Deepening political consciousness

During this, the 100th year of the existence of our movement, the ANC, the importance of renewing the best culture and traditions, indeed the very revolutionary ethos of our movement, cannot be over-emphasised. As we celebrate this historic landmark in the history of our movement, it is important that we should ask ourselves three questions:

1. Why was the ANC formed - what reasons and conditions gave rise to its formation?

2. Why did we join it and partake in the struggle that it led so heroically?

3. What is the ANC!

As it turned 100 years old on the 8th January 2012, two years before we commemorate the 20th anniversary of the advent of our freedom and the democratic dispensation, uppermost in our minds should be the question, how should we ensure that the ANC lives another 100 years and that during this second century of its existence, it continues to live and to lead the people of South Africa, and that it continues to earn their unflinching loyalty and support and be viewed by them as their worthwhile, and not erstwhile, leader!

Arising out of the Polokwane Conference, we identified two important factors that would lead to this; that is,

• Firstly, intensifying its work around the five pillars of social transformation, namely, the state, the economy, organisational work, ideological struggle and international work; and
• Secondly, cadres for change who would carry out the enormous and wide-ranging tasks of the revolution and the movement wherever they are deployed, groomed in the crucible of struggle, possessing the best values of the revolutionary movement and able to transmit those revolutionary values, through their words and deeds, to fellow activists and South Africans.

The ANC is expected to be the repository of the best in society. Its cadres must not only be selected from the best in terms of skills and values, but must also display the same values and understanding in the movement, society and wherever they are deployed. This is because, as the 2007 Strategy and Tactics further states:

"the ANC cannot conduct itself as an ordinary electoral party. It cannot behave like a shapeless jellyfish with a political form that is fashioned hither and thither by the multiple contradictory forces of sea-waves. There should be clear value systems that attach to being a member and a leader of the ANC, informed by the strategic objectives that we pursue."

Such cadres must understand not only the strategic objective of the NDR and principles and values of the ANC, but must also always seek to understand the historical conjuncture in which they are executing the struggle. For example, they must understand the changed material conditions since the 1994 democratic breakthrough and how this will or does impact on the further execution of the struggle in these new conditions and the need continuously to renew the political consciousness of both old and new cadres.

Since its founding, the ANC has recognised it that the oppression of black people consisted in more than mere political oppression and denial of civic rights, but had more to do with their economic exploitation and plunder of South Africa's natural resources. Equally crucial was the recognition by the progressive national liberation movement that at the heart of the NDR were three inter-related antagonistic contradictions: class, race and sexism.

These antagonisms found expression, according to the Strategy and Tactics, in national oppression based on race; super-exploitation directed against Black workers on the basis of race; and triple oppression of the mass of women based on their race, their class and their gender. Political consciousness therefore develops as an historical process and under apartheid it grew out of the political oppression and economic exploitation of the black majority as well as the plunder of the land and natural resources of this country.

To maintain their power, indeed to sustain this unjust and immoral system, the successive white minority regimes relied on the use of brute force and a battery of immoral laws. It was unavoidable that the oppressed would, because of their racial oppression, develop broad political and national consciousness and, because of economic exploitation, class-consciousness.

Political consciousness does not develop naturally or accidentally; for black people in South Africa, it arose out of the process of struggle for freedom, democracy and justice which gave birth to the formation of the ANC whose purpose was to defeat apartheid-colonialism, take over power and introduce national democracy. Therefore, it could be said that there are three things that can broadly be defined as political consciousness in a revolution: that is,

• First, it is an abiding commitment to the total emancipation of the masses of our people;
• Second, it is the commitment to serve these masses of the people regardless of what sacrifices one must make as the prize for such commitment; and
• Third, it is loyalty to the organisational expression of such aspirations of the masses, in our case the African National Congress, and commitment to its unity and cohesion.

Central to this understanding are two important factors: first that there is an injustice to be overcome in society and secondly that this injustice must not only be rejected, but must be fought steadfastly, with all our might until a just society is created. This means that we must have the conviction that an alternative and more just future is not only possible, but inevitable, and that what makes it inevitable is that the masses will not tolerate injustice but will and must fight for justice.

