What
is fhe Nafive Independent Republic? (7934)

The Communist Party of South Africa had already a few years ago
put forward the slogan of a"Native Independent Republic"as
the immediate aim for which the workers and peasants of South Africa
should fight. This slogan, which quite correctly reflects the fundamental
interests ofthe Native toiling population, is the banner around
which the workers and peasants should unite for a joint struggle
for a better life. But for this purpose it is necessary that the
slogan should become clear to every toiler in South Africa, that
every toiler should understand what the Communists are calling
upon him to fight for, what the Independent Native Republic would
give him. For it is known that whilst the Communist Party is the
leader and organiser ofall the workers and toilers, irrespective
of colour, therc are in the ranks of the masses certain organisations
who pretend to champion their cause. These organisations, the African
National Congress, the Industrial Commercial Union, not only do
not put forward such a slogan but even fight against this slogan
put forward by the Communist Party. The African National Congress
and its leaders of 'the type of Seme, Dube' and others tell the
toiling Natives of South Africa to be patient and submit to the
highhanded treatment ofthe European capitalists, the farmers and
the Colonial Government, to submissively bear all their privations
and misfortunes, so that the European oppressors will condescend
to notice their humility and will cease to oppress the Natives,
will cease to get rich at their expense and "Universal peace
will reign between the whites and Natives and happiness for all".

Is this really so? Will the imperialists (the Anglo-Boer landlords,
manufacturers, mineowners and the Colonial Government) voluntarily
give up the oppression of the Native population and the imperialist
exploitation of the white workers and poor whites or not? That
is the crux ofthe problem. And in order to understand it, it is
necessary to attentively see how the imperialists are oppressing
the Native workers and peasants, to find out whal the Native toiling
population is suffering from. Not everyone as yet knows the reason
why he is suffering, starving and becoming more and more impoverished
and how to rid himself of all this.

Let us begin with the peasants, as they compose the overwhelming
majority of the Native population. It is generally known that the
peasant cannot conduct his peasant household without land. But
land is just what the Native peasants have not got. Ninety-two
percent of the entire land that is most suitable for agriculture,
has been seized by the Anglo-Boer imperialists. The European population
which is only 25% of the entire population ofthe Union of South
Africa, more than half of whom live in the towns and have no connections
with agriculture whatever, own 92% of the land and the Native population
composing 75% of the population, the majority of whom are engaged
in agriculture, own only 8% ofthe land. But at one time the Native
population were the complete masters of all the land. The Anglo-Boer
aggressors have taken the land from the Native population by force,
with arms in their hands, have organised big
farms and branches on this land and now sell tens of tons of butter
and wool from which they derive huge profits. (There are also poor
farmers among them but we shall speak about them later) Then what
is there left to do for the Native pesants who have been deprived
of the land? Part of them went to the reserves and locations kindly
left to them
by the imperialists on the Crown and missionary lands, and the
other part, the smaller part, were compelled to go upon the European
farms.

Until 1913, they lived on the European farms or as squatters
renting the land from farmers for money, for a share in their
crops or as worker tenants, working on the fields of the farms
for the land that they go for, finally, as plain workers. But
the promulgation of the Native Land Act by the Colonial government
in 1913, prohibited the Native peasants from renting land from
the white farmers for money or for a share in their crops. These
peasants either had to leave the farms (but where could they
go) or remain upon the farm as lahour tenants who, according
to this law, had to work on the farms not less than 90 days a
year and now, according to the Native Service Contract Act of
1933, the labour tenants have to work not less than 180 days
a year on the farms. Thus a considerable part of the Native tenants
were converted into ordinary serfs working half the year for
for land owner.[...]

This already suffices to show how difficult it is for the labour
tenants to live and how harshly they are oppressed by the white
land owners. But the labour tenants cannot get away from the
land owners as they have no land of their own and besides, are
usually always in debt to the landowner and for that reason the
latler does not let them go if he can use them. If the labour
tenant is no longer necessary to the land owner, the latter simply
drives him off the land.

The position of the Native peasants in the Native reserves is
no better. The chief trouble from which the Native peasantry
on the reserves suffer is the terrible lack of land as a result
of which they cannot feed themselves (in Transvaal, e.g. there
is from one to two acres of pastures for each head of cattle,
while, according to the opinion of experts, a minimum of six
acres is required), and the other part has no allotments whatever.
[....]

But on these absolutely inadequate allotments of land, the peasants
also have no rights whatever. In the reserves where there is
communal use of the land, the land is at the disposal of the
tribal chief and the use of the land is enmeshed with a thick
network of old tribal customs and imperialist limitations. The
fate of the peasant is in the hands of the tribal chief. In order
to get land the peasant must pay the chief a special tax, work
for him, seek his indulgence. All the peasant has to do is to
loose the good graces of the chief and the latter proclaims that
he is unreliable and with the aid of the colonial police he is
driven out ofthe reserve, and his allotment ofland is taken away
from him.

The peasant has no right to sell, mortgage or hand over his allotment
for inheritance to his son, nor has he the right to rent it without
the permission of the tribal chiefand the European officials.
Besides, the constant subdivision of the land does not give him
any guarantee that tomorrow he will still be able to have use
of the allotment upon which
today he puts in his labour. [....]

