The neo-liberal media, the official spokepersons of the ruling bourgeois class, have mastered the art of playing with words. They do this to deliberately deceive the working class and make their oppression appear bearable or somehow more manageable. There are countless examples of this. As the working class we need to be wary of this deception as it is usually the first step in exploiting and oppressing the working- and unemployed poor.
Over the past few years we have witnessed how the sting had cleverly been taken out of words such as retrenchment, Department of Housing, squatter camps, South African Police Department, etcetera. A closer look at these words reveal much more than just a name change.
Retrenchment
Workers associate retrenchments with lost livelihoods, destitution and disgruntlement. The consequence of this is usually industrial action that often proves costly to the company bosses. To soften this blow, neo-liberalism has introduced the terms ‘down-size’ and ‘outsource’ to make such dire management decisions reflect as necessary company adjustments for greater profitability. Workers however, experience this as unemployment, causing poverty and other social ills.
Department of Housing and squatter camps
Even government has taken a leaf from their neo-liberal masters in the art of deception. This is evident in the name changes they made to certain departments. The term ‘Department of Housing’ places too much emphasis on the issue of housing- a raw nerve for both government which has failed completely in providing adequate and decent housing, as well as the millions who are still homeless! Furthermore, the term ‘human settlement’ does not link with the specific issue of housing as a major government priority. The term ‘human settlement’ also makes provision for ‘sites and services’ (promoted feverishly by the Democratic Alliance) and places the onus of building actual houses in the hands of the poor communities. Likewise, the term ‘squatter camp’ has been replaced with the term ‘informal settlement’ to draw attention away from the poverty and squalor that accompany the former. Ironically, the poverty and squalor are caused by the ruling class through, amongst others, the implementation of a draconian anti-poor macro-economic policy. To the working class the lack of decent housing, proper infrastructure and lack of service delivery reduce these informal settlements to nothing more than squatter camps!
Another department used to be known as the South African Police Department. Today they have transformed themselves into the South African Police Service. Not only does the term ‘service’ belie the pathetic service we get from this department, as the escalating crime statistics reveal, but it blinds the working class to the fact that the main purpose of the police is to protect the private property of the ruling class.
Creating access to opportunity
These four words have become buzz-words in both the vocabulary of the ANC-led government and the opposition parties. To ‘create access to an opportunity’ sounds positive and can easily lead one to believe that a task has actually been done. Nothing could be further from the truth! For 25 years the working class has been bombarded with government talking about creating the opportunity to access meaningful employment and the opportunity to access decent housing. The reality however just proves the direct opposite. Nearly 10 million South Africans are currently unemployed and more are cautioned by the President to join their ranks (eNCA report 2019 on Mapungubwe conference). ‘Creating the opportunity to access’ housing is equally as deceptive as that of accessing employment opportunities. This fact is underlined in a 2018 Fin24 news article by Mayra Hartmann that states: ‘…The housing backlog reportedly stands at 2.3 million and is growing by around 178 000 houses a year. Neither the public nor the formal private sector appears to be able to close this gap.’ These facts boil down to one simple truth – creating an opportunity to access meaningful employment and housing does NOT mean actually employing or housing anyone! It is just an empty promise.
Working class response
The working class must fight independently and organise themselves for their freedom. Reality has proven that the ruling class only pays lip-service to its empty and deceptive election promises. It is only when we prioritise our socio-economic needs, through principled and programmatic struggle (divorced from the vile profit motive and within a socialist state) that we can be assured of a truly decent life for the working class.