ISSUE 94 | JUNE 2015
alternatives to globalisation
Eskom’s Class Agenda Shawn Hattingh Podemos: A Spanish Syriza? Christelle Terreblanche Mobilising Around New Labour Rights Casual Workers Advise Office My organisation Rhodes Must Fall Eskom’s History: Helping the Rich and Attacking the Poor Shawn Hattingh Rural Women and Traditional Leadership Nandi Vanqa-Mgijima Educational Series (Part 3): Theories of Imperialism Leonard Gentle
In this issue, WWN resumes its regular series after last month’s Special Edition on Xenophobia
ESKOM’S CLASS AGENDA
Who has controlled it, for what purposes and in whose interest?
Living without power in Soweto in the shadow of Eskom’s legacy. Photo: Rebecca Arnold
Eskom has been plagued by inefficiencies and scandals. We’ve seen load-shedding, exorbitantly large managerial salaries and scandals around tenders and coal-supply costs.
privatisation and the ANC is considering selling equity in Eskom to pension funds. The conduct of Eskom towards the working class has also been scandalous. The working class is saddled with cut-offs, pre-paid metres, and tariffs up to 400% higher than those paid by some corporations.
In 2014, Eskom recorded a R7 billion profit, but now claims that it faces a funding short-fall and is demanding significant tariff increases to overcome this.
WHY ARE WE IN THE DARK?
Eskom’s troubles have also been used as a pretext, by some, to once again call for its full
To understand why some of this is happening you have to look at Eskom’s history – including
who has controlled it, for what purposes and in whose interests. Entwined with this is the role the state plays in society. Analysing this history too reveals why privatisation is not the solution, but neither is state control – the only solution being direct working class control. It has been the ruling class – through the state – that has owned and controlled Eskom from the outset. They have used it to further their own interests, especially under neoliberalism. Herein lies the root cause of the problems we see around Eskom. To understand how this is possible, it is vital to understand that states are not neutral. States,
Continued on page 2... WORKERS WORLD NEWS | No. 94 | June 2015
1
Lead Story class rule and markets are deeply tied together. Throughout history, states have always been controlled by privileged minority classes and used to further their interests. This is the case with the South African State too. Under apartheid the ruling class was made up of white capitalists, white state bureaucrats and politicians. The Apartheid State served their interests well: enforcing their dominance and ensuring their huge profits through creating a supply of very cheap, mainly black, labour.
OR THE PO TO 400 PAY UP HAN M ORE T ATIONS CORPOR Today white capitalists remain part of the ruling class, but they have been joined by black economic empowerment (BEE) elites tied to the ANC. It is this class who controls the state today and in whose interests the state operates. This is done in a number of ways, which have continuities with the past. It guarantees that the ruling class owns the means of production by protecting capitalist and state property rights. It assures the oppression of the working class through ideology and if need be, as Marikana showed, violence. It also intervenes to ensure a general climate that aids ruling class accumulation.
AN ELITE POWER PATH What the state, however, also does is to use the companies it controls for the benefit of sections of the ruling class and this is where Eskom comes in. Eskom was established by the state in 1923 for the purpose of assisting the rich and powerful. From the very beginning Eskom ensured that coal mining corporations receive lucrative deals for their low grade coal – thereby making them highly profitable. Many established companies – who benefitted from this under apartheid – still have contracts that stipulate that Eskom will cover their production costs and guarantee them a profit. It is not surprising, therefore, that Eskom has extended such deals to companies with BEE connections in the post-apartheid period by buying coal at well above market prices – it is simply part of Eskom’s class agenda. On the supply side, Eskom also has a long history of assisting large corporations. Eskom was originally established to supply the railways with cheap electricity to further aid capitalist accumulation. This strategy
2
intensified after 1948, when the state, through Eskom, nationalised the private companies that were selling electricity to the mines – demonstrating nationalisation does not equal socialism. This was done at the behest of Anglo American, who was unhappy with the high prices and inefficiencies of its privately owned supplier, the Victoria Falls and Transvaal Power Company.
1990s, to fully privatise Eskom, stalled. At the time, the state instructed Eskom to stop building new power stations as it was to be privatised, which has contributed to today’s capacity problems and load-shedding. Full privatisation of Eskom was not implemented in the end, mainly due to the state drawing lessons from the disastrous experience of full electricity privatisation in California.
Since then Eskom has been providing cheap electricity to the largest companies in South Africa: by externalising the costs of pollution and intervening in the market to subsidise their profits. Today, 138 of the biggest companies in South Africa are reportedly still supplied electricity at below cost through special pricing deals. Thus, the profits of such capitalists in the past and present have not only been derived from cheap black labour, but also cheap electricity.
Instead, IPPs were introduced as partial privatisation. To ensure the viability of the IPPs, Eskom dramatically raised the price of electricity – targeting mainly households, while either exempting large corporations or increasing their prices less dramatically from a very low base. Using this tactic, IPPs have become extremely profitable, with Eskom again being used as a vehicle to ensure profits for members of the ruling class.
