AMANDLA ISSUE 21 | EDITORIAL :We face a deepening crisis. Mining, manufacturing and agriculture, key employments sectors of the South African economy, have declined dramatically, almost certainly condemning many more thousands of people to the unemployment scrapheap. Although some commentators attributed the collapse of output to recent strikes, the South African economy is inching towards another recession as part of a spluttering global economy.
Europe, one of SA’s major trading partners, is deeply embroiled in part two of the global financial crisis, now taking the form of a national debt crisis. It is not just the PIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain) that are in trouble. The financial crisis is spreading to Italy, one of Europe’s biggest economies. Even the powerful French banks are being targeted by speculators. The turn to austerity is leading to the contraction of the European economies. The ongoing economic decline in the USA is exacerbating these problems and threatening a second recessionary wave or what commentators call ‘the double dip’.
The slow-down in the South African economy is reflective of its export dependency. Almost two decades have been wasted in trying to overcome the lack of internal demand in the South African economy (lack of internal markets due to extreme inequality that leaves many people unable to buy even essential items). Having made redistribution of wealth the prisoner of the market and economic growth, SA has instead turned to an export growth strategy to solve the problem of insufficient internal demand. But attempts to solve this problem have created additional ones affecting the balance of payments, investment and ultimately jobs.
The problem is not just unemployment; it is also the informalisation of the workforce. Labour brokers provide more than 30% of employment. Precarious work at very low wages is a defining characteristic of the post-apartheid economy. According to the National Planning Commission, in 2008 half the labour force earned less than R2 500.
The rabbelisation of politics
The massive unemployment crisis has precipitated a frightening social crisis. Public life is something that can only be ‘enjoyed’ in the day and in only some over-policed tourist places at night.
We should expect things to become even more difficult in the coming months as retrenchments accelerate and social tensions exacerbate. We see a dynamic at play in the violent protests and riots that continue to flare up in different parts of the country. It appears as low-intensity rebellion of the most marginalised sections of the population. With few exceptions, these protests are spontaneous and, as Slavoj Žižek has argued, ‘it is difficult to conceive of the UK rioters in Marxist terms, as an instance of the emergence of the revolutionary subject; they fit much better the Hegelian notion of the “rabble”, those outside organised social space, who can express their discontent only through “irrational” outbursts of destructive violence’.
This phenomena of the ‘rabble’ able to express their discontent only through ‘irrational outbursts of destructive violence’ was at play in the ANCYL-orchestrated protests at the Malema disciplinary hearing. It should be hard to see how Malema and cohorts will be allowed to stay on in the ANC. However, stranger things in politics have occurred. It really becomes dependent on how the balance of forces in the ANC tilts. Malema and the ANCYL are a key instrument of the Nationalist forces in the ANC that oppose the growing influence of the SACP in the ANC and especially in relation to the Zuma inner core. If the ANCYL is muted, it would be a disaster for those factions opposed to SACP influence.
Yet, it is not just the violent protests that suggest the rabbelisation of politics. It is the nature of politics itself. Blade Nzimande’s recent attack on all forces opposing Zuma’s appointment of Moegeng Moegeng as Chief Justice epitomises the debasing of politics. To label the very different range of forces objecting to Moegeng’s appointment as liberal and part of an opposition plot designed to undermine Zuma or as representing ‘the new tendency of tenderpreneurs’ is bizarre.
Growing authoritarianism
It is in these outbursts that we see the regrettable authoritarianism and intolerance that increasingly characterises the Zuma administration. The notion that you are either ‘with us or against us’ is rooted in a regime that stands on the shoulders of the poor majority, manipulating that support base to leverage resources for elite formation. This is a practice that now cuts across the different factions of the ANC. Malema and the populist ANCYL is an extreme example.
The shift to authoritarianism is also rooted in the need to prevent those that have been involved in corruption and the abuse of state resources from being prosecuted. Hence the need to mould the judiciary in a compliant way and to have a Secrecy Act that silences whistle-blowers.
Not to defend democracy and democratic rights as enshrined in the Constitution, because the Constitution ‘protects private property’, is short-sighted. The defence of these democratic rights, the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary are vital components of a broader struggle for socioeconomic transformation. They are not the preserve of so-called liberals; indeed, radicals make common cause with liberals in the defence of these rights. Radicals, however, are alone in pointing out that these formal rights are insufficient to address inequality and class-based power.
The working-class movements, labour and mass-based social movements are currently on the defensive and relatively weak. In this situation, we should ensure that movement building against neoliberalism and for social justice is through broad-based coalitions. These coalitions need to be based on the strategy of building hegemony while ‘marching separately but striking together’.
