Build Working Class Power, Build a Revolutionary State:
Political Overview for the SACP National Policy Conference, 26-28 September 2008, Delivered by Cde Blade Nzimande
We are gathered here over this weekend proud of the fact that our Party, the South African Communist Party has grown both quantitatively and qualitatively. We must indeed be be proud of the fact that as we gather today the membership of our Party continues to grow. When we went to our 12th Congress in July last year, we had a membership of 52 651, and as of today we now have a membership of 70 606, representing a growth of 29% (17 955 new members) within a period of 15 months!
But we are not just growing in numbers, our prestige and influence amongst the workers and the poor of our country is growing, and even our enemies and detractors grudgingly concede to these qualitative advances made by our Party. However, this brings about further challenges and tasks to, amongst other things ensure that we focus on ideological development of our cadres, increase the payment of debit orders by members, intensify our mass activism, continue to build our policy capacity, and focus on priority questions facing our revolution on all fronts.
This policy conference is about many of the above issues and more. Our focus this weekend is about
We are also holding our Policy Conference in the immediate context of major, and for some, confusing developments within our country. They are events that require a clear-headed collective analysis from the SACP in order to provide political guidance, not just to our own Party members, but to our movement as a whole, and to our people at large.
1.0 The recall of President Mbeki
As we all know, one week ago the National Executive Committee of the ANC decided to recall the President of the country, cde Thabo Mbeki.
It is important to remember that it was the SACP that first proposed a recall of this kind back in May of this year at the Alliance Summit. We remind ourselves of this fact, not to claim a copyright over this relatively drastic step, but to situate clearly the reasons why the SACP made the call in the first place, and why, fundamentally, we support the NEC's decision now.
Over several years the SACP has developed an analysis of the post-1994 South African transition. We have argued that, notwithstanding important advances, monopoly capital in our country has succeeded in asserting a relative hegemony over the broad direction of our post-apartheid state and society. This hegemony was secured, in part, thanks to a leadership collective around cde Mbeki. It was a leadership collective that attempted to drive a neo-liberal restructuring programme that required the marginalisation of the SACP and COSATU, the demobilisation of the ANC, the suppression of popular struggle, and the forging of a close alliance between monopoly capital, senior state leadership and an emerging BEE faction of capital closely linked to our movement.
The think-tanks in Washington and in the corporate headquarters of the trans-nationals and local monopoly capital interests quite openly called for an ANC leadership with an "iron will", a leadership that would be prepared to act undemocratically to suppress popular energies and concerns, to downsize the public sector, and use privatisation and liberalisation measures to allow the cold winds of the market to blow through our society in order to restructure, amongst other things, the labour market.
A great deal of political commentary in the past week has spoken of the supposed "tragic personality" flaws in President Mbeki. His aloofness, and his intolerance of debate and difference are frequently mentioned. What is forgotten, however, is that these so-called personality flaws were precisely the attributes that monopoly capital was calling for, and sought to cultivate for its own ends.
It is imperative now that we remember all of this. The democratic defeat of Mbeki within ANC ranks at the ANC's 52nd National Conference in December, and this past week's recall of cde Mbeki as president of the country, will prove to be false springs if we fail to connect his presidency and its failures with the failures of policy and programmes that we now confront. It is now imperative that, as the SACP and as the broader ANC-led alliance, we advance a clear transformational programme.
It is true that the new cabinet that is in the process of being put together will largely be a caretaker arrangement for a few months ahead of next year's elections. There will inevitably be considerable continuity in terms of programmes and personalities. A more substantially transformative programme will only be able to emerge after elections - and it will only emerge if we work diligently with our Alliance partners in the present.
However, the global financial crisis and its impact on our own South African reality mean that we cannot just mark-time, even in the following six or so months. We must not allow ourselves as a movement and as a country to be bullied into submission by the deluge of political and economic commentators who warn of dire consequences if there are ANY changes in policy. Even in the United States Congress, even within President Bush's own administration there is an appreciation that the present capitalist crisis cannot be addressed with the same package of so-called orthodox economic policies.
This SACP Policy Conference will need to emerge with proposals for immediate and for medium-term interventions and we will need to carry these through to next weekend's crucial Alliance Economic Summit. Indeed, like next weekend's Summit, this SACP National Policy Conference has assumed a strategic importance, and it carries strategic responsibilities, that we could not have guessed at when we resolved to hold this conference back in July last year. The mandate for this Conference from our 12th National Congress was to focus on the theme of the "SACP and state power". In accordance with that resolution, our main discussion paper this weekend focuses on the post-1994 South African state. This topic has become more relevant than ever. However, we will also in the course of this weekend, need to develop some positions on immediate and medium-term economic and social policies interventions that are imperative.
