COMRADES, I FEEL an enormous sense of responsibility in fitting into this verv rich texture discussion here today. enormously impressed and stimulated by the wealth of ideas.
Even though what I am going to as about a sugae may es away, it is clear that there are certain common themes that face people in struggle across the world, and it is my task today to suggest that the ANC and the people of South indeed very natural allies struggle for socialism, in the alliance for socialism throughout the world.
The ANC is engaged in a struggle against monopoly capitalism imperialism in its own territory, that is, within South Africa - but also on a world scale.
The ANC is fully conscious that it is fighting not on v racism and white domination, but alSo monopoly capitalism and imperialism in all its forms.
I say that by way of introduction because the press, very often, will say that the ANC is some kind of civil rights movement engaged in opposing racial prejudice. This is very far from the truth.
We understand that the question of race prejudice and civil liberțies is of course of very great importance. But in a svstem where black people have been deprived of constitutional igns, mere can be mo civil berties. So for that reason alone, the ANC is not simply and solely a movement for civil liberties; it is a movement for constitutional civil rights people in South Africa in a unitary state.
I must emphasise the unitary state, because I was astonished to read the other day President saying that he is in favour of universal suffrage in South Africa.
What he is talking about is people voting in Dantustars, ana prcichang that thereby they have constitutional all in a single unitary state. of political am civil rights lie people Africa are have civil liberties.
the Power les in in the economic sphere.
was set 1910, which within South Africa.
rights.9 economic foremost Culic campaigns South African economy.
press today. question boycott, British people that the also British people Africa. campaign with every for the boycott kinds.
situation all giving in that fight.
year, Iney This is a They ICSOIL constitutional universal suffrage for But we cannot stop there. Because we know that behind constitutional power. pleased that Diane Abbott brought up the question of power so forcefully, because it is really at the centre of what the ANC is about: power. It is unc one wine unal will quaranice lai will have civil rights, thing that will guarantee that people the South African system both in the political sphere and It lies politically in the system that up by British imperialism ir created a single The ANC is also conscious of the dimension and this has force tens capital to divest, to pull out of the about, This is something that we have to of sanctions, of is a toremost issue in the struggle against the apartheid system. It seems to be extraordinarv how the do not understand corporations which exploit them, which use them, mechanism for making the val livald exploitation of black labour in South We and you have a duty to possible energy South African commodities and for sanctions of all Let me say something about the itself.
COLDLY Somehow the black people of South Atrica have come to the view that what they are fighting about is so fundamental that life itself is worth A change has taken place, in the last few years, but in particular this in the conception that people have of what they are fighting for.
are fighting for nothing less than power against white domination, for the establishment of a new system. Something as fundamental as that tents.
are not fighting in the last not for wage increases, although that is often placed in the forefront. They are not fighting for local issues:
Iney are fighting for a new conception. And that is that white power has to be overthrown and replaced by a new șociety, a new non-racial democracy, in which black people will be liberated white domination and white power of all kinds.
This conception of power appears every funeral where tens of thousands of people raise the banner of the ANC - an illegal act — where tens of thousands of people call for the release of Nelson Mandela; where of thousands of people talk raise slogan, support for Umkhonto We Sizwe, the military wing OTte ANC, a very illegal act indeed. Because the new conception has entered the minds of the people - that revolution is here, revolution is possible, and revolution 1s essennal Today the ANC's assessment is that there is a mood of uprising in the townships of South Africa. interesting to see that this is no longer a protest here or there, but that they are facing a mood of uprising.
Of course we ask, how can people engage in an uprising when they are not armed; when they are faced with a tremendous phalanx of repression, the military surrounding townships? Nevertheless, the position in South Africa now is no longer Soweto of 1976, no longer Natal of 1973, when something like 100,000 workers began wav. particular circumstance. This is now a nationwide phenomenon people are joining, and risking all for the defeat of white for the struggle? What kely to happen? I difficult in , but what I can say is this: do have simple preconceptions about this kind of struggle or that kind of struggle. Reality has shown that the attempt to introduce a single model of struggle into South Africa is a mistake because complex society. working class, national different elements combine that to attempt to impose a single model of struggle is a mistake.
There is an unfolding of different levels of action operating in different ways, combining and converging to put une regime pressure, which is why it is in such a crisis.
