2-18-05, 3:18 pm
NZIMANDE CALLS ON SACP TO INTENSIFY MASS WORK FOR ACCESS TO ESSENTIAL SERVICES: SUMMARY OF POLITICAL REPORT TO THE SACP CENTRAL COMMITTEE
Earlier this morning, the General Secretary of the South African Communist Party (SACP), Blade Nzimande, presented his Political Report to the first meeting for 2005 of the Party’s Central Committee taking place in Johannesburg this weekend.
“In light of the eruptions in the Free State & other parts of the country, our Party has an important role to mobilise working class & poor communities for access to basic & essential services. As part of our programme of action for 2005, we must launch the ‘Know your Neighbourhood’ campaign as our practical contribution to mobilise working class & poor communities”, said Nzimande in his report.
The SACP’s programme for 2005 (under the theme “Communist cadres to the front… Build working class power for a better life: The Year of the SACP Cadre and the Freedom Charter”) is a programme that primarily seeks to consolidate and build upon our campaigns over the last few years, and continuing to consolidate our Party as a campaigning, activist SACP.
The Political Report to the CC covers the following issues:
* Taking forward the land & agrarian reform campaign in light of the pending meeting between the SACP & AgriSA * SACP work with & amongst traditional leaders & religious institutions in light of the land & financial sector campaigns * Preparations for SACP-COSATU Bilateral * The Zimbabwean crisis
The Political Report also notes that the SACP has grown by a significant 35% in membership (to reach 30,000 active & paid-up members) since our 11th Congress (July 2002). This is directly attributable to the campaigns we are undertaking and the growing activism of the Party amongst the masses. These campaigns and growth has also seen the Party increasing its engagements with an even wider range of NGOs and mass formations.
Taking forward the land & agrarian reform campaign
The key task in taking forward our land and agrarian campaign is the building of local People’s Land Committees (PLCs) to drive the campaign on the ground across the country.
In local areas, our Party branches & districts are already working on the ground with churches, land rights organisations, women’s groups & small farmers on local land and agrarian demands & building of PLCs. These PLCs bring together farm workers, youth, women, small farmers, and agricultural co-ops so that they can learn from each other, sustain mobilisation, formulate local demands and actions, strategise and struggle together engaging government, municipalities, farmers, other land owners & traditional leaders.
An important part of the land campaign this year will be the organisation of farm workers into trade unions & overcoming difficulties posed by arrogant farmers. The SACP will during the first quarter of this year hold a bilateral discussion with FAWU on how to harmonise our land and agrarian reform campaign with the organisation of farm workers into the trade union movement. This struggle should also be coupled with the struggle for the expansion of justice centres in the rural areas. Our structures at all levels will be engaging with government and other para-legal institutions on this matter.
AgriSA has requested a meeting with us. We are planning this meeting for the first week of March. This Central Committee will have to reflect on what we need to secure from this meeting. Perhaps the most important objective is to secure a commitment from AgriSA for a national land summit, an end to evictions until at least such matters are discussed at the summit, and condemnation of all acts of violence on farms.
SACP work with & amongst traditional leaders & religious institutions
Our land & financial sector campaigns are finding resonance with the churches and other religious organisations. As a result, the SACP has been meeting with traditional leaders & leaders of key religious institutions in our country. The primary challenge that arises now for the SACP is the role of our Party and the working class amongst traditional leaders & in the church/religious sector. This Central Committee needs to reflect and emerge with appropriate strategies in relation to this task.
Preparations for SACP-COSATU Bilateral
An important development this year is that we are planning to hold a full bilateral with COSATU before our Special Congress. In this bilateral we aim to exchange our perspectives and views on our respective (class) analysis of the first decade of freedom, and the challenges facing the working class as we enter the second decade of freedom. The bilateral will also seek to harmonise our 10-year visions, as well as our programmes of action for this year. Of particular importance in this regard will also be to work towards harmonising our international work, particularly in the Southern African region, and identify the tasks of the working class in the region.
The Zimbabwean crisis
The SACP has been very actively involved in the unfolding Zimbabwean situation. We have engaged with our comrades in government, and with the ANC and COSATU. We are active in the local Zimbabwe Solidarity movement, engaging with the SACC, SA Catholic Bishops Conference, and with a range of NGOs.
One guiding thread of our interventions has been to seek to ensure that our Alliance is as unified as possible on Zimbabwe – so that our various interventions and endeavours are not mutually undermining, and so that we begin to develop a common strategic analysis and understanding of the challenges and possibilities of any South African engagement.
The SACP appreciates COSATU’s response to its second expulsion. This response has been, amongst other things, to move towards organising the trade union movements of Southern Africa (through the Southern African Trade Union Coordinating Council) & mobilising workers in solidarity actions. This is a very important step, and it holds the potential for beginning to galvanise organised workers throughout our region much more actively as a motive force for ongoing democratisation.
The strategic objective of all of our interventions in the coming weeks must be to impel an opening up of as much democratic space as possible in Zimbabwe, and then seek to ensure that whatever space IS conceded REMAINS open as a base upon which to help to stabilise, normalise and build after March 31.
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