(en) Tokologo African Anarchist Collective - Tokologo #4 - Our History of Struggle: the 1980s ?Workerist-Populist? Debate Revisited by WARREN MCGREGOR (TAAC, ZACF)

Workshop contributors: Lucky, Pitso, Bongani, Siyabulela, Nonzukiso, Nonzwakazi, Mzwandile 
---- EDITOR?S INTRODUCTION: Today the terms ?populism? and ?workerism? are widely thrown 
about in South African political circles. Often, these terms and others (?syndicalism,? 
?ultra-left,? ?counter-revolutionary,? ?anti-majoritarian? ?) have no meaning: they are 
just labels used to silence critics. SA Communist Party (SACP) leaders do this often. But 
in the 1980s, ?populism? and ?workerism? referred to two rival positions battling for the 
soul of the militant unions. ---- These debates, thirty years on, remain very relevant: 
let us revisit them, and learn. Today?s radical National Union of Metalworkers of SA 
(NUMSA) was part of the ?workerist? camp, while its key rival, the National Union of 
Mineworkers (NUM) was identified with ?populism.? The early battles over the direction of 
the Congress of SA Trade Unions (COSATU) still echo today, although there is no longer a 
clear ?workerist? camp.


What was ?Populism??
The 1980s ?populists? were basically supporters of a brand of African National Congress 
(ANC) politics.

They aimed at a ?popular front? of all oppressed classes and strata in the black 
population ? including black capitalists and homeland leaders ? plus white anti-apartheid 
democrats. Their programme was basically ?nationalist,? which meant the whole ?nation? was 
to unite across class lines and express its will through a nation-state. The 
anti-apartheid movement represented (they argued) a multi-class, non-racial ?new nation? 
in the making,

This nation and the class alliance it represented, ?populists? said, had to be led by a 
political party, the ANC. Through the ANC the ?new nation? would take state power, rule 
South Africa and uproot apartheid and its legacy.

?Populism? and Unions
So, in the 1980s ?populism? basically meant uniting as many forces opposed to apartheid as 
possible (and in particular, oppressed black people as a whole) under ANC leadership.

And since the ?national? or ?popular? and ?democratic? alliance had to include ALL 
classes, it could NOT take a revolutionary anti-capitalist position, since this would keep 
out capitalists. Anti-capitalists in the ?populist? camp ? notably the SACP ? argued that 
the aims of this ?national democratic? struggle were basically to overthrow apartheid, not 
capitalism. ?Socialism? would only come after the ANC-led ?national democratic? struggle 
was underway. To make ?socialism? an immediate demand would split the nation.

For ?populists? in the trade union movement (especially in NUM and around key figures like 
Cyril Ramaphosa and Jay Naidoo) this meant giving the ANC the reigns of struggle and 
making unions part of the ANC?s camp. This meant unions would support the ANC taking state 
power as a political party.

Problems with ?Populism?
Simply, ?populism? supported what we now have: an ANC-led Tripartite Alliance, in which 
COSATU is a junior partner. COSATU?s role is to aid the ANC?s ?national democratic 
revolution? (NDR) by providing money, leaders and votes.

One problem is that alliances like this are used to control unions: since NDR is a 
multi-class, capitalist project, COSATU ends up supporting a capitalist, statist ANC in 
the name of ?revolution.? Through the alliance, the working class is married to the ruling 
class of capitalists and politicians which oppresses and exploits it. So, the Alliance 
benefits the elite much more than the working class.

Nationalist politicians claim to represent the whole society, but society is divided by 
classes. The ruling class (the political and economic elite) are at war with the working 
class. Cyril Ramaphosa, billionaire, ANC deputy president and co-owner of Lonmin, the site 
of the 2012 Marikana Massacre, is evidence that the black elite have nothing in common 
with the working class, black or white. It is difficult to see how, in such conditions, 
the legacy of apartheid can be uprooted without some sort of radical bottom-up ?socialism? 
(anarchism) being created.

Second, many COSATU leaders get rewarded for being in the Alliance and are co-opted into 
the ruling class ? meaning they are turned against the workers. Ramaphosa, a former NUM 
leader, is a good example ? but he is only part of a larger process that corrupts and 
weakens unions. This process leads to certain COSATU leaders doing the dirty work of the 
ANC and the ruling class that runs it.

