POL 3013: South African Political Thought



POL 3013: South African Political ThoughtLecture 39: Richard Turner’s Utopianism1. Turner and the dilemmas of white dissent: In his short career in South African political and intellectual life, Richard Turner had a massive influence on a generation of students at historically white universities. His thought can be understood as a response to their historically peculiar dilemma—a relatively privileged group, excluded from Afrikaner state power, orientated towards emerging global youth culture. His Eye of the Needle states: “In South Africa whites as well as blacks are victims of the social structure. They are of course victims of a different kind. . . . But to forget that they are victims would be to accept their own value-system, to accept that to be like a white South African—rich, greedy and frightened of one’s fellows—is the ideal way for humans to be” (EN, p. 10). 2. “It is also bad for whites to be like the whites”: Turner saw this argument as a corollary of the central insight of Black Consciousness. In his 1972 article, he rejects the “civilizing mission” of white liberals (Reality, p. 20). Black Consciousness, he argues, “is a rejection of the idea that the ideal for human kind is ‘to be like the whites’. This should lead to the recognition that it is also bad for whites to ‘be like the whites’” The apartheid social system creates “white lords and black slaves, and no full human beings” (p. 22). Racism is an impediment to authentic selfhood among blacks and whites, including the paternalist racism of whites who adopt a political stance because it is held by blacks (p. 21). 3. The necessity of utopian thinking: Turner argued that political realism imposed false limits on what was possible. As long we remain within these limits, we remain captive to the morality internal to the dominant system, and unable to ask questions which transcend it: “What is human life for, what is the meaning of human life?” (p. 17). This critique of realism was also an implicit critique of the orientation of the ANC’s alignment with the Soviet bloc and the emerging power of Third World states (cf. ANC “Strategy and Tactics,” 1969). In practice, however, Turner’s utopianism focused on the choice between two human models: those of capitalism (pp. 11-16) and a Christian human model (pp. 17-21).4. History as product of human choice: Turner rejects the idea that human nature is responsible for contemporary politics, viewing this idea as a denial of human choice. In theory, he says, human beings can choose “about anything. . . . Obviously they can’t always get what they want, but this is a different question” (pp. 7-8). This inflated concept of choice attributes huge power to the individual and pays little attention the ways in which the historical process shapes and limits choice. It does not emphasize historical contradictions and crises that lead to change. In this respect, Turner reflects the shift from Soviet Marxism, which claimed to be an objective science of society, to New Left Marxism (including the existentialist Marxism of Jean-Paul Sartre), which emphasized the role of consciousness in human history. The problem with Turner’s Marxism is not his emphasis on consciousness, but that consciousness is viewed as unconditioned by history. Instead of consciousness being conditioned by history, choices are conditioned by socialization, which “can narrow down the individual’s range of choices to a predefined social reality” (p. 9).5. Turner’s impact: Turner was placed under a government banning order in 1973, which prevented him from teaching or taking part in public activities. By then he had already taken the lead in promoting labour research and organization. After the Durban strikes of January 1973, many of his students were active in creating independent labour unions, which came together to form FOSATU in 1979 (later part of COSATU, formed in 1985). Turner was assassinated in January 1978. The continuities between his thought and that of the FOSATU tradition is described in Andrew Nash, “The Moment of Western Marxism in South Africa,” Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East 19:1 (Spring 1999), pp. 66–82. ................
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