Eskom bureaucrats (who are part of the ruling class) have always been well rewarded for this task: the R60 million that the top ten Eskom executives received in 2014 was, therefore, business-as-usual.
UPPING THE ANTE UNDER NEOLIBERALISM Under neoliberalism, however, states began to intervene more aggressively on behalf of the ruling class, through privatisation, outsourcing or public-private partnerships and bailing out large corporations. Eskom has played a role in this too. Since 1987, Eskom turned to widespread outsourcing which was lucrative for private companies – at first for those with National Party connections and after 1994 many contracts have gone to ANC-linked companies. Under neoliberalism, the South African State has also opened up the electricity generating sector to private enterprises in the form of Independent Power Producers (IPPs). This came about when plans, in the mid-to-late
CTS CONTRA TO LIN KED RULING S PARTIE
WORKERS WORLD NEWS | No. 94 | June 2015
The shenanigans, tied to ruling class control over Eskom, that have led to the problems we see: be they working class households facing astronomical prices and accompanying cutoffs, while corporations receive below cost electricity; be they huge managerial salaries; be they tender-scandals or be they capacity issues. Control over Eskom by the ruling class through the state has brought only pain for the working class. Full privatisation won’t change this; it will simply narrow control over Eskom to an even smaller section of the ruling class, with the likely outcome being even more pain for the majority.
SS NG CLA I K R O W NTROL O C N I A MUST G SKOM OVER E This leaves one solution: for the working class to struggle to gain control over Eskom. This may seem utopian, but history shows us that it is possible. In Spain, during the late 1930s thousands of factories were taken over by the working class. Electricity companies were seized, collectivised and democratically run by workers in order to meet the needs of the majority of people. In just two years, the efficiency of the electricity sector vastly improved. Millions of working class people gained access to electricity, and for sections of the working class that already had access, prices dropped dramatically. Although the revolution was crushed, the Spanish example shows how working class control over companies, such as Eskom, could lead to greater efficiency and viable ways to meet the needs of a majority.
International News
PODEMOS: A SPANISH SYRIZA? European Left axis of resistance against austerity and neoliberalism could be emerging When Spain’s new “left” force, Podemos, emerged from local elections in May with 14% of the vote and key cities under its control, hopes were confirmed that Syriza’s January victory in Greece was not an isolated new Left phenomenon. Podemos is now deemed Spain’s second largest political party, suggesting that an European axis of resistance against austerity could be emerging. Yet, questions are being raised over whether Podemos could solidify its support given a range of paradoxes that emanated from its rapid ascendancy since early 2014. The rise of Podemos (“We Can”) is regarded as unprecedented in Spanish politics – a new “tide” that reinvigorated an apathetic voter base fed-up with decades of a stagnant twoparty system and relentless austerity policies. Its latest election advances came four years and ten days after the Indignados Movement’s (originally the 15-M) first spontaneous occupation in Madrid on 15 May 2011, revolting against the wave of housing evictions, high-level corruption and austerity measures that have marked the Eurozone crisis. Along with the Arab Spring, the Indignados inspired Occupy movements globally to demand direct democratic participation and a deeper sense of citizenship. But the 70-odd occupations across Spain soon dissipated, with many arguing its inability to change institutions was due to a rejection of all political parties, and hence, a reluctance to contest power.
RAPID RISE OF A “SPANISH SYRIZA” A group of academics with roots in the Indignados and ties to Latin America’s “pink tide” revolutions (Ecuador, Bolivia and Venezuela) stepped into the breech – along with several new anti-capitalist platforms – spying a gap for a “Spanish Syriza”. Prominent among them was maverick political scientist Pablo Iglesias, who is now the Podemos secretary-general. The rapid rise of Podemos has been ascribed to Spain’s high unemployment rate and thousands of housing foreclosures after Spain’s real estate bubble (the largest in Europe) burst. Others credit the party and its leader’s “irreverent” style and, more profoundly, the
new-style democracy, including a horizontal participation culture it inherited from the 2011 occupation of public spaces. Podemos is also defined by substantial support from young people – those who have little chance to find housing or secure employment. Months after its formation in early 2014, Podemos already made waves by garnering nearly 8% of Spain’s vote for European Parliament representatives. In the May 2015 local and regional polls, its 14% average ate substantially into the absolute majorities hogged for decades by both the ruling centreright People’s Party (PP) and centre-left opposition, the Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party (PSOE).
the Caste”). Some argue that continuing with such an undefined identity or “negative self-definition” could leave Podemos’s profile ideologically trapped as “moderate”. Podemos is nevertheless undeniably radical in heritage, style and policy.
POWER: AT WHAT COST?
Even though the PP won an overall majority of 27%, it could only hang onto power in some cities through coalition deals. The PP lost the capital, Madrid, for the first time in twenty years – to the Podemos-aligned Ahora – making way for the city’s first woman mayor. Podemos made its biggest breakthroughs in areas where broad – and very transparent – alliances were formed with local assemblies, anti-austerity platforms or the United Left party.