The imperialists, however, are not content with having robbed
the Native peasantry of the land.

For the oppression of the Native population, the Colonial Govemment
maintains a large staff of officials, police and an army. And
in order to maintain this apparatus for the oppression of the
Native population, in order to pay the high salaries of the officials
and also in order to force the Native peasants to go and work
for miserable wages, the Colonial Government has imposed high
taxes on the Native peasants and the Native workers and these
taxes are constantly being increased notwithstanding the "respectful
request" of the African National Congress to decrease the
taxes. [....]

Deprived of land, pressed down by taxes, exploited by the merchants
and money-lenders, the Native peasantry on the reserves have
no means for the technical improvement of the farms. The technical
methods on the peasant farms is still most primitive and simple.
[....] The increase in the shortage of land, the stagnation of
methods of technique, the reduction of pastures, the decline
in the crops and the collection of wool, the impoverishment of
the peasantry - these are the tendencies of development of the
Native peasants holding in the reserves.

The lack of land, the seizure of the land by the Anglo-Boer land
owners (in addition to high taxes etc.) - these are the main
troubles from which the Native peasants suffer. Then, where is
the way out? Is it possible to hope that the Anglo-Boer land
owners and farmers will voluntarily return at least part of the
land to the Natives? It is clear to everyone that this is not
so. The white big farmers and land owners will never voluntarily
give back a single acre of their land to the Natives, even if
it were not needed by them and was not being used (and there
is a great deal of such land). It must be understood that it
is necessary for the imperialists to have a landless Native peasantty,
not only to assure the white farmers of land but also in order
to compel the landless peasantry to work on thsese farms, factories
and mines, as a peasant who who has enough land (and of coursc
implements of labour) will not go to work for others. Perhaps
the Hertzog-Smuts Colonial Government will make the farmers return
at least part of the land to the Nativcs as thc peasants in the
African National Congress try to believe. [....] The Colonial
Government does not want to return to the Natives even the land
which is not yet divided among the European farmers and is at
the direct disposa) of the government, the so-called Crown lands.
It prefers to collect rent from the Native peasants who live
on these lands. No, the Colonial Government will not make the
farmers return the land to the Native peasants.

Perhaps the Native pea.santry can purchase their
land from the white imperialists who stole it from them, as
some "friends" of
the Native peasantry advise? But, first of all, the purchase
of land is severely restricted, almost prohibited, and secondly,
even with the maximum amount of savings on his food, with the
maximum reduction of his expenditures, the Native peasant who
is extremely poor, could not collect enough money to buy back
even a tenth of the land if he were permitted to do so.

It should be clear to all that the peasant will not get the land
and will not be able to the imperialists (the land owners and
miner owners) out of the country and making the Native pcople
of South Africa independent will the peasants get back their
land.

Let us now proceed to the Native workers. Besides farms the imperialists
in South Africa have several thousand factories, mills and a
big mining industry. Here just as on the farms, they need Native
labour. Everyone knows that the European mine owners in South
Africa get bigger profits than in any other country in the world.
Why is that so? Where do these profits come from? This is only
because the imperialists do not pay the Natives what they ought
to get for their labour, because the wages of the Native workers
are much lower than those of the white workers in the capitalist
countries of Europe, not to mention the wages of the privileged
part of the European workers in the Union of South Africa. It
is only the labour of the Natives and nothing else that is the
source of the big profits received by the European capitalists
in the Union of South Africa. The Anglo-Boer imperialists have
done, and continue to do, everything to compel the Natives to
work tor them for a miserable pay.

Very often we hear and read in the papers complaints of the
mine owners and the European farmers that there is a shortage
of Native labour power. However, even the most superficial acquaintance
with South Africa will show that they are complaining not of
the shortage of labour power as such, but of the shortage of
Free, cheap labour power. While depriving the Native peasantry
of all means of subsistence converting the in majority of them
into paupers, imperialism does not permit them to become proletarians
in the capacity of free workers who sell their labour power on
the labour market. In order to compel. The Native peasant to
work for miserable wages on the neighbouring white farm, the
imperialists have chained him to his place by means of the pass
system, have deprived him of the opportunity of freely looking
for work and in that way have made him work on the neighbouring
farms for a few pence. Not having the possibility to feed his
family and to pay the taxes, being enmeshed in debts to the European
merchants and moneylenders, the Native peasant would willingly
go to work for wages. Immediately he steps out ofthe boundaries
ofhis reserve, he is arrested by the first policeman whom he
meets. For, together with the innumerable quantity of his passes,
he cannot show a receipt that he has paid his taxes. While wishing
to go to work he is compcllcd to sit in thc re.serve until the
agent of some recruiting company arrives and rccruits him to
work in the mines or on the European fanns and plantations. Only
by signing a conlract, not as a free worker but as a serf, deprived
ofall opportunities of choos in his work, he, together with the
others, can leave the reserve and go to work on any conditions
proposcd to him.

