Last month Cosatu and South African Communist Party leaders held a historic bilateral which looked at how to take forward the socialist project in South Africa and reached agreement on a number of concrete plans. Below is a shortened version of an SACP presentation at the meeting.
"...the first step in the revolution by the working class is to raise the proletariat to the position of ruling class, to win the battle of democracy. The proletariat will use its political supremacy to wrest, by degrees, all capital from the bourgeoisie... Of course, in the beginning, this cannot be effected except by means of despotic inroads on the rights of property, and on the conditions of bourgeois production; by means of measures, therefore, which appear economically insufficient and untenable, but which, in the course of the movement, outstrip themselves, necessitate further inroads upon the old social order, and are unavoidable as a means of entirely revolutionising the mode of production."
In February 1848, Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels completed The Communist Manifesto, a document which marked the birth of scientific socialism. This bilateral, involving the two major organised forces for socialism in our country, occurs on the 150th anniversary of the Manifesto.
Without being fundamentalist, the SACP believes that the core vision of the Manifesto, coming to us all the way from 1848, remains absolutely valid 150 years later.
But this does not mean that this period has been a simple, uncomplicated history for socialists. We want to use this occasion to share and discuss with our comrades from Cosatu a brief overview of the past eight years of SACP work around developing a socialist struggle in our country. We want, as this leadership of the SACP, to report to you on how we have tried to sustain and carry forward the struggle for socialism. In doing this, we think it is possible to distinguish three phases - two of which have occurred already, the third lies immediately before us.
Phase 1: 1990-5
Re-affirming socialism, rebuilding the Party and debating what went wrong
The 1990 unbanning of the SACP, after 40 years in the underground, coincided with the rapid demise of the Soviet bloc. This double reality had a direct and dramatic impact on the SACP. Just before its unbanning the Party was a tightly organised but very small formation - with some 2000 members. The majority of these members were exiles, many in MK camps. The underground membership of the Party within the country was, at most, a few hundred. Our comrades were often strategically located within the ANC and union and MDI formations, and therefore we had an influence beyond our size. But the smallness of the Party reflected the relative neglect of socialist tasks in the four decades prior to 1990.
The Party had held an important 7th Congress in Cuba in 1989. However, the impact of the Soviet bloc crisis and collapse was quickly felt, and in early 1990 around half of the Central Committee and PB resigned from the SACP. This was a serious crisis for the SACP. Fortunately, a core of senior comrades (from exile and the underground), grouped around Slovo and Hani, remained deeply committed to sustaining the SACP and the socialist project.
On the ground at home, the Party enjoyed more mass support than at any other time of its history. There were huge (and often unrealistic) expectations of the Party, and tens of thousands signed membership application forms in 1991. The Party's infrastructure and resources remained tiny, and its ability to respond to this mass interest was often very inadequate.
This period was marked by:
In the midst of all of this, the Party was an important actor in the complicated South African transition. While dealing with our specifically socialist concerns in this period, the Party also made an important contribution to, amongst others:
Phase 2: 1995-1998
A strategic shift and the consolidation of ideological and organisational unity
This first phase of considerable ideological turmoil and of preliminary organisation building in the Party, gave way to a phase of much greater ideological coherence, which, in turn, enabled more focused organisational and ideological work.
The turning point was marked by the 9th SACP Congress in April 1995. At this Congress the SACP made a very important strategic shift encapsulated in our new slogan: "Socialism is the Future, Build it Now!"
We have always believed that socialism is the future, but we have never before affirmed, in quite the same way, the need to build it now. What is at stake in this slogan?
For seven decades the SACP has developed a rich practical experience of the linkage between a national liberation struggle and the class struggle. This is our bread and butter. Left and socialist forces around the world, searching to renew the left project for the coming century, find the practical experience of our Tripartite Alliance a seminal practical experience for the future. This alliance is SA's unique and principal contribution to Marxist and to progressive politics globally.
