South African Communist Party treasurer general Phillip Dexter has warned that a culture of ”revisionism, opportunism, ideological incoherence and factionalism” is consuming the party at the expense of its historical role as a leader of South Africa’s working class.
In a hard-hitting paper titled Working Class Leadership, Political Power and Hegemony in the National Democratic Revolution: The Role and Responsibility of the SACP, Dexter writes: ”The party cannot claim to be the vanguard in the revolution when some in it are seen to compromise with and pander to tribalism, mis-ogyny, populism and opportunism.
”Part of the process of the SACP assuming the leadership role it must play is demonstrating the necessary maturity and responsibility required to lead. There is little sign of these qualities at present.”
Dexter suggests that since the death of popular general secretary Chris Hani in 1993, the SACP has experienced ”a marked decline”.
The chief reason was the party’s inability to introspect and its tendency to shift the blame for its failure to ”advance socialism” on to the ANC.
Dexter writes: ”The focus of the SACP should be, in the first instance, not on what the ANC has not done or what it has done incorrectly, but on what the SACP has or has not done. The fact that [it has failed to advance socialism] is not a weakness of the ANC, but is a reflection of the objective conditions the party faces and the subjective conditions, including the weaknesses of the SACP.
”Of late, there has been an attempt to interpret the SACP programme to mean socialism is the future, but because we want it now, we will pretend that the conditions exist for socialist policies to be implemented by the ANC government!
”The failure of the ANC to do so has then been characterised as being the result of a ‘class project’ whose interest lies in stopping the advance of socialism. The very notion of this ‘class project’ needs to be thoroughly interrogated [because] it has been grossly distorted and vulgarised to suit the objective of this analysis.”
Dexter says the same ”reckless” tone is applied to BEE. ”While many black business people have been criticised for accumulating wealth, those that donate money to the party are usually spared such criticism. Similarly, many SACP leaders lead a lifestyle equivalent to these BEE ‘moguls’, driving 4x4s, living in exclusive neighbourhoods, sending their children to private schools; yet the same party leaders criticise the culture of materialism they see in others!”
He said responsibility for the current crisis should be placed at the door of the SACP leadership, which he describes as ”rigid, doctrinaire, dogmatic, quasi-Stalinist”.
There was an attempt to centralise all power in the party ”in the hands of the general secretary [Blade Nzimande] and a few individuals around him [which reduced the party] to what is essentially a media and communications exercise aimed at backing various individuals in the coming ANC conference.”
Detailing the effects of the leadership crisis, Dexter said ”it is doubtful that the SACP was present in even 1% of the 5 000 protests around service delivery reported by the South African Police Service last year”.
He condemned the SACP’s support for ANC deputy president Jacob Zuma, suggesting it undermined the very democracy the party wanted to build: ”The strategy of those in the SACP who seek to defend the deputy president of the ANC on the grounds that they allege he is the victim of a political conspiracy [have] undermined the [very state they wish to utilise] to defend the national democratic revolution.”
Dexter argues that the Young Communist League (YCL) has primed factionalism in the SACP stemming from the Zuma saga.
”The YCL has acted as a faction in the SACP and not as its youth wing. A prime example of this is the YCL’s ongoing campaign to reopen the Chris Hani inquest, suggesting there is evidence they have that requires it being reopened. Most political leaders are aware of the innuendo that lies behind this call. If such evidence exists, why has the YCL not brought this to the attention of the SACP or law enforcement agencies?”
Dexter said the SACP was at the crossroads, and had to decide ”whether it wants to be a free rider in the national democratic revolution or an active participant. The performance of the party in recent times has been lacking severely in its ability to lead the working class. This was not always the case.”
The document does not yet have official standing in the SACP. Dexter submitted it for publication in the upcoming edition of the SACP’s publication, African Communist.