Red Alert: Stop attacks on foreign nationals right now!
Focus on the root-causes of our shared problems!
On Wednesday, 15 April 2015 the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) convened a joint press conference and condemned attacks against foreign nationals in strongest terms.
The SACP and COSATU called on their own structures to take action in their respective communities in defence of peace.
This is very important!
People have a role to play on matters that affect society. After all they constitute society itself. They are the makers of history, though, as Karl Marx says, not in the circumstances of their own choosing.
What we need to stop the anarchy is action.
This is exactly what the SACP did when similar attacks occurred in Soweto. The Party mobilised its structures to stop the despicable violence. We have been doing the same now in the province of KwaZulu-Natal, and elsewhere throughout the country.
Everyone needs to act to stop this violence! And we need to work together as a people.
World system problems, focus on the root-causes!
While intensifying action locally to stop the despicable violence, it is important we strengthen the international movement against the underlying system that reproduces the social problems.
Fundamentally, the causes are international.
Multilateral institutions must therefore also discuss the social problems created by the dominant world system they are presiding on – that is capitalism. They must take responsibility as well, BUT ONLY DEMOCRATICALLY! This emphasis is important.
Those institutions must themselves become transformed as is the system they are presiding on – which must ultimately be replaced in a world revolution. This is crucial for human society to be free from all forms of exploitation and their consequent social problems.
The contradictions we are facing must therefore be resolved at least at two levels. That is at their root cause level where they originate and develop from, and at the level of the social problems that they create – that is at the level of their effects. This includes stopping all backward responses to what is the negative impact of the multiple interacting crises of the underlying problem – which is the capitalist system.
But let us combat malice and unnecessary distractions!
In South Africa there are those who reduce the task of stopping the attacks to be the responsibility, all alone, of the government, or of the African National Congress (i.e. the governing party), or of the President. See, for example, “Centre lashes out at Zuma” (The Citizen, 16 April 2015).
Some of the people who do so are simply opportunistic, while others, similarly, are merely advancing a politics of narrow oppositionism in the midst of what is a serious problem to humanity.
But let us be focused at the same time. Let us keep our eyes on the ball.
The problem of private capital expansion and accumulation
Capitalism is the fundamental cause of the problems faced by humanity and the natural environment as a whole. Capital accumulation knows no morals. It has no regard to human life and nature as a whole.
Without enquiry into the motions of capital and what it does to achieve expansion in a given historical context, it will therefore be almost impossible to develop both the clarity of content and task in terms of what is going on and what must be done. But we will also not even understand why there are others who will always seek to divert our attention from focusing on the real problems by creating scapegoats.
This theoretically sums up the approach adopted by the SACP and COSATU.
The problems we are facing are an outgrowth of deeper structural processes and forces of the system of capitalism. What we see popping up on the surface – that is the totally unjustifiable attacks on foreign nationals – are a backward and inward reaction to the effects of the underlying systemic crises emanating from the expansion of capital through private accumulation of wealth on a capitalist basis.
In South Africa this already signalled the death knell of the means of income of small tradespeople and shopkeepers several years ago.
Hyper competition facing small shopkeepers and traders comes from within the country itself. It comes from big capital, from the booming malls and the penetration of the local economies of both townships and even rural areas by chain stores. It is this capital expansion in areas it had not previously taken hold of locally that has liquidated many small businesses and co-operatives. It is this configuration which makes it very difficult for existing small businesses and co-operatives to survive, and for new ones to emerge.
But there have been other factors as well.
Dealing with some of those factors in The Wretched of the Earth Frantz Fanon analyses the pitfalls of national consciousness and develops a critique of the “national bourgeoisie” in “post-colonial” societies. Those strata of the bourgeoisie, which include the locals who serve as the intermediaries of the bourgeoisie from the ranks of the former colonial powers or imperialist capital are equally interested in the merciless exploitation of the workers. But in the event of liquidating competition from foreign capital and traders they have ways, including hostile means, of attracting support from some elements among the ranks of local workers including work-seekers.
Fanon was dealing with this fifty four years ago in 1961 when he wrote:
“The working class of the towns, the masses of unemployed, the small artisans and craftsmen for their part line up behind this nationalist attitude; but in all justice let it be said, they only follow in the steps of their bourgeoisie. If the national bourgeoisie goes into competition with the Europeans, the artisans and craftsmen start a fight against non-national Africans”.
From what we see going on today in South Africa Fanon’s formulation, while remaining essentially the same, will be worded slightly different. It will replace the reference to “Europeans” by that of “foreign nationals” in general.
Fanon worryingly recounts the backward attacks on foreign nationals caused by similar phenomena in various African countries, Ivory Coats, Senegal, Ghana and Congo. During those times, this wrongfully led to, he writes, “foreigners” being “called on to leave; their shops… burned, their street stalls… wrecked”. “As we see it”, he writes, “the mechanism is identical in the two sets of circumstances. If the Europeans (NB. Recall the context given above) get in the way of the intellectuals and business bourgeoisie of the young nation, for the mass of the people in the towns competition is represented principally by Africans of another nation”.
