Protest tomorrow: We Stand in Defence of Democracy

Freedom only for the supporters of the government, only for the members of one party – however numerous they may be – is no freedom at all. Freedom is always and exclusively freedom for the one who thinks differently. All that is instructive, wholesome and purifying in political freedom depends on this essential characteristic, and its effectiveness vanishes when ‘freedom’ becomes a special privilege.
– Rosa Luxemburg

19 September 2011

Unemployed People’s Movement Press Statement
We Stand in Defence of Democracy

It is September month and in September we always remember Steve Biko. The apartheid state could murder Biko, and cover up the murder, because the apartheid state was based on secrets. A truly post-apartheid society cannot just be a society that is ruled by a state under black management. It has to be a genuinely free society.

Tomorrow the Unemployed People’s Movement in Grahamstown, together with our comrades in Students for Social Justice, the Rural People’s Movement and democrats from various other formations, will take a clear stand in defence of the right to know and against the secrecy bill. We will march from Raglan Road to the Cathedral Square where we will hold an open people’s assembly in support of the right to know.

Everybody knows that seventeen years into democracy the aspirations of the poor have not been met. The ANC is arguing that our democracy is a barrier to transformation and so they are attacking the media and the judiciary. They are repressing popular struggles and they have militarised the police. They are even calling on our media to follow the example of the British media and to further criminalise popular protest. But our problem is not that we have too much democracy. Our problem is that we have too little democracy. We need to defend democracy against all attacks and struggle to deepen it wherever we can.

We fully support the Right to Know Campaign’s struggle against the secrecy bill. The secrecy bill will function to protect the tenderpreneurs and all those who are plundering the national purse for their own selfish interests.

There are numerous examples of corruption and skulduggery here in the Makana Municipality. For instance there is the matter of the General Auditor’s Report. It was found that R19 million was spent without supporting documents and a forensic audit was recommended. But nothing has happened and we are not being given information on this matter. Then there is the uBumbano Sports Training project where R600 000 was corrupted. The council has tried to sweep all this under the carpet. And there is also the matter of the Chief Financial Officer who has been suspended on full pay for months. We have no information on what is happening here. And the Craddock Heights scandal, in which councillors were given municipal land, remains unresolved. We can go on and on. The point is that without a full defence of the right to know corruption will become ever more rampant and people that try and tell the truth will risk jail terms. A denial of the right to know will always protect the rich and powerful and will never be in the interests of the poor.

However while we fully support the Right to Know Campaign and recognise the hard work of the excellent comrades that are struggling within the Campaign there also needs to be a struggle within the Campaign against the elitism that has sometimes characterised it in some areas. The campaign to protect our democracy needs to be firmly rooted in the lives and struggles of the people. There are many attacks on our basic freedoms. When, as has happened here in Grahamstown, activists are arrested on false charges and given bail conditions that prevent them from exercising basic political rights, democracy is under attack. When the police attack demonstrations and party thugs break up meetings democracy is under attack. When you can’t get a job or a house if you are not a loyal party member democracy is under attack. When activists, struggles and movements are unfairly criminalised because they have dared to think, speak and act for themselves democracy is under attack. Our defence of democracy must be a democratic defence of democracy. It must be a bottom up people’s struggle that takes the rights of all people seriously. It also need to acknowledge that the state is not the only threat to democracy. Capital is also a source of authoritarianism and there have been shocking cases of authoritarianism within civil society too including attempts at censorship, purges, attempts to criminalise popular struggles etc.

The attack that the ANC is mounting on democracy is not limited to their parliamentary assault on freedom of expression or their attempts to undermine the judiciary. There is also a steady assault on democracy that is being waged in the squatter camps and townships by police officers and party thugs. We need to take the assault on democracy that is being launched on the ground as seriously as the assault on democracy that is being launched in parliament.

There are many people in the ANC who simply don’t accept the legitimacy of popular dissent. They can only see popular dissent as conspiracy. Instead of engaging with their critics they want to crush them. These tendencies were always there in the ANC but they have come to the fore under Jacob Zuma.

We are attaching a document that was recently leaked to us. It comes, we have been told, from the Provincial Executive Committee of the ANC. It is riddled with basic errors of fact. But it reveals a great deal about the extent of the undemocratic tendencies within the ANC. It shows, clearly, the thinking in the ruling party that we will have to confront in the struggle to defend and deepen democracy in South Africa. It also shows exactly why it is important to allow people to leak such documents in the public interest.

Join us tomorrow as we take a stand in defence of democracy.

For comment please contact:

Ayanda Kota, Unemployed People’s Movement 078 625 6462

Nomonde Mbelekane, Rural People’s Movement 083 764 34 34

Chris McMichael, Students for Social Justice 072 607 4896