Nationalism has placed loyalty to the nation above all other forms of political diferences, something that happens every time a nation has to survive . Nationalism is an ideology of adapting to the needs of nations. It can be used as the means of oppression or liberation depending on the immediate needs of the time and the forces at play. Some still believe that socialism in one country is another form of nationalism largely influenced by the tensions that existed amongst socialists countries. The immediate needs currently in South Africa are the three priorities articulated in the State of the Nation Address which are inclusive economic growth , unemployment and hunger. South Africa’s ( SA ) history is the testimony that nationalism can bring oppression or liberation. The former brought disunity and racial hatred whereas the latter brought unity, gender and racial harmony as well as peaceful resolution of conflicts . After thirty years of democracy, the 2024 elections outcome gave no political party an outright majority in the SA Parliament. Therefore ushered in the era of political parties talking to one another to form government.
Political Parties and the people of South Africa are actually now in agreement to build inclusive economy to fight poverty and unemployment from different political persuasions. This is not new to South Africa because in the 1990’s, political parties negotiated and ultimately Government of National Unity was formed. Thirty years later political parties and the people of South Africa are back at it . This is confirmation of what Mark Twain once said , “Reclaiming the lost treasures, we may need to visit uncomfortable or scary places that we hoped we would never need to return to.”The nation is once more called upon to draw important lessons from what our forebears did in the early 1990’s.
What should be noted is that lofty ideas were developed and some implemented as responses to the concrete conditions of the time . Ideologies emerged in society from practical experiences of the people.The period of ‘rational thinking’ challenged the earlier dominance of religion in society during the period of the ancient classical world. The philosophers of Enlightenment like Immanuel Kant encouraged people to think for themselves. The development of ideas in society is an expression of the dialectical relationship between cause and effects as simplified by the Newtonian third law of motion which states that action and reaction are numerically equal , but act in opposite direction.
Adam Smith wrote the book, the ‘inquiry into the causes of wealth of nation’ after he had observed the workings of free market economy. Adam Smith has had greatest influence on the development of free market economy. The inquiry had earned him the title of being one of the founders of liberalism and father of capitalism. The inquiry into the causes of wealth raised three important aspects of wealth creation , international trade, division of labour and interest rate in a free unrestrained market economy.
The stagnation of agricultural wages and increase in land rents contributed to the growing unpopularity of aristocracy and the existing political order in France. The kingdom had the population of twenty million in 1700. The desire for freedom and free trade led to the dissatisfaction of the disadvantaged middle and lower classes whose revolt erupted in Paris in 1789 with the storming of the Bastille, which began the French Revolution. The French Revolution changed the social and political order in Europe irreversibly.
The industrialisation of Europe in the 1840s realised profits while wages stagnated which led to the rise of working class ideology and Communist movements. Marx and Engels in ‘The German Ideology’ argued that there was a close link between the material conditions of society and the belief systems; relationships between the base-structure and the super-structure. Most of their writings in the collected works established the body of knowledge later known as Marxism, the ideology that Lenin helped to develop . He continued to apply the scientific theory to liberate the working class in the then Soviet Union. It is important to note that socialism in Soviet Union transfered power from the bourgeois class to the working class. Socialism existed for a period of seventy years which developed to the level of being the superpower. The Soviet Union fought heroically to defeat fascism in the second World War against the Nazi Germany.
Post the second World War, Germany was divided into Communist East Germany and Capitalist West Germany. The fall of the Berlin Wall unified Germany and today Germany is the financial power of European Union. The second World War had really destroyed Europe and thereafter had to be reconstructed. The material conditions of the time led economist John Mynaard Keynes realised some shortcomings of the Adam Smith’s earlier concept of free pure market economy . Keynes came up with the concept of the national aggregates and the need for the role of state in the economy later known as welfarism.The keynesian economic model post the second World war led to the economic golden age from 1950s through the 1960s and early 1970s . Keynesian economic model was the departure from the failures of Adam Smith’s market only approach due to the prevailing conditions of the time. Keynesian economy built massive public infrastructure in Europe which later led to stagflation and the rise of conservative leadership in the United Kingdom ( UK ). This proved that Keynesian economic model had later outdone itself i.e rendered itself irrelevant. This confirms the correctness of the third law of dialectics which is negation of negation.