Apart from the recall of cde Mbeki, and partially linked to it, was the other dramatic development of the past fortnight - the judgment of Judge Nicholson in the Pietermaritzburg High Court. This judgment and appeals against it from the side of the NPA and former president Mbeki have obviously been the final tipping points for a majority within the ANC in ultimately coming to the decision of a presidential recall.
However, it is important to underline that the ANC's decision is not a legal but a political decision. Likewise, the SACP's support for this decision is based on political grounds - and, indeed, as we have pointed out, we made this call long before the Nicholson judgment. It is important to insist on this for many reasons. In particular, there are already voices in the public domain and, more significantly, there is already a legal challenge from the side of former President Mbeki to find against the suggestion in Nicholson's judgement that there was executive interference over the NPA.
Let us remember Judge Nicholson's ruling is definitive in regard to one crucial matter - the procedures the NPA followed in re-charging cde Jacob Zuma were fatally flawed. In regard to other matters, Judge Nicholson refused (as the NPA had requested) to expunge the Zuma defence's claims that there had been a political conspiracy as he found that it was perfectly reasonable to believe that there had been a conspiracy, and he offered many examples to show why.
However, the ruling was simply a culmination of the things we had said for years.
This is why the SACP insists on two matters:
The recall of former President Mbeki was a political and not a legally grounded imperative. The executive interference referred to by Judge Nicholson was not news to those of us in the ANC and broader alliance. Nor was it confined to the examples provided by the Judge. The recall of Mbeki was necessitated by a prolonged process whose impact worsened after the ANC's 52nd National Conference, creating dangerous gaps between the ruling party and its deployed cadre in government. Disunity and factionalism was worsening. Under the leadership of President Mbeki, prior to, but especially after Polokwane, we were being thrown into a situation of fire-fighting on many fronts (for example, the appointment of an illegitimate SABC board, and the suspension of the National Director of Public Prosecutions). There was no decisive and cohesive leadership being given by government in all these areas, and lack of a proper relationship and co-ordination with the Alliance. The move taken last week had become a POLITICAL imperative;
Which is not to say that we are complacent about the legal dimension to this whole episode. And this is why, in particular, the SACP now calls for a full judicial inquiry into the suspension of the former head of the NPA, advocate Pikoli. The present Ginwala Commission, a commission hand-picked by the very forces that appear to be implicated in wrong-doing, is entirely inadequate. Judge Nicholson was not required to make a definitive legal finding on this and other related matters. It is now time to ensure that such a definitive finding is made.
2.0 The Nicholson judgment
The Nicholson judgment concerned a particular case, but its import is much wider. It confirms what has been our consistent argument - justice is indivisible, justice does not only start when one has 'his/her day in court'. Justice must be seen to be applied in the entire legal process. Citing and endorsing an earlier court judgment, Judge Nicholson had this to say on this matter:
"What the learned judges were saying in that case was that the independence of the prosecuting authority is vital to the independence of the whole legal process. If one political faction or sectional interest gains a monopoly over its workings the judiciary will cease to be independent and will become part of a political process of persecution of one particular targeted political enemy".
This goes to the heart of the kind of rule of law we are struggling to build in our country, and is a devastating criticism of all those who have called for Cde Zuma to have 'his day in court', whilst conveniently and completely ignoring the manner in which the NPA has investigated him. Put differently what Judge Nicholson is basically saying is that unlawful behaviour by any component of the criminal justice system compromises the entire system, including the judiciary. In other words, justice is indivisible!
It was high time that the judiciary had to express its strong displeasure at the antics (and dare we say, the antiques) of the NPA, not only to protect the NPA but to protect our entire criminal justice system. In many ways, as others have also observed, this judgment is an important contribution towards rescuing the judiciary from being tainted by the behaviour of one component of the criminal justice system.
Not unexpectedly, some analysts, especially those who had clearly formulated an opinion that Cde Zuma is already guilty, are now arguing that whilst Zuma might have been vindicated, but he is not exonerated. This is nothing other than an attempt, by the likes of Allister Sparks, to try and rescue their intellectual and moral integrity in the light of a judgement that clearly shows that Zuma, as we have consistently argued, can never, ever have a fair trial. By so saying these analysts also want to ensure, like Zapiro and his offensive shower that a permanent cloud hangs over Cde Zuma, irrespective of whatever the courts have said about his maltreatment.
