Pietermaritzburg, Wadley Stadium, 30 July 2006
Cde Deputy President of the ANC, Cde Jacob Gedleyihlekisa Zuma (and all the leaders of the ANC present), General Secretary of COSATU, Cde Zwelinzima Vavi (and all the leaders of COSATU), members of the SACP Central Committee, Provincial Leadership, district and branch leaderships, international guests, and all of you comrades attending this rally.
85 years ago, on July 29th 1921, the Communist Party of South Africa was launched in Cape Town. It was the first communist party in Africa, and among the earliest members of the newly formed Communist International based in Moscow.
Throughout the world, working people and the poor were inspired by the 1917 Russian Revolution. For the first time in history, workers and peasants had successfully overthrown the bourgeoisie, and embarked upon a socialist revolution.
The SACP proudly celebrates its 85th anniversary this month! 85 fighting years - for national liberation and socialism! Throughout these years we have been a dependable ally and key component of the national liberation movement, a vanguard of South Africa’s working class and a fighter for the poor. We have also been an indispensable component of South Africa’s progressive forces, led by the ANC that marched to victory in 1994 and swept the apartheid regime into the dustbins of history.
The Central Committee chose to celebrate our 85th anniversary in the KZN province, as part of the celebrations of the centenary of the Bhambatha rebellion in 1906. Many communists were inspired by the example of Bhambatha when they took up arms at the formation of Umkhonto WeSizwe. Indeed many communists and two our past general secretaries, Cdes Joe Slovo and Chris Hani, are well known for their military exploits!
We also chose to celebrate in Pietermaritzburg as part of our anticipation for the return of the remains of our former General Secretary, Cde Moses Mabhida, to be reburied here in this city of Pietermaritzburg. Hence our choice of this city for our national rally.
We wish to take this opportunity to thank our Provincial Secretary, Cde Themba Mthembu, and the provincial leadership, Cde Mathew and the district leadership for the work you have put into organising this rally and other 85th anniversary activities.
1. What does the South African Communist Party stand for?
We stand here as a Party that stands for the total eradication of poverty. Our single biggest enemy is poverty! We also stand here today to say that the fundamental cause of poverty is the capitalist system – a system based on the exploitation of the majority by the minority. Poverty cannot be eradicated until and unless we get rid of the capitalist system!
The only solution to create a society free of poverty is SOCIALISM. Socialism is a society ruled by the workers, in alliance with the rural masses and the poor. The SACP is the organ of the workers and the poor to build a socialist South Africa. After 85 years of heroic struggles by the SACP, we still firmly believe that socialism is not only desirable but it is possible. This is only possible if you, as the workers and the poor of our country stand and struggle together with us to ensure that we bring about a socialist South Africa.
2. Our history, record and achievements as the SACP
The advances made in our country over the last 12 years would not have been possible without 85-years of unbroken communist struggle in South Africa. There can be no democratic South Africa, free of poverty and greed without the South African Communist Party. We are sons and daughters of the workers and the poor of our country, and we are an indispensable weapon of the working class.
Over 85 years, the Communist Party in South Africa has been:
the pioneer of non-racialism – from the 1920s, and for most of its existence, the Communist Party was the only political formation in South Africa in which there were black and white members struggling together shoulder to shoulder in the same trench. As communists we have laid down a tradition of non-racialism that has now become a foundation-stone of the new South Africa;
a party of militant trade-unionists – from the early ICU days of Cdes EJ Khaile, Jimmy La Guma, and Johnny Gomas, through the generation of Cdes JB Marks, Ray Alexander, Harry Gwala to Billy Nair and to younger party militants, communists have been in the forefront of organising workers.
a party of mass mobilisation – from our earliest years, Party cadres like Edwin Mofutsanyana and Josie Mpama, have been leading militant struggles of communities against poor housing and corrupt officials.
a party of rural activism – In the 1920s Cde SP Bunting worked in the deep rural areas of the Transkei, in the 1940s and 50s communist militant Cde Alpheus Maliba mobilised in the north amongst peasants and also among migrants in Johannesburg from these rural areas.
a party of co-operatives and community work – in the 1940s, Dora Tamana pioneered a cooperative movement in the informal settlements of the Cape Flats, a tradition that has been taken forward into the present by a new generation of young communists.
