Defend the future of our revolution, build a core cadre of a revolutionary youth: A key task in the SACP's 90th anniversary celebrations
It is only proper that as we end an eventful 2010 in our country, the SACP congratulates our Young Communist League for its 3rd National Congress that elected a new leadership, and re-elected Cde Buti Manamela as its National Secretary. Indeed we must continue to assert, in praise of communism, 'Socialism for the Youth, and Youth for Socialism'!
Our YCL continues to make us proud, and has laid a firm foundation for the growth and future of the SACP, as it has, over the last four years grown its membership from some 30 000 to above 50 000. The growth of the YCL has also immensely contributed to the massive growth of the SACP to now number about 115 000, making it the second largest political party with such an active cadreship after the ANC.
The year 2010 was a culmination of a year in which our country successfully hosted the 2010 FIFA World Cup, in which the world's youth displayed its ultimate soccer skills and prowess, despite the threat of its continued commercialization and commodification. This was also the year that saw some other momentous developments globally and domestically.
But it was also a year which saw the worsening crisis of the global capitalist economy, which, over the last two to three years, experienced the loss of more than a million jobs in our country, and millions and millions of other jobs lost in the rest of the world.
But it is also a year in which Clive-Derby Lewis, a co-conspirator in the murder of our late General Secretary, Cde Martin Thembisile 'Chris' Hani, was once more and rightfully denied amnesty for his dastardly actions. As we have always said before, the SACP is willing to support an amnesty for Janus Waluz and Clive Derby Lewis only if they tell the whole truth on the circumstances that led to the assassination of our late General Secretary.
The year 2010, a year of some momentous political advances
The year 2010 also saw the holding of a highly successful national general council (NGC) of our ally, the African National Congress. This NGC was successful in a number of respects. It rolled back and exposed both the political and economic bankruptcy of a new class tendency in our country, whose aim was to capture and transform the ANC into an instrument for capital accumulation by a small greedy elite, even at the expense of liquidating the revolutionary and principled character of our movement.
Amongst other things, the ANC NGC, exposed the cynical and demagogic attempts to appropriate a genuine leftist campaign to nationalize mines and other commanding heights of our economy to try and rescue a failed, and continuously failing BEE project, especially in the mining sector and in other parts of our economy.
This was indeed, as the SACP has consistently pointed out already, an opportunistic call for our democratic government to nationalize BEE debt, thus further enslaving our economy to narrow BEE interests that have developed a parasitic relationship to established white capital, and also seemingly heavily indebted to different fractions of imperialist capital in the developed capitalist countries.
The youth of our country as a site for a renewed class (and imperialist) offensive against our democracy and movement
As a relatively young democracy, but led by an experienced liberation movement, of which the SACP has been, and remains, a critical part, we should know that an established bourgeoisie, often collaborating with compradorial and parasitic elements from within the previously oppressed and backed by various sections of imperialism, will always look for new platforms and arenas of struggle in which they seek to dislodge a (former) liberation movement from power. This is especially so in instances where such liberation movements continue to have popular appeal to the overwhelming majority of its peoples.
Unlike during the Cold War period, where imperialism would even sponsor violent overthrows of such (former) liberation movements from power, after the Cold War imperialism seeks to do this in more 'respectable' and often 'hidden', subtle and more sophisticated ways. This includes the sponsoring of all sorts of socially forces and movements in the name of promoting democracy, or exploiting the conditions of poverty of the majority in order to try and turn that majority against governments led by liberation movements.
Whilst such imperialist governments legitimate themselves on the grounds that they are the best expression of representative democracies by virtue of having been elected democratically, similarly democratically elected governments in the developing world are denounced and delegitimized if led by revolutionary, often former liberation movements. They are delegitimized especially if not led by fronts or formations sponsored by imperial capital.
In South Africa today one such front attempting to dislodge our democratic government is an anti-majoritarian liberal front, firmly supported by a white-owned, racially biased bourgeois media, whose claim to legitimacy is that it is the best guarantor of our democracy.
