tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6975691494759610832024-03-08T14:16:46.833-08:00Permanent RebellionCommentary and analysis tracing rebellions against racism, sexism, economic exploitation and authoritarianism.Ronald Wessohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09126051532649094337noreply@blogger.comBlogger19125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-697569149475961083.post-9249677499309307022013-06-14T01:07:00.005-07:002013-06-14T01:10:06.606-07:00Brown empowerment or black liberation<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The foundation of the Bruin Bemagtiging Beweging (BBB - Brown
Empowerment Movement) is the outcome of developments within the coloured
community and within South African society as a whole. These developments
amount to the failure of black nationalism and the related re-emergence of
ethnic based politics, one hundred years after the ANC was established as a
means to move beyond such politics. Of course, ethnic politics cannot be wrong
in principle; it is fully justified as a response against discrimination and
oppression affecting people simply because they are members of a particular
ethnic group. It is precisely on this claim - that coloured people are
discriminated against on the basis of ethnicity - that the BBB bases its
politics, and I want to suggest that a response to the movement must start with
an examination of this claim.</div>
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An examination of the central claim of the BBB will not only
show that it is false in the sense that coloured people are not oppressed as an
ethnic group; it will also show that the main problems of coloured people stem
not from ethnic discrimination against them, but from the continuation of
institutionalised racism. This institutionalised racism, which the end of
Apartheid was supposed to signal the end of, not only persists, but it is
growing worse in important ways. Its continuity with Apartheid resides not only
in the fact that it oppresses all black people, including the coloured people,
but also in that it spares its worst effects for African people, including
middle class Africans relative to other middle class people. Of course this
immediately raises the question of how this could be, as since 1994 we have had
the ANC in power - an organisation that started as the recognised national
voice of the African middle class and came to adopt a stance of black
nationalism sympathetic to socialism coupled with a vision of non-racialism. </div>
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;">
Danny Titus, BBB conference chair, explains as follows what
is for them 'the issue at hand':<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"> </span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">'we (decided to) focus on the matter of the Correctional Services
members who felt discriminated against as their being coloured was now the barrier
in promotions and appointments. This was very simply that the Department was
applying national demographics instead of provincial ones in their employment
practices. It was following closely the discredited approach of Jimmy Manyi who
argued that there were too many coloured people in the Western Cape. Coloured
people in the Western Cape will have to be moved to other provinces to balance
the racial employment equity scorecards. The 52% of Coloured people in the
Western Cape must now be shrunk by these policies to 9% that Coloured people
constitutes nationally.</span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">The (BBB founding) meeting felt that this was broader than just one
department as it affects whole communities. It resolved that the BBB be
established as a civil society initiative to address the marginalisation of
coloured people.' </span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">The
grievances of the Correctional Services members have now become the subject of
a court case where the correctional officers are asking the court to rule that
they must get the promotions that were denied to them and that the department
must set aside its policy of basing employment equity targets on national
demographics. My view is that they will win the case, based on both the law and
the prevailing tendency within our judiciary. If they do not win the legal
case, they are likely to win politically, as the department could not even
secure the support of the provincial ANC, who condemned the department's policy
either out of principle or because they are aware of how much the policy could
potentially hurt their chances in the coming elections. </span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">For the
purpose of this article I want to leave aside the issue of what a good
affirmative action policy would be and also whether the DCS and the ANC are
doing good jobs of implementing affirmative action, except to say that despite
the likely outcome of the court case and political engagement, an affirmative
action policy favouring Africans over coloureds to achieve equity in the
Western Cape is fully justified, simply because of the extra burden of racist
discrimination carried by Africans in the province during Apartheid. That said,
the flaming question is whether a victory on the part of the coloured DCS
officers and their supporters would mean that coloured people are marginalised,
as Danny Titus is saying.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div>
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<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">The people
known as coloured have suffered every imaginable injustice. Genocide, slavery,
displacement across oceans, denigration, the suppression and near obliteration of
language and beliefs, forced removals, the carrying of passes, mass
imprisonment, discrimination, repression, impoverishment and endless violence.
To the extent that the transition of 1994 promised an end to this historic injustice,
the brightness of the promise just made the disappointment that followed all
the more cruel. Because, make no mistake, for coloured people, or at least for
the vast majority of them, the situation post-1994 is a continuation of their
position as oppressed, discriminated-against people. In economic terms they are
worse off, and politically and socially they might be better off in some ways,
but by no means enough to end their oppression. However, in all of this, both
in the disastrous oppression and in the cruel betrayal, coloured people
suffered not as an ethnic group, but as members of the black race. The
oppression, discrimination and violence that crushed their bodies, stultified
their minds and twisted their spirits, were the common lot of all black people,
regardless of ethnic affiliation. If there was anything specific about the
coloured experience of this racism, then it was found in the coloured labour
preference policies of the twentieth century in the Cape that was coupled with
an exemption from some laws such as the pass laws, and by a bigger per capita state
expenditure, compared to Africans, on social services such as housing and
education, which led to coloured people on average being economically and
socially less miserable than Africans. In other words, for a specific period a
significant number of coloured people were able to avoid the worst effects of the
racism that oppressed them together with all other black people.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">The fact
that racism is the common enemy of coloureds and Africans may be more obviously
true about the Apartheid and colonialist past than it is about today, but it
remains as true today as ever before. The employment equity situation - rather
than showing the ethnic marginalisation of coloureds - is one of the (maybe
less important) manifestations of this continued structural racism. Coloured
people are massively underrepresented in top and senior management level
positions in the private and public sectors in all provinces. But this shows
racism, not ethnic marginalisation, for the simple fact that all black people
are underrepresented, and Africans more so than any other group. In the private
sector particular, coloureds and Indians have benefit far more from employment
equity policies than Africans. I wonder if the BBB will now be principled and
argue that in other provinces, provincial demographics must also be used and
therefore coloured managers in Gauteng must benefit less than Africans from now
on. Anyway, the beneficiaries of the underrepresentation of coloureds in top
and senior management have not been Africans; it is whites, as it always has
been! And of course whites benefit from the underrepresentation of all black
people, and most of all from the marginalisation of Africans (See the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">12th Commission for Employment Equity Report,
</i>Department of Labour). More important than who gets the top and senior
posts is who gets decent housing, nutritious food, arable land and quality
jobs. If we use these as measuring rods the situation of structural racism
becomes even starker, with black people facing a veritable and worsening crisis.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">Two
questions now arise. Why does this structural racism persist under an ANC
government and a constitutional democracy? And what is the meaning of the
choice of the BBB to focus on the Department of Correctional Services? There is
a large body of writing such as Sampie Terreblanche's <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A history of inequality in South Africa</i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>that has answered the first question as
follows: The ANC's decision to adopt neo-liberal capitalism neutralised its
ability to address structural racism as capitalism and racism are tightly
intertwined in South Africa. By protecting white wealth the ANC is protecting
the reproduction of white privilege resting on black deprivation, which is the
essence of structural racism. Any serious attempt to abolish racial inequality
will require redistribution of wealth that will threaten the continued
operation of capitalism. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;">It is this
failure of black nationalism, of which the ANC is the main custodian, to
address structural racism that has led to the reinvigoration of ethnic based
politics. As before ethnic politics aligns with racism in South Africa. The DCS
situation is a stark exception to the rule of white overrepresentation and
black underrepresentation in general. If the BBB were really serious about
coloured underrepresentation in top and senior management they would have seen
that the problem is white privilege and the continued protection it receives
from the government and the law, to which the solution can only be black
resistance and unity against white privilege and wealth and the state that
protects it.</span> There are oppressed ethnic groups all over the world, and
they tend to face a similar set of problems that include the following:<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-ZA;"></span></div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin-left: 48.1pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>They are denied full citizenship</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 48.1pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Their language is denigrated and marginalised</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 48.1pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>Their movements are restricted</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 48.1pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>They are at the bottom of society in terms of
wealth and welfare indicators</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 48.1pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>They are targeted for forced relocations</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 48.1pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>They are the targets of police and state
violence</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin-left: 48.1pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>They are the targets of vigilante violence and
'pogroms' (officially non-state violence targeting a specific ethnic group)</div>
<div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin-left: 48.1pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18.0pt;">
<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7.0pt "Times New Roman";">
</span></span></span>They are the targets of stereotypes that portray
them as stupid and evil.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
The BBB raises none of these problems as part of their
motivation, although included in this incomplete list are problems causing
immense suffering for coloured people, compared to which the frustrated
ambitions of a few jailers cannot even begin to compare. Why do they not?
Because obviously insofar as coloured people suffer these problems, they suffer
like all other black people, with Africans generally the worst off. Surely it
is reasonable to suspect the BBB as being less about the problems facing most
coloured people and more about an anti-black agenda; they are choosing to focus
on a particular situation in the DCS that does not reflect the general
situation around employment equity at all, but that does lend itself to an
anti-black agenda. From this perspective their alliance with the white
dominated, conservative Solidarity union makes complete sense. As does Titus
talking about a fictional plan of Jimmy Manyi to forcibly relocate millions of
coloured people, instead of focusing on the real problems such as housing and
criminal violence that faces a community in crisis. For coloured people in
general though, the challenge remains to build black unity against structural
racism and its institutional manifestations and allies - unemployment, inferior
housing and education, landlessness, capitalism, the state and the ANC. </div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ronald Wesso</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br /></div>
</div>
Ronald Wessohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09126051532649094337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-697569149475961083.post-48196571279046906632012-11-12T04:58:00.001-08:002012-11-12T04:58:16.878-08:00HOW TO BE A REVOLUTIONARY - THE LIKELY PROBLEMS OF THE INTERNATIONAL ORGANISATION FOR A PARTICIPATORY SOCIETY<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
<u><span lang="EN-ZA">Michael’s Greek lesson<o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-ZA">The problems I
am thinking of are those that revolutionaries cause by self-defeating behaviour
– things like sectarianism, irrationality and opportunism – all of which I fear
are very much a likely part of the future of the IOPS. If it is true that these
patterns of behaviour are caused by a mix of the subjective will of the people
involved and the effects of the institutionalised relationships they operate
within, then the IOPS is an experiment with laboratory-like controlled
conditions. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-ZA">Some time before
September last year Michael Albert visited Greece and noticed a problem in the
Assemblies associated with the protests there: ideologically committed
activists, Marxists and anarchists alike, treated the people newly awakened to
activism by the current events with a certain disdain and even hostility. They
lectured at them, treated them with suspicion, and finally turned away from
these new activists with a bit of disgust at their lack of ideological
commitment and their impatience with the repetitive sermons so beloved by
ideologists. ‘What we can say,’ wrote Michael afterward, ‘in any event, is that
whenever this sort of hostility toward where the public is at strikes into the
hearts of organisers, and often it does, the organisers need to rethink what
they are doing, and why they are doing it. Dissing the public, much less
avoiding it, as a wa<a href="" name="_GoBack"></a>y of explaining less than stellar
success, is rarely if ever a path toward political and social progress.’<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-ZA">Unfortunately
the success of this appeal is likely to be close to zero because the attitudes
and behaviour of the activists in question flow from the dominant type of
institution – the ideology based organisation<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftn1" name="_ftnref1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
- through which anti-capitalist activism has been pursued since at least the
time of the immediate aftermath of the Russian Revolution. Most anti-capitalists
are well aware of the kind of problem Michael found in Greece. Usually they
talk about it under the heading of ‘sectarianism’, which is inadequate because
the word denotes small, inward looking groups outside of the mainstream,
whereas these problematic relations and behaviour patterns are associated with
any ideology-based organisation and in fact becomes more dangerous the bigger
and more mainstream such organisations become(as they have many times).<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftn2" name="_ftnref2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Every anti-capitalist group and activist has many times issued the same
heartfelt appeal against the left’s sectarianism, dogmatism, intolerance and
arrogant contempt for those not in the know. Where these appeals were not
integrated with insights into how typical leftist institutions caused these
problems, they failed as they were bound to, despite the best intentions and
despite the many genuinely emancipatory ideas the leftists inside such
institutions stood for. If the IOPS was a laboratory experiment, the experiment
question would be something like this: will the proven revolutionary
commitment, skills, wisdom, resources and connections of the people organising
the IOPS plus the undoubted emancipatory merits of the proposed vision be
enough to avoid the typical problems associated with ideology based organising?
Alternatively, to what extent will the former mitigate the latter? </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<u><span lang="EN-ZA">What sets the
IOPS apart?<o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-ZA">The desire for a
libertarian community is at the centre of the IOPS vision and programme, but
this in itself was not enough to safeguard other organisations from the
negative consequences of the ideology based model. Anarchists and libertarian
Marxists were motivated by the same desire and yet, to put it mildly, were not
at all exempt from the sectarianism, abstention from broad struggles and
doctrinaire elitism whose substance is the way the ideology based organising
model brings revolutionaries into conflict with the regular struggles of
oppressed people. In fact, there is a strong argument that this desire, however
incompletely expressed, is the motive for all human activities, which would
certainly mean that it is not enough to overcome oppressive patterns of
behaviour. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-ZA">Among its ‘key
goals and priorities’<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
the IOPS is unique in the history of revolutionary internationals in only this:
</span>‘It centrally addresses economics/class,
politics, culture/race, kinship/gender, ecology, and international relations
without privileging any one focus above the rest.’ Other internationals have
shared the rest of the IOPS priorities but have privileged one focus. I think
we can accept that this is not the only measure IOPS members will use to avoid
the kind of hostile disconnection from the broader public that Michael has
witnessed in Greece. The organization will undoubtedly spend a lot of energy on
sharing knowledge and cultivating attitudes aimed at making sure the members
stay respectful of the general public and where it’s at. Once again the thing
is that this is not unique. One of the most valued documents, for example, for
the 3<sup>rd</sup> and 4<sup>th</sup> Internationals were Vladimir Lenin’s book
‘Left-wing Communism – an infantile disorder’ where he passionately decries the
same tendency towards contempt for the broad public among the members of the
Communist International. And this is just one example among many others of this
kind of appeal to leftists to be more in tune with the people they are supposed
to be building movements with. We are therefore left with the question of
whether ‘holism’, the commitment to not privilege one of the mentioned focus
areas above the others, is enough to overcome the problem of hostile
disconnection between revolutionaries and the general public when the latter do
rebel against oppressive aspects of society.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
I of
course think it is not, simply because it does not address the cause of the
disconnection. Avoidable, counter-productive conflicts about focus areas tend
to occur between self-declared activists. In South Africa right now these
arguments occur between Marxists and anarchists arguing for the primacy of
class, feminists<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftn3" name="_ftnref3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
arguing for the primacy of sex and gender, and proponents of black
consciousness arguing for the primacy of race. I am saying that these debates
are not necessarily a problem, but where they do assume self-destructive forms
from an anti-capitalist perspective it is fueled by the same ideology based
organizing I am arguing against. In other words, it is not the mere fact that
people have conflicting views around focus areas that leads to destructive
divisions. It is because these differences play out within a framework of
ideology based organizing that it leads proponents of one focus area into a
perspective where they have to frustrate and demobilize the proponents of other
focus areas in order to be successful. If you believe that only with a Marxist
or anarchist ideology based organization will class oppression be ended, or
only with a black conscious ideology based organisation will racist oppression
be ended, you will be failing in your revolutionary duty if you do not attack
people trying to organize on the basis of a rival ideology. From this
perspective a ‘holist’ organization will be just another rival, and maybe a
more dangerous or at least more irritating<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftn4" name="_ftnref4" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Helvetica; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>one
at that. Instead of lessening, the divisive conflict is likely to intensify.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
The
point here is that not only does holism not address the problem of hostile
disconnection between self-declared activists as it could be imagined to be
doing, but it certainly does not address the general problem of hostile
disconnection, which does not occur through disputes around focus areas but
between ideologically committed revolutionaries and a broad public not so or
not at all committed. This is the problem Michael saw in the Greek assemblies.
Holism can contribute to overcoming it, but then it must be part of an approach
that opposes ideology based organizing.<o:p></o:p></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<u>An
organisation based on ideological agreement<o:p></o:p></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
What
makes IOPS an ideology based organisation? Hal Draper wrote, ‘<span lang="EN-ZA">A sect presents itself as the embodiment of the socialist movement,
though it is a membership organization whose boundary is set more or less
rigidly by the points in its political program rather than by its relation to
the social struggle.’<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
According to this definition the IOPS would be regarded as a sect. It embodies
participatory socialism, it is a membership organisation, and you become a
member by agreeing with the points in its political programme and vision. At
this point, however, it would be perhaps more useful to focus less attention on
whether IOPS is a sect or not and more on whether and how these institutional
features cause the hostile disconnection we are worried about. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-ZA">The simplest way
to understand this in my view is in terms of purpose and currency. A capitalist
firm is started to increase its capital and the currency through which this
purpose is achieved is money. Individuals active within the firm will have to
justify their activity in terms of this purpose and currency. You can do
anything you like, as long as it either makes or saves money. Both owners and
workers experience the need to make money for the firm as an imposed necessity,
not a daily choice. You either do it or you go under, therefore the way to get
ahead around here is to make money for the firm. Regardless of the countless
and often important differences between capitalist firms they all induce this
kind of thinking and behaviour in their members, even if Bertell Ollman is put
in charge.<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftn5" name="_ftnref5" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_edn4" name="_ednref4" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-ZA">The ideology
based organisation is established to expand the influence and power of a
particular set of ideas and the currency is the knowledge of those ideas. In
contrast to the capitalist firm, where expansion takes place through gathering
currency, here expansion depends on the spreading of the currency. However, the
effects of institutionalised purpose and currency operate in both cases. You
would not, even could not, start a capitalist firm and then refuse to make
money. In the same way it would not make sense to start an ideology based
organisation and then not make its central purpose the propagating of that
ideology. Of course we live in a capitalist society, which means that capital
is the dominant institution, meaning the effects of capital often overrides and
always modifies those of other institutions so that many a church becomes just
another capitalist firm. However, it would still have to spread its message,
and as anyone in the US with a television knows, perhaps even with more
enthusiasm and technological savvy than other more narrowly gospel focused
churches. Unfortunately just like when we act on behalf of capitalist firms and
we have to treat people as a possible means to achieve the purpose of the firm
- we have to ignore their humanity - when we act on behalf of ideology based
organisations we are driven to treat people as a possible means through which
the ideology could be propagated, even when this brings us into conflict with their
human needs and inclinations.<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftn6" name="_ftnref6" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-ZA">None of this
means one ideology based organisation is just like another. The effects of this
way of organising are either enhanced or softened by at least three factors.
The first is the specific content of the ideology the organising is based on.
Groups based on the idea that slave labour in the service of the cause is fine
are likely to have a different impact from groups that believe in balanced job
complexes and participatory planning. The second is the relative purity of the
approach. Groups that believe all people and organisations outside their own
can only play a negative role will obviously be more hostile in their
interactions with other leftists and the general public than those who think
their ideology based group is an essential part of a broader movement that is
needed for success. The third factor is the general social conditions or
historical situation, the spirit of the times so to speak. When an ideology
based organisation captures state power it is usually able to exert such a
massive pull on people’s imagination that both supporters and opponents adopt
ideology based organising. Hal Draper traces the reappearance of what he called
socialist sects and I call ideology based organising to the time of the
Communist International when the Bolsheviks had captured state power in Russia
and used it to impose this organising method on revolutionaries everywhere.<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_edn5" name="_ednref5" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[v]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
(Interestingly anti-Communism in this time also assumed increasingly hardened
ideological forms culminating in Nazism.)</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-ZA">In the case of
the IOPS, in my opinion, these three factors all operate in the direction of
mitigation rather than aggravation. The first two are very clear, with
emancipatory stances around class, race, kinship and politics and a vision of
members participating loyally in other movements certainly acting to soften the
hostile disconnection that ideology based organising inevitably causes. The
third factor is less clear. The initiators of the IOPS are clearly not in awe
of the Bolsheviks as either friends or enemies in the same way the
revolutionaries that initiated other international organising efforts were and
still are. But there <i>is</i> something
going on with Venezuela. Has Hugo Chavez’ praiseworthy opposition to US
imperialism, his democratic reforms, his social welfare interventions and his
socialist rhetoric rehabilitated the idea of the ideological socialist party?
If it has I want to point out immediately that his influence is nowhere close,
I mean like not on the same planet, as the stranglehold Vladimir Lenin held on
the imaginations of revolutionaries for a very, very long nine decades. So,
compared to other internationals, this is also a mitigating factor.
Furthermore, ideology based organising is to my knowledge universally practised
by revolutionary organisations at present, which means that the consistently
emancipatory nature of its vision, the commitment to self-management and the
revolutionary integrity and capacities of its leaders will make IOPS the best servant
of universal emancipation among existing revolutionary groups. But in this case
being the best is not good enough. Over time the blockages ideology based
organising place upon the struggle for human emancipation will overwhelm these
favourable circumstances. Institutional dynamics win out in the end. All of the
soul-destroying familiar problems associated with revolutionary organisations
will reappear – sectarian disregard, dogmatic haughtiness and opportunist
manipulation will come to describe the attitudes of the revolutionaries to the
people outside. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<u><span lang="EN-ZA">A libertarian
and class critique of ideology based organising<o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-ZA">This should be
Karl Marx’ most famous quote: </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-ZA">‘The social
character of activity, as well as the social form of the product, and the share
of individuals in production here appear as something alien and objective,
confronting the individuals, not as their relation to one another, but as their
subordination to relations which subsist independently of them and which arise
out of collisions between mutually indifferent individuals. The general
exchange of activities and products, which has become a vital condition for
each individual – their mutual interconnection here appears as something alien
to them, autonomous, as a thing. In exchange value, the social connection
between persons is transformed into a social relation between things; personal
capacity into objective wealth. The less social power the medium of exchange
possesses (and at this stage it is still closely bound to the nature of the
direct product of labour and the direct needs of the partners in exchange) the
greater must be the power of the community which binds the individuals
together, the patriarchal relation, the community of antiquity, feudalism and
the guild system. (See my Notebook XII, 34 B.)<a href="http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1857/grundrisse/f151-200.htm#19.">[19]</a>
Each individual possesses <a href="" name="p158"></a>social power in the form of a thing.
Rob the thing of this social power and you must give it to persons to exercise
over persons. Relations of personal dependence (entirely spontaneous at the
outset) are the first social forms, in which human productive capacity develops
only to a slight extent and at isolated points. <span class="googqs-tidbit-0">Personal
independence founded on<i> objective [sachlicher]</i> dependence is the second
great form, in which a system of general social metabolism, of universal</span>
relations, of all-round needs and universal capacities is formed for the first
time. Free individuality, based on the universal development of individuals and
on their subordination of their communal, social productivity as their social
wealth, is the third stage.’<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_edn6" name="_ednref6" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[vi]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-ZA">Granted, it does
not have the amiable simple-mindedness of ‘the point is to change the world’,
or the impetuous flamboyance of ‘<span class="googqs-tidbit1">the history <a href="" name="ab2">of all societ</a>y is the history of class struggles’, or even the unselfconscious
adolescent arrogance of ‘communism is the riddle of history solved, and it knows
itself to be this solution’, and neither does it establish a darkly delicious
identity between drug abuse and religious worship like ‘religion is the opium
of the people.’ It nevertheless summarises the essence of what is useful and
unique in the work of Karl Marx.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">Karl here proposes that we understand humanity’s long and varied
history as divided into just three great stages. In the first, relationships
between people are characterised by personal dependence. When people speak of
‘my lord’, ‘my husband’ or ‘my king’ they mean it in the same way as a slave
saying ‘my owner’. Slavery, feudalism, classical patriarchy and despotism can
all be seen to belong to this great stage. Where it is not based on naked force
it depends on the idea that some people are by birth and nature superior to
others and therefore entitled to be served. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">Capitalist society forms part of the second great stage. Personal
dependence has broken down, though not completely. People are not supposed to
own other people anymore. Power, privilege and entitlements to economic,
political and military service that includes being waited on hand and foot are
no longer understood to be the birthright of superior people. Personal
independence increasingly becomes written into the law and the other branches
of the governing ideology. Society is seen as independent individuals competing
for scarce resources and this is called freedom. Yet relationships are still based
on domination and submission, often in ways that, compared to earlier times,
horrifically increase the suffering of the dominated. Only the mechanism of
oppression has changed. The powers of domination previously associated with
persons now become associated with things. When a serf was hungry it was pretty
clear that the reason was that land, labour and food was under the power of his
or her lord. When an unemployed member of capitalist society is hungry it
appears as the lack of a thing called money. The capitalist is protected by
thick layers of ideology from being implicated in the suffering of dominated
groups in the way that the feudal lord was. People are not understood to be
choiceless servants of others; rather everyone is seen as serving supra-personal
imperatives. Both the capitalist and the worker must conform to the demands of
‘the market’ and serve ‘the economy’, which is capital’s apparent desire to
expand, or face severe consequences. Capitalist owners and managers are
understood to not be privileged by birth but to have earned their privileges
through rendering more valued services to the economy than other less
privileged groups. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">This mechanism, of oppressing people through the appearance of joint
service by formally independent individuals to a greater cause that justifies
the sacrifice of human needs and capacities, operates in all spheres of
capitalist society. The lowliest citizen and the high and mighty president are
both just humble servants of ‘the country’. Men and women are simply joint
builders, with different roles of course, of ‘the family’ and ‘the future of
the children’. These days even the health, appearance and happiness of the
individual have been made into great imperatives to which we feel pressured to
conform to. Karl Marx called this dynamic alienation, where our own creations
confront us as hostile beings, and he viewed its intensity and universality as the
distinctive feature of a society dominated by capital.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">All organisations of capitalist society are as a consequence of this
to some extent ideology based, and the specifically ideology based organisation
is typical when it comes to organised intellectual activity. The constraints
this places on thought is seen in widely practised censorship of unorthodox
views and rewarding of orthodox ones,
and it is unseen but very much present in how loyalty to group orthodoxy act as
an internal censor for most people. The latter is the most common way liberty
of thought is suppressed in relatively small left groups. In every situation
and with regard to every question the individual militant sees his or her task
as acting as a conduit for an already agreed set of orthodox ideas. The
relevance or truthfulness of those ideas is not questioned. In a situation of
competing ideologies this becomes more pronounced, as it is virtually
impossible to seriously entertain self-doubts when your task is to win an
ideological war. When this war comes to active persecution of the left, as it
invariably does, it adds another powerful impulse towards loyalty to your
group’s established orthodoxy. The temptation to give up your human capacity to
think to the service of the ideas of the party or the movement becomes
impossible to resist for all but the most unfortunately enquiring, bull-headed
and unpleasant individuals, who tend to become mere memories of heroes or
traitors quite quickly. Ideology based organising is the sworn enemy of full
free individuality for all supported by the sum total of social wealth and
co-operation, which alone can make up a libertarian community that includes all
humans. It is made up of alienated intellectual capacity in the same way that
the substance of capital is alienated labour power.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">What are the class divisions within ideology based organising? Who
dominates, who submits? If we think on a society wide scale it is clear that
this way of being in the world supports the power of the state-capitalist elite
and therefore its dominating class can be said to be this very elite. However
it is when we move closer to examine the internal dynamics of ideology based
organising that it really gets interesting. For it is not exactly rich
capitalists and powerful statesmen that staff the dingy offices and bare living
rooms from where left ideologists set out to change the world. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">To understand, from a class point of view, the people that directly
control and benefit from ideology based organising where must perhaps go back
to the beginning. Social class under capitalism is firstly a distinction
between people based on wealth. But Michael Albert among others has a put a lot
of effort into promoting the idea that class distinctions are about more than
wealth difference, that it is crucially also about the role individuals play in
the workplace.</span></span><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_edn7" name="_ednref7" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[vii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span lang="EN-ZA">Yes, the owner of a capitalist business is in all probability richer
than the manager he employs, and both of them are almost certainly richer than
their workers, but that is not the only important thing that makes up the
three-way class differences between them. ‘Empowering work’ is monopolised by
the manager and his class while the workers are confined to boring and
burdensome tasks. Empowering work is here understood as tasks that stimulate
and develop the creative powers<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftn7" name="_ftnref7" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[7]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>that
set humans apart from other animals, as well as roles that put some in
positions to make decisions for others and confer status on the decision makers.
To this we could add the role of enforcement, pressuring people to conform to
desired patterns of behaviour and to subordinate to authority. The class that
lays claim to these tasks and the rewards that accompany them has been called
the coordinator class by Michael Albert and Robin Hahnel and the
professional-managerial class by John and Barbara Ehrenreich.<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_edn8" name="_ednref8" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[viii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftn8" name="_ftnref8" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[8]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a><span class="googqs-tidbit1"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">Could it be that the professional revolutionaries in charge of left
ideology based organising are really members of the professional-managerial
class? I am not speaking of the state and party managers in the Soviet Union
and similar societies who undoubtedly were and are, nor about the fact that
many revolutionaries aspire to be like them, nor about the fact that in their
lives outside of revolutionary organising a good many revolutionary activists
have the qualifications and even jobs of members of this class. I am asking:
does the mere fact of being a leader or even just a member of an ideology based
organising project qualify you as a member of the professional-managerial
class? Even when you have no intention of becoming an official manager or
professional and you swear by self-management and classlessness?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">Hesitation to replying yes I think concerns the issue of privilege.
