13th Party Congress of South African Communist Party

Declaration of the 13th National Congress of the SACP

We, 2000 Communist militants, have met over the past four day , 12th July to 15th July,  as delegates to the SACP`s 13th National Congress in Ongoye, KwaZulu-Natal. We are drawn from 3,298 SACP branches across the length and breadth of our country and from the ranks of the Young Communist League of South Africa. As delegates, we represent more than 150,000 SACP members – marking an unprecedented three-fold increase in the Party`s membership since our 12th Congress just five years ago.

Our Congress occurs in the midst of an ongoing and deepening global capitalist crisis that is inflicting ever greater misery on the majority of the world`s population and ever greater destruction of the natural world on which human civilization depends. It is a crisis that underlines the imperative of abolishing capitalism and replacing it with socialism, a system based on meeting social needs and on a sustainable relationship with nature.

Here in South Africa, notwithstanding 18 years of major progressive changes towards consolidating our national democratic revolution, the untransformed legacy of colonialism of a special type continues to reproduce the triple crises of racialised and gendered inequality, poverty and unemployment. If the gains of our democracy are not to be overwhelmed, then it is critical that, together with our Alliance partners, we embark on a radical shift in the National Democratic Revolution, led by the working class.

It is in this context that the 13th Congress reviewed progress made by the SACP over the past five years in advancing our Medium Term Vision to build working class hegemony in all key sites of power. The consolidation and acceleration of this strategic agenda remains a key imperative over the coming five years. At this 13th Congress we have adopted important policy and organisational resolutions to guide revolutionary action and to deepen and take forward our programme, "The South African Road to Socialism."

Our 13th Congress was marked by both vibrant policy debate and unity – the product of 91 years of unbroken struggle, and of growing confidence based on our important achievements over the past 5 years. A common thread throughout the duration of our Congress was the need for Communists to take active responsibility for our unfolding revolution. We are not, and we shall not be armchair critics observing the struggle from a comfortable distance. We shall wage the class struggle wherever the class struggle is to be waged for democracy and against exploitation and all forms of oppression.

Our disciplined unity in the midst of an Alliance facing many challenges; our Marxism-Leninism; our principled commitment to Communist values of solidarity and to fighting all negative tendencies – including individualism, self-enrichment, and corruption – all these attributes of the SACP and its cadres place an enormous vanguard responsibility upon us, now more than ever.

This was a view that was also underlined in addresses to our Congress by the leaders of our Alliance partners, and particularly by the message of support delivered in person to our Congress by ANC President, cde Jacob Zuma. The work of our 13th Congress has sharpened our collective analysis of our current situation, and deepened our resolve to intensify the national democratic revolution as the most direct route to socialism in the South African context.

As delegates to this 13th National Congress we pledge to rise to these challenges, inspired by the many generations of SACP heroes, the sung and the unsung, who have kept the red flag flying for over nine unbroken decades in this southern tip of the African continent. We pledge to carry forward our vanguard role in our communities, in our places of work and learning, in the formations of our allied and other progress organisations, in the public sector and the state, on the terrain of the battle of ideas, and in our internationalist work. We pledge to work with a sense of confidence but also humility in the service of the working class and poor.

As we rise, today, at the conclusion of the largest ever, and one of the most united congresses of the Communist Party in South Africa, we declare once more that

SOCIALISM IS THE FUTURE!

WE ARE NOT WAITING FOR THAT FUTURE – WE ARE ACTIVELY BUILDING THAT FUTURE, HERE AND NOW!!

SACP 13th National Congress Central Committee

1. General Secretary, Blade Nzimande
2. National Chairperson, Senzeni Zokwana
3. National Treasurer, Joyce Moloi-Moropa
4. First Deputy General Secretary, Jeremy Cronin
5. Second Deputy General Secretary, Solly Afrika Mapaila
6. Deputy National Chairperson, Thulasi Nxesi

 

Closing address to the 13th National Congress by the SACP General  Blade Nzimande

Ever more united, and taking responsibility for the national democratic revolution.

We all arrived here a cohesive and united force, and we are coming out of this Congress even more united. It is only a united communist party that can be able to meaningfully play its role as the vanguard party of the working class.

