November/December 1998

Contents

Globalisation & HIV&Aids

Arms Deal - The SACP position

The Debt Debate -Confusion heaped on confusion

Letter to the Editor

International News Briefs

Ongoing crisis in Russia

Kurdish leader arrested in Italy

Message from the Central
Committee

Left Laugh - Is it a Joke or Not?

Blade Nzimande's Address to COSATU Congress, September
18, 1997

Not Forgotten.......

Reader's Forum - Prespective on Racism

Tracking the Globalisation Agenda

Red Star Column

Programme of action of the SACP

Building
people's power for people's education - Strategic Challenges in the
transformation of education

Political Education-
Understanding Globlisation

GLOBALISATION & HIV/AIDS

Our Party and broader movement have not placed the AIDS epidemic at the
centre of   our efforts to develop and reconstruct South Africa. More
specifically, we need to highlight the underlying social and economic
inequalities that feed it and publicly struggle for measures that will begin to
address fundamentally the root causes of the AIDS epidemic. As part of its
ongoing educational initiatives, the SACP National Political Education
Secretariat held a seminar on "Globalisation & Aids" in late
October. The seminar was addressed by MARK HEYWOOD, of the Aids Legal Project.
Below is an edited, point-by-point version of the input.

Ten years ago, HIV infection rates among both South African whites and
Africans were similar. Today, the figures show that in KZN, 28% of Africans are
infected, while there is less than a 1% infection rate among whites. The only
explanation for such a divergence must be sought in terms of the wealth gap and
general socio-economic inequality.

The connection between the spread of HIV/AIDS and social and economic well
being can be demonstrated by noting that, in the United States, deaths due to
AIDS dropped by 47% last year. In comparison, of the 34 million people infected
with HIV/AIDS globally, 90% are in the developing world. The latest break-down
of documented global infection rates shows that there are:

• 22,5 million HIV/AIDS cases in sub-Saharan Africa
• 4 million HIV/AIDS cases in India
• 1,5 million HIV/AIDS cases in Latin America
• 1 million HIV/AIDS cases in North America
• 500,000 HIV/AIDS cases in Europe

Overall, Africa carries between 60-70% of all documented AIDS cases and it is
expected that within the next five years Asia will have similar levels of AIDS
cases. In 1998 alone, over 2 million Africans died from AIDS.

The direct connection between the spread of HIV/AIDS and the neo-liberal
'free market" policies of capitalist globalisation can also be shown by the
explosion of HIV/AIDS cases in Eastern Europe over the last 2-3 years. Research
shows a direct correlation between the collapse of the "Communist
Bloc", the introduction of IMF-World Bank macro-economic policies and the
subsequent rise of the epidemic.

As a general rule, the lack of autonomy that accompanies poverty is a major
contributor to the spread of HIV/AIDS. Again, research indicates that some of
the social determinants for high HIV infection rates are: inequality of income
distribution; Gross National Product (GNP) per capita; and the levels of gender
inequality (females are twice as likely to be infected as males).

Responses to the epidemic on a global scale have been determined
predominately by the priorities of the rich, industrialised countries. For
example, the kinds of treatment available in the West are not applicable in most
of the developing world. The vast majority of investment into vaccine
development has been designed to deal with strains that are prevalent in North
America and Europe but are ineffective on strains that are found in most other
parts of the world.

Policies that are advocated by the World Bank/IMF, such as structural
adjustment, contribute to social instability and thereby contribute to the AIDS
epidemic.

Likewise, the role of transnational corporations, such as mining
corporations, in creating the conditions for the spread of AIDS as well as in
its prevention, have been ignored. Tied to this is the weakening of the role of
the state (as the result of neo-liberal prescriptions) in instituting social and
economic reforms that would have a positive impact on combating poverty and thus
furthering the prevention of HIV/AIDS.

Here in South Africa, the AIDS epidemic is rapidly spreading. The
government's approach has, so far, been predominately focused on prevention
rather than treatment, when both elements need to be combined to have a
positive, long-term effect. The SACP and all progressive formations therefore
have a central role to play, both within our own structures and in campaigning
for an inclusive, pro-active HIV/AIDS policy nationally. Such campaigns must
recognise that awareness does not necessarily change behaviour and therefore,
need to combine an approach that rewards disclosure and participation with a
legitimisation of socio-economic demands underlying the disease and its spread.
In this way, progressive formations can begin to define the HIV/AIDS agenda in a
way that combats the disease and fundamentally addresses the poverty that fuels
it.

Arms Deal 

The SACP position

In mid-November, after an extensive defence policy review process, government
announced a R29-million arms purchasing package. The announcement touched off a
major public debate in our country. As usual the commercial press did its best
to suggest that there were serious tensions between the government and the SACP
on the arms deal announcement.

So what are the facts?

In the first place, the SACP position is that both the defence force and the
local arms industry need to be transformed, democratised and subjected to
ongoing and critical public scrutiny and oversight. Any complacency about either
the SANDF or the arms industry must be vigilantly avoided.

It was for this reason that the SACP publicly associated itself with the
Ceasefire Campaign and other progressive NGOs in their condemnation of the
November Dexsa Exposition in Pretoria. This international arms exhibition,
hosted by Armscor and

Denel, was organised under the slogan: "Excellence through
Experience".

• It is simply unacceptable that arms procurers and manufacturers from the
  apartheid era - which is what both Armscor and Denel are - should boast
  about "experience". This experience is  the mass
  destabilisation of our Southern African region over some 20 years, resulting
  in millions of deaths;
• the military suppression of the majority of South Africans and the overall
  militarisation of our society; and
• a whole pattern of international sanctions busting, that resulted in
  money-laundering, the breaking of laws in foreign countries, theft and
  bribery to acquire technology, and a general ethos of corruption. Much of
  the corruption afflicting our society in the present can be traced back to
  this "experience".

The SACP has, and will in the future, speak out very quickly when we detect
the slightest hint of forgetfulness about this past from those that were active
components of the apartheid machinery. However anxious Armscor or Denel might be
to sell weapons, we cannot allow them to do this at the price of drawing a veil
over decades of the most brutal oppression.

But do we need an arms industry, and why are we purchasing R29 billion of
weapons?

There are not easy answers to these questions. When it comes to budgetary
expenses we must not, for instance, think that matters are always a simple
question of addition or subtraction. In one sense, R29 billion on arms could be
spent on schools or health-care. But if our society is completely destabilised
by counter-revolutionary forces, or by regional wars, then there will be little
effective schooling or health-care in any case.

We should not lose sight of the important role the SANDF has played this year
in Richmond. If it were not for a significant deployment of SANDF forces into
Richmond, the very dangerous cycle of deliberate destabilisation may have
continued and spilled over into larger parts of KwaZulu-Natal. The danger has
not passed.

Nor can we lose sight of the fact that our region has become considerably
more unstable, just in the last 18 months. There are troubles in northern
Namibia.

There is ongoing UNITA destabilisation of Angola and a military offensive
against UNITA is mounting in that country. In the DRC we have the most serious
armed conflict in a decade in our continent. It involves troops from half a
dozen foreign countries, pitted against each other. Political instability in
other countries of the region is also endemic and possibly growing - Zimbabwe,
Zambia, Swaziland. We have also had the recent experience of a serious melt-down
in Lesotho. Hopefully that situation has now been reversed.

In short, we live in a country where counter-revolutionary forces with an
armed capacity have been marginalised but not eliminated. We live in a region in
which there are serious uncertainties. There is a need for an effective
defensive capacity within our country, and for a peace-keeping capacity beyond
our borders.

These are sad facts, but facts. What of the arms industry?

We inherited a substantial arms industry from the apartheid past. It was an
industry that was built up with massive subsidies from the regime. Clearly, we
no longer need or can afford such a large industry whose strategic purpose was
the defence of the minority regime, and the destabilisation of our region, in
the context of an international arms boycott.

The industry needs to be transformed and scaled-down. As much as possible,
the skills, technology and capacity need to be converted to civilian and
infrastructural development capacity.

However, insofar as we need armed forces, we also need some arms
manufacturing and servicing capacity. It is also not easy simply to convert an
arms industry to civilian purposes. There are tens of thousands of jobs
involved.

For all of these reasons, the SACP accepts that there is an arms industry in
South Africa, and that there will be one for many years to come. However, in
dealing with this reality it is crucial not to uncritically accept the arguments
that this industry likes to put forward:

• We are told that the arms industry, and the counter-trade agreements built
  into the R29 billion arms package, "create jobs". These claims may
  be partly true, but they must be subjected to close scrutiny. Generally, the
  arms industry is not an effective mass creator of jobs. It is a high-tech
  industry, typically employing a few highly skilled technicians.
  International studies show that rand for invested rand, arms manufacturing
  is usually not a high job creator.
• We are told that arms manufacturing can be an important foreign currency
  earner. It is true that South Africa needs foreign currency, and that we
  have been able to sell G5 and G6 artillery to states in the Gulf, earning
  dollars in the process.

However, again we should not exaggerate. In the post-Cold War era, the world
is awash with weaponry, and it is very hard to make sales. The Rooivalk attack
helicopter, for instance, built at vast expense to South African taxpayers, has
yet to find a foreign buyer. We also need to be very careful about how much
foreign currency our local arms industry actually spends, long before it sells
anything. Much of the technology is not locally produced, and has to be bought
with foreign currency.

• We are also told that an arms industry can have many important civilian
  spin-offs. That technologies developed for weapons can be used for civilian
  purposes. This may be the case, the development of computer technology was
  partly driven (in the developed economies) by military research. However,
  this applies much less to a technology weak country like South Africa, and
  it seems to be a long detour. The civilian needs in our country are clear -
  housing, public transport, water, etc. They hardly need an Armscor for their
  redress.

Yes, we need armed forces, and yes we have an arms industry that will be with
us for years to come. Both need to be constantly transformed, democratised and
subject to ongoing political and public scrutiny. Above all, they need to be
justified in terms of the actual strategic challenges facing our country, and
not on the immoral basis of their apartheid "experience", or on the
basis of spurious claims about job creation and export-led economic growth
potential.

The Debt Debate 

Confusion heaped on confusion

There has been much debate over the issue of South Africa's debt recently,
accompanied by a parallel debate, centred around 'third world' debt in general.
Below is the SACP's broad response to these debates.

Twenty-one percent of government expenditure goes to service the interest
bill on government's debt. These interest payments are the second largest item
of expenditure in our budget. No wonder that for the past two-and-a-half years
there has been a rumbling debate in South Africa around this debt.

A number of NGOs, including progressive church formations like the SA Council
of Churches, have been campaigning for the writing-off of this debt, which they
regard as an "odious apartheid" debt.

Recently this campaign acquired fresh impetus with the launch in Cape Town of
Jubilee 2000, as part of an international campaign for the debts of poor third
world countries to be cancelled in the "jubilee year" of 2000. The
SACP has expressed its general support for the ideals of the Jubilee 2000
campaign. Its goals are in line with our own 10th Congress resolution to
campaign for the cancellation of debt of the poorest countries in the world,
including those like Mozambique in our own region.