But even those peasants who have paid their taxes and who freely
go to work in the town, having a tax receipt in their pockets,
are deprived of the opportunity of freely selling their own labour
power. The pass system does not permit a worker to remain without
work in any place for rnore than six, or at best, twelve days,
and the same pass system does not permit him to move about freely
from one place to another. Arriving in the town ihe peasant is
compelled to hire himself out to the first employer he comes
to and at any condition or he has to return back to the reserve
and wait until he is contracted. Otherwise he will unavoidably
be arrested by the police, put into prison and from there will
be sent to work for the farmer as a prisoner. In either case
the peasant cannot freely sell hi.s labour power. He is a serf
to imperialism both as a peasant and as a worker.

The Natives, who are becoming proletarianised, the Native proletariat,
not having an allotment of land and not running their own farm,(and
there is already a considerable number of them in the towns in
South Africa) are also not free workers. On the labour market,
the Native worker first ofall encounters the so-called colour
barrier. In 1927 a special law was enacted - the Colour Bar Act
- officially prohibiting the Natives to do skilled and semi-skilled
work in the mining industry (this was also done before by the
white employers, but it was not obligatory for them). The law
applies only to the mining industry, but in the manufacturing
industries the position of the Native workers is no better.

The policy of civilised labour which is now being carried out
in the secondary industries means that the Native workers will
be entirely excluded from doing even semi-skilled work. In 1922,
a law was passed about apprenticeship according to which minors,
who become apprentices, have to pay a definite training fee,
but as the Native minors have no opportunity of getting this
fee, and the majority of them are absolutely illiterate, this
means that Native apprenticeship is virtually prohibited. The
Natives have [been] deprived by legislative measures of the opportunity
to acquire skill, They have been prohibited from doing skilled
work and are thus forced to do heavy unskilled work and after
that it is stated that the Natives are in general not capable
of doing skilled work, that his lot is "Kaffir work".

This heavy "Kiffir work" is not paid as ordinary unskilled
labour but like some sort of special work. as work done by some
inferior being. A skilled European miner in South Africa gets
ten times higher wages than an unskilled Native miner and often
he gets considerably more even in cases where he does the same
work as is done by the Natives. This disparity between the skilled
work of the Europeans and the unskilled work ofthe Natives cannot
by any means bejustified by the different standard of living
of the skilled and unskilled worker and there isn't a single
country in the world where there is such a group disparity between
the two.

In 1930 the Ballinger, the Industrial-Commercial
Union, appealed to the Transvaal Chamber of Commerce and Industry
with a proposal
to call a wide conference of the Chamber with representatives
of the Natives and a number of European organisations to establish
a minimum wage for Native workers. The Chamber refused to consider
the question of Native wages altogether and cynically stated: "No,
there is no serious reason for raising the wages of the Natives.
If this were done they would have an opportunity to earn the
same money as they do now in a shorter period of time and as
a result the influx of unskilled labour power would he cut down
and this would be of no material advantage to anyone." In
this way the imperialists acknowledge with cynical trankness
that low wages are a powerful incans in their hands for compelling
the Natives to leave their villages and go and work for wages
more often and for a longer period of time. This the situation
of the Native workers. Land-robbery of the Native peasantry which
causes a big influx into the towns, the pass system, the colour
bar, etc., the restrictions imposed upon the Native the miserable
wages, the absence of any defence of the Native workers by the
colonial government - these are the main troubles which afflict
the Natives as workers. Is is possible to hope that the imperialists
will sometimes or other
abandon this exploitation of the Native workers, remove all the
restrictions from Native labour, and raise the wages for the
Native workers? Of course not. They will never satisfy their
greedy appetites for cheap Native labour and will not make the
situation of the workers any easier. It is naive to think that
any European capitalist will voluntarily agree to reduce his
profits and raise the wages of his Native workers. Perhaps they
can be compelled to pay higher wages to improve the conditions
of labour, etc? If the workers form strong trade unions and in
solid ranks will conduct a systematic struggle against the employers
through the united front, they can, ofcourse, force them to give
some concessions to the workers. But these will be such concessions
which cannot under any circumstances substantially change the
situation of the Native workers, and secondly, these will be
temporary concessions which the employers will take back again
as soon as the workers slacken their pressure upon them. In the
European capitalist countries the working class has strong and
old trade unions, a great deal of experience in the struggle
against the employers, and still the employers, with the assistance
of their capitalist governments, systematically worsen the conditions
of the workers, reduce their wages, etc. In addition to this,
it should not be forgotten that there is a great deal of difference
between the European capitalist countries and the colonies which
the Union of South Atrica is for the Native toilers.

No it cannot be expected that the imperialists will make any
improvement in the situation of the workers. Only a harsh joint
struggle, on the basis of the united front, can the workers achieve
some temporary concessions and only if the imperialists will
be driven out ot' the country will they attain a radical improvement
of their position.

In order to still more strongly consolidate their rule in South
Africa, to secure for themselves the possibility of exploiting
the Native toiling population, depriving them of all possibility
of defending themselves, the imperialists deprived the Native
population of all political rights.

