Overcoming political gridlock by building a unified left in South Africa

Not that long ago there was a lot of optimism about the election that is now just two weeks away. Political analysts and citizens were excited about the ANC being punished at the polls and hopeful that real consequences for the party’s failures would be a wake-up call to our rulers. 

For many, that optimism has evaporated and there is now a real sense of fear. A plethora of opinion polls have shown that the ANC could dip well below 50% in the national election and impeccable sources in the party are saying this will result in a coalition government with the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and the ANC led by Paul Mashatile. In KwaZulu-Natal, where the polls show the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party surging, there is even deeper fear of the prospect of a coalition government led by the MK party in alliance with the EFF.

It is possible that the fears about the national outcome may be overblown. In a brilliant piece in Business Day Johnny Steinberg, our most thoughtful and independent political analyst, raised some deep methodological and ethical questions about the polling outfits, including their closeness to the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the wider organisational ecosystem of the right-wing of the liberal bloc. 

But it seems certain that in KwaZulu-Natal the MK party’s surge is going to be a real factor in the election. This is terrifying for the obvious reason that Jacob Zuma is an authoritarian kleptocrat with contempt for democracy and holds far right views on social issues. 

The problem faced by most voters in this election is that the only real choices are between an ANC that has long passed its sell-by date, the authoritarian kleptocrats in the EFF and the MK party, or the various liberal parties primarily funded by the Oppenheimer family. Liberalism will never be able to represent the aspirations of the majority with the result that for most potential voters there is no credible party on the ballot.

This logjam in our politics can only be resolved with the emergence of a genuine democratic left or social democratic party. The failure to develop an honest and democratic party to the left of the ANC is a serious problem for our democracy and our society. Resolving this problem requires real political maturity; the maturity to understand the contours of the problem and to act to resolve the problem. 

My participation in the left has largely been through many years of work as a trade union educator with a number of unions. Over the years I have also got to know grassroots activists in various organisations and I know a good many left actors in universities and NGOs.

Because I am a free floating actor, not involved in any particular organisation, I have been able to speak to influential players in all factions of the left over a number of years. This does not mean that my analysis of the failure to build a left party is correct or without flaws, but it does mean that it is independent and that it draws on years of conversations with a wide range of people.

The understanding that I have come to has two central elements. One is that a minor part of the failure to develop a left party is the general breakdown between much of the middle class left, mostly located in universities and NGOs, and the mass-based organisations of the left. Many university and NGO people feel that the leaders of the mass-based organisations act as gatekeepers who limit access to their organisations. 

Many people in the grassroots and working class organisations think that some university and NGO people feel they have a right to control the mass-based organisations and to treat their elected leaders and internal processes without respect. 

There have been some cases where donor funds have been used by university and NGO people to try to intervene in movement and union elections. This has not been well received. There have also been cases when university and NGO people have lobbied the media to attack elected leaders with whom they have disagreements. Again this has not been well received.

There are some bitter divisions at play but with sufficient maturity and perhaps some independent assistance in conflict resolution it must be possible to achieve some degree of repair, even if not with all individuals. All the successful left parties around the world included mass based organisations and intellectuals and so trying to repair the broken relationships in South Africa is an important task.

The major challenge that must be met if the logjam in the South African left is to be overcome is to fix the relations between the mass-based organisations. The largest such organisations are trade union federation Cosatu (about 1.8 million members), the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) (about 400 000 members), the South African Communist Party (SACP) (about 340 000 members), and Abahlali baseMjondolo (about 150 000 members). These numbers are drawn from online sources and may be dated in some cases, but they are useful to give a general sense of the collective power of these four organisations. 

There are also a number of smaller but important organisations including the Amadiba Crisis Committee and the South African Federation of Trade Unions aside from Numsa. But the big four organisations are numerically and politically the most powerful and this is where attempts at building collaboration and a shared left identity should be prioritised.

There are a number of lines of division. The main one is that Cosatu and the SACP remain in alliance with the ANC and that this creates a stark division with Numsa and Abahlali baseMjondolo. Another line of division is that Numsa’s Marxist-Leninist politics are quite ideologically similar to those of the SACP on questions aside from affiliation with the ANC and that both organisations are ideologically very different to the bottom-up radical democracy of Abahlali baseMjondolo.

Numsa still blames the SACP for its expulsion from the Cosatu in 2013, and Abahlali baseMjondolo blames the SACP for not speaking out against the regular assassination of the movement’s leaders. Both are also suspicious of Cosatu’s ongoing relationship with the ANC.

But these four organisations are aligned on all kinds of issues. They are all strongly in support of Palestine, for an increase to the minimum wage, against austerity, opposed to xenophobia, and so on.

It could be possible for them to meet, in a small closed meeting focused on building consensus, to identify matters of shared concern and to agree to act together on these matters. To get the ball rolling and build trust, issues that are not particular to any one organisation could be prioritised and collective action could be carried out in ways that don’t require huge investments in time, people and resources. For example, if all four organisations collectively picketed an appropriate target, such as McDonalds, in support of Palestine, the costs and risks would not be high but people could get to know each other and trust could be built. 

If this kind of collective action is sustained over time and sufficient trust is built, all four organisations could then agree to begin to support each other’s internal struggles, such as strikes, struggles against evictions and resistance to repression. If this could be achieved then we could slowly start to see a viable left at scale.

None of this would easily resolve the central problem of the differing views on the ANC but working together could start to create a sense of a left that is bigger than any of its constituent organisations and that shares a set of core principles. 

This could only help to move the left outside of its organisational solos and into a wider awareness of a shared identity and struggle that would, in time, open up political possibilities. It is worth a try.

Dr Imraan Buccus is a political analyst.