But where does the South African debt stand in relation to all of this?

Faced with the Jubilee 2000 call, Maria Ramos, director general of Finance,
was quoted as saying that it was "nonsensical", and that South Africa
had "no debt to write off". Ramos explained further that: "It is
a fallacy...foreign debt only accounts for 4,9 percent of government debt and
most of it was accumulated after the current government took office."

The SACP believes that it is not helpful for the director-general who is,
after all, a PUBLIC servant, to arrogantly dismiss the concerns of progressive
NGOs. Words like "nonsensical" are not helpful. However, as far as we
know the facts that Ramos advances are correct. (It would still be useful to
know what part of the foreign debt was incurred before 1994, what it was lent
for, and who are the lending agencies who were prepared to keep the apartheid
regime afloat. While the figures involved might be relatively small, we are
still possibly talking about many millions of rand).

The trouble with the Jubilee 2000 focus on the cancellation of the apartheid
debt is that South Africa's debt situation is different from most heavily
indebted third world countries. International financial sanctions against the
apartheid regime in the 1980s, have resulted in our inherited debt being largely
an internal debt.

"It is money we owe to our own citizens", Finance Minister, comrade
Trevor Manuel has argued. Some 40 percent of our debt is held by the Public
Investment Commission (PIC) - an investment fund to accumulate resources for
public sector pensions. South African insurance firms hold 21 percent of the
debt; nominee companies 18 percent; banks 7 percent; and the SA Reserve Bank 5
percent.

As can be seen, large parts of the government debt may well be owed to South
African citizens (although not to all South Africans!). Debt cancellation or a
holiday on interest payments could have a serious impact on our economy.

It is for this reason that the SACP has felt that the key emphasis when
approaching the debt needs to be, not on cancellation, but on two other areas:

• Bringing down the exceptionally high interest rates in our country. Our
  actual government debt is 55 percent of our country's gross domestic product
  (GDP) which, as comrade Trevor Manuel notes, "compares favourably with
  most developing and industrialised countries". The problem is the high
  interest rates, which government like the rest of us must pay on money
  borrowed. For the last 5 years the SACP has argued that our high interest
  rates are, partly, the result of an ultra-conservative Reserve Bank that is
  focused narrowly on inflation.
• The management and restructuring of the civil service pension fund. As
  noted above, the major proportion of government debt (40%) is held by the
  Public Investment Commission. The PIC was set up by the old regime in 1993 -
  partly because it was concerned that an incoming ANC government would not
  honour pension payments to white civil service pensioners.

The PIC fund replaced the former pay-as-you-go approach to civil service
pension payments. The pay-as-you-go approach draws funds for pensions from
current pension fund contributions by existing civil servants. The PIC approach
is to pre-fund pensions by building up a fund of money (which is invested on the
stock exchange). It is this pre-funded approach which constitutes 40 percent of
government debt - because government borrowed billions of rands to set it up.

Why can't we return to the pay-as-you-go approach that applied for many
decades, up till 1993?

• Ramos and Manuel argue that it is prudent to have a pre-funded approach,
  especially if the number of contributing civil servants is likely to
  decline. (The whole debate is obviously linked to plans to drastically slash
  civil service employment).
• But even if this is the case, why do civil service pensions have to be
  pre-funded to the current 70-80 percent level? (This means that the existing
  fund would be able to pay for 70-80 percent of the entire projected payout
  for existing pensioners and existing civil servants if they were to lose
  their jobs). Do we really need this level of prudence? Can we at least not
  bring down the pre-funded level - let us say to 50 percent, or less? This
  would still give a very substantial safety margin, and it would massively
  reduce government debt.

At the Alliance Summit (October 24 -25) it was agreed that the whole approach
to the PIC would be reconsidered. It is disappointing, in the light of this
Summit resolution, that the Finance Ministry pursues a debate with Jubilee 2000
around debt renunciation, and ignores the more substantial question of
restructuring the civil service pension fund.

LETTER TO THE
EDITOR

SOCIALIST BOOKS FOR PARTY CADRES

Dear SACP comrades,

Books for South Africa, a Project of International Socialist Renewal will
soon be shipping books from North America to SACP regions, districts, and
branches. Many North American political activists have extensive libraries of
Marxist writings and other politically relevant books that they would like to
share with others.

We will ship these books at an inexpensive cost, by sea, to South Africa.
Each shipment will take approximately three months to arrive. At the suggestion
of the SACP Head Office, the books will first be shipped to those regions with
scarcer resources. Hopefully, as we build more donations of books, we can ship
books directly to Districts and Branches. We hope you will enjoy reading and
using these books!

In international solidarity,

Marilyn Albert

Committees of Correspondence

USA

INTERNATIONAL
NEWS BRIEFS

Ongoing crisis in Russia

As the harsh Russian winter begins to set it, it seems as though the equally
harsh socio-economic conditions that have hit ordinary Russians are also set to
continue for some time. The new centre-left Cabinet of Prime Minister, Yevgeny
Primakov, is seeking to challenge the crisis generated by nearly a decade of
neo-liberal policies by way of important measures - including plans to
nationalise many of the failed banks, lower taxes, pay workers on time and
attract foreign investment.

However, there is little indication that the plan will have much of a
shorter-term impact, so deep is the crisis. Projections show that the economy is
expected to contract by 6% in 1999 and inflation to rise to 79%. Failed Russian
banks have saddled the government with a R40 billion debt to foreign creditors
and Primakov has appealed to the IMF to release further loans in order to re-pay
already existing debts. Meanwhile, there are reports of increasing starvation in
the north of Russia, lack of basic necessities to millions and massive
joblessness across the country. Strikes and demonstrations by workers and
ordinary Russians continue.

Kurdish leader arrested in Italy

Abdullah Ocalan, the general secretary of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK)
was arrested by Italian police in Rome, upon his clandestine arrival there, on
12th November. His arrest followed his flight from Syria (where the PKK has
several rear bases) and an unsuccessful application for political asylum in
Russia. The PKK has been fighting for Kurdish self-determination, predominately
against the fascist Turkish state, since 1984. The Turkish government, backed by
the United States, has demanded Ocalan's immediate extradition to Turkey, where
he will face certain death. However, the Italian government has, for now, placed
him under house arrest, while a political battle rages in Italy as to how to
proceed. Many progressive organisations and political parties from around the
world have rallied to Ocalan's defence, demanding he be granted political asylum
in Italy and for the Turkish state to halt its genocidal war against the Kurdish
population.

Indonesia - more of the same Indonesian Prime Minister, J. Habibie's attempts
to prolong the dictatorial powers of the military that existed under the Suharto
regime, has seen intensified opposition from mass organisations. More than 15
people died and 300 seriously injured when the military, under the direct orders
of Army Chief Wiranto, shot into crowds of peaceful demonstrators in Jakarta on
13th November. The demonstrators, comprising hundreds of thousands of students,
workers and urban poor, were marching to protest the fraudulent sitting of
'parliament', designed to give the Habibie-Wiranto military regime unchecked
powers.

Their basic demands include an end to any role for the military in politics,
rejection of the 'fraudulent parliament' and the formation of a transitional
government to organise free elections. The solidarity between students, workers
and the urban poor, combined with increased organisation and militancy,
represents a real threat to the regime, as well as moderate opposition figures
that are increasingly "out of step with the people's demands".

MESSAGE
FROM THE CENTRAL COMMITTEE

The Central Committee of the SACP met in Johannesburg on the 31st October and
1st November. The main items on the agenda of the CC were: the SACP'S reaction
to the final report of the TRC; the emerging economic consensus within the
Tripartite Alliance; the Jobs Summit; and the SACP'S programme of action.

TRC Report

Based on a first reading of the TRC'S five volume final report, the Central
Committee welcomed what is an extensive and generally very considered report. In
particular, the CC welcomes the TRC perspective that the national liberation
movement in South Africa was involved in a just war. The distinction between a
just struggle and unjust means (that were sometimes regrettably used by the
movement of which we are part) is appropriate.

All of the unjust means attributed to the ANC-led alliance by the TRC report
are indeed factual realities that the alliance, itself has admitted and
investigated.

By contrast, the TRC report finds that human rights violations were not
accidental to the policies and strategies of the apartheid regime. Systematic,
extensive and persistent violations were integral to the policies and strategies
of the regime. We welcome this finding.

The CC also expressed especial satisfaction with the focused and thoughtful
attention given by the TRC to the complicity of business in apartheid
violations. The relevant chapter makes important findings, and advances some
constructive practical suggestions.

It is regrettable that a generally outstanding report should have been
overshadowed by an entirely peripheral matter - namely the ANC's court action
aimed to compel the TRC to consult effectively with it prior to publication.
While it is possible to question the tactical wisdom of the ANC's move
(especially in the light of the subsequent events), the SACP fully accepts the
constructive intentions of the ANC when making the application. The ANC was,
indeed, treated shabbily in the final weeks by certain leading TRC officials.

To portray the ANC court action as "tyranny" or as an attempt to
"gag" the TRC is ridiculous.

Tyrants silence their critics, they do not pursue matters through the courts.
The ANC graciously accepted the court's verdict on the matter. Sadly, the
Chairperson of the TRC, Archbishop Tutu, who has played an outstanding role in
the TRC process, did not help matters with ill-considered hyperbole in days
following the ANC's application.

Even more objectionable has been some of the media reporting. Across its
front-page on Friday October 30, The Star had a headline "The villains of
the dark years". The headline was accompanied by photographs and
pen-pictures of the villains. Included with PW Botha, Wouter Basson, Craig
Williamson and Eugene De Kock is deputy minister of defence, Ronnie Kasrils.
According to the report Kasrils is "among those who committed abuses in ANC
camps". But Kasrils was not even mentioned in the TRC Report! While The
Star has since apologised for its blunder, the mistake exemplifies the way in
which many commentators have approached the TRC report with a pre-packaged
"villains on all sides" agenda. Besides apologising, we trust that The
Star will take a long hard look at itself.

Economic Policy

The Central Committee discussed in some depth the policy documents emerging
from the Alliance Summit of 24-25th October. The CC noted that the Alliance
Summit had characterised the current global economic crisis as being rooted in a
classical capitalist over-accumulation crisis, which extends back over the last
quarter of a century. The present crisis is neither narrowly regional in
character ("Asian contagion" or "Russian flu"), nor of
short-term duration, although its present acute symptoms may be surpassed for a
time. The CC supports the Alliance perspective that major economies, which are
at the root of the present crisis, are once more dumping the problem on to the
developing world.

The acuteness of the present crisis has finally punctured the bubble of the
neo-liberal, Washington Consensus. For the past years the SACP has consistently
attacked this paradigm, not least for its arrogant assumption that a
one-size-fits-all, macro-economic mantra was the answer to everything.

The SACP also welcomes the much greater convergence within the Alliance on
what must constitute an appropriate macro-economic policy. We welcome, amongst
other things, the commitment to reconsider the funding of the Civil Service
Pension Fund, and effective monetary and fiscal policy.