There are many aspects to this judgment, and it will inevitably be debated for a long time to come. Whilst debate is necessary and welcome, the SACP and the whole alliance must not fall into the trap of endless debates. Instead we should focus on both immediate and medium term measures that must be taken in the wake of Nicholson's judgment. In other words we have to keep our eyes on the ball, if we are to provide the requisite leadership not only to our members but to society as a whole.
We have always insisted that justice does not begin only when someone appears in court, but in the manner in which the entire criminal justice system conducts its work.
In our discussion document we highlight the need, and have provided the space at this Policy Conference, for the SACP to discuss how to play an active, if not leading role, in the struggle for a rule of law that is genuinely democratic and that is accessible and meaningful to the great majority of South Africans. Justice, security and safety, whatever the fine-sounding rhetoric, that are only available to the rich and powerful do not constitute but rather undermine the rule of law. It would be irresponsible to gloat over the findings of Judge Nicholson, and lose sight of the actions that need to be undertaken to defend the institutions of our criminal justice system.
There are a number of matters that require our attention, but only four will be highlighted here:
2.1 Political conspiracy
It is going to be important to take swift action on all matters relating to the improper political interference in the operations of the NPA by senior political office bearers, and also set in motion the necessary processes to get to the bottom of all this. A very strong message needs to be sent out to the whole of society that at no stage, now or in the future, should we allow organs of state to be used for internal party political machinations or to pursue narrow factionalist agendas. This is the only way we can restore the confidence of our people in these institutions, whose image is already seriously impaired.
2.2 The criminal justice system
The Nicholson judgment has fundamental implications for the transformation and repositioning of our criminal justice system, especially the NPA, as well as the behaviour of those entrusted with political oversight over its various institutions, including the intelligence function. This, amongst other things, means that the current review of the criminal justice system underway has to be rethought in the light of this judgment. And if we are to restore the confidence of our people in the system, we need to ensure that such a review also involves the public as much as possible.
Clearly, the matter of the relationship between the prosecuting authority and political office-bearers responsible for oversight over this institution is a matter for urgent attention as part of this review.
The SACP is also of the view that Parliament needs to take urgent steps to call the NPA to account on the very many serious findings made by Judge Nicholson. Most importantly this must also be an opportunity for parliament to correct its very serious lapses in the past in not decisively acting on the recommendations of the Public Protector in 2006. All parliament did was to appoint an ad hoc committee which strangely only endorsed the report without following up on the very specific recommendations contained therein. For example, the Public Protector, complained about the non-co-operation of the then Minister of Justice and National Director of Public Prosecutions (NDPP) with his investigation, let alone the disdain with which the Minister and the Director treated the Public Protector. The SACP had called for action on this and, in hindsight, had Parliament acted decisively and timeously in calling to order those responsible, we possibly would not be where we are today.
A public debate also needs to be launched, with Parliament playing a leading role, to reflect on the strong views expressed by Judge Nicholson on the autonomy and manner of appointment of the NDPP.
The SACP needs to consistently raise issues relating to the class, gender and racial orientation of our criminal justice system. The working class and the poor continue to be inadequately catered for by this system as shown by, amongst others, the failure to protect the poor from abuse by employers, especially farm-workers and the continued shabby treatment of victims of rape.
It is the elitist orientation of our criminal justice system that precisely makes it vulnerable to machinations and manipulations inside the 'palace'.
2.3 The role of the media
Much as we have fought for and shall continue to defend freedom of expression and media freedom, we however all have a responsibility to create much more effective platforms to discuss the role of the media in the treatment of matters relating to the President of the ANC. Amongst other things we need to reflect on the balance between media freedom and individual rights as contained in the Bill of Rights. The media has completely avoided discussing this question, especially in the wake of the confidential press briefing by the former NDPP.
Most of the media has been deliberately blind to the very many abuses of the NPA that the judgment has now sharply brought to the fore. This is indeed a serious indictment on the media, as most of it covered matters relating to Cde Zuma from the premise that Cde Zuma was already guilty and the onus was on him to prove himself innocent.
In this regard we wholeheartedly agree with the criticism levelled by COSATU on the behaviour of the media on the matters relating to Cde Zuma.
