Communist youth and leaders appear sharply divided over the South African Communist Party’s weekend decision to establish a commission to inquire into the party’s electoral future.
Communist League secretary general Buti Manamela insisted that there was consensus at the SACP’s special conference in Durban that the party would go it alone in elections, in opposition to its African National Congress ally.
The catchphrase “not now — but not never” captured the conference mood, he said. “The congress was united about the need for an independent SACP voice in Parliament. As to when and how that happens, those are modalities the commission will have to deal with.”
However, a senior party leader, who asked to remain nameless, was adamant that these are “[Manamela’s] own views”. The establishment of a commission to advise the party on whether to chart its own course in the 2009 general elections “does not pre-empt a decision about the party’s electoral future,” he added.
In the build-up to the conference, the Young Communist League vociferously supported a separate communist election campaign. However, the SACP argued in two position papers that it would be unwise to mount an election campaign in opposition to the ANC. Secretary general Blade Nzimande claimed that only “a significant minority” was agitating for a separate election campaign.
Manamela said delegates at the congress agreed that the only reason they voted for the ANC in the last election was that there was no “hammer, sickle and star” — the SACP logo — on the ballot paper.
The overarching debate at the congress was how to bolster socialism to build the working class.
According to Manamela the contest was between delegates who argued that to entrench socialism the SACP would have to contest for the soul of the ANC, and advocates of gradually breaking from the alliance by consistently building the SACP into a mass party.
Manamela said the go-it-alone drive had not come only from the youth. “Some older SACP comrades in Parliament said that the only way to advance the party’s historical mission is to go it alone.”
However, a proposal by the youth that the ANC give the SACP 50-50 representation in all spheres of government was rejected by the old guard, who argued that the party should engage with the ANC to alter its deployment policy.
Currently SACP members are drafted on to ANC lists and expected to perform according to the ANC electoral mandate.
Manamela is clearly frustrated by this. “The one thing about state power is that you either transform it or it transforms you — there is no middle ground.”
Another concern was that the growth of the Young Communist League was being thwarted by certain SACP branches that wanted to “act as gatekeepers in the building of the [league],” said one of the conference documents.
Manamela said elements in the SACP argued that the party was not historically mass based, and that launching a youth arm would undermine this tradition. “So-called gatekeepers see the Young Communist League as an internal threat to the party,” said Manamela.
The Mail & Guardian understands that criticism of the Young Communist League comes mainly from the Limpopo and North West branches.
The SACP’s central executive committee will meet within a month to establish the terms of reference for the commission, which will table its findings at the party’s congress in 2007. The party will, however, contest the looming local government elections under an ANC banner.