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EDITORIAL NOTES:

The South African Communist Party (SACP) in the

Eastern Cape convened its successful 7th Provincial

Congress from 24 – 26 October 2014 at the Orient

Theatre in East London, under the theme “Working

Class Unity and Leadership now”.

Our congress was attended by more than 900

delegates. It worth stating the attendance of our

Central Committee members, Cde Solly Mapaila – SACP

2nd Deputy General Secretary, Cde Thulas Nxesi – SACP

National Deputy Chairperson, Cde Yunis Carrim, Cde

Godfrey Oliphant, Cde Chris Matlhako, Cde Bulelwa

Tunyiswa, Cde Fezeka Loliwe, Cde Lindelwa Dunjwa,

Cde Mandla Makupula. Our congress was also graced by

the attendance of other SACP Provincial Leaders, like

the Provincial Secretary of Mpumalanga Cde Majuba,

Provincial Chairperson of Free State Cde Stofile, 1st

Deputy Secretary of KwaZulu Natal, Provincial Secretary

of North West Cde Sambatha and National Leaders of

our YCLSA.

We were inspired by the resounding messages of

support which we got form our allies in the province

which some will be published in this 3rd edition. We

received messages of support from SANCO, COSATU,

ANC and our YCLSA. The messages form our allies

represent a relative united alliance in the province which

is what we all desire in the mass democratic movement

Our decades long standing alliance represent a bedrock

in which the majoritarian character of our democracy is

anchored upon. The unity of the alliance is more than

important as it is a precondition in deepening and

advancing our national democratic revolution and

advancing the radical second phase of the

transformation.

We would like to send a special word of thanks to the

SACP veterans who attended our 7th Provincial

Congress. Their uninterrupted commitment to the

struggles of our people as championed by the SACP is a

true motivation.

We should also note the black out of our congress by

the Public Broadcaster, SABC. The protracted disservice

of the people of South Africa by the SABC cannot go

unchanged. The SACP 7th provincial congress was

attended by more than 1010 people meaning it was a

big event; it is therefore unprecedented that it was not

covered and reported to the people at large.

SABC caters for the toiling masses of our people who

cannot afford pay TV. They heavily rely on SABC to

convey news and educational programmes to them.

This attitude by the leadership of SABC towards the

SACP and other progressive organizations is indicative

of a reactionary institution, as they cover everything by

DA led opposition even marches with less than 100

people. We re-affirm our call for the change of

leadership in the SABC change of as the change of heart

is impossible.

We wish you a revolutionary and joyful read.

By:

Siyabonga Mdodi

SACP Provincial Spokesperson

YCLSA message of support to the SACP 7th provincial congress

On behalf of the 3rd Provincial Congress Provincial Committee , receive special and warmly revolutionary

greetings, from the sons and Daughters of Truck Drivers , of Kitchen Girls and Garden boys, of Nurses , of

Teachers , of Police , of Clerks , of Hawkers , of unemployed people who continue to experience

capitalist exploitation every minute.

Yesterday night, we convened a very successful

Memorial Lecture of Skenjana Roji, hosted by our

district , which was attended by more than 400 people including his family. When a family member replied

“Besisoloko sinexhala silusapho ukuba ngaba likhona na ihlumelo lwamakomanisi elazi

ncakasana umzabalazo wobukomanisi eMzantsi Africa. Kodwa siyavuya kuba ulutsha

lwamakomanisi kweliphondo lihlumelo

elingathandabuzekiyo ukulwisana nenqubo yobungxowankulu”.

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This conference is convened during an important month of our revolutionary calendar, October. A month we

commemorate the great victory of the Socialist October

Revolution, a Month where we recently launched our Red October Campaign. As an organization we continue

to launch campaigns to rally society broadly on an annual basis behind our socialist vision based on a

pertinent question affecting the working class and its struggles.

The congress is convened when the level of indebtedness of poor people is very high, hence the

launch of Financial Sector Campaign.

We dedicate our message to the communists martyrs

that our districts are named after, as well as to Raymond Mhlaba, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki and

many communists martyrs both sung and unsung

martyrs.

The congress is convened under the theme ”Working Class Unity and Working Class Leadership Now”. Guided

by this theme as the Young Communists League of

South Africa ,We call for leadership that will resolutely implement decisions taken in a constitutional structure

without having checked whether the decision affect my friend or my home district.

The theme also remind us of Joseph Stalin,

when speaking about the foundations of

Marxism-Leninism on the Party is the

General Staff of the proletariat. “But the

Party cannot be only

an advanced detachment. It must at

the same time be a detachment of

the class, part of the class, closely

bound up with it by all the fibres of its

being. The distinction between the

advanced detachment and the rest of

the working class, between Party

members and non-Party people,

cannot disappear until classes

disappear; it will exist as long as the

ranks of the proletariat continue to be

replenished with former members of

other classes, as long as the working

class as a whole is not in a position to

rise to the level of the advanced

detachment. But the Party would

cease to be a party of this distinction

developed into a gap, if the Party

turned in on itself and became

divorced from the non-Party masses.

The Party cannot lead the class if it is

not connected with the non-Party

masses, if there is no bond between

the Party and the non-Party masses,

if these masses do not accept its

leadership, if the Party enjoys no

moral and political credit among the

masses “ Working Class Leadership

that understands the role of youth in

a struggle for socialism.

To us as Young Reds, a working class

leadership that value its youth and its role

in the struggle is a pre-requisite.

The young and rising generation

constitutes a representative of the future in

the broadest sense. The future of any

society depends on the practical and

revolutionizing youth.

Classes and strata act not only for their own

good but also for the good of their rising

generation as Harry Gwala “ What I

would like to say is that an

organization is like any other organic

matter, something that grows and it

may even grow old. It must be

injected with new blood. I think

people of our generation are

becoming very old now and we do

need jacking up, an injection all the

time to keep us going and prepare the

way for the younger generation".

This is the instruction as we call for working

class unity and leadership now that must

guide us.

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The youth grows and is moulded within a

specific social environment – be it in the

comfort and sleek surroundings of the

capitalist home, school and boardrooms, be

it in the squalid conditions of the working

class ghetto and be it in the backward and

wretched environment of the rural poor or

in the confines of a petty-bourgeoisie

upbringing.

History tells us that young people have

contributed and made an indeminable mark

in the struggle for the liberation of our

country, in the struggle for socialism and

ultimately communism both national and

international.

Enoch Sontonga died at 32 when he already composed and wrote Nkosi Sikelea I Africa. John Dube was in his

youth when he built a school that is still standing today and he started a newspaper which is still there today.

Karl Marx was 26 when he wrote the Communist

Manifesto; Vladimir Lenin was 33 when he led the Russian Revolution. Pixley ka Isaka Seme was 24 when

he wrote The Regeneration of Africa, on which most of the thinking around the African Renaissance is based.

Nelson Mandela was 32 and OR Tambo was 31 when

they spearheaded the anti-apartheid programme of action in 1949. These are just a few examples of how

the youth can influence society.

Those who mischievously want to block young people

to be elected on leadership positions they must know that history speaks volume on the role of youth in the

revolution.

We remain true to the South African Communist Party,

we are students register in the university called YCLSA,

and our certificate will be socialism.

We wish our party, the insurance of the South African

working class a successful congress.

Amandla!!!!

Cde Mluleki Dlelanga Provincial Secretary

Young Communist League of South Africa

POLITICAL REPORT

Introduction

We gather here today, in this august gathering, the 7th

Provincial Congress of South African Communists during

our 93rd anniversary of existence and struggle just in

less than 7 years we will be celebrating the centenary

of our Party. An existence of heroic struggles and

sacrifice!

Many have prayed hard, many have persecuted

communists, some still hate our Party and others

decided to betray it but we are here long after many

have died with their parties and others are terminal ill

with their parties, but we are here growing both in

quantity and quality as the SACP as we continue to see

the growing influence of our Party.

From the last congress in 2011, our Party is indeed no

longer the same, we are few but we are everywhere. In

the true spirit of South Africa Road to Socialism (SARS)

we have increased our presence in communities, in the

work place, in the state and in all sites of power in

manner that cannot be compared with any other period.

Contrary to those who praise the dead in order to

condemn the living, comrade Joe Slovo, Dora Tamana

would be proud with organization we have built over

these years.

