Towards a Party Building Strategy and a Quality Party

1. Introduction

1. We have 10 years of experience of rebuilding the Party since we were unbanned in
   February 1990. The May 2000 National SACP Strategy Conference presents us with an
   opportunity to assess this experience and develop a programme for building an SACP fully
   aware of its past, an SACP rooted in the present and an SACP of the future.
2. From our experience of 10 years of legal work, do we have a common party building
   strategy? What has our party building work achieved? What are the party building
   challenges we have faced? What have we not been able to achieve? What are the objective
   criteria we need to assess our party building work? How does party building work relate to
   the SACP programme and strategic objective?
3. All these questions have been discussed on several occasions in our Congresses, the
   Central Committee (CC), branches, districts and the Party Building Commission (PBC). This
   document does not go in depth to discuss these questions. Instead, the document assumes
   broad principles (based on these questions). In discussing and finalising this document,
   the challenge is for SACP structures to elaborate on the assumptions made and honestly
   discuss the questions raised – in order to inform our analysis and development of a
   party building strategy.
4. The broad assumptions made are: -

• Party building work is important and must be related to, and informed by the SACP
  programme and strategic objective.
• We do not have a common and comprehensive strategy, approach and tactics for party
  building. We need a common party building strategy. The "we", in this instance
  refers primarily to SACP activists directly conducting party building work in one way or
  another – i.e. employed organisers, provincial and national leadership and branch and
  district activists who conduct party building work.
• We do not have complete and sufficient practical objectives, results, and objective
  criteria to assess our party building work, campaigns and implementation mechanisms. We
  need all these. We also need increased capacity to monitor our performance and
  implementation mechanisms.

5. Therefore through this document, its subsequent discussion, finalisation, implementation
   and revision, the SACP should work to achieve the following: -

• To stimulate honest reflection and discussion primarily by organisers, provincial and
  national leadership, district and branch activists on our party building experience over
  the last ten years;
• To achieve a common and comprehensive strategy, programme, tactics and approach in
  building structures of the SACP and organisational discipline;
• To locate party building work in the context of our political programme to build
  people’s power and entrench working class power in South African society; and
• To develop implementation mechanisms for party building and objective criteria for
  assessing our party building work.

2. Why does the SACP organise?

1. We need members to be an SACP to represent our constituency and to work
   to achieve our aims and objectives. There is no SACP without its members. Organising
   members to join and build the SACP also puts into effect the representation of the class
   by the SACP and accountability of the SACP to the working class.

2. Socialism is not an inevitable and pre-determined outcome of history.
   The SACP is a necessary agent to precipitate and stimulate struggles to achieve and build
   socialism in our country. There is no socialist organisation, influence and programmes
   without members. Therefore the SACP, through its membership should represent socialist
   organisation, influence, struggles and programmes.

3. The SACP should not just recruit anyone to its ranks. We need members of
   a particular type. The SACP should target those workers, women, the unemployed, rural
   dwellers, revolutionary intelligentsia and young people with the potential to fight for
   the socialist cause. Therefore the SACP should target the members it wants based on
   several objective criteria, including class positions and interests, potential to develop
   into committed and selfless socialist activists and leaders, active involvement and links
   with the working class, its issues and interests. SACP members must objectively and
   qualitatively contribute to a socialist organisation capable to master the science of
   revolution. Without the majority of its membership and leadership not coming from the
   class we claim to represent, the SACP cannot claim to be the leading political force of
   the South African working class.

3. The current state of SACP organising and organisation

1. From 1990 we had signed up to 80 000 members. Now we have between 14 000
   and 21 000 paid up members. These represent the core of SACP activists. What has happened
   to the other 59 000 we signed up? Many of there were ‘deployed and lost’ to the
   ANC, COSATU, government and other organisations. It is possible that many of these
   comrades have acquired new class positions. Many others were lost because of weak
   organisation, leadership, service and administration. Others were also lost because they
   were disillusioned by some strategic and tactical options the Party followed in the last
   10 years. It is actually possible to bring the majority of these members back to the SACP
   and also to get new members. After all, the primary organisation for any communist must be
   the SACP. All other work and organisations must be secondary.

