The Archbishop Emeritus, Desmond Tutu, has passed away in late December 2021. Revered globally as a moral leader against political and social injustices, the Archbishop became one of the most critical voices against the vile Apartheid regime in South Africa. Whilst his contribution against the atrocious system of Apartheid could arguably in many instances, be seen as progressive (insofar as it tried to dismantle an unjust political system) it fell far short of effecting genuine political and economic freedom for the majority of South Africans and in particular the labouring classes.
Archbishop Tutu’s role can unfortunately not be seen devoid of South Africa’s political class struggle. It is thus only through a proper class analysis that one can begin to understand the Archbishop’s role in determining where we are today as a nation. But even more importantly, where we are as a class. As revolutionaries, we are not concerned about the subjective goodwill of the individual and how likable their personalities are. Our barometer has always been how the objective actions, ideas, policies and principles that the individual espouses, lead to the advancement of the working class and ultimately socialism. It is through this lens that we look at Archbishop Tutu’s role. In this regard, we refer to his historical role within the anti-Apartheid struggle and later his involvement in the ‘peaceful’ transition to the much-vaunted ‘new’ South Africa.
Archbishop Tutu engaged in the struggle during the dark days of Apartheid. This was a period where the naked fist of verkrampte Nationalist Party rule, threatened the capitalist economy as it was met with ever-increasing working-class militancy and popular resistance. In addition to the corrupt and rotten nature of this racist government, the cost of maintaining the Apartheid system also started to take its toll on the economy. It was at this juncture that the liberals through their captains of industry and commerce (i.e. those who stood to lose the most) enlisted the help of the petty bourgeoise leadership to initiate talks for a peaceful transition. The Institute for Democratic Alternatives in South Africa (IDASA), a liberal organisation, engaged in a process involving the ANC and liberals in the country to diffuse the political turmoil that threatened their capitalist economy. Through this petty bourgeois leadership, led by the ANC, the masses were made to believe that our fundamental struggle was against Apartheid. Therefore, they deceptively reasoned, if Apartheid were dismantled, we would all be free. Nothing could be further from the truth as our exploitation and oppression stem from a period long before Nationalist Party rule. Our exploitation and political oppression happened then under British rule with their segregationist policies.
It should be stated also that the IDASA/ANC talks became the precursor to the later Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA 1 and 2) that culminated in the negotiated settlement or more aptly, working class betrayal by the petty bourgeoisie. The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) formed an integral part of this blueprint for our new democracy. This was a masterful stroke on the side of the liberals, enlisting popular clergy like Dr Allan Boesak and Archbishop Tutu (who had credibility among the oppressed) to sell the narrative of a peaceful transition to the masses and thus dumbing their struggle down to a settlement that left them with NOTHING!
As Chairperson of the bourgeois orchestrated TRC, Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu played a crucial role in facilitating a process whereby the evil perpetrators of Apartheid were pardoned for their unspeakable crimes. Similarly, our economic exploiters- the captains of commerce and industry- were given free rein to continue their super exploitation. Archbishop Tutu, through a concerted liberal media strategy that built him up, became the perfect symbol for peace, forgiveness, and so-called reconciliation.
Today, the ‘miracle of the TRC that supposedly led to South Africa’s peaceful transition’, has turned into its opposite. Without going into detail, the horror that is South Africa today, stems from a transition that transferred NO POLITICAL and ECONOMIC POWER to South Africa’s majority, i.e. its working class and landless peasants. Moreover, NO real new division of the land in the interest of the labouring masses occurred. The inhumane 87% white owned land and 13% Black occupied land remains largely intact. Furthermore, the scandalous looting of the state coffers, ‘tenderpreneurial’ fraud, the collapse of State-Owned Enterprises, paralysing unemployment and absurdly high levels of crime amongst practically all other indicators of socio-economic collapse, are all resulting from a transition that had no regard for the interest of the labouring majority. Sadly, as likable a figure as Archbishop Tutu might have been, through his involvement in the TRC, his promotion of the anti-Apartheid struggle as opposed to an anti-capitalist one, he played an important part in ensuring:
1. that no legal accountability was taken on the part of the racist white minority regime for their violent criminal actions
2. that no redress of land theft by the captains of commerce and industry took place and
3. that no equitable redistribution of ill-begotten wealth took place.
Tragically far from peaceful, our transition has translated into South Africa becoming one of the most depraved, violent, and poorest societies in the world.
It is against this background that we caution against the idolizing of individuals like Nelson Mandela and Archbishop Desmond Tutu. We urge rather for the building of independent working-class organisations, politically allied with the landless peasantry in their own interests! History has proven that the petty bourgeois class cannot be trusted. It is only through the self-organisation of the working class and peasantry that genuine freedom can be obtained. The course to genuine socialist democracy is through consistent programmatic struggle by the labouring classes!