PAYCO s’ decision to stay out of the 2009 elections elicited trivial criticism from some quarters. Whereas we are already mistakenly and cheaply accused of left wing communist tendencies by some ‘learned’ revolutionaries, let me clarify what our decision not to participate in the elections is about as opposed to what it is not about. It is about internal Party democracy. We cannot tolerate dictatorship of any kind and allow individuals or cliques to hold the greater majority of Party members ransom. The will of PAC members must be respected and their voices must be heard. The Alice farce was the apex of the negation of internal Party democracy when Letlapa defied delegates from branches on the amendments to the constitution. As far as we are concerned the dictator will lead himself and dictate only to himself. It is our responsibility to teach Party members that they are the ultimate arbiters of party programmes and this we shall do patiently. We will not allow individualism to flourish over Party collective. Let it be understood that the sovereignty of PAC members is supreme. It is about Party discipline. There have been several deviations from party positions. For instance who sent Leltapa to go on an ego trip apologizing for the armed struggle on our behalf and why should the PAC ever apologize? The armed struggle was not a mistake. It was a just, principled revolutionary Party programme and no individual can take solo decisions on any aspects of our collective engagement in the armed struggle. It is about collective leadership and responsibility across board. If we sideline and suppress members of the Party we cannot expect them to support programmes that arose out of such negation of internal democracy. We have equal rights of participation and say. We share collective responsibility for our collective decisions as a Party. It is a disgrace that a revolutionary Party should tolerate any kind of dictatorship. We are not a Mafia organisation where the boss is the alpha and omega. It is about ideological commitment. Since Qwaqwa we have witnessed a litany of ideological deviations from the Party line. It is not necessary to repeat them but if we are challenged we can give a substantial account of the same. Our decision is not by any stretch of intelligible imagination about whether or not we believe the elections are a relevant mechanism of advancing revolutionary programmes. We are not concerned here with the merits or demerits of legal forms and methods of struggle. We accept the principle that the methods and forms of a revolutionary struggle must be determined by obtaining material political situation and at the moment the only way of advancing the struggle is to work amongst the masses and engage in revolutionary struggles of the masses to build a popular support base which will allow us to meaningfully participate in popular elections. Elections are about popularity (numbers) of parties, programmes and committed leadership. That popularity can only be won through years of organised mass struggles and eloquent articulation of mass struggles. Let me amplify, succinctly, our grounds to stay out of the forthcoming 2009 General Elections:
The imposed and illegitimate leadership is in gross contempt and violation of Party Constitution i.e. invoking of the decree and dissolving of the NEC. The prevailing malicious, systematic marginalisation and suppression of party members and structures by the imposed and illegitimate leadership; disbanding structures and appointing provincial co-ordinators, setting up parallel component structures, cooking up membership in order to cling to power and depriving genuine PAC members of the right to annual membership renewal. The absence of political vision and direction; What is the Party vision today? Where is the Party going? Where will the Party be in 2014? The absence of a revolutionary programme of action; what is the attitude and relationship of the Party towards the workers, women, youth and the poor masses versus the neo-colonial order in this country and on the continent? How does the Party plan to-engange-to-dislodge the neo-colonial capitalist order? Failure to advocate established party policies which advance and promote spiritual and material interests of the African people in general and the poor and working class in particular; Audacious careerism and opportunism to promote, in general, reactionary tendencies and selfish interests of a few individuals within the ‘leadership’ in the name of the party at the expense of the sweat, toil and blood of revolutionary, committed and hard working party members; Conspicuous departure from the revolutionary commitment, orientation, tasks, programmes, policies and traditions of the PAC and a concerted advancement of clear counter revolutionary programmes not only to frustrate and dilute the noble cause of the Party but to practically abort the revolutionary objectives of the party; In short the imposed and illegitimate leadership is no longer advancing the programmes of the PAC and the forthcoming 2009 general election under these treacherous circumstances is being used to leverage the counter revolutionary agenda. We are under no obligation to make a counter revolutionary contribution to a counter revolutionary programme or for that matter tolerate such programmes within the ranks of the Party. The Party is being enslaved by forces of counter revolution. It is being turned against itself from within. And the question is for how long shall we keep on compromising with counter revolutionary forces for the sake of unity and cohesion of the party when the same forces destruct the same pillars of strengths with impunity in order to advance counter revolutionary programmes? Comrades we have taken this stand after a long and hard interrogation of a series of events, programmes, actions and pronouncements which have confirmed that the imposed and illegitimate leadership does not represent what the PAC stands for or represent the revolutionary aspirations of the African masses. It is a colossal masquerade. Our commitment and responsibility to the PAC is infinite and we are determined to banish and defeat the counter revolutionary offensive within Party ranks so that PAC can forge ahead with its historic mission. We stand by our decision: No Revolutionary Leadership - No Revolutionary Party - No Revolutionary Programme - No Revolutionary Policy - No Elections! For and on Behalf of PAYCO Hulisani Mmbara PAYCO President 082 593 3012 _________________________________________________________________ Join the all-new Windows Live Messenger family http://get.live.com --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Groups "Pan Africanist Youth Congress of Azania" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/payco Visit our website at www.geocities.com/paycoonline //panafricanist.blogspot.com -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
