Humanist Socialism

As the euphoria of the Rainbow Nation wanes South African politics are evidently showing signs of not being at ease with themselves, especially inside the Tripartite Alliance [African National Congress (ANC), Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) & South African Communist Party (SACP)]. There major divisions are over the economic direction the country has taken since 1994, after its first non-racial elections.

In the eyes of the hoi polli the present South African government has fully embraced the neo-liberal, free-market ideology that has generated economic opportunities for the few while leaving the majority of the population poor and disillusioned. President Thabo Mbeki is seen to be the driver behind this course, something that is starting to make him very unpopular among the hoi polli.

At first the neo-liberal model appeared to be vindicated as South African economic achievements—that includes strong currency, low inflation rate, and a substantial rise in exports—became evident. The South African government fiscal books are in reasonably healthy order. But the very economic success has hurt labour, especially unskilled labour which is the majority in SA. It is not creating jobs fast enough, while at the same time loosing them to modern machinery at an unacceptable rate.

The South African economic growth of around 4.4 per cent, and forecast growth of 6 per cent, is much lower than other major developing countries, which in turn hurts its competitive advantage. The consequent of this are scarce foreign investment in the country. Even domestic companies, though with above average fiscal health and liquid cash prefer to take a wait and see approach, seating on huge amounts of reserve, or consolidating themselves globally by taking over foreign companies. What’s more, foreign investment and GDP per head in SA are also much more below than countries like Brazil and India it wants to compete with. It is this combination that hurts labour most and gives pro left economic theorists ammunition against the Mbeki neo-liberals economic stance.

The glaring signs of discontent within the hoi polli were already blatantly obvious when president Mbeki fired his deputy president Jacob Zuma (JZ) for bringing the government into disrepute since he was found by the court of law to have had ‘a generally corrupt relationship’ with a convicted South African businessman. A lot of people on the ground, and within the ANC, especially the other two members of the Tripartite Alliance, were not happy about the decision.

Signs of voluble frustration were heard from the youth league of the ANC also, who unequivocally supports JZ. They say they see in him a champion of the poor and workers. JZ took advantage of this discontent and portrayed himself as a victim of conspiracy by the neo-liberals, because he happened to hold pro-worker values. There’s no doubt that JZ is more closer to the working class as opposed to the business bias of Mbeki. Consequently the business class distrust him, and fear what they see as his socialist tendencies. Academic analysts and media commentators, with their permanent distrust of the hoi polli, prevalently took the side of business entrepreneurship, defending neo-liberal, free market against left leaning organised labour.

What tightened the screws and upped the ante was the rape trial last year against JZ early this year—the court consequently acquitted JZ from these charges. The acquittal of JZ to his supporters was a vindication of his cause—he had early said the rape trial was part of the neo-liberal conspiracy against him. It gave him more confidence to face up to his critics and resurrect his presidential candidacy hopes. Now JZ can be seen, with thin veil, canvassing for the next presidency, something unheard of in the ANC whose president is appointed by its National Executive Committee. Of course the nomination for election is done by the various structures within the body of the ANC and it’s alliance partners, the COSATU and the SACP. All this has fostered a lot of heated debate among the chattering class of SA.

In the eyes of the hoi polli, the government though professing an option for the poor has done remarkably little more than social grants to address their plight. While social grants have eased the symptoms of poverty, they have done nothing to tackle their causes. And people are rather tired of the same old story of condemning the past apartheid regime for the present assaults of poverty on their human dignity. They see the new-look laissez-faire South Africa equally reprehensible for their plight. Hence the expedient opportunism of JZ has fallen on fallowed ground.

The best thing that came out of the so-called JZ (Jacob Zuma) saga in SA is a clearer, even if less convincing, political debate for the economic direction the country has taken. The JZ saga has roused the youth and the marginalized of the country to storm the barricades they feel are stumbling blocks between them and their hard won freedom. The poor hordes of country are angry and disgruntled. They have used the opportunity afforded by the JZ saga to stick their fingers up the arses of what they see as the political elitist nerve within their party, the ANC.