It is our Party and its members that have been a voice

of reason in many challenges we have faced and

continue to face over this period. Our increased

presence in the state is owed to the hard work of our

members as SACP members and ANC members in their

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own right. We do not take these achievements for

granted for they demonstrate the confidence; our ally

the African National Congress (ANC) has to our party

and its members who are members our Party.

It is for this reason we have expressed disappointment

at some of our comrades deployed in critical sites of

power like the two metros, as economic hubs of the

province that some these cadres have failed our people

at critical moments that come once in a life time. These

are the truths we have to tell in building a strong Party

preparing for power in the here and now. For to tell the

truth it’s revolutionary!

The SACP and the term under review

Over the past 3 years we have been part of many

struggles of workers and community struggles. We have

successfully implemented all program assigned to the

province by the Central Committee to the province. We

have been a consistent voice on our principled fights

against corruption and have taken up issues that affect

the marginalised. Many of our cadres have lost jobs and

some continue to be treated with disdain because of

being communists all the time everywhere.

We have kept and celebrated the lives of comrade

Slovo, Skenjana, Roji, Mbuyiselo Ngwenda, Ncumisa

Kondlo and Chris Hani not in theory but as part and

parcel of addressing the many challenges facing people.

These are some of the scientific bases that can better

explain our growth, influence and standing in society.

As South African Communists, we have been part of the

struggle for freedom and continue to be part of the

struggle to build our country as part of the forces under

leadership of the African National Congress, our ally of

more than 6 decades. We made progress as result there

is an increasing offensive against the movement and our

Party. It is among these reasons that we wish to repeat

the message contained in our leaflet in 1961. Our party

asked the following question:

WHERE THE COMMUNIST PARTY STANDS

TODAY?

“Where does the South African Communist

Party stand today, given the great problems

which face our country – in the serious position to which we have been brought

under the crazy Verwoerd Government, with its sick ideas of Apartheid and White

Supremacy?

We stand where Communists have always

stood on the great question of the ending of Capitalism and the exploitation of man by

man. We believe that the best road for the future of our country is that of SOCIALISM.

That is, a society where all the Industries,

Mines and other means of production are made Public property, where living

standards rise rapidly and progress is planned by a strong Workers' and Peasants'

Government”.

In 2014 as some ask where is the Party? Iphi Party?

Given the challenges facing our people of poverty,

inequality and unemployment, the serious crazy position

great suffering under US led imperialism and the racists

and White Supremacy as represented by the Democratic

Alliance (DA).

We stand where communists have always stood on the

great question of ending capitalism and exploitation of

man by man. We believe that the future of our country

and that of human kind all over is socialism. We equally

know that socialism will not come on silver platter and

to build socialism requires hard work and to always

appreciate the concrete material conditions of each

country.

The current period demands that we remind ourselves

about who we are and where we come from given the

fluidity and complex situation taking place in our

country and the world. The moment demand clarity on

the side of the party membership and its leadership

given the real possibilities for our revolution to be

derailed. (This includes the reality of a possible rupture

in the alliance depending on what we do now).

A party preoccupied with internal contradictions cannot

rise to the occasion and appreciate the collective loss

for a derailed revolution. But equally for our Party to be

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more shaper in its tactics we must deal with internal

contradictions in manner that safe guards Party unity

and cohesion. Let’s always remember that and help

others to appreciate that many of the derailed

revolutions it has not taken less than 20 – 30 years for

the left to regain. Perhaps we do some of the things

simple because we have forgotten who we are.

Who we are?

We are the South African Communist Party (SACP), a

Marxist Leninist party that is part of the international

communist movement. We have been here for more

than 9 decades and saw many who were determined to

destroy this party finding themselves in the dustbin of

history or in the wilderness. “Laws and force cannot

destroy the ideas of communism, of Marxism –

Leninism, because these ideas are true and

answer the needs and aspirations of the people.”

The Road to South Africa Freedom (SACP) 1962

Programme.

We are not and cannot be just another organization,

principles of party organization are very critical in

defeating negative tendencies in the party and the

broad liberation movement. Over the past 20 years

since the 1934 famous Cradock letter we have sought

to build a party relevant to the conditions South Africa.

It is indeed true, that the history of our country cannot

be complete without the history of the SACP; equally, it

is a reality that the future of our country is tied together

with that of the SACP. This is a claim we making based

on our contribution in the struggle for freedom and the

struggle for building a new South Africa. We have

always endeavoured to take responsibility for the

revolution, we have openly raised our concerns on any

matter but equally been part of finding solutions to our

challenges.

We are the first non-racial organization in our country

and the first ones to call for one man one vote. We have

been the first to be burned and accumulated

underground experience of more than 6 years before

other organizations were burned. It is communist

cadres that were part of the leading detachment of MK

and the first to be hanged. We are a party of the

working class that advanced section and a voluntary

association. (People come to the Party as individuals but

strangely when some have made decisions to leave the

Party, they want to go with others)

The attacks against our party and the entire movement

both within and outside our ranks can easily overwhelm

us and find some of us falling to see the achievements

we have registered over the years. Today, we are being

accused of having sold out and those who claim to be

true revolutionaries are standing outside, but there are

those who remain inside but building an alternative to

the SACP.

The National Situation (What are our

achievements?)

We have led struggles that resulted in our country

adopting one of the celebrated constitutions in the

world with a bill of rights including a progressive labour

legislation that include the rights to strike and organise.

Through our democratic government we have built

more than 3 million houses in the past 20 years, which

make our country the only country that we know of at

least that provides houses for free for a specific

category of people. We have increased levels of access

to education for millions of school going children with

the provisioning of scholar transport and school

nutrition.

We have provided clean water and electricity to millions

of South Africans who have been sharing water with

animals for years and with women having to carry all

the burden of unpaid labour to fetch water and wood.

We have also ensured the provisioning of free health

care for both children and pregnant women of our

country and we are now getting ready to roll out a

National Health Insurance based on universal access to

quality health care and solidarity.

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Through our democratic government our country has

been spending billions in providing infrastructure for the

benefit of the majority of our people. As a result of our

campaigns against privatization and calling for an

industrial strategy, we saw over the past 6 years a policy

shift in favour of building a developmental state and the

building of the manufacturing capacity for our country.

That is steps to reindustrialise our country.

There is now a broad alliance agreement that we can

mainly defend and deepen the National Democratic

Revolution (NDR) on the economic front. It is from this

front that we will be able to deal with the triple

challenges of poverty, inequality and unemployment. It

is our considered view that it is only in our ability to

appreciate this revolutionary task that our road to

socialism is secured or gets deferred.

We can move forward only if the working class is unified

in defining the content of the Radical Phase of Economic

transformation and assuming leadership of the phase as

a class. That is why we have convened this congress

under the theme calling for working class unity and

leadership unity.

It is against this background that we wish to underline

the existence of both external and internal threats to

our revolution, given the fact of the content of the

radical phase and its direction as the contested reality,

there is nothing automatic!

What are the external threats to our possible

advance?

We wish to reassert that imperialism remains the enemy

of the NDR and its efforts cannot be divorced from

developments taking place in our broad movement and

our country. The hegemony of US led imperialism is

increasingly being contested and as a result it is

becoming more reckless resulting in immeasurable

suffering to millions throughout the world.

As we speak the people of Palestine are being

massacred as they are being denied a right to determine

their destiny. We wish to condemn in the strongest

terms the brutal Israeli attack on Gaza which has lasted

for over a month. More than 2000 people were killed in

the aerial and ground attack. The fact that 429 children

were killed makes this attack a war crime.

Not only should Israel stop resorting to such violence,

but it should lift the blockade and siege of the Gaza strip

which is illegal and against all humanitarian norms. We

wish to join all those who are calling for the United

Nations to declare apartheid Israel, a crime against

humanity. As the SACP, we contribute in leading a

discussion that say the so called two state solution is

not the solution. We must call for one state with both

people Palestine and Israel living leaving under a

democratic government an enjoying equal rights to

determine destiny.

For the past few months our PEC has been underlining

the deepening crisis of US engineered instability in

many countries including Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria

and the fact that it is making the world increasingly

unstable as US dominance is being challenged by

developments in the former Soviet Union states and the

emerging block of forces as constituted by the BRICS.

