31 March 2007
Introduction
On behalf of the Central Committee, we are here to convey a message to wish you a successful congress. We are very pleased that this congress is taking place now, given the many challenges facing this province, and the need to rebuild a strong SACP in the North West.
The key challenge facing this province is that, over the last period, it has deteriorated from being one of the strongest provinces of the SACP, to one of its weakest, including inability to carry out Party programmes. This necessitated an intervention by the Central Committee to try and assist in rebuilding the province. As communists we must speak truth to ourselves and to the world, and truly practice the culture of criticism and self criticism!
Therefore the key task facing this Congress is that of mapping a strategy to rebuild the province, reposition it to be able to take up SACP programmes and campaigns, and elect a leadership dedicated to implementing such programmes. It is also important comrades to say that one of the problems we face in the SACP is fewer number of comrades willing to set aside time to do party work even if they have accepted election onto leadership positions. It is therefore important for comrades to realize that accepting election onto a party leadership structure means willingness to set aside time not only to attend meetings of such structures, but also to participate in the SACP campaigns and other activities.
We are confident that delegates at this Congress will rise to the challenge and ensure that this Congress becomes a watershed to reclaim the proud past of the North West as one of the leading provinces in our Party.
It is for these reasons, amongst others, that the focus of our message today is around the challenges and tasks facing the SACP, and the Central Committee expectations of what Party structures and cadres should do to build a strong SACP throughout the country.
Our strategic and programmatic perspectives
Our detractors, in the run up to our 12th National Congress, are clearly hard at work trying to project the SACP as a divided house. One of the challenges is that we should not be diverted by all this, but keep focused on building this glorious organ of South Africa\'s working class, our SACP!
Our Party has never been this united in terms of its strategic and programmatic perspectives. What are these?
Our goal is to build a socialist South Africa, and that is why we are a communist party. We want to build a society based on meeting human needs rather than the private accumulation needs of a few. Ours is to wage a relentless struggle against capitalism, hence our programmatic slogan \'Socialism is the future, build it now\'!
We are however waging this struggle not in abstract but under concrete domestic and global conditions, which we have to factor in our own strategy and tactics.
On the global front we are waging the struggle for socialism in a unipolar world, dominated by one superpower, the United States of America. The collapse of the Soviet Union and socialist bloc of countries in Eastern Europe in the late 1990s was one of the biggest setbacks for the global and domestic struggles for socialism.
But contrary to the triumphalist claims of imperialism that \'history ended\' with the collapse of the Soviet Union, this US-led imperialism is facing its own crises. Firstly, the neo-liberal model of economic development is proving to be a failure world-wide. Not only is it failing to address the needs and the interests of the overwhelming majority of the peoples of the world, but it is being challenged on many fronts. Partly this is the reason for the increasing militarism of this imperialism, as it cannot impose its hegemony over the peoples of the world.
The US has put itself into a corner in Iraq as its promise of \'democratising\' this country, which it illegally invaded some four years ago, is daily going up in smoke. The latest episode in the deepening of this crisis is manifested in the current standoff between President Bush and the US Congress over US withdrawal of its troops from Iraq.
The US hegemony is also increasingly being challenged by the rise of new powers in the South, especially China, India and Brazil. It is for instance estimated that within the next 20 years, and even shorter by CIA estimates, at the rate at which China is growing, it will overtake the US economy.
In Latin America - a region the US has for more than a century declared as its \'own sphere of control\' - is experiencing a leftward shift, with the emergence of Venezuela as the beacon of \'21st Century Socialism\', under the leadership of President Hugo Chavez.
There also exists a large anti-globalisation movement which provides a basis for challenging neo-liberal dominance globally.
Indeed our Party remains firmly committed to deepening its internationalist work, and this province has in the past played a very important role in this regard, through its active links with progressive forces in Botswana. This is a task that the new leadership will have to take up again with even more vigour. This will contribute immensely to the SACP\'s commitment to contribute towards building a Southern African left network. In our bilateral with COSATU early this week, we further committed to harmonise the international work of our two formations, starting with creating effective links with the trade union movement and other progressive political forces in the region.
