WORKERS WORLD NEWS | No. 88 | September 2014

ISSUE 88 | SEPTEMBER 2014

alternatives to globalisation

BUILDING A NEW MOVEMENT:WHAT CAN THIS MEAN?

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Building a new movement: What can this mean?Leonard GentleIn the rubble of US imperialismShawn HattinghMy Struggle: Kuruman’s road of broken promisesChristelle TerreblancheGender pageHome Based CarersMy OrganisationPersistent Solidarity ForumEducation SeriesUnited Front (Part 3): The 1917 Russian Revolution

Continued on page 2...

Since the Marikana massacre in 2012 many activists are talking about the need for a new movement. For the past 12 years we have had so many community protests that some people have said that we already have ‘A Movement of the Poor’.

Then this year NUMSA has called for a Movement for Socialism which the union sometimes suggests may become a new political party. And in the 2014 elections more than a million people voted for the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) – a political party which also speaks of socialism.

So when people speak about a New Movement is this the same as a political party? Is it the same as a new organisation to replace our current organisations? And how does the idea help take our struggles forward?

WHAT IS A MOVEMENT?

In the past we have referred to such things as the national liberation movement, the women’s movement and the environmental movement. These names referred to a broad tide of millions of activists who shared a broad common objective – political independence, women’s liberation or living in harmony with the natural world. But of course this could also be defined by activists as having a clear

idea what they were campaigning against, a common enemy. So the same three examples of movements could be seen as against colonial rule; against male domination; and against the environmental destruction of the planet.

In South Africa we grew over many years an anti-apartheid movement and in the 1980s we even began to refer to this as the ‘mass democratic movement’. However, like any kind of struggle of real people on the scale of which we speak, movements are made up of different activists who contest the shape, the direction and the content of the movement. For instance the women’s movement in Europe and America had an agreed immediate objective early in the 20th century – the vote for women.

It took decades of struggles and bitter experience of defeats, of all the violence of

‘To speak about building a movement is about looking for ways to unite our struggles...’

A MOVEMENT IS WHEN WE ACT

TOGETHER TOWARDS A

COMMON OBJECTIVE

2 WORKERS WORLD NEWS | No. 88 | September 2014 WORKERS WORLD NEWS | No. 88 | September 2014

apartheid capitalism and all its tactical shifts for people to increasingly become clear – the single most important reason for all their social problems was the system of apartheid – and that they would never be able to live a decent life until apartheid was completely abolished and no compromises with apartheid could be accepted. These lessons, forged in battles of resistance and for majority rule, grew to a movement that peaked in the 1980s.

Because a movement is born out of people’s experiences it cannot be summoned into existence by a few individuals nor called for by an organisation. It has a life of its own born out of hundreds of struggles. Through these struggles people begin to learn through their own experience who the enemy is – and the enemy may take on hundreds of different disguises – and so define minimum demands that need to be met to take the movement forward.

In South Africa we remember the UDF and we rightly celebrate its role. The UDF played an important role in calling for a boycott of the 1983 tri-cameral parliament. This helped to accelerate the development of the movement of the 1980s. But the UDF was not, in and of itself, the mass democratic movement – and without the movement there would have been no UDF as we knew it.

WHY DOES THIS MATTER?

For the past 12 to 15 years every township in South Africa has known a group of activists who have played a leading role in protesting against the water cut-offs, no service delivery,

evictions and the corruption of local councillors. For these activists, protests – like mass rallies, petitions, marches and blocking streets – have been the only way of forcing councillors and politicians to at least listen to the problems of our communities.

Since 2012 we have also seen the number of strikes increase at workplaces. Many of these have been by pressurising trade unions to take responsibility. But more often the strikes have been ‘wild-cat’ strikes – not waiting for the unions or the official procedures of the LRA.

Yet community protests have often not linked up with one another – even when the same issue is being taken up. And activists struggle to sink deep roots in their own communities and take all residents along with them. And there have been almost no links between striking workers and working class activists, even in the most militant of communities.

