Cash-strapped communists are to benefit from financial and political support, write Ferial Haffajee and Sechaba kaNkosi
The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) will soon provide financial and political support to the South African Communist Party (SACP). A resolution taken at Cosatus sixth national congress last week puts to rest calls for an independent workers party, first suggested by the labour federations second biggest trade union in 1993, the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa (Numsa), and reiterated in the September Commission report last month.
The new plan provides an economic and political fillip to the cash-strapped communist party and marks a successful end to behind-the-scenes lobbying by senior communist officials at the congress. It presents a challenge for us to be the leading political force of the working class, said Langa Zita, the SACPs education officer.
Cosatu will contribute a percentage from members subscriptions to the party though the exact amount will only be decided at the federations next central executive committee meeting in November. It goes beyond a monetary relationship, says Mbuyiselo Ngwenda, general secretary of the 220000-strong Numsa. He says there will be joint Cosatu/communist education programmes, political discussions and campaigns.
There is a specific goal for a transformation to socialism. The resolution has its origins in persuasive arguments by communist officials outside the congress and in their influence in policy debates during the meeting.
The Food and Allied Workers Union proposed the resolution. It found strong support from the influential Numsa, South African Democratic Teachers Union, South African Municipal Workers Union and the public sector union National Education, Health and Allied Workers Union (Nehawu).
Both Cosatu and SACP leaders are quick to point out that the resolution does not in any way suggest they are ganging up on the ruling African National Congress. Instead they say it represents a practical shift by Cosatu away from a workerist tendency to a practical socialist agenda.
Ngwenda says the most important thing about the resolution is the fact that socialist forces within the alliance are uniting to define a transformation programme and how they want it implemented by the alliance. Says Ngwenda: We need a transformative struggle that locates within its vision a socialist agenda. The key forces that can drive such a struggle are Cosatu and the communist party.
The two organisations expect no disquiet from the ANC for their programme, which is at odds with current economic thinking. Remember that the ANC is not socialist, but its not anti-socialist either, says Ngwenda. Both Zita and Ngwenda say they are striving for a very different socialist system to that which has been trounced around the world.
Its a socialism in which you can no longer plan everything. You need competition because that brings innovation, says Zita.