On the domestic front we are struggling for socialism on a terrain of a national democratic revolution. The SACP remains committed to its perspectives that our most direct route to socialism is by deepening a working class-led, socialist oriented national democratic revolution. The programme at the centre of this is the Freedom Charter, which continues to be the glue that holds our Alliance together. Whilst the Charter is not a socialist document, the most thorough implementation of its radical and emancipatory vision will take us a long way towards a transition to socialism.
The national democratic revolution seeks to address three deeply interrelated contradictions: class, national and gender contradictions. Whilst these contradictions cannot be collapsed into each other, at the same time they cannot be effectively addressed in isolation from each other.
The SACP does not approach the task of consolidating and deepening the national democratic revolution in an instrumentalist fashion, as merely an instrument to achieve socialism. The achievement of the objectives of the national democratic revolution is important on its own, the total liberation of the black majority. However, the SACP also understands that we can never achieve the total liberation of black people outside of a transition to socialism.
One of the medium term tasks we have set for ourselves, together with COSATU, is that of intensifying the struggle to ensure that the second decade of our freedom becomes a decade for the workers and the poor. This we said because despite the significant government resource transfers to the workers and the poor, the first decade of our freedom, in economic terms, has benefited the white capitalist class, together with a tiny black elite and middle classes. Therefore one of the main tasks of the working class during the second decade of our freedom is to radically transform the current accumulation path underway in our country.
We have also noted that both within our movement and the state there has emerged what we refer to as the 1996 class project that has become dominant, albeit not hegemonic. This project is essentially characterized by its commitment to pursuing capitalist profitability and \'competitiveness\' as the route towards addressing the developmental challenge in our country.
We have correctly argued that this project is in a crisis, precisely because the accumulation regime it has fostered has not transformed our economy for the benefit of the overwhelming majority of our people. Instead what we have in our country today is significant political progress, whilst the colonial character of our economy remains unchanged, and if anything, it is daily being reproduced by the current growth path. In short our revolution is a revolution with political but without economic power!
Part of rebuilding a strong SACP in the North-West should be the mobilization of the working class to realize our objective of making the second decade of freedom, a decade for the workers and the poor.
The above tasks are part of, and located within:
Our Medium Term Vision (MTV)
This vision enjoins the SACP to lead a struggle to build working class hegemony in key sites of power. It is important for all our Party cadres to fully understand this vision and the tasks entailed therein.
Our Special National Congress in April 2005 has enriched the MTV, identifying five key sites of power within which we need to build working class hegemony, the state, the economy, the workplace, the community and the ideological struggles:
The state - It is important to wage a multi-faceted strategy to build working class hegemony in the state, as part of building a developmental state biased towards the workers and the poor. When talking about the state, we are not just talking about the state only at national level, but at provincial and local levels as well. For instance this Congress needs to discuss and evaluate the kind of state that we have built in the North West since 1994, as well as the kind of local state we have built in the various localities. Out of this assessment we need to identify the key challenges facing the SACP and the working class to build a developmental state.
Some of the tasks in this regard include the struggle to abolish the special colonial (racialised, partriarchal, class and geo-political) features of the state we inherited in 1994. Of particular importance as well is to ensure that we expose and defeat the tendency to use access to state institutions as a means to privately accumulate resources and promotion of patronage networks - parasitic capitalism. That is why the SACP is of the view that we must separate duties of public officials and representatives from business activities. Those who want to be capitalists cannot be public representatives at the same time. Failure to do this exposes us to an increase in corrupt activities. The SACP needs to wage a relentless struggle against corruption and all forms of parasitic capitalism.
