34 days of activism against corruption

Umsebenzi Online, Volume 9, No. 6, 7 April 2010

In this Issue: 

• Remember Chris Hani in 2010: Waging a relentless struggle against corruption!

Red Alert

Remember Chris Hani in 2010: Waging a relentless struggle against corruption!

           

29 March - 1 May: 34 days of activism against corruption

Blade Nzimande, General Secretary

The SACP Politburo has declared the 29 March to May Day 2010 a period within which to intensify our campaign against corruption, beginning with our highly successful seminar against corruption on 29 March 2010 in Braamfontein and culminating on 1 May 2010, the workers' historic May Day. This is the 34 Days of Activism against corruption!

The end of the 34 days of activism does not mark the closure of the campaign, but is only a period during which we heighten mass awareness and lay the foundations for sustained mass mobilization thereafter.

We must carry this message of the fight against corruption into every voting district, municipal ward, workplace, community and into all corners of our country, reaching out to the workers, the poor, our youth, women, traditional leaders. Let every SACP branch, district and province ensure that we have an explosion of red forums and red cards against corruption in every locality and workplace where the workers and the poor are!

In all this we are informed by our own analysis, and indeed by that of the alliance as a whole, that corruption currently poses one of the most serious threats to the consolidation and deepening of the national democratic revolution.

It is against this background that we must locate the commemoration of the 17 anniversary of the assassination of our late General Secretary, Cde Martin Thembisile 'Chris' Hani.

The SACP, joined by its alliance partners, will over the next of couple of weeks be holding commemorative events, starting with a gathering at the graveside, and followed by a number of other important events.

This coming Saturday we will also be joining the Hani family in the unveiling of the tombstone of the late Nomakhwezi Hani, daughter of Cdes Chris and Limpho Hani.

Let's do it like Chris, let's remain focused

The principal challenge of the national democratic revolution in this conjuncture is to remain focused on the key strategic objectives of the revolution. Cde Chris, throughout his life, understood the different challenges facing our movement in different conjunctures, and threw in all his energies into those conjunctural challenges.

When our movement launched the armed struggle in the early 1960s, cde Chris joined our glorious army, Umkhonto WeSizwe at a very young age and dedicated the rest of his life into this. Indeed there were many distractions in that period, including from those who were doubtful about the viability of an armed struggle in South Africa. When the movement launched the Wankie-Sipolile campaign Cde Chris was amongst the first to join.

When we embarked on negotiations, despite some doubts from amongst many of us, including Cde Chris himself, about some of the modalities of those negotiations, he led the SACP delegation to the CODESA talks with energy and enthusiasm. At the same time during this period, he also dedicated his energies into building self-defence units and joined in the wave of mass and worker mobilization of the early 1990s. In addition he dedicated a lot of time into organizing in the rural areas, informed by the dangers of a struggle that has a predominantly urban bias.

There are a number of things that can easily distract us during this period. Our primary task at the moment is to transform the current growth path and break the back of the colonial type economic trajectory so that we can have a new, developmental path capable of meeting the needs of millions of our people.

Within this context we also need to mobilize the workers and the poor to be at the centre of the realization of the 5 key priorities of government. Just like during the negotiations period where mass mobilization was the necessary foundation for driving forward the negotiations process, today, government alone, without sustained mass mobilization will not be able to achieve the key priorities of the ANC-led alliance.

The last ANC NEC meeting, preceded by an important bilateral with the SACP, took important resolutions on many issues that had the potential to derail us on our key revolutionary objectives, including public spats, insults and premature pronouncements on our forthcoming 2012 congresses. We must build on this momentum by ensuring that we mobilize to focus on the key strategic and programmatic issues facing our movement. This is a lesson from Cde Chris' exemplary life, staying focused.

Of late, our detractors are trying to divert our energies by claiming racial tensions in the wake of the murder of the AWB leader, Eugene Terreblanche and exaggerating the meaning of some of our liberation struggle songs.

The SACP strongly condemns the opportunistic grandstanding by Helen Zille by trying to escalate these matters to the point of seeking an urgent meeting with the President. We wish the ANC can tell Zille where to get off and expose her opportunism, as the President has already dealt with these matters adequately. We must not allow the office of the President to be used to seek cheap political publicity from parties that have no interests of the overwhelming majority of our people.

The SACP also wishes to reiterate its support for the ANC's actions to challenge the High Court ruling about some of our liberation struggle songs. The courts must not allow themselves to be used in attempts to rewrite our history in favour of those who benefitted immensely from the apartheid era, including elements that were in the forefront of sustaining the criminal apartheid regime. Our songs are not just about our past, but they are also about today going into the future. These songs are about us, about our dignity, about who we are and what we want to be!

Remember Chris Hani: Escalate the fight against corruption

During this period of 34 days of activism against corruption we will be commemorating a number of very significant events - the 17th anniversary of the assassination of our late General Secretary, Cde Chris Hani, on 10 April 2010, our Freedom Day on 27 April 2010, a day extracted from the apartheid regime in the wake of the assassination of Cde Hani, our national day of action against corruption in KZN on 30 April, all culminating on May Day 2010.

