Saturday, January 29, 2011

Defend the Ideological Integrity and Values of the National Democratic Revolution

Defend the Ideological integrity and values of the national democratic revolution

SACP Solidarity Message on the 99th anniversary of the African National Congress

On behalf of the Central Committee and the 110 000 members of the South African Communist Party, I bring revolutionary greetings and solidarity message to the 99th anniversary of our ally, the African National Congress (ANC). In a number of ways, the year 2011 marks a momentous year in the history of our movement as a whole. This year marks the 90th anniversary of the SACP – 90 years of unrelentless struggle for the national liberation and reconstruction of our country.

Today we stand here, proud of the fact that for over 80 years of this history of the SACP, South African communists have not only been a dependable ally of the African National Congress, but have also played an important role in building the ANC into the force that it is today, and that many South African communists remain cadres and leaders of the ANC in their own right, and intend remaining so for as long as the goals of the national democratic revolution are yet to be achieved.

As South African communists, we are the sons and the daughters of South Africa’s workers and the poor. It is also for this reason that we have fought the struggle for national liberation as part of the struggle for socialism in our country.

Last month COSATU celebrated its 25th anniversary, and 2011 must also lay a foundation for celebrating the historic milestone of the centenary of the ANC in 2012.

Our main message to this gathering of the ANC is that we must use all these milestones to build people’s power to defend the ideological integrity of our revolution. The single biggest threat that faces our revolution today is the politics of money, the politics of selfishness, the politics of greed and a full ideological assault by liberals on our movement and its democratic majority in society.

The source of this greed and accumulation is not the ANC, but the capitalist system itself. The very crisis of global capitalism today is a product of this politics of greed and selfishness.

However, if we allow this greed and selfishness and worship of money to take root in our movement, we will not be able to defeat this threat in society as a whole.That is why it is critical that the ANC must take a lead in ensuring that we defeat the politics of money inside the ranks of our own movement and ensure that the politics of solidarity and selfless service to our people must triumph.

The liberal agenda uses the language of defending our constitution, but in its essence it is narrow constitutionalism, anti-majority rule and narrow human rights activism that is largely being carried through most of the media houses in our country. This agenda in essence attacks what we have always struggled for, the liberation of the black majority and the achievement of ‘one person one vote’ – universal suffrage. At the heart of this seemingly democratic posture is the defence of racialised elite class interests of the white minority.

It is for this reason that the SACP re-affirms the clarion call of our movement, that the PEOPLE SHALL GOVERN - not the liberals, not the DA, not the print media – but the PEOPLE, through their own genuine representative, the ANC-led alliance!

The SACP also wishes to restate its support and to campaign for an overwhelming ANC victory in the forthcoming local government elections. Only the ANC and the alliance it leads is best capable of advancing the interests of the overwhelming majority of our people, the workers and the poor of our country. We will join the ANC campaign based to advance the achievement of the five priorities of the ANC-led alliance, as well as a commitment to addressing local development priorities facing the many communities in the various localities in our country.

The SACP welcomes the ANC approach to the selection of candidate councillors by involving communities in this process. The ANC must however ensure that this process is not corrupted or short-circuited through the convening of bogus community meetings that do not genuinely involve the whole of local communities.

We will work tirelessly to ensure an overwhelming ANC victory including the reclaiming of the Western Cape from the right-wing DA, and ensuring that we liberate all the municipalities in KZN from the IFP.

Happy 99th anniversary!

Amandla!

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