South Africans cannot be confused by the most abstract and bankrupt forms of intellectualism 

In his book of the The Critique of the Gotha programme the founder of the world communist movement Karl Marx expounds on his critique of the draft programme of the united workers party of Germany with the following diligent and most profound dialectical words"

What we have to deal with here is a communist society, not as it has developed on its own foundations, but, on the contrary, just as it emerges from capitalist society; which is thus in every respect, economically, morally, and intellectually, still stamped with the birthmarks of the old society from whose womb it emerges".

Our most profound scientific philosopher and leader of the world working class movement further in his critique quotes one of the paraphrases of the communist manifesto as follows" 

Of all the classes that stand face-to-face with the bourgeoisie today, the proletariat alone is a really revolutionary class. The other classes decay and finally disappear in the face of modern industry; the proletariat is its special and essential product."

He further explains this most informative paraphrase of the communist manifesto in the following way:

"the bourgeoisie is here conceived as a revolutionary class -- as the bearer of large-scale industry -- relative to the feudal lords and the lower middle class, who desire to maintain all social positions that are the creation of obsolete modes of production. thus, they do not form together with the bourgeoisie "only one reactionary mass".

On the other hand, the proletariat is revolutionary relative to the bourgeoisie because, having itself grown up on the basis of large-scale industry, it strives to strip off from production the capitalist character that the bourgeoisie seeks to perpetuate. But the Manifesto adds that the "lower middle class" is becoming revolutionary "in view of [its] impending transfer to the proletariat".

Later the leader of the Russian revolution Vladimir Lenin has to invoke the following profound expression by Marx as he quotes one of the paragraphs of his Critique of the Gotha programme"

between capitalist and communist society lies the period of the revolutionary transformation of the one into the other. Corresponding to this is also a political transition period in which the state can be nothing but the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat."

In his own words Lenin would explain that the great significance of Marx's explanation is, that here too, he consistently applies materialist dialectics, the theory of development, and regards communism as something which develops out of capitalism. Instead of scholastically invented, 'concocted' definitions and fruitless disputes over words (What is socialism? What is communism?), Marx gives analysis of what might be called the stages of economic maturity of communism.

The critique of the Gotha programme remains to be an important guiding tool in our analysis of the unfolding concrete objective realities of the balance of forces in the world. The theoretical thrust of the critique is becoming more relevant to the struggles of the working class more than ever before.The critique is essentially about bringing the parallel understanding of the basic proposition of the two world historical theoretical outlook, the fundamental distinction of the philosophical law of idealism and the scientific Marxist law of dialectical materialism. 

The distinction between the two world theoretical outlook is that the former is premised from the theoretical point of view of an abstract generalization of thought and the latter on concrete and scientific genesis of thought. The two superimpose each other based on the critical analysis of the scientific theory of the dialectic law of the development of society and its relations to our productive mode of economy. More importantly is about the theory of the transition and the subsequent contradictions of the historic rare moment of the transfer of power from one class into the other. 

Key amongst the compelling factors that prompted Karl Marx to respond to the draft programme of the Gotha congress was largely as a result of the concerted opportunistic effort by Lassalle to use revolutionary slogans to justify and embellish anti revolutionary tendencies at the peril of the struggles of the working class. He understood the pertinent political circumstances that allowing the Gotha draft programme in its form would have a far reaching negative implications on the future struggles for the emancipation of the proletariat.

Marx was highly anxious of the growing influence of Lassalle idealistic conception of the theory of development of society within the ranks of the party. He therefore used the opportunity of his critique of the draft programme to counterpose the hallow idea of the theory of political prosperity, of making the proletariat allergic to their historic role of political and economic emancipation.

From the point of view of the theoretical conception of the draft programme by Lassalle, the logical conclusion of the struggles of the proletariat is about creation of producer cooperatives with tighter state control. His conceptualization of the role of the proletariat on the struggle for their own freedom was a complete antithesis and a negation of our theory of the dictatorship of the proletariat. The arguments advanced by Karl Marx against this tendency has been that ordinary thinking which just produces abstract thoughts in general was a futile human endeavor. 