However, our theory has often lagged behind our own practice. At times we have theorised the connection between national and class struggle as one of "form" and "content". "The form of the struggle is national," we sometimes said, "its content, class". For some time we have realised that this is inadequate. The national reality is not a mere veil, a mere form, behind which a class reality lurks. The national question is itself a material reality.
"Form and content" has been one way of trying to conceptualise the interconnection of national and class struggle. More often, we have thought of the interrelation between the two as the relationship between two stages - the national democratic stage first, then the socialist stage second.
We have now started to move away from that conceptualisation as well. Increasingly we want to underline the simultaneous importance of these key factors in our social reality - the national in the class, the class in the national. We are also adding a third key social determinant - gender. Class, national and gender oppressions have to be taken on in their interconnection, simultaneously.
This is why we are arguing more forcefully for the relevance of pushing socialist perspectives in the present context of advancing, deepening and defending the democratic breakthrough. It is a question of building now, capacity for, momentum towards and even elements of socialism, here and now.
In moving away from mechanical two-stageism we observe, with some interest, how anti-socialist, anti-worker elements within our own alliance still have a deep nostalgia for two stageism, for their own purposes. Late last year, one prominent ANC leader argued that we are now in the "first stage" and, therefore, the key strategic task is the consolidation of capitalism. Socialism, it was argued, is irrelevant in the present. Anxious to separate class questions from national questions, the same writer called for an end to dual membership of the ANC and SACP.
These same anti-communist elements have tried to evoke the spectre of a "second stage" implying that, since the Party believes in a second stage, it is not serious about the present democratic phase; we have a sinister agenda up our sleeves, we are hitching a free ride in the present.
We note that, in the ANC Mafikeng Conference, these perspectives failed to find any serious backing. But, precisely because the class and national struggles are inter-connected and not narrowly reducible the one to the other, and because these views are, objectively, the views of an emergent stratum, we can expect them to recur from time to time.
The Strategic Perspectives document that emerged from our 9th Congress in 1995 attempted to give some kind of concrete and programmatic meaning to our call to build socialism now. Our formulations (and practice) remain fairly general for now - but these are the main outlines of how we understand the struggle for Socialism Now:
All of these socialist struggles are deeply connected to (are part of) the ongoing struggle to democratise our society (once more underlining the interconnectedness of the NDR and the socialist project).
The September Commission and the Cosatu 1997 Congress
The SACP has followed with great interest the September Commission process, its report and, above all, the proceedings and resolutions of the Cosatu 1997 Congress. The perspectives elaborated on socialism in all of these are absolutely in convergence with the SACP 1995 strategic shift. Not only is there convergence, but we believe that Cosatu has taken the elaboration of this project further, and introduced some fruitful new concepts into the South African socialist movement (for instance, "social capital"). The Cosatu Congress resolution on forging Building Blocks for socialism is, clearly, another way of expressing our own Build It Now approach.
This bilateral must help to confirm some of these views, and, above all, it must help us to chart a process that will enable us to deepen and extend our emerging socialist platform.
For the SACP, one critical component of this process will be:
The SACP 10th Congress July 1998
We intend to use this impending Congress to carry forward the elaboration of a socialist project and to embody this in a concrete programme of action. In the coming months we shall be circulating draft programme perspectives and we expect Cosatu to engage actively and critically with this process.
More importantly, however, we see the Cosatu Congress resolutions and our own forthcoming 10th Congress as the basis for laying down what we might call:
Phase 3: 1998 onwards
Towards a socialist platform, and a concrete socialist programme of action
We need now, increasingly, to connect our general socialist vision to concrete programmes, to concrete struggles for transformation, to concrete projects.
We need, also, to connect this to:
Engaging our non-socialist allies
However, the elaboration of a socialist platform is not an act of hiving off, of left-sectarianism. The Cosatu Congress resolution correctly notes the need to engage our principal ally, the ANC (and, of course, other popular formations) with our socialist perspectives. Our socialism is not a secret agenda.