Secondly, the question over whether Podemos is foremost a movement or a political party also remains unresolved. It inherited the grassroots movement formation from the Indignados and turned assemblies into nearly a thousand membership “Circles” centred on open participation. But contradictions arose when the leadership hurriedly prepared for elections – a lean “blitzkrieg” war machine at the top was created to meet the organisational challenges of electioneering. The effect was to dilute democracy “from below”. A “Citizens Assembly” held late last year was nevertheless a broad democratic approach to endorse the party’s ethical and political stance and to elect its leadership.
NEITHER LEFT NOR RIGHT?
A third concern is the conspicuous absence from the Podemos support base of both formal trade unions and Spain’s large population (10%) of non-Europeans and migrant labourers.
Its principal test will be Spain’s national elections in November, but analysts warn that the growth in support may be unsustainable, due to contradictions resulting from its rapid electoral expansion. Firstly, it is argued that an intentional strategy to position Podemos as neither Left nor rightwing could backfire: notably a populist style that appealed across class lines and tried to distance it from the discredited “old Left” and unions. It worked because many among the middle classes were hard hit by the Eurozone crisis. The campaign emphasised the draconian cuts in social spending that rendered millions unemployed and homeless, with the slogan: “bread, a roof and a job”. The election strategy was to attack Spain’s ruling compact – the political elite, media, corporations and the wealthy – accused of hijacking governance institutions. Mobilisation centred on The People vs. The Elite (“Against
EUROPEAN LEFT AXIS? What Podemos has done well is to take advantage of a window of opportunity to deepen and change the terms of the political debate, much like Syriza’s intervention in Greek politics. The Podemos vote in Spain’s November elections is regarded as a test for Left politics across Europe and the world. Therefore, it is perhaps too early to predict whether the Greek and Spanish electoral swings represent a decisive anti-neoliberal tide in southern Europe, where the Eurozone crisis is felt most severely. As much of Europe sees a resurgence of both far-left and far-right anti-austerity parties, the Podemos and Syriza Left victories have at a minimum exposed the global political deficit at the centre of the contagious economic crisis, hence the emphasis on corruption, austerity and jobs – but also on transforming the political system.
WORKERS WORLD NEWS | No. 94 | June 2015
3
My Struggle
MOBILISING AROUND NEW LABOUR RIGHTS
...labour broker and contract workers are more than willing to organise around their rights... Workers claiming their new rights at Medal Paints, using a pamphlet from the Casual Workers Advice Office (CWAO). Photo: CWAO
New legislation that seeks to provide precarious workers with permanent employment after three months have provoked resistance from employers, but a campaign is helping workers to claim their rights through new ways of organising. Large numbers of workers have mobilised in response to the Casual Workers Advice Office’s (CWAO) campaign around the new rights, which came into effect in January. CWAO has contact with 106 workplaces involving over ten thousand workers agitating for their rights. To highlight the new rights, a number of campaign materials were produced, including pamphlets, posters, a summary booklet and a DVD with drama sketches for viewing and broadcast. Almost all of these were adapted for distribution via cellphone. The most successful intervention has been the early morning distribution of thousands of pamphlets in industrial areas.
WORKER RESPONSES In several instances, workers have confronted their bosses armed only with the pamphlet – virtually from the first day of distribution. They continue to do so as the pamphleteering carry on, but many workers were justifiably concerned that demanding their new rights could jeopardise their jobs. At Medal Paints, employers locked out a large number of workers when they demanded to be employed permanently. After a few weeks of pamphleteering, CWAO called a meeting at its Germiston offices, which was attended by 109 workers from 36 companies. Such a turnout on a long weekend exceeded expectations and instantly confirmed that labour broker and contract workers are more than willing to organise around their rights. As workers shared their experiences around the new rights, it emerged that most bosses were giving workers new temporary contracts to sign in violation of the legislation, often threatening dismissal should workers refuse. Workers committed to meeting on a monthly basis to share experiences and strengthen their respective struggles.
A second meeting was convened in order to provide further education by a Commission for Conciliation, Mediation and Arbitration (CCMA) specialist on the new rights; and to get updates on workplace developments. CWAO’s own lawyers were present to answer questions and advise on courses of action. Over 140 workers from 31 companies attended.
STRUGGLES INTENSIFYING By this stage, workers at some workplaces were referring their disputes to the CCMA and bargaining councils. At another meeting in late May, CWAO gave feedback to workers about letters of demand sent to bosses, or where disputes had been referred. Workers discussed new developments in workplaces and they were assisted to process documents for dispute referrals. Even more workers packed the CWAO office to capacity at the next meeting. At Clover in Clayville, workers had gone on an un-procedural work stoppage to demand the removal of a supervisor who had been baiting workers over the new
Continued on next page...
4
WORKERS WORLD NEWS | No. 94 | June 2015
My Organisation
IM RS CLA E K R O W IGHTS THEIR R rights. A worker representative told the meeting that the confidence to strike was due entirely to awareness of the new rights. Most workers reported substantial intimidation and threats of dismissal, due mainly to employers’ pressure for them to sign new contracts, in violation of the new legislation’s requirement that they become permanent employees after three months. One worker summed up the mood by saying it was clear that the problems facing workers were the same, and that the task was to find ways of building solidarity and a common struggle. “This here is our union”, he said, symbolically wrapping his arms around the assembled group of workers.