Although the professional-managerial class is distinguished from the classes
below them by their roles in collective activity, the many profound privileges
they are awarded because they monopolise these roles constitute an equally
important a distinction; it is, after all, what motivates the members of this
class. Since the 1950s the wealth of the upper layers of this class has grown
exponentially, and in the current neo-liberal era it has positively exploded.</span></span><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_edn9" name="_ednref9" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ix]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">Revolutionary organisers have of course
been left out of these gains. Working for the overthrow of capitalist society
remains as unprofitable as it has always been. So how can we think of the
people doing this as members of the privileged professional-managerial class? <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">As a rule, when it comes to revolutionaries, ideology based
organising do not confer economic privileges on its leaders</span></span><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftn9" name="_ftnref9" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[9]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">; they do not get to satisfy, through
this relationship, their money-associated needs at the expense of or above
others. However, in my view they <i>do</i>
gain very important privileges from their role in this type of organising. In
terms of the way the psychologist Abraham Maslow described human needs</span></span><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_edn10" name="_ednref10" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[x]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">, we could say the leaders in
revolutionary organising processes that are based on ideology get to satisfy
their higher needs for self-actualisation, esteem and often for love and
belonging at the expense of and from a position above the other people involved
in this social relationship. In fact ideology based organising could be seen as
turning Maslow’s hierarchy of needs upside down, with the need for
self-actualisation becoming primary. Arguably deliberately suppressing some of
your needs in favour of others is already oppressive, but it is in the
encounter with outsiders or insiders of lower rank that the true oppressive
nature of this form of organising comes to the fore most clearly. Outsiders pay
a heavy price in frustration, confusion, boredom and emotional distress when
they try to simply come together to discuss and act on the many problems
capitalist society causes them but are instead subjected to the repetitive
lectures, esoteric language, patronising dismissals, sectarian squabbles and
moralistic condemnations that are the stock in trade of ideologists</span></span><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftn10" name="_ftnref10" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[10]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">. Clearly when the ideologists are making
history, serving the cause and doing their revolutionary duty, the nice
feelings that legitimately flow from these glorious activities come at the
expense of all the unfortunates who have ever innocently come to a meeting
where ideology based organising managed to get space for expression.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">I therefore see the leftists in charge of ideology based organising
as a special section of the professional-managerial class. Their expertise, the
source of their influence and power, is the knowledge of their particular ideology
and their capacity to articulate it. They dissent from official capitalist
ideology but organise in ways that reproduce the class hierarchy of capitalist
society. This hierarchy that privileges them is hidden or justified by the idea
of joint submission to a higher power, in this case their preferred ideology,
where ideas seemingly transcend their annoyingly uncertain status as the rather
imperfect products of human minds, and become an independent force with the
power to determine human welfare. They are the carriers of certainty in an
uncertain world and thus feel entitled or actually obliged to impose</span></span><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftn11" name="_ftnref11" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[11]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">.</span></span><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_edn11" name="_ednref11" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xi]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><u><span lang="EN-ZA">The opposite of ideology based organising<o:p></o:p></span></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">Is it really possible to have a revolutionary organisation without
an ideology?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">We all have a worldview. It might lack internal consistency and
explicit formulation, but it is there nevertheless. All our actions are
influenced by it, and when it becomes the deliberate basis for these actions
our worldview is an ideology like any other, which seemingly suggests that
revolutionaries should strive to base their organising on a correct ideology,
rather than on no ideology, the latter being impossible or unworkable. But this
is not true. Yes, we all have a worldview and even arguably an ideology, but
that does not mean our organisations have to have one. Ascribing human
characteristics to social institutions is precisely the typical workings of
oppressive relations in capitalist society; it is alienation, because an
organisation of thousands</span></span><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftn12" name="_ftnref12" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[12]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">of members with a single worldview can
only happen if those members give up bits and pieces of their individual
worldviews. In this process the members suppress their human needs and
characteristics in favour of the institution. They become less human! It is
entirely avoidable. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">Let us take the example of two revolutionary organisations from the
Russian revolution – the factory committees and the Bolshevik party. The
Bolsheviks had a comprehensive ideology worked out over many years and codified
in programmatic documents.</span></span><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_edn12" name="_ednref12" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA"> The factory committees had no such
thing. They were simply the assembled workers at a particular factory and what
they decided to do and delegate. Their politics did not express a codified
ideology; it expressed the will of whoever was at the assembly.</span></span><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_edn13" name="_ednref13" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xiii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA"> Of course the Bolsheviks had often acted
in ways that clashed with their ideology, and the factory committees (less
often) in ways that clashed with the will of the assembled workers, but this
did not negate the basic nature of the one or the other. Both were revolutionary,
but where the Bolshevik Party was an ideology based organisation, the factory
committees were decidedly the opposite. It did not seek to base itself on
ideological agreement; instead its base was a social group – the workers -
rebelling against their oppression. The opposition between these two types of
organising and the classes it serves played out in a zero-sum, one-must-die struggle
between the Bolshevik Party and the factory committees, which the latter, and
the workers who constituted them, lost very badly.</span></span><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_edn14" name="_ednref14" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xiv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">The factory committees of the Russian Revolution were by no means
unique. Not in Russia of that time and not in general. The soviets were also
examples during the Russian Revolution. In South Africa in 1980s we saw the
appearance of street committees, civic movements and trade union locals that
were essentially the same kind of thing. In all revolutionary situations this
type of organs appeared – revolutionary organisations based on rebelling
oppressed groups. Lately the popular assemblies in Greece and Argentina that
sprang up during revolts against neo-liberalism reminded us of this. To get a clearer
picture of rebellion based organising I propose we look at the following
issues: historical occurrence, revolutionary effectiveness and practical
implications. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><u><span lang="EN-ZA">Historical occurrence<o:p></o:p></span></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">Historically, in revolutionary situations mass organs of rebellion
based organising inevitably appeared, but were either destroyed by the old
ruling classes, or mixed up, taken over and also ultimately destroyed by
ideology based organising. We can therefore say that rebellion based organising
have been universally present where large numbers of oppressed people have
risen against their oppressors, but have proved to be neither enduring, nor
pure. Based on this same history we can with confidence conclude that the
revolutionary professional-managerial class ideologists had acted to destroy
the character and leaders of rebellion based organising as soon as they were
strong enough to do so. The factory committees and soviet and Russia were
typical examples. After the Bolshevik party took over and destroyed these
rebellion based organisations, they gave their names to ideology based
formations that the party had created to subordinate the workers to the Russian
state.</span></span><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_edn15" name="_ednref15" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">During the Spanish Revolution of 1936 onwards the same hostility was
expressed when the Stalinist Communist Party backed by the Soviet state
destroyed all working class organisations not under their control whether
ideology or rebellion based.</span></span><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_edn16" name="_ednref16" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xvi]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">But perhaps less known is the conflict
between anarchist ideologists and rebelling workers and peasants. Anarchist
leaders joined the capitalist government in 1936 thereby setting themselves
against the efforts of workers and peasant to seize factories and land from the
capitalists and landlords. In his book </span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><a href="http://libcom.org/library/workers-against-work-michael-seidman"><i>Workers
against Work: Labor in Paris and Barcelona during the Popular Fronts</i></a>,
Michael Seidman documents several authoritarian actions by anarchist leaders
clearly aimed at undermining and punishing worker and peasant rebelliousness. The
anarchist union CNT made a decision that workers could be dismissed for
‘laziness and immorality’ and that workers should 'have a file where the
details of their professional and social personalities will be registered,'
which was intended for monitoring and control. Garc</span><span lang="EN-ZA">í</span><span lang="EN-ZA">a Oliver was the minister of justice and a CNT representative in the
government. He was also the initiator of labour camps. Even the Friends of
Durutti, who up to today has the reputation as the most principled of the
anarchists, advocated forced labour.<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_edn17" name="_ednref17" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xvii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">The Spanish revolution was a turning point I think. It was the last
revolution whose leading ideology and activists were prepared outside of the
template imposed on revolutionaries by the leadership of the Russian
revolution, and it showed that this template was opposed to independent
organisations of the oppressed masses to the extent where its promoters would
rather hand victory to the fascists than accept the right of these masses to
rebel in their own name under their own control. Even the Cuban revolution
followed this template, despite the leadership not having direct links of
accountability to the Soviet Union. After Spain mass rebellion based organising
still appear in revolutions, but it is much weakened, more often mixed up with
and controlled by ideological organisations from the start. As a result the
conflict between the two is more hidden and often appears as factional fights
between different wings of the same movement. In Cuba, for example, the
subordination of the trade unions to the ruling party and state took place
through the Castro leadership replacing a democratically elected leadership
with their own appointees and changing the structure of the unions in
centralist, authoritarian directions. The union leaders that were removed were
also Fidelistas.</span></span><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_edn18" name="_ednref18" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xviii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">One can argue that it was not ideology based organising that
inspired these actions by revolutionary leaders against oppressed people; that
they were responding to other pressures that would have induced the same
behaviour in leaders of rebellion based organisations. This obscures the
specific role of ideology based organising. Revolutionary leaders might have
faced the very same temptation towards authoritarian impositions even when they
were not part of ideology based organisations, but the fact that they were so
organised indeed facilitated authoritarianism because one the one hand they
were conveniently organised separately from and outside of the control of the
rebelling masses and on the other their ideology is what gave them the belief
that they knew better than these masses and were therefore entitled to impose.
In any case, in no way does this disprove the point I am making here: rebellion
based organising has appeared as revolutionary mass formations in every
revolution but has been defeated by either the old ruling classes or by
organisations based on ideologies serving a section of the
professional-managerial classes. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">Two questions remain. If rebellion based organising that threatens
the power of the rulers is arguably what defines revolutionary times, what
happens in non-revolutionary times like ours? And, what can we learn about
rebellion based organising as a self-conscious approach from revolutionary
literature?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">In my view the answer to the first question should start with the
observation that collective rebellions against oppression are not always
revolutionary. We can therefore say that rebellion based organising is very
common. Every oppressed group rebels periodically against at least some aspects
of their oppression, and in most cases they do not set ideological agreement as
a condition for joining their struggles and organisations. Workers fighting for
higher wages generally seek to organise other workers and supporters interested
in joining this fight without requiring them to agree on a particular ideology.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">However, take the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) as
an example. No organiser in a Cosatu union would dream of insisting on
ideological agreement before allowing workers to join the union’s struggles for
better wages and working conditions. At the same time Cosatu is strongly
ideological and these same organisers would hardly dare to challenge the basic
ideology in public or even internally. The few that do inevitably are reprimanded,
disciplined and often dismissed or expelled by the leadership. The union’s
public pronouncements and engagements are controlled from the top to be always framed
in the terms and orientation of the National Democratic Revolution (NDR)
ideology that it shares with the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the
African National Congress (ANC).</span></span><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_edn19" name="_ednref19" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xix]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA"> Does this mean Cosatu is ideology based?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">Indeed it does. It is obviously mixed, as its method of recruitment
and many of its activities is that of a rebellion based organisation, but the
fact is, in this mixture the characteristics of an ideology based organisation
is dominant. For many years the primary role of Cosatu has been to defend the
ideology and politics of the tripartite alliance that it is part of with the
SACP and the ANC, instead of focusing on organising worker rebellions.</span></span><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_edn20" name="_ednref20" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xx]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">During the recent strike and police
massacre of mineworkers in Marikana this has become especially clear, with the
mineworkers needing to break from Cosatu in order to fight for the wage
increase they wanted, and the leaders of Cosatu affiliate clearly siding with
the employers against the workers.</span></span><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_edn21" name="_ednref21" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xxi]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA"> Clearly the issue here is not that
Cosatu spends too much time promoting NDR ideology and too little on mobilising
workers. It is that its ideological basis undermines the mobilisation of
workers.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">This has a lot to do with the specifics of Cosatu’s ideology, social
composition and organisational structure. The ideology commits it to support
black capital that in South Africa has no independence from white capital, the
social composition sees a minority of predominantly male union leaders who by
their income and role belong to the professional-managerial class dominate a
majority of workers in permanent jobs and exclude the unemployed and the
precariously employed, and the organisational structure is centralist in that
it subordinates members, workplace structures and lower level branches to the
top structures. These factors will undermine worker mobilisation even in a
relatively pure rebellion based organisation. However, we cannot get away from
the fact that Cosatu functions like an ideology based organisation in crucial
ways and that this is what gives its ideology, social composition and
organisational structure coherence, power and the capacity to reproduce. Also,
as I have already argued, even if the union had a more radical ideology as its
base, it will still have to use the same methods</span></span><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftn13" name="_ftnref13" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[13]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA"> of propagating and enforcing ideological
conformity that undermine worker mobilisation as we have seen when more radical
Marxists or anarchists have tried to form ideologically pure unions.</span></span><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftn14" name="_ftnref14" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[14]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_edn22" name="_ednref22" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xxii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">The point here is that although Cosatu started out of rebellion
based organising and still engage in it in some ways, it is in fact dominated
by ideology based organising. I think this is typical. Resistance tend to start
out as rebellion based organising, even when initiated by ideologists who tend
to put their ideology aside in the beginning, but when it consolidates it does
so as mixed organisations dominated by ideology. In my opinion this expresses
three closely intertwined factors. The first two I have mentioned already:
firstly organisations tend to be ideology based in capitalist society because
its members are conditioned to act in the service of ideological abstractions,
and secondly, the victory of the Bolsheviks in the Russian revolution turned
out to be an epoch making victory for ideology based organising as far as capturing
the attention and imagination of revolutionaries are concerned. The third
factor is the absence of self-conscious, open opposition to ideology based
organising among revolutionaries.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">My reading of revolutionary literature finds a complete absence of
any attempt to articulate an approach to revolutionary organising that breaks
from the ideology based model since at least 1872 when the International
Workingmen’s Association (First International) split at its congress in The Hague,
until 1969 when the New York Radical Feminists started the Stanton-Anthony
Brigade, their first consciousness-raising group. The outcome of the Russian
revolution intensified the domination of the ideology based model with the
force of an atomic explosion. With Stalinism it assumes the shape of a kind of
madness that infects its supporters and rivals alike. Ideologies are pushed
with the fanaticism driven by the vision that the only possible alternative to
the realisation of the ideology in question is the utter destruction of the
human race. Among the left there is an ever present awareness of sectarianism
and its dangers, there are searing critiques of totalitarianism and its evils,
but it is all done within the framework of ideology based organising. The task
is posed as finding the proper, the ‘correct’ ideology to base our
relationships on. Was it even possible to articulate the alternative in the
three decades after the end of the Spanish Civil War? In the countless articles
and books of the revolutionary mainstream, and to my knowledge even of the
fringes, it was never done.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">Compared to this era of ‘darkness at noon’ the late 1960s/early
1970s represents a breaking dawn. In four places, independently of each other
as far as I can tell, the search for an alternative to organisations based
primarily on ideology is expressed in revolutionary writings. The new pioneers
are the second wave feminists around Shulamith Firestone and Anne Koedt, who
proposes consciousness-raising groups as the main method of a process of
revolutionary organising open to all women regardless of their ideological
orientation as long as they are willing to question sexism in its many forms.</span></span><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_edn23" name="_ednref23" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xxiii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA"> Shortly after in Apartheid South Africa,
Steve Biko posits blackness, not ideology, as the basis for revolutionary
organising. ‘</span></span><span lang="EN-ZA">Black Consciousness,’ he writes,
‘is in essence the realization by the black man of the need to rally together
with his brothers around the cause of their oppression - the blackness of their
skin - and to operate as a group in order to rid themselves of the shackles
that bind them to perpetual servitude.’<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_edn24" name="_ednref24" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xxiv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
At the same time the American Marxist Hal Draper come to the conclusion that
sectarianism among revolutionaries are not just the result of bad attitudes,
but of the institutional framework within which organising happens. He
therefore proposes his idea of a propaganda centre that is not only
subjectively opposed to leftist sects but also institutionally. And Jacques Camatte,
a French Marxist, leads a breakaway from the International Communist Party and
declares a complete disillusionment with revolutionary ‘groupuscles’ who try to
substitute themselves for the working class.<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_edn25" name="_ednref25" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xxv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a><span class="googqs-tidbit1"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">Alas, the dawn was false. For a complex of reasons connected to the
retreat of the world wide mass rebellions of this time, none of these writers
complete their work or manage to find successors to carry it on. The feminists
of the second wave never give up consciousness raising groups as an organising
strategy, but they do not tie it to an open struggle against ideology based
organising and therefore end up succumbing to its attraction. Soon the
movement, having grown so explosively and raised such magnificent hopes,
flounders in soul-destroying internal conflicts around the proper ideology upon
which to based feminist organisations. Biko lies dead in a police cell, and his
colleagues either abandon black consciousness or incorporate it into an
ideology whose dominant elements are Marxism and nationalism. The black
consciousness movement becomes just another participant in the constant rivalry
between ideology based organisations. Hal Draper proposes as an alternative to
the sect another ideology based organisation – the propaganda centre. His
searching critique of the effects of the Communist International on left
consciousness and his quest for an institutional alternative to sects and
sectarianism are effectively ignored. Jacques Camatte goes through Marxism with
a fine tooth comb, sees its contradictions, and concludes that working class
revolution is impossible and revolutionary organising futile. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">We have to wait 20 years through the time of triumphant
neo-liberalism and the breaking up of the Soviet Union before revolutionary
writers start grappling with the question of rebellion based organising again. Istvan
Meszaros, in a giant leap for Marxism, in 1994 writes that Vladimir Lenin’s
idea that ‘socialist consciousness had to be brought to the working class from
the outside </span></span><span lang="EN-ZA">proved to be historically unviable
in the course of twentieth century developments.’<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_edn26" name="_ednref26" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xxvi]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a><span class="googqs-tidbit1">Instead of Lenin’s vanguard party, he recommends ‘</span>Marx’s
original idea of producing “communist consciousness on a mass scale” – with its
necessary implication of an inherently open organisational structure’.<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_edn27" name="_ednref27" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xxvii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
More than a decade later he adds constant ‘self-critique’ as a vital element of
the transition to emancipation.<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_edn28" name="_ednref28" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xxviii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Clearly Meszaros, in his rather ponderous Hegelian way, has turned against
ideology based towards rebellion based organising. But his ‘communist
consciousness’ lacks definition apart from including a commitment to
‘self-critique,’ which itself seem to be a subjective orientation of the
members of this ‘open organisational structure’. It is not clear at all how
exactly the latter will differ in structure from its opposite. </span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span lang="EN-ZA">The next
occurrence is marked by the publication of Cyril Smith’s book <i>Marx at the millennium</i> in 1998. Smith
spent a lifetime in one of the most grotesque sects in the Trotskyist tradition<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftn15" name="_ftnref15" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[15]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
before embarking on the work of ‘rescuing Marx from the distortions of the
Marxists’. In a series of articles and books<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_edn29" name="_ednref29" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xxix]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
he excavated and explained Marx’ notion of communist consciousness comparing it
in turn to all its main rivals starting with Marxism-Leninism and including
classical philosophy, historical materialism, political economy, mysticism and
the main ideas of the Enlightenment. Smith left us with the most complete,
consistent<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftn16" name="_ftnref16" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[16]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
and accessible exposition of Karl Marx’ ideas on the kind of revolutionary
consciousness that makes universal human emancipation possible. He did not have
the opportunity to consider the organisational implications of this; although
he knew very well that ideology based organisations do not serve such a vision
of emancipation.</span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<u><span lang="EN-ZA">Revolutionary
effectiveness<o:p></o:p></span></u></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">The effectiveness I claim for rebellion based organising cannot be
that it always works or even that it is guaranteed to work at some point – it
often fails in fact, and, since the destruction of human society has become a
real possibility, no other outcome can claim certainty. What I <i>do</i> claim is firstly that it is the only
approach that has a chance of achieving a society where every individual is
free and all people work together to support and expand this freedom; and
secondly that all available evidence show that rebellion based organising has a
high to very high chance of successfully making this libertarian communist
revolution. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">A society such as the one envisioned by libertarian communists – a
society of perfect liberty, equality and solidarity – is of course a splendid
idea. Even a philosopher of the calibre of Mitt Romney</span></span><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftn17" name="_ftnref17" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[17]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA"> would hardly object to it in principle.
His reasons for rejecting the idea would be practical, like say ‘we can’t
afford it’ or ‘it would threaten the job security of the brave men and women of
America’s armed forces.’</span></span><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftn18" name="_ftnref18" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[18]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA"> But if this vision is just one idea
among others, why would it triumph? Why can we foresee a society where Romney’s
ideas, which might be more popular now, have died out, but we cannot foresee a
time where humans are living without this desire for expanding freedom and
deepening togetherness? The answer my friends is that this desire, like the
capacity to laugh and the need to eat, is part of human nature; we can study
humans in all the different situations they have had to face and we will never
find them without it. What we need to explain therefore is not really how a society
of unqualified freedom, equality and solidarity is possible, but how a society
based on institutionalised oppression is possible, given the desire and
capacity</span></span><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftn19" name="_ftnref19" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[19]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">for liberty and social support of every
individual member of society. How can beings that each want to be free</span></span><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftn20" name="_ftnref20" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[20]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA"> constitute a social order that is
oppressive?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">We are born into a society divided along the lines of class, sex,
race/culture and authority. Crucially these divisions are not simply
differences, but institutionalised relationships setting up the members of one
group against the members of the other. Men and women may or may not differ in
important ways, but that is not at issue here. The issue is that in sexual
cultures based on the patriarchal family, men can only advance their powers and
choices and their access to social resources and support at the cost of women,
and women can only liberate themselves at the cost of men because all of them,
including the few that sometimes support feminism, benefit from
institutionalised male privilege. Workers, managers and capitalists do not
simply play different roles in the workplace. They are trapped in relations of
mutual antagonism by the institution of capital. Workers have to risk blood and
nerves in fighting capitalists and managers for the slightest chance to meet
their needs and develop their creative powers. Outside the institution of
racism there are no black or white humans. But within the present society of
structural and ideological racism, black people will win freedom at the expense
of whites or they will not win it at all. Those at the bottom of the social
hierarchy mediated and guaranteed by the state will never see freedom and
equality if they do not overthrow the authority of those at the top. In this
situation, when we seek satisfaction for our desire for freedom and solidarity <i>within</i> the roles designated to us by
capitalism’s social institutions, we of course reproduce this oppressive order.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">When we trace the history of the defining institutions of capitalist
society – which I cannot do here -we find the same principle at work. Human
beings are struggling to cooperate in meeting their needs and developing their
powers. They are doing so in social conditions they have inherited from the
past. Part of these conditions is the limits of the human creative capacities</span></span><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftn21" name="_ftnref21" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[21]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA"> developed up to that point and the
institutional framework within which these capacities are used and developed.
This institutionalised inequality places similar constraints on individual
freedom and social solidarity as we see in capitalist society, although the
specific institutions, divisions and relationships are of course different. The
constraints are of two kinds. Firstly, increasing freedom and social support
for oppressor groups are only possible at the expense of oppressed groups, and
the other way around. Secondly, the relatively low level of creative capacity
means a society of equals is only possible through enforcing restraints on
liberty. The first scenario - of zero-sum conflicts between oppressors and
oppressed - is present everywhere in recorded history. The second one - of
attempts to establish societies based on equality, mutual aid, and more or less
strictly enforced limitations on consumption and obligatory participation in
socially valued activities–is common in the story of pre-historic societies,</span></span><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_edn30" name="_ednref30" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xxx]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA"> and is an episodic outcome in the recorded
history of revolutions led by oppressed groups.</span></span><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_edn31" name="_ednref31" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xxxi]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA"> Therefore we can understand the defining
institutions of capitalist society – capital, the state, the patriarchal family
and exclusive cultural communities – as outcomes of partially successful
struggles for fully developed individual liberty and social co-operation. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">The history of capitalist society is a continuation of this history
of constant struggles between oppressors and oppressed and occasional
revolutions defined by attempts of the oppressed to remake society as an
all-inclusive libertarian co-operative, in other words a society of universal
emancipation. And although none of the great anti-capitalist revolutions has so
far done so for very long, this history reveals a clear basis for the belief
that rebellion based organising will probably succeed in achieving this ever
longed for universal emancipation. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">The first and most important element of this basis is the fact that
rebellion inspired by the vision of the most radical versions of freedom, equality
and solidarity is not simply one good idea that some are trying to impose on
others. It is part of the make-up of human beings. As long as there is a human
society there will be this striving. And as long as people are striving for
such a society, there is a chance they will succeed, a chance that grows bigger
with time. If we view this from the standpoint of the entire future of
humanity, the chances must be excellent, even certain except for the
possibility of human extinction. In my view, admittedly intuitive to a large
extent, humanity in the past has had to overcome far greater difficulties to
just survive than the ones we have to overcome to be free. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">The second element we get from history has to do with the nature of
capital. Under the power of this institution human capacity has developed to
levels that earlier could hardly be foreseen. Given this present productiveness
of human co-operation, we can now foresee the real possibility of a
revolutionary transition to a society of unpoliced equality. Here I think it is
important to say that this capacity should not be confused with the
productivity of the employees of a capitalist firm. Such productivity is profit
driven and often counter-productive for social well-being. The capacities I
have in mind is the sum total of resources, knowledge, skills and connections
we have developed to meet human needs. The mere existence of these and the
concentration of a critical mass of it in the direct control of the oppressed,
means that a post-capitalist society of equals can transition to a stage where
the enforcement of limitations and obligations around consumption and
participation in productive activity is no longer necessary.</span></span><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftn22" name="_ftnref22" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[22]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_edn32" name="_ednref32" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xxxii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA"> This will make the development of a new
ruling class and the relapse of society into oppressiveness finally
impossible. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">Another element is the existence of a large and potentially strong
enough group of people whose fundamental interests are bound up with the
overthrow of capitalist society. The same mad greed of capital that is behind
the explosion of human productive capacity conditions the oppressed in
important ways. Capitalists can never be content with their levels of wealth
and profits. A never-ending scramble to expand both is institutionalised in the
structure of capital. The oppressed are continuously under attack and
continuously provoked into rebellion. Under capital therefore the oppressed are
always confronted with opportunities to become competent rebels. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">Patriarchy, ethnic oppression and the state are all older than
capital, but have all been incorporated, transformed and subordinated by it to
serve its exploitative designs. The struggles of women against sexism, of
oppressed nationalities against racism and communal oppression, and of those of
no or low rank against state power have thus become struggles against capital,
in common with the struggles of the working class. More than this, the very
effect of capitalist patriarchy, racism and statism has been to push women,
blacks and the rankless into doing the most precarious, burdensome, boring and
unrewarded kinds of work. The worst off sections of the working class are
therefore overwhelmingly drawn from these groups. As a result there has never
been a sustained mass uprising of the working class against capitalism that was
not at the same time a mass rebellion against sexism, racism and state power.
The working class simply cannot liberate itself without overthrowing these
institutions. Any attempt to promote the interests of workers in collaboration
with sexism, racism and the state is therefore bound to have oppressive
results. The opposite also applies. Women, oppressed nationalities and the
victims of the state cannot abolish sexism, communal oppression and the
authority of the state, if their working class members do not liberate
themselves from the tentacles of capital. When women rebel against sexism and
blacks against racism, they threaten the male and white privilege of many
workers, but they do not threaten anti-capitalist revolution; they advance it. Capital
itself therefore creates a basis for a successful fight for revolutionary unity
and solidarity among all its oppressed groups.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">A question that remains is that of subjective readiness. The factors
in favour of successful revolution are always at work in capitalist society,
yet revolutions are not everyday things. People might live in a state of
permanent rebellion, but mostly they confine themselves to individual actions
and organising for particular reforms. Only rarely do the oppressed masses feel
ready to overthrow capitalist society as such. What does this readiness consist
of? And how does it come about?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">The essence of revolutionary readiness is an attitude that refuses
to be treated as a lesser human being. A black, woman worker that rejects all
the efforts of sexist, racist and classist society to condition and force her
to accept inferior social roles and status to that of whites, men, managers and
capitalists, is a revolutionary. It does not matter that she cannot read or
have never heard of Lenin, it does not matter that she does not understand the
meaning of the financialisation of the economy, it does not matter that she
believes in God and visits a sangoma, as long as she knows that she is entitled
to the same social resources to meet her needs and develop her talents as any
other member of society, and as longs as she is prepared to act on that
knowledge, she is a revolutionary. When this attitude comes to be shared by a
critical mass among the oppressed, the best of times, revolutionary times, have
arrived.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">The important thing about this knowledge is that it is instantly
accessible to everyone and this makes possible a revolutionary movement of
equals that includes the vast majority. But is it enough? Does knowing their
full humanity and being prepared to fight for it put the oppressed in a
position to overthrow oppression? Yes and no. No, because the business of
overthrowing capitalist society and creating a society of free equals requires
that the revolutionary masses have a certain minimum level of knowledge and
skill in all fields including politics, economics, organising, psychology,
self-defence, healthcare, to name just a few. But fundamentally yes, because
this factual knowledge and technical skills are to a decisive degree already mastered
by the oppressed masses. The people making revolution are the same people doing
most of the productive work in capitalist society. They are the same people who
learn the political-economic-sexual-communal structure of capitalist society
through the pains of their hearts and bodies every day. They do not need
experts to tell them how to care for one another and who their enemies and
friends are. If they lack the habit of making decisions and the skills of
organisation they will pick it up in the natural course of the struggle. Yes,
the revolutionary attitude is enough because it will inspire them to use and
acquire all the other knowledge they need to free themselves. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">The substance of revolutionary organising is therefore the
cultivation and acting out of an attitude among the oppressed of being willing,
and only being willing, to work together as free and equal individuals. There
are many facts and skills that are crucial and many more that are important for
revolutionaries to learn, but all of these are secondary to learning the
revolutionary spirit, which some seem to be born with fully developed, but the
rest of us carry in an undeveloped state and have to nurture to maturity
through appropriate experience and reflection. The goal of this reflection is
self-knowledge that is individual and social at the same time. To ‘know
thyself’ for a human being is to ‘know thy society and thy place in it,’ because
this is what we are – individuals both created by society and creating it.