Composing the overwhelming majority of the population,
being the original Native population in the country, paying
heavy taxes
to maintain the apparatus for their own suppression, they are
cnlircly rcmoved from political life, not to mention participation
in the government ofthe country, and are brutally suppressed
every time they make an attempt to defend their human rights.
The imperialists have converted the Native toilers into their
slaves. In the Transvaal and in the Orange Free State the entire
Native population is deprived of the vote. In the Natal province
there is a decisive law according to which a Native has the right
to vote if he has been living in his province for 12 years, has
been removed from the effect of the Native laws for seven years,
has a certain amount of immovable property, can present the recommendation
of three Europeans regarding his reliability. At the present
time there is one (!) Native voter in Natal. In the Cape Province
a Native has the right to vote if he owns real estate valued
at £275 sterling or receives wages of not less than £50
a year and has a definite level of education (for the European
there is no qualification whatever except age). In the Cape Province
there are approximately 15,000 Native and Coloured voters. But
what does that give them? They have no right to elect their representatives
from amongst the Native and Coloured people to Parliament. [....]
The Native population is only given the right to have very limited
self-government. In the Transkes there is the Bunga, the members
of which are selected by the government and the tribal chiefs
from among the Natives who have sold themselves to imperialism.
But even in this especially selected Native self-governing body,
a European magistrate presides and all its decisions are subject
to confirmation by the European authorities. In the Native locations
in the towns thereare the Native Advisory Boards which are allegedly
elected by the Natives, but in actual practice the majority of
the members are appointed by the European superintendent, and
he himself is the chairman. Many Natives are even deprived of
the right to participate in the elections to these Boards. All
these attenuated Natives self-governing bodies are simply auxiliary
institutions for the better suppression of the Native population
and.they are given the appearance of self-government in order
to deceive the Native population. [....]

The Native inhabitant of South Africa is oppressed and exploited
not only as a peasant and as a worker, but also simply as a human
being. The imperialists do not consider him to be a human being.
In their eyes he is some sort of inferior being who only deserves
to be oppressed and despised. He is not permitted to live together
with the Europeans in the European towns, not permitted to travel
with them in the trams, to use common restaurants. libraries
or sit together in the theatre, etc. He has to live in the filthy
slums of the Native locations. He has to carry on him about a
dozen different passes, has to get permission for every step
that he makes and he has to pay for it, (while the Europeans
do not have to carry passes). He can be arrested in the street
by any policeman who might take it into his head to do so. He
has no right to be seen on the streets of the town after 10 o'clock
in the evening. [....]

It should now be clear to every worker and every peasant that
their interests and the interests of the imperialists are diametrically
opposed. The British imperialists are becoming daily richer at
the expense of the oppression, poverty and the immeasurable sufferings
of the Native peoples and this is why they will never do anything
to improve the situation of these Native peoples.

In order to do away with this shameful slavery
of the Native peoples of South Africa, to liberate the working
class and the
peasantry from their abominable conditions of poverty, it is
above all neccssary to drive the Anglo-Boer slave drivers out
of South Africa and set up the power of the working class and
the peasantry, the Independent Native Republic. Only people of
the type of Dr Seme, the president of the African National Congress,
can advocate collaboration of the Native population with the
imperialists and eulogise General Hertzog as a "statesman
who is laying the foundations for the great cathcdral of justice,
peace and good will with regard to all the peoples of our country,
regardless of race and colour of the skin." The African
National Congress by calling upon the masses of the Natives to
be submissive sow illusions among them regarding the possibility
of improving their difficult situation under the rule of imperialism.
However, during the past 100 years the situation of the toilers
has not improve one single bit, but, on the contrary, it is getting
worse day by day and will continue to get worse in the fulure.
Only the driving out of the imperialists and the national liberation
of the country will give the Native peoples freedom and an opportunity
to irnmediately and radically change their position. But it is
impossible to drive out the imperialists without waging mass
armed slruggle against them, without an anti-imperialist revolution.
So, the Native Independent Republic for which the Communists
call upon the toilers to struggle, first and foremost means the
anti-imperialist revolution, i.e., the driving out of the imperialists
and the national liberation of the country.

[....] we now have to understand what improvements the Independent
Native Republic will bring to the workers and peasants immediately
after sustaining a victory over imperialism. The enemies of the
toiling people are striving to assure the Native peasants that
immediately after the imperialists are driven out the Communists
will take away all the propcrty of the peasants. This is a lie
and a deception! The Communists will never take away the property
of the Native and the poor whit epeasants, on the contrary, an
independcnt Naive Republic means that the land which has been
taken from them by the while landowners will be returned to them
and all the conditions will be created for the developmcnt of
peasant economy. The Communists, ofcourse, do not conceal the
fact that the ultimate; aim of their struggle is to build a socialist
society where there will be no private property of the means
of production, where there will therefore be no exploitation
of man by man, but the Communists will never permit any violence
to be used against the small and middle peasants. the construction
of the socialist society will begin only when the peasanls, in
the conditions of a Native independent republic, will themselves
become convinced that a really prosperous and happy life is possible
only in a socialist society, when, together with the workers
in the towns, under the leadership of the Communist Party, they
will themselves take the matter in hand. Then we will have the
stage of the socialist revolution. But the revolution against
the imperialists, the anti-imperialist revolution in its first
stage, when the majority of the toiling populalion is not yet
aware of the necessity of building a socialist society, will
be not a socialist but a bourgeois-democratic revolution, as
it is usually called. Not the immediate building of socialism
but the liberation of the country from the imperialist yoke -
this is the essence and the task of the anti-imperialist revolution.
Hence the fundamental and all-determining task of the revolution
for an independent Native republic will be the defence of the
national independence of the country, the suppression of the
resistance ot' the European and Native bourgeoisie remaining
in the country, clearing Native society from the old customs
and the raising of the material and cultural well-being ofthe
loilers. [....]

