Retaining Election Momentum Through Re-deployment of Red Brigades: Picking Up the Spear and Taking Responsibility for Driving the Second, More Radical Phase of Our Transition
11 June 2014, Cape Town
The SACP Western Cape Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) met a month after a highly contested fifth democratic general election. The Party discussed amongst other matters an in-depth analysis of the election campaign and the results both in the provincial and national context. The PEC also discussed SACP provincial programme of action for 2014 in line with recent Central Committee outcome.
The PEC noted that the election outcome in the Western Cape Province imposes another five-year term of a neo-liberal, anti-working class DA administration.
The in the province congratulates the ANC-led alliance for a massive 62% national election victory. This victory is a mandate for the implementation of our second, more radical socio-economic transformation, which remains our marching order. The ANC-led alliance election victory constituted the electoral defeat of various opposition tendencies, forces and elements, old, new and those still under conception which seek to be noticed by attacks on our ANC-led alliance and its independent formations.
The election witnessed unprincipled anti-ANC and anti-Communist Party trend, the narrow approach of character assassination directed at our alliance leadership in general and the ANC President in particular. We also noted the blatant biased publications by large sections of the consumer print and electronic media as matter of great concern.
Moreover, the desperation of opposition`s manipulation of developmental and socio-economic facts in their election campaign in an attempt to scupper support from the masses is proof of the neo-liberal character of the DA in mimicking an American "Obamafication".
Uniting the Peoples Camp, eliminate the wedge-driver tendency
During the commencement of the rollout of the election campaign, the SACP dedicated its disciplined cadres to reclaim political power in the Province through uniting the people`s camp, noting, of course, that since 1994 the ANC-led alliance in the Western Cape never reached at least 50% in an election outcome and that, when the ANC constituted the provincial administration, it was through a coalition. The de-colonisation of the Western Cape and elimination of apartheid legacy first by the reclaiming of political power by the people remains a critical task.
The political and socio-economic legacy of colonialism and apartheid remains firmly entrenched in the Western Cape province - among others the psychological and baseless instilment of "swaart gevaar" and "rooi gevaar". Workers in both rural and urban areas were and remain largely restricted, and in some cases they were prevented from exercising their democratic right to vote - an effort to introduce and enforce a non-trading day on elections must be taken up.
During the election campaign, trained SACP Red Brigade volunteers, selected from Party branches across the length and breadth of the province were deployed into our communities to engage in voter contact.
The PEC`s synopsis of the elections includes an analysis of external and internal threats based on historical trends. Internal threats that attempted to drive a wedge in the unity of the Alliance during the election campaign remain a direct link to defeated and dislodged tendencies of the 2007 Polokwane Conference. As with other provinces, the Western Cape was not immune to the encroachment of this virus within the Alliance, as witnessed during the Provincial List Conference, the enthusiasm and energy around this conference was not filtered through to the elections campaign. Instead, a narrow element was imposed to divide branches over short-term factional interests through the unwarranted removal of LET`s and BET`s with the objective of popularising individuals towards Provincial and Regional Conferences.
More recent divisive fascist threats fronting as socialists whilst maintaining their individualistic capitalist private accumulative agendas have manipulated some sections of the youth into believing that rhetoric without reason or substance is the answer to unemployment and poverty. The PEC therefore comprehends that building progressive youth structures remains a fundamental task in combating empty rhetoric of this tenderpreneurs tendency.
The PEC did however note that a substantial quantity of coloured activists and community members re-joined the ranks of the people`s camp in this election campaign, our collective failure however was that we were unable to isolate and eliminate wedge-drivers and elements of the "new tendency" still prevalent in the ranks of the ANC in the Province. Moreover, the complete lack of active branch structures of the Alliance in key areas directly attributed to the lack of overwhelming quantitative support in coloured communities.
The rejection of the DA in many Coloured and African communities in the Western Cape, due to its anti-poor and neo-liberal character, is indicative of the groundswell discontent of rural and urban working class towards the widening class gap in the Province. This organic manifestation has not however been led by the ANC in the main, instead remnants of the "new tendency" in the Province, due to their insistence on fixating on internal divisions and short-term position jostling have side-lined and isolated revolutionary community activists taking up the struggle of the masses. The PEC is of a firm belief that uniting the people`s camp is not only the principal task of the SACP and ANC in the Province, but more importantly and strategically the immediate task at hand of COSATU in the province as well.
