Is Rampholo Molefhe a chamza of the Left?

| Friday August 27, 2010 00:00

The spiteful and elegant sweep of his pen depicts comrades as impostors of sorts.  He writes off the talk about existence of 'socialist' tendencies in the BNF.  Is Molefhe a chamza of the BNF left?  How can he deny the existence of the left in an organisation that brought him up?

Molefhe's analysis is good because it touches the right places.  An analysis of the left in Botswana has to start with the working class organisation or the labour movement and the BNF.  More importantly, the article poses the question of the possibility and prospects of the formation of a socialist organisation rooted in working class struggles.

The idea of dismissing the efforts of comrades is not helpful. What progressive journalists should be doing is to highlight positive aspects of leftist political contribution in Botswana. Let us chronicle the political lives of exemplary leftists. BNF has an incredibly lost list of men and women who have shaped Botswana's political culture.  Let us honour these people by writing decent profiles that truly reflect their roles.

Let us have massive and open debates about the hidden political history of this country.  The idea of dismissing the traditions and ideals of the entire left of Botswana on the basis of having seen a particular leftist swallowing some traditional medicine is subjective and unfair.

The question of the birth of an organisation formally committed to socialist politics is interesting.  We must be clear about this. A genuine socialist party can only be formed by socialists not the police. Efforts towards building a socialist organisation in Botswana are likely to fail because calling an open and public meeting of socialists and marxists will attract curious people and pleasure-seekers.

The best way of turning unwanted characters away is to hit them with a huge volume of the Collected Works of Karl Marx and request them to give a 10-minute talk about their reading.  You will never see them again.The gender issue needs to be considered when forming a socialist organisation.  Males tend to think socialism is a macho preserve.

A group of males get together to form a socialist party or tendency, then they realise that there are no women in their group. They part, each of them promising to bring a female socialist to the next meeting.  That will be the end of the socialist formation.  No socialism without the full participation of women.  That is a key principle.

Forming a socialist organisation will be difficult simply because marxists or socialists seem to be a rare political species in this country. Perhaps the National Museum should consider going around the country in search of at least one marxist and put him or her on display in the interest of open politics.

Tourists and school children will visit to watch the marxist and ask him or her about socialism. The marxist exhibition should last a week or two. Many voters in Botswana have never seen a socialist or marxist. They will ask him or her whether he or she has ever dined at a fancy restaurant. They will ask the marxist whether he or she ever tasted caviar while studying in capitalist countries.

Socialism is about convictions and principles. You cannot regard yourself as a Christian if you do not believe in Jesus Christ. You cannot insist on calling yourself a marxist if you do not believe in the notion of class struggle or political revolution. Marxists are people who believe in the labour theory of value, the doctrine of conflict between the forces and relations of production and the law of the falling rates of profit.

Socialist are people engaged in the emancipatory project of abolishing market relations and commodity production.

The other principles of Marxism are the idea of false consciousness, the tenets of dialectical materialism and the model of base and superstructure. You have to form a position in relation to these ideas. No socialist theory and practice, no socialist organisation.  You have to spend hours and days on end talking about capitalist world-system, uneven development, exploitation, inequality, injustice, class relationships, resistance and struggle.

People are appreciated on the basis of what they do, not what they say about themselves. In order to clearly express the ideals and programme of their organisation socialists have to engage in a great deal of preparation, training and more rehearsal.   We tend to express these issues in terms that are a bit difficult to grasp. The organised left should be about working class issues, human rights and democracy. It should seek effective solutions to the most pressing issues affecting majority of the people.

People experience immense hardships daily. Impoverished people tremble at the first signs of illness in their children because of lack of medical insurance.  People lack adequate shelter.  The presence of a single beggar in the street is enough justification for the existence of socialist organisations.

If you keep fighting for the right to creative work, the right to a living wage, right to have decent shelter, right to accessible and dependable health care, right to quality public education and freedom from oppression based on gender or ethnicity, then you are in serious leftist business.  You do not have to grow a beard or wear a hat meant for the Russian weather to be a socialist but no socialist project can take off without reckoning with BNF with its two stage theory of revolution.

Tiro Sebina