 |
|
|
 |
|
Against the WCAR Fraud: Anarchism, Racism and the Class Struggle |
|
Anarchist Union and Bikisha Media Collective - two South African Anarchist groups
|
|
|
|
WILL EDUCATION END RACISM?
According to South Africa's ruling elite, the problem of racism is
basically a problem of ignorance. "Education", according
to Barney Pityana of the Human Rights Commission, "will cure
racism".
This argument sounds appealing, but it is inaccurate and misleading.
Most importantly, this view conveniently ignores the role of the CAPITALIST
SYSTEM in inventing and perpetuating racism.
Since capitalism emerged in the 1500s, it has committed many crimes
against humanity. But few of these crimes are as vile as racism.
Perhaps that is why Barney Pityana - as a defender of capitalism and
the ANC government's privatisation policies - wishes to hide capitalism's
dirty laundry with his stress on "education".
CAPITALISM AND SLAVERY
Capitalism developed as a world system based on the exploitation of
workers, slaves and peasants - black, brown, yellow and white. In
the early period of capitalism ("merchant capitalism") in
the 1500s and 1600s, capitalism centred mainly on Western Europe and
the Americas.
In the Americas, vast plantation systems were set up. Based on slavery,
they were capitalist enterprises exporting agricultural goods to Europe.
It was in the system of slavery that the roots of racism are to be
found. In the words of the black Caribbean scholar, Eric Williams,
"Slavery was not born of racism: rather, racism was the consequence
of slavery".1
In the beginning, the slave plantations were not organised on racial
lines. Although the first slaves in the Spanish colonies in the Americas
were generally Native Americans, slavery was restricted (at least
officially) to those who did not convert to Christianity.
The Native Americans were succeeded by poor whites shipped in from
Europe. Many of these workers were only enslaved for a limited period,
as indentured servants serving contracts of up to ten years or more.
Others were convicts sentenced for "crimes" such as stealing
cloth or prisoners of war from uprisings and the colonisation of areas
such as Ireland and Scotland.
There were also a large number of life-long European slaves, and even
amongst the indentured, a substantial number had been kidnapped and
sold into bondage against their will.2
Conditions on the "Middle Passage" (the trip across the
Atlantic) for these indentured servants and slaves were, in Williams'
words, so bad that they should "banish any ideas that the horrors
of the slave ship are to be in any way accounted for by the fact that
the victims were Negroes".3
More than half the English immigrants to the American colonies in
the 1500s were unfree indentured servants4, and until the
1690's there were still far more unfree whites on the plantations
of the American South than black slaves.5
SLAVERY AND RACISM
It was in the 1600s that racist ideas first emerged.
In the 1600s and 1700s, the trade in human flesh shifted increasingly
from the Americas and Europe ... to Africa.
The main reason for this shift to African slaves was not racism, but
the fact - so cheering to the capitalists - that African slaves were
cheaper and easily available.6
The African elite, which now hides its guilt under a mealy-mouthed
"anti-racism," actively collaborated in kidnapping millions
of African peasants and selling them to white merchant capitalists
at the ports on the East and West coasts of Africa.
"The trade was... an African trade until it reached the
coast. Only very rarely were Europeans directly involved in procuring
slaves, and that largely in Angola".7
In the 1600s, facing pressure from slave revolts and radical grassroots
movements in Europe itself, the slave-owners invented the ideology
of racism. One of the most important slave-owner groups were the "British
sugar planters in the Caribbean, and their mouthpieces in Britain"
who used differences in physical appearance to develop the myth that
black African people were sub-human and deserved to be enslaved: "here
is an ideology, a system of false ideas serving class interests".8
Racism, in short, was invented to justify a long-standing system of
slavery in the face of demands within Europe and the Americas for
equal rights and equal duties for all working people.
The enslavement of Native Americans had been justified as being on
the grounds of their "heathen" beliefs; European servitude
was justified as being the lot of inferiors from the lower classes;
African slavery was justified through racism.
The people who benefited from slavery were not Europeans in general,
but the capitalist ruling classes of Western Europe. African ruling
classes also received major benefits.
Many poor whites were indentured or enslaved, whilst poor white farmers
within the Americas lost their land and markets to the slave-owners,
whose drive for more land led to poor whites being driven off their
family farms.9(The vast majority of Europeans never owned
slaves: only 6 percent of whites owned slaves in the American South
in 1860).10
Slavery, in short, benefited the capitalists, to the detriment of
working people of Native American, European and African descent.
RACE AND EMPIRE
Racism was thus born of the slavery of early capitalism. However,
having been once created, later developments in capitalism would sustain
and rear this creature of the capitalist class.
Solidly established in the Americas and Western Europe by the 1700s,
capitalism soon became increasingly interested in expanding its operations
in Asia and Africa.