Furthermore, we need to use this Policy Conference to reflect on the ANC resolution about the desirability of a Media Tribunal, which will provide another accessible mechanism for redress, with effective punitive measures on serious transgressions by the media, without resorting to the expensive route of court civil suits.
Much more important, we need to use this Policy Conference to further reflect on how we use our internal working class media as part of the broader battle of ideas, as part of the overall class offensive to build working class influence in all key sites of power. This is an essential component of building the SACP as a vanguard Party of the working class.
Another critical discussion we need to have at this policy conference should be about the nature, character and the role of the public broadcaster in deepening our democracy. We are currently sitting with an unrepresentative and illegitimate board of the SABC which does not reflect the entire spectrum of South African society. It is a board with no working class and broader community representation. And it is a board which has also, since its appointment, clearly mismanaged the SABC.
But we need to define what kind of public broadcaster we need, devoid of post 1994 'Cliff Saunders', and factionalist tendencies, but reflecting the broad aspirations of the overwhelming majority of the people of our country. Such a task constitutes an important component of our pillar to build working class influence/hegemony in the ideological sphere, the battle of ideas.
2.4 Mass mobilisation and mass awareness
It is absolutely important that we continue to wage mass awareness campaigns around the behaviour of the institutions of our criminal justice system generally, as these institutions are supposed to serve all South Africans irrespective of class, racial or gender location in society.
It is our continued mass mobilisation that has ensured that issues affecting the workers and the poor have found expression in public discourse. Of course elites have been extremely irritated by this as for them the 'barbarians' must always be kept outside the high gates of the palace! Were it not for this mass mobilisation, Cde Zuma would by now be history, followed by many other leaders and activists who are not part of the inner core of the palace.
Mass mobilisation and campaigning is also important in ensuring that we defeat palace politics and manoeuvres in our criminal justice system and beyond. Such palace politics seek to turn the workers and the poor of our country into spectators, rather than actors and the leading motive forces for radical transformation in our country.
The working class must continue to be at the centre of this mass mobilisation, and it is for this reason that we have placed the matter of the transformation of the criminal justice system very high on the agenda of this National Policy Conference. It must be from a consistently class perspective that we approach matters of the rule of law and transformation of the criminal justice system.
It is however important that much as the persecution of Cde Zuma has been the main entry point into all the above issues, the struggle on these fronts must be broadened and be part of the overall agenda for transformation, as part of consolidating and deepening a radical national democratic revolution.
The building of mass revolutionary power is an important component of our Programme, 'The South African Road to Socialism'; which also encapsulates the building of working class hegemony in all key sites of power in society.
There are two critical platforms upon which we must seek to deepen mass mobilization. The first is that relating to re-focusing and intensifying all the mass campaigns that the SACP has been involved in over the last 10 years or so (including the financial sector, the social grants, land and agrarian reform, food security, public transport, jobs and poverty, and the health campaigns). This conference will have to focus on these very important campaigns, which are the life-blood of the struggles of the working class.
The other important campaign is that of building street committees as called upon by the ANC. Whilst this is an ANC campaign, communists need to be at the forefront of this campaign and seek to work together with ANC structures in ensuring that we build these structures as part of defeating crime. However, as outlined in one of our Umsebenzi Online publications, these street committees should gradually expand their activities beyond crime to encompass a whole range of other activities in our communities, as they are the potential to build revolutionary local nuclei for the national democratic revolution and the struggle for socialism. This means a focused attention on building working class power in communities, in line with our own Programme.
3.0 Transitional challenges: Defend and deepen the national democratic revolution
Our discussion document has placed the question of transitional measures between now and the new administration after the elections next year as matters that require a focused attention of this conference. This is because we cannot discuss matters relating to the state and state power in a vacuum, but these issues have to be properly located within current and recent developments.
Since we circulated our Policy Conference Discussion Document a number of other new transitional challenges have arisen, that will require discussion by Conference.
3.1 The inauguration of President Motlanthe
The SACP welcomes the inauguration of Cde Kgalema Motlanthe as the third President of a democratic South Africa. We see this appointment as an important development that should mark a NEW DAWN for our country. It is a development that should lay the foundations for a transition to a new administration after the 2009 elections. It also provides a huge opportunity for our country to refocus its attention away from the many issues that are diverting us from our core agenda - the building and consolidation of a developmental state to drive an agenda to fight poverty, create jobs, and build a better life for our people.
