Death of the left?

Lawrence Ookeditse | Friday August 1, 2014 15:28

“A spectre is haunting Europe – the spectre of communism”, Marx & Engels, Communist Manifesto (1848). A century and a half later, Francis Fukuyama argued that the global spread of the West free market capitalism and its lifestyle may signal the end point for humanity’s sociocultural evolution and become the final form of human development. The dearth of the left in this general election is confirming this thinking somewhat it appears. No?

MELS and Themba Joina, however inept, are in the clutches of the master swallower, Botswana Congress Party (BCP). Firmly planted at the bosom of the BCP tactical submarine, MELS is not even squeaking the usual scientific socialismo rhetoric. Themba Joina is no more, not Themba Joina, but The Themba Joina. He has moved his party/movement to the centre, ever closer to the right. Basically, he has planted it to the neo-liberal centre with the BCP. Not a bad move for impact, and perhaps survival. Not a good move for leftist politics.

International Socialists Botswana, with whom as school boys Larona Makgoeng and I flirted, is out of gas it seems. Motsomi Marobela and co. seem to have been deflated. Upon return from Europe, Dr Marobela appeared a leading light for praxis: after all, Marxism without practice is nothing. Yes, consciousness is important but practice is equally important. Marobela championed praxis.

Poloko Monang. In my recollection, a protégé of Motsomi Marobela. If there is a leading enthusiast for part scientific socialism in Botswana today, in terms of not just consciousness but also practice, it is him. Monang has fallen out with the BNF, and his socialist purity is in part to blame. Divorced from the BNF, his voice is significantly drowned out. The left torch bearer is without a home. Bad for the left.

The university academic. Once upon a time, a leading light for the BNF and the left. But then, the ‘Moupo whips academics back to the university corridors’ occurred, and Mmegi carried the headline. Events occurred after that and relegated a lot of the Marxist academics into near oblivion. Not helping is that the left is not graduating younger academics anymore. Or say it is no longer as alluring to them as it used to?

The labour movement: sects of the labour movement, for they feel the brunt of the objectification of labour and its alienation from the surplus it gives its life and form to produce, are still fighting. BLLAWHU and the Manual Workers Union in particular appear dominated by leftists. But they are pressure groups constrained by neo liberal instruments such as the Public Service Act from going full blown at revolution. Reactionaries within the movement are also a hamstring.

Of course the left in Botswana is not owned by these individuals and pressure groups. The BNF. Founded in 1965, Botswana National Front (BNF) became a significant threat after 1969, when “tribal” conservatives joined the socialists in BNF ranks attacking the “bourgeois” in the BDP. The BNF supreme leader, Dr Kenneth Koma, articulated that the BNF is a front.

The project to unite Botswana Peoples Party splinter organisations long failed, possibly aborted. De facto, the Front became a party. A party of leftist persuasions. The BNF as a firm socialist organisation was the home for socialists. In Botswana political landscape, it offered a radical alternative, and gained popularity as a radical alternative

Fast forward: President Otsweletse Moupo. The relative silence of the left going into this election is not Moupo’s fault but it accelerated during his tenure, and as an aftermath of his tenure. That seems ironic given Moupo is a notable leftist. But we do know of the law of unintended consequences don’t we? The run up to the 2009 general election was bruising for the BNF, Moupo and the socialists in the party. And of course we know Log Raditlhokwa wrote that famous or infamous, depending on where you stand, open letter to Moupo. Fewer letters have been as damaging. Dr Elmon Tafa left the roost and ran for election under his own little arrangement, and lost. Dismally.

Since then, Tafa has returned to the fold, but he surely must see lots of the socialist clutter in the nest has been thrown out, replaced by something fresher, neo-liberal in tone and feel feathers. We will return to this. He must feel alienated to some degree; at least, his ideas must be Tafa.

The socialists are dispersed. Some have found sanctuary in the BCP and BDP. Some remain within (like Tafa) but are without impact as far as I can see. Some, like Gabriel Kanjabanga, Meshack Mthimkhulu and Lemogang Ntime are fighting for the ‘soul of the BNF’. They live in an interregnum of sorts- they are somewhere in between being BNF and being out of the BNF. Forget what they claim.

Changes. Has the BNF changed in terms of its leftist rhetoric? Yes. Going into any election, the bible for any organization is the party manifesto. Just as a Marxist’s bible is the ‘The Manifesto of the Community Party’ supplemented by Das Kapital.

‘On the Thefts of Wood’ in Rheinische Zeitung (1842) Marx wrote, “The representation of private interests ... abolishes all natural and spiritual distinctions by enthroning in their stead the immoral, irrational and soulless abstraction of a particular material object and a particular consciousness which is slavishly subordinated to this object”. Ordinarily then, leftists shun the prevalence of private capital.

Contradictions to accommodate the liberals. From the Manifesto, the BNF, through the UDC embraces neoliberal tenets of free trade. This is anti left to some degree. As Engels and latter day leftists often note, political economy came into being as a natural result of the expansion of trade, and with its appearance elementary, unscientific huckstering was replaced by a developed system of licensed fraud, an entire science of enrichment. How then, do leftists embrace this fraud while maintaining their being leftists?

Changes.While it is easy to label the BNF as having capitulated, it must be understood tactics do not necessarily constrain action once the goal is attained. Perhaps then, the left in Botswana is in a self induced tactical state of lull? Use neo-liberal talk to appeal to more people so as to win power and usher in progressive policies once in power. That is possible.Meanwhile, it is easy for me to seat here and neat-pick the BNF. Truth is after decades of failed approaches, something had to give. A new breed of leaders had to come up and they have. These leaders are by and large petty bourgeoisie if not outright bourgeoisie. They remain leftists despite their material conditions however. As well, I have no doubt that moving a bit from leftist rhetoric and promises may just be the correct way of approaching elections. Why stick to the old same that had not worked? It is about the audience is it not? If the people are not buying something after 50 or so years, tinkering with it appears the sensible thing to do.