‘A movement is made up of hundreds of different organisations’ So not being able to unite struggles has been a feature of our struggles for the last period.

To speak about building a movement is about looking for ways to unite our struggles, to learn political lessons from other struggles, and to see the common enemy which underlies all our struggles. Building a movement is not about substituting our existing struggles but about uniting as a working class and strengthening our capacity to win real gains.

A MOVEMENT IS NOT THE SAME AS A NATIONAL ORGANISATION

We know that whatever our struggles, we need to organise to achieve anything. From a street committee, to a community forum; from a youth group, to a food garden, to a strike committee: we have so many different ways we organise. Sometimes we even unite these in a broader community crisis committee or Labour Forum. Some believe that we should fight to be elected in local government and on Community Forums; others want to build political parties of the working class.

A movement is when all of these begin to act together towards a common objective – whether in opposition to something – like evictions; or to achieve a demand – like a new housing scheme or higher wages.

A movement may lead to a national organisation that can help to extend the movement and take it to a higher level. But a national organisation without a movement is merely a shell. Worse: a national organisation which claims to speak on behalf of the movement without real roots and accountability to the self-initiatives of communities and workplaces can even help to destroy a movement.

A MOVEMENT IS NOT THE SAME AS AN IDEOLOGY

We know that people have different beliefs – some are religious and of many denominations, some are Marxist, Black Consciousness, feminist, anarchist, and all shades in between. A movement challenges all of these to be relevant on the terms of the movement but is broad enough to find a home for all of them. For instance a women’s movement, a national liberation movement, or an environmental movement does not have one ideology but it compels all the different ideologies to say what contribution they can make.

‘A movement is always contested by different ideologies’But at the same time a movement is always

contested by different ideologies and the more

deep and dynamic a movement is the more it

will show the rich diversity of different views

competing to develop and take forward

the movement.

SO DO WE HAVE A MOVEMENT NOW?

One thing we can say since Marikana is that

the old anti-apartheid movement is over.

Not because apartheid is over, but because

the activists of that movement are now no

longer leading current struggles and the major

organisations of that movement – the ANC and

its Tripartite Alliance – are now responsible

for the policies that define the resistance of

activists today.

So today we have a new movement in the

making and what is of concern to activists

today is not how to revive the ghosts of the

past but to develop the tools necessary to build

a new movement that can roll back the tide of

neo-liberalism today.

Lead Story International News

3WORKERS WORLD NEWS | No. 88 | September 2014

IN THE RUBBLE OF US IMPERIALISM

Stories about the horrors being committed by the Islamic State in Syria and Iraq (known as ISIS or IS), and how the United States (US) supposedly wants to stop this for humanitarian reasons, have been hogging the headlines. What these stories don’t tell, however, is why the IS came to existence; the real reasons for the US intervention in Iraq; and how the US wants to isolate the only force that is making gains against the IS: the Kurdish Workers’ Party (PKK) and its allies.

HOW THE ISLAMIC STATE AROSE

The IS’s rise can be traced back to the 2003 US invasion and occupation of Iraq. During the invasion the US military killed 1.4 million people and brutalised the population.

Divide and rule tactics were employed. To weaken united resistance, it supported autonomy for sections of the Kurdish people in northern Iraq governed by the corrupt Kurdish Regional Government (KRG) elite. The US also promoted sectarian violence in Iraq to make it hard for people to unify against the occupation. This included backing a puppet regime – led by hard-line Shia politicians – that suppressed the Sunni population.

It is in this context that the IS emerged. Many people, especially from the Sunni population, joined the IS because it looked like the only force that was capable of defending Sunni people and resisting the US’s occupation and its puppet regime. Thus, the IS gained support despite being a brutal authoritarian organisation.

Initially the US deliberately turned a blind eye to the IS, even though it had already committed atrocities, because it wanted Iraq’s population to remain divided. By the time the US withdrew from Iraq, the IS already controlled parts of the country.