We must believe that the masses are their own liberators - the masters of their own destiny - and that this more just and better future, and consequently society, will be a product of our own creation, of our united action as the masses. Political consciousness means that we must have an unyielding faith and conviction in the masses of the people as well as in the movement leading the revolution. However, political consciousness in itself and alone is simply not enough.

To solve the problems of South Africa require that one must only be aware that there are problems, but it requires that one must be militant and have revolutionary consciousness. This means that you must not only be committed to the liberation of black people, but must further be committed to the liberation of workers as the most exploited group and of black women as the group suffering from triple oppression.

In our case, where oppression was so total and broad and where injustice was pursued with an unnerving totality and naked brutality, it would make sense that each and everyone of us would consider themselves duty-bound to be committed to the goal of total emancipation, to selflessly serving the masses without any regard to the benefit for such commitment and to be loyal to the ANC, the organisational expression of the aspirations of the oppressed.

For long, the main source of conflict in South Africa has been the national contradiction arising out of the colonisation of South Africa as well as the pursuit of the policies of segregation and eventually apartheid. It was this that the ANC was established to fight against. But, to its credit, over a cause of many decades, the ANC matured to become more than a mere opponent of colonialism and apartheid; it outlined a comprehensive alternative vision for the future, a complete antithesis of colonialism of a special type.

Formed just after the defeat of the 1906 Bhambatha Rebellion, which was the last stand of disparate ethnic resistance to colonialism, and subsequently the formation of the all-white Union of South Africa in 1910, from which black people and their views were maliciously and intentionally excluded, the ANC's formation was to put paid to the previous epoch of ethnic military resistance and usher South Africa into its new forms of modern political struggle along concerted national lines.

As the ANC was formed in 1912, decades of long and arduous struggle still lay ahead, not merely for the people of South Africa, but for the rest of the peoples of Africa in front of whom the darkest night of colonial oppression and exploitation lay ahead. In a cause of a century before this, every single African tribe had lost its independence, land and the right to determine their destiny, having suffered extensive defeat at the hands of the colonial invading forces.

Accordingly, during the past Century that it has existed, the ANC has done so to solve the national contradictions that arose as a result of colonialism of a special type.

When we celebrated the Centenary of its existence, we had occasion both to reflect on the centenary of the struggle our movement led so heroically, the values and principles that sustained it during this tumultuous period, the values and principles which made it the envy of foes and friends alike, which made the peoples of Africa regard it as their own movement, and yet, perhaps more importantly, to discern the future much more clearly and think harder about the next 100 years.

The ANC's character did not become that of a premier national liberation movement, an African and anti-colonialist movement by chance or because its leaders and members declared it as such. This was objectively decided by history itself: its very mission and tasks were historically determined.

Because of the conditions objectively determined that informed its founding and the struggle it waged over the expanse of time of its existence, and because of the leadership it provided both to the peoples of South Africa and Africa, it earned its mantle as the movement of the peoples and political organisations of Africa. It earned its right as the foremost organiser and architect of the future South Africa.

When it was formed, it was thus out of the need to unite and mobilise all the oppressed, regardless of their social status, for national liberation. It is for that reason that unity has always been central both to the existence of the ANC as well as its pursuit of the historic task of the mobilisation of the masses of our people. It was not by accident that the principle of "UNITY" found pride of place among the principles that constituted the strategic objective of the National Democratic Revolution (NDR).

Unity is central to the conducting of the ANC's internal processes as a revolutionary movement as well as to the question of uniting the motive forces, the Africans, the black majority, all democrats - black and white - as well as all South Africans. It is both unnatural and alien for the ANC to be divisive in relation to the motive forces of the NDR as well as South Africans in general. The ANC was formed to unite all South Africans in a struggle to build a united society founded on the basis of inclusion and thus negate the exclusion that had been at the core of the white supremacist project.

That is why the ANC does not tolerate disunity and factionalism in its ranks and among its members and leading cadres, as well as cliques and demagogues. That is why the new practice of slates in electing the ANC leadership is such a foreign and divisive tendency that we need to defeat in our political and organisational fabric. The existence of the ANC for a century has been guided by this abiding principle, which constituted the fulcrum around which the very principles of non-racialism and non-sexism were centred. These principles have found articulation in the very policies and organisation of the ANC as well as in the Constitution of our Republic.

