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There is hope that this time, with a rise in grass-roots social activism, capitalism will not win.

There is hope that this time, capitalism will not win. (Reuters)

NEWS ANALYSIS

A newly energised left wing wants to make 2015 their year. They have given up on turning the ANC back to socialism, and have nothing but jokes to offer about the South African Communist Party. But a rise in grass-roots social activism (and of course money from the trade union Numsa to help organise) has them hopeful that, this time, capitalism wont win. Again. So will 2015 see the rise of a broad left in South Africa like were seeing in parts of Europe and Latin America? We assess the chances of a red tide flooding South Africas political landscape.

There were a mere seven months between the then Reverend Allan Boesaks clarion call for an anti-apartheid united front at the Transvaal Anti-South African Indian Council conference in January 1983 and the launch of the United Democratic Front (UDF) at Rocklands Community Centre in Mitchells Plain on August 20 that year. A bustle of activity lay in between, leading to the quick formation of regional structures, an interim national committee, and the convening of a two-day planning meeting in July 1983.

An iconic photograph of the launch depicts ANC Womens League stalwart Frances Baard at the podium, surrounded by raised fists in a hall packed to the rafters. The event was followed by a mass rally of 10000 people.

Fast-forward three decades and, in contrast, the build-up to the similarly monikered and ideologically broad United Front was a lot tamer. The United Front, whose impetus came out of a conference of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa) in December 2013, has been seen by some attendants of its preparatory assembly in December last year as diffidently reluctant to address issues of power head-on by forming a political party.

The assembly, attended by just over 300 people, postponed the launch of the United Front by a further four months and was marked by what some attendees called ideological reticence, with discourse around the definitions of socialism and the bourgeoisie being deferred for further discussion.

What is the left likely to look like? In the face of rising community protests and the fracturing and morphing of social movements that peaked in the era of former president Thabo Mbeki, it forces the question of what terrain the left in South Africa inhabits. What is the left likely to look like should there be a drastic realignment within trade union federation Cosatu, not to mention an ongoing metamorphosis of the countrys social movements?

Numsa has already begun sending international task teams out to scout the development of left politics in other countries and they will report back at Marchs central committee, according to United Front convenor and Numsa head of education Dinga Sikwebu.

Original post:
Left moves to seize the moment