...But the doctors on strike have taken it too far.
Haven't we been here before?
When the public service strike in July 2007 as led by COSATU took place,
non of these doctors and their 'unions' participated. The issue of the
OSD was one of the intrinsic packages contained in the wage demands.
These doctors and their so-called unions reproached nurses and other
workers on essential services for their 'heartless' conduct in
participating on the strike while leaving the vulnerable patients in the
hospital sick-beds.
Through their gesture, we were made to believe that they were more than
being patriotic and caring in their conduct. When only devil was
looking, these doctors went on the rampage and put the lives of the most
vulnerable at stake.
Correctly so, these workers have a right to partake on a strike as
articulated in the Labour Relations Act. But theirs was illegal yet the
employer, the State, did not dismiss them, but instead offered to
increase their salaries on an unprecedented hike in the history of our
country.
May be we must put it on record that none of these doctors' dominant
unions have a history of fighting for workers rights in the context of
our National Democratic Revolution. No wonder that some of them only
came to be known during this strike, which is based on workerist and
selfish interests. As much as we sympathized with their plight in terms
of their demeaning salaries, we must equally be able to identify
elements of opportunistic tendencies that are at play in their continued
'strike'.
Working-class self-identity, more important than ever.
In class terms, doctors are part of an important part of the working
class, especially if we are to build a society where all shall work
according to their abilities and be rewarded according to their needs.
Doctors are not only a critical stratum of the working class towards
ushering a truly democratic society where all shall have access to
quality health care, but they are also part of the social forces that
have to be politically mobilized as a collective towards partaking in
the broader struggles of the working class.
Their class-consciousness remains the core in persuading their practical
engagement with the reality that they might seek to transform. Strikes
and any form of mass action appear to be tactical instruments of drawing
the attention of and compelling the employer to heed to the call of the
workers demands.
But in content, such tactics do not find appropriate expression unless
they are confounded within the complex struggle for the emancipation of
the working class from the yoke of the capitalists in overt or covert
collaboration with the State. In Marxist terms, it has always been a
concrete fact that in the capitalist economy "[t]he executive of the
modern state is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the
whole bourgeoisie." Communist Manifesto, Chapter I, 1848, K. Marx and F.
Engels.
Indeed, the current South African state of affairs could be partly
viewed differently since our democratic breakthrough came as a result of
a concerted revolutionary sacrifice. To us as communists it was a
blueprint towards building socialism. It was not a trickle-down from the
bourgeoisie. To others it presented an unprecedented opportunity for
capitalist accumulation, nationally and abroad. Again, to others it
presented opportunities of being co-opted -via the political office-
within the well established capitalist class, hence the correct
categorisation of the comprador bourgeoisie by South African Communist
Party's Program of Action, South African Road to Socialism (SARS). Is
the South African State, since 1994, quite different from any capitalist
State? The answer is openly NO. In the war of position, the white
capitalist class and the small black elite saw the light of day in the
last 13 years. The working class (not excluding doctors) did not allot
significant benefits as compared to the white capitalist class and the
small black elite since, albeit the remarkable achievements by the
ANC-led government since 1994.
It is only when the working class (including doctors) become better
enabled to comprehend and embrace the principle of collectivism as
opposed to that of individualism that we can be in a position to
intensify the struggle for more equitable society (Socialist South
Africa).
If we are to view the consequences of the current doctors strike in
class terms yet again, we are to arrive at the conclusion that those who
are going to bear the whiplashes in the end are the 'poorest of the
poor', who rely on the services of the public hospitals for medicinal
attention.
If truth be told, it is not the rich (the minority) nor "[t]he executive
of the modern state..., that will suffer the consequences but the most
downtrodden stratum of the working class which are the sick and helpless
in government hospitals.
Non-antagonistic contradictions are instigated among the working class,
and the other stratum of this class (doctors) appears to be convinced
that their conduct will hit mostly against the employer whereas in
actual fact it is the poor patients that are hardest-hit. Borrowing
from Mao's analysis on Contradictions Amongst the People, we are to
learn that:
"Contradiction and struggle are universal and absolute, but the methods
of resolving contradictions, that is, the forms of struggle, differ
according to the differences in the nature of the contradictions. Some
contradictions are characterized by open antagonism and others are not.
In accordance with the concrete development of things, some
contradictions, which were originally non-antagonistic, develop into
antagonistic ones, while others which were originally antagonistic
develop into non-antagonistic ones...In ordinary circumstances,
contradictions among the people are not antagonistic. However, if they
are not handled properly, or if we relax our vigilance and lower our
guard, antagonism may arise."
Time and time alone will tell as to whether these doctors are
authentically on strike due to mere wage demands or due to other masked
ulterior motives aimed at undermining the foolproof attempts by the
government to address their plight.
Sikhumbuzo Mdlalose
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