South African Communist Party general secretary Blade Nzimande has taken a side-swipe at President Thabo Mbeki in an article in the party’s online publication, Umsebenzi, this week.
Quoting Mbeki’s call in the African National Congress’s online publication last week to “engage all progressive forces in our country, in Africa and the rest of the world” to build a new people-centered order, Nzimande said this meant “avoiding taking the [ruling Tripartite] Alliance for granted”, or “gambling with its unity willy-nilly, as some within our ranks are opportunistically tempted to do nowadays”.
The ANC’s alliance partners — the SACP and the Congress of South African Trade Unions — have been under attack by Mbeki and senior members of the Cabinet for opposing what they say is the government’s neo-liberal macroeconomic policy.
Mbeki, who wrote his article after attending a meeting of the Socialist International in Brazil last week, spoke about “opposing the neo-liberal market ideology, the neo-conservative agenda, and the unilateralist approach”.
Nzimande agreed that neo-liberal policies should be opposed, but hinted that some “social democratic parties … promote the very same neo-liberal policies in government beneath the very grand declarations of fighting for democracy, socio-economic justice and poverty eradication”.
Nzimande pointed out that the “the foundation of our effective participation in any global front of progressive forces against neo-liberalism is the unity of the Tripartite Alliance and all progressive forces within our ‘nation-state’. This also means the translation of our strategic convergence into common policy positions.”