Jara,+re+SACP+Special+Congress,+to+DEBATE+list

=****SACP SPECIAL CONGRESS, 08-10 APRIL 2005****=
 * 23 March 2005

On 8-10 April 2005, the South African Communist Party (SACP) will be holding its mid-term Special National Congress. We are pleased to say that its now all systems go, and we have finished all our Congress documents and are now being discussed and debated by all our structures in preparations for the Special Congress. These documents have gone through extensive discussion and debate by our Central Committee, some having been discussed more than once.

The discussion documents are available on the SACP website (www.sacp.org.za). They are:

a.. Class struggles in the National Democratic Revolution: The Political Economy of the Transition (1994-2004) b.. Gender response to the 'Class struggles in the NDR' document c.. The SACP cadre we need d.. The SACP's Medium-Term Vision e.. Our Campaigns f.. Marxist perspective on sustainable livelihoods g.. The SACP and Elections

Aims of the Special Congress
The primary aims of our Special Congress are the following:

a.. To consolidate our class analysis of the first decade of freedom, including challenges lying ahead for the working class and the SACP · Evaluate progress in the implementation of 11th Congress Party programmes and campaigns

· Discuss, enrich and finalise our Medium-Term Vision as our key programmatic vision to guide the Party during the second decade of our freedom

· Consolidating Party economic perspectives and programme towards deepening a working class led National Democratic Revolution

· Deepening and consolidating our perspectives on local transformation and sustainable livelihoods

· A frank and honest introspection on the strengths and weaknesses of our Party, the kind of SACP we should be building over the next ten years, and the type of communist cadre we need to realise our medium term objectives

Know Your Neighbourhood: Access to essential services campaign
We have decided to hold this Congress on a weekend that is very important to our Party, the commemoration of the 12th annivesary of the assassination of our General Secretary, Cde Martin Thembisile 'Chris' Hani. Our Congress will be devoted to his memory.

In honour of Chris Hani, we shall use the actual date of the 12th anniversary, the 10th of April, to launch the 'Know Your Neighbourhood Campaign'. This campaign is part of the Alliance programme of action for 2005. Its aim is to undertake door-to-door visits to our communities, seeking to understand the problems facing each household, and acting together to try and address these challenges, not least access to basic and essential services.

Party branches will mobilise communities through local campaigns and struggles based on the information and problems received, building local organs of popular working class power, engage municipalities and government departments, and undertake many other local interventions (including working with ANC branches, ward councillors, civics and existing local organisations). As communists, and acting together with our allies, we shall seek to understand our neighbourhoods, learning from the lived experience and struggles of our people. There is no better way to honour Cde Chris than to undertake, on an ongoing basis, intensive interaction with our people.

Our Campaigns
We are going to this Congress satisfied about some of the major achievements of our Party since our 11th Congress. Some of our major successes include leading the financial sector campaign, which has notched some major victories. Some of these include the commitments in the Financial Sector Charter towards supporting SMEs, broad-based BEE, new legislation on co-ops and consumer credit, and most significantly the Umzansi account. Of particular interest about Umzansi is that 700 000 accounts have been opened since October last year, 57% of whom by women, and 24% by young people. Almost all of these are new entrants into the banking sector. This goes to prove our point that the poor are indeed bankable, contrary to the initial counter-claims by the banking sector.

These are the fruits of the struggles by the SACP-led Financial Sector Campaign Coalition (FSCC). The Special Congress will evaluate this campaign and decide on further actions to take it forward. We think the next important phase of the campaign is that of working towards effective worker say over investments of their retirement funds to create jobs and fight poverty. In addition, we need affordable insurance products for the workers and the poor.

Our Special Congress will also be discussing concrete steps and further actions to mobilise our people around accelerated land and agrarian transformation. In particular Congress will focus its attention on how to build local People's Land Committees, bringing together workers and the landless poor to fight for accelerated land and agrarian reform in their respective localities.

Through our campaigns, we have managed to build a coalition of progressive forces around particular issues, thus laying a very strong basis for rebuilding a working-class led mass movement for socio-economic transformation. This has been done not through boardroom meetings or declarations, but concretely in struggle. SACP campaigns are now attracting a number of social and class forces, ranging from traditional leaders to church organisations. It is for this reason that the Special Congress will be discussing our approach to these new challenges, where the SACP is providing leadership to a range of social forces. It is for these reasons that since our 11th Congress our Party has witnessed a 30% growth in membership, and increasing support and standing amongst the workers and the poor of our country, and other class forces.

The SACP Cadre we need
Of particular significance the Congress will also be discussing the kind of SACP we need to be building, and the type of communist cadre we need, reflecting on our experiences over the last ten years. We do indeed believe that we have been building an increasingly sophisticated party, located within the alliance, but having its own independent programmes, and taking up campaigns and issues that affect the daily lives of the workers and the poor. Our increasing political sophistication lies in the fact that we have undertaken these campaigns not in an oppositionist fashion to government, yet having an important impact on some of government policies whilst building broad based coalitions, as is the case with financial sector and land campaigns. Special Congress will reflect on this and the lessons therefrom.

Congress will have a very frank discussion on the kind of communist cadre we have and the cadre we need. It is for this reason for instance that our last Central Committee, amongst other things, took a very important decision; that all leadership collectives from branch executives to the central committee, will from now onwards be required to declare interests they have either in business or boards of organisations and institutions they serve in. These will be lodged with the office of the General Secretary. This is to avoid conflicts of interests between Party responsibilities and personal interests. Ordinarily as the SACP we would not expect communist leaders to be business people (here we are not talking about ownership of spaza or corner shops for retrenched party leaders trying to have sustainable livelihoods), but the bigger stakes of business. Many of our Party leaders also occupy positions of responsibility, in the Party itself, in the trade unions and in government and they need to behave in an exemplary fashion. We are also deeply concerned about the temptations prevalent in any capitalist society, so this is to protect our leadership and our Party. These and other qualities required of Party cadres will form a substantial part of discussion at Congress.

The SACP & Elections
For a while now there has been a debate inside our Party on our relationship with all sites of power, in particular state power. We have consistently argued that the SACP itself, in complex ways, is also indeed in power, by virtue of its alliance with the ANC as governing party. Our medium-term vision argues for a focused attention on building independent working class power in all sites of power, through effective presence and mobilisation of the working class. However some of our comrades have raised the question of whether it is not time now for the SACP to consider contesting elections in its own right. The Central Committee has decided that rather than having this debate informally, let it be discussed frankly and openly at the forthcoming Special Congress.


 * CONTACT**

Mazibuko Kanyiso Jara (surname Jara) Head of the Office of the General Secretary South African Communist Party P.O. Box 1027, Johannesburg, 2000 3rd floor COSATU House, 1-5 Leyds Street, Braamfontein, 2017 Tel - 011 339 3621, Fax - 011 339 4244/6880 Cell - 083 651 0271 Email - mazibuko@sacp.org.za (office), mazibuko@mail.ngo.za (alternate) Website - www.sacp.org.za ___ DEBATE mailing list DEBATE@lists.kabissa.org http://lists.kabissa.org/mailman/listinfo/debate