?Populism? is basically in favour of the state ? the problem is that all states serve the 
ruling class. To think the state can be used for the masses is an illusion.

?Populism? also serves the politicians. It aims to attract as many people as possible so 
that it can to get its political party into state power, most times via elections. To this 
purpose, populists regularly hijack working class struggles and swallow the movements of 
the masses on their road to power. ?Populism? uses militant rhetoric, but, ultimately, is 
an elitist project.

Coupled with the tendency of ?populism? to corrupt unions, populism has a strongly 
anti-democratic tendency: working class movements get corrupted, misled and used. This is 
surely clear after more than 20 years of the Tripartite Alliance in SA.

What was ?Workerism??
?Workerism? in the 1980s meant a left-wing current centred on a bloc of trade unions, 
mainly in and coming from the Federation of South African Trade Unions (FOSATU). Formed in 
1979, FOSATU was the key union federation before COSATU and included the Metal and Allied 
Workers Union (MAWU), which would later make up the core of NUMSA.

?Workerists? like FOSATU?s Moses Mayekiso and Joe Foster were critical of alliances with 
black elites and tended to anti-capitalist positions. ?Workerism? opposed ?populism,? 
predicting ? correctly ? that the ANC would turn on the working class once in state power. 
It stressed that nationalists always attacked the working class after Independence, 
pointing to Robert Mugabe?s repression of unions in the early 1980s in Zimbabwe.

The ANC?s ?populist? style was also criticised by ?workerists? for undermining democratic 
mass organising. While FOSATU built mass structures, factory by factory, based on meetings 
and mandated shopstewards, ?populists? relied on unaccountable leaders who announced 
campaigns and expected the masses to follow. This made the ?workerists? wary of working 
with movements influenced by ?populists.?

The ?Workerist? Alternative
?Workerists? were not entirely united on giving an alternative to ?populism,? but 
generally wanted some sort of ?socialism? after apartheid fell. ?Workerism? stressed 
ordinary people must have a real say: they criticised the top-down, dictatorial Marxist 
regimes of Russia and China.

?Workerists? insisted that unions not be allied to nationalists like the ANC, or Marxists 
like the SACP. ?Workerism? depended on workers acting through the unions and saw no reason 
for a political party to direct the struggles of workers and their communities. It 
emphasised the importance of independent BUT political unions: these should have their OWN 
political direction, not decided by outside parties.

Democratic, worker-controlled unions should also provide leadership to other working class 
sectors, like township movements. ?Workerists? sought to intervene in neighbourhoods 
through union ?locals? in townships and by promoting democratic models of community 
organising. They could be said to have favoured a working class ?united front? ? against 
the ANC?s ?popular front.? The new nation, they argued, would be non-racial and working 
class-controlled.

Problems with ?Workerism?
There were some similarities between ?workerism? and syndicalism (anarchist trade 
unionism), but a core weakness of ?workerism? was the lack of a clear enough approach of 
change ? or outline of a future society ? as compared to the ANC?s concrete ?NDR? project.

?Populists? seem to have been better organised, winning ground against ?workerists.? While 
?workerists? had a big impact in areas like Alexandra, ?populists? captured the political 
space in many townships.

Some ?workerists? even came to take pro-ANC positions. The drift continued in the 1990s 
and Mayekiso (for example) became a close ally of the neo-liberal ANC President Thabo Mbeki.

End of the debate: COSATU
COSATU?s founding congress in 1985 was heavily shaped by FOSATU. Its political resolutions 
were quite ?workerist?: worker-controlled unions and unions to play a political role 
independent of ALL parties. But arguments between ?workerists? and ?populists? were not 
over ? just postponed.

