A bit of leftist self-criticism

It is most unfortunate that while we on the left of the political spectrum have correctly criticised the failures of the ANC since coming to power in 1994, we have failed to turn our critical gaze inwards. This is often a historical failure of the left internationally, and is, I argue, a flagrant contradiction of the critical, self-critical and self-reflective thinking of Karl Marx. Let me illustrate my point with a good example.

Who in the leadership of the left in this country — outside the ANC alliance — has after 1994 provided a really honest and self-critical analysis of the state of this left inside the country before Mandela was released in 1990 and the ANC unbanned, between then and the 1994 democratic elections and thereafter? Nobody I know of. Was there a left that could have provided a genuinely revolutionary alternative to the ANC and its allies during all this time? No, there was nothing of much significance and there still is little that we can really counterpose to ANC hegemony today.

In other words, in such a situation the ascendancy of the ANC to power was a foregone conclusion that nobody or organisation among this left could prevent. We were just far too weak to do so. Have we furthermore given serious thought to a related question: What if there were another mass leftist alternative to the ANC that won the 1994 elections?

In an international environment awash with neo-liberal hegemony, how successful would it have been in resisting this powerful, concerted and some say overwhelming wave? And if it initially enjoyed some success, how long would it have sustained this resistance? These are tough questions we are not good at asking ourselves because to do so inevitably means confronting our own historical weaknesses as a revolutionary factor or force in South African politics. Too often are our own many weaknesses obscured behind the avalanche of criticisms we rightly hurl at the ANC.