BY DALE T. MCKINLEY
JOHANNESBURG Not far from the predominately working-class Northwest
Province town of Rustenburg, where the South African Communist Party (SACP)
recently held its 11th congress on July 24-28, lies the garish ramparts
of South Africas 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 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 [US$3352])
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 praise singing for the African National Congress (ANC) government, a signed, leather-bound copy of President Thabo Mbekis 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, Mbekis 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 partys 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 SACPs political relationship with the ANC and associated neo-liberal policies of the ANC 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, Mbeki was announcing, in reference to the ANC governments Thatcherite Growth Employment and Redistribution (GEAR) policy strategy, that, there is no need for a change of policy and that while a Growth Summit would be held in 2003, the 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 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 in practice to halt the continued privatisation of the public sector, Nzimande praised government programs 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 Mbekis arrogance and the governments 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 among the worst affected. Tragically, delegates were told that the SACPs 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 program 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 the working class with arrogance and contempt, while 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 dont.
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 Nzimandes 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 didnt count. So much for the self-professed vanguard of the working class serving the workers.
From Green Left Weekly, August 21, 2002.
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