2. Current membership – Our current paid-up membership is 13803
   members (Eastern Cape – 2172, Free State – 2665, Gauteng – 1154, KwaZulu
   Natal – 3510, Mpumalanga – 600, Northern Cape – 220, Northern Province
   – 1500 and Western Cape – 2364). This gives a total of about 15 000 paid up
   members and there are between 5000 and 7000 signed up members expected to pay up in the
   next six months. This indicates a decline from the 80 000 paid-up members we had some
   years ago. As an example, in the 8th SACP Congress (December 1991), the current Eastern
   Cape province had a total of 8500 members but it now has no more than 3000 members. Many
   SACP provinces and regions have declined. Are there provinces, which have remained stable?
   Which provinces have strengthened? Again weak leadership, organisation, service and
   administration has contributed to this decline. Also refer to the discussion of Provincial
   Executive Committees (PECs), organisers and the CC below. Do we know how many of our
   current paid-up members are actually active in SACP structures and implementing the Party
   programme?

3. Branches and Districts – On paper we have 30 launched districts and
   355 branches. We do not know how many of these actually function. Ideally, functioning
   branches and districts would score 50% on the following - holding of constitutional
   meetings and structures, effective coordination of branches by districts, contributing and
   implementing SACP programmes and campaigns and a continual increase in the level and
   quality of district and branch contribution to SACP policy, programmes and campaigns.
   There are two key problems contributing directly to these weaknesses. Many of our
   activists do not properly understand the location, roles and functions of district
   structures. Secondly, there is a glaring lack of appropriate support for district and
   branch structures from our provincial resources – mainly provincial staff, leadership
   and CC members deployed in provinces.

4. Party Building Commission (PBC) – this structure is made up of the
   General Secretary, Heads of national office departments, Provincial
   Secretaries/Chairpersons and Provincial Organisers. It was started in 1993 and meets once
   in three months. It has contributed greatly to achieving some level of a common view,
   approach and strategy on party building and implementation of the SACP programme. But it
   has not been able to overcome the problems of weak leadership, organisation, service and
   administration. This has led to the PBC to make relatively ineffective contribution to
   party building and SACP policy, programmes and campaigns. Even though the PBC offers other
   CC members an opportunity to inter-act with the full time party building core of the SACP,
   very few CC members have actually taken an active part in the PBC. Also participation by
   provincial secretaries has not been even and consistent. The PBC should have the capacity
   to actually objectively assess and scrutinise provincial reports, troubleshoot and solve
   party building problems in provinces. We have not achieved this all throughout. The PBC
   structure exists in some provinces. It is difficult to assess these provincial PBCs. The
   PBC remains an important party building structure.

5. The 1999 Red October Campaign – This campaign was a serious attempt
   to jerk up our party building work through a targeted recruitment campaign. The political
   basis for this campaign was the need to root the SACP in the working class through
   industrial units and emphasis on women workers. The campaign also raised political demands
   – consolidate union structures, stop job losses, solve the public sector dispute. The
   campaign succeeded in advance national planning, raising the public profile of the SACP,
   focusing party building work on organised workers, reviving some structures, recruiting
   about 1000 new members and gaining about 1000 new debit orders. The campaign failed in
   identifying clear targets, establishing sustainable industrial units and mobilising all
   SACP members and leaders to take up the campaign. Lack of financial resources, support and
   direction from provincial leadership, ANC support and uneven COSATU support contributed to
   the failure of the campaign. The campaign offers valuable lessons on how the SACP should
   undertake specific campaigns to build itself.

6. Other SACP campaigns – in the past 10 years we have adopted and
   implemented many campaigns – 1994 and 1999 election campaigns, HHH campaigns, tens of
   local campaigns by branches and districts, Cuban Solidarity campaigns, etc. Some of these
   were quite successful campaigns and some were spectacular failures. The problems
   identified in the Red October campaign apply to these other campaigns.

7. Women and gender in the SACP – like many political parties in our
   country, the SACP is still male dominated. Many women who could have joined the party have
   not felt "theoretically prepared" and the "Party expected more than they
   could deliver". We have not succeeded to build the Party as a party that is
   woman-friendly, sensitive to gender issues, and committed to development of women cadres.
   If we were we would have hundreds of quality women activists across the country and we
   would be more involved in the struggle for gender equality at all levels. This is not to
   say we have not tried to address these problems. But where we have, our attempts were
   quickly undermined by other party building pressures and a lack of profound understanding
   of the connection between socialism and gender equality. Our main task in this regard
   remains the raising of consciousness and to further develop our Party perspective on the
   transformation of gender relations and socialism. We need to build a core of women
   cadreship and leadership at all levels. We also need to identify, understand and remove
   barriers to women’s participation in the Party and facilitate strategies for
   women’s full participation in the Party.