JZ’s expedient opportunism channelled the disgruntled enthusiasm of the hoi polli that was already creeping into the nooks and crannies of our politics. He became the long for Messiah, seemingly crucified for the disgruntlement of the poor. What’s more, he had an expanding influence within the political network of the ANC. All he needed to do was to embody the issues already raised by the ANC affiliates, like the unions and the re-emerging communists influence. And that he did expediently. All in all, JZ is the embodiment of the rebellious energy within the Tripartite Alliance.

I’ve already said that president Mbeki, in the eyes of the hoi polli, is seen as a technocratic leader, more aligned with Zeitgeist of liberal economic imperatives the hoi polli sees as the major source of their disentrancement. He has become the embodiment of the modern spirit that is disenfranchising the disgruntled hoi polli of less material and sophisticated means.

The JZ saga, of cause, is just a tinpot flare that rallies more on media publicity than real substance. It is destined to go out in smoke with the demise of all personality cults. What will remain striking the nerve within the ANC and its alliance partners is the sense of disconnection from the political elite the masses feel. If this sense of disconnection does not find satisfactory attention and proper channelling it’ll organize itself, first, into a cultural support group of the dissatisfied, ignored, abandoned, exploited, and forgotten, and unrepresented. And when it finds its Marx that’ll organise and codify its grievances into a sound intellectual political economy; it’ll then mature into a fully-fledged political party that will haunt the very roots of political economy in our country.

The challenge for this group is that it is not yet equipped with representative language of expression for its aspirations and ideas, hence it still relies on pop culture emotionalism and forcefulness, indeed even anarchism, in making its point with resultant polemical hyperbole intended to shut down debate or overthrow reason. More than ridiculing this movement though with verbose sarcasm, clumsy paradoxes and crude chiasmus, as our media has penchant for, it might be wise to fledge and engage it constructively.

The disconnected, or rather alienated, hoi polli is what Karl Marx’s philosophy protests against. It is against the dehumanisation and automatization of man inherent in the development of Western industrialisation. In the world today where capitalist hegemony is the order of the day, and the recent tragic failures of the Soviet bloc, the word “Socialism” belongs to the devil. It is one of the peculiarities of history how many people are ready to criticize Marxism without ever reading a single word Marx wrote.

I’m one of those people who are convinced that the only way to understand and deal with our present realities is by understanding the real meaning of Marxist thought. To differentiate it especially from the failed Soviet totalitarianism and Chinese state capitalism that Marx, in his much neglected Economic and Philosophic Manuscripts warned against as what he termed “crude communism”. Crude communism “appears in a double form; the domination of material property looms so large that it aims to destroy everything which is incapable of being possessed by everyone as private property. It wishes to eliminate talent, etc., by force . . . The role of worker is not abolished but extended to all men. The relation of private property remains the relation of the community to the world of things . . . This communism, which negates the personality of man in every sphere is . . . Universal envy setting itself up as a power, is only camouflaged form of cupidity which re-establishes itself and satisfies itself in a different way. The thoughts of every individual private property are at least directed against any wealthier private property, in the form of envy and the desire to reduce everything to a common level; so that this envy and levelling in fact constitute the essence of competition. Crude communism is only the culmination of such envy and levelling-down on the basis of a preconceived minimum. How little this abolishing of private property represents a genuine appropriation is shown by the abstract negation of the whole world of culture and civilisation, and the regression to the unnatural simplicity of the poor and wantless individual who has not only not surpassed private property but has not even attained to it. The community is only a community of work and of equality of wages paid out by the communal capital, by the community as universal capitalists. The two sides of the relation are raised to a supposed universality; labour as a condition in which everyone is placed, and capital as the acknowledged universality and power of the community.”

Hence I say the American crude capitalist mode of economy and totalitarian communism are extreme ends of the same stick. In the crude capitalist mode, “capital is independent, and has individuality, while the living person is dependent and has no individuality. Immediate physical possession seems to it the unique goal of life and existence.”

The appeal of Marxism in my life is what I call “humanists socialism”; the protest against the alienation of man from his human essence, and the elements of social justice, equality and universality inherent on it. I believe Marx’s philosophy is still a relevant source of insight and hope for man’s realisation of his true potential. The aim of Marx was to liberate man from the pressure of economic needs, so that man can be fully human; to overcome alienation and restore his capacity to relate to self and nature fully.