National Activist Workshop on Local Govt - 29-31 July 2011

[Mazibuko Kanyiso Jara]

06 July 2011

 

Dear comrades at AIDC, SERI, Section 27, Earthlife Africa, COPAC and FXI 

 

INVITE TO A NATIONAL ACTIVIST WORKSHOP ON PEOPLE-DRIVEN TRANSFORMATION OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT: 29-31 JULY 2011, JOHANNESBURG

 

This email contains an official letter from the Democratic Left Front (DLF) inviting your NGO to join social movements and other community-based organisations undertaking struggles around service delivery, local government and unemployment to send representatives to a DLF-convened National Activist Workshop on People-Driven Transformation Local Government. The official letter is attached herein. This workshop will be held at Wits University in Johannesburg as follows:

1.  Arrival and registration – from 1pm to 4pm, Friday, 29 July 2011, at Wits University

2.  Workshop starts – at 4pm on Friday, 29 July 2011

3.  Workshop ends – at 1pm on Sunday, 31 July 2011

 

Also attached herein is the draft programme for this workshop. We ask your organisation to consider and discuss this programme in order to propose changes and additions where necessary.

 

The DLF believes that this is an important workshop that can help share our different struggles, build solidarity, mobilise joint programmes and work towards unity in struggles against neo-liberal service delivery, corruption, lack of accountability, and for effective popular democracy at the local level.

  

Yours sincerely

 

Mazibuko K. Jara 

On behalf of the Democratic Left Front 

[Mazibuko K. Jara (@amandla)]

20 July 2011

 

Dear comrades active in social movements and others struggling around service delivery, local government and unemployment 

 

INVITE TO A NATIONAL ACTIVIST WORKSHOP ON PEOPLE-DRIVEN TRANSFORMATION OF LOCAL GOVERNMENT: 2nd-4th SEPTEMBER 2011, WITS UNIVERSITY, JOHANNESBURG

 

This email contains an official letter from the Democratic Left Front (DLF - www.democraticleft.za.net) inviting social movements and other community-based organisations undertaking struggles around service delivery, local government and unemployment to send representatives to a DLF-convened National Activist Workshop on People-Driven Transformation Local Government. The National Workshop was originally planned for 29-31 July 2011. The workshop will now be held from Friday, 2nd September to Sunday, 4th September 2011. 

Holding the workshop on a later date will allow for the following: 

1. Circulating the invite to a wide number of organisations as some organisations did not receive the official notice on time; 
2. Finalisation and circulation of activist guides/notes on time - this will also give time and space for invited organisations to discuss these documents internally first, develop positions on the documents as well as prepare their own inputs into the workshop;  and 
3. For invited organisations and movements to also undertake local fundraising as part of contributing to a collective political process as this workshop is not an NGO-sponsored event - for its part, the DLF is in the midst of mobilising funds to cover the costs of this workshop as far as possible. As part of this, the DLF believes that the mobilisation of funds must start with all of us as an important political principle. A story normally shared by rural activists tells how villagers attach more value to every rand they have mobilised themselves (no matter how long it takes) in order to pay for a bus to transport them to a march against the local municipality rather than donor funds from outside that have the effect of demobilising people's power.  

The official invitation is attached herein. This workshop will be held at Wits University in Johannesburg as follows:

1.  Arrival and registration – from 11h00 to 1pm, Friday, 2nd September 2011, at Wits University

2.  Workshop starts – at 2pm on Friday, 2nd September 2011

3.  Workshop ends – at 13h30 on Sunday, 4th September 2011

 

Also attached herein is the draft programme for this workshop. Suggested speakers in the programme are still to be confirmed. We ask your organisation to consider and discuss this programme in order to propose changes and additions where necessary. 

 

The DLF believes that this is an important workshop that can help share our different struggles, build solidarity, mobilise joint programmes and work towards unity in struggles against neo-liberal service delivery, corruption, lack of accountability, and for effective popular democracy at the local level. By convening this workshop, the DLF also wishes to engage various movements, organisations and activists on the DLF process, goals and programme of action aimed at building the DLF as a common front of solidarity, unity, action and struggle. The DLF intends to table squarely on the agenda of this workshop the outcomes, resolutions and decisions of the DLF Founding Conference which was held in January 2011. The DLF hopes that an open political process engagement on the perspectives and strategies of popular struggles would contribute to greater popular and left unity towards a common political platform and programme. The DLF sees the National Workshop as only the start of such a long process that requires openness, engagement, solidarity and common struggles. 

[Mazibuko K. Jara]

From http://sacsis.org.za/site/news/detail.asp?idata=711&iChannel=1&nChannel=news&iCat=250

On the Political Significance of the Local

By Richard Pithouse

Courage...is a local virtue. It partakes of the morality of the place.  - Alain Badiou

There is no denying the import of the very public dramas that play out in the sphere of elite politics. Jacob Zuma's decision on how to respond to Thuli Madonsela's report will certainly have some consequence in shaping the trajectory of our increasingly compromised democracy. But politics is about force and reason and reason on its own is seldom a sufficient check on either the construction or renegotiation of common ground by contesting elites.

The old left delusion that a crisis of capital will automatically open the way to some form of subordination of capital to society looks entirely ridiculous in the wake of the financial crisis. The same elites that caused the crisis are dictating a resolution from which they will profit at the direct expense of society. The Greek or British poor will pay a much higher price than any banker in London or New York.

And while a political crisis might reach the point at which a popular refusal to accept dictatorship can have some success, even spectacular success, there is no guarantee that the people who have deposed a dictator will be able to build a new society in keeping with their achievement. The Egyptian drama is not concluded but the seriousness of the attempt to co-opt, deflect and repress popular energies is clear enough.

A crisis, be it economic, political, or both, that arises without a popular politics sufficiently well organised to force through a real alternative is quite likely to strengthen the hand of the social forces that created the crisis in the first place. 

One of the respects in which our democracy deviates from the model of donor driven parties largely competing in the realm of media spin is that there is one component of the ruling party, COSATU, that has a large and well organised popular base. It's possible that things could reach a point at which COSATU could take a decisive step in response to the degeneration of the ANC, a process that was steady under Thabo Mbeki but has collapsed into free fall under Jacob Zuma. But there's no guarantee that this will happen. And if it does there's no guarantee that it will fare better than experiments in political trade unionism elsewhere in the region. 

COSATU is certainly the most ethical and progressive force in the tripartite alliance and Zwelinzima Vavi's willingness to call things as they are, has, despite the unedifying spectacle of the inevitable election time flip-flops, won him a degree of admiration amongst both the more  progressive elements of the middle class and the organised poor. It is not impossible that COSATU could emerge as a force with sufficiently broad support to challenge the rapid decline of the ANC under Zuma into authoritarianism and corruption.

But the fact that COSATU, at the moment, prefers to ally itself with NGO based civil society rather than the popular struggles rooted in communities is not a good sign. It indicates a political laziness, an elitism and an inability to grasp the profound political significance of the scale at which a unionised job, limited as its security and benefits may be, remains an unrealisable aspiration for millions of young people. And, despite COSATU's shameful role in the Zuma débâcle, there are clear signs that the trade union federation remains more invested in the illusory hope of the politics of the machinations within the alliance rather than in any attempt to build popular organisation that could link the factory floor to the community.

In the wake of both a widening appreciation of the bankruptcy of the Zuma presidency and the crude and self interested attempts by the ANC Youth League to politicise poverty, there have been a variety of calls for a renegotiation of the deal on which post-apartheid society was founded. There have, for instance, been calls for an 'economic Codesa' and a 'land Codesa'.

Without sufficiently mass based and resolute popular organisation around alternatives any attempt to recalibrate policy and practice will inevitably take the form of an intra-elite negotiation conducted in the interests of elites but in name of the poor.

In the 1980s South Africa became a site of extraordinary political innovation. The experiments in popular democratic practices in the United Democratic Front were, as all politics is, imperfect. But although they were compromised by state repression and a current of millennial fervour there was a real challenge to the elitism of standard forms of representative politics. If the UDF had not accepted the authority of the ANC as absolute, the transition may have played out differently.

But our country remains highly politicised. The extraordinary wave of popular protest that emerged at the turn of the century and gathered real momentum from around 2004 continues. The organisational forms on which this protest depends, and its politics, vary considerably from place to place. But the central progressive idea that has continually reoccurred around the country over the last ten years is an affirmation of the humanity of ordinary people against a political and economic system that, in practice rather than principle, routinely denies that humanity.

It is in this ferment, diverse and contradictory as it is, that the prospects for sustained popular organisation lie. However this politics is often intensely local and in the eyes of many its localism doesn't sit well with aspirations for national or international change. But without a solid material base, aspirations for change at a higher level are nothing but empty dreams. They are reason without force.

We should recall that for most people sociality is practised, to a significant degree, via the local. There are certainly times when some people are willing to struggle to realise ideas that are, initially anyway, abstracted from their lived reality.  But, along with sufficient and sustained commitment, this requires a social structure appropriate to the task. The commune, the Soviet, the council, the congregation and the street committee have their place, and it is a very different place to that of the vanguard party, in the history of popular insurgency for a very good reason. It’s certainly possible for local councils or committees to come together and take on a broader project beyond their local concerns but it is not possible for this to happen when they have not yet come into their own local existence. It’s also the case that every movement that reaches the point of being able to constitute itself on a national or international stage as a material force remains rooted in some sort of local organisation be it particular factories, campuses, prisons, communities, women's groups, party structures and so on. 

There will be no progressive resolution of the crisis into which we have drifted without solid and committed local organisation. And  this is not solely a matter of constituting sufficient material force. We should not forget that in politics, as in art, an intense engagement with the particular is the route to the universal. It is at the local where the particularities of the underside of our society are experienced and resisted most directly and intensely.

Pithouse teaches politics at Rhodes University.

Read more articles by Richard Pithouse.       

[Mazibuko K. Jara]

DEMOCRATIC LEFT FRONT (www.democraticleft.za.net)

Declaration

National Activist Workshop on People-Driven Transformation of Local Government, WITS University, Johannesburg

2-4 September 2011

 

Introduction

 

Eighty activists representing various social movements, local and provincial structures of the Democratic Left Front (DLF), and a few left groups  (a total of 53 organisations represented - see list below) from across the country met this weekend at a DLF convened national workshop to deliberate on the outcomes of the recent local government elections, the character of grass roots struggles to transform local government, the crisis of local government and the political requirements to advance people driven transformation of local government. 

 

Many of these organisations are new and autonomous and have been struggling  against neoliberalisation and the squeeze it imposes on the working class and the poor. They are struggling through marches, protests and engaging with the local state in various ways to take forward the interests of the working class and the poor.

 

Also in attendance at this workshop was the Mpumalanga Party which won 12 seats in the  Elias Motsoaledi Council and 3 in Ephraim Mogale local Council, the Balfour Socialist Civic Movement which won 2 seats and the Operation Khanyisa Movement which won 1 seat. The workshop strongly applauded these electoral successes of left and community supported candidates. The workshop  grappled with the constraints and challenges these electoral successes posed for bringing about people-driven transformation of local government.

 

The Global and National Crisis Continues

 

In general the workshop situated its discussion in the broader context of the conjunctural and systemic crisis of capitalism. In this regard the workshop noted the following:

·      The crisis of neoliberalism as an ideology , accumulation model and form of transnational class rule is deepening but not necessarily dislodging the centrality of finance capital. The austerity measures being introduced in Europe, the limited financial reform in the US and shallow recovery all underline the squeeze on the working class and the poor as the way forward for transnational capital. This is underpinned by a deeper inter-lock of climate change, oil peak, food price hikes and growing securitization of national life in response to mass protests.

·      The ZUMA government and domestic capital have not broken with the neoliberal project but instead have internalised the current  international adjustments. Moreover, rolling back of democratic gains, deepening securitization, the unravelling of the ANC led Alliance and failing social delivery characterise the ZUMA regime.

·      Anti-capitalist movements are gaining a greater confidence from peoples struggles in the Middle East, North Africa and Europe. This upswing of struggles is also expressed in South Africa.

 

People-Driven Local Government

 

Local government in South Africa has various institutional and political weaknesses.  The current form of narrow representative democracy is also not enabling active citizenship, community voices and civic action as the basis for transforming local government. The ‘privatisation’ of local politics has led to gate keeping, patronage, nepotism and wide spread corruption. Ward committees are also extensions of councillor power rather than peoples power.

 

The alternative the DLF will champion with left and anti-capitalist forces is a people driven local government. This entails advancing struggles on three fronts: disciplined mass oppositional struggles to make local government responsive to the needs of communities, transformative struggles to advance alternatives from below and electoral struggles.

 

Advancing Democratic Left Struggle on Three Terrains

 

(I)    Mass Oppositional Struggles to Make Local Government Responsive

 

Local movements and communities to intensify efforts to achieve the following:

·      Build street and ward committees  as expressions of peoples power where possible;

·      Integrated development plan processes to be democratised through struggles  to ensure full information disclosure to communities and greater voice for such communities;

·      A common action/s as campaigns for all communities need to be developed in the DLF like around food struggles, high electricity prices and so on;

·      Use the Section 27-SERI Activist Guide on Local Government to empower a new activist who understands the terrain of local government and the legal rights of mass movements and communities in relation to local government;

·      Build the capacity of local movements and communities to understand how local government works including how IDPs, budgets and so on work;

·      Build towards common action and a National Action.

 

(II)  Transformative Struggles

 

To advance factory take overs by workers, food sovereignty, employment  from below the  DLF will:

·      Advance the solidarity economy and movement through :learning sites in different parts of the country, use the learning sites to build local movements, establish a national forum, support the October international conference, do community and activist education and advance a food sovereignty campaign;

·      Advance the Climate Jobs Campaign  as part of COP17 through a conference of the unemployed at the Union Buildings and through local actions in communities during November. Community, movement and activist education to take place on this campaign. Provincial campaign committees need to  be established, endorsements need to be sort from organisations and most importantly the campaign needs to be linked to struggles against increasing electricity prices. This is an issue identified as affecting all communities and we will marry it to the climate jobs campaign to bring national focus to this issue.

 

(III) Electoral Struggles

 

The DLF has chosen not to participate directly in elections. The DLF had endorsed a number of community-endorsed candidates who include some of the above comrades. The workshop had a deep and rich debate on this issue. The debate recognised the advantages and disadvantages of electoral struggles. The debate also recognised the potential for people-driven struggles opened up by the presence of left councillors in a number of municipalities. The workshop called on these councillors to be exemplary people’s councillors  committed to work hard and with their constituencies. The workshop emphasised that elections must not be isolated and elevated as the only arena of struggle. The workshop agreed that electoral struggles must be shaped and informed by oppositional and transformative struggles to ensure people driven local government.  The next national conference of the DLF will take forward debate and deepen a collective DLF approach on this issue.

 

The DLF will support existing left councillors based on the following conditions:

·      Subject to recall;

·      They earn a living wage determined by their local organisation;

·      They actively affirm and display anti-capitalist values and advance a people centred morality;

·      They advance the DLF platform of action informed by local conditions in struggles;

·      They actively provide information and account to communities;

·      They empower communities on their rights; and

·      They actively support and build DLF forums.

 

 

  The DLF will also assist elected left councillors through:

·      Political education;

·      Building legal and policy capacity;

·      Policy research to advance people driven local government transformation.

 

Building the Democratic Left Front

 

It was agreed to share DLF documents on the platform of action, on local government and campaigns with activists at the grass roots.

 

All movements to also link their websites, face book pages and other media instruments to the DLF’s media instruments. In other words the DLF must be actively promoted through alternative media amongst movements.

 

DLF forums need to be built in local communities to coordinate struggles, engage in political education, research and legal support to movements and communities. Such forums are crucial  to ensure the rootedness, mass character and identity of the DLF. DLF campaigns and platform of action needs to be used as the basis to build local DLF forums in communities.