8. Involvement of CC members in party building work – we have more
   than 60 national leaders of the SACP who have been or are currently CC members. Their
   contribution to party building has been uneven. There is a core of committed national SACP
   leaders who continue to directly contribute to party building work. This core has
   motivated many activists and structures to continue with SACP work in most trying and
   difficult conditions. There is also a significant number of SACP national leaders who have
   not contributed or contribute to party building work to the level required, expected and
   possible. Not all CC members actually, actively and qualitatively contribute in our PECs,
   districts, branches and other SACP work beyond CC meetings. Many of our CC leaders are in
   high-intense positions in govt., the ANC, COSATU and other organisations. But their
   primary organisation, interest and priority must be the SACP – this is clear from
   what the SACP Constitution says. Other organisations and work must be secondary and come
   after their service to the SACP – there are many ways of doing this. Even in the CC
   itself, we have to honestly and openly scrutinise the level and quality of contribution
   and performance of all CC members. In doing this we have to answer the question - What
   accounts for this state of affairs? Part of the answer is the question of the level of
   political development of many of our CC members and clear and the lack of objective
   criteria of inputs and outputs expected from CC members.

9. Involvement of PEC members in party building work – from 1990 we
   must have than 500 leaders who have served and continue to serve in our PECs. Except in a
   few cases and some PEC terms of office, the analysis on CC members above applies to many
   our current and past PECs. To add salt to the wound, the decline of the SACP in the
   Mpumalanga province shows what a non-functioning PEC can do to destroy SACP structures.

10. Employed Organisers – from 1990 we must have more than 50 comrades
    who have served or still serve as organisers employed in the national and provincial
    offices. Until the March 2000 National Staff Training workshop, we had not previously
    educated and trained our organisers in any systematic way. Even this training workshop was
    not focusing on methodical education on party building. In other words, we have actually
    undermined our organisers by not providing them with education and training tools to do
    their work. Many of them worked under difficult conditions with little resources and many
    of them lacked technical skills which, we could have provided. Many of them are committed
    SACP activists and they have actually contributed to building SACP structures, albeit
    unevenly. By the way, our organisers are actually the only full time and
    professional revolutionaries we can claim to have. Further, we have also not
    developed and utilised objective mechanisms for measuring performance of, and assessing
    our organisers. If we had done this, we could have picked up and acted on weaknesses,
    mistakes and deficiencies. As a result of all of these, many of our structures have
    collapsed in front of, many a times, helpless organisers. How do we justify collapsing
    SACP structures when we have employed organisers we pay monthly salaries to and provide
    with some basic resources? We need to improve the level and quality of organisers’
    contribution and performance in building the SACP.

11. Fund raising - A perennial problem of the SACP is its ability to raise
    sufficient funds to run its programmes effectively and efficiently. The debit order
    campaign, support from our allies, sales of merchandise and publications and international
    solidarity support have been part of our responses. But we have also organised some
    activities intended to raise funds, but ended up in lost funds. What we need are national,
    provincial and district fund-raising cores and a comprehensive short to mid-term
    fund-raising strategy. We have the FinCom as the core. We do not have an effective fund
    raising strategy.

12. In the final analysis, the state of SACP organisation is currently weak
    and is not what it should be. This impacts negatively on the ability of the SACP to
    implement its programmes and achieve its objectives (short and long term). There is a
    large core of activists, members and leaders committed to build a strong, bigg7er and
    effective SACP. There is immense potential for building a strong and effective SACP and
    structures. This assertion is supported by the continued popularity of, and respect for
    the SACP and socialism amongst the working class and in society generally. In addition,
    objective conditions are ripe for potential SACP qualitative and quantitative growth and
    development.

4. Who does the SACP organise and why?

1. Formally employed workers (about 5 million workers) - because of their
   size, strategic location in the economy, levels of organisation and consciousness (about 3
   million are organised in unions), militancy, experience and revolutionary traditions.

2. Unemployed workers (about 5 million workers) – this strata of
   society has direct links and common interests with organised workers, also a strategic
   location, also strategic numbers. This strata of the working class is largely
   un-organised. And in the last two years, reactionary forces have entrenched themselves in
   this strata. This strata, together with organised workers is the core of the South African
   working class.

3. Women (about 22 million) - the majority come from the working class and
   rural areas, the majority of women face triple oppression (inter-section of race, class
   and gender). The question of women and gender has not been fully discussed and understood
   in the SACP and the national liberation movement as a whole. Politics, economics and
   culture are still dominated by men. Without women’s liberation there is no socialism,
   the women’s question is for today and the future.