This Provincial Congress needs to once again welcome

the decision of the BRICS Summit in Fortaleza, Brazil to

set-up a New Development Bank and a Contingent

Reserve Arrangement. Countries throughout the world

are taking measures to defend their rights and interests

against the predatory aim of U.S.

The peoples of the world are resisting U.S. imperialism's

subversion and manipulation of the United Nations and

other international fora, such as the IMF, World Bank

and World Trade Organization to serve its narrow

interests and those of its most powerful monopolies.

People everywhere are resisting U.S. imperialism's

drumbeat of "Might Makes Right," its interference in

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their internal relations and subversion of their

economic, political, social and cultural affairs.

The BRICS countries in their recent sixth Summit agreed

on specific joint measures to defend themselves and

build their economies. Speaking to reporters prior to the

summit, Russian President Vladimir Putin said,

"Together we should think about a system of measures

that would help prevent the harassment of countries

that do not agree with some foreign policy decisions

made by the United States and their allies, but would

promote a civilised dialogue on all points at issue based

on mutual respect."

Perhaps it is in the above context that the convening of

the summit of 50 African leaders in the US recently

should be seen, as part of the desperate attempts by

the US to stop the shifting balance. What is also an issue

for discussions are the implications of African leaders

being convened by one leader outside the forums like

African Union and the AU Commission? The world is

increasingly becoming mobilised against the US and

even the US people no longer want their country to go

to war again.

In Britain and US the Syrian question is an instructive

example where both countries had to retreat faced with

opposition in their parliament and outside. The US has

armed many rebel groups including criminals to effect

regime change in various countries and they have

control on the armed groups. As we speak they are

attacking Islamic states in Iraq and in Syria.

In order to save the world from this US recklessness

there is a need to consolidate many of the anti-

imperialist efforts and appreciate the differences and

focus on our broader anti-imperialist agenda.

Imperialists cannot be happy with our agenda to

radically transform the economy and has its allies and

puppets as represented by the DA led anti-majoritarian

offensive. Many efforts by those who present

themselves as revolutionaries serve this imperialist

agenda but disguise as genuine voices and actions for

workers and the poor.

Internal threats to our possible advance

More than ever before, an opportunity exists for the left

and progressive forces to push for more radical changes

in the economy of our country for the benefit of the

majority. The building of unity and power of the working

class in key sites of power remains the pre-condition for

the achievement of the above objectives.

But efforts of bosses to weaken the working class and

negative tendencies within the movement pose a

danger to our possibility to take the opportunity for a

leftward shift. At the heart of this threat include the

restructuring of the working class through the use of

labour brokers, casualization and increasing use of

workers from other African countries as part of

undermining current labour legislations.

This divides organized and unorganized workers and

reduced each other into enemies than to see capitalism

as their common enemy. There has also been efforts to

establish bogus unions that place themselves as

progressive and yet they are principally designed to

divide the workers in order to weaken COSATU and the

ANC led Alliance and therefore our ability to take

forward the radical phase of the transition.

Part of the negative tendencies is the use of union

investment arms to promote business unionism and

with many of the operations being unaccountable to the

workers and investing in areas where workers are not

benefiting.

The increasing level of corruption as result of people

wanting to get rich is equally a very serious if not the

most threat to the entire movement. It is increasingly

difficult to distinguish in many cases when people are

speaking for the organization or a business cartel. In

some instances decisions being made have nothing to

do with the organization but they ride on what is

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genuine but with the aim to pursue a total difference

agenda.

Parts of the threat are forces that have a “permanent

grievance” against the SACP and its leadership for its

own decisions taken at SACP appropriate platforms.

Some of the people who accuse the SACP of no longer

being the Party of Joe Slovo were once members of this

Party but decided to betray it and some were never

members of the Party. (Marxism as a true witchcraft,

once it’s engrained, it dies with you or you betray it)

When they speak about our Party, you can conclude

that the Party has socialism and is just simple refusing

with socialism. And yet, we do not have socialism, we

are struggling for socialism. And you can even conclude

that the Party has no program on how we want to

realise a socialist South Africa.

The tasks of the working class as guided by SARS

and securing and safeguarding the route to

socialism.

The overall objective of our program is to build the

power of the working class in all key sites of power. The

sites of power contained in our program are the

community, economy, workplace, the state, the

ideology and environment. Put differently, the SACP is

preparing for power through working with and for the

workers and poor by building their influence in key sites

of power.

This is critical to understand as some even with the

Party are asking when the SACP is going to contest state

power when we already contesting in a reconfigured

alliance as part of preparing for power. As to whether

we will contest on our own in the same organizational

form or leading other forces can only be an outcome of

struggle. This view is clearly articulated by comrade

Deng-Yuan Hsu in his contribution on RETHINKING

SOCIALISM: WHAT IS SOCIALIST TRANSITION. He

argues that socialist transition is the period of

time that transforms a non-communist society to

a communist society. During the socialist

transition there is no certain predetermined path

by which policies and events can be judged to

determine whether this path is being followed.

Instead, the analysis of socialist transition

depends on the general direction of the

transition. Therefore, one single and isolated

event cannot determine whether the transition is

socialist or capitalist. We have no predetermined

path in mind and, thus, have no specific yard

sticks to measure our evaluation.

He concludes this part of argument by Lenin when he

said "We do not claim that Marx or the Marxists

know the road to socialism in all its

completeness. That is nonsense. We know the

direction of this road, we know what class forces

lead along it, but concretely and practically it will

be learned from the experiences of the millions

who take up the task"[1]

Part of the tasks of the working class and its formations

is to build unity and their organizational capacity and in

particular the capacity of the SACP as a vanguard Party

of the working class to be more effective in playing its

role.

It is in the above context that we wish to welcome the

outcomes of the national bilateral between our Party

and COSATU. The national officials and office bearers of

the SACP and COSATU committed the two formations

to take forward the resolutions of the 2013 Alliance

Summit - in particular providing context, content and a

programme of action based around the call for a second

radical phase of our democratic transition.

The meeting agreed that at the centre of the

programme must be the need to fundamentally

transform the structure of our economy and advance

social transformation, and that this requires taking

forward progressive policies. The meeting also

reaffirmed the continued relevance of shared SACP-

COSATU strategic perspectives for a new, qualitatively

different and inclusive growth path. Re-industrialisation,

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redistribution, employment creation and decent work,

combating inequality and poverty, and leading efforts to

achieve regional integration in Africa.

There was also agreement that the centre-piece of such

a second radical phase of transformation needs to be a

state-led industrial action plan, buttressed by popular

mobilisation, and that its key elements must include:

dealing decisively with monopoly import-parity

pricing of key upstream inputs into

manufacturing through, amongst other things,

strengthening our competition authorities;

amendments to the Minerals Resources and

Petroleum Development Act to ensure greater

alignment with our industrialisation in terms of

supply and pricing of key industrial minerals

with our industrialisation objectives; and

moving with greater determination to meet the

75% local procurement target, especially by the

public sector.

But all these cannot be achieved without building a

strong COSATU, SACP, a effectively functional and

fighting Alliance leading social, economic and political

campaigns on the ground. The immediate tasks facing

the two working class organisations therefore include

taking up a campaign against the privatisation of

Eskom, as well as against the mismanagement of the

public broadcaster, the SABC. A joint organising task

team meeting will be convened to consolidate an action

plan in this regard.

The above context and revolutionary responsibilities

reinforce our last Provincial Council political framework

for this congress. That is why we have launched our

financial sector campaign as part of our critic of

capitalism and struggle for the transformation and

diversification of the financial sector.

The launching meeting was attended by our allies and

other forces that include the TAC and the Provincial

Treasurer was elected as the Chairperson of the FSCC

provincial chapter. Our financial sector campaign in the

province is going to be critical in the revitalization of a

working class led mass movement in order to build

capacity for combining both state power and people’s

power. This is one of the tasks to be taken by the

incoming PEC post this congress.

In order to take forward the above task we have

convened the Trade Union Commission in order to

develop joint programs on the above and ideological

training as part of building our organizational capacity.

Unless we build this capacity, there is a limit on what

we can achieve!

Building the Young Communist League need to continue

to be part of our party building strategy, we need to pay

particular attention so that our YCL it’s not like any

youth organization, they need to be distinct. As leaders

of the Party we must make it our habit to encourage

young people to join the YCL. Like the SACP, you need

to building and produce a breed of young people who

are in the forefront in resolving problems and grounding

other young people in the values of socialism as an

alternative to the dominant value system.

