When Desperation Produces Strongmen

Why “Messianic” leaders always turn against workers

A SAFTU Political Education Pamphlet

1. Why do Strongmen rise?
   Strongmen do not rise because societies are “stupid”.

They rise because societies are desperately trying to find a way out of a deep crisis.

They emerge when people experience:

a) Mass unemployment and hunger
b) Rising inequality and humiliation
c) Corruption and collapse of public services
d) Crime and insecurity
e) Loss of hope — especially among youth
f) Political parties that promise change but deliver betrayal
g) Collapse in the national conscious and death of politics

In these moments, people start saying:

• “Democracy is not working
• ⁠”The constitutional order is a farce.”
• “We need a strong hand, we have been betrayed by those we trusted.”
• “We need a saviour to clean up – dictatorship is actually good – bring back a Whiteman – setlare sa moto ke lekgowa.”

That is the opening where cult politics grows.

Lesson 1 — Joseph Stalin: How Socialism Lost its Democracy

Before the Russian revolution promised:

• worker councils
• factory democracy
• recallable leaders
• mass participation

After power was concentrated under Stalin:

• opposition banned
• internal democracy crushed
• unions subordinated to the state
• strikes prohibited
• mass purges
• millions jailed in labour camps

Fear replaced debate.
Consequence and socialism became associated worldwide with dictatorship and repression.

Lesson: Socialism without democracy becomes bureaucracy and coercion, workers’ control cannot be replaced by “strong leadership.”

Lesson 2 — Mao Zedong: when a leader becomes sacred

During the cultural revolution:

• critics labelled enemies
• youth mobilised to attack “opponents”
• schools and workplaces disrupted
• millions persecuted
• personality cult flourished

Consequence: Economic chaos, fear, destroyed institutions.

Lesson: No leader must ever become untouchable. When criticism disappears, abuse grows.

Lesson 3 — Italy: Why Benito Mussolini looked like “hope”

Conditions that produced him
After World War I:

• unemployment
• inflation
• returning soldiers with no work
• weak, corrupt governments
• mass strikes and factory occupations

Elites feared worker power.
He became popular because he promised:

• order
• stability
• anti-corruption
• national pride
• “strong leadership”

Desperate people believed him.
What he actually did once in power:

• smashed unions
• banned strikes
• jailed socialists
• ruled through violence
• served big business

Lesson: Fascism rises to crush workers — not save them.

Lesson 4 — Germany: why Adolf Hitler won mass support

Conditions

• hyperinflation destroyed savings
• great depression mass unemployment
• youth hopeless
• parties discredited

Why people supported him:

He promised:

• jobs
• discipline
• national revival
• an end to chaos

First action in power:

He destroyed independent unions and jailed labour leaders.

Lesson: Every strongman who promises salvation eventually attacks organised labour.

AFRICA TODAY: WHY COUPS AND “STRONGMEN” LOOK ATTRACTIVE — AND WHY WORKERS MUST BE CAUTIOUS

Across parts of West and Central Africa today, we see a similar pattern to Italy in the 1920s and Germany in the 1930s.

Decades after independence, many countries face:

• mass youth unemployment
• deep poverty
• corruption and looting of public resources
• governments seen as agents of foreign interests
• continued control of minerals and economies by multinational corporations
• political parties that promise liberation but deliver misery.

In the Sahel region especially, anger has grown against regimes seen as “French stooges”.

So when soldiers overthrow those governments, many ordinary people celebrate.

They celebrate not because they love military rule.

They celebrate because they are desperate.

They feel:

“Nothing else has worked.”
“Anyone new is better than the old politicians.”
“At least these ones are decisive.”

This is exactly the psychology that previously lifted Mussolini and Hitler.

Desperation makes strongmen look like saviours.

The danger sign workers must recognise:

When a strongman takes power, something predictable happens:

Criticism becomes suspicious.

Questions become disloyalty.

Opposition becomes “foreign agents”.

Anyone who points out weaknesses is labelled:

• imperialist
• counter-revolutionary
• traitor
• enemy of the nation

This closes democratic space very quickly.

The Burkina Faso example
Under Ibrahim Traoré, many Africans admire his anti-imperialist language and rejection of foreign domination.
This anger against neo-colonialism is understandable and justified. But workers must ask deeper questions:

• Are unions free to organise?
• Are strikes protected?
• Can civil society criticise openly?
• Can the press question leadership without fear?
• Can workers oppose decisions without being labelled enemies?

If the answer is no, then democratic space is shrinking — even if the rhetoric is radical.

History shows:

When leaders cannot be criticised, workers cannot defend themselves.

Even leaders who begin with popular support can drift toward:

• centralisation of power
• intolerance of dissent
• restrictions on unions
• repression “in the name of unity”

And once that space closes, it is very hard to reopen.

Lesson 5 — Frantz Fanon’s warning about post-liberation elites

Fanon warned that after liberation:

• a small elite captures the state
• replaces colonial rulers but keeps the same system
• uses nationalism to silence criticism
• becomes corrupt and self-serving
• democracy becomes hollow

He warned that without political education: “The party becomes a screen between the masses and the leadership.”

Meaning: leaders stop listening to the people. This describes many post-liberation societies today.

Lesson 6 — Amilcar Cabral on political education

Cabral insisted: “Tell no lies. claim no easy victories.”
and “Hide nothing from the masses… expose lies whenever they are told.”
and “Learn from life. learn from our people. learn always.”

Because without political education:

• leaders become arrogant
• cadres become careerists
• movements decay
• ⁠leaders who hate political education usually fear questioning.

Connecting to South Africa

We face:

• mass unemployment
• inequality
• corruption
• service collapse
• crime
• youth despair
• alienation from politics

These are exactly the conditions that historically produce:

Messiahs
Strongmen
Coups
Personality politics

But history teaches:

Strongmen always end by:

• shrinking democracy
• attacking unions
• suppressing dissent
• protecting elites

Even inside unions the same dangers exist:

• Purges
• Corruption
• Factionalism
• Service-provider and investment company capture
• Intimidation
• Splintering

This weakens workers and strengthens bosses.

Without internal democracy, unions also decay.

SAFTU’s Position

Workers must defend:

◊ Mandates
◊ Debate
◊ Criticism
◊ Recallable leaders
◊ Political education
◊ Collective leadership

Never surrender democracy for a hero.

Final message

History is clear:

• Stalin
• Mao
• Mussolini
• Hitler

Different ideologies. same result.

When democracy dies — workers suffer.

The answer is not a Messiah.

The answer is organised, educated, democratic worker power.