building the confidence and power of the
working class as it climbs the self-emancpatory ladder of revolution.
NUMSA’s
inclusion of service delivery struggles as a trade union, as part and parcel of
its moment, in the rejuvenation of the movement for socialism in South Africa
points towards a grasp of this, as does its readiness to debate on the concept
of the NDR, while still holding firmly to it.
At this point,
I cannot but say like Chinua Achebe that “it is morning yet on creation day”.
And, the greatest contribution of revolutionaries in different countries
globally to the NUMSA moment might not be the theoretical debate we will engage
in as it deepens, but to deepening the revolutionary struggle of the working
class to overthrow capitalism across the world. For NUMSA though, while it is
correctly committed to a process-driven approach at arriving at the goal of
building a mass-based revolutionary socialist party, it would have to take the
plunge sooner than later, if the party would be participating in the March 2016
local elections in South Africa, as it has hinted. The dynamics of local elections are quite
different from those of national elections where EFF could make a credible
showing within just 8months of its establishment. Socialism is the future, and
the future starts today.
Abuja, 7th September 2014
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