People's Democracy

Eleventh Congress Of The South African Communist Party

Avik Dutta

THE eleventh congress of the South African Communist Party (SACP) was held at Rastenburg, some 130 km from Johannesburg. The city’s civic centre served as the venue of the Congress. Representing the CPI (M) at the conference were Polit Bureau member Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, and state committee member of the Bengal unit of the CPI (M), Avik Dutta.

In all, thirty-two communist and workers’ parties from all over the world attended the SACP Congress by invitation. However, the delegates of only 11 of these parties were invited to address the Congress. Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, representing the CPI (M), was one of those foreign delegates who spoke at the Congress.

The Congress of the SACP was marked by a great deal of enthusiasm. Songs and slogans interspersed the speeches. The SACP has 19,385 members. There are 337 Party branches although not all the branches are active, we learnt.

Delegates to the SACP Congress are elected right from the level of the Party branches to attend the Congress. The provincial functionaries and district secretaries, too, go to attend the Congress as delegates.

The SACP is very strongly based in provinces like Eastern Cape, Northwest, Western Cape, and in Natal. The SACP has a large number of representatives of the working class in its ranks. By comparison, there are fewer students and youth.

The eleventh SACP Congress strongly emphasised the need to correct this lacunae in the Party organisation. The Young Communist League is being strengthened.

The eleventh Congress of the SACP has emphasised the following factors in strengthening the state-run service sector and the state sector as such:

·         The state sector must be further strengthened as part of the march towards socialism

·         Strategic control must be exercised in such sectors as:

1.      Education

2.      Health

3.      Water resources

4.      Civic services

5.      Financing the developmental projects including the industrial development corporations

6.      State-run transport and communications sector especially roads, railway, pipelines, ports, and telecommunications

·         Supply of electricity, liquid fuel must be augmented

·         Mines

·         Housing

Exhorting upon the Central Committee for a clearer vision on these priorities, the Congress has urged upon it to view the state sector more as a service sector rather than as a source of profit alone.

The resolutions adopted at the eleventh congress of the SACP underlines the following:

·         The national democratic revolution must be taken forward and a suitable tactical line must be adopted to achieve this. The national democratic revolution is the most direct way to achieve socialism and thus strategic importance must be attached to it.

·         The African National Congress (ANC) must be brought within the purview of the national democratic revolution so that the role of the working class leadership could be further strengthened.

The SACP believes that

·         Despite democratic political progress, a great deal of unfavourable circumstances continue to exist

·         The present circumstances are marked by new possibilities and also by new challenges, like the new class divisions emerging out of the struggles of the SACP

·         The coalition in the government [comprising the SACP, the ANC, and the COSATU] faces newer challenges especially in the economic sector with some misunderstandings existing between the coalition and the governmental administration

·         There is need to enhance a spirit of self-criticism as also constructive criticism within the coalition

The Congress placed the following points as an exhortation before the new Central Committee:

·         A clearer strategy and programme must be adopted both within the coalition and among the people at large to strengthen the independent role of the SACP

·         Effective steps must be taken to ensure that the role of the working class within the perimeter of the national democratic revolution is further strengthened

·         The SACP must be further reinforced so as to enable it to put forward specific resolutions on national issues of importance

·         The vast array of SACP members who work in public positions must organised in a manner so that they become more effective and the SACP is further strengthened

·         The issues clinched during the summit meetings between the coalition partners must be implemented by a joint and coordinated effort

·         The struggles and the campaign-movements must reflect the addition of elements of socialism to the national democratic revolution

·         The steps in this direction include: poverty alleviation, the demand for employment for the unemployed, preservation and development of the state sector, land reforms and agricultural and farmland reforms, the problem of women and domestic work, and a further enhancement of the progressive cooperative movement.

The Party Congress elected a 25-member Central Committee and Dr Blade Nzimande was re-elected the general secretary of the SACP.

(Avik Dutta is the assistant editor of the Ganashakti, the daily organ in Bengali of the CPI (M))