Congresses come and go but the SACP and its

responsibility as an instrument of the workers

and poor remain! This is very important for all of us

to keep in mind and work together as we have done in

the preparations for this congress as guided political

framework whose main pillar is putting the SACP and its

primary and our individual interests secondary.

Conclusion

On behalf of the outgoing Provincial Executive

Committee, I wish to express our profound word of

appreciation for the honour you have given to us to

serve this Party. It has been a rewarding experience and

a university that has thought us many things we would

not have known without this opportunity. We are indeed

different from the time you elected us, we have grown

both collectively and as individuals. Thank you very

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much comrades with my deepest sincerity. To those

who sow divisions in the ranks our Party, to those who

betray this Party, you have no idea of the great damage

you doing to the future of our country, for without this

Party, the future of millions of our people is a future of

misery. To my dear wife and children, thank you for

your unwavering support and understanding. You have

indeed been a pillar of strength in the true sense of the

word!

Thank you once more to all of you comrades!

SACP Eastern Cape 7th Provincial Council, 26

October 2014

We, the 838 delegates of the South African

Communist Party in the Eastern Cape drawn from

eight districts of our party and the YCLSA in the

Eastern Cape.

We gathered at the Orient Theatre in East London

on the 24 – 26 October 2014 under the theme

“Working class unity and leadership now”.

On the international front:

As the party we draw our understanding of the

national situation from the global and continental

context within which our country exists and our

own concrete material conditions.

We have noted that the hegemony of the US led

imperialism characterised by the rise of

transnational companies (the military industrial

complex) , the changing role of the state , the rise

of influence of the international financial

institutions, the drifting away of the development

finance from the productive sectors to speculative

sectors such as ( shares, bonds, currency ETC),

privatisation , low company taxes, removal of

labour rights and social protection measure in an

attempt to maximise profits, these and other

factors have been the direct result of the on-going

global social and economic crisis.

The three centres of global imperialism, United

States of America, European Union and Japan are

the epicentre of this social and economic crisis ,

notable is the drastically deteriorating conditions

of the working class under the dictates of the

financial monopoly-capital with policies of

austerity through the command of all levers of

power.

As such, We further noted that, the hegemony of

US led imperialism is increasingly contested in all

parts of the world, as a result it is becoming more

reckless coursing immeasurable suffering of the

millions of people world over. To mention but a

few, is the brutal massacre of the people of

Palestine, the geo-political crisis in the Euro (the

former Soviet states) , the Syrian war, the US led

instability in Iraq, Afghanistan ETC.

These are just but few examples the congress has

sought to highlight so as to show the empirical

evidence that indeed global capitalism is in an

irreversible stage of crisis.

We therefore resolved to intensify our

international work , work close with progressive

forces world over, including the work done at the

level of BRICS , we need to fight to ensure that the

BRICS Development Bank work in the interest of

the workers and the poor of our countries.

We further resolved that we must join the DBS

campaigns in our country and world over, as an

attempt to expose the apartheid Israel brutality

against the people of Palestine and intensifying

against Woolworth Stores, to pledge solidarity

with progressive forces in the EURO (Russia and

Syria) to also actively support the self

determination of the Asian Countries that are

under the offensive of the US led imperialism.

All these campaigns will assist the progressive

forces world over, to shift the international

balance of power from the reactionary global

north to the emerging progressive Global South.

The continental context

The SACP seventh congress noted the brutality of

the Mswati Tikundla monarchy in Swaziland. The

protracted brutality of the Swazi regime which

victimizes all organs of the people in that part of

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the world, the political crisis at Lesotho, the Boko

Harm tendency in Nigeria.

The congress further notes the positive traces of

stability and economic growth in most parts of the

continent (Africa), though we note with concern

the on-going illegal theft of the financial and

mineral resources out of the continent ,

imbalances in terms of trade with the west , in

particular the poor economic integration within

Africa.

Therefore the congress calls upon the ANC

Government to develop an action plan aimed at

strongly integrating South African economy with

the broader African economy and rapidly growing

economies in Latin America and Asia.

The congress says that the economic integration

must amongst other things, enforce a systematic

and coherent effort to work with other countries

in the continent to drive the agenda of an

alternative development trajectory for Africa that,

amongst other things, deal with but not limited to:

a balanced and accelerated integration of the

African economy, the unjust terms of trade with

the west and other regions, the plunder and illegal

extraction of capital and minerals out of Africa.

The global economic crisis presents some nuances

for Africa to learn in our attempt to advance for

the integration of the African economy.

On the National front:

As said earlier, the congress noted the national

situation against the background of global and

continental objective realities, that the global

imperialist forces are waging an onslaught to the

working class masses world over in an attempt to

manage the collapsing and false neo-liberal

economic solutions.

At the national front these forces appear in the

two extremes, the first extreme is the ultra-right

as represented by the DA, the second extreme is

the ultra-left tendency as represented by the DFB

(Amandla Network) and the newly formed United

Front.

As the congress we therefore resolved that we

must defeat these two extremes, to consolidate

and deepen working class unity and leadership.

The congress noted that despite our setbacks , the

national reality is marked by major advances such

as consolidation of our constitutional democracy

and many other concrete achievements that have

uplifted the standard of living of many South

Africans, these are, but not limited to, the bill of

rights, the progressive labour laws, the provision

of houses, etc , the congress noted with concern

that our advances are threatened by the triple-

crisis of unemployment, poverty and

multidimensional inequality.

Against the above background of the global and

national context, the congress reaffirmed that

there is a consensus in the alliance on the need to

move onto the second - radical phase of the

democratic transition, in short the need to place

the economy unto the new labour-absorbing

growth path through a state-led bulk

infrastructure programme and industrialisation

supported by the exploitation of our minerals for

manufacturing and extensive skills development

programme.

The congress noted that this consensus has made

the big business and bourgeois media to view the

state and our progressive unions as twine-evils,

and therefore launched a campaign to paint the

ANC-led government as the reason for the

persistent triple-crisis that threatens our social

stability.

The congress further resolved that, communist

party in the Eastern Cape must close ranks against

forces that seek to derail our revolution and

neutralise some whom have the win-win illusion

within the people’s camp.

On organisation:

The congress notes that next year, 2015 will mark

the 20th anniversary of the untimely departure of

our former General Secretary Cde Joe Slovo. The

coming year will mark the 60th anniversary of the

freedom charter as adopted in the Congress of the

Page 13 of 23

people held in 1955. In the coming year the South

African Communist Party will hold its Special

National Congress, the African National Congress

(ANC) will hold its National General Council (NGC)

and the COSATU will hold its 12th National

Congress.

It is in this context that we believe, we as the

communists are charged with the responsibility to

unite the people, It is therefore our revolutionary

obligation to mould and produce the cadreship of

our party with a strong, dynamic and agile

character which will lead decisively in these times.

To lead the province in taking up the above tasks

7th Congress elected the following comrades

Cde Xolile Nqatha – SACP Provincial Secretary

Cde Mzoleli Mrara – SACP Provincial Chairperson

Cde Vuyani Limba – SACP Provincial Treasurer

Cde Sisimoni Rakaibe – SACP 1st Provincial Deputy

Secretary

Cde Siyabulela Mbedla – SACP 2nd Provincial

Deputy Secretary

Cde Ntombizodwa Zothani – SACP Deputy

Provincial Chairperson

Ordinary members:

Xolani Malamlela, Ntombovuyo Nkopane, Andile

Mfunda, Vangiwe Hokwana, Mawethu Rune,

Kholiswa Fihlani, Pumeza Mpushe, Nonkoliso

Ngqongwa, King Socikwa, Luthando Buso,

Mpumelelo Saziwa, Fundile Gade, Andile Fani,

Noluthando Balfour, Nonceba Mfecane

The congress was characterised by high levels of

debate and closed on a high note with ordinary

members elected by consensus and delegates

committing to take the work of party forward by

addressing day to day challenges facing our

period.

Issued by SACP Eastern Cape.

