*Numsa’s NOB input on the occasion of the SACP’s 90^th Anniversary, 2
July 2011*
**
*THE NECESSARY STRUGGLE TO DEEPEN, ADVANCE AND ACCELERATE A RADICAL &
SOCIALIST ORIENTED NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION AS THE MOST DIRECT
ROUTE TO SOCIALISM – Celebrating the 90^th Anniversary of the South
African Communist Party *
*
Karl Cloete, 2 July 2011*
90 years ago on 30 July 1921, the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA)
was formed. The suppression of Communism Act of 1950 saw the banning of
the Communist Party of South Africa but in 1953 the Party under its new
name, the*South African Communist Party,* was reborn.
In the development of its strategic perspectives, overtime, the Party
understood that “/in our conditions in which national oppression and
economic exploitation are inextricably linked, there can, at the end of
the day, be no fundamental liberation without full economic
emancipation/”. (Path to Power 1989)
The National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA) wish to
salute the South African Communist Party for having reached its 90^th
year of existence in the context of the greatest global capitalist
crises human society has ever experienced. The July 2011 Cosatu Central
Committee has defined the most severe South African experience for the
working class and the poor as a triple crises constituted by deepening
levels of poverty, unemployment and inequality.
As we celebrate the SACP’s 90^th anniversary, it is instructive to
reflect on what the South African Communist Party’s said about the
working class in relation to the struggle against capitalism and the
state in the Path To Power adopted in its 7^th Congress in 1989;
“/In the period after the seizure of power by the democratic forces, the
working class will need to continue the struggle against capitalism. It
will need to strengthen its organisations and build the bases of working
class and popular power in the economy, in all sectors of the state and
in the communities where the people live. A deliberate effort will have
to be made to prevent attempts by the bourgeoisie and aspirant
capitalist elements-and their imperialist supporters-to dominate state
power and divert the revolution. Constant mass vigilance will also have
to be exercised and action taken against such negative tendencies as the
stifling of popular democracy, the bureaucratisation of the state and
corrupt practices in government or in society as a whole.”/
//
It is with this sharp reminder as developed by the Party in 1989 that
NUMSA wish to pose some questions which may well sit uncomfortable with
comrades who refuse to grabble with hard choices we need to make as we
advance a radical and socialist oriented NDR;
* Whether our NDR is on track or do we run the risk of a
deracialised NDR being imposed on the working class?
* Whether the working class led by its vanguard is advancing a
radical and socialist oriented NDR which lays the basis for a
Socialist South Africa in the here and now?
* Whether our Party’s programmatic slogan: Socialism is the Future –
Build It Now! contends with the fact that our economy remains
trapped in the colonial character and that therefore the struggle
for a redistributive economy must find expression in the battle
against the New Growth Path (NGP) which continue to advance a neo
liberal macro economic framework?
There can be no argument about the fact that the 1994 democratic
breakthrough ushered in democratic participation of our people in the
political dispensation through the ballot in determining the public
representatives that should govern our country in the national assembly,
provincial legislature and municipalities.
There is also no doubt about the fact that the ANC government was able
to build over 2,5 million houses for the poor giving shelter to over ten
million people. Six million households have gained access to clean water
since 1994 and electricity has been connected to nearly five million homes.
It must also be acknowledged that 14.5 million people are receiving
social grants and of those, 9.5 million are children less than 14 years
old (compared with 2.4 million in 1996).
In as much as we celebrate these achievements of the ANC government, we
have in our analyses agreed that the first decade of our freedom was
more beneficial to the bourgeoisie than the working class and the poor
and in that regard we should struggle for the second decade of our
freedom to belong to the working class and the poor. In the South
African Road To Socialism (SARS) the SACP defined this reality as follows;
/“The SACP, in evaluating the first decade of our democracy, came to the
conclusion that in economic terms white-dominated monopoly capital was
the single biggest beneficiary, at the direct expense of the working
class, which experienced casualisation, a job loss bloodbath and
outsourcing. Therefore the first decade of our democracy, in economic
terms, became the decade of the white-dominated bourgeoisie, joined by a
small black elite.”/
Current day South Africa still reveals that;
* Unemployment is persistent and is increasing,
* Poverty incidence remains high,
* Redistribution of income has not occurred,
* The means of production and power remain concentrated in white
capitalist hands,
* The structure of the economy remains mineral-dependent and is now
finance-led,
* The health profile of the population has deteriorated because of
HIV and AIDS,
* The crisis in education persists and the quality of education is poor,
* The housing challenge is still persistent and
In respect of the 39% unemployed in South Africa today we know that;
a) 72% of the unemployed are young people,
b) 68% of the unemployed have been unemployed for more than a year
c) 60% of the unemployed have less than secondary education and
d) 60% of the unemployed have either never worked in their lives or have
not worked in the past 5 years.
