In a strategic move to assert its independence, the South African Communist Party is to launch a Young Communist League and its own policy institute this year.
The institute will be designed along the lines of workers’ colleges in Brazil and in Europe. The SACP will launch the Chris Hani Worker Leadership Development Institute, a socialist think tank and seedbed for the development of future trade unionists, in Johannesburg in April, in collaboration with the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu).
The timetable for the launch of the youth league was decided at the SACP’s central committee meeting on the weekend of February 7 to 9. The party will launch branches and start its recruitment drive between September and December.
Political commentators read the launch of the Young Communist League as an attempt to counter the African National Congress’s Youth League, which is seen by many senior alliance members as perpetuating the hold of capitalism over the youth.
The moves come as the SACP and Cosatu recover from a year in which their leadership came under repeated attack by the ANC for allegedly attempting to undermine the government. The youth wing and the insititute are the first of several moves to help broaden the SACP’s influence and support in the country.
The resolution to launch the youth wing and the institute was taken at the SACP’s 11th national congress last year, which also decided that the party should assert its independence. Discussions on fielding the party’s own candidates at the next local government elections also took place.
Two weeks ago SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande took on the ANC-led government’s chief strategist, Joel Netshitenzhe, at the Joe Slovo memorial seminar, asking: ”Should we lose our identity and tail behind the ANC because the global and domestic conditions are not there [for the establishment of a socialist state]?”
Netshitenzhe had argued that the global conditions for a socialist state did not yet exist. According to senior members of the alliance, the institute will study the development of socialist alternatives to capitalism, conduct research on poverty, the economy and other issues from a socialist perspective. It will help to build the capacity of working-class cadres and revive the culture of Marxist debate.
Another alliance member said it would ”help find space for left-leaning individuals to respond to neo-liberal challenges and engage the government on policy issues”. Party members said a seminar on the theme of building socialism now, and the relationship between socialism and the national democratic revolution, is planned for this year.
”The aim of the seminar would be to take forward the debate around the question of the possible path to socialism in South Africa,” one said.
ANC Youth League secretary general Fikile Majola said his organisation welcomed the Young Communists and did not view them as a threat. ”We think the Young Communist League will broaden the progressive base of the youth in our country,” he said.
A senior member of the alliance described the Young Communist League ”as an attempt to get people hooked on to socialism at an early age”.
National and provincial workshops on the launch have already taken place. Young activists attending these workshops are undergoing ideological training in Marxism-Leninism.
The objective of these workshops is to help the youth learn to ”critique and criticise capitalism and to empower them with the knowledge, skills, strategies and tactics to overthrow capitalism”, according to an SACP workshop on the Young Communist League held in the Western Cape.
The statement says: ”The high level of theoretical and ideological debates embodied the resolve of young communists to wage an offensive against capitalist hegemony and influence among the South African youth.
”The youth holds capitalism directly responsible for the high rate of youth unemployment, fostering material values, misleading and virtually emasculating political and class consciousness among young people in constructing a society based on equality.”
The SACP’s Mazibuko Jara described the league as an ”important platform for young people to be mobilised on a socialist agenda, which will strengthen the voice of young people”.