In its proposal for the formation of a new people’s united front the National Union of Metal Workers of South Africa is insisting that this front should base itself politically on the Freedom Charter of the ANC. This highly questionable demand has recently been supported in part by the Workers and Socialist Party (WASP) which argues for what it sees as the defects in the Freedom Charter to be rectified. In a document entitled “For A Socialist Freedom Charter it states.  “We oppose both the uncritical acceptance of the Freedom Charter as well as its outright rejection.” (Weizmann Hamilton, spokesperson for WASP. The full document can be read on the WASP website: http://workerssocialistparty.co.za).  It opposes the formulation in the Charter on its demand for nationalisation which it correctly states allowed its evasion. (We say that there was never a demand for nationalisation of the mines and land in the first place. There was merely a collection of “there shall be” promises). Essentially, WASP argues for what they call a Socialist Freedom Charter, whatever such a hybrid, based on an erroneous and false document can mean.

In the past APDUSA stood by the principled demands of the Ten Point Programme of the Unity Movement of South Africa, coupled with the policy of Non-Collaboration with the oppressor. These were not promises made by a leadership that could be broken. They were rather demands that the populace should accept as their own and which they should strive for. In the present era we call for a new, democratically elected Constituent Assembly that is bound by the interests of the working class and the landless peasantry. This centralises and unites all other demands of the oppressed and exploited that arise out of struggles such as those for land, decent jobs, housing, health and education and places them on a firm political basis. It further counters the tendency for them to remain issue-based and reformist. The call for a new Constituent Assembly  is the only concrete and meaningful demand that the oppressed workers and peasants can adopt instead of a following a vague call for socialism which most do not understand.

To go further, we can do no better than to refer our readers to a statement made by IB Tabata – “The ANC Charts A Course To A Proper Sell-out” (1988) in which the fallacious and fraudulent character of the Freedom Charter is fully exposed.   Click here