SOME TRENDS AND TENDENCIES The responses to the campaign have shown very high degrees of self-organisation among workers. Some came to meetings with explicit mandates from fellow comrades, others with handwritten lists of workers fighting beside them and wishing to be included in dispute referrals. In quite a few cases, workers have directly approached bosses without CWAO’s assistance. It is already clear that the new rights are proving a very sound basis for organising labour broker and contract workers, catalysing the emergence of new worker struggles outside of traditional trade union forms of organising. This is confirmed by the presence of workers from large auto plants such as Nissan and Ford, and parastatals such as Eskom and Transnet – strongholds of traditional unions. By the third meeting, large groups of workers from individual workplaces were attending – a sign that the new rights are resonating with the majority of affected workers. Notwithstanding the diversity of workplaces present – from auto to logistics, chemical and retail – workers only ever stressed the common nature of their problems.
THE ‘RHODES MUST FALL’ MOMENT LINGERS “Rhodes Must Fall” rocked the country in March – a slogan and movement that emerged from a demonstration by students against the continued centre-stage occupation of a statue of British colonialist Cecil John Rhodes at the University of Cape Town (UCT). It may have been just another student protest, but a bucket of poo was thrown at the statue, making TV headlines. A few days later a procession under the name of our new movement, “Rhodes Must Fall” occupied the administration building, in order to gain the attention of the Vice Chancellor. Soon, the demand for the removal of the statue became symbolic of the plight of outsourced workers at the university, its lack of transformation at academic and institutional level to reflect the reality of South Africa, and indeed, its failure to become an African university. As the mood spread to other universities, South Africans started to debate its postcolonial and post-apartheid legacy, 21 years after democracy dawned. Statues of colonists, Apartheid fathers and Boer War heroes came under attack countrywide as a new consciousness set in about the need to “decolonise” our past, present and future. UCT capitulated: Rhodes was removed from his pedestal less than a month after the first protest. The debate continues – because the fall of ‘Rhodes’ is symbolic of the inevitable fall of white supremacy and privilege. Student and “Rhodes Must Fall” member, Babalwa Notununu-Matebese, reflects on the movement: “I still remember the day Chumani Maxwele came onto UCT grounds and threw poo on
the Rhodes statue. That moment ignited a flame in a lot of Blacks. In “I write what I like”, Steve Bantu Biko explains that ‘black’ or ‘blackness’ is not a person’s skin pigmentation, but its exclusion. ‘Blacks’ are those who have been systematically made to feel inferior, not just at the University of Cape Town. We’ve seen students at other universities coming together and saying that kwanele ayihlome ihlasele igwala kulonina: the time has come for students to take a stand on the injustices. The shortcomings of the university are not unknown to us and for the longest time we have allowed our universities ubaziqine enyaleni. “Now we are saying that we demand radical transformation, we demand a decolonised curriculum and we demand to be recognised as being part of the university. This should be reflective of, but not limited to, the culture of the university, the symbolism on campus, academic policies and more – a transformation long overdue. “By joining the movement I had wished to extend and develop the potential of not only myself, but also that of my fellow students to enable us to become self-sufficient, responsible citizens. I’m just so blessed to have been part of an incredible movement. Personally it’s just a wonderful feeling knowing that in my own little way through loyal endeavour, I have assisted the movement in achieving its aims. Being a part of “Rhodes Must Fall” has been an incredible learning experience. I have grown so much, I’ve met such amazing people and formed what I hope will be life-long bonds. It’s honestly been a life changing experience.”
Most of the workers are young, with a sizeable presence also of women workers. Some workers have had union experience, but most brought fresh energy to the task of organising themselves. While the old trade unions wither away, labour broker and contract workers are showing that a new wave of organising workers is eminently possible.
E IS R E H S I "TH ION' OUR U N
A movement cheers as the statue of Cecil John Rhodes is removed from UCT. Photo: C’de Anele
WORKERS WORLD NEWS | No. 94 | June 2015
5
ESKOM'S HISTORY: HELPING THE RICH AND ATTACKING THE POOR a Eskom has been making headlines for over rd coal decade: from load-shedding and sub-standa ding to how it has a back-log in maintenance, a fun short-fall and successive chief executives. At times Eskom has tried to blame the working class for some of its woes, claiming load-shedding is the result of connecting millions of black working class households to the grid. It also claims that it faces a potential multi-billion rand shortfall, blaming the National Electricity Regulator of South Africa (NERSA) for lower than desired increases in the past. This, Eskom warns, might impact on its
ability to fully meet supply demands going forward, so it is repeatedly asking NERSA for huge increases.
profits – and continues to supply some of the largest corporations with extremely cheap electricity.
Sectors of the ruling class are also using Eskom’s problems to call for new rounds of privatisation in the electricity sector. The ANC-led state is considering selling equity in Eskom to pension funds to cover the shortfall. Yet, Eskom makes huge
Here we trace Eskom’s history, including whose interests it serves, why it faces problems with capacity, and why the working class bears the brunt – high prices, cut-offs, and pre-paid metres – while corporations pay little.