These fundamenlal measures of the Native Republic will be the
following:

1. All the land will be confiscated and divided among the Natives,
the coloured and the Indian peasants and the European poor farmers
and bywoners who have no land. The system of distribution will
be laid down in accordance with the desires of the peasanls themselves.
The land owned by the Natives and also the land of the small
farmers which is not used as a means of enslaving the labour-tenants
and farm labourers will not be confiscated. The peasants will
have the full right to dispose of their allotments according
to their own discretion. The local government organs will only
see to it thal a great deal of land is not concentrated into
one man's hands.

2. The mining industry, the railways, ports and banks will be
nationalised and become the property ofthe Republic. This will
be absolutely necessary as, unless it is done, it will be impossible
to achieve any independence. In the towns only the large manufacturing
industries and those that are of importance in the life of the
country, and the factories belonging to the ran-away imperiaiists
will be confiscated. The remaining enterprises will be left in
the hands of their former owners - the white, Native, Indian
and other capitalists - if they agree to work under the
control of the revolutionary government and obey the new laws
of the Republic. The small enterprises of the run-away imperialists
will be given by the government of the Republic as concessions
to the Native capitalists. Taking into its hands the chief branches
of industry and transport, the revolutionary government will
utilise the profits that it derives from them, which are now
being sent to London or wasted by the employers on the spot,
for the further development of the national economy in South
Africa, for assistance to the peasantry, for improving the material
situation of the working class.

3. For the defence of the Republic from imperialist intervention,
and for suppressing the resistance of the class enemies within
the republic, the revolutionary government will form its workers'
and peasants' army and will arm all the toiling people.

4. The pass laws and all other anti-Native laws enacted by the
imperialists and the entire system ofsocial discrimination will
be abolished.

5. The present system oftaxation will be abolished and a unified
progressive income tax (the greater the income the more will
the person have to pay in the form of taxes) which places the
main burden upon the bourgeoisie, will be introduced for the
needs ofthe revolutionary government.

6. Measures will be taken to immediately and radically improve
the situation of the working class. The revolutionary government
will do away with the colour bar, will introduce legislation
for the 8 hour working day, and social insurance, will raise
wages,improve the conditions of labour and the housing conditions,
will abolish the compound system, etc., etc. The recruting ofworkers
will immediately be prohibited. Workers organised in trade unions
will have every opportunity of introducing everything necessary
through the revolutionary government for the improvement of their
situation and for the protection of the irrights by various acts
and decrees.

7. Immediate measures will be taken to assist the peasantry -
such as irrigation, the struggle against soil erosion and pests,
cheap credit, guaranteeing the possibility of cheap purchase
of agricultural implements, machinery and artificial fertilisers,
the opportunity to freely dispose of their own produce and sell
it to their best advantage, Freedom oftrade and freedom ofoccupation
will be granted.

8. Special attention will be devoted to popular education. Free
and all embracing education in the Native languages and in the
languages ofall nationalities inhabiting South Africa, will be
introduced. The doors ofthe middle and higher schools will be
thrown wide open for all the toilers.2

9. Special care will be taken ofthe women, primarily ofthe women
workers, such as providing them with paid leave during pregnancy,
material assistance for the birth of the infant, the organisation
of children's nurseries and kindergartens, the prohibition ofdifficult
and harmful work for women, etc., etc. [....] Native society
is not homogeneous in its composition. It is divided into different
social groups and classes having different interests. In it we
have the tribal chiefs, the Native bourgeoisie, the peasantry,
and finally, the workers in the towns who have cut all their
ties with ihe land - ihe proletarians. It can be asked whether
all these classes in the Native society will participate in the
anti-imperialist revolution, and, the main thing, which of them
will play the chief role as organiser and leader of the masses
in this revolution? Let us analyse this.

Can the tribal chiefs be the organisers and leaders ofthe national
liberation struggle? [....]

The chiefs are not only exploiters themselves, but they also
help the imperialists to exploit and suppress the Native people.
A considerable part of them are now direct allies and agents
of imperialism. Imperialism has maintained the tribal organisation
of the Natives and the power of the chiefs, adapting it to the
interests of the exploitation of the country and of the oppression
of the Natives. (....]

