Input by Comrade Thulas Nxesi, SACP National Deputy Chairperson: "A shared history of the liberation struggle"

26 August 2012, DH Williams Hall, Katlehong

Comrade facilitator ANC Secretary General, Cde Gwede Mantashe COSATU President, Cde Sidumo Dlamini YCLSA National Secretary, Cde Buti Manamela Leadership and members of the Progressive Youth Alliance, the YCLSA and the ANCYL Leadership and members of the SACP and Alliance structures, the ANC and COSATU

Comrades, a special word of thanks to the leadership of the Oupa Phasha District YCL for organising this event and facilitating an important exchange of ideas. This event was to be a celebration - to mark a cumulative 191 years of unbroken struggle (100 + 91) - the ANC and the SACP together. But it is difficult to celebrate in the wake of the Marikana tragedy - I will return to this matter later.

But we must take strength and pride in the fact that for over 90 years, South African communists can point to an unbroken and heroic record of struggle against exploitation and oppression. Communists were present in all the major struggles in South Africa:

• We pioneered non-racialism in this country in the 1920s - shedding white chauvinism and embracing the slogan of the Native Republic in 1928.
• We fought for the unity of the oppressed and the path of mass mobilization and struggle.
• We were alongside the workers in building trade unions - with comrade like Ray Alexander, Billy Nair, JB Marks.
• We organized amongst the rural poor.
• We were with the women`s struggles.
• We fought as guerrillas and died as martyrs. We are the party of Chris Hani.
• We are a party of theory and education - from the night schools of the 1920s to the political education programmes run in MK camps, prison cells and trade union and party branches.
• We are internationalist in our orientation. Indeed the very foundation of the party was inspired by the Russian Revolution of 1917.

In relation to our present theme of a shared history, communists have served in the ranks of the ANC. Shoulder to shoulder with other patriotic revolutionaries, communists have helped to build and sustain the ANC. But also, through their activism within the ANC, communist cadres have carried over into the SACP a deeper appreciation of the centrality of the national question within our struggle. Our shared history is a history of continuous cross-fertilisation.

In the time available I want to do two things, comrades:

• To speak to the theme of this event: our shared history of the liberation struggle - as the ANC and SACP - to draw the lessons of history, and
• To then reflect for a moment on what this teaches us in relation to the present conjuncture and the challenges we face as a movement today.

I. Our shared history

The first point to make is that our enemies - the ruling class and their allies - have always feared and opposed the special relationship between the SACP and the ANC - and the labour movement - concretised in the Alliance that we have built and shaped in the heat of struggle against national oppression and the apartheid regime.

Today we are told - by the bourgeois media in particular - that the Alliance has outlived its historic purpose:

• That the ANC must transform into a modern political party - and cease to be a liberation movement;
• That the SACP, like the Soviet Union, has passed its sell-by date; or at least should now go it alone and stand separately in elections;
• We are told that COSATU must concentrate on looking after the immediate economic interests of its members which are said to be in conflict - or subordinated to - the dictates and interests of the politicians.

Comrades, there is nothing new here. It is called `divide and rule`.

From our side, all our historic experience and our political theory and practice point to the central importance of unity - of uniting people and organisations and of the interdependence of political and economic struggles.

As trade unionists we know the need for unity almost instinctively. That is why we came up with slogans such as:

• `An injury to one is an injury to all`
• `Unity is Strength`
• `Solidarity for ever`
• `The workers united shall never be defeated`
• That is why we call for `one union, one industry`. [We have seen in recent days the dire and tragic result of disunity and splinter unions.]
• In fact Marx and Engels said it best in the Communist Manifesto in 1848: "Workers of the world Unite. You have nothing to lose but your chains. You have a world to gain."

It was equally important to build the unity of the oppressed in the face of colonialism and later the apartheid regime. It was the Alliance - based on our shared history - that built, widened and defended that unity process - reaching out beyond the Alliance to build the UDF and the mass democratic movement in the final stages of our struggle for democracy.

It is vital that we continually reaffirm the importance of unity and our Alliance in the present phase of our national democratic revolution - as we seek to consolidate and deepen the democratic gains, whilst intensifying the struggle for fundamental social and economic transformation.

Zooming in to the heart of the theme of this lecture, I want to argue that the special relationship between the ANC and the SACP - based on our shared history - together with COSATU (and its predecessors) - is characterised by the following:

• It is a dialectical and at times highly contested relationship- particularly in terms of class content and direction;
• Historically, when the relationship works well it is a symbiotic relationship - mutually reinforcing and beneficial;
• Above all I will argue that it is a relationship that is firmly rooted in a concrete analysis and understanding of the historic realities of the society - and that it has proved responsive to developments on the ground.

Let me give some historical examples:

1. It is a dialectical and contested relationship

• The ANC was established in 1912 by African elites - educated professionals and progressive traditional leaders. That moment marked a milestone in the history of South Africa and the continent - in overcoming narrow ethnic identity and building the kind of unity that would be necessary to defeat colonialism and racial oppression.
• It was only later that the black working class - led by the Party - was able to stamp its mark upon the national liberation movement - starting in the late 1920s, but continually contested into the 1950s - when the formation of SACTU (South African Congress of Trade Unions) firmly established organised black workers as full partners in the liberation struggle.
• The need for maximum unity against an oppressive regime after 1960 dampened class differences within the liberation movement - for the moment.
• Liberation in 1994 opened the flood-gates, however:
  • Rapid class formation of a parasitic black bourgeoisie - often at the expense of black workers - with the official injunction to "enrich yourselves"; looting of public assets through privatisation and tenders; the deliberate strategy of capital to buy support and create a buffer of dependent black business.
  • Political attacks on the left - the labour movement and the SACP - from within a faction of the ANC
  • The adoption of neo-liberal macro-economic policies - GEAR and the shrinking of the role of the state.
  • This is what we later analysed and characterised as the "1996 class project". Remember comrades that this intense class battle took place within the Alliance and the ANC - and that is where it had to be defeated.
  • Led by the Party - with COSATU and a majority of cadres in the ANC - we mobilised to defend the pro-working class heritage of the ANC.

• At Polokwane we defeated the class project - as an organised faction within the liberation movement - but we did not necessarily end class tensions and conflict within the movement. Hence we see the survival of tenderpreneurs and the emergence of the New Tendency. In this respect the struggle continues.

2. It is a symbiotic relationship

Historically, the relationship has been mutually beneficial and reinforcing. Some examples:

• In the 1930s - at a time when the international communist movement was going through an ultra-left sectarian phase - it was ANC structures which remained grounded in the realities and needs of South African society.
• In 1960, with the banning of the ANC, the national liberation movement was forced to operate underground - a difficult step for a mass organisation which had traditionally operated in the open. Of course the SACP had been working underground since 1953 - and was therefore able to share that experience with comrades in the ANC - definitely helping to ease the transition to underground work.
• In 1990, the collapse of the Soviet Union had a hugely negative effect on the international communist movement. The SACP was a notable exception to this trend. There can be no doubt that our strategic and long-term alliance with the national liberation movement - the fact that we were grounded in the national struggle - helps explain the continued growth of the Party. The subsequent resurgence of class politics post-1994 contributed to the rapid growth in membership of the SACP in later years.

The main point here is that - again and again - we see evidence where the relationship between the ANC and the SACP has benefitted both equally.

Similarly, historically, the labour movement has also benefitted greatly from that Alliance. It was only after FOSATU (Federation of South African Trade Unions, founded in 1970s) transcended its narrow trade union and economistic focus to link up with community and national struggles - that the stage was set for wider working class unity and the launch of the mighty COSATU in 1985.

3. It is a relationship firmly rooted in a concrete analysis and understanding of the society - and the ability to learn from developments on the ground.