At our 11th Congress we defined the locality as the centre of gravity of the programme and campaigns of the SACP. Part of building working class hegemony at the local level requires intensified grassroots mobilization around, for instance, local economic development and mass participation, paying particular attention to the mobilization of women to play a central role in local development. For instance it should be the task of the SACP in this province to ensure that we influence, familiarize ourselves, and mobilize communities to drive the integrated development plans (IDPs).
The Central Committee had also instructed all communist MPs, MPLs and councilors to ensure that they form Party Discussion Forums in parliament, provincial legislatures and municipal councils to effectively engage with governmental programmes at this level. These are not SACP mini-caucuses within ANC caucuses, but a means through which we bring the SACP closer to legislative and governance processes. Do we have a single PDF in this province at the moment? That is one of the challenges.
We have also agreed with COSATU that we need to reconfigure our Alliance such that alliance partners are more integrated into matters relating to governance. It cannot be that we all campaign together for elections, but leave practically all major governance issues only to one alliance partner. Your task is also to ensure that we build a strong and vibrant alliance in this province. But the alliance is not just a series of secretariat meetings, but a programme, driven together by the alliance partners, to mobilize our people, not only during election times but at all times.
The economy - The key challenge in building working class hegemony in this sphere is that of mobilizing the working class to transform the current growth path, with stronger micro-economic measures and macro-economic policy deriving from these priorities. Indeed we do welcome the multi-billion rand planned investment by the state owned enterprises into our economy. However we are paying a heavy price for GEAR. Whilst we are told that there is now more money to spend because of GEAR policies, the fact of the matter is that lack of earlier spending on skills development and infrastructure, makes us unable to take full advantage of the current increased expenditure.
A key struggle in the economy relates to the state, that we need a developmental interventionist state able to discipline and direct capital into priority areas to address underdevelopment in society.
The SACP needs to lead the intensification of working class struggles to transform the current model of BEE into one that benefits the overwhelming majority of our people. The current model is nothing more than the co-option of a tiny, highly dependent and compradorial black elite, usually at the direct expense of the economic interests of the working class.
One key challenge in this regard is the mobilization and building of co-operatives and a progressive co-operative movement. These two things are interdependent. You cannot build co-operatives without the backing of a strong and progressive co-operative movement, just as you cannot build a strong co-operative movement without focused attention on the task of building co-operatives. The building of co-operatives is one key platform for truly broad based BEE.
With specific reference to North West, a province whose economy is predominantly agriculture and mining, the SACP in this province needs to ask itself as to what are the priorities in this regard. For instance we expect the North West province to be in the forefront of our campaign for land and agrarian transformation, organizing farm dwellers and working closely with FAWU to organize farmworkers. Is there an existing strategy and programme to do this in this province at the moment? If not, why not and what is to be done? If so, please give us the relevant details! These are some of the priority tasks of the incoming leadership in this province!
In relation to mining one of the key tasks of the SACP in this province is to support the struggles and campaigns of the National Union of Mineworkers to transform the workplace, decent wages and the provision of decent housing to mineworkers.
In addition we need to ensure that now that government has nationalized the mineral resources; such nationalization is to the benefit of the overwhelming majority of our people. But from the look of things mining rights are being parceled out to the white bourgeoisie and its black \'empowered\' partners, contrary to the message and intentions of the Freedom Charter. The key question is how are our working class and poor communities benefit from the wealth beneath the soil of our country? That is the task of the SACP in this province.
The workplace - The SACP needs to pay particular attention to the racial and gender division of labour in the workplace. This requires the SACP to support the daily struggles of the trade union movement and to challenge managerial unilateralism in the workplace. This is an important dimension to building working class hegemony in the workplace.
The SACP long ago took a decision to build workplace branches of our party. How many workplace branches do we have in this province? Our recent bilateral with COSATU has reaffirmed the central importance of this task. We expect this province to be in the forefront of the implementation of the resolutions of the bilateral summit, to build a stronger COSATU and throw its full weight behind the jobs and poverty campaign of COSATU. This includes fighting mindless privatization of state resources, and the threat this poses to job creation and job security for the working class!