INTERVENTION IN SYRIA ADDS FUEL TO THE FIRE

Not content with destabilising Iraq, in 2011 the US decided it wanted regime change in neighbouring Syria. To try and do so, the US stoked up the civil war in the country. It gave support to sections of the military that had split from the regime and set up the Free Syrian Army (FSA) to overthrow the government. The FSA, however, proved to be a poor fighting force.

The US state then decided to arm Islamic extremists who had entered the fight against the Syrian regime. Soon these extremists began joining the IS, but this did not stop the US from continuing to supply arms. This enabled the IS to take control of a third of the country.

In 2014, the IS used the platform they had in Syria to launch new military operations in Iraq. When the IS seized key oil-fields in Iraq – controlled by US companies – the IS suddenly became a problem for the US state. The atrocities that had been committed by the IS – which initially the US had no problem with – became an excuse to intervene against them.

BACKING KRG AND THE IRAQI STATE

To ensure the oil-fields captured by the IS are returned to its sphere, the US has been supplying intelligence and weapons to the KRG and the Iraqi state to fight the IS. It has also conducted airstrikes against the IS. The reality though is that the Iraqi military and the KRG have been ineffective against the IS. If this continues the US may once again send troops to Iraq.

A PROGRESSIVE FORCE

The one force that the US won’t back is the PKK. The PKK has a long history of fighting against US ally, Turkey, and is considered a terrorist organisation by the US.

The PKK has been fighting the IS to stop it expanding its control and atrocities to the northern parts of Syria and Iraq. The PKK is influenced by some of the ideas of anarchism. As such, its goal is for an anti-state libertarian socialist revolution in the Middle East based on establishing direct democracy through people setting up assemblies, councils and communes that are confederated together. Along with this the PKK aims for the socialisation of the means of production and wealth and for the economy to be democratically planned/run to meet people’s needs. Influenced by some of the PKK’s ideas, people in northern Syria have pushed out the state and have set up councils and assemblies that are defended by a militia – with women taking a leading role. Along with battling the Syrian state, this militia is also fighting the FSA, IS and the Turkish state.

For the US state this is even more of a threat than the IS. Hence the US state has refused to supply any assistance to the PKK or its allies. In fact, the US state and Turkey have been allowing IS fighters to freely cross the border from Turkey to engage the PKK and its allies. Along with this the US state now appears to be pushing the KRG to launch a war against the PKK, despite the supposed threat of the IS.

CONCLUSION

From the actions of the US state it is clear that it cares little about the atrocities committed by the IS. The only reason it is worried about the IS in Iraq is because it seized important oilfields and is a threat to its corrupt allies, the KRG and Iraqi state. It is this type of imperialist manoeuvring that led to the rise of the IS in the first place. Further intervention by the US is also in all likelihood going to make things much worse, especially in the light that this intervention won’t stop with the IS, but will also be aimed at the Middle East population as a whole and in particular progressive forces like the PKK and its allies.

US MILITARY

KILLED

1, 4 MILLION

PEOPLE

NEW MOVEMENT

IN THE MAKING

4 WORKERS WORLD NEWS | No. 88 | September 2014

My StruggleCultural Section

ANIMAL FARMSOUNDZ OF THE SOUTH (SOS)

What you give is what you get that what they call Karma

All workers organise to chase the Boere Farmer

Its time for the poor, the sicle and the Hammer

Cease the time its revolution this summer

They slaved your ancestors your papa and your mama

Now, do you really want a repeat of the drama?

No white God above will give you manna

Unite with your own your power is in the numbers

Let the bosses know we are the war from the slumber

The last shall be 1st, the 1st be the last is the mantra

Grassroots movement people from the down under

Land, bread and housing and we make no blunder

Pass me the spade hommie im out to crack a skull

Take back what is ours

What was stolen

Do it now

Bakeries to the bakers

Farm to the famworker

Take back what is ours

Do it now!