a party of guerrilla fighters and martyrs – through the bitter years of minority rule, Party militants have been among the first in sacrifice – from Johannes Nkosi, gunned down in 1930 for leading an anti-pass campaign, through to an outstanding 1976 generation of courageous young communists, among them Petros Linda Jobane (“Gordon Dikebu”), the Lion of Chiawelo, who surrounded and alone held off the apartheid police, down to his last bullet. The Party of Chris Hani remembers and salutes all of its heroes and martyrs.
a party of revolutionary theory and learning – as a revolutionary party, we have always taken collective learning, analysis, discussion and debate very seriously. In the earliest years, Communist militants like TW Thibedi and Eddie Roux pioneered what we would now call “ABET” (adult basic education and training). They ran night-schools in which migrant workers were provided with basic literacy and political theory. In MK camps and in prison yards during the apartheid years, communist party militants – among them Jack Simons, Mzala, and Govan Mbeki – wrote books, conducted classes and stimulated political umrabulo even in the most unfavourable conditions.
a party of internationalism – the earliest founders of the Communist Party in South Africa, among them David Ivon Jones, helped to bring an internationalist perspective into our own local struggles. That is a tradition that lives on today – a new generation of communists is active in the Cuban solidarity struggle, in taking up solidarity with the workers and poor in Zimbabwe, Swaziland, and with the oppressed Palestinian people.
We are also proud that we have now re-launched the Young Communist League which is becoming an important voice for youth from working class and poor backgrounds. We call upon all our youth to join and strengthen the YCL as one of its main weapons in the fight against exploitation, joblessness and poverty
The SACP of 2006 is proud to be the bearer of this incredible legacy. It is a legacy that is both an asset, and a responsibility. We cannot as a Party, or a movement, or a country, betray the hopes, aspirations and sacrifices embodied in 85-years of unbroken communist struggle.
Over the last 12 years, the SACP has been faced with new challenges and threats. Within our movement some comrades have lost faith in socialism. Others have succumbed to the temptations of power and privilege that the new dispensation has brought. Some have gone out of their way to belittle the SACP – we are labelled “ultra-leftist”, “outdated romantics”, and “naïve ”,“ betrayers of the legacy of Moses Kotane”.
We will not be side-tracked by these jibes - whose class interests are all too obvious. We will continue to draw strength from our unbroken legacy, and from the hopes and aspirations of millions of workers and poor in our country.
For 85 years we have kept the red flag flying here in South Africa. Shoulder to shoulder with exploited factory-floor workers, with casualised seamstresses and temporary cash till operators, with the millions of unemployed, with the landless, the black-listed and the red-lined, with students who have been financially excluded, with communities battling against corrupt officials, with public sector workers, like teachers and nurses, doing their best to serve their people often with few resources, with the HIV positive, with economic refugees from failed states in our region, with all democratic and peace-loving South Africans – we pledge to honour our 85 years legacy.
We are this year celebrating our anniversary through three major activities. Our provincial, district and branch structures are debating the SACP Central Committee discussion document on the SACP relation to state power, including possible electoral options. We have also declared 29 July 2006, the Red Saturday, a day on which we will be holding pickets and demonstrations calling for a once-off amnesty for all from the credit bureaux. We will also be demanding a new, but affordable, model to finance low-cost housing, including a demand for a shorter bond repayment period for the workers and the poor.
3. A dangerous world but always with new possibilities
We are waging all these struggles acutely aware that we are indeed living in an increasingly dangerous world. The world today has entered a new phase of imperialism, in which the United States has appointed itself as the custodian of human civilization. In this mission it is prepared to use arms and support rogue states like Israel to continue to occupy and wage war against the Palestinian people, and of late against the Lebanon.
The United States has invaded Afghanistan and Iraq. It invaded the latter under the pretext of destroying weapons of mass destruction. But we know that the US invaded Iraq in order to get hold of its oil resources. It wants to attack Iran because it also wants to control its oil resources.
The US supports the genocide and terror activities it has been waging on the Palestinian people, and now, again, the Lebanese. The SACP wishes to use this occasion to strongly condemn the terror it has unleashed on the Palestinian people in Gaza and in Lebanon. We call upon Israel to immediately halt its attacks on Gaza and Lebanon.
