A message from Pope Francis I was sent to Davos. It articulated this plea: I ask you to ensure that humanity is served by wealth and not ruled by it. This C4L bulletin echoes that plea, not just for Davos but for all readers who come from a privileged background.
Vested interests make it harder to redistribute wealth as it gets more concentrated. Finance Minister Gordan is quoted as saying, at Davos, “The world won’t suddenly become disconnected from itself”. He was speaking about whether the challenges in emerging markets would shake investor confidence. But that is over-exuberance. Surely the same motivation could be given for more radical change? The National Development Plan is almost triumphalist when you read the article in today’s Sunday Times by suspended Cosatu leader Zwelinzima Vavi: What has happened to the decade of the working class?
- The first decade of our democracy disproportionately benefited white business relative to the working class
- Inequality has increased, levels of poverty remain high despite the increase in social grants, and more people than before live on less than R524 a month ($50)
- Piecemeal solutions to a systematic crisis rooted in colonial dispossession and capitalist exploitation will not work
- We are told that employment is bigger than ever before. This is an attempt to pull wool over the eyes of the working class. Yes, employment numbers are at their highest, but the context is that, in 1994, we had a population of 40 million. Today, it is 53 million. Overall, the unemployment rate in 1995 was 31%, but today it is 36%
- Youth unemployment in South Africa is the second highest in the world
Are “radical” and “leftist” synonymous?
Vavi goes on: “The 11th congress of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) took radical decisions to give practical meaning to the call that we should now embrace radical economic transformation… Cosatu has not been able to implement its resolutions.”
Levels of frustration are so high that some Cosatu members are already distancing themselves from the ruling alliance. Just today, a conference was convened by the rebel Unions (led by Numsa) to kick-start a united front against Neoliberalism.
This calls for a footnote about terminology, because C4L bulletins are also sent to readers in North America. For some reason that I have never figured out, what is called Neoliberalism in Africa is called Conservativism in America. Think Ronald Reagan and Maggie Thatcher. This digression is important to grasp. I am indebted to Professor Sampie Terreblanche for explaining it in his 2012 book Lost in Transformation. Basically, it was Reagan and Thatcher who overpowered “the second world”… Gorbachev conceded, and withdrew not only from Eastern Europe but from the overseas “flashpoints” as well. South Africa was one of these, so when Gorbachev told the ANC that it could no longer count on Soviet support for its armed resistance, it had no choice but to seek a negotiated settlement. At the same time, the Americans exerted pressure on the apartheid regime to negotiate.
Of course averting civil war and reaching a non-violent rapprochement was tricky. But in the New World Order that emerged, with one superpower, the ANC capitulated in terms of its economic path (called GEAR in its fullest manifestation). Cosatu was in its infancy at the time, but has come to recognize the consequences of this “wrong turn”.
However, Cosatu is a member organization, part of “organized Labour”. So while it is a force to be reckoned with - even now that it is “of two minds” internally – it is leftist.
Unemployed Youth
Unions represent their members, who pay dues to fund them. So they do not represent the interests of non-members. If you are an unemployed youth, Cosatu does not represent you.
Historically, the best interests of youth were articulated by the ANC Youth League. But when this group raised its voice about the “wrong turn” outlined above, the old guard in the ANC muzzled it. The end result is that the ANCYL is going under. It is basically out for the count in terms of the upcoming elections.
The expelled Youth League leader thus formed his own new party called the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF). Its seven pillars tackle Neoliberalism as well. But not really from a leftist position, as it just represents the half of the population that has not yet felt tangible benefits from Democracy. Twenty years ago, at the dawn of Democracy, only 20% of the population were well off, mainly whites. Twenty years later, another 30% have benefited, forming a black middle class. (A lot of whites have emigrated, so the upper class of 20% is now both black and white.) But 50% of the population remains without improvement. This is what Davos means by “inequality”. So the EFF can be radical without being leftist.
Needless to say, youth are among those whose prospects are grim. They can’t remember Reagan or Thatcher, as many of them are “born frees”. Who represents them? In South Africa, the term “youth” goes up to age 35. Two-thirds of the population is now in that age bracket, but neither the ANC nor a radicalized Cosatu have youth’s best interest at heart.
I have written another whole bulletin (You are only a boy) about David and Goliath. The youngest brother goes up to the front lines of battle to deliver some cheese from the farm. He hears that a giant has caused military gridlock. Undaunted, he offers to fight the champion of the Philistines. His brothers laugh at him, but he insists. King Saul offers him his own armour, but David declines it. He goes out to meet the giant with his own unconventional weapon, and slays him. This was completely unexpected and perplexing to the old guard.
Before long, the king gets so jealous that he runs David into hiding as an outlaw. But the pimpernel becomes a lighting rod for discontent. He forms a coalition of the wounded. In due course, he becomes King David father of Solomon and ancestor of Jesus. The song that made King Saul so insanely jealous can be paraphrased as:
Zuma has won his thousands
But Malema will win his tens of thousands
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