Bogus Unities

The method of open frontal attack on the part of the Congress die-hards did not work and they found it necessary to change their tune again. The pressure of events was impelling the people to come together and the urge to unity was so strong that the tide threatened either to drown the herrenvolk agents or cast them aside, leaving them high and dry. They realised that they must adopt a different tactic. So once more they resorted to the more subtle method of proclaiming themselves protagonist! of unity while making sure that they were obstructing unity. While holding aloof from the N.E.U.M. with its principled basis of struggle, they made abortive attempts at establishing various forms of bogus unity.

We have already mentioned Dr. Xuma's ad hoc Convention for the African Charter-Bill of Rights. Then there was the National Anti-Pass Campaign Committee, the Unity Fact between the three Doctors, Dadoo, Naicker and Xuma, and later the Votes-For-All Assembly. In all these Dr. Xuma had the support of the Congress die-hards.

The reason for all their political acrobatics lies in the false political position which they had taken up. Having turned their backs on the only road of struggle, the principled struggle, they were without sheet-anchor and had to resort to shifts and tricks of political action. The very logic of their position led them into opportunism. Now, in politics, whoever ceases to represent the true interests of his oppressed people wittingly or unwittingly becomes a tool of those sections of society who consciously serve the interests of the oppressor. When Dr. Xuma behaves in an unpredictable manner, now vacillating and now plunging headlong into this and that ad hoc committee and then as abruptly abandons them, or when he makes a statement and then promptly acts contrary to that statement - it might be said that he does all these things in obedience to this law. He may be unaware of it, but the law operates on him all the same. A savage falling over a cliff knows nothing about the law of gravity, but he falls down in conformity with it no less than Newton himself.

The important thing to observe here is that an individual's personal quality has nothing to do with the issue. In politics, he who acts as an agent of a class other than his own may or may not be sincere. But this does not affect his objective function. In fact quite often the more honest he is, the more useful he is to this class and the more dangerous he is to his own people. Precisely because he is sincere he stands a better chance of misleading a greater number of innocent people. Sincerity, then, is by itself not enough. It is not the primary attribute by which to judge a leader. In any case it is a difficult thing to determine, since nobody has yet invented an instrument for measuring a man's sincerity. What does matter-and this is the only measuring rod-is the result, the effect of a leader's actions on society. The only pertinent question is : Who benefits by his words and actions? To answer that question is to know which class or section he serves.

To illustrate our point let us examine two of Dr. Xuma's political ventures:

  1. The National Anti-Pass Committee, and
  2. The Unity Pact of the Three Doctors.

National Ant-Pass Campaign

The idea of starting a special body for an isolated fight against one of the disabilities of the Africans did not originate with Dr. Xuma. The Anti-Pass Committee was formed by the Communist Party outside Congress. But in order to make it appear national in character, the Communist Party persuaded Dr. Xuma, President of the A.N.C., to come in with them on the scheme and made him President of the National Anti-Pass Committee. At first he opposed it, arguing that there was no need for yet another organisation and that it was the function of Congress to take up such matters. Later, for reasons that were never made public, he agreed to the scheme and assumed office in this new organisation. In this instance it was obvious from the very beginning that he was acting under the influence of the Communist Party.

The campaign showed every sign of gaining popularity, for the carrying of passes had always been a source of bitter resentment to the people. Desperate with the desire to rid themselves of this badge of slavery they were ready to clutch at anything if it held out such a promise. Conferences were held in the various provinces rallying them to the Anti-Pass slogan;dates were fixed in advance for the great pass-burning day;then, as enthu­siasm mounted, the day was postponed. After this performance was repeated. Dr. Xuma abandoned the whole business. A few people in isolated locations burned their passes, and paid the penalty. The movement as such, being deserted by the leader­ship, had dwindled away.