It was with this in mind that the theme of this January 8th Statement, the January 8th of our centenary, was, the Year of Unity in Diversity. In outlining the 8 urgent and practical tasks of the movement, what the January 8th Statement did was to draw our attention to what we needed to do now in order for the ANC to exist another glorious 100 years to 2112.

As we ushered in the Centenary of our movement, the ANC, the issue of the creation of a national democratic society has assumed centre-stage. Confronting the movement in bold relief during this phase is the task to correct the long and deep-seated legacy of discriminatory economic and social development based on the maintenance of a large reservoir of cheap unskilled black labour, which necessitated the exclusion of the black masses from the educational and vocational opportunities required by modern societies and economies, the product of the CST.

Inexorably, the national democratic society we strive for is not merely about civic rights and the transfer of political power, but it is about fundamental social transformation - improving the quality of life of all South Africans, based on an inclusive and shared growth, where none experiences poverty and everybody makes their valued contribution towards building a strong social cohesion. The movement should use its political power and the instruments it wields as a result of this to accelerate the advance towards achieving the goal of a better life for all.

The significance of this understanding and undertaking could not have been better illustrated by Comrade Jack Simons when he said:

"...independence from colonial rule is not enough to bring about a revolutionary change which will transfer power to the great mass of the people. That is the lesson which the peoples of Africa will also learn in due course." (Sparg, M., Schreiner, J. And Ansell, G. Eds. (2001): "COMRADE JACK: The political lectures and diary of Jack Simons, Novo Catengue", STE Publishers and ANC).

What was this lesson that Uncle Jack Simons argued that the peoples of Africa would learn in due course?

It was that independence is more than the transfer of power from one class to another, but that a social revolution that transcends the changing of political chairs between one ruling group and another requires two key prerequisites: a revolutionary party and revolutionary theory! It is this revolutionary party, armed with revolutionary theory - the theory of national democracy in our case - that can and must relentlessly implement a programme for fundamental economic and social change.

To prepare for that future, the ANC must dedicate very close attention to the urgent task of the education and raising the leadership calibre of the youth in order to prepare them for the future so that they do not, confronted with the tasks of today and the future, rely on the knowledge, skills, rhetoric and slogans of the past that brought about an end to the apartheid system. Clearly, as it celebrates its centenary, the ANC must re-invent itself, its perspectives and its values if it must accomplish its mission.

In August 2011, at a Special NEC Meeting, the President led the NEC in a discussion on the issues of organisational renewal and discipline, and on how to preserve the culture, integrity and values of the ANC in a rapidly changing context. It is quite clear that during the past few years, we have allowed to creep in unattended some practices, conduct and even values that have distracted public attention from the core values of the ANC and undermined its integrity.

The fact is that ANC members have an obligation to act and conduct themselves in a manner that enriches and enhances the prestige, integrity and core values of the ANC rather than portray it as similar to any other political formation in our country. The strength of the ANC, how it earned its leadership of the masses of our country, lies in its ability to act as the epitome of integrity and to articulate the best values and ethos of our people fighting for a better life. The ANC embodies all that is best among the people, and in return, the people aspire to be its members and cherish it because they view it, as must view itself, as the microcosm of the future.

At its 52nd National Conference in Polokwane in 2007, the ANC re-affirmed the need for all its cadres to "uphold moral integrity and revolutionary discipline". The Conference decried certain tendencies and practices that had emerged in the run-up to Polokwane characterised by ill-discipline and other acts that went against the very revolutionary ethos of the movement. Post-Polokwane, the NEC dedicated a lot of its time addressing this matter of discipline, unity in action and organisational renewal of the movement. Judging by the conduct of the delegates at the NGC, this was not in vain.

Revolutionary discipline is the very centre-piece of revolutionary movements such as ours. Without it, revolutions could descend into anarchy. This means that none of us must, through our words and conduct, detract from the responsibility to work towards the mobilisation and unity of the motive forces, as well as from the pursuit of the ANC's historical mission. Whilst encouraging militancy, precisely because it is not possible to solve the problems of apartheid-colonialism without being militant, the ANC places a high premium on revolutionary discipline as the guiding framework of its militant cadres and policies.