The community - Our communities still suffer from acute poverty and joblessness. It is important for the SACP to ensure that it is strong, campaigning and rooted in the mass of our poor communities. Strong SACP and community branches are of absolute importance in this regard.
One key challenge in building working class hegemony in our communities is to use this key site of struggle as a point of integrating all of our campaigns (building of co-operatives, land and agrarian transformation, a comprehensive social security system including a basic income grant {BIG}, safe and affordable public transport system, food security and transformation of the financial sector).
We are also faced with a situation that SANCO is having serious difficulties. The SACP is part of the effort to rebuild SANCO, and we should dedicate ourselves to this task. But where there is no SANCO civic, we must ensure that we build working class-led progressive residents associations.
Part of the task of building working class hegemony in our working class and poor communities is to ensure that every communist is active in his or her ANC branch. This is also important in ensuring that we build ANC branches that are leading mass struggles and campaigns at community level, holding ANC councilors to account, and ensuring that our communities are leading the struggle for a better life for all. This also means that communists must be in the forefront of the ANC\'s Imvuselelo campaign.
The ideological struggles - Cutting across all the above struggles is the struggle to build working class IDEOLOGICAL hegemony in all key sites of power and influence. An important dimension of this struggle is to ensure that the ideas of the working class become the dominant ideas in society. We do not have control over the media and other critical platforms of communication, but hard work amongst the masses of the workers and the poor will ensure that indeed the ideas of the working class become the dominant ideas in society.
It is also important that we ensure that the SACP becomes the focal point for Marxist-Leninist education. Every branch must at least have a fortnightly political class and debate and that we organize these systematically and on a continous basis. It also means that communists actively participate in the COSATU socialist forums. If I may ask, how effectively are communists participating in these forums in this province and ensuring that they do indeed sit?
All what I have said above is a CALL TO ACTION and for the SACP to be at the forefront of this action. And what the above illustrates is precisely the point that never have we been so clear about our strategic and programmatic perspectives. The challenge is to implement these through stronger SACP structures. The key task of our forthcoming 12th Congress is to further elaborate on the MTV and the tasks that have to be carried out in implementing this vision.
The SACP and State Power
It is from the above context that we should therefore be approaching the important debate of the SACP\'s relation to state power and its electoral options. It is indeed important to examine this question, but we should not narrowly reduce it to just our participation in elections. It is indeed possible that one can win electoral power, but still be powerless in relation to the other key sites of power and influence. We have already pointed out above that much as the ANC is the ruling party, but the economy still remains in the same old white capitalist class.
We need to approach this debate in a very mature and strategic manner, and not be driven by whatever dissatisfactions we might have in our relationship with the ANC at the current moment.
It is indeed the considered view of the SACP\'s last Central Committee that we are in a very fluid situation in our country at the moment. This means that the question of the relationship of the SACP to state power and its electoral options cannot just simply be mechanically closed at the 12th Congress. We need to continuously and carefully assess developments in our country over the next 2 to 3 years.
We must instead built the kind of SACP that Cde Chris Hani called for in the early 1990s: flexible, adaptable and capable of correctly interpreting the balance of forces and able to lead the working class appropriately! Ours is a class struggle, under concrete conditions in concrete situations! Tactical considerations should not be read as indecisiveness, as the media likes to goad us. Just like tactical situations must not lead us into surrending our overall strategic initiative!
The matters relating to the Deputy President of the ANC
Our enemies and detractors, including some within our own ranks, are clearly focusing on our principled decisions regarding the former Deputy President of the Republic, Cde Zuma as a platform to try and create an impression that the SACP is deeply divided. They are doing this because they cannot challenge our strategic and programmatic coherence as outlined above.
