Membership Orientation of the South Communist Party

An Ideological Reflection by SA Dikole.

Introduction
The recent growth of membership of the SACP in the NW province remains
acceptable but also raises lot of dialectical questions that will need scientific
answers. Now let us begin by saying that in a class existing society each society
will be characterised by class struggle, hitherto class struggle will be
characterisation of a society. Contending classes will fight to erect a new
superstructure on their own ways
The Capitalist System for example it has a method of recruiting and probing
workers both in lower and upper managerial level with a sole purpose of
reinforcing method of achieving profit accumulation. Measures which are
available in the capitalist laws are to understand your capability of bringing more
production at the work place. It also applies risk measures as a tool that gives a
determination on whether by recruiting employees or agency the company will
be at jeopardy or what. The main aim of the measures is to make the system to
flourish and achieve its own historical mission.
Speaking from the Marxist-Leninist point of view-the main objectives of each
Communist Party is to build a socialist society which will ultimately lead into a
classless communist society. The entry point to that it is not utopian, let alone
mechanical. It is a process which requires the fight to overthrow the capitalist
system. It is precisely for this reason as the SACP we had always been saying
socialism is the future, build it now. The SACP calls for building momentum for
socialism, capacity for socialism, element for socialism here and now. The
minimum programme between class alliances remains a proper guide to action
which it clearly calls for correct participation by our members into it. Recruitment
in a class existing society remains a power base for each class. In this regard
each class teaches its members on its objectives, mission and vision, and
therefore members are expected to perform on that basis. It also serves as a
form of strength for each structure as it will bring new energy, more power which
will need to be crafted within a particular set of rules and standards. Power must
be captured so that it can be transformed for a particular class objective.
Therefore it means that recruitment in its centrality must have a particular target
which is been underpinned by agenda of biasness of bring strength into the Party
Organization. Borrowing from a popular dictum from GDR communists 1 we can
out rightly says trust is good but a watchful eye is better. The main objective of
our discussion is to make a particular attempt to unravel as well as to dislocate ill
discipline within our ranks as well as the ideological confusion that is the sole
protagonist in the politics of the SACP in the Northwest Province with intention
to reinforce what the SACP is all about and what it is not.

German Democratic Republic or East Germany as it was known in the west.

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A deliberate question will have to be asked which will really assist the collective
to reach the set targets:

Class Character of SACP membership.

Class Character of SACP recruitment target and its ideological orientation
Level of class consciousness
Understanding of Party discipline/Iron hand discipline within the historical
content
Party Activism
The role of the Party Organization.

Voluntarism
In the revolutionary movement, each organisation it has a clause which address
question of voluntarism. Key important aspect is about joining the organisation
voluntarily and not for personal or materials gains 2.
In a strict sense, voluntarism has a class origin and orientation. A reflection of
voluntarism within revolution is a true reflection of democracy within a structure
(democratic centralism).
Coming back to the aspect of class voluntarism in a capitalistic system
participation in every structure is been characterised by individualism and
personal gain, whereas in a revolutionary organisation voluntarism is been
underpinned by the programme of fighting capitalism and building socialism
which would necessary lead to a classless communist society. Self sacrifice of
members of the SACP into the SACP programme is a must not a choice precisely
because of the iron discipline principle in the communist movement as a one
important communist outlook.
In 1953, the CPSA disbanded and called a congress under the condition of
illegality. Out of that congress the SACP emerged as a new name of a communist
organisation in South Africa in particular and Africa in general.
Central to the disbandment there was a deliberate decision to rework
voluntarism within the frame work a draconian legislation called Suppression of
Communism Act of 1949. The Communist Party deemed it fit necessary to
identify party cadres who are prepared to do party work under illegality and
clandestinely.
At the current epoch, we need to check whether profound understanding of
voluntarism has been engendered. We are raising this because political
consciousness is at lower ebb within Party organisations.
The emphasis here is that we need to resuscitate communist voluntarism and
use tools of analysis to monitor its application within the context of theory and
practice.
2

Strategy and Tactics of African National Congress(organizational renewals)

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Whether like it or not, voluntarism is a bedrock for existence of a communist

party in any quarter of the globe. Finally voluntarism form critical components of
cadre development.