4. Youth – our population is young (about 60% of our population is
   less than 30 years of age). The majority of the youth comes from the working class and
   rural areas. Youth is in a strategic location as the future of the country. There is a big
   gap in political mobilisation of the youth and there is a need to address their issues in
   a socialist way and take socialist politics and organisation to the youth.

5. Rural dwellers and farm-workers – people in rural areas constitute
   large numbers of residents of the country. Rural dwellers have historic, family and
   cultural links and alliances with the urban working class. A significant portion of rural
   dwellers and farm workers are women and young people. Rural dwellers and farm workers face
   extreme exploitation, unemployment, poverty and under-development. There are several
   possibilities for accelerated rural transformation and mobilisation – the struggle
   for continuing and deeper land reform, co-operatives and unionisation of farm workers.

6. Revolutionary intelligentsia – this small, but influential and
   critical strata of society is key in strategic and theoretical questions. Many of them
   have committed class suicide. Many others in this strata actually originate from the
   working class and the poor. By virtue of their positions, this strata has important
   influence and links in key and strategic areas and spheres of society in the public and
   private sectors, NGOs, religious communities, the universities and government. Recruiting
   this strata into the SACP will be critical in our struggle for fundamental economic and
   political transformation. This is even more so in the public sector – recruiting and
   training public service workers and managers could be our contribution to building a
   transformative public service and managers.

7. In other words, the SACP organises the working class. And employed
   workers, unemployed workers and rural dwellers constitute the core of this working class.
   Key sectors in this working class are organised workers, women and young people. The
   revolutionary intelligentsia is also critical.

5. The character of our party and our party building strategy in the context of
building people’s power

1. To achieve our objectives, we need to build a particular type of party.
   Our character should reflect the tasks facing us in the current situation. The challenges
   and tasks of implementing our political programme require that we discuss and fully
   understand the question of the appropriate size and level of influence of the SACP in the
   current period. As indicate above, our state of organisation is not good and is not what
   it should be.

2. Our characterisation as a vanguard party with a mass character remains
   valid mass character. Whilst for most of the 1990s we maintained that we were not a mass
   party, our party building efforts were in essence those of a mass party. Attempts to build
   a mass party were not successful, as they were based on an unscientific understanding of
   our capacity to translate our popularity into effective socialist organisation. The
   weakness in our internal organisation – size of quality cadreship – was partly
   related to the difficulties in shifting from the underground to legality in a context of
   rebuilding the ANC, the negotiations process, counter-revolutionary political violence,
   access to power and complex challenges of governance. Many of our cadres were actively
   deployed in these areas of work and a significant core, though small, was wiped out by
   counter-revolution.

3. For the first half of the 1990s, we did not have a broad enough
   cadreship to absorb a large number of members and turn them into advanced, quality cadres.
   Since the mid-1990s, our internal organisational strength has changed to a limited extent.
   Through our own and joint political education work with COSATU affiliates and party
   building work we have developed hundreds of new quality communist cadres across the
   country. But this achievement can be undermined if we do not grow and develop our party
   internally and externally.

4. In discussing party building we should critically problematise the
   notion of building the Party in the context of our alliance with mass-based national
   liberation and trade union movements. The character of our Party should primarily be
   sought in the main strategic objective of the national democratic revolution during this
   period, that is the struggle for he deepening, advancing and consolidating the NDR,
   building working class and people’s power and the struggle to build socialism now.
   How best are we to protect the working class and advance its interests? This is the key
   question that should inform the character of the party. The deepening class contradictions
   within the national liberation movement itself require a strong political formation
   representing the interests of the working class.

5. We need to take a long-range view of the struggle for socialism. We
   should continue to build a vanguard party rooted in a quality, activist and politically
   advanced layer of communist activists whose primary area of work is the SACP with a
   strategic spread of cadres in key areas in the national liberation, trade union and mass
   movements for fundamental transformation. This clearly suggests the need to consolidate,
   systematise and deepen our ideological development work to consolidate our existing
   membership and turn it into quality cadreship. A key task in this regard is specialised
   and appropriate political education for the different layers of our leadership and
   membership.

6. Whilst arguing for a more vanguard approach to party building, we need
   to temper this approach with our mass character, given our political programme which
   implies mass mobilisation for people’s power and socialism. The appropriate size of
   our Party must be dictated to by existing conditions as the situation unfolds. Whilst we
   cannot and should not aim at exponential intakes of membership for its own sake, at the
   same time we should not be mechanically a small vanguard for its own sake. Rather we
   should aim at continuos, quality and targeted recruitment, backed up by an extensive and
   dynamic political education programme, campaigns and our active involvement in campaigns
   and struggles of the working class.

