Structural Reform'--the Concept Continues (Reflection‪)‬

Following Andre Gorz (1973) (1) and Boris Kagarlitsky (1990), I first used the concept of 'structural reform' in two linked articles of the early 1990s in which I sought to divine a possible path for the on-going liberation of South Africa, one that might not so easily have culminated in the recolonised and discomfiting social reality--premised on deep and widening class inequality and a political sidelining of the popular classes--that now confronts us in this country (Saul 1991,1992; both are in Saul 1993). I see no reason to question the continuing utility of this concept or to abandon it. Indeed, I recently concluded an essay entitled 'Is socialism still an alternative' for the Canadian-based periodical Studies in Political Economy by reiterating (as did that article's section III, entitled 'Democratizing the struggle: revolution by "structural reform" and popular empowerment') that the concept is still central to understanding much socialist endeavour, past and present, both in South Africa and in many other parts of the world (Saul 2009, 2011). To underscore the on-going utility of this concept to my own work as well as both to remind the present participants in our Durban workshop of the essence of this concept I will first evoke, in section 1, several paragraphs both from my original paper and from my recent Canadian-published text and then turn briefly to reflect on (a) the fate of the concept in its applicability to South African realities when I first employed it and (b) on its possible continuing resonance for any on-going 'next liberation struggle' that remains feasible in present-day South Africa.