Organic Intellectuals

The linked text on Organic Intellectuals, which we are going to discuss next Friday, is not an easy read, yet it is one of the most frequently visited pages on the Communist University Web site - 11 times more frequently visited than the site’s average. One explanation for this may be that there are too few works that address the practical problem of bridging the apparent gap between the intellectuals and the masses, in a satisfactory way. This is not an obscure matter. It is more like a “burning issue”. For example, the projection of “social movements” as opposition to mass and vanguard organisations is based on the assertion that the social movement intellectuals can do this job of linking revolutionary theory and practice better. Pointing out that the “social movements” of South Africa are tiny, incoherent and ineffectual does not necessarily invalidate a critique of Marxist theory and practice of this kind. Indeed, the strongest such critique arises from the ranks of the Marxists themselves. In this case it comes from the US Marxists Gustavo Fischman and Peter McLaren, mainly in response to various Europeans, including Antonio Gramsci, as well as the Brazilian, Paulo Freire. South Africa, with vast masses of poor people who are not inherently socialised by formal employment, badly needs a way forward, or line of march. It may be true that the mode of regarding the poor as clients entitled to delivery, or beneficiaries, is characteristic of the ANC’s theoretical outputs. But then it is equally true of social-democratic redistributionism wherever it comes from, whether it be the Democratic Alliance of Tony Leon, or the “social movements” like the APF. “Power to the People” is does not only mean rolling out the electricity and other supply networks, or providing water free. This slogan will only achieve reality when the people have become a collective free-willing Subject. Delivery of services is a means towards this end, but a problematic one. For if in the process of “delivery” the “beneficiaries” are rendered into permanent, supplicant dependents or clients, then the process will have created a historic disempowerment rather than a liberation. The Communist University offers for discussion a way forward based on the reading of the text linked below, and on recent South African public discourse. First, the spiral sequence of Education, Organisation and Mobilisation is in the correct order, each being a pre-requisite for the next. Therefore the first priority is to roll out an enormous expansion of Freirean critical pedagogy. Second, organisation itself must be organic. That is to say it must spring from the immediate experience and self-perceived needs of the masses. In this we reconfirm the general concept of mass organisation best epitomised by trade unions, but extend it to the ranks of those who are not for the time being bound together in employment by capital – the unemployed. So although in general terms it can be similar, in its specific nature it is bound to be very different. A simple, mechanical offering of pre-cooked trade unionism for the unemployed will not be taken up. This is because we can only build upon the socialisation that exists (and there are no people without some social organisation). We must respect the organic intellectuals that are produced by that socialisation, who may be local, religious, cultural or any other thing, however politically problematic they may in practice be, because their overall common reality is oppression. The vanguard then proposes local democratic united fronts that provide means for these leaderships to grow. These collectives are the opposite of the paternalistic “izindaba” that we have seen. Revolutionary leadership cannot be presumed, or imposed, but only won in democratic practice, or rather created out of dialogue of the Freirean kind. In this spirit, the YCL has bravely responded to the demonstration staged by Afrikaner youth at Pretoria University. Although the path ahead looks rocky, and in spite of what the YCL says (see the linked document below) will have to involve a reappraisal of affirmative action, the policy of reaching out for dialogue is the only possible one. Dismissing people out of hand is not the way. Let us hope that these Afrikaners will respond in turn to the YCL, talk to them, and keep on talking. The YCL has also responded to World Teachers Day, promoted by the Education International, whose President is Thulas Nxesi, who is also the General Secretary of the South African Democratic Teachers Union. See the last two linked items. Click on these links: 2005, McLaren and Fischman, Gramsci, Freire, Organic Intellectuals (10066 words) YCL calls on Afrikaner youth to be part of progressive youth (399 words) Education International call for investment in teachers (399 words) World Teachers Day must mean free education for all, YCL (406 words)