ESKOM UNDER SEGREGATION • The electricity industry arose in the late nineteenth century to power the mines. • In the early years it was mainly in the hands of capitalists with the privately-owned Victoria Falls and Transvaal Power Company (VFTPC) being the largest utility. • In 1923, Escom (as it was then known) was established as a state-owned entity to supply cheap electricity to the railways and regulate sales by private companies and municipalities – with the mines still being provided electricity by private companies. • Escom’s mandate was to supply cheap electricity without making a profit or a loss.
ESKOM UNDER GRAND APARTHEID • By the 1940s, the continued supply of electricity by the private sector, mainly the VFTPC, was proving too costly for mining houses, notably Anglo American, which was pushing for nationalisation of private electricity companies. • In 1948, the state did nationalise the VFTPC and incorporated it into Escom. • From this point onwards Escom supplied extremely cheap electricity to the mining houses too, along with ensuring solid profits for capitalists supplying Escom with coal. • Indeed, mining and industries related to it were so profitable not only due to cheap labour, but also cheap electricity.
6
WORKERS WORLD NEWS | No. 94 | June 2015
ESKOM AND APARTHEID NEOLIBERALISM • By the mid-1970s, South Africa was in crisis, prompting the state to start intervening in new ways to assist capitalists, including implementing neoliberal policies. • As part of this, the state began commercialising Eskom in 1987 by passing legislation that allowed Eskom to make a profit. • The supply of cheap electricity to mining, industrial and service sector firms, however, remained central. • With the crisis, and slowing economic growth, Eskom had an over-supply of electricity. • In the 1980s, it began a mass programme of electrifying townships in the hope of gaining more revenue, while assisting the Apartheid State’s bid to dampen struggles by improving township conditions.
ANC-LED STATE NEOLIBERALISM AND ESKOM • Under the ANC-led state, the commercialisation of Eskom – and the opening up of the electricity sector to privately-owned companies – became entrenched. • In the mid-1990s, the ANC-led state even planned to fully privatise Eskom and stopped it from building new power stations – resulting in Eskom’s current capacity problems. • The state further corporatised Eskom – it became a shareholding parastatal company and had to pay taxes and dividends. • By the mid-2000s, the state decided to put the full privatisation of Eskom on hold. • However, by then Eskom had been fundamentally restructured along neoliberal lines. • Outsourcing increased – many contract beneficiaries have close links to the ANC. • Instead of Eskom power stations being sold off, the state opened the sector to private companies to build their own power plants to sell electricity to Eskom. • The state now wants 30% of electricity generation to be done by private companies in addition to Eskom’s megapower plant building programme. • Sourcing electricity from private producers has proved expensive as Eskom pays these companies high prices.
THE POOR AND ESKOM • To cover all these costs and still make a profit, tariffs have shot up for municipalities and households – but not the largest companies – and maintenance has often been delayed. • This has seen working class households paying up to 400% more per kilowatt/hour than big corporations. • To be “cost efficient” Eskom also installed pre-paid metres in townships – so people are automatically cut off when they don’t pay. • But despite neoliberal restructuring Eskom continues to supply extremely cheap electricity to large corporations – some of it below cost. • It also continues to guarantee coal mining companies massive profits – many suppliers are now linked to leading figures in the ANC. • It is the working class that suffers – it pays the highest prices for electricity and through this subsidises corporations’ profits – be they coal companies supplying Eskom; companies receiving cheap electricity from Eskom, or private companies producing for the grid at inflated prices. • Further rounds of privatisation are bound to make this worse.
WORKERS WORLD NEWS | No. 94 | June 2015
7
Section Page Gender Topic
SA’S GENDERED CONTRADICTIONS: THE RULE OF TRADITIONAL PRACTICES HARMS RURAL WOMEN The Constitution’s recognition of traditional leadership as an institution all too often leads to the enforcement of draconian “laws” in poor rural communities. Despite the fact that culture is largely viewed as a common good in society, some practices are harmful and have the potential of undermining the dignity of rural communities – in particular that of women and the girl child. Deeply ingrained in some cultural practices is how women are viewed in a patriarchal society – as subordinates – hence, the entrenchment of such practices by the government reinforces gender-based violence. Many “traditional” practices are in violation of the Preamble of the Constitution which emphasises the importance of redressing imbalances of the past, including discrimination based on race, class and sex. The right to equality trumps the right to culture: therefore, any cultural belief that discriminates against anyone on the basis of race, sex, gender or sexual orientation should be regarded as unconstitutional.