Responsibilities of a Communist Party

Communist Party is an organization of responsibilities and responsible

people, solely for people to undermine and disrespect the capitalist
system, and build socialist society that will lead into building of a
classless communist society.
In doing that we should take into cognisance the nature of capitalism,
ranging from the time when Karl Marx exposes the deficiency of Adam
Smith in theory of labour and surplus value. Marx also went further to
expose the weakness of French Socialist like Francis Bacon, he exposed
problems of Utopian Socialism
Marxism is a weapon and a revolutionary theory of the working class. It
is not a dogma but a living science.
It was Lenin, when all former European socialist were trying to
undermine values and qualities of Marxian doctrine came very strong
to defend Marxism, its only omnipotence and consummate3.
Revolution has stages that are determined by material realities. In
1921 the SACP was formed as a first Marxist Leninist in Africa. It was
also first non racial, non sexist organization in theory and practice.
Post liberation party lost many of its cadre to the state, business and
ANC, since they believed that there is no need for the party.
Currently the party is facing a challenge of gate keeping and while at
the same time infiltration into the ranks of the party is so stupendous
and shocking.
Every faction that emanates from ANC targets the Party for narrow
selfish interests.
To understand the party is to understand the ANC, the relationship is
being determined by common commitment in fighting capitalism
without any spirit of upholding values of capitalism. Central to this
particular effect SACP in the province should equip its members to lead
ANC programme without any entryism that we are currently
experiencing- i.e. people swell the ranks of the Party so that they could
be taken into government position and only come to Party with ulterior
motives.
One purpose of the national democratic revolution is to fight national
grievances in whatever form it manifest itself. The apparent
manifestation of grievances is expressed through civil a protest which

Lenin in 1913 presented a lecture in one of Marx anniversary which he clearly

articulated three sources and components of Marxism

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in real sense is class struggle in action. On the other side greed and
private accumulation that is been perpetuated through political and
reconfigured capitalist system.
Party cadres have responsibility to understand Marxism and Leninism
and put it into action, as Lenin would say there can be no theory
without practice.
In a nutshell, Communist is planners and implementers. They are not
people who pay lip service to the programme.
Coming Back to the dissatisfaction of the masses (by the way voting in
the democratic is a true expression of class struggle in action) each
social groups cast their vote to political parties of their choice.
It is erroneous to listen to anyone who wants to project democracy as a
reflection a capitalist class accumulation through manipulation of
constitutional rights of every citizen in the country. Responsibility of the
party is not solely mobilise people to vote, it has a responsibility to
guard
against
process
of
linking
the
vote
to
political
tenderpreneuralship.
The important aspect of political mandate of the SACP is to protect
voters against any form abuse of voters by political system.

Iron Hand Discipline

Founding Fathers of communism and working class movement qualifies
Party discipline as an inseparable to the discipline of the army. Iron hand
discipline is an asset to any revolutionary Party, therefore members are
expected to uphold it and champion it. Its actual mission is to assist the
party in carrying its own mission in order to full the historic mission of
emancipating the working class. It is not an abuse as the liberal scholars
will argue, but a method to build a cadre, responsible and accountable
individuals within the collective For CPSA to disband and emerge as SACP
in 1953, meant one thing, that the party laid a framework for iron
discipline amongst its members who were carrying heavy mandate on
their shoulders. It for this reason that SACP led different terrains of
struggle which led to the 1994 breakthrough.
Learning from the masses

The party has to learn from the masses and teach the masses what
they have learned from them.
Let us go back to the interview which Karl Marx had with Chicago
Tribune. He indicated that revolution cannot be performed by the party
but the masses. In collaboration to that Lenin during his tenure warned
communist not to abuse the word people. Within society there are
communities, institutions, organisations and leaders who represent

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different classes interests in class struggle precisely to erect a new

superstructure with its class reflection.
In some other instances there will be always the hard areas for ANC to
visit precisely because of dissatisfaction of the voters. SACP had went
further (since 1999) to mobilise people in the area which masses are in
despair. Independently SACP have not gone back to those areas and
monitor changes (if any) after the Election.
Walking in the community it will normally means understanding the
values, traditions and moods of that communities.
Communists must understand class composition of each community.
This serves as a tool to mastermind the nature of civil protests which
has been characterised by anger and the distrust of young people as it
has been demonstrated through barricades and burning tyres.
Our role is to identify anarchy within the whole process secondly, we
must find out whether services which people are crying for are
available or not. If they are not available there must be a class attitude
to their absence which will lead to a concrete scientific planning of
demanding them in line with easy talking when we mobilise voters.
Wittingly or unwitting the South African political system regards
masses of our people as a commodity.(we shall deal with it when we
describe wrong ideas in the SACP)

