[DEBATE] : FW: [SACP] Speech of Cde Blade Nzimande at the North West Congress, Embargoed till 11H00

[Dominic Tweedie]

Build a strong SACP for working class hegemony in all key sites of power:
Address to the SACP North-West Congress, Potchefstroom, 31 March 2007

1.	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.

2.	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:

3. 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.

3.	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!

4. 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:
“The Alliance 10-a-side, made up of the national leaderships of the ANC,
SACP, COSATU and SANCO met to discuss matters relating to the charges
brought against the ANC Deputy President, and the ensuing developments. The
meeting was characterized by frank, fruitful and constructive discussions.
“In approaching these matters our Alliance is guided by the principles of
our movement and the principles that underpin our democracy, which we are
collectively committed to upholding. Our point of departure was that the
unity of the ANC and our alliance is of paramount importance. The meeting
recognized and agreed that this matter has caused deep hurt and outrage in
all of our formations and that therefore we need to find a common approach
in handling it. We are the only formations capable of leading our national
democratic effort to continue with the transformation of our country.
“Guided by these principles, the Alliance therefore agreed on the following:

*       Reaffirming our support for ANC Deputy President, Cde Jacob Zuma
“The Alliance reiterates that Cde Zuma continues to enjoy the full and
unreserved support of the Alliance and each of its component organizations
and members. The Alliance meeting further endorsed the decisions of the ANC
NGC on the place and role of the ANC Deputy President. We particularly
endorsed the decision that the collective and individual leaders of our
movement must be respected at all times. In this regard the meeting also
agreed that the President and the Deputy President of the Republic must be
accorded respect and be supported as leaders of our country.
“The Alliance reiterated its commitment to the upholding of the rule of law,
the supremacy of the South African constitution, the principle of
presumption of innocence, and the need for state institutions to respect the
rights, dignity and integrity of all citizens.
“The Alliance meeting urged Cde Zuma's lawyers to approach the state to
cover the costs of his legal defence, since he is facing allegations that
emanate from his role as a public office-bearer.
*       Raid at the home of Cde Zuma
“The Alliance disapproves of the highhanded search and seizure operations at
the homes of ANC Deputy President, including his lawyers' offices. This is
inconsistent with the NPA Act, which urges that the Scorpions must perform
its duties fearlessly but with sensitivity to privacy and the dignity of the
affected persons.
“We are also concerned about the manner in which the media appears to have
been co-ordinated to ensure public ventilation of even the details of the
search and seizure operations.
“The Alliance Secretariat will officially communicate all these complaints
and concerns to the National Director of Public Prosecutions. As the
builders of this democracy we will continue to support and respect
institutions of democracy, even as we continue to transform them so that
they reflect the values underpinning our democracy.
*       On the way forward
“Accordingly, the alliance partners dealt with a range of perceptions
emanating since the developments on the Jacob Zuma matter and agreed to
continue assessing the basis of these perceptions which have not helped the
common unity and purpose of the movement.
“The Alliance meeting agreed that the management of the fissures created by
developments around the ANC Deputy President is a priority, and we are
committed and confident that collectively we will resolve all these. The
meeting agreed that another 10 a side meeting will be convened in the coming
weeks to discuss a range of other political matters of common interest. In
particular, to continue discussions and exchanges around the outcomes and
resolutions of the ANC NGC, SACP Special National Congress, and the COSATU
Central Committee. We further agreed that many of the resolutions taken in
these important gatherings provide a very firm foundation for further
consolidating common alliance perspectives on the challenges of transforming
our country.
“The Alliance will also receive a report on the preparations and discussions
towards the National Congress of SANCO, to be held in December 2005, as part
of ongoing consolidation of our common perspectives and approaches to all
matters facing the transformation challenge in our country.
“COSATU also formally tabled its CC resolution on the matters relating to
the Deputy President of the ANC. It was agreed that further engagement is
required on these COSATU CC resolutions, within the context of the overall
discussions of the resolutions of national gatherings of the other partners.
“Issued by Alliance Secretariat”
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’.

4.	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:

*	Hard-working, exemplary and DISCIPLINED
*	We do not want passengers, who get elected and do nothing
*	Defend the SACP at all times and under all circumstances
*	Committed to self development through criticism and self criticism and
political education
*	Committed to building fraternal organisations as revolutionary
organisations and ensuring the building of the capacity of the working class
to lead such processes
*	Committed participation in driving the campaigns of the SACP
*	Not using the SACP as a springboard to access positions in government or
any other allied formation
*	No members’ member
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.




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