Comrades, I read pieces of Floyd, Mazibuko and Buti with kind interest but could not waste time but give our national secretary a standing ovation for bringing fresh ideas to this on-going mudslinging. Cde Buti hit the nail in the head, indeed "There is no need for fear among non-communists in the ANC and Cosatu members about this. As long as the struggle against racism exists, a united alliance will outlive all of us, young and old." Communist cadres, it's also my view that there is a small minority within the ANC, if not moles of the 1996 class project, driving the continual stream of propaganda to demonise the SACP and creating a media frenzy around this tired notion that communists are trying to take over the ANC without any shred of evidence. Since post-Polokwane dispensation, the apologists of capitalism together with their shadows in the market economy launched a fierce attack on the ideology of the Alliance to portray the SACP as parasitically and opportunistically clinging on the ANC. There's no reason to dignify all of this comical farce with a response. Of course, these elements cannot differentiate between an Alliance debate and personalities championing half-baked theories. And when they cannot articulate their point of view, they become incessant irritants using media to garner support to crush those who voice a dissenting view. All of this in the name of the ANC. To them democratic centralism or constructive engagement does not mean anything, hence a tendency to resort to anarchy - sometimes using derogatory names to engage fellow comrades and declaring pseudo wars in the media without reconciling themselves with the consequences thereof. All of this borders on ill-discipline and lack of political education. At the funeral of Moses Kotane in Moscow on 26 May 1978, then ANC President cde Oliver Tambo said "his first contact with Kotane was in 1946, which was the beginning of a period of great political upheavals in our struggle - a period that was to prove most decisive in the general orientation of our political advancement as a movement. If Moses Kotane was the general secretary of the SACP, he was no lesser degree a highly esteemed and completely devoted leader of the African National Congress." "Reflecting the confidence which our movement had in Moses Kotane, Chief Albert Lutuli, the late President-General of the ANC, often consulted him on complex issues calling for wise leadership and delicate decision. It was for similar reasons that, at our request, Comrade Moses left South Africa to join the external ANC leadership in Dar es Salaam in January 1963. Umkhonto we Sizwe was one year old at the time and its members were leaving South Africa in large numbers for training abroad." "In the emergence of Umkhonto we Sizwe Moses Kotane saw the beginnings of the final onslaught on the last stronghold of imperialism - the fascist republic of South Africa. His devotion to the building up of this nucleus of our People's Army was second only to his devotion to the struggle for national and social liberation in South Africa, for the triumph of the socialist cause the world over." This excerpt is the cornerstone of understanding the Alliance and dual membership conception. Cde Moses Kotane, a true cadre who hated sectarianism of any type, was one of the main architects of the Congress Alliance and its policies, and was the treasurer of the ANC and the general secretary of the SACP. This was without any contention because the struggle could not be easily hijacked by liberal elements or current crop of reactionaries found in our movement. Back then the Alliance saw no nationalists or communists but comrades in arms sharing common experiences and wisdom in order to preserve the distinction of these allied structures. It's surprising that there is a lot of brouhaha around cde Gwede Mantashe's role as secretary general of the ANC and national chairperson of the SACP. None of the detractors have been able to find any conflict of interest when the late cde Dan Tloome was serving as the deputy secretary-general of the ANC and national chairperson of the SACP. Perhaps it's a matter of convenience or totally disdain for the office of the secretary general whenever it's occupied by a communist. It's interesting that suddenly there is contradiction in terms of dual roles or serious departure from the established practice of the movement as a result of dual membership. The truth is that a growing hatred for communists and/or misunderstanding of the socialist agenda created a fertile ground for neo-liberal tendencies to suffocate our movement and the political significance of the Alliance traditions. The present day ANC-led-Alliance is portrayed by its critics,as something totally mystical, and therefore irrelevant. Who can take them serious, when all of this reflects an impoverish understanding of the historical significance of the Alliance? In fact, it's a lazy and totally inadequate way of thinking, particularly in the context of the struggle waged by the Alliance to defeat apartheid oppression and bring about freedom and democracy to the people. It's a case of failing to comprehend things in their connection - unable to see the wood for the trees. The Alliance remains not only strategic, but also ideological derived from tenets of the Freedom Charter - the very womb that guides our national democratic revolution and essential prerequisite in understanding how the working class can achieve its own emancipation. This is not to deny the usefulness of the ANC as the leader of the Alliance, on the contrary, but to recognise its limitations in challenging the spate of capitalism within our midst. However, I disagree with Mazibuko Jara's assertion that the "SACP seeks united front among the Left to effectively challenge capitalism" - sounds like a shortened form of calling for the SACP to break from the Alliance and become an opposition which will challenge the capitalist policies of the ANC. This is a misnomer, something that limits our understanding that the ANC as a multi-class organisation. The current election manifesto represents the Alliance in action to meet social developmental goals. In a nutshell, the role of communists in the ANC is to shape and influence the direction of our national democratic revolution, including policies of government so that all programmes are reflective of the social developmental goals. This means we cannot allow a small minority who use petty squabbles to distort the cause of our struggle in order to champion an agenda that bears no relation to reality. The Tripartite Alliance remains the only vehicle to reconcile the contradictions of capitalist policies and essential revolutionary concept of social change - Marxist-Leninist goal of liberating the working class. As for Floyd Shivambu's submission, I have no interest for issues that seek