Umsebenzi Online, Volume 9, No. 1, 6 January 2010
In this Issue:
ยท Ours was never a struggle about replacing the white with a black
elite!
Red Alert:
Ours was never a struggle about replacing the white with a black elite!
SACP message on the 15th anniversary commemoration of the passing away
of Cde Joe Slovo
Blade Nzimande, General Secretary
Cde Joe Slovo passed away on this day 6 January, exactly 15 years ago
in 1995. This is the first mass activity of the SACP for 2010. There
could have been no better way to start this important year for our
country, than through the commemoration and celebration of the life,
struggles and sacrifices of one of the greatest heroes of our South
African revolution, our former General Secretary and National
Chairperson, a former member of the ANC NEC and NWC, Cde Joe Slovo. Cde
Slovo embodied some of the best qualities that came to characterise our
revolution - selflessness, solidarity and complete dedication to the
liberation of the overwhelming majority of our people.
In recognition of his contribution to the national liberation struggle
and his role as a member and later leader of the ANC, he was given the
highest award by the ANC, Isithwalandwe, at the ANC's national
conference in 1994 in Mangaung, just under a month before he passed
away. This was, amongst others, also recognition of the role and
contribution of communists as members and leaders of the ANC in their
own right.
Slovo - a communist cadre and a leader of the liberation movement as a
whole
Slovo joined the communist movement as part of the Young Communist
League in the 1940s and played a critical role in the reconstitution of
the SACP underground in 1953 after the banning of the Communist Party
of South Africa (CPSA) by the apartheid regime in 1950. He lived his
entire adult life as a communist and died a communist. He understood
that being a communist was a life-long commitment and not some fashion
to be worn and opportunistically thrown off according to personal and
other opportunistic reasons.
Cde Slovo played a critical, and often leading, role in the
reconstitution of SACP structures in exile, as well as rebuilding these
inside the country, especially after the banning of the ANC in 1960. At
the unbanning of the liberation movement in 1990, Slovo returned to the
country as General Secretary of the SACP; a recognition of his
commitment to the cause of socialism and his role in the SACP over more
than four decades at the time.
Cde Slovo will forever stand out as a symbol of the immense
contribution that some of our white compatriots have made to the
liberation of our country. These white compatriots like Bill Andrews,
Ruth First, Sonia and Brian Bunting, Michael Harmel, Ray Alexander,
Bram Fischer, Esther Barsel, and many others were trailblazers in the
struggle to forge a non-racial movement and a non-racial South Africa.
This should continue to serve as an example to especially our younger
white compatriots, and also dispel the myth once and for all that white
cadres like Joe Slovo are not part of the broader family of our
movement.
As the SACP we were the pioneers of the non-racial political movement
in our country. In memory of Cde Slovo we must continue to vigorously
defend the struggle for a non-racial South Africa, and isolate and
expose both white racism and narrow African chauvinism (whose aim is to
hide private and personal accumulation interests).
There is also no contradiction between the struggle for, on the one
hand, the liberation of Africans in particular and blacks in general
and, on the other hand, the struggle for non-racialism! In fact the
former is the condition for the realization of the latter. But at the
same time we need to be vigilant that the struggle for the liberation
of blacks in general, and Africans in particular, is not corrupted
towards a narrow (often elite-driven) anti-white African chauvinism,
thus defeating the objectives of building a non-racial society.
Cde Slovo led by example when it came to undertaking difficult tasks,
and was amongst the first to join the ranks of Umkhonto WeSizwe when
our movement embarked on the armed struggle in 1961. Through his
dedication he rose through the ranks of Umkhonto to become a commander.
Cde Slovo also stands out as a symbol of the unity of our alliance. We
should seek to emulate his example as part of strengthening and
deepening the unity of our alliance in the current period going forward.
Cde Slovo is also the personification of the role played by many other
communists in our liberation movement. He was a member and leader of
both the SACP and the ANC. He personifies the fact that there is no
contradiction in being a communist and a member of the ANC, and that,
in fact, good communists must be in the ANC. This also reflects the
very strength of the ANC as a movement, in that draws its cadres from
the widest possible circles of progressives in the youth, student,
women's, trade union and communist movements.
