TOWARDS DEVELOPING A PARTY RE-BUILDING PROGRAMME 

INTRODUCTION

Its almost 20 years since revolutionaries within the party were removed and forced to languish in the political wilderness. Even some elements who remained behind and merely out of party loyalty and sentiment had over the years found themselves sniffed out from positions of influence within the party. Succeeding years, saw a spate of dissensions, resignations and splits from elements who, following the exit of a large number of revolutionaries, had assumed the mantle of leading the party yet to a misdirected political path. The tragic result was that all the noble traditions, milestone achievements, and heroic history of revolutionary struggle, service and sacrifice of its members had been lost and appear to had been in vain. What remains of the party is shamefull, idoitic and could only instill bitterness and vengeance on the part of all those who had taken an Oath of Allegiance to never betray the cause of the Azanian revolution and turn against fellow comrades, no matter what. None of us can ever be happy nor be even indifferent wherever we are, as long as what we witness in front of our own eyes about the PAC makes us cry in shame and even want to perish from public gaze. None of the founders of the party, Mangaliso Sobukwe in particular, will ever forgive us for letting this collosal vessel of African people's liberation sink like this. The gods of Africa who blessed us with such precious gifts of Sobukwe's mind, soul and spirit will punish us most severely. We will witness a wrath of ancestors like never witnessed in the history of Africa because of the terrible things that ever visited the party in all its entire history.

THE PARTY

A. THE POST-1990 HISTORICAL MILIEU AND CHALLENGES OF TRANSITION

The PAC's unbanning in 1990, its incapacity by its ailing president Zeph Mothopeng to lead due to ill health and the apparent speed with which the negotiation process was conducted coupled with external super-power and regional political, diplommatic and economic pressures and tensions between the internal youth and external mission over principles, strategy and tactics resulted in the party's gross inability to have a legitimate, coherent, well-elaborated and implementable transition policy, organisational and strategic plan to operate in the altogether new political and legal environment. 
Instead of realising the need for this, it instead sought a more expedient, reactive, incoherent and adhoc transition route to the detriment of holding all its forces, groups and structures united together around a unifying pogramme and plan of action. The result was that any leadership collective that emerged since that time merely fumbled in darkness, causing splits and engendering dissension all the way as decisions on the kind of interventions needed as well as the manner of responding to pressures from the dominant political actors in the whole process were informed by a set of principles and enjoyed very little legitimacy among certain groups with popular support within the party.

Much of the problems of the PAC today have its source mainly from the party's failure to define and elaborate an effective plan of transition in a manner that served to eliminate confusion and dissidence. It is correct to say, therefore, that the PAC suffers severely from its unfinished project of transition and hence almost all of those left outside have still not come back to serve in party structures and even most of those who remained within the party ranks and those who had joined later operate as a most confused contingent mass of individuals who cannot be entirely relied on in providing leadership to the masses who are in need of an alternative political platform.

At this moment in time, party transformation is demanded and is now mostly dictated and in reaction to the series of electoral defeats, successive ineffective leadership collectives, and its failure to have strategies, programmes and tactics to connect it with the masses and their legitimate popular voice. The party should be well-engineered to be a dominant political actor with its Pan-Africanist ideology reconfigured as a counter-hegemonic force to the hegemonic liberal bourgoeis neo-colonial ideology of the state and of various other social actors in the country's which seek to consolidate the current system that fosters marginalisation of the African people buttressed by economic and social inequality.        

B. WHITHER PAC

This organisation was born out of an historical necessity, to rewrite the history of an African which for centuries had been eclipsed in Atlantic slavery, racism, colonialism / neo-colonialism and ruthless capitalist exploitation. Its formation constituted the most natural act of man never to accept oppression in any manner or form and to affirm his or her natural state of freedom, justice, abundant life, peace, social harmony and prosperity. Africans were never created into slavery or any conditions that sought to undermine their true status. They were never designed to serve foreign masters or any other evil rule perpertuated upon them against their will under the sole purpose to deny them the right to life and freedom, and stunt they spiritual, intellectual and material development. Since the advent of white domination including its perpertuation in this current mileu of an indirect neo-colonial settler-capitalist rule, an African person continues to be subjected to worst forms of oppression, social degradation, intellectual marginalisation and economic exploitation. The inescapable truth is that, the party's historical tasks have not been fullfilled in any possible measure. The organisation is neither a political player of any significance, a force of noticeable stature in the eyes of the public, nor a force whose members feel a strong affinity with in their daily activities, at home, at work and anywhere else where they conduct their lives.