to perpetuate tensions or engage personalities. Until such time there is a constructive dialogue and practical suggestions of remedies for the political advancement of our movement, and the Alliance in particular, I will engage in a meaningful debate to protect the dignity of our movement. An open and constructive engagement with the broader movement, is what is lacking in this new phase of the national democratic revolution. There is generally an urgent need for stepping up Political Education at all levels of our movement to conscientise the current crop of nationalists not to think that championing the interests of the bourgeoisie in the ANC equals to treating communists with disdain. Communist cadres like Moses Kotane, J.B. Marks, Moses Mabhida, Joe Slovo, Chris Hani and many others, defended the ANC while in the ranks of the SACP to ensure that the teeth and nails of every form of factionalism are uprooted from our movement. The ANCYL leadership needs to revisit archives of our movement to better understand the genesis of the problems of factionalism and patronage threatening the character, the values and the future existence of the African National Congress. Individuals come and go, but principles will always be there for the generation to come. Remain, Morgan Phaahla Ekurhuleni
"Sometimes, if you wear suits for too long, it changes your ideology." - Joe Slovo --- On Sun, 12/20/09, Dominic Tweedie <[email protected]> wrote: From: Dominic Tweedie <[email protected]> Subject: [YCLSA Discussion] Small faction driving division, Buti Manamela To: [email protected] Date: Sunday, December 20, 2009, 4:58 AM Small faction is using the oldest trick in the book to drive division, say Young Communists Buti Manamela, Sunday Independent, Johannesburg, 20 December 2009 MAHATMA Gandhi once said that (for) "unity to be real (it) must stand the severest strain without breaking". One cannot but marvel at how this well this applies to the alliance between the ANC, SACP and Cosatu. Since colonialism and apartheid, the oppressors have identified this alliance as the major threat and obstacle to the success of an oppressive regime. In all its engagements, the apartheid regime sought to divide the alliance and warm up to prominent leaders of the ANC, encouraging them to break away from the communists as a precondition for negotiations. Leaders such as Nelson Mandela and Chief Albert Luthuli ignored such gestures because they understood that the liberation of our country depended more on the unity of the oppressed racial and class groups than cosying up to a regime that held power illegitimately for more than 300 years. At all material times, attempts to break the alliance and defeat the historical mandate of the national liberation movement were aimed at vilifying Communist Party leaders and creating suspicion around their motives. This strategy has been used by both intra-alliance and external forces who sought to water down the objectives of the national democratic revolution and create an elite. Leaders of the apartheid regime had from time to time expressed confidence towards the ANC leadership and encouraged them to sever ties with Moscow and the SACP as some form of divide-and-rule. The most vigilant among ANC leaders scorned these attempts and maintained the unity of the alliance. Lately, there is a small faction inside and outside the alliance that seeks to resuscitate the already-defeated agenda of dividing the alliance by targeting and isolating leaders of the SACP, casting doubt on their credibility. Unsubstantiated claims of a "communist takeover" are an old trick in the book which tacitly undermines the presidency and intellect of Jacob Zuma. The strategy is to question the presence and influence of the SACP and the YCL in society and in the alliance, and to undermine the role the SACP played in the ANC election victory. Unproven allegations that Blade Nzimande harbours aspirations of being deputy president of the ANC and the republic are peddled to support this view, along with other allegations against SACP leaders. All members of the SACP who have been elected to the ANC national executive committee - and there are many - have been selected on the basis of their membership and activism in the ANC. They understand that their election is not on the basis of being communists, but as members of the ANC in good standing. The raising of false alarms is solely to gang up against these comrades and consolidate an anti-communist faction within the ranks of the alliance. This is barbaric and constitutes the most backward and defeated strategy of seeking to isolate communists as legitimate members of the ANC. This was the ideological premise of the ousted pre-Polokwane ANC leadership. At some point in history, the SACP enjoyed the patronage and influence which could have allowed a communist takeover. The Morogoro and Kabwe conference declarations reflect this "communist dominance". But it was the communists of the time who halted this desire because they understood that the immediate struggle was the defeat of the dominant contradiction of race, and that the class struggle constituted the fundamental contradiction in society. Communists of this age understand that this "dominant contradiction" remains, and that to seek to accelerate a socialist struggle when the consciousness of our society is not developed enough to begin to appreciate the fundamental struggle will be suicidal. We also understand that the ANC remains a multi-class formation that unites all forces that seek to defeat and resolve the national grievance. It is this understanding of the ANC and of the current struggle that drives all communist forces to maintain the unity of the revolutionary alliance, even under "severest strain without breaking". But importantly, leaders of the ANC, SACP and Cosatu understand that the alliance is about influencing each other at particular tactical moments. To equate the influence of allies among each other as communist takeover is to flirt with sensationalism and constitutes division of forces against national oppression. This will achieve nothing but a defeat of the historical mandate of the revolutionary alliance. We are on the verge of defeating racism and creating a prosperous society, under the leadership of the ANC and President Zuma. The communists have accepted, for more than 80 years, ANC leadership of the current phase of our national democratic revolution. There is no need for fear among non-communists in the ANC and Cosatu members about this. As long as the struggle against racism exists, a united alliance will outlive all of us, young and old. Buti Manamela is the national secretary of the YCL From: http://www.sundayindependent.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5292761 -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] .
<<inline: sindy.jpg>>
