Chairperson
General Secretary of COSATU, Zwelinzima Vavi
Comrades and friends
It is with a deep sense of satisfaction that I am able to announce the launch of the ‘Red October’ campaign, alongside the recruitment campaign of our comrades in COSATU. This is an extremely important occasion because it signifies a positive step forward in taking the organisational presence and political message of the party of the working class, the SACP, to the mass of our people.
In our 10th Party Congress Programme we say amongst other things, that “in the effort to build working class hegemony within our formations and in society at large, the SACP considers the core social constituency of the Party – organised workers in the formal sector – as the crucial social force. It is this stratum of the working class that has the collective numbers and the strategic economic location as well as the revolutionary organisational traditions to provide effective social weight to any progressive agenda. The SACP needs to pay special organisational and ideological attention to this critical contingent of the working class.” By focusing on organised workers, we are by no means suggesting that the landless rural masses and urban poor are not key constituencies of the SACP. Indeed, part of our campaign is to reach out to farm workers as well as the rural masses in some of our provinces.
COSATU as well, at its 6th Congress, identified the building of the SACP as a working class vanguard Party, as one of the key strategic objectives of this period. To this end, COSATU committed itself to assisting in the building of SACP industrial/workplace units. It is against his background that we are pleased therefore today that these resolutions are being put into effect. In this endeavor we are indeed guided by the wise words of Lenin who said – it is only the working class that can take the NDR through to its logical conclusion – a transition to socialism. In addition, he pointed out that in any country that wished to advance the working class struggle, this can be achieved only if there is a fusion between the labour movement and the communist forces. This cooperation around the Red October campaign is indeed a practical expression of the beginnings of this fusion in order to strengthen the struggle for socialism.
In our first Central Committee of this year as the SACP we had identified 1999 as the year for building and consolidating working class consciousness. Indeed, this task is not only a one-year task, but we will use 1999 to lay a strong foundation to achieve this objective. This commitment anticipated the current ideological and direct onslaught on the working class internationally and locally. Red October is the highlight of the implementation of this commitment.
In the recent past I have, on several occasions, pointed to the fact that working class forces in South Africa, and indeed around the world, are experiencing an unprecedented attack from capitalist globalisation. This is manifested by some of the most vicious ideological and other attacks on the working class, particularly organised workers in the current period. Some of these include the following:
One of the most disturbing developments in the current period is that of attempting to pose the developmental challenge for South Africa as that which requires the smashing of the labour movement. This is also being manifested by disturbing tendencies for some to want to return to some of the most repressive employer practices during apartheid labour relations. For instance the threatened lockouts by some employers are attempts to return us to some of the most viciously fought practices under apartheid. It is time that any attempt to use these progressive labour laws, or any loopholes in them, to take us back must be fought with all the power that South Africa’s workers have.
Related to the above development is perhaps a broader attempt to try and turn South Africa’s democratic victory into a victory for a small elite, who see in the working class an obstacle to the accumulation of wealth and pursuance of a neo-liberal agenda. Workers should not allow the fruits of their very own sacrificed to be taken away in a manner that seeks to exclude the workers in change, defining them as a nuisance and a spoilt labour elite. As part of the working class struggle we should consistently expose and challenge such tendencies, whether they come of the ranks of the previous oppressor or exploiter or even when it rears its head even within our own ranks.
Part of the ideological offensive of the neo-liberal agenda is that of seeking to say it is only organised workers who must make sacrifices for this country to develop. Government has dropped company tax by five percent in this year’s budget, but there is no indication whatsoever that companies are reinvesting any of this reprieve in job creation. In fact South African employers continue with what is essentially an investment strike. Yet workers are expected to accept retrenchments, casualisation, outsourcing, privatisation, liberalisation ostensibly under the guise that this is to their benefit and they can hope for some employment in the near future. Yes, sacrifices have to be made to develop our country, but let these sacrifices be shared by all in society, not least the bosses themselves!
Job losses – which we refer to as a bloodbath – remains one of the most serious problems and attacks on South Africa’s working class and the poor. As the SACP we call for drastic measures and steps to be taken to halt this slide and turn our economy into a job creating rather than a job shedding economy.
Underpinning these attacks on the working class and organised workers in particular, is a disturbing right-wing economism which wants to reduce workers to numbers in a balance sheet, things to be retrenched, objects to be downsized and casualised and outsourced. As the SACP we are strongly of the view that workers in this country are an asset of transformation, whether it be policemen and women, teachers, mineworkers or retail workers. In a way, RED October is part of a broader struggle to defend and enhance the dignity of the working people in this country.
The Red October campaign seeks to recruit principally, but not exclusively, amongst organised workers with a particular emphasis on women workers. This, we see as part of building SACP industrial/workplace units in order to root our party amongst the very constituency that holds the key to fundamental transformation. An integral part of this campaign is also to take the SACP message to the working class – this includes addressing the key issues of job losses, the need to defend and extend the public sector as a key to meeting basic social needs, the struggle for gender equality in the workplace, building community participation through development and policing forums and spreading awareness and action against the scourge of HIV/AIDS.
I want to take this opportunity to thank COSATU for supporting our campaign and committing itself to work jointly with us in building the party as the true class representative of the working class. At the same time we are strongly of the view that without workers taking an active interest in building a strong COSATU and ANC the goals of deepening democracy in our country will not be realised. Much more fundamentally, South Africa needs a politically conscious working class led by a strong SACP in order to realise the most thorough transformation of our society. We call upon all workers and the mass of the poor people to be part of our campaign.
Blade Nzimande
21st September 1999