It is for this reason therefore that we must restate our principled positions on this matter. Let me quote extensively from Alliance and SACP positions in order to lay to rest this matter once and for all. The statement of the August 2005 Tripartite Alliance 10-aside said the following:
Guided by these principles, the Alliance therefore agreed on the following:
The SACP Central Committee earlier had said:
"The CC endorsed the position adopted by the ANC NGC in regard to ANC deputy president, cde Jacob Zuma. The SACP commits itself to working with its alliance partners to help to foster respect for the elected national offices of our movement, and sound collective leadership".
Further, the SACP\'s response on 3 September 2005 to the Alliance 10 a side held in August on 3 September 2005 said:
"We particularly endorse the Alliance decision that the matters affecting the Deputy President have led to serious political stress within all of our formations. In addition, we reaffirm the Alliance decision that the best way to deal with all these matters is through a collective and frank political discussion…
"As the SACP we believe that there are much more fundamental issues underlying the problems that have emerged around the treatment of Cde Zuma. These issues have led to various perceptions, and can only be dealt with effectively through collective political engagement, which the Alliance has already decided upon. We shall make our contribution… to what we see as the underlying problems around this matter.
"The SACP strongly rejects attempts by sections of the media and the so-called \'independent\' political analysts to create an impression that there is a grouping of "Zuma supporters", mainly made up of the SACP and COSATU. As the recent Alliance meeting pointed out this is a matter that affects all components of the Alliance. In addition the Alliance meeting re-affirmed its support for Cde Zuma by all its components and members, in line with the resolutions of the ANC NGC. So the Alliance as whole are, to use the media\'s term, Zuma supporters (emphases added).
"The SACP regards the unity of the ANC and its allies as of paramount importance in taking forward the transformation processes in our country. It is with this attitude that we shall seek to engage in Alliance discussion and assist in finding a common approach to all political challenges facing our Alliance.
In its Central Committee statement following its meeting of of 11-12 August 2006 the SACP said the following:
"The CC briefly discussed the latest developments in the trial of ANC Deputy President, cde Jacob Zuma. The CC reiterated the SACP position, which we share with our alliance partners, that in the course of the trial we shall support cde Zuma as he deserves in a principled and dignified manner. In this context we call for a speedy and fair trial. This matter has dragged on now, in one form or another, for many years. It has placed an untenable burden on cde Zuma himself and indeed our entire movement. For justice to be done, a speedy resolution to this process is now imperative" (emphases added).
Now it should be clear what our position has been on this matter. Our detractors, including the hired hands of the 1996 class project within our own ranks, have tried to do their best in distorting our position, largely in order to hide their very own preferences in relation to the ANC leadership.
We have also consistently said that much as it is possible that the overwhelming majority of SACP members may as well prefer Cde Zuma to be the next president of the ANC, this is a matter for the ANC, and not for the SACP; and we wish to reiterate this stance here at this provincial congress. We therefore should not allow opportunistic stances to detract us from these principled postions that the SACP and the Alliance have taken.
Indeed SACP cadres who are also ANC members have a full right to go to the ANC National Conference, as ANC delegates, to argue and vote for whatever individual or collective they wish to vote for. This has nothing to do with the SACP.
Having said what we have said above, we still have an interest in the kind of collective leadership that emerges at the ANC\'s conference, as the ANC is the leader of our movement and alliance. We would indeed like to see an ANC collective that emerges in December 2007 in Limpopo to be committeed to the Alliance and honestly willing to build that alliance, genuinely listen to the concerns of its allies and not dismiss these as the rantings of \'narrow working class concerns\'.
The kind of SACP we must build
Having identified all the key challenges and tasks above, the fundamental question we must ask is what kind of SACP and cadre we need to carry out all of the above. This is returning to the very first questions I posed in relation to the state of the SACP in this province. Clearly the weaknesses in this province should serve as a reminder of the kind of the SACP we should not build, and the kind of SACP we need to build.
In short, this is the kind of SACP and cadre we need:
With this the SACP Central Committee has confidence that this Congress will lay a very strong foundation to prosecute all the above tasks and build the kind of SACP needed to lead in all these.
Issued by Alliance Secretariat