Underpinning the fifth democratic general election results in the province is a noticeable increase in ANC support in the rural hinterlands and outlying regions of the Western Cape. The quantitative increase in support in rural areas as opposed to the DA`s consolidation of the urban middle class vote must be broadly analysed to assess the strategy and programme of action towards the 2016 local government elections. The Party therefore considers the rollout of the second, more radical phase of the national democratic revolution geared towards amongst other policies, land and economic transformation as a means to increase and consolidate the rural vote. Furthermore, the PEC has resolved to strengthen the unity of the people`s camp in all of our communities by re-deploying Red Brigades volunteers and rolling out the Know Your Neighbourhood Campaign as a continuous means to engage on the conditions facing our people.
International Solidarity
The PEC deliberated on pertinent issues on the International Front, including but not limited to the ongoing misrepresentation of events by Western consumer media over the ongoing state of affairs in Ukraine. The Party in the province has also aligned recent support issued by the SACP Central Committee to associate with the international call "To Bring Back Our Girls" in Nigeria. The PEC also welcomed the historical Palestinian Agreement brokered between Hamas and the PLO, this move of unity will be a positive step towards confronting Apartheid Israel.
Continuity of momentum: Red Brigades and Know your neighbourhood campaign
The SACP in the Western Cape will continue to defend and strengthen the unity of COSATU through establishing work place units, deploying Red Brigades in industrial areas during the Qina Msebenzi Campaign and the continuous rollout of joint and complementary programmes and activities.
As the 2016 local government elections approach, the SACP in the Province, through our extensive engagements with the masses led by our Branch, District and Provincial Red Brigade leadership have determined to maintain the SACP "Red Momentum" by re-deploying our trained volunteers into the field to strengthen and build Party structures as a means to develop and consolidate working class hegemony. The re-deployment of Red Brigades will also act as a precursor towards the reclaiming of working class political power in all of our localities come 2016.
The SACP in the Province will redouble its efforts over the next six months in taking responsibility for the National Democratic Revolution as a direct route to Socialism. The onslaught of neo-liberalism, both in the form of the DA City and Provincial Administration as well as its internal infection within the Alliance must be viewed as a vile mechanism to maintain a commoditised working class. Through the historic and principal vanguard Party in the SACP we will continue to raise our Red Flag in defence of the defenceless in all sites of struggle and key sites of power - towards the 2016 Local Government Elections and beyond.
Issued by SACP Western Cape
Enquires
Khaya Magaxa - SACP Provincial Secretary
Mobile: 083 721 0221
Masonwabe Sokoyi - SACP Provincial Spokesperson
Mobile: 074 177 2068
 |
| Central Committee meeting of the South African Communist Party. |
The SACP Western Cape Provincial Executive Committee (PEC) met a month after a highly contested fifth democratic general election. The Party discussed amongst other matters an in-depth analysis of the election campaign and the results both in the provincial and national context. The PEC also discussed SACP provincial programme of action for 2014 in line with recent Central Committee outcome.
The PEC noted that the election outcome in the Western Cape Province imposes another five-year term of a neo-liberal, anti-working class DA administration.
The in the province congratulates the ANC-led alliance for a massive 62% national election victory. This victory is a mandate for the implementation of our second, more radical socio-economic transformation, which remains our marching order. The ANC-led alliance election victory constituted the electoral defeat of various opposition tendencies, forces and elements, old, new and those still under conception which seek to be noticed by attacks on our ANC-led alliance and its independent formations.
The election witnessed unprincipled anti-ANC and anti-Communist Party trend, the narrow approach of character assassination directed at our alliance leadership in general and the ANC President in particular. We also noted the blatant biased publications by large sections of the consumer print and electronic media as matter of great concern.
Moreover, the desperation of opposition`s manipulation of developmental and socio-economic facts in their election campaign in an attempt to scupper support from the masses is proof of the neo-liberal character of the DA in mimicking an American "Obamafication".
Uniting the Peoples Camp, eliminate the wedge-driver tendency
During the commencement of the rollout of the election campaign, the SACP dedicated its disciplined cadres to reclaim political power in the Province through uniting the people`s camp, noting, of course, that since 1994 the ANC-led alliance in the Western Cape never reached at least 50% in an election outcome and that, when the ANC constituted the provincial administration, it was through a coalition. The de-colonisation of the Western Cape and elimination of apartheid legacy first by the reclaiming of political power by the people remains a critical task.
The political and socio-economic legacy of colonialism and apartheid remains firmly entrenched in the Western Cape province - among others the psychological and baseless instilment of "swaart gevaar" and "rooi gevaar". Workers in both rural and urban areas were and remain largely restricted, and in some cases they were prevented from exercising their democratic right to vote - an effort to introduce and enforce a non-trading day on elections must be taken up.
During the election campaign, trained SACP Red Brigade volunteers, selected from Party branches across the length and breadth of the province were deployed into our communities to engage in voter contact.