All the above activities are also inspired by President Zuma's declaration of 2010 as the year of action. Let us make sure that, in line with this call, let us also make 2010 the Year of Action against Corruption.

Cde Hani, amongst his many roles and achievements in the liberation struggle, was a principled and consistent fighter against corruption. In the early exile years he co-signed a memorandum sent to the leadership of the ANC complaining and pointing out, amongst many others, creeping corrupt practices and patronage networks within our own movement. This memorandum, amongst other things, led to the convening of the first ANC conference since its banning in 1960, the famous Morogoro Conference in Tanzania.

Were Chris Hani alive today he would have been in the forefront in the struggle against corruption and tenderpreneurship!

Whilst the struggle against corruption should in the current period be led by the ANC, the SACP will nevertheless be expected to play a special vanguard role in this regard. This is because the SACP is best placed to articulate the capitalist foundations of all corruption. And there is no other political formation in our country today that is best capable to articulate this reality, other than the SACP.

The struggle against corruption cannot be separated from a struggle against capitalism and its corrupting ideology and practices. The very existence of a system which allows a small elite to exploit workers in the private accumulation of wealth, instead of societal accumulation of wealth to be shared amongst all, creates opportunities for corruption.

Therefore a struggle against corruption must also be a struggle against capitalism and its market. This is what Cde Chris lived and died for. In his memory and in his name, the SACP will be escalating its mobilisation to fight corruption wherever it occurs, whether in the public or private sector.

The SACP is not the only political formation, or the only organization concerned about threat posed by the scourge of corruption to the attainment of a better life for all, but that there are many citizens and organizations out there who share our outrage at the pillaging of resources and theft, thus depriving the workers and the poor of our country what is due to them. That is why we have taken the initiative to organise the widest range of forces opposed to corruption even if they may not share all of our ideological perspectives.

The working class as the vanguard of the struggle against corruption

The working class, by virtue of its revolutionary potential and traditions, is best placed to be at the head of the various forces fighting against corruption. It is the working class and the poor that stands to lose the most in the pillaging of public and private resources. Its own jobs and other means of livelihood are at stake.

The working class also has a presence in both private companies, public institutions and in the state in particular. It can act as the eyes and ears of the whole population, and indeed it must act as such. Let us follow the example of unions like SATAWU, which blew a whistle on potential corruption at SAA. It is the revolutionary duty of the working class fight corruption as a necessary struggle to defend, consolidate and deepen the national democratic revolution.

The media tends to foster the idea that corruption is more rife in the public sector than in the private sector or that corruption in the public sector is more serious than corruption in the private sector. This is of course not true!

There is also large-scale corruption in the private sector, except that it is often ignored or be called by a respectable and seemingly innocuous description 'white collar crime'. Crime and corruption has no colour, it is just crime.

It is the working class that is best placed to confront corruption in both the public and private sectors simultaneously.

In the coming May Day the SACP will be calling upon the organised working class in particular to intensify its struggles against corruption.

The struggle against corruption must be intensified as we intensify the struggle against labour brokers and price-fixing. Corruption, on the one hand, and labour brokerage and price-fixing, on the other hand, are not two separate things, but two sides of the same coin.

What is to be done?: 2010 the year of action against corruption

The SACP calls upon all our people and organisations opposed to corruption to develop a mass movement to defeat the scourge. This must include the following:  

• mobilise in their own localities to expose all forms of corruption, and broaden the scope of CPF to deal with matters of corruption as well
• Strengthen the progressive labour movement to build its capacity to fight corruption
• Call upon all public and private institutions to develop clear anti-corruption strategies
• Government tender processes to be more transparent through the publication of those shortlisted and awarded tenders in order to allow for public comment as well as prevention of the same culprits getting tenders all the time
• Prevent the tenderisation of the state by ensuring that where community organisations are able to benefit directly from government programmes these should not always be turned into tenders often grabbed by 'middlemen', but instead to be given directly to organised communities
• Mobilisation of the youth in particular to fight against corruption as it is targetted by tenderpreneurs, druglords and 'get rich quick' schemes aimed at corrupting our young people and promises of short cuts to wealth
• Acknowledge and honour the men and women in both the public and private sectors who hate and act to expose corruption and are only interested in serving their people honestlyIn the public service in particular we can highlight and salute the role of the thousands of public servants who do their work honestly and are totally dedicated to serve our people, whatever it takes. Similarly in the private sector there are many workers and professionals who are only interested in doing an honest and good day's work.
• We must strengthen the capacity of our entire criminal justice system, including SARS and Chapter 9 institutions to fight the scourge of corruption.
• Must call for action against those found with their fingers on the till, even if they are within our own ranks. We must protect our organisation from being refuges for the corrupt!

Working together we can end corruption!

The SACP says: a red card to corruption!

Asikhulume!!

In memory of the heroes of the Seven Day War

In memory of the heroes of the Seven Day War

Dr Blade Nzimande, ANC Today, Johannesburg, 26 March 2010

Thursday 25th March 2010 marked the 20th anniversary of the beginning of the bloody Seven Day War in Pietermaritzburg, which ended on 31 March 1990. The 'Seven Day War', which, as far as I can recall, was actually given this name by the late Cde Harry Gwala, the then leader of the ANC in the Natal Midlands.

