April 2011 - Centre for Civil Society - University of KwaZulu-Natal

However, this would be a mistake and would not solve the main question –
the political independence of the party. In fact the events at the
Polokwane congress of the ANC, where Thabo Mbeki was toppled as leader,
shows that it is completely possible for the SACP to mobilize the ranks of
the ANC on a radical basis and thus win the political leadership of the
organization.
The Bolshevik party worked in many different organizations, even in the
black reactionary state unions. For them the main issue was not which
organizations to work, but whether there were workers there to win to
revolutionary socialism, while at the same time maintaining strict political
independence.
Even when participating in the tsarist Duma they maintained full political
independence and went as far as they legally could in exposing the
reactionary character of the tsarist regime. And what they could not
legally say in public they underlined in writing in their underground
papers.
For communists one principle must stand above all others. We are
communists no matter where we are, whether in parliament, government
or in the ANC, and we must hold to our communist principles. When a
communist stands for any leading position it is his duty to honestly and
frankly put forward his Marxist views and not accept any position unless he
is free to act on those policies. Of course it is permissible at times to take
some positions for tactical reasons, but only if those positions serve to
build the party and spread the ideas of communism.
But the manner in which leading communists like Nzimande, Cronin and
others are now participating in the structures of the ANC, parliament and
government – that is without an independent communist line – is only
serving to confuse the masses and drive them away from a party that they
see as being connected with unemployment, poverty and police
suppression of workers' struggles.
It should be made completely clear to all the ranks of the ANC that the
communists are fundamentally different to the other ANC leaders who are
happy to limit their actions within the confines of the capitalist system.
This, unfortunately, is not the case today. The vast majority of the masses
see no fundamental differences between Communist Party and reformist
ANC leaders. If the communists were seen as a real alternative it would
provide them with the opportunity of winning over the majority of the ANC
and thus the masses, who are not at all satisfied with their current
leaders, to communist policies.
If the Communist Party were to break with the ANC and stand independent
candidates it would not be the end of the world – although it would be a
mistake for it would serve to isolate the party from the wider masses – but
it would not solve the main question, that is, that of political
independence, as the party would not have solved the key question of
which programme to put forward. The problem is not the party's presence
within the ANC, but its lack of a clear, revolutionary socialist programme.
The question of leadership
There are big possibilities for the SACP. To all those comrades who
complain about the “bad objective situation”, “low consciousness of the
masses” “unfavourable balance of forces” we must say: in reality the
situation has never been so favourable as now. If they won't accept our
words for it they can dust down their history books and study past