N ELECTION is taking place in years after an ANC led government was swept to power in South Africa's first democratic election. In 1994, millions of blacks waited for hours in the hot sun to cast their votes. Having gained their democratic rights for which they had fought so tenaciously and for so long, they were filled with hope that a better life was at last on hand.
This feeling has now been replaced by frustration and disillusionment. Surveys show that fewer than one in three people feel that the current government is more trustworthy than the apartheid regime and only one in ten people believe their elected representatives are interested in their needs. Pollsters findings indicate that a substantial number of voters do not intend to vote and that while the ANC remains the dominant party, its support has declined.
To try to understand why this has happened, we need to examine the negotiated settlement in 1994 between the apartheid regime and the leadership of the ANC, which took place behind the backs of the population. While reluctantly yielding to the demand for a unitary democratic state, the apartheid regime ensured that free enterprise and private property rights were guaranteed in the constitution.
Thus the whites, who are a minority in South Africa, retained ownership of 87% of the land. What the ANC brought to the bargaining process was its control of the leadership of mass organisations such as the trade unions. It was able to assure the apartheid regime that it could abort any mass struggle from below against the negotiated settlement and that it could be entrusted with the task of rejuvenating capitalism in South
Soon after coming to power the ANC-led government adopted as
its macroeconomic policy the Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) programme, implementing neoliberal policies which the bourgeoisie have prescribed throughout the world.
The government privatised public assets, introduced a "flexible labour market" and reduced government spending with cuts in health, education and social spending. It refused to cancel government debt mainly incurred under the apartheid regime. The The role of the SACP and the leadership of COSATU has been to blunt the resistance of workers to the capitalist policies of the ANC led government ..... servicing of this debt, now 37% of GDP, could have been spent on essential social services. The boasts of the government that its policies would lead to a significant growth in the economy and the creation of hundreds of thousands of jobs did not materialise. Instead, one million jobs have been lost over the last ten years and the unemployment rate is estimated at 43%.
Average black African household income fell 19% from 1995-2000 while white household income rose 15%. The extreme social inequality that existed under apartheid has worsened since 1994. In 2000 the poorest half of all South Africans earned 9.7% of national income, while the richest 20% earned 65% of total income.
The privatisation and commodification of basic services such as water and electricity has worsened the plight of the poor. Ten million people have had their water cut off and ten million their electricity disconnected The incidence of water born diseases such as cholera has risen. Two million have been evicted from their homes or land since 1994. Ted due to undertunding and safe he health services have deterioratshortages. There is increased vatisation of health care. The government's reluctant response to the HIV/Aids epidemic has roused universal anger as has the action of the multinational pharmaceutical companies in blocking access to cheap generic antiretroviral drugs.
To maintain its rule, the ANC government is dependent on the support of the Tripartite alliance - the ANC, the South Africar Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). The ANC's policies in government are consistent with its history as a reformist organisation. It has a political partnership with the Stalinist SACP which goes back decades.
The leadership of COSTU, the third partner in the alliance was captured by the ANC and SACP partnership in the 1980s. The trade unions played a vital part in the struggle against apartheid. COSTU, the largest trade union federation represents two million workers.
The role of the SACP and the leadership of COSATU has been to blunt the resistance of workers to the capitalist policies of the ANC led government and get them to accept the status quo.
In response to the government's attacks on the workers, new social movements have emerged in the last few years such as the Anti-Privatisation Forums (APF) Johannesburg and Cape Town and the Concerned Citizens Forum in Durban. They have opposed the privatisation of public services and defended the victims of water and electricity cut offs and housing evictions. While enjoying the support of individual trade unionists they are shunned by the COSATU leadership which discourages its members from joining them.
Such of the funding of the social M
forums comes from NGOs both local and external, which is not always given without any strings attached. Some donors do try to influence the policies of the forums which are strug gling to widen their support in the community and ensure that they reflect the interests of the mass of their membership.
They are constantly harassed by the authorities and recently 52 members of the Gauteng (around Johannesburg) APF were arrested for protesting against water privatisation.
The social movements have had significar successes such as the campaign of th Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee t reconnect electricity to houses where ther have been cut offs
Last year an alliance of social forums an civil society organisations, the Socia Movements Indaba (SMI), organised a larg protest march at the World Summit o Sustainable Development held Johannesburg
The SMI, together with other organis tions such as the Landless Peopl Movement met in Johannesburg in March try and create a wider unity of all the opposed to the government's policies
The social forums are part of the world wide struggle against capitalist globalisatio and their representatives took part in th WSF held in Mumbai in January. W ith the election due in Apri
there is no prospect of a cha lenge from helet to the AN and its alliances with the other bourgeo parties such as the NNP (the old Nationa Party) and the IFP led by Buthelezi. Lef wing organisations such as the Worker Organisation for Socialist Action, th African People's Democratic Union o Southern Africa and the Worker International Vanguard League are numer cally weak and have not joined up togethe to form a political alliance. The socia movements by their nature cannot take or tasks, which properly belong to a politice party.
They have decided not to put up cand dates in the elections but to mount a cam paign to expose the neo-liberal policie which all the parliamentary parties support
They will not bind their affiliates to an particular option as regards the elector process. The option most favoured howeve is to spoil the ballot by writing demands o the paper. The less favoured options are crit ical support for the ANC and boycotting th
The forces of the left in South Africa fac a huge challenge in the future. They have t build a political movement, which enjoys th support of the workers in the trade unions the social movements and the landless pea antry. The appearance of the social forum and the SMI on the political horizon is a br step forward in building up the resistance o the people to the neo-liberal policies of the ANC government.
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18 soclalist resistance April 2004 Palestine & EXILE ,0,200 being carved into 22 ghettoes dotted with settlements and checkpoints. 205 communities have now lost their water supply. Life is to be made unliveable for the Palestinians in their own country.
So what of the resistance? What response is needed to reverse this genocide? The Apartheid Wall has created a worldwide movement against Zionist apartheid and ethnic cleansing. Outside the Hague at the opening day of the hearings on the Wall, there was a small demonstration in support of Zionism, every demonstrator having been flown over from Israel. At the same time, a demonstration four times larger in favour of Palestine took place, with campaigners from all over Europe.
For Dr Barghouti, there are three pillars in the struggle:
• Mass popular struggle; make the occupation expensive.
• Internal reform - fighting corruption
The Palestinian Authority is at a crossroads - it can either become part of the liberation movement, as is Mustufa Barghouti's wish, or it can allow itself to become more and more mired in corruption and repression. There is a clear lack of leadership and vision in Palestine at the moment, and we can only hope that the new generation in Palestine will be more selective in choosing its spokespeople than those who allowed Arafat to sell them down the river.
While Dr Barghouti puts a great deal of faith in the peace process and criticises the ongoing intifada, he does at least recognise that the peace process has failed spectaculalry. It seems wilfully naive of the PA to beleive that anything can ever come of the peace process, or that the US could possibly be interested in a sovereign Palestinian state.
The people of Palestine are really not so