The majority of the present chiefs have been appointed by the
colonial government from among people who are entirely loyal
to imperialism, who serve it faithfully and truly. The chief
collects the taxes and the rent, helps to recruit workers, drives
the Natives to work on the so-called public works, spies upon
the members of his tribe and denounces to the police all those
who in one way or another show their discontent with imperialist
rule. By making use ofhis authority and the old traditions ofsubmission
to
him, he keeps back the Native from any struggle against imperialist
robbery and arbitrary actions. Imperialism could not maintain
itselfwithout relying upon the tribal chiefs, without active
assistance from them and the very chiefs themselves could not
exploit their people in such a way if imperialism were not behind
them. The overthrow of the imperialist rulc, clearing the way
for the free development ofpeasant economy, at the same time
means an end to the exploitation of the peasantry by the tribal
chiefs.

This means that the tribal chiefs, as a rule, are not interested
in driving out the imperialists, If some ol' them now come out
against some measure of the existing imperialist order then it
is only because the imperialists are grabbing the lion's share
of the spoils obtained from robbing the Native peasants and leave
little for the chiefs. If they sometimes also come oul against
different imperialist anti-Native laws, concealing themselves
in this with the name of the people, then it is only in order
to get greater opportunities to enrich themselves at the expense
of their tribes. In the anti-imperialist revolution the majority
ofthe chiefs will be on the side ofthe imperialists and will
help them to strengthen their rule just as they do now. It is
not outside the realm of possibility that some ot the small chiefs
who have little land, for instance, will go together with the
rising people against imperialism, but as they themselves are
interested in the exploitation of the Native toilers they will
never go together with them up to the final victory of the toilers
against all forms of exploitation and oppression. The tribal
chiefs cannol be the organisers and the leaders ofthe anti-imperialist
revolution. [....]

Let us proceed. Can the Native bourgeoisie be the organisers
and leader of the anti-imperialist revolution? Some "friends" of
the people are endeavouring to assert that there is no native
bourgeoisie in South Africa. This is absolutely incorrect. It
is true that the Native bourgeoisie is still weak in its development,
that it is predominantly a small bourgeoisie judging by the size
of its business, but its existence cannot in any way be denied
on these grounds, there is a large number of Native business
men who are gradually getting rich at the expense of the toiling
Native population. When such a Native business man has tour houses
(for instance, in the locations in Marabastab in Pretoria and
other places), rents them to the Natives, and receives £14
to £18 a month in rent, Ihen does he do that for pleasure
or in order to assist the Native workers? Of course not. He docs
this bccause it brings him profit, because it gives him an opportunity
to enrich himself at the expense of the Native inhabitants in
the locations. He is an exploiter, he is a bourgeois. [....]
And the higher traders, the moneylenders, the owners of small
shops with hired labour? All these constitute the Native bourgeoisie
who xploit the Native population in the towns. [....]

The business of Ihis Native bourgeoisie is considerably restricted
by imperialist rule and their developmenl and enrichment is retarded.
The prohibition of Native trading in the villages and European
towns, high taxes upon the Native merchants, restricting their
freedom to move about, etc., create extraordinary difficulties
for the development of the Native bourgeoisie. For this reason
there is a definite contradiction between the Native bourgeoisie
and the Anglo-Boer imperialists and that is why the Native bourgeoisie
sometimes comes out against the anti-Native laws which restrict
their activity. The Native bourgeoisie would like to get unrestricted
rights to trade everywhere, the right to move about the country
freely, would like to get rid of the taxes imposed upon them,
would like lo limit the competition of the European merchants,
etc. The anti-imperialist revilution which will establish the
independence of the country from imperialism and abolish all
these restrictions thus accord with the interests of the Native
bourgeoisie also.

Hence the Native bourgeoisie should support the anti-imperialist
revolution and help the working class and the peasantry to throw
of the yoke of imperialist
oppression. But we do not see this in South Africa, just as we do not see this
in other colonial countries like India, Indo-China, Egypt, etc. The Native
bourgeoisie is afraid that the workers and peasants, when taking power into
their hands after driving out the imperialists, will bridle their exploiting
aspirations and set up definite boundaries to its development. That is why
the Native bourgeoisie vaccilates in the revolutionary struggle against imperialism
and prefers the peaceful way of coming to terms with the imperialists, to get
from them the necessary privileges and gradually do away with the restrictions
that are now in force. And imperialism, being in need of the support of the
Native bourgeoisie, makes some concessions to them: every year more and more
territory is being opened up tbr Nalive trade and the Native bourgeoisie have
been exempted from passes, etc. [....] But as has already been indicated, there
are certain contradictions between the Native bourgeoisie and imperialism.
That is why the bourgeoisie very often comes out against anti-Native laws,
which retard its development and doing this they conceal themselves behind
the interests of all the people, but as soon as the people rise to a determined
struggle against these anti-Native laws, the bourgeoisie immediately calls
them to order, to obedience and betrays them. That this is so is confirmed
by the activity of the Industrial-Commercial Union, an organisation that absolutely
reflects the interests of the Native bourgeoisie. During the first years of
its existence it put forward the slogan of political and industrial emancipation
of SouthAfrica" and called upon the masses to struggle. But as soon as
the Native toiling masses rose to the struggle, the ICU began openly to voilate
the imperialist laws, to organise strikes, demonstrations, etc., the ICU hastened
to expel the communists from its ranks and to assure the government of its
loyalty to imperialism. Since that time the ICU has never again put forward
the slogan of political emancipation of South Africa. In 1930 when the broad
masses of the toilers entered into open struggle against the imperialist regulations
(uprisings in Worcester, Byana, Die Transvaal, the boycott of the beer halls
in Durban, the railway strike in East London, the burning of passes) the leaders
of ICU kadalie, Champoin quite openly betrayed them and helped the imperialists
to brutally settle accounts with them. The year 1930 should never be forgotten!
All this shows that when the toilers rise to a determined struggle against
imperialism, the Native bourgeoisie will not be with them, but with the imperialists
which does not exclude the fact that some section of the smaller bourgeoisie
will fight shoulder to shoulder with the toilers in the battle for national
independence and freedom, but by no means can they be relied upon as a consistent
force.

