The Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), long considered South Africa's most important liberation movement after the African National Congress (ANC), surprised many with its massive electoral failure in the April elections. The PAC won 1.3% of the national vote compared to the ANC's 62.7%, despite confident predictions of outright victory by some PAC leaders. Green Left Weekly's Johannesburg correspondent NORM DIXON asked the PAC's national organiser, and former chief representative in Australia, MAXWELL NEMADZIVHANANI, about the PAC's efforts to rebuild.
First and foremost, Nemadzivhanani stressed, the PAC had to ensure that its members were involved in the daily struggles of the South African people. That meant that it had to join the struggles for the implementation of the Reconstruction and Development Program (RDP).
The ANC-led government of national unity is "the legitimately elected government ... We must accept that as a government they are the government of all the people, including PAC members. It is the responsibility of everybody, including the PAC, to ensure that the government is allowed the chance to rule. We must criticise it where it is due, and the PAC must be involved in solving problems in the interests of the people", Nemadzivhanani explained.
The PAC will support the RDP where it begins to correct "the social degradation of our people. The exploitation of workers, in particular the bulk of the African workers, must be corrected at the shop floor. We cannot be professional armchair commentators who criticise without being relevant. We must assess the various programs of the government, and get involved directly with those that benefit the people, otherwise we will be an ineffective opposition.
"If the PAC is not involved in structures that deliver benefits and improve the quality of life of the people, we will have no hope of winning the elections in 1999. Our task now is to get closer to the masses by becoming relevant to their immediate needs and be involved at the grassroots level. That is where the salvation of the PAC lies."
"We have noticed that there is a honeymoon period between big business and the government. We must form a strong base at the grassroots level. It is only then that we will impact on the politicians so that they cannot ignore the interests of the workers."
Strikes
Nemadzivhanani committed the PAC to supporting the current wave of strike action. "Those strikes are legitimate because workers are fighting for parity [in wages and conditions between blacks and whites] at work. Black workers are looking at their agreements and salaries because they expect that under the new dispensation there should at least be a minimum basic wage increase and the conditions at the workplace improve.
"All these processes must be pushed from the ground. We want the PAC to be involved at that level so as to undermine the overall strength of big business. At this stage big business is very impressed with the process because their power has not been eroded.
"It will be difficult for the current government to deliver all their promises because big business will always protect their own interests ... If we stay out, big business will have their way. Our ability to mobilise the workers at grassroots level, and how that impacts on the government to yield to those demands, will determine the role of big business."
Nemadzivhanani said that the PAC was stepping up its involvement in South African trade union movement. He pointed out that PAC had trade union activists in both COSATU, the country's largest union federation, and NACTU, which is a considerably smaller federation. PAC members held a majority of leadership positions in NACTU. However, contrary to popular belief, a majority of PAC members in the trade unions are active in COSATU-aligned unions, although with little influence at leadership level. The PAC is favour of a single national union federation, he said.
"We have just formed the Pan Africanist Labour Caucus." Nemadzivhanani reported. "This will be a structure that will coordinate PAC trade union work. Workers will come to that structure regardless of federation affiliation to discuss their disputes and their fights with the capitalist establishment."
This follows a period in which the PAC's activity among workers had been paralysed by divisions in the PAC leadership over participation in the elections. "A majority of the leadership of the so-called Revolutionary Watchdogs, a section of the PAC that was opposed to elections and the constituent assembly, were also leaders of NACTU. NACTU became ineffective in organising the workers.
"That rift is healing now because people are sobering up after our election defeat. PAC members within both COSATU and NACTU are coming together, and we are optimistic that we have a chance of rebuilding our support among workers."
New period
In spite of Nemadzivhanani's frank admissions about the PAC's weakened and divided state, he estimates that it has between 500 and 800 functioning branches throughout South Africa. A PAC branch has a minimum of 50 members. "The membership is bigger than the total number of people who voted for the PAC. That means there was a large section of the PAC that did not vote for political reasons. We must try to address that."
The PAC is now debating its role in the new period of South African politics, Nemadzivhanani told Green Left Weekly. The PAC continues to believe that socialism is relevant today. "We remain committed to socialist principles. Some people believe socialism is redundant. That is not our view. We have always opposed totalitarianism, whether it is under a capitalist or a socialist state. The problem is how to democratise a centrally planned economy. To that we remain committed."
A key debate is whether the PAC should transform itself from a liberation movement into a political party. "There is a big debate within the leftist trends [of the PAC] as to whether the PAC should be a Marxist party, and what socialist road it should follow.
"As a liberation movement it had to include everybody [opposed to apartheid]. Should it be a broad multi-class movement, or should it purely be a party dealing with the workers and pursue a proletarian revolution? Those are the debates that will shape the content of the coming congress of the PAC in December."
The transformation of the PAC from a liberation movement into a revolutionary party will force it to reassess long-held political positions that differentiated it from the other liberation movements, such as Africanism, he admitted.
"The PAC has always promoted the view that we all belong to one human race. When we used the term 'African', the emphasis was not on colour but political affiliation. We said those who are from Europe must identify with the democratically elected government and pay allegiance to Africa."
Nemadzivhanani said that with the white population's overwhelming participation in the elections and their acceptance of the results, that question has been settled. "The policy of the PAC must not be ambiguous. We must mobilise the workers without looking at the colour of their skin. In some quarters people are still not clear whether white people are accepted by the PAC.
"We have a challenge to recruit more and more white, Indian and 'coloured' South Africans. We already have a lot of black workers but, given that the white, Indian and 'coloured' communities contain millions of workers, we must see this reflected in the ordinary branches of the PAC."
United fronts
The PAC must also work more closely with others on the left and build effective united fronts to overcome the legacy of apartheid. The failure to work with others is "one of the weaknesses of the PAC", Nemadzivhanani said.
"Despite our declared support for united front work, if you go to a branch and ask them: 'Do you have a front with the SACP, ANC, AZAPO to address the problem of sewerage facilities? Do you have a front to address the lack of transport facilities? Do you participate in the civic to address problems of the ordinary workers?', you find it is virtually absent ... To find common ground with other left parties will be an important prerequisite for our rebuilding."
The historical political divide between Africanists and Charterists, which defined the 1959 split between the PAC and ANC, was already being replaced by divisions based on class politics, Nemadzivhanani observed. These divisions cut across both the PAC and ANC and make likely new alliances on the left — even new left formations — committed to the interests of the working class and the poor.