By 1987, ?populism? was in the ascendance. By 1990, COSATU was openly allied to the ANC. 
Only in 2014 has a major COSATU union, NUMSA, finally made moves to pull out of the 
Tripartite Alliance.

http://zabalaza.net/2014/11/26/our-history-of-struggle-the-1980s-workerist-populist-debate-revisited/

(en) Tokologo African Anarchist Collective - Tokologo #4 - Traitor to the Working Class Majority: Cyril Ramaphosa by Siyabulela Hulu-Hulu (TAAC, ZACF)

It is said we live in a democratic country; but, believe me it is for the chosen few. 
Current Deputy President of South Africa, Cyril Ramaphosa, was once widely considered a 
hero of the working class. Today he is a hypocrite and traitor to us, the majority. ---- 
From 1994, when his career as a trade unionist ended and his career as a capitalist and 
state politician began, he has enriched himself at the expense of workers ? he is a 
billionaire by the toil of our mothers, fathers, brothers and sisters. ---- Ramaphosa 
played a major role in the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), in the Congress of South 
African Trade Unions (COSATU) and in the negotiations leading to the 1994 breakthrough. He 
became African National Congress (ANC) secretary-general in 1991 and ANC deputy president 
in 2012 ? the ally of President Jacob Zuma.

In the years between, his business empire has grown massively. His interests now include a 
big stake in the Lonmin platinum mines; he is implicated in the 2012 Marikana Massacre of 
striking miners near Rustenburg. As a result, he had to testify at the Farlam Commission 
in Centurion, Tshwane, which recently ended.

This makes me wonder what kind of democracy and equality he was fighting for. He was a 
hero of the anti-apartheid struggle, but is now a villain of the parliamentary democratic 
period. He is covered with an indelible and negative stigma amongst the majority of South 
Africans.

But one may not be surprised: even his leader and ally, Jacob Zuma, runs the state with 
filthy hands, part of the large group of corrupt state officials and capitalists that 
loots our country.

In conclusion, all these so-called leaders are wolves in sheep?s clothing. And all that 
glitters, dear readers, is not gold! Parliament, rather than being a solution, is a place 
where the wolves come out to feast. This system of hierarchical rule always changes those 
people who join it. It is up to us, the working class majority ? employed and unemployed ? 
to change the system. Anarchism shows us the way.
http://zabalaza.net/2014/11/26/traitor-to-the-working-class-majority-cyril-ramaphosa/

(en) Tokologo African Anarchist Collective - Tokologo #4 - Working Class Livelihoods: Struggle against Each Other, or Revolt against the System? by Bongani Maponyane (TAAC, ZACF)

Rising inflation means increases in food and petrol prices. Inflation is a global problem, 
driven partly by conglomerates maximising their profits at the expense of ordinary people. 
The state plays its role, continually raising prices for services. ---- The pressure of 
capitalism has impacted on our lives. It has caused clashes within the working classes, 
resulting in discrimination and prejudice. Ruling class elites ? the political and 
economic elite ? benefit from these struggles between people who compete for scraps from 
their tables. ---- Khutsong, known as a community active in struggle, is marked by many 
hardships. Many are linked to inadequate public and taxi transportation systems. ---- 
Rising water and electricity tariffs were imposed on the community without any 
consultation. As a result, the taxi industry has hiked prices. Many people began using 
other means of transport, like hopping into friends?, or other people?s cars.

The local taxi association has tried to prevent commuters from doing so. Taxi drivers are 
stopping car owners found carrying passengers picked up along the road. Drivers say that 
they are unable to keep up with instalments, vehicle services and monthly debt. According 
to a driver who asked to remain anonymous, if commuters start using private cars ?[t]his 
will cause big financial problems for us. So we are not fighting. We just want things back 
to normal.?

But this leads to much misunderstanding and conflict; it has been going on for months. And 
community members are, not surprisingly, unhappy about this situation.

This has all been to the benefit of a few capitalists who own the taxis and employ the 
drivers. The drivers are also workers, but are being pushed into conflict with other 
working class people.

Due to the increases in costs, people are also increasingly buying food in the township 
(Khutsong) rather than in the ?town? (Carltonville). But here other conflicts of interest 
within the community emerge.

Khutsong is a relatively diverse community which includes Pakistanis, Ethiopians and 
Indians. Many of these people run small trading businesses, usually ?spaza? shops (small 
informal shops). These compete with shops run by black South African locals, many of which 
have closed down. This creates grounds for more conflict and misunderstanding.

