The plunder of the resources
of the country (and indeed the entire African continent) presents a compelling
case for the expropriation without compensation of Anglo American and other
monopolies. Yet the approach of the ANC-SACP and Cosatu leaders show that they
are the best defenders of big capital.
A few days ago the Finance
Minister Pravin Gordhan indicated that the state may have to assist bailing out
the European banks by between R700 million to R1.4 Bn. Gordhan even warns off
even discussion of nationalization as it is ‘not
helping to create the right kind of confidence (among investors)’.
The Cosatu and SACP leaders
limit themselves to rhetoric over nationalising Sasol. It is reported in the
Journal of Southern African studies, in the writings of Ben Fine and other
bourgeois academics that in the
apartheid-era (slave capitalist-era), through to the current period, monopolies
such as Anglo American and others have illegally channelled wealth out of the
country through ‘transfer-pricing’. In essence this means that they
deliberately falsify the prices of the raw material exports, marking them down.
Thus the market related prices are charged outside
of the country which means that a massive part of the profits are taken out. In
2007 alone it is estimated that Anglo American and others took out at least
R500 bn through transfer pricing. Such a huge amount of funds could not have
left the country without the direct complicity of the state.
Of the theft on such a huge
scale, the Cosatu and SACP leaders remain silent. The ANC’s Gordhan has the
audacity to say that the working class must tighten our belts, we must accept
only a 5% wage increase next year, for the next 3 years, but he turns a blind
eye to the grand scale theft by his real masters, Anglo American and others.
Even if the amount taken out
of the country through transfer pricing alone was just R300 bn every year, this
would mean that the state would not have to borrow, nor pay the massive
interest amounts. There would be no R1 trillion (R1000 Bn) debt. What we are
saying is that the masses in
If the state clamped down on
the transfer pricing theft and claimed the monies stolen over the years, there
would be enough to meet all the housing and food needs and we could probably
have enough resources to end hunger and starvation across the entire
The Cosatu and SACP
‘anti-corruption’ stance is to deliberately focus the eyes of the masses on the
small change being stolen by a few managers, while big capital gets away with
the large-scale theft. The CP of China and other capitalist regimes around the
world use the same technique to divert the eyes of the masses- this
‘anti-corruption’ is a capitalist tool for the rich monopolies, for
imperialism, to remain in control of the wealth of the world.
Further, the Cosatu leaders
have no problems with the R802 Bn scam in infrastructure- the state has no plan
for houses for all, so the bulk of the funds are going for capitalist
infrastructure to make the plunder of the masses and the resources for
efficient for the monopolies. The Cosatu leaders have abandoned the fight
against electricity price increases- they go along with the electricity scam
which doubles the electricity capacity of the country within 10-15 years- and
this at a time when industry is in real decline. The government electricity
build programme builds most coal and nuclear which are commodity based, with
all the negative pollution and health factors that go with it, rather than
solar panels which would eventually give almost free electricity. In short the
Cosatu and SACP leaders are supporting the creation of a cash cow for Anglo
American and other monopolies. Indeed the ‘infrastructure’ programme is another
bailout of about R1 trillion for the imperialist banks such as JP Morgan Chase,
the banks that control Anglo American and who are also benefiting from the
loans that the state makes. In short the Cosatu and SACP and ANC are
responsible for the handing over of more than R2 trillion to the imperialist
banks.
The ANC goes further- they
say that in such ‘hard times’ while the imperialists are getting R2 trillion
for free, not only must wages be limited to 5%, the education budget be cut by
about 1% in real terms but taxes must go up. It is clear that the rich will be largely
unaffected by these tax increases as already the ANC has reduced the company
tax from 48% in the apartheid era to 28% today.
The Cosatu leaders are not
opposing the so-called Industrial development Zones (sweat shops for big
capital), they are actively helping reduce workers wages in the country. Sactwu
has given the lead in sweatshops by agreeing that all new workers must have
their wages cut by 30%, all in the name of ‘decent jobs’! R457 million was left
unspent in social grants the past year which means that hundreds of thousands
more families, mostly in rural areas, were left in greater starvation by the
state- not a word from Cosatu and the SACP leaders. The Cosatu leaders cry
about not enough funds for beneficiation (local development of industry related
to the raw materials mined here). They are asking for a few more pennies to beg
Anglo American and other genocidaire monopolies to create more jobs here-
really what they are asking for, are more token small manufacturing companies to
be set up so they as leaders of Cosatu can continue to turn a blind eye to the
plunder of the entire Africa.
The Cosatu leaders are such
servants of Anglo American that they do not even question the R50 000 a
month wage SA soldiers receive for going to the Congo to guard the mining
installations of Anglo American- plunder that is being carried out over the
bones of over 6 million Congolese being
killed, a genocide that is ongoing even today.
The ANC and SACP are
anti-worker and the sooner the masses break with them the better. But we need
to also realize that with the current leadership of Cosatu, the fight for
nationalization under workers control, will never be achieved. Workers need to
remove this leadership, call a workers summit to prepare for a general strike
for workers to make the demand for expropriation of the commanding heights a
reality- the middle class and bourgeois ANC have shown they are only capable of
socializing the losses of capitalism while they line their own pockets.
Above all we need a
revolutionary working class party that fights for the programme of the Fourth
International for working class power with its own methods on a world scale. Join
the Workers International Vanguard League to help make this a reality.
Forward to Socialism!