The only bullet the working class has is to vote for the ANC in the coming national general elections

The General Secretary of NUMSA Irvin Jim and a faction of heroes of anarchy and opportunists have declared themselves not to vote for the ANC in the forthcoming national general elections. They have openly declared themselves insurgents of the counter revolutionary momentum in our country.

The heroes of anarchy and opportunists have declared a war against our national liberation movement and the majority of the people of our country. They have chosen a path of walking parallel to our national democratic revolution. 

The South African working class must reject any attempts from these insurgents to separate us from our own liberation movement. Our people have over the years of our struggle against the brutal Apartheid regime, proven themselves to be the most reliable force that can lead any revolution to its eventual end.

Many of our people across the length and breath of our country and the Southern African region are still festering the wounds and fresh scars of Apartheid neo colonial oppression and exploitation. Twenty years is just too short a time of space to forget the brutality of the vicious Apartheid regime.

Our immediate task is to renew the mandate of the ANC to carry forward the revolutionary project of transformation of our society. To vote for our movement is a responsibility each and every worker of our country should carry, to vote for the ANC is to secure our own liberation and the future of our children.

Anarchy and opportunism are the most abstract tendencies which are inherently counter revolutionary. Its character and posture has the propensity to halt the forward movement of the struggle of the working class.

The danger of anarchy and opportunism is the inability to comprehend the most complex reality that the process of nation building and formation is a science. That our revolution derives its genesis from the scientific analysis of the concrete material conditions of a particular historical period.

Therefore what the heroes of anarchy from the ranks of NUMSA have to understand is that there is no grey line between our revolution and counter revolution. By mobilizing the working class not to vote for the ANC, Irvin Jim and has faction has declared themselves enemies of our revolution.

The cal by the faction within NUMSA to the working class to be indifferent on the voting day and not to vote for the ANC is an act of desperation. They have no option but to follow the instructions of their master somewhere there in the Washington DC. Neutrality is absurdity.

The great philosopher, Antonio Gramsci, once expressed himself on this matter that "the indifference is the deadweight of history. The indifference operates with great power on history. The indifference operates passively, but it operates. It is fate, that which cannot be counted on. It twists programs and ruins the best conceived plans. It is the raw material that ruins intelligence." It is an abdication of responsibility.

We are therefore confident that the working class cannot afford to be indifferent in this partisan war between poverty and deprivation, and an advance to social progress and a better life for all. Our people, particularly the blacks in general and Africans in particular, those to whom the colour of their skins still to this day determines their fate and future, know that not to vote for the ANC, is equivalent to bringing back racist Apartheid system in our country. 

We know that the ANC is the only non racial, non sexist, democratic and a revolutionary movement with the necessary capacity to accelerate transformation in our country. Therefore we cannot become indifferent to this historic noble cause- freedom and a brighter future for our children. 

We cannot abdicate this important political responsibility because we are personally mortgaged to the future of our country. Therefore the Indifference or spoiling ballot papers, boycotting elections and not voting for the ANC is not a choice to us, for our fate is at stake.

The heroes of anarchy and opportunists know well that their choice of not voting for the ANC is absurd and is a dead-weight of history. They know that by opting for indifference in the ongoing partisan war, they have chosen to ruin the best conceived plans for which we fought so hard for, they know that it is to ruin intelligence because democracy, non-racialism and non-sexism remain the only beacons for our future society.

What is clear is that no matter the rhetoric, they can never deliver South Africa out of the complex economic difficulties we are confronting today, except to plunder the country of its resources and later hand it over to the most reactionary, anti-worker forces in our society.

The conceited fantasy of a workerist or left wing party or an infantile disorder in red berets can never delude our people into spoiling away their future. They will not encumber the future of their children by abdicating their responsibility through not voting for their own movement.

By their choice of indifference and the absurd neutrality, Irvin Jim and his faction of anarchists and opportunists, have chosen to side with the opposition, and in that manner to put the fate of so many people in the hands of counter-revolution.

The only bullet of the working class from all the factories, mines, farms, and every corner, section and a block of our townships and villages to defeat the momentum of anarchy and opportunism is to vote for the ANC. The working class will never vacillate between our revolution and counter revolution. They will vote for the ANC.

Phatse Justice Piitso is the former Ambassador to the republic of Cuba and the former provincial secretary of the SACP writing this article on his personal capacity.

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