For the average person trying to look after themselves and their family ? on a low wage if 
they are lucky enough to even be employed ? all these rising costs have a very negative 
impact. Nor can those who have retired make ends meet, due to the little they have and 
receive at retirement.

People cannot live like this ? people cannot sustain themselves due to these situations. 
The ruling class in the state and capitalism are living well. So where is the equality in 
all of this?

These economic and political crises that have a negative impact on the majority of society 
are called many things by the bosses: the ?meltdown?, the ?credit crunch?, the ?recession? 
? all complicated terms that people don?t understand.

We, the masses, need to educate ourselves politically to emancipate ourselves from mental 
entrapments ? including conflicts that divide us that benefit the bosses and politicians. 
Not forgetting our ?lumpenproletariat? brothers and sisters suffering on the streets who 
we must bring into the struggle for a better world.

The massive Anti North-West Campaign (the Khutsong struggle around provincial demarcation) 
a few years ago showed the true nature of the community ? a community of solidarity, 
resistance and rebellion.

We need this heroic character to shine again in our fight against the bosses in the state 
and in business. All of their wealth, whether through exploitation at work or through 
taxation and tariffs, is generated by the working class, both employed and unemployed.

With hierarchical systems in place that loot the working class and poor, but which exempts 
big corporations from tax, and politicians from accountability, there can never be justice 
? and therefore no peace.

Much of our lives is still dictated by the legacy of apartheid, but perpetuated by greedy 
state officials and big business owners.

Will the community rise against this challenge, or rest like the name it carries?*

* ?Khutsong? means ?place of peace? in Setswana

(en) zabalaza.net: The International Socialist League: laying the foundations Compiled by Warren McGregor (TAAC, ZACF)

What was the ISL and what were its aims? ---- The International Socialist League (ISL) was 
a revolutionary syndicalist political organisation founded in Johannesburg in 1915. Many 
founders were militants who had broken from the South African Labour Party (SALP) over its 
support for the British Imperial war effort in World War I. They were opposed to 
capitalist war and imperialism. ---- The ISL aimed to organise ?One Big Union? of the 
entire South African working class to fight for the overthrow of capitalism and the taking 
over of society by the working class, for the working class. ---- What did the ISL say 
about race? ---- Key to this project in the South African context was the breaking of the 
racial divisions within the working class. This required raising the specific demands of 
black workers for equality with white workers, in order to practically unite all workers 
and to enable them to work together toward ?their common emancipation from wage slavery.?

The ISL consistently condemned racism, and insisted that ?an internationalism which does 
not concede the fullest rights which the native working-class is capable of claiming will 
be a sham.?

What did the ISL actually do?
It disseminated this message through innumerable leaflets and public meetings. It even 
stood of candidates in state elections for propaganda, running on a platform of equal 
rights for white and black, and the abolition of capitalism and the state through the One 
Big Union. The ISL also had a weekly newspaper called The International. It was active in 
the main cities ? except Cape Town.

ISL unions and organising
The ISL was also able to unionise workers of colour into syndicalist unions on the 
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) model. The first was the Indian Workers? Industrial 
Union (IWIU), launched in Durban in March 1917. In Johannesburg in July 1917 a study group 
for black African workers was set up. At the end of September the same year this became 
the Industrial Workers of Africa (IWA), the first black trade union in South Africa?s 
history. Later it spread to Cape Town.

In 1919 the ISL?s Kimberley branch established the Clothing Workers? Industrial Union 
(CWIU) and the Horse Drivers? Union. The CWIU also spread to other cities. These unions 
had hundreds of members. Many joined the ISL.

Cautious alliances
Last, ISL and IWA members worked with (and in) other opposition groups, including the 
South African Native National Congress (now the African National Congress, or ANC), 
against racist laws. But it never trusted the ANC or set up a formal alliance with it. It 
said the ANC leaders represented the interests of the black elite above all else.

ISL contributors: Abram, Anathi, Bongani, Eric, Jonathan, Leila, Lekhetho,
Lucky, Mzee, Pitso, Siya, Nonzukiso, Nobuhle, Warren