Here the question must be asked: What was at the back of this Anti-Pass campaign? And who benefited from it? Certainly not the people, nor even their organisations. Neither did their struggles gain anything from it. On the contrary, they received a set-back, for the disillusionment, the confusion and the disappointed hopes could not but have a detrimental effect on their morale. The reprehensible nature of this move is shown up when we consider the political atmosphere prevailing at the time, with the people awakening to a new consciousness. The second World War was coming to an end and the struggles of the oppressed throughout the world were pushing themselves to the fore. The Imperialist countries were already haunted by the spectre of unrest amongst the enslaved peoples. In the East these struggles had assumed such magnitude that they threatened to overshadow the last stages of the war. The peoples of Asia had staked their claim for full independence and self-determination. As we have already said, the war slogans: "'Fight against Fascism!""Fight for Democracy!"for them meant a fight for their own liberation. And this new spirit had penetrated Africa too. The Non-Europeans of South Africa were staking their claim for full democratic rights. The All African Convention had come out with the New Road rejecting inferiority, and, together with the Non-European Unity Movement, was laying the basis for a principled struggle-the 10-Point Programme. They were no longer asking for petty reforms here and there. It was the time to struggle for fundamental things, for full democratic rights, the lack of which is at the root of all their racial disabilities.

It is against this background that the Anti-Pass campaign of Xuma and Co. shows up in a most reprehensible light. To choose the Pass Laws as an issue and isolate them from the rest was to deflect the attention of the people from the fundamental cause of their disabilities and at the same time distort the nature of the struggle. Still more reprehensible was the method adopted in the campaign. A new organisation was specially created, its sole function being to fight the passes. The existing organisations had to be shelved while this campaign was going on and they would only come into their own when it was over. This was a way of undermining the existing organisations, since to remove them from the struggles of the people is to deny them the reason for their existence.

The Communist Party of South Africa

The fact of the matter is that in this instance Dr. Xuma had become a tool in the hands of the Communist Party;In all the foregoing one can trace the pattern of their tactics. And here it is necessary to pause and analyse the situation. It has long been the Communist Party line either to control or to kill an organi­sation. It cannot tolerate a movement or organisation which is not dominated by itself. Every time there is political excitement over some oppressive measure, the C.P. is the first to set up a hue and cry against it. They do not call upon the existing organisations of the Non-Europeans to fight the issue. They either organise the people round the C.P. itself or set up an ad hoc body or committee in which their own men play a leading part. When the campaign comes to an end they dissolve the ad hoc body-but with a few new recruits to the credit of the C.P. It is true that disillusionment comes to these recruits in course of time, but the point is that the people's organisations themselves are not allowed to develop because they are not allowed to fight the issue under their own banner and thence grow into a permanent, independent force. In other words, the people are kept defenceless so that when the next onslaught takes place the C.P. can always appear as their champion. At all times the C.P. gets hold of one or other of the leaders of the Non-Europeans and uses him as a decoy.

The question to ask is: Why does the Communist Party of South Africa behave in this manner?-a party that is supposed to stand for the workers. To answer it adequately one would require to know the political and sociological structure of South African society and the, power of ruling-class ideas as well as the composition of the C.P. itself. In the first chapters of this book we have dealt with the structure of South African society and the way in which ruling-class ideas have penetrated every stratum, dominating all thinking. It is only necessary to add a word as to the composition of the Communist Party.

The few Non-Europeans in the C.P. have by and large joined it by filling in the membership form which is publicly distributed, without having the slightest idea of what Communism really means. The preponderating conscious element in the Communist Party is drawn from the White petit-bourgeois intellectual section. It is this element which is responsible for formulating its politics. And it is just this section which is particularly susceptible to ruling-class ideas. Their daily existence connects them with this class in manifold ways, through social and economic bonds, etc. In fact it is the very milieu of their existence. Even those few trade union functionaries operating in the working-class are themselves limited in their social contacts to the trade union bureaucrat and the white worker, who constitutes an aristocracy of labour in South Africa, and is himself riddled with the herrenvolk prejudices and ideas. This is why in every political crisis the C.P. of South Africa finds itself standing four-square on the side of the herrenvolk parties.