HELL-BENT ON UNDERMINING WOMEN’S RIGHTS Let’s consider a recent spate of traditional practices that seems hell-bent on undermining the rights and independence of women. In one incident a chief of the vhaVenda Tribal Authority has been issuing illegal warrants of arrest and fines to unmarried pregnant women since 2008. Fines of R850 have forced poor women to approach loan sharks, while some had to flee their villages to avoid punishment. Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini recently told traditional leaders at a ceremony in Ulundi that the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act – which stipulates that a husband must get the consent of his first wife before taking a second – was flawed and disempowered them (polygamists). Traditional practices such as ukuthwala (forced marriage) and polygamous marriages tend to subjugate women as the property of men, which also makes them more
8
The architecture of a new bill could result in women being excluded from attending some traditional courts. Photo: Christelle Terreblanche prone to domestic violence. They are effectively renedered voiceless. Ukuthwala involves the kidnapping of a young woman by a man (often a complete stranger) with the intention of marrying her. It is an outdated practice that has been increasingly rejected by young women, who often flee from these “marriages”.
ANC ABOUT-TURN ON CHIEFS The transition from Apartheid to democracy in 1994 resulted in the adoption of a liberal constitution that required massive law reform processes. This included the establishment of institutions and policies to ensure gender equality in line with the Constitution, and a Ministry of Women added later. Yet, at the same time, we witnessed the setting up of institutions of traditional leadership (chieftainship) to govern in parallel with local governments. We must not forget that these institutions of traditional leadership have long been deeply controversial and were also altered during colonial and Apartheid rule to be used as tools to subjugate rural black communities. Chiefs became actual or perceived puppets of oppressive white regimes. Traditional leadership was fiercely rejected by the ANC and other liberation movements during the antiapartheid struggle. Once the ANC was in power it became synonymous with contradictions: for one, it embraced these reactionary patriarchal traditional leadership institutions to consolidate its hold on power in former homeland areas.
WORKERS WORLD NEWS | No. 94 | June 2015
RETURN OF THE TRADITIONAL COURTS BILL With the recent return of the Traditional Courts Bill to the National Council of Provinces, poor rural women are likely to taste even more of what I call a highly toxic democracy. The Bill had been rejected before by five provinces because women have explicitly and repeatedly stated that it will mark a return to Bantustan-style oppression. The ANC’s insistence on re-enacting the controversial Bill is a clear indication of desperation to win local government votes at all costs, even when it violates the Constitution’s guarantee of equality before the law. Whether it will be rammed through the legislature before next year’s elections, or head for the dustbin, again may depend on women mobilising in full force.
Traditional courts are highly oppressive, patriarchal and dominated by men. There are instances where these courts are held in cattle kraals where women are not permitted to enter – even if their own entitlement to justice is at stake. Rural women, especially the poorest, will remain subjects of these traditionalist patriarchal and homophobic leaders and will never experience in full the benefits and values of democracy – unless we fight these laws.
Saw a bullet proof vested South African cop Burly in his blue tunic Smiling idiotically like the Cheshire feline of yore for the eager media cameras Parading before the daylight inferno In the middle of which a young African not from South Africa on all fours was crouching stolidly As he was roasted alive by a vengeful foaming frothing mob of black skinned homegrown delirious xenophobes Meting out cowardly injustice to yet another Amakwerekwere Another African foreigner What was that bile they were spewing what was that venom they were spitting what was that hate They were baying Something like No Pokomos in Polokwane No Bembas in Bloemfontein No Kikuyus in Kimberly No Dinkas in Durban No Malawians in Mpumalanga In 2015 , just like 2013 and other recent years domestic South Africans hound and hunt Africans they deem foreign They spit the Amakwerekwere venom at their African siblings These Abantu Who were once insulted As Kaffirs on their own streets
Cultural Page
A poem by Onyango Oloo, Nairobi, April 2015
In their own mother’s land Today These Abantu devoid of Ubuntu want none of their sisters and brothers Shame on you xenophobic South Africans shame! I remember as a 16 year old in ‘76 Growing up In Mombasa, Kenya 1976 the year of Oscar Petersen 1976 the year of the Soweto Uprising 1976 In the spring of 1994, almost exactly twenty one years ago today We ululated, we danced half naked In Côte-des-Neiges and Notre Dame de Grace and all over Montreal, Quebec Intoxicated with joy Celebrating with millions of South Africans That just the previous day Nelson Mandela was sworn in as the first Black President of the new South Africa And ANC was the new democratic government in Pretoria, Johannesburg and Cape Town Today you xenophobic South Africans Who were toddlers and runny nosed pre-teens When Africa and the world was fighting for your freedom Today you contemporary xenophobes Have forgotten how Africa paid with blood, bombings and sanctions For the prosperity which you now think Is your prerogative to keep from your fellow Africans Shame, shame shame on you xenophobic South Africans Shame! Shame on you xenophobes! Were you not sheltered In Zambian urban estates and Tanzanian rural villages By the same people you Today ignorantly declare persona non grata In Johannesburg and Pietermaritzburg Shame on you xenophobic South Africans
You have conveniently forgotten How Mzalendo Samora Machel was blown out of the sky As Mozambicans paid the ultimate price Donating their guerilla hero for South Africa’s freedom Shame, shame, shame on you xenophobic South Africans! All over the African continent In Accra, in Lagos, in Algiers In Ougadougou, in Cairo In Khartoum, in Antananarivo In Kampala, in Luanda In Yaounde, in Port Victoria In Cape Verde, in Guinea Bissau In Sao Tome and Principe We all chanted Amandla Nga Wethu! We danced the toyi toyi We intoned the earnest lyrics Of your famous national anthem Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika With angry clenched fists Over our determined chests Praying with you For freedom in your life time Today you same xenophobic South Africans That we fought side by side with Today you chase us like rats along the Durban beaches Shame, shame Shame on you Comrades What happened What happened to Uhuru na Uzalendo What happened to Ubuntu What happened to Socialism and revolution Pan Africanism and Internationalism Tell me comrades What happened to the minds and souls of millions of South Africans Tell me comrades When did xenophobic South Africans lose their minds?
