Forward to Socialism!! - South African Communist Party

10 Umsebenzi
NATIONALISATION DEBATE
On nationalisation,
socialisation and a
state mining house
Below we reproduce exchanges between SACP Deputy General Secretary
cde Jeremy Cronin, ANC Youth League President cde Julius Malema, and
other commentators on the nationalisation of the mines. These articles
appeared in Umsebenzi OnLine and various other publications
PERSPECTIVE 1:
JEREMY CRONIN
“Should we
nationalise the
mines?”
In recent months, ANC Youth League
president, cde Julius Malema has
called for the nationalisation of the
mines. The mainstream media have
predictably latched on to cde Malema’s
nationalisation call with delight. They
hope to ridicule the demand and goad
senior ANC and government leaders into
banishing any thought of nationalisation,
once and for all, finish and klaar.
Cde Malema hasn’t always helped his
case with off-the-wall sound-bites. The
impression of a policy being made on the
hoof, individualistically, is reinforced by
the fact that we are yet to see any serious
attempt at a collective policy document
on this matter from the ANCYL.
This is a great pity. The question of the
ownership and control of our major natural
resources and means of production
is, indeed, a serious matter. The idea of
public ownership should not be reduced
to an empty slogan. Nor is it, as some
other comrades appear to believe, an embarrassing
secret from a bygone era, best
left hidden away in our family cupboard.
The basis for Malema’s argument rests
on the inspiring clause in the Freedom
Charter: “The People Shall Share In The
Country’s Wealth!” It asserts that: “The
national wealth of our country, the heritage
of all South Africans, shall be restored
to the people; The mineral wealth
beneath the soil, the banks and monopoly
industry shall be transferred to the
ownership of the people as a whole…”
Some comrades have tried to argue
against Malema on the grounds that the
Freedom Charter nowhere actually uses
the word “nationalisation”. This is literally
true, but frankly it’s not a very convincing
argument. As Malema himself
puts it: “They are talking English, not
politics.” Anyone who has the remotest
'The question of
control of our
mineral resources is a
serious matter'
acquaintance with the mid-1950s, the period
in which the Freedom Charter was
formulated and adopted, would realise
that it was the heyday of nationalisation
– not just in post-war Eastern Europe and
China, but also throughout most of Western
Europe, Latin America, and newly decolonised
countries like India and Egypt.
(It was also a period, by the way, in which
the apartheid regime was consolidating
an extensive state-owned sector). The
framers of the Freedom Charter were almost
certainly thinking of some kind of
nationalisation as a MEANS to ensuring
ownership by “the people as a whole”.
The people (not the government)
shall govern!
But if it is misleading to de-contextualise
the Charter from its history, it is also misleading
to de-contextualise some sentences
in the Charter from the Charter’s
overall thrust. In particular, it is critical to
connect all other clauses of the Freedom
Charter to the very first clause: “The People
Shall Govern!” This first clause is very
instructive when we consider the subsequent
economic clause. The people shall
govern clause refers to four inter-related
dimensions of popular democracy:
electoral democracy, the right of all to
vote (and to stand for election);
December 2009