April 2011 - Centre for Civil Society - University of KwaZulu-Natal

Since the beginning of the world economic crisis in 2008, over one million
South Africans have lost their jobs; the official unemployment rate in the
country is over 25 %. At the same time trillions of Rands are being
extracted every year from the mining industries, money that could wipe
out unemployment and poverty instantly. But the capitalist owners of the
mines are not interested in this. This fact could not be clearer, especially
in South Africa. By taking over these companies one could guarantee that
the profits, which are in fact created by the labour power of the South
African workers, would benefit the whole of society instead of a small
group of parasitic capitalists.
A perfect example is Venezuela where there have been widespread
nationalizations in the oil and cement industries, as well as large parts of
financial, industrial and commercial companies. This has greatly assisted in
expanding the public services. For the first time in the history of
Venezuela illiteracy has been wiped out. At the same time “misiones” have
been set up to supply free medical and dental care as well as eye surgery
for hundredsof thousands who could not afford such “luxuries” in the past.
It is true that isolated nationalizations in themselves do not solve anything.
As we shall see later this indeed is also the case in Venezuela. The real
problem is the capitalist system, an anarchic system that cannot be tamed
or controlled consciously. The only way to solve the main problems of
South African society is to take over the commanding heights of the
economy and organize them under a democratic plan. The task of the
Marxists consists in connecting the inadequate programme of isolated
nationalizations with the full revolutionary programme of expropriation of
the South African bourgeoisie.
Instead, Nzimande is putting the party in opposition to the ANCYL call for
nationalizations andthus sowing immense confusion and, more importantly,
drawing the vanguard of the workers and youth away from the mass of
workers who correctly see the ANCYL call as progressive and anticapitalist.
For 20 years, since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the ideologues capital
have been very busy trying to bury the whole idea that society can
function without private property. These same capitalists are now shaking
in their boots, not just for fear of the mines getting nationalized, but for
fear of the idea that collective ownership of the means of production can
actually be seen as an alternative to private property. It is the duty of the
SACP to support such a call, but at the same time to patiently explain its
shortcomings.
The excuse that Nzimande has made up in order to go against the call for
nationalization is that some BEE benefactors who are now stuck in
bankrupt mines are looking to be bailed out and have the state buy their
debt. Yes, it might very well be true, that there are some significant
interests within a part of somebourgeois, who are looking for bailouts and
who have pushed for it within the ANC structures. This type of corruption
is not alien in any sense to South Africa and the ANC government that
Nzimande himself is a part of. But this is still a very bad excuse for coming
out full-on against nationalizations.
The problem, however, can be solved with the simple demand that the
nationalizations should take place without compensation for any capitalists
or with compensation only in the case that the capitalists and bankers
open their books and prove that they have invested more in the mines than
they have extracted as profit. But this is a closed book for Nzimande who
seems determined to oppose the call for nationalization of the mines using