[Marxism] South Africa union federation, CP respond to Mbeki denunciation

["Fred Feldman" <ffeldman@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Mbeki lashes out at Nzimande at NEC meeting

President Thabo Mbeki

October 08, 2006, 08:00

President Thabo Mbeki has lashed out at Blade Nzimande, the South
African Communist Party leader, and supporters of Jacob Zuma, the ANC
deputy president, who disrupted a government rally last Sunday in
Durban. Sunday newspapers report that in a speech delivered during the
ANC's National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting in Johannesburg
yesterday, Mbeki castigated Nzimande for his recent speeches where he
accused the ANC of selling out on its principles.

**************************

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

********

South African Communist Party (KZN) Media statement

Date of issue: 09 October 2006

Media statement

The South African Communist Party hereby expresses its full support for
the General Secretary's statements in both SADTU and COSATU congresses.
It is disappointing that President of the ANC (the alliance leader) has
elected to personalize policy criticism instead of providing leadership
to the alliance after the withdrawal of charges against ANC Deputy
President. This is not just a divisive behavior but a clear deflection
of people's attention from what needs to be done after the withdrawal of
charges on the ANC deputy president.

Smuts Ngonyama's failure to name SACP leaders who are not in support of
SACP 's policy positions leaves much to be desired. The making of public
statements whose sources are faceless is characteristic of a spineless
liar. Members of the SACP are the custodians of the SACP constitution.
Only members of the SACP can reprimand a member that has acted in a
manner that contravenes the SACP constitution. The SACP General
Secretary has and continues to behave in a manner that is in accord with
the SACP constitution and its continued fight for the marginalized and
exploited working class of this country. Under the leadership of Blade
Nzimande South African communist Party has grown in leaps and bounds.
Criticism on his leadership and insinuation that he will liquidate the
SACP is inherently disgraceful and fueled by paranoia from our
detractors. In the final analysis, the SACP in KZN remains committed to
the consolidation and strengthening of the revolutionary tripartite
alliance.

Contact Person: Mr Themba Mthembu

PROVINCIAL Secretary

SACP KZn

083 303 6988

*************

COSATU Media Release, 9th October 2006

 

Remarks of the ANC President concerning the SACP General Secretary

COSATU notes the ANC National Executive Committee statement dated 8th
October and released this morning, and the ANC President's "notes for
his political overview", mentioned in the statement, which Luthuli House
issued in hard copy to members of the media, after it had already been
leaked to the media.

COSATU condemns the leaking of these statements by faceless 'sources'.
It helps newspaper to sell copies and increases their profits, but
eventually this cancer will liquidate the whole movement and kill its
vibrancy and culture of vigorous but constructive debate. It makes it
impossible for the leaders of democratic organisations to engage in
serious debate without fearing that what they say will end up in
newspapers. You cannot speak frankly within a meeting if you know that
anything you say may be leaked, distorted and sensationalised by the
media.

Those responsible for these leaks are in blatant violation of the
protocols of our Alliance, of which all components of the Alliance are
duty-bound to defend.

Had the faceless sources not leaked the information we would not be
faced with yet another strain in the Alliance. As one of the three main
Alliance partners, COSATU would have preferred the debate in the NEC to
have been completed, an agreed statement released in a manner that
reflects the ANC's responsibility to lead the Alliance and society as a
whole. At its own pace the ANC could then, without any accompanying
headlines, approach the Alliance to raise whatever concerns we may have.
We have to go back to this way of conducting debates in the Alliance.
This culture where we are propelled by editors to say something is going
to kill this movement of Oliver Tambo.

However, now that the debate has entered the public arena, we are
obliged to say that:

1. COSATU agrees with every word that SACP General Secretary, Blade
Nzimande, made in excellent speeches at the 2006 Congresses of COSATU
and SADTU. His views were totally in line with the policies expressed in
the resolutions passed by 2,500 delegates representing 1.8 million
workers at COSATU's 9th National Congress in September 2006. The same
applies to those parts of the SACP's Discussion Document on State Power
on the 1967

(Morogoro) ANC Strategy and Tactics document and the 1979 Green Book
that the ANC President has taken exception to.

2. COSATU condemns the personalisation of arguments, which is
particularly regrettable when these comments are leaked to the media who
then use them to create a story around personal battles between
individuals. Debate cannot be open and free in such an atmosphere, which
amounts to intimidation.

At the two Ekurhuleni Alliance Summits, the Alliance agreed on
guidelines on how to manage intra-Alliance relations, as best summarised
in Ekurhuleni I Declaration of 7 April 2002, which said: "Having
examined the causes and the impact of recent intense public discord
among some components of the Alliance, the Summit concluded that this
was an unfortunate development which we should not allow to recur. We do
acknowledge that it would be artificial to expect that tensions would
not exist among and even within components of the Alliance. The
challenge is how we manage them within our constitutional structures,
and use them as a catalyst for the growth and maturity of our
organisations." These can be summarised as: "Don't personalise; don't
label; and never question bona fides or the integrity of any component
of leader of the Alliance".

By violating all three of these guidelines, and by leaking to the Media
in a way calculated to stifle debate, the sections of the ANC leadership
behind the leak have let the Alliance down badly and taken it backwards.
What could have been a constructive, educational and internal debate is
in danger of becoming a media spat.

Patrick Craven (National Spokesperson)

Congress of South African Trade Unions

1-5 Leyds Cnr Biccard Streets

Braamfontein, 2017

P.O.Box 1019

Johannesburg, 2000

SOUTH AFRICA

Tel: +27 11 339-4911/24

Fax: +27 11 339-5080/6940/ 086 603 9667

Cell: 0828217456


 
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