Examples include:

• In the aftermath of the First World War and rapid urbanisation and industrialisation, we see both the ANC and the Party adapting to the new socio-economic conditions. Despite its elite origins, the ANC under the presidency of Makgatho, was able to shift from a lobbying organisation to lead protest action and take up the struggles of urbanised Africans and black workers.
• Similarly in the late 1920s the Party worked amongst urbanised African workers to organise industrial unions - following the implosion of the ICU (Industrial and Commercial Workers Union) due to its populist style of leadership and poor organisation.
• [So as COSATU we didn`t invent the notion of `one union, one industry`. The Party was doing it 85 years ago. By the way, I believe that the theory of industrial unionism came to South Africa via immigrant British trade unionists such as Party member, Bill Andrews. The same goes for the position of shop steward - which emerged strongly out of the shop stewards movement in Britain during the First World War.]
• Later, during the 1940s, further intensified urbanisation and industrialisation laid the concrete conditions for the rapid organisation of black workers into the CNETU (Council of Non-European Trade Unions) - led by communists - by giants such as JB Marks - and culminating in the Great Mineworkers Strike of 1946.
• The same developments also laid the conditions for a new generation of national liberation leaders - the generation of Mandela and Sisulu - to challenge for the leadership of the ANC and to begin to transform it into the mass campaigning organisation of the 1950s. In the process the ANC drew on the support of communists with their years of struggle experience.
• This ability as a movement to learn and adapt tactics from elsewhere is also very clear in the case of the Defiance Campaign of 1953 - in many ways based on the tactics of Ghandi`s Satyagraha - passive disobedience - which came to the ANC via the Transvaal and Natal Indian Congresses - which had organised passive resistance campaigns in the 1940s.
• The great achievement of the ANC, particularly from the 1950s onwards was always, through the ups and downs of struggle, to recover its balance, to learn from and instruct popular militancy, to build the shield of a progressive unity, and to provide the spear-point of a clear strategic line of march.

II. The present conjuncture

In closing I have to say something briefly about the recent events at the Marikana Mine - and more generally around the Rustenburg platinum mines:

1. The conflict on the Rustenburg platinum mines is the outcome of real class issues - both in the workplace and in the surrounding working class communities.

• Inadequate salaries - driven further down by the use of labour brokers in some cases
• Major health and safety challenges in the mines
• Squalid and insecure living conditions and lack of social infrastructure in the surrounding communities.
• All of this is compounded by the continuation of the migrant labour system and artificial divisions amongst workers fostered by the employer.

2. Nothing excuses the massive loss of workers lives.

• As socialists we must be indignant at the sight of striking workers shot down in droves. It must never happen again.
• Of course indignation is not enough. We need to know and analyse what actually happened here - and for that we await the findings of the Commission of Enquiry. But we must also act now.

3. Divisions, splinter unions, reckless adventurism and opportunism on a grand scale allowed this damage to be inflicted on workers.

• Our primary task as socialists and trade unionists is to unite workers in this industry. We look to COSATU and NUM to lead this process
• But as the Alliance we must provide every support to the labour movement in this respect.
• As the SACP we have to show the central role of capital in this disaster - and we have to provide the analysis of the workings of capital in this particular industry - to arm the workers and the union as they strategise to defend and improve the conditions of their members.

4. Nothing excuses the behaviour we witnessed on Thursday at the memorial service in Marikana:

• It was highly disrespectful to the dead and their loved ones.
• It deliberately endangered the living - with the so-called Friends of the ANCYL working with AMCU thugs to threaten the leaders of our movement. This was a declaration of war against all of us, comrades.
• Nothing could be more obscene than the sight of a corrupt former youth leader - bloated on his ill-gotten gains - claiming to speak on behalf of poor workers.
• Comrades this cannot be tolerated. We are facing a physical threat from populist proto-fascists who exploit the vulnerability of the poor and unemployed - whilst looting public funds.

As the Alliance, as we develop our response to this threat, we will need to take a strategic and tactical debate - drawing on the lessons of our shared history:

• Politically we have to unite the working class and society against this populist threat;
• Politically we have to take very seriously the real grievances and demands of the masses: unemployment - particularly youth unemployment; low wages and poor conditions; lack of service delivery; poverty and inequality etc. We cannot allow the DA and the New Tendency to pose as champions of the unemployed and poor workers. We have to redouble our efforts in this respect.
• In the meantime we have to combat thuggishness with the full force of the law;
• Similarly, we combat corruption in terms of the law.

Comrades, Marikana has sharpened political divisions in the country, whilst focusing attention on real fundamental socio-economic challenges. Our task now - as the SACP and the Alliance - is to learn from this experience, draw on the tried and trusted lessons of our past, and develop a bold strategy that takes the fight to the enemy.

I thank you.