(Political Overview by the Regional Chair, Luzuko Buku to Western Region REC Meeting, 26 March 2010, NMMU)
"The real education of the masses can never be separated from their independent political, and especially revolutionary, struggle. Only struggle educates the exploited class. Only struggle discloses to it the magnitude of its own power, widens its horizon, enhances its abilities, clarifies its mind, forges its will." Lenin, War and Revolution (1917)
In greeting all of you comrades, in this second Regional Executive Committee meeting let us attempt to first unpack this quote by Lenin. As a matter of fact there is need of unpacking here as it is an indisputable fact that the real education of the masses is intertwined with political and revolutionary struggle and this is the approach that we should be taking as a revolutionary student movement. Students, young activists, comrades in arms allow us to welcome you in this meeting and thank you for having came so far to brace this magnanimous event. In officially opening this gathering comrades, we further request that you allow us to give a political overview of the political currents which we need to take into account when deliberating on matters of student importance during this meeting. A political overview is not an events overview, but it’s a general framework of the political trends internationally, nationally and within our region. It is these trends within which we should locate the decisions we take in every REC meeting.
Over and above, what we must clearly understand that we are leading a Marxist-Leninist student organisation that strives to radically transform the Higher Education and Further Education and Training Sector. We equally not isolate our struggle in these from the broader struggles in society, hence the need to emphatic on the dialectic link between the struggle for education transformation and the building of Socialism, as pronounced by the NGC.
The Global Situation
The first 16th Congress National Executive Committee described the global situation has one characterised by a pervasive capitalism, that has perpetually proven itself to be a failure to the majority working class of the world. The global financial crisis is just about one example of this. We must fully concur with the NEC in this regard and we must also that we need to further expose capitalism beyond the financial crisis. Capitalism exploits the working class and the poor day in day out. For the working class the financial crisis is not periodical but permanent as they have been living under crisis for the rest of their live. We must note that all this takes place right next to rampant opulence and lavish lifestyles lived by the bourgeoisie. It is our duty to expose this in all its forms and manifestation, class contradictions are sharpening now more than ever. Hence it is important to reiterate what Marx said when he stated that, “The history of, all hitherto existing society is that of class struggle.”
International Capital, via the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) have been calling for a drastic reduction of Higher Education in Africa, as it has developed in the Post- independence period. This reduction is called in the name of higher efficiency and more egalitarian distribution of educational resources. As Marxist-Leninist Scholars, we would know that those seeking regression, have historically never pronounced it by its name.
It is therefore clear that the World Bank’s attempt to cut down higher education comes from its bleak view of Africa’s economic future and its misguided belief that African workers are destined to remain unskilled labour for a long time. All of us know that its always a programme of Capital to create and maintain an unskilled labour as it cheap labour for it and therefore contributes largely on its cost cutting and profit maximising historical mission. Our call for free education should be located within this liberal onslaught against it, and we must further say it is with urgency that the transformation of the international situation is effected.
The National and Local Balances
Nationally we have received mixed signals for our call for Free education. Lets us put it, as a matter of principle, yet again that the struggle for free education is one of the Strategic objectives of SASCO and it must be on a system wherein Education itself will be de-commercialised and made a public good rather than a private commodity, hence the clarion call for Free Education and Socialism or rather Free Education in Socialism. This is so that we can link the struggle for Free Education to the struggle for Socialism. Criticising the trade union ‘economism’ proposed by Franklin Bernstein in What is to Be Done (1902), Lenin mentions this when he says, political agitation and propagation should aim at conscientising the workers to locate their economic struggle with the employers within the struggle for Socialism.
It is our task as student revolutionary to therefore engage in a process that will lead to the mass of students, whom we lead, to locate their struggles for free education within the context of the class struggle for the attainment of Socialism transitionary to Communism. This is so because this is the only society that can guarantee Free Universal Education. We must not confuse a tactical struggle with a strategic one, the call for a Free Education Fund does not necessarily mean the de-comodification of education and it will fall far to that, it is only in a mixed, working class led economy where we will attain proper Free Education. This must equally not derail us from waging tactical struggles, for an NSFAS Review that will see the gradual introduction of free-education, hence the welcoming and the description, by the 16th Congress NEC, of the NSFAS Review Report as “path-breaking” and “epoch making”.
Let’s forge a collective and concerted effort in fighting for the realisation of this objective. Whether it has failed or attained its task, the current membership of SASCO as led by the 16th National Executive Committee will be judged by whether it has waged this struggle towards a no return point both for the students and our liberal detractors.