Feminists understood this when they said, ‘The personal is political,’ meaning
that both the causes and solutions to the problems of individual women are to
be found in social institutions, in how we live together. What the oppressed
need to understand therefore is how social institutions produce them as both
oppressed people and potential liberators. With regards to both, the
communication of facts disconnected from personal experience is wholly
inadequate. More than this, attempts to organise revolutionary movements by
appealing to knowledge disconnected from personal experience of oppression and
by pressurising people into submission to revolutionary authority can only
result in the absurdities of sects and the monstrosities of totalitarianism. Revolutionary
movements wanting universal emancipation must be internally consistent with
this goal. To fully develop as liberators people need to experience themselves
as liberated. When they do come into touch with their oppression it must strike
them as abnormal, perverse and intolerable. Revolutionary organising of this
kind is primarily about creating times and places where people relate to each
other as free equals working together on fighting the people and institutions
that oppress them, with the overarching purpose of extending such free
relations to everyone all the time. The effectiveness of such an approach in
transforming large masses of docile, even servile victims into intractable
rebels has played a part in all historical progress towards emancipation. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><u><span lang="EN-ZA">Practical implications<o:p></o:p></span></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">I am not aware of any example of revolutionary rebellion based
organising being put into practice with consistency. The closest that any group
came to this was in some wings of Second Wave Feminism, which coincidentally
constituted the most revolutionary political tendency ever. But it should be
clear that all of the defining parts of this approach have been practised by
many people for a long time. The problem is that this approach is very
sensitive. Leaving out even one of these parts robs it of its effectiveness, if
we understand effectiveness as its capacity to promote and achieve universal
emancipation. Adding even one incompatible part has a similar effect. From the
start therefore it should be clear that rebellion based organising that is
effective and revolutionary need to incorporate all of its defining parts and
add nothing that conflicts with any of it. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">The different parts have all been elaborated elsewhere, so I will
confine myself to brief descriptions. Obviously the starting point is the
rebellions of oppressed groups that give rise to organisations open to all
people similarly rebelling. Revolutionary organising should actually be seen as
nothing more than the efforts to give such rebellions the best possible chance
of the most comprehensive possible success. Revolutionaries are therefore first
of all members and supporters of community, worker and women based movements
who work to strengthen these movements in terms of organisational capacities
and revolutionary commitments. All the parts of rebellion based organising
happen within this context. Its ideal organisational base is an open, mass orientated
association engaged in fighting for the immediate interests of an oppressed
group against their oppressors. Where such associations do not exist, as is
often the case, the task is to work towards it, either from scratch or from
within the closest approximations of it that may exist. This work has the
following aspects: mental emancipation, propagate by doing, serving immediate
interests and direct action. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<a href="" name="OLE_LINK2"></a><a href="" name="OLE_LINK1"><span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">The activities specifically aimed at
emancipating the oppressed from mental slavery include what Marx and some of
his supporters call critique and are fulfilled in what feminists call
consciousness raising groups, because ‘none but ourselves can free our minds.’</span></span></a><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_edn33" name="_ednref33" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xxxiii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA"> Critique according to Marx, Smith and
Meszaros is not simply saying an idea is wrong, but also explaining why and how
a particular way of living produces that idea, and also explaining why and how
that way of life will pass away together with its attending idea and what will
replace it. Our ways of living are conditioned by the social system that gives
us only so many options to choose from, none of which is freedom. Therefore,
critique of capitalist ideology, which is also critique of the way we live, is
always also self-critique. Living as steely eyed revolutionaries might seem the
most sensible thing now, but this way of life is also destined to pass away. And
even the steeliest among us collaborate with the system in one way or another
to survive.</span></span><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftn23" name="_ftnref23" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[23]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA"> The same fact – of our involvement in
reproducing the system that oppresses us – that makes us potential liberators
also necessitates constant self-critique. Of particular importance is the
critique of ideology based organising, for the simple reason that this aspect
of capitalist society has been almost completely neglected by revolutionaries
up to now. In this the written word has an important role to play, but carries
a danger that must be avoided if we want any chance of success. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">The
great benefit of the written word is of course that it allows us to cooperate
with people who are not there. When we want to critique the ensemble of our
social relations that we call the state we can get help from Mikhail Bakunin.
This is great that we do not have to start from scratch all the time, that we
have bodies of helpful knowledge disconnected from living bodies. We may even
choose to identify with a specific tradition within these bodies of knowledge
like anarchism for example, but when we proceed to base our organisations on
this identification we are instituting an ideology based organisation with all
its associated problems. I would recommend revolutionary writers to work
together as loose networks and informal groups. If for practical reasons we
need to form an organisation separate from the membership based movements of
the oppressed to produce and disseminate revolutionary critiques, we of course
will tend to work with people close to us in their views, but we should not
make ideological agreement a condition for membership at all.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">One
sign of the dominance of ideology based organising is that producing and
disseminating written material tend to be the main preoccupation of so many
revolutionaries. Yet writing can only take us so far. The best model for doing
the intellectual work of mental liberation is the consciousness raising group
pioneered by the New York Radical Feminists. From the guidelines issued by this
group</span></span><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftn24" name="_ftnref24" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[24]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_edn34" name="_ednref34" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xxxiv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA"> it is clear that the purpose of
consciousness raising is to encourage people to become revolutionaries without
requiring them to commit to a body of pre-existing writings that takes years to
master. It is based on the recognition that everybody has the experience of
oppression and the inclination to rebel, and that the exploration of these is
the only starting point for revolutionary education aimed at full liberation.
The way the consciousness raising group is instituted breaks down both the
hierarchical division between learners and teachers and the imagined separation
of social scientists from the social relations they are studying, both of which
reflect the alienation of people from their life activities under capitalism. It
is here that revolutionary critique finds its proper setting as self-knowledge
that is at once individual and social, that is always driven by the vision of
the most complete liberation possible, that is free, equal and solidaristic in
both its aims and methods, and that is the defining attribute of the humans gathered
there instead of a dead body of work.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">The
importance of this task of making the internal relationships, structures and
tactics of the revolutionary movement accord as close as possible to its aim of
full emancipation goes beyond the special tasks of mental liberation. All of
the activities of the movement must incorporate this task or victory will not
be possible. The anarchist movement provides us with most of the historical
examples of revolutionaries trying to prefigure the society they want in their
day to day structures for organising and decision making.</span></span><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_edn35" name="_ednref35" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xxxv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">Such structures have included small, local,
autonomous groups as the basic unit of the movement trough which all decisions
are made and activities pursued. Where tasks require broader coordination it is
done through voluntary federation of these groups. The movement avoids
delegating authority and even tasks to individuals. When this is unavoidable
there are several measures to combat the rise of authoritarianism. Firstly,
delegates are given binding mandates. Their brief is to carry out these
mandates, not to make decisions on behalf of others.</span></span><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftn25" name="_ftnref25" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[25]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA"> Secondly, delegates are made instantly
and easily recallable, so they cannot continue in their role at any time
without the consent of the group. Thirdly, standing delegated tasks are rotated
as much as possible to fight the rise of a distinct layer that monopolises
certain roles. Activists in the anti-globalisation movement have become known
for their determination to institute rules drawn from anarchism to ensure that
decision-making within autonomous groups are also supportive of individual
autonomy. They have therefore striven to make decisions and carry out tasks
through a combination of spokescouncils and affinity groups,</span></span><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_edn36" name="_ednref36" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xxxvi]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA"> which for some reasons have become
associated with consensus decision making – its direct opposite in an important
way. With decision by consensus some in a group can stop others from carrying
out their own views, whereas spokescouncils are structured to ensure the full
expression of all views, and affinity groups to give those who have reached
sufficient consensus (in their own view) the chance to act on it.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">In
revolutionary times especially, the mass rebellions of the oppressed have
tended to incorporate a good number of these practices in their organising,
often without the influence of anarchists or similarly orientated groups.
However, it is a rare thing for rebellion based organising to incorporate all
of them, particularly the ones designed to promote individual freedom. Where
workplace, community and women based organisations do so, upon examination we
are likely to find that they are really ideology based – open for joining by
any member of the oppressed, as long as they accept the domination of the
ideologists in control. The task of creating a rebellion based mass movement
that prefigures full emancipation is therefore a task of fighting for the
transformation of existing rebellion based organisations along these lines. This
implies revolutionaries will, more often than not, work as members of
organisations that only partially if at all incorporates revolutionary goals,
and will have to oppose the institutions and people that embody capitalist
society inside the organisations at the same time as organising rebellions
against those outside. A range of tactical questions now arise, which can only
be addressed in practise based on at least the following factors: Does the
organisation actually engage in rebellion against aspects of oppression, or is
its overriding purpose to incorporate that particular section of the oppressed
into capitalist society? Do the conditions of membership allow revolutionaries
to pursue their full programme even if unofficially, or does being a member
require that you give up revolutionary activity? Are better alternatives
available? The question of whether to work as a member of a particular business
union, docile community organisation or faith aligned women’s group becomes a
matter of estimating the practical possibilities of doing revolutionary work in
that setting, rather than estimating the revolutionary potential of its
leadership and politics. In most cases some of the activities involved in
building revolutionary movements that are rebellion based will require forming
separate organisations.</span></span><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftn26" name="_ftnref26" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[26]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">When
we do form such organisations it is of course an opportunity to institute the
full package of structures and rules that combine collective solidarity with
individual autonomy and equality. But this must not become an end in itself.
Revolutionary movement building must never separate itself from serving the
immediate interests of the oppressed, or it will run the risk of going the way
of ideology based organising. Even when we judge that the purpose of our
organisation should be to propagate our specific ideas, this has to be tied to
the immediate educational and media needs of the general rebellions of the
oppressed. In any event the most powerful way to promote the revolution happens
to be deeds</span></span><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftn27" name="_ftnref27" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[27]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA"> not words. In my opinion, one example of
a libertarian collective engaging in militant actions to serve the immediate
needs of the oppressed will do more to spread the revolutionary mentality than
at least two websites, a newspaper and a blog added together. One of the
reasons why the Black Panther Party grew so explosively was the feeding,
educational and health programmes it ran as part of its ‘projects for
survival.’</span></span><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_edn37" name="_ednref37" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xxxvii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA"> When people then read the newspapers and
leaflets of the Panthers they already knew that these angry youngsters have
shown over and over how much they care and whose side they are on. Maybe in
movements fighting for ‘what they believe in’ it is possible to imagine
ignoring the day to day needs of the members and their communities, but when it
comes to movements of the oppressed fighting for their own liberation, the
struggle for survival must be incorporated into the task of building the
movement or the masses will or at least should dismiss such a movement with
contempt. There are many services that libertarian collectives could offer as
part of the broader movement building project. Feeding, health and education
services are almost always relevant, as are protection against male violence
and just general self-protection. People will of course pay much more attention
to our ideas if we are known as people fighting for and delivering these kinds
of services in our communities, but more importantly serving each other in this
way organised as libertarian collectives <i>is</i>
the essence of our ideas, simply the right thing to do, much better
communicated through words <i>and</i> action
rather than just words. Also important from the perspective of revolutionary
strategy is the effect of this kind of activity on the oppressed. An oppressive
system teaches its victims that their liberation is not really the issue, that
they are not really the people that deserve society’s resources and care, and
that they therefore would be smart not to care too much about their own pain
and happiness as there are more important things. This self-aversion becomes
part of the character structure of individuals and is difficult to break down
temporarily and probably impossible to exorcise completely within capitalist
society. Therefore even when people rebel against oppression it is often
accompanied by self-destructiveness. The revolutionaries that will create a
society of the fullest possible liberty, equality and solidarity will all have
the highest possible regard for themselves and their communities. They will
want nothing less than the absolute flourishing of their bodies, minds,
emotions and relationships. For the oppressed to break through the imposed
barrier of internalised self-aversion the experience of care is crucial. We
begin to care about ourselves and others like us when we experience being cared
about. The ‘projects for survival’ where the oppressed take care of each other
is therefore a central part of building revolutionary movements. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">As
soon as a concept begins to be associated with positive things people will come
along who ascribe a meaning of their choice to that concept even if this
differs from the original way the concept was used. People that support the
death penalty and admire Christianity will often argue that the teachings of
Jesus Christ leave no room for opposition to the death penalty, despite the
difficulty of reconciling this act of retribution with the well known (although
much ignored) injunction to ‘turn the other cheek.’ Something similar is
happening to the concept ‘direct action’. In the late 1990s and early 2000s the
telling blows against the neo-liberal mantra that ‘there is no alternative’
were struck by movements and actions led by direct actionists. The idea became
respectable far beyond the circles of notorious anarchists and ridiculed environmentalists
with whom it was associated up to then. Since then I have heard any number of
fuzzy meanings ascribed to the term, until finally even dictionaries started to
define it as something like protests that are more impatient with formal and
legal procedures than normal protests.</span></span><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_edn38" name="_ednref38" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xxxviii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA"> In its original sense direct action are
simply rebellious people doing things they want done, or stopping things they
do not want done, instead of relying on representatives or pressurising the
‘proper authorities’. A protest march - however big, angry and effective - to
pressurise the police to offer protective accompaniment to women that need to
walk somewhere late at night, is therefore not a direct action, even if it
happens to be the right thing to do. A direct action would be for activists to
rebel against male violence in ways that transcend the laws of the country as
well as the powers of the police and to themselves organise and offer such
protective accompaniment to women whose freedom are restricted by the threat of
male violence. Similarly, picketing the city council to stop the instillation
of pre-paid water meters is an indirect action. The direct action in this case
would be for affected people to remove or bypass the meters themselves in
defiance of the council. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">I
feel the need to be very clear because in its original sense direct action is
the centre piece, if there is one, in the collection of activities that
constitute the building of revolutionary mass movements that are rebellion
based. It cannot stand alone. Without patient consciousness raising,
prefigurative organising and projects for survival and upliftment, direct
action cannot build the kind of movement that full emancipation demands. It can
only win short term changes and often it will not even do that but transform
into a kind of adventuring disconnected from a liberatory agenda. At the same
time, without direct action the oppressed will not ‘seize their own power’</span></span><a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_edn39" name="_ednref39" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xxxix]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA"> and
will neither get more than the stingy, miserable freedom allowed by capitalist
society nor will they become rebel-revolutionaries. Of course anything can be
misapplied, especially inherently risky things like direct action, which
require careful thought and judgement to be used successfully. However, nothing
fuses the means and ends of complete liberation, nothing revolutionises masses
of people as quickly and thoroughly like direct actions where the oppressed
defy all the toxic nonsense that power heaps upon them to become fully what
their humanity destines them to be – self-conscious beings that co-operate as
free equals in creating a society that mirrors who they are when they are at
their very best. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><u><span lang="EN-ZA">Conclusion<o:p></o:p></span></u></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">In my opinion there are many more revolutionaries that have broken
with ideology as the basis for organising than the literature reflects. They
simply get on with the anti-capitalist activities of consciousness raising,
prefigurative organising, mutual aid and direct action without making it a
priority to confront the left ideologists and oppose their influence. The reason
is easy to see: that old feeling of ‘every time I think I’m out, they pull me
back in!’ The rebel-revolutionaries have usually arrived at their perspective
through considerable experience of that soul destroying mix of viciousness and
futility that is so characteristic of inter- and especially intra-ideological
conflicts. Now they just want to get on with it. The last thing they want to
get involved in are the debates without borders with people whose minds are
clearly and truly made up about just about everything, and yet who want to do
nothing as much as debate all the time. The simplest thing to do is to stay out
of it and get on with your own thing.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">However, I am arguing that ideology based organising and its
associated problems are not the result of confusion and bad faith on the part
of left-wing activists. It results from the dominant way left organising is instituted
as organisations based on ideological agreement, which itself results from the
failure of the left to break with the alienation of intellectual, emotional and
moral capacities typical of capitalist society. Problems whose causes are both
in our institutions and in what oppressive society ingrains in our psyches,
cannot be ignored or dodged out of existence. To overcome them we have to
deliberately imagine and then create the institutional framework that would
allow this – in this case, a revolutionary movement that is rebellion based. We
have to constantly renew our individual commitment and capacities to fight the
attraction of ideology, which requires regular self-examination among friends
of our multiple personal entanglements with this way of life. And we have to
give others the best possible opportunities to avoid or escape the clutches of
revolutionary ideology based organising, which require publicly critiquing it. If
we doubt the benefits of doing this, remember the liberated feeling, that sense
of weightlessness and infinite possibility, when for the first time we realised
we need not second guess ourselves and had no business trying to squeeze our
innermost feelings, thoughts and natures into the confines of an ideology. <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">October 2012 <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
<div>
<!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="ftn1">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftnref1" name="_ftn1" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>I am committed to use the dictionary definition
of terms as far as I can, despite my feeling that the terms for what I want to
say sometimes do not exist. Where I must use words in ways different to their
dictionary definition I will say so clearly.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn2">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftnref2" name="_ftn2" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span lang="EN-ZA"> It is difficult to think of the Catholic Church or the Communist
Party of China as sects, but they are nevertheless ideology-based organisations
and good examples of what happens when such groups gain power.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn3">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftnref3" name="_ftn3" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span lang="EN-ZA"> This is a bit unfair as the feminists are rather quiet. The main
protagonists in the debates about focus areas at the moment are the platformist
anarchists of the Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Federation, various Trotskyist
groups like the Workers International Vanguard Party, and the black conscious
September National Indaba.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn4">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftnref4" name="_ftn4" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span lang="EN-ZA"> Few things enrage ideology debaters as much as someone saying they
are all wrong.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn5">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftnref5" name="_ftn5" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span lang="EN-ZA">Bertell
Ollman, a revolutionary Marxist hits upon the idea of promoting class struggle
through starting a firm that sells a board game. He catches himself thinking
exactly like the capitalists the Class Struggle board game is intended to
undermine. Nevertheless a great venture and read.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn6">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftnref6" name="_ftn6" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[6]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>This incidentally is where I disagree with Hal
Draper. The staff of his proposed propaganda centre will view outsiders in the
same way and will require the same ideological conformity of insiders. The
relationship dynamic will be the same though lessened by the fact that the
propagandists are not trying to recruit members. <o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn7">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftnref7" name="_ftn7" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[7]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>Self-awareness, imagination, conscience, free
will and language.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn8">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftnref8" name="_ftn8" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[8]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span lang="EN-ZA"> I prefer professional-managerial class because it sounds less
idiosyncratic. </span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn9">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftnref9" name="_ftn9" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[9]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span lang="EN-ZA"> This only holds true for the relatively small scale upon which most
left organising currently happens. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn10">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftnref10" name="_ftn10" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[10]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> This is the contemporary situation.
Historically, when such organizations have seized state power, the price was
paid in massacres and genocides. <o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn11">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftnref11" name="_ftn11" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[11]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>This imposition does not require violent
methods or prescribed hierarchies; moral pressure can serve it fine in many
situations, as George Orwell understood. See endnote xi.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn12">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftnref12" name="_ftn12" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[12]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>Or maybe even two!<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn13">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftnref13" name="_ftn13" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[13]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span lang="EN-ZA">Incessant ideological conditioning, moral pressure on dissenters,
sectarian antagonism, expulsions, etc.</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn14">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftnref14" name="_ftn14" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[14]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span lang="EN-ZA"> An example of this is the Oil, Chemical, General and Allied Workers
Union (Ocgawu). When Cosatu leaders expelled a Trotskyist a lot of his fellow
workers left with him and they formed Ocgawu, which quickly adopted some of the
central tenets of the Trotskyist ideology. Almost as quickly it became involved
in the same sectarian divisiveness and undermining of worker rebellions as the
Cosatu affiliate that it split from. See endnote xxii.</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn15">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftnref15" name="_ftn15" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[15]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>The British Workers Revolutionary Party that
elevated their leader Gerard Healy to pope-like status.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn16">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftnref16" name="_ftn16" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[16]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>Much more consistent than Marx, who often
either contradicted or set aside the implications for revolutionary practice
inherent in his ‘communist consciousness’ concept. But I guess this is only truly a problem if
we have decided to agree with him in all things. <o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn17">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftnref17" name="_ftn17" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[17]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span lang="EN-ZA"> </span>Presidential candidate
for the Republican Party in the 2012 US elections. <o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn18">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftnref18" name="_ftn18" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[18]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span lang="EN-ZA"> The official philosophical objection is that authority is necessary
for the maintenance of order. In other words, a libertarian community is not
inherently bad, but it will inevitably collapse into chaos. </span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn19">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftnref19" name="_ftn19" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[19]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a> The human capacity for self-determination is truly
amazing if we think about it. Not only do we have the imagination, conscience,
will and communication skills to decide for ourselves, but also to <i>create</i> for ourselves to such a degree
that we create our society. We surpass mere self-determination; we are capable
of self-creation.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn20">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftnref20" name="_ftn20" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[20]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span lang="EN-ZA">Yes, there are people that clearly desire to be damaged and
oppressed, but they are generally seen by psychiatry as being sick. The fact
that all of us have some of this desire in us reflects the fact that we live in
a sick society.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn21">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftnref21" name="_ftn21" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[21]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span lang="EN-ZA">I include military prowess here despite it being destructive,
because it is used to create favourable conditions for those who have power
over it.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn22">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftnref22" name="_ftn22" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[22]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span lang="EN-ZA">For many goods and services such constraints are unnecessary even
now. Michael Albert and Robin Hahnel’s proposed Participatory Economics should
be seen as a vision of aspects of this transition period. See endnote xxxii</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn23">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftnref23" name="_ftn23" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[23]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span class="googqs-tidbit1"><span lang="EN-ZA">Of course in order to judge something as
wrong we need a standard by which to do so, which can only be universal human
emancipation or society organised as a libertarian commune, but this is
something many Marxists recoil from with horror, forgetting that the idea that
scientific knowledge is judgement free is capitalist through and through.</span></span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn24">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftnref24" name="_ftn24" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[24]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span lang="EN-ZA"> Select a topic; go around in a circle; always speak personally,
specifically and from your own experience; don’t interrupt; never challenge
anyone else’s experience; try not to give advice; sum up. See endnote xxxiv</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn25">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftnref25" name="_ftn25" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[25]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span lang="EN-ZA"> Individuals can of course get considerable leeway to decide<i> how</i> to carry out their tasks.</span></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn26">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftnref26" name="_ftn26" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[26]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span lang="EN-ZA">This is not the same as the ‘organisational dualism’ of the
Platformist anarchists, which is building two organisations as a matter of
principle, one of which must be ideology based. </span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="ftn27">
<div class="MsoFootnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ftnref27" name="_ftn27" title=""><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoFootnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[27]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span lang="EN-ZA"> Maybe we should propose a new meaning to ‘propaganda by the deed’
where it means building institutions that prefigure the society we want. </span></div>
</div>
</div>
<div>
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<div id="edn1">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[i]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><i>Greek
Lesson?! </i>by Michael Albert, 21
September 2011. <span lang="EN-ZA"><a href="http://www.zcommunications.org/greek-lesson-by-michael-albert"><span lang="EN-US">http://www.zcommunications.org/greek-lesson-by-michael-albert</span></a></span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn2">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>See <span lang="EN-ZA"><a href="http://www.iopsociety.org/"><span lang="EN-US">www.iopsociety.org</span></a></span>
- accessed on 30 August 2012.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn3">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><i><span lang="EN-ZA">Anatomy of the micro-sect</span></i><span lang="EN-ZA"> by Hal Draper, 1973.http://www.marxists.org/archive/draper/1973/xx/microsect.htm</span></div>
</div>
<div id="edn4">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ednref4" name="_edn4" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[iv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span class="subheadblack1"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-size: 15.0pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">BALLBUSTER? True Confessions of a
Marxist Businessman</span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"> by Bertell Ollman, 2002</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn5">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ednref5" name="_edn5" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[v]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><i>Toward
a new beginning – on another road</i> by Hal Draper, 1971. http://www.marxists.org/archive/draper/1971/alt/alt.htm#CHAPTER5<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn6">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ednref6" name="_edn6" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[vi]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><i>The Grundrisse</i> by Karl Marx, 1857. http://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1857/grundrisse/ch03.htm<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn7">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ednref7" name="_edn7" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[vii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>See for a start his zspace page <span lang="EN-ZA"><a href="http://www.zcommunications.org/zspace/malbert"><span lang="EN-US">http://www.zcommunications.org/zspace/malbert</span></a></span> - accessed on 7 September 2012<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn8">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ednref8" name="_edn8" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[viii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><i><span lang="EN-ZA">Looking forward: participatory
economics for the twenty first century</span></i><span lang="EN-ZA"> by Michael
Albert and Robin Hahnel, 1991, and <i>The
professional and managerial class </i>by Barbara and John Ehrenreich in
‘Radical America’, Vol. XI, No. 2, March-April 1977.</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn9">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ednref9" name="_edn9" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[ix]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><i>Talent
grab – why we pay our stars so much money</i> by Malcolm Gladwell in ‘The New Yorker’, 11 October 2010. http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2010/10/11/101011fa_fact_gladwell<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn10">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ednref10" name="_edn10" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[x]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><i>A
theory of human motivation</i> by
Abraham Maslow originally published in ‘Psychological Review’, no. 50, 1943. http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Maslow/motivation.htm<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn11">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ednref11" name="_edn11" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xi]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><i>Lear,
Tolstoy and the fool</i> by George
Orwell, 1947.http://www.strong-brain.com/Reading/Texts/orwell-lear-tolstoy-fool<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn12">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ednref12" name="_edn12" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>See the entry <i>Bolshevik party</i> in the Marxist Internet Archive’s ‘Encyclopedia of
Marxism’ <span lang="EN-ZA"><a href="http://www.marxists.org/glossary/orgs/b/o.htm#bolsheviks"><span lang="EN-US">http://www.marxists.org/glossary/orgs/b/o.htm#bolsheviks</span></a></span> – accessed 13 September 2012. <o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn13">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ednref13" name="_edn13" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xiii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><i><span lang="EN-ZA">The Bolsheviks and workers’
control</span></i><span lang="EN-ZA"> by Maurice Brinton, 1970.http://www.marxists.org/archive/brinton/1970/workers-control/01.htm#h1</span></div>
</div>
<div id="edn14">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ednref14" name="_edn14" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xiv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span lang="EN-ZA">Ibid.</span></div>
</div>
<div id="edn15">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ednref15" name="_edn15" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><i><span lang="EN-ZA">The workers’ opposition</span></i><span lang="EN-ZA"> by Alexandra Kollontai first published in ‘Pravda’ on 25 January
1921. <a href="http://www.marxists.org/archive/kollonta/1921/workers-opposition/index.htm">http://www.marxists.org/archive/kollonta/1921/workers-opposition/index.htm</a></span></div>
</div>
<div id="edn16">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ednref16" name="_edn16" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xvi]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><i><span lang="EN-ZA">Homage to Catalonia</span></i><span lang="EN-ZA"> by George Orwell, 1938.</span></div>
</div>
<div id="edn17">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ednref17" name="_edn17" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xvii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span lang="EN-ZA"><a href="http://libcom.org/library/workers-against-work-michael-seidman"><i>Workers
against Work: Labor in Paris and Barcelona during the Popular Fronts</i></a><a href="http://libcom.org/library/workers-against-work-michael-seidman"></a> by
Michael Seidman, 1991.</span></div>
</div>
<div id="edn18">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ednref18" name="_edn18" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xviii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><i><span lang="EN-ZA">The Cuban Revolution –
minority resolution to the 1961 YSA convention</span></i><span lang="EN-ZA"> by
Shane Mage first published in ‘Sparticist’ No. 2, July-August 1964. http://www.marxists.org/history/etol/document/icl-spartacists/cuba/cuba-rev.html</span></div>
</div>
<div id="edn19">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ednref19" name="_edn19" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xix]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span lang="EN-ZA"> See for example </span><i>Consolidating working class power for quality
jobs – towards 2015: programme arising from the Cosatu 8<sup>th</sup> national
congress</i>, 9 October 2003. http://www.cosatu.org.za/show.php?ID=1332<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn20">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ednref20" name="_edn20" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xx]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><i>Impressions
of the Cosatu 10<sup>th</sup> national congress</i> by Martin Jansen in Khanya Journal No. 23,
Winter School edition 2009.http://khanyacollege.org.za/sites/default/files/KJ%2023%20www.pdf<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn21">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ednref21" name="_edn21" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xxi]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><i>The
massacre of our illusions…and the seeds of something new</i> by Leonard Gentle on <span lang="EN-ZA"><a href="http://www.sacsis.org.za/"><span lang="EN-US">www.sacsis.org.za</span></a></span>, 23 August 2012. <span lang="EN-ZA"><a href="http://sacsis.org.za/site/article/1402"><span lang="EN-US">http://sacsis.org.za/site/article/1402</span></a></span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn22">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ednref22" name="_edn22" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xxii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><i><span lang="EN-ZA">Workers International
League distances itself from unprincipled actions of Ocgawu leadership</span></i><span lang="EN-ZA"> by Workers International Vanguard League on <a href="http://www.labournet.de/">www.labournet.de</a> 27 February 2005. http://labournet.de/branchen/auto/vw/sa/wivl-ocgawu.html</span></div>
</div>
<div id="edn23">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ednref23" name="_edn23" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xxiii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><i><span lang="EN-ZA">An introduction to the New
York Radical Feminists</span></i><span lang="EN-ZA"> a pamphlet by the New York
Radical Feminists in 1969.http://archive.org/details/Intro-newYorkRadicalFeminists1969</span></div>
</div>
<div id="edn24">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ednref24" name="_edn24" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xxiv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><i><span lang="EN-ZA">The definition of Black
Consciousness</span></i><span lang="EN-ZA"> by Steve Biko, a paper produced for a
SASO Leadership Training Course in December 1971. http://www.azapo.org.za/links/bcc.htm</span></div>
</div>
<div id="edn25">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ednref25" name="_edn25" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xxv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><i><span lang="EN-ZA">On organisation</span></i><span lang="EN-ZA"> by Jacques Camatte, first published in French in ‘</span><span lang="EN-ZA">Invariance’
Anne V, serie II, no. 2,</span><span lang="EN-ZA"> 1972.http://www.marxists.org/archive/camatte/capcom/on-org.htm</span></div>
</div>
<div id="edn26">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ednref26" name="_edn26" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xxvi]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><i>Beyond
capital: toward a theory of transition</i> by Istvan Meszaros, 1994.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn27">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ednref27" name="_edn27" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xxvii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>Ibid.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn28">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ednref28" name="_edn28" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xxviii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><i>The
communal system and the principle of self-critique</i> by Istvan Meszaros in ‘Monthly Review’ Vol.