The PEC`s synopsis of the elections includes an analysis of external and internal threats based on historical trends. Internal threats that attempted to drive a wedge in the unity of the Alliance during the election campaign remain a direct link to defeated and dislodged tendencies of the 2007 Polokwane Conference. As with other provinces, the Western Cape was not immune to the encroachment of this virus within the Alliance, as witnessed during the Provincial List Conference, the enthusiasm and energy around this conference was not filtered through to the elections campaign. Instead, a narrow element was imposed to divide branches over short-term factional interests through the unwarranted removal of LET`s and BET`s with the objective of popularising individuals towards Provincial and Regional Conferences.
More recent divisive fascist threats fronting as socialists whilst maintaining their individualistic capitalist private accumulative agendas have manipulated some sections of the youth into believing that rhetoric without reason or substance is the answer to unemployment and poverty. The PEC therefore comprehends that building progressive youth structures remains a fundamental task in combating empty rhetoric of this tenderpreneurs tendency.
The PEC did however note that a substantial quantity of coloured activists and community members re-joined the ranks of the people`s camp in this election campaign, our collective failure however was that we were unable to isolate and eliminate wedge-drivers and elements of the "new tendency" still prevalent in the ranks of the ANC in the Province. Moreover, the complete lack of active branch structures of the Alliance in key areas directly attributed to the lack of overwhelming quantitative support in coloured communities.
The rejection of the DA in many Coloured and African communities in the Western Cape, due to its anti-poor and neo-liberal character, is indicative of the groundswell discontent of rural and urban working class towards the widening class gap in the Province. This organic manifestation has not however been led by the ANC in the main, instead remnants of the "new tendency" in the Province, due to their insistence on fixating on internal divisions and short-term position jostling have side-lined and isolated revolutionary community activists taking up the struggle of the masses. The PEC is of a firm belief that uniting the people`s camp is not only the principal task of the SACP and ANC in the Province, but more importantly and strategically the immediate task at hand of COSATU in the province as well.
Underpinning the fifth democratic general election results in the province is a noticeable increase in ANC support in the rural hinterlands and outlying regions of the Western Cape. The quantitative increase in support in rural areas as opposed to the DA`s consolidation of the urban middle class vote must be broadly analysed to assess the strategy and programme of action towards the 2016 local government elections. The Party therefore considers the rollout of the second, more radical phase of the national democratic revolution geared towards amongst other policies, land and economic transformation as a means to increase and consolidate the rural vote. Furthermore, the PEC has resolved to strengthen the unity of the people`s camp in all of our communities by re-deploying Red Brigades volunteers and rolling out the Know Your Neighbourhood Campaign as a continuous means to engage on the conditions facing our people.
International Solidarity
The PEC deliberated on pertinent issues on the International Front, including but not limited to the ongoing misrepresentation of events by Western consumer media over the ongoing state of affairs in Ukraine. The Party in the province has also aligned recent support issued by the SACP Central Committee to associate with the international call "To Bring Back Our Girls" in Nigeria. The PEC also welcomed the historical Palestinian Agreement brokered between Hamas and the PLO, this move of unity will be a positive step towards confronting Apartheid Israel.
Continuity of momentum: Red Brigades and Know your neighbourhood campaign
The SACP in the Western Cape will continue to defend and strengthen the unity of COSATU through establishing work place units, deploying Red Brigades in industrial areas during the Qina Msebenzi Campaign and the continuous rollout of joint and complementary programmes and activities.
As the 2016 local government elections approach, the SACP in the Province, through our extensive engagements with the masses led by our Branch, District and Provincial Red Brigade leadership have determined to maintain the SACP "Red Momentum" by re-deploying our trained volunteers into the field to strengthen and build Party structures as a means to develop and consolidate working class hegemony. The re-deployment of Red Brigades will also act as a precursor towards the reclaiming of working class political power in all of our localities come 2016.
The SACP in the Province will redouble its efforts over the next six months in taking responsibility for the National Democratic Revolution as a direct route to Socialism. The onslaught of neo-liberalism, both in the form of the DA City and Provincial Administration as well as its internal infection within the Alliance must be viewed as a vile mechanism to maintain a commoditised working class. Through the historic and principal vanguard Party in the SACP we will continue to raise our Red Flag in defence of the defenceless in all sites of struggle and key sites of power - towards the 2016 Local Government Elections and beyond.
Issued by SACP Western Cape
Enquires
Khaya Magaxa - SACP Provincial Secretary
Mobile: 083 721 0221
Masonwabe Sokoyi - SACP Provincial Spokesperson
Mobile: 074 177 2068
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