Organisational unity is a huge revolutionary asset that must be nurtured, protected and defended at all times. Let us carry this unity into our allied structures, but more especially into all the structures of the SACP. Never in the history of our Party since 1991 have we elected all our leadership structures through consensus! Indeed in the process we have disappointed both our enemies and our detractors. Indeed some of them tried every trick to try and find wrong things about our Congress, even used microscopes to try and find any traces or dirt of disunity, including attempts to focus attention away from our Congress through manufactured stories.

Perhaps never since 1994 have we been placed in this position where there is such widespread consensus in our movement about the necessity for further radicalizing the national democratic revolution. The ANC itself, through its policy conference, has called for this. This development, coupled with the deep crisis faced by capitalism globally, provides a unique opportunity for the SACP to advance, in a principled way, policy positions and arguments for confronting the systemic and structural features of colonialism of a special type, capitalist economy in our economy and broadly. For us it is a call to also deepen the struggle for building momentum for socialism now, including elements of socialism in line with our strategic slogan of `Socialism is the Future, Build it Now`. Indeed that is how we should see the resolutions adopted at this Congress, as a platform for our ongoing mass mobilization and activism, as well as a basis for seeking to engage and influence both the COSATU Congress and the Mangaung Conference of the ANC.

The above also provides a very strong foundation for us to implement some of the key challenges as we leave this Congress. The principal task we have comrades is that of continuing and deepening ongoing work in our communities and the workplace. Let us intensify our Know Your Neighbourhood Campaign as a critical component of building and consolidating our VD based branches. Every communist must at least be involved in door-to-door work no less than four times in any one year.

If there is one important achievement of this Congress has been to place ideological work and the battle of ideas at the centre of our discussions. Most important in this regard is a clear message to deepen political education and cadre development in our ranks as a condition for effective waging of ideological struggles in broader society. The resolution for the establishment of a Party school, without waiting for a building, but to use distance education methods to teach historical and dialectical materialism. Let us also not wait for the establishment of the Party School nationally, but much more urgently let all our structures start discussing our Programme, `The South African Road to Socialism` in all our branches and districts, so that by the end of this year we can say all our Party structures have gone through and understand this programme.

The necessity to build the capacity of the state constitutes one of the key challenges as we leave this Congress. Our Party structures must go out and intensify the struggle against outsourcing and privatization in our municipalities as a the foundation for building a developmental state. Our structures must also actively campaign for our municipalities to build capacity to drive developmental projects by rebuilding capacity for direct provision of services rather than through outsourcing and tenders.

Rebuilding a progressive mass movement as the basis for taking forward the struggles of the workers and the poor. We must resist the `NGO-isation` of these mass struggles (eg corruption, etc), and rather seek to build NGOs that are rooted and linked to these mass formations where necessary. It is therefore urgent that our resolution to re-build mass movement especially in education and health, and for the Alliance to play a leading role in this regard.

This Congress also joins millions of South Africans and the rest of the world in wishing Cde Nelson Mandela a happy 94th birthday this coming Wednesday. This coming Wednesday communist cadres in our structures and various deployment will participate in the symbolic 67 minutes of active work in honour of the number of years Cde Madiba spent in the struggle.

It is however important for the SACP, the Alliance, and all progressive forces to ensure that, whilst appreciating that Cde Madiba, is a figure respected world-wide, his credentials as a revolutionary are never lost – Madiba the MK Commander, leader of the ANC and our hero in the struggle against oppression.

In honouring Madiba we must strongly reject attempts by liberals and other reactionary forces – many of whom who were complicit in his incarceration and those who never lifted a finger against apartheid – to try and appropriate the name of Madiba in order to condemn the current leadership of our movement.

Let us also take this opportunity to congratulate the newly elected Central Committee. Let us remind ourselves that serving this structure of the Party means hard work and providing leadership in the struggle of the working class in our country. For all of us let us actively participate in a principled manner in COSATU and ANC as they prepare for their congresses.

Let us thank all the participants at this Congress, delegates from our fraternal parties internationally, our volunteers, our donors, service providers, security structures, the police and the media. We also wish to thank our outgoing National Chairperson and National Treasurer, and other members of the CC for the role they have played.

CPIM Greetings to 13th Congress, SACP

On July 10, 2012, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) sent the following message to the South African Communist Party (SACP) on the occasion of its 13th congress. The latter was scheduled to take place at Empangeni in Kwa Zulu, Natal from July 11 to 15, 2012.

THE Communist Party of India (Marxist) greets the South African Communist Party (SACP) on the occasion of its 13th party congress. We wish the congress all success and hope that the resolutions and decisions of the congress will further strengthen the party.

Comrades,

Your congress is taking place at a crucial time, with the world yet to come out of the grips of severe recession. The global economic crisis, one of the severest in the recent past and compared to the Great Depression of the 1930s, had its affects felt in almost all the countries of the world. What had started as corporate insolvency in 2008 had now bloomed into full-fledged sovereign insolvency. Economies of the countries like Greece, Spain, Italy and Portugal are on the verge of collapse and the very future of European Union and the Euro itself is seriously debated. The US, which enjoyed unrivalled global dominance post-Soviet Union, is finding its economic supremacy threatened.

Closure of factories, rising unemployment, poverty, hunger, malnutrition are some of the most visible effects of the economic crisis. The ruling classes worldwide are trying to come out of the crisis by further burdening the common people. This is the real purpose of the so-called 'austerity' measures imposed in many of the European countries. The hard won rights of the working class are under attack, with rising retirement ages, cuts in pensions and other social welfare benefits.

Another important feature of this crisis is that the imperialist countries are trying to transfer their burdens onto the shoulders of the developing and underdeveloped countries. They are using multilateral agencies like the IMF, World Bank, WTO and also bilateral means to impose burdens on developing and under-developed countries. The Doha round of negotiations, climate change talks are used as guise to burden these countries. Imperialism is putting to use all the means at its disposal – military, economic and political – to retain its hegemony.

A heartening feature in this gloomy scenario is that these attempts of the ruling classes are not going unchallenged. People are coming out in large numbers protesting the 'austerity' measures and mounting attacks on their livelihoods. The huge protests witnessed in Greece, under the leadership of the KKE and the PAME, and the protests in other countries across the Europe are a result of this growing discontent among the people. The discontent brewing as a result of the economic crisis, along with the urge for democratic reforms, also played a huge role in mobilising people against the dictatorial regimes in West Asian/North African region. The Occupy Wall Street protests also captured popular imagination and received wide support across the world due to this growing resentment among the people.

Comrades,

India, which retained its growth rates during the early days of the crisis, too is now affected by the crisis. The country is witnessing falling growth rates. The Indian government, not learning from the lessons offered by other countries, is now seriously considering further liberalising its economy, particularly the finance sector. The Congress led UPA government is bowing down to the pressures of the international finance capital and the US and is initiating measures to open the economy for FDI in retail, insurance, aviation and other key sectors. These measures would sound death knell to the livelihoods of the millions of people. Many export oriented industries like textiles are facing the prospects of closure.

The country is already reeling under the effects of double-digit inflation, rising prices of food, fuel and other essential items. Agriculture is under severe duress. Manufacturing is slowing down. The government instead of addressing these pressing concerns by providing relief to the people, is subsidising the big bourgeoisie by providing them with tax concessions. There is a growing anger among the people against the government policies. The CPI(M) is taking up these issues and leading the fight against the neo-liberal onslaught of the government.

Comrades,

We are watching with interest the developments in South Africa because of our shared history and legacy of struggle against colonialism. Moreover, the SACP is part of the tripartite ruling coalition led by the ANC and is actively involved in the governance of the country, after liberating the people from apartheid. We have followed with interest the struggle waged by the SACP against the '1996 project' and for greater role of the state in the economy. Your experience will be extremely useful.

As fraternal parties working in two of the most important developing economies of the world, we have an important role to play. Through our struggles we should force the governments of our countries to emphasise on South-South cooperation and use BRICS as a tool to promote this endeavour and question the US hegemony.

Comrades,

Once again, we wish the 13th congress of the SACP all success and thank the leadership for inviting us to be part of this historic congress. Unfortunately, due to some pressing political developments in our country, we could not be present amongst you. Nevertheless, we assure you of our wholehearted solidarity with all your struggles for the cause of working class and other toiling sections of the society. We hope that your congress, guided by the correct principles of Marxism-Leninism, will become a milestone in the history of SACP and the country. We are confident that the decisions you arrive at – the resolutions of your congress – will lay out a correct path of struggle and guide in the success of National Democratic Revolution and in the establishment of socialism. Fully aware that this is not an easy task, we assure you of our complete solidarity in this long and arduous journey.