The ANC has always distinguished itself in struggle, not only through the valour of its cadres and combatants, important though this was, but also because of their revolutionary discipline. Through its high revolutionary discipline and ethos, the ANC won its high standing and earned its moral high ground among the people of South Africa. Discipline neither means cowardice nor does it amount to being less militant. It also does not mean the absence or suppression of debate. However, it enables one to make proper judgements of challenging situations ahead and make measured observations and pronouncements about what needs to be done.

Only disciplined militants win revolutions. Some liberation movements suffered precisely from this defect. They always confused anarchy for revolution, and thought that by shouting 'revolutionary-sounding phrases' they were advancing the revolution itself. The ANC has always placed revolutionary discipline in the epicentre of both revolutionary and organisational conduct and treated it as the very hallmark of revolutionary cadreship.

Hurling insults at fellow comrades and the ANC, disrespecting the leadership or mouthing hollow rhetorical slogans cannot mean that one is either revolutionary or militant. In this way, those that are disciplined tend to be regarded as the very embodiment of all that is not militant. Yet, it is precisely such conduct that detracts from the moral high ground of the struggle and the movement, and is the very height of anarchy. Militancy and discipline are two sides of the same coin, or put differently, two sharp ends of the same knife. Militancy without discipline would make any revolution descend into sheer anarchy, whereas discipline without militancy would blunt any revolution.

Nobody in the movement, especially after the formation of the ANC Youth League in 1944, has doubted the revolutionary capacity of the youth, or tried to blunt their militancy. However, militancy historically has been directed at the enemy, and the movement's opponents, and not the movement itself. Nobody can accept the proposition that militancy means attacking fellow comrades, mouthing the most vicious criticism against the movement, and defying the counsel and orders of the leadership of the movement, or burning down the flag and symbols of the movement. This, the ANC's Constitution and Code of Conduct, describes as ill-discipline.

Militancy devoid of a clear understanding of the historic mission of the movement, the historic task of the national democratic revolution and the movement's high position in society could be counter-productive and result in any anarchy being interpreted as revolutionary, or in any anarchist or enemy agent being labelled as militant. At all times, ANC members, activists and cadres, including society as a whole, must always view the ANC in relation to its historic tasks, rather than what is in the selfish interests of these cadres, activists and members.

The ANC must at all times be retained as a revolutionary party that leads society in carrying out a social revolution. In an environment where side-shows are treated as central and abiding issues, where talking about palace coups and about who shall replace who in what position in what conference is all that draws attention and is talked about, where to insult fellow comrades and defy and disrespect the leading organs of the movement is what is viewed and regarded as militant, in such an environment does it then make sense that we should refocus on political consciousness.

Populists, because they lack revolutionary consciousness, always fail to grasp this truth and present simplistic solutions to every problem. For example, because the youth are unemployed, or because the workers at Implants are on strike demanding higher wages or because there is poverty, the answer is that mines must be nationalised.

For them, every complex problem has a simplistic answer, when the actual problem in South Africa is not that the mines are owned by the private companies, but it is that we as a country do not have a comprehensive strategy to add value to our minerals and are accordingly still locked in the old colonial production methods which have for centuries defined our relations with the world as mere commodity exporters, captives of the resources curse.

For people without political consciousness, militancy is anarchy and is devoid of discipline.Anarchists, as the very embodiment of a political activist devoid of revolutionary consciousness, lack this very fundamental understanding of:

1. Why was the ANC formed!

2. Why do we belong to it or why did we join it!, and

3. What is the ANC!

Anarchists do not only lack revolutionary consciousness, revolutionary principles and revolutionary morality, they are also inconsistent and incoherent. Simply, they are opportunists! They find nothing wrong in contradicting themselves on a single matter, depending who they are talking to, and are comfortable defending any wrong thing, including looting public resources and using the same loot to buy themselves votes. In short, they are also lumpens!

The challenge for the ANC, at this moment, is to renew the revolutionary consciousness of its members and leading cadres so that we protect our revolution from being blown by the winds of the morality of capitalism, conspicuous consumption and of the remnants of apartheid. When our membership is politically conscious, they will refuse to elect into the leading positions of our movement people without a valid track record; people whose revolutionary consciousness is questionable and people who have not distinguished themselves as worthy cadres to occupy those positions and lead our people and movement.

>> Malusi Gigaba is an ANC NEC member and Minister of Public Enterprises. This article first appeared in the ANC's online newsletter, ANC Today.

Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter