In Memory of Comrade Nkosi Molala - Honorary President of the Black Consciousness Movement
UPM media
In Memory of Comrade Nkosi Molala - Honorary President of the Black Consciousness Movement
In world in which the dominant idea is neoliberalism to be a committed and principled democratic socialist one has to consistently swim against the ideological tide. One has to swim in the sea of poverty, unemployment, exploitation and oppression.
We are not the first generation to face the challenge of having to swim against the ideological tide. Karl Marx wrote that “The ideas of the ruling class are in every epoch the ruling ideas, i.e. the class which is the ruling material force of society, is at the same time its ruling intellectual force. The class which has the means of material production at its disposal, has control at the same time over the means of mental production, so that thereby, generally speaking, the ideas of those who lack the means of mental production are subject to it. The ruling ideas are nothing more than the ideal expression of the dominant material relationships, the dominant material relationships grasped as ideas.”
The left is on the backfoot in South Africa and around the world. Here the United Front did not succeed and the DA was the major beneficiary of the popular refusal to vote for Zuma. In Greece, Venezuela and Brazil the left has suffered major defeats. The left faces serious challenges. To usher in a socialist society requires much more than sloganeering. It requires deeds as well as words. Socialists must walk the talk. Workers and the poor need to be organised into powerful movements.This is not a simple task. It requires a rare quality - undying love for humanity and preparedness to die for this noble idea. The price of this noble cause is often death itself as we have witnessed with Rosa Luxemburg, Patrice Lumumba, Che Guevara, Steve Biko and many other heroes and heroines of our struggle.
Karl Marx wrote “History calls those men the greatest who have ennobled themselves by working for the common good; experience acclaims as happiest the man who has made the greatest number of people happy”. One must be prepared to risk one's skin to prove this truth.
The struggle is not fought on social media or at NGO meetings. The struggle is fought among the oppressed. It is fought in communities and on the factory floor. The struggle has real consequences.
The ruling class uses different methods to tame our struggle for a just society, for a human society. All kinds of dirty tricks are used. The ruling class also uses methods such a co-option and capture to turn our leaders into part of machinery that crushes and oppress our people. Again and again yesterday’s leaders become today’s oppressors.
In the post colony our former leaders become the managers of the dominant system, a system that oppresses and exploit our people. They manage the vicious and ruthless system of capitalism. Frantz Fanon explained this brilliantly. He showed how these leaders use the legitimacy that they derived from the struggle to legitimate the colonial economic system. He showed how a new struggle is required in the post-colony.
As human beings we always have the capacity to choose our actions. There are always people who go to the grave with their dignity and integrity intact. Comrade Nkosi Molala, who we can say was the honorary president of the Black Consciousness movement, was one such person. He was a moral giant.
In the face of adversity, of the vicious system of capitalism, he taught us to swim against the tide. He taught us that we must be for-ever permanent students of revolution with sharp intellects, always raising our consciousness and sharpening our analytical tools. He taught us to share and impart this knowledge with the poor and the working class and to use such knowledge to change the plight of the poor and the working class and the world we live in. He warned us not to use such knowledge to position ourselves for material gains, benefits and populism.
Comrade Nkosi Molala taught us that to consistently fight against the dominant ideas of neo-liberalism we must possess humility. He taught us that to earn the trust of the poor and working men and women of our country, continent and the world, we must be their subordinates not the other way round. He taught us that we must never claim hegemony over their struggles of our people, the wretched of the earth must lead their struggles and we must never seek to substitute ourselves for them.
These are qualities that he possessed. He had the sharpest intellect, sharp as a razor and a disarming humility. In a time where people were rushing for money and power, where lies and slander were becoming the weapons of the sectarians in the left, he was a truly principled cadre of our movement and struggle.
He paid the price for his convictions. He served time in Robben Island. He lost an eye after being hit by a teargas. He defended his noble movement during a feud with the ruling party. He turned down the offer to be the Director General of Foreign Affairs of the government that pursues policies that are anti poor and working class and killed workers in Marikana.
He was not dogmatic or sectarian. Although he whole life was spent in the Black Consiciousness movement he attended the founding conference of the Democratic Left Front (DLF) because he believed that we needed such a platform as a left anti-capitalist platform that would unite our struggles and fight back. In his own words he said this was long overdue. The DLF did not succeed for various reasons. But he was one of those who really tried to make it work.
In a time where sectarianism has poisoned so much of the left he firmly subscribed to the unity of the Black Consciousness Movement in particular and the unity of the organised working class in general. He recognised the EFF as a factor in South African politics and took the position that the failure to recognise this would lead to paralysis. He was always anti-sectarian. He believed in the need of the forces of the left to strike together whilst marching separately, to strengthen the efforts for our struggle for another and better world.
As he was dying of leukemia and going blind Fanon wrote that the struggle continues. The same leukemia has taken Comrade Nkosi Molala from us. We commit ourselves and echo the words of Frantz Fanon that the struggle continues! We shall continue to swim against the tide, the vicious system of capitalism that is dragging humanity to its grave.
Comrade Nkosi Molala was an inspiration to everyone who knew him. He was an upright man in time of corruption.
Ayanda Kota
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