Chorus

Batsala kabuhlungu abasebenzi

Workers are struggling

Phambile ngedabi labasebenzi

Forward with the struggle for workers power

Akukho nkanga idubula ingethi

Your suffering is not eternal

Sisono sokuqala ukusebenza ungatyi

It's an injustice to create wealth that's not for all to enjoy

Soundz of the South (SOS) is a collective of activists who use hip-hop and poetry to spread revolutionary messages, raise consciousness and critique neo-liberalism. The aim of the network is to facilitate and encourage a process of self-organisation against neoliberalism within communities as part of the broader struggle to emancipate us all. (Find SOS at sos1bandcamp.com OR facebook.com/soundzofthesouth).

5WORKERS WORLD NEWS | No. 88 | September 2014

KURUMAN’S ROAD OF BROKEN PROMISES

A stretch of Northern Cape gravel road is fast becoming a symbol for the many roads to nowhere that leave far-flung communities stranded in poverty and marginalisation despite abundance in mineral wealth. The 120km road, connecting clutches of outlying communities to 65 schools near Kuruman, is at the centre of a struggle that have seen thousands of learners involved in a school boycott – for the second time in two years – until community demands are met.

It is a road not far from efficient transport networks that takes megatons of iron ore and manganese from community land, at super profits for a handful of transnational companies. Community members have effectively been denied work opportunities at the mines, with unemployment in their ranks swelling to about 85%, according to Kuruman Community Unemployment Forum chair, Patrick Masilo. Nearly all workers employed by Anglo American, Kumba, Sishen and BHP Billiton are now migrant workers, from as far afield as the DRC and Angola. This was confirmed by Benchmarks Foundation researcher David van Wyk, who recently gauged compliance with mining legislation in the area and found countless alarming violations.

GOVERNMENT RENEGES ON PROMISES

But for the communities, their struggle is about more than jobs and lack of benefits from their resources. They claim to have been forgotten and dismissed by the provincial and local government, and indeed, the ruling African National Congress. After years of neglect, they played the only card they had: they took their children out of school for months in 2012. A deal was eventually brokered in the presence of Public Protector Thuli Madonsela – with a

commitment that the road would be tarred by early 2014. Nothing came of the promise. In June, the Forum, comprising mostly parents, again reverted to the 2012 tactic.

“The premier has never taken any notice and the (Johan Taolo Gaetsewe) district municipality does not respond to our grievances”, said Lebogang Batsabane, chairman of the Kuruman Roads Forum, representing many outraged communities from Heuningvlei to Dithakong to Ingleton.

“NO ROAD, NO SCHOOL”

While the road struggle has come to take on a symbolic meaning for their multiple deprivations, the poor state of the route is quite real: “We are also sorry about the children, but it is really dangerous”, said Batsabane. About 30 learners have already sustained serious injuries in undertaking the arduous daily journey to school, while educational materials often can’t be delivered: “I have a mandate from the parents, and we are not going to allow them to go back until we have been heard.

“No road, no school.”

It took national Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga, three months to take note that 41 schools are locked down. During a whistle-stop visit, she ‘pleaded’ for the 17 000 learners to be allowed back to school, accompanied by vague threats. Much was regurgitated in the media about the irresponsible and ‘illegal’ behavior of the community, especially the impact of the ‘schools’ strike’ on about 500 matriculants, who may not be able to write final exams.

Several national government ministers and MEC’s have since turned up – from transport to mineral affairs – but the 2012 promise is still up in the air. Since late August, community forums are meeting with increasing urgency about how to ramp up their struggles beyond ‘legal’ protests. Their circumstances mirror the socio-economic pressure cooker that preceded the Marikana massacre on the Northwest’s platinum belt.

WHO IS REALLY IN POWER?

Van Wyk has little hope: “Anglo has taken over the running of local government in Kuruman … they determine which roads will be built when. Councillors… and the police are in their pockets. Anglo’s operations (in the Kuruman area) are absolutely rotten!”

