Red Alert: Liberals as eternal political hypocrites

Liberalism in general and its different South African shades has only been consistent on one and only one thing, political hypocrisy. Otherwise how does explain the fact that the DA has come out with guns blazing against e-tolling in Gauteng (which the SACP incidentally also has problems with) whilst at the same time imposing its own toll gates on Chapman`s peak in Cape Town.

Interestingly, but not surprisingly, the media completely ignored the SACP Central Committee statement over the weekend when it pointed this out, since, for all intents and purposes, mainstream and commercial media in South Africa, with few exceptions, has become the mouthpiece of especially post 1994 (white) liberalism.

Liberalism and political hypocrisy have a long history in South Africa. The very same liberalism in our country had over decades prior to 1994 preached `freedom` whilst strenuously opposing one person one vote as the basis of genuine democracy in our country. Instead, whilst they pretended to oppose apartheid (but privately praying for the NP to win election after election), they only argued for a qualified franchise, that only educated blacks (`because they are civilized like us`), should be given a limited vote whilst not tampering with white minority rule and power.

For instance at the height of the struggles against the criminal apartheid regime, right into the negotiations of the early 1990s, the Democratic Party, the predecessor to the DA and many of its fellow travellers, never advanced a principled stance for majority rule based on one person one vote. Instead majority rule, as enshrined in our constitution today, was won by the liberation movement, using a combination of armed and mass struggles as well as the moral superiority of its struggle.

When Dr Pieter Mulder made extremely provocative statements about blacks and land ownership in our country, this has been met by a very loud silence from the liberals because Mulder has 'spoken for us all'!! From the hordes of the mushrooming liberal NGOs, there are no talks or even whispers of going to the Equality Court or the Human Rights Commission, as ordinarily would have been the case had similar statements been made about whites. There are no parliamentary motions or call for special debates or 'points of order' and warnings of unparliamentary language, had it been the other way round!

In true liberal fashion, especially after 1994, liberals have opportunistically cherry-picked on issues where they want to appear to be on the side of, or speaking for, the majority of the people our country. They seek alliances with the workers when they seek to capture the SABC (the 'Save our SABC Coalition'). They would seek to build alliances with worker organizations on opposing the Protection of State Information Bill (POSIB) and 'civil society' coalitions to oppose e- tolling in Gauteng, even in courts, if need be.

But we are yet to hear of 'civil society' initiatives against abuse of farm workers, against labour brokers, or against retrenchments. There is no 'right to know' campaign on why Nelson Chisale had to be thrown into a lion's den by a white racist nor is there an outcry about threats to our constitution when judges, as public officials, resist to declare their interests and those of their spouses.

There is already an important lesson for the working class about all this, that we should be extremely vigilant about liberal fellow travellers posing as friends and allies of the working class. Liberals choose issues on which to try and fool the working class, often issues aimed at opposing government and the majoritarian character of our democracy.

For instance when Cosatu embarks on actions against labour brokers, these liberal 'friends' and 'civil society combatants' will be conspicuous by their absence. Why? Because liberals are not against capitalism and the exploitation of the working class nor are they for the total emancipation of the black majority or the total eradication of the legacy of colonialism of a special type. Instead the very notion of `civil society` is used to hide elite class interests, and often racial ones as well, whilst pretending to be the greatest defenders of freedom ('Under Law') and equality.

This is why liberals don`t want to support the campaign on deepening participatory democracy - participatory democracy is reduced to their donor funded organisations, pursuing sponsored views on issues such as the POSIB, the media appeals tribunal, and many others. The liberals are fundamentally opposed to the increased role of the state in the economy, because, whilst purporting to seek to speak on behalf of our people, they do not believe of a state that seeks to act to advance the interests of the majority.

It is for this reason that liberals have sought to use the courts and all institutions supporting our democracy, to try and oppose, discredit and subvert all government decisions aimed at the thorough transformation of society. The liberals now are going to court to challenge the Languages Bill, yet have never raised their voices about the marginalisation of indigenous African languages. They oppose the National Health Insurance Scheme, and practically all that stands to benefit our people. That is why they have reduced our struggle to constitutional legalisms, devoid of any substantive economic and social transformation.

Liberalism, especially in the 1970s and 80s, argued very strongly for instance that apartheid was an aberration and distorted the otherwise rational capitalist market system, refusing to see the deep interconnectedness between the two, thus reinforcing the very conditions for the reproduction of the apartheid system. Apartheid was not a distortion of, or aberration from, the capitalist market, but was a brutal and particular form of colonial and bourgeois rule, which affected the lived experiences of the overwhelming majority of South Africans.

Perhaps liberalism is after all not a hypocrisy as such, but its very nature and character is elitist, and it will at all times act like this. South African (white) liberalism in particular evolved from a racialist form of accumulation of privileges, and it still largely displays similar features today. It is an expression of the coincidence of race and class in a patriarchal society.

It is therefore important for the working class to understand that it`s fate lies in its own hands, working in alliance with progressive forces in society. It is this understanding that would characterize the working class as a class for itself rather than a class in itself. It is only a politically conscious working class and the majority of our people that will expose the hypocrisy of liberalism, in all its manifestations.

The principal task of the working class is to lead and be at the head of the mobilization of the people as a whole, and intensify the ideological offensive against all forms of reactionary and regressive tendencies, including liberalism, workerism, populism and demagoguery. In so doing it should act as the glue to the unity of our Alliance! This is the true meaning of the working class as the principal motive force of the national democratic revolution. It is taking responsibility for the revolution!

Asikhulume!!

Blade Nzimande is General Secretary of the SACP. This article first appeared in the Party's online journal Umsebenzi Online.

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