59, issue 10, March 2008.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn29">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ednref29" name="_edn29" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xxix]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>The Cyril Smith Internet Archive at http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/smith-cyril/index.htm<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn30">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ednref30" name="_edn30" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xxx]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span lang="EN-ZA">Primitive communism, barbarism and the origins of class society by
Lionel Sims, posted in libcom.org 15 February 2012. http://libcom.org/history/primitive-communism-barbarism-origins-class-society-lionel-sims</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn31">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ednref31" name="_edn31" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xxxi]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span lang="EN-ZA">Mutual aid by Peter Kropotkin, 1902.
http://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/kropotkin-peter/1902/mutual-aid/index.htm</span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn32">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ednref32" name="_edn32" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xxxii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><i>The
political economy of participatory economics</i> by Michael Albert and Robin Hahnel, 1991.<o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn33">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ednref33" name="_edn33" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xxxiii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a>From a speech by Marcus Garvey published in <span class="reference-text"><i><span lang="EN-ZA">Black Man</span></i><span lang="EN-ZA">
magazine, Vol. 3, no. 10, July 1938, paraphrased in <i>Redemption Song</i> by Bob Marley.</span></span><o:p></o:p></div>
</div>
<div id="edn34">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ednref34" name="_edn34" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xxxiv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><i><span lang="EN-ZA">Introduction to
consciousness raising</span></i><span lang="EN-ZA"> by New York Radical
Feminists, a pamphlet published in 1976. http://archive.org/details/FeministConsciousness-raisingGroupGuideTopics</span></div>
</div>
<div id="edn35">
<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ednref35" name="_edn35" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xxxv]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><i><span lang="EN-ZA">Anarchism as a theory of
organisation</span></i><span lang="EN-ZA"> by </span><span lang="EN-ZA">Colin Ward, first published in ‘<em><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Patterns of Anarchy’</span></em>. A
collection of writings on the anarchist tradition, edited by Leonard I.
Krimerman and Lewis Perry, Anchor Books, New York,
1966.http://www.panarchy.org/ward/organization.1966.html<o:p></o:p></span></div>
</div>
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<div class="MsoEndnoteText">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ednref36" name="_edn36" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xxxvi]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span lang="EN-ZA"> <i>Beyond the general assembly</i>
- a<i>ffinity groups and spokescouncils</i>
by George Franklin on reclaiminquaterly.org -
<a href="http://www.reclaimingquarterly.org/web/resources/DA-Process-Handout-GF.pdf">http://www.reclaimingquarterly.org/web/resources/DA-Process-Handout-GF.pdf</a>
- accessed on 29 October 2012.</span></div>
</div>
<div id="edn37">
<div class="MsoNormal">
<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ednref37" name="_edn37" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xxxvii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span lang="EN-ZA"> <i>The 6 Panther P’s</i> by
Willie Baptist and Phil Wider, </span><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">published by the Annie Smart
Leadership Development Institute, undated. http://www.google.co.za/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=2&ved=0CCcQFjAB&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.millcreekurbanfarm.org%2Fsites%2Fdefault%2Ffiles%2FThe%25206%2520Panther%2520P's.doc&ei=W5iPUKzrCs6ZhQfqm4HABA&usg=AFQjCNHC7MjRJ7Gsl3W_NrRyxQp5QE0IWA&sig2=F4ejq7R8rufRb_-dwY9YTA</span></div>
</div>
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<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ednref38" name="_edn38" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xxxviii]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span lang="EN-ZA"> Collins English Dictionary see entry <i>Direct Action. </i> <a href="http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/direct-action">http://www.collinsdictionary.com/dictionary/english/direct-action</a>
- accessed on 29 October 2012. </span></div>
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<a href="file:///C:/Documents%20and%20Settings/ronald.SPPCT/Desktop/2012/blog/The%20likely%20problems%20of%20the%20International%20Organisation%20for%20a%20Participatory%20Society.docx#_ednref39" name="_edn39" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-ZA; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[xxxix]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><span lang="EN-ZA"> Paraphrased from an anonymous poem written by a participant in the
Mandela Park Anti-Eviction Campaign in 2002.</span></div>
</div>
</div>
</div>
Ronald Wessohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09126051532649094337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-697569149475961083.post-76195064450125610162012-05-16T13:27:00.001-07:002012-05-17T01:54:03.259-07:00youth wage subsidy<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the conflict between the Democratic Alliance and Cosatu over the proposed youth employment subsidy both claim to be fighting for the youth but the following points show this to be false:</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Of all possible things to march about the DA has chosen to march against a trade union federation and in support of the youth employment subsidy. This subsidy is sure to benefit employers, but is likely not to benefit the youth at all and if it does, is sure to benefit them only marginally, as anybody who has read the discussion document of the National Treasury on this should know. Employers that already employ people between 18 and 29 years old at less than R60000 per year will simply claim the subsidy. Those not already employing members of this group are not likely to do so simply because of this subsidy, which amount to a maximum of R12000 over the two years. There is no evidence that ‘high’ wages are stopping employers from employing young people. On average the targeted age group earns about R9000 per year in the formal sector; in the informal sector it is much less. Meanwhile corporate South Africa has a cash surplus of R520 billion. If they could make money employing more young people they would certainly use these billions. The problem is not ‘high’ wages; it is that markets are cornered or even flooded. The treasury itself admits that even if its most optimistic projection of 178 000 new jobs are realised it will have a marginal impact on South Africa’s official youth unemployment figure of 2,4 million to which hundreds of thousands of school leavers are added every year. Meanwhile they project 420 000 subsidies, meaning even in the best scenario 242 000 subsidies out of 420 000 will simply go towards paying employers for their current employees. The truth is that this scheme has no chance of getting even close to this projection, simply because it will create no new businesses. A business that could not get started without the youth subsidy will not start with it; it is too small. The youth employment subsidy will amount to little more than a subsidy to employers already employing low paid people between 18 and 29 years old. The DA’s agenda is to discredit Cosatu and the struggle for workers’ rights and to promote state support for business owners as the national priority.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>[all figures quoted from the discussion paper of the National Treasury]</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">To make headway against the unemployment crisis the youth will need the fullest possible complement of rights, specifically the right to protest, as employers and politicians have proven that they will not simply listen to the demands of the youth. Cosatu’s decision to countermarch is of course perfectly consistent with democracy, but its threatening language and probable violence is certainly not. Yes, the DA is hell bent on intensifying the neo-liberal, anti-poor policies of the state, but the opponents of these policies cannot simply support the authoritarian and violent responses of Cosatu leaders to the DA’s march. When the social movements of the unemployed and the poor have mobilised against the neo-liberal policies of the ANC-led state and have criticised Cosatu for supporting the ANC, these movements have often faced very much the same type of responses from Cosatu members. Of course the DA will now bask in its supposed victimhood and try to claim the moral high ground with regard to the right to protest, but on this it actually has no creditability. In DA-run municipalities and in the Western Cape Province they have done everything in their power to undermine the right of working class and poor people to protest. Their authoritarian response to the symbolic occupation of Rondebosch Commons in Cape Town is just the most recent of the memorable occasions when the DA have deployed shooting and swinging police against peaceful protestors. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size-adjust: none; font-stretch: normal;"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Cosatu by way of Zwelenzima Vavi has said that this conflict is a class struggle with the DA attacking the working class in the interests of the rich. They neglect to mention that the youth employment subsidy is not a proposal of the DA; it is a government proposal already budgeted for by the treasury. If the DA are fighting for the rich, as they indeed are, then so are the ANC government, which is in power partly because of the support of Cosatu. Cosatu is then helping to keep in power a government hostile to the working class and the poor. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Calibri;">None of this means that Cosatu and the DA are the same from the point of view of the unemployed youth. The DA represents the rich capitalist class that are mainly white – a class that wants to become even richer by exploiting the desperate jobless youth. Cosatu represents the black, older workers mostly in permanent jobs and, increasingly, also working professionals – these groups do not aim in this case to directly exploit the unemployed youth and often subsidise them in families. They are therefore potential allies. In this conflict, however, they are fighting for their own, not for the unemployed youth, much like the DA.</span></div>
</div>Ronald Wessohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09126051532649094337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-697569149475961083.post-63701935959605879972012-01-24T00:28:00.000-08:002012-01-24T00:28:24.883-08:00THE ANC's CALL FOR REVOLUTIONARY DISCIPLINE<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span lang="EN-ZA">In the coming</span><span lang="EN-ZA" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> year the leaders of the ANC and all its factions are likely to flood their members and supporters with calls to restore the ‘revolutionary discipline’ of the past. Despite tributes to this concept within the ANC, these calls are more likely to resonate with the many thousands of young people newly awakened to activism during the current world wide upsurge in struggles for social change. But however much the new activists in places like Tunisia, Syria, Nigeria, Greece, the USA and Spain will feel called upon to commit to the revolutionary discipline deemed necessary to win the changes they want, they would do well to look critically at the experience of ‘revolutionary discipline’ within South Africa and the ANC, where this idea was used to impose without much resistance, a neo-liberal capitalist programme on a movement with a majority of socialist members.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">THE CAUSES AND CURES OF FACTIONALISM</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In January the ANC celebrated its hundred year anniversary. Many commentators complained that President Zuma’s speech did not give direction on the crucial questions facing the country he is governing. The speech, however, did give a clear indication of the ideological framing within which the president and his colleagues intend to address these questions. After recounting what he saw as the heroic deeds and leaders of the ANC in the past, Zuma asked what enabled the ANC to survive 100 years. He answered, ‘The ANC has well-built organisational structures that make it change with the times, and adapt to new conditions. It adheres to serious discipline in general and political discipline in particular, and emphasises respect. It has strong internal democratic processes.’ Later on he identified the party’s priority actions, which included the following: ‘We will take urgent and practical steps to restore the core values, stamp out factionalism and promote political discipline.’</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">These statements should be taken together with others such as the discussion document ‘</span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria-Bold; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">Leadership renewal, discipline and organizational culture’ released in July 2010 by the national general council of the ANC, where the party’s highest body between conferences described its internal problems as stemming from factions fighting for self-enrichment through control of state funds and in the process breaking both the laws of the country and the rules and traditions of the ANC. The problem is understood as the breakdown of the revolutionary discipline and morality of the past, and the solution, therefore, is its restoration. The methods proposed are new rules, reviews of old rules, stricter enforcement, heavier sanctions for transgressors, and intensified political education and ‘human resource development’ for ANC members. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria-Bold; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The whole position is based on a misrepresentation of the relationship between the policies pursued by the ANC in government and the conduct of the members of the party. Without a doubt the ANC government’s commitment to neo-liberal policies and decisions such as privatization, outsourcing, the arms deal, and cost recovery, led directly to its leaders and members being caught up in struggles for tenders, consultancies, bribes, directorships and procurement bonuses. It is the government that created the market for the sale of political influence. And as always in a competitive market, the advantage tended to go to those with the most resources and least scruples. To pretend that the ‘factionalism’ that resulted from this can be stopped by more discipline, political education and invoking the spirits of Oliver Tambo and Chris Hani, without doing away with the party’s commitment to a neo-liberal policy direction and the capitalist system that it serves, is to set up another round of crushed hopes and sold out expectations for the people. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Cambria-Bold; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">SOCIALISM, REVOLUTIONARY DISCIPLINE AND GEAR</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Of course it is possible to say that the ANC never really had revolutionary discipline; that they were from the start an organisation of the black middle class, led by missionary educated liberal intellectuals whose protest was not against capitalism as such, but against their exclusion on the basis of racism from the higher levels of the system. IB Tabata’s classic book ‘The Awakening of a People’ is but one of a large number of studies that support such a view. However, a modification or an addition is needed. It is indeed true that the founders of the ANC wanted above all their right to fully participate in capitalist society, and that subsequent leaders allied themselves with self-styled Communists on the condition that the alliance prioritise the fight for this very right, even while agreeing with these Communists to call this fight the ‘national democratic revolution’. But it is also true that the ANC increasingly adapted to socialist rhetoric and ideology, so that certainly by the 1980s the internal discussions took place in socialist terms, the structure of the organisation was thought of as democratic centralism in the manner of Marxist parties, and the majority of members saw themselves as socialists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Against this background the turn to neo-liberalism as summarised in the Growth, Employment, and Redistribution (GEAR) policy is easy to explain. By the time the ANC leadership achieved their founding goal of admission to the upper ranks of capitalist society, this society was dominated by neo-liberalism. The ruling classes and the leading institutions of world capitalism made it very clear that the price of admission for the ANC was a clear commitment to neo-liberalism, which the leadership duly made, coolly announcing to members and supporters that it was non-negotiable. What needs explanation is the relative ease with which the leaders did this. How did they impose, without discussion, and with relatively little resistance, a neo-liberal policy direction on an organisation whose members thought of themselves as socialists or at least social democrats? </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The ANC’s tradition of ‘revolutionary discipline’ played a crucial role. Throughout its long life the ANC inculcated in its members a concept of revolutionary discipline that included absolute loyalty to the movement, submission to the decisions of the leadership, elevation of main leaders to cultish figures and suppression of public dissent by members. These attitudes are all very useful to a leadership needing to impose an unpopular decision. From 1996 onward ANC members had to choose between submitting to neo-liberalism and challenging the leadership in public. Very few could break with their conditioning as cadres and do the latter, they submitted with a few grumbles perhaps, but even these were quickly silenced in the universal scramble for positions of power and money that neo-liberalism unleashed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">DISCIPLINE AND SOCIAL CHANGE</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The call, no, the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">cry </i>for discipline from ANC leaders that will reach deafening levels in the run up to their elective conference, has no chance of putting a stop to the neo-liberal ‘factionalism’ in the party’s ranks. This does not mean it will have no effects. Neo-liberalism on top of Apartheid has steadily increased poverty, inequality, frustration and the potential for polarisation. To defend the indefensible, government has had to move in an authoritarian direction, first defensively and lately quite aggressively. The discipline mantra will play into this trend. Once again old comrade Revolutionary Discipline will be deployed to defend the privileged and attack the poor and </span><span lang="EN-ZA">powerless</span><span lang="EN-ZA" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">For those with an opposing agenda, who want a society without the divisive injustices of neo-liberal capitalism and state authoritarianism, this presents a crucial challenge. What is their position on discipline and revolutionary discipline in particular? This is especially pertinent given that this conception of revolutionary discipline is by no mean peculiar to the ANC. Not only has it been dominant in the big social change movements of the past like the nationalist struggles against colonialism and the trade unions and political parties of the workers’ movements, it is even the rule rather than the exception within the smaller groups and movements that have challenged the dominance of neo-liberalism over the last two or three decades, certainly in South Africa and Africa. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Supporters of this ‘democratic centralist’ understanding of revolutionary discipline say it is only by exacting obedience from its individual members and submission of its local groups to its central structures that a movement will be able to muster the necessary strength to win deep social changes against a powerful and highly disciplined ruling class. And that internal democracy is maintained because the expectation to loyally carry out decisions once they are made is counter-balanced by the election of leaders and full freedom in debate. Critics say that the most a movement based on this kind of discipline can achieve is replacing one ruling class with another because it divides its participants right from the start into rulers and ruled. Liberal democracy proves that periodic elections and freedom of expression does not add up to democracy if it is understood as the rule of the majority. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">THE DISCIPLINE OF AUTONOMOUS ACTIVISTS</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Opponents of the ANC’s neo-liberalism and authoritarianism would hardly deny the need for discipline in the struggle for social change. It is the type of discipline that is at issue. The anarchist-libertarian wing of the socialist movement understood that revolutionary discipline does not require submission to the authority of parties and leaders, however wise and revolutionary they might believe themselves to be, or might actually be. In fact, as noted, such a submission places a limit on the revolution. It entrenches relationships based on domination and submission among the participants of the revolutionary movement, which inevitably carry over into the post-revolutionary society creating ruling and ruled classes. The experience of the ANC is one of numerous cases that prove the truth of this view. The discipline of autonomous activists is therefore the most appropriate framework for the conduct of struggles against neo-liberal capitalism and state authoritarianism, if such struggles do not simply want to substitute one dominant group for another, but want to end institutionalised domination as such.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Practicing such an understanding of discipline is perhaps the most difficult thing a movement for social change can take on. It is not that the practical task of co-ordination is more difficult when the movement recognises the right of individual activists and local groups to pursue their own course, it is that the approach goes against the grain of everyday experience in state-capitalist society, where advancement depend on competing for power or working for people who have it. But it is precisely this latter feature of present day society that causes capitalism’s many social problems and that should motivate seekers of social change to organise on the principle of voluntary co-operation between autonomous individuals and groups. In fact practically every revolution in history had its most successful period when masses of people organised themselves in accordance with this principle. Certainly if human society is to have any chance of being genuinely free, of being an association where no one forces anyone to do anything, discipline has to come from the inside, from an ingrained or perhaps an unchained inherent intolerance of injustice and oppression within its members, to which they are loyal above any organisation, leader or ideology. </span></span></div></div>Ronald Wessohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09126051532649094337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-697569149475961083.post-17544766846368737642012-01-06T03:42:00.000-08:002012-01-06T03:42:32.312-08:00WHAT IS THE ANC?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">[This article was written in December 2007, shortly after the last national conference of the ANC in Polokwane]<br />
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<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA">Time to ask the question – what is the ANC?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA">When Jacob Zuma, the newly and (it seems) duly elected president of the ANC, stepped up to the stage in front of the conference delegates in Polokwane, millions watched with a sense of witnessing the making of their own history. It is difficult to imagine that the organisation he takes charge of will remain unchanged by the bitter conflict that characterised the leadership struggle of the preceding years. Few in <place w:st="on">Africa</place> will be unaffected. Many in the rest of the world will also feel the consequences. The power and influence of the ANC makes its character a matter of concern for the rich investor looking to make the maximum profit off his billions, as well as for the shackdweller resisting forced relocation. What do they and the rest of us have in the ANC? A friend, an enemy, or something that vacillates between the two roles?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA">Few issues can compete with the ANC leadership contest in terms of the volume of reports and comments it attracted. Yet what did the innumerable headlines, comments, discussions and books tell the rich capitalist and the woman fighting those who want to demolish her shack about the character of <place w:st="on"><country-region w:st="on">South Africa</country-region></place>’s most powerful political party? A great many things of course - perhaps too many. We are all left with an overload of stories and impressions whose connections to our experiences and problems are not always that clear. The character of the ANC is more often than not treated as a given, or a side issue, or amenable to expression by phrases such as ‘former liberation movement’ ‘broad church’ ‘neo-liberal’ or ‘political party’. None of this is necessarily wrong; it is just inadequate. If we want to relate to the ANC (and we <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">have </i>to relate to it, it is too powerful to ignore) in a manner that best serve our fundamental aims, then we need an understanding of it that is sophisticated enough to account for all the many people, actions, structures and relationships that make it up, and that is simple enough so that a critical mass of people can use it as a guide to act in the best way possible in different and unforeseen situations. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These fundamental aims and the actions they require depend on our political and ethical orientation and its interaction with the nature of the social formation we live in. The difficulty and discomfort of these questions perhaps account for the reluctance to pose the question of the basic character of the ANC. It does not justify it though.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA">There can be little doubt that unclear or mistaken notions of what the ANC is cause frustration among people who want a more equal, free and solidaristic society. When a powerful institution does something that undermines the struggle for gender justice and women’s liberation, for example, it is of course always bad for the opponents of patriarchy. But if this happens where such feminist opponents had expected the institution to be their friend, it adds to the blow because an unseen enemy is more dangerous, and because few emotions are as paralysing as the shock and anguish caused by being betrayed by a supposed friend. Supporters of greater democracy, non-racialism, women’s liberation, personal freedom, socialism and environmental justice are often shocked and anguished in this way by the ANC and its members. There are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">so </i>many examples - of unionists angered and disconcerted by the ANC’s neo-liberalism, feminists by its support for Zuma’s sexism, democrats by its corruption and authoritarianism, pan-Africanists and internationalists by its promotion of <place w:st="on"><country-region w:st="on">South Africa</country-region></place>’s imperial ambitions on our continent and anti-racists by its siding with Western corporations on the issue of Apartheid reparations. Are these perceived problematic actions and policies the result of particular conjunctures of leading personalities and the balance of power in society or do they flow from the basic character of the ANC? Or put differently, should people who want to stop and change these actions and policies fight to reform aspects of the ANC or do they need to strive to remove the ANC from power? Or put still differently, should they expect the ANC as a body to be their ally or enemy in these struggles?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA">The origin of such expectations speaks directly to the question of the character of the ANC.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In part they flow from its self-projection as a progressive organisation committed to the cause of freedom, equality and solidarity. But perhaps the most powerful reason for these expectations is the fact of the living memory of the ANC as the self-created local expression of the struggles of the masses. By the 1980s the self-organisation of the fighting sections of the oppressed through unions, civics, youth groups, etc. became identified with the ANC. People in struggle therefore viewed the ANC as the expression of their own political consciousness and will, instead of a separate institution with a separate and possibly hostile agenda. The physical distance of the exiled and imprisoned ANC leadership allowed grassroots activists to imagine their social proximity and even identity. The pain we are talking about is partly the pain of the ANC’s open and hostile disentanglement from these organs of local self -expression and organisation of the working class and the poor and its open and warm embrace of the institutions and lifestyles of the rich and powerful. Mbeki the urbane, aloof, pipe-smoking ‘Englishman’ has become the symbol of this ANC of BEE, private schools, expensive whiskey and cigars, while Zuma tries to boost his chances for winning the presidency by singing and dancing and hugging like an ANC community leader of old – all while making sure to fly to Texas just before the conference to reassure CIA aligned investor advisors of his capitalist credentials. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA">Like everything else the ANC’s character is revealed and determined by its relationships. The work we have to do is therefore firstly to trace its relations to the relevant discrete abstractions from society namely racism, capital, the state, patriarchy and imperialism. Secondly we have to give expression to the fact that in the final analysis these discrete abstractions are illusory. Everything is connected, related and aspects of the same whole. Although we have to account for the sometimes separate appearance of racism, capital, the state, patriarchy and imperialism, they are not separate social formations but just different vantage points from which to view the same one. The infinite complexity and dynamism of these formations and their internal relations make the task of understanding them of necessity open ended and unfinished. With regard to the ANC this work has barely been started. Lots of information exists but the task of systemising it into a coherent view of the character of the ANC as constituted in its internal relations to today’s major social constructs must still be <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">posed. </i></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA">Arguably the ANC’s most important relationship is to its own members. At the very least, because it is based on alienation, it facilitates the party’s relationship to capital and the state. Alienation in this context refers to the simultaneous and mutually caused dehumanisation of the person and apparent humanisation of the institution. This happens when humans give up, or seem, or try, or are required to give up their specific natural qualities as beings that think, make ethical judgements, search for meaning and socially create, in favour of a social construct that claim these qualities for itself. For the model ANC member, especially one running for office, the ‘movement’ is everything, the individual nothing. Even the word ‘movement’ is said with a kind of awe, like the name of God. And like with other gods the most the individual can hope for is to be a good instrument of the designs and traditions of the ‘movement’. This is the one thing Mbeki, Zuma and all the senior leaders never tire of repeating, even when some of them obviously do not believe it. It is part of the basic character of the ANC.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA">It should be obvious that this undermines the personal freedom of ANC members. Ceding personal expression and judgment to an institution in this manner always involve submitting to the authority of those who come to embody the institution’s power. In practice the authority of the supra-personal movement becomes the possession of definite individuals and groups that get to impose their will on the rest of the members. This characteristic reached extreme, grotesque proportions in Stalinist Communist parties that took a form akin to mass cults with a special language, a dogma, rituals and infallible leaders all centred around the absolute authority of The Party. It is no coincidence that the alienation that characterises the ANC’s relationship to its members developed at the same time as it grew closer to the South African Communist Party – ironically during the same period that the grassroots activists who were the leaders of the self-activity of the masses increasingly identified such activity with the ANC. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA">The power that alienation gives the ANC over its members played, and plays, a central role in mediating the party’s relations to the fundamental constructs of society. It is what allowed the leadership to impose the neo-liberal GEAR on a membership whose vast majority were socialists and social democrats. This did not only involve distancing the ANC from the grassroots organisations with which it became identified, it also implicated it in maintaining racism. Neo-liberalism makes everything dependent on money power, which in <place w:st="on"><country-region w:st="on">South Africa</country-region></place> is white power. Neo-liberal <place w:st="on"><country-region w:st="on">South Africa</country-region></place> is therefore profoundly racist in that it continues to reproduce white priviledge and black oppression. For a movement formed specifically to oppose racism to be led like that into maintaining such a society with relatively little resistance from its members is another significant testimony to the power of alienation. The relationship of the ANC to the state can similarly be argued to be facilitated and characterised by alienation. Lastly such alienation, with its hostility to personal freedom, robs the ANC of the capacity to effectively challenge the patriarchy that made up the foundation upon which the state, capital, racism <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and </i>the ANC was formed.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA">In summary, a relational investigation of the ANC starting with the observation that it’s most basic relationship, its relationship to its own members, is characterised by alienation, offers us the best chance of arriving at an understanding of the ANC that shows the required sophistication and simplicity. It offers perhaps the only reliable framework for clarifying the specific impact of the recent power struggle and the new president. This work has hardly started. The empirical information of how the ANC relates to township and shack dwellers, to rich capitalists, to the inherited culture and personnel of the South African state, and to women and workers in struggle are sketchy and skewed at best. Its analysis with the aid of the concept of alienation is entirely absent. At this stage, therefore, definitive pronouncements are out of the question. Dogmatic injunctions will be a disaster. Instead the reader is offered hypotheses intended to provoke discussion and invite dialogue. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA">We may wonder though about the absence of this approach from the many pages and broadcasts devoted to the ANC. After all, the concept of alienation is hardly unknown. And relational thinking is perhaps as old as thinking itself. The dynamic here might be similar to the one we see in the discussion of democracy. President Mbeki stands accused of undermining the internal democracy of the ANC. But if there is a rule in this discussion then it is this: the louder the critic the less likely he or she is to spell out what ANC members are supposed to decide and how. It is much more noise than vision. The reason for this is fairly simple. The most vociferous critics of the president like Helen Zille, Blade Nzimande and Mondli Makhanya (to name only three) generally wield much more institutionalised power in their own institutions than President Mbeki does in the ANC. A serious promotion of a vision of greater internal democracy immediately threatens their own power. Perhaps what accounts for the dearth of analyses of alienated relationships in the ANC is the fact that all of us are in some way involved in similar institutionalised relationships. A critique of the alienation that constitutes the character of the ANC therefore always require self-critique. This is not easy to do. But it probably will be unavoidable if we want to understand adequately this ANC that has influenced, inspired, horrified, governed and positively enthralled us for nine and a half decades, and will continue to do so long after Polokwane. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><br />
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</div>Ronald Wessohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09126051532649094337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-697569149475961083.post-55424779132283256402011-12-08T04:38:00.001-08:002011-12-08T04:38:53.111-08:00land occupations<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">‘LAND OCCUPATIONS ARE THE NEW WAY OF DOING LAND REFORM’</span></span></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: center;"><br />