Neither the tribal chiefs nor the Native bourgeoisie can be the organisers
and leaders of the anti-imperialist revolution. The Native proletariat together
withe white workers who had come over to the side of the revolution, can and
must take the task upon themselves. In South Africa there was not and there
is not any other class except the proletariat which would raise the banner
of the anti-imperialist revolution. But the proletariat alone, without the
alliance with the majority ofthe Native toiling population,
the peasantry, cannot achieve victory and at the same time the peasantry alone,
without the alliance with the working class cannot drive out the imperialists
and secure land. Only by uniting their forces of the working class and the
peasantry can victory be achieved. But the leading role in this alliance must
belong to the proletariat. The experience ofall countries and all revolutions
teach us that the peasantry can achieve victory only in an alliance with the
workers of the towns and only under their leadership.

The town workers work in large bodies for one employer, one capitalist and
hence they are already accustomed to joint organised axtion in holding meetings,
strikes, demonstrations, etc. Working under a definite regime in the factories,
they are more disciplined, already have experience in organisation. The workers
in the town are more cultured and more developed politically; they are better
able to see who is a friend and who is the enemy of the toilers. The town workers
have their party - the Communist Party - which defends the interests not only
of the workers but of all toilers. In South Africa there are already considerable
cadres of a Native proletariat who have already gone through a lot of schooling
in the class and anti-imperialist struggle forming their class organisations
- the Communist Party and the trade unions.
So that we see that the alliance of the workers in the towns with the peasants
is the basic force which is capable of bringing about independence of South
Africa. But being the basic force they must call all those to their banner
of struggle who are groaning under the yoke of the Angl--Boer imperialist
regime, all those to whom the interest of the national liberation of the country
is dear, all those who want to get rid of the chameful slavery.

In the suburban Native locations there are Native handicraftsmen who are not
exploiters, who suffer from various imperialist restrictions and limitations,
who together with the other toilers are subjected to social discrimination.
Their material situatioms not better and sometimes even worse than that ofthe
Native workers. They have nothing to expect from imperialism. Exhausting toil,
want and privation is their lot in the conditions of imperialist rule. Only
the anti-imperialist revolution, the Independent Native Republic will open
the path to them for a real human life. In the villages and especially in the
towns there are large numbers of Native intellectuals, especially teachers.
Imperialist rule has deprived them of all opportunities to develop intellectually,
opportunities for a cultural life. It has closed the doors of the highest schools
to them, has subjugated them to the control of the European missionaries, paid
them not only less than the European but even less than the Indian teachers
and their pay is hardly more than that of the Native workers. The extremely
poor development of Native education and the complete lack of cultural work
among the Native population restricts the sphere for the employment of the
labour of the Native intellectuals to an extraordinary degree and that is why,
despite all the restrictions regarding middle and higher education, there is
now such a number of Native unemployed intellectuals. A Native cannot become
an egineer, a technician as all the industries have been grabbed by the European
capitalists who do not want to employ Native engineers to work for them. As
a teacher in a bad, overcrowded school, under the supervision of a missionary
preaching the religion of his master, as a government employee suppressing
the Native population - this where the Native intellectual can apply his knowledge
and all that for a miserable salary in the conditions of social discrimination,
derision and mockery.

The Native intellectual, just like the worker, the peasant and
the handicraftsman, cannot expect anything from imperialism.
Only the establishment of a Native Independent Republic will
create the conditions for the full flourishing of national culture,
will open for the Native intellectual the path to all-round scientific,
pedagogical and cultural work and will place him in conditions
such as he cannot even dream of under the rule of the imperialists.
The Native intellectuals should give their efforts to the cause
of liberating the country and together with the working class
and the peasantry, fight for the Independent Native Republic.

Thus the leader and organiser of the anti-imperialist revolution
will be the town worker, the proletariat. But not this purpose
the proletariat must constitute itself an independent revolutionary
force, strengthen the class organisation - the Communist Party
and the revolutionary trade unions - and by its devoted and unselfish
participation in the common struggle of the toilers, it should
secure for itself the recognition of this independent significance
and of its leading role. [....]