For the SACP this change in the Presidency of our country should not simply be about replacing one individual with another, but should send a message that it cannot be business as usual, neither should it be, I am afraid, business unusual as well, but building blocks for a reconfigured government and state capable of driving our developmental agenda. Indeed we should temper our expectations about what such a government can achieve in this regard given the fact that it will only be there possibly for a period of about 6 months. But a lot can be achieved if it is seen as a transitional administration, meant to be a building block towards the new administration.
For us President Motlanthe's government must also mark the beginnings of a new relationship between government and the ANC, as well as the relationship between government and the ANC allies. It should be relationship characterised by open and frank engagement on key policy issues, and especially to lay the foundations for the implementation of the many progressive resolutions coming out of the Polokwane conference.
In addition, we expect of this government to take swift action in completing some of the urgent tasks in front of government and parliament, including:
- ensuring the signing into law the dissolution of the Scorpions;
- the Broadcasting Amendment Bill; and
- legislation finally enabling Parliament to amend money bills, including the budget.
We also expect this government to spearhead the move to reincorporate the people of Merafong into Gauteng province. The cynical displacement of Merafong into the North West in the face of a contrary recommendation by the Demarcation Board, in the face of the obvious reality of transport and work-related patterns on the ground, and in the face of popular distress, was a disgrace. It was an intervention brokered behind the scenes in a deal-making arrangement by provincial political elites and sanctioned by Mbeki's inner circle.
In short, we expect this administration to ensure that we bring government closer to the people. This means, amongst others, beginning to roll back the hegemony of big capital over the state structures, and ensure that government should prioritise building the hegemony of the workers and the poor in the state as the only revolutionary foundation upon which government engages with other class forces in society, including private capital.
Indeed these goals will not be achieved if left to government alone. It is therefore important that the working class should not demobilise, but should seek to build on the massive wave of campaigns to fight against the rising cost of living for the workers and the poor into ensuring that this transitional administration is able to fulfil its tasks.
3.2 A political breakaway from the ANC and the Alliance?
Our attention has been brought to some rumours that there are talks amongst disgruntled elements in our ranks about breaking away from the ANC to form a new party, working with elements from opposition parties. We are raising this matter not in order to give it any credence, but by way of a warning.
We need to say that the ANC and our movement as a whole have been there before and all such efforts have failed - the PAC in 1959, the Group of Eight in the early 1970s, and Holomisa in the mid-1990s. We want to make it absolutely clear that a breakaway from the ANC is also a breakaway from the alliance. What this means is that it is setting out on a confrontational course with the organised might of the working class of our country.
Such an initiative can only be an initiative of elites who have no interest in the overwhelming majority of our people, the workers and the poor in our country. We shall spare no effort to defend the unity and progressive character of the ANC and the alliance it leads.
It should also be pointed out that revolutionary movements are not there to serve narrow, factionalist and idiosyncratic agendas, nor the interests of those who cannot accept the democratic outcomes and decisions of the structures of such movements, but are there to serve the interests of the overwhelming majority of our people.
We must also expose and defeat this new tendency emerging from within the ranks of sections of leadership, that if you are democratically removed from a position you then want to take the organisation down with you, seek to sink with it, hold it at ransom and start attacking its credibility and decisions democratically taken by such structures. We are also seeing this with some of the discredited and disgruntled elements in the SACP. In the same vein, we need to fight against members who have joined other members, instead of being members of organisations in the first instance!
In the light of these current and recent developments, one of the tasks of this policy conference therefore is that of using our first plenary session to properly grasp these current developments and map a way forward in order to provide leadership. It might be important that during the first plenary session of conference we devote more time to these recent developments and discuss a way forward, while focusing on the substantive policy issues during our subsequent commissions.
Of particular importance during this period is that of mobilising the workers and the poor of our country to defend the key decisions of our movement as part of defending the revolution and mapping a way forward.
4.0 The post-Polokwane challenges
It is our considered opinion that the challenges outlined above cannot be properly understood if not located within a proper understanding of Polokwane and its aftermath, including the challenges that arise from these developments. The analysis of the challenges after Polokwane was presented and debated by the February 2008 Central Committee, and the Secretariat Political Report is published in full in the May 2008 edition of the African Communist.
The Secretariat argues in that Political Report that the Polokwane Conference was a truly historic ANC Conference, mainly because the ANC (and indeed our Alliance as a whole) needed a Polokwane if we were to consolidate and deepen a radical national democratic revolution.