Access, Equity and Redress VS Narrow expression on Quality
Our struggle has been that of access and success, equity and redress. Liberals and white apologist have responded by proposals centred on quality. How this discussion unfolds is that from our side, we are proposing that conditions that will guarantee the youth of South Africa to ACCESS education should be created and upon access conditions that will guarantee success should also be created. The Higher education funding model, curriculum transformation and institutional transformation are just but some of the things which we, as the student movement, have been bordering our policy articulations and struggles along. The remains no proper argument to dispute this.
In making these arguments we have further said that we aim to achieve equity, in that all students, regardless of race, class and gender, be treated equally in Higher Education Institutions. One last point that we have made is that higher education should focus on REDRESSING the imbalances of the past, so that it can contribute to transformation, nation-building and democratisation.
These proposals for the transformation of Higher Education have been met with liberal, racist and anti-transformational resistance centred on the call for the protection of QUALITY in Higher Education. In simplest terms, people who say this argue that the increase in black, working class and woman students in higher education institutions will decrease the quality of education and the institutions. This has been arguments in many former white institutions such as Rhodes University and NMMU, particularly South Campus. Of course, this is far from the truth; quality goes hand in hand with diversity. Even further the majority working class students in society are supposed to constitute the majority higher education and quality and academic freedom cannot be made obstacles to this.
Maqabane, students, comrades in arms, we have all identified the National Democratic Revolution pursued by the leading Revolutionary Alliance as one of the current paths with which to take in pursuit of our struggle for education transformation. Our relations with these structures proves to be true, but we must acknowledge the growing tensions between and within the organisational components of the alliance which are fuelled by class differences which manifest themselves in the succession debate in the 2012 Congress of the National Liberation Movement. We must clearly state that ours is a defence of the alliance.
As SASCO in this region, we must clearly know where we stand in these and our 2009 NGC sheds lights in this regards and the 16th Congress NEC have even went further to reiterate the NGC resolutions in relations to the Alliance and Succession in the National Liberation Movement. A question still remains,’ What has brought the Polokwane project into halt? Here we believe that the, “Alliance tension, Real or Imagined: (are) A combination of failed Reconfiguration and Blind Leadership ambitions.”
Closing Remarks
Comrades, leaders of this organisation, in ending, in our first REC meeting, we said the success of this structure will not be determined by how it has been able to imitate the structure before it, but on how it has been able to improve from where that structure has left. We are located in a better position to assess the strengths and weaknesses of that structure in forging a way forward.
As an attempt to contribute to political discussion and political growth within our region, we propose that there be an intense discussion after every political overview, so that we check if we are on par with issues that need to be address.
For Free Education and Socialism
Monday, March 29, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
SASCO Statement on the Sexist utterances by Malema is a step in the Right Direction
By Luzuko Buku, SASCO Chair, Western Region
The context behind the Statement issued by the South African Students Congress( SASCO) in relation to the Equality Court ruling on the President of the ANC Youth League, Cde Julius Malema must be clearly understood. The statement demonstrates maturity in that SASCO is able to move beyond narrow electoral politics which warrants that you defend anyone aligned to the ANC even if that person is wrong. These embarrassing utterances by Malema did indeed show “a disdain to women and their continued oppression under a patriarchal capitalist system.”
It is one of the primary tasks of SASCO to protect the rights and dignity of women whenever they are under attack and by whomever attacks them. This is so because, our programme, the National Democratic Revolution (NDR) recognises women, particularly African women as the most oppressed group in society in that triple oppressed. They are oppressed first based on their race, secondly based on their class and thirdly based on their gender. Our organisation champions struggles of the oppressed and vulnerable and this was just but the right way to go in relation to this case of our comrade Malema.
Comrade Malema should have been reprimanded exactly the same time he made the utterance at a SASCO gathering and as an organisation we should have made our stance clear even in relation to what outcomes do we want in the Equality Court Case. We can’t leave gender struggles to be led by sectoral organisations such as the Sonke Gender Justice Network. Gender is one of the three contradictions which the National Democratic Revolution seeks to resolve and as a Marxist –Leninist student organisation we clearly understand that both the gender contradiction and the national contradiction are borne out of the class contradiction.
We should make it clear that our ‘delight’ and joy as a result of the court ruling is a matter of principle and is not in anyway related to conferences of the ANC Youth League and the ANC and views of Malema in relation to these. Our detractors who paint us with that brush just want to reduce us to those politics and we must resist being dragged to that direction. No one has the right to utter sexist statements, even if he or she is the president of the ANC Youth League or the ANC, SACP, YCL, COSATU or even SASCO for that matter.