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</div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Issued by the Food Sovereignty Campaign</span></span></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">December 2011</span></span></b></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: center;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></b><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span lang="EN-ZA">For the white owners of South Africa’s farm lands, land occupations evoke the fear and loathing of social collapse and historical retribution that form as much part of their heritage as their claim to more than 80% of the arable land of the country. But for the black dispossessed, land occupations are becoming increasingly important, both as a last resort in the struggle for survival, and as the next step in the effort to build a winning movement for pro-poor social change. In November 2011 there were two cases of land occupations within the same week reported on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">news24.com</i>. In KwaZulu/Natal on 30 October 2011, members of the Mpumuza community took over land outside Hilton saying ‘we are tired of seeing black people oppressed,’ and outside Mthatha in the Eastern Cape around the same time another group occupied land belonging to the United Reformed Church claiming that the land </span><span lang="EN-ZA" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">‘was taken by force and grabbed by missionaries. People have taken the decision to go back and occupy their forefathers' land as beneficiaries.’</span><span lang="EN-ZA"> Ironically, this happened in the time when the politicians and officials that run the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform were crisscrossing the country with their newly released Green Paper that promised a more committed and efficient land reform programme with more redistribution and more agricultural support for land reform beneficiaries. Does this mean that landless people or at least a section among them, have lost patience with the state and the market, and have decided to act directly, by themselves, for themselves, through themselves? </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">THE FOOD SOVEREIGNTY CAMPAIGN<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Food Sovereignty Campaign believes the time has come for land occupations. This movement of emerging farmers and farm dwellers is based in the Western and Northern Cape provinces. It was started in 2008 and initially concentrated on public pressure on the state through marches, pickets, sit-ins, discussions, submissions, a symbolic land occupation and laying charges at the Human Rights Commission. Other than that, it put a lot of effort into developing its activists through popular education and organising. This drew assurances, promises and sometimes lectures and insults from the politicians and officials, but little or no action. Now the activists in the campaign believe the time has come to put greater emphasis on direct action. ‘Land occupations are the new way of doing land reform,’ says Johan Jantjies, the convenor of the Food Sovereignty campaign. ‘Recently the government brought out a Green Paper on Land Reform. They made it clear they have no plan of how to get the land from the capitalist owners. Without such a plan how can you even talk about land reform? We have a plan and that is for the landless to occupy the land.’ </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Jantjies is a member of the Ithemba Farmers Association, a group of about 300 black families that started farming on a sandy stretch of government owned land between Khayelitsha and Eerste River in Cape Town. For the last three years they have been fighting the joint efforts of the departments of public works, human settlements and the Cape Town City Council to evict them. ‘In our meeting the delegate of the Ithemba Farmers Association reported that nothing much happened there in the last two months,’ says Rosina Secondt, an emerging farmer from Pella on the Orange River and a previous convenor of the Food Sovereignty Campaign. ‘They are still farming on the land. I am claiming that as a victory for the Food Sovereignty Campaign. The people did not have jobs or income. They occupied the land. The municipality, three government departments, lots of lawyers, the police and a mining company all worked together to throw the Ithemba Farmers off the land. They all failed and they are still failing. Why? Because the Ithemba Farmers mobilised themselves and the Food Sovereignty Campaign mobilised supporters from as far as Pella, 700km away in the Northern Cape. We physically stopped those who tried to evict the farmers. Today the Ithemba farmers are making a living on the land that they otherwise would not have had. That is a victory!’</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Ithemba farmers are not the only members of the Food Sovereignty Campaign occupying land. Patrick Steenkamp of the Loeriesfontein Emerging Farmers Association explains that they have been doing the same thing. ‘We became fed up with the municipality. They collected rent but they did nothing for us. There were no services. So we decided to develop the land ourselves. We put up our own fencing and our own windmills. We refused to pay rent. This has been going on for more than two years now. The land reform has failed us. The municipality has failed us. We will not fail ourselves. We are occupying this land. We will not be removed. Ever!’ At the meetings of the Food Sovereignty Campaign the emerging farmers of Kareeberg heard about the actions of their Loeriesfontein comrades and decided to follow their example. ‘Our members cannot be held back anymore,’ says Basil ‘Die Hond’ Eksteen of the Kareeberg Emerging Farmers Association. ‘They are just too angry. We talked, we wrote letters, we marched – now we are ready to take the land. The municipality gives us no support and now they want to charge us these impossible rents. They know we can’t pay. They just want to get rid of us and put white, commercial farmers on the land. We are in contact with a group in the Kimberley district that has occupied a farm of one of the richest land owners there. A man that owns fifteen farms while people sit with nothing. Neither the police nor the army has been able to remove these members from the land. If they could do it, so can we!’ Eksteen and his comrades published their intention to occupy the land without paying rent in a local newspaper, an intention they quickly carried out. The municipality had to concede the legitimacy of this action, and has undertaken to let the farmers use the land rent free while involving them in the drafting of a new policy around commonage land. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">For the most part these actions developed organically through people’s spontaneous reactions to poverty and perceived government inaction, but now the Food Sovereignty Campaign is ready to promote land occupations as a deliberate tactic. For the past year the members of the campaign have been attending a series of popular education workshops discussing the necessity, risks, limitations and benefits of land occupations in the light of contemporary and historical examples of movements that successfully used this tactic. Ricado Jacobs, agrarian studies scholar and member of the Food Sovereignty Campaign explains, ‘Land occupations should not be elevated to a panacea for other and all problems. It must be located within a broader framework, which the Food Sovereignty Campaign has in the form of food sovereignty, agro-ecology and anti-capitalism. But we must never forget that now and historically land occupations offered the only means through which the landless could engage in land reform directly, confront capital and gain control of the means of production.’</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">GOVERNMENT AND LAND REFORM</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">South Africa’s political system and governing elite are of course quite hostile to these kinds of land occupations. Property rights are enshrined in the constitution of the country and the land reform programme is based on a ‘willing buyer, willing seller’ model, where private land owners have absolute discretion over whether to sell and at what price. They have priced the land not only out of reach of land hungry blacks, but often even out of reach of the state. There is no provision in law, like that of Brazil, which allow hungry people to grow food on unused land of absent owners. Some municipalities have gone so far as to create special ‘anti-land invasion’ police units that quickly developed a reputation for ruthless brutality. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Since 1996 the South African government has followed a strict neo-liberal policy path that includes cutting state expenditure on ‘unprofitable’ social services. A key strategy has been to cut transfers of funds from the national treasury to local governments by more than 90% over a ten year period, while at the same time transferring responsibility for delivering social services such as housing, water, electricity, health and policing from the national to local governments. The national treasury could thus balance its books and even generate a surplus, but municipalities had to deliver far more services to many more people with much less resources. They therefore became trapped in a well known cycle of poor service delivery, desperate cost recovery and community protests. As far as municipal land is concerned the pressure became overwhelming on municipal executives to charge the highest possible rents. Emerging farmers find it unaffordable, which leaves them effectively landless, as the national land reform process is a complete failure that managed to transfer less than 5% of agricultural land from white to black ownership.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span lang="EN-ZA">In September the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform released its Green Paper on Land Reform that ‘</span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">seeks to provide new policy direction on Land Reform and it also proposes the establishment of institutions to support the implementation of the policy proposals contained in the</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Green Paper,’ according to the notice in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Government Gazette</i>. A new policy direction is indeed needed in the face of growing rural poverty and the failure of land reform. However, as the Institute for Poverty, Land and Agrarian Studies noted, </span></span><span class="articlebody1"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: black; font-size: 7.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">the green paper provides almost ‘no guidance on any of the crucial questions facing land and agrarian reform in South Africa’ and ‘defers policy making’. The only conclusion, unanimously drawn by all land reform NGOs and movements, is that government policy and the situation of the rural masses will continue as now.</span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span class="articlebody1"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: black; font-size: 7.5pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: Georgia;">‘This is where land occupations has such a crucial role to play,’ says Herschelle Milford of the Surplus People Project. ‘There is this block on the national conversation</span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> </span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">on land reform and the equitable distribution of the land. That block is private property. As long as land reform must bow down before private property it will go nowhere. Land occupations can unblock the conversation and challenge the status quo. There is no justification that people should starve while there is unused land. The focus must be on needs. In Nababeep people occupied the land and involved women and children in the process. They are not only producing food for themselves, but they are also building a healthy community. The land owners were not affected at all, because they have enough. Land occupations are even cheaper to the state than market based land reform. The experience of Brazil, where they wrote in the country’s constitution that landless people have the right to occupy unused land, shows that government does not have to oppose land occupations.’ In their 2005 book ‘Reclaiming the Land,’ Sam Moyo and Paris Yeros notes that in Brazil ‘from 1995 to 1999, 85 per cent of all new settlements conducted by government had their immediate origin in direct land occupations; 2800 land reform settlements were created with nearly 300000 families in total, and these settlements followed 1800 occupations with 256000 families participating.’ <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span lang="EN-ZA">This view is further supported by the findings of a study by the Economic Commission for Africa of the United Nations. In May 2009 it published a major report on ‘Land Tenure Systems and their Impacts on Food Security and Sustainable Development in Africa,’ which, after a comprehensive survey of the land issues of the continent, concludes that ‘</span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: AGaramondPro-Regular;">recently, illegal squatting or land occupations, albeit of a sporadic nature, have been more influential in keeping the land redistribution issue on the agenda than formal organizations of civil society or their recognized community-based organizations.’ </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">FOOD SECURITY AND FOOD SOVEREIGNTY</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span lang="EN-ZA">Land occupations ‘</span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">could hold catastrophic implications for investor confidence, food security and job creation,’ says Theo de Jager, vice president of Agri SA and chairman of the</span><span lang="EN-ZW" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-ZW; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> organisation’s</span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"> Transformation Committee in a media statement on the Agri SA website. This view has all the weight of capitalist ideology behind it and exerts a powerful influence, including on government. As </span><span lang="EN-ZA" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Grasian Mkodzongi explains in his article ‘South Africa: The Next Frontier for Land Occupations’ published on allafrica.com on 15 April 2010: at least since the Bredell land occupation in 2001, the South African government has been obsessed with sending ‘the right signal to the markets that Zimbabwean-style land “invasions” were not allowed here.’ Julius Malema, the suspended ANC Youth League president, touched a raw nerve in April this year when he told a gathering, </span><span lang="EN-ZA">‘We have to take the land without payment, because the whites took our land without paying and transformed them into game farms.’ Both President Zuma and Deputy President Motlanthe were quick to repudiate the youth leader and give assurances that land reform will take place according the constitution that entrenches property rights. Even the vague and mild suggestions of the Green Paper on Land Reform to place undefined restrictions on private property are accompanied by the constant refrain that government will make sure that land reform does not compromise food security, as if land reform inherently threatens food security.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Verdana", "sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">‘Land occupations is a necessary and appropriate strategy,’ says Thabo Manyathi of the Association For Rural Advancement. Manyathi rejects the idea that land occupations threaten food security. ‘I have seen with my own eyes how land occupations are good for food security and for land reform. People reoccupied the Ndumo Game Reserve from where they were evicted in the past. They produced so well on the land that government actually made more land available to them, all without affecting conservation. Another group of women farm dwellers were evicted in New Hanover. They had nowhere to go and were desperate; therefore they decided to occupy the land from which they were evicted. Today they are settled, they produce enough food for themselves and for the surrounding community. If it was not for land occupations, the people would still be landless, and hungry!’</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Ricado Jacobs takes the issue further and argues that land occupations are also crucial to the achievement of food sovereignty. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>‘Food sovereignty requires change in the whole agro-food system, including challenges to property relations and decision making powers. This is not possible with the unequal land ownership we see in South Africa. Movements like the Zapatistas in Mexico and the MST in Brazil have shown how land occupations can be used to challenge capitalist property relations and hierarchical top-down decision making. In South Africa exploitation and poverty are normalised, and land occupations can help put a stop to it. Of course the best scenario would be to link land occupations to an agriculture that addresses the ecological crisis, in other words agro-ecology, and to a broad process of popular education and mass mobilisation that does not only focus on farmers but involve the broad working class masses in both rural and urban areas. Food sovereignty is not just a farmer or even rural issue after all.’ </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">MOVEMENT BUILDING </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The harsh difficulties of the lives of the dispossessed and dominated masses in the rural areas make it ever so tempting to hope, pray and wait for some elite figure or group to arise and finally provide relief and deliverance. Ideas such as ‘if only the king or the president knew about the corruption and brutality of the local land owners, he would intervene on our behalf,’ or ‘if only our man could become king or president,’ are old and widespread among poor peasants and farm workers. Its power, however, is not based on proven effectiveness, which it plainly lacks, but on its capacity to provide solace to people who feel it is beyond their power to do anything constructive about their oppression. ‘The agency of the landless and land-short has been the basic source of agrarian reform historically,’ Moyo and Yeros remind us in ‘Reclaim the Land.’ Even in cases where kings and presidents decreed land reform from above, it was in response to rebellions of peasants and farm workers from below. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In South Africa today opposition to neo-liberal land reform is dominated by professionalised NGOs, who despite the good work they are doing, cannot substitute for mass movements of the rural poor. Such movements will naturally gravitate towards land occupations as a tactic, given the absurd levels of inequality and the patent refusal of the state to do anything effective about it. Right now, however, the more important point is that land occupations, if coupled with a movement building perspective, have the ability to be the action that brings such movements into being. In a recent article on ‘Strategic Challenges for the Service Delivery Protestors in South Africa,’ Ronald Wesso, an activist in the Food Sovereignty Campaign wrote: ‘The necessity for direct action (such as land occupations) also flows from the need of activist groups to capture the imagination of the masses. It demonstrates a seriousness of purpose and a depth of feeling against injustice that not only requires but also inspires the bravery and commitment characteristic of successful movements for social change.’ </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">‘Finally, movements of the poor need direct action precisely because they are movements of the poor. The poorest sections of society, the temporary workers, farm dwellers, rural people in former homelands, the unemployed and shack dwellers, are also the least organised. Poverty leaves no money to sustain organisers, the struggle for survival leaves little time and energy for the work of organising. Groups flare up and then die out quickly or become the turf of a more or less bureaucratic group that use their leadership positions to strike bargains for their own benefit with political parties, state organs or NGOs. Movements of the poor can only survive for any length of time if it fuses the struggle for survival with the work of organising. Only direct action makes this possible.’ </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">CONCLUSION</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Land occupations are already happening in South Africa. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Its background is growing frustration among the rural poor with persistent inequality along Apartheid patterns, and a clear failure on the part of government to work for meaningful change and listen to the unendingly articulated demands of the masses. There is more than enough evidence to suggest that the adoption of land occupations as a deliberate tactic by groups of land and agrarian activists can unlock a dynamic towards revolutionary change by mobilising mass movements of small farmers and farm dwellers that can link their struggles to movements of the urban poor and working classes for a joint rejection of the top-down capitalist property and state relations responsible for the landlessness, powerlessness and exploitation of the people. This is the direction the Food Sovereignty Campaign is moving in. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-align: justify;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div></div>Ronald Wessohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09126051532649094337noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-697569149475961083.post-16810936685171818122011-11-14T04:35:00.000-08:002011-11-14T04:35:09.985-08:00green paper on land reform<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">SUBMISSION OF SURPLUS PEOPLE PROJECT ON GREEN PAPER ON LAND REFORM, 2011</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">INTRODUCTION</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In our opinion, an analysis of the green paper supports the following contentions:</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">1.</span><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The land reform programme has failed the poor and black people in general, especially women.</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">2.</span><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Government is aware of this failure, but refuses to adopt fundamentally different policies for fear of upsetting white farmers/commercial agriculture and their allies, backers and advocates among the elite of the global capitalist system.</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">3.</span><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The interests of the black poor and specifically that of the landless, demand that the green paper be scrapped completely and a new one be drafted by the landless masses themselves through a process of direct democracy. </span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">4.</span><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Civil society organisations would do well to devote the bulk of their resources towards supporting that section among the landless people that have run out of patience with the state and the market, and have started to occupy land they believe are rightfully theirs. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Our analysis and views draws on decades of experience of working with land hungry and farm dwelling communities, as well as on three workshops specifically called to the discuss the green paper with the emerging farmers and farm dwellers we work with. We were also privileged to exchange views with fellow civil society formations including AFRA, PLAAS, SCLC and the BRC, who all made early drafts of their submissions available to us. We see our submission as supplementary to theirs, without denying the possibility of different views on some of the issues.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Our views will be presented under the following headings:</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 38.7pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Justifying land reform versus justifying land ownership</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 38.7pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Land reform and neo-liberalism</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 38.7pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Land reform, food security and food sovereignty</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 38.7pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Land reform and agriculture</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 38.7pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Landless people – active contributors or passive recipients?</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">JUSTIFYING LAND REFORM VERSUS JUSTIFYING LAND OWNERSHIP</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The introduction to the green paper, with its historical overview of the racist dispossession and exploitation that colonialism and Apartheid perpetrated on black people in South Africa, seeks to provide a moral justification for land reform. 17 years after the 1994 elections, this should not be necessary but apparently it is. The take of the green paper on this overriding issue, leaves us with more questions than answers. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It is not clear, for example, why land restitution should be constrained by the cut off date of the passing of the Native Land Act of 1913. People dispossessed before that date, and by different methods, suffer the historical consequences of their dispossession the same as those affected by the act. Morally, they have the same claim to restitution as the victims of the 1913 Land Act. If government has a different view to this, as it apparently has, then it should be argued, not just stated in the way the green paper does. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The most important question, however, was left unasked and therefore unanswered in the green paper. It is not whether land reform is justified, but whether the ownership rights of white people are justified. Given this history of colonialism and Apartheid, and given the fact that it is these historical processes that has made land ownership a white privilege in present day South Africa, what is the moral justification for this privilege and ownership? Why should land reform make concessions to the interests of white land owners, as is assumed by the green paper? If black people are supposed to get 30% of the land, why are whites entitled to 70%? Nowhere is this explained, but the assumption runs not only through this green paper, but through the government’s land reform programme as a whole. The claim of the dispossessed to what they have lost is argued, but the claims of the beneficiaries of this dispossession are just assumed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">LAND REFORM AND NEO-LIBERALISM</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The green paper makes no attempt to locate land reform within the context of government’s policy direction as a whole. It therefore cannot identify the underlying causes of the failures of land reform over the past 17 years. These causes have all to do with the commitment of the government to neo-liberal capitalism. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Much is made of the supposed failure of the farms of land reform beneficiaries. Are these the only farms that ‘failed’? The truth is that the liberalisation of South Africa’s agriculture in keeping with the extremist ideology of neo-liberalism, led to the commercial failure of the majority of white farmers in South Africa, whose farms ended up in the hands of mega rich agribusinesses that can prosper because they can manipulate the world’s food system and exploit economies of scale. The green paper overlooks this completely. One is left with the ugly racist impression of black incompetence. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The other question concerns the very way we understand failure and success in agriculture. Neo-liberalism understands success in terms of profit. A farm that grows its profit is successful even if its actions lead to greater poverty and hunger. This is exactly how government understands success in farming, despite weak protestations to the contrary. Subsistence farming is therefore almost inherently seen as a failure, despite its proven record as a weapon to combat hunger. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Neo-liberalism also constrains land reform by its commitment to cut corporate taxes and social spending. As a result the budget available for land reform is simply too small, making government put too many beneficiaries on any given piece of land, with too little support, which in turn also leads to farm failure.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">But perhaps the ultimate constraint that neo-liberalism places on land reform is in its commitment to the protection of property rights. A land reform programme that succeeds from the point of view of the landless must of necessity disrespect the property rights of the current land owners. The green paper, with its mention of unspecified restrictions and conditions on freehold tenure, falls far short of this. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Fixing land reform therefore requires that government abandon its commitment to neo-liberal capitalism.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">LAND REFORM, FOOD SECURITY AND FOOD SOVEREIGNTY</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the green paper there is the refrain that government will make sure that land reform in no way compromises food security. This is an unjustified concession to the position of organised commercial agriculture that says that land reform is a threat to food security, and conversely that commercial agriculture is good for food security. Government needs to think this through and take a clear position. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The rural poor do not have food security, even when working on and living close to profitable commercial farms. In fact for the rural poor, land reform offers the only hope of attaining food security. At the same time commercial agriculture and food security have a far from mutually supportive relationship. Commercial farmers do whatever is profitable, not what promotes food security. Therefore thousands of hectares of the best land are devoted to wine and game farms that do nothing for food security, but actually undermine it for the poor. Or they cover fertile soil with single crops like oranges that does little for food security, or they grow feed for animals instead of food for humans. The latest growth area many commercial farmers are looking into is the production of bio-fuels, which will be a food security disaster for millions. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The green paper uses the concept of food sovereignty without defining it. This is a pity as more diligence in researching the meaning of food sovereignty might have given a more accurate appreciation of commercial farming. La Via Campesina, the global movement of peasant farmers and agricultural workers, developed the concept of food sovereignty during their struggle against the devastating effects of commercial farming dominated by giant business corporations on the livelihoods, job security and tenure security of the rural masses. They therefore understand that smaller farms owned by those that work it, producing for local communities with environmentally friendly agricultural methods are crucial to the achievement of food sovereignty. The agribusiness corporations that are the main advocates and beneficiaries of neo-liberal policies in agriculture are the enemies of food sovereignty.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">LAND REFORM AND AGRICULTURE</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Land reform is firstly about land ownership and access, about land redistribution aimed at ending racist and sexist discrimination. However, the chemical-industrial model of farming pursued by current land owners make land reform also about responding to the environmental degradation caused by commercial agriculture. The green paper is silent about this and one can only assume that it supports the continuation of the current dominant model of agriculture.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">We believe this is a big shortcoming. Land reform also needs to include a vision of the type of agriculture desired on redistributed land. Specifically it needs to support agricultural methods that do not damage the environment and concentrate land and wealth in the way that the chemical-industrial model does. We believe Agro-Ecology needs to be part and parcel of land reform, and that state support should be biased in favour of this type of agriculture that values social equity and environmental health. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">LANDLESS PEOPLE – ACTIVE CONTRIBUTORS OR PASSIVE RECIPIENTS?</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The green paper proposes a series of new institutions – a land management commission, a land valuer-general, and a land rights management board with land rights management committees. These institutions do not propose to give any new powers or resources to landless people. Instead it would create a national network of forums where land reform activists can sit down and talk to state bureaucrats and white farmers, trying to persuade them to act with some concern for the landless. Unfortunately the record of such sit-downs is rather dismal. From the beginning of land reform landless people and their supporters in civil society have made countless submissions and had endless meetings arguing for the same thing. The pathetic failure of land reform and the relentless growth of rural misery is testament to the ineffectiveness of dialogue between those with power and money and those with nothing.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The truth is that land reform will only succeed to the extent that landless people are able to organise themselves into movements strong enough to defy, challenge and overthrow the oppressive power of the present neo-liberal state capitalist system. Every successful land reform programme in the history of the world has been driven by such movements. A key tactic that they used was to simply occupy and use land they felt entitled to. This is already happening in South Africa. If the green paper was serious about land reform it would recognise this and declare it legitimate. In Brazil, for example, the right of landless people to occupy unused land is officially recognised. In South Africa land occupations by the poor, though not officially recognised, is nevertheless justified in our view as long as racism, sexism, poverty, inequality and violence prevail as it does. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div></div>Ronald Wessohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09126051532649094337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-697569149475961083.post-14767204221149305112011-10-08T14:54:00.000-07:002011-10-08T14:54:40.543-07:00Lutzville protest against Monsanto GMOs<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">*press release – for immediate release*<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">5 October 2011</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-size: 24pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">FOOD SOVEREIGNTY CAMPAIGN</span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-size: 16pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">MONSANTO GMO EXPERIMENT REJECTED BY LUTZVILLE COMMUNITY</span></span></b></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">EMERGING FARMERS MOBILISING RESIDENTS FOR ANTI-GMO PICKET</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Lutzville Emerging Farmers Forum and the Food Sovereignty Campaign are mobilising residents of the West Coast town to come together this Friday and reject the experiments with genetically modified maize conducted by Monsanto, the giant American agribusiness corporation, in collaboration with South Africa’s Agricultural Research Council (ARC). This is the latest round in an ongoing conflict that sees marginalised, poor emerging farmers pitted against a corporation with a global reputation for practically limitless wealth and ruthlessness, loyally supported by a state owned institution. The ARC and Monsanto are experimenting with maize genetically modified to withstand drought, which local emerging farmers have opposed through a submission to the GMO council, community meetings and a march. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">‘We have been talking to AfricaBio, Monsanto and the ARC,’ says Davine Witbooi of the Lutzville Emerging Farmers Forum, ‘but they take us for a joke. While we were still negotiating we saw in the paper they had already applied for a permit to extend the experiment. Why can Monsanto come from America, and with the ARC decide what this land should be used for, while the emerging farmers are starving for land? This is not America’s land; it is not the land of the ARC. The land should rightfully belong to the people, and the poor should have first option to feed themselves from the land. Now the land is being used for experiments that will serve to make some rich corporation even richer. This picket is a warning. We are still polite. The time will come when we will simply take the land.’</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Genetically modified crops have long been rejected by many governments and food, land and environmental activists for its under-regulated and under-researched health and environmental negative effects, of which clear evidence are emerging. Monsanto is one of just six giant business corporations that have used their wealth to steamroll countries into allowing GMOs, because these crops allow greater control of the food chain for these corporations and, of course, greater profits. Higher food prices, bankruptcies among small farmers and rural job losses have been some of the social consequences of this drive to make the super rich mega rich.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">On Friday 7 October the activities in Lutzville will start at 10h00 with an open educational session at the Uitkyk Community Hall. At 12h00 there will be a picket at Klipheuwel farm where the experiment is taking place. End</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">For more information contact</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Davine Witbooi 0715922361 or Ricado Jacobs 0828907551</span></span></div></div>Ronald Wessohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09126051532649094337noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-697569149475961083.post-73998597185073111602011-10-04T03:06:00.000-07:002011-10-04T03:06:25.389-07:00Fear and activism among farm dwellers<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; mso-hyphenate: none;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 16pt; letter-spacing: -0.15pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Researching fear and activism among farm dwellers in Citrusdal region</span></span></b></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">1.</span><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Introduction – why this project</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The farm dwellers that created the Citrusdal Farm Workers Forum were dissatisfied with the living and working conditions of farm workers in the Citrusdal region, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">and </i>with the previous and existing efforts to organise farm dwellers to fight for better conditions. Both the depressed living and employment conditions of farm dwellers and the difficulties in organising them are well known; the two are closely related. Farm workers are among the lowest earners and find it difficult to put money aside for organisational expenses. Low literacy and educational levels make for low organisational skills. Long working hours, alcohol abuse, and lack of meeting places also make organising more difficult. Most farm workers work only seasonal, with no job security, which make joining unions and similar organisations almost impossible. The permanently employed often live on the farm where they work and risk eviction should they risk their job. Added to this, farm owners often employ whole families, so rebels risk not only their own jobs and homes, but that of their families as well. Farm dwellers live in small, scattered and remote communities, difficult for organisers to reach and difficult for farm dwellers to reach meetings from. In addition, access is controlled by owners and organisers can be prevented from entering the farm. As a consequence of these and other factors, farm workers are among the workers with the lowest levels of unionisation, and those that do belong to unions are likely to find that the union leaders and officials find it difficult to represent and serve them properly. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The starting idea behind the Farm Workers Forum was to have a local structure that depend on local activists who are farm dwellers themselves to carry out its tasks, instead of unions that often depend on town based officials to represent farm workers, and who do not as rule mobilise farm dwellers beyond labour relations issues. This orientation made quick initial progress possible and the forum soon developed a regular membership of more than 100, a functioning structure and leadership, and a good reputation among farm dwellers in the area; which is more than many a union were able to manage. However, the general difficulties in organising farm dwellers were soon felt by the Farm Workers Forum, who found it difficult to grow beyond its initial membership and to mobilise supporters into the protest actions deemed necessary by the forum. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">After discussion of possible tactics the forum membership felt research around the obstacles to movement building among farm dwellers. They approach the Surplus People Project, an NGO with which they had longstanding ties, to facilitate such research. On Sunday, 21 November 2010 a focus group of farm workers and dwellers from farms in the Citrusdal area met to discuss this research project with the Surplus People Project aimed at supporting the struggles of the farm dwellers in the area. There was about 60 people in the group, almost all employed in minimum wage jobs on farms, most being Afrikaans speaking Black people classified as Coloured during the Apartheid era, consisting of just more than half women with one or two transgendered persons as well. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">At the time of the discussion the participants were very much focused on a protest action they were planning for about a month later. This was to take the form of a public speak out in the main street of the town at its busiest time, during which the farm dwellers planned to name and shame the exploitative White farmers in the region. Their experience while mobilising for this and other recent protest actions provided the immediate starting point for identifying the research they felt would be most useful to them. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The activist farm dwellers have come to see resistance, mobilisation and protest as main means through which to defend their well being and achieve favourable social change. They want to build a movement through which farms workers can effectively shape society in ways that do away with their poverty and oppression. The biggest obstacle to this, in their view, is fear. In general farm dwellers desperately want change, but most of them do not become involved in building the necessary movements to achieve it because they fear the reactions and punishments of the farm owners, the rich, the state, the Whites, the men and God.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The group unanimously agreed that this fear should be the focus of the research. What is the nature of this fear? What are its causes, consequences and possible cures? </span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">2.</span><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The research process</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The research process was a joint effort between the Surplus People Project and the Citrusdal Farm Workers Forum. SPP took responsibility for the day to day implementation of the project, while overall control of both the content and process of the research was exercised by the Farm Workers Forum with some input from SPP. Professor Lungisile Ntsebeza and his PhD student Fani Ncapayi, both of the University of Cape Town, also offered valuable advice. The following is a timeline of the research process that includes some projections into the future:</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">21 November 2011 – A general meeting of the Citrusdal Farm Workers Forum constitutes itself as a focus group facilitated by SPP in order to formulate the project. SPP then writes up the discussions and decisions of this group in the form of a research proposal.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">April 2011 – A meeting between SPP and Professor Lungisile Ntsebeza and Fani Ncapayi, both of whom have read the proposal and are able to draw on their extensive experience in agrarian scholarship and activism to offer advice to the project. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">16 April 2011 – SPP facilitates a general meeting of the Citrusdal Farm Workers Forum in Elandskloof to formulate a research plan, including a set of questions that would form the basis for the questionnaire. Fani Ncapayi also participates. SPP uses the questions formulated by this meeting to draft a questionnaire. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">27 May 2011 – SPP and the Citrusdal Farm Workers Forum has a workshop with the fieldworkers for this project. Fieldworkers are trained in the overall nature of the project and the use of the questionnaire, the questionnaire is refined and finalised, and a test run of field interviews are conducted. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">2 – 8 June 2011 – Fieldwork is completed, jointly managed by SPP and Citrusdal Farm Workers Forum.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">June/July 2011 – Data is captured and collated.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">23 July 2011 – A workshop of SPP and Citrusdal Farm Workers Forum discusses the collated data and gives guidance as to further analysis and the form of the research report. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">6 August 2011 – A focus group of farm dwellers drawn from the farms where the research was conducted meets in order to share, discuss and triangulate the findings so far. The inputs of this focus group are to be part of the final research findings.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">October 2011 – finalisation and publication of research report.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">October/November 2011 – The research is presented to a public forum hosted by SPP and the Citrusdal farm Workers Forum in the Citrusdal area. </span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">3.</span><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Findings:</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">3.1 Membership of farm dweller organisations</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">40 people indicated that they are members of farm dweller organisations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Of these 4 organisations can arguably be seen as specifically created to mobilise farm workers and dwellers for their rights. They are Bawusa, Citrusdal Farm Dwellers Forum, Fawu and Sikhula Sonke. In this group only the Citrusdal Farm Dwellers Forum is not a union. The unions have a combined membership of 28, with Sikhula Sonke having the highest number - 19. Added to the 2 members of the forum, this means only 30 of the 181 farm workers and dwellers interviewed belong to organisations mobilising for better working and living conditions for farm dwellers. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The reasons people put forward for belonging to these organisations focus mainly on the capacity of the organisations to represent farm workers in disputes with their employers. Another reason put forward is that membership in these organisations provides farm dwellers with knowledge and information. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">136 people indicated that they do not belong to farm dweller organisations, which comes to 75.1%. 41 people, or 22.7% of respondents, gave their reason for not belonging to any organisations as simply not knowing of any organisation. This was by far the highest number. The next three biggest groups were the 13 people who said there were no organisations on their farm, the 12 who said they had not interest and the 11 who said they did not know why they were not members of these organisations. The group of 13, and probably some of the group of 11, could be added to the 41 whose reason was no knowledge. This group would then be more than 29.9% of respondents.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Only 11 respondents put forward fear of the employers as their reason for not belonging to the organisations.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>To this we can probably add the 6 that gave as their reason being new or temporary workers. The rest of the responses focused on the performance, or lack of it, of the farm dweller organisations themselves. For example, 10 respondents said that the unions and organisations do not meet their expectations. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The vast majority of farm dwellers do not belong to mobilising organisations. Of the minority that does, most belong to unions. This would suggest that a focus on traditional union issues such as wages, working conditions and job security would assist the Citrusdal Farm Workers Forum in attracting members. However, this does not mean other issues should be ignored. Certainly the issue of housing deserve as much attention as labour issues, with which it is closely connected in the case of farm dwellers.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">More than 29.9% of respondents do not belong to organisations simply because they lack contact and information. This group can provide the Farm Workers Forum with a source of very quick growth. This growth can be even quicker, and be more sustainable, if the Forum manages to avoid the typical disappointments farm workers experience with regard to trade unions. These disappointments are not being contactable in the event of problems arising, not pitching up for meetings and disciplinary hearings, and not visiting the members regularly. Being a local group led by local farm dwellers, the Forum should be able to avoid these problems. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The issue of fear is important, but as far as recruiting members go, it seems that it is not the main obstacle. Where people have voice fear as a problem, this has been more pronounced among new and temporary workers. The fear is of being dismissed. This suggests that the Forum should focus on developing a strategy that would stop employers from dismissing workers simply because they belong to the Citrusdal Farm Workers Forum.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">3.2 Speaking to white farmers, police officers and other people in authority</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">146 respondents indicated that they could speak freely to white farmers and other authority figures about any problems. Only 32 (17.7%) said there were serious obstacles in the way of conversations between them and white farmers about the problems caused by these white farmers. This was the only result of the survey that was vehemently challenged and rejected by the focus group of farm dwellers that met on 6 August 2011 to discuss, analyse, add to and, where called for, call into question the research results. They felt the figures were all wrong; there are many more people with problems with regard to speaking to authority figures. In fact, the focus group went so far as to unanimously agree that the vast majority of farm dwellers are unable to speak effectively to white farmers about the social problems caused by the white farmers.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">One participant told a story by way of an example. A woman went into labour on a farm late one night after the owner had locked the access gate. Someone had to go tell the farmer what was happening and insist that he unlock the gate and assist with getting the woman to medical help. No one in that farm dweller community was prepared to do so for fear of the farm owner’s reaction. They rather telephoned the participant, who was on another farm and was known as a strong leader. He then had to contact the farmer in question and insist on the necessary arrangements.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The position of the focus group is supported by what we know about racism, its prevalence in South Africa, especially in the rural areas, and how it encourages interpersonal relations of white domination and black submission, often without overtly insisting on it. Their position is also supported by the discussion that took place at the meeting of the Citrusdal Farm Workers Forum on 21 November 2010 where this project was first agreed to and elaborated. On that day the discussants noted a possible obstacle to the project: fear is also a source of shame, men especially are taught from an early age not to admit that they are afraid. How then would the project be able to discuss and understand fear if people do not want to admit that they are afraid? This dynamic would explain why such a high number of respondents said they were not afraid at all to speak to white farmers about problems. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">With these qualifications in mind, let us nevertheless look at the survey results. Of those that indicated they could speak freely, the biggest group (75 or 41.5%) indicated that they could do so because they either knew their rights, or they knew the issues, or they belonged to an organisation. There were no such dominant group among people who said they could not speak freely, most of their reasons given differed from individual to individual or was shared by 2 people. Although we would argue that 14 of the respondents, which come to 7.9% of total respondents, indicated fear of some form of victimisation as their main reason for not speaking out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A compromised capacity to speak out about their problems to authority figures probably affects much larger numbers of farm dwellers than survey results indicate. The results suggest that part of the solution would be to combat lack of information and isolation. Those who speak out usually had some connection to sources of information about conditions, rights and organisations. The Citrusdal Farm Workers Forum can play a big role in this regard. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">3.4 What support do farm dwellers want from the Farm Dwellers Forum?</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Interestingly the biggest group (25 people; 13.8%) simply wants more information about the activities of the Forum and of unions and other organisations. Another group of 16 (8.8%) wants information about rights, legislation and policies. This means by far the biggest group among respondents, 22.6%, sees information sharing as the important support activity they would want from the Forum.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The next biggest group (22) wants help with unspecified ‘problems of farm workers.’ 19 respondents want help with labour issues such as sick leave and retrenchments, 14 want help with finances, loans and wages, and 18 want help with obtaining social services such as housing, electricity, sanitation and water. Only 1 said he/she wanted the Forum to help with access to agricultural land, and 6 said the Forum should assist with resisting evictions. Small numbers of respondents are pretty evenly spread between wanting help for farm workers to overcome oppression, addressing violence and drug abuse, and improving the general conditions on farms. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">These findings suggest that the Farm Workers Forum must concentrate on providing information and on being present when farm workers confront employers about working and living conditions. The information must be about broad political and social issues that affect farm dwellers, and it must be about the activities, structures and strategies of the forum itself. In the conflicts between farm dwellers and farm owners, the owners derive great power from isolating and targeting particular farm workers and dwellers that the owners view as trouble makers. The presence of the forum at such points of conflict can go a long way towards neutralising this particular source of power of the farm owners. Both these tasks are well within the capacity of the Citrusdal Farm Workers Forum, which suggests that it would be able to grow fairly quickly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">3.5 Taking part in a lawful protest march and a protected strike</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">135 or 74.6% of respondents indicated their willingness to take part in lawful protest marches and protected strikes. A group of 40 gave their reason as simply doing something that they have a right to do. Another group of 19 or 10.5% said the reason they would participate is precisely because the proper procedures have been followed. 10 respondents said they would participate if they were properly informed. This collective group of 69, focusing on procedural issues such as rights, applications and information sharing, make up a group comprising 38.1% of the respondents.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The rest of the respondents that answered yes did not focus on procedural issues in motivating their answers. Instead, this group of 66 or 36.5% of the respondents focused on substantive issues – they were motivated by what they could gain out of such an action. Examples among this group include the 14 that said they would do it so they voices of the people could be heard, the 5 that said they would do it for better wages and working conditions and the three that indicated they would participate in order to stop evictions. There were no big subgroups among this group; they were fairly evenly divided into 20 small subgroups. Remarkably of those that said yes only 3 indicated that they had taken part in a lawful march or procedural strike before. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">36 respondents (19.9%) indicated that they would not be willing to take part in a lawful protest march or a procedural strike. It is noteworthy that none of these respondents directly said that such actions do not achieve anything. Most people motivated their positions in terms of personal preferences based on their circumstances such as being too old, lacking information or not belonging to a union. An important minority of 13 (7.2%) ascribed their position to fear of violence and victimisation.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the next question respondents were specifically asked to imagine negative things that could happen to them as a result of taking part in lawful marches and procedural strikes. It is perhaps important to note that responses to this question could give an exaggerated impression of people’s fearfulness as they are simply asked what they possibly would fear and not exactly how afraid they are. Despite this the biggest single group of respondents was the 30 that said nothing could happen to them. After this group there were four noticeable ones that said they feared being evicted (23 people), being dismissed (22 people), getting injured (20 people), and going to jail (10 people). </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Respondents were then asked what must happen in order for them to take part in a lawful march and procedural strike. There is a noticeable consistency between their responses to this and earlier questions. Of the 160 that responded, 75 focused on procedural issues such as the proper procedure, arrangements, adequate information, food and transport. The rest of the responses focused on substantive issues such as stopping evictions and rights violations. The substantive issues were not dominated by big groups, the biggest being the 9 that said they would take part to stop evictions and the rest being small groups 2, 3 or 5.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Most farm dwellers are prepared to take part in lawful protest marches and protected strikes. To do so they require good information about their rights, assurance that proper procedures have been followed, and a clear understanding of how these actions would contribute to improving their lives. Those who do not want to take part do not necessarily believe that these actions are unnecessary; they either fear violence and victimisation, or they feel their personal circumstances do not allow them to participate. Among both these groups very few have actually taken part in lawful marches and procedural strikes, and it is perfectly possible that with more experience more people will be more positive about taking part in these types of actions. In the meantime, there is clearly a big base among farm dwellers if the Citrusdal Farm Workers Forum would want to use lawful marches and protected strikes as part of a strategy to mobilise farm dwellers. However, the forum would do well to put serious efforts into convincing<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>people that they would not be evicted, dismissed, injured or jailed as a result of taking part in these actions, or alternatively that the potential gains justify these risks, or that these risks can be indeed minimised and managed.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">3.6 Taking part in an illegal land occupation</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Over the last twenty years countries such as Brazil, Zimbabwe and Venezuela have seen the transfer of thousands upon thousands of hectares of agricultural land from rich land owners to poor farmers and landless rural workers. South Africa has seen nothing of the sort, in spite or maybe because of an official programme of land reform. A key difference between here and there was the existence in Brazil, Zimbabwe and Venezuela of social movements of the rural poor strong enough to use land occupations as a tactic to force the taking of land from the rich. All indications are that South Africa’s extreme inequality in land ownership will persist until the rural poor are able to build movements of similar strength and tactical orientation.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A minority of 37 (20.4%) respondents indicated that they would be willing to take part in illegal land occupations. Among there in no particularly big group, the biggest being three groups of 6 each that respectively gave as their motivations that they believe the land belongs to them because it had belonged to their ancestors, that they really want their own land, and that it is a matter of justice. The rest of these respondents are divided into 14 groups of between 1 and 3 members, with 12 groups only having 1 member. The reasons they gave as their motivation included the greed of the white farmers, land that is not used productively, solidarity, bad conditions on the farms, not having a place to live, and seeking empowerment for farm workers. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">As part of the preparatory work for this research, a test run was conducted on a limited number of farms with an early version of the questionnaire. The results showed an important pattern in the responses that are not shown in these results because not enough members and supporters of the Citrusdal Farm Workers Forum were interviewed in the actual research. We nevertheless here include an analysis of this aspect of the results of the test run because of its potential importance. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The responses of the farm dwellers can be divided into two distinct sets, remarkably without exception. The first set is the majority who are adamant that they will not even think of taking part in land occupations. Asked why not, they do not put forward moral reasons, none of them think of illegal land occupations as inherently wrong and therefore not to be taken part in. Their reasons all have to with fear of violence and dispossession by the state and white land owners. This set of respondents consists of a comprehensive cross section of the total participants. There are union members and non-members, there are men and women, young and old, permanent and casual workers, in fact, apart from being people who either live or work on farms situated around the town of Citrusdal, they have only one thing in common – they are not members of the Citrusdal Farm Workers Forum and have not participated in its activities.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The second set of respondents is similarly diverse except that they are all members and participants in the Citrusdal Farm Workers Forum. This forum, in conjunction with SPP, has been conducting a series of popular education workshops on among other things land occupations. It included reflections on the causes and meaning of South Africa’s starkly racist land ownership patterns, critical investigations of government policies and programmes around land and agriculture, discussions of rural social movements and their tactics in countries such as Mexico and Brazil, as well as exchange visits with formerly land starved farmers that have benefitted from land redistribution in Mozambique and Zimbabwe.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These experiences have clearly given the participants a perspective on illegal land occupations that they otherwise would not have. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">They have all declared a willingness to participate in land occupations, despite stating that they fear the same things that the first set identified as the factors turning them against participation completely. Popular education have given them the opportunity to question their society, their place in it, and the role of the own opinions and fears in keeping them in that place. They could therefore come to the conclusion that some risks are worth taking, especially if taken and mitigated collectively. Popular education has clearly contributed to establishing the beginnings of a base for a land occupation movement.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The 124 (68.5%) respondents that during the actual research indicated an aversion to taking part in land occupations advanced reasons that were quite similar to those in the test run. Only 5 said that illegal land occupations were inherently wrong. The rest had instrumental issues that focused on likely negative consequences to themselves. The biggest group by far was the 49 (27.1%) that simply said they would not take part because it was illegal and therefore dangerous. To this group we should add, among others, the 4 that said they are afraid to get into trouble, the 8 that said they fear getting shot to death or going to jail, the 11 that said it was too dangerous, and the 5 that said it could have serious consequences.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In the next question respondents were specifically asked to imagine negative things that could happen to them as a result of taking part in illegal land occupations. Like with regard to participation in lawful protests and procedural strikes, it is perhaps important to note that responses to this question could give an exaggerated impression of people’s fearfulness as they are simply asked what they possibly would fear and not exactly how afraid they are. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">170 people (93.9%) responded to this question. Most responses can be divided into two groups: those that most fear the responses of white farmers (77 people or 45.2% of those that responded), and those that most fear the responses of the state (67 people or 39.4% of those that responded). The other 26 did not specify who they think will assault or injure them (11 respondents), penalise them (1 respondent), damage farm products (1 respondent), fight (2 respondents), or cause accidents, arson and terrorism (1 respondents).</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Among those that most feared the responses of the white farmers, the biggest group was the 36 respondents that said they feared dismissal and evictions. Among those that most feared the responses of the state, the biggest group was the 65 respondents that said they feared getting arrested. A significant group (31 or 18.2%) of those that responded said that they feared violence, either from the white farmers, the state or unspecified forces. These responses clearly reflect the intensifying racist marginalisation of farm dwellers over the last two decades, when two million were evicted by white farmers with impunity despite more than 99% of these evictions not being in compliance with the law.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The next question asked respondents to specify what they thought should happen to bring them to appoint where they took part in illegal land occupations. A large group (55 or 30.3%) did not answer this question, or rather gave answers that meant they could not imagine taking part in such an action. The rest of the answers are spread over smaller group, although there are two significant composite groups. The first is the group of 31 or 17.1% that indicated they would take part in land occupation if they were evicted and had no homes. The second is the group of 37 or 20.4% that said they would require a good process in order to take part, a process that included support from unions and other organisations, unity and solidarity, adequate information, good planning, attention to safety, membership of an organisation, leadership from the Citrusdal Farm Workers Forum, and spelling out the advantages and disadvantages.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Most farm dwellers are not prepared to take part in illegal land occupations at present, but a significant minority is. This minority can be enlarged through popular education that explains the reasons behind land occupations to farm dwellers. Fear of evictions, dismissal, arrest and violence are the main obstacles to participation. Importantly, those that face dismissal and evictions are among the most willing to consider land occupations. This suggests that should they get involved in land occupations the Citrusdal Farm Workers Forum should target those farmers known for dismissing and evicting farm dwellers, and the forum should find people previously evicted from farms and recruit them to take part in these occupations. The importance of education, organisation and a collective response to threats of violence and arrest cannot be over-emphasised. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">3.7 Fears holding farm dwellers back from taking action</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The last question asked respondents to name the fears they thought were keeping farm dwellers from taking action for their own liberation. Its purpose was not so much to elicit new information, but to give respondents a chance to reflect on their earlier answers from the point of view of other farm dwellers instead of themselves as individuals. Maybe respondents would more readily admit to the fears of others rather than their own. In the event the responses were along the same lines as the earlier ones, no surprises or reasons for doubting its reliability. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">161 people responded to this question. A big majority (105 or 65.2%) of responses are fairly evenly spread among the following 4 relatively large groups: 30 respondents simply said people were too afraid of the whites to speak, 29 said people feared being evicted most of all, 25 felt dismissals was the main fear, and 21 said farm dwellers feared violence and assault by farm owners. Some of the other, less frequent, responses were the 9 that said farm dwellers do not stand together enough, the 9 that said people feared the threats of white people, and the 3 that said the main fear was for humiliation and insults. Only 1 person identified fear of the police as the main problem, the other responses all focused on white farmers and their inclination and ability to discriminate and intimidate. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It is a well known cumulative effect of institutionalised racism that white superiority and black inferiority becomes internalised psychologically to the extent that it forms part of the basis for interactions between individual members of these groups. Overbearing arrogance becomes a default posture for whites when dealing with blacks, while at the same time blacks tend towards a position of fearful meekness in their dealings with whites. In rural settings, generally, circumstances tend to intensify this dynamic. The historic remedy for this is the overthrow of white power, the expropriation of white wealth, and possibly the dispersal of the white community as such. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The responses offer more than enough evidence of the presence of this dynamic in the Citrusdal area. What does this mean for immediate prospects? Given the deep historic roots of fear among farm dwellers, and given the continued operation of white power and wealth, how can this fear be sufficiently overcome to make possible the building of an effective movement of farm dwellers? Just as the results of this survey indicate the deep historical reasons for farm dweller fears and the consequent difficulties in doing away with it, it also offers rich guidance on how to proceed in the immediate.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Yes, the fears of farm dwellers are rooted in the general history of institutionalised racism, but it is also rooted in the experience of a specific set of vulnerabilities that are well within the capacity of the Citrusdal Farm Workers Forum to address. Of these the main ones are:</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Dismissals</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Evictions</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Assault</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Arrest</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Isolation</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Disunity.</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">4.</span><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Summary and conclusions</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The vast majority of farm dwellers do not belong to mobilising organisations. Of the minority that does, most belong to unions. This would suggest that a focus on traditional union issues such as wages, working conditions and job security would assist the Citrusdal Farm Workers Forum in attracting members. However, this does not mean other issues should be ignored. Certainly the issue of housing deserve as much attention as labour issues, with which it is closely connected in the case of farm dwellers.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">More than 29.9% of respondents do not belong to organisations simply because they lack contact and information. This group can provide the Farm Workers Forum with a source of very quick growth. This growth can be even quicker, and be more sustainable, if the Forum manages to avoid the typical disappointments farm workers experience with regard to trade unions. These disappointments are not being contactable in the event of problems arising, not pitching up for meetings and disciplinary hearings, and not visiting the members regularly. Being a local group led by local farm dwellers, the Forum should be able to avoid these problems. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The issue of fear is important, but as far as recruiting members go, it seems that it is not the main obstacle. Where people have voice fear as a problem, this has been more pronounced among new and temporary workers. The fear is of being dismissed. This suggests that the Forum should focus on developing a strategy that would stop employers from dismissing workers simply because they belong to the Citrusdal Farm Workers Forum.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A compromised capacity to speak out about their problems to authority figures probably affects much larger numbers of farm dwellers than survey results indicate. The results suggest that part of the solution would be to combat lack of information and isolation. Those who speak out usually had some connection to sources of information about conditions, rights and organisations. The Citrusdal Farm Workers Forum can play a big role in this regard. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">These findings suggest that the Farm Workers Forum must concentrate on providing information and on being present when farm workers confront employers about working and living conditions. The information must be about broad political and social issues that affect farm dwellers, and it must be about the activities, structures and strategies of the forum itself. In the conflicts between farm dwellers and farm owners, the owners derive great power from isolating and targeting particular farm workers and dwellers that the owners view as trouble makers. The presence of the forum at such points of conflict can go a long way towards neutralising this particular source of power of the farm owners. Both these tasks are well within the capacity of the Citrusdal Farm Workers Forum, which suggests that it would be able to grow fairly quickly.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Most farm dwellers are prepared to take part in lawful protest marches and protected strikes. To do so they require good information about their rights, assurance that proper procedures have been followed, and a clear understanding of how these actions would contribute to improving their lives. Those who do not want to take part do not necessarily believe that these actions are unnecessary; they either fear violence and victimisation, or they feel their personal circumstances do not allow them to participate. Among both these groups very few have actually taken part in lawful marches and procedural strikes, and it is perfectly possible that with more experience more people will be more positive about taking part in these types of actions. In the meantime, there is clearly a big base among farm dwellers if the Citrusdal Farm Workers Forum would want to use lawful marches and protected strikes as part of a strategy to mobilise farm dwellers. However, the forum would do well to put serious efforts into convincing<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>people that they would not be evicted, dismissed, injured or jailed as a result of taking part in these actions, or alternatively that the potential gains justify these risks, or that these risks can be indeed minimised and managed.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Most farm dwellers are not prepared to take part in illegal land occupations at present, but a significant minority is. This minority can be enlarged through popular education that explains the reasons behind land occupations to farm dwellers. Fear of evictions, dismissal, arrest and violence are the main obstacles to participation. Importantly, those that face dismissal and evictions are among the most willing to consider land occupations. This suggests that should they get involved in land occupations the Citrusdal Farm Workers Forum should target those farmers known for dismissing and evicting farm dwellers, and the forum should find people previously evicted from farms and recruit them to take part in these occupations. The importance of education, organisation and a collective response to threats of violence and arrest cannot be over-emphasised. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">It is a well known cumulative effect of institutionalised racism that white superiority and black inferiority becomes internalised psychologically to the extent that it forms part of the basis for interactions between individual members of these groups. Overbearing arrogance becomes a default posture for whites when dealing with blacks, while at the same time blacks tend towards a position of fearful meekness in their dealings with whites. In rural settings, generally, circumstances tend to intensify this dynamic. The historic remedy for this is the overthrow of white power, the expropriation of white wealth, and possibly the dispersal of the white community as such. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The responses offer more than enough evidence of the presence of this dynamic in the Citrusdal area. What does this mean for immediate prospects? Given the deep historic roots of fear among farm dwellers, and given the continued operation of white power and wealth, how can this fear be sufficiently overcome to make possible the building of an effective movement of farm dwellers? Just as the results of this survey indicate the deep historical reasons for farm dweller fears and the consequent difficulties in doing away with it, it also offers rich guidance on how to proceed in the immediate.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Yes, the fears of farm dwellers are rooted in the general history of institutionalised racism, but it is also rooted in the experience of a specific set of vulnerabilities that are well within the capacity of the Citrusdal Farm Workers Forum to address. Of these the main ones are:</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Dismissals</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Evictions</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Assault</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Arrest</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Isolation</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Disunity.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">An action programme that firstly focus on support and solidarity for farm dweller activists, and secondly on identifying and neutralising farm owners guilty of dismissals, evictions and assaults, will make the furious growth of a farm dweller movement a certainty. In this sense the results of this research survey offers clear guidance to the activists of the Citrusdal Farm Workers Forum:</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Indentify at least one farm owner guilty of dismissing, evicting and assaulting people.</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Make the operation of that farm impossible until justice has been achieved. Block roads, damage crops, destroy equipment, occupy the land, encourage all farm dwellers to do the same.</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-align: justify; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Do not allow individual activists to be isolated.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">For the oppressed the experience of winning through struggle is the antidote to fear.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></span></span></div></div>Ronald Wessohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09126051532649094337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-697569149475961083.post-8993811708091466392011-09-14T02:12:00.000-07:002011-09-15T05:28:51.142-07:00Making Women’s Charters in Egypt and South Africa – part 4<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; mso-outline-level: 3;"><span style="color: #222222; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The lesson for the makers of the Egyptian Women’s Charter is that the South African charter came up short not for what it contained but for what it left out.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In capitalist societies such as Egypt and South Africa, the state concentrates power among few, capital concentrates wealth, and both these institutions play a crucial role in maintaining the patriarchal power of men over women, to the extent of nullifying legal victories as we have seen in South Africa. Historically the socialist movement fought to end capital as an institution, and anarchism fought to end the state, while feminism or women’s movements veered between taking on these struggles and maintaining neutrality. The South African Women’s Charter stayed silent on whether capital and the state are compatible with the liberation of women. The present role of these institutions in imposing increasing misery on women arguably indicates that such a silence in the Egyptian Women’s Charter would be a mistake.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; mso-outline-level: 3;"><span style="color: #222222; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Inserting into the Women’s Charter a commitment to struggle against capital and the state would not necessarily spell the end for these institutions in Egypt, and neither would it necessarily have done so in South Africa in 1994. However, this is precisely where the South African experience speaks the loudest. When the demands of the Women’s Charter became part of South African law and policy from 1994 onwards, the Women’s National Coalition disbanded and its leading members took up positions in political parties and the state. When from 1996 the neo-liberal onslaught came, there was no national women’s movement to oppose it. Up to today South Africa has no national women’s movement, which is part of the reason for the confidence behind the reassertion of patriarchy. So no, a declaration in a charter will not end capital and the state, and yes, such a declaration might scare of those activists with a strong attachment to capital and the state, but it will provide a rallying point for a women’s movement that cannot be neutralized by paper concessions. It is in such a women’s movement, and not in capitalist laws and policies, that women in Egypt will find the best protection against the marginalization the men in charge of the state and business surely have planned for them. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt; mso-outline-level: 3;"><span style="color: #222222; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Egypt today, being in a transitional phase, offers vast scope for a women’s movement not just to mobilize political pressure against patriarchy and its supporting institutions, but to launch direct actions and take over significant resources to dedicate to the liberation of women. With the police discredited and the military nervous about antagonizing the people, an action to take over, for example, a hotel owned by a multi-national or by the elite of the Mubarak era and use it as a women’s shelter, communal kitchen or feminist school has more chance of succeeding than at any other time in the recent past. It is such direct actions that will enable the Egypt women activists to transcend the dependence on the state that has proved so terribly costly for their South African counterparts. Of course women activists have to be prepared politically to take such actions. A giant step in such preparation would be to place the necessity for direct actions in a prime spot within the Egyptian Women’s Charter. </span></span><br />
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<a href="http://permanentrebel.blogspot.com/2011/08/making-womens-charters-in-egypt-and.html">part 1</a><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Calibri;"><a href="http://permanentrebel.blogspot.com/2011/08/making-womens-charters-in-egypt-and_19.html"><span style="color: #888888;">part 2</span></a><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Calibri;"><a href="http://permanentrebel.blogspot.com/2011/09/making-womens-charters-in-egypt-and.html">part 3</a></span></div></div>Ronald Wessohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09126051532649094337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-697569149475961083.post-57221547492717287462011-09-14T01:03:00.000-07:002011-09-14T01:03:12.672-07:00YOUTH COMMUNE PROJECT<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">What -</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A project to start a youth commune dedicated to:</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 37.85pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">1.</span><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">communal living</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 37.85pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">2.</span><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">self-sustenance though agricultural production</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 37.85pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">3.</span><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">integrating education with work and play</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 37.85pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">4.</span><span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">participating in youth activism for socialist change</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">When -</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Starting in September 2011</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Who -</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A joint initiative of Children’s Resource Centre (Marcus Solomon) and Surplus People Project (Ronald Wesso) seeking collaboration of interested groups and individuals. The goal is to establish the youth commune as an autonomous body controlled by its members. Initially we need about 20 members. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Where - </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The youth can come from anywhere but for practical reasons the commune will be based in the rural areas around Cape Town.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Why -</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">To take action against the unemployment, marginalisation and alienation imposed on the youth by neo-liberal capitalism </span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">To work in a manner that models the building blocks of a socialist society based on free co-operation and mutual solidarity between equals.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">How -</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Work out a written agreement on the nature of the project</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Build up literature resources about youth communes and co-operatives. This must include a focus on indigenous practices and knowledge. Possible source: Patrick van Rensburg. </span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Recruit about 20 young people to take ownership of the project. This group must be balanced with regard to gender and ethnic/cultural demographics. There will be no ideological preconditions for membership, although the group will be encouraged to take strong positions against all forms of discrimination and oppression.</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Produce a media booklet to promote the project.</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Link up with staff co-operative of the Children’s Resource Centre.</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Not wait until land is available but immediately start involving the youth in co-operative discussions, education, games and work. For example, combine the first educational workshop with cooking a meal. </span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Identify area for locating the project. Possible locations are Blackheath Rd, Citrusdal, Klapmuts. It should be outside of Cape Town to make security against vandalism possible, but it should also be easily accessible from Cape Town to make the work easier. Other possible spaces are on school grounds. Daniel Plaatjies can be of assistance. </span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Secure land access. At the moment we estimate that 10 hectares should be enough. This can be done through getting government help (land reform processes) or through land occupation, depending on the circumstances and the strength of the group.</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Build spaces for living, meeting, recreation and a workshop.</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Start agro-ecological production on the land. </span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Secure money to sustain commune members until the commune generates its own sustenance.</span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font: 7pt "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Bread production is another possibility. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><br />
</div></div>Ronald Wessohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09126051532649094337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-697569149475961083.post-50694977825953106362011-09-05T03:30:00.000-07:002011-09-15T05:31:21.216-07:00Making Women’s Charters in Egypt and South Africa - part 3<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">South Africa’s constitution receives a lot of praise for enshrining human rights. A big part of the reason is its commitment to achieve gender equality by eliminating discrimination against women in the present as well as the effects of such discrimination in the past. This aspect of the constitution, plus the associated laws, policies and institutions making up the National Gender Policy Framework and the National Gender Machinery testify to the great success of the Women’s National Coalition. There is nothing in this coalition’s Women’s Charter that was not inserted in either the constitution or the laws and policies designed to carry it out. A hundred percent success therefore. Why, then, are women’s social conditions deteriorating?</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span lang="EN-ZA">According to the diagnostic overview of the National Planning Commission - a presidentially appointed commission under the leadership of Trevor Manuel, the Minister of Planning, whose task is to develop a long term development plan for the country – the reasons are ‘cultural “norms” and patriarchy’, ‘social fragmentation and passive citizenry’, and unemployment and a lack of access to an enabling social wage, which combine to undermine the aspiration of the constitution towards </span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: GillSans-LightItalic; mso-bidi-font-style: italic;">“Healing the divisions of the past and establishing a society based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights”.</span> <span lang="EN-ZA">In this diagnosis the problems of women are getting worse in spite, not because of the constitution. Government is not alone in having this view; it is in fact a near universal consensus. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A critical look, however, reveals the central responsibility of South Africa’s constitutional order for the worsening oppression of women here. For a start, take the three reasons put forward by the National Planning Commission. Cultural norms that underwrite patriarchy all depend for reproduction on institutions such as churches, traditional (tribal) leadership and families. None of these institutions were created in South Africa through free association. Christianity was imposed through violent dispossession and racist indoctrination. The current traditional leaders are the political heirs, not of Shaka and Hintsa, but of the chiefs that administered the violently imposed Bantustan system that was rejected over and over by black liberation movements. Families that teach women and children to submit to patriarchal authority also impose themselves through violence, abuse and the capacity to deny care, particularly when challenged; the wife/daughter that obeys out of fear and the one that gets beaten are both victims of this. The constitution ostensibly protects the victims of patriarchy, but it also protects these institutions, which are patriarchy’s perpetrators, and are much richer and more powerful than their victims. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">What are the causes of social fragmentation and the alleged passivity among citizens? Certainly the way the political system is structured plays the major role. The state carefully assigns a particular status to every individual in the territory of South Africa. This status determines the relationship of this individual to the state as a whole – this one is a president, that one a prisoner, that one a police officer on duty, that one an ordinary citizen, and that one an undocumented immigrant. Everyone gets a position in a strictly constitutionally designated hierarchy where power is concentrated at the top. The competition and conflict that this concentration of power engenders is responsible for a major part of the social fragmentation in South Africa and other societies with a similar political structure. It also induces the alleged passivity, because people are not really passive politically, they are (sometimes) pacified by repression or by the frustration of being ignored or fobbed off. The power that South Africa’s political elite uses for socially fragmenting competition for more power, and to repress, ignore and fob off those of lower political status is given to them by none other than the constitution. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Growing unemployment, poverty and economic inequality are probably among the most acute of all the reasons fuelling the worsening position of women. A large part of the power of churches, chiefs and family heads flow from the fact that women have to submit to misery or face destitution. It is not possible to envisage the liberation of women without a radical redistribution of society’s wealth that would give black women control over most of it, and that would deny patriarchal institutions any of it. The constitution, of course, is dead set against such a redistribution. Instead it protects the property rights of the rich and facilitates neo-liberal policies that take even more from the poor to give to the rich, with devastating consequences for women. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The constitution and the gender laws and policies contain everything the makers of the Women’s Charter asked for, but it also contains and protects the cultural, political and economic institutions that destroy the hopes of this charter. It is like serving the women of South Africa a meal, full of delicious and nutritious ingredients, liberally sprinkled with poison. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span><br />
<br />
<a href="http://permanentrebel.blogspot.com/2011/08/making-womens-charters-in-egypt-and.html">part 1</a><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Calibri;"><a href="http://permanentrebel.blogspot.com/2011/08/making-womens-charters-in-egypt-and_19.html"><span style="color: #888888;">part 2</span></a><br />
</span><br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Calibri;"><a href="http://permanentrebel.blogspot.com/2011/09/making-womens-charters-in-egypt-and_14.html"><span style="color: #888888;">part 4</span></a></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div closure_uid_5p5cve="108"></div></div>Ronald Wessohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09126051532649094337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-697569149475961083.post-64368825913651095402011-08-30T06:26:00.000-07:002011-08-30T06:26:37.642-07:00MALEMA ON BOTSWANA<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span lang="EN-ZA">South Africa enters an interesting week. Today Julius Malema appears before the disciplinary committee of the ANC on charges explained by its chairperson Derek Hanekom as follows: ‘C</span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">omrade Julius Malema has been charged with various violations of the ANC constitution, including bringing the ANC into disrepute through his utterances and statements on Botswana and sowing divisions in the ranks of the African National Congress.’ From Wednesday on the other top officials of the ANC Youth League appear on the same charges.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Apparently this is all about the intra-ANC struggle in the lead up to its elective conference next year. In other words, by extention the issue at stake is nothing less than who would be the president of South Africa after the next elections. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Of course this means lots of noise, bluster and counter noise and bluster, in the same style as we have seen in the run up to the last ANC elective conference in 2007 in Polokwane. The danger is that the substantive questions get lost. In this case it already has to some extent. This is the statement Malema and his colleagues are being disciplined for (and that they have retracted): ‘</span><span lang="EN-ZA">The ANC Youth League will also establish a Botswana Command Team which will work towards uniting all oppositional forces in Botswana to oppose the puppet regime of Botswana led by the Botswana Democratic Party. The BDP led Botswana is a foot stool of imperialism, a security threat to Africa and always under constant puppetry of the United States.’ What exactly is wrong with this?</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Maybe it is against ANC policy to attempt to unite and support opposition to the governments of other countries. But such a position is morally and politically unjustifiable because firstly, it would require a certain indifference to how foreign governments treat the people they govern, and secondly it would contradict the ANC’s history of relying on just such help from foreign governments in its struggle to unseat the Apartheid government. The ANC cannot claim a principled commitment to non-interference, not after invading Lesotho to restore the government of their choice. In fact, the ANC has received millions upon millions of rands in election donations from foreign governments, which helped them getting elected; how is this not interference? </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span lang="EN-ZA">The bigger substantive issue is the nature of the Botswana government and its relation to the USA and Africa. The Youth League leaders do not specify why they see the government of Ian Khama as a ‘foot stool of imperialism’ or what exactly the security threat is that this government poses to Africa, but the truth is that they could have picked from any number of reasons. In the more than 40 years the Khamas and the BDP has been in power in Botswana, the US has replaced the UK as the leading perpetrator of imperialist aggression on the African continent. The death of Congolese president Patrice Lumumba is but one of many thousands of African deaths that can be directly ascribed to the ambition of the US to dominate Africa politically, economically, culturally and militarily. During this tumultuous time, when millions of Africans arose at great personal cost against US imperialism, where did the BDP government of Botswana stand? They were and are a loyal ally, or rather junior partner. Certainly African governments are aware of this. Why else in the last 15 years did Botswana have to struggle so hard to convince its neighbours that it was not hosting a secret US military base? The CIA, always sensitive to US interests, praises Botswana thus, ‘</span><span lang="EN-ZA" style="letter-spacing: 0.55pt; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Through fiscal discipline and sound management, Botswana transformed itself from one of the poorest countries in the world to a middle-income country with a per capita GDP of $13,100 in 2010.’ ‘Fiscal discipline and sound management’ in the view of the CIA consist of policies that support the ambitions of the US government and its business corporations. Whatever we think of Malema, we must admit that the Botswana government under the Khamas and their BDP has always followed such policies.</span></span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"></span></div><div closure_uid_fozas5="106"></div></div>Ronald Wessohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09126051532649094337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-697569149475961083.post-43348435634204586432011-08-25T02:13:00.001-07:002011-08-25T02:19:30.047-07:00STOPPING A BRUTAL, ILLEGAL FARM EVICTION<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span closure_uid_9z74gd="113" style="font-family: Calibri;"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA">The members of the Food Sovereignty Campaign are mobilising support for Jimmy Ockhuis, a Citrusdal farm worker who had his house and vegetable garden destroyed and his pigs stolen by Jannie Niewoudt, owner of Jamika farm where Jimmy Ockhuis has been living for more than 30 years. If a farm worker did these clearly illegal things to a farm owner the police would arrest the worker immediately, but as usual the police treats the owners who commit crimes with kid gloves. In 2005 a national survey of farm evictions by Nkuzi Development Association found that <span style="color: black;">about 4.18 million people had been displaced, and about 1.7 million of these had been evicted. Only 1% of these displacements had involved a legal process. No farmer was ever arrested for these illegal evictions. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: black;">The Food Sovereignty Campaign is working to pressurise the departments of Justice and Rural Development and Land Affairs to intervene to protect the rights of Jimmy Ockhuis. According to the Extension of Security of Tenure Act workers staying for 10 or more years on farms have security of tenure. Like most other white farmers Jannie Niewoudt has chosen to ignore this law telling Jimmy Ockhuis ‘Fuck the law, this is my farm. I will do whatever I want.’ He must be arrested immediately.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: black;">Ultimately the Food Sovereignty Campaign believes the answer lies in direct action. Farm workers and their allies should mobilise to chase the Jannie Niewoudts from the land. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: black;">For comment or more information contact:</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: black;">Johan Jantjies 0790277853</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: black;">Andries Titus 0765116614</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: black;">Jimmy Ockhuis </span><span lang="EN-ZA">079 262 9806<span style="color: black;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: black;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div></span></span></div></div>Ronald Wessohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09126051532649094337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-697569149475961083.post-75980185809308034632011-08-19T01:50:00.000-07:002011-09-15T05:33:03.697-07:00Making Women’s Charters in Egypt and South Africa - part 2<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">August is Women’s Month in South Africa. The biggest non-scandal that escaped mention in both the Women’s Day speeches of the president and the deputy president is not simply the oppressive social conditions imposed on women, but the fact that it is getting worse. The Tshwaranang Legal Advocacy Centre to End Violence Against Women reports that this year, while gender based violence rises steadily, just 8% of monitored police stations complied with their obligations under the Domestic Violence Act. In 2007 compliance had stood at 57%. Maternal deaths during childbirth now stand at 625 per 100,000 - four times the number it was at in 1990; during the same period the much poorer Su</span><a href="http://www.blogger.com/" name="_GoBack"></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">b-Saharan African region as a whole reduced maternal mortality rates by a quarter! </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Two recent comprehensive assessments of gender inequality bear out this picture. The United Nations Committee on the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) had its 48<sup>th</sup>session from 17 January to 4 February this year. Three organisations – People Opposing Women Abuse, Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation and the Western Cape Network on Violence Against Women – together submitted a shadow report on the implementation of CEDAW. The authors of the report assess South Africa’s performance by systematically measuring the social position of women against all the articles of CEDAW using the latest data.Their findings cannot be ignored, except by presidents and deputies with selfish agendas. On legal equality the shadow report says, ‘Whilst the State has embedded the right to gender equality in the Constitution, the legislature and executive have failed to fully honour their resultant constitutional obligations.’ But the main failure is with regard to the central demand of the Women’s Charter for real, effective equality. The report laments that ‘there is a systemic failure to effectively translate these laws into meaningful change in women’s lives.’ It then identifies a strong trend towards ‘a consistent failure to move effectively from de jure to de facto enjoyment and realisation of the rights in question.’ </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1;">The second comprehensive assessment was released last year by the statutory Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) as a report entitled <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">‘What gets measured, gets done’ – A gendered review of South Africa’s implementation of the Millennium Development Goals</i>. It should be more difficult to ignore watchdog bodies appointed by the constitution rather than civil society ones, but so far the government has done so with ease. Their motivation must be that, if anything, the CGE report is even more scathing than that of the three civil society groups. After documenting in detail how spectacularly South Africa is failing to come even close to achieving the Millennium Development Goals for women, the commissioner overseeing this review writes, ‘</span><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Century Gothic";">Despite Constitutional guarantees underpinned by groundbreaking legislative provisions, and gains on the front of political representation, access to equality and justice, and freedom from discrimination remain a pipe dream for the majority of women.’ Both the stipulations of CEDAW and the Millennium Development Goals are much more moderate than the demands of the Women’s Charter for Effective Equality and the manner in which this society is not making progress on achieving the first two means it is moving away rather than towards effective equality. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt; mso-layout-grid-align: none;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-font-family: "Century Gothic";">So, yes, this is where South Africa is at. For the majority of women, freedom, justice, equality or just some peace is a ‘pipe dream,’ which the Merriam-Webster dictionary defines as an ‘illusory or fantastic plan, hope or story.’ Why? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Calibri;"><span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-themecolor: text1;"><a href="http://permanentrebel.blogspot.com/2011/08/making-womens-charters-in-egypt-and.html">part 1</a><br />
<br />
<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Calibri;"><a href="http://permanentrebel.blogspot.com/2011/09/making-womens-charters-in-egypt-and.html"><span style="color: #888888;">part 3</span></a><br />
</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Calibri;"><a href="http://permanentrebel.blogspot.com/2011/09/making-womens-charters-in-egypt-and_14.html"><span style="color: #888888;">part 4</span></a></span></span></span></div></div>Ronald Wessohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09126051532649094337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-697569149475961083.post-71505038750961421522011-08-16T20:32:00.000-07:002011-09-15T05:25:02.585-07:00Making Women’s Charters in Egypt and South Africa - part 1<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="MsoNormal" closure_uid_42w63="119" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span closure_uid_42w63="120" style="font-family: Calibri;">On the 4th of June this year Egypt’s first National Convention of Women took place. Women (and some men who support them) were gathering to make their voices heard. After playing a leading role in the January 25th revolution that ended the dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak, they were worried about the signs that the process of transition to a new constitutional system would sideline them. The Alliance for Arab Women and the Egyptian Women Coalitions therefore embarked on a process of drafting a Women’s Charter that spells out the things the women of Egypt need to see in the country's new constitution. The process included discussions in 27 of Egypt’s governorates and a signature campaign that collected half a million signatures by June. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The process and content of the Egyptian Women’s Charter shows a striking similarity to that of the Women’s Charter for Effective Equality adopted by the National Convention of the Women’s National Coalition in February, 1994 in South Africa. The South African Charter came out of similarly motivated concerns, was drafted through public discussions, supported by millions of signatures and spelt out what women needed in the constitution South Africa was in the process of creating. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The similarity of the two Charter processes allow for the drawing of useful lessons for Egyptian ‘charterists’ from the earlier South African experiences and specifically from the outcomes of the South African charter. What is the situation for women in South Africa today? What does this say about the success of the Women’s Charter? What lessons can the supporters of the Egyptian Women’s Charter learn from the experiences of their South African counterparts?</span><br />
<br />
<a href="http://permanentrebel.blogspot.com/2011/08/making-womens-charters-in-egypt-and_19.html">part 2</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://permanentrebel.blogspot.com/2011/09/making-womens-charters-in-egypt-and.html">part 3</a><br />
<br />
<a href="http://permanentrebel.blogspot.com/2011/09/making-womens-charters-in-egypt-and_14.html">part 4</a></div><div closure_uid_42w63="115"></div></div>Ronald Wessohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09126051532649094337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-697569149475961083.post-50523936022148122562011-08-13T03:05:00.000-07:002011-08-13T22:55:47.747-07:00FOOD SOVEREIGNTY CAMPAIGNERS MOVE TO OCCUPY FARM LAND<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Furious emerging farmers in the Kareeberg municipality in South Africa’s Northern Cape Province have decided to stop paying rent for the municipal owned land they are farming on. These farmers have been robbed and excluded from land ownership and access by colonial conquest, segregation and Apartheid. Now South Africa’s protection of capitalist property and its neo-liberal state policies are keeping them landless still. ‘Our members cannot be held back anymore,’ says Basil ‘Die Hond’ Eksteen of the Kareeberg Emerging Farmers Association. ‘They are just too angry. We talked, we wrote letters, we marched – now we are ready to take the land. The municipality gives us no support and now they want to charge us these impossible rents. They know we can’t pay. They just want to get rid of us and put white, commercial farmers on the land. We are in contact with a group in the Kimberley district that has occupied a farm of one of the richest land owners there. A man that owns fifteen farms while people sit with nothing. Neither the police nor the army has been able to remove these members from the land. If they can do it, so can we!’</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Since 1996 the South African government has followed a strict neo-liberal policy path that includes cutting state expenditure on ‘unprofitable’ social services. A key strategy has been to cut transfers of funds from the national treasury to local governments by more than 90% over a ten year period, while at the same time transferring responsibility for delivering social services such as housing, water, electricity, health and policing from the national to local governments. The national treasury could thus balance its books and even generate a surplus, but municipalities had to deliver far more services to many more people with much less resources. They therefore became trapped in a well known cycle of poor service delivery, desperate cost recovery and community protests. As far as municipal land is concerned the pressure became overwhelming on municipal executives to charge the highest possible rents. Emerging farmers find it unaffordable, which leaves them effectively landless, as the national land reform process is a complete failure that managed to transfer less than 5% of agricultural land from white to black ownership. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Patrick Steenkamp of the Loeriesfontein Emerging Farmers Association explains that they have been doing the same thing that their Kareeberg comrades are planning. ‘We became fed up with the municipality. They collected rent but they did nothing for us. There were no services. So we decided to develop the land ourselves. We put up our own fencing and our own windmills. We refused to pay rent. This has been going on for two years now. The land reform has failed us. The municipality has failed us. We will not fail ourselves. We are occupying this land. We will not be removed. Ever!’</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Both the Kareeberg and the Loeriesfontein emerging farmers are part of the Food Sovereignty Campaign, a network of emerging farmers and farm workers active in the Northern and Western Cape Provinces. Rosina Secondt, the campaign’s convener, is an emerging farmer in Pella on the banks of the Orange River. She draws attention to the case of the Ithemba Farmers in Eerste River in the Western Cape. ‘In our meeting the delegate of the Ithemba Farmers Association reported that nothing much happened there in the last two months, they are still farming on the land. I am claiming that as a victory for the Food Sovereignty Campaign. The people did not have jobs or income. They occupied the land. The municipality, three government departments, lots of lawyers, the police and a mining company all worked together to throw the Ithemba Farmers off the land. They all failed and they are still failing. Why? Because the Ithemba Farmers mobilised themselves and the Food Sovereignty Campaign mobilised supporters from as far as Pella, 700km away in the Northern Cape. We physically stopped those who tried to evict the farmers. Today the Ithemba farmers are making a living on the land that they otherwise would not have had. That is a victory!’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">South Africa’s political system and governing elite are of course quite hostile to these kinds of land occupations. Property rights are enshrined in the constitution of the country. The land reform programme is based on a ‘willing buyer, willing seller’ model, where private land owners have absolute discretion over whether to sell and at what price. They have priced the land not only out of reach of land hungry blacks, but often even out of reach of the state. There is no provision in law, like that of Brazil, which allow hungry people to grow food on unused land of absent owners. Some municipalities have gone so far as to create special ‘anti-land invasion’ police units that quickly developed a reputation for ruthless brutality. Despite this the Food Sovereignty Campaign insists that the land starved poor have no choice but to keep land occupations in their strategic arsenal. ‘We see land occupations as legitimate,’ explains Ricado Jacobs on behalf of the campaign. ‘Our actions do not conform to the constitution, we understand that. But for us that is fine as we see the constitution as seriously flawed. This neo-liberal, capitalist constitution claims to give equal protection to the rich and the poor, but all it does is to consolidate wealth for the few and poverty for the many. Through land occupations the poor can take steps to agrarian reform and food sovereignty without waiting on the capitalist state.’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In May this year Julius Malema, the president of the ANC Youth League, called for the expropriation of white owned farm land without compensation. This must be considered an election ploy to gain votes for the ANC by tapping into black frustration with persisting Apartheid land ownership patterns. The ANC Youth League claims a membership of hundreds of thousands and a support base of millions. They have millions of rands and a huge apparatus for organising and propaganda. If they were serious about expropriating rich, white farmers they could organise land occupations that would eclipse even that of the MST in Brazil. That they have not organised a single one should not surprise us. Land occupations attack both the authority of the state and the rights of the capitalist owners of production resources and therefore threaten the foundations of the capitalist system. The ANC Youth League and its leadership are part and parcel of this system. Recently the newspaper <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">City Press</i> ran an exposé of the personal finances of Julius Malema that showed how the Youth League leader benefits to the tune of hundreds of millions of rands (some even say billions) from the state capitalist system. No wonder he and his colleagues say so much but won’t <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">do</i> anything about this system.</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The Food Sovereignty Campaign has only a few hundred members and practically no money but with these land occupations it is taking actions with revolutionary implications. It has demonstrated that all you need to do this, is a politics that values the people above the state and the capitalist class. This should be seen as only a beginning, and a small one – but it is the beginning of a movement with huge potential. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"> </span></span></span></div></div>Ronald Wessohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09126051532649094337noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-697569149475961083.post-5569973545462795302011-08-10T06:59:00.000-07:002011-08-10T06:59:35.136-07:00AN ILLEGAL STRIKE?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><span> <div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">In the middle of its members in the cleaning sector going out on a national strike, the South African Transport and Allied Workers Union (SATAWU) on 8 August found time to issue a press statement entitled ‘<span style="color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">SATAWU condemns the illegal strike action of Gautrain bus drivers’. The statement is short (six lines), but striking for its emotional language. Its opening phrase contains the words ‘condemns in the strongest words possible’. Whoever is being condemned here must be indisputably guilty of a most reprehensible act. </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">As the title indicates the condemned in this case are Mega Express bus drivers contracted to Gautrain. The actions of the drivers that provoked this strongest possible condemnation was that they embarked on a strike that the union describes as ‘illegal’. In the six line statement the word illegal is used four times to describe and condemn the actions of the bus drivers. Strangely the statement admits that the union lacks direct knowledge of what the workers are doing. They are issuing this statement based on ‘media reports’. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The truth is that there is no such thing as an illegal strike. When workers strike they merely withdraw their labour. They cannot be guilty of an illegal or criminal act as no one is legally obligated to work. The Labour Relations Act makes provision for a distinction between procedural and unprocedural strikes. In the case of procedural strikes workers have applied for and given the required notification and they therefore have a certain level of legal protection against dismissal. With unprocedural strikes they have forgone the required notifications and are liable to be dismissed. That is all. They are not guilty of anything illegal and they should not be accused, least of all by ‘their’ union. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">The fact that SATAWU would condemn the workers for an illegal act that they could not possibly commit and would take care to side with the employers by saying, ‘</span><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">We wish to publicly say SATAWU did not declare any mutual interest dispute with Bombela Operating Company the owners of Gautrain,’ indicate a deep problem regarding the relationship between workers, unions, employers and the law. Workers risk dismissal by the employers, and condemnation and abandonment by union leaders precisely because the laws favours the employers to such a degree that staying within it often makes strike action ineffective. The drawn out procedures are intended to minimise the disruptive power of strikes, which is exactly what employers want and workers often cannot bear. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: black; font-family: "Arial", "sans-serif";">Typically the SATAWU statement does not explain why the ‘illegal’ actions would be bad. Precisely because this ‘legalism’ is in the interests of the union leaders who fear the threats to their money and jobs that possible liability suits may pose. But workers cannot start with this fundamentalist commitment to stay within the law. The law has not been made by or for them. They know that to get justice you often have to break the law. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><strong>SATAWU condemns the illegal strike action of Gautrain bus drivers</strong><br />
SATAWU PRESS STATEMENT </div></span><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif"; font-size: 7.5pt; line-height: 115%;">8 August 2011</span><span lang="EN-ZA" style="color: black; font-family: "Trebuchet MS", "sans-serif"; font-size: 5.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><br />
<br />
The South African Transport & Allied Workers Unions (SATAWU) condemns in the strongest words possible the actions of Mega Express bus drivers who are contracted to Gautrain. According to media reports, these workers are currently on an illegal strike. <a href="" name="OLE_LINK2"></a><a href="" name="OLE_LINK1"><span style="mso-bookmark: OLE_LINK2;">We wish to publicly say SATAWU did not declare any mutual interest dispute with Bombela Operating Company the owners of Gautrain. </span></a>SATAWU does not condone any illegal action taken by its members.<br />
<br />
The decision to embark on an illegal strike and march to Bombela’s offices to demand a salary adjustment is quite regrettable. SATAWU strongly condemns this action, our national office has instructed the Gauteng provincial executive to investigate the matter and provide a full report on the context under which the decision to strike was taken.<br />
<br />
Issued by SATAWU Secretariat<br />
<br />
For further enquiries contact: <br />
<br />
Assaria Mataboge –Passenger bus sector coordinator – 082 379 0927<br />
<br />
