South Africa: United Front takes steps to redefine politics

Dinga Sikwebu writes South Africa: United Front takes steps to redefine politics.

First, the assembly asserted the principles of democratic plurality, diversity, political tolerance and respect for different views within the front. Participants committed themselves to politics of mutual listening and learning where participating organisations and individuals influence each other.

The adopted resolutions warn against any know-all pretences and reliance on trans-historical blueprints. Referring areas on which different organisations did not see eye to eye on back to constituencies was therefore no train smash.

The assembly agreed that the front must be a learning space where organisations travel together, discover solutions jointly and unlearn oppressive, undemocratic and sexist methods of organisation and struggle.

The second way in which the United Front hopes to inculcate different politics is to call on all those who associate with the coalition to acknowledge their own weaknesses and adopt politics of consistency that call on all, to actively reflect on and address their own racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia and privilege. The personal is political and there is no room within the front for talking left and walking right.

Third, the organisations that were at the assembly committed themselves to confidence-building struggles where they fight for winnable demands while also democratically re-imagining and building their long-term vision of an egalitarian society.

Although there are no guarantees of success, the United Front hopes to build a mass movement in this country through galvanising the tributaries of ongoing struggles into a torrent.

Those who define politics as a game within the purview of parliamentarians, political parties or paid politicians will remain blind to attempts by delegates at the meeting in December to put actions of ordinary people to determine their destiny as the real politics.

Equally, for those who equate politics with contests that we hold every five years, mass campaigns involving millions of people acting directly through their movements will not easily fit into their narrow political boxes.

They will fail to appreciate the steps that ordinary are taking to reclaim mass politics and through their actions transform themselves from being political subjects into being political agents.

Emphasis Mine

Because we all have been indoctrinated into a sexist, homophobic, racist, and xenophobic society, every day becomes a struggle to consciously overcome this conditioning.

In this everyday struggle, the personal is definitely political for every action and thought we do and have builds our political future. If I want a racist future, then I behave differently to and think differently about white and non-white people. Even this division of the world into a binary of white and non-white contributes to the racism in the world.

There is so much unlearning to be done, and the journey is long and hard. As we do, we should assist others along the same journey by forgiving them and ourselves for the mistakes we make. No one is truly free of this cultural pollution.