Let us now analyse the following question: What
sort of a government will there be in the Independent Native
Republic and how will
it be organised? It appears to be clear that if the workers and
peasants in an open struggle against the imperialists drive them
out of the country and set up an Independent Republic, then they
already take power into their hands and organise the workers'
and peasants' government. But there are people who assert that
the slogan of an "Independent Native Republic" and
the slogan of a "workers' and peasants' republic" are
not similar, that the first slogan is broader than the second.
[....] The question of the similarity or dissimilarity will be
decided by the class struggle, by the co-relation of class forces
within Native society in the period of the anti-imperialist revolution.
This is the question as to whether the workers and peasants,
with the Communist Party at their head, will succeed in sezing
power after the overthrow of the rule of the imperialists or
whether Kadli, Guemedi, Seme and Co., the agents of the Native
bourgeoisie and chiefs will seize power. For us this should be
absolutely clear that after the imperialists have been driven
out, the Native bourgeoisie will attempt to seize power and to
utilise the victory of the toiler over imperialism for their
own class aims, against the toilers.

Here there is a great danger for the toilers, inasmuch as even
the masses of the workers have not yet an entirely clear idea
of the fact that their interests are entirely opposite to the
interests of the Native bourgeoisie. The latter being but slightly
developed, they do not as yet stand sufficiently clearly from
among the masses of the Native population, and are not yet sufficiently
clearly contrasted to the Native population and the working class
in particular. On the contrary, making use of the hatred of the
toilers towards Anglo-Boer imperialism, they sow illusions regarding
the community of interests of the entire Native population and
speak of the unity of a classless Bantu Nation. These contradictions
will become revealed sufficiently clearly immediately the imperialists
are driven out, when the Native bourgeoisie will get greater
possibilities for its development and when it will no longer
be able to conceal its class interests with talk ofa united national
front against imperialist oppression. If after the imperialists
are driven out, the power will be seized by the Native bourgeoisie,
and in that case it would undoubtedly enter into an alliance
with the white bourgeoisie remaining in the country, it will
utilise this power to again enslave the toilers.

The working class cannot allow the power to get into the hands
ofthe bourgeoisie. [....] The power in the Independent Native
Republic must belong to the workers and peasants' government.
But it would also be a gross mistake to think that this workers'
and peasants' government will be the dictatorship of the proletariat.
The dictatorship of the proletariat is the utilisation of the
power by the proletariat for the construction of socialism, and
in South Africa, as has already been pointed out, the first stage
of the anti-imperialist revolution there absolutely is not and
cannot be the task of immediately constructing socialism. The
policy of the workers and peasants' government will be determined
not by the interests of the immediate construction ofsocialism
but by the interests of the immediate interests of free development
of peasant economy, by the interest of improving the material
conditions of the working class. The workers' and peasants' government
will be a government of two classes - the proletariat and the
peasantry under the leadership of the Party of the working class
- the Communist Party. The government organised by them will,
firstly be a revolutionary government, arising in the process
of the revolution and continuing the revolutionary struggle against
imperialism and the old order. Secondly, this will be a democratic
government elected by the workers and peasants themselves.

The Native bourgeoisie can be allowed to take part in the elections
ofthe govemment and the local organs ofpower if they will not
conduct a counter-revolutionary struggle, but the main force
will still be the working class and the peasantry under the leadership
of the Communist Party, This will be a workers' and peasants'
government. While being democratic for the workers and peasants,
this government will be a revolutionary dictatorship against
the white bourgeoisie remaining in the country and against the
resisting tribal chiefs and the Native bourgeoisie, in as much
as it will have to suppress their resistance. Such a government
is called a revolutionary democratic dictatorship of the proletariat
and the peasantry.

The question as to the form in which the power ofthe working
class and the peasantry will be organised will be decided by
the victorious people but the experience of the USSR and Soviet
China shows that the best form of power for the triumphant workers'
and peasants' is The Soviets of Workers' and Peasants' deputies.
[...]

In conclusion we shall once more dwell upon one important question:
What will the white toilers who will form a national minority
receive from the establishment of a Native Independent Republic?
The Anglo-Boer imperialists and their agents try to inflame the
hatred ofthe white toilers against the National Liberation movement
of the native workers and peasants. They spread monstrous statements
that the Independent Native Republic is directed against the
whites as a whole. Trying to keep the white workers back from
unity with the native toilers, they let loose such slogans as "South
Africa for whites", "White superiority" over the
natives, and so on. [....]

All the demagogy of the "civilised labour policy" cannot
hide the fact that tens of thousands of white workers who replace
the Natives, work 10-12 hours a day for the pay of 2 shillings.
It is an indisputable fact that in the so-called "White
South Africa" the poverty of the white workers and toilers
is increasing. The number ofpoor whites- toilers who are deprived
of means of subsistance by the very white Anglo-Boer bosses,
is about 300,000. The ruination of the poor white farmers is
growing daily. Thousands of them are forced to leave the land
and to wander about in search of work. The standard of living
and the conditions of the white bywoners, tenant farmers and
small sub-farmers, is not much better than those of the Natives.
Thus, when we analyse the position we see that for the vast majority
of the white workers and toilers the "white superiority" is
nothing but a bluff, by means of which the imperialists try to
fool them. We see that the system ofthe Anglo-Boer exploitation
in South Africa which rests upon the national enslavement of
native people, is directed also against the interests and conditions
of life of the white workers.