Ephraim Mphahlele – Gauteng Provincial Chairperson 072 111 8131</span></div>Ronald Wessohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09126051532649094337noreply@blogger.com0South Africa-30.559482 22.937505999999985-36.9802885 14.554905999999985 -24.138675499999998 31.320105999999985tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-697569149475961083.post-28631287455124638852011-08-07T13:20:00.000-07:002011-08-07T13:23:13.934-07:00STRATEGIC CHALLENGES FOR THE SERVICE DELIVERY PROTESTORS IN SOUTH AFRICA<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The central issue of South African politics seems to be that poverty and inequality are growing after 17 years of government by an ANC that claims addressing these are its top priorities. Various attempts are currently underway to build movements of poor people capable of actions to lessen and end poverty and inequality, or at least of forcing the state to take such actions. It is hard. People are depressed to be fighting a struggle they thought they had won. The lack of resources and organisers make movement building an exhausting responsibility carried by a tiny group of activists. Yet the main challenges are political; five issues confront these activists, and the approaches they develop to them will largely determine the liberatory potential of the movements they manage to build. These issues are 1. Racism 2. The political system 3. Forms of protest and organisation, 4. Sexism and 5. Alienation.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">1.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Racism</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The end of Apartheid understandably did not end the racism that it depended on, but the expectation was that it would steadily lose power and die out in the new South Africa. It did not die, today it is arguably stronger. White identity and self awareness, which is racism’s starting point, is as acute among the young generation as among the old. South African whites officially belong to the most privileged ethnic group on the planet. Nevertheless, so steeped are they in the racist expectation of white superiority and black nothingness, that they saturate every discussion forum with enraged complaints about the minute minority of blacks among the business and state elite. Every black capitalist and manager, every black rugby player, is held up as evidence of racist discrimination against whites. The creation of anti-racist politics is thus made both urgent and difficult. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The first difficulty concerns definition. Whites can only be imagined to suffer under racism if it is defined as any feeling or act of hostility against a group identified by the colour of their skin. Under this definition to dislike people or deny them something desirable because of their whiteness would indeed be racism. But this definition does not describe the racism that happens to black people. Racism to blacks is a system that invests hundreds of years, billions of any currency of capital, and the lies and violence of generations of humans into establishing their inferiority. Until this inferiority becomes real, a socially created and recreated reality, but still real. Blacks become less; less good at mathematics, less good at leadership, they live in lesser housing, do lesser jobs, are less tolerant of lesbians, and whether they live or die in dirty, overcrowded hospitals is less of an issue. The sum total of this is what constitutes racism. Whiteness, the white identity, the white community was specifically created to mobilise enough people to do this thing to black people. It is this racism that goes unnamed in South Africa. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Several things flow from all of this. Merely describing yourself as white is a racist act if it is coupled with a claim that whiteness must be accommodated. White people do not experience racism as there is no system that condemns them to inferiority. In fact the opposite is true, there are good anti-racist reasons to dislike whites and deny them positions of privilege. Racism survived and is growing not in spite of the manner in which Apartheid ended but because of it. The new South Africa was based on the agreement that white people would keep the property and privileges they accumulated through colonialism and Apartheid; to take it away was made unconstitutional. By this same act the dispossession and inferiority of black people was made a side issue, something the government would try to address after they have protected the property and other constitutional rights that everybody, but whites in particular have. Who has property and access to media, housing and healthcare? The old idea of non-racialism pioneered by IB Tabata’s Unity Movement was completely inverted, and thereby subverted. This idea held that everyone would enjoy equal protections after the abolition of white privilege. Instead we have equal protection for white privilege and black inferiority.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In this society of virulent but misdiagnosed racism the assertion of black solidarity is made to seem nonsense. Black people are compelled to try and get together and do something by the sheer weight of their marginalisation, their lack of housing, their landlessness, their crappy schools. But as who, against whom? To come together as blacks against whiteness would break with the cherished myth of the rainbow nation with its glorious constitution, its beloved heroic first president and its oldest movement of national liberation. So racism cannot be named and the role of the constitution and the ANC in defending it cannot be identified. And even where it can be, it seems too powerful to be amenable to the intervention of people with so little. Therefore, instead of asserting black solidarity against whiteness and its collaborators people act out the anti-black structure of the society by asserting against other blacks whatever alternative identities available to them. They are South Africans against foreigners, Indians and coloureds against Africans, Africans in particular against minorities, proper men against women and gays. As ever the purpose of scapegoats is to be sacrificed in the place of others that are actually guilty of the deed that needs atonement but are more valued and powerful than the luckless goats.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Scapegoating among black communities is perhaps the most powerful obstacle to movement building at present. To overcome it activists have to win a struggle to put racism in its place so to speak. Protests, discussions and mobilisations must direct attention to what racism is and to how it systematically impoverish and humiliate <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">all</i> black people (even if not equally so) at the same time as it endows privilege on every white person, although also to different degrees. The struggle is therefore against whiteness as a category of privilege, even in cases where the immediate targets of mobilisation are black people such as politicians and business people, the gripe is that they play a role in maintaining the system of white supremacy. This is the only way to overcome the disabling divisions among blacks and lay the basis for a powerful movement of the poor. Attempts to create a non-racial unity focused not on racism but either on a common citizenship such as the liberals suggest, or a common class agenda such as the Marxists want, are bound to fail. People have an acute and ultimately realistic sense of the importance of race. Therefore the key to building strong movements of the black working class is the willingness to centre the struggle against whiteness and racism.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">To do so, to address the so called national question that is as old as South Africa itself, might enable the building of movements of the black poor that can mobilise enough resources and people to enforce their will, but the liberatory potential of such movements depend in the last analysis on the type of social relationships they create in the place of the racist ones of the present. Historically the movements of black people against racist oppression fought under the banner of nationalism, the goal was the foundation of a new nation or the refoundation of an old one, free of racist discrimination. The present generation of anti-racist activists will either continue in this tradition or they will create a new one that starts with the interrogation of the essential failure of anti-racist nationalism. Just as an attempted anti-racist capitalism is severely limited by capital’s dependence on the exploitation of blacks, the weight of racism is such that the creation of a nation state with its subjection of the majority to the authority of presidents, ministers, generals and judges, make those in authority predisposed to be co-opted by the ruling classes of Europe and America and thereby leaves the subjects under the reign of racism. This is certainly what happened to black nationalism up to now. In fact, available evidence suggests that black liberation is incompatible with any kind of authority and is an anarchist project striving in all spheres of society for relationships based on self-management, direct democracy and voluntary mutual aid. Even those activists not comfortable with this position has the task of explaining how anti-racism can avoid the formation of black elites that lead the people right back to subjection under global white supremacy. </span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">2.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The political system</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A group of six policemen killed the unarmed AndriesTatane by beating him savagely and then shooting him twice without showing the slightest hesitation or remorse. Tatane was taking part in a protest march through which impoverished black residents of Ficksburg was trying to put pressure on the municipality to improve the delivery of certain crucial services, particularly water that has been cut off for long periods. The irony was as cruel as the beating as the police targeted Tatane because he intervened when they turned a water cannon on elderly people and the town’s mayor was later shown to respond by saying ‘People complain that there is no water in this town. But what is this?’ as he opened a fridge in his office and took out a bottle of mineral water. General Bheki Cele, the commissioner of police, visited the town to plead with the family of AndriesTatane for forgiveness, to reassure the community that the killer policemen would be prosecuted, that police brutality against poor protestors was the responsibility of a few corrupt police officers and not the police as a whole. National and local ANC leaders swarmed the town promising the Tatane family a house and the community quick corrective action. In the local elections, shortly after, the township residents voted overwhelmingly for the ANC. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">What was exceptional about the situation around AndriesTatane? Perhaps only the media broadcast of his death and the subsequent public outcry. The other elements of the story are quite usual, even day to day, in South Africa. Poor people protesting against getting bad or no services from municipalities, and being met with indifference or condemnation from politicians, and contempt and brutality from police; this happens all the time. The assault and killing of protestors is becoming a regular thing. Even the elements that resulted from the protestors succeeding in winning public attention beyond their locality have happened many times before. The examples of Khutsong and Harrismith come to mind, with national state leaders visiting to distance themselves from the hated local ones and promising decisive intervention. Likewise, people in these protest hotspots continued to vote for the ANC, with the exception of the once off 2006 boycott in Khutsong. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The question facing black working class activists is the relationship between their struggles and the political system. The death of Hector Pieterson symbolised the utter antagonism between the system of Apartheid and the emancipation of the black masses. For the one to triumph, the other had to die, and both sides understood it to be so. The police killed Andries Tatane in a more brutal manner than they did Hector Pieterson, the images of the deed that were broadcast were also more graphic in the Tatane case, yet the death of Andries Tatane has not acquired a similar political meaning as that of Hector Pieterson. The black masses and their activist champions see the political system as their flawed, unfaithful friend. In this view, some institutions and people that are part of it may be corrupted, some policies and structures may be clearly anti-poor, some trends towards self-enrichment among the ANC may be worrying, but by and large the ANC, parliament, municipalities, the courts, the police, the government and, of course, the constitution is seen as allies rather than enemies in the struggle against black poverty and its associated social ills. The more self-consciously anti-neoliberal groups among the black working class are instructive in this regard. Often they condemn a particular act or part of the political system, while calling on the support of another one. Even the ones that have socialism written into their basic programmes do not in their public activities give the impression of a rejection of the political system as a whole and the constitution in particular. Frustration with the political system runs deep but at the same time it is clear that the black masses are not involved in a revolutionary struggle against it as they were against Apartheid by 1976.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">South Africa’s politics has to change, but how exactly? Starting from the least radical scenario to the more so, the possibilities would include the following:</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 43.5pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">1.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The ANC stays in power, but corrupt, incompetent and selfish leaders are replaced by conscientious ones. The new leaders implement existing policies better.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 43.5pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">2.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A party with similar policies but with less corrupt and incompetent leaders defeats the ANC in elections.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 43.5pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">3.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The ANC stays in power, but its policies shift towards egalitarian, redistributive ones.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 43.5pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">4.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A party to the left of the ANC wins the elections and shifts state policy in an egalitarian, redistributive direction.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 43.5pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">5.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A leftist party or group overthrows the ANC and seizes control of the state, which it uses as an instrument to enforce redistribution.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 43.5pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">6.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A revolutionary socialist party leads a mass uprising, overthrows both the ANC and the capitalist state and founds a new, socialist state.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 43.5pt; mso-add-space: auto; mso-list: l1 level1 lfo2; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">7.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">An anarchistic mass uprising overthrows all political parties and states and puts an end to political institutions that give any one person the authority to make decisions for any other person; instead it creates a political system based on self-management, direct democracy and voluntary co-operation and solidarity. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Of course a changed South Africa with greater inequalities of wealth and power might be more likely than any of these seven scenarios. The value of these scenarios lies in their power to prefigure, not predict. Free beings do not predict their future, they create it. Every act of resistance against the politics of neo-liberal capitalism contributes to some extent towards bringing one of these scenarios into reality. If activist groups confine themselves, as many do, to working for the removal of some ANC leaders, but do not challenge either the party’s hold on state power or its fundamental policy direction, then surely they are working towards scenario 1 above and nothing more. If they challenge the ANC’s policies, but, also as many do, loyally defend its power, then they are working towards scenario 3. In this manner all acts and groups can be understood in terms of the particular outcome they are working for, some self-consciously having considered and rejected all the other options, others by default for not having done such a consideration.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This work of consideration is now urgent. It is simply not possible to build strong movements without clear, considered political vision to provide motivation and unity of purpose. In addition, the dominant ideas in a society tend to be supportive of its dominant classes, therefore the default position in South African politics tend to give preference to the interests of whites over blacks, rich over poor, male over female, and those with power over those without. The default position is the constitution, with its promise of equal protection for the exploiters and the exploited. It is in any case not worthy of people who want to be free to allow themselves to be determined in this way! Lastly and most importantly, the results of considering which of the above scenarios to fight for will determine the limits of a particular group’s liberatory potential and its ethical orientation. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Scenario 7 speaks of a political system where no one person has the power to make a choice for any other person. In addition all the participants in the system are committed to work together to increase the available choices for everyone. It breaks with the antagonism between collective, communal endeavour and individual freedom that is the basis of capitalist society. Instead it declares that the purpose of free communities is to protect and expand the freedom of its individual members. It is implacably opposed to the state, to political parties, to any organisational form that concentrates the power to make decisions in the hands of some, thereby taking it away from others. As such, anarchism is the greatest political freedom so far imagined. All of the other scenarios include the maintenance of oppressive political relations where some people make decisions for others, and force them, by means of the state, to obey.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Only an anarchist approach can express in politics the old humanist ethical perspective of a ‘<em><span style="font-family: "Calibri", "sans-serif"; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman";">categorical imperative to overthrow all relations</span></em> in which man (sic) is a debased, enslaved forsaken, despicable being.....’ It is the commitment to fight the oppressive conditions that confronts us now, and the ones that can confront us tomorrow. Therefore every activist in the struggles of the black poor has every reason to make this his or her guiding perspective. After all, why build movements today that will produce the oppressors of tomorrow? Again?</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">3.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Protest and organisation</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The so called service delivery protests, such as the one Andries Tatane was taking part in, started in the late 1990s and grew to become an integral part of the political situation in South Africa. Estimates run into thousands per year, with a high of 10000 for some years. Some of them may be initiated by individuals or small unorganised groups, but most are enacted by established community organisations after deliberation around failed attempts to spur state organs to action through courteous communication. In the more spontaneous cases, people then tend to move quickly to establish a crisis committee, community forum or concerned group. If this gives the impression of a strong movement of the black poor, it would, at least in some ways, be wrong.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Thousands of protests is of course a high number if it is compared to zero, but certainly the true measure of protest action lies in its effectiveness. How to measure this? The typical service delivery protest starts as a march to the municipal office to hand over a memorandum to the mayor setting out the problems, detailing previous efforts to solve them and making demands. The mayor gets a specific time period to respond, to set up an urgent meeting of the stake holders, and to take action. Failure to do so will invite more protest action with greater disruption such as the burning of tyres and the erection of barricades. National and provincial government will be called in, and perhaps also the Human Rights Commission and other such institutions. The withholding of votes in the next election is threatened. The numbers of participants in these marches are typically low. Even in the big cities a march of say 500 people would be unusual, the participants tend to number closer to a hundred. In instances where protestors burn tyres and erect barricades the number of participants tends to drop. The idea behind the protests is to put enough pressure on municipalities, or whichever state organ in question, to get them to include the poor in decision making and deliver basic services to them. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">From this point of view, how effective are these protests? The people who initiated, organised and took part in the service delivery protests of the last decade and a half are the true carriers of the best traditions of the struggles against colonialism and Apartheid. To do what they did they often had to risk their resources, their peace of mind and, yes, their lives. Some, like Andries Tatane, paid the ultimate price. Yet it would hard, and perhaps disrespectful, to argue that they have succeeded to any significant degree to win for the poor the deeply desired democratic power and social resources that form the inspiration behind the protests. For the protestors and their supporters the urgent question should be, ‘How to make the protests more effective?’<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The experiences of the protests offer some lessons that are borne out by and itself bears out lessons of the histories of liberation struggles more generally. These include:</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpFirst" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Escalate the protests in scale and disruptiveness.</i> The constraint to this is in large part a lack of resources, but often it is a question of perspective. State representatives demand of activists to tone down or abandon protest while dialogue, investigations and interventions are in progress, but the behaviour of these very representatives calls such a position into question. Without the protests the marginalisation of the poor is effected and then accepted as a given. It is protest that gets these officials moving and it is actions that disrupt at least part of the system that gets them moving faster. Have a march and expect at least a letter to acknowledge receipt of the one you sent months ago, block a major road and expect an audience with a national leader. Have several local groups co-ordinate these kinds of actions and see the flurry of the power elite. As a rule even the most limited social changes that support the emancipation of the poor require radical activist action that breaks with the norms and even laws of liberal capitalist politics. Sometimes activists are distracted from a focus on protest action not by an express demand but by a process that appears quite friendly, where government, NGOs or political groups offer support by inviting community leaders into dialogues, consultations, workshops and projects that saps the time, energy and inclination for protest. The results are not quite the same, but in both cases the interests of the majority has no chance of a hearing. </span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Prepare for the probability of state violence and repression.</i> Protestors have various tactics they can choose from to protect them from state violence and repression. These include making arrangements for recording, communications and publicity as well as practicing for mutual protection and self-defence. Few protests in South Africa are preceded by these kinds of preparations. This despite the presence of police violence from the earliest days of the service delivery protests and the signs lately that the state is becoming more authoritarian. Perhaps people are lulled into a sense of safety by the constant propaganda in praise of the constitution and the rights it is supposed to bestow on everyone, even on poor, black people. The facts of police brutality speak otherwise. Black skins are still an invitation to violence, and the planners of protests have to take this into account and make the necessary preparations. <span style="mso-tab-count: 2;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Favour direct action over indirect.</i> The groups that had the most success both in terms of forcing concessions from the ruling class and in terms of building their own capacity for action were those that were able to directly lay hold of resources and transfer them to the poor. Occupying land, removing water blockages and connecting households to electricity all address impoverishment directly. It does not wait for state officials to do so. It is this self-emancipation of the poor that the rich and their governments fear more than anything else. Even when the power elites make forced concessions in the face of indirect actions such as marches and negotiations it is because they fear the protestors might go ahead and seize what they need.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The necessity for direct action also flows from the need of activist groups to capture the imagination of the masses. It demonstrates a seriousness of purpose and a depth of feeling against injustice that not only requires but also inspires the bravery and commitment characteristic of successful movements for social change. </span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Finally, movements of the poor need direct action precisely because they are movements of the poor. The poorest sections of society, the temporary workers, farm dwellers, rural people in former homelands, the unemployed and shack dwellers, are also the least organised. Poverty leaves no money to sustain organisers, the struggle for survival leaves little time and energy for the work of organising. Groups flare up and then die out quickly or become the turf of a more or less bureaucratic group that use their leadership positions to strike bargains for their own benefit with political parties, state organs or NGOs. Movements of the poor can only survive for any length of time if it fuses the struggle for survival with the work of organising. Only direct action makes this possible. </span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt; mso-list: l2 level1 lfo3; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Symbol; mso-bidi-font-family: Symbol; mso-fareast-font-family: Symbol;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;">·<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Oppose the organisational methods of capitalist society.</i> Participation in the service delivery protests is uneven. A minority of people have more time, commitment, resources and energy to contribute, which puts them into a position of a vanguard that through a process of organisation inspires, mobilises and co-ordinates wider circles. From their ranks come the presidents, chairpersons and executive members when the seemingly unavoidable time comes to establish a formal organisation. </span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In many if not most protesting communities the establishment of a formal organisation, going as it does together with the election of executive members, are followed by internal conflicts about control that often paralyse. At issue is not only the different options the organisation must choose from, but who gets to make the decisions and who must carry them out. The essence of community struggles is arguably co-operation between equals. One can go further and argue that in its most emancipatory and therefore truest form, the struggles of oppressed communities seek to change society into a gigantic association of freely co-operating equals, the abolition of all oppression. The methods and structures of the organisations of capitalist society make a careful distinction between leaders and followers by bestowing on the former a privileged role in decision making as well as an apparatus for enforcing this privilege. Capitalist society needs to operate through presidents, CEOs and chairs precisely because it needs to diminish the decision making power of the majority, of those at the bottom. When working class organisations adopt the same methods and structures the results are the same – a constant conflict over the suppression of the majority, or of a dissenting minority for that matter.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Two factors make these conflicts especially paralysing in the case of the current service delivery struggles. Firstly, the organisations are new with limited resources and capacities; therefore they often lack a leadership whose authority is accepted to a sufficient degree to ensure the functioning of the organisation in spite of the conflicts. The smallest of challenges to the leadership are then enough to destabilise the organisation and consume its time and resources. Secondly clear differences on the big political questions have seldom had time to find expression. Among the factions contending for the positions of chairman and secretary, who are the revolutionaries, who the reformists? Communities do not know and cannot unite behind one or the other in a manner that will create a leadership with the authority to run strong organisations. Organisational methods that oppose the establishment of hierarchies of power are therefore an immediate tactical necessity for the current service delivery struggles to grow.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Ultimately activists have to make a choice. If they want an organisation that is nothing but a free co-operation between equals, they will have to break away from organising in the manner of capitalist organisations and find the methods such as assemblies, spokescouncils, affinity groups and recallable, rotating delegates that make such an organisation possible. If they want a society of freely co-operating equals then they have no choice. The executives and presidents and general secretaries will never take them there. The types of organisations they decide to build now determine the types of organisations they will achieve in the future; it determines even the type of society.</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpMiddle" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0pt 36pt;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoListParagraphCxSpLast" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">4.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Sexism</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Who was the world’s first feminist president? </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Thabo Mbeki was a determined neo-liberal capitalist when he was the president. It is not that he was indifferent to the suffering of the poor; he just acted as if the solution to poverty and its associated ills could only be achieved if the businesses of the country were able to compete and win on the world market. He therefore, like Nelson Mandela before him, took care to satisfy and exceed the policy demands of the people that control the most lucrative sections of that world market – the World Bank, the IMF, the World Trade Organisation, the governments of the US and European Union. Domestically he used the policies and resources of the state to support those businesses most able to compete, meaning big business. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Within this framework, Mbeki confronted sexism or at least aspects of it. He certainly cracked the reinforced glass ceiling that sees women so scandalously underrepresented in the upper levels of politics and business. Under his presidency the numbers of women in senior positions in the state grew so fast that it outstripped countries that had similar programmes for much longer. A woman became deputy president of the country, and women made up half of the provincial premiers and ANC municipal councillors. State rhetoric and even policy began to take on a focus on women’s empowerment and it became more difficult to tender successfully for government business without at least one woman as business partner. In his person he represented an enlightened, liberated approach to women and sexuality, rather than a traditionalist, patriarchal one. It could be argued that under the presidency of Thabo Mbeki the empowerment and upliftment of women was taken as far as it could go within a neo-liberal capitalist framework. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This was of course not far at all as it did not change the fact that neo-liberalism is inherently supportive of male supremacy. The dog eats dog competition it pretends to stand for is actually a dog eats puppy struggle where powerful politicians and rich businessmen prey mercilessly on those poorer and more vulnerable than them. Generations of sexist discrimination has made black women the poorest and most vulnerable group, and neo-liberalism therefore made them the targets for the worst violence, unemployment, precarious work, inferior social services, HIV/AIDS, landlessness and poverty. Black working class women were no better off, and in some respects worse off, at the end of Mbeki’s neo-liberal presidency than at its beginning. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">However, the feministic rhetoric and the gains by middle class women were enough to provoke an enraged reaction. An important element of the motley alliance that backed Zuma against Mbeki was a patriarchy exasperated by the numerous pinpricks associated with the Mbeki era and determined to make certain things very clear. Women’s rights were fine, as long as it is understood that there was nothing wrong with men’s rights, which happened to include the right to have and be proper leaders, not incompetents foisted on the people by quotas, as well as the right to have culture and tradition and enjoy the privileges bestowed on males by these. The reaction affected broad circles in the black community as manifested for example in the rise of violence against lesbians. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Activists seeking to conduct the struggles for decent social services and democratic power for the poor with a consistent feminist focus on sexism are likely to get into trouble with this patriarchal reaction, which sometimes lead people to see feminism as a distraction and divisive. The temptation to compromise and drop or water down feminism for the sake of peace among the poor in the war on the rich will be intense, but the reasons to stick to a feminist approach are strong. It is of course not feminism that divides people into men and women and enlists the former to participate in the oppression of the latter; it is sexism. Women will and do revolt against this oppression, the only question is – will the current service delivery protest groups be vehicles or targets of this revolt?</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Wherever service delivery protests have crystallised into movements, women have tended to be in the majority among members precisely because they have had the status of most-favoured-targets with neo-liberal states and companies for the longest time. Invariably and inevitably the women members demand of these movements, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">their</i> movements, what amounts to action against sexism. In the cases where male leaders and members were able to suppress or ignore this demand it had a demobilising effect, with women either dropping out, or members becoming involved in paralysing conflicts, or the movements becoming more moderate in their opposition to neo-liberalism, or a combination of the three. The movements that have listened to this demand and made it their own, in contrast, could count on the energetic participation and courageous loyalty of their women members as a source of inspiration and growth. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Of course this does not mean that a feminist focus guarantees short term success. The opposite is quite possible; the reactionary reassertion of the patriarchal rights of men often makes it more difficult for feminist orientated activists to organise. In the short term groups that steer clear of a feminist approach might find the work of mobilising people if not easier then at least more comfortable. They would seemingly avoid having to fight on yet another front. It does not take long, however, for the strategic benefits of a feminist approach to service delivery struggle to overshadow the discomforts patriarchal defensiveness are able to impose on its challengers. The struggles of the poor cannot be separated from the struggles of poor women.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">A society without poverty and inequality will have done away with the social practices and relationships that cause these evils. Violence, forced separation, unrewarded labour, discrimination, regimentation, inferiority, exclusion, dehumanisation – all of these types of things will have to go. But these are the stuff that sexism is made of. If the service delivery protests are animated, as they arguably are, by more than just a desire for a specific service, then it is also driven by an assertion of a human dignity that is incompatible with impoverishment and the inequalities it produces. This dignity and sexism are mortal enemies. </span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt; mso-list: l0 level1 lfo1; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri;"><span style="mso-list: Ignore;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">5.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></span></span><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Alienation</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">What are the obstacles to an approach that seeks to integrate the struggles of the poor for decent services and democratic power with attempts to do away with white privilege, the capitalist state, authoritarian organisations and institutionalised sexism? The truth is that whatever the weight of reason and evidence behind such an approach, it goes against the common sense and assumptions that underlie most social interactions in South Africa today. In the scope of the liberation it seeks, and in demanding of itself immediacy in the practice of this liberation, this approach goes against the very grain of capitalist society, its institutions and its culture. The state and business corporations are here, like elsewhere, the crucial institutional bearers of this culture, but in the black community long excluded from membership of these bodies except in the most menial roles, the ANC was the main embodiment of capitalist social relations in the political sphere.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">This reflects firstly in the relationship of the ANC to its individual members. In the official ideology of the ANC, the movement is everything, the individual nothing. The members relate to the movement as subjects to a god. Even the words ‘the movement’ is said with a religious awe, and the most powerful ANC leaders always present themselves as simple, disempowered ‘deployees’ that go wherever they are mandated to go, and cannot imagine living outside the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">movement</i>. This attitude is promoted as an anti-dote to capitalist ‘individualism’, but it actually reproduces the type of oppressive relationship typical of capitalist society.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">In pre-capitalist societies oppression typically involved subordination to a particular person. In unstable situations such subordination was based on interpersonal violence; in more stable ones the violence was supplemented by the power of the idea that some are just born to rule over others. Even that great abstraction, the state, was based on subordination to a particular person, the king. In the capitalist era the violence continued in a different way, the idea of born rulers was largely replaced by an idea (found in a million guises) of carefully selected and specially qualified rulers, and both were supplemented and overshadowed by the idea, or rather the fetish of collective service to a great, supra-personal abstraction. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Workers in a particular firm are not subordinated to their bosses in the same way as serfs, slaves and commoners were to their lords and masters. In the capitalist firm the lord and master is the pursuit of profit, which both workers and bosses experience as a relentless external pressure, a fetish that everyone has to obey on pain of deprivation by an impersonal force called the ‘market’. Workers accept subordination to bosses not because they fear assault or they think the bosses are a superior type of human, but because if they refuse they either face dismissal or the firm will go under, with the same result. When it comes to society as a whole profit’s pursuit is called ‘economic growth’ or ‘the national economy’ and is similarly fetishized. Capitalist parties may differ in their methods but serving ‘the economy’ is their unquestioned goal. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><a href="http://www.blogger.com/" name="_GoBack"></a><span style="font-family: Calibri;">But when a capitalist party is based in a community where capitalism is discredited a problem arises. Such a community do not share in the fetish of pursuing profit, not at the level of the firm and not at the social level, so something extra is needed to ensure their subordination to the capitalist system. Historically such parties used two options, firstly to increase levels of violence against dissidents within the community, and secondly to make the pursuit of its own power into a fetish. The party itself becomes the great abstraction demanding of members to alienate their human capacities to freely think, decide and create jointly, and hand it over to the ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the </i>party’ or ‘<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">the</i> movement’. People then become the subordinates of capital through subordination to this party. This is precisely what happened with the ANC.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">The problem is that whenever service delivery struggles have produced stable movements there has been a tendency to reproduce this alienating ideology of the ANC with its hatred of personal liberty and human individuality. Of course these movements are at an early stage of development with less centralisation and more appreciation for local autonomy. But the early signs are of similar attempts to create a closed off world with strict distinction between outsiders and insiders and a total identification of members with the idea of the movement, an identification that demands sacrificing public dissent and even diversity. There is no recognition of the possibility of loyal, public criticism. In public people are either uncritical of the movement or enemies of the poor. Since at least the middle 1980s most political and activist organisations of blacks have started as breakaways from the ANC that was dissatisfied with policy and leadership, but have not developed a critique of the ANC’s organisational ideology. Without such a critique it has proved impossible to avoid and overcome the reproduction of the problems associated with authoritarianism and subordination inherent in this ideology. </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">If this makes change for service delivery protest movements very difficult it is because that is exactly what it is intended to do. Courage and encouragement are required. In the absence of one of the recurring mass revolts against capitalist society the promoters of revolutionary change for universal emancipation are likely to be a put upon minority. Such an uprising will come soon enough.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;">Ronald Wesso, July 2011</span></div><div class="MsoListParagraph" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 10pt 36pt;"><br />
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</div><div closure_uid_gr698y="105"></div></div>Ronald Wessohttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09126051532649094337noreply@blogger.com0