PARTY MEMBERSHIP

The legitimacy of any organisation or claim to that legitimacy is contingent on the membership it consists of and hence its being a living, vibrant and dynamic force. No party can be called a true living, vibrant and dynamic force without it being foremost the organic expression of the life, needs, aspirations and interests of people who join it voluntarily with a belief that that there is something in store for them in the party in terms of expressing themselves, raising their voice and embarking on kinds of action in order to realise what spurred them to join the party. Thus, a party must primarily address, first and foremost, the intellectual, moral and spiritual interests of its members before being the social and political expression of the vital intellectual, spiritual and material interests of the whole nation which ultimately seeks liberation and fullfillment of its needs.
It is, therefore, important for party members to find within the organisation's enviroment him/herself as an individual with social and spiritual needs, to feel being in the family, feel being part of the church, school, clan, work, sport, entertaiment. etc. There must never be any artificial wall or boundary between the party political life and the general broader social network of community life as well as the regular scope of people's activities. There should emerge a situation where when we see the party we see the people and when we see the people we see the party.

THE CURRENT PARTY MEMBER

At various stages in the party's history people came, joined, became part of organisational activities, campaigns and programmes. Others became leaders, leaders who voted out, some leaders continued to lead, some left, some died, but the party continued to live in whatever form. Each hour, each day, each week, each month and each year, new members came and took part in its political work and all, wherever they were, came to be identified with the name of the party. Inevitably, by virtue of had been members of the party at any stage in party's history, al, these members will forever carry the imprint  and be burdened with being branded PAC no matter whether they are active, indifferent towards, detached from, had left or had turned against the party. Our party because of its inherent culture, style and traditions has a unique member who is detectable, identifiable, visible in a certain way to the general public by virtue of being socialised and orientated in a certain political and ideological way compared to all other organisations. All our members demonstrate this wherever they are, in how they see things i general, how they behave, how they act and the way they talk. These members are found inside the country in all sectors of society, are in other organisations, are in government structures, in the whole continent and many couuntries around the world. While some may be idle or inactive within the party, many are engaged in programmes and activities of other organisations within their communities, at institutions of learning, at workplaces, in sport, in church, business and at various other social formations. Most occupy leadership positions and are highly influential even within government. These thousands of scattered party cadres from the time of Sobukwe, through to the time of PK Leballo and David Sibeko, during also the periods of Vusi Make, Nyathi Pokela, Johnson Mlambo, Zephania Mothopeng, Clarence Makwetu, Stanley Mogoba, Motsoko Pheko, up to today have the PAC stamp on them and must be reconnected in some formal and effective way with the party. They can never be anything else other than be or service to the PAC and the Azanian masses, that umbilical chord which connects, promotes and sustain the seeting movement of revolt. That fact alone makes the PAC a Diasporrian movement, a centre of convergence, a point of rebirth, moral rejuvenation and a point of gravity for a new African person who is the dominant factor at national and in global politics. 
Africanists, wherever they are, are the glimmers of the new and free Pan-Africanist global political order and the march by all people of the continent and the Diasporra towards the new human civilisation rests in their shoulders. And between good and evil in this human world and moral universe, Pan-Africanists are the final arbiters, and anything thing else, any other ideology or intellectual force not anchored on the spiritual and material interests of an African person represents only decadence and human catastrophe.

WHAT MAKES US PAN-AFRICANISTS?

Since its formation, the party had an onerous tasks of moulding a new political person in line with the moral philosophical dictates of the liberation struggle, an egalitarian socialist society as well as the ultimate global of a humanistic and socially harmonious social order where the African Personality would find free expression and blossom to the fullest.
For anyone in the party to reach to those levels of political being, each had to:

1. Take an Oath of Allegiance to Serve, Suffer and Sacrifice for the cause of African freedom.

2. Believe that none but the African person who has for centuries endured untold oppression and humiliation will bring about liberation, world progress and new human civilisation.

3. Fully recognise that there can be no liberation without land restoration and national self-determination and the liberated country will be Azania.