7. It is the fluidity of the present period that dictates building a highly
   disciplined, quality party. We need a party that is compact and big enough for effective
   and swift deployment, and capable of adjusting to changing conditions in implementing its
   programme. It is only with a significant size of high quality cadreship that we can rise
   to the challenge of gradual expansion, growth and development. Similarly, if we need to
   fall back on our organisational strength to defend our organisation and programme under
   difficult political conditions, we will be able to do so better. The discussion of the
   appropriate size for the SACP in the current period is discussed in section 5 below.

8. Even more important is the need to make our presence and influence felt
   both within and outside the alliance. In this way we can command the necessary respect
   from within the ranks of the working class and wider society. In turn, this respect will
   provide fertile ground for party building work.

9. Therefore we cannot just play a watchdog role. Rather it is through
   active participation and playing a leading role in the implementation of programmes aimed
   at achieving NDR objectives that we will build the party in the context of people’s
   power. Through practice, we will effectively equip ourselves to engage in ideological
   struggle around the South African transition. It is for these reasons that we have
   declared we have "Building People’s Power for the eradication poverty" as
   the theme and programmatic focus of the SACP for the year 2000.

10. The elements of our year 2000 programme are: -

• Active and visible SACP involvement in the struggle against job losses and for job
  creation
• Developing a working class biased local government transformation strategy to meet the
  basic needs of poor people
• A successful campaign to ensure a massive ANC victory in the coming local government
  elections. It is important that these elections are based on a transformative pro-working
  class vision and programme
• Campaigning against crime and violence against women through building Community Policing
  Forums, utilising women’s focus months and developing a socialist understanding of
  violence against women
• Campaigning for accelerated rural transformation and land reform
  
  through building of co-operatives and rural development committees which will focus on
  rural women’s empowerment
• Campaigning against discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS and for
  affordable HIV/AIDS treatment and increased HIV/AIDS awareness

11. Essentially, the year 2000 programme is posited on our strategic mission
    of building people’s power through the eradication of poverty, building working class
    power and the eventual defeat of capitalism. In this regard, the programme implies that
    SACP cadres must be actively involved in building organs of people’s power in rural
    areas, townships, hostels, mines, farms, factories, cities and informal settlements of our
    country. In addition to CPFs, other organs of people’s power critical to the SACP are
    local development forums, school governing bodies, workplace forums, HIV/AIDS
    organisations, women’s organisations, ward committees, clean up campaigns,
    co-operatives and so on. We need to audit developments in these organs of people’s
    power to see what achievements and weaknesses there have been. Also, do our activists
    actually understand these organs of people’s power, their strategic value and how
    they should contribute and engage with them?

12. Most of our structures and provinces have not been able to implement our
    year 2000 programme. There are a variety of reasons for this and they are contained in the
    above discussion on the current state of SACP organisation. Here we merely raise that this
    lack of implementation points to the need for an effective implementation strategy and
    mechanisms using budgeting, fund-raising, thorough preparation of cadres, objective
    performance evaluation and consistent follow up to see results over years and not just a
    short space of time.

13. In the final analysis, the above analysis suggests that the aims and
    objectives of our party building strategy must, at least, be the following: -

• to realise the full SACP organisational potential and capacity in pursuit of its
  programme and ultimate aim
• the building of a strong, effective and vibrant SACP structures; to recruit, build and
  sustain new members to the SACP coming mainly from the working class in order that they
  carry out systematic political work in factories, industrial areas, shops, mines,
  residential areas and farms
• to achieve SACP leadership and membership accountability to the SACP programme and
  structures
• to achieve SACP accountability to the South African working class
• to distribute SACP literature amongst all workers
• to carry forward the SACP debit order campaign and to achieve SACP self-sufficiency
• to forge sustainable working class unity, confidence, power and action
• to openly and democratically win the confidence of the broad working class movement and
  be the leading political force of the South African working class
• building and servicing the progressive union movement and the broad liberation alliance
  movement; and
• to, without fear or favour, assert the SACP and its independent positions in the
  alliance and in society.