Capitalist outposts already existed - often based on slavery, as was
the case in the early Cape Colony, which was modelled on American
slavery - and conquest was not far behind.
Between the 1700s and early 1900s, most of Asia and Africa were conquered
as Western European capitalist governments invaded - hungry for profit
from trade, from cheap labour and cheap raw materials, and profit
from new markets to sell manufactured goods.11
In the period of imperialism - of the establishment of Western empires
in Asia and Africa - racist ideas were pressed into service to justify
imperial conquest and rule. It was said that Africans and Asians were
unable to govern or develop themselves, and needed to be ruled by
external forces - conveniently, this meant the ruling classes of Western
Europe.12(Japan, which began to carve out its own capitalist
empire in the 1800s, used a similar racism against Koreans, in particular).
Empire did not benefit workers in the colonies, nor in the imperialist
countries. The profits of empire went to the capitalist class.13
Meanwhile, the methods and forces of colonial repression were deployed
against workers in the imperialist countries (most notably, the use
of colonial troops to crush the Spanish Revolution), whilst lives
and material resources were wasted on imperial adventures.
Today, multi-national companies cut jobs and wages by shifting to
repressive Third World client regimes.
SOUTH AFRICA
South Africa's history cannot be understood outside of the history
of slavery and empire.
When Jan van Riebeck arrived at the Cape in 1652, he did so as an
envoy of the Dutch East India Company. Within twenty years, a slave
system modelled on the plantation slavery of the Americas was emerging.
In the 1800s, growing British and European interest in the region
was justified by an increasingly strident imperialist racism that
hid its capitalist motives under the shawl of concern with "bringing
Africa out of darkness."
Britain took over the Zulu kingdom in 1879, the Pedi in 1879, Botswana
in 1885, Zimbabwe in 1890-3 and Swaziland in 1902. It wrapped up its
conquests with the crushing of the Afrikaner republics in the Anglo-Boer
War of 1899-1902. Germany also got in on the act with the conquest
of Namibia in 1884, whilst Portugal maintained control of neighbouring
Angola and Mozambique.
It was in this period of British imperialism that all of the key features
of Apartheid were developed: segregation, pass laws, restrictions
on African trade unionism and the cheap labour migrant system.
These instruments from the heyday of imperialism were refined and
perfected under the National Party after 1948, which saw how useful
racism was for capitalism.
The capitalist class in South Africa has, in short, benefited from
300 years of racism, which has provided cheap, right-less black labour
on demand.
MODERN RACISM
Clearly, capitalism gave birth to racism. Racism as an idea helped
justify empire and slavery.
With the collapse of the European and Japanese empires between the
1940s and the 1970s, racist ideas and theory became less and less
acceptable.
Why then does racism continue even today within the Americas, Europe
and Japan?
It continues because it serves two key functions under capitalism.
First, it allows the capitalists to secure sources of cheap, unorganised,
and highly exploitable labour. Immigrants and national minorities
are sources of cheap labour that capitalists pit against the rest
of the working class.
Secondly, racism allows the capitalist ruling class to divide and
rule the exploited classes. Across the planet, billions of workers
and peasants suffer the lashes of capitalism. Racism is used to build
divisions within the working class to help keep the ruling capitalist
class in power.
Praxedis Guerrero, a great Mexican Anarchist, described the process
as follows:14
"Racial prejudice and nationality, clearly managed by the
capitalists and tyrants, prevents peoples living side by side in a
fraternal manner... A river, a mountain, a line of small monuments
suffice to maintain foreigners and make enemies of two peoples, both
living in mistrust and envy of one another because of the acts of
past generations.
"Each nationality pretends to be above the other in some kind
of way, and the dominating classes, the keepers of education and the
wealth of nations, feed the proletariat with the belief of stupid
superiority and pride to make impossible the union of all nations
who are separately fighting to free themselves from Capital...
"If all the workers of the different nations had direct participation
in all questions of social importance which affect one or more proletarian
groups these questions would be happily and promptly solved by the
workers themselves."
IMMIGRANTS AND NEO-LIBERALISM IN SOUTH AFRICA
Workers, in short, are told to blame and hate other workers - distinguished
by culture, language, skin colour, or some other arbitrary feature
for their misery.
A classic example is the scape-goating of immigrants and refugees
for "taking away jobs and housing". In this way, our anger
is deflected onto other workers (with whom we have almost everything
in common) rather than being directed against capitalists (with whom
we have nothing in common). An "appearance" of common interest
is created between workers and bosses of a given race or nation.
South Africa is a perfect example. The capitalist policies of the
ANC - privatisation, pension cuts, massive retrenchments - all prove
that the ANC is an outright enemy of the African working class.
Because of the ANC's neo-liberal capitalist policies, the legacy of
apartheid is not only not addressed... it is worsened. African workers
and their families, the victims of apartheid, now become the main
victims of neo-liberalism (joined by a layer of Coloured, Indian and
white workers).
But the new ruling elite, which is increasingly multi-racial, increasingly
plays the race card to fragment us and so consolidate its class rule.
Whether it is the ANC's Mbeki or the DA's Leon who plays the race
card, the effect is the same: more power to the capitalist class and
so, less and less chance of ending the legacy of apartheid.
And so, South African workers are pitted against each other and against
African immigrants. And the rich get richer whilst the poor get poorer.
The race card is thus played both in the "West" and the
"South" to disorganise the working class.
OUR POSITION
Our position is simple.
As anarchists, we oppose racism, and stand against racism wherever
it raises its ugly head. Racism is not only a crime against humanity,
but a direct attack on the working class. Racism divides us, increases
capitalist profits, and leads to lower wages for all workers.
White American workers, for example, in no way benefit from the existence
of an impoverished and oppressed minority of African American workers
who can be used to undercut wages, and working and living conditions.
Therefore we support revolutionary education against racism as part
of a programme of developing a non-racial, international, anti-nationalist,
anti-racist working class movement capable of crushing capitalism
and the governments that defend it. This means every government, because
every government - not excluding Cuba and China- is a capitalist instrument,
a capitalist trade union.
We aim at the destruction of capitalism and the creation of a libertarian
communist society under direct working class self-management of all
aspects of society - whether the workplace, the school, the campus
or the neighbourhood.
THE U.N. FRAUD
As anarchists, we consider the World Conference Against Racism (WCAR)
by the United Nations to be an enormous fraud.
Sitting cosily in expensive hotels, the world's elite - the people
directly responsible for racism - will have an all-expenses-paid opportunity
to posture as champions of anti-racism.
These elites, drawn from every race, will sit cosily and listen to
lectures on the evils of racism... something none of them ever experience.
Racism is reserved for the poor: the capitalist elites are protected
by their lawyers and money. The UN is a rich-man's club, not a weapon
against racism. Like the IMF, World Bank and WTO, the UN serves as
an instrument of collective capitalist power against the world's working
class and peasantry.
Our own elite, represented by the ANC, will use the opportunity to
try and take the tarnish off its six years of anti-working class rule
by posturing as a "model" of anti-racism.
CAPITALIST ANC HIJACKS EVENT
For the ANC, the WCAR is a golden opportunity to hide away the fact
that privatisation and job loss are accelerating, and that the main
victims are African workers and communities.
This is expressed in the march by the ANC Alliance - including COSATU
- in support of the conference... only days after COSATU mobilised
tens of thousands of workers against ANC policies!
We look instead to the new anti-privatisation movement and the Durban
Social Forum as vehicles for moving the fight against racism beyond
the bounds of the UN banquets.
REPARATIONS
The demand has been raised for reparations to African peoples for
the impact of the slave trade. This is a progressive demand that,
if realised, would go a long way towards ending the legacy of slavery
in the Americas and West Africa.
However, it is extremely unlikely that reparations can be attained
under capitalism.
The capitalists know that if they open the door to reparations for
slavery, they will be asked for reparations for every one of capitalism's
many crimes.
Furthermore, across the world, whether "West", "South"
or "East", the capitalists are bent on crushing working
and poor people through the implementation of neo-liberal policies
of privatisation, cuts in schools, pensions and hospitals, flexible
labour, free trade etc.
It is therefore unlikely in the extreme that the western ruling classes
will now reverse the trend and introduce major social reforms. Their
aim, for now, is to redistribute wealth from the poor to the rich.
Real reparations for the many crimes of capitalism will only be achieved
under libertarian communism. And under libertarian communism, the
capitalist elites of the world will be judged harshly for these crimes,
rather than rewarded and rewarded and rewarded for evil, as is the
case today.
U.S. IMPERIALISM AND THIRD WORLD ELITES
Nowhere is the role of the UN as a rich-man's club made more clear
than the bullying role of the US in the run-up to the WCAR. The US,
as the most powerful capitalist country, has championed the removal
of reparations and the repression of the Palestinians by the Israeli
state from the WCAR.
Clearly, the US capitalist class wants to prevent any discussion of
the two issues.
In this it is, unsurprisingly, supported by the ruling classes in
Africa, who have scrapped the demand for financial reparations for
slavery and colonialism in favour of more debt relief and more free
trade.
This move illustrates that Third World ruling classes are complicit
in the system of neo-liberal capitalism and imperialism. Our immediate
enemy, as South African militants, is not a vague "U.S. imperialism,"
but the local ruling class which acts as a junior partner in capitalism,
which is, after all, modern slavery. The enemy is at home!
