Julius Malema recently led a delegation of his Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) on a speaking tour of London. The hosts of the EFF in London were research institutes and bourgeois think tanks. But they also probably had meetings with UK-based investors who have economic interests in South Africa. A meeting with the British capitalists would not be out of the ordinary in light of Malema’s engagements with the American Chamber of Business and the German Chamber of Commerce and Industry before the London trip.
Yet the EFF has gained popularity as a political party which frequently speaks out against neoliberalism and worker exploitation. A cursory reading of documents available from the EFF website and the fiery anti-capitalist speeches of its leaders reinforce this popular perception. But the contradictions in the politics and practices of the EFF run deep. Even though it upholds the Freedom Charter, it characterises itself as a party to the left of the ANC. (The ANC, in turn, claims that it is championing the implementation of the Freedom Charter inside parliament). The EFF rhetoric about advancing a radical interpretation of the Freedom Charter is flawed and hollow. What is the objective effect on our struggle when two separate parties with divergent strategies and tactics subscribe to the same political programme? To deceive and mislead the working class and its ally, the landless peasantry!
The lavish lifestyles of EFF leaders and unknown sources that finance the extravagant election campaigns of the party also contradict the socialist image it wishes to portray. More importantly, why would a party that claims to stand for the overthrow of capitalism care about clarifying its politics to bourgeois think tanks and overseas capitalists?
In London, Malema rehashed the EFF call on capitalists to “invest in worker empowerment” and outlined how corporations can do so. Corporations must empower workers, according to the fist-pumping Commander-in-Chief, by offering workers a share in the companies employing them and implementing minimum wage schemes. Malema wagged his finger at companies failing to empower their workers, warning them that EFF will mobilize its forces to occupy their offices and workplaces.
Malema’s main messages to his London audiences, particularly its demand for co-ownership between workers and capitalists, reveal what the EFF really stands for. This demand spreads the fallacious nonsense such as workers sharing in their own exploitation and forms of humane or welfare capitalism that run counter to the economic laws governing the system. Trade union bureaucrats, petit bourgeois opportunists, liberals and NGOs happily propagate these economistic myths. Like them, the EFF exposes its failure to formulate anti-capitalist demands for advancing our fight for democratic eco-socialism. Workers must seize control and exercise power over industries and place these under their democratic self-management. As a step towards this goal, a democratically elected Constituent Assembly is urgently needed to unite the struggles for political power of all sections of exploited and oppressed.