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Address by the YCLSA National Secretary to the SACP Second Special National Congress
11 December 2009 Comrade General Secretary, Members of the Central Committee, Leadership of Cosatu, ANC and SANCO, Comrade Delegates Receive revolutionary greetings from your Young Communist League, uFasimba, on this occasion of the Second Special National Congress of the SACP. We congratulate the SACP for having convened this august gathering as part of reaffirming the democratic practice within our Party. We are meeting here in Polokwane as part of the post-Polokwane dispensation. Today, we have Ministers, Deputy Ministers, Members of Parliament, MEC’s and various titles co-determined together with the ANC and Cosatu. This is not a reflection of the generosity on the part of the ANC, but a reflection of the strength of the Party. All members of Cabinet and provincial executives are standing on the shoulders of strong, 96 000 members of the SACP; you should never take that for granted. You should never forget that effort. You are forever indebted to the working class and the poor, and at all times, remain loyal to them. Many a leadership, fearing the rumours and lies that were spread in the newspapers and radios by disgruntled non-communists about the so-called removal of the General Secretary and some in the leadership, would have avoided convening this constitutional meeting. However because you have all the trust and confidence in whatever decisions we will take on the leadership and any other constitutional question, you oblige to the provision of the constitution. The YCLSA has reiterated that no one will destruct the current leadership as this is not an elective congress. Equally, the convening of this Special Congress is a sign that these lies about Stalinism in the Party are merely shared by a few rascals whose intentions are to leave the party anyway. To them we say - there has never been such democracy in the SACP and we are committed to strengthen it. We are also aware that as we gather, there are those who are planning to launch a so-called "democratic" left platform. Some of them, including the former Deputy National Secretary of the YCL, whom we are shocked why the SACP is still keeping as a member, are travelling the breadth and width of the country trying to pull together, with no support, this stokvel of theirs. We hang our heads in shame that he is from our ranks. In anyway, when he was in the leadership of the YCL, there was nothing young and nothing communist about him, and therefore he was in the wrong League. He was in the wrong production line, and is therefore a factory fault. Good riddance, and like Cope, your Communist Cope will crumble even before the Ides of March. Our SACP, because here you as delegates are holding our inheritance, have the duty to ensure that you give a refreshing meaning to the programmatic slogan "Socialism is the Future, build it NOW!". In doing so, we will equally be playing a central role of ensuring that Socialism in our Lifetime becomes a reality. We will never apologise, or hesitate, for being the YCLSA of the SACP. This includes the fact that anybody who dares insult our leaders instead of debating with them; we shall come into their defence. As the YCLSA of the SACP we are also proud that we are completely different from any other youth formation. We regret that some leaders of the ANC were booed yesterday. It is not in our culture because we love engaging with ideas. Those who continue to call our leaders racist should never have illusions of receiving red-carpet treatment in this congress. We have also not noticed that they pretend to be walking out of congress when in actual fact they are running away from engaging in a constructive debate with communists. We are radical, militant, but we subscribe to logic and sense. We are brave about our views, and we can stand firm on those views, but we can differ and still come out of the differences smelling roses and having earned the respect of our opponents. We are guided by Chris Hani when he said: "We ... have nothing to fear and everything to gain from a climate of political tolerance. We do not fear open contest and free debate with other organisations. Open debate can only serve to uncover the bankruptcy of our political opponents." As the YCL, we will obviously participate in the discussions in Plenary and in Commission as voting delegates. But importantly, we want to highlight the following issues as part of that engagement: Labour brokers We want to reiterate our call for the complete banning of Labour Brokers. We see Labour Brokers as slave masters of the new order, and absolutely enrich themselves from the labour power of others. We want to say to labour brokers, be warned. If parliament does not outlaw you, we will mobilise the youth of our country to take the laws into their own hands and shut down every office and car-boot where you operate. Stop earning from others’ sweat, get off your lazy bums, go and look for a job because we are coming for you. We are shocked that people that previously led in COSATU are now in fine tune with reactionary organisations and are now leading campaigns to save the modern day slave trade. The DA and COPE should refrain from deluding themselves; the YCL will fight to the very last end for the complete ban of Labour brokers! HIV/Aids We are happy that we now, since Former Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, have a sober Minister of Health Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi. His energy, dedication, and commitment should be applauded. We want to in particular welcome his rejection of Harry Porter and Potjiekos theories on HIV/AIDS and ARV’s and introducing the new National Health strategy plan. We want to reiterate our call and hope to lobby this Congress to support us on our call for both a judicial and TRC process against former President Thabo Mbeki. Someone must account, and he was the captain of the sinking ship, which substituted science for other things. We want to further applaud King Zwelethini for having committed that he will reinstate a 200 year long Zulu practice of circumcision for young boys. This for us, constitutes a leap on the practice of circumcision. Science has showed that circumcision reduced the risk of young boys from contracting STD’s and HIV/AIDS. We are therefore vindicated by this call and fully support it, we further call upon the Minister of health, Dr. Aaron Motsoaledi to ensure that there is free and compulsory circumcision for all young boys. This does not in any way replace Initiation schools, but will reinforce it and ensure that young boys survive that practice. We also want to reiterate our call for the SACP to continuously assess its relationship to state power and all other areas in society. Any party that does not seek to influence society and all facets of power is not worth its salt. People can call us reactionaries, but we know that ultimately the working class should smash the capitalist state and create working class democracy and leadership. This is not also in anyway a contradiction nor an attempt to break the Alliance. We will defend the Alliance to the bitter end for the sake of the NDR and its interconnectedness to the struggle for socialism. We are not going to be cowed out by those who say the SACP wants to impose its left agenda in the ANC. If the ANC is not influenced by the left, then who should influence it? The right? Eugene Terreblanche? The Harvard School? The ANC is working class bias to the end. Period! As the YCL, we see the global economic crises as an opportunity to create pockets of working class owned and managed factories. We believe that the economic crises is not a crisis of production (but of over-production), but a crisis of profits. We need to use the interventions from the state to support the take-over by workers of factories that are in distress. This can be in the form of co-operatives. We believe that this will bring to realisation, the element of the socialisation of the production process, run democratically with surplus value distributed democratically. For us to deal with capitalism and its dictatorship, we have to allow these elements of worker control to flourish by supporting them. In that way, let us not sponsor factories in distress, let us expropriate them and let the workers run them; in fact are already doing that as the bosses play golf with political elites whilst discussing innovative ways to exploit workers and the poor. We want to emphasise our call for access to education. The quality of basic education, and the accessibility of higher education, is going to be on top of our agenda. We are going to encourage all young people to go to school, learn and pass. For this to happen it means that the doors of learning should be open. If those doors are not open next year, we are going to force them to open. We have to close the prison doors and open the doors of learning. We have to encourage the youth to study beyond Matric. If we empower the youth through education, it means we will be empowering them forever and ensuring that our economy grows. Issued by the YCLSA Head office |