We are lifelong activists in the Black
Consciousness Movement. We have noted the press statement announcing the merger
of AZAPO and SOPA. We are committed to the unity of all BC organisations and
individuals committed to the BC project. However we have concerns about the way
that this merger has been planned and the content of the announcements
surrounding it.
There have been serious disagreements within BC
since the death of Biko. Since 1998 there have been a number of splits in the
BC movement. There have been constant talks about unity but they have always
failed. During these years many BC stalwarts have been operating independently,
some pushing the question of unity and some getting involved in the new
generation of popular struggles.
The politics of BC used to be a politics of
dignity. It used to be entrenched within communities. You would have black
students working in community programmes. You would have black lawyers who were
not divorced from the people's struggles. Activists were right there in the
struggles and the day to day lives of black people. They were not taking
decisions for the people from an ivory tower. This has really been missing for
many years. What we have had in recent years are small sects that are alienated
from the people and from their struggles and have not been able to rethink BC
politics for a new situation. They tend to just recycle the old dogmas and
slogans of the past. Every new statement looks like a repeat of the Azanian
Manifesto. Those that know the old dogmas and slogans are taken as the experts
that must lead the people. Often there has been real authoritarianism in these
organisations and a tendency to use slander and intimidation to shut down
debate. There are sober people in these organisations. But if anyone is
critical these organisations will send out their own Malemas to bark at their
critics and to impugn their integrity. Critics have been called agent
provocateurs, traitors, lumpens etc. But the record of these organisations is
one of on-going political failure. They have not succeeded in elections and
they have not succeeded in linking to popular struggles. The sclerosis of the
BC tradition, once a politics rooted in the real lives and struggles of black
people, has become clear.
The politics of the media manufactured celebrity
with no support on the ground are not a real alternative to this. Real politics
is not conducted on Facebook. And when the reduction of BC to celebrity culture
is accompanied by the gutter politics of slander and threats to people that
question the authority of the self-appointed leader it is nothing but an insult
to the memory of Biko. BC needs to become rooted in the lives and struggles of
black people once more. It needs to become a space for free and open discussion
once more.
We know that criticisms of the organisations and
people that have tried to capture the BC legacy for themselves will always
result in attempts to assassinate the characters of the critics. There are many
sober people in the various BC organisations but they often feel too scared to
speak and debate freely. There are lots of discussions off the record but
people do not want to go public. Even some of the real stalwarts do not want to
go on the record with their concerns. However we remember that Che Guevara
always used to quote Jose Marti on this point: “A sad thing it is to not have
friends, but even sadder must it be not having any enemies; that a man should
have no enemies is a sign that he has no talent to outshine others, nor
character that inspires, nor valour that is feared, nor honour to be rumoured.”
We are concerned that it seems that the process
leading to this merger between AZAPO and SOPA was carried out behind closed
doors. It was not an open and democratic process. In fact it seems to us that
it is just a marriage of convenience aimed at the 2014 elections. There is also
a worrying authoritarianism in the statements that have been made. People who
have genuine concerns about this merger are already being painted as
'immature', 'reckless' and 'power-mongers'. And there is no new political
vision at all in the statements that have made. All we see are the old slogans.
We can all agree that the ruling party has failed the black masses in occupied
Azania. But just repeating the same old slogans that have never succeeded to
capture the imagination of the people is not going to help.
If BC is to be made relevant on the ground it
needs to connect to the everyday lives and struggles of black people. It will
need to think seriously about the global crisis of capitalism, the new
struggles that are emerging around the world, and the new struggles on the
mines, on the farms and in the squatter camps in South Africa. It will need to
think seriously about the crisis of unemployment, education and housing faced
by the majority of black people under a black government. It will need to think
seriously about the emergence of popular organisations like Abahlali
baseMijondolo and AMCU that are independent of the ANC. It will need to think
seriously about the brutal repression of new struggles by a black government.
It will need to think seriously about xenophobia and rape. It will need to
think seriously about moving out of the small, backward looking, introverted
and divided spaces in which the remains of the BC tradition survive today and
towards building a broad based left project rooted in popular struggles.
Karl Marx warned that the “The tradition of all
dead generations weighs like a nightmare on the brains of the living.” He
stressed that “We call communism the real movement which abolishes the present
state of things”. In the same spirit Frantz Fanon insisted that "Each
generation must, out of relative obscurity, discover its mission, fulfil it, or
betray it." Biko, Cooper, Ngwenkulu, Moodley, Mokoape, Ndebele, Philip,
Pityana, Tiro and many others developed an explosive new politics for their
time. We must do the same for our time. We cannot continue to think that just
repeating the old slogans to ourselves is the same thing as making a serious
political intervention.
If a genuine unity of all forces committed to
the BC vision is to be achieved, and if this is going to be a new political
force that can really make a difference, it will have to be based on an open
and democratic process and it will have to be rooted in the lives and struggles
of our people. This unity cannot come from a few leaders having discussions
behind closed doors. It cannot come from leaders trying to protect their power
and positions. If BC is to become revitalised and a real force in the politics
of our country it must be returned to the people. We need a BC that will be
able to capture the imagination of our people and that will only happen once we
realise that the so-called masses are full blown political subjects. It will
only happen once the urgency of the crisis faced by our people has been
realised. It will only happen once we realise that our people are already in
struggle and that we must join them in that struggle.
We sign off with a quotation from Steve Biko:
"We have set on a quest for true humanity, and somewhere on the distant horizon
we can see the glittering prize. Let us march forth with courage and
determination, drawing strength from our common plight and brotherhood. In time
we shall be in a position to bestow upon South Africa the greatest gift
possible - a more human face".
Bheki Buthelezi – 072 639 9893
Ayanda Kota – 078 625 6462
Xola Mali – 072 299 5253