 

The DLF will have its own participatory and bottom up research program. There will be an active program to build grass roots activist skills to advance such research. A local government research network will be built in the DLF involving grass roots activists, communities, academics and  think tanks. Such a research agenda will work on themes to enable people driven local government,  and all terrains of struggle: mass oppositional, transformative and electoral.

 

Phakamani, the DLF newspaper, must be supported by activists at the grassroots and express their voices.

 

The workshop also broadly agreed on the need for the following to further give momentum to the convergence and common purpose emerging amongst anti-capitalist movements and groups that are part of the DLF:

·      Share the DLF’s critique of Green Neoliberalism and involve movements in the mobilisation for COP17 to advance Eco-socialist perspectives and alternatives to the false solutions emerging in the multi-lateral process;

·      To advance the DLF ideological project of critique of the National Democratic Revolution through research, seminars and publications;

·      Clarify the DLF approach to non-racialism, black consciousness and race through seminars, workshops and publications;

·      Host a DLF national conference in 2012 to further consolidate the strategic, institutional, ideological and political development of the DLF. This would include the adoption a formal constitution of the DLF.

 

PARTICIPANTS AT THE DLF NATIONAL WORKSHOP ON PEOPLE-DRIVEN LOCAL GOVERNMENT

 

1. Alternative Information and Development Centre (Western Cape)

2.    Balfour Socialist Civic Movement (Mpumalanga)

3.    Black Consciousness Party (Free State)

4.    BBLF (Gauteng)

5. Cooperative and Alternative Policy Centre (Gauteng)

6.    Democratic Left Front (4 provinces)

7.    Democratic Socialist Movement (Gauteng)

8.    Earthlife Africa (Gauteng)

9.    General and Industrial Workers’ Union of South Africa (Gauteng)

10. GOLCOMM (Gauteng)

11. Ilizwi Lamafama Small Farmers’ Union (Eastern Cape)

12. Independent Residents’ Association (Mpumalanga)

13. Ipopeng Local Forum (Free State)

14. ISECC (Gauteng)

15. Ivory Park Solidarity Economy Movement (Gauteng)

16. Keep Left (Gauteng)

17. Kgobokwane Community Development Forum (Mpumalanga)

18. KwaMashu Youth Inter-Active Group (KwaZulu Natal)

19. Lesbian and Gay Equality Project (Gauteng)

20. LSM (Mpumalanga)

21. MACODEFO (Gauteng)

22. Mandela Park Backyard Dwellers (Western Cape)

23. Masibambane Unemployed People’s Movement (Gauteng)

24. Mineline Workers’ Committee (Gauteng)

25. Mitchell’s Plain Backyard Dwellers (Western Cape)

26. Mpumalanga Party (Mpumalanga)

27. Msikaligwa Community Committee (Mpumalanga)

28. National Consumer Forum (Western Cape)

29. Ntabankulu Jobless Forum (Eastern Cape & KwaZulu Natal)

30. Operation Khanyisa Movement (Gauteng)

31. People Against Poverty and Corruption (Gauteng)

32. Public and Allied Workers Union of South Africa (Gauteng)

33. Right to Know Campaign (Eastern Cape)

34. Sakhile Concerned Residents (Mpumalanga)

35. SAYRO (Gauteng)

36. Section 27 (Gauteng)

37. Sedimosang Educ Project (Free State)

38. Socialist Party of Azania (Gauteng)

39. Socialist Party of Azania (Gauteng)

40. Socio-Economic Rights Institute (Gauteng)

41. South African Association of Civil Society Organisations (Gauteng)

42. Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee (Gauteng)

43. Soweto Forum (Gauteng)

44. Students for Social Justice (Eastern Cape)

45. Tembisa Residents’ Association (Gauteng)

46. Thembelihle Crisis Committee (Gauteng)

47. Treatment Action Campaign (KwaZulu Natal)

48. UCT Workers Committee (Western Cape)

49. Unemployed People’s Movement (Eastern Cape)

50. Unemployed People’s Movement (KwaZulu Natal)

51. Vaal Community Assembly (Gauteng)

52. WCCC (Gauteng)

53. Zabalaza Anarchist Communist Front (Gauteng)