In recent weeks Jeremy Cronin has twice come out in attack on what he describes as Liberals, lumping together as many of the forces in our society who are against cronyism, corruption, authoritarianism and conservatism as he can identify (see here and here). His critique is ahistorical and unscientific. It stems from the schizophrenia he and others on the "Left" in the ruling Alliance are suffering from, a condition brought about by their own betrayal of the values, principles and ideals that the ANC, SACP and COSATU once stood for.

Cronin is fooling no-one with his intellectual gymnastics, all done in the name of trying to justify why the leadership of the national liberation movement have sold out the national democratic revolution for big salaries in government, fancy Ministerial cars, a chance to be the next wave of BEE "tenderpreneurs" and denial of the rampant corruption, greed and dishonesty that is a defining feature of this government.

What we are witnessing is not liberal counter-revolution, but the demise of this pseudo-Left. If Cronin is to be believed, the forces of what he calls liberalism, are out to destroy the ANC led Alliance and the government through a combination of control of the media, confusion of the ignorant masses and an alliance with ultra-left forces to boot.

This is such a confused analysis of what is happening in our society it is almost difficult to know where to start in dealing with it. A few things spring to mind though; the history of the national liberation movement, the trajectory of the national democratic revolution, definitions of liberalism, social democracy and communism and experiences of post-colonial states in general are some of the important ones.

There is much that one can agree with in terms of Cronin's potted history of the relationship between liberalism and Leninism in the NDR, but he seems to have conveniently omitted the overwhelming, hegemonic set of ideas and values that have dominated the NLM historically and our society today; social democratic ones.

While it is true that the SACP played a significant role historically in the NDR, there were many members of the ANC, COSATU and even the SACP who were neither liberals nor Leninists.

The overwhelming majority of members of the ANC, COSATU and the SACP and these days COPE, as well as NGOs, CBOs and other independent formations of "civil society" are still social democrats, committed to the fundamental, but democratic transformation of our society. Even parties such as the DA have right-wing or centrist social democrats in them. This is the success of the NLM.

There are very few liberals, in the sense that Cronin uses the word, left in our society, just as there are few if any real Communists. Broadly speaking those elements are to be found in the DA and a few other parties, but to lump COPE in with these is simply dishonest. This sleight of hand, creating a liberal counter-revolutionary bogey-man, is achieved by Cronin simply glossing over the most recent history of the NDR and the NLM.

The degeneration of the NLM; the rise of patronage, corruption, authoritarianism and populism, are among the most significant developments that led to the formation of COPE. They are also what have led to the re-energising of independent and sectoral formations in society, including the life that seems to have been breathed back in to COSATU post-Polokwane.

Cronin and other leaders in the Alliance abandoned all pretense of Leninism, social democratic values and anything vaguely progressive when they made common cause with populist forces and criminal elements in society to oust the then President of the ANC, Thabo Mbeki.

That is why this change in leadership brought no substantial shift in ANC policy. It was about individual leaders' interests and not the interests of the poor and marginalized in our society. Even with SACP members in Cabinet today, we witness Ministers earning higher salaries than ever before, driving the most expensive cars and looting the state's coffers, while change for the majority of South Africans remains superficial.

There was nothing wrong in wanting to change leadership in the ANC, but to do so by the rigging of conferences, the buying of branches and membership, by using populist rhetoric and by aligning the Left with these reactionary elements, including criminals, Cronin and others like him sold the NDR out.

That these apologists for the counter-revolution continue to deny the lived reality of South Africans, is nothing new. Revolutions time and again place choices before leaders and most choose the opportunistic route, which is to deny the reality they are supposed to transform and to seek refuge in dogmatism.

It is a form of comfort for these elites, but one that spells disaster for the revolution.  The SACP has been as much a beneficiary of the class formation, corruption, patronage and looting that are the defining features of modern, post-liberation politics in our country than the ANC. It is therefore not surprising to see Cronin, under the guise of defeating the liberal counter-revolutionary bogey-man, attacking everything that is not "his" ANC.

Cronin can try all he wants to lump together the often confused and spontaneous but genuine action of organized and disorganized groupings in society and the liberal forces that are vocal but miniscule, but it won't cover up for the fact that these manifestations are a sign of the weakness of leadership in the NLM and a reaction to the degeneration of the movement.

The SACP has long lost its status as a strategic centre in the progressive movement and employs a crude brand of Marxism one can hardly recognize as having any relationship to that powerful and vibrant methodology. The ANC may still have brand value in communities, but its status is fast diminishing. That COPE, a formation that has within it significant numbers of former ANC, SACP and COSATU members should be suffering similar problems as the ruling party, should come as no surprise.

The same material conditions that give rise to these problems in the ANC Alliance do so in COPE and all other political parties. The COPE leadership, for the most part, do not deny this reality and are trying to rid the party of these elements. What is shocking is Cronin's crass claim of revolutionary exceptionalism and his dismissal of what he describes as a small, foreign tendency in the ANC that seeks to undermine the constitution and to tamper with our hard won freedom.

His use of the straw man threat of liberalism to attempt to justify moves in the ANC to consolidate the counter-revolution by getting state control of the press and media and to push policies such as nationalisation is indicative of this tendency of a corrupted Marxism.

It is this kind of opportunism that led to the destruction of proud revolutionary movements the world over and the deaths of many good men and women at the hands of populist demagogues. 

Phillip Dexter is COPE's Head of Communications

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