14. Therefore the outline of our party building objectives will be achieved through the
    following tactics: -

• actual campaigns and programmes aimed at taking up working class issues, interests and
  challenges – the broad theoretical basis for this is contained in our programme and
  the Year 2000 programme elaborates specific and concrete programmes.
• concrete programmes with unions – national socialist commission, district level
  socialist forums, union support for party building initiatives, political education
  schools, job losses campaign and other campaigns.
• Specific offensives and campaigns with targets for party building. Therefore we need to
  institutionalise the period from January to April as internal organisational strengthening
  periods (political education, implementation plans for annual programmes, etc.). External
  work - institutionalisation of July/August as recruitment months because of the SACP
  anniversary and the women’s month and Red October as ‘annual musts’ which
  must be planned for, budgeted for and cadres prepared in advance.
• Improving the ability and capacity of the PBC to troubleshoot, solve problems in party
  building work and provincial structures and qualitatively contribute to party building and
  the implementation our programme
• Education and training of full time SACP revolutionaries responsible for party building
• Political education and training of other layers of SACP party builders
• Mobilisation of resources to support our party building programme
• Finalising and implementing key documents – party building strategy, party building
  manual, an SACP Code of Conduct; and
• Developing appropriate and feasible implementation mechanisms – project management
  training, fund-raising and budgeting, work planning training, performance monitoring.

6. The tactics of building the SACP in the 21st century – achieving an
appropriate size and quality

1. Objective conditions exist for better and bigger SACP organisation.
   Below is a brief analysis why.

2. The working class still constitutes a majority in society. Through
   programmes of the ANC government, there has been some improvement in the lives and
   conditions of the poor and the working class. However, there are still massive and
   deepening inequalities in our society. GEAR and other policies actually impact negatively
   on the working class. As a result of these, there are many struggles being waged by the
   working class. There are many other class struggles coming.

3. There are still high levels of political mobilisation in society. Part
   of our programmatic approach argues for people led and driven reconstruction and
   development. This approach is informed by the fact that there are still opportunities and
   issues to mobilise our people into effective political organisations and mass movements
   for the fundamental transformation of our country. But there are weaknesses – many of
   our activists have been detached from the mass base and organisations, reactionary forces
   have utilised some of the political space to recruit and build bases in the working class.

4. COSATU’s 1,8 million members represent a significant section of
   organised employed workers. About 1 million other workers are organised in independent
   unions and other union federations. This is massive and unprecedented revolutionary worker
   organisation. The current SACP campaign to establish industrial units and branches shows
   potential for growth of socialist organisation amongst organised workers.

5. The COSATU affiliate commitment to socialism and increased support from
   unions to the SACP is also another opportunity for qualitative and quantitative growth of
   the SACP. But this commitment to socialism and union support for the SACP cannot be just
   assumed. It is possible that in the future unions may be under anti-socialist influence.
   It is also possible that unions may appropriately question their support of the SACP based
   on what the SACP is actually doing or not doing to forge working class unity, confidence,
   power and government.

6. The past decade, characterised by increasing globalisation and its harsh
   effects on the working class, has hit the working class hard through casualisation, tariff
   reductions, job losses, cuts in social spending, a disproportionate and regressive tax
   burden and general unemployment. The working class is now fighting back, looking for
   socialist organisation and leadership and asking questions about the role of the SACP.
   This represents a decisive moment for growth and rooting the SACP in the working class.

7. The SACP remains the oldest, largest, most organised and most
   influential socialist political party in South Africa and Africa as a whole. But our small
   numbers and weak organisation limit all these.

8. Given the above objective conditions, this document argues that the
   above constitute objective conditions for substantial quantitative and qualitative growth
   of the SACP in the short to mid-term – 2 to 6 years.

9. The question of size is important in the strategic mission of the SACP.
   Without significant mass and compact communist organisation, the role and influence of the
   SACP in South African society will not reach its full potential and socialism will not be
   mass movement. Given this need for a compact and big enough Communist Party, the size of
   our population and electorate, the size of our working class (and rural dwellers), levels
   of political organisation and levels of trade union organisation, 100 000 members is
   suggested as an appropriate size and target for building the SACP in the next five years.
   The suggestion of this number does not replace our correct argument that forces for
   socialism must not just be in the SACP – we must influence mass movements, COSATU,
   the ANC and so on to fight for socialism and fundamental transformation. But a big,
   organised, strong, effective, compact communist core is primary. We cannot forecast what
   appropriate size the SACP will require in the longer term – 7 to 12 years and even
   beyond.

10. It is possible for the SACP to reach a membership figure of 100 000 over
    five years from the year 2000. At the end of the document is a table containing an outline
    of a possible party building programme to meet the target of 100 000.

