2005-01-28,+Excerpt+from+Jhb+Central+Bulletin+No.+1+(Campaigns),+Jhb+Central




 * Excerpt from SACP Johannesburg Central Branch Bulletin 2004/2005, No.1**

//Dear Comrades,//

//The decisions of the AGM and the subsequent BEC have required that we mobilise the five sub-committees of the branch. What follows is a text giving the basis on which this is being carried out, for your information.//


 * __On Sub-Committees__**

The Sub-committees of the branch are its functional arms. In the series: education – organisation – mobilisation, the sub-committees are the second of the three.

A sub-committee is not a programme. The existence of a sub-committee does not of itself create a programme. The sub-committee must create and elaborate its programme and execute it.

Some remarks on our sub-committees:

Campaigns are not simply formations of comrades from the branch. Campaigns organised by the Communist Party are supposed to be made up of workers and other members of the general public who are not communists, in the main. Campaigns are the way communists organise in society.
 * Campaigns**

Campaigns therefore involve the mobilisation of people who are not in the Party. People who are not members of the Party may quite naturally take part in the leadership of such campaigns. The Party should not seek to possess public campaigns as its property. Party members lead by virtue of their communist education, and by the example of their behaviour.

Campaigns in which the Party is involved may well yield recruits to the Party, but this is not the principle objective of launching such campaigns. Each campaign has its specific political purpose. The party must take part in such campaigns in an open and honest way, without any hidden agendas. Each campaign stands on its own merits, and not on any possible benefits to the Party as such.

Sometimes campaigns initiated by the Party pass completely outside the direct influence of the Party and develop a life of their own. This is not always a bad thing. There are many institutions of society which were originally founded by the Communist Party. Sometimes even the Party itself has forgotten its role in founding such campaigns, movements, and institutions.

In other cases, such as the Anti-Privatisation Forum initiated by the Johannesburg Central Branch of the SACP, we may regret that our brainchild has fallen under the control of forces of which we do not approve. This possibility is a risk we must take. The risk is minimised by proper working and attention to details and the specifics of the campaign. Communists have the advantage of dialectical thinking and an understanding of the concrete whole as well as the abstract parts of a political situation.

Campaigns we can initiate, or participate in, following suggestions voiced in our general meetings, can be concerned with the **HIV/AIDS** crisis in the country; or with **international peace and opposition to imperialism**. Another campaign could be on **literacy**, and/or on **language-learning**. There can be others still. Those which are of particular benefit to the working class should have priority.

Each campaign requires a minimum number of dedicated comrades to initiate it and drive it. In a new campaign, the comrades may have to draw up a programme with a basic slogan, structure, and schedule. The strength of the campaign must be drawn from the recruits to the campaign, and not by dragooning other party members into supporting the campaign. Party members are cadres, that is to say officers, not troops. The party provides officers to mass movements. The party is too small to provide the mass membership of such movements or campaigns.

Not all campaigns in which we get involved have been initiated by the Party. If there is an existing campaign, it may not serve any purpose for us to start a rival one. In that case Party cadres take part in and give leadership to the existing campaign.

Comrades who are involved in campaigns should not expect the Branch or any higher structure of the Party to "micro-manage" such campaigns for them. The Party does not have spare capacity to provide "handlers" for its cadres. Most of the time you will be acting on your own advice and without supervision.

The Communist Party does not collapse all campaigns into one big amorphous organism, as some ultra-left sects do. We do not rush in a body from one campaign to another, changing hats on the way. We do not insist on recruits in one organisation becoming members of a whole lot of others.

//Dominic Tweedie, 12/10/2004, for SACP Jhb. Central BEC.//