Memorial Lecture of Cde Joe Slovo in Motherwell

Community Hall in Port Elizabeth on 29th January

2015

Let me begin by borrowing into wise words of James

Baldwin, that: `I am what time, circumstance, history,

have made of me, certainly, but I am also, much more

than that. So are we all. `

Slovo, Joe was been born in 1926 in Lithuania this year

we mark 20 years his physical being departed. It is great

honour and privilege to share about a life of an extra

ordinary gallant martyr whose life will never die, whom

his ideas and deeds have inspired the international and

continental politics in general and South African in

particular never to be the same again. I find

paradoxically that through Joe Slovo vivid contribution

to struggle of the whole oppressed today although some

of us never laid our eyes on him but today we boldly

stand and speak with confidence, sure that we know

Joe Slovo. The reason I guess is obvious Joe Slovo (as

hereunder referred as JS) will never die as he live in us.

One must confess in that it is intimating to share about

a true role model of a rounded brave intellectual whom

joined SACP at fifteen, founding member of the

Congress of Democrats, accused in the 1956 Treason

Trial, earliest member of MK, first white NEC of ANC,

Chief of Staff of Umkhonto we Sizwe, a member of the

Central Committee of the SACP, a revolutionary council

member of the ANC from 1969 until its dissolution in

1983, Isithwalandwe, General Secretary and Chairman

of the SACP and former Minister of Housing.

I will not recite the biography of JS but only highlight

key values and attributes which we must emulate today,

outstanding contribution of JS is best characterised in a

story I learnt in my tender age, a friend of mine was

narrating on how JS having shared trenches with Steve

Page 14 of 23

Tshwete was at some time invited to the house of Bra

Steve, it is said that the latter had agitated to his

children that enemy of the revolution that had to be

defeated were Boers. After JS had left Bra Steve

children asked him why he invited enemy to their house

and reply was that this is not a white person this is Joe

Slovo. I took time to comprehend with this story, but

the moral of the story is that JS, had transcended race

bearers and ingrained himself into hearts and souls of

ordinary South Africans, to an extent that they regarded

content of his character to be black and his

pigmentation was non consequential. This was also

true of me as JS I grew up knowing was, fearless black

intellectual not a white person, it is after my personal

research that I half-heartedly accepted that he might

have been white.

JS was a qualified advocate but voluntarily gave up his

institutionalized privileges and opportunity to live a

comfortable life and or path to get rich; he interchanged

such privileges to fight side by side with African majority

in-fact to lead the onslaught against government in race

and class terms of ‘’his people’’, JS being JS he dared

the illegitimate white minority rule. I guess the

contemporary knockers of SACP would find it very

difficult to cartoon him as being convenient communist

as it appears that in contemporary politics every leader

of SACP stand accused of being convenient or

communist as our detractors would want the world to

believe. He was thus a disciplined revolutionary and

militant, whose militancy arose from the material

conditions that he and his people experienced

JS sacrifice of personal satisfaction and white privileges

in the interest of freeing working class and the whole

oppressed went a long way in exposing that apartheid

was never founded on hatred of whites by blacks or vice

versa; otherwise they would have not left their children

with our aunts and mothers and our uncles and fathers

to clean and do their yards and gardens.

But capitalist apartheid, conceptualised race as

opportunist basis of exclusion, for reason that capitalism

pre suppose that there must be few who owns means

of production with majority working means of

production and in South African context divide basis was

race. Racial domination was a pre - requisite to progress

aggressively with apartheid capitalism. In the final

analysis JS among other things he understood and

propagated was that colonisation and apartheid were

never in the benefit of white people as race but they

were designed to massively benefit white capitalists and

further colonise South Africa for the benefit of masters

in Europe. Who else can better explain this dichotomy

than JS when he says?

''In general, capitalist exploitation and race domination

are not symbiotically linked. They can exist without one

another. But in every phase of South African capitalism,

from its emergence to its stabilisation and to its growth

and development, race and class have been inextricably

and inseparably joined together. Primitive accumulation

in South Africa involved internal national conquests and

dispossession. The creation and consolidation of cheap

labour reserves were ' virtually ' completely colour-

based. And today not only does the race factor continue

to play a dominating role at the level of the relations of

production, but also the very survival of the ruling class-

its continued monopolistic hold on the land, mines and

other means of production-depends upon maintaining

and even reinforcing the mechanisms which guarantee

White race political control and domination''.

At the occasion of awarding Isithwalandwe/

Seaparankoe to JS President Mandela says "Your

contributions to our struggle are many. But it is, I

think, especially as a strategic thinker that you are

held most dear by so many in our ranks. You have

played a role, often a central role, in most of the

outstanding strategic documents of our struggle. In

the decades of exile I know that yours was a crucial

role in the regrouping and consolidation of Umkhonto

we Sizwe. You have always been able to respond

practically and dynamically to changing

circumstances. You have had the courage of your

convictions, spelling out the implications of new

situations which sometimes we, as a movement, have

found hard to admit''.

Owing to admission by President Mandela there can

be no doubt that JS was a leading theoretician whom

his thinking and vision far exceeded his living age. The

never drying ink of JS can be easily traced in the first

strategy and tactics of the ANC in Morogoro

Conference which optimised ANC in outlining its

strategy and what must be done in the immediate,

medium and long term, it meant through going

outlining of what were the task of the revolution and

how the movement was to go about that task. The

pen of JS is so vivid in that strategy and tactics. When

the people met in Kliptown and outlined the kind of

society they wanted to live in, in what was to be called

Freedom Charter; it is evident that the pen of JS was

full of ink. Also in the Green Book which battled with

Page 15 of 23

ideological posturing of the ANC that pen was equally

vivid in that product. When the SACP outlined the

Road of South African Freedom, JS's pen was called

into action. When the debate heated on how the

working class will navigate its inter class alliance,

while intensifying NDR as a shortest route to

socialism, JS wrote South African Working Class to

provide clarity, this is true on many other strategic

interventions in evolution of South African struggle.

By far JS has never been as decisive in intervening as

he did at a time wherein the Soviet bloc had

supposedly collapsed; JS literal provided piece of work

that I dare argue that across the world and in all left

theoreticians, was the most convincing explanation

and literal salvaged the socialist ideas and supremacy

of communist's ideas.

JS had this to write "We believe, however, that the

theory of Marxism, in all its essential respects,

remains valid and provides an indispensable

theoretical guide to achieve a society free of all forms

of exploitation of person by person. The major

weaknesses which have emerged in the practice of

socialism are the results of distortions and

misapplications. They do not flow naturally from the

basic concepts of Marxism whose core is essentially

humane and democratic and which project a social

order with an economic potential vastly superior to

that of capitalism", (Has socialism failed).

JS was brutal and fearless that it came natural for him

to critic even the work of Marx himself when he wrote

'in summary, we believe that Marxism is a social

science whose fundamental postulates and basic

insights into the historical processes remain a

powerful (because accurate) theoretical weapon. But

this is not to say that every word of Marx, Engels and

Lenin must be taken as gospel; they were not infallible

and they were not always correct in their projections."

The bravery and fearless character of this gallant

intellectual could not even be compressed by harshest

conditions in that in more instances than not' a fear

to revolutionaries is driven by either over estimating

the strength of the enemy or alternatively failure even

to realise that circumstances are prudent for bold

actions in advancing revolution.

In the sixties a period wherein apartheid was

intensifying and movement leadership jailed exiled or

killed in the mid-sixties. Wherein it would have come

naturally for many to seek to retreat or despair if not

conceding defeat but not JS in that in the very same

circumstance his foresight and bravery saw an

opportunity and he went to write "The very

sophisticated character of the economy with its well-

developed system of communication makes it a much

more vulnerable target. In an underdeveloped

country the interruption of supplies to any given

region may be no more than a setback. In a highly

sensitive modern economic structure of the South

African type, the successful harassment of transport

to any major industrial complex would inevitably inflict

immense damage to the economy as a whole and to

the morale of the enemy. (The South African forces

would have the task of keeping intact about 30,000

miles of railway line spread over an area of over 400,

00 sq. miles!)" (A discussion article by Joe Slovo on

the prospects for armed struggle in South Africa. First

submitted to the National Student Conference held in

Oxford in March 1968.)

Education outcomes a case for economic

freedom

On 6th January 2015 Minister Motshega announced that

class of 2014 had passed with 75,8 % for all intents and

purpose 75% it’s a good pass and this cohort of learners

deserve to be congratulated and be wished all the best

in its future endeavours. Albeit challenges it can be read

from 2014 results not only of matric but all grades that

education system is stabilizing.

