25 November 2001
The Central Committee (CC) of the South African Communist Party (SACP) met this weekend in Johannesburg. This was the last CC meeting for the year. 2001 has presented the Party with many challenges and difficulties, but through the course of the year the Party has steadily consolidated itself, mounted major campaigns, and generally asserted itself as an important actor within the dynamic South African political reality. Even our most devoted opponents have been forced to concede this fact. In December 1999 fully-paid up SACP membership stood at 16,000, today it is over 22,000.
The agenda of the SACP CC included the following items:
BUILDING AND CONSOLIDATING THE ANC-SACP-COSATU ALLIANCE IN THE CURRENT
PERIOD
This Central Committee has been preceded by two high-level bilaterals
between the SACP and the ANC.
The SACP CC was pleased to note that a consistent, in fact, insistent theme has come through all of these processes. The shared mass constituency of our three alliance formations is adamant that the unity of our alliance must be safeguarded and cherished. The CC agrees whole-heartedly with this unambiguous message. The advance, consolidation and defence of the South African democratic breakthrough, not least in an unstable and unjust world, requires the maximum unity of all progressive forces in our country, built on the bedrock of our Alliance.
This is not to say that there are no problems, differences and challenges within the Alliance. In the heat of debate it is easy to lose sight of the substantive and wide-ranging agreement that underpins our alliance, from a shared and unifying strategic commitment to a national democratic revolution, to numerous specific policies and common programmes of action. There are, however, a number of real concerns that need to be discussed, debated and, hopefully, resolved +IBM- in particular, differences over our overall economic growth and development strategy, the restructuring of state-owned enterprises, and the management of policy-development.
The CC re-affirmed the commitment of our last CC meeting to ensure that debates within our alliance are handled in a comradely, unifying and disciplined way. Wild statements and allegations are not generally appreciated by our mass base, and they do not contribute to creating an appropriate climate in which to address the challenges within our alliance.
The CC regrets that it has not been possible to convene the Alliance Summit, originally scheduled for this month. However, we also believe that adequate preparation is essential for the success of such a Summit, otherwise it risks being ceremonial or ending in uncertainty. We are committed to playing an active and constructive role as the Party to ensure that an effective Summit is convened as soon as possible.
At the end of day, the strength of the Alliance depends upon its strength at the grass-roots level. In its daily activities the SACP commits itself to working to consolidating and uniting the alliance in our practical, mobilisation work.
BUILDING A STRONG, DEMOCRATIC AND ACCOUNTABLE PUBLIC SECTOR
In the context of the SACP's commitment to building a strong, democratic and accountable public and parastatal sector in our country, the CC discussed an extensive report on the restructuring of SOEs in the People's Republic of China. The report is the result of a special CC delegation sent to China to study SOE restructuring in that country.
In most of the commercial media there is a persistent theme that China has abandoned socialism and is pursuing a capitalist path, including, so it is alleged, the whole-sale privatization of state-owned enterprises. The actual policies of the Chinese Communist Party, and the reality on the ground in China, tell a different story. While there has been liberalization and some privatization, the state, collective and co-operative socialist sector of the Chinese economy accounts for 70% of GDP. The PRC is committed to maintaining the socialist sector as the dominant sector in its economy, and it is committed to retaining public ownership of all strategic industries, all industries responsible for social and economic infrastructure, and natural monopolies.
The PRC has its own history, its own considerable advantages, and its own problems. There can be no question of simply importing a Chinese model into South Africa. However, the Chinese example, and the important economic achievements of that country in the last two decades underline the importance of sustaining commitment to the renewal of the socialist project. The cynical distortion of current developments in China, which we hear everyday, may well suit cynical, lazy, or capitalist agendas, but it will find little comfort in an honest appraisal of what is actually happening in the PRC today.
ANC/NNP CO-OPERATION IN GOVERNMENT
The CC received and discussed a report on the process towards securing ANC/NNP co-operation in government. The SACP supports the principle of working towards basic co-operation between the ANC and other parties in governance in the overall context of a multi-party electoral dispensation. Co-operation between the ANC and NNP (like the similar cooperation with the IFP) underlines the pressing imperative of winning over the widest section of South Africans to a general nation-building effort. The South African democratic transition is still in its earliest and formative phases.
The ANC/NNP co-operation represents a major and welcome set-back to the Tony Leon project, based on opposition for opposition sake, and on appealing to the most backward fears and prejudices of minority sectors of our society. The ANC/NNP co-operation holds out positive possibilities in the Western Cape in particular. The SACP has long identified the challenge of building working class unity in the Western Cape as the key to transformation in the province.