Job Summit

The Job Summit was an important mile-stone. It helped to focus economic
debate upon the real economy, and particularly on critical areas like industrial
strategy, infrastructural development, new housing initiatives and training. The
Job Summit also successfully avoided the agenda of those who hoped to use it to
bash the unions, and to focus narrowly on labour market "flexibility".

Programme of Action

The CC discussed and approved a programme of action (see pages 5-6). The key
emphasis of this programme will be the active organisational support that the
SACP will give to the ANC's election campaign. The SACP will focus on the
working class vote, and will underline the anti-worker policies of all of the
main opposition parties.

LEFT LAUGH 

IS IT A JOKE OR NOT?

We here at Umsebenzi are never ones to underestimate the stupidity of US
Imperialism. So, when we received this 'joke' we were not quite sure if it was a
real story or not. We leave it up to our readers to decide for themselves.

U.S. STATE DEPARTMENT TO HOLD ENEMY AUDITIONS

WASHINGTON, DC  - Taking steps to fill the void that has plagued the
American military-industrial complex since the 1991 collapse of the Soviet
Union, Secretary of State Madeleine Albright announced Tuesday that the U.S.
will hold enemy auditions next week.

Slated to begin Nov. 26, the auditions will take place at the Pentagon. More
than 40 nations are expected to vie for the role of U.S. adversary, including
Iran, India, Afghanistan, China, North Korea and Sudan. "Over the past
seven years, the State Department, working closely with the CIA, Congress and
the president, has made efforts to establish a long term state of hostility with
a foreign power of consequence," Albright said. "Unfortunately, these
efforts have proven unfruitful. If we are to find a new Evil Empire, we must
start taking a more proactive approach." Though auditions are not until
next week, Albright said the State Department has already received a number of
impressive preliminary proposals.

"We met with the Syrian representative yesterday, and he promised that
Syria would house terrorist enemies of the U.S. and stockpile chemical weapons
near the Israeli border," Albright said. "We've also gotten an
unexpectedly strong proposal from the Kazakhstani delegation, which says they
have four of Russia's missing nuclear missiles and will use them against the
U.S. unless we release 450 Kazakhstani Muslim extremists currently held in
Western prisons. That was certainly a pleasant surprise."

The decision to hold enemy auditions was made during an Oct. 16 meeting at
the Pentagon attended by a number of top military-industrial-complex officials,
including Albright, Defense Secretary William Cohen, the Joint Chiefs of Staff
and Defence Corporation, Lockheed Martin, CEO Thomas Reuthven.

"Everyone was of the opinion that an enemy was needed -- and fast,"
said Reuthven, whose company has laid off 14,000 employees since the end of the
Cold War. "Nobody wins when there's peace." General Electric CEO Jack
Welch, who was also at the meeting, agreed. "Our profits are down 43
percent from 10 years ago. We sold more tritium hydrogen-bomb ICBM/MIRV triggers
in 1988 than in the last six years combined," he said. "Something had
to be done."

Once the auditions conclude, Albright said, the State Department will spend a
week evaluating the proposals before announcing its choice on Dec. 9. The new
U.S. enemy will be formally anointed in a special treaty-breaking ceremony, in
which President Clinton and the leader of the rival nation will sever diplomatic
ties with the ceremonial burning of 1,000 doves.

Since the end of the Cold War, potential new U.S. enemies have emerged
several times, but in each instance, hopes were inevitably dashed by peace. Most
promising among the candidates was Iraq, which briefly went to war against the
U.S., but a truce was declared before a deep and lasting enmity could take root.

Tuesday's announcement was hailed by leaders of numerous U.S.institutions,
including the motion-picture industry, whose action films have suffered from the
absence of a global antagonist. "Hopefully, there will be an enemy
soon," Paramount Pictures vice-president of development Mort Glazer said.
"During the past few years, in the absence of a Soviet Union or a Nazi
Germany, Hollywood has been forced to pit American heroes against uncompelling
enemies like the IRA. A R900 million-grossing film like Rambo or Top Gun is
simply not possible in today's climate of global d'etente."

The lack of a clearly identifiable foreign nemesis has taken a toll on the
American populace, as well: In the years since the fall of the Soviet Union,
Americans have been forced to find other outlets for their deepest insecurities
and fears. "Without an outward threat like the USSR, Americans have had to
channel their anxieties about life into a wide range of other, less concrete
things, including space aliens, drinking water, sexuality and our own
government," psychotherapist Dr. Eli Wasserbaum said. "If a new
national enemy is not found soon, the trend will only worsen."

Speaking to reporters, another corporate CEO, Richard Klingbell of McDonnell
Douglas said the State Department should have foreseen the possibility of peace
and taken steps to avoid it years ago. "For decades, we took Soviet
aggression and the arms race for granted,"

Klingbell said. "We failed to realize that one day it might all come to
an end. We failed to sow the seeds of future foreign discord, for our children's
sake.

Thankfully, though, we're finally setting things straight. We're finally
remembering that to make it in this world, you've got to have enemies."

Blade Nzimande 

Address to COSATU
Congress, September 18, 1997

Comrade President, Comrade General Secretary, international guests, and
delegates, this is indeed a very important gathering of therefore necessitates
that we seriously use this gathering to reflect on achievements, future

1.The democratic breakthrough and the role of the labour movement in the
transition

1.1 Since the democratic breakthrough of April 1994, significant advances
have been made by the broad liberation movement towards the total liberation of
South Africa from an apartheid-colonial society, to a democratic society

1.2 Since this breakthrough, the following are some of the major advances
made during the last 3 and a half years:

The formal end to white minority rule The adoption of a broadly progressive
constitution Advances in delivery in the areas of social needs like health,
education, water and land redistribution The progressive disintegration of the
old apartheid ruling bloc, marked by, amongst other things, the crisis that is
faced by virtually all the opposition parties

1.3 A critical component of this victory over apartheid has been the
struggles and sacrifices made by the organised labour movement, particularly
COSATU

1.4 Therefore, the democratic breakthrough is a victory for organised workers
who have the deepest interest in the deepening and consolidation of this phase
of the National Democratic Revolution.

 

2.The character of the transition and the disintegration of the old apartheid
ruling bloc

2.1 The crisis being currently experienced by the opposition parties is first
and foremost an expression of the disintegration of the old apartheid ruling
bloc.

2.2 The departure of Roelf Meyer and the resignation of FW de Klerk from the
National Party mark the deepest crisis within this party of apartheid and
racism.

Of course Roelf Meyer's departure does not mean a new opposition to the NP,
but renewed attempts to try and dislocate the ANC and its Allies

2.3 The National Party is faced with an irreconcilable dilemma. On the one
hand, it has to consolidate and retain its white Afrikaner base, whilst, on the
other hand, it has to reach out to the majority of the black people of this
country. It is impossible to reconcile the two, as the NP has to choose between
being a party of the white privileged elite, or to abandon its racial character
altogether if it is to be part of the emerging democratic order in South Africa

2.4 The IFP - that arch-enemy of the working class and progress in South
Africa - is also faced with a similar dilemma. It is caught between being, on
the one hand, a neo-feudal, rural based, bantustan, tribal party or being a
modern, democratic party based on the principles of an open electoral democracy

2.5 The defeat of the apartheid regime has deprived the IFP of its main line
of support, thus forcing it to rely even more on narrow tribalistic support in
order to survive in a democratic South Africa. The white right-wing has also
been dealt a severe blow with the transition to democracy in our country. The
demand for a volkstaat from these forces is nothing but an attempt to secure the
white privileges accumulated under apartheid

2.6 The white right wing hopes that by demanding a secluded volkstaat, they
can still retain their own racist and exclusive haven for sections of white
Afrikaners through which they can maintain their privileged positions.

2.7 However, the crisis in the ranks of the opposition does not necessarily
and automatically translate into our own strengths. Nor do the current
weaknesses mean that the threat of counter-revolution has completely receded

2.8 There still is a very real threat of counter-revolution, whereby elements
of the old order might still want to undermine the emerging democratic order.
The gains of our revolution cannot be said to be irreversible. Therefore there
is a call for vigilance and the mass mobilisation of our people to defend the
gains made by the national democratic revolution thus far. Organised workers
have an important role to play, as they stand to benefit most from the
consolidation and deepening of the National Democratic Revolution

2.9 Current attempts at alliances by the opposition forces is nothing but an
attempt by the old ruling bloc to reconstitute and reposition itself to
undermine the transformation process.

3.Threats to the National Democratic Revolution

3.1 The new global world order, after the end of the Cold War, is not
necessarily conducive to the consolidation of the NDR

3.2 Globalisation, as characterised by the dominance of the capitalist system
throughout the whole world, is based on the intensification of capitalist
exploitation, and particularly the widening of the gulf between developed and
developing countries

3.3 However, we should avoid two major mistakes when approaching
globalisation. The one error is that of a right-wing, neo-liberal type, whereby
the current global order is taken as a given within which developing countries
have to fit themselves. That is, for South Africa, as a developing country, to
simply become a "municipality" in this "global village".

3.4 The other mistake is that of an ultra-leftist kind. That is for us to
merely act as if there is no international capitalist system that is dominant in
the world today.

3.5 Our task therefore is to recognise the dominance of the capitalist market
worldwide, whilst at the same developing strategies and alliances to challenge
the unjust and inequitable world order. This requires that we defend our
national sovereignty and forge strategic alliances with other developing
countries, in order to bring about a just and equitable world order.

3.6 However, the threat to the NDR does not only come from without, it could
possibly come from within. The fact that the post-1994 situation is marked,
amongst other things, by the swelling of the ranks of the middle and capitalist
class - necessary as this is during the current phase - means that there is a
very real possibility for sections of the previously oppressed to pursue the
idea of a non-racial capitalist order, where a small section of the black people
become part of the capitalist class.

3.7 The fact that thousands of our cadres have moved into positions of
responsibility in government drastically swells the ranks of the black middle
class. This development is to be welcomed although it does pose its own
potential dangers and a basis for the pursuance of a narrow, elitist path.

3.8 Such a scenario could lead to the development of a 30%-70% solution,
whereby thirty percent of the population is benefiting from a new capitalist
order, and 70% remain outside

3.9 Such a scenario would not be sustainable, since the majority of the
people will still be subjected to the same conditions as under apartheid, thus
creating a very unstable political order

4.Class struggles in South Africa's transition to democracy

4.1 All the above point to the intensification of class struggle during this
period.

4.2 The present struggles are essentially about shaping the nature and
character of post-apartheid society and the post-apartheid state.

4.3 The struggles during the writing of the new constitution, the lock-out
clause, the LRA, and the current Basic Conditions of Employment Bill, are
essentially about whether a post-apartheid South Africa will be a society or
state where the interests of the bourgeoisie are dominant, or be a society where
the working class and its allies will be the dominant, if not the hegemonic
force.

4.4 The capitalist class is trying by all means to use its economic power to
shape the nature of a post-apartheid South Africa. Some of the key elements of
the struggle by the capitalist class, together with anti-worker and anti-working
class elements, include the following:

4.4.1 Demonisation of organised workers and their characterisation as a
"labour aristocracy". We are yet to be convinced that the generally
lowly paid workers of this country can ever be regarded as a labour aristocracy.
Only yesterday, white workers were described as a labour aristocracy, now today
the very same black workers that we all understood as being subjected to
super-exploitation are referred to as a labour aristocracy!

