*2012 ANC National Policy Conference Discussion Document*
/_Problematisation and opening to discussion_/
**
**
*The Second Transition (T2T)*
The new ANC Policy Conference Discussion Document called "*The Second
Transition*" (T2T) is part-successor to the long series of ANC documents
called "Strategy and Tactics" (S&T). The other part-successor is the new
"Organisational Renewal" document.
Strategy is the definition of a goal. Tactics are the various possible
means to that end. Does the ANC have a goal anymore? If not, then what
is T2T?
The original "Strategy and Tactics" document was passed by the ANC
National Conference in Morogoro, Tanzania, in 1969. Its first paragraph was:
/"The struggle of the oppressed people of South Africa is taking place
within an international context of transition to the Socialist system,
of the breakdown of the colonial system as a result of national
liberation and socialist revolutions, and the fight for social and
economic progress by the people of the whole world."/
In 1969, the ANC knew where it was, and where it was going. Is this
still the case in 2012? Among other things, the Morogoro S&T went on to say:
/"The art of revolutionary leadership consists in providing leadership
to the masses and not just to its most advanced elements... /
//
/"...we must also ensure that what is brought to power is not an army
but the masses as a whole at the head of which stands its organised
political leadership.../
//
/"In the last resort it is only the success of *the national democratic
revolution* which - by destroying the existing social and economic
relationships - will bring with it a correction of the historical
injustices perpetrated against the indigenous majority..."/
Revised versions of "Strategy and Tactics" were adopted at the 48^th and
50^th ANC National Conferences. At the 51^st , a new preface was added.
The current version of S&T was adopted at the 52^nd National Conference,
at Polokwane. The T2T and Organisational Renewal document pick up from
that version.
The new T2T document wants to be a "watershed" like the Morogoro S&T
document adopted 43 years ago. But is there really a "second transition"
to be had? T2T only seeks to confirm the Polokwane S&T and turn it into
a "30 to 50", or even a 100-year commitment. How is this a second
transition? A centenary is only a number. Of itself, it does not
generate an organic change.
At its start, T2T identifies itself with SA's National Development Plan
(NDP) although this is only a draft that has not yet been adopted. The
NDP has serious weaknesses. On the surface it is apolitical. But
underneath its surface the NDP is incremental to the /status quo/. It is
class-collaborationist. The NDP does not recognise class struggle as the
motor of history. The NDP does not recognise that development is a class
struggle, with winners and losers.
The adoption of such a semi-permanent, bourgeois-biased programme by the
ANC would stress the class-alliance nature of the ANC, by frustrating
its working-class components and locking them into a bourgeois project
that will not suit them.
This is not the way the ANC was built. The unity-in-action class
alliance which is the essential ANC, depends upon leaving the socialist
option open. The ANC does not have to be socialist, but it cannot
destroy the possibility of socialism.
*_Structure of the Document_*
After its introduction, the T2T document proceeds in six main parts.
These are:
. Part A: Reflections on the last 18 years (13-49)
. Part B: Characterisation of the National Democratic Society (50-70)
. Part C: The balance of forces in 2012 and the motive forces (71-112)
. Part D: The global balance of forces (113-160)
. Part E: Thoughts on the content and form of the Second transition
(161-206)
. Part F: The pillars of national democratic revolution in the current
phase (207-223)
*__*
*__*
*_Parts of the T2T Document_*
**
*Part A*is a policy review of the period from 1994 to 1012, including
Gear and several changes to the ANC S&T.
*Part B*dwells upon the essence of the Polokwane (2007) S&T: the
adoption of the static term "National Democratic Society" (NDS) in
exchange for the dynamic term "National Democratic Revolution" (NDR).
This change has the potential of blocking the aspirations of the working
class. The class alliance that is the substance of the liberation
movement, meaning the ANC itself, is based on unity-in-action for common
interest. The working class interest in the ANC and its NDR is that the
NDR opens the road to socialism. If that road is blocked, then the
working-class investment in the ANC becomes questionable.
*Part C*consolidates the other major change that was introduced into the
S&T in 2007-- the redefinition of the class-defined "motive forces" to
include the monopoly bourgeoisie. It goes further, descending from class
analysis into the /ad hoc/ eclecticism of the NPC "diagnostics" at paras
*104/5*. The "Second Transition" here looks more like a U-turn.
*Part D*appears to start more "left", reminiscent of the first paragraph
of the Morogoro S&T. But as in Part C, the criticism of capitalism is
soon called into question. At paragraph *123*, the anti-communist
propagandist of capitalism Ludwig von Mises is quoted without
disapproval. This section becomes a ramble, without point except perhaps
to obscure.
*Part E*switches back again to the NPC and its "diagnostic", this time
critically. In e.g. paragraph *182* it finds "fundamental" contradiction
between the NDP and the ANC's SIMS. At paragraph *192* it asks why
"developmental state" is being replaced by "capable state", and warns
against causing "confusion with a plethora of terms or by introducing
concepts that may well be in conflict with existing ANC policy." This
argument can equally apply to the term "NDS" replacing "NDR".
*Part F*, called "overarching", tries to describe a static NDS, to last
a hundred years. At paragraph *222* it proposes the resolution of the
National Question, but without mentioning socialism.
But the ANC's organised working-class allies are convinced that there
will be no solution to the national or the gender questions without
socialism. The working-class allies will not accept the arbitrary
postponement of socialism for a hundred years, or even for twenty years.
They will insist on that option remaining open.
Class analysis does not drive this document. The authors have attempted
to weaken the legacy of class analysis in ANC strategy and tactics. Yet
class struggle still remains the motor of history, and the idea of human
development is inseparable from the idea of bringing class struggle
towards its conclusion, so that:
/"In place of the old bourgeois society, with its classes and class
antagonisms, we shall have an association in which the free development
of each is the condition for the free development of all."/
These words from the Communist Manifesto, written by Karl Marx and
Frederick Engels in 1848, remain the most succinct expression of the
true meaning of development, as well as socialism.
1156 words
Original "Second Transition" document: 22661 words.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
*VC*
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