Masilo agrees. He is clear that, however unfortunate the situation in depriving the children from education, there was in any event little future for them in the area. “The mines say we are unskilled. Not even a sweeper is employed from the locals”, he said. “We also want the children to go back to school, but the thing that makes us angry is the reckless ANC leadership of Kuruman, as the ruling party.”

It took national Basic Education Minister, Angie Motshekga, three months to take note that 41 schools are locked down. During a whistle-stop visit, she ‘pleaded’ for the 17 000 learners to be allowed back to school, accompanied by vague threats.

THE PREMIER

HAS NEVER

TAKEN NOTICE

6 7

Section Topic Section Topic

WORKERS WORLD NEWS | No. 88 | September 2014 WORKERS WORLD NEWS | No. 88 | September 2014

OUR STRUGGLES OUR VOICES

OUR MOVEMENT

WORKERS WORLD NEWS | No. 88 | September 2014

HOME BASED CARERS – HEROINES UNSUNG AND UNDERVALUED

8

Gender News

Home Based Care is among the many new forms of work ushered in by neoliberal governance. The swelling of their ranks has been phenomenal – up to 70 000 nationwide. The growth could be attributed to a complex range of factors, but the HIV/AIDS epidemic and the adoption of the neoliberal GEAR policy is regarded as the most significant. The latter led to an increase in unemployed school leavers as well as cuts in health and social spending.

These underpaid and unsung heroes – mostly women – have become a significant pillar of South Africa’s health and welfare system, especially in ‘primary health care’. They are involved in a range of activities: from home-based care for chronically and terminally ill (especially HIV-AIDS and TB) patients, caring for vulnerable children and orphans, and serving as the first contact points for victims of violence in communities. Their workload also includes community education on disease control and prevention.

‘EXTREMELY PRECARIOUS’

Initially carers were mainly involved in care of AIDS patients, but their responsibilities have diversified to a point where one can consider Community Care Workers as a cornerstone of primary health care which confronts challenges that extend far beyond HIV/AIDS. Their role is nothing less than that of ‘complete health care workers’ who also manage social welfare concerns. The scope of their work has been confirmed by research undertaken in more progressive healthcare systems such as Venezuela and Cuba’s. In South Africa, these workers continue to operate in extremely precarious and burdening conditions.

ORGANISING THEMSELVES

Unfortunately, traditional trade unions have failed to direct these workers into any form of organisation. As a result, workers are continually exposed to extreme forms of exploitation without any form of protection. Home Based Carers have now turned to organising themselves, catalysed by a 2012 strike of Clinic Councilors in Gauteng. Home Based Carers and Clinic Councilors joined forces because essentially they face the same challenges. The idea of an intervention was that it is important for the Community

Health Workers themselves to establish strong organisational structures and representation to beef up their voice in the process, and to influence and improve their conditions of work. As a first step, carers have formed their own Local Forums and an Interim Coordinating Committee. The Committee is intended to meet regularly and coordinate activities from different areas. Though there are some organisational challenges, the Committee has managed to take up some issues facing home based carers. This is still an experimental phase and lessons would be drawn in the process.

OCCUPATIONAL HAZARDS

Home Based Carers have no minimum standards for their working conditions. Many are called ‘volunteers’ who receive mere ‘stipends’ or extremely low salaries. Most don’t have regulated working conditions or contracts. They are dispersed across more than 3 000 smaller NGOs under different conditions of employment. Some of these NGOs are funded by the Health Ministry, others by external donors. There are complaints about lack of transparency and corruption. Many are often without the basic minimum precautionary resources for occupational safety, such as gloves or masks.

LACK OF TRAINING

There is a lack of even rudimentary training for the work they are expected to undertake. Some neither know enough to help their clients, nor how to protect themselves. This is exacerbated by the fact that most of these workers are women, themselves affected by poverty, illness and violence, which result in very heavy burdens and dangerous conditions. Many have infected themselves in the course of their duties, they get ill, and, moreover, are exposed to abuse and violence when they do home visits or support victims of violence. As a consequence many neglect their own health and their families. An agreement has now been reached that they will be paid directly by the Department of Health. But their problems continue, including ‘dry seasons’ when they go for more than a month without payment.