4. To show with his/her open palm salute, party motto (serve - suffer - sacrifice), slogan - Izwe Lethu - I-Afrika, and a special way of comradely African salute calling each other Son/Daughter of the Soil (Nyana/Ntombi YeSizwe)

5. Show absolute loyalty to the party flag and emblem (the Golden Star in Ghana with rays radiating into every corner of the continent.

6. Regard him/herself as an integral of one African nation from Cape to Cairo and from Madagascar to Morroco and the African Diasporra.

7. Pledge his/her only loyalty to the African continent and that the African indigenous people are the owners of the land.

8. Fight for the overthrowal of white domination in all its manifestations and the establishment of a free socialist Azania.

9. Promote Pan-Africanism in all his/her daily life activities without fear or favour, vigorously. without shame and consistently.

10. Believe that the only political vehicle for the liberation of an African in Azania is the PAC.      

True party mambers are recognised by all these attributes and none should act contrary to these fundamental principles of Pan-Africanism.

PARTY REBUILDING PROCESS

The stark reality is that there has been scarcity of members within the party who personify all Pan-Africanist principles in their political work, articulations of party policies and in their involvement in various party activities. The result is that, the PAC has over a operiod of time especially after its unbanning in 1990 dramatically lost its true political image and effectively relegated to an undefinable, amorphous and irrecognisable entity that is neither fish not fowl whose every step and move made no appeal to anyone seeking to connect with it or looking for an alternative to the ruling ANC or any other opposition group. It has immensely lost its magical mass appeal and has in the words of Sobukwe been reduced to an "object of pity" with its members merely turned into a disgruntled and disillusioned peripheral mass ever ready to vent out venomous anger to their fellow Africanist comrades. Now the enemy of the PAC, to them is within, so they believe.   

WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE?

ON INNER PARTY CONTRADICTIONS

Because of the extent of unmanaged contradictions within the party, it is of fundamental importance for our cadres to be thoroughly acquainted with the Chinese Communist Party chairman Mao Ze Dong's method of resolving contradictions coupled with the Marxist-Leninist dialectics on the Unity and the Struggle of Opposites and the Negation of the Negation.

A note to make in this respect is that, members of any tendency whether nationalist, socialist, Maoist, "Nkrumaist", "Garveyist", or "Du-Bosian", if there are any such recognisable tendencies within this Pan-Africanist party, are urged to understand that contradictions within the party and in society as the whole are inevitable and without them there can neither be development of the party or society nor evolution of the members' political consciousness.
At definite stages of party's development, a contradiction leads to harmony between its two opposing forces although this equilibrium of opposites is shortlived and is often replaced by disharmony and conflict because of the tendency of each of the opposites to want to gain upperhand and assume dominance within the organisation.
However all contradictions must reach a state of resolution or a synthesis once the tension has erupted into antagonisms. In the case of the PAC at this current stage, all the contradictory ideological currents and ideological tendencies must finally find a lasting resolution in a synthesised, stable, harmonious and vibrant party political machinery.

Chairman Mao once pointed out that "Opposition and struggle between ideas of different kinds constantly occuer within the party. This is a reflection within the party of conradictions between classes and between the new and the old society. If there were to be contradictions in teh party and no ideological struggle to esolve them, the party's life would come to an end."

The law of the Negation of the Negation represents a movement within the party or society of something from its old stage so that elements of the old are carried forward and reworked into the new stage. This law enables us to understand change both as a break with the past and yet at the same time, as development from within.
The objective fact is that, without a tension between opposites, things would be unchanging. Hence the current inner party conflict must transform itself into harmony and qualitative progress.
Opposites, in given conditions, remain opposed to each other and on the other hand, are interconnected, interpenetrating, interpemeating and interdependent. These are lessons that party members must learn and use as a guide in their interactions and in resolving the party's problems.
The PAC's approach when confronted with differences of opinions and views of members as encapsulated in ideological tendencies is to "Disagree in order to Agree" and democratic centralism which is the method for promoting inner party democracy and debate on issues must be effectively given practical significance at all times of party political work.

BUILDING ON THE RICH PARTY TRADITIONS.

There is a need to learn from and emulate:

1. SOBUKWE'S MASS APPROACH

The party's founder president's mobilisation strategy of primarily giving recognition to the potency and power of the illiterate and semi-literate African masses as the backbone, key and cornerstone of the Azanian revoplution.

