Inqaba ya basebenzi Number 2 April 1981 - DISA

12
will face from right-wing M.P's. the
ruling class cannot return to ruling
in the old way—resting only on the
white middle class and white
workers. Even in the midst of
intensifying repression, the regime
will be forced to continue its futile
search for acceptable reforms. There
Is a half-truth in the demagogic
complaint of Jaap Marais: that in
this election, as for the last three, the
Nationalist Party leadership appeals
to the voters on HNP policies and
pursues in government the path of
the PFP.
Against the parliamentary
opposition, as against the mass
movement, the ruling class will have
to continue its concentration of
power in the hands of top bureaucrats
and businessmen—and. above
all, of the military. In the period
ahead, the verkramptes, inside and
outside the Nationalist Party, will
expose their inability to influence the
course of events by means of the
parliamentary framework.
This will open up the most
turbulent period yet seen in white
politics in South Africa. For, Jo the
extent that the white workers find
that the 'rights' granted them by the
bourgeoisie offer no solution to their
problems, they will be faced with the
choice of going towards extreme
extra-parliamentary' reaction—or
towards revolution.
The path followed by the white
workers will have critical effects on
the course of the revolution that is
impending. The destruction of
national oppression and the rule of
capitalism will be a hollow victory if
it is achieved on the ashes of a ruined
economy and mountains of corpses.
This is the danger that looms
should the white workers continue
along the path of reaction. And, as
the white workers are forced towards
a clear choice under the pressure of
events, the stance adopted towards
them by the black workers and
leaders in the mass movement will be
a vital factor.
Already some forms which can be
taken by reaction show their outline.
The most racist of the class
collaborationist union leadership,
such as Paulus. attempt to mobilise
increasing layers of white workers
under their banner, and might
attempt to call further reactionary
strikes in defence of white privilege
like the minewarkers strike of 1979.
More rabid still in the defence of
racist privilege are the terror tactics
of the Wit Kommando, linked to the
ranks of the police.
Taking this path in the coming
period offers for the white workers
nothing but defeat after defeat.
Paulus is presently quite isolated
even within the ranks of white
labour, and his attempt to call a
strike in 1979 was a dismal failure.
The ruling class will have to
continue to try to crush such
reactionary strikes, in defence of
their profits. The Wit Kommando,
and similar groups, are tolerated by
the ruling class unless they threaten
to provoke the black workers and
youth. It was when the Wit
Kommando recently threatened
attacks on black homes that the
police were ordered to step in and
make arrests.
Yet, for all its twists and turns, the
power of the capitalist class in South
Africa is slowly crumbling before the
developing tidal wave of the mass
movement of black workers and
youth. Events may force, in time, the
suspension of parliament, the declaration
of martial law, or full
military rule. These could be forced
in response to desperate reactionary
bids, as well as under the pressure of
the masses. But in either case, they
would be signs of the weakening, and
not the strengthening, of the ruling
class. Whatever course it follows, the
hour of reckoning is coming for the
bourgeoisie.
It is in extremity, when the very
forces of the state itself begin to
crumble under the revolutionary
pressures, that the forces of extreme
reaction, fueled by the most
desperate sections of the ruling class,
can take on flesh...If the mass
movement falls to take Immediate
steps to prevent this possibility.
Towards unity
Against the attacks of capitalism
in crisis, the only secure future for
the white workers and white middle
class, as for the mass of the
oppressed, lies in the struggle for
socialism. This struggle spells the
death-knell of white privilege, and
all privilege, but opens up the way to
a future of prosperity for all.
Struggling without compromise
against every defence of white
privilege, the black workers and
youth must hammer this message
home to the white workers. The
black workers most consistently take
the lead In showing that the only way
forward for society Is on (he basis of
the socialised economy under
management and control of the
working class.
Combatting without mercy all the
futile attempts of the white workers
to cling to the coat-tails of
capitalism, warning of the dead-end
in store along that road, the black
workers must show that the bridge to
workers' unity is open. In isolation
from the black workers' movement
the white workers today have neither
the strength not the perspective to
successfully resist the bosses. The
only basis for a defence against the
attacks of capitalism is around a
united battle.
The struggle for this unity will be
an extremely difficult one. The
cushion of privilege and the heritage
of racism will allow the mass of the
white workers many reactionary
straws to clutch at,- But the
deepening economic crisis, and the
inescapable force of the .mass
movement, will at the same time
register their effects. On the basis of
events, and the resolute presentation
of an alternative perspective,
workers' unity can be built.
Failure to build this unity will
result in blood baths of unprecedented
scale and, while it may
nevertheless end in the defeat of the
whites, it will be at the cost of the
slaughter of hundreds of thousands,
and even millions, of black men,
women, and children.
The developments presently
unfolding in the labour movement
show, however, that with a clear
programme of demands the correct
conclusions can be drawn by the
working class.
This programme must root itself
in the defence of the livelihood of all
workers. Around the struggle for a
national minimum wage of R90 a
week, rising according to the rising
cost of living, and around all the
other basic demands of the workers
in struggle, can be built the mass
force for the overthrow of the
apartheid regime, the destruction of
white privilege and national oppression,
and the socialist transformation
of society.
This must be the programme and the
perspective of the ANCI