NO regulated

working conditions

Home Based Carers work hard for little money. Photo: Marije Versteeg

We used to be members of the HOTELLICA union, but it did not service us properly, so we joined NEHAWU. With NEHAWU we found the same problem. The union took our grievances – over outsourced employers and dismal wages - to the CCMA in 2013, but until now we’ve had no feedback. The bosses don’t want to deal with us directly, as they argue they negotiate with NEHAWU. The union makes agreements with management behind closed doors, but they don’t want to disclose the outcome.

This is why we decided to take matters into our own hands: we formed the Forum to resolve our own problems. Now NEHAWU organisers say they can’t help us because we are organising outside of its structures – even though we continue to be union members and pay our dues. We stay with NEHAWU even though it doesn’t service workers, because it is the majority union at UJ.

WE DEMAND AN END TO OUTSOURCING

We also want UJ to see we are fighting for a living wage and that we want to be employed directly by the university, and not under private companies - not Elite, Impact, PractiClean or any other. We had our first demonstration in late 2013, as our case was pending at the CCMA, and NEHAWU was very unhappy with this. Since then we have held two more demonstrations. After the second, things began to change. Favouritism by supervisors which saw some receiving heavier workloads was done away with. We also won wage increases for the worst paid workers. Conditions improved but our employment remains precarious, with unnecessary warnings and retrenchments. At the time, management also offered us a bonus of one million rand to share. We told them we would take the bonus but it was not a substitute for a living wage.

WE CAN’T AFFORD TO SEND OUR CHILDREN TO THE UNIVERSITY THAT WE CLEAN

We are still struggling for a R10 000 a month living wage. We can’t live on R2 600. We keep the university clean but we can’t even afford to send our children there. Some of us have been working at UJ for twenty years and we can’t afford to buy homes because we don’t qualify for a bond.

Management counters that the buildings are dirty. Yet, we have to fight with the supervisors to get the chemicals and equipment we need to do our jobs properly. Now UJ also alleges that they don’t have money to employ us directly even though we know that they pay much more

to the companies per worker than what the companies pay the workers. If they employed us directly it could be cheaper!

EXTENDING OUR SOLIDARITY TO OTHER CAMPUSES

After our third demonstration they rejected

our demands, but we will continue to build

the Solidarity Forum because it teaches us our

rights and empowers us. It is also growing.

Workers from other cleaning companies

and other UJ campuses are joining because

they see that the Forum really defends their

interests. We hope that our struggle and

the Forum would grow on other university

campuses plagued by outsourcing.

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My Organisation

WORKERS WORLD NEWS | No. 88 | September 2014

PERSISTENT SOLIDARITY FORUM – STRUGGLES AT JOHANNESBURG UNIVERSITY

Years of neglect by formal unions and increased struggles around of outsourcing of services at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) galvanised cleaning staff to form the Persistent Solidarity Forum in 2013. Some gains have been made, but the struggle for a living wage and direct employment continues, supported by sympathetic academic staff and students.

Cleaning staff at UJ struggle for wages and direct employment. Photo: Jonathan Payn

10 WORKERS WORLD NEWS | No. 88 | September 2014

THE 1917 RUSSIAN REVOLUTION AND UNITED FRONTWhat is called the Russian Revolution took place in two phases in 1917. In February, Tsarist rule collapsed after an insurrection. There was tension between the new ‘provisional government’ and popular movements, expressed through the ‘soviets’ in places like St. Petersburg and Moscow. In the October Revolution of 1917, the Bolshevik Party seized power along with left ‘Social Revolutionaries’.

How did the Bolsheviks, initially a minority in the popular movement, come to power so quickly? How did this small force in the soviets emerge from relative obscurity to win large sections of the working class to its programme, and take power? Herein lies the root and essence of ‘united front’ policy in a traditional Marxist sense: for some socialists the great lessons of the Russian Revolution.