In this global world dominated by the United States, our African continent continues to be exploited and marginalized. The true liberation of the African continent rests on building progressive and socialist organizations and the unity amongst the workers and the poor of our continent.
However this is a world with new possibilities. The Latin American people are rising against neo-liberalism and voting into power democratic and mass based political formations, committed to the eradication of poverty and the building of better societies. These advances strengthen our convictions that a better world is indeed possible!
4. The main challenges of our revolution in the current period
Since 1994, our struggles and campaigns have congealed into a conscious struggle to build working class power in key sites of power in South African society. Our struggles have cohered around five, but deeply interlinked, key sites of power:
The state – our struggles have focused on building a strong developmental state, with a strong public sector, driven by the masses. Our 2006 programme of action focuses extensively on building a strong local state driving local economic development to benefit the workers and the poor. We have also sought to foster a gendered perspective of local economic development. Delivery of basic services and local development is of immense benefit to working class and poor women as they provide huge relief in respect of the unpaid labour of women.
In order to build such a state it is important that we ensure that people serving in government must be committed to serving our people. We do not want public servants and elected representatives who use their positions to enrich themselves. You cannot be a public representative during the day and be a capitalist at night! We also do not want communists who use their party positions as a step-ladder to positions in the ANC and government. We want dedicated cadres to build a state with and for the people!
The community – community struggles in our townships and rural areas played a crucial role in the defeat of apartheid . The key challenge continues to be the mobilisation of our communities to play a leading role in reconstruction and development. For instance one of the key challenges facing this local community of Edendale is that of infrastructure and development. We are in a place without sewerage, without water supply in each house, with pit toilets and no proper roads.
We appreciate the work done by the municipality to address these problems. But these problems won’t be addressed unless the community is mobilised to ensure that these things happen. The challenge of the SACP (working together with our allies) is to lead the struggle for the development of Edendale. Transfer of land to the people and investment into infrastructure will also create a lot of job opportunities for our people.
The SACP must lead this struggle here in Edendale. It must also demand that this area receives central government funding in order to uplift it out of its state of underdevelopment. This must be the task of communists wherever they live!
The SACP also seeks to mobilise women to be active combatants in community struggles. Women play a prominent role in communities, through their active participation in school governing bodies, community policing forums, stokvels, and burial societies and in other productive and reproductive activities. The SACP, through the Alliance campaign ‘Know Your Neighbourhood Campaign’, continues to contribute towards the mobilisation of communities. We need to strengthen our role in fighting the HIV/AIDS pandemic which poses one of the most serious threats to the national democratic revolution.
The workplace – communists play a leading role in many progressive trade unions. Whilst our government has passed many progressive laws to transform the labour market, South Africa’s workplace still reflects the many features of the apartheid workplace. The South African workplace is still characterised by an acute racial and gender division of labour, as well as increasing casualisation of labour, with young women bearing most of the brunt of this. Building a strong trade union movement is the immediate weapon to transform South Africa’s workplace and build working class power.
The ideological terrain of struggle – this is increasingly a vital arena of struggle as class struggles deepen. For instance, whilst South Africa has relatively strong left-leaning working class formations, virtually all of South African mainstream media is right-wing.
The economy – Despite the most sustained growth rate in years, the bourgeoisie has been the major beneficiary over the last 12 years. The working class has suffered major setbacks in terms of job losses and growing inequalities. Transformation of our economy is perhaps the most fundamental challenge facing South Africa, during this phase of our revolution. Hence we use our 85th anniversary to highlight this reality, by focusing on the struggle to build a people’s economy.
As part of the struggles for the transformation of our economy, the SACP will use the 85th anniversary month to once more highlight the consequences of blacklisting by the credit bureaux of millions of working and poor South Africans. We commit ourselves to the struggle to build co-operatives and we call upon local government to set aside funds to build and procure from co-operatives. We will also intensify our struggle for faster transfer of productive land into the hands of our people. We must build People’s Land Committees to accelerate land and agrarian transformation.
Let us celebrate the 85th anniversary of the SACP by ensuring that we deepen the struggle of the workers and the poor to create a better life for all, as an important step towards building a SOCIALIST South Africa.
We will keep the red flag flying!