The impact of this attack left an indelible imprint on the physical and social geography and history of Edendale, and of Pietermaritzburg as a whole. The Seven Day War was an attack on greater Edendale by a combined force of marauding gangs led by the IFP warlords and the apartheid regime's police force on the people of Edendale as part of destroying the UDF, COSATU and fledgling ANC structures in the area.

At the time both the IFP and the police openly declared their intention to destroy the structures of our movement in Edendale and claim the area as an IFP territory. Under the pretext that buses to IFP dominated areas were being stoned along Edendale Road, amabutho targeted our activists' houses, burning some, hacking and shooting at their targets. What was striking about the Seven Day War was that most of the attacks, often on whole communities perceived to be ANC, happened in broad daylight in full view of the police, yet it was our comrades who were being arrested.

Cde Jacob Zuma

We still hope that one day those policemen, who were perched at the then notorious police HQ Davies Alexander House, will have the courage to tell us about their role in the seven day war. Much as we do not want to open old wounds given the peace we now have, not least through, amongst others, the efforts by our now President, Cde Jacob Zuma, at the same time our history needs to be properly told, as part of honouring those who fell during this period. The heroes and heroines who fell during this war spilt their blood so that we could realise the 1994 democratic breakthrough and all the advances made by our democracy since then.

It is a sad and cruel irony of history that at the time that we should be erecting a monument to the heroes of the Seven Day War, our Umsunduzi City is bleeding from unnecessary internal factionalist battles from inside our own movement. It should otherwise be a time when our focus should be on fixing the 'black hole' of Pietermaritzburg - Edendale - a settlement that should be rid of the smelly pit latrines, gravel roads and mud houses.

In memory of those who fell during the Seven Day war, we should be committing ourselves to rid our movement of tenderpreneurship and all the ills associated with it, a scourge at the heart of the problems at Umsunduzi and many other municipalities.

When honouring those who fell during this period, understandably difficult as it may be for some of our own comrades and affected families, we must also mention and remember those who died on the side of the IFP, as many of them were used as ordinary foot-soldiers and pawns in the apartheid regime's grand scheme to try and frustrate South Africa's transition to democracy.

Cde Mzala

When the unbanning of the ANC and the SACP was announced by FW de Klerk on 2nd February 1990, Mzala Nxumalo, a member of the ANC and the SACP and a cadre of the class of 1976, warned that our movement must be careful that De Klerk must not do 'a Dingane' on us. By this he was recalling what Dingane, the Zulu King, did on the boers led by Piet Retief and Gert Maritz in the 19th century.

The story goes that when the first boers arrived in the then territory of the Zulu King Dingane, he invited them to his headquarters in Umgungundlovu and called upon his amabutho to kill them 'Babulaleni abathakathi' ('Kill the witches'). What Mzala was warning about was that in the wake of the unbanning of our organizations and the release of Nelson Mandela we must remain vigilant that the apartheid regime must not invite us to emerge from the underground only to smash us.

Indeed Mzala was right, as our movement had anticipated, because as soon as the ANC and the SACP were unbanned, apartheid-sponsored violence in KZN was intensified. This soon spread to Gauteng and other areas. The primary aim was to prevent the ANC from rebuilding its structures inside the country. The Seven Day War was part of this offensive. However, the Seven Day War must also be understood within the specificities of apartheid's counter-revolutionary warfare in KwaZulu Natal in general and Pietermaritzburg in particular. Pietermaritzburg, and especially Edendale, acted as a bulwark against the extension of the apartheid regime's tentacles, through the then KwaZulu Bantustan, as it became a centre of resistance against apartheid in the 1980s.

The Seven Day war was therefore targeted at initially removing ANC (and UDF/Cosatu) influence from areas controlled by the IFP in the north of Edendale (known as 'Ngaphezulu'), and seeking to turn these areas into a springboard to destroy our movement structures in Edendale. It was therefore of no surprise that the Seven Day War started in some of these areas north of Edendale where there was some UDF and later ANC presence, especially in Gezubuso, Taylor's Halt, KwaShange, KwaMnyandu and Enadi. Thousands of people fled this area and most of them settled at KwaDambuza, which had long become a UDF and ANC dominated territory.

It was through the heroic sacrifices of many UDF, ANC, SACP, Cosatu and uMkhonto WeSizwe cadres from the above areas that the Seven Day war was stopped in its tracks at the border of Caluza and the rest of Edendale that we can today be proud of the birth of a democratic South Africa.

In honour of the heroes of the Seven Day War we should indeed erect a permanent monument in Edendale. This monument must indeed be accompanied by an intensified struggle against corruption in order to rid our movement of 'tenderpreneurs' and focus the attention of our people to the five priorities of our government: decent work, education, health, fight against crime and rural development.

From: http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/anctoday/2010/at11.htm#art2

Umbiko is back!

 

Umbiko

15, 2010, March              

Off the cuff issue

Let’s talk about these things…Umbiko

The JHB Central Branch of the South African Communist Party has decided to revive its publication of the newsletter called Umbiko. The newsletter will first be published as an online publication with a prospect of publishing Umbiko on hard copies in future.