The SACP has over the last several years argued that the many problems besetting the ANC and our alliance could primarily, though not exclusively, be attributed to the simultaneous consolidation and subsequent crises of what we call the '1996 class project'. We have identified the key features of the 1996 class project as including the following:
An agenda based on a flawed programme of pursuing the restoration of capitalist profitability as the basis upon which we could reverse colonialism of a special type
A project that is a contradictory combination of neo-liberalism and often paternalistic welfare programmes
In class terms the 1996 class project represents an alliance between established white domestic and global capital, emergent black sections of the capitalist class, and some of the leading cadres within the state, cemented through, amongst others tenders and other BEE deals
The 1996 class project had also sought to demobilise our movement, marginalise the allies, and often the ANC itself, from key strategic policy decisions by government, and with its power removed from the movement into the state.
Turning the ANC into nothing more than an electoralist machine, instead of a mass movement leading the many struggles of our people on the ground.
This project also sought to marginalise the key motive forces of the national democratic revolution through the unleashing of the capitalist market on workers as well as the urban and the rural poor. Mass retrenchments, casualisation, blacklisting, farm evictions are but some of the manifestations of these
We have also argued that the 'eruptions' of dissatisfaction at the ANC's 2005 NGC, and subsequently at Polokwane itself, marked a serious crisis for this project. Amongst others the policies the project pursued created fertile ground for patronage, corruption and serious divisions within our organisations.
Polokwane therefore marked a significant revolt by the ANC grassroots membership against the 1996 class project, thus bringing about a new environment with many positive possibilities for our movement, the country and our revolution. A new space has been created for, amongst other things, refashioning a more united, activist and mobilising alliance. This is amongst other things manifested by the very positive outcomes from the national Alliance Summit held in May this year.
In addition what we sometimes call the 'Polokwane Spring' has the potential, depending on whether the working class is able to make its weight felt, for the movement to make a significant leftward shift, with even more progressive alliance policy platforms, and the elimination of the conditions that gave rise to the 1996 class project.
The Polokwane spring has also created conditions for a reconfiguration of the Alliance in line with the post-1994 conjuncture and in a manner that can go a long way in addressing many of the issues raised by the SACP. This National Policy Conference needs to reflect on this. Indeed it is the task of this Conference to come out clearly with the key features of a reconfigured alliance as called for by our main resolution from our 12th Congress.
However the SACP has also noted that existing side-by-side with the positive scenario outlined above, there are also possibilities of a negative scenario that we should ensure does not materialise. For instance, much as the Alliance has been cohering in a positive direction at national level, it is clear that in many provinces, regions and branches pre-Polokwane alliance tensions and dysfunctionalities still continue.
It is also a fact that there are those within our own ranks who jumped into the Polokwane bandwagon not because they want to see a fundamental reshaping of our movement and the direction of our revolution, but to be the new beneficiaries through access to state power and opportunities for private accumulation. If this scenario succeeds, the Polokwane outcomes and the democratic space created would simply be shut down once such forces access state power. That is why it is important to ensure that we build a radical and campaigning ANC rooted in its grassroots structures, and also revitalise common alliance programmes from branch to national levels.
Clearly the challenge for the SACP is to ensure that we fully realise all the positive possibilities of the 'Polokwane Spring', and defeat all efforts to try and reverse the progressive outcome and trajectory of this 'spring'. In order to achieve this it is important to defeat the 'fight-back' attempts by those who are still disgruntled about Polokwane, as well as prevent the prolongation, ad infinitum, Polokwane related factionalist struggles, both inside the ANC and in our SACP structures as well. This also means we must ground our tasks in this period on our programme, 'The South African Road to Socialism'; that of building working class hegemony in all key sites of power.
5.0 Build the SACP as a Vanguard Party: A revolutionary, and not electoralist, approach to state power
Before concluding by outlining the key arguments and questions posed in our Policy Conference Discussion document, it is important that we ground ourselves properly on our approach to the question of power and state power, as well as the necessary tasks of strengthening the SACP as a vanguard Party in order to achieve our objectives.
Our 12th Congress programme directs us to the fact that much as state power represents the most important site of concentration of political power, power is also located in many other sites of power in society. Therefore the struggle for state power must always be seen to include the struggle for working class hegemony in all other key sites of power in society.
