CU Notes on ANC Strategy and Tactics Draft 5th ANC National Policy Conference The ANC should remain a liberation movement and not become a social democratic party, as is hinted at three times in the new Strategy and Tactics (S&T) draft. As long as the ANC is a national liberation movement, and the SACP is a vanguard communist party, and COSATU is a trade union federation (i.e. a defensive mass organisation of workers), then there is a basis for the tripartite alliance; and there is a basis for SANCO to be in the alliance as an organisation for the localised petty-bourgeoisie. The unity-in-action is for some classes against another class, and the overall enemy is globalised Imperialism. This formulation settles all questions of strategy and tactics. But if all three of the main components are posing as or seeking to become electoral social-democratic formations within bourgeois democracy, then there can be no unity but only discord and conflict of an unproductive kind (i.e. dichotomy). "National Democratic Society" (NDS) is conceived by the ANC as the end-point and steady-state plateau to be gained after development. Marxist says there is no such resting place, but only the prospect of further class struggles and revolution. NDS, conceived as a launch-pad for revolution is fine, but the ANC does not see it like that. The ANC sees NDS as bourgeois democracy forever, which is not acceptable. When the S&T says that social agency is the key, it is talking about People's Power, which is a return to the righteous thinking of liberation struggle: Good. It says that Radical Economic Transformation (RET) is nothing new: True. RET has always been on the agenda, and this government has done a lot, but not enough. Monopoly capital as a motive force is an idea introduced by the pre-2007 ANC leadership into the S&T in Polokwane, where it was accepted, although that leadership was rejected. The main body of the Polokwane S&T was not amended in Mangaung, and still stands. It is totally unacceptable. We should fight to reverse the acceptance of monopoly capital as a motive force and to restore its former status as the enemy of the popular masses. Majority rule: We must have it, and not rule of judges. There is no People's Power without majority rule. "NDR is blacks in general, Africans in particular" - this is policy, and it is fine, but it is not the essence of the NDR. The NDR is democratic mass organisation of people for people's power. "Apartheid legacy must not reproduce so we need a "step-change"." This idea of "step-change" is like "transformation". It is an evasion. The word for qualitative change is "revolution," and not "step-change" or "transformation." Revolution happens as a consequence of class struggle. The SACP should register contradiction when it comes to wording like this. Somewhere in the new S&T draft it says words to the effect that "Not revolution but a conscious act of consciousness" (i.e. not revolution but reformism). We as SACP cannot agree to make a virtue of reformism. "As we move towards our ideals" and "NDS value system". We don't work by ideals and values, other than the value of freedom, and all that flows from the value of freedom. Assertion of a tacit set of unspecified values (e.g. "the right thing", and "wrong things") means in practice that the prevailing bourgeois values will reassert themselves, and dominate once again. National Developement Plan (NDP) is a good thing, because it represents the acceptance of planning and the rejection of laissez-faire. VC --- This email has been checked for viruses by Avast antivirus software. https://www.avast.com/antivirus -- -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . --- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "YCLSA Discussion Forum" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send an email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/yclsa-eom-forum/5953af80.950e1c0a.522ef.d558%40mx.google.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