The rich will not succeed in setting the agenda for anti-racist and
anti-imperialist activism, because it is in the streets that the real
demands and actions will take place! Struggle from below will help
set out a working people's agenda against racism and imperialism,
and the system that creates and recreates these social evils: capitalism.
ANARCHIST DEMANDS
It is our view as anarchists that the key to meaningful freedom for
ordinary working and poor people is a struggle against racism, for
libertarian (free) communism. The creation of a truly non-racial South
Africa requires a social movement against capitalism and neo-liberalism,
and for a society based on collective ownership and the principle
"from each according to their ability to each according to their
needs".
We stress the common interests of all workers across the world, and
oppose the nationalists who are trying to use the WCAR as an opportunity
to fragment workers and distract attention from the real class war
in the streets, workplaces and communities
Our immediate demands are
- an immediate end to privatisation, which can only increase poverty
and misery
- refusal to pay unfair electricity and water charges
- an immediate halt to retrenchments
- trade union independence from all political parties
- an election boycott: elections are a fraud that serve only to
waste our time and confuse our people
- reparations for slavery
- equal rights for immigrants
- land occupations by self-managed rural collectives
- factory occupations by the workers and their trade unions
- freedom for the Palestinians, Burmese, Tibetans and all victims
of racism, colonialism and capitalist dictatorship.
- abolition of the third world debt, which serves as an instrument
of capitalist imperialism and the closure of the IMF, World Bank,
WTO and UN
In order to implement these demands, we must not rely on liberation
from above, which will never happen. We must struggle from below,
taking direct action against the bosses, the local councillors and
other sectors of the elite, organising ourselves for a social war
for the freedom of the working class.
"Anarchism does not derive from the abstract reflections
of an intellectual or a philosopher, but from the direct struggle
of workers against capitalism, from the needs and necessities of the
workers, from their aspirations to liberty and equality, aspirations
which become particularly alive in the best heroic period of the life
and struggle of the working masses."
P. Arshinov, N. Makhno and others, 1926,
The Organisational Platform of the Libertarian Communists.
From Prague to Seattle, Continue the Battle!
Reverse the Drive to Privatise!
There is no contradiction between the class struggle and the struggle
against racism. Neither can succeed without the other.
1. Eric Williams, 1944, Capitalism and Slavery. Andre Deutsch,
p. 17. See also Peter Fryer, 1988, Black People in the British
Empire. Pluto Press, chapter 11.
2. Williams does not take sufficient account of the institution of
life-long slavery among Whites.
3. Williams, p. 14
4. williams, p. 10
5. Leo Huberman, 1947, We, the People: the Drama of America.
Monthly Review Press, p. 161.
6. Williams, pp. 18-19, 23-29
7. Bill Freund, 1984, The Making of Contemporary Africa: the Development
of African Society Since 1800, Indiana University Press, p. 51.
8. Fryer, p. 64.
9. Williams, pp. 23-26; Huberman, p. 167-168
10. Huberman, p. 167.
11. See Freund for a discussion of the African experience.
12. Fryer, pp. 61-81; Freund.
13. And not to workers as Fryer claims, pp. 54-55.
14. Programa del la Liga Pan-Americana del Trabajo in Articulos
de Combate, p. 125-5, cited in D. Poole, "The Anarchists
and the Mexican Revolution, part 2: Praxedis G. Guerrero 1882 - 1910,"
Anarchist Review, No. 4. Cienfuegos Press.
CONTACT DETAILS:
Bikisha Media Collective (Address letters to "BMC")
POST: Postnet Suite 153, Private Bag X42, Braamfontein, 2017, Johannesburg,
South Africa
E-MAIL: bikisha@mail.com
PHONE (WITHIN SA): 083 572 8436
WEBPAGE: http://www.struggle.ws/inter/groups/bikisha/main.htm
There are also BMC contacts for Port Elizabeth and Cape Town. Contact
the Joburg branch for details.
Anarchist Union (Address letters to "AU")
POST: c/o ZB, Postnet Suite 244, Private Bag X10, Musgrave, 4014,
Durban, South Africa
E-MAIL: black-red@union.org.za
PHONE (WITHIN SA): 073 167 4581
Zabalaza Books (Address letters to "ZB")
POST: Postnet Suite 244, Private Bag X10, Musgrave, 4014, Durban,
South Africa
E-MAIL: zabalaza@union.org.za
PHONE (WITHIN SA): 073 167 4581
WEBSITE: http://www.struggle.ws/africa/zababooks/HomePage.htm (should
be available soon)
(article posted on indymedia August 28, 2001)
|
|
|
|