Much as the question of elections and an electoral route is an important question for us now and into the future, there is not a pre-determined singular route for the working class to hegemonise state power. The 20th Century is full of the many varied routes through which working class, communist and other leftist movements have actually hegemonised state power.
In our situation, a multi-party dispensation, the question of elections is indeed very important. But a revolutionary approach even to elections is that of intensification of the struggle for working class hegemony in all key sites of power. An electoralist approach tends to be blind to the necessity for these struggles, and only seeks to focus on the narrow question of whether the SACP contests elections independently or not.
In our case we have already committed ourselves to contesting elections as part of an ANC-led alliance, thus requiring that we thoroughly reflect on the meaning and challenges of contesting an election within this context.
It is for this reason, amongst others, that we are also asking this policy conference to carefully discuss and evaluate international left/communist experiences in electoral contests, as well as a thorough evaluation of our own election campaigns as part of the ANC-led election campaigns since 1994.
However, we would like to argue that the most critical challenge facing the SACP in the current period going into the future is that of leading struggles to build working class power in society. Our ability to ensure that our policy positions have an impact in government and broader society rests principally on the strength of the SACP and its ability to act as a vanguard Party. It is for this reason that we are also directing this Policy Conference to focus on this particular question.
The main gains we have won on the policy front, whether in the financial sector or land and agrarian reform have come about as a result of mass campaigns we have managed to wage and lead on these terrains.
Therefore the tasks of this Policy Conference on this front include the following:
A systematic and thorough review of our key campaigns, including their achievements, strengths, weaknesses and challenges as part of reviving and refocusing these campaigns
Assessment of the extent to which we have advanced in building SACP branches based on voting districts as well as workplace units
Systematic use of our own internal media as part of building working class hegemony ideologically, as well as the state and engagements with private media and the challenge of the transformation of the public broadcaster to have a bias towards the interests of the workers and the poor
The vexed question of accountability of communists to the SACP, irrespective of where they are deployed, as well as the kind of policy capacity we need in order also to support our cadres in their respective areas of deployment, especially within the state
Discuss our own electoral strategy in order to effectively support and drive the ANC-led election campaign to bring back the ANC with an even higher majority
The last Central Committee took a decision to establish SACP Deployment and Accountability Committees, in order to ensure effective and systematic deployment of Party, as well as build accountability mechanisms into the very political and structural functioning of our Party. Conference will have to give more flesh to the building of these structures in the Party.
6.0 The international capitalist financial crisis
Finally, it is critical that we say a few words on the present international capitalist financial crisis. Although the focus of our conference is on the SACP and state power and specifically on our specific transitional moment in this regard, we cannot neglect what is happening around us in the wider world.
Although there were some systemic dips, generally in the post-1994 period the global capitalist economy appeared to be going through a relatively benign and sustained expansion. This was certainly the orthodox belief here in South Africa and our fixation became how to link up, catch-up and generally benefit from what was supposedly a guaranteed path to growth and all things good. Needless to say, the SACP constantly warned against this illusion - but after 1994 the government pursued policies of rapid opening up and liberalisation through drastic tariff reductions (far ahead of what was even required by the GATT agreements) and the dropping of exchange controls. Impressing foreign investors became more important than developing a national industrial policy, or addressing our skills challenges.
We warned against these neo-liberal measures, but we were scoffed at by many in government, not to mention the financial commentators. However, by 2007 even the always-cautious Bank for International Settlements, the club of rich country central bankers, said in its Annual Report that the world was "vulnerable to another 1930s slump".
That warning now no longer looks alarmist as the wave of bankruptcies and forced mergers of banks, mortgage providers and insurance companies mainly in the US and the UK rolls on. Over the last weeks, the US Federal Reserve has effectively nationalised the mortgage lenders Fanny Mae and Freddy Mac. It has lent $85-billion to insurance and financial services firm American International Group (AIG) to help it avoid bankruptcy. Earlier in the year, it doled out $30billion to help JP Morgan acquire Bear Stearns and avoid bankruptcy. The sum total of these bail-outs is some three to four times larger than South Africa's annual GDP - which gives an indication of the sheer size of the crisis.
Many commentators have remarked on the irony that Bush's right-wing administration has spearheaded the most comprehensive "socialist" programme of our era. The Business Times of last week had a headline reading "Welcome to the United Socialist States of America". While the irony of the reversal of long-held neo-liberal dogmas from within Washington itself should be appreciated - it should also be emphasised that what we are seeing is not socialism. It is the socialisation of DEBT - the middle and working classes of the US, and the rest of the world, are being forced to pay for the profligate profits and the profligate recklessness of the corporate rich. As Marx noted nearly a century and a half ago - this is the iron law of capitalism. Profits are privatised, debt is nationalised.