In addition to Fanon’s observation, and this based on the recent deplorable violence in South Africa, such competition is seen as also represented by foreign nationals from some parts in Asia.
As COSATU President Comrade Sidumo Dlamini captured it at the press conference, it is only the black skin that faces the attacks and the victims include people from Bangladesh and Pakistan. There are even South Africans who are attacked. Whether this is “Afrophobia” or “xenophobia” is neither here nor there. The bottom line is that all of this despicable violence MUST STOP RIGHT NOW!
But what else does the overall international context as it stands today tell us about these social problems?
There are various attacks on foreign nationals but these are expressed in different forms in different global regions. All of this flowing from capitalist social relations of production and the consequent political conditions.
Capitalism inherently involves uneven development. It causes this through economic exploitation.
At the micro level more labour value is extracted from workers who are then paid less as a means of profit making. Internationally, this law of capital expansion consist in this. Less is injected in imperialist exploited economies, but more is extracted from them and repatriated to the core economies of the system where it benefits development.
The countries and the capitalist class which extract more from others and the workers respectively are the so-called (the) “developed” (of our time), while, those who are thus exploited are under-developed.
The uneven development and underdevelopment caused by capitalism are the main system drivers of migration flows within and across borders in our epoch. Many people do not migrate out of free will. They are coerced by the economic, social and political circumstances forged by capitalism and its consequent politics.
Capitalist uneven development, which is designed in favour of the countries which lie at the core of capitalism as the dominant world system, is driven through the under-development of countries which are located in its periphery. Not so long ago this was pushed through the colonial expansion of capital, which has ravaged much of the global South, Africa included, Latin America, South and South-East Asia but also in the Middle East where there is what others call the “Third World War” going on.
In many of the countries which achieved “independence” from colonialism it still remains the former colonial powers through their capitalist class forces which continued to retain strategic advantages and control over the economies of the historically oppressed.
This has deepened through the consequent neo-colonialism, but it has even entrenched under the present era of heightened imperialism – the highest stage of capitalism:
Precisely the heart of the two interacting phenomena, in varying degrees, of the continuing underdevelopment of the countries in the periphery and uneven international development!
The scarcity of the resources needed to support human life thus created in the negatively affected countries coupled with competition and imperialist machination give rise to consistent political conflicts and wars. This is part of the push factors forcing people out “of their countries” (i.e. mostly colonially partitioned territories) to look for destinations (sometimes temporary destinations) which offer the prospects for relief.
It cannot be, therefore, that instead of solidarity, the affected people are further violated through super-exploitation by capital, through the so-called “xenophobic” attacks, or through government action as we see in:
The global North.
As noted in the African Communist (1st Quarter 2015, No 188): “Today, the most militarised international border in the world is not between North and South Korea, but between the US and Mexico. According to the editorial, this is “designed to keep desperate (but ‘illegal’) work-seekers out”.
But there is “a deep hypocrisy in this” as noted the editorial. As underlined from Saskia Sassen’s research: “Tens of millions of desperate, ‘illegal’ work-seekers nonetheless still find their way into the US and Europe” in “what looks like failure from the perspective of controlling entry”, but which “is actually delivering results that particular sectors inside the US want from immigrants” – “low-paid workers”. Their ‘illegal’ status (sustained by the highly weaponised border) means they are prepared to accept low wages and precarious working conditions”.
Similar migration patterns forced upon workers by uneven development last year caused tensions within the European Union, mainly between the UK and Germany. This was triggered by the way the UK government reacted to increasing migration from the south and east of Europe. The government sought to clamp down entry to the UK and limit immigration.
If “xenophobia” is therefore the most appropriate operative word used to characterise the disgusting attacks on foreign nationals in South Africa, then the UK government not only sought to respond to xenophobic pressure but it revealed its xenophobic attitude?
The least said about France the better. In that country it is a typical electoral politics to campaign against immigration inflows. And many do not see anything wrong in doing so.
In the Mediterranean region, thousands of migrant workers risk their lives crossing the sea in attempts to reach Europe every year. And many have died or suffered serious injuries – this month only the numbers are estimated to be at least 1,000 people. The reasons pushing them to the North are the same, imperialist wars, instability, underdevelopment and uneven international development.
All of this is caused by capitalism but masked in different propagandas, “religious conflicts”, “poor governance”, “xenophobia”, “Afrophobia”, etc.
Back in South Africa.
The super-exploitation of foreign nationals similar to the one highlighted from the example of the US above has been singled out as one of the factors that sparked the recent wave of despicable attacks in Durban. But unlike the US, South Africa has a welcoming immigration policy. Which is why, in addition to its relative advantages compared to other reachable destinations it has substantive gains from continental and overseas migration streams in Africa.
