Forward to Socialism!! - South African Communist Party

20 Umsebenzi
schools of thought contend”. Even the
ANC embraces Mao’s sentiment when it
says in its 52nd Conference resolution on
“Communication and the Battle of Ideas”
that “the debate on the battle of ideas
must begin within the ANC itself, the Alliance
and the broader democratic movement”.
Insults and innuendos do little to
advance this battle.
For historical accuracy, it should be
noted that cde Mandela did not make
this call in his “first public address after
[his] release from prison”. These words do
not appear anywhere in cde Mandela’s
first public address on the evening of 11
February 1990. Dennis Davis in his paper
titled “From the Freedom Charter to the
Washington Consensus” attributes the
quote to an article appearing in the
Sowetan of 5 March 1990.
Cde Ndungu is an SACP Sonia Bunting
Branch Member
PERSPECTIVE 5:
ISAAC MAHLANGU
“Why the left must
not retreat
from nationalisation”
The ANCYL has called for the nationalisation
of mines. It understands
that nationalisation of mines will
not be a solution to all the problems
that the country or the sector faces. President
of the ANCYL comrade Julius
Malema has been emphatic in stating
that “our call for nationalisation of mines
is in such a manner where the State will
own mineral wealth and mines as a custodian
of the entire South African population,
and not a custodian of few bigbusinesses”
and he has further indicated
that such a move would place the country
in a better position to address our developmental
challenges.
It was always to be expected that a call
for state (or public) ‘ownership’ and ‘control’
of mines was going to meet fierce resistance
from the pro-business lobby and
other so –called ‘independent’ analysts.
Public ownership of enterprises or even
the presence of ‘State-owned enterprises’
(SOEs) in the mining sector was always
going to touch a raw nerve with many of
such individuals given that mining directly
contributes more than six percent
of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and
close to ten percent of total direct fixed
investment (before recession). If the nationalisation
of mines were realized there
is significant wealth and resources that
would now be out of private hands.
We were also prepared for a serious
onslaught from those who were brought
up on largely unsupported neo-liberal
economic theories that favour private
ownership and privatisation. In their eyes
the move of resources and enterprises
from public to private hands (achieved in
many countries at the height of the dominance
of the World Bank and International
Monetary Fund driven ‘Washington
Consensus’) should not ever be reversed.
How could this be so with SOE
characterised by serious and chronic inefficiency,
waste and mismanagement?
Forgetting well documented evidence
of success in some cases of public
ownership and state owned enterprises!
The exchange between President
Malema and the Deputy SG of the SACP,
cde Jeremy Cronin, whilst very robust,
has actually helped clarify the many areas
of agreement and contention between
the ANCYL and SACP (and even
perhaps many others ‘that took cover
and dodged bullets’ as the comrades engaged).
Firstly, it seems there is no question on
the interpretation of the 1955 Freedom
Charter. The proposal for the nationalisation
of mines, is the call of the Freedom
Charter, which says unequivocally that
“the mineral wealth beneath the soil,
monopoly industries and banks shall be
transferred to the ownership of the people
as a whole”. The people as a whole is
vividly distinguishable from State rentals
of mineral wealth to big corporations
who brutally exploit labour and unsustainably
exploit mineral wealth to make
big profits”. Comrade Cronin concedes
this point (saying “it is patently obvious
to anyone who knows the mid-1950s
context in which it was adopted that the
relevant clause had in mind that the
mines, banks and other monopoly indus-
'The advances made in
transforming mining are
there for all to see'
tries should be nationalised”).
Secondly the relevance of ‘nationalisation’
as an intervention to deal with problems
in mining is acknowledged in the exchanges,
including the principled right of
a democratic state to nationalise the commanding
heights of the economy to advance
democratisation (as stated in
Cronin’s follow-up). The advances made
in transforming the mining industry to
benefit our country as a whole are there
for all to see. New legislation has been
passed, through the Minerals and Petroleum
Resources Development Act
(MPRDA) the State now retains control
of all mineral rights.
The adoption of various policies and
implementation of the Mining Charter
are also to be noted. Nevertheless, one
cannot help but lament the lack of movement
by the sector on issues of transformation
(employment equity, social and
labour plans, local procurement, skills development
etc.) and many others that
were identified even in the RDP document
such as the impact of mining on the
environment, beneficiation, import-parity
pricing, lack of opportunities for small
scale mining, health and safety among
others. The Deputy President of the
country, comrade Kgalema Montlhanthe
has also acknowledged in a recent address
to the Chamber of Mines that it is
these very concerns about the lack of
transformation in the industry that have
fuelled a call for nationalisation of mines.
The issue of ‘Nationalisation and socialisation’
is one that is fairly prominent.
Nationalisation is well understood and
involves public (the ‘State ‘on behalf of
the people”) ownership of previously privately
owned enterprises or resources.
Some comrades are talking about ‘socialisation’-at
times unclearly articulated.
Cde Buti Manamela argued in an interview
(Business Day 25th November) that
“socialising” the commanding heights of
the economy was a better option (than
nationalisation). He said they would go
beyond formal state control to real ownership
being in the hands of the people,
not BEE companies in need of bail-outs.
But what does that all mean? Instead
of implementing a simple policy of nationalisation
(and why should it necessarily
benefit a black elite without consideration
of the poor and the working
class under our watch?) the advocates of
‘socialisation’ hope we can postpone that
for the implementation of socialism tomorrow
(classless society here we come).
Fortunately, cde Cronin in his follow-up
December 2009