The expectation is that Umbiko must focus on political content and take a space available; as the monopoly print media is more focus on commercializing everything (profit making) when it report about politics and/or Mass Democratic Movement(s) and obscure information that seems to them (monopoly capital) is not viable or does not serve its interest.

As we welcome Umbiko, it is with the understanding that comrades will contribute meaningfully and advance the politics we need, with substance and clarity.

Various organizations and civil society of common persuasion will be allowed to contribute and advance their cause as, this without limiting it to the Alliance organization but the invitation is extended to International and Solidarity organization. With Solidarity organization this will give us first hand information about the plight and frustration that is met by our brothers and sisters, like in Swaziland, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, Sudan, Palestine, Somali and etc. we all know that the bourgeoisie media even when they do report about these countries it is not substantive and/ or is covered as a small corner story with no value.

We also do hope that Alliance branches (of ANC, SACP, COSATU & SANCO) and Solidarity organization will not only use Umbiko to issue media statement but we expect them to politically express themselves without fear or favour.

Umbiko will not be a discussion forum as this is done better by the YCLgoogle group with short concise debate amongst comrades challenging each other, yet Umbiko will allow comrades to express politically their views and understanding of things. Since Umbiko will be online comrades are not limited to word counts like in print media.

Communist cadres to the front,

Socialism is the best

________________________________________

Deputy Chairperson, SACP JHB Central Branch

Co-chair Communist University & Umbiko

Cde Sibusiso Mchunu

Commodities

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We meet in the UJ Doornfontein Library. Next week’s session will be as follows: 

• Date: 11 March (Thursday!!!!!)
• Time: 17h00 sharp to 18h30 sharp
• Venue: The Library, University of Johannesburg, 37 Nind Street, Doornfontein, Johannesburg (former Technikon Witwatersrand). Cars enter from the slip road to the left of the bridge on Siemert Road.
• Topic: Value, Price and Profit (link to full text).

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To supplement “Value, Price and Profit”, here is a shortened (by removing one part) version of Chapter 1 of Karl Marx’s greatest work, “Capital”, Volume 1. This is a text that has been the material for many a political school. It begins with this great definition of commodities:

“The wealth of those societies in which the capitalist mode of production prevails, presents itself as ‘an immense accumulation of commodities,’ its unit being a single commodity. Our investigation must therefore begin with the analysis of a commodity.

“A commodity is, in the first place, an object outside us, a thing that by its properties satisfies human wants of some sort or another. The nature of such wants, whether, for instance, they spring from the stomach or from fancy, makes no difference. Neither are we here concerned to know how the object satisfies these wants, whether directly as means of subsistence, or indirectly as means of production.”

And later says:

“A use-value, or useful article, therefore, has value only because human labour in the abstract has been embodied or materialised in it.”

The second section of the chapter explores this dual character of commodities.

The third section, which contains quite a lot of formulas, is omitted for the sake of brevity. Sections of the book that have been left out can be read on Marxists Internet Archive.

The fourth and last section of the chapter is on the Fetishism of Commodities, meaning that in a capitalist society the relations between commodities replace the relations between people.

In commodities, writes Marx, “the social character of men's labour appears to them as an objective character stamped upon the product of that labour; because the relation of the producers to the sum total of their own labour is presented to them as a social relation, existing not between themselves, but between the products of their labour.”

If there is a single purpose for Marx’s book it is to re-make human relations so that they are between humans again, or in other words to restore human beings to themselves.

Click here to download Capital V1, Chapter 1, Commodities [abridged], in MS-Word file format

Click here for full instructions for obtaining CU materials in booklet form

Click here to go to the Jetline Print on Demand web site

(username = password = communistuniversity)

Johannesburg CU now on Thursdays: schedule

New Day for the Johannesburg CU: Thursday

Please note:

The Johannesburg CU Live Sessions will now take place on

Thursdays

New schedule:

Click here to see the new 2010 schedule on a web page

To download the 2010 schedule (MS-Word), please click here

Next session:

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We meet in the UJ Doornfontein Library. Next week’s session will be as follows: 

• Date: 11 March (Thursday!!!!!)
• Time: 17h00 sharp to 18h30 sharp
• Venue: The Library, University of Johannesburg, 37 Nind Street, Doornfontein, Johannesburg (former Technikon Witwatersrand). Cars enter from the slip road to the left of the bridge on Siemert Road.
• Topic: Value, Price and Profit (link to full text).

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A perspective on the alliance today

A perspective on the alliance today 

By ANC KwaZulu Natal Provincial Secretary Sihle Sikalala.


Introduction


The abiding strength of the ANC and its Alliance lies in its culture of robust debate, which helps to bring more clarity and wisdom to those participating in such debates. Affirming this culture, the ANC 52nd National Conference asserted that: “instead of causing divisions, debating matters helps us to listen and learn from one another”.


The post-Polokwane era has created a space for more interaction and improved coordination of the Alliance, and provided significant space for ideological and political debates. This is a positive development in the alliance as a living organism whose survival depends on its ability to harness class contradictions inherent in our revolutionary alliance. However, the recent events of attacking one another, poses a serious threat to this tried and tested culture of the movement and if not properly addressed, can erode robust debate and we may therefore find ourselves back to the pre-Polokwane era of caricaturing and labeling one another, resulting in us being side- tracked from focusing on substantive issues facing our movement and society in general.