Take the war question, for example. During that whole period, beginning at the time when the Soviet Union entered the war, the C.P. was indistinguishable from Smuts' Party. In the "Friends of the Soviet Union"and allied bodies, the members of the C.P. and the Bishop Lavises, etc., were all of one fraternity. With equal zeal they mobilised man-power, labour, industry, etc., in one grand war effort. From pulpit to social club, from factory to rural village they were busily engaged recruiting the oppressed to join the army-even as baggage-warriors-in order to defend "their country."At this time a favourite argument on their lips was that nothing must be done to embarrass the Government in its prosecution of the war, and General Smuts was proclaimed as the greatest leader in the "fight against Fascism."

One more example will suffice. In the political crisis that arose during the late forties, the Communist Party once again took up its position on the side of the herrenvolk. At that time the Non-European organisations were rejecting inferiority and trusteeship and the African section was giving practical expression to this by means of the boycott of all dummy institutions created for a "child race."The C.P. strained every effort to break this boycott. They sent in their own men to stand for election as members of Advisory Boards, the N.R.C. or as "Native Represen­tatives"and urged their tools and sympathisers to do likewise. They advanced spurious arguments to defend their line. But no amount of eloquence could disguise the fact that to operate these segregatory institutions was to accept the herrenvolk idea that the Non-Europeans were an inferior people. To keep these insti­tutions alive is in the interests of the ruling-class.

The Doctors' Unity Pact

We have indicated that whoever ceases to represent the true interests of his people becomes a tool in the hands of those who consciously serve the interests of their own class. We shall examine in this light the Unity Pact between the three Doctors:

Dadoo, Naicker and Xuma. First of all these three Doctors with their organisations had all been invited to the preliminary discus­sions which led to the formation of the Non-European Unity Movement, as well as to subsequent conferences. Dr. Xuma (as already stated) ignored the invitations. The other two, Drs. Dadoo and Naicker, had refused on the ground that, though they were leaders of a substantial section of the Indian people (the Nationalist Group) they were not in the official leadership of the South African Indian Congress (SAIC).

The attitude of the South African Indian Congress towards the Unity Movement and the 10-Point Programme was expressed by its representatives at a special Conference arranged between it and the All African Convention together with the National Anti-C.A.D. on the 8th July, 1944, in Johannesburg. In a discussion on the 10-Point Programme, which the A.A.C. and the Anti-C.A.D. considered to be essential to a principled unity, Mr. A. I. Kajee (S.A.I.C.) said:

"If it (the 10-Point Programme) was taken to his Congress as it stood it would be rejected, for the reason that the S.A.I.C. was committed to the principle of compromise. . . . The Indians would stand to lose if they adopted a programme which did not give expression to this principle (of compro­mise)."(Minutes: N.E.U.M. 2nd Conference.)

When asked by the Chairman whether the representatives of the S.A.I.C. would accept the first three points of the 10-Point Programme, Mr. Kajee answered that on point 1 (the demand for full franchise)

"they could not commit themselves, as the Indian Congress stands by the Policy of Compromise."He stated that: "in their negotiations with the Judicial Commission now sitting in Natal, they had accepted the principle of a 'Communal' vote based on educational and property qualifications. They had accepted this in order to appease European public opinion which feared the Indians on the ground that they (the Indians) wish to swamp the Euro­peans and concentrate political power in their own hands. "(Ibid.)

Mr. Chowdree (S.A.I.C.) in arguing against the 10-Point Programme, said:

"Our only hope is to compromise, and that is the tactic of my group. "And again: "The present power in the land would take away our present rights if we started shouting 'unity' all over the country. Smuts is a great man but he will not tolerate your challenging the state power. "(Ibid.)

This special Conference, held for the purpose of bringing the Indians into the N.E.U.M., ended in failure. The S.A.I.C. leadership rejected unity, refusing to be committed in advance to the 10-Point Programme. It was clear that they were not prepared to engage in a struggle for the liberation of all the oppressed. They were interested only in striving for communal representation or a franchise based on property qualifications. Such a franchise would benefit only the rich merchant class, leaving the large masses, the pool peasants and workers, in a completely defence­less state without a voice. Subsequent developments were to show that they were concerned only with their own class interests.

