Tracing the the roots of a revolution

Firstly, let me state quite categorically that I have the utmost respect for the courage and integrity of Comrade Neville. These political roots and intellectual discourses go deep: From the Left Oppositional Cape Town-branch of the Workers' Party of South Africa (WPSA), the Anti-CAD ['Coloured Affairs Dept. Campaign'] and the Teachers' League of South Africa (TLSA), to the formation of the Leftist Nationalist-Populist 'Non-European Unity Movement' (NEUM), where many of my immediate family members were both founder-members of, and activists in, from 1943 until its implosion in the mid-late 1950s.

Secondly, although we might belong to different 'political generations', him being from the Cape Peninsula Students Union with my cousin Nina Frederichs from the late 1950s, to his expulsion from the NEUM after his return from studies in Germany and involvement an the underground organisation, influenced as much by the Algerian struggle for Independence (1961) by an undogmatic (anti-Stalinist) interpretation of historical materialism, as against the dominant ‘non-intervention’ tradition of the NEUM and its affiliates.

I also want to address that Gordian knot, or theoretical puzzle, that has been a constant thorn for historical materialists – namely, ‘What is the role of the individual in history?’ – from the partial answers given by Plehanov onwards on this topic in the subsequent debates, especially drawing attention to the fact that even deeply-laid historical processes (‘structural transformations’) often depend on highly personal (individual) capacities and decisions.

There was also the fact that on my return from exile in 1993/4, I participated in an educational ‘mapping’ project with Neville (then with PRAESA (Project for the Study of Alternative Education in South Africa) at UCT) and with (now Professor) Crain Soudien (now vice rector at UCT). Our interaction then was inspirational and done in the spirit of learning from one another, co-operation and the sharing of ideas/experiences. Only later when I was a tutor at UCT in the 2000s did we renew contact and exchange ideas.

But there are also significant ‘differences of opinion’ – I prefer to refer to these as 'areas/lacunae of dissention' – which I will raise, in the spirit of comradeliness. They are substantive and wide-ranging, and thus I will present them in the form of at least two to three ‘interventions’ or ‘contributions’: The first will deal with the issues related to the ‘Memoricide of the Past’ – the 'popular media's' representation of the ‘past' and the dominant Nationalist-Populist version (the ANC alliance) or its specifically Stalinist version (the CPSA/SACP version), which is closely intertwined.

My 'critique' here deals with historiography and issues of a political understanding of this past and its relevance for 'today's' struggles and organisational discourses.

The second, or next ‘intervention’ will deal with the 'present', of a critique of the present period after 1994, but especially of the global economic turbulence unleashed by the newest episode of the global crisis, from the 'sub-prime' housing collapse of 2007, the 'banking crisis' of Wall Street and subsequent rescue packages and State-interventionist macro-stimuli up to that of the Euro-stabilisation of Greece more recently and the Ecocide of the oil spill in the Mexico Gulf/Florida coast.

These issues, thirdly, deal with 'alliance politics': 'the environmental crisis' and Climate Change and issues arising from South Africa's dependence on coal for power-production and the Medupi coal project and IMF loans for that. The ANC kleptocracy's subservience to IMF dictates and collaboration with global capital (including that of China) can be seen here in its most naked form. What is important here is my own characterisation of the present ANC-state.

Okay. I think that the title of the address, ‘The New Worker, Dr Sel Cool), is absolutely necessary at this stage of the global struggle for a Libertarian, Democratic and People-Orientated Movement for Change.

It is of vital importance that we drop all notions of 'Statism' (of a Stalinist-Bureaucratic-Collectivist-Centralist top-down hierarchical genealogy and of its opposite coin, the Keynesian demand-regulation pump-priming of a bourgeois State Intervention) and focus on a bottom-up, non-hierarchical, more 'flat' organisational structure, with a collectivist outlook (not 'Nationalisation' but 'Social Ownership' form of property ownership and open form of decision-making [that appeared in a limited way in the United Democratic Front's grassroots-type forums, with recall and a transparent politics.

This will be a significant step forward, in my opinion, towards an open and transparent politics that is 'people-orientated' and can deal with tomorrow's political challenges!

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* Selim Y. Gool is a journalist and ex-academic.
* This article is a comment on [email protected] or comment online at Pambazuka News.