The critical issues facing us today is how we manage the Alliance and harness its effectiveness as an instrumental organ for the attainment of the National Democratic Society, which we defined as the ultimate goal of the National Democratic Revolution. Clearly, navigating the treacherous waters of our journey leading to this ideal society will not be plain sailing. Critically, this requires a political force rooted among the masses of our people and embedded in their day-to-day experiences.


The Tripartite Alliance is indeed such a formidable force. However, there are critical questions that time and again confront the Alliance. One such question is whether the ANC still remains the strategic political centre or whether the Alliance has became a strategic political centre of power? Has the centre shifted from its historical position and, if so, what are the political factors that might have brought about such a shift? Politically, what are the prevailing circumstances that even give birth to that idea?


What is the Alliance and why does it exist?


As a revolutionary movement, we have always regarded the Alliance as a ‘living organism’, composed of three streams of the National Liberation Struggle, namely: the revolutionary democrat, socialist and the trade union movement, all of them committed to the National Democratic Revolution. The alliance is not a museum, and therefore not static, but it is a strategic point of convergence of these forces of change. What bring all these classes and strata together are the content and the character of the National Democratic Revolution.


These three streams of the Alliance have come together and joined forces, first and foremost, because they independently adopted the National Democratic Revolution as a minimum revolutionary program of our struggle. The essence of this was properly captured by former President O.R. Tambo at the SACP’s 60th Anniversary, when he said:


“Ours is not merely a paper alliance, as created at conference tables and formalized through the signing of documents and representing only an agreement of leaders. Our alliance is a living organism that has grown out of struggles. We have built it out of our separate and common experiences. It has been nurtured by our endeavours to counter the total offensive mounted by the National Party in particular against all opposition and against the very concept of democracy. It has been strengthened by resistance to the vicious onslaught against both the ANC and the SACP by the Pretoria regime. It has been fertilized by the blood of the countless heroes; many of them are unnamed and unsung. It has been reinforced by a common determination to destroy the enemy and by our shared belief in the certainty of victory”.


None of the partners of the Alliance doubt the relevance and the strategic nature of the Alliance. That it is strategic is primarily because it was born to attain the common strategic objectives of the revolution. This has been for many decades of struggle and continues to be the essence of what this historic alliance is all about.


The ANC Strategy and Tactics, adopted at the 52nd National Conference in Polokwane in 2007, explicitly defines the content of the revolution:


“The main content of the NDR is the liberation of the Africans in particular and Blacks in general from political and socio-economic bondage. It means uplifting the quality of life of all South Africans, especially the poor, the majority of whom are African and female. At the same time it has the effect of liberating the white community from false ideology of racial superiority and insecurity attached to oppressing others. The hierarchy of disadvantage suffered under apartheid will naturally inform the magnitude of impact the programmes of change and the attention paid particularly to those who occupied the lowest rungs on the apartheid social ladder”


Why is the ANC the leader of the Alliance?


As stated above the main content of the NDR is the national liberation of the previously oppressed - the African majority and blacks in general, democratic whites and in class terms it includes the unemployed and landless masses, unskilled and semi skilled workers, professionals, small business. Therefore the character of the revolution requires a National Liberation Movement to lead, hence the African National Congress, with the working class as the primary motive force in such movement. The ANC as the leader of the revolution places the poor, who occupied the lowest rungs on the apartheid social ladder, at the centre of its programme of change, and therefore, it is a disciplined force of the left.


Secondly, for this revolution to triumph, it requires the mobilization of all social forces that share the vision of a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa. To be precise, “the primary task of the ANC remains the mobilization of all the classes and strata that objectively stand to benefit from the cause of social change”. The mass character of the ANC provides such forces with a platform to participate in pursuit of the national democratic revolution. Therefore the ANC throughout its evolution has become an organ of mass mobilization and the glue that keeps all of our people together. Because of its character and the fact that it derives its orientation from people drawn from all social strata, it has become a trusted leader of social change.


Is there a need for a reconfigured Alliance in the post-Polokwane era?


There have been calls for the reconfiguration of the Alliance from, in particular, the South African Communist Party and Congress of South African Trade Unions. This call continues today with a dedicated focus on the question of the centre, whether the ANC or the Alliance is the Strategic Political Centre.


The 12th National Congress of the South African Communist Party, held in 2007 observed that:


“The alliance requires major reconfiguration if the NDR is to be advanced, deepened and defended, and if we are to achieve the SACP’s medium term vision objectives of building the working class hegemony in all sites of power, including the state. That this reconfiguration of the alliance must include the following elements: (a) the Alliance must establish itself as a strategic political centre; (b) this political centre must develop a common capacity to drive strategy, broad policy, campaigns, deployment and accountability. At the same time, this reconfiguration of the Alliance must respect the independent role and strategic tasks of each of the Alliance partners”.


In this regard, the SACP proposes that the Alliance should be reconfigured and become the strategic political centre to drive policy, campaigns, deployment and accountability. This means having an Alliance Deployment Committee and the Alliance mechanisms to develop and implement policy instead of the ANC. To put it more directly, the SACP is deeply concerned that the National Democratic Revolution will not be deepened and defended unless the centrality of its leadership lies with the Alliance, rather than with the ANC. This is notwithstanding the fact that the ANC has led this revolution even during difficult moments of our struggle.