At the first level, there is the kind of action launched by Alan Boesak: the non-violent, the prison housing Nelson Mandela. action; open, legal, or perhaps illega but non-violent, open action, in the most embarrassing way action of the young people in the townships, who are throwing stones, who are grouping and regrouping in the most fascinating way.
of South Africa have come to the view that what they are fundamental that life itself I was privileged to be in Britain at It is ine ume Belfast. I was fascinated to see the methods that are used by the young people in Bogside, by youngsters embarrassing the armed forces of British imperialism.
I have been privileged to be in London when the riots in Tottenham showed the police forces highly armed forces can be embarrassed in different ways In South Africa today the young people, unarmed as they rinding ways of regrouping, urban guerilla warfare, most heavily-armed state, perhaps in the Disorienting them. embarrassment bring in the army because they cannot contain the situation So what we see in South Africa is another level of struggle. That is the struggle ot young unarmed, but nevertheless able create enormous And then there's the ANC underground. A clandestine which has cels country, which has learnt a great dea about the effects of torture on people who are captured great deal about : the police security in the level acts as a kind of framework, within the whole popula struggle, framework the body which sustains it and gives it guidance and leadership and so on.
And then there is the last one, perhaps the most fundamental, which is Unkhonto wing of the ANC. accord the Mozambican border mean, let m say, hit-and-run methods › are now A guerilla who goes into South Africa today has to survive, has to stay in the COMELY He Col across the border. He must stay there, he must make sure that the conditions All 1S a highly Rural, urban, - so man Of struggle else. unde three reasons. taking the form of confronting the regime But there is another level: the mass the regime. people of the Bogside attacks of legalistic, exile that even revolutionary exercising programmatic al t grouping capacities of fighting a kind of against the And succeeding, too.
Causing them Forcing TReM people, even embarrassment to throughout the happen?
long time which has learnt a importance of underground That be silly to tr skeleton, which lies of the people and slalt Africa we sizwe, une millar. reactionary The Knomati closely sealing of the ideas a thing of the past.
no longer are ripe for him to stay there and to survive under those conditions.
course the casualties higher. But the result has shown that the actions continue that the armed OI the ANC cannot be defeated by the Nkomati accords, by raids into Botswana, or by anything The ANC's assessment is that the conditions are extremely favourable for the struggle in the country for Firstly, there is a crisis in the ruling class of enormous dimensions. The economic crisis, the financial crisis, is only one element.
There is an ideological crisis as well. The regime does not know where to go. The speeches of Botha make no sense because he has nothing to say He has no direction to take. All he can do is to defend and stay where he is however he can. So there is a crisis o Secondly, the people themselves Let me say this: the South African case shows very clearly that those who make the revolution are the masses The revolutionaries can be around for a long time; the revolutionaries can be as militant as you like. But it's the people who make history. It's the who, or through some chemistry, decide wher the time has come to sacrifice all, to be willing to die for their revolution. That's the second factor which exists in South Africa.
the third factor is the existence of the ANC alternative government, in any kind constitutional Scuise There are people who have said to th ANC from time to time: you should constitute yourself as a government in The has persistently refused, because it understands that what matters is the existenci OI :
movement capable of both orgasaona ideological to serve as an alternative power centre; not alternative government, ready to take but alternative power centre capable of shaking the system of white supremacy.
6 The young people, unarmed, are fighting a kind of urban guerilla warfare against the most heavily-armed state in the What is the outcome of all this going to be? People ask: when will it We cannot answer these questions. I have been in exile for a People have asked these questions for quite a long while. The answer is impossible to give. It woulc But what can say is that the ANC has fingered the most rotten been able to inspire sale to has so singered and fingered most capital in the identified and linked with international capital here, in the USA agenda, and clearly understood by the is what they want The people or South Africa are at will achieve We hope that the people of Britain will join them in that historic moment.
Socialist Action 22 November 1985
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6 Power is the one thing that will guarantee that people will have civil
WHY ARE black people in South Africa now ready and willing to sacrifice even life itself in their fight, asked BEN TUROK of the ANC in the 'Alliance for Socialism' session. Because they are no longer just fighting for civil rights, but for power, for the end of the apartheid state and their liberation from white domination.
smashing of the apartheid state What is the expected course of the
6 The black people of fighting about is so
is worth giving in that fight.9