“Down with Capitalism, Forward with Socialism,” a representative of the South African Communist Party (SACP) sounded the once popular slogan of the workers during the observance of Workers Day in South Africa earlier this month, that is on the 1st of May, which is Workers Day or May Day.
Coming from a member and leader of the SACP, which arguably in terms of the believe and conviction in the rights of the workers, let alone in the genuine emancipation of the workers and the unshackling of the chains of Capitalism, Yours Truly Ideologically, could not but believe that more than anything it is meant to placate the wholesaling, sacrifice and compromise of the cause of then workers. Subsumed by a presumed bigger cause, the rainbow cause. A cause which is ideologically hollow and meaningless as it can be. Even the reminder, that the struggle is far from over, especially, in the least as far as the basic welfare of the workers is concerned. Before one can speak of unshackling the Capitalist chains most of the workers whether in South Africa and Namibia, are chained with.
Nevertheless, South African workers may perhaps still find solace in that at least their leaders can dare refer to the broader vision, which is the turning asunder of the pertaining socio-economic foundation, which is based on the capitalist mode of production. The essence thereof which has nothing to do at all with, in the least, the rights of the workers. Rendering the “down with Capitalism” nothing more than superficial if not a deceit of the workers of the highest order. But if one has to contrast the situation of workers in South Africa with that of their counterparts in Namibia, one could, as much as the belief in the ultimate liberation of the workers is not deep rooted. Because it cannot realistically be deep rooted given the continued entrenchment of the capitalist system in South Africa. Thus the said slogans cannot but be a nostalgic reminiscence of the actual days of true believe in the struggle of the workers as part of the struggle for civil and political rights in South Africa. Which cannot b
e said about Namibia. Because with the benefit of the doubt Yours Truly Ideologically cannot remember the last time any union leader reminded the workers, or even themselves for that matter, of the struggle of the workers and their ultimate destiny, which is the overhaul of the capitalist system that currently is a source of all kinds of socio-economic miseries imaginable.
Even if in the interim it is just about alleviation of the various socio-economic ills they are currently beholden to, courtesy of the very capitalist system. Because the appropriate platform, among others, where the workers can and could send this message home, let alone remind their leaders of the long term vision, which is the total unshackling of the capitalists chains chaining the workers, like Workers Day, no longer belongs to the workers. But is now the domain of the ruling elite, with some union leaders coopted and subsumed. With the workers totally alienated from the day. Which has become the domain of the ruling elite turning it against the very same people it is supposed to belong to by unleashing volumes of propaganda against the workers making them believe that the very source of their exploitation, the capitalist productive system, is serving them. Which is an irony and a contradiction.
The very same bluff being repeated in South Africa on Workers Day earlier this month, with the elite club making the workers believe that they are being taken care of by the capitalist system, sugar coated with the usual slogans of “down with capitalism,” also had its sequel in Namibia on Workers Day, typical of the mechanics of capitalism. Impressing upon the workers the holiness, functionality and pragmatism of the employers, politicians and union leaders’ alliance. Because the workers are not and cannot at any point be said to have been consciously part of such an alliance other than having been hoodwinked into it by the union leaders. Leaders whose claim to workers’ leadership for that matter, must have expired long time ago or must have become moribund by their own doings of buying into the continued exploitation of the workers. If one is to truthfully look at the conditions of the workers today, be it in Namibia and South Africa, it is and has been apparent that the workers seriously needs to go back t
o the drawing board. First to evaluate its leadership. And secondly in all earnest to relocate their struggle within the current status quo in both Namibia and South Africa. Which in the final analysis points to nothing else but to their continued exploitation. With little, if not zero indications that the current trajectory is bound to change direction, soonest, unless the workers wake up and see the pertaining holy alliance for what it is in reality. A big bluff about any belief in the rights of the workers. But a reverence for and in the capitalists system notwithstanding the blatant contradictions of the system of the rich getting richer and the poor getting poorer. With the workers evidently an important, if not the most important element in this twisted and manipulated configuration. A configuration that has got nothing to do with one day ever fundamentally improving the working conditions of the workers. Safe for the essentials guaranteeing the existentialism of the capitalist system.