This says nothing about our relationship as the Progressive Youth Alliance. Our relationship was never meant to be based on dogma and docility but on self and constructive criticism. In addition our relationship is meant to be complementary and contradictory. Let’s therefore celebrate and defend African women against any form of discrimination, whether meted by someone within our ranks. Lets expose and isolate all those who are male chauvinist but hide behind the blanked of progressive politics.
For Free Education and Socialism
Luzuko Buku
SASCO Western Region
Chaiperson
The context behind the Statement issued by the South African Students Congress( SASCO) in relation to the Equality Court ruling on the President of the ANC Youth League, Cde Julius Malema must be clearly understood. The statement demonstrates maturity in that SASCO is able to move beyond narrow electoral politics which warrants that you defend anyone aligned to the ANC even if that person is wrong. These embarrassing utterances by Malema did indeed show “a disdain to women and their continued oppression under a patriarchal capitalist system.”
It is one of the primary tasks of SASCO to protect the rights and dignity of women whenever they are under attack and by whomever attacks them. This is so because, our programme, the National Democratic Revolution (NDR) recognises women, particularly African women as the most oppressed group in society in that triple oppressed. They are oppressed first based on their race, secondly based on their class and thirdly based on their gender. Our organisation champions struggles of the oppressed and vulnerable and this was just but the right way to go in relation to this case of our comrade Malema.
Comrade Malema should have been reprimanded exactly the same time he made the utterance at a SASCO gathering and as an organisation we should have made our stance clear even in relation to what outcomes do we want in the Equality Court Case. We can’t leave gender struggles to be led by sectoral organisations such as the Sonke Gender Justice Network. Gender is one of the three contradictions which the National Democratic Revolution seeks to resolve and as a Marxist –Leninist student organisation we clearly understand that both the gender contradiction and the national contradiction are borne out of the class contradiction.
We should make it clear that our ‘delight’ and joy as a result of the court ruling is a matter of principle and is not in anyway related to conferences of the ANC Youth League and the ANC and views of Malema in relation to these. Our detractors who paint us with that brush just want to reduce us to those politics and we must resist being dragged to that direction. No one has the right to utter sexist statements, even if he or she is the president of the ANC Youth League or the ANC, SACP, YCL, COSATU or even SASCO for that matter.
This says nothing about our relationship as the Progressive Youth Alliance. Our relationship was never meant to be based on dogma and docility but on self and constructive criticism. In addition our relationship is meant to be complementary and contradictory. Let’s therefore celebrate and defend African women against any form of discrimination, whether meted by someone within our ranks. Lets expose and isolate all those who are male chauvinist but hide behind the blanked of progressive politics.
For Free Education and Socialism
Luzuko Buku
SASCO Western Region
Chaiperson
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
FREE EDUCATION
FREE EDUCATION
Monwabisi Ncayiyana SASCO regional Secretary Writes
The South African Students Congress (SASCO) has decided to embark on mass demonstration in all nine provinces of South Africa calling for free, compulsory and quality education, this has been long overdue since the ruling party has finally resolved consciously in 2007 in Polokwane Conference that education should be free in South Africa until to the first degree.
The South African Students Congress (SASCO) resolved on free, compulsory and quality education because majority of youth in South Africa are unable to study due to financial reasons, on other side the As South African Students Congress (SASCO) we seek to Transform higher education and Society in general, we belief that education is a primary tool in the liberation of our Country and its people from the scourge of poverty and underdevelopment.
In this regard it becomes clear that if you educate at least one child in a family you have broken the cycle of poverty not only in that particular family but to the community as a whole. Our understanding should lies along the fact that educating the youth is the investment for the future of South Africa however we mustn’t be surprised when some of our own students or people continue to question the possibility of free education.
Others will not only question the possibility of free education but they will go as far as disrupting or de campaign against this call only because there is a false impression imprinted on the minds of other people that the call for free, compulsory and quality education is a dream from SASCO.
We must not be surprised by those people simple because of various reasons but fundamentally class dichotomy is core reason behind those bunches of people, however we need to understand and clarify the confused elite not only because they do not understand this call but because either they are part of middle class whom do not understand the existence of poor people, It might be obvious issue to upper class why they don’t understand this call.
Universities such as Rhodes University, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and University of Stellenbosch continue to ridicule black students by excluding poor students, we must not only condemn this but we continues to mobiles Students against any backward mentality which is clearly institutionalised and reflective of the racist mentality that is still rife in management of universities epically former whites University.
We have agreed in principle that education is a right not a privilege; in this regard Education needs to be de-commodified as soon as possible.
