We have now had three years of ANC-led democratic government. In assessing these three years, it is important that we do not fall into the trap that the bosses and their political allies are laying down for us. The agenda of these forces is to sow demoralisation, to present a picture of confusion, corruption, incompetence.
Nobody can be publicly racist so easily in SA at present (even the Springbok rugby coach gets fired for racist comments on the telephone). But the hidden message of the present demoralisation campaign is a racist message. The message is "Blacks can't govern", "things were better before".
We must not fall into this trap. We must have a sober understanding of the huge challenges we face, of the mistakes we have made, but also of the very real gains accomplished. Some of these gains include:
The SACP says: DEFEND OUR NEW CONSTITUTION - ROLL BACK THE MARKET!
The SACP says:
SUPPORT THE WORK OF THE TRC. THERE MUST BE NO AMNESTY WITHOUT FULL
DISCLOSURE. LET ALL APARTHEID CRIMINALS COME FORWARD TO CONFESS THEIR CRIMES.
AND WE ARE WARNING THEM, SOONER OR LATER YOU WILL BE EXPOSED, BUT NOW IS YOUR
LAST CHANCE FOR AMNESTY: THERE ARE ONLY 10 DAYS LEFT.
The SACP says: FORWARD WITH THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION. ADVANCE, DEEPEN AND DEFEND OUR DEMOCRATIC GAINS!
The SACP says: DELIVERY IS NOT A GOVERNMENT RESPONSIBILITY ALONE. WE CALL ON ALL WORKING PEOPLE TO CONTRIBUTE THEIR ENERGIES, HOPES AND ASPIRATIONS TO TRANSFORMING OUR COUNTRY.
We reject the demoralisation campaign of our opponents. We know their agenda. It is they who have destroyed our country while they made themselves rich and powerful at the expense of the majority.
We reaffirm the leadership of our ANC-led alliance. It is not our alliance that is in crisis, but all of the other political parties, including
BUT THERE ARE STILL MANY CHALLENGES In rejecting the demoralisation campaign of our opponents, we are also as the SACP determined that we should tell no lies, and claim no easy victories.
There are huge problems that we face as a country:
The fact is, the communities that are most devastated by crime are working class communities. These are the communities with the fewest policing resources.
We call on all our formations on the ground to take an active part in community policing. Let us ensure that our streets and homes are safe zones, in particular, for women and children.
We must also reject those who want to use the crime problem to undermine the human rights culture that we are trying to build. There are forces that are trying to drum up hysteria, they are calling for the death penalty to be reintroduced. They want the police to be given greater and greater powers. As working class forces we must resist these hysterical calls. We know where, in the end, they will go. Those who say we must put criminals in mine-shafts, are the very ones who see workers as criminals, who define strikes, protests and legitimate wage demands as a "law and order" problem. Let us not erode human rights.
The SACP says: No to short-cuts in the struggle against crime!
The unemployment problem is also the greatest disappointment of these last three years. We have failed to make any serious impact on unemployment. While we have succeeded in getting the economy to grow each year for the first time in many years, it is jobless growth.
The SACP repeats its call of last year. We must have a JOBS SUMMIT in the coming months. Together, as government, as trade unions, as employers, we must thrash out a clear programme of industrial development that really begins to create jobs.
The SACP says: There is no substitute for a proper job-creating approach to the economy. The GEAR approach of sending the "right signals" to the bosses, and then hoping for something to happen will never work.
How as workers, how as the SACP do we approach the question of GEAR?
When GEAR was first unveiled in July last year, some government ministers and government bureaucrats told us it was "non-negotiable".
The SACP rejected this statement. We are not saying that government must wait two years while we discuss macro- economic policy as the alliance. We are not saying that government must not govern.
But we are saying: No policy is cast in stone. All policies, including GEAR, must be subject to ongoing debate, assessment, and, where necessary change.
This much is clear. But how do we take this process forward?
In asking this question we must understand that our opponents, big business in particular, have their own agenda on this matter. Ever since July last year, they have been trying to turn GEAR into the issue that breaks the alliance.
Now, we are not saying that, therefore, we should not from our side criticise GEAR.
But we are saying:
We must place other issues: JOB CREATION, POVERTY RELIEF AND WELFARE, INDUSTRIAL POLICY at the centre of the debate.
Macro-economic policy must be the servant of JOB CREATION, of INDUSTRIAL POLICY - and not the reverse.
Let us take up the debate on GEAR, without fear. But in doing this, let us not fall into the trap of making it the centre of everything.
The Employment Bill
The SACP agrees with both COSATU and the Minister of Labour, cde Tito Mboweni,
that in many respects this Bill represents a major step forward, especially for
the most vulnerable sectors of our work-force - domestic workers, farm-workers
and security company workers.
We appreciate that there are still important matters of difference between COSATU and government. These differences must be debated and negotiated. Above all, as an alliance of forces let us understand where the main line of division over this Bill lies. As with the LRA, it is the bosses who will try to roll back the positive thrust of the Employment Bill. It is the bosses who are still dreaming of an apartheid labour market - they call it flexibility, they call it two-tier - but what they mean is that they are still dreaming of a right-less, unorganised, cheap, and disposable labour force. No deposit, no return. They want a work-force that can be hired and fired to suit their profits.
The SACP supports the mobilisation of workers around the implementation and defence of a progressive Employment Act. We call on workers to be vigilant, to ensure that the bosses do not succeed in the campaign that is coming to undermine the whole thrust of this Bill.
MAY DAY, A DAY TO RE-AFFIRM WORKING CLASS INTERNATIONALISM May Day is a day on which we re-affirm our internationalist perspectives. The struggle against oppression and exploitation is a world-wide struggle. This is more true than ever before. In the face of an exploitative globalisation of the economy, working people must build international solidarity.
For us in South Africa, this means first and foremost deepening and consolidating our links with working people in the Southern African region, and indeed throughout sub-Saharan Africa.
We call on the feudal regime in Swaziland to negotiate in good faith for a rapid democratic transition in that country. We call for normal political and human rights freedoms to be implemented immediately. South African and Swazi and Mozambican workers have noted how effective the blockade of Swaziland was earlier this year. Unless there is progress very soon, more pressures must and will be applied.
We salute the rapid advance of democratic forces in Zaire in their struggle against the Mobutu dictatorship. Mobutu must go! We reject the idea that is now being propagated in certain Western circles that the democratic struggle in Zaire is a sudden source of regional instability. It is the Mobutu regime, with its support of reactionary causes in Angola, in Rwanda, in Sudan, in Uganda, that has been an ongoing source of instability and ethnic tension. Mobutu, out!
BUILD THE LEFT PROJECT IN SOUTH AFRICA On this May Day 1997 we reaffirm our commitment to the left project in our country.
The working class must not marginalise itself, it must not fall into a habit of critically observing the new South Africa, or government, or the ANC, from the side-lines.
More and more, working people must assume leadership of our country, of our movement, of the ANC itself.
The struggle for democracy has only just begun - let us advance, deepen and defend our democratic revolution.