What happened to Ubuntu?
Read the full poem: http://jukwaa.proboards.com/thread/9336/pokomos-polokwane#ixzz3ZG0DKTLG WORKERS WORLD NEWS | No. 94 | June 2015
9
Educational Series
PART 3
EDUCATIONAL SERIES
THE ORIES OF IMPERIALISM South Africa just experienced an instance of both the hypocrisy and rivalry that this series has tried to highlight. Sudanese President, Omar al Bashir was allowed out of the country despite an International Criminal Court (ICC) warrant that South Africa should arrest him. The world’s most violent imperialist power – the United States (US) – called on South Africa to honour its membership of the treaty which set up the ICC, despite the fact that the US refused to sign up to the ICC. By the South African government refusing to arrest Bashir it was not only defying its own judiciary, it was defying the world’s major imperialist power – the US. We cannot understand this without looking deeper at the notion of imperialism and having a theoretical understanding of what imperialism is. This is what this article – the third in our Series on Imperialism – will now look at.
LENIN’S THEORY OF IMPERIALISM Russian revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin developed a theory in the run-up to the First World War (1914-1918). In this period the then major powers – Germany, Britain, France and Czarist Russia – were raising the political temperature in Europe around the break-up of the old Ottoman Empire (much of Eastern Europe and the Middle East centred on what is today Turkey). These powers had already agreed on carving up Africa at a conference in Berlin in 1886. Germany was accused by the others of trying to muscle in on territory in Europe and the Middle East that was already under the sway of Britain and France. Czarist Russia was then an ally of Britain and France and so they all drummed up public opinion against Germany. Lenin and the revolutionary Socialists in Russia and Germany declared the impending War a case of a war between rival imperialisms. He
X-COLONIES E F O N IO T A DOMIN EATURE OF BECAME A F APITAL M ONOPOLY C
10
WORKERS WORLD NEWS | No. 94 | June 2015
developed a theory as to how it was possible to dominate another country politically without necessarily ruling it or occupying it militarily. Capitalism developed to a stage in which huge monopolies become a dominant feature of the economy. Banks and finance houses began to merge with industrial capitalists to form a new phenomenon – which Lenin called Finance Capital. At this stage such capitalist countries shifted from just exporting goods across borders to exporting capital. Exporting capital is about their banks lending money to businesses in other countries for profit, or their companies buying shares in foreign companies or setting up new businesses in other countries. These tentacles are cemented by the merging of finance capital with state institutions.
In so doing the capital-exporting imperialist countries began to own and control the means of economic power of foreign lands and thus assumed control of their politics, even if these countries were formally independent. In so doing Lenin was able to explain how – even without colonialism – decisive political domination over other countries was possible and had become a feature of monopoly capitalism. For Lenin this would lead to competition amongst Finance Capitals in different countries and thereby to inter-imperial rivalry and even war. Lenin’s theory held sway amongst activists across the world for many years as it well-predicted the First World War. But in the Second World War (1939-1945) many activists on the Left accepted arguments by the world’s Communist Parties, which dropped the narrative that this was an
Educational Series
EDUCATIONAL SERIES
imperialist war, and instead called on all to rally against Hitler’s murderous fascism, in defence of Democracy.
IMPERIALISM AND THE BRETTON WOODS AGREEMENT OF 1944 For decades now many on the Left have argued that the post WW2 period was a very different one to the earlier 20th century. This was due to the Bretton Woods system that seemed to settle the world down for almost 40 years of US domination, without new world wars. Bretton Woods is a small town in the US where the finance ministers of the capitalist countries met to set up a new world order to ensure the recovery of capitalism after the end of WW2. There they agreed that: •
Gold would be fixed at $35 an ounce.
•
The US dollar would become “as good as gold” and serve as the world’s currency of international trade and its reserve currency.
•
Two banks would be set up to ensure the stability of this system of US domination – the International Monetary Fund (IMF) – and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (the World Bank).
S WERE IE R T N U O C R POO OPED TO ROB L E V E D R E D UN URCES THEIR RESO explained that the majority of the world’s countries were poor because they had been deliberately underdeveloped as a way of robbing them of their resources. Then Brazilian radical, Andre Gunder Frank, argued the theory of unequal exchange to explain why some countries are rich and others poor. He said that ex-colonies produced largely primary goods – farming or mining products – which they had to export to wealthy countries. The rich countries, in turn, processed these raw materials into more expensive manufactured goods and then exported them back to the poor countries, along with bank loans. So poor countries are poor because they suffer from unequal exchange and rich countries are rich – and imperialist – because they can dominate the terms of global trade.