The formulations in the Alliance Summit Report, "Assessment of the Current Phase of Transformation" paras. 1.9.1Ð 1.9.7 lay a clear and principled strategic basis for the interaction between the two socialist formations in the alliance and the ANC.
Our socialist programme of action must factor in a continuous engagement with the ANC, with other progressive social movements, including progressive religious formations.
Prospects
Clearly the perspectives we are beginning to elaborate appreciate that our socialist struggle occurs on a terrain that is dominated, nationally and internationally, by capitalism. True, capitalist triumphalism of the early 1990s has diminished somewhat - the installation of capitalism in Eastern Europe has not proceeded smoothly at all, the rolling back of social democratic gains in Western Europe is being hotly contested, and progressive Third World struggles have not been completely snuffed out. However, the global strength of capitalism remains formidable.
We may, obviously, be facing a long-haul struggle for partial transformations as we proceed, building blocks on the terrain of capitalism itself - a struggle to build capacity for, momentum towards and elements of socialism. However, we should not assume that the present global balance of forces is immutable, or even stable. The rapid onset of crisis conditions in a number of key Asian societies is a recent reminder. Nor, however, should we imagine that capitalist instability necessarily leads automatically to progressive socialist-aligned outcomes. A descent into barbarism is also always a possibility. In conditions of impending barbarism, a more rapid and offensive advance to socialism may become a matter of life or death.
Whether we are confronting a long war of position, or unforeseen and more rapid developments in the future, is unknown. We must certainly not imagine that the future will be a smooth evolutionary process. In our own country the 1994 democratic breakthrough has created progressive momentum, but we cannot rule out an intense anti-worker offensive in the medium-term. That is neither impossible nor a necessary eventuality. Either way, we are not passive observers of a static balance of forces. Our own collective, organised efforts have the capacity to impact dynamically on the outcome of the future.
That future is socialism. Let us begin to build it now.
The Masakhane Women's Summit at the end of February has raised key questions about uniting women across class and political divides.
The Summit, hosted by the Women's National Coalition (WNC), brought together women from diverse backgrounds, political affiliations and sectors. Participants included women from the ANC, SACP, PAC, NP, DP, ACDP and IFP, as well as trade union women, disabled women, rural women, self-employed women, women from the religious sector and service organisations.
While the Summit's diversity provided a broad range of experiences and perspectives to draw from, it also raised challenges and questions about the degree to which women can unite as women across class and political divides. The Summit was successful in providing a platform for women, for learning and sharing information about struggles that women have been engaging in. It also helped empower women to engage in key policy debates. However, the Summit had great difficulty in reaching agreement on common programmes. Even the Summit declaration - a broad statement on the need to increase and deepen women's representation and participation in debates and policy making - raised a great deal of debate and it took some time before it was adopted. Nevertheless, a range of recommendations came out of Commission discussions, including a proposal for a Women's Job Summit before the presidential Job Summit later this year.
The recommendations will be taken back to participant organisations for discussion.
Critical issues facing working class women were raised, however there was no agreement on taking a concrete stand. When one commission opposed the privatisation of water, the DP representative questioned who "we South African women" were, since they could not align themselves with that position. This clearly raises questions about the Women's Coalition's ability to take up the campaigns and issues of direct concern to working class women. The WNC may have a role in uniting women around certain common demands such as the representation of women in all decision-making structures, the elimination of violence against women, access to services etc. However, it remains to be seen whether the Coalition can effectively take up dynamic campaigns aimed at fundamentally transforming the lives of the majority of South Africa's women.
Learn from rural women
The Summit gave women whose voices are not often heard the opportunity to have their say. A woman from the Rural Women's Movement stood up and spoke in Setswana about the barriers that people, and particularly women, face in participation in the democratic structures of the country. Language is a major barrier and those who are unable to speak English, often find it difficult to participate in debates. The exclusive use of English in many forums excludes and marginalises people from participation.