The SACP harbours no illusions about the leading cadre of the NNP, nor do we have illusions that the NNP will now bring over all of its constituency. Co-operation will be based on the principles of a commitment to democracy, non-racialism and anti-poverty programmes. The ANC/SACP/COSATU alliance will need to continue to intensify our own mass-based programme in the Western Cape and throughout the country to ensure that the real potential in the ANC/NNP co-operation actually bears fruit.
MASS MOBILISATION TO COMBAT HIV/AIDS
This CC meeting concludes 5 days before this year's World AIDS Day on 01 December. In this context, the CC noted that the impact of HIV/AIDS on our country and the continent is already devastating.
We need to use every tool at our disposal education, prevention, awareness, prevention, treatment, access to services to respond to, and effectively deal with this national emergency of HIV/AIDS. The rate of new infections can be drastically reduced through a forward-looking and holistic mass campaign of public education, openness, care and support for people, families and communities living with HIV/AIDS.
The CC associated itself with a wide-range of South African formations in condemning the alarming levels of rape and violence directed against women and children. The struggle for a more just and caring society is an integral part of the struggle against HIV/AIDS.
THE SACP PROGRAMME OF ACTION FOR THE YEAR 2002 - INCLUDING TAKING FORWARD
THE FINANCIAL SECTOR CAMPAIGN
The CC adopted a 2002 Programme of Action for the SACP. The four pillars of
this programme are:
The SACP's programmatic theme for 2002 is People and Government Together: Build a People's Economy, Build People's Power to Meet Basic Needs.
Work on the transformation and diversification of the financial sector will include the consolidation of demands for the NEDLAC Summit on the financial sector which is due in March 2002. These demands include the fostering of co-operative banking, community reinvestment legislation, prescribed assets legislation, more effective regulation and transformation of the Credit Bureaux and micro-lenders, the transformation of public financial institutions and other demands around the eviction of bond defaulters, the cancellation of bank charges for all recipients of state welfare grants and dealing with HIV/AIDS based discrimination in the financial sector.
These demands have been consolidated from this year's Red October Campaign which included public meetings and the launching of the Campaign Forum to Make Banks Serve the People.
The work on the financial sector will also include mass mobilisation to support and take forward the above demands. Specifically the SACP will call for a Week of Action for localised actions and People's and Worker's Assemblies on HIV/AIDS discrimination in the financial sector and co-operative banking during the Red October month.
Our programme on Meeting Basic Needs through Local Economic Development will focus on working with government and the mobilisation of communities and local resources for the realisation of the provision of basic amounts of free water, electricity, sanitation and waste disposal.
THE SACP'S 11TH NATIONAL CONGRESS TO BE HELD IN JULY 2002
The CC decided that the SACP's 11th National Congress will be held in July 2002 in Johannesburg.
In the lead up to the 11th Congress SACP structures will be involved in extensive discussions of a Draft Political Programme, the Strategy and Tactics of the SACP in the National Democratic Revolution (NDR) and the Amendments of the SACP Constitution.
The Draft Political Programme will have the following chapters:
INTERNATIONAL QUESTIONS
The CC also discussed recent developments in Swaziland in particular the continued detention of Comrade Mario Masuku, the President of the People's United Democratic Movement, for violating repressive restrictions on his political freedom.
The CC calls on the government of Swaziland to drop all charges against Comrade Masuku and to release him without any restrictions on his political freedom.
The detention of Comrade Masuku, the CC noted, is a general reflection on the continuing oppression of the people of Swaziland by the undemocratic tinkhundla regime. The SACP calls on the government of Swaziland to respond to the long-standing demands of the people of Swaziland for democratic transformation of Swaziland.
The CC briefly reviewed developments in the Middle East and in Afghanistan. We repeated our condemnation of the violence being perpetrated by Israel against the Palestinian people. In the coming days a new phase in the Afghanistan tragedy will be opening up. Either the defeat of the reactionary Taliban regime will open the way for a just and UN supervised democratic transition in that country, or it will be treated as a springboard for renewed US-led military offensives in other parts of the world. We call on all peace-loving people around the world to ensure that the latter does not happen.
CONTACT
Mazibuko Kanyiso Jara (surname Jara)
Department of Media, Information and Publicity
South African Communist Party
Tel - 011 339 3621
Fax - 011 339 4244
Cell- 083 651 0271
Email - sacp1@wn.apc.org