YCL+Statement+on+ANC+personal+attack+on+SACP+GS,+YCLSA

YOUNG COMMUNIST LEAGUE OF SOUTH AFRICA
=STATEMENT OF THE YOUNG COMMUNIST LEAGUE OF SOUTH AFRICA ON THE ANC STATEMENT AND THE ANC PRESIDENT ATTACK ON OUR GENERAL SECRETARY.=


 * Monday, October 09, 2006**

1. The YCL notes with disgust the statement issued by the ANC and the Political Overview presented by the ANC President at the National Executive Committee over the weekend. We see both the statement of the ANC and the Political Overview as distasteful, arrogant, and full of personalization of the views of the SACP and takes a cheap and cowardly blow at the General Secretary of the SACP in an attempt to isolate him.

2. We see this cheap attack as reminiscent of the earlier labeling of certain ANC and SACP leaders in the past as ultra-left, with the failed intentions of isolating them from the membership of the ANC and ensuring that they are not elected at the Stellenbosch Congress in 2002 December. Now that we are headed for the 52nd Congress of the ANC, we are definitely going to see such ‘out of touch’ attempts. The tactic of isolating leaders from their people is reminiscent of the Apartheid regime to vilify their leaders. The Apartheid tactics have never worked and shall never work under our Constitutional democracy.

3. Fortunately, ANC members will not be fooled to act against their leaders.

4. We fully stand behind the statements made by the General Secretary of the SACP on behalf of the organisation. We reiterate in particular our support made by the General Secretary on his call for the teaching of Dialectical and Historical Materialism; the call for a leadership of the ANC committed to the fight against HIV/AIDS, eradication of poverty and ending unemployment; the call for a challenge to the capitalist accumulation path and the bourgeoisification of the ANC.

5. It is our view as the YCL that this bourgeoisification of the ANC is increasingly becoming dangerous for the country and the poor. It is this bourgeoisification that has also led to stealing of public resources to fund the Telkom deal in which the ANC spokesperson Smuts Ngonyama was a key beneficiary. We are not surprise by the attacks on the General Secretary because what he said threatens the business interests of the dominant capitalist agenda in the ANC and in country. The attack of the GS is just a defense of this capitalist agenda driven by the ANC President and his spin-doctors.

6. If the ANC President is attacking the General Secretary of the SACP for making such call, then he is definitely out of touch because the majority of members of the ANC share these sentiments.

7. As the Young Communist League we see these statements as continuing to prove our long held belief that the President is not committed in building the Alliance, and rather, instead of constructively engaging with Alliance partners in bilateral or Alliance meetings, he chooses to cowardly attack them in the absence of the SACP collective. He has consistently abused the ANC platforms to insult the integrity of the SACP and its leadership. If he is brave enough to challenge the SACP positions, he should also do so during our bilateral and alliance meetings. This tendency defeats the very ideals that the many ANC Presidents from Albert Luthuli, Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela sough to achieve, that of a strong, powerful, collective and focused Alliance.

8. We further are of the view that both the ANC Statement and the ANC President’s Political Overview basically seek to shift the blame of the crises that the ANC is facing as being caused by the Alliance partners. This denialist tendency, typical of the ANC President as in issues such HIV/AIDS, Zimbabwe and unemployment. The ANC President is trying to find the scapegoat in the SACP. He has created the crisis in the ANC, and people must not be diverted from this hard fact. SACP and COSATU must not be used as an easy way out for the totalitarian manner in which the current President has led the ANC which led to current crisis the movement is engulfed in.

9. The YCL has no reason to doubt any of the leaders of the SACP Central Committee, and are confident that all of them should stand fully behind the General Secretary of the SACP. We are further proud of the leadership of the SACP, especially given the nature of work it has done for the working class and the poor.

10. There are major problems that our country and the ANC are faced with, including land for the landless, transport for the poor, the credit beraux, hunger, unemployment and poverty. Instead of the president identifying and dealing with these problems, and concentrating on uniting the ANC, he chose to divide it further and avoid the impact that the SACP has made through its campaigns. We call on the President to exercise leadership and resolve the current problems and divisions facing the ANC, otherwise, the words of the Deputy General Secretary, Jeremy Cronin, of Zanufication, will become.


 * Issued by Buti Manamela (National Secretary) on behalf of the Young Communist League of South Africa.**


 * For more information, please contact Castro Ngobese @ 082 567 3557**

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