In the same vein, the 9th National Congress of COSATU held in 2006 resolved that:


“The alliance must enter into some form of a pact that would enable the alliance to influence government. This should include agreements of deployments and quotas for representation of different partners at every level, with independent caucuses and power of recall to ensure accountability”.


Critical questions arising from the scenarios (presented by both COSATU and SACP resolutions) are what happens if there are divergent views on specific policy matters and whose mandate will prevail? Secondly, as some of ANC public representatives are members of the ANC, SACP and SANCO, where will they account and who will have a final word on their deployments and mandate?


Clearly, the situation will lead to a state of perpetual contention of views with no Alliance partner having the mandate to decide. It will also lead to a state of paralysis where critical decisions will not be taken where there are conflicting views. But secondly, if some of our public representatives decide not to support a particular view in Parliament primarily because it is not in line with the view of the Alliance partner with which their political allegiance lie, they might decide even abstain or at worse to vote with the opposition and none will have mandate to discipline them or ensure a common approach.


Since the inception of the Alliance the ANC has been the strategic political centre that co-ordinates and leads the NDR, both during the difficult moments prior the unbanning and after the 1994 democratic breakthrough.


None amongst the Alliance partners questions the ANC leadership of the NDR but the contestation is on the ANC being the political centre of power. Arising from this is the question of whether the ANC can be a leader of the Alliance and the National Democratic Revolution without being a strategic political centre of power. If so, what entails that leadership?


As indicated above, the ANC leadership of the NDR is not inherent but was earned based on the content of the revolution and the ANC’s character as the liberation movement. Thus, as long as we agree on the content of the revolution and the ANC being a leader, we must accept that the ANC as a political centre will always provide a strategic leadership.


This does not negate the fact that we are in a strategic Alliance and there should therefore be maximum consultation and the commitment to always ensure consensus on issues of policy and deployment in particular.


In advancing the argument of the shifting of the strategic political centre from the ANC to the alliance, there have been articulations suggesting that affirming the ANC as a strategic political centre, constitutes a reversal of gains of the Polokwane ANC 52nd National Conference. Implied in this perspective is that the ANC 52nd National Conference debated and resolved that the Alliance should now be the strategic political centre of the NDR. This is incorrect and misleading.


Notwithstanding the fact that the SACP and COSATU resolutions on the reconfiguration of the Alliance were taken prior to the ANC 52nd National Conference, none of them were presented at the ANC 52nd National Conference, and therefore none of them were adopted as resolutions of the ANC.


The ANC National Conferences, because of its strategic role and political leadership, has come to be recognized as Conferences of the broad mass democratic movement, which defines the content and programme of the revolution. Thus, all components of the MDM strive to influence and shape the direction of the movement.


But once the Conference is over all components of the MDM and Alliance partners in particular are expected to rally behind resolutions taken at conferences, without surrendering their independence. Consistent with its culture of open debate and extensive consultation, the ANC convenes National Policy Conferences to undertake policy review. Such process always ensured that there is maximum participation of the Alliance partners and all components of the mass democratic movement.


Reflecting on the role of the alliance in pursuit of the National Democratic Revolution, the ANC 52nd National Conference resolved:


“Conference confirms the relevance of the Alliance, united in action for joint programme of social transformation, using its collective strength to continue to search for better ways to respond to the new challenges. To achieve this, we must continue to enhance coordination amongst alliance partners and to strengthen the organisational capacity of each individual component."


Conference further confirms that the leadership role of the ANC places on it the primary responsibility “to unite the tripartite Alliance and all democratic forces”.


Leading up to and during the ANC National Policy Conference there was extensive discussions on the question of the political centre of power, with specific reference to the question of policy development of policy, deployment of cadres and their accountability. This debate arose within the context of affirming the long-standing organisational position on the centrality of the African National Congress as a leader of both government and society in general. Because the ANC is a living organism, from time to time it will always be seized with the question of strategically positioning itself within this changing domestic and global environment. In response to this organisational imperative, the ANC 52nd National Conference resolved that:


“Conference affirmed that the ANC remains the key political centre of power, which must exercise leadership over the state and society in pursuit of the objectives of the NDR. This means that the structures and collectives of the movement must make the decisions on the direction our country should take collectively.”


In the same vein, with regard to policy formulation, monitoring and evaluation, the ANC 52nd National Conference resolved:


“Conference affirms the centrality of ANC structures, especially the branches, in policy formulation process of the movement and the ongoing need for the ANC to give leadership to the society and state”.


However, this does not mean that the ANC should act unilaterally and without engaging the alliance partners. The ANC should always engage the alliance consciously, with a view to influence and be influenced in order to achieve broader clarity and ensuring participation of the alliance on policy and deployment matters. In doing so, the African National Congress is by no ways delegating its responsibility as a centre of power to the Alliance but this happens as part of a consultation processes.


So where does the problem lie and what are solutions?