With greater consensus it is now shared that

education is the plausible escape from generational

poverty and domination, therefore we can never have

time to rest on our laurels but we must agree that

much more still has to be done, as we argue in this

piece that remains yawning racial, gender and class

inequalities, which has serious interlinked and

Page 16 of 23

interdependence with education system performance

and quality.

A need arises to ponder beyond percentages and

consider a state of each learner which started

schooling 12 years ago juxtaposed against nice

pictures we had seen of pupils which are starting

school in 2015, with central question being that as a

country are we providing necessary and required

support for learners to succeed?

Not as an excuse but historic fact with colossal

repercussions, we must not dismiss the fact that we

come from an era which was defined by reductionist

doctrine of Hendrik Verwoerd "There is no place for

[the Bantu] in the European community above the

level of certain forms of labour ... What is the use of

teaching the Bantu child mathematics when it cannot

use it in practice?..That is quite absurd. Education

must train people in accordance with their

opportunities in life, according to the sphere in which

they live.", this philosophy had disastrous implications

for education in this country and it will be naïve to

suggest that its imprints are not visible even on today

state of education, as a black child had to be

subjected to classrooms…underline classrooms not

school, even in those classrooms there was no

investment in building schools, no resources, no

infrastructure, no proper sanitation, no electricity, no

clean drinking water, no basic recreational facilities,

no computer labs, no laboratories, no quality and

adequately trained teachers etc.

And ofcourse we must then recognise remarkable

strides which have been made in improving quality

and quantity of South African education post 1994, as

part of these efforts nnow we have one education

system from plethora we use to have. Basic education

has reached universal access and further no child is

turned from school because his or her sin is being

poor. Less reports of books not arriving in time are

reported and all learners are tested in three grades

on common paper with various interventions to assist

learners and empower teachers.

To mitigate against conditions not created by schools,

to date there are more than 80% of no fee schools,

schools within deserving quintiles receive nutrition

and school transport provided. ANC Manifesto

commits on building 1,000 new schools, to eradicate

mud and improper schools, expand access to

education and respond to the challenges of rural

schooling and urban population growth. South Africa

spends more than 5% of GDP on education spending

more than any other country on the continent.

On universities, while ANC has continued to commit

on progressively introducing free education but is now

ensuring that that no academically deserving child is

denied to study and NSFAS allocations has continued

to increase. National Students Financial Scheme

increased from R3, 1billion in 2009 to the current R9,

6bn and non-payment for poor students on TVET

sector.

Academic enterprise of the two new universities in

Mpumalanga and Northern Cape has started in

earnest and a third dedicated health Sciences

University built. TVET will enrol more than one million

students in TVET colleges in 2014 and enrol an

additional 500,000 students in the next five years and

twelve TVET’s built.

With that being said, it must be worrisome that as

contained on the 5th January, SADTU press statement

titled ‘’Enrolment, Retention and Throughput’

www.sadtu.org.za observing that ‘’In 2002,

approximately 1.1 million learners enrolled in Grade 1

and of these learners, less than 50% wrote the

current National Senior Certificate Examination not

withstanding those who are repeating, and out of this

numbers about 150 000 gained university entrance.

We remain with a large number of learners who are

unaccounted for’’

Aspirations of more than 500 000 thousands pupils

and their families are not just statistics, but shattered

future of this country and devastation of being

trapped in systematic poverty. As a country what do

we say to more than 500 000 pupils and their parents

whom appreciate that without matric certificate or

any other qualification chances of living better life to

majority of them are slim? If indeed as it should

education is apex priority, how do we account for

what future has in store for this cohort, can we look

them not through percentages and statistics but in

their faces and say all will be well.

It can never be said that this cohort drop out, because

they are dumb therefore incapable of comprehending

with schooling but social ills and socio conditions

appear to confirm that education challenges do not

begin with education per se but are integral part of

struggle of oppressed people as a whole, hence

Page 17 of 23

twenty one year’s into democracy and African working

class child still subjected to conditions that make him

or her to drop out of school or not succeed must not

be acceptable.

It requires no one to be rocket scientist (not that

studying a solid still object can be any complex) to

confirm that success in schooling system have

propensity of following well-resourced and affluent

communities. It is only fair to observe that quintile 1

schools do much better as compared to quintile 5

schools, no wonder even awards are categorised per

quintiles. It is intellectual silly to parade one or two

pupil who beat the odds and do exceptional well from

quintile 1 schools when the general rule his or her

colleagues over twelve years of schooling have joined

the ranks of unaccounted youth and then want to

suggest it all depend on individual determination.

Hard work and commitment are critical for any

student but it would wold be disingenuous to suggest

that success or failure rest on that variant alone,

independent of concrete material conditions. It is true

that student who come from affluent communities

with resourced and functional school stand far better

chance of success that their counterparts who emerge

from poor families and subjected to study in a poor

school.

This then follow that education is not a neutral

phenomenon; it is either is designed to oppress

people or to liberate people! In context of Eastern

Cape for example education challenges are societal

challenges which are structural, systematic

(embedded in racial context), historic and through

going it is well recorded the introduction of formal

education and the heroic wars of colonisation

resistance whom were fought for decades in this

province and this was to have far reaching

consequences of type of education which colonisers

and missionaries were to introduce in this part of the

world.

It can be explained as to why overwhelming majority

of worst performing schools in Eastern Cape in last

year matric results were in rural areas that are under

–developed with poor conditions. Statists are loud in

that we have not been able to turn the tide in that

class inequalities and class bias towards the middle

classes continues to afflict our education system

across the board.

For instance apart from the fact that it is largely black

middle class students who have accessed the better

resourced former white schools, on 2014 outcomes,

calculated against the cohort that started schooling

12 years notwithstanding objective constraints, below

15% qualify to apply for institution of higher learning.

This is compounded by the fact that overwhelming

majority of the learners who do achieve a matric

exemption are children from the middle classes.

Research show that probability of a black working

class child achieving a university exemption is much

less than 1%. This is indeed a deeply disturbing state

of affairs. Just one in ten black pupils qualifies for

university, compared with more than half of their

white peers. Whites, who account for 9% of the

population, gained 42% of the degrees awarded in

2007, almost exactly the same proportion as blacks,

who are nearly ten times more numerous. Figures

show that in "historically black" and previously

disadvantages schools, which make up 80% of the

country's 7000 secondary schools. Despite this large

number, these schools produce only 15% of students

who qualify for university. Of those who do get in,

barely half end up with a degree.

This amplifies the argument that education is an

integral and intertwined struggle for economic

freedom, infect quality education is a necessary

impetus for economic freedom, while economic

freedom is reassurance for quality education. In one

view this education should seek to change the socio-

economic conditions of the poor for the better.

As it is education that can provide escape route out of

poverty and promote diversified oneness and equality

across racial, economic, and cultural and gender lines.

In the interest of African working class child and

future of this country we must collectively ensure that

a class takes greater responsibility for breaking new

ground and reclaims leading role in education of its

future and gravitate away from situation wherein

education is made a football, where a blame game is

thrown to and from by pressure or interest group.

Our struggle in education sector must be that of

arming the class, our struggle must that of people

education for people power, therefore we must insists

that we must ground ourselves in understanding of

the relationship between the working class and the

Page 18 of 23

people if we to take forward the concept of education

for class in class in divided society.

We can only heed in Nelson Mandela words says

“Education is the great engine of personal

development. It is through education that the

daughter of a peasant can become a doctor, that a

son of a mineworker can become the head of the mine

that a child of farm workers can become the president

of a great nation”.

Xenophobic attacks in Soweto

I had been reminded by Oxford dictionary that

xenophobia means ‘’intense or irrational dislike or fear

of people from other countries’’

But this is definitely not an experience I had come to be

accustomed in South Africa or Eastern Cape for that

matter, I can with confidence and without fear of

contradiction insist that South Africans are not self-

hating with irrational uncontrollable hatred of people

from other countries

I hold a long stubborn view that simply refuse to accept

this over-simplified explanation that there could be

spontaneous sense of hate. Serious constrain of this

xenophobic explanation is that it only take into account

that if you were to attach, injure or kill a person which

is almost certain that you were not motivated by deep

sense of love to borrow from Gramsci but some level of

hate would have been required. Then when we cannot

explain or when we hide the underlying factors we

simply attribute it to what is obvious “hatred”.