The Conservative leader of United Kingdom Prime Minister Margret Thatcher adopted the neo-liberal policies that rescued UK from unemployment and lack of economic growth after the failures of welfarism. As a result of that, the people of United Kingdom learned to be self reliant. Their skilled personnel mushroomed and economy grew. The young professionals even called themselves the children of Margret Thatcher out of appreciation of economic progress. Neo-liberal policies have also had their dismal failures of being pro-rich and anti-poor in Reagan-Thatcher era .
From Karl Marx to modern economists, economic models are developed after the facts to justify material conditions rather than being independent cause of social behaviour. This teaches us not to be dogmatic on something that is meant to be facts driven. Circumstances dictate economic policies. The failures of the economic policies facilitated the passageway to the inevitable new set of economic policies. Therefore, the success of economic policies cannot be permanent and to be depended on forever in the ever changing socio- political environment.
The lifespan of economic policies can be thirty years, and therefore, there is nothing like absolute ‘truth’ in economic matters. The rise and decline of economic policies are recorded in the history books. A quarter of century seems to be enough for economic policies. It is often said that success of economic theory, a quarter – century is a good run . A half century is unusual. That is the reason the Marxists boast about the seventy years of existence of socialism in the Soviet Union. There is no permanent economic solution and unfortunately some would like us to believe that there can be permanent position. Noreena Hertz in the book ‘debt threat and why we must defuse it’ wrote , “Very few of us realise with conviction the intensely unusual , unstable, complicated, unreliable, temporary nature of the economic organisation by which Western Europe has lived for the last half century.” Economic policies emerge out of the necessities of the time, specific to a particular country and are time bound. There is no need to create another religion or dogma for economics.
Marx’s prediction of the disastrous end of capitalism did not materialise, and his prediction was based on the possibility that indefinite accumulation will lead to overconcentration and ultimate destruction of the engine of accumulation and profitability of capital. The Communist Manifesto simplified this point, ” The development of Modern Industry, therefore cuts from under its feet the very foundation on which the bourgeoisie produces and appropriates products.” The economic theory’s prediction was lately echoed by Thomas Piketty when he concluded that the rate of return is greater than the economic growth and inequality is growing bigger, but technological advances saved capitalism from its own self-destruction. The point is that Marx had anticipated the possible end of capitalism, and thus confirms the temporary nature of economic theory.
There are compromises in the theory of Marxism and in the efforts to build socialism notably during Lenin’s New Economic Policy (NEP). During the economic crisis, nations are called upon to join hands and look for compromises. It should be noted that during the introduction of ‘NEP’ there were comrades who complained and suspected Lenin to be involved in the reintroduction of bourgeois economics, and thus making him an ideological suspect. However, his intervention made it possible for socialism to have existed for a period of seventy years . He simply implemented the lessons contained in the ‘ Left-Wing Communism : An Infantile Disorder’ that went at length on the significance of compromises in the revolutions.
The revolution moves in zigzags and not the straight line. Some zigzags are short while others are long, but the success of economic theory can at most last for thirty years. Collectivisation programme under Stalin yielded results and industries were built but at the same time the glaring failures of the state led economy gave rise to Perestroika and Glasnot( the need for reforms) during Gorbachev as he realised that, the system could no longer sustain itself. Some Countries neighbouring the then Soviet Union moved to social democracy after they witnessed the failures of state led economy. Even though George Soros argued in his book , the ‘alchemy of finance’ that he worked with the NGO’s in the then Socialist Eastern Europe to dismantle socialism, others argued that there were internal weaknesses within the then Soviet economic system. However, Joe Slovo in the article ‘Has Socialism Failed’ argued that Socialism did not fail but its distortion and lack of democratic practices .Today the Russians decided to become the nationalists who are reviving their economy which has bounced back from its setbacks and no longer begging bailouts from the United States and Western Europe. This is confirmation that there is no need to be dogmatic in matters of economics. Circumstances should dictate policies in the sphere of economics that is full of uncertainties.