4.4.2 This attack on organised workers also take the form of presenting mass
struggles by this section of the working class for the betterment of its
employment conditions as being "counter-revolutionary" or
"unpatriotic". Those who see this current phase of our struggle as an
opportunity to get rich quickly under a legitimate government are threatened by
the organised power of employed workers.

Their demonisation of legitimate workers' struggle as
"counter-revolutionary" is a cover for their own interests in
exploitation of the black working class in order to get wealthy as soon as
possible.

4.4.3 It is interesting to note that those who call for organised workers to
make sacrifices, under the guise of "patriotism", are not at the same
time calling for the capitalist class to make sacrifices as well. The SACP
completely rejects the notion that it is only organised workers who must make
sacrifices for the reconstruction and development of our country

4.4.4 The call for only organised workers to make sacrifices, without calling
for the same from white monopoly capital, is essentially a reactionary call for
the maintenance of the super-exploitation of the black working class.

4.4.5 Business has not by any means demonstrated how they intend facilitating
the reconstruction and development of our country. Instead business argues that
the intensification of capital accumulation will translate into the improvement
of the conditions of the workers. This is a lie we must not accept.

4.4.6 A further attack on organised workers is that struggles against
business are being projected as being anti-government. To argue that a general
strike against capital is a strike against the democratic government is a
deliberate distortion in order to continue to subject employed workers to the
conditions to which they have been subjected under apartheid colonialism and its
capitalist system.

4.4.7 Another attack on organised workers is the charge that employed workers
are acting against the interests of the working class as a whole, particularly
the unemployed workers. We are now being lectured that employed workers do not
constitute the entirety of the working class. Both the SACP and COSATU
understand this very well, and we do not need to be lectured to on this! We
particularly do not need to be lectured to by those forces whose agenda is
opposed to that of the working class. But organised workers are the leading
detachment of the working class and have the organisational capacity and
strength to lead the grassroots struggles of the working class

4.4.8 We are, however, yet to be told by those who argue this point as to how
their actions are advancing the interests of the working class as a whole. In
other words, the struggles of organised workers is being counterposed to that of
the working class, without at the same time having any programme or commitment
by the capitalist class to create more jobs. This argument, therefore, amounts
to calling upon organised workers not to fight for the betterment of their
employment conditions whilst at the same time unemployment increases.

4.5 The realisation of the goals of reconstruction and development is not
going to come about through low-wages, but through the payment of decent wages
and the establishment of decent conditions of employment as a key component of
improving overall productivity and meeting the basic needs of the majority of
the people of our country.

4.6 However, by stating this position we are not by any means suggesting that
organised and employed workers should be insensitive to the position of the rest
of the working class. If there are any sacrifices to be made, they must come
from both sides, labour and capital. The SACP challenges business to demonstrate
to us what plans they have to create jobs and invest in socially productive
sectors in order to realise the upliftment of the immense majority of our people

4.7 At the core of these struggles and bursting out much more forcefully is
the attempt to consolidate a post-apartheid South Africa as a capitalist
country. It is important that organised workers and the working class as whole,
understand this reality so that our struggles to advance the interests of
organised workers in the present period should be understood as part of a
broader struggle against capitalism and the laying of the foundations for a
socialist South Africa.

4.8 A key component of attempts to consolidate South Africa as a capitalist
society is the massive push by capital for the privatisation of state assets. As
the SACP we are firmly of the view that private capital can never be able to
address the basic needs of the majority of the people, even less so in a country
like ours.

4.9 There is no evidence whatsoever that private capital can address the
scale of needs, inequalities and poverty characteristic of developing countries.
Therefore, we should resist privatisation as a strategy for meeting the basic
needs of our people

4.10 Our call, and that of the Alliance as a whole, is for a strong,
interventionist state and, where necessary, for such a state to strengthen and
transform existing parastatals or, where necessary, to create new ones in order
to achieve the goals of the RDP. We do not want a neutral or a regulatory state,
but a national democratic and developmental state. The question is not whether
to privatise or not, but how best to meet the needs of our people during a phase
where capital seems powerful and dominant.

4.11 The SACP is also concerned that the seemingly wholesale plunge by many
local authorities into privatisation of the provision of many key social
services is not being carefully thought through. The Alliance needs to review,
as a matter of urgency, what is going on at this level

4.12 Similarly, the struggles around the basic conditions of employment are
about whether we should be creating the type of conditions of employment
conducive to a highly productive, decently paid workforce or about colonial-type
working conditions to entrench cheap labour.

4.13 The SACP recognises the fact that Basic Conditions of Employment Bill
has many progressive elements, and is on the whole a progressive measure, in
that it will mark a massive improvement of working conditions to millions of
workers in the most exploited and backward sectors of our economy, like security
services and large sections of the transport industry. However, what business
wants is to roll back some of the gains made by organised workers in the various
sectors.

4.14 On GEAR: The SACP's last central committee, after a year of reflection,
discussion and debate, as well as interaction with Alliance partners, came out
in opposition to GEAR. The Central Committee made the point that this kind of
macro-economic framework is not conducive to the implementation of the RDP.

4.15 The Central Committee further noted that after one year, GEAR has led to
the cut of the budget deficit in a manner that could seriously hamper social
delivery. GEAR had predicted a 1.6% growth in jobs, but instead there has been a
shrinkage/job loss of 1,3%

4.16 Some of the leading proponents of GEAR have told us that it is on
target, but this raises the question of what are the hard or soft target of
GEAR.

4.17 So where do we go from here? Surely we cannot as an Alliance spend
another year on the macro-economic debate. We believe that the last Alliance
summit, and President's own remarks that no policy is cast in stone, sets us on
a new path to find one another on this question.

4.18 The SACP therefore calls for the development of an industrial strategy
aimed at identifying key industrial sectors for development. This must
simultaneously address the basic needs of our people and create jobs. It is only
within this context that we must develop a macro-economic model that underpins
and strengthens such a developmental strategy. There is no example in this
century of a developing country, or even a developed country for that matter,
emerging from the ruins of war, from economic collapse or colonialism, achieving
economic revival led by the capitalist market. Instead, such revivals have been
led by a state-driven industrial strategy.

4.19 An industrial strategy should be premised upon the central RDP
assumption that there can be no sustainable economic growth that is not centred
on addressing the development needs of our country. Any macro-economic strategy
therefore should be aimed at reinforcing such a job-creating industrial
strategy, rather than the other way round.

4.20 The forces which are embarking on this intense attack on organised
workers are the same forces who are trying by all means to undermine the
tripartite alliance.

5.The Tripartite Alliance

5.1 The recent Alliance Summit was marked by a renewed commitment from all
the allies to the continuation and strengthening of the Alliance. This is a
correct stance

5.2 However, much more significant about this recent summit is that there are
no sacred cows in terms of policy being pursued by government or any Alliance
partner during this period.

5.3 The view of the SACP is that this summit, much as there are still a lot
of issues to be thrashed out together, has put us in a qualitatively new
situation where key policy measures have to be taken jointly by the Alliance.

5.4 Whilst key differences remain around areas like Gear, this renewed
commitment not only to the Alliance but to tackling problems and key policy
issues together, puts the Alliance on a very firm footing in the right
direction. Indeed, key policy issues and measures need to be jointly discussed,
thrashed out and adopted by the Alliance

5.5 Those who want to see the Alliance breaking up, either for political or
opportunistic reasons, are going to be disappointed.

5.6 The reason why these forces want the working class and its organs to be
separated from the ANC is because they ultimately want to weaken both the ANC
and this government, thus frustrating the consolidation and deepening of the
NDR.

5.7 Those in the ranks of the Alliance who are calling for the break-up of
the Alliance are playing right into the hands of our enemies.

5.8 Furthermore, the ANC is a broad movement that belongs to us all. The ANC
equally belongs to the working class, organised workers and communists just as
it belongs to all other democrats who believe in the deepening and consolidation
of the NDR. As workers, as the working class, as communists, we have all
sacrificed to build the ANC and the realisation of the 1994 democratic
breakthrough.

5.9 Tensions within the Alliance should not lead to calls for its break-up,
but rather focus us on how we should strengthen it, including making the voice
of the workers stronger within the ANC itself.

5.10 This matter raises another related question that this Congress should
debate. This is the question of what role does COSATU itself want to play as
members of the ANC. Should COSATU leaders stand for election in ANC
Constitutional Structures? Some of the affiliates point out that COSATU's
independence might be compromised. But at the same time the ANC needs to be
taken seriously as our movement, even more so by workers and worker leaders, and
how to have a workers' voice inside the ANC itself. The SACP urges COSATU to
seriously debate this question

6.Socialism is as relevant as ever

6.1 Both our detractors and anti-socialist, anti-communist elements are now
asking us what we are talking about when we talk about socialism. We are being
asked to define socialism, as if these forces do not know what we are talking
about

6.2 There are also serious attempts to discredit the September Commission
report by either describing it as anti-ANC or for being vague about what it
means by socialism.

6.3 The charge that we are no longer understood about what we mean by
socialism is nothing but convenient political amnesia, that is, to forget
conveniently what socialism means. It is also a convenient ploy to say to us
there is no alternative to capitalism

6.4 In fact, some of those who pretend not to know what socialism means have
not participated in the very rich post-Soviet Union debates about the renewal of
socialism, but are rather stuck in the textbook Stalinist socialism

6.5 There has been a very rich debate about socialist renewal, starting with
Comrade Joe Slovo's "Has Socialism Failed". The September Commission
report itself also engages us in a very creative way about the paths to
socialism, including the creation of social capital and the building of a truly
socialised economy where mass formations play a leading role in economic control
and reconstruction

6.6 Perhaps let us remind those doubters what we mean by socialism. Firstly,
we mean the end to the ownership of the wealth of the country by a few monopoly
capitalists, and for the key sectors of the economy to be in the hands of the
actual producers, the workers

6.7 Secondly, by socialism we mean the end to the exploitation of the working
class by a minority capitalist class. Socialism means an effective
redistribution of a country's resources under the custodianship of the working
class and a state led by the working class itself

6.8 The fact that Eastern-European socialism failed, does not mean that
socialism has failed. Rather it calls upon us socialists worldwide, and
particularly in South Africa, to learn from those errors without departing from
our goal of bringing capitalism to an end.

6.9 Capitalism has also failed dismally. It has not managed to address the
needs of the overwhelming majority of the people, and even more so in the
developing world.

6.10 In order to attain this goal, the SACP is of the view that the struggle
for socialism starts during this present period, not in some future. The
consolidation of the NDR should lay the basis for a transition to socialism.
Hence the SACP's slogan "Socialism is the future, build it now".

6.11 Much more importantly, comrades, the achievement of socialism is not
going to come about through endless theoretical debates in the centre pages of
the Sunday Times or the SABC - important as it is to debate on these platforms -
but through concrete struggles by the working class and its allies to bring
about this reality.