Whereas the education in South Africa still determined by the Financial Arrogance of a particular family or individual we must be clear that we are not free in this democracy and we must continue to show that we are determined to continue with our demand for free, compulsory quality public education in this academic year, infect we must continue with mass action, mobilization of our students and we go as far as mobilizing the community to ensure that this ideal demand becomes a reality.
We must salute the provincial executive committees for their crucial role in ensuring that this becomes a success.
Aluta
Monwabisi Ncayiyana SASCO regional Secretary Writes
The South African Students Congress (SASCO) has decided to embark on mass demonstration in all nine provinces of South Africa calling for free, compulsory and quality education, this has been long overdue since the ruling party has finally resolved consciously in 2007 in Polokwane Conference that education should be free in South Africa until to the first degree.
The South African Students Congress (SASCO) resolved on free, compulsory and quality education because majority of youth in South Africa are unable to study due to financial reasons, on other side the As South African Students Congress (SASCO) we seek to Transform higher education and Society in general, we belief that education is a primary tool in the liberation of our Country and its people from the scourge of poverty and underdevelopment.
In this regard it becomes clear that if you educate at least one child in a family you have broken the cycle of poverty not only in that particular family but to the community as a whole. Our understanding should lies along the fact that educating the youth is the investment for the future of South Africa however we mustn’t be surprised when some of our own students or people continue to question the possibility of free education.
Others will not only question the possibility of free education but they will go as far as disrupting or de campaign against this call only because there is a false impression imprinted on the minds of other people that the call for free, compulsory and quality education is a dream from SASCO.
We must not be surprised by those people simple because of various reasons but fundamentally class dichotomy is core reason behind those bunches of people, however we need to understand and clarify the confused elite not only because they do not understand this call but because either they are part of middle class whom do not understand the existence of poor people, It might be obvious issue to upper class why they don’t understand this call.
Universities such as Rhodes University, Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and University of Stellenbosch continue to ridicule black students by excluding poor students, we must not only condemn this but we continues to mobiles Students against any backward mentality which is clearly institutionalised and reflective of the racist mentality that is still rife in management of universities epically former whites University.
We have agreed in principle that education is a right not a privilege; in this regard Education needs to be de-commodified as soon as possible.
Whereas the education in South Africa still determined by the Financial Arrogance of a particular family or individual we must be clear that we are not free in this democracy and we must continue to show that we are determined to continue with our demand for free, compulsory quality public education in this academic year, infect we must continue with mass action, mobilization of our students and we go as far as mobilizing the community to ensure that this ideal demand becomes a reality.
We must salute the provincial executive committees for their crucial role in ensuring that this becomes a success.
Aluta
Monday, March 1, 2010
Alliance tensions, real or imagined: A combination of failed reconfiguration and blind leadership ambitions
By Luzuko Buku
As Thobile Maso would say, its “Confusion in the capitalist world - The Saints are the Sinners, The Devil is divined.” This poetic phrase becomes very relevant in accessing the class contradictions within the alliance, which manifest themselves in various forms. Yet again the revolutionary alliance has become the subject of robust and frank but sometimes mischievous and slanderous debate in various quarters and, like pre-Polokwane, behind this there is the question of leadership preference and or ambition. Some believe that the tensions are between the ANC Youth League and the South African Communist Party (SACP), emanating from the discussion on nationalisation and stretching towards the unfortunate humiliation of ANC YL president Julius Malema and ANC National Executive Committee Member, Billy Masetla by some delegates at the SACP Special National Congress in December last year. Also the public comments made by Billy Masetla regarding the role of communist in the ANC can be seen as the primary contributor to these tensions, but what can give us answers is exactly what is not that much hidden for the eye to see.
Honest observers know that behind all of these real or perceived differences lies the contest for leadership positions in the run-up towards the 2012 ANC National Conference. The singling out of ANC Secretary General, Gwede Mantashe and the warfare declared against himself and what he represents is a case in point. Here we seek to probe as to what brought us here. The united front that delivered the watershed Polokwane conference is not there anymore. The question is, has the ANC NEC failed or has some within it failed in implementing the mandate bestowed upon them in Polokwane? If yes how, if not, then why the tensions and the eminent vying for positions, particularly the one of Secretary General?
Are these tensions caused by deep rooted ideological differences or by blind leadership ambitions? What informs this real or perceived clash between communist and nationalist? Is it just a tactical move with the sole aim of creating otherness, in that it seeks to expose and isolate the ideological other or is it ideologically honest? Can we distinguish this creation of otherness from that created during opportunistic tribal tensions? If we can’t, have we not failed the essential task of the ANC, which is to unite the people of South Africa?
