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Excellent analysis by Jeremy Cronin of the SACP which equally applies to the PAC.
Mohau
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ANC's burdens of freedom
Jeremy Cronin: ANALYSIS
15 October 2004 09:32
As we move to the 52nd National Conference in 2007 and the 2009 elections, the unity and cohesion of the African National Congress will face a serious test because of the critical question of leadership succession at national and provincial levels of the movement and the democratic state. On the difficult matter of succession, the resilience of the ANCâs unity is being tested and frank discussions within structures should assist in perfecting and improving our management of leadership succession and deployment of cadres at different levels.
The ANCâs first responsibility is itself to be united so that it can lead society. The challenge is to manage and turn contradictions into a source of strength rather than a source of splits and splinters.
Encouraging a culture of criticism and self-criticism helps the cadreship of the movement to approach questions and practical problems of social transformation with critical minds rather than with dogmatic solutions. The ANCâs approach is that no single individual, however committed and experienced, has the ability or wisdom to bring about social change.
The assumption of political power by the ANC-led democratic movement in 1994 has brought with it new difficulties in achieving unity and internal cohesion at all levels of the movement. There is a new climate in the organisation wherein individual interest tends, from time to time, to undermine the organisational and collective interest. In this new context, organisational positions are incorrectly linked to the advancement of individual or group interests.
The unique feature of the post-1994 period is that the deployment of cadreship and election into positions of leadership brings personal material benefits. As a consequence, deployment and election processes get clouded by self-interest rather than principles.
While there is a great deal of ideological and policy unanimity in the movement, it is in the processes of identifying and electing those among our cadres who are best suited to implement our agreed vision and programme of action, where our movementâs ability to foster unity and internal cohesion has come under serious test.
Several factors and practices contribute to, and exacerbate, divisions in the structures of the movement and such factors need to be attended to. These include:
Different generational experiences and organisational sub-cultures gained from working in different fronts of struggle in different phases can pose a challenge for unity and cohesion. Under conditions of democracy, most cadres of the movement operate inside the country. However, they are located in different centres and institutions of society and increasingly belong to the variety of classes and strata in society. As such they pursue diverse and sometimes contradictory interests. Our ability to shape the views, values and actions of these cadres into a collective consciousness is under serious test;
The leadership of the movement at all levels has to constantly take a lead in encouraging and participating in open and frank discussion of difficult issues inside the structures. In a climate of open debates, ill-disciplined individuals or factionalists who seek to undermine organisational decision-making processes get exposed and dealt with decisively;
Turning pre-conference differences into permanent disagreements. There is a tendency to turn a disagreement on an issue in one meeting or conference into a permanent disagreement that results in permanent blocs. In the current period of struggle, differences on who is best suited for a particular position of leadership has become the basis for mobilising and counter-mobilising by the same group of comrades in successive conferences or annual general meetings. Those who got elected have to make a conscious effort to unite and lead everybody, including those who did not support them in the election processes. Similarly, those whose positions did not see the light of day cannot undermine the verdict of conference. Divisive tendencies have to be dealt with firmly and decisively;
Dysfunctional leadership collectives where people who are un-elected end up taking the key decisions of the organisation, while those elected to do so remain out of the loop or fail to take responsibility. Lack of a clear programme of action that focuses the energies of the organisation and members on the key tasks can create a climate in which members preoccupy themselves with gossip and personal squabbles;
Dysfunctional secretariats and other coordinating and administrative structures. When the centre does not hold, many centres will emerge outside the agreed ways of working and these will cause confusion and information gaps that lead to tensions;
Factionalism and sectarianism. There is a conscious method of work that we call factionalism. This is a tendency in which a group of like-minded comrades arrogates to itself the power and function of ensuring that all the key decisions in an organisation are first discussed and decided by it outside formal organisational structures and then taken to structures for rubber stamping;
Poor relationships between the ANC and government structures. When the structures of the ANC and those deployed in the government fail to work coherently and cohesively it has a tendency to cause divisions in the movement;
Skewed development planning and service delivery. Very often, conflicts in the ANC arise from government planning and spending decisions. Those who feel, rightly or wrongly, that the government is not paying attention to their area may start mobilising around different forms of identity such as regionalism, tribalism, ethnicity, racism and so on. The movement has to consciously confront this scourge in its structures and in government decision-making.
It is no secret that our ability to manage leadership succession in the movement and state structures is under a serious test. There are many forces outside the ANC and the broad democratic movement who have an interest in the ANCâs deployment and leadership election processes. In some instances, these forces would team up with some in our structures and invest huge resources and infrastructure to promote certain candidates. This phenomenon could lead to a situation in which the leadership of the ANC and deployment of cadres into various centres is sponsored from outside the structures of movement. Important lessons can be drawn from the deployment of premiers by the national leadership rather than linking the leadership positions within the provincial structures of the movement with positions in the government.
This is an edited extract from an African National Congress Gauteng discussion document published in September
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