The leading union in COSATU, NUMSA, and the most vocal member within the Congress Alliance in its critique of the governing ANC, is positioning itself as the voice of the Left in South Africa. The union has more than 220 000 members in a sector accounting for 15% of the economy, three times the size of mining. Pressured by increasing inflation and persisting challenges of poverty and unemployment, its members find themselves having to support a high number of dependents, a reality facing many Black families. These, the union attributes it to the uninterrupted policy direction taken by the governing ANC from 1996.
Let’s set aside the fact that NUMSA does benefit from the NUMSA Investment Company (NIC) and that its members occupy a somewhat privileged class position as a result of the number and level of investments those policies have had on the sectors in which it organizes. Notwithstanding all these, the union seeks to part ways with the Congress Alliance and held an International Symposium of Left parties/movements over the weekend in Benoni under the theme Building our own movement for socialism: Learning the lessons first hand. Given the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) initial concrete steps, what are the prospects for NUMSA’s ambitions?
NUMSA and the Secretary-General of COSATU, Zwelinzima Vavi, in seeking a different economic trajectory, initially turned their horizons to what they termed the Lula moment in Brazil. Unfortunately, no such moment materialized. However, the turn to Brazil did indicate that a formation situated at the political centre, the centre-left to be precise, may be the only vehicle to stem the growing crisis of unemployment and poverty.
In the 13 years before it finally won national executive power in 2002, the Workers Party of Lula da Silva, Partido dos Trabalhadores (PT), was forced to moderate its ideological position. Interestingly, while it garnered an alliance with both grassroots and formal liberal organizations, making it a home for all variants of the Left, it kept party discipline and loyalty intact, and carefully scrutinized all new members and party representatives.
This meant that the party made ‘necessary’ compromises to attain executive power first. Between 1993 to 2003, “improvements in state performance made it less and less credible for the PT to present itself as a radical alternative to an unacceptable situation.” And this became more evident in the 1998 elections in Brazil.
In fact “the success of the inflation-reducing by the previous administration suggested that the PT’s promises to combat deep structural causes of poverty and inequality (for example, unequal land distribution) were much less attractive to poor voters than immediate albeit limited improvements.” The word “socialism” was even omitted from the party’s 2002 electoral program.
The case of Brazil, therefore, represents Leftist moderation whereas in Venezuela a highly radicalized discourse was able to win the late Hugo Chavez serious majorities. But that’s because the pre-Hugo Chavez Venezuela was burdened with an incapacitated state and a national economy not as thoroughly integrated to the world economy. Well, they also have oil! On the other hand, South Africa’s increasing public debt, including guarantees, the country’s integration to the world economy, its increasing flexible exchange controls, and the ability of the state to still carry out welfare policies and other tasks, situates the possibility of a Left alternative that can win state power at the centre-Left.
The problem for NUMSA and the EFF is that this is still where the ANC lies, albeit contested. Obviously, the PT’s evolution should not be turned into a formula. But the policies of both the EFF and NUMSA, the latter articulated in their March 2013 document titled The National Development Plan: Mixed Bag, Or Downright Neoliberal Proposals for South Africa? place them at the far Left, a problematic place to be in given the direction in which the negotiated post-1994 state led the country in. This is also because some of the protests in the country have been about struggles for control over development. The point is that many people are accustomed to getting “immediate albeit limited improvements”.
While there may be convergence of policy between the ANC and the DA, that’s as a result of the DA trying to attract Black voters. Contrary to some commentators, the NDP does not categorically represent this convergence, as we’ve now seen with the land reform proposals from the Department of Rural Development and Land Reform; the proposals were a deviation from the NDP. And this clearly points out that there are differences of ideological opinion in the Congress Alliance and some of these play themselves out in government policy. Given the ‘family for all’ character of the ANC, this is no surprise, but this also means that there are some within the ANC carrying the torch of centre-Left politics.
While the political centre has not been holding for the majority poor, as I’ve argued in The post-1994 power brokers and Black liberation, the reasons are not because of objective factors but because of subjective factors; that being that the ANC has still not prioritized the quality expected of a “cadre” to drive the country towards a National Democratic Society (NDS). Party loyalty, discipline and member/party representative scrutiny, aspects which marked out the PT, have been compromised. And this has had an uneven impact on state capacity.
There is no doubt that NUMSA’s critique of the NDP offers a far reaching solution to the deeper crisis bedeviling the country. And the EFF does at times raise critical historical questions. However, because they both occupy the far-Left, the two will have to work together if they are seriously committed to a Left agenda. But there has to be realization that in doing so they have to appeal to a broader constituency and thus court a range of other organizations. In this regard, NUMSA will have to guard against a splintering Left. Whatever the outcomes of the International Symposium, it will take time to build a Left formation that can win state power.
Thapelo Tselapedi is a former socio-economic rights researcher, but is now pursuing a doctoral degree at the University of Johannesburg. You can follow him on twitter @t_tselapedi