The Struggle For Black Majority Rule

[Im The Truth]

THE STRUGGLE FOR BLACK MAJORITY RULE

By TIYANI LYBON MABASA

(excerpted from Issue No. 1/New Series of In Defence, the monthly newspaper of the Socialist Party of Azania)

The liberation struggle in South Africa was fought and won in order to return all power and sovereignty to the Black majority. It was about the full and unconditional right of Black people to full independence. That was the context that gave rise to the articulation that said Black people in South Africa were both the object and subject of the liberation struggle.

In 1994, millions of Black people went to the polls for the first time with the sole hope of using their new-found universal franchise to recapture their lost lands, gain access and control of their wealth and put themselves on the road of national well-being. Little did they realise that the qualified franchise, proposed by some of the historical Apartheid parties, which they so resolutely rejected on their quest for Black Majority Rule, would once more come back to haunt them, as an elite small minority would usurp the mandate of their vote and cede it to the interests of local and international institutions of finance capital.

Today, the new democracy only works for the few well-educated and well-off who have the options of taking high positions in big business and government. The Black majority has been rendered so powerless while power is being wielded in their name.

This new elite which concentrate itself in the ruling party, its surrogates and in the general parliamentary parties has made itself the key broker of imperialism in the constitution of a neo-liberal state which continues to preserve white power in all its glory. The prevailing conditions today, clearly show that the white minority among the landlords, has retained, even increased, its hold on land, industries and mines, with close links with multinationals and imperialism.

The Apartheid regime was thrust down by the unrelenting revolutionary struggles of the Black masses, workers and their organisations. It was not out of political benevolence on the part of the Apartheid regime but the revolutionary upsurge of the Azanian masses who wanted liberation. Today this revolution has been betrayed or at least almost confiscated and hijacked by the elite who speak "Black" while unashamedly continuing to work against the Black majority as they provide a "Black Face" to white minority interests.

The 1976 student, youth and workers' upsurge together with the 1985-89 outbursts of labour mobilisations and strikes threatened the very foundations of the Apartheid regime and its imperialist supporters, who feared that the Black majority were on the verge of taking power and bringing into the fore a "socialist revolution" that advocated a total and complete break with imperialism. This situation compelled the major imperialist powers that have used the plunder of the country's human and natural resources for more than a century to boost their profits, to hastily come into an agreement with the white minority Apartheid regime that it should overhaul overt discrimination, thereby bailing out their common interests.

The use of "political sleight of hand" and manoeuvre by imperialism resulted in the release of political prisoners, pinnacled by the release of the then most celebrated prisoner, former president Nelson Mandela, and also the dropping of economic sanctions. A stage was set for the Kempton Park CODESA Agreements that legally took away the right of the Black majority to self-determination.

Out of the window went the creation of a nation that was not only equal but united and the setting up a Black Republic in accordance with all known and accepted democratic practice anywhere in the world. The new artificial situation completely undermined the interests of the country's Black majority.

The 1994 elections were organised and arranged in such a way that the architects of Apartheid in the form of then ruling National Party should share power with the ANC and thereby preserve the interests of imperialism and the privileges of the white minority at the expense of the Black majority. It is not surprising therefore that in Mandela's democratic South Africa and Bishop Tutu's rainbow nation, white people continue to live in complete peace and harmony in the mostly developed and secure leafy suburbs while Blacks in general continue to be victims of unemployment, homelessness, crime, assault and many other maladies -- despite the fact that during the Apartheid era they were the targets of all forms of state orchestrated brutality.

It is common knowledge that the release of former president Nelson Mandela and the signing of the Kempton Park CODESA Agreements were used as bulwarks to break and turn away the powerful revolutionary tidal wave that threatened to engulf the Apartheid regime and imperialism's dominion. In fact it was a direct attack on the struggle for the Black majority and the setting up of unified Azanian nation in a Black Republic.

With hindsight it has become even clearer that the whole process was put in place in order to maintain the supremacy of the white minority's interests and those of imperialism at the expense of the legitimate rights of the Black people who are the majority. This explains why white people feel so blessed in South Africa as "in private sectors, 80% of the managing positions are still occupied by whites who are only 23%of the working age population." Their influence is so pervading as they own more than 80% of anything that is of value to the nation and the country.