She said people from the rural areas have very real experiences and knowledge to bring to the process. It is not a case of "empowering them", but also learning from them. The exclusion and marginalisation of groups in society reduces the possibility of real transformation.
Disabled women welcomed the WNC's moves to allow for their participation by attempting to ensure that the environment was accommodating. However, they said there is still a long way to go there as their participation in the Summit was still limited by accessibility and communication. This raised the very real challenge to organisations to move away from ignorance about disability issues and to find out what concrete steps need to be taken to make it possible for disabled people to participate fully.
Policy formulation
Summit delegates were very positive about what they had learnt, particularly on macro-economic debates and policies. Delegates heard inputs on the Women's Budget initiative and on a gender critique of GEAR, as well as policy formulation processes, Masakhane and local government issues. It was clear that there were unequal levels of access to information, since there were some women who had never heard of GEAR or of the Office on the Status of Women.
Cosatu national gender coordinator Rose Makwane said the Summit was very positive, particularly given the numbers of women who responded to the invitation and the fact that the inputs were an eye-opener for many delegates.
"The WNC remains an important source of education, networking and communication on a number of issues," Makwane said. "The key challenges are to build a strong Women's movement and to ensure that working class Women's issues are on the agenda of the WNC and the Alliance structures."
The Women's Summit also raised the question for Alliance structures of how working class women should organise beyond their own formations. The Alliance partners have all taken resolutions on the need for a national Women's movement. This has stemmed from a recognition of the lack of mass mobilisation of women around concrete campaigns for the elimination of Women's oppression and poverty.
Organising women across class and political divides raises real difficulties. This will no doubt form part of the debate on the future of the WNC and whether it can be effectively transformed to take up campaigns and activities with a working class bias.
A national Women's movement would need to draw upon a network of democratic organisations capable of taking forward struggles of the working people and the poor.
Building a national Women's movement
The Alliance structures have begun to work closely around their common commitment to building a national Women's movement. While the Alliance partners have all recognised the need for a vibrant and dynamic Women's movement, the form and structure this should take is still under discussion.
COSATU's national congress resolution said "Cosatu should initiate building of a national Women's movement led by the Alliance to advance the needs of working class women based on concrete issues facing them."
A conference is planned for later this year to develop common perspectives around the form, character and role of the national Women's movement.
As part of this process of engagement, an Alliance workshop is planned for the first weekend in April to develop an Alliance programme of gender struggles, to discuss the women's movement, and to debate the role of the WNC and its relationship to the Women's movement.
Jean September has come a long way since the days when she used to spend her vacations in a printers shop learning design skills. Today this teacher is Sadtu's vice president for media and she argues that teachers need to drive the process of transforming education.
September started teaching at a primary school in 1980. "There were no progressive teacher organisations at the time, so we started the Teachers Action Group. We were not quite sure what we wanted, but we were sure what we didn't want," she says, referring to the conservative teacher unions of the time and the need to create a non-racial teachers union.
September was involved in looking at alternative ways of teaching, particularly in English and History. Together with a group of progressive teachers in the Western Cape, she worked most weekends to produce alternative teaching packages.
It was during this time that she started to look at the labour aspects of organising teachers. "We wanted to gain basic rights for all teachers," she said. In 1988 she attended the first teacher conference, held in Harare and convened by Cosatu. "There was still a lot of tension between those teachers who saw themselves as professional and those who saw themselves as workers."
National curriculum
In the early 90's September threw her energies into the development of a new national curriculum. This project effectively meant collapsing 17 education departments into one. "We had to look at the issue of cleansing racism. For example, Afrikaner historians were prepared to kick out the Great Trek, but we felt this stopped any critical analyses of Afrikaner history, so we fought to keep it in."
She says one of the main problems with curriculum development now is that the people who were originally involved in this process are no longer consistent. Added to this is the weak Sadtu provinces, which find it difficult to drive education issues. "We need to create a balance (between labour issues and education issues). It is sad that the focus has shifted, but at some stage teachers are going to have to reflect on what is happening at a school level."