In all the public war talk by our alliance leaders; these questions have not only gone unanswered but still remain unasked. Here we seek to probe them and see how best we can apply our minds to navigate these trying times.
Has reconfiguration failed?
Key amongst the resolutions taken in Polokwane was the reaffirmation of the central importance of the alliance. This was a decisive break from the past where there were tensions amongst the alliance components. Just months before this, in its Congress in Port Elizabeth, the South African Communist Party (SACP), after long and intense discussions, had finally decided that it will “contests state power in elections in the context of a reconfigured alliance.”In slightly similar phrases COSATU shared this perspective. What the alliance failed to do was to properly define what is meant by alliance reconfiguration and how best to achieve it. It is therefore important to give some pointers on what was or what could have been the idea.
Reconfiguration meant proper integration of short and long term objectives of each alliance component so as to bring about a common programme. This meant the respect of each alliance component’s right to hold views on economic and political matters and the creation of a conducive environment for debate and policy direction canvassing amongst the individual components of the alliance as led by the ANC. The alliance summits and political councils that culminated into the drafting of the ANC Elections Manifesto are just but one example of true reconfiguration. The list process and its outcomes clearly showed reconfiguration at work, but the ideal was to go beyond this. The presence of communist in parliament is just an example.
“The SACP has 9% representation in the national assembly and the ANC has 57%. In all provincial legislatures, except in the Western Cape, there is also a small, but important presence of SACP members. The Eastern Cape has the highest number of SACP members, followed by Limpopo and Gauteng, with the Northern Cape having the least. The national cabinet has a 9% SACP membership…” (David Masondo, 2009). Somewhere somehow, reconfiguration at a national level was occurring and resistance was not that much prevalent.
What we need to note is that reconfiguration does not start and end at Polokwane, a series of events were meant to have brought it. So it will be correct to say the elections were contested in a reconfiguring alliance rather than a reconfigured one, as this process was still unfolding. What then do the eminent tensions say about reconfiguration, does this mean it has failed?
Reconfiguration did indeed take place on national level but in almost all fronts it failed to occur in most provinces, regions, sub-regions and some branches and here we use the Eastern Cape as a case study. The Provincial Executive Committee of the ANC in this province supported the right wing inspired view of a third term for the then President of the ANC, comrade Thabo Mbeki. As a matter of fact this province is where most proponents of the 1996 class project come from. After Polokwane there province had to undergo a process of healing. The ANC Youth League, COSATU and the SACP called for the Provincial Executive Committee to be disbanded and the reasons for this was that the leadership of the ANC was not exercising its role as a leader of the alliance; it was not allowing the process of reconfiguration to unfold. Alliance meetings were difficult, if not possible, to organize and this manifested themselves in regions and Amathole Region was one of the hardest hit by this. During this time the words alliance summit and alliance political council at the level of the province or region were never known or utilized. As it has been, emphasis was always on the ‘leading’ role of the ANC as if someone from either COSATU or the SACP had disputed that. The revolution was faced with people who viewed COSATU and the SACP as their class adversaries, hence the rejection of any form of reconfiguration. At least the 2009 River Park Provincial Conference, managed to change the direction in the province and in most of the regions, but regions such as Amathole and OR Tambo are still faced with this problem.
Most of the people that resisted reconfiguration after Polokwane decided to break away from the organization to form what they called the Congress of the People (COPE). This was primarily because they did not see themselves as equal to the task of stopping the unfolding process of reconfiguration within the alliance. Some of them remained within the movement but they totally disengaged in its political activities on the run up to the General Elections. They instead clandestinely supported COPE. The emergence of this splinter, particular because of the period in which it emerged, brought problems in terms of reconfiguration in that it was difficult for the organization to decisively deal with such members with the fear that it would be chasing them away to COPE and further exacerbating the problems brought by the formation of this splinter.
This is what basically brought the process of reconfiguration to a halt in many provinces and with provinces that are not reconfigured you cannot expect proper national reconfiguration. The current tensions are primarily fuelled by people who have always been resisting reconfiguration and credit must be given to this group for its ability to co-opt some of the people sympathetic to the Polokwane programme, based on these people’s ambitions for leadership. The cooption of some comrades who agreed with Polokwane by the dissenters of reconfiguration in the Eastern Cape is just but an example. The project is still the same neoliberal-petty-bourgeoisie 1996 class project albeit with new names and faces. The dissenters use one of our own to contest against us. The failure of reconfiguration therefore, combined with blind leadership ambitions is behind these tensions.
