The central importance of a political programme to guide the political, economic and social struggles of the millions of workers and landless peasants in South Africa has been covered in decades’ long literature production of the NEUM, UMSA and the APDUSA. On 25 June 1955 the much misguidedly propagated Freedom Charter was adopted and a few weeks ago, on its 59th anniversary, there were some reminiscences in the bourgeois media. Mr Jeff Radebe wrote a newspaper piece, (published in the Sunday Independent, 29 June 2014), remarking that ”the relevance of its text will gradually drift into oblivion”. The assertion by Radebe that the lofty promises of the charter are embedded in the country’s constitution indeed confirm the extremely limited historical value the charter has held and that the constitution is indeed a reactionary and logical continuation of the reactionary character of the charter.
The minister’s reference in the article to the ANC’s vision of a “non-racial” society in the face of its steadfast adherence to the concept of “minorities” is one example of the empty rhetoric that accompanies Charterist politics. Their days of deceiving the poor majority population with fancy political phraseology are indeed numbered. In the rest of a poorly written defence of the Freedom Charter and current government failure to solve the social and economic problems of the labouring classes in South Africa, the minister attempts to relate the charter’s promises to current government policies. The attempt is a feeble one. More “radical” interpretations of the Freedom Charter do not fare much better in convincing anyone that the charter has represented political and historical progress.
At about the same time Mrs Jessie Duarte, in response to the platinum workers’ strike, remarked that AMCU is cultivating “anti-ANC sentiment” and that a “counter-revolutionary” atmosphere has descended on the platinum belt. These are two ANC leaders who for years on end have boasted that they are the true champions of the poor and destitute and that the Freedom Charter demands were what they were fighting to realise. None of this holds true anymore. Now they are openly threatening workers and organisations who dare to challenge their bourgeois rule. Duarte and Radebe are the real counter revolutionaries and should be treated as such.