Class Character of Party Membership

Should the SACP have confident in its membership growth? Had at any
point implemented concern that was raised by the 12th SACP Congress
that quantity of drastic membership growth should be developed into
quality? In an attempt to engage with the content of these philosophical
questions i will concentrate on the patterns of growth as well as its
trends .Firstly when Party membership collapses it is always difficult for
members to renew their membership. Others they renew whilst others
they dont do it altogether. To me the reason is simple, it is because that
the recruitment process was flawed from the initial stage, leaders were in
a hurry to meet a constitutional requirement of having a structure.
Secondly it is a known fact that Party membership grows only when it was
about the congress to take place. Central to that these memberships are
not exposed to SACP rules and principles but only about electing
leadership, which in many virtue are very detrimental to the SACP. To me
this really undermines the spirit of build cadre who will be of a high
communist standard bearer in a Communist Movement. The constitution of
the party stipulates that membership is open to any member who accepts the
Programme and Constitution of the Party organizations, pays membership dues
and works in one of the Party organizations. No one can be a Party member
unless he fulfils these requirements. But no Communist should rest content with
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being a Party member who merely fulfils the minimum requirements; as laid
down in the Party Constitution, he should strive to make progress ceaselessly
raise the level of his political consciousness and diligently study MarxismLeninism, as manifested throughout their lives. Constitution is a well thought of
coherent and scientific document which embodies collective interests of the
organization against interests of individuals .It is the best weapon and a rightful
tool for every Party member to rely on, champion it, as well as nurturing its
defence.

A historical principle of any Marxist Leninist Party dictates every member

to be conversant with the works of Marxian Doctrine. One should become
a fulltime student of Marx, Engels, Lenin and other great revolutionaries. It
means that immediately you are recruited into the Party you become a
Partisan Philosopher. Concretely the Party should develop a clear
programme which educates members on the Party theory and ideology.
This will assist in building a new cadre who will be armed with
revolutionary theory and have understanding of the World Outlook. Party
is an organization of revolutionaries, people who are interested in
liberating mankind. Karl Marx says the emancipation of the working class
should be the work of working class itself. Of course revolutionaries are
not born (like Kings and Queens).They are product of society at the time
when consciousness of people evolve in conflict with oppression. It is quite
important for Party to have a programme which teaches membership on
politics of Marxism Leninism. It is within the Party Organisation whereby
members are taught to be independent thinker precisely to assist in
defending the policy of organizations. In true sense members of the Party
should develop tenacity to study. Now the fundamental question that
should be asked is whether it is not the rightful time for SACP also to
institutionalize cadre development and develop a national Party School
with permanent staff, academics, lecturers, professors and so forth? Since
well SACP is a Class Party, at every corner of society we need to
understand class composition of a given society, say for a example at a
particular ward level a Party branch should be able to understand the
nature of a class composition on the entirety of a ward based system.
Purportedly this will assist SACP to have a comprehensive understanding
of classes in the society, as this will further assist the Party to wage a
offensive war against its class opponents in the struggle for socialism. The
same length and breadth will assist SACP to forge tactical alliance with
other class forces in the democratic revolution. New members of the Party
must be taught to recognise the outstanding contribution made by
forbearers of revolution such as SP Bunting,TW Thibedi Ivo Jones Bill
Andrews, Johannes Nkosi ,Josiah Mpama(Josie Palmer)Dora Tamana and so
forth. By learning about individual sterling contribution within the
collective is a simple method to acquire ammunition that will make
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members to understand their role as well as to sharpen their revolutionary

activism.
Class Consciousness
Our society is one of the highly political conscious in the world. It is not
accidental that now and then there are political developments as well as
political responds (either in a form of strike).Therefore the dominant
question which ruins and torment my head remains; can we equate
political consciousness to class consciousness? In attempting to provide
answers to such a question we must indicate that class consciousness
must be underpinned by political consciousness in its character. Similarly
political consciousness must have class consciousness. Of course the
process is not a mechanical but rather a scientific process which
mastermind realities of classes and politics. In simple terms a class
conscious worker/member must understand composition of classes in a
given society, as well understanding political position of classes in a
struggle to erect superstructure
Class struggle is a fundamental component of Marxism-Leninism;
therefore members of the Party are obliged to understand it so as to
master its composition in order to measure revolutionary activism within
our ranks. In the recent past members of the party had been participating
within the struggle which in either way depicted members either on the
side of the employer and government. When discussion arises members
plays politics of conformity by defending their different sides, therefore
understanding the fundamentals of class struggle it assist the
organization to intervene correctly by exposing capitalism in the whole
struggle. In simple terms class approach to realities is very much
important.
Party Activism/Communist Cadre to the Front
Party membership is centred on the policy of activism, save to say you
cant be a member and remain doing nothing except being stagnant .One
should fight to have an exposure to the consummate of a scientific theory.
Interests of individuals should not at any point supersede the interests of
the Party. Activism entails self sacrifice selflessness to the life of the Party
from all walks of life. Through the laws of dialectical science an activist in
the communist movement will reach a particular development which then
there is an emergence of a cadre. Cadres are the life and blood of the
organization. During the fall of Soviet Union when there was abandoning
of communist ideology, SACP refused to compromise its communist values
and standards that were acquired and steeled through difficult years of
struggle. Joe Slovo was one of the outstanding cadres who asked difficult
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question on the values of socialism and brought scientific answer. When

