SACP Message of Support to the ANC 7th Provincial Conference

Delegates at the South African Communist Party (SACP) Congress held in July 2012., a photo by Pan-African News Wire File Photos on Flickr.

SACP message of support to the ANC 7th Provincial Conference delivered by the SACP EC Provincial Secretary Xolile Nqatha

27 June 2013, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University

Dear Provincial Chairperson, Provincial Secretary, PEC collective, the entire ANC NEC members under the leadership of the Secretary General of your organisation, COSATU, SANCO, the leagues, distinguished guests, comrades and compatriots, please receive revolutionary greetings from the Provincial Executive Committee and members of our Party across the Eastern Cape Province

As the SACP we would like to join the conference, the people of South Africa and the world in wishing Tata Nelson Mandela and the doctors working in ensuring that he recovers, all the best. To us communist Tata Mandela is a true friend of the South African Communist Party. When the brutal apartheid regime refused to seat in the negotiation table with Comrade Joe Slovo, the then General Secretary of our party; tata Mandela stood by his decision and refused to exclude Cde Slovo from the delegation.

Thanks comrades once again for inviting our dear Party to be part of this historic conference after a difficult period and particularly the two years post your 2009 conference characterised by many challenges including attack of your offices and physical harm of your Provincial Secretary. As the SACP, we have no other way to characterise that painful incident than counter revolution.

Indeed, an attack on the African National Congress is an attack against all of us, for the ANC represent who we are as a people, this is the feeling we deeply felt as the SACP. Thanks that you are gathered here today, in one piece, as a result of your collective efforts to defend and stabilise your organisation, an organization which remains the only hope for all our people, communists and non-communists. This is in the same spirit in which we should view the attacks against the NUM and COSATU for they are the attacks against the Mass Democratic Movement; they are an attack to the people`s camp.

As South African Communists, we coming to this conference, not as an event but a command centre to rally the entire liberation movement in defence of the majoritarian character of our democracy as the only basis to advance and deepen the National Democratic Revolution (NDR). We are convinced that this conference will be able to respond to the call of your national conference for a radical second phase of the transition. We believe there are no other bases to avoid the same fate of liberation movements that degenerated and lost power 10 - 20 years post political freedom than to begin now introduce radical measures on the economic front.

As the SACP, we believe that the second phase of the transition can only be possible and radical if among others the following can be achieved:

Building a strong ANC and a strong ANC led Alliance! Ours is not only an alliance of organizations but an alliance of classes and this is very important to always keep in mind as ours is a capitalist society and capitalism breeds corruption and other negative tendencies, only a strong ANC as a leader of the alliance and with a strong alliance that can subject all individual interests to the "social aims of real national emancipation."

Comrade Joe Slovo captures this in his 1988 pamphlet, South Africa - No Middle Road, "whether the role of the all-white bourgeoisie could conceivable be assumed by a black equivalent in the future which would act to stop the revolution in its tracks and subvert the social aims of real national emancipation."

As the SACP, we want to argue that this is at the heart of whether the radical second phase of the transition is able to succeed or remain on paper. Even though what happened post 1994 is not exactly what comrade Slovo predicted, the replacement of the all-white bourgeoisie by a black equivalent, but what took place was the co-option of the few blacks by the all-white bourgeoisie and production of a comprador bourgeoisie who owned millions in shares but no productive capacity to build factories that will create jobs for the people.

As a class alliance, we have people in their own right who belong to this movement, whether we talking about banks owners are present in our meetings; whether we talking about mines owners are present in our meetings. It is only a strong ANC and the alliance that can subject the individual interests to the social aims of real national emancipation. For if these individual interests are more powerful, they will direct the revolution and that is why a radical second phase of the transition is not automatic both in a class divided society and a multiclass arrangement as represented by ANC.

This is the reason for the attacks against the ANC, its government and the alliance, so that its ability to temper with the current ownership arrangements of the economy in our country are blocked. This is also the context we must understand the DA led liberal offensive against our movement. The DA as a leading shop steward of the bourgeoisie that now disguise as a genuine alternative whilst wanting to climb on the shoulders of the black majority to protect white privileges.

If the ANC and the alliance are weak, imperialist agents will succeed to subvert the revolution, if the ANC is weak the billions of rands meant for infrastructure rollout will be captured by elites with less of that money able to provide for infrastructure.

It is for all these reasons that we shouldn`t take each other for granted as the alliance, as the SACP, we must not think that we can leave the alliance with our close to 200 000 members as some of them are deeply loyal to the ANC and COSATU, COSATU shouldn`t think that they can leave with their 2 million members as many are deeply loyal to the ANC and SACP and the ANC you shouldn`t not think that you can leave the alliance with your million members as some are deeply loyal to the SACP and COSATU.

A break of the alliance can lead to the polarization of our country, a defeat of the National Democratic Revolution and the postponement of a socialist South Africa as believe as the SACP the NDR is the shortest and direct route to a socialist South Africa. For us the NDR is not a by the way but an important communist task on its own. The progressive provisions of the current labour laws that are currently being undermined through labour brokers and retrenchments will not only be undermined but will be reversed under a DA government. We firmly believe that a strong alliance is the only pre-condition for achieving the radical phase of the transition!

As part of realising the second phase we calling for a unifying approach on the National Development Plan in a manner that unifies the peoples camp. Let`s regard the NDP not as a statue to be worshiped but a guiding framework whose critical instruments should be the New Growth Path and Industrial Action Plan. Let`s not respect and fear the markets, maybe, but let`s respect and fear our people more!

Let`s renationalise SASOL so that we can meet the energy needs of our country, Let`s transform the financial sector and compel the South African big banks to stop their uncompetitive behaviour as found by the competition commission. The reckless lending and other criminal behaviours of the big banks should be criminalised. Let`s put a celling in their profits and compel them to surrender profits above the celling for developmental goals of our country. Let`s make banks save the people! Let`s reintroduce the community reinvestment bill to compel big corporates though a legislation to invest in communities.

We requesting this august conference to ensure that it put in place a framework on our provincial development plan in a manner that anchor it on our provincial challenges. These include rural development and infrastructure backlogs; let all other focus areas of the plan respond to these pillars. We appealing for conference to consider taking resolutions to make co-operatives not a by the way, but as part of instruments to re-industrialise our province and as strategy to de-tenderise the provincial government as part of our principled fight against corruption.

We are calling for all of us to exercise vigilance against own goals that we might be making by commission or omission. As the SACP, we commit to playing our role for the achievement of all the above, history is on our side as South African communists, we are few but we have been everywhere! We wish you comrades a successful conference, let the unity of the ANC be primary, let your individual interests be secondary.

ALL THE BEST! AMANDLA!