Like any other counter revolutionary attempt, the hypocrisy about the idealistic philosophical conception of Lassalle on the draft programme is his attempt to present from a false basis the scientific notion that the class struggles to liberate the proletariat is a historical necessity. The reality is that his conviction was in direct contradiction with our theory of definition of the state as an instrument of class oppression. His was an abstract theory to wither away the organized power and the political authority of the proletariat.

The critique of the Gotha programme by Karl Marx is also creating a basis as an instrument for the analysis of our own objective conditions of our transition as a country. The sphere of relevance of the critique of the draft programme on our analysis of the current domestic balance of forces cannot be overemphasized. It is therefore important that we use it as a barometer to measure the extent of the influence and impact of the present hostile contradictions posed of our unipolar world, on the pace and the direction of our national democratic revolution. 

We refer ourselves to this historic critique of the draft programme at the time in the phase of our struggles when our national democratic revolution is confronted by an offensive onslaught perpetuated by our antagonistic class forces. At the helm of this onslaught is a garrison of self proclaimed intellectuals who are hellbent to negate the very basis of the objective conditions that necessitated the existence of our National liberation movement and therefore the historical background and character of the south African liberation struggles.

Imperialism and neo colonialism have unleashed our own prodigal sons and daughters to mount an offensive onslaught against our revolutionary movement with the main purpose of undermining the essence of the political significance of our national democratic revolution. What has become evident about this garrison of hostile idealist intellectuals is their limitation to comprehend the complexities presented by the objective realities of the current epoch of our transition.

The article by Mamphela Ramphele published by The Sunday Independent on the 23th of December, confirms our long held view that the unfolding transition of the South African society from apartheid to the present epoch of our democratic conjuncture, has become the most complex phenomenon far above the comprehension and expectations of this category of our intellectuals. We are indeed highly astonished by the ahistorical context and the most complete misrepresentation of logical facts by Mamphela Ramphele. 

The venomous tone of vulgar and deep seated hatred against our movement and our President in particular, concealed in between the thin lines of the words and sentences constituting the body of the article written by Mamphela Ramphele leaves much to be desired. We are equally not going to succumb to the anxiety and threatening noises of revolutionary phrases and abstract polemics echoed by those who want to dance the tune of our antagonistic forces.

We are confident that our people will not be confused as Lenin said by the scholastically invented, concocted definitions and fruitless disputes over words by the most bankrupt forms of intellectualism. They are equally awake to the extractive tendencies that seek to sell our revolution and the future of our people to the highest bidder. Their world outlook has been shaped by the experiences and lessons of the century old struggles they forged against imperialist and colonial oppression and exploitation. 

The South African working class understand the challenge that the more we defeat the imperialist tendencies is the more our battles ahead become more complex. Such tendencies have the audacity to question the political authenticity of the ANC as a genuine leader of the struggles of the people of our country against imperialism and colonialism of a special type.

There is a growing phenomenon from the rank of this category of pseudo intellectuals to present an abstract and unscientific conceptualization of the current phase of our transition to democracy. They even insinuate that the living conditions of our people during apartheid were far much better than the conditions we find ourselves today under the leadership of the ANC led government. All what we are observing is a growing phenomenon led by this garrison in collaboration with the monopoly capital to thwart the efforts of our people to improve their own living conditions.

Indeed developments of history are proving that even today the same pseudo intellectuals in the category of Lassalle are unable to deal with the complexities of our transition, not as it has developed on its own foundations but on the contrary, just as it emerges from racist apartheid society, which is thus in every respect, economically, morally, and intellectually, still stamped with the birthmarks of the old society from whose womb it emerges. 

Our profound understanding is that ours is an ideal non racial, non sexist, democratic and prosperous state, building itself out of the foundations of the apartheid colonialism. We are striving to change the apartheid economic patterns of production which our antagonistic forces in collaboration with our prodigal sons and daughters seek to perpetuate.

Phatse Justice Piitso is the former Ambassordor to Cuba and former provincial secretary of the SACP in Limpopo writing this article on his personal capacity.

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