In his Report yesterday, our President, cde Thabo Mbeki correctly characterized the ANC as “a disciplined force of the left”
On behalf of the SACP I wish to convey our greetings and solidarity to the delegates of this 51st Conference.
Make no mistake, the SACP considers the deliberations of this Conference to be of absolutely critical importance. It is the ANC that has the historical task of leading our Alliance, the government, and our people in the national democratic revolution.
The President quoted from the Preface to the Strategy and Tactics document: “To us…the historical task of national liberation is not a fleeting convenience or an ephemeral tactic. It is an objective requirement to eliminate the historical contradictions arising out of a system constructed over centuries of colonialism.”
This is, indeed, why the ANC must lead. And it is, indeed, why unity of the ANC and of the Alliance is a long-term strategic project. The SACP strongly endorses the call to “Advance in Unity to the Year 2012”, and beyond.
But unity and leadership to what end? The central problem confronting our society is poverty. The key solution to this problem is job creation and redistribution.
Our outstanding collective achievement since 1994 has been to advance the democratization of political power. But economic power remains firmly in the grip of those who accumulated ill-begotten wealth in the apartheid era. This Conference must help to chart a path that overcomes the gap between democratic political power, on the one hand, and accumulated, undemocratic economic power, on the other.
Next year’s Growth and Development Summit can help us to build a national consensus and practical programmes to this end. But the unity of our Alliance will be central to driving such an outcome. In particular, the buy-in of the working class is paramount.
We need to continue with an ANC-led, working-class driven transformational struggle that confronts and overcomes race, gender AND class poverty in their deep-seated interconnection.
The Secretary General touched upon some of the strains within our Alliance in the recent period. It is important that we raise these issues honestly and constructively, and we commend the Organisational Report for doing just that.
But none of us should exaggerate the nature of these difficulties, they are not strategic. Above all, we must manage them constructively and in a principled manner. We need Alliance unity more than ever.
One important reason is that, internationally, the world is stumbling in a potentially dangerous direction, driven by the leading center of imperialism, which has become more protectionist, more aggressive, more militaristic, more unilateralist. The unity of our Alliance, and the sober, strategic leadership of the ANC are critical.
There are those in our country who may have become emboldened by real or perceived tensions within the Alliance. They may have imagined there was suddenly more space for their own reactionary or confused agendas. To them, we have a simple message. (It is a message that, I’m sure, is shared by communists and non-communists alike.)
The message is: Don’t mess with us.
This is our government.
This is our ANC.
We will defend it.
CONTACT
Mazibuko K. Jara
Department of Media, Information and Publicity
South African Communist Party
Tel - 011 339 3621l; Fax - 011 339 4244
Cell - 083 651 0271
email - mazibuko@sacp.org.za; website - www.sacp.org.za