6.12 Therefore our task is to go out and do agitational work amongst
organised workers, the working class and the mass of our people. The
consolidation of the NDR in favour of the working class and the bringing about
of socialism depends on the balance of forces and the acceptance of socialism by
the mass of the people on the ground. It is an organisational task. Socialism
will not come about by us trying to endlessly convince those who cannot be
convinced.

6.13 This therefore calls for the organised workers to resolve once and for
all to build the SACP as the political weapon of the working class. Organised
workers cannot, on their own, take the struggle against the bosses to its
logical political conclusion the defeat of capitalism unless organised and
united as a political force, together with the rest of the working class.

6.14 This further calls for a creative SACP/trade union co-operation as we
have seen with political education activities between the Party and some of the
trade unions. This, however, needs to be strengthened and deepened.

6.15 Much more importantly, all of us are faced with the need for fundraising
and self-sufficiency. Union investments are important in this regard, but these
should not merely be seen as fundraising efforts, but a strategic intervention
in the economy, as well as the creation of social capital for the working class.
These should also be used to strengthen and resource independent working class
organisations, not least to assist in building a strong labour movement and the
SACP as the political vanguard of the working class.

6.16 We therefore also throw out a challenge to you all comrades. Let us
support the SACP's all-important 10th Party Congress next year, if the SACP is
to effectively play its role as the political vanguard of the working class.

6.17 Furthermore, this means that we need to renew our efforts to build a
single, independent and socialist labour federation in our country.

6.18 These are some of the tasks that face us in this conference and beyond.

NOT FORGOTTEN...

" Other men will overcome this gray and bitter moment where betrayal
threatens to impose itself. Continue knowing, all of you, that much sooner than
later, the great avenues will open through which will pass free men in order to
construct a better society... These are my last words having the certainty that
this sacrifice has not been in vain. I am certain that, at least, there will be
a moral sanction which will punish felony, cowardice and betrayal"

September 11th 1973 - Salvador Allende, President of Chile, addressing the
nation on radio from the Presidential Palace, moments before he was murdered by
the fascist military forces of General Pinochet.

READER'S FORUM 

A PERSPECTIVE ON RACISM

Racism remains a central part of social, political and economic relations in
our country. It is the foundation, and the means to rid ourselves, of such
racism that continues to be at the centre of debate within our broad liberation
movement. Here, Northern Cape SACP activist, VUYISILE MAKI, offers a
controversial perspective. (Editor's note - Umsebenzi encourages readers to
respond to this article)

Several weeks ago I witnessed something that was disturbing. It was on a
Sunday morning and I was on my way to buy newspapers in town. As I approached
the main road I saw a young African women standing next to the road, apparently
waiting for a ride. I passed and greeted her. She responded in Afrikaans. On my
way back from buying the newspapers I passed the young women again. A few
seconds later I heard a bakkie approaching and saw the bakkie stop next to where
the woman was standing.

The driver was a white male, and noone else was in the vehicle. Although I
could not hear what was being said, I saw the young women speak to the man. He
responded and then the woman jumped into the back of the bakkie.

I stood there for half an hour asking myself a number of questions. If that
young woman had been white, Indian or coloured, would the man have offered her a
front seat? The answer is a very simple yes. Whites generally behave like that,
they are anti-black and that's how they were brought up anyway. We should not be
shocked when I say most whites still behave like those notorious prison warders.
Blacks are the 'prison inmates' and that's how blacks and whites relate - prison
warders and inmates.

Who can deny this is true for blacks in the Kalahari region and elsewhere in
South Africa? Racism is still rife. No matter how high Africans rise to the
occasion, they never lose consciousness of the invisible bars that hem them in
prison.

It is this white mob which are at the cutting edge of racial hatred. They do
not want blacks as neighbours, but only as hired hands to do their dirty work
and clean up their mess and children etc. It is not difficult for me to believe
that whites are selfish and you don't need a microscope to see that they are
devils. Enough experience has convinced me, but, of course, not all whites are
devils.

They claim to be Christians but I wonder if they really know what it means to
be Christian? Do they know what Christian values and practices are? Morally,
most whites are not clean. Christianity encompasses all colours and races.
Whites need to be told and educated about Christianity, not what they were
taught 100 years ago. Christianity is one of the religions that that erases the
race problem from society. It removes the white from the minds of white-skinned
people. If whites could accept the oneness of God, then perhaps they too, could
accept in reality, the oneness of humankind and cease to measure, hinder and
harm others in terms of their difference of colour.

Whites should learn the true nature of faith, the essence of which is the
brotherhood of humankind, irrespective of race, colour or creed, and total
submission to the will of God. I am interested to know what is being preached
and what message is conveyed by white churches. They should start shedding some
of their racist views, attitudes and practices that they still uphold. I am not
racist, and I am not saying the entire white population are racist. Whites
should strive to live the life of true Christians.

TRACKING
THE GLOBALISATION AGENDA

The Multilateral Agreement on Investment (MAI)

Earlier this year, Umsebenzi offered South African readers one of the first
glimpses of the MAI. We argued then that this attempt to institutionalise
capitalist globalisation presented a grave danger, and if not stopped, would
cement the enslavement of the majority of the world's population. Here, we
provide an 'update' on what has happened with the MAI and why the need to
struggle for its abolishment is greater than ever.

There's been something missing from the highly publicised hand wringing over
the continued crisis of global capitalism. Amidst all the explanations for what
has gone wrong and for what can be done to get things back 'in order', little
attention has been paid to the fate of probably the most important effort to
institutionalise global capitalist rule - the Multilateral Agreement on
Investment (MAI).

Ostensibly arising out of the need to put into place guidelines on
international investments to secure the confidence of investors, the MAI is
nothing more than a crude attempt to implement a set of global rules that would
limit the rights and ability of government's to regulate foreign investors and
corporations. In its present form, the MAI would savage any pro-active role for
governments (particularly those in the 'developing world') to affect economic
development in favour of the majority, institute progressive environmental and
labour standards, and retain and develop domestic industries.

Way back in 1995, long before the latest throes of capitalist crises, talks
on the MAI were started in the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Renato Ruggerio,
Director General of the WTO, had the foresight to describe the talks as an
attempt to write the "constitution of a single world economy". He was
not far off the mark. Unfortunately, for Ruggerio and the western industrialised
powers pushing for the MAI's quick adoption, the talks became bogged down. They
were subsequently shifted to the more amenable terrain of the Organisation for
Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), made up of the 29 wealthiest
countries in the world, and dominated by the capitalist 'democracies' of the
West.

Fast forward to 1998. The economies of the so-called 'tigers' of Asia and
Latin America are being reduced to a whimper, bringing untold misery to entire
populations. Rampant capitalist speculation is out of control, threatening to
unravel the carefully laid-out plans for a secure 'global order' that will
ignite a new wave of prosperity. Most importantly for the dominant political and
economic powers in the West though, their own economies are in danger of being
overwhelmed by the resultant shock waves.

What to do?

Forget the string of rationalisations emanating from the bourgeois
intelligentsia for a kinder, gentler capitalism. The real message coming out of
this mess is, in the words of World Bank President James Wolfensohn, the need
for a "new financial architecture". This would involve setting up new
multilateral institutions in order to ensure "better coordination between
national and international authorities" and to look into the "efficacy
of measures taken by national governments". In other words, the MAI in
everything but name. Or, put metaphorically, if the patients don't like the
medicine then increase the dose and change the taste.

Indeed, over the last few months negotiations to implement the MAI, led by
the U.S. government, were placed on the 'fast track' in the OECD - for good
reason. The MAI's laissez-faire deregulatory agenda covers trade in currency,
stocks and bonds as well as the ownership of land and natural resources. The MAI
would also allow corporate capital to by-pass, and instigate legal proceedings
against, any progressive developmental measures implemented by various states,
that would interfere with their "legitimate" pursuit of business.
These would include environmental regulations, human rights legislation, legal
requirements for job creation and protection, public health measures and social
clauses in public contracts.

Fortunately for the majority of the world's population, the MAI has been
temporarily derailed. Helped along by the unrestrained arrogance of its main
proponent - the U.S. government - and the understandable reluctance of less
powerful western nations to forfeit aspects of their sovereignty, the MAI has,
for how, succumbed to the valiant efforts of a multinational coalition of
progressive NGOs, political parties, social movements and intellectuals. But,
moves are already afoot that would see MAI negotiations transferred back to the
WTO where the U.S. government, no doubt, feels it could now place greater
pressure on developing nations to sign up.

Far from signalling the "end of history", this
latest attempt to breathe new life into an ailing global capitalism, only serves
to confirm the reality of the cyclical nature of capitalist crises - what goes
around, comes around. Despite this welcome setback, the MAI remains a serious
threat. If instituted, by whatever means, the MAI will effectively hold national
and local development hostage to the 'free market' dictates of transnational
corporations and the governments that support them. In effect, globalised
capital will constitute a 'new' global government and the MAI will provide it
with the legal framework within which to undermine national and local
sovereignty.

RED
STAR COLUMN

to the Spanish High Court and the thousands who suffered under the dictatorship
of Chilean General Pinochet, for having the integrity and courage to pursue the
international prosecution of this ageing fascist for crimes against humanity.
Because of these efforts, Pinochet was arrested while he was visiting Britain to
receive medical treatment, purchase more armaments and say thanks to his
right-wing British benefactors. While the final fate of the General is still to
be determined, the case has opened the eyes of the world to the horrendous
crimes committed by Pinochet and exposed those Western countries that provided
the means to subjugate millions of Chileans for over 17 years. Red Star agrees
with the sentiments expressed by women political prisoners in Chile when they
stated:

"We do not know where the General will end up. As far as we are
concerned, he can die. For now, we will rejoice in his despair, we will rejoice
in the discomfort being felt by the General, the Army and the
right-wing..."

to Minister of Health, comrade Nkosazana Zuma, for her unrelenting battle
against the capitalist greed of pharmaceutical and medical aid corporations and
their political allies (such as the Democratic Party), to provide the majority
of South Africans with decent, affordable health care. Through their continuous,
and failed, attempts to halt cde Zuma's progressive policies, these
reactionaries have only further exposed the agenda of corporate capital as being
in direct opposition to the interests of the masses. Likewise, cde Zuma's
courageous and successful battle, shows that it is possible to struggle for, and
implement, progressive alternatives to the barbarism of capitalist
globalisation.

4 Thumbs Down to the Director General in
the Finance Department, Maria Ramos, for her arrogant and dismissive attitude
towards those campaigning for the issue of the SA debt to be taken seriously
(see page). It is clear that Ramos has yet to learn that the citation of
statistics, accompanied by tough-sounding words, does not substitute for real
political debate. There are real political and economic issues surrounding the
debt problem that seriously affect real people. But then again, Red Star
understands that Ramos and many of her cohorts at the Finance Department seem to
revel in their roles as the government's new 'technocratic managers'. Wake up
and smell the debt Maria!