In terms of the crises of poverty we know that an estimated 48% of South
Africans live on less than R10 a day.
At the level of inequalities, the recent Cosatu CC report indicates that;
/“The recovery of the South African economy continues to be strengthened
by worsening income inequality.There is inequality in healthcare: only
9% of the African population belong to a medical aid scheme whilst 74%
of the white population do.There is inequality in education: schools
with less than R20 fees have pass rates of 44% and those with more than
R1000 fees have 97% pass rates.There is inequality in income earnings,
with the top 5% earners earning 30 times the bottom 5% on a monthly
basis; white people earn in one hour what African workers earn in a
day.The ownership and control of the economy remains colonial, with a
growing trend of foreign ownership of strategic sectors.”/
In our understanding the South African Communist Party has always
advanced and articulated a position wherein we were thought that there
can be no true liberation from colonial oppression and exploitation in
our country without transforming the fundamental colonial economic
character and legacy.
It is in this regard that the 90^th anniversary of the SACP must serve
as a platform to confront the neo liberal framework of our macro
economic framework. In the South African Road To Socialism (SARS) tabled
in the 12^th National Congress the party defined this task as follows;
/“Our road to socialism is through a working class led, socialist
oriented national democratic revolution….. Our programme must not just
be a document, but a living, dynamic reality that guides us in action,
but also it must be informed, enriched and developed by our practical
actions and experiences.”/
In the December 2010 Numsa Central Committee we undertook an analyses of
government’s New Growth Path (NGP) and asked the following critical
questions in relation to the new growth path trajectory;
* /how will government’s New Growth Path deal with growing
inequalities and extreme levels of poverty in the country?/
* /what proposals does the New Growth Path put forward to
restructure the economy so that it is equitable and labour
absorbing? /
* /what measures are in the New Growth Path that will enable the
majority of our people to share in the country’s wealth?/
* /how consistent is the New Growth Path with long-held positions of
the ANC, Cosatu and the South African Communist Party (SACP) that
call for economic growth in a context of redistributive strategy? /
The NUMSA Central Committee noted the NGP targets such as the creation
of 500 000 jobs by 2020 but felt that the New Growth Path will not meet
its own targets because of the conservative macroeconomic package that
the policy adopts.
The fiscal, monetary and exchange rate measures in the New Growth Path
will choke many of the noble objectives outlined in the document. Our
experience with the Growth, Employment and Redistribution (GEAR)
strategy is that any growth path must be judged not by the targets on
job-creation it sets but by instruments of macroeconomic management that
it adopts. Our Central Committee felt that;
* the fiscal policy in the New Growth Path is too restrictive
* there is nothing new in monetary policy proposals in the New
Growth Path
* the exchange rate policy in the New Growth Path is illogical
NUMSA’s Central Committee concluded that the macroeconomic package that
underpins the New Growth Path has more in common with policies that led
to jobless growth and later job shedding in South Africa. The
macroeconomic package in the New Growth Path represents more continuity
instead of a complete break with GEAR.
If we want to harness the full potential of the working class to drive a
radical and socialist oriented NDR, we must have faith in the working
class to bring about, though active struggle and our hegemony in all key
sites of power, a redistributive macro economic regime. In the words of
the SACP in SARS, “/We need to use state power and resources not merely
to “de-racialise” the existing accumulation path of capital, but to
transform it.”/
The 90^th anniversary of the SACP must usher in renewed unity of the
socialist formations in the Revolutionary Alliance without resorting to
labeling of comrades as workerist and ultra leftist when we are
collectively confronted with the deepening levels of poverty, massive
unemployment and stubborn inequality in our society.
*Conclusion:*
There is no better time than now to consolidate and advance the solid
perspectives on the transition to Socialism located in;
* The SACP’s South African Road To Socialism
* Cosatu’s – The NDR & Socialism, The NDR & Capitalism
* Numsa’s Framework for a Socialist South Africa
There is no better occasion then now for workers to strengthen and build
the South African Communist Party in industrial units. There is no
better juncture then now to rebuild Cosatu Industrial and Residential
Locals to re-direct our National Liberation Movement and our National
Democratic Revolution. There is no better reason then now to swell the
ranks of the ANC to ensure that our movement is not hijacked by the new
tendency that are the shock troops for the deracialisation of the South
African Economy.
Our struggle for Socialism must guide our actions and interventions
today. As the SACP said in the Path To Power in 1989;
/“The destruction of colonialism and the winning of national freedom is
the essential condition and the key for future advance to the supreme
aim of the Communist Party: the establishment of a socialist South
Africa, laying the foundations of a classless, communist society.”/
//
Let us reaffirm our unapologetic standpoint – that the South African
Communist Party is the political insurance of the working class.
End.
--
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