Surely if such hatred existed in South Africa millions of

people would have been driven to sea long time ago.

Hate can never be periodic in that four years you live

side by side with your foreign African brother and sister

then suddenly on particular day hate him to an extent

of being willing to kill him and the whole township is in

flames but a week after hate disappears and live side

by side again for years only to hate him in the odd week

and all of a sudden again everyone in the township hate

African brothers to death. I refuse to accept this social

phenomenon as only fear or hate of the unknown or

from other country.

We may have to be told as to why as it relate to

xenophobia, this hate only applies to African brothers

and sisters and not English and Dutch, are they not from

other countries, one may even argue if this hate had

foreign country content then for they violently and

forcefully took our fore-fathers land, wealth and

displaced our families then they must be the one hated.

Is it accidentally that this hate only exist in locations and

not in suburbs, apparently accessing means of living

and reproducing yourself seem to take away hate,

surely by now we are all on drill.

I insist that it is grossly false to suggest that some

nationalities are inherently periodic haters of others, for

years unending they had had fought bitter battles of

self-determination and political emancipating and

continue to confront daily struggles of securing

substance living and means reproducing themselves

side by side, so its white lie that Africans are self-haters.

But what is a real problem, my little contribution from

daily interaction would be that the production system of

capitalism which is failing humanity across the world,

knows no nationality, race nor ethnicity but dictates that

very few own means production and subsequently

wealth of the country, this minority is dominated by

white males with carefully hand-picked unproductive

parasitic black fellows.

This section of society beyond its tall electrified walls

and boom gates they are not about to attack or injure

each other but pre – occupied with being accepted by

their white counterparts and be delighted if they can

play in their league and are contend with economic

property relations remaining semi – colonial.

Even the middle class which is a buffer zone of

antagonistic contradictions between capital and working

class appears contend with the high levels of poverty,

unemployment and inequality maybe that’s what should

have been expected they are a by –product of the

system after all and equally this section of society is not

about to attack foreign nationalities.

But the other section which is working class and the

poor as necessitated by the system whether it originates

from Burundi, Ghana, Mamelodi or Motherwell must in

every day struggle for substance means of living to

reproduce itself. While the working class knows no

boundaries, capitalism has been effective in creating

artificial boundaries and fragmented the working class

in ensuring its collectivism is weakening and promote

hostilities among its communities as product of

competition and dominance.

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Therefore they begin to compete for little available

resources among themselves as the situation gets dire

with African countries being deliberately destabilized

South Africa is seen from far to have greener pastures

only to realize that what from far appears to be green

when near its actually seas of poverty with island rich

persons.

At the same time with capitalism limping from crisis to

another in its desperation to consolidate profit it is

leaving humanity in havoc as millions of people worse

youth and women are toiling in poverty and each time

they revolt they are shut down if not shot down as

barbaric hooligans whom are ungrateful so according to

Prime Minister David Cameron and British liberals. It is

evident that that going forward multi – national

companies are more resolute for inter connecting the

world market to an extent that beyond loyalty to

countries of their origin they ensured that they expand

to underdeveloped countries as monopolies. Only to

chase where it cheapest to do business by applying

atomized industries, imported capital goods and raw

material with the few that gets lucky to be employed

being ruthlessly exploited and under-employed only for

the big corporate once they finished the goods or

deposits of that country to stride along to the next

country consuming much that lies in their path, leaving

behind great trails of destruction and systematic

poverty.

As that competition increases with resources dwindling

then capitalism begin to fragment working class and it

intensify competition among itself but essence of this

social phenomenon becomes the basis of what

formulating these groupings for this intra – artificial

class struggle.

This enforced competition then led to false struggle as

groupings are formed on artificial stratification based on

nationality, regionalism even ethnicity. This then lead to

those who view themselves for one reason or another

as indigenous believing that are entitled to greater piece

of scramble prompting to what we mentioned earlier,

problematizing as to why those from ‘outside’ seem to

have more of little resources. Then false enemy is

created and with anger the ‘outsiders’ and ‘indigenous’

stand parallel with majority in this instance seeking to

dislodge the weak and vulnerable.

Then liberal intellectuals want us to believe that we hate

each other when it is the capitalist system that fuels the

fertile ground for violent competition among working

class, it’s unfortunate but all moral regeneration and

prayer sessions will fall far short as long as conditions

of squalor that working class and the poor and not

radical and speedily altered.

The poor is not going to wait forever and fold arms while

its representative and captains of industry continue to

be richer and richer. Persisting horrible conditions of the

poor sections of society will create conditions where it

will not be uncommon to learn of instances of tribalism,

regionalism etc.

The middle class and capitalists because they have

means to reproduce themselves, less of violent

confrontation among them can be expected.

With increasing volumes of working class youth living in

abject poverty two things are possible one is that the

time bomb will explode as working class will identify that

enemy is not Somalian or Ghanain but capital and those

who appear to be comfortable with the system if that is

measured by their cars, clothes, houses, food they eat

ect. Or unprincipled populist that sound revolutionary

will rally for what can be genuine supported by working

class and the poor only to lead us to predator state.

ON CLASS CONTENT OF NATIONAL STRUGGLE

AND NATIOAL CONTENT OF CLASS STRUGGLE

Cde JS was a loyal member of ANC and loyal member

of the SACP. He understood the national content of class

struggle and class content of class struggle. JS

appreciated that NDR is the shortest route to socialism.

JS knew that any self-respecting communist in South

Africa had to support and be actively member of ANC,

infact a good communist is a thoroughgoing going

nationalist and contrary actions would not only be

reactionary but plain selling out people's camp.

JS was open, frank and courageous leader, unswerving

and with conviction of his views, he subscribed to

borrowings from Mao Zedong, for example he never

would let: "Things slide for the sake of peace and

friendship when a person has clearly gone wrong, and

refrain from principled argument because he is an old

acquaintance, a fellow townsman, a schoolmate, a close

friend, a loved one, an old colleague or old subordinate.

Or to touch on the matter lightly instead of going into it

thoroughly, so as to keep on good terms. The result is

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that both the organization and the individual are

harmed. This is one type of liberalism.

Cde JS was courageous and fearless if not daring and

he appreciated that there is no contradiction between

being organisational discipline, collective leadership,

democratic centralism and militancy.

Comrade JS made some of the outstanding contribution,

narrating the character of the alliance and why it must

be reinforced, while at the same time SACP within and

outside the alliance unapologetically advances the

socialist ideas and program. We must then never be

under illusion that this Alliance has been accepted by

all, within and outside the ranks of SACP some sections

have always existed that have been tactically naïve and

continued to argue for class purity and SACP to stand

alone failing to appreciate nature of South African

struggle. While equally within the ANC, anti -

communist's tendencies are as old as alliance itself, for

example the Gang of 8 and 96’ class project of late and

other tendencies are recorded.

In this regard that the recycled tendencies that have

disdain for collective decisions of these formations must

never provoke a march out and allow this liberation

movement when it is in power, to be captured by

tendencies who sell it one huge tender and sell it to the

highest bidder. When for decades this liberation

movement was built, with huge contributions from SACP

worse when it was in exile having been rejected by

colonizers in the west and available avenue was east

and for decades socialist countries not only domiciled

and resourced this ANC politically and financially but

fought side by side with this ANC, this is also the ANC

of JS.

JS says on the question ‘’By rejecting class alliances and

going it alone, the working class would in fact be

surrendering the leadership of the national struggle to

the upper and middle strata. This would become the

shortest route towards a sell-out reformist solution and

a purely capitalist post-apartheid South Africa under the

hegemony of a bourgeois-dominated black national

movement. Along this path, 'class purity' will surely lead

to class suicide and 'socialist'- sounding slogans will

actually hold back the achievement of socialism. (The

South African Working Class and National Democratic

Revolution by Joe Slovo in 1988).

Comrade JS understood very well that whether the ANC

can proclaim in its conference that it is the discipline

force of the left and declare that working class is the

primary motive force of NDR and re - affirm in every

congress that it is bias to the working class and the poor

but the hegemony of a class cannot be obtained only

through a resolution of Congress.

