Originally published in Inqaba Ya Basebenzi No.16/17 (January-June 1985)

When invited to contribute to discussion at an ANC meeting in London on 8 January, British Labour MP and Militant supporter Dave Nellist raised questions about the suspension of four South African Marxists from the ANC in 1979 – but received no satisfactory answers.

The meeting, held on the 73rd anniversary of the founding of the African National Congress, was addressed from the platform by several ANC and Sactu spokesmen on the current situation in South Africa.

These speeches were followed by discussion from the floor, in which only three people had the opportunity to intervene.

The first was a young black ANC supporter, who expressed his disappointment with the contributions from the platform. “We’ve only heard facts that we know. We don’t just want to hear how horrible things are, but what the way forward is for the South African masses,” he said – and asked if it was the case that ANC leaders were talking with the regime’s politicians.

To this, the platform responded by stating that talks had been offered by the Nationalist government, but on the basis of unacceptable conditions. Talks were not ruled-out in the future, however.

Dave Nellist then spoke of the recent visit by striking British miner Roy Jones to the South African NUM, and how what shone out from Roy’s report of his trip was the determination of workers, men and women, to take on the task of organising to overthrow the regime.

He referred to the huge mass struggles that had been taking place, and how events like the two-day general strike in the Transvaal not only brought to the fore the massive power of the organised working class, but the basic demands of the movement.

The aspirations of the black SA workers for democracy and socialism, he continued, they shared with workers everywhere – and it was this which made worker-to-worker contact so vital, of which the Roy Jones visit was a striking example.

Dave said he had argued the case for direct links for a number of years, but unfortunately people in the British labour movement sometimes argued against such links, claiming the authority of the ANC and Sactu for this.

“We are not helped in building these links by articles such as this, from Sactu’s paper Workers’ Unity which has the headline ‘Direct Links – Stinks’. I would like the platform to make some comment on that.”

Undoubtedly, Dave continued, workers in South Africa were looking to build the ANC to implement the programme for democracy and socialism around which they were increasingly rallying. Therefore, he said, it was disturbing to realise that Marxists were unconstitutionally suspended from the ANC in 1979 for putting forward ideas which were becoming more and more widespread within South Africa.

He looked forward to continuing to assist the struggle against apartheid and capitalism in South Africa, and to assisting the ANC in every way he could.

In response to these remarks, the Sactu spokesman stated that Sactu were the genuine messengers who knew what was going on in South Africa, and that links should be established only through them.

“We know each individual in South Africa, what they stand for, and how far they are prepared to go. Colleagues outside South Africa are not in a position to know that, so they should do things through us.”

Amazingly, the exiled Sactu leadership still is putting forward this position – despite the imminent formation of a new trade union federation in the country, and despite the overwhelmingly expressed desire of the organised black workers in South Africa to establish worker-to-worker contact overseas solely under the vigilance and control of their own democratic organisations within the country.

The last speaker from the floor, a founder of the Anti-Apartheid Movement, also took up this point. Over the last months, she said, she had been in contact with a lot of British miners because of doing support work for the strike.

They would want to have direct links, particularly with workers doing the same kind of jobs. They had a strong dislike for bureaucracy, particularly what they saw in the top levels of the Labour Party. She thought they would dislike this attitude taken by the ANC. They would want to build links themselves and find out what was going on.

Communist Party

Regarding the suspended Marxists the Sactu spokesman replied to Dave Nellist: “The ANC is in an alliance and has been for many years with the South African Communist Party. All questions that revolve around Marxism-Leninism the Party is able to relate to but not the ANC which is not a Marxist-Leninist forum. If your friends are suspended, they must be aware of that.”

Francis Meli of the ANC denied that the suspensions had been unconstitutional. Those suspended had “started pushing a line that was not Sactu policy.” Because of these political differences, he added, “the position came when no more discussion was possible.” But if they “rethought” their political position, they could come back.

These answers confirm what was argued by the suspended Marxists themselves in their pamphlet, The Workers’ Movement, Sactu and the ANC – that the suspensions had been carried out for political reasons, and as a result of the domination of the ANC-in-exile by the sectarian interests of the SACP, hostile to the assertion by the South African working class of its leadership in the liberation struggle.

Inqaba joins with all socialists and genuine democrats in the movement in South Africa and internationally, in protesting against the suspension of these Marxists, and in calling for their reinstatement by the African National Congress.

© Transcribed from the original by the Marxist Workers Party (2020).