Volume 9, No.4 - October 2000

United and Strong

ALLIANCE

 

Our second Red October Campaign - the campaign to build a people's economy, mobilise our people for socio-economic transformation and root the South African Communist Party (SACP) in the working class - was an overwhelming success.

Through the Red October, we mobilised thousands of our people to say: "We can stop the banks from exploiting us." The campaign had four inter-related messages:

There were marches and pickets in more than 25 towns and cities across South Africa. We delivered memoranda calling for the transformation of the banks to representatives of the South African government and the Banking Council of South Africa.

These were the campaign demands:

Literally every major town and city in our country witnessed thousands of communists reaching out to workers, women, farm-workers, youth, the unemployed, pensioners, small business owners and co-operatives. The month was a resounding success.

Our activists were warmly received by our people everywhere they went. Led by SACP General Secretary, Blade Nzimande, who took part in the pamphlet blitz and talked to commuters at the Jack Mincer taxi rank in Johannesburg, the message to our people was the importance of using our mass power for fundamental socio-economic transformation. In addition, our provincial branches received tens of letters from the public telling us about a range of problems and difficulties they have faced from the banks.

"I am heartened by the way this SACP campaign has caught the imagination our people in a way we did not even imagine," said Blade Nzimande. "This mass enthusiasm for fundamental change in the way our banks work is a clear message to the bosses - our people are sick and tired of what banks are doing and not doing.

" The way forward now is to move speedily to the NEDLAC Summit. But preceding this Summit, the SACP seeks to mobilise for a National People's Conference on the Transformation of the Financial Sector. This would be a civil society conference to consolidate a common position amongst people's organisations before the NEDLAC Summit.

We want a better life for all our people! Build socialism now!

Through the Red October campaign, the SACP also emphasised that the struggle of South Africa's working class is a struggle for socialism. It is a struggle for a society whose purpose is to meet the social needs of its people on a sustainable basis.

We do not want a capitalist South Africa based on the greed of, and maximum profits, for the bosses. We want a caring society, a society free from class exploitation, free from women's oppression and free from racism and national oppression. We want a society where those who produce wealth - the workers, the unemployed and the poor - control and run the economy and the country.

In a word we want socialism.

The opposite of socialism is capitalism, which can never solve the problems facing humanity today. It is capitalism which makes our society to be based on maximum profits for the bosses and poverty, inequality and misery for the majority.

Retrenchments facing workers today and the poverty in the rural areas are a direct result of a society based on profit rather than meeting social needs. Go to Khayelitsha, Botshabelo, Kagiso and all other places where our people live to see the devastation and pain caused by capitalism, job losses, unemployment and poverty.

The only way we can make the life of our people in KwaMashu, Qwaqwa, Diepkloof, Qumbu, Giyani, our country as a whole, is through a society free of capitalist exploitation and private accumulation - a socialist society.

Build the South African Communist Party!

The SACP is the independent political party of the South African working class. The SACP fights for socialism. For the SACP, this socialism is not something which is in the distant future. We want to build the capacity for socialism, momentum towards socialism and elements of socialism here and now.

Current struggles against privatisation and job losses are part of the struggle against capitalism and for socialism. These struggles will inevitably carry us into conflict with the capitalist class. This is why we need a strong and revolutionary SACP to fight for socialism and why the SACP needs a revolutionary and militant working class to take forward the struggle for socialism.

The Red October Campaign was also about taking the organisational presence and political message of the party of the working class, the SACP, to the mass of our people. As the leading political force of the South African working class, the SACP calls on all workers and the poor to build and join its residential, industrial and work place branches and units. Workers need a strong SACP and the SACP needs revolutionary workers to fight for socialism.

The SACP considers employed workers as the core social constituency of the Party. They have the collective numbers and the strategic economic location as well as the revolutionary organisational traditions to provide effective social weight to our struggle for socialism. We also focused on the landless rural masses, the unemployed and the urban poor, through a joint SACP/SAAPAWU farm-workers rally in the Northern Province.

We need to mobilise and unionise the more than one million farm workers who are currently not unionised, who are subject to daily exploitation and victimisation at the hands of racist white farmers in the rural hinterland of our country. The Red October Campaign talked about the need to make banks serve the people and to co-operatives. These demands speak to the needs and interests of the unemployed as well.

The Campaign laid the foundation for the mobilisation of organised workers and the unemployed into effective communist mobilisation and organisation, through the building of residential branches and workplace units of the SACP in factories, shop floors, offices, farms and wherever our people work. The building of these branches and units will root our party and socialist politics amongst the very constituency that holds the key to fundamental transformation. The bosses have a political strategy.

We can only defeat their strategy with a clear, strategic and focused political counter-strategy, rooted amongst the working people of our country.

The role of SACP workplace units is: -

 

Together Speeding up Change - Fighting Poverty and Creating a Better Life for All
By Oupa Bodibe, COSATU Secretariat Co-ordinator

Introduction The date for local government elections has been set for 5 December 2000. It is important to reflect on why local government is important and why vote for the ANC. These elections promise to be a highly contested affair between various political parties. So it is incumbent upon all members and officials of COSATU and its affiliated unions to work very hard for an overwhelming ANC victory.

1. Why is local government important?

Apartheid distorted our communities as part of its separate development policies. It created racially separated local government for white and black people. As a rule white local government had resources and a sound economic base to support development. Public services were also skewed in favour of the former white areas. White local governments also had relative autonomy relative to their black counterparts.

