ANC YL PRESIDENT RESPONSE TO JEREMY
CRONIN
18 November 2009
The
opinion article by Cde Jeremy Cronin, a renowned analyst and poet is
openly reactionary, clothed in quasi-Marxist rhetoric, with
potential to make a sorry and sad reflection of the true character
of the South African Communist Party’s ideological steadfastness.
What is worrying though is that Cde Cronin’s anti development and
counter progress sentiments are projected as views of South African
Communist Party. It is highly unlikely that Cde Cronin represents
the views and true character of the Communist Party because the
Communist Party we know is one that was able to mould Nelson Mandela
from an anti-communist radical into a true revolutionary who did not
only embrace the Freedom Charter, but was willing to take up arms to
defend it.
Communist Party activists played an
important role in the ideological, political and organisational
configuration of the ANC Youth League in the early 1940s and early
1950s, despite the hostility they encountered from the Youth
Leaguers, particularly Nelson Mandela. When Nelson Mandela rebuked
the Communist Party and physically disrupted its meetings, it was
the longest serving General Secretary of the Communist Party, Moses
Kotane who paid particular attention to the ready to fight
anti-communist militant (Mandela) and transformed him into fighting
nationalist revolutionary against the white bourgeoisie and the
British imperialists. William Nkomo, Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo,
Joe Matthews and many of our predecessors in the Youth League
matured within the revolutionary national liberation movement to
accept the ideological guidance from the Communist Party. Practical
joint programmes of what is now understood to be the alliance
between the ANC and the Communist Party were pioneered by the
founding generation of the ANC YL amidst condemnation by the Senior
and older leadership of the ANC.
These realities
about the Communist Party and many others make us to earnestly
believe that Jeremy Cronin could not be writing about the ANC YL’s
call for the Nationalisation of Mines in the manner he did if he
truly represents the Communist Party. But because Jeremy Cronin
chose to write about the Nationalisation of Mines in response to the
ANC YL, we are left with no choice but to respond and expose the
reactionary undertones that characterise his input. It is very sad
that Jeremy Cronin decided to isolate me from the ANC YL
23rd National
Congress resolution that “the State should be custodian of the people in its ownership,
extraction, production and trade of mineral wealth beneath the soil,
monopoly industries and banks”. We thought that it is only rightwing
Newspapers and their attendant analysts who recurrently isolate me
from the organisation, and indeed amazed that Jeremy Cronin has
joined the band.
Socialisation vs. Nationalisation
Cde Jeremy Cronin takes issue with the fact that the ANC YL has
called for Nationalisation of Mines, instead of socialisation. He
says “this is why the SACP also prefers in general
to refer to "socialisation" rather than "nationalisation". This is
quite odd because in the same opinion article, Cde Cronin re-asserts
the Communist Party’s call for the Nationalisation of SASOL. The
SACP 12th National
Congress resolved amongst other things, “to campaign for and ensure
the re-nationalization of companies in strategic sectors such SASOL
and Mittal Steel with an ultimate aim of nationalizing and
socializing the commanding heights of the economy in line with the
vision of the Freedom Charter”. It appears from this resolution and
many others that contrary to what Cde Jeremy says, the SOUTH AFRICAN
Communist Party has never preferred socialisation as opposed to
nationalisation, and neither did it narrowly prefer nationalisation
as opposed to socialisation.
In August 2009, the ANC YL released a
Nationalisation of Mines conceptual framework on what our
understanding of Nationalisation is, so as to avoid the confusion
and misinterpretations that seem to dominate Cronin’s input. In the
conceptual framework, we amongst other things said, “Nationalisation
is not a panacea for South Africa’s developmental challenges, but it
should in the manner we are proposing it, entail democratising the
commanding heights of the economy, to ensure they are not just
legally owned by the state, but that they are thoroughly
democratised and controlled by the people”. What is vital and
important in the immediate is that Nationalisation of Mines should
happen and the question, methods and approach of socialisation is
directly consequent of the decision to Nationalise. Comrade Jeremy
does not appreciate such, he instead philosophises the entire
question so that he can reach reactionary conclusions.
In the ANC, “transfer of mineral wealth beneath
the soil, monopoly industries and banks to the ownership of the
people as a whole” was correctly understood as nationalisation if
the government that nationalises can justly claim authority and
based on the will of the people. In the aftermath of the ANC’s
adoption of the Freedom Charter, the leadership of the ANC
recurrently affirmed “transfer of ownership to the people as a
whole” as amounting to a legitimate government’s control and
ownership of the commanding heights of the economy. Various evidence
points to the fact that ownership by the people as a whole was
construed to be meaning Nationalisation. Cde Jeremy Cronin is the
one speaking English, not politics, and does not even provide a
conceptual foundation of what is meant by socialisation.
Responding to a critique of the Freedom Charter by a
Jordan K. Ngubane, who was against the economic clause of the
Freedom Charter, President Albert Luthuli said in June 1956 that,
“In modern society, even amongst the so-called capitalistic
countries, nationalisation of certain industries and commercial
undertakings has become an accepted and established fact. Only the
uninitiated and ignorant would suggest that the Union of South
Africa is going to Moscow because its Railways, Broadcasting and
Post Office services are nationalised”. President Luthuli further
illustrated that nationalisation as called for in South Africa and
in the Freedom Charter did not amount to the Moscow style command
economy, and this point is categorically stated in the July 2009 ANC
YL’s conceptual basis on nationalisation.
Again in 1956, a
leader of the ANC, Nelson Mandela said, “It is true that in
demanding the nationalisation of the banks, the gold mines and the
land the Charter strikes a fatal blow at the financial and
gold-mining monopolies and farming interests that have for centuries
plundered the country and condemned its people to servitude. But
such a step is absolutely imperative and necessary because the
realisation of the Charter is inconceivable, in fact impossible,
unless and until these monopolies are first smashed up and the
national wealth of the country turned over to the people”. There is
absolutely no confusion on the understanding the leadership of the
ANC had on the Freedom Charter, and the contemporary interpretations
should not confuse us.
Former ANC President Oliver Tambo
said in the 1969 political report to the National Consultative
Conference in Morogoro that, “At the moment there are vast
monopolies whose existence affects the livelihood of large numbers
of our people and whose ownership is in the hands of Europeans only.
It is necessary for monopolies which vitally affect the social
well-being of our people such as the mines, the sugar and wine
industry to be transferred to public ownership so that they can be
used to uplift the life of all the people”. In his first public
address after release from prison, former President Nelson Mandela
said, “nationalisation of the mines, banks and monopoly industry is
the policy of the ANC and a change or modification of our view in
this regard is inconceivable”. Oliver Tambo, Walter Sisulu, Chief
Albert Luthuli and Nelson Mandela played critical role in the
consultation for the Freedom Charter and adoption by the ANC, and
they could not be mistaken.
Beneficiation of
Minerals
Again, Comrade Jeremy deliberately provides incomplete
information about the Minerals that are beneficiated in South
Africa, clearly with the hope that we will not have information to
disapprove him. Indeed COAL is used for electricity generation;
SASOL uses certain Minerals to produce oil and the Aluminium
Smelters smelt Aluminium. The Mineral Wealth in South Africa that is
not beneficiated locally far exceeds the ones that are beneficiated
in ESKOM, SASOL and the Aluminium Smelters. South Africa is home to
vital minerals reserves in the world, and this includes Platinum
Group Metals (70%), Gold (40%), Manganese (70%), Chromium (70%) and
54 other minerals. What exactly happens to these Minerals is not
known, yet Comrade Jeremy knowingly avoids this question because his
main interest is centred on protecting and defending the existent
property relations. The only thing we can do, as he suggests, is to
transform the pattern of capital accumulation, not change it. We
will never say that Comrade Jeremy is reformist because the Youth
League will be considered as and labelled BEE funded anti-communist,
only obsessed with shiny objects.
We said before that,
“Our call for nationalisation is based on the Freedom Charter, but
also on the fact that such will enhance and harness the State’s
capacity to create jobs and open economic opportunities for majority
of our people. The State control, ownership and expansion of our
mineral processing and beneficiation will play a critical role in
labour-absorption of many other workers into the South African
economy. Buttressed by a comprehensive social security strategy and
industrial policy, South Africa needs high labour-intensive
programmes to decisively deal with the unemployment and poverty
challenges”. This call in Comrade Jeremy’s books is reduced to the
ANC YL’s obsession with bling to the extent that we can never think
anything developmental, but bling. It is sad that previously, those
who look like us were considered intellectually inferior by the
white supremacists, and today Comrade Jeremy reflects the same
sentiment, even before he interacts with the views of the ANC YL.
The
ANC’s 52nd National
Conference resolutions re-affirm that “the use of natural resources
of which the state is the custodian on behalf of the people,
including our minerals, water, marine resources in a manner that
promotes the sustainability and development of local communities and
also realises the economic and social needs of the whole nation”.
