Green Left's view

May 4, 1994
Issue 

Apartheid is dead. In South Africa's first democratic elections, the people have voted overwhelmingly for a process of radical change.

The elections register and consolidate the political transformation already won through mass action by millions of people over many decades. This historic victory provides an additional platform from which to carry on the struggle for social and economic justice.

This is not yet majority rule; the National Party has been accorded a greater say in government for the next five years than its vote warrants. But the way is now open for the ANC to begin to implement its far-reaching and progressive platform.

The tasks confronting the new government are monumental. The ANC-led government will need the continued active political participation of the black majority to carry through their mission. Against them stands a white capitalist class, still powerful, which will fight to limit the gains of the black working class majority in order to protect its profits.

The pressures on the ANC in government will be great; but they will be no greater than those overcome in the past. Big business and the National Party will undoubtedly try to co-opt the ANC and individuals within it; appeals to be "responsible" and to "moderate" their demands will inevitably be made — but there is no guarantee that this will be successful. We can be confident that the highly politicised population, those with the most to gain in the new South Africa, will, as in the past, prevail.

The South African victory was a result of a creative combination of mass political action, armed struggle and international solidarity. The recent attempts by de Klerk and the National Party to claim credit for change ring hollow in the face of the struggle and sacrifice of millions people.

The South African peoples' success means an immediate end to the military aggression and interference in the political and economic affairs of the nations of southern Africa, especially the "front-line states". In and beyond Africa, it offers hope to people in struggle against oppression everywhere.

The ANC win is a victory for all humanity.

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