It is important that the working class be interested in

the driver of this bus termed revolution, the fact that

outside it may be decorated with nice slogans and

resolutions, those alone do not inherently make it to

drive towards destiny desired by the working class. The

class on its own must be interested as who of the driver

of and whether he shares the aspiration of the desired

destination.

We must as student of JS also pose a question on how

we have manipulated the social media and many other

available mediums of transmitting information as to

propagate progressive left views in society, which more

often provide unmediated interaction with wide range

of forces in society. We must say how we utilise

organisation network and machinery to propagate our

views. As it is apparent as it should be expected that

mainstream commercial media is hell bent to promote

gutter, unethical journalism as long as it makes profits

are forthcoming, ANC and its alliance are projected

corrupt and inherently incompetent and white capital

masters are happy all is well.

We must therefore remember JS by insisting on

visionary and innovative leadership that is not only

trapped in what only prevails today but we must

demand high standards of vision in crafting and

dedicating time on articulating on where society must

progress, we must develop that capacity of people's

organisation to plan twenty to fifty years to come .

With JS having been Minister of Housing we have no

choice but respond to the plight of people who still leave

in squatter camps or sleep in the streets. We equally

must respond to emerging threat of under -employed

workers whom while working but income is far

inadequate to match the basic needs of transport,

groceries, health etc. This segment of workers cannot

be granted bonds from banks they also do not qualify

for RDP houses. The tragedy of the situation is that in

real terms the salaries of workers have decreased in the

past ten years while meagre percentage increase has

appreciated. In real terms what R500 salary could buy

in year 2000 although in 2012 the same worker would

be earning R 1 000 meaning at face value they increase

is 100% but in real terms that R 1 000 in 2011 cannot

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buy all that which R 500 could buy in 2000. This is

largely influence by drastic increase of grocery,

electricity, transport, bonds etc. Therefore unless

government decisively intervene in shifting from current

environment into provision of social wage that subsidies

worker for transport, houses, education, health and

unsure food security with local produced food by

communities themselves.

While in this topic we must remember JS by asking hard

questions like how do we leverage on social spending

that is disbursed as grants, for example we are told that

in Eastern Cape alone a billion is spent a month if all

forms of social grants are taken into accounts but very

little of that money is invested in producing productive

capacities of the same communities. We have to think

creatively for example it could be legislated that half of

the money has to go to grocery such as vegetables,

meat etc. that is locally produced in the very same

community.

I dare argue that post-apartheid era is insufficiently

theorised when all sorts of tendencies emerge within

the ranks of the movement is as if we had not

anticipated them. We appear least prepared to deal

decisively with corruption, crass materialism, careerism,

factionalism, uncontrollable lust for money etc. It is as

if we did not know that membership of the ANC worse

its leadership was to translate to better life, it as if we

were oblivious that all sundry would associate with the

ANC not for the people's interest but "guluva for himself

and god for us all''.

In the memory of JS we have no choice but to attend

and uproot these evils, we must be very worried on

presiding on society that is the most unequal in the

world when foundations of JS revolution was to affirm

the centrality of working class and the poor.

On trade union come political party

On the role of trade union, JS comprehended

sentiments shared by Cde Slovo when he states: "It is

however, vital to maintain the distinction between trade

union politics and an overall revolutionary leadership.

A trade union cannot carry out this dual role. If it

attempted to do so it would have to change its basic

character and risk committing suicide as a mass legal

force. In addition, the very nature and purpose of the

trade union disqualifies it from carrying out tasks of a

revolutionary vanguard."

Comrade Slovo would go further to say trade union "A

trade union is the prime mass organization of the

working class. To fulfil its purpose, it must be as broad

as possible and fight to maintain its legal status.

It must attempt, in the first place, to unite, on an

industrial basis, all workers (at whatever level of political

consciousness) who understand the elementary need to

come together and defend and advance their economic

conditions. It cannot demand more as a condition of

membership. But because the state and its apparatus is

an instrument of the dominant economic classes, it is

impossible for trade unions in any part of the world to

keep out of the broader political front."

Equally in slogans, COSATU would declare: "no worker

is a good member of congress unless he is also a trade

unionist. No trade unionist is a good trade unionist

unless he is also a member of Congress "•.

Rudolf Rocker, a German American, the founder of

syndicalism, understood this notion as a theory and a

programme for revolutionary transition from capitalism

to socialism. In his work, "Anarchism and Anarcho-

Syndicalism", Rudolf Rocker wrote: "Anarcho-

syndicalists are of the opinion that political parties are

not fitted….1. to enforce the demands of the producers

of the safeguarding and raising of their standard of

living or, 2. to acquaint the workers with the technical

management of production and economic life in

general, and prepare them to take the socio-economic

organism into their own hands and shape it according

to socialist principles….. According to their conceptions

the trade union has to be the spearhead of the labour

movement, toughened by daily combats and permeated

by a socialist spirit. Only in the realm of economy are

the workers able to display their full strength; for it is

their activity as producers which holds together the

whole social structure and guarantees the existence of

society. Only as a producer and creator of social wealth

does the worker become aware of her strength. In

solidarity union with her fellows she creates the great

phalanx of militant labour, aflame with the spirit of

freedom and animated by the ideal of social justice. For

the Anarcho-syndicalist the syndicates are the most

fruitful germs of a future society, the elementary school

of socialism in general. Every new social structure

creates organs for itself in the body of the old organism;

without this prerequisite every social evolution is

unthinkable."

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Not only is history full of trade union come into political

parties, proving to be dubious political parties like

Chilumba of Zambia and Tsvangirai of Zimbabwe, also

same JS shared that, "It is however, vital to maintain

the distinction between trade union politics and an

overall revolutionary leadership. A trade union cannot

carry out this dual role. If it attempted to do so it would

have to change its basic character and risk committing

suicide as a mass legal force. In addition, the very

nature and purpose of the trade union disqualifies it

from carrying out tasks of a revolutionary vanguard."

Therefore anarcho- syndicalist and plain opportunities

cannot be allowed to fool workers into formation of

political party which is ideological wobbling for it has no

interest of workers let alone the working class. Their

anger and frustration is theirs and not that of working

class. Revolution is not drawing it does not go in a

straight and certain line but genuine revolutionaries do

not form and associate outside people organs for their

interest can never be outside or independent from those

of working class.

By: Mawethu Rune, SACP PEC Member

25 January 2015

SACP EC pays tribute to Rev. Mcebisi Xundu

“Paying a tribute to an outstanding religious

leader and a true liberation fighter”

The South African Communist Party (SACP) in the Eastern Cape joins the millions of South Africans and

peace loving people in mourning the passing of

Reverend Canon Mcebisi Xundu. We deep our red banner as we pay our respects to the great leader of

the people.

The passing of Reverend Mcebisi Xundu reminds us of

many religious leaders who took an active role in liberating the people of South Africa as part of the broad

liberation movement, like Dr Koza Mgojo, Bishop David

Russel, Beyers Naude, and many more who preached what they referred to us as the liberation theology. They

have always insisted that the God they worship is that

of the poor and the downtrodden and that he wanted his people to be free.

The leaders like Reverend Xundu remains an instructive

reminder of the convergence in the ethical content of

both Marxism and religion, and that they both stand for peace, justice and human prosperity.

We wish to add our voice in saluting once again another

great religious leader and a true patriot whose

contribution we shall forever treasure for generations to come.

We send our heartfelt condolences to the Xundu family,

the religious fraternity, the liberation movement and the

peace loving people of South Africa and the globe. The SACP Provincial Secretary, Cde Xolile Nqatha will lead

an SACP PEC delegation in a visit to the family to pledge our solidarity to the family in these trying times, the visit

will be on Monday, 26 January 2015.

May his soul rest in eternal peace.

Issued by the SACP Eastern Cape.

For any contributions to the bulletin contact:

Email : simdodi@gmail.com or write to

SACP Eastern Cape Provincial Office

Block A, Unit 1

Bisho Business Village

Siwani Avenue

Tel : 043605 0463

Fax : 086 600 7658

ON THE NEXT EDITION:

SACP Skenjana Roji Anti-Corruption campaign.

Chris Hani Month Activities.

SACP school uniform donation.

Venezuela Global Solidarity Day.

And many other articles.

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