01 October 2006.
Who is Dan Tloome or uncle Dan? This son of a priest was born in the Free State in 1919. He grew up there, studied and qualified as a teacher from Modderport Anglican Teachers Institute. He taught for a short period and when he moved to Johannesburg he gave up teaching. He took up a full time position in the Milling Workers Union while studying Accountancy and Journalism part-time. He was a founder member of the Council of Non-European Trade Unions in 1941 and became its first Vice-President. This was the same year the African Mineworkers Union was formed under the leadership of J. B. Marks. At the time Dan Tloome declared that the objective of forming CNETU was to “bring home to all lovers of mankind, progressive-minded citizens, and all those intent on the industrial development of the country, the immediate need and urgency for the removal of the industrial colour bar”. (African Communist, second quarter :1987.) He put the question of the recognition of African Trade Unions and the right to bargain on the agenda for engagement with the Racist minority regime at the time.
His activism in the trade union movement brought uncle Dan into contact with the national liberation movement. He joined both the African National Congress and the youth league. We must remind ourselves of the criticism the youth league levelled against the ANC in 1944; “The African National Congress is the symbol and embodiment of the African’s will to present a united national front against all forms of oppression but this has not enabled the movement to advance the national cause in a manner demanded by the prevailing conditions.” This was said in 1944, can we relate to this observation sixty-four years later. The youth league and other progressive sections of the movement transformed the ANC into a militant organisation.
Sixty-four years later our movement is going through a very difficult period characterised by selfishness and materialism wherein comrades can do anything for a fee. The conflict that we see at all levels of our movement is driven by the desire to control the resources and dispense patronage. When comrades fight as if it is the last moment of life and complain about looting in fact the fight is about replacing those already having access to resources with new ones. The challenge facing us is to ensure that we confront this tendency in all its forms. When comrades fight for positions we must be sober and check the performance of the individual comrades and elect them on that basis. We must invest time and energy in fighting factionalism and slates to our conferences.
Uncle Dan took an interest in the SACP in 1936, this interest was provoked by the position the party took when Italy invaded Ethiopia. The whole of Africa stood on the side of the victim with the party providing a solid theoretical framework for condemning the invasion. He was again impressed by the statement of the central committee few days after South Africa joined the allied forces in the Second World War. “The war is a struggle between rival imperialisms for raw materials, markets, capitalist domination and the power to exploit colonial peoples of Africa and Asia”. Throughout his life uncle Dan was an activist close to the people. The lesson for communists is that they should play a constructive role in engaging the ANC. They must not howl at the movement, they should rather engage off the limelight of TV cameras. They should not claim cheap victories for the decisions of the ANC. I sometimes have a sense that there is also an element of inward looking wherein communists cannot look beyond themselves and cannot recognise talent outside of itself located in the broader movement. In the long term this has the potential of alienating the bigger part of our movement. The respect that communists like Dan Tloome, J.B. Marks, Moses Kotane, Moses Mabhida, Joe Slovo, Chris Hani and many others earned was a result of their open mindedness and constructive engagement with the broader movement and taking ownership of the decisions. This is fast becoming thin in the ranks of the SACP.
Our movement has been deeply divided and polarised over the last ten years. Central to these divisions were the eight years old charges against the president of the ANC. This case resulted in the dismissal of the then Deputy President of the ANC and the Republic from office. Comrades took different positions on the matter and friends found themselves on different sides of the divide. These divisions manifested themselves in the NGC of the ANC and culminated into the bitterly contested leadership elections in the Polokwane conference. Since then we have engaged the comrades to demystify the two centres of power theory and appealed for unity and cohesion of our movement. The deployment of the Deputy President of the ANC to the cabinet was but another attempt to close the gap. The joint letter by the President of the ANC and the President of the Republic was another effort to unite the movement. The Pietermaritzburg High Court judgement was the tipping point. The decision to recall Cde Mbeki became urgent in that the movement had to remove one of the poles so that the movement can unite itself behind a single movement, a single leadership collective and a single programme. We appreciated that in any revolution there are cases where loyalty to the commander becomes stronger than to the movement itself. Hence the talk of a splinter party, an issue that should be treated like any other risk and threat, without being distracted. The mass resignation of Ministers and Deputy Ministers is a clear illustration of this reality.
The wisdom of the veterans of our movement is going to be critical for us moving forward. I am sure if comrade Dan Tloome was around he would be part of the collective that would guide us out of this difficult period. Historical materialism informs us that the wisdom displayed by our veterans during difficult times in the past must guide us. The PAC breakaway in 1958 led by Madzunya and Sobukwe was dissent handled decisively. The Morogoro conference of the ANC has many lessons that we can draw from. The dismissal of the group of eight is another example of decisiveness but principled. Thus far we have averted the crisis, even when the list of ministers who have resigned was released with the sole objective, that of collapsing the markets, the swiftness of our response averted the worst. The speed in the appointment of replacement ministers threw the opposition off their feet. We will do the same in replacing the premier of Gauteng. When dealing with any crisis the speed is of essence.
We can honour uncle Dan by implementing the programmes of our movement. We must launch and train street committees and be part of a movement that fights crime. We must take up the education and health campaigns. This province must lead the campaign for rural development, land and agrarian reform. Food production and food security should be the driving force behind this campaign. The bigger part of the old maize triangle is in this province. We must revive it.
All these challenges point to the urgent need for stepping up Political Education at all levels of our movement. Political Education starts with the recruitment programme. In that a new member is no luxury but a must.
All communist cadres to the front!
Thank you