made bv the working class but it 'the people'. which there will state If the The land question also gives one of will be agriculture revolution uprooted. on this field, that the white capitalist of South or make substantial inagriculture despite Finally this raises the question of tatorship national democratic pamphlet, which dictatorship century unal democratic Russia, of the proletariat and classical cases In This is made even clearer in the inrevolution. question Apartheid's available Fortunately, both This also relates directly to the land question in South Africa. The ANC's Freedom Charter states that political power will be transferred to But this is false. "The people' have never held state power in and nor will they. There is no such thing as a 'people's state'.
State power is held by classes. The which will emerge from the revolution in South Africa will have a definite class character And what that class character is will determine the outcome of the revolution itself.
bourgeoisie holds state power in South Africa through the destruction of the apartheid regime then the tasks of the revolution, including the national democratic tasks, aborted White capitalist will not be utterly South Africa will not be desegregated, a single non-racial nation will not be forged.
This is confirmed not merely by any examination of the social reality Africa itself the sheer scale of the democratic tasks which must be carried out — but by the entire history of the twentieth century In no country in which the dicof the proletariat has not been established have the tasks of the national democratic revolution been cay in the twentieth coroy in way in the twentieth century -babwe to South Africa's north is just Only • where the of the proletariat has been established have the tasks of the national democratic revolution been carried through to their conclusion China, Vietnam being This History of the Russian Revolution Trotsky wrote: 'In order that the peasant might clear and fence his land, the worker had to stand at the head of the state: inal is int simplest formula of the It is also the sole solution to the land question in South Africa Great Land Theft is price £1.08 Other Books, PO Box 50, London N1 2XP.
Socialist Action 23 May 1986