Decoding the revolutionary rhetoric of the new ANC

The term “revolution” has been in vogue among the new ANC leadership since the Polokwane conference in December 2007. Many of us knit our brows in shock and have often been left astonished and wondering, “What the hell are they talking about? What damn revolution?” Having listened painstakingly to the revolutionary rhetoric of the new ANC and observed political events taking shape in the country, I arrived at the conclusion that therein lies something we are not being let into. Suffer me to impart my interpretations of these recent “revolutionary” developments.

That the struggle for the liberation of the oppressed black masses was a struggle deeply rooted and inspired by socialist ideology is common knowledge. The Freedom Charter, although many in the ANC may violently contest this assertion, makes it explicit that the ideals which the liberation struggle was waged for were, among others, the socialist ideals.

There has been increasing reference within the ANC to the so-called National Democratic Revolution, which is informed primarily by the Marxist theory of national democracy and Chairman Mao’s theory of “new democracy”. According to Lenin, “without revolutionary theory, there can be no real revolutionary movement”, and thus resurgence of revolutionary rhetoric and some measure of hooliganism.

The dawn of the new democratic dispensation in 1994 was the completion of the first revolution: the bourgeois-democratic revolution, although socialist in character, was to advance capitalism. This is consistent with what former President Nelson Mandela said in 1955 at the annual congress of the ANC in Bloemfontein, that the Freedom Charter would, “… open up fresh fields for the development of a prosperous non-European bourgeois class”.

President Mbeki also in 1999 at the conference of the Black Management Forum spoke, “to the question of the challenge of the formation of a black capitalist class, a black bourgeoisie.” The president continued to state that, “the ANC would change its character once it had completed its historic mission; once the purposes for which it had been established had been accomplished.” The purpose for which the ANC was established is clearly enshrined in the Freedom Charter, which as I have already indicated, demands gradual progression towards a socialist state.

The bourgeois-democratic revolution, according to Chairman Mao, “serves the purpose of clearing a still wider path for the development of socialism”, which will be brought about by the second revolution: the proletarian-socialist revolution. This revolution would be led by the proletariat — those ordinary poor mass supporters of Cosatu and SACP — with the aim to establishing a “new democratic society” brought together by the common struggle against capitalist exploitation.

Jacob Zuma marched to Polokwane to the drum-beats of proletariat for whom he had modelled himself as their saviour and thus emerged triumphant to advance the proletarian-socialist revolution. The message to the proletariat when going to Polokwane was clear – the leadership of President Mbeki that was monopolised by the bourgeoisie had become an instrument of suppressing the basic rights of common people. And so Jacob Zuma and his henchmen emerged the leading force to advance the new democratic order.

Joe Slovo in 1988 said, “… according to these views (bourgeois-democratic) there will be time enough after apartheid is destroyed to then turn our attention to the struggle for socialism. Hence there should be little talk of our ultimate socialist objectives. The working class should not insist on the inclusion of radicals’ social measures as part of the immediate agenda because that would risk frightening away potential allies against apartheid.”

The talk of transition, largely by Gwede Mantashe, can be loosely interpreted to construe transition from the Mbeki administration to the Zuma administration (if by then he is not in orange overalls), but such transition if interpreted in line with revolutionary rhetoric can be understood to mean transition towards socialism. We have already been witness to the existence of elements of socialism in the form of nascent social appropriation of the economic means via collective ownership – the broad-based black economic empowerment. Increased legislation from employment equity to black economic empowerment has been the necessary preliminary to the eventual social appropriation of the means of production and to enable effortless transition to socialism.

Malcolm X of the Nation of Islam said, “… a revolution is bloody, … the Russian revolution was bloody; Chinese revolution was bloody; French revolution was bloody; Cuban revolution was bloody; and there was nothing more bloody than the American Revolution.”

Charmain Mao explained the hostile relationship between the revolution and counter-revolutionaries; that counter-revolutionaries may be dealt with in four ways: (1) execution, (2) imprisonment, (3) supervision, and (4) leaving at large. Stalin never hesitated to execute those who stood against the revolution by carrying out counter-revolutionary sabotage of one kind or another.

The new ANC has already identified some of the counter-revolutionaries; those who they claim are resolute in their intentions to reverse the gains of the revolution. Julius Malema of the ANC Kindergarten League, Zwelinzima Vavi of Cosatu and Buti Manamela of the Young Communist League have fired their warning shots to counter-revolutionaries and signalled their intention to take up arms and “kill”. The deputy secretary general of the MK Veterans also made their intention crystal clear, “… No Zuma, no country…”

The struggle for national liberation appears to have taken some shape that none of us ever imagined.