The 11th Congress of the SACP

Phambili - SACP POA - WE are deployed, first and foremost, to the ANTI-
capitalist sector ... 

The 11th Congress of the SACP: 'With and For' Whom?
By Dale T. McKinley (11th August 2002)

Not far from the predominately working class Northwest Province town of
Rustenburg, where the South African Communist Party recently held its 11th
Congress, lays the garish ramparts of South Africa's own little Las Vegas -
Sun City.  It was within the confines of this never-say-die outpost to
capitalist hedonism that a little-noticed, but seminally instructive, SACP
event took place in the midst of all the political noise emanating from the
gathering of commies just down the road.

No doubt in need of some extra-curricular activity after days of sombre
discussions about how best to make good on the Congress slogan - "With and
For the Workers" - the SACP hierarchy trekked off to Sun City for a
fund-raising bash with the barons of South African capitalism. Seated at
tables (that came with price tags of up to R35 000) alongside
representatives of worker-friendly corporations like Anglo-American and De
Beers, the self-professed leaders of the 'vanguard of the working class' got
down to real business.

With the anti-government songs of the rank-and file Congress delegates a
seemingly distant memory, the SACP leadership proceeded to show the
capitalists a thing or two about how to engage in double-talk and still make
a quick buck (close to R1 million according to one invited guest). All it
took was some ANC and Mbeki praise singing, a signed, leather-bound copy of
President Mbeki's book and a few Mbeki-signed caps thrown in for good
measure.

Combined with all the political hoop-la and voluminous party documents and
speeches by various leaders before, and during, the Congress, this seemingly
peripheral event spoke volumes of the message that the Congress sent to
workers.

On the one hand, SACP Deputy General Secretary, Jeremy Cronin, had set a
particular tone for Rustenburg with his pre-Congress comments on the
authoritarian politics of certain elements within the ANC (read: Mbeki and
his acolytes) and the capitalist economic policies of the ANC government. A
public defence of Cronin by the SACP, Mbeki's refusal to address the
Congress and lots of 'unofficial' talk about impending leadership changes
and organisational battles with the ANC further helped to fuel workers'
perceptions and expectations of a renewed radicalism and independence.

The implicit message was that the Congress would set out a new political and
strategic direction, in which the SACP would finally stop playing
organisational cat and mouse with the ANC, adopt an ideologically clear
leadership role in ongoing working class struggles against capitalism and,
above all, begin to practically fight for what it preaches.

On the other hand, once the Congress proper got underway, it quickly became
clear that the SACP leadership possessed neither the intention nor the will
to make such a message real to workers. The comfort of old organisational
habits and the security of ongoing political posturing were simply too
great.

The best that could be mustered was a rhetorically radical defence of the
SACP. General Secretary, Blade Nzimande, without the slightest hint of irony
in his use of capitalist parlance, rounded off on those who might dare to
question the party's socialist credentials by declaring that, "as
communists, let us be very clear: we are deployed, first and foremost, to
the anti-capitalist sector. We are deployed to the anti-private accumulation
struggle. That is our profession. The class struggle is our primary listing.
The workers and the poor are our core business".

SACP leaders assiduously avoided dealing in the realm of reality and thus
with the most contentious political and organisational issues facing the
SACP. Nzimande, in referring to the SACP's political relationship with the
ANC and the associated macro-economic policies of the government, informed
delegates that, "we are pleased to report now that the series of bilaterals
(with the ANC) and alliance meetings, have taken us out of the dip, and set
us on a positive path of finding a common approach".  Two days later,
President Mbeki was announcing, in reference to GEAR, that, "there is no
need for a change of policy" and that while a Growth Summit would be held in
2003, government would already have its economic strategy in place by the
end of the year.

Unfortunately, the truth was not in political fashion at the SACP Congress.
The fact that the socio-economic situation of the broad working class in
South Africa has markedly deteriorated since the ANC-SACP Alliance took
political power obviously made little difference to SACP leaders already
convinced about their specific brand of 'communist' politics. Instead of
setting out exactly what the SACP would do to practically halt the continued
privatisation of the public sector, Nzimande praised government programmes
for the provision of basic services, telling delegates that, "we have been
able to use public ownership to direct resources to those who most need
them, against the grain of the capitalist market". Hardly a word, not to
mention any concrete activity, was offered in support of the ongoing
struggles of poor communities, in both urban and rural areas, against
government-initiated water and electricity cut-offs or housing evictions.

There was no acknowledgment that President Mbeki's arrogance and the
government's consequent prevarications and inactivity have contributed
directly to tens of thousands of deaths from HIV-AIDs and thus no concrete
political plan to address a human horror in which workers are amongst the
worst affected. Tragically, delegates were told that the SACP's role was the
"mobilisation of our people behind the implementation of a government
strategy to fight the HIV/AIDS pandemic".

While there was a great deal of talk about socialism, and the adoption of a
political programme replete with the usual litany of references to the
leading role of workers etc., the bottom line is that the Congress offered
nothing new for the South African working class. The Congress adopted the
same rhetorically heavy, "key strategic objective" that has been the
programmatic standard bearer of successive SACP Congresses over the last
decade - "to build a mass-based momentum for socio-economic transformation
that overcomes poverty, deep-seated inequality and systemic
underdevelopment .(a transformation that) must be ANC-led, and working
class-driven". The fact that the ANC has continued to treat that same
working class with arrogance and contempt, whilst playing the SACP for the
left fool, was ignored in classic SACP fashion  - i.e., by repeating the
same 'line' again and again and hoping that, somehow, people will actually
believe it even if those offering it don't.

The Congress could not even come up with a firm and binding decision when it
came to the seemingly never-ending debate about the political and
organisational role of SACP leaders outside the party. Rather, delegates
were left to ponder Nzimande's eternal question: "What is the meaning of
SACP membership if, in some cases, it seemingly has no bearing whatsoever on
the conduct of Communists in other formations? It would have been a good
question to ask while the SACP leadership was cavorting with the capitalists
at Sun City. But then again, there were no workers present other than those
serving the drinks and food, and they obviously didn't count. So much for
the self-professed 'vanguard' of the working class serving the workers.