2. POKELA'S MULTI-FRONTALISM

Nyathi Pokela displayed exceptional genius in his strategic approach by locating the internal factor (mass struggles of the people) as being being decisive with the external factor (sanctions, world solidarity and diplomatic offensive at the global level) as being supplementary to the struggles of the people inside the country. He spoke of the struggle pursued "on all fronts."
He was the one who work tirelessly for the formation of mass popular structures like Azanyu to mobilise the youth, Awo for women's mobilisation, Paso for struggles at the education theatre, Nactu for workers, Apla for a military offensive, etc. Pokela died while coordinating the formation of a Pan-Africanist mass popular liberation front to coordinate the mass campaigns under one internal umbrela to popularise the party.

3. AZANYU'S MASS ACTIVISM

The Azanian National Youth Unity which was formed in mid-1980's by the Pan-Africanist youth is reputed for its achievements of turning the African youth into militant political activists who mobilised whole communities, workers, women and students in being part of the mass resistance movement which effectively challenged the racist minority regime throughout the decade of the 1980's.
Azanyu's emerged as the PAC standard ideological bearers throughout this decade, developed more advanced and effective organisational methods, strategies and tactics which brought thousands of youths into the fold of the Pan-Africanist movement who also swelled the ranks of Apla. Much of the popularity of the PAC inside the country and among the workers could largely be attributed to efforts by Azanyu. This resulted in a hysterical reaction by the regime where leaders of Azanyu were rounded up during the state of emergency and held in detention with others charged with treason for plunging the entire Vaal region into a general state of civil unrest.
A lot can be learnt from Azanyu in this regard.

4. A PARTY (PARTIES) POLITICAL AND STRUGGLE MODEL

Certain liberation organisations like the one led by Kwame Nkrumah in Ghana, Amhed Ben Bella, and Communist Party of Mao Ze Dong in China and struggles in those countries served as models and inspiration for the PAC in its prosecution of the struggle in Azania.
In this current conjecture, as the party is being reconfigured anew, as a dynamic force operating in a legalistic and constitutional competitive multi-party parliamentary environment, the PAC still needs to have such models of parties and struggles or relatively new ones for inspiration.     

a. PARTY ORGANISATIONAL BASICS

1. To go back to the party political basics by retaking the Oath of Allegiance with the full understanding of the implications of turning and working against the party.

11. Fully appraise all members, old and new, with party fundamentals - the basic documents including the 1959 Africanist Manifesto and Sobukwe's speeches.

111. Thoroughly hammer the members with the party motto and its deeper meaning in moulding party and members' discipline as well as their overall conduct.  

1V. Ensure a thorough understanding of the party's FIVE AIMS which constitutes the party's revolutionary programme and political outlook as symbolised in the open palm salute.

V. Fully acquaint and thoroughly ground all members with party's history and the most important historical events like the 1949 Programme of Action,  6 April 1959 party inuagural conference, 21 March Sharpeville campaign and mass uprising, June 16 Soweto uprising and the Bethal Trial, July's Heroes Day, Afrika Day and Sobukwe's death on 27 February.

V11. In this political education series, to present the history of all structures of the party, Azanyu, Paso, Awo, and Nactu including their political contribution and significance during the liberation struggle before the party's unbanning.

b. STRATEGIC TASK TEAM

THE rebuilding process must be carried with a special team that will look into all the issues mentioned in the document for purposing of effecting interventions, with specific mandates, areas of focus, time frames and with powers to monitor and make evaluations.

These focus areas include:  

a. Appraisal of the the party itself and Where it stands in the country's unfolding political drama.

b. Structures of the party and formations for mass mobilisation.

c. Programme (Strategy and Tactics) - in sectors like Mass Media, Trade Unions, Churches, Institutions of Learning, Sports, Business, Traditional Leaders, and Women 

d. Political education

e. Research and Intellectual Corps

f. Funding

g. Network (nationally and internationally)

h. Deployment and security

i. Leadership and management.

All the nine areas which constitute the key focus areas which also need proper co-ordination are a mandate of the task team which will establish a broader forum from persons who will constitutes teams to look specifically into those areas.
It is important to select people who are currently involved in those areas who also have expertise and experience.

		AN INITIAL DISCUSSION

There should first be an initial discussion by a small representative group from across age, gender, region and province around the issues raised and proposals made.
Resolutions can then be taken and action should follow.
Time frames need to be made.
There should be reporting and evaluation processes agreed on.