Matric results
Regarding the poor matric results, September points out that people are putting too much pressure on one year of schooling to produce the goods. "There is this culture of thinking you can change students in matric. You can't. You need a 5-10 year plan in order to create critical thinkers."
She believes that a lack of resources is not the key factor in good teaching. In Cuba, for example, every child gets issued with three writing books and a pencil every month. Once the books are full, they rub out all the text and start using them again. "The will is stronger than material conditions. Its about the mindset of educators."
September says transformation has become just a slogan. "We are no longer unpacking the details of what this means." She says teacher retrenchments are a crucial issue for Sadtu. The irony for her is that, in ten years' time, South Africa will need double the amount of teachers it currently has - due to population growth - yet the state continues to retrench.
Media
When September talks about her union involvement, it becomes obvious why she is Sadtu's vice president for media. She speaks with a passion about the importance of union media and how she and other Sadtu activists developed their media skills.
"Capacity building was harder in those days. We weren't formally trained in journalism skills and had to teach ourselves the skills of layout and design. Media then was dependent on our own initiative."
She has documented a lot of early union media, including t-shirts, photo's and banners produced by teachers.
At Sadtu's launching congress, the Western Cape region motivated for national media committees. These were implemented after the second national congress. September stresses the importance of having media voices in decision-making structures. This ensures that media is not so sidelined, and media issues do not depend on the "whims' of Office Bearers".
Sadtu works on the principle that every member gets a copy of their union newspaper, Educators Voice, which was launched earlier this year. The newspaper has a massive circulation of 166Ê000.
September argues that the federation needs to develop a strategy where affiliate media officers work together more closely. "It would be useful for all unions to know what other affiliates are doing. We should have a briefing page".
Quota system
On the issue of women leadership, September proudly points out that the Western Cape, for many years, had a majority of women in their leadership structures. However, the politics of the region has changed over the past two years and the situation is now reversed.
"I was always against the quota system," she says, "although now I would argue that maybe, yes, there should be a quota system." None of Sadtu's nine provincial executives have women chairpersons or secretaries. And there are only two women national office bearers.
She feels that the Cosatu congress debate on the quota system was too simplistic, because comrades were not discussing the issue of power divisions.
September says she does not feel any pressure to perform as a woman or any need to work harder to prove herself. She says peoples' actions speak for themselves. "People were surprised at the launch of the Educators Voice, that we could pull off such a massive project."
Coming from a family of four sisters, she has always tried to challenge accepted practices. At her father's funeral recently, she had to fight with family members so that the four daughters could carry his coffin. "I was doing all the media so I was in charge of the programme. I just made a decision around this which no one could challenge. It made no sense for us not to carry his coffin," she says.
September says the fact that she does not have any children has made her union work a lot easier, "particularly as I have to work between Cape Town and Johannesburg". Although she lives in an extended family set-up and shares responsibility for her sisters' children, not having children of her own has allowed her to take on more responsibilities
Leadership styles
Regarding her role as a woman leader, September says she is not conscious of women having different management styles. She stresses the need to build respect, rather than looking at the gender of a person. She also talks about the need for development programmes and is taking four national media convenors on a trip to Canada soon, to look at their printing programmes. "It is important to build other tiers of leadership. We need to use existing skills and at the same time build confidence in people. Maybe that's a woman thing, because women are quite unselfish."
September believes that women are more intuitive than men. "We need to stick to our intuition and not be swayed from our vision." She also stresses the importance of staying clear of personality issues.
Asked about her role models, she claimed not to have any. When pushed, she said, "Well, I guess the group of women who I worked with through the 80's and early 90's would probably be the closest I would get. I don't have one single role model though."
And the highlight of her union career? "Probably the early days of building organisation when there was a clear vision and we had to go with our basic gut feeling. That was the time when we were striving to fuse our educationist side with our unionist side. The other time of course was the massive 1993 strike. We really explored people's creativity in producing media, and came up with a strategy which was "propagandish de luxe"!
