 Small faction is using the oldest trick
in the book to
drive division, say Young Communists
Buti Manamela, Sunday Independent, Johannesburg, 20 December 2009 MAHATMA Gandhi once said that (for) "unity to be real (it) must stand the severest strain without breaking". One cannot but marvel at how this well this applies to the alliance between the ANC, SACP and Cosatu. Since colonialism and apartheid, the oppressors have identified this alliance as the major threat and obstacle to the success of an oppressive regime. In all its engagements, the apartheid regime sought to divide the alliance and warm up to prominent leaders of the ANC, encouraging them to break away from the communists as a precondition for negotiations. Leaders such as Nelson Mandela and Chief Albert Luthuli ignored such gestures because they understood that the liberation of our country depended more on the unity of the oppressed racial and class groups than cosying up to a regime that held power illegitimately for more than 300 years. At all material times, attempts to break the alliance and defeat the historical mandate of the national liberation movement were aimed at vilifying Communist Party leaders and creating suspicion around their motives. This strategy has been used by both intra-alliance and external forces who sought to water down the objectives of the national democratic revolution and create an elite. Leaders of the apartheid regime had from time to time expressed confidence towards the ANC leadership and encouraged them to sever ties with Moscow and the SACP as some form of divide-and-rule. The most vigilant among ANC leaders scorned these attempts and maintained the unity of the alliance. Lately, there is a small faction inside and outside the alliance that seeks to resuscitate the already-defeated agenda of dividing the alliance by targeting and isolating leaders of the SACP, casting doubt on their credibility. Unsubstantiated claims of a "communist takeover" are an old trick in the book which tacitly undermines the presidency and intellect of Jacob Zuma. The strategy is to question the presence and influence of the SACP and the YCL in society and in the alliance, and to undermine the role the SACP played in the ANC election victory. Unproven allegations that Blade Nzimande harbours aspirations of being deputy president of the ANC and the republic are peddled to support this view, along with other allegations against SACP leaders. All members of the SACP who have been elected to the ANC national executive committee - and there are many - have been selected on the basis of their membership and activism in the ANC. They understand that their election is not on the basis of being communists, but as members of the ANC in good standing. The raising of false alarms is solely to gang up against these comrades and consolidate an anti-communist faction within the ranks of the alliance. This is barbaric and constitutes the most backward and defeated strategy of seeking to isolate communists as legitimate members of the ANC. This was the ideological premise of the ousted pre-Polokwane ANC leadership. At some point in history, the SACP enjoyed the patronage and influence which could have allowed a communist takeover. The Morogoro and Kabwe conference declarations reflect this "communist dominance". But it was the communists of the time who halted this desire because they understood that the immediate struggle was the defeat of the dominant contradiction of race, and that the class struggle constituted the fundamental contradiction in society. Communists of this age understand that this "dominant contradiction" remains, and that to seek to accelerate a socialist struggle when the consciousness of our society is not developed enough to begin to appreciate the fundamental struggle will be suicidal. We also understand that the ANC remains a multi-class formation that unites all forces that seek to defeat and resolve the national grievance. It is this understanding of the ANC and of the current struggle that drives all communist forces to maintain the unity of the revolutionary alliance, even under "severest strain without breaking". But importantly, leaders of the ANC, SACP and Cosatu understand that the alliance is about influencing each other at particular tactical moments. To equate the influence of allies among each other as communist takeover is to flirt with sensationalism and constitutes division of forces against national oppression. This will achieve nothing but a defeat of the historical mandate of the revolutionary alliance. We are on the verge of defeating racism and creating a prosperous society, under the leadership of the ANC and President Zuma. The communists have accepted, for more than 80 years, ANC leadership of the current phase of our national democratic revolution. There is no need for fear among non-communists in the ANC and Cosatu members about this. As long as the struggle against racism exists, a united alliance will outlive all of us, young and old.
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- [YCLSA Discussion] Small faction driving division, Buti Ma... Dominic Tweedie
- Re: [YCLSA Discussion] Small faction driving division... morgan phaahla