Blind leadership ambitions: the add-on effect
Leadership contest in the ANC 2012 National Congress, preceding and subsequent provincial conferences will be the order of the day. The contest will be between those that had agreed on a common programme on the run up to Polokwane and the question that occupies everybody’s mind is what had brought us into this situation.
As we have tried to demonstrate, what actually brought us here is the failure of alliance reconfiguration to trickle down to provinces and regions. This was not only due to the weaknesses of the process but due to fierce resistances from right wing sections of the alliance. One primary thing that brought us here is blind-business-backed-leadership ambitions from certain leaders of our organisation. We say blind leadership ambitions because they are not based on any political programme. They are blind because they are more concerned with the Self and his or her development rather than organisation. This self-centrism is so pervasive that an individual is even willing to sacrifice the entire organisation to business for its fulfilment.
Reconfiguration rebels are very good at seeing such ambitious individuals and the cooption of such individuals into their programme is their speciality and expertise. They do this for as long as the ambitious person will carry their liberal mandate. They are even willing to channel funds to that individual’s campaign without any hesitation. Whilst honest ANC members recruit members, they buy memberships. They employ people to recruit people, even if those who are recruited don’t pay; the rebels have enough money to pay for them due to the wealth accumulated during the tenure of the 1996 class project. We have seen the development of what has been called ‘register campaign’ where people are made members without them knowing such. A classical example is that a person would sign a membership form on behalf of people based on the information available on the General Elections voters roll.
The “Project 2012” as it is called is a very good example of this. Majority of people who are linked to this narrow nationalist programme are beneficiaries of Black Economic Empowerment. It is therefore a project of business politicians who want to use ambitious people in order to advance their accumulation interests. The clear example of the Eastern Cape provincial contest in River Park comes to the fore again.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is the task of every revolutionary to jealously guard the revolution whenever it is faced with counterrevolutionary setbacks that project themselves otherwise. Examples from Africa tell us very clearly that those seeking demolition of a National Liberation Movement, rarely call it by its true name. The ability to detect and expose such tendencies is the strong point of Marxist-Leninist. In an attempt to navigate the grounds, we must put emphasis on political education.
This is a time where we are supposed to be a implementing our mandate as a movement and no amount of factionalist regrouping should deter us from that. We must strengthen our programme of creating a reconfigured alliance as a force for radical transformation of society and we must expose and isolate those within our ranks, who are willing to compromise this programme in order to advance their narrow ambitions. To do this we need intensive political education coupled with programmes and this should properly trickle down to the masses so that they are not lured by the “politics of Satan”.
We should forge a clear campaign that will advance, deepen and defend the National Democratic Revolution, strategically for the realisation of the Freedom Charter objectives and tactically, for the realisation of the Polokwane resolutions. We should not be shy in our defence of the policy resolutions taken at Polokwane and also the entire leadership elected, including Gwede Mantashe. As one writer remarks, “In warfare, when an army surrenders a stronghold and retreats, its other positions are harder to defend. In politics, similarly, a retreat on one battleground often leads to retreats elsewhere.”
For Free Education and Socialism
Luzuko Buku is Regional Chairperson of SASCO in Western Region-EC, he is also a BEC member of the ANC and Young Communist League. He writes this in his personal capacity.
Sources
David Masondo(2009): Independence of the SACP on the post 2009 state-YCL Discussion Forum
Thobile Maso- THE HISTORICAL MISSION (2009)-Poems of Thobile Maso
Gugile Nkwinti- The Politics of Satan
Roger Keeran and Thomas Kenny (2004) Socialism Betrayed-Behind the Collapse of the Soviet Union
SACP Congress Resolutions-(2007): Sacp and State Power
ANC Polokwane Resolutions (2007)
As Thobile Maso would say, its “Confusion in the capitalist world - The Saints are the Sinners, The Devil is divined.” This poetic phrase becomes very relevant in accessing the class contradictions within the alliance, which manifest themselves in various forms. Yet again the revolutionary alliance has become the subject of robust and frank but sometimes mischievous and slanderous debate in various quarters and, like pre-Polokwane, behind this there is the question of leadership preference and or ambition. Some believe that the tensions are between the ANC Youth League and the South African Communist Party (SACP), emanating from the discussion on nationalisation and stretching towards the unfortunate humiliation of ANC YL president Julius Malema and ANC National Executive Committee Member, Billy Masetla by some delegates at the SACP Special National Congress in December last year. Also the public comments made by Billy Masetla regarding the role of communist in the ANC can be seen as the primary contributor to these tensions, but what can give us answers is exactly what is not that much hidden for the eye to see.
Honest observers know that behind all of these real or perceived differences lies the contest for leadership positions in the run-up towards the 2012 ANC National Conference. The singling out of ANC Secretary General, Gwede Mantashe and the warfare declared against himself and what he represents is a case in point. Here we seek to probe as to what brought us here. The united front that delivered the watershed Polokwane conference is not there anymore. The question is, has the ANC NEC failed or has some within it failed in implementing the mandate bestowed upon them in Polokwane? If yes how, if not, then why the tensions and the eminent vying for positions, particularly the one of Secretary General?
Are these tensions caused by deep rooted ideological differences or by blind leadership ambitions? What informs this real or perceived clash between communist and nationalist? Is it just a tactical move with the sole aim of creating otherness, in that it seeks to expose and isolate the ideological other or is it ideologically honest? Can we distinguish this creation of otherness from that created during opportunistic tribal tensions? If we can’t, have we not failed the essential task of the ANC, which is to unite the people of South Africa?
In all the public war talk by our alliance leaders; these questions have not only gone unanswered but still remain unasked. Here we seek to probe them and see how best we can apply our minds to navigate these trying times.
Has reconfiguration failed?
Key amongst the resolutions taken in Polokwane was the reaffirmation of the central importance of the alliance. This was a decisive break from the past where there were tensions amongst the alliance components. Just months before this, in its Congress in Port Elizabeth, the South African Communist Party (SACP), after long and intense discussions, had finally decided that it will “contests state power in elections in the context of a reconfigured alliance.”In slightly similar phrases COSATU shared this perspective. What the alliance failed to do was to properly define what is meant by alliance reconfiguration and how best to achieve it. It is therefore important to give some pointers on what was or what could have been the idea.
Reconfiguration meant proper integration of short and long term objectives of each alliance component so as to bring about a common programme. This meant the respect of each alliance component’s right to hold views on economic and political matters and the creation of a conducive environment for debate and policy direction canvassing amongst the individual components of the alliance as led by the ANC. The alliance summits and political councils that culminated into the drafting of the ANC Elections Manifesto are just but one example of true reconfiguration. The list process and its outcomes clearly showed reconfiguration at work, but the ideal was to go beyond this. The presence of communist in parliament is just an example.
“The SACP has 9% representation in the national assembly and the ANC has 57%. In all provincial legislatures, except in the Western Cape, there is also a small, but important presence of SACP members. The Eastern Cape has the highest number of SACP members, followed by Limpopo and Gauteng, with the Northern Cape having the least. The national cabinet has a 9% SACP membership…” (David Masondo, 2009). Somewhere somehow, reconfiguration at a national level was occurring and resistance was not that much prevalent.
What we need to note is that reconfiguration does not start and end at Polokwane, a series of events were meant to have brought it. So it will be correct to say the elections were contested in a reconfiguring alliance rather than a reconfigured one, as this process was still unfolding. What then do the eminent tensions say about reconfiguration, does this mean it has failed?
Reconfiguration did indeed take place on national level but in almost all fronts it failed to occur in most provinces, regions, sub-regions and some branches and here we use the Eastern Cape as a case study. The Provincial Executive Committee of the ANC in this province supported the right wing inspired view of a third term for the then President of the ANC, comrade Thabo Mbeki. As a matter of fact this province is where most proponents of the 1996 class project come from. After Polokwane there province had to undergo a process of healing. The ANC Youth League, COSATU and the SACP called for the Provincial Executive Committee to be disbanded and the reasons for this was that the leadership of the ANC was not exercising its role as a leader of the alliance; it was not allowing the process of reconfiguration to unfold. Alliance meetings were difficult, if not possible, to organize and this manifested themselves in regions and Amathole Region was one of the hardest hit by this. During this time the words alliance summit and alliance political council at the level of the province or region were never known or utilized. As it has been, emphasis was always on the ‘leading’ role of the ANC as if someone from either COSATU or the SACP had disputed that. The revolution was faced with people who viewed COSATU and the SACP as their class adversaries, hence the rejection of any form of reconfiguration. At least the 2009 River Park Provincial Conference, managed to change the direction in the province and in most of the regions, but regions such as Amathole and OR Tambo are still faced with this problem.
Most of the people that resisted reconfiguration after Polokwane decided to break away from the organization to form what they called the Congress of the People (COPE). This was primarily because they did not see themselves as equal to the task of stopping the unfolding process of reconfiguration within the alliance. Some of them remained within the movement but they totally disengaged in its political activities on the run up to the General Elections. They instead clandestinely supported COPE. The emergence of this splinter, particular because of the period in which it emerged, brought problems in terms of reconfiguration in that it was difficult for the organization to decisively deal with such members with the fear that it would be chasing them away to COPE and further exacerbating the problems brought by the formation of this splinter.
