Amandla! magazine | Issue 84

W

HEN WE THINK OF NORTH
stars, we think of a
destination we feel we are
striving for. The South
African Left lacks a north star today. The
truth of contemporary South African
politics is that the anti-apartheid struggle
was the great unifier of progressive forces.
It oriented most political activity towards a
clear goal of social re-ordering (i.e.,
towards a non-racial society). In the firmly
post-apartheid period we now find
ourselves in, what comes next has been
less apparent. Looking at the character and
appearance of our popular movements
today, the weight of dead generations
presses heavily on our shoulders.

Trapped by national

liberation...
To put the point more plainly:
the Left in South Africa can
be characterised by a formal
distinction. On the one hand
the “independent Left”; on the
other the Tripartite Alliance of
the ANC, SACP and Cosatu. But
the ideological frameworks and
organisational strategies which
form the broad Left’s general
worldview have not changed. They
remain steadfastly within the
confines of the national liberation
ideology.
The difference is in how
the political task is conceived.
The ANC is committed to the
delusion that it is still the
custodian of the mass democratic
movement, inaugurated during
the anti-apartheid struggle.
The independent Left, rightly,
understands that this path has
been betrayed.
So then follows the script: the
independent Left will complete the
unfinished business started by the
national democratic revolution.
The “Numsa moment” was
a watershed. But only because it seemed
that at last the efforts to reconstitute the
South African Left would at last have the
institutional backing thought necessary to
galvanise the South African working-class.
A political formation weighty with the

clout and legitimacy of fighting during the

apartheid era.

The unspoken rule of South African

mobilisation is that the bridge to renewal

can only be built with the foundations of

what came before.

...and by vanguardism

The consequences are evident now in the

crisis afflicting Numsa. In South Africa,

vanguardism is associated with the

Stalinist tendencies of the Alliance Left

and its bureaucratic-authoritarian styles

of governance. A narrow understanding

of vanguardism is that it rests on the

belief that political organising requires

an advanced set of stewards. But this has

been the default mode of organising for all

stripes of the South African Left.

The psychic over-investment in the

Numsa moment bears this out clearly.

In effect, Numsa was appointed as the

vanguard of Left renewal in South Africa.

It was the key actor that would steer the

rejuvenation of popular forces. And then,

when it abandoned the United Front, the

front collapsed. Why did this have to be the

case? This isn’t to deny the important role

that Numsa had to play (especially its huge

supply of resources) – but why was this

elevated to an essential role?

We live now in the dark shadow cast

by the failure of those processes. But even

now, efforts to reconstitute Left forces

constantly emphasise the need to ensure

that the right alignment of representatives

from social movements, labour, and

sympathetic intelligentsia are brought

in, before any organising happens. This

is functionally what the front model –

a “movement of movements” – is.

And then, we assume that simply

by asserting that we are different to the

toxic traditions of the ANC traditions –

that we are democratic, participatory,

and non-sectarian –these values will

follow in practice. But it’s the other

way around – the practice must come

first.

The myth of the radical

masses

Ultimately, this quiet vanguardism

originates in how, for the most part, we

take for granted the level of readiness

of popular forces. It is always assumed

that the masses are at the ready.

Firstly, because things are so dire,

it seems obvious what people want –

jobs, housing, etc.

And secondly, because we

presuppose that the anti-apartheid

struggle over-politicised South

Africans. It implanted in them a radical

predisposition which is now lying

dormant, waiting to be harnessed

again.

But this comes from exaggerating

how much of a genuinely-mass

period the anti-apartheid period

was, especially at the peak of the United

Democratic Front (which is the main

inspiration behind the “front-model”). It

is always assumed, in the imagination of

today, that people were faithfully attending

The quiet vanguardism

OF THE LEFT

By Will Shoki

The truth of contemporary South African politics is that the anti-

apartheid struggle was the great unifier of progressive forces. In

the firmly post-apartheid period we now find ourselves in, what comes

next has been less apparent.

Perspectives for the left