Should we be celebrating that there is a global capitalist crisis? Yes, but no when this is not accompanied by sustained working class offensive against the system itself. We can only celebrate if progressive forces world-wide are able to seize the moment to force through a major change in the direction of global accumulation. Without such a change, the crisis will impact mainly upon workers and the poor, and especially those in the South.
In South Africa we will certainly be affected negatively. Global recession will impact upon our export earnings. Our current account (the difference between what we earn from exports and what we spend on imports) is already in a fragile situation. The dip in oil prices is unlikely to be sustained and we are very vulnerable, due to our distance from major markets, to transport costs. As a country, until very recently, we were a net food exporter. In the recent period, thanks to GEAR-related policies and agricultural liberalisation, we have become a net food importer. Key sectors of our industrial economy have all but been wiped out as a result of tariff cuts without a clear industrial policy in place.
We are, of course, being told that, thanks to "the sound macro-economic policies" associated with GEAR, South Africa is not as vulnerable as it might be. Unfortunately, almost the reverse is true. Yes, we concede, that to the extent that there has been a degree of fiscal discipline, our vulnerabilities are less than they might have been. But our argument as the SACP has never been with fiscal discipline as such. We have always argued that we need to be extremely disciplined with public resources, ensuring that we use them for sustainable transformation. It is for this reason that we have argued against the corporate capture of our state, and against the costly white-elephant mega-projects like Gautrain, Coega, the arms procurement package, the Pebble Bed Modular Reactor, and the Dube Tradeport. Billions of rand have been spent on these costly projects whose viability and sustainability are highly dubious. Some (including some within the ranks of the ANC) have got very rich on these projects. But where is the much trumpeted fiscal discipline in all of this?
We are constantly being warned that whatever the changes in personnel in the cabinet the one iron law that cannot be broken is the imperative of no change in economic policy. This argument is an argument living in a fool's paradise, and even many of the neo-liberal high-priests secretly admit this.
Take, for instance, an article in last week's The Business Times (September 21), "We can be thankful that global turmoil has largely bypassed us". Why has it (if it has) largely bypassed us? Buried deep in the story you will find a critical but coy admission:
"Exchange control means there is a healthy degree of trapped liquidity within the [South African] financial system, so funding is not an issue."
And yet it is PRECISELY The Business Times and the regiments of economic commentators in the financial media, along with opposition parties, that have consistently called for the accelerated dismantling of exchange controls. We have already gone too far and too fast on this front. Now, even the most ardent supporters of the abolition of exchange controls are quietly humming "hallelujah".
What is to be done? If we remain stuck on our current trajectory there is a very serious danger that we will be forced to go to the IMF. This must be avoided at all cost. Once trapped in the IMF we will lose sovereign control over our economic policies and our new democracy will be become redundant.
We need to look once more at:
- Serious exchange control measures to lessen our vulnerability to what will continue to be major financial instability. We need real economy investment and not hot money that flows in and out at a whim;
- Import controls - even when our economy grows we tend to suck in more imports than we export. We import capital goods, luxury goods and many manufactured goods - these are items either that the majority of South Africans do not need, or that we should be producing ourselves.
- Comprehensive, accelerated, state-led industrial policy measures that also address job creation and retention, skills development, and agrarian transformation that prioritises national and household food security.
- Addressing our energy crisis through proper pricing to ensure that the major corporate energy guzzlers (like the capital intensive aluminium smelters with paltry job creation spin-offs) pay, instead of being given long-term special deals way below what ordinary South Africans pay for their electricity. We also need to renationalise SASOL. As an interim measure, in this regard, we must impose a windfall tax on SASOL. The windfall tax should be ring-fenced and earmarked for energy-related interventions to safeguard, as much as possible, our national energy sovereignty, including the rolling-out of sustainable, renewable energy and investment in public transport.
We are living in a tumultuous and complex domestic and international conjuncture. When, 14 months ago at our 12th National Conference, we resolved on holding a special SACP National Policy Conference, we could not have guessed, perhaps, just how important and just how timely it would be.
Over the next three days, we have important responsibilities and major challenges. Let us not disappoint ourselves, our membership, our broad movement and our country!!
Issued by the South African Communist Party September 26 2008