11. In addition to providing a critical and fairly large communist activist
    core, the suggested size of 100 000 members represents the following: -

• 3-5% of COSATU membership
• 1 % of employed and unemployed workers combined
• 0.25% of the country’s population and about 0.5% of the electorate
• 1000 branches, about 75 districts and a total annual income of R2,4 million – these
  are based on current constitutional stipulations for members per branch, branches per
  district and the current subscription fee
• on average 11 000 members per province. Except for the Northern Cape (because of the
  small size of its population), this figure is actually possible in all the other 8
  provinces.
• a massive force, power and influence to radically transform society.

12. But this 100 000 does not come without challenges. If achieved it would
    represent exponential and speedy growth. We would face the challenges of developing
    adequate human and financial resources to sustain and service this large number of new
    members. We would face immense political education, induction and discipline challenges.
    Indeed many of the challenges we faced in the last ten years will come. But we have the
    benefit of the experiences of the last ten years, the advantages provided by the objective
    conditions identified above, and the our political programme which commits us to build
    people’s power and socialism now.

13. The real question though should be whether 100 000 is a feasible target
    and what can we do to reach it, prepare for its challenges and use it to increase SACP
    influence in the alliance and society as a whole?

14. It becomes necessary that our party building strategy encompasses
    lessons, provides for what is possible and begins to dream. After all, communists are
    visionaries inspired by dreams and hopes of a radically different society. Our party
    building work must be inspired by dreams of a radically different SACP.

15. The strategy and programme discussed in this document intend to meet the
    needs and assumptions mentioned in the introduction to this document.

16. In conclusion, the suggested party building strategy is not an end in
    itself in building the organisation. Building an organisation is an ongoing process of
    uneven and complex developments, successes, retreats and consolidation. It is not a single
    event. It is comprised of broad tapestry of inter-related programmes and campaigns
    building towards reaching our strategic objective and ultimate aim. Is the above just an
    impossible dream?

7. Party building programme – outline

MAIN TASKS	ACTIVITIES
Red South Africa 100 000 Offensive 25 000 by 31 Nov 2000 35 000 by 31 July 2001 40 000 by 30 Nov 2001 50 000 by 31 July 2002 55 000 by 31 Nov 2002 60 000 by 31 July 2003 70 000 by 31 Nov 2003 80 000 by 31 July 2004 90 000 by 31 Nov 2004 100 000 by 31 Nov 2005	Institutionalisation of July/August as SACP external recruitment and campaign months Institutionalisation of Red October as a worker recruitment focusing on industrial areas Institutionalisation of the January to April period as an internal SACP revival and strengthening period A comprehensive political education programme including – at least two district political schools a year schools, one school and induction a year for PECs and CC SACP involvement in campaigns and struggles and using these as a base for party building Utilising Hani, May Day, the 80th anniversary, etc. in this programme Targets required for each province, district and branch Extensive fund raising Union support and co-operation International party building exchanges Improved performance monitoring Develop effective SACP communication (media) strategy
2000 Red October campaign	Planning at the June PBC National education and training workshop for district secretaries, chairpersons and organisers (no more than 80 people) for end August – make it an annual event Link to the local govt. elections campaign Mobilise resources
Socialist forums and a National Socialist Commission	District socialist activist forums on a quarterly basis – SACP districts, COSATU and affiliate locals – all districts to convene these forums by end August 2000 and another by end November 2000 Develop a programme for socialist forums This approach aims to consolidate the common approaches and strategies of the socialist forces led by the Party and the progressive labour movement on issues affecting and posing a threat to the socialist project. At the same it would demystify the formal approach associated with our political education programmes. National socialist commission – similar concept to socialist forums. Hold meetings at least twice a year. Convene with COSATU as a matter of urgency by end August.
Mobilising women	PBC discussion – November 2000 CC discussion Provincial workshops Setting up national and gender structures – June 2001 Annual targets for women’s mobilisation, gender education and campaign work
Immigrant, Coloured, Indian and white working class Need time frames	Brainstorm at Strategy Conference Draft a discussion document – outline of current situation, problems, objectives, tasks, strategy and tactics Finalise the discussion document Programme development and implementation Assessment of programme implementation
Campaigns	Year 2000 programme – implementation, resources and assessment. Y2K POA to continue in year 2001 Forecast future campaigns and struggles – 2004 elections, International solidarity, Y2K campaigns continuing, Cooperatives, HIV/AIDS, Southern African solidarity and socialist co-operation, Reforming financial institutions, etc.
Party building manual	Strategy Conference discussion and development Finalisation and launch at national education and training workshop for districts Revise annually
Discipline, planning and accountability	Developing a code of conduct Effective CC and PEC deployments Reporting formats for provincial secretaries, organisers, all SACP staff and branches and districts National and provincial annual reports Improved work planning Advance yearly planning and budgeting Setting targets for employees and each structure
Fund raising	Develop and implement a strategy