The failures of the ten years of ‘cultural revolution’ under Chairman Mao made people to eat almost everything and prepared ground for the Communist Party to elect Deng Xiaoping who was once declared an outcast, sellout and capitalist roader by the Maoist faction known as the gang of four. They were later charged with series of treasonous crimes due to their responsibility for the excesses and failures in the cultural revolution. Xiaoping gave power to the peasants and grouped them into the families of eight to produce for the state and for themselves.
Today there is Chinese success story which embraced market economy, however, with the dominance of state in the economy which they referred to as socialism with China characteristics. Deng Xiaoping ably captured the need to avoid dogma in economic policies through the famous quote: ” It does not matter whether the cat is black or white as long as it catches the mice.”
Singapore protected the value of economic investments of the families for the returns as opposed to high profits and handouts. Singaporean families had to put part of their large earnings in a central provident fund, so that the state could use their savings to build a housing infrastructure. Singapore is today the world’s destination for capital investments with almost risk free returns. The market economy driven and guided by the state produces social justice.
Up to this point, all the historical examples given illustrated that there is no pure market driven or state led economic models which were successful on their own.Time and again there is a need to introduce change in economic policies dictated to by the change of circumstances. Free market system is good for economic production but fail dismally with redistribution. Socialism proved to be the best in redistribution and found wanting in production. Therefore, solution for achieving inclusive economic growth lies with adopting mixed economic model shying away from extreme cases in this historic period.
Following from the above historical experiences of other nations, South Africa ( SA ) can do well if more people can be involved in the ownership of companies with the deracialisation and breaking up of monopoly in the economy. Currently as things stand, the democratic state will have to cooperate with the private capital to build an inclusive economic growth and at the same time engage with it where there will be conflict of interests. The first law of dialectics which is the struggle of opposites and unity simplifies this reality. In the previous years , the economy grew by 3% and between the 2004 to 2007 grew by 5% annually, unfortunately with the jobless upswings. The stabilisation of the earlier years and pulling together of the nation made it possible for SA economy to survive the worst, such as 2008 financial crisis , nine wasted years characterised by the state capture, covid 19 pandemic and 2021 July civil unrest.
The recent electoral outcome forced parties to work together in the true SA nationalism with proud history of the apartheid defeat , revered constitution, Mandela the icon and now the world rugby number one team. The flag of the SA must rise high and fight poverty, unemployment and hunger hoisted by GNU nationalism. Luckily political parties have agreed to work together to achieve this minimum programme.It is said that in the face of changing social environment , it is not the strongest that survive , but the one most responsive to change. This is the time to consolidate the democratic state, rule of law and accountability.
As it was mentioned at the beginning of this discussion that the outcome of the elections of the year 2024 has revived the true tradition of people’s commitment to united, non racial , non sexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa . The true politics of the congress movement should reign supreme in the year of celebrations of the 40TH Anniversary of the United Democratic Front ( UDF ). There should not be a problem when there is consolidation of non racial , non sexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa. Now the common enemy is poverty, unemployment and hunger and the people have decided to work together in defense of dignity of the people. The psychological appeal of nationalism has won in this situation of absence of majority in the Parliament of South Africa.
References:
PUTIN’S PEOPLE( HOW THE KGB TOOK BACK RUSSIA AND THEN TOOK ON THE WEST) CATHERINE BELTON.
CAPITAL in the Twenty-First Century, THOMAS PIKETTY,
Good Economics for Hard Times, Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo,
YANIS VAROUFAKIS , Adults in the Room, MY BATTLE WITH EUROPE’S DEEP ESTABLISHMENT.
GET SOUTH AFRICA GROWING, BRIAN KANTOR,
Understanding, political ideas and movements, KEVIN HARRISON and TONY BOYD.
I.O.U THE DEBT THREAT AND WHY WE MUST DEFUSE IT, NOREENA HERTZ
The German Ideology, Karl Marx and Frederick Engels
Left-Wing Communism : An Infantile Disorder, V I LENIN
FROM THIRD WORLD TO FIRST. Lee Kuan Yew.
Why the Germans Do it Better. Notes from a Grown-Up Country. JOHN KAMPFNER.
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Jack Matlala wrote this article in his personal capacity.
The views expressed in this article are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the views of Jambo Africa Online or Brandhill Africa, the publisher of this news portal.