Declaration of the South African Communist Party, Gauteng Province adopted at the Provincial Executive Committee Lekgotla held from the 19th-20th February 2011

We, members of the Provincial Executive Committee (PEC), having met at this important Lekgotla, that was enriched by inputs of various and leaders guests that were invited to address certain specific issues, notably:

the key political input by comrade Solly Mapaila, a Central Committee (CC) member deployed to Gauteng Province. We also received inputs from our long standing revolutionary Alliance partner, the African National Congress on the political work and tasks leading to local government elections, two affiliates of our class Alliance partner Cosatu, namely SADTU and SAMWU on the state of education and local government in the province respectively.

This PEC Lekgotla, which was our first most important meeting in 2011, was convened with the objective of adopting a clear programme of action to guide and inform our work as we prepare for our next Provincial Congress scheduled to take place from the 1st-03rd/07/11.

PEC Lekgotla analyzed and deeply considered some of the profound challenges and opportunities that impact on the success of the National Democratic Revolution (NDR), which remains the only most direct and practical route to socialism based on the concrete and unique circumstances of our country, and ultimately leading to communism as the most logical destiny for all of humanity.

As part of its proceedings, the Lekgotla, further analyzed and assessed the ongoing crisis of imperialism, the highest stage of capitalism, which true to Marxist-Leninist revolutionary and scientific theory and practice, works through inherent laws and contradictions of boom and bust, destruction of productive forces including capital to reestablish itself unless overthrown by the working class led by a Vanguard Party.

In our analysis, we noted that as in the 1930’s, the Great Depression led to the emergence of deeply backward and barbaric tendencies such as fascism in Europe, we are witnessing the emergence of rightwing parties in certain parts of the world, especially the imperialist block led by the USA and Britain.

On the other side, we noted a massive rise by the world working class against the ruling bourgeoisie and their rightwing representatives in many parts of the world such in Greece, Arab states and some parts of Africa.

We reaffirmed our conviction that the latest wave of protests across the world, including here in our country, are the direct consequence of the crisis of imperialism and certainly not the subjective outlooks of the working class or ethnicity as the media seeks to portray the crisis, for example, of the declining hegemony of French imperialism, in Ivory Coast.

We had the opportunity to reflect on the situation in our country, noted the ongoing unity of the ANC led Alliance, which is the political center of the National Democratic Revolution, will be holding one of its most strategic and well timed Alliance Summit this weekend, which will be followed by our Central Committee to which we are looking forward.

We therefore in the context of the contradictions and challenges that faces the entire working class and revolutionary left forces here at home and in the world, but most importantly the SACP, which remains the only true Marxist-Leninist Vanguard Party of the working class, adopted the following Program of Action for the next 6 months.

1. Intensify our work to launch Voting District Branches, firstly to build the hegemony and presence of the Party at the most basic site of key political activity, which is a Voting District in a multi-party democratic system such as ours, which our Party support and champion as an important tenet of any serious socialism. Secondly, we will build VD’s to ensure Party presence as we to intensify our work on local government elections, lastly and most importantly, to prepare for our next Provincial Congress to be held from the 1st-3rd July 2011, on the eve of the 90th Anniversary of the SACP.

2. Defend and consolidate the unity of the South African Communist Party, its programmes and leadership and in this regard, the Medium-Term-Vision that saw the deployment of key leaders of the Party into organs of the state, in particular the Executive arm.

3. We reaffirmed the long standing and most unifying perspectives of our movement and the Alliance on the revolutionary significance of the state as the key site and highest concentration of power and further, that any serious revolution such as ours, is essentially and most importantly about the state as the basis for people’s revolutionary and working class power.

4. In this regard, we committed ourselves to defend the deployment of our leaders to organs of the state to contest its hegemony and class agenda. We further reaffirmed our conviction that any attempt to treat the current South African state as a ‘no go area’ for the leadership of the working class and workers in particular, smacks of opportunism and clumsy liberal tendencies.

5. We reaffirmed our commitment to defend the Alliance led by the ANC, as the most valuable property of the working class. We reaffirmed our principled standpoint that irrespective of the challenges and temptations we may face at certain turning points in our revolution, we will defend the Alliance within its historically established protocols. We concluded and resolved, to spare nothing of our effort to defend the Revolutionary Alliance.

In this regard we will seek an urgent meeting with COSATU and the ANC to discuss the worrying and fast deteriorating state of the Alliance in Gauteng, the explosive situation posed by the deep crisis in municipalities and our principled support to the challenges facing SAMWU workers, especially in the light of the forthcoming local government elections and our commitment to ensure better and improved working conditions for the workers.

6. We noted the adoption of the New Growth Path as the most ground-breaking policy perspective post-Polokwane political landscape. We welcomed this framework appreciating some of its basic tenets that were proposed by left forces led by the SACP, the manner in which it was adopted, the consultation and the commitment to engage further. Compared to Gear, we believe the New Growth Path marks an important turning point in our revolution, especially the commitment to create jobs and certainly, descent work as understood by the movement as a whole, and the Alliance in particular.

To this extend, we therefore resolved, consistent with the resolution of the CC, to conduct workshops amongst our members to ensure that the document is well understood and its implementation is defended and strengthened at local, provincial and all higher levels.

7. The Lekgotla noted the decision by government to introduce the Toll-Gates on the main roads in Gauteng province. We took note of the high costs of the proposed tool-gates and the impact this will surely have on the already hard hit and depressed low incomes of the working class. We also noted that this announcement comes in the midst highly costly, inefficient, inaccessible, insecure and unreliable public transport which is not even integrated. We also note the gradual Eskom Tariff increases that are imposed in the aftermath of the most devastating effects of the capitalist crisis that led to massive retrenchments, poverty and casualisation of workers. We also noted the anticipated fast rising food inflation that may reach double digits before the end of the financial year.

8. On Local Government Elections, we reaffirmed and committed ourselves to work hard, tirelessly and consistently by launching the Red Brigades as the most revolutionary units for mass work and mobilization of the working class, thereby painting Gauteng Red to ensure yet another decisive victory for ANC as the only revolutionary movement of the working class to defend, consolidate and advance our revolution from many years of colonial, capitalist and apartheid oppression.

In this regard, Red Brigades through their hard work and mobilization of the working class will ensure that none of the political space in Gauteng descend into the barbaric apartheid past.