Cde Slovo's life and example is an answer to those who have always been
threatened by the presence of communists in our broader movement, and
that in fact there can be no liberation movement in our country without
the equal participation of all its constituent parts and components.
Cde Slovo led by example in many ways. He was amongst the first
communists that served in Cabinet in our very first democratic
government in 1994 and was the first national office-bearer of the SACP
to play such a role at national government level. As Minister of
Housing, albeit for a very short period, he served government with
distinction and placed the interests of the people above those of his
own. He indeed laid the foundation for the many later advances made by
the government in its housing programme over the past 16 years. The
lesson from Slovo in this regard is that good communists in government,
at whatever level, must serve with dedication with the sole purpose of
uplifting and transforming the conditions of the overwhelming majority
of our people, especially the workers and the poor. And Cde Slovo's
many roles (and hats) serve as reminder that communists must indeed be
active everywhere - in the ANC, in community mass organizations, in the
trade union movement, in the state and wherever duty calls, to advance
and deepen our national democratic revolution!
Slovo the ideologue and theoretician of our movement
Slovo was one of the leading theoreticians of the SACP and indeed our
movement as a whole. Many of the things he wrote over the past decades
still remain as relevant as ever. Some of these are even more relevant
in the current period going forward. In one of his seminal
writings, 'The South African Working Class and the National Democratic
Revolution', Slovo amongst other things said the following:
"Socialist ideas take root not just through book knowledge but through
struggle around day to day issues". By so saying Slovo was not
denouncing book knowledge, which he was a great believer in, but merely
pointing out that that knowledge without involvement in practical
struggle can be meaningless. In fact we need both book knowledge and
involvement in struggle - combination of theory and practice!
Indeed through our annual Red October Campaign and other campaigns the
SACP has embarked on mass activity and mobilization, reaching out and
being embraced by the workers and the poor of our country (and even
sections of our middle classes) in together taking up struggles around
their day to day issues facing our people.
Slovo would have been proud of the achievements of the SACP's Red
October Campaign since its launch in 1999, and the extent to which this
campaign has contributed to the enormous growth of the SACP, whose
membership is now close to 100 000. In his memory we should indeed seek
to double this membership by our 13th Congress in 2012, whilst ensuring
that we focus on the quality of our membership as well. Conditions
today dictate that if the SACP is to meaningfully play its vanguard
role we should aim to grow our Party both qualitatively and
quantitatively, and at least aim at a minimum of 500 000 members over
the next few years by 2014.
He further argued in the same pamphlet that "We have never hidden our
(the SACP) conviction, which we continue to proclaim, that true
national liberation ultimately is impossible without social
liberation". This is a very relevant point as it relates to the reality
that our struggle was simply never only about winning political power,
but fundamentally about the transformation of the conditions of the
overwhelming majority of our people. In following Joe Slovo we should
unashamedely re-iterate, both in theory and practice that our struggle
was never about an empowerment of a small elite or about replacing a
white with a black elite, but was, and still is, about the liberation
and upliftment of the majority of our people.
The SACP shall allow no intimidation or blackmail, of whatever type,
whether from inside or outside our movement, to derail us from
defending the principal goal of our liberation movement - to change the
conditions of the majority for the better and fight against all forms
of chauvinism, narrow nationalism and self-enrichment by those in
positions of power and authority.
The organizational tasks of the SACP and the working class
On the leading role of the working class, and in the same pamphlet, Cde
Slovo had this to say:
"The working class cannot play the key role by merely leading itself
and sloganising about its historic mission. It must win popular
acceptance on the ground as the most effective champion of the
democratic aspirations of all the racially oppressed groupings. It must
work with, and provide leadership to, our youth, women, intellectuals,
small traders, peasants, the rural poor and - yes - even the
racially-dominated black bourgeoisie, all of whom are a necessary part
of the broad front of our liberation struggle".
This message, though in a different context now, still remains an
important clarion call to the SACP and a guide to its work. At the
centre of what Slovo was saying is that we need to build the SACP as a
vanguard party of the working class. But in playing its vanguard role,
the working class in particular, must seek to reach out to a range of
forces that still has an interest in the transformation of our society.