Whilst professing to be the champions of multi-party democracy, this liberal ideology only accepts such multi-party democracy, such as in our case, only if it is not (former) liberation, and majoritarian, movements that are in power. Similarly, whilst proclaiming loyalty to our democratic constitution, but workers' rights, mass power, and socio-economic rights, protected by our very own democratic constitution, are often projected as threats to such constitutional democracy.
The year 2010 saw an increasing and louder voice of such liberal anti-majoritarian tendencies, all in the name of (and hypocritical) defence of our constitution and democracy!
However it is important that liberation movements themselves remain true to the aspirations of the ordinary masses of our people, fight against all forms of corruption and patronage often accompanied by ascendancy to state power. In a number of instances anti-majoritarian offensives against our liberation movements exploit some of the 'sins of incumbency', to try and defeat democratic projects.
Some of the ugly events that took place at the congress of our YCL reveal that, given the poverty, unemployment and restlessness of our young people, the tendencies of greedy capital accumulation, both inside and outside our movement, have targeted the youth as the soft underbelly of our national liberation movement.
Attempts by what was clearly the new tendency (of greed and capital accumulation) to try and collapse our recent YCL Congress, was one manifestation of how the youth of our country is being targeted by such elements. The type of 'lumpenism' displayed by a minority at the YCL Congress - correctly and outrightly condemned as done by amongst others Cde Zuma, the President of the ANC and the republic and members of our SACP Central Committee at that congress - also showed the levels of desperation by the new tendency of ruthless accumulation to capture all formations of our movement. The defeat of this 'lumpen' and disruptive tendency at the YCL Congress marked a further blow to the isolation and humiliation of this tendency at the ANC NGC.
The more the new tendency (of ruthless capital accumulation) gets rolled back and exposed, the more it is likely to be even more desperate in the short term, especially running into the major congresses of all the Alliance partners in 2012. It is therefore going to be important that, in the first instance, both the SACP and the YCL, must act decisively to deal with this 'lumpen' behaviour at the YCL congress, by taking very firm action against such tendencies, including disciplinary measures.
Much as disciplinary action is absolutely necessary in instances where anarchy threatens to undermine the goals of the national democratic revolution, it is however important that we strengthen all our organizations through disciplined mass mobilization and deepening political education amongst our loyal cadre. Our YCL must be commended for being resolute and for defeating all the attempts to collapse its 3rd National Congress.
It is for all the above reasons that the SACP, and indeed the YCL, must deepen their ideological work amongst the youth of our country, with a particular focus on organization and mobilisation of young workers and the unemployed in all of South African society.
The SACP in particular, with the assistance of the YCL, needs to devote more energy, during its 90th anniversary commemoration of principled commitment to national liberation and socialism, to ideological and political work amongst the youth of our country. We need to dedicate our 90th anniversary year, 2011, to wage a principled struggle to win the youth away from compradorial, and often counter-revolutionary, tendencies.
We will only achieve the above if we mobilize all our forces, and devote all our energies to the struggle for the realization of our Medium Term Vision (MTV); that of seeking to build working class hegemony in all key sites of power, with attention being paid to the SIX key terrains of stuggle - the state, the economy, the workplace, the community, on the ideological battle front, and building working class internationalist solidarity. This also means that the current WFDY festival being held in our country must become a critical platform to expose demagogic and populist politics for the sake of building a truly anti-imperialist global front amongst the youth of our country and the world!
The SACP wishes to take this opportunity to wish all the workers, the poor and the revolutionary youth of our country, a restful festive season. We all need to take a break so that we are fresh next year, so as to wage a new class offensive against the capitalist system, the new tendency of greedy capitalist accumulation and all forms of 'lumpenism' and counter-revolutionary assault against a principled struggle for a working class led national democratic revoluion. It is only by consolidating such a principed struggle for a radical national democratic revolution that our path to socialism is assured.
Asikhulume!
This article by SACP General Secretary Blade Nzimande first appeared in the Party's online journal Umsebenzi Online Volume 9, No. 23, 15 December 2010
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