Nadine Gordimer - A Guest of Honour

Two fingers went into the pocket of the rumpled shirt, as if, carried away in discussion with a friend, he were looking for the usual cigarette. But what he encountered there with the package was the realization that he was on a public platform, talking for his political life; Bray saw the hand become absent, withdraw. “After independence, trade unionism is the population’s means of defence against foreign capital. You don’t believe me? — We only hear about the need to attract foreign capital. But the fact is that we need a defence against it, too. We need to make sure it doesn’t own us.… We have valuable resources in our country and of course we’ll have to go on seeking money to develop those resources for some time to come. But the conditions under which that foreign capital is invested and the type of development for which it’s used — these are matters where we need the active involvement of independent trade union opinion, not the rubber stamp of a government appointee”—and he brought down his fist so that the water carafes all along the table shook and this was visible right to the back of the cinema in the wobble of light off their contents. “—And it’s not only as a watchdog that trade unions in a newly independent country defend the population against foreign capital. Julius Nyerere was speaking to his people in Tanzania, but it could have been meant for us when he said, ‘We have made a mistake to choose money, something which we do not have, to be our major instrument of development … the development of a country is brought about by people, not by money.’ Where a government admits vigorous cooperation with the trade unions, there are possibilities for types of development we haven’t even touched on, here. I’m not talking of structural changes in the country’s economy — nationalization of mining, banks, insurance companies and so on — though we mustn’t forget, in our fear of frightening off the rich man from over the sea, that nationalization is, after all, a post — colonial measure to restore the national economy and give a democratic base to independence.… What I am saying is that it’s possible, through cooperation at the highest level between government and trade unions to establish such things as a fishermen’s cooperative on the lake, cooperatives among peasant farmers. — We could get help from the Histadrut, for example, the Israelis, with this, as other countries have done. And why don’t we go into the possibility of the government purchase of the farms of departing white settlers for the benefit of the people who worked the land for the settlers? There’s the autogestion scheme that was first started in Yugoslavia and then taken up in Algeria — the word means self — management, the idea that the land is handed over to the farm workers, the people who know how it was being made productive in the first place, and then the farms are run by committees of the farm workers themselves. A better idea than setting up big brand — new government plantations from scratch, as our agricultural services are busy borrowing money to do now; those plantations the experts find in the end they’re unable to turn over to the management of inexperienced villagers.… The self — management system has a very important side effect, too. It helps the integration of the unemployed into a permanent work — force by discouraging the use of casual labour and putting all agricultural work on a permanent basis.

“And in the towns — in industry — where are the profit — sharing schemes for African workers? Many international companies operating here have stock purchase plans or profit — sharing plans for their employees in other countries, outside Africa. Why must Africa be the exception? These companies should develop appropriate schemes for our workers, incorporated in bargaining agreements with the trade unions. There are many other possibilities and they all need recognition of trade union initiative at government planning level. A workers’ investment corporation could be set up as a prelude to other business activity, to get Africans into the sector of our economy at present dominated by expatriates. It makes more sense than throwing stones and looting foreign shops, as some Young Pioneers did last month at Temba.… Why shouldn’t we have a people’s bank, a state — aided bank to help our small farmers and shopkeepers who can’t raise loans from ordinary banks? The self — management scheme can be adapted to small factories, too; you can set up in towns a system parallel to that of the rural areas. Factories, shops — a whole industrial unit can be controlled by the workers who run the management through their own board of administration, while managerial staff and engineers are appointed by the government. The foreign investor doesn’t own those factories and shops. They may not run as efficiently as the foreign firm would have run them, the profits may not be as high as they would have been, but there are no shareholders in other countries waiting to take the profits away. I know a small foundry that’s just closed down because it wasn’t making enough money to satisfy the white man. But it was earning enough to satisfy the twenty — six men who worked for him.… They have now joined the unemployed …

“When we vote on this motion, there are two things to remember, and both show the state appointment of the Secretary — General of UTUC as something to be condemned by this Congress. One — whatever the avowed position of the trade unions in relation to political power, UTUC can’t avoid fulfilling its main function, which is to convey the discontent of the workers it represents. No appointed S.-G. will get round that. Two — the role of the trade unions in an independent state is not to become purely functionary, a branch of the Ministry of Labour, but to see that the type of society being planned based on the people’s labour is in accordance with the aims of the people. In the United Trades Union Congress constitution there is laid down as one of its aims ‘the maintenance of the UTUC as one of the militant branches of the movement which will build the socialist state under the political leadership of the People’s Independence Party.’ I call upon Congress to defend that branch of the Party, or betray the Party itself.”

Shinza’s supporters battered the assembly with their hard — heeled acclaim. A flash of acknowledgement lit across his face, a taste of something; but the sort of sustained applause that comes strength after strength, from every corner and tier, and sweeps a man higher and higher above opposition, was not there. Instead there was a strange atmosphere of consternation. He sat down. The debate went on but there was the feeling that nobody listened; yet a crystallization was taking place in every creak of a seat, every uneasy shift of position, in the echoes stirred like bats when voices came from certain quarters, and even — Bray felt absurd portents press in — the boredom of the thugs from the Young Pioneers. Others were talking and now Shinza like Mweta said nothing. But Mweta’s silence, his presence, was growing, spreading over the people who sighed, scribbled absently, avoided each other’s eyes, sat forward tensely, or back, waiting. And before the vote was taken it was there: Mweta’s silence had spoken to them. It was that, then, for which Shinza had been listening, from the beginning, behind the debate. Now Bray heard it, felt it — no word for how it was apprehended — as Shinza must be doing. The waverers were overcome with their hands, so to speak, in midair for Shinza. They voted for him, seated there asking nothing of them in his robe, because he expected it of them.

Shinza took the cigarette out of his pocket now. He stuck it in the corner of his mouth and was lighting it with Rebecca’s present, that always worked first try.