3 Thumbs Down to the Pennsylvania State
Supreme Court in the United States, for denying framed political prisoner,
activist and writer, Mumia Abu-Jamal, his appeal for a new trial. This latest
violation of Mumia's civil and human rights opens the way for his death warrant
to be signed by the state governor. Such a move, which has only been delayed due
to massive public opposition, would legalise the politically and
racially-inspired frame-up to murder a man who has done nothing more than
struggle against the oppressive capitalist system so ingrained in the so-called
'democracy' of the United States. Here at Red Star we still take
internationalism seriously. All progressives must raise their voices loud and
clear in defence of Mumia Abu-Jamal. Silence is the voice of complicity! 

PROGRAMME
OF ACTION OF THE SACP 

(as adopted by the 10th Congress) 



From Theory To Practice 

Build Peoples Power! Build Socialism Now!

1. Introduction

Since the 9th Congress of the SACP there has been a distinct ideological
consolidation and strategic coherence evolving in the SACP. Activists and
leaders have increasingly wrestled with our 9th congress call to Deepen, Defend
and Advance the Democratic Breakthrough, on one hand whilst on the other hand we
have been grappling with the concrete meaning of our strategic slogan :
Socialism is the Future, Build it Now! By 1997 the Central Committee adopted a
programme of action to consolidate this socialist perspective in practise. The
present Programme of Action is a development on the 1997 one and should be read
and implemented in conjunction with it.

Since then, grounding our activities have thrown up experience, obstacles and
challenges for reflection. Confronting this, at our 10th Congress, through the
challenge of building peoples power and socialism we have continued our firm
commitment to build a vibrant, dynamic and active Communist Party.

2. Build A Strong SACP!

The SACP has been and still is committed to building a strong ANC, COSATU and
broad democratic movement in South Africa. While doing this, we will constantly
strive to balance self development, as an independent political formation, while
discharging our collective responsibilities within this movement.

At the same time, the 10th Congress of the SACP realised that building of the
party and it's organisational form could not happen at the level of theoretical
abstractions that locked us in a pre-occupation with mass versus vanguard. There
was an overwhelming realisation that these weakness largely constituted an
internal threat that was extremely self destructive and limiting on the
political effectiveness of the party. Hence, the following challenges and
organisational tasks have been identified for immediate, systematic and bold
implementation.

These are as follows :

• Consolidating cadreship development - this is envisaged through
  intensified ongoing party political education work at every level of the
  party as well as a compulsory induction programme of all new members.
  Central Committee members deployed in provinces should also serve as
  political education resource for those provinces. Part of political
  education must be focussed at building women cadres.
• Every province to appoint a full-time political education officer - for
  whom resources have to mobilised. Furthermore there has to be a political
  education committee together with a common replicated programme at all three
  levels of the party.
• A Full time Provincial Office Bearer - although it is imperative for the
  provincial leadership, particularly office bearers, to have political
  responsibility for the day to day operations of the Party , it is necessary
  to encourage at least one full time office bearer who could have overall
  political authority and oversight over provincial activities;
• Reorientation of Provincial Councils - to ensure that quite regularly
  provincial council meeting focuses on organisational building through
  'district and branch program assessments' as well as governance issues. The
  latter must allow for a sharing of information, strategic decision making,
  intra provincial connections on common issues, where necessary, that ensures
  that party impacts decisively on policymaking processes within government;
• Tighter Co-ordination on Gender issues - Gender structures must be
  established at every level, and there should also be tighter co-ordination
  of gender activities through out the party, particularly through provincial
  participation in the national gender forum; This should ease communication
  and improve co-operation between the head office and the provinces.
• Internal expansion of the Party - to ensure organisational capacity to
  implement the party programme. This amounts to establishing a host of
  departments and new internal structures like a "youth desk",
  policy department, international department, political education and
  organising unit as well as a media and culture department
• Widening the use of computer based technology and systems - to facilitate
  political efficiency and capacity that ensures proper recording of
  membership, levy and fee collection, channels of communication with head
  office and the wider organisational structures of the party and
  international solidarity forces;
• Targeted recruitment - aimed at intellectuals, worker leaders and shop
  stewards, community leaders and women. Furthermore, to strengthen the
  working class base of the party, there should be joint organising teams with
  Cosatu, geared at implementing Cosatu's 1997 congress resolution of building
  the party amongst workers. This joint team should monitor the implementation
  of the resolution.

There should also be systematic servicing of lapsed membership and key
activists. Formally, and informally, comrades should be tasked to do this and
not leave things to chance.

However, all of this cannot be realised without party building being linked
directly to programme implementation and Communist political activity. The party
has to grow out of, and from, struggles and more fundamentally a leap from
theory to practice. Thus:

3. The Challenge of Building Worker and popular power - where we work and
where we live

3.1 Worker power for socialism - where we work

The SACP has a special responsibility to work closely with the organised
formations of the working class. This is the stratum of the working class that
has traditions, numbers and capacity to play a leading strategic role in the
struggle to consolidate the NDR and build socialism. The SACP'S work on this
front must be directed to developing the class confidence, the political,
strategic and leadership skills of workers. We must ensure that organised
workers do not allow themselves to be confined to a narrow workerism, to narrow
oppositionist and sectoral politics. They have to embrace a practice and
strategy of transformative unionism.

To carry out this task the SACP must:

• establish industrial units - capable of conducting systematic socialist
  ideological work in major industrial localities through amongst other
  initiatives, like Umsebenzi, African Communist discussion groups etc
• greatly extend our joint program of political education with our trade
  union allies
• jointly convene socialist forums
• encourage worker plans, that draws on the knowledge, experience and skills
  of workers to ensure production is geared around meeting basic needs rather
  than profits. This means worker plans must put forward alternatives for
  their enterprises and industries.
• emphasize the strategic objective of worker participation, control and
  ownership;
• the new LRA opens the possibility of democratisation of the management
  function, which presents challenges that communist and workers must critical
  engage with.

In working class struggles, and in legislative and other policy making
process directly affecting workers and in the world of labour, the SACP must
always uphold a longer term vision of the transformation and democratisation of
the economy.

The SACP must seek to defend and advance those measures that increase the
power of workers over the production process, that enhances self management,
that weakens ownership and managerial monopoly exerted by the capitalist class.

The SACP must also, always, seek to unite working people, underline their
common strategic interests, across the divides of race, ethnicity, gender, and,
in the case of thousands migrant workers, country of origin.

3.2 Building people's power for socialism - where we live

Working closely with our allies - the ANC, COSATU locals, other MDM, CBOs and
progressive NGOs - the SACP must constantly seek to build the capacity of
working class and poor communities, to enable them to become active participants
in their own ongoing liberation. This means we have to immerse ourselves in
developmental, democratization and transformational struggles. These include :

Socialising provincial and local government - by ensuring popular
participation in policymaking, budgeting, legislative drafting and development
planning. This can be further enhanced by tightening the connection between
comrades engaged in governance, like local councillors, with community based
formations. In addition the party needs to draw on its international links with
Communists in other parts of the world that have experience with local and
provincial government, to enhance capacity;

Popular involvement and leadership of Community Institutions - by the SACP
and the alliance leading and mobilising communities to ensure popular
participation and guidance of the - CPFs, Hospital Boards, Water Committees,
Schools Governance, LDFs, structures dealing with the disabled, etc. It is
particular important to note that CPFs are potentially important tools to
empower communities to fight crime and to democratise police services. Similar
possibilities of democratising education can also be found in the provisions
related to school governance.

Community Based Campaigns - which enhance community solidarity, collective
identities and co-operative styles of life. Such campaigns could include
brigades to clean grave yards, particularly in rural communities, providing
protection for pensioners and cleaning of schools and streets, house building,
savings clubs, places of safety for abused women and children, networks of
support and development for the disabled. We need to embark on the
implementation and the popularisation of the national crime prevention strategy,
on its objectives, its essence and content, with special emphasis on
registration as police reservists, participation in community policing forums,
fighting to put an end to domestic violence, child molestation, abuse and women
battering.

Building an alternative economic front - which should harness social
movements, hawkers, burial societies, stokvels, worker provident funds, the
unemployed, landless rural poor, the disabled and small and medium enterprises
to build new economic relations. This should centre around collectively
developing strategies for local economic development, building a co-operative
movement and confronting the banks around 'bad' debts, as well as the
establishment of people's budget forums at a local level. Such people's budget
forums must set up local development priorities, which could also empower
communities to understand the constraints and possibilities of budgeting. The
party should also facilitate the establishment of mechanisms for interacting
with financial institutions to access finances, e.g. loans, credits and promote
progressive solutions to debts.

Locally based literacy and education initiatives - that utilises schools and
other community resources to create a culture of adult learning, whilst also
encouraging a culture of learning as well as popular involvement in broad
education issues.

Campaigns to defend and sustain the environment - the SACP must be at the
forefront of struggles to expose, and struggle against, the plundering and abuse
of the environment by capital, as well as to protect the environment from
individual and communities. In rural areas it should initiate campaigns that
prevent soil erosion and alternative uses of energy and resources. We should
also engage in struggles to limit smog in urban areas and campaign for heavy
penalties on polluters and target youth to develop environmental awareness. We
should also engage in struggles to protect indigenous knowledge, to oppose toxic
waste dumping and to ensure health, safety and environmental protection on the
farms, and in mines and factories.

Developing a culture of a Communist presence - these should take the form of
constant pamphleteering, selling of party literature, street talks and debates,
as well community-focused communist activity.

Build a rural popular movement- Communists must also pay close attention to
the needs and aspiration of working people in the rural areas and on farms.
Working together with NGOs in this sector we must ensure that a popular rural
movement is created.

4. Building the alliance

4.1 Elections support for the ANC

This 10th SACP Congress resolved that only the alliance led by the ANC is
capable of transforming this country in a progressive direction. Precisely
because of this understanding, all communists in our country shall mobilise for
a decisive ANC victory. We call upon all our provincial structures to develop
election structures that immediately involve themselves in the overall election
effort.

4.2 Consolidating a working alliance

The party should work hard to ensure that the alliance works nationally,
provincially and locally. It is critical that together, as an alliance, we
assume civic like activities, to ensure that we maintain a dynamic relation with
the people. As an alliance we should hold regular co-ordinating meetings, as
well periodic summits to evaluate the direction and scope of transformation.

Importantly, we should, as an alliance, constantly interface on issues of
governance and engage with comrades who are deployed in government.

5. Building Socialism where we live - our region, our continent, our world

As South African communists we live and work not just in our townships and
factories and mines - we live in a particular region (southern Africa), and in a
continent (Africa) that have been devastated by colonialism, imperialism,
neo-liberalism, apartheid and cold war proxy conflicts. We must approach our
socialist tasks as South African Communists with a clear understanding of the
world in which we live.

As the SACP we must assume responsibility for popularising and involving
millions of our people in:

• The struggle for regional reconstruction and development
• For an African Renaissance that is based on principled anti-imperialism,
  and genuine democratisation and development as well as the promotion of the
  interests of the working class and the poor in our continent

We must therefore:

• Be active in solidarity campaigns for those fighting against
  anti-democratic regimes in our region and continent,
• Struggle to cancel the debt of the poorest African countries, and for
  effective debt relief for others,
• Be active in the struggle against xenophobia, and for progressive
  immigration policies
• Broaden our regional and African solidarity to include the Third World
  more generally.