But sections of both local and foreign capital (i.e. mainly imperialist) have, like that ruthless Durban based employer we shall return to, been exploiting the country’s migration pull factors.
Which is why the SACP and COSATU say the super-exploiters must be held accountable for the social consequences of their actions.
But capital not only exploits labour.
It exploits unemployment – its own creature.
As an international phenomenon unemployment can be understood in terms of the underdevelopment of the countries in the periphery as an instrument of development in the countries at the core of the capitalist world system. It can be understood in terms of uneven international development caused by capitalism.
For example the colonial exploitation of South Africa’s mineral resources was used to build industry and therefore create employment in Britain – as it did in its other colonies. The historical conditions of the current high unemployment rate in South Africa were thus created, among others in that way. And unlike in Britain, therefore education and training in South Africa did not focus on intellectual development for manufacturing development and diversification. Worse still, all of this was engineered by both Britain and the white minority supremacist regimes of South Africa based on racist national oppression of Africans in particular and black people in general. This in the context where certain privileges were reserved for whites.
The racial dimensions of capitalist exploitation in South Africa were forged in a similar manner.
In South Africa it is in this context that capital exploits the high rate of unemployment that it has created as a lever to suppress the rate of wages. This is a management strategy to maximise the rate of profit. The Durban based employer who replaced striking workers with super-exploited, so-called “scab labour”, mainly foreign nationals, sought to achieve exactly this.
The government must lay down that law on the exploiters.
Nobody must be allowed to cause problems and be left to bask in luxury.
But workers unity independently of nay nationality is essential.
Workers of the world unite!
Instead of turning against one another – fellow victims – workers must unite independently of any nationality, organise and confront capital – the common enemy that pits them against each other in a destructive competition, the race to the bottom. This requires workers to build an ever strong trade union movement. Which is what COSATU seeks to achieve.
The SACP fully supports the cause, and will work with the federation to ensure that it achieves the success it needs. The Party will continue and intensify its work to unite workers politically.
But the workers need to unite on a global basis. International solidarity and working class struggle against exploitation are fundamental to cause of freedom!
What then about the idea of introducing refugee camps in South Africa?
While it is important to ensure that all immigrants are documented, the compartmentalisation of our people through segregated settlements is just no solution.
As a people we must integrate and live with one another in peace and harmony.
The complete de-colonisation of Africa actually requires that one day we must transcend the borders set by the colonial partitioning of our continent by the colonisers.
We must eliminate all forms of false consciousness, including inappropriate definitions of what constitutes a nation. Many of our people have been divided across borders by the colonial partitioning of our continent. And in many cases a “nation” is defined according to this colonial construct.
Isolate the “xenophobes” but educate them as well!
Our work to stop the attacks must include a real drive to identify the “xenophobes” and criminals who incite and commit the violence in our communities. We must isolate and hand them over to law enforcement agencies.
But it is important to intensify political education to transform those who are still holding on to backward and inward attitudes. There might be people who support the disgusting attacks out of ignorance and lack of proper political education. But the task to deliver this education cannot be left, important as this is, to the SACP alone or even the African National Congress. The state must implement in all schools that clarion call in the Freedom Charter:
“The aim of education shall be to teach the youth to love their people and their culture, to honour human brotherhood, liberty and peace”.
It is important for the state, as part of our second, more radical phase of our democratic transition, to implement general education and socialisation broadly in society based on this revolutionary content.
Let us pay more attention to the youth.
We must rigorously intensify our efforts to address the economic problems of social inequality, unemployment and poverty which mostly but by no means exclusively affect the youth.
The National Youth Service, including military youth skills programmes, is important. It must be revitalised to skill the youth of our country and improve their employment prospects. Similarly, the Public Works and Community Work programmes are important. These programmes must be transformed towards offering sustainable and decent work.
But more decisive efforts are required to expand the productive base of our economy to absorb work-seekers and develop decent work. The colonial features of our economy must be eliminated and its productive base developed, expanded, diversified and democratised. This is an essential feature of our second, more radical phase of our democratic transition.
The massive amounts of capital acquired from our economy and which are not being re-invested back especially in productive activity to create employment must be unlocked.
Capital’s investment strike must be brought to an end!
The government has an important role to play in this, through among others legislative and regulatory reviews, including prescribed asset requirements to ensure and direct investment in productive economic activity.
There must also be deliberate measures to advantage the small business sector in general and co-operatives in particular and to give them space to thrive.
Let us all take a stance!
Let us become active and join a good cause for humanity!
STOP THE ATTACKS AND VIOLENCE ON FOREIGN NATIONALS RIGHT NOW!
Comrade Solly Mapaila is SACP Deputy General Secretary.
This article first appeared in the SACP’s online journal Umsebenzi Online.
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