At the time the main concern was to ensure the recovery of Europe and Japan on a capitalist basis – at a time when strong social movements on the Left throughout Europe and the Soviet Union were seen as a threat.
This theory of “unequal exchange” has been dominant amongst activists worldwide for decades and is often heard in the language of those who speak about “the Global North” and “the Global South”. Many who see imperialism in terms of this theory argue that activists should rally behind or pressurise their governments in the “developing countries” – or the “South” – to ensure that they change the terms of trade – by processing primary goods, taxing imports and so on. They have focussed their campaigns on the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
But this also handed the world over to US imperialism as the world’s major power – an umbrella under which all other capitalist countries would act. So there appeared to be no inter-imperial rivalry as before.
This theory tends to reject the possibility that there may be interimperialist rivalry in the North or that there may emerge countries in the South that may themselves become imperialist.
NATIONAL LIBERATION STRUGGLES AND THE THEORY OF UNEQUAL EXCHANGE While the Bretton Woods system may have helped to stabilise Europe for most of the rest of the World, the post-WW2 period was notable for the national liberation struggles of countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. These movements, in Ghana, Nigeria, the Congo, Malaysia etc., soon found out that although they fought for independence against their colonial rulers – Britain, France, Belgium and Portugal – they were also coming up against the power of the US even though the US had never been their colonial ruler. Every time new liberation movements won some degree of independence and wanted the kind of economic development they saw in newlyrevitalised Europe they were called “communist” by the US. They faced the threat of military coups and assassinations often perpetrated by the US and its agency, the CIA. In Ghana the first president of independent Ghana, Kwame Nkhrumah, coined the term “neo-colonialism” to describe the way in which countries gained formal independence from colonial rule but yet continued to suffer under foreign domination by the US and their ex-colonial power. In the 1960s another theory emerged to explain imperialism under the banner of “under-development”. Jamaican radical, Walter Rodney,
AND NOW? But now we are living through a new crisis of capitalism – in the form of the financial crisis of 2008 – and new wars, including threats of major wars. And the US power seems to be waning and yet it hits out in new vicious ways, for instance the invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan – the “War and Terror”. These are symptoms of an imperialist power in decline. Then again we see the rise of rival imperialisms such as China. Meanwhile the US is drumming the war drums against Vladimir Putin’s Russia. And South Africa is now part of the BRICS bloc with Brazil, Russia, India and China; and the imperialist power in Africa.
So which of the above theories best helps us understand the world today?
TO COME
4 Imperialism and War 5 Imperialism and South Africa, then and now
6 Imperialism today
WORKERS WORLD NEWS | No. 94 | June 2015
11
Back Page
GLOBALISATION SCHOOL 2015 This year ILRIG we be hosting its annual Globalisation School in Johannesburg from the 17th to the 23rd of October.
WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU
ic l b u p G I R IL 5 1 0 2 s m u for Every month ILRIG hosts a public forum to create the space for activists from the labour and social movements as well as other interested individuals to debate current issues.
Now is the time to start building our new mass movement. Last year, ILRIG’s Educational Series focused on the historic forms that united fronts and people’s movements took. The Education Series for this year focuses on Imperialism. We hope this will deepen our discussions.
upcoming public forum
Our vision is to interact with our readers on the shape of things to come. This is an appeal to you to join discussions on Facebook: ILRIG SA and Workers World News – as well as Twitter: #ILRIGSA. You can also write to the editors on info@ilrig.org.za.
30 july
All public forums are held every last Thursday of the month at Community House, 41 Salt River Rd, Woodstock from 6 – 8.30 PM.
Marikana: Still No Justice
We have also set aside a page for poetry, songs, reviews and readers’ comments. Please help us make this an inspiring space by sending us your contributions and views. Check out our website and join current deabtes: www.ilrig.org
Transport home and refreshments are provided.
CHECK OUT OUR WEBSITE AND JOIN CURRENT DEBATES
Look out for further details in the upcoming Workers’ World News editions about this event
The site will allow viewers to find out more about ILRIG, its history, staff and board. It provides an interactive space for interested people to engage with ILRIG’s work on globalisation – read articles, contribute to discussion, and order publications. Website members will receive regular updates on issues of interest.
WWW.ILRIG.ORG
021 447 6375
info@ilrig.org.za
LISTEN TO ILRIG ON TAXI RADIO http://thetaxi.co.za/line-up/ Every second Thursday between 12.00 and 13.00
12
WORKERS WORLD NEWS | No. 94 | June 2015
Room 14, Community House
41 Salt River Road
ILRIG SA / Workers World News
#ILRIGSA
WHAT IS TAXI RADIO? “The Taxi is the realization of a dream I didn’t know I had. I have long felt a need for a space to manifest my understanding of community in tandem with others and to express openly my desire for heart’s ease, celebrate love’s power and practice the pursuit of peace.” – Soli Philander, CEO and owner