POLITICAL
EDUCATION

UNDERSTANDING GLOBALISATION

In the third part of our "Understanding the Basics of Our Struggle"
series, Umsebenzi tries to get to grips with the latest phase of imperialism -
globalisation. The confusion surrounding this term is misplaced. Globalisation
is nothing more, and nothing less, than the "new" phase of capitalist
relations on a global scale. A clear understanding of its main features allows
us to argue, and struggle, for practical alternatives that will not only
undermine the basis for globalisation, but will begin to move us towards
socialism.

From around 1973 we have seen another major phase of imperialism. All of the
features of imperialism we noted in our last edition have been intensified in
these last 25 years. We have seen that in the last quarter of the 19th century
it was a crisis of over-accumulation that led to the first major phase of
imperialism. Much the same happened in the mid-1970s. Production slowed down in
the major capitalist countries. The oil price shot up, and the Middle East
oil-producing countries made billions of dollars they could not invest
productively. They put the money into European banks. The Western banks were
awash with billions of "petro-dollars". This was the immediate
backdrop to a new round of intensified capitalist globalisation.

The main features of this new phase of globalisation are:

• a global casino economy, dominated by trillions of speculative dollars
  being traded every day; this has been helped by
• major technology advances in information and communications - the computer
  revolution, cell phones, the Internet, satellite TV, CNN etc.
• the growth of Transnational Corporations (TNCs)

In the earlier period of imperialism, the main capitalist firms were huge
Multi-national Corporations. These were corporations with their main productive
base located in an imperialist home-market - in the United States or Britain,
Germany, Japan etc. While headquartered in countries like these, they drew their
raw materials from major operations in the Third World. This is why they had a
multi-national character.

Over the last 25 years, increasingly, the imperialist economy has been
dominated by TNCs. More and more, production itself is organised
transnationally. For instance, a shoe will be designed in Italy. The design will
be downloaded on a computer to three other production centres. The soles will be
produced in Indonesia, the uppers in Mexico, and the two will be stitched
together, perhaps, in South Korea.

According to the United Nations Development Programme, 50 of the world's 100
richest "economies" are no longer countries, but TNCs. Five hundred
TNCs now account for 30% of the world's total output. The monopolisation of the
economy, noted by Lenin 80 years ago, has been massively intensified.

This huge historical process, going on in our times, has resulted in
deepening inequality, oppression and human misery. While the richest countries
in the world have become richer, most of the world has become poorer. The
African continent has been increasingly marginalised in the world economy. In
the 1950s, Africa had a mere 3% of world trade. By 1995 it was down to a
miserable 1%. Even in the richest countries, there have been growing
inequalities in these last 25 years. In the US the ratio between the wages of
blue-collar workers and top management was 1:41 in 1975. In 1994 it had widened
to 1:189.

The increasing global power of financial capital is another obvious feature
of our times. Over the last 25 years, many of the gains of post-independence
Africa have been rolled back. In a sense, Africa has been re-colonised by the
imperialist powers. But this re-colonisation has been carried out not so much by
imperialist armies. It has been international bankers (using the IMF and the
World Bank), manipulating the debt problem, who have undermined the independence
of many countries on our continent.

What can we do about globalisation?

As Fidel Castro said recently: "We can condemn globalisation and we can
condemn gravity. But it is more useful to devise concrete strategies to deal
with both realities."

1. What is happening and what we are told - a big difference The first
strategy we must develop is to distinguish what is actually happening from what
we are told is happening. Like gravity, globalisation is a real process. The
technological advances, the growing economic integration of the world - these
are realities. But around these realities, neo-liberals weave many mythologies.
We are told that:

• the world is now a "global free market" - to benefit from this,
  a developing country like South Africa must "free its market"
  through privatisation, deregulation and flexible labour;
• we must all become "competitive", and that
• an "export-led" economy that focuses on "growth" at
  any cost will, in the long-run, produce social and developmental gains.

It is easy to demonstrate that there is much mythology in this neo-liberal
advice:

• the world is not a "global free market". When South Africa tries
  to buy pharmaceuticals at the lowest price, we are told by powerful US
  pharmaceutical companies that we cannot buy from Denmark or India, we have
  to buy the same medicines at a higher price direct from the US.
• while we are told to "free" our economy, the major imperialist
  powers are certainly not doing this themselves. For instance, European Union
  agricultural products are subsidised by 50%, compared to our 15%
• we are told to be "competitive". But when we succeed in
  producing highly competitive steel, and we export it to the US, we are told
  that we are being "unfair", that we are "dumping"
  products on the US market, and undermining US steel producers
• while the developed countries have spent decades building up their
  infrastructure, their education, their skills - in Africa we are told that
  we must get on with "trade" and forget about "aid". We
  are told that we must focus on export-led growth at any cost, and that
  "other things" like reconstruction and development "will
  follow" later. In fact, no society has succeeded in developing itself
  and its economy without massive investments in internal development

Having criticised the neo-liberal myths, our second main strategy must be to
:

2. Globalise solidarity

Progressive working class and socialist forces have never run away from
capitalism's tendency to extend its operations worldwide. Rather than retreat,
our agenda must be to advance an alternative view of globalisation. Having
uncovered the neo-liberal myths of "globalisation", we must seek to
set a new global strategy.

The injustice and growing misery caused by capitalist globalisation means
that we are not alone in seeking to pose a different global agenda.

• the increasing trans-nationalisation of capitalist corporations creates
  conditions for greater international worker solidarity. Workers in the West
  are no longer cushioned. There is mass unemployment in the EU, for instance.
  The prospects of First World and Third World worker solidarity have greatly
  improved;
• the instability brought about by the vast flows of speculative finance
  capital is a matter of concern to many capitalists and leading governments.
  The recent "Asian" financial collapse threatens capitalism
  internationally. While the agenda of these forces will be different to our
  own, their problems create much wider space for exploring alternatives, for
  calling for greater regulation, etc.
• the obvious failures of the IMF and the World Bank in Africa, also create
  space for advancing more progressive agendas - that include debt
  cancellation, developmental aid and not just trade, and the need for
  regional and continental solidarity

There is one more interesting fact to note. Many of the technical advances
brought about by globalisation are also available to progressive forces. In
seeking to build global solidarity, we must exploit to the maximum the new
possibilities offered by Internet, e-mail, instant information on distant
struggles, etc.

One hundred and fifty years ago, Marx and Engels wrote the
Communist Manifesto. In it, they noted how capitalism always does two things -
it deepens oppression, but it creates the material conditions for greater
international solidarity at the same time. This insight is more valid than ever.

Building
people's power for people's education: 

Strategic Challenges in the transformation of education

Introduction

Cde President, Willie Madisha, Cde General Secretary, Thulase Nxesi, the
leadership of COSATU and its affiliates present here, Alliance leadership, the
national, provincial and local leaderships of SADTU, international guests,
comrade delegates. The SACP is indeed deeply honoured to have been invited to
come and address your National Congress today. We took this invitation very
seriously, because we believe that SADTU is one of the most important and
strategically placed unions in the struggle to defend, consolidate and deepen
the National Democratic Revolution.

As the SACP we firmly believe that without a strong and dynamic SADTU our
struggles to transform education would be severely hampered. SADTU represents a
very important sector of the working class as a whole. It is that sector of the
working class whose primary function in society is the production and
reproduction of ideas. This question of ideas, as a matter of interest, has been
raised very sharply by Cde Fidel Castro in his speech at the Hector Peterson
memorial in Soweto last Saturday. The essence of his message was that in any
struggle, the question of ideas, is one of the most critical dimensions of any
struggle.

Teachers are indeed at the cutting edge of the struggle for the production of
particular ideas over others. Indeed ideas are not only, nor primarily produced,
in the education sphere. But there is no doubt that the education sphere is an
important site and instrument for producing and circulating ideas.

Cde President, I notice that the theme of your Congress talks about quality
education. This is a very important theme. However we also need to ask the
question as to what kind of ideas should inform what we call quality education.
Quality education should not only be about efficiency in teaching and learning,
but it should also be about what ideas underpin what we teach and learn. Quality
education should produce and reproduce ideas of social equality, justice, and
ideas that challenge exploitation and oppression of whatever form. I might as
well ask a rhetorical question: Are the ideas contained in what many of you
teach in business economics, economics or history ideas against poverty, against
oppression and indeed against capitalist exploitation? My guess is that it is
no.

It is for this reason that my address to you today is about politics: the
politics of the national democratic revolution and within that the politics of
educational transformation. I would open by contextualising educational
transformation within the current global/international context; followed by our
own national political context and then attempt to identify some key strategic
challenges in education and the role of a union like SADTU.

1. Globalisation and its impact on educational provision The phenomenon of
globalisation, simply put, reflects the dominance of transnational private
corporations in the current world economic order. These transnational
corporations have influenced governments of the developed world and
multi-national institutions to design a set of economic rules that favour the
intensified accumulation of capital and profits throughout the whole globe. Most
of these transnationals are located in the rich countries of Europe and North
America.

The dominant ideas of globalisation are known as neo-liberalism.
Neo-liberalism essentially argues that there is no other route to addressing
problems facing humanity other than through the system of capitalism - private
accumulation of profits. Neo-liberal prescriptions for poor countries to catch
up with rich countries, they must open their economies - deregulation - and
liberalise them so that the market forces can operate freely. Furthermore
neo-liberalism argues that it is the private sector that is best placed to
provide for the needs of the people, thus calling for the privatisation of
practically all productive activities and delivery services to the people.
Arising out of this the state is therefore seen as an obstacle to the
development of society, and therefore it must be rolled back in order to allow
for the market to operate freely. The role of the state is reduced to a creator
and guarantor of conditions for the full operation of the market.

The current global economic crisis is a very grim reminder to all of us that
the idea of neo-liberalism is a lie and that capitalism can never address the
needs of humanity. It is a false idea whose only promise is to the rich and
their surrogates in the developing world. The current economic crisis - as
characterised by collapse of stock-exchanges throughout the world, rising
interest rates, massive unemployment - is in essence a crisis of capitalism. It
is also a crisis of neo-liberalism. The capitalist market can never deliver to
the poor, but is an instrument for the rich to get richer and the poor to get
poorer. What is even more frightening is that the current crisis is even
threatening to roll back the very significant initiatives of black business, let
alone the small and medium enterprise sector. This goes to show that capitalism
is not capable of empowering people, particularly those who have been excluded
for such a long time.

The current global economic order and its present crisis is having a
devastating effect on developing countries and the poor. Its impact on
educational provision has been two-fold. Firstly, neo-liberal pressure has led
to these countries cutting drastically on social spending, including education.
One has to look at countries like Zimbabwe and Tanzania, which had invested a
lot of financial resources in education immediately after independence. All
these gains have been seriously eroded. Even worse, in the case of Zimbabwe,
with failure of its structural adjustment programme in 1995, the IMF was still
pressuring the country that the reason why there was a failure is because
Zimbabwe hadn't privatised enough. So this reminds me of castor oil. The more
you spit it out, the more your mother says take more.