When the leadership of leading western nations is asked whether the "South African miracle" could be applied in their countries as a blueprint for peace, their usual answer is that as leading nations they should be seen as "pursuing real justice." Such responses should make even the most simpleminded persons think.

We in SOPA believe the question of the position of the Black majority -- which is totally linked to national question -- cannot be raised independently, separately or in contradiction with the social question. The question of private ownership of the means of production has to be raised. The building of a socialist project in Azania is intricately linked to the building of independent workers' organisations, free to pursue their class interest, free from the influences of the bosses and governments, because the working class is truly the only class able of coherently realising national emancipation by binding it to social emancipation.

The other element is the fact that the struggle for the Black majority in Azania is not an isolated struggle but is a struggle with very serious international dimensions because it links up with the struggle of Black peoples in the Diaspora who remain the most disadvantaged people despite great economic developments in those countries.

A case in point is the United States, where the children of former slaves are unable to find any justice in the system of private property and their only hope remains in expropriation of the expropriators, thereby creating a system that is truly just.

Despite UN-sponsored International Conferences Against Racism And Xenophobia, Black people remain undoubtedly the most socially, economically and politically discriminated against by the system underpinned by gross private accumulation of wealth and private property. Such a system is not capable of dispensing any justice because it is in itself based on such injustice. In the context of the African continent liberation remains illusory when former colonies have no control over their lands and their natural resources and are burdened with the tyranny of debt that renders the needs of population of their countries secondary.

The struggle for land in Zimbabwe is a microcosm of the struggle for land in all former colonies in Africa. Whereas African people have been "allowed" to assume limited political control of their countries, they have been refused access and control of their wealth, lands and natural resources, the victory against colonialism is in itself a pyrrhic victory -- Black people have gained so little for so great sacrifices.

That is why the struggle for real Black majority rule -- with its full political, social and economic ramifications -- makes sense.

[Langalibalele]

Scientific socialism advances the theory that the capitalist class has to be overthrown, eradicated and majority rule by the workers implemented to build a new society. Now I have heard it said that when the struggle involves the racial component, it assumes a sharper context. But I dispute that. Because were Lenin black, he would have advocated the overthrow and destruction of the white power and wealth controlling class. That did not happen in South Africa, Namibia or even in Zimbabwe.
It seems that because the bourgeoisie are white, they have not even been stripped of their stolen wealth in Namibia and South Africa. South Africa has not even taken the crucial step of separating itself from its apartheid past by changing its name (Azania). This is a revolution which not only lacked the democratic space to be completed, it lacked the leadership to seek democratic space for economic reform.
While we can blame many things on the leaders, we also have to understand the South African Defence Force was never completely demobilized, thereby leaving a large contigent of heavily armed and well-trained white racists.
But organizers back home must continue to build revolutionary action and combine it with theory so as to be able in the near future to take over the mines and factories which were built on the backs of African workers.
IZWE LETHU I AFRIKA!

[Im The Truth]

It's amazing how the South African gov. talks about a multicultural gov. when Africans are the vast majority. Not to mention the very recent history and current actions of the yts. Simply based on population alone there has to be a Black majority rule.

[Langalibalele]

Originally Posted by Im The Truth

It's amazing how the South African gov. talks about a multicultural gov. when Africans are the vast majority. Not to mention the very recent history and current actions of the yts. Simply based on population alone there has to be a Black majority rule.

Truth, that is so much on point. Not only is it amazing, as in it leaves me agog, it also is paradoxical. There should be the same type of govt as we see in Zimbabwe, with white society having its wealth and power eroded over a period of, say, twenty years or less.

Number one, white folks came into Africa as invaders and stole the land. They should be stripped of all wealth and power.

Number two, it is the historical land of African people and the vast majority of them lack access to health services, sanitation, clean water, a living wage, and representative government. Democracy cannot serve two masters. Either it serves black liberation or else it serves Imperialism.

[nattyreb]

It's a damn shame, disgusting!!

This writer is fantastic, i was just reading a different article by the same author on Sis. Cynthia McKinney and was just about to send it out.

Thanks for bumping it up with your comments!