EDUCATIONAL SERIES PART 3

SOVIET DEMOCRACY AND REVOLUTION IN FEBRUARY

The February Revolution was a spontaneous uprising by workers, peasants and soldiers. They seized land and factories throughout Russia, establishing workers’, peasants’ and soldiers’ councils – mass democratic organs of working class counter-power. These councils – ‘soviets’ in Russian – elected their own delegates and had representatives from different political tendencies, ranging from (reformist) Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries, to (revolutionary) anarchists and Bolsheviks. Through the soviets workers co-ordinated strikes and other forms of struggle, using them as a way of governing themselves as a class. They were, in effect, ‘united fronts’ organised from below by the working masses in pursuit of specific demands: food, land, democratic reforms and an end to the war.

In a few short weeks the Tsar, whose family had ruled Russia for generations, was forced to abdicate and a provisional government formed. The soviets developed alongside this liberal provisional government and a situation of dual-power emerged. Initially, the soviets supported the provisional government as a hesitant expression of workers’ democratic aspirations but, as the war dragged on and the provisional government failed to implement even modest social reforms, discontent arose. Many workers and soldiers trusted the soviets more than the provisional government; but the new government was not strong enough to disband them.

DISCONTENT AND REACTION IN AUGUST

The provisional government, headed by Kerensky, faced a crisis by the end of July. Worsening economic conditions, unpopular government policies and peasant unrest fuelled the growth of revolutionary ideas.

The ruling class became unhappy with Kerensky’s weak-kneed government. In August, the reactionary General Kornilov broke

with the provisional government and plotted to establish himself as Russia’s head by seizing Petrograd (St. Petersburg) – the stronghold of the revolution. If the Kerensky government could not deal with the soviets he would do so himself.

Barricades and revolutionary defence committees were spontaneously established by workers and soldiers across Petrograd to defend their hard-won democratic advances from General Kornilov’s forces. The Bolsheviks, like most other revolutionary currents, entered into these committees as a minority but played a prominent role in the ‘Committee of Revolutionary Defence’. They established ‘red guard’ units and provided military training.

BOLSHEVIK ‘UPSWING’ AND REVOLUTION IN OCTOBER

The coup, which was rightly seen as a reactionary attempt to crush the soviets, was defeated. The workers’ victory shifted the balance of forces leftwards and Bolshevik support surged. Later, this ‘upswing’ in Bolshevik support was attributed to their ‘united front’-style tactics.

According to this analysis, by participating in the front-lines of the struggle against Kornilov while maintaining their political independence, providing political leadership and not taking responsibility for the inadequacies of Kerensky’s policies, the Bolsheviks won the majority over to their leadership. Faced with a common enemy, different workers’ parties were united in action and, both by supporting the (non-Communist) mass of workers’ demands for land, peace and bread and by exposing their reformist leaders’ inability to satisfy these demands, the Bolsheviks managed to win the majority to their programme.

Within two months, the Bolsheviks had led a revolution against the provisional government and established what appeared for a short while to be soviet power. This, for traditional Marxists, was the ‘great lesson’ of the Russian Revolution.

EDUCATIONAL SERIES

ANOTHER APPROACH: REVOLUTIONARY AND FROM BELOW

However, many leftists – including some prominent Bolsheviks – were critical of the Bolshevik approach to the campaign against Kerensky. The reformists believed that instead of dissolving the Constituent Assembly they should have formed a socialist ‘united front’ government with other socialist parties – the Social Revolutionaries, Mensheviks and Bolsheviks – which together had a majority, as the Constituent Assembly elections in November showed.

For them such a government, enjoying majority support, would bring peace and through the economic stability enabled by these conditions could gradually introduce socialist reforms from above. They said a Bolshevik-only government would lead to ‘a regime of terror and to the destruction of the revolution’.