The period before the ANC 52nd National Conference, which was characterized by lack of proper engagement within the alliance and tendencies of labeling one another, left a negative mark on the history of our struggle. It created mistrust and therefore a tendency for each partner to want to take charge of decision-making. But, as the revolutionary movement we ought to rise to the occasion and seize the space that has been created by the post-Polokwane era. In this regard, we must all strive to enhance the coordination and better implementation of the programme of the Alliance. We must therefore build on key achievements we have already attained, including:

• Sustaining the recently improved coordination of the alliance, through the establishment of the National Political Council composed of all officials of the Alliance partners, the convening of regular National Summits, and the National Alliance Secretariat that meets consistently and ensures the implementation of the Alliance programme. This coordination should cascade down to provinces, regions and branches;
• Keep improving the participation of the alliance partners in policy implementation, through representation of the alliance in all NEC sub-committees, extending this to provinces and regions;
• Maintaining the status quo with regard to the deployment wherein the alliance partners are represented in the ANC deployment committees; and
• Continue working together on joint programs of social and economic transformation and campaigns agreed upon in alliance summits. Much work still needs to be done in building the same commitment in regions and branches in this regard.

Whilst these are not new interventions, if sustained and cascaded down to lower levels of the alliance structures, they will enhance the coordination and functioning of the Alliance. However, and most importantly, this must never be construed to replace the programs of each alliance partners as adopted though their respective conferences. This should also not be misconstrued as the abrogation of the ANC’s historic role to lead. Our strength lies on our ability as different components of the alliance to effectively advance our strategic goals and complement one another.


Tendencies that contribute to disunity in the Alliance


Genuine concerns have emerged relating to the manner in which the Alliance partners sometimes conduct themselves. The emergent of this unfortunate conduct, more often than not, finds expression through disruptive tendencies and polarization of debates. Unless the revolutionary movement acts in unison, these tendencies will distract the revolutionary alliance from its strategic task of advancing the National Democratic Revolution. The latest developments of booing ANC leaders and attacking one another in public reflect a level of intolerance and degeneration of political consciousness within the movement.


In dealing with such tendencies, it is first and foremost important to assert the character of the ANC. As a multi-class mass movement, the ANC has a responsibility to mobilize all people and unite them in pursuance of the NDR. This is succinctly illustrated through the ANC membership, which is not based on class orientation, and therefore socialists, communists and revolutionary democrats can all be members of the ANC, sharing equal rights, duties and obligations as determined in the constitution.


Secondly, our vision of a democratic state with bias towards the poor recognizes the leading role of the working class in the programme of social transformation. The character of the ANC, as disciplined force of the left, arises from this ideological position and relationship with the poorest in society.


Therefore the question of whether there is space for socialism within the ANC or even in the NDR does not arise. Socialists and communists as individual members - not as a group within the ANC - have a right to participate in the shaping and execution of the NDR. Like all other members of the ANC, they are confined by the principles, vision and code of conduct of the African National Congress. In the African National Congress, members are valued on the basis of their allegiance and commitment to the values, vision and program of the movement, not on the basis of their ideological orientation.


More often than not, leading cadres within the South African Communist Party and COSATU have missed no occasion in asserting that the ANC must be protected from being hijacked by business. This is actually a reflection of class contestation within the movement, which is inherent given the character of the ANC. However, it remains critical to assert that mere differences on tactical positions must not inspire hatred or labels such anti-communist, etc. Hatred and labeling feed into disunity and inspires personalized attacks, which distracts the revolutionary alliance from substantive issues of the day.


Precisely because the alliance partners also share membership, the issue of dual leadership became inevitable. Historically, the movement has accepted that a leader of one component may be elected to any position in the other ally. This tradition has been with the movement for decades and was not abused. It was always understood that leaders are elected on the bases of their individual membership and loyalty to that organisation. When one is elected to lead an organisation, s/he leads that organisation and does not lead it on behalf of another ally.


Speaking again on the occasion of the SACP 60th Anniversary, the ANC President, O.R. Tambo captures this:


“Within our revolutionary alliance each organisation has a distinct and vital role to play. A correct understanding of these roles, and respect for their boundaries has ensured the survival and consolidation of our cooperation and unity”.


If this understanding still prevails today, the debate about the communist takeover or calls for communists to swell the ANC ranks merely for leadership positions than pursuing the revolution loses significance.


Part of the tendencies that seem to be resurfacing is labeling one another, denouncing the loyalty of other cadres to the revolution, whilst proclaiming others as the only revolutionaries loyal and committed to the movement. Prior to the Polokwane ANC 52nd National Conference we experienced the same tendency of calling one another ultra-left and ultra-right.


Recently, such tendency has resurfaced in the form of pronouncements that claim that there is an “elite” within the movement that is committed to taking over the ANC. This claim has yet to be substantiated. If such pronouncements are unpacked and substantiated, they become nothing but divisive labeling where one seeks to project others as less revolutionary and therefore position herself/himself as the only best cadre to advance the revolution. Such tendency can factionalise the organisation into various groupings and has a potential of derailing the programme of building a national democratic society.


We all share a common responsibility of uniting the ANC, the revolutionary alliance and mass democratic movement. None of us should be found wanting in this critical task. Unity is sacrosanct and each and every one of us should strive to maximize her/his effort in building unity of the movement. The success of our revolution is dependent on our clarity of vision and unity of purpose.