This requires resolute leadership and decisive intervention into
South Africa strategic economic sectors. There are lots of
industrial beneficiation programmes South Africa can initiate and/or
cause to happen despite jewellery. We are very aware that value can
be added to Minerals not through jewellery only, but through various
labour absorptive and developmental programmes.
The ANC YL said in
August 2009 that “One of South Africa’s greatest challenges is its
high levels of unemployment. Added to the low skills reality, the
South African economy is not sufficiently labour-absorptive to the
extent that even if the entire workforce would be skilled, the
economy would not absolve all workers into decent employment. So the
creation of various labour absorptive job opportunities is vital to
deal with the unemployment and poverty challenge. Mining as a
critical component of the South African economy should necessarily
be used to expand and industrialise the South African economy in a
more developmental, instead of parasitic mechanism pursued by the
current owners of Mining activities in South Africa”. Comrade Jeremy
did not read this, and instead suspects that myself as President of
the Youth League “and others are missing
this bigger systemic picture because when they speak of mineral
beneficiation they are thinking of bling...sorry, jewellery”. Can it
be possible that we dedicating our struggle against prejudices
elsewhere whilst they exist within the organisation?
Black people and particularly Africans in Mining do not
own anything above 10% of the Minerals extraction, production and
trade in South Africa. Even those who think they own, do so on
behalf of white owned and controlled Banks. It is an open secret
that majority of shareholder capitalists in Mining are heavily
indebted, and why is it that the main concern for Comrade Jeremy is
the Youth League’s imagined efforts to save blacks and Africans in
the economy through Nationalisation.
Cde Jeremy’s silence on the wealth
that will be transferred from the white minority to the black and
particularly African majority is very loud. It appears that the only
concern Comrade Jeremy has is that these black indebted shareholder
capitalists will be saved by the call for Nationalisation and
nothing else. The Nationalisation that should happen should never be
a blindly driven programme, but extremely cautious as it might
impact on the government fiscus and disable the ANC government’s
capacity to build better lives for all. If Indeed Gold Mining will
cause more cost instead of benefit South Africa, then we will not
concentrate our energies on Gold. Platinum, chrome, manganese,
diamond, coal, and most of the other 54 minerals continue to be
strategic minerals and their extraction, production and trade should
benefit the people as a whole.
Expropriation?
The question of expropriation does
not arise and squarely falls within the conceptual framework we
previously raised, that “depending of the
merits of the each case based on “balance of evidence”,
nationalisation may involve expropriation with or without
compensation”. This is vital and should be decided on a case by case
basis. Part of the models we are considering as an approach to
Nationalisation of Mines is the Botswana model where De Beers is a
50% partnership with the Botswana government and still pays
royalties and tax. None of the Mining Licence Holders in South
Africa currently have more than 30 years licence, and a substantial
part of the country’s platinum and other vital minerals is not
mined, entailing that if the partnership model is the one endorsed
by the ANC National General Council in September 2010, the people of
South Africa will be benefiting from as soon as new partnerships are
entered into.
Conclusion
The Constitutional Court will not be involved
in all these because our call for Nationalisation and its ultimate
realisation will never violate the Constitution. We have sufficient
political power and the question is whether we have the capacity,
courage and will to use political power for the benefit of the
people as a whole. Whilst important for the life of the
organisation, debates should not seek to undermine the intellectual
capacity of other comrades, but should be used as contribution to
the development of our movement. Ideologues of the movement should
never be tempted to fall into an arrogant trap and believe that they
are the only ones capable of expressing views, and completely not
care about engaging with (or at least read) official perspective
positions of the component organisations of the National Liberation
Movement.
The ANC YL will interact with all discussion documents of
the movement, including the SACP Special National Congress
documents, but will never agree to be co-opted to reformist
programmes and projects of anyone. South Africa in 2009, more than
in other period in its history, is strategically in a space and
period to Nationalise Mines. The Communist Party should in this
instance always seek to enrich the debate and discussion on the
Nationalisation of Mines and avoid joining reactionary and
counter-revolutionary forces who believe the status quo in terms of
property relations is acceptable. No amount of bickering from both
Right and fake-Left forces will diminish our efforts to ensure that
Mines and other strategic sectors of the South African economy are
nationalised. We also do not need the permission of white political
messiahs to think.
ISSUED BY THE PRESIDENT
OF THE ANC YL, Julius Malema:
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