On the other hand, black local authorities were underdeveloped and tightly controlled by central government. Because of the apartheid policy of denying business the right to settle in black areas, combined with infrastructural impediments for businesses, the economic base of black areas was weak to non-existent. Black townships were regarded as dormitories for cheap black labour and not really as communities that must be developed.

Due to the fact that industry and all economic activity were located in former white areas, it then follows that black people spent their hard earned money in white areas. Consequently they added to the financial base of white areas but did not benefit from these resources.

This is why the civic movement in the spearheaded a campaign for unitary cities, supported by a single tax base, so that all people benefit from the economic resources generated within local government. This spatial apartheid imposed severe costs on working communities. Underdevelopment is a fertile ground for diseases and social ills such as crime. Workers and their families were located far from work opportunities, to the detriment of their economic well-being. As a result a greater proportion of workers money and time is disproportionately spent on travelling and transport.

These transport cost also made it very difficult to access employment opportunities. The absence of amenities such as crèches and sport facilities had a negative impact on the quality of life of many working-class communities. The new dispensation ushered by the first democratic local government elections in 1995 changed the landscape of local government. In place of the previous racially separated local government, we now have in place new integrated, non-racial local governments. However, the last five years was a period of transition for local government. During this phase the policy and legislative framework had to be put in place for a future local government dispensation in South Africa. The new vision of local government is espoused in the Constitution - particularly chapter 7. Several piece of legislation have been implemented to define structures at local government, the planning and services delivery systems and the re-demarcation of boundaries.

The system comprise of unitary government in the metropolitan areas (unicities) and district local government bringing together rural and urban municipalities, as well as primary municipalities in urban areas.

In a nutshell, local government's status and position has been elevated. Municipalities control enormous resources that can be invested in local economic development and employment creation, through their service delivery functions, that contribute towards improving the standard of living of our people. They also play an important role in assisting national and provincial government to provide important services.

2. Why vote for the ANC?

The ANC has spearheaded the transformation of local government to replace the apartheid structures. ANC-led local governments have begun to change the landscape of our communities by beginning to provide basic services.

The task of transforming local government is however far from complete. The second democratic local elections will usher in a new system of local government in post-apartheid South Africa. The ANC need the vote of all progressive forces to implement the new system and to accelerate change. It also seeks a fresh mandate to fight poverty where we live by, among other things, providing free basic services.

For these reasons, the COSATU 7th National Congress resolved to campaign for an overwhelming victory for the ANC. This is premised on the belief that the ANC is the only movement capable of transforming local government in a manner consistent with out vision for change.

Further Congress, resolved that the manifesto will have to reflect a commitment to transformation, free basic services and using the public sector as the preferred option for providing municipal services. COSATU actively participated in shaping the ANC's local government manifesto. It provides a broad vision of what the ANC-led local government will do in the next five years. It reflects the views of the ANC/COSATU/SACP alliance and manifesto. Among others the manifesto promises:

Probably the question will arise - why vote for the ANC in the context of dispute around iGoli 2002 strategy and the proposed amendments to the labour laws?

With regard to iGoli 2002, COSATU remains opposed to privatisation of municipal services. In terms of the labour law amendments, COSATU's position on the core areas is well known. Within the alliance, there are on-going discussions and the extended ANC NEC held on 1 October 2000 agreed that these issues would be settled in the alliance.

It is important that we all work for a decisive ANV victory in the forthcoming local government elections.COSATU has also unveiled of mobilisation for the ANC victory. This will include shop steward councils, people's forums and workplace meetings. Further COSATU will embark on door-to-door campaigns to mobilise for a decisive ANC victory.

COSATU's role in the election campaign

COSATU's 7th National Congress reaffirmed its support for the ANC in the local government elections on 5 December. The delegates resolved to "support and mobilise for the ANC, establish internal co-ordinating structures and liaise with Alliance structures at all levels".

Trade unionists are now active in the campaign to maintain or increase the ANC's positions of power in the local communities. The campaign started on a very low key for several reasons. It is therefore important to redouble campaign efforts to ensure that an overwhelming majority do vote.

COSATU has participated in most of the election structures established by the ANC at national, regional and provincial level. At a national level COSATU consistently participated in the Mobilisation and Training Task Team and the Manifesto Drafting Team. COSATU regions are participating in all Alliance structures and most have set up COSATU election committees.

COSATU was actively involved in the development and finalisation of the manifesto. In general the manifesto is a progressive document and incorporate some of the key principles and issues that COSATU believe should underpin local government transformation.

Further, an extended ANC NEC meeting resolved that the iGoli 2002 should be discussed at a ten-a-side Alliance meeting and that a joint statement will be issued. Secondly, the NEC recommitted the ANC to working with its Alliance partners in developing a programme for transformation.

This programme will incorporate a local government component. This matter should be discussed will be discussed in the ten-a-side meeting. Thirdly, the NEC resolved that an alliance summit on local government transformation should be convened after the elections.

COSATU Election Programme

Phase1 of COSATU's programme has been completed. The main focus during this phase was the ID and voter registration campaign. According to the IEC report, about two million people visited registration stations. 500 000 new voters registered and 1.5 million voters checked their details on the voters roll.

In preparation for Phases 2 and 3 of the campaign, a Campaigns Committee meeting was held on 6 October. COSATU Regional Officers and representatives from CEPPWAWU, CWU, FAWU, POPCRU, SACTWU, SADNU, SASAWU, SAMWU and SATAWU attended. The meeting resolved as follows: