New Age2.png COSATU Congress's Historic Lessons Justice Piitso, The New Age, Johannesburg, 17 July 2015 This week COSATU emerged from its special national congress as an unshakable force more than ever before. The congress was indeed a hallmark achievement in the history of the struggle of the working class in our country. Indeed the congress was a rare historic moment to build the unity and cohesion of COSATU, to advance the objectives of our national democratic revolution. It was a living testimony that the federation is an irreplaceable instrument of the working political consciousness in our country. COSATU Congress in The New Age, 17 July 2015.jpg The working class of our country has demonstrated that the unity and cohesion of our revolutionary alliance is a guarantee for the success of the common cause of our struggle for the total liberation of our people. It is only through unity of our struggle that the working class can triumph over its historic class enemy. The backbone of any revolutionary movement is the appreciation that contradictions make society grow and develop. Workers at the congress appreciated that criticism and self-criticism are the fundamental characteristics of any revolutionary movement. Therefore the political capacity of the congress to measure its own strengths and weaknesses has repositioned the federation as the most powerful trade union movement in the country. COSATU ascertained itself as the most serious movement capable of leading the working-class struggles in the country. At the same time, the memories of the congress will decorate the annals of the history books as one of the titanic battlefields in the history of the struggles of the working-class movement. The heroic working class of our country defended themselves against the manoeuvres and the offensive onslaught by the forces of imperialism and neocolonialism. We are confident that the political consciousness of the South African working class will continue to shape the contours of our struggle into the future. The only truth is that the people of our country are conscious that the enemy forces are hard at work to turn them into a fodder, to undermine the victories of their own struggles. In the words of Samora Machel, the former president of the republic of Mozambique, the workers of our country are able to distinguish the two faces of our historic enemy: the face of the principal and direct enemy and that of the indirect and secondary enemy. Machel's ardent political conviction was that even if our historic enemy may appear to be more revolutionary than the revolution itself, we must be able to "distinguish a friend from a foe even if the latter is concealed under the same colour, language, family ties or tribal markings as their own, even if he raises his flag with us". The South African working class has demonstrated that they could no more tolerate destructive tendencies which bring into its ranks endless divisions, sufferings and sacrifices. The heroic workers of our country turned the tide and threw the imperialist offensive into its own grave. COSATU followed his teachings that "If you want to help 'the masses' and to win the sympathy, confidence and support of 'the masses', you must not fear difficulties, you must not fear the pin-pricks, chicanery, insults and persecution of the 'leaders', but must imperatively work wherever the masses are to be found". What is important is that the South African working class has taught imperialism and neo-colonial forces a lesson that there is no so-called abstract truth. The bottom line is that truth is always concrete and is derived from the appraisal of the objective realities of a particular historic moment. What the enemy of our revolution does not comprehend is that any abstract truth becomes empty when applied to any concrete material conditions. The scientific sequence is that every general phrase applied without the analysis of the concrete material conditions in any given historical moment, becomes an empty phrase. The special national congress was an illustration that the vast majority of the working class of our country understands the immediate tasks of our transition to democracy. That the immediate task of our national democratic revolution is the radical transformation of the socio-economic landscapes of our society. The South African working class understands that the struggles into our socialist future are not just a historical necessity, but a struggle for political power. Therefore power and hegemony of the working class is an inevitable necessity for its own historic mission. Therefore the working class has to defeat the political power of the ruling capitalist class to advance its historic mission - the mission of building the ideal future of socialism. The working class understands that the national democratic revolution is a transition to advance our struggles into our socialist future. The struggles for the realisation of the highest forms of human society, which is communism. The general membership of COSATU understands that a trade union movement cannot be a political party of the struggle of the working. That the role of a trade union is to fight for the working conditions of its membership at the factory floor. They understand that the ANC is the only political formation capable of leading the present phase of our struggle for socio-economic transformation of our society. That the SA Communist Party is the only vanguard party capable of leading the working class into the future of socialism. Of importance, the special national congress became a platform for the South African working class to understand that the tendencies of personality cult are the worst forms of the enemy of our revolution. That COSATU does not need "his Excellency the President, Dr Lord of the Beasts of the Earth and Conqueror of Fishes of the Sea, Idi Amin". One of the earth-moving resolutions of the plenary of congress was that there is no any other leader of the federation and the entire liberation movement whose boots are bigger than the organisation itself. There is no a leader whose monumental image overshadows that of our revolutionary Alliance led by the ANC. Our national democratic revolution does not need those who want to turn our scientific theory into an icon. As Lenin said: "An icon is something you pray to, something you cross yourself before, something you bow down to; but an icon has no effect on practical life and practical politics." Our theory therefore is a guiding tool of our struggle for the liberation of our people. . Justice Piitso is former provincial secretary of the SACP in Limpopo and former ambassador to Cuba. He writes in his personal capacity From: <http://tnaepaper.co.za/DRIVE/main%20edition/17072015/epaperpdf/21.pdf> http://tnaepaper.co.za/DRIVE/main%20edition/17072015/epaperpdf/21.pdf -- -- 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 received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. 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