For instance, the SACP in growing its membership, it must embark on a
systematic recruitment campaign (through mass struggles) with a view to
forge relations with a wider range of class forces and strata in
society. Through concrete struggles and campaigns the SACP must
intensify its recruitment amongst organized workers, which are its
principal constituency and the most important revolutionary layer of
the working class. In addition we need to recruit farm-workers and
small-scale farmers as part of building the motive forces for the
transformation of South Africa's countryside.
We must also recruit amongst small businesses, who continue to be
suffocated by monopoly capital in general, the capitalist malls built
in the townships that are killing their small businesses, and
the 'tenderpreneurs' who continue to enrich themselves often through
corrupt tenders at the expense of honest small entrepreneurs who do not
have political connections in the state. We must strengthen small
entrepreneurs and defeat 'tenderpreneurs'! We need to support skills
development for co-operatives, small and micro enterprises. We need to
deepen our struggle for the transformation of our financial sector to
benefit the workers and the poor, including co-operatives and small and
micro businesses.
As we have done over the past 16 years and before, we need to engage
and seek to influence the terms and conditions under which a new black
section of the bourgeoisie emerges and grow. We need to fight for truly
broad based empowerment and seek to direct investment into the
productive sectors of our economy that is creating jobs. We need to
continuously expose and challenge self-enrichment of a few and fight
the emergence of a highly dependent compradorial bourgeoisie! In this
struggle we must also seek to expose opportunistic use of the language
and demands of the working class in order to hide the accumulation
agenda of a compradorial bourgeoisie. This is the meaning of Slovo's
life, struggles and observations today!
Our YCL must intensify its recruitment of young people into the fold of
the communist movement in our country. It must seek to recruit
students, unemployed youth and young workers, so that these strata of
our society become allies of the working class, and become part of our
broader movement. Our YCL must seek to educate our young people in
Marxism-Leninism and relate this to our own concrete conditions in
South Africa. Our YCL must continue to strengthen the Progressive Youth
Alliance, by ensuring that our youth is engaged on concrete programmes
and struggles, especially on education, both formal and informal!
Our YCL must also be guided by what Cde Slovo also said that "To
eventually win the majority of our people for a socialist South Africa,
we must spread socialist awareness and socialist consciousness now,
mainly among the workers but also among the rural poor and the middle
strata". Spreading socialist consciousness, especially amongst the
youth, is central in the struggle for socialism in South Africa.
Much more importantly, communists, while recognizing the centrality
(and continued reproduction) of the legacy of national oppression, they
must at the same time consistently raise class issues, unashamedly and
unapologetically, in the interests of the overwhelming majority of our
people. The SACP shall not be intimidated by attempts that try to
divert us away from the very centrality of class issues in present day
South Africa, otherwise we will be succumbing to an agenda that seeks
to deny Slovo's very apt observation that there can be no true national
liberation without social liberation.
Intensify the struggle against corruption
All members of the alliance have committed themselves to fight against
corruption, both in the public and private sectors. The SACP has
adopted this as one of its own programmes as well. If we are to realize
what Slovo lived and died for, corruption must be defeated as it
constitutes theft from the workers and the poor.
The SACP needs to concretise the campaign against corruption, and push
for the public sector to lead by example, whilst fighting all forms of
corruption in the private sector as well.
For instance we need to consider whether, given the amount of
corruption surrounding some of the tender awards in the public sector,
we should not call for an open and transparent process in the awarding
of government tenders. Is it not for instance possible to ensure that
all those who have tendered must be publicly known, and for government
to publicise those shortlisted, including an opportunity, especially
for communities to also comment, and reasons for final awards to be
made public as well? We need to think out of our boxes, like Joe Slovo
often did, if we are to root out corruption. Let all our party
structures, engaging with our communities and other strata in society;
discuss concrete methods to root out corruption, for the sake of Joe
Slovo's sacrifices and his contribution in making our country free!
Asikhulume!!
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Posted By DomzaNet to Communist University on 1/06/2010 04:12:00 PM
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