Umsebenzi Online, Volume 20, No. 06, 29 July 2021
Red AlertSACP holds a hybrid rally to celebrate its 100th founding anniversary |
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The weekend 30 July – 1 August 2021 marks the 100th anniversary of the founding conference of the South African Communist Party (SACP) as the Communist Party of South Africa.
The SACP held a Special Centenary Central Committee meeting on Monday, 26 July 2021. The meeting discussed the current political situation in our country and the SACP Centenary Statement to be delivered by the Party General Secretary Dr Blade Nzimande on Sunday, 1 August 2021, during a hybrid rally scheduled to celebrate the 100th founding anniversary of the Party.
The SACP will hold the physical and virtual rally with livestreaming on SACP Facebook Page and YouTube Channel to celebrate the centenary.
Physical attendance will be limited to media to provide coverage from the event, SACP Central Committee members, and invited representatives, all in compliance with COVID-19 preventative regulations.
The SACP invites the media to cover the event. The details are as follows:
Date: Sunday, 1 August 2021
Starting time: 11h00
Venue for media coverage from the event: 141 Main Street Marshalltown, Johannesburg, 2107
Dr Blade Nzimande, the General Secretary will deliver the SACP Centenary Statement. The statement will briefly reflect on the 100 years of our unbroken struggle, the current political situation, the condition of the masses, and broader social transformation and economic policy imperatives.
ANC, COSATU and Young Communist League of South Africa leaders will deliver messages of support.
There will be international solidarity messages by the Communist Party of China and the Communist Party of Cuba, as well as an acknowledgement of other international solidarity messages received.
Theme of the SACP centenary: Put people before profit: Socialism is the Future - Build it now.
Webinar connection details: The SACP will share the Zoom Webinar details with the media ahead of the event.
We have been watching you - We have agreed to recruit you into the Family
Reflections on recruitment into the SACP, then an underground organisation since it was banned in 1950 under the Suppression of Communism Act.
By Barry Gilder
It is 1980. It is Quibaxe. I am in the worst spot in the camp the toilet. The toilet is a trench, about ten metres long by three metres wide. Across its breadth are placed large logs at intervals of about half a metre. To use it, you waddle into the centre with a foot on each of two neighbouring logs. You lower your overalls and underpants around your ankles and squat, gingerly trying to keep your clothes out of the path of whatever may emanate from your bowels. You try to avoid looking down. If you do, you will see the most horrific mass of effluent, teeming with worms, buzzing with flies and mosquitoes, spotted with scraps of soiled newspaper. At least for once I am alone.
This is always a demeaning position from which to conduct a conversation with your comrades. As I am finishing, a comrade pushes a branch aside and emerges from the surrounding trees. "Oh, there you are, Comrade Jimmy. Comrade Che (January Masilela) is looking for you."' He starts his undressing and waddling ritual.
I complete my ablutions and make my way down to the camp administration. I find Che inside. He takes me outside and walks slowly with me around the campground. "Comrade Jimmy, it is time to raise something with you. We have been watching you". "Oh s[*]t! Am I in trouble?"
We have agreed to recruit you into the Family."Family?" I should know what he's talking about, but I am not ready for the transition from the profanity of the toilet to this profundity.
"The Party, Comrade Jimmy. We have been studying you for a long time and we think you are Party material". Party membership is reserved for the most advanced cadres. It is the vanguard.
I am stunned. I am proud. It has taken so long. I assumed I just hadn't made the grade.
"Thank you, Comrade Commissar. I am honoured."
- This is an extract from the book Songs and Secrets (2012) Barry Gilder, a veteran of the SACP member, uMkhonto weSizwe revolutionary, musician and poet. Gilder is now South Africa's Ambassador to Syria.
The sentimental evocations of SACP centenary celebration:
Best way to celebrate the centenary of the SACP is to continue advancing the objectives that informed its formation
By Reneva Fourie
The end of July 2021 is upon us. It is the time that marks the centenary of our beloved South African Communist Party (SACP), founded as the Communist Party of South Africa on 30 July 1921 at an inaugural conference held in Cape Town from 30 July to 1 August 1921. This auspicious period evokes strong feelings of sentimentality.
There was a time when every SACP member had to be an ANC member. This dual membership was informed by the "Black Republic Thesis" and the later characterisation of our revolution as being one against colonialism of a special type. It was therefore incumbent upon every communist to foremost contribute to the struggle for national liberation while infusing class and gender consciousness.
Accordingly, despite our determinism being informed by concrete conditions, and the knowledge that all terrain is constantly contested, including that of ideology and power; the celebration of the SACP centenary in the context of the current tensions befalling our movement, conjures feelings of nostalgia.
We long for the days when the enemy was clear and organisational discipline was compelling. We yearn for the moments when the well-being of the South African people and even the oppressed people of the world at large was a supreme focus. This centenary makes us want to return to a time when self-interest and self-promotion were regarded as taboos.
Oh, how the attainment of political power has changed the nature of our movement. And even though as communists we know that change is inevitable and requires sober analysis and intervention, witnessing the challenges befalling our movement still pains.
Life under colonialism and apartheid was characterised by levels of deprivation, repression, and indignity that those born post-1990 would fortunately never really fully understand. The kind of evil where human beings were roasted alive or thrown out of helicopters in flight is incomprehensible if you have not lived through it. That people even had the courage to challenge the brutal apartheid regime supported by a mighty South African Defence Force and a sophisticated National Intelligence Service is highly applaudable. But it is that bravery that makes our political freedom even so much more precious.
As leaders in the period preceding 1994, we encouraged our people to fight for a set of ideals. When they died in the process, we told their families that they should not mourn as the blood of their loved ones had nourished the tree of our freedom. But when we look at the conduct of some of our comrades today, we become overwhelmed with shame.
We are not even here referring to entrants into the liberation movement post its unbanning. Those who are behaving so atrociously qualify to be called stalwarts. They were, and I am embarrassed to say it, once leaders of even the SACP. They understand our culture. They understand our values. They know the cost of liberation. Yet they feel no shame at risking all that we fought for to protect themselves and other individuals.
Many of us lost family members and friends in the war of resistance. July 23 marked the 32nd anniversary of the death of two of my close comrades who were martyred while conducting an uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) operation. How do those who are now trying to destroy the ANC and our country face the relatives of those who have died? I certainly can't, for I feel like I have failed to protect the legacy that their children fought for.
Yes, celebrating the centenary of SACP can lead to romantic idealism of what has passed. But nostalgia around why we were formed, and the recollection of historical programs and practises also lead to a recommitment to creating a more economically just world.
This begins with contributing to regaining and maintaining a progressive hegemony in our movement so that creating a better life for all South Africans once again is a priority. We need to recommit to challenging a global economic system wherein the largest Fortune 500 companies could in 2019 generate $33.3 trillion in revenues and $2.1 trillion in profits, whilst more than 800 million people went hungry. And we need to lead in ending imperialist wars and its abuse of sanctions.
The best way to celebrate the centenary of the SACP is to continue advancing the objectives that informed its formation. For indeed, only socialism is the future. Let us continue to build it now.
- Reneva Fourie is a member of the SACP Central Committee. She is now based in Syria.
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