many wrong ideas were dominant that the SACP should disband and
change its name, leaders such as Chris Hani and Slovo believed that the
Party should exist, as long as classes are existing in South African society.
Wrong Ideas in the SACP
Since the fall of Soviet Union many vocabulary in the working class
movement went missing. It is very rare were you hear comrades talking
about Party infiltration .Do we have infiltration in the SACP? Yes it is there
but very sophisticated and difficult to identify particularly when there is no
yardstick to determine it. Today you have many influential people in the
SACP who are now anti communists. It is a well known fact that in the
SACP there are also wrong tendencies which are clearly manifest able on
how membership and leadership conduct themselves. This happens
exactly where we work, study and live. Subsequent to that we should
make an attempt to distinguish Vanguardism from vanguard parachuting.
Wrong ideas are nothing but expression on the failures of the capitalist
system.

.(a)Vanguard labelling be equated to selfish narrow interests

Tendency in the Party organization is that other people went they assume
particular responsibilities they use it to authenticate patronage in the
areas of influence. When you are a leader in the Party you should
automatically be given responsibility in spheres of government and the
ANC. Spirit of collectivism is perpetually been undermine by individualism
and competition for power. Say for example comrade X will only be
portrayed as a capable comrade for a particular cause more especially
when it comes to areas of power. Tendencies are such that X must be
accorded for self development and not the entire organizational
development .What we are saying is that the type of behaviour is
dangerous in the party in a sense that it create better individual instead of
a better structure and a better communities. Further it divides the party
structures within the communities. ANC is been regarded as a means for
living by some amongst us, where we advance our personal interests
through cadre deployment and other means. The principle for communists
is to bring new energy and strength in the National Democratic Revolution
and champion the interests of the working people, since ANC is a terrain
of struggle4
4

See the ANC January 8 Statement on the centenary

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(b)Vanguardism
Zhou En Lai5 has made an outstanding characterization on what the party
leadership is all about. According to him leadership is about collectivism
and the unity of purpose (in this regard to fight capitalism).A revolutionary
leader does not lead far ahead with the masses but within the masses .A
leader cannot lead from behind because he/she will be a tail ender. In
given the content of what was said by Zhou , was championed by SACP
through the entrenchment of a certain clause that dictates organizational
accountability in leadership6.In simple terms Vanguardism cannot be
equated to individualism as if the organization is a consortium or a cartel.
Vanguardism is simply a powerful nucleus of living cells in the
organization with a purpose of building a life in the SACP, solely for the
Party
to
be
compatible,
flexible
,portable
(and
arguably
fashionable)Vanguardism is about qualitative and permanent living
organization that is capable to reconstitute society from one form to
another through an organizational forms.
Conclusion
Building the SACP in the current epoch will need a thorough political
education of members. Therefore the Party should develop a yardstick to
measure both quantitative and qualitative process that will make positive
outcomes. Society needs a Party for a social liberation. Central to that, the
SACP must produce people who can lead and unite a class towards a class
victory. Therefore it means that SACP should not be build only when we
want to be elected as leaders emerging from the congress. To me it is a
level of ill discipline because in many virtues we dont meet as collective
to measure implementation of resolution taken. Members of the Party
must be taught on the national question in order to mastermind the
minimum programme within class alliance. South African Communist Party
must recruit members who will participate into the programme of the
Party. Only through participation by members into the party programme,
where we will emerge with communists as the bedrock of organization
.Building communism is the rockiest and ardours road which organization
and its members had to travel. In simple terms let us train the combatants
for a protracted class battle. In so doing we should also provide necessary
and relevant ammunition, based on our understanding of the strength of
the revolutionary army.

5
6

See selected works of Zhou En Lai

SACP constitutional clause

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BIBLIOGRAPHY

1. Marxist Archive
2. Li Juhru; What do you know about Communist Party Of China?p64
3. Liu Shaqui : how to be a good communist?
4. www.anc. Org.za; Strategy and Tactics of the ANC
5. Selected works of Lenin,p120;Lenin on Malinovsky
6. Zhou En Lai Selected Works: Foreign press publisher
7. Red Flag
8. ABC; what is the Party ,progress publisher
9. MTV; programme adopted by the SACP 12th Congress

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