At this time a furious battle was being waged, in the South African Indian Congress between the Nationalist Group led by Doctors Dadoo and Naicker, and the old guard represented by Kajee, Chowdree and others. The methods used by the younger group to unseat the old guard are interesting. They illustrate two things: (a) that the Non-Europeans throughout the country were ready for unity of all oppressed;(b) the unscrupulous use to which this readiness can be used for opportunistic ends. The Nationalist Group, sizing up the situation, started a campaign against the old guard, accusing them of rejecting unity. They got in touch with the N.E.U.M. and arranged tours of Natal by an official of the N.E.U.M. The Indian masses rallied to the call of unity and on this wave of enthusiasm Doctors Dadoo and Naicker unseated the Kajee group, taking over the leadership of the S.A.I.C. With their end thus achieved, they proceeded to turn their back on the Non-European Unity Movement.

The change of leadership in the S.A.I.C. did not result in a change of policy. Drs. Dadoo and Naicker merely continued where the Kajees had left off, and with their full co-operation. Their tactic was to arouse public opinion in Europe, America and India, carry their grievances against the (Ghetto Act to U.N.O. and force the South African Government to a round table conference with the Government of India-all with the Object of winning conces­sions for the Indian merchant class in South Africa. The Passive Resistance was started and hundreds of poor Indians went to gaol. The merchant class poured money into the venture. The Africans, too, were encouraged to "passive resist"by burning their passes. Money was forthcoming for this also, the whole tactic being to embarrass the Government. Dr. Xuma was asked to go to U.N.O., and there to create the necessary atmosphere for the discussion on the grievances of the Indians. He was to give his testimony-albeit from without the U.N.O. council chamber- as to the sufferings of the Black Man in South Africa in order to give weight to the case of the Indians.

These, then, were the three signatories, and this was the background, to the Unity Pact of the three Doctors. For Drs. Dadoo and Naicker it had a very specific purpose. The leadership of the S.A.I.C. was at this time wooing the support of Asia in their case against the South African Government. During their pre­vious tour of India it had been pointed out that, for the Indian merchant class to hold themselves aloof from the Blacks in South Africa and look down on them as inferior, definitely weakened their case against the South African Government. Now on the eve of a big Asian Conference, which the two Doctors were to attend, it was necessary to produce documentary evidence of unity between Indians and Africans. Hence the pact with Dr. Xuma. Thus armed, they could at one and the same time ensure the sup­port of Asia and hold out a threat to the South African Govern­ment, in this way strengthening their hand for the round table Conference at which they hoped to extract concessions for the Indian merchant class.

But what of Dr. Xuma? What did he hope to gain from all these machinations? Did he represent anybody but himself? His whole behaviour in this matter revealed his fundamental attitude towards the people and also towards his own organisation. Shortly before, he had called two Conferences of the African National Congress, one in October and another in December, 1946. At these he had deliberately withheld the invitation from the N.E.U.M. to Congress. Neither did he breathe a word about his impending Unity Pact with the two Doctors. What is one to think of the head of an organisation who thus arbitrarily acts on his Own in a matter that presumably involves a change of policy, without consultation in Conference? The fact that he did not consult them shows a remarkable irresponsibility. That he proceeded to lend the name of Congress to this deal reveals with what contempt he regarded his own urbanisation. But the full measure of his irresponsibility is brought home when we contemplate the fact that the mass of the African, Coloured and poor Indian peasants and workers could benefit nothing from it. On the contrary, they stood to lose by it in so far as it could only sow confusion and disillusionment, thus delaying the consolidation of the real unity movement of all Non-European oppressed in South Africa.

It must be pointed out, however, that in all Dr. Xuma's political actions during this period he had the active or tacit support of the clique of die-hards constituting the leadership of Congress. In this sense the African National Congress itself is used as an instrument in the interests of sections of the population other than the Africans. The irony of the situation lies in this, that the very organisation which violently proclaims itself to be "pure African"is precisely the one which is in the service of any but the African people.