However, there was another revolutionary position – represented by the anarchists, syndicalists and communist left. This position held that the working class was already united through the revolutionary action of February 1917. They argued that the soviets were already a majority and didn’t need the support of the provisional government or Bolshevik

leadership but, rather, could have built on the class confidence gained through Kornilov’s defeat to dissolve the provisional government and truly disseminate all power to the soviets.

This position held that what was needed to advance the revolution was not centralised state power under the leadership of an all-powerful party, but the decentralised power of a federation of armed workers’, peasants’ and soldiers’ soviets: a revolutionary ‘united front’ from below.

The Bolshevik argument was that you couldn’t have a revolution without Communist ‘party’ leadership because the working class would vacillate in its absence. However, there were in fact many episodes throughout 1917 where the working class was more revolutionary than the parties, Communists included. Many parties thus tailed the working class. Even the Bolsheviks changed their programme to be more in line with the revolutionary working class – only to change it back once they had consolidated power.

While we will never know what would have happened had this alternative position triumphed, history has vindicated the argument against one-party Communist rule.

The next instalment in this series will look at another important episode in united working class struggle and its contribution to ‘united front’ policy – Germany in 1920-21.

SPONTANEOUS

UPRISING BY

AND SOLDIERSWORKERS, PEASANTS

11WORKERS WORLD NEWS | No. 88 | September 2014

12 WORKERS WORLD NEWS | No. 88 | September 2014

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UNITING OUR STRUGGLES: BUILDING A NEW MASS MOVEMENT

ILRIG has been hosting the School since 2001. Over that time we can discern three phases.

In the first Phase we were trying to unmask globalisation to a movement which then largely consisted of older activists who looked to the Tripartite Alliance for its politics. Within this movement ILRIG considered that it was possible to develop critical thinking within COSATU and that focusing on Globalisation was a vehicle to understand the major changes that had happened to capitalism globally since the 1980s, including the ANC’s adoption of neoliberalism.

That old movement is now not only dead but its leading cadre are part of the problem, not part of the solution.

Then there was a second phase of the ILRIG Globalisation Schools – roughly from the 2005 School – where we attempted to work with a new layer of activists, whilst keeping one eye on the possibilities of revival amongst the older trade union activists. Amongst these activists there was still the task of helping

all of us to understand neoliberalism in all its manifestations and even (by 2007) that an Alternative to neoliberal capitalism was possible and necessary.

And then came Marikana.

Now it is clear that we have a new movement – completely outside of, and in opposition to, the Alliance. Activists today do not need to be convinced that capitalism is bad, that neo-liberalism is the worse kind of capitalism, and that the ANC is the party of the rich – with its allies along for the ride. They know this already.

But this new movement has activists grappling with many new questions: how to we unite? How do we sink deeper roots into our communities and workplaces? What role is there for politics? How do we build women’s leadership?

Now the School speaks to a new movement and we have to learn about all our different initiatives even while we are trying to add something from our knowledge of other struggles.

Globalisation School 201405 October to 10 October 2014Ritz Hotel, Sea Point, Cape Town

publicforum

Every month ILRIG hosts a public forum to create the space for activists from the labour and

social movements as well as other interested individuals to debate

current issues.

All public forums are held every last Thursday of the month at

Community House, 41 Salt River Rd, Woodstock from 6-8pm.

Transport home and refreshments are provided.

25 september

‘Education and Neoliberalism: Selling our children down the drain’

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU

Now is the time to start building our new mass movement. In the lead-up to ILRIG’s Globalisation School in October, our revamped Workers World News started a series on historic movements and the lessons it holds for us today. We hope this would contribute to a lively and informed discussion on how to bring our struggles together.

We have also set aside a page for poetry, songs, reviews and readers’ comments. Please help us make this an inspiring space by sending us your contributions and views.

Our vision is to interact with our readers on the shape of things to come.

We appeal to you to join discussions on Facebook: ILRIGSA and Workers World News – as well as Twitter: #ILRIGSA. You can also write to the editors on info@ilrig.org.za.

upcoming forum

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