REFERENCES 


COSATU (2006). Documents and Resolutions of the 9th National Congress of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, 18-21 September 2006, www.cosatu.org.za 


SACP (2007). Documents and Resolutions of the 12th National Congress of the South African Communist Party, 11-15 July 2007, www.sacp.org.za 


Tambo, Oliver Reginald (1981). “Our alliance is a living organism that has grown out of struggle.” Speech by ANC President Tambo at meeting to observe the 60th anniversary of the South African Communist Party, London, July 30, 1981. First published in Sechaba, September 1981 and also in African Communist, No. 87, Fourth Quarter 1981. Dr. Yusuf M. Dadoo presided over the meeting. http://www.anc.org.za/show.php?doc=ancdocs/speeches/1980s/or81-10.html#N_1_

Job creation before BBBEE - COSATU

Cosatu says job creation must come before empowerment

Linda Ensor, Business Day, Johannesburg, 4 March 2010

CAPE TOWN — Broad-based black economic empowerment (BBBEE) should be subordinated to the imperatives of a job-creating industrial policy, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) said yesterday.

To this end, the BBBEE laws should be amended to prevent “import fronting”, whereby black- owned companies won government tenders but simply imported their inputs to the detriment of local companies and jobs. Cosatu said the fact that much of the procurement for the government’s 2010 infrastructure development programme had been imported was “scandalous”.

Another proposal emerging from the labour movement’s submissions to Parliament’s trade and industry committee on the new industrial policy action plan was the National Union of Metalworkers of SA’s (Numsa’s) call for steel giant ArcelorMittal (previously state- owned Iscor) and petrochemical producer Sasol to be “re-nationalised” because of their important position in the value chain of production.

“The pricing system of ArcelorMittal undermines our industrialising agenda,” Numsa said.

Cosatu also suggested a tax on short-term capital flows to stabilise the exchange rate, higher taxes on luxury and nonessential imports and a restructuring of the tax system to promote investment in targeted sectors.

Cosatu second deputy president Zingiswa Losi and industrial policy co-ordinator Jonas Mosia said the federation was concerned about the abuse of BEE. “While in the past we saw massive outsourcing and privatisation with consequent job losses to promote narrow BEE, fronting is the new tendency emerging.”

Cosatu also called for the restructuring of development finance institutions “to ensure that they promote a developmental agenda rather than operating on the basis of risk assessment similar to private capitalist banks”. The Industrial Development Corporation Act should also be amended to ensure that its funding promoted labour- intensive sectors and decent work.

Both labour and Business Unity SA (Busa) stressed the importance of co-ordination between government departments and other stakeholders if the action plan was to succeed. The buy-in of state-owned enterprises would be critical.

While Cosatu highlighted the importance of changes in macroeconomic policies on inflation and the currency, Busa stressed that existing constraints on doing business had to be addressed if South African firms were to become competitive.

ensorl@bdfm.co.za

From: http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=95302

Holy Grail already here

Holy Grail already here

Dominic Tweedie, 1 March 2010 

On RT’s technology update programme there were two items shown over the weekend that together demonstrate that the Holy Grail of electronic communications is already here.

One is a super-fast 4G service, already rolled out in St Petersburg and in Managua, Nicaragua, that can, for example, show movies without noticeable buffering. This service is provided by the “Yota” company, established in 2007. Yota has developed a “device” (i.e. a smart-cell-phone equivalent, similar in outward appearance to an iPod or a Google Nexus) that maximises the advantages of the 4G wireless broadband.

The other is a Russian-developed “Wi-Di” capability, which will be built in to such “devices,” that can wirelessly display what is on the “device” on a flat digital TV screen.

Add to this the already-existing wireless keyboards, mouses, and printers, plus “cloud computing” storage, and you have a full kit.

You no longer need a PC, laptop, television receiver or decoder. The device is self-contained and comprehensive, but with the option of input-output devices of your choice (keyboard, mouse, big high-definition screen, printers et cetera) for home and office. No more lugging laptops around.

Public service broadcaster no more?

The above means that public service broadcasting as at present conceived is about to become as dead as the dodo. The only way to maintain it and to support the investment of the businesses that depend upon it is to try to impose an artificial monopoly, or monopolies, plural.

The imposition of a monopoly by the State depends upon political support and some more-or-less spurious rationale.

Such monopoly has been there since the time of Marconi and Tesla, or shortly thereafter, but can it be sustained, now that their dreams are being actualised with hard systems?

The Yota company has already purchased a vast library of movies. You will be able to get the movie of your choice, any time. That blows out the broadcasting of movies by television. What remains? The category “News” if it means “fresh information”, is already far better served by Internet than by broadcasting. So what’s left? Soapies? Sorry, that’s covered, too, and surpassed. The soapies can be published at a fixed time, and from then on be available to view at any time, with no need to record it. Just like the Keiser Report, for example, on the same RT, now.

Who needs TV as we know it?

What happens to politics when communications are no longer controlled, or controllable, and full communications capability, as both producer and consumer, is available to everyone, through a pocket “device”?

The above discussion was first published on the Facebook group “Press the Press – Protect Free Expression For All”