The second impact of neo-liberalism on education is that the very ideas that
are taught at schools and universities reflect this dominant thinking. It is for
this reason that you as educators need to question very seriously what you
teach. I believe that Curriculum 2005 provides just such an opportunity to
engage in a new type of educational practice: an education against exploitation,
and education for social and economic justice. This is in fact one of the key
strategic challenges facing us in education in general and SADTU in particular.
The question is whether SADTU is ready to embark on this battle for alternative
ideas in the education sphere and as part of engaging capitalist globalisation.
I believe that you should use this Congress not only to debate this question but
to come up with a clear programme of action in this regard. As part of such a
programme of action is how the question of globalisation itself should be
analysed and analysed by your membership, not as some distant external
phenomenon, but as something that impacts daily in your own struggles and
activities. Therefore, Cde President, the struggle for a quality education
should centrally involve critical engagement with globalisation and a challenge
to the ideas of neo-liberalism.

I hope that it now becomes clearer as to why parties like the NP and DP
oppose all major education legislation in our country. The pretend as if they
fight for the rights of school governing bodies, when in fact they want to use
such school governing bodies to roll back the role of the state in education.
The Grove Court challenge was in essence opposing the redeployment of teachers,
in the name of protecting the powers of governing bodies, so that the current
racially skewed distribution of teachers remains untouched.

1. People's power and key strategic challenges facing educational
transformation in South Africa

The 10th Congress of the SACP adopted the slogan: "Build People's Power,
Build Socialism now!" We believe that this slogan captures the key
strategic challenge for all the democratic forces in our country, and in
particular those forces that stand for socialism. This slogan is a call to
action to the working class, guiding it to approach the question of building
people's power now from the standpoint of our strategic objective to build
socialism in South Africa.

It is also not a just a co-incidence that the January 8 statement of the ANC
had also focused on this question of building people's power in order to
consolidate the National Democratic Revolution. One might as well ask why is it
that this concept of people's power, once more comes to take centre-stage in the
thinking of our movement at this point in time. As you might well know comrades,
ideas do not just arise out of people's head, but are usually a reflection of
the stage at which our struggle is. Some of the reasons why this concept is
coming to dominate our movement include the following:

1. With our experiences in government over the last four years, we are
   sensing a danger of a bureaucratically-driven as opposed to a people-driven
   transformation process
2. Secondly, this arises out of the fact that holding state power, incomplete
   as it is, is inadequate unless rooted in the power of the mass of the people
   on the ground
3. The best defenders of a revolution are the mass of the people on the
   ground. In other words when we are talking about people's power, we are
   talking about the dialectical combination of state and mass power. The SACP
   Congress identified the question of building people's power as a key
   objective in the overall struggle to deepen, defend and consolidate the NDR.

2.1 What is people's power?

But what do we mean by "people's power" Cde George Mashamba wrote
in 1988: "The concept of people's power is not equivalent to that of
political power. It is that and more... People's power is people's sovereignty
not only in parliamentary politics, but in educational, economic and cultural
spheres, i.e. in the practical control of public affairs in the economy,
education and culture". As the SACP we believe that this is the correct
understanding of people's power. What this means is that the political struggle
for the total transfer of power to the people, is always related to the struggle
for control in each specific sphere of social life.

For the SACP the building of people's power in itself should lay the
foundations for a transition to socialism. There can be no true people's power
in a capitalist society, since people's power is not only limited to formal
political institutions, but to the economic sphere as well. Under capitalism, it
is only the minority which is wealthy that benefits from the economy. The
majority of the people are left hungry, impoverished and used as a means to make
profits.

Therefore our struggle for a people-centred democracy should simultaneously
and progressively challenge the capitalist system itself. Denial of the reality
that there can be no full democracy under capitalism represents the most
unprincipled and opportunistic betrayal of the interests of the working class.

In the education sphere building people's power means that we should as a
matter of strategic priority throw our full weight in building active, dynamic
and democratic governing bodies throughout the education system. We should not
forget that it was through our struggles and sacrifices that we fought for the
kinds of governing bodies that are for instance now legislated in the Schools
Act. The fact that ex-Model C schools want to use the powers of school governing
bodies to maintain the white character of these schools should tempt us into
denuding governing bodies of their powers. Rather we should devise strategies to
transform those very governing bodies in ex-Model C schools. Also where we feel
that the powers of governing bodies to recommend the appointment of teachers
threaten centralised collective bargaining, we should not be tempted to strip
these governing bodies of powers. Rather we should strike the correct balance
between centralised bargaining, which must be protected at all costs, and at the
same time give governing bodies a say in the appointment of teachers. This is
what I believe the Employment of Educators' Bill has done.

2.2 Fighting the scourge of careerism and patronage and being exemplary

Building people's power in education also means a strong SADTU, but much more
importantly strong structures at school level. I hope that this Congress will
address the question of strong and dynamic site committees with adequate support
from organisers and regional committees. You might even want to consider smaller
branches so that they are able to service and be closer to the site committees.

Much more importantly building people's power in broader society means that
our organisations must be exemplary in this regard. One of the scourges we must
fight against is that of careerism and patronage. There is now a tendency for
some comrades not to think through their heads but to think through their
stomachs in order to secure senior positions for themselves. They form cliques
and secret cabals within organisations in order to dispense favours and
strengthen their own individual positions. This threat is becoming more serious
in the broader liberation movement as we now also have cabinet, MECs and
councillor positions. If there is one phenomenon that threatens to kill
democracy in our organisations it is careerism and patronage. These trends must
be strongly condemned and exposed. But one sure way of dealing with these is to
build strong and fearless organisation where comrades are accountable and not do
things in an individualistic manner. In fact careerism and patronage leads to
corruption and decay of organisation. We must fight these two scourges with all
the power we have, wherever they arise and in any part of the broad liberation
movement.

2.3 Key strategic challenges in educational transformation

a. I think we should openly admit here that since the democratic breakthrough
of April 1994, we have not managed to sustain a broad democratic front in
education.

The democratic movement has the best policies in education, but is in the
area of participation as a movement in the implementation of these policies
where we have been lacking. As a result there is a creeping tendency within our
own ranks to want to wait and see what government does and then merely react.
This is not healthy and is a sign of lack of co-ordination within the Tripartite
Alliance and the broad democratic movement . SADTU is very strategically placed
to play a critical role in rebuilding a strong mass democratic movement in
education. We must also admit that over the last two years we are beginning to
lose the strategic initiative in education, thus finding ourselves on the
defensive from attacks by reactionary forces. Much more seriously we have been
acting in a fragmented and not unified manner. There can be no people's power in
the education sphere without a strong mass democratic movement. I hope that you
will discuss this question at this Congress, particularly the role that SADTU
should play.

b. From within the above to commonly and openly debate the key strategic and
tactical challenges in education. One of the urgent tasks is to turn the
education system around and take it out of its apartheid rut. But this requires
maximum vigilance, commitment and sacrifice. We must not make the mistake that
commitment and sacrifice was only needed in the era of the struggle against the
apartheid regime. Perhaps we need more of that now than ever before. We have
made a lot of positive advances in education, despite the problems that still
need to be addressed. Government has developed a comprehensive set of
legislation and policies, now it is our time to fulfill our side of the deal by
making these a reality on the ground.

c. Building the policy capacity of the democratic movement. It is very
important that we should enhance our policy capacity so that we are able to
effectively ensure people's participation in the process of governance and
transformation. It is important that we do not allow our policy units to
collapse as this will severely affect our capacity to engage.

d. Perhaps much more importantly is to consciously develop a cadreship within
the education sphere. Many of our cadres are now playing an important role in
government, but this has weakened the democratic movement significantly. We
therefore need to pay particular attention to the systematic training and
development of an education cadreship, able to relate educational transformation
to the tasks of defending the deepening the NDR

3. Specific challenges facing SADTU

I would like to conclude my address by perhaps venturing into areas where I
believe we need to frank and honest. My point of departure is still that without
a strong and unified SADTU there can be no democratic transformation of our
education system. But in order to realise this we need to honestly address some
of the weakness and clarify some key strategic questions

a. One of the key challenges facing any component of the democratic movement,
particularly unions, is the question of how to advance the interests of one's
members without at the same time undermining the democratic government.
Conversely how does a union like SADTU strengthen this democratic government
without becoming a sweetheart union, thus sacrificing the legitimate interests
of its members. This is a critical and strategic balance that we must maintain.
However, the anchor to attaining such a balance is to continuously struggle for
a transformation process increasingly biased towards the working class. Such a
bias can only be maintained if the working class builds itself into a force for
socialism and at the head of the democratic revolution.

b. SADTU to take a much more visible and consistent role in the COLTS. This
is in fact one of the key challenge facing SADTU now. SADTU will have to
overcome the image that it is only interested in salaries and working conditions
and not taking a leading role in COLTS. This Congress will have to come out with
a very clear programme and campaigns in this regard

c. SADTU also needs to expose those teachers who lack discipline and do not
do their work. It is a fact that within your membership there are teachers who
still do far less and are simply not teaching. Such teachers are in fact a
threat to our revolution, as failure to transform education is to let down
millions of our people. Let us flush these teachers, not only out of our unions
but out of the education system. They do not deserve to be teachers, and they
destroy the image of the union and the teaching profession.

d. Need to undertake systematic cadre development and political education.
Unless site stewards are politically trained to understand the key strategic
questions of the day, SADTU will be weakened and thus the entire movement for
the transformation of education. The SACP is very keen undertake joint political
schools with SADTU throughout the provinces. In fact why don't we commit
ourselves to running political schools in all provinces within the next 6
months, and within a further 12 months to have all these replicated throughout
the lower structures of SADTU.

e. As part of the political education process we would seek co-operation with
SADTU to build SACP branches in line with the COSATU resolution of building SACP
industrial branches

f. A key challenge is that of strengthening the Tripartite Alliance. We must
avoid ultra-left recklessness of wanting to break the Alliance, just as we
should avoid its opposite - a rightist opportunist ploy to bleed the Alliance to
death through sidelining of the SACP and later COSATU.

Comrade President, I would like to end by giving a comradely and communist
warning to you and your delegates here. There is currently an intensified attack
on communist and left forces in this country. Some of it comes from the old
anti-Communist forces of the apartheid era. But much more seriously there is
also a much more disguised and cynical attack on our Party. This comes in a
sophisticated guise on what we mean about socialism and an attempt to project us
as an irresponsible communist talk-shop. You must know that an attack on the
SACP is in essence an attack on workers as well. Failure by workers to build,
defend and make this Communist Party their own, will ultimately lead to the
demise of organised workers themselves. As the SACP we say to you today, here we
are, and as communists we are sons and daughters of South Africa's working class
and we represent nothing else other than your political interests. We have been
in the trenches with the South African people as a whole in the struggle against
apartheid. We shall continue, no matter what the cost, to be in the trenches
with you in the struggle for democracy and socialism. We shall not deviate an
inch from this commitment, under any circumstances.

With these words the SACP wishes you very successful deliberations in your
Congress

Blade Nzimande

General Secretary, SACP

7 September 1998