This is what basically brought the process of reconfiguration to a halt in many provinces and with provinces that are not reconfigured you cannot expect proper national reconfiguration. The current tensions are primarily fuelled by people who have always been resisting reconfiguration and credit must be given to this group for its ability to co-opt some of the people sympathetic to the Polokwane programme, based on these people’s ambitions for leadership. The cooption of some comrades who agreed with Polokwane by the dissenters of reconfiguration in the Eastern Cape is just but an example. The project is still the same neoliberal-petty-bourgeoisie 1996 class project albeit with new names and faces. The dissenters use one of our own to contest against us. The failure of reconfiguration therefore, combined with blind leadership ambitions is behind these tensions.
Blind leadership ambitions: the add-on effect
Leadership contest in the ANC 2012 National Congress, preceding and subsequent provincial conferences will be the order of the day. The contest will be between those that had agreed on a common programme on the run up to Polokwane and the question that occupies everybody’s mind is what had brought us into this situation.
As we have tried to demonstrate, what actually brought us here is the failure of alliance reconfiguration to trickle down to provinces and regions. This was not only due to the weaknesses of the process but due to fierce resistances from right wing sections of the alliance. One primary thing that brought us here is blind-business-backed-leadership ambitions from certain leaders of our organisation. We say blind leadership ambitions because they are not based on any political programme. They are blind because they are more concerned with the Self and his or her development rather than organisation. This self-centrism is so pervasive that an individual is even willing to sacrifice the entire organisation to business for its fulfilment.
Reconfiguration rebels are very good at seeing such ambitious individuals and the cooption of such individuals into their programme is their speciality and expertise. They do this for as long as the ambitious person will carry their liberal mandate. They are even willing to channel funds to that individual’s campaign without any hesitation. Whilst honest ANC members recruit members, they buy memberships. They employ people to recruit people, even if those who are recruited don’t pay; the rebels have enough money to pay for them due to the wealth accumulated during the tenure of the 1996 class project. We have seen the development of what has been called ‘register campaign’ where people are made members without them knowing such. A classical example is that a person would sign a membership form on behalf of people based on the information available on the General Elections voters roll.
The “Project 2012” as it is called is a very good example of this. Majority of people who are linked to this narrow nationalist programme are beneficiaries of Black Economic Empowerment. It is therefore a project of business politicians who want to use ambitious people in order to advance their accumulation interests. The clear example of the Eastern Cape provincial contest in River Park comes to the fore again.
Conclusion
In conclusion, it is the task of every revolutionary to jealously guard the revolution whenever it is faced with counterrevolutionary setbacks that project themselves otherwise. Examples from Africa tell us very clearly that those seeking demolition of a National Liberation Movement, rarely call it by its true name. The ability to detect and expose such tendencies is the strong point of Marxist-Leninist. In an attempt to navigate the grounds, we must put emphasis on political education.
This is a time where we are supposed to be a implementing our mandate as a movement and no amount of factionalist regrouping should deter us from that. We must strengthen our programme of creating a reconfigured alliance as a force for radical transformation of society and we must expose and isolate those within our ranks, who are willing to compromise this programme in order to advance their narrow ambitions. To do this we need intensive political education coupled with programmes and this should properly trickle down to the masses so that they are not lured by the “politics of Satan”.
We should forge a clear campaign that will advance, deepen and defend the National Democratic Revolution, strategically for the realisation of the Freedom Charter objectives and tactically, for the realisation of the Polokwane resolutions. We should not be shy in our defence of the policy resolutions taken at Polokwane and also the entire leadership elected, including Gwede Mantashe. As one writer remarks, “In warfare, when an army surrenders a stronghold and retreats, its other positions are harder to defend. In politics, similarly, a retreat on one battleground often leads to retreats elsewhere.”
For Free Education and Socialism
Luzuko Buku is Regional Chairperson of SASCO in Western Region-EC, he is also a BEC member of the ANC and Young Communist League. He writes this in his personal capacity.
Sources
David Masondo(2009): Independence of the SACP on the post 2009 state-YCL Discussion Forum
Thobile Maso- THE HISTORICAL MISSION (2009)-Poems of Thobile Maso
Gugile Nkwinti- The Politics of Satan
Roger Keeran and Thomas Kenny (2004) Socialism Betrayed-Behind the Collapse of the Soviet Union
SACP Congress Resolutions-(2007): Sacp and State Power
ANC Polokwane Resolutions (2007)
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