QUESTIONS FOR DEBATE

Party programme and party building

• Is the SACP programme fully cognisant of the current political period and its
  challenges?
• Does the SACP programme facilitate appropriate party building strategies and tactics
  relevant to the conditions and challenges of the current period?
• How does the current implementation of the SACP programme and SACP options on current
  questions contribute to party building?

Role of SACP leadership in party building

• What are the criteria for electing national and provincial leadership? Do we need these?
  What are the objective inputs and outputs expected from national and provincial leaders?
  How should national and provincial leaders account to lower structures and members? How do
  these factors relate to party building?

• Governance and SACP leadership – since 1994, many of our members have joined senior
  levels of parliament, the public sector, the private sector and government. How has their
  work, contributions and challenges sharpened and strengthened them as SACP members and the
  SACP as well? How have they used their positions to implement the SACP programme? How have
  our comrades responded to their individual economic advancement by virtue of their newly
  acquired positions? How have we used this to build the Party? Have we analysed the impact
  of these possibly changed class positions on their class interests, allegiance and
  politics? How do these factors relate to party building?

SACP membership and structures in the last ten years

• What led to the massive growth of the SACP from around 5000 members in 1991 to about 80
  000 in 1994? What problems and challenges came up? How did we respond to these? What has
  caused us to lose most of these members?
• Why are many branches, districts, PECs and other structures not functional? What is a
  functioning and effective SACP structure? Do our activists know what a branch or district
  must do? How do we get them to function?
• What is the relationship between our organisational weaknesses and shortfalls in
  implementing our programme and, indeed, our strategic shortcomings? If we were
  organisationally stronger, could we have stood our ground and influenced developments much
  more than we have done? In other words, and as asked above, what is the relationship
  between the party programme, its implementation and party building?
• How can we use the PB, CC, PBC, PECs and MPs/MPLs to support weak lower structures and
  party building work? Do we not need more full time political leaders? How do we achieve
  this?

Who does the SACP organise and why? Tasks and challenges

• Which sectors of the SA working class should the SACP prioritise in party building
  – women, youth, rural, organised workers? Why?
• Given that the majority of our membership is men, how do we mobilise women into the
  SACP? What are the subjective and objective barriers to the mobilisation of women into the
  SACP? What should be our strategy and tactics to remove these barriers and mobilise women
  into the SACP?
• Given that the majority of our membership is African, what is the strategic importance
  of mobilising the Immigrant, Coloured, Indian and white working class? How do we develop
  strategy and tactics to address this question? What should be our strategy and tactics in
  doing this? Would mobilising these sectors not be concrete SACP contributions to regional
  working class unity and solidarity and building a united non-racial nation?
• There are many socialist academics and intellectuals in NGOs, unions, universities and
  elsewhere who are not SACP members. What is their strategic relevance to the SACP? Why are
  they not SACP members? How can we reach out and mobilise them into the SACP?
• How should the SACP mobilise and recruit the revolutionary intelligentsia into the SACP?
  In which sectors of society do we start with this work? What will be the challenges and
  opportunities? How should we utilise these? How should we approach party building in the
  public sector?

Party building and building people’s power

• What is people’s power? What is its relevance for our programme? Should working
  class power be the basis for building people’s power? What is working class power?
• What are organs of people’s power? What are their, roles, functions and challenges?
  How should they be organised? What should be the SACP approach to organs of people’s
  power?
• Are women’s organisations, Community Policing Forums, Local Development Forums,
  Co-operatives and other progressive mass organisations, organs of people’s power? How
  have these structures been built over the last 6 years? What have been their programmes,
  successes and challenges? What has been the SACP input? How should the SACP approach them
  in the future?
• How do we prepare and empower our cadres to build and lead organs of people’s
  power? How do we mobilise the people behind organs of people’s power?

Red 100 000 South Africa Offensive

• In the current period and the medium term, what is the appropriate size of the SACP?
• Is there any basis for the proposed campaign? What would be its aims and objectives?
  What are the likely challenges, problems and weaknesses