Review, Restructure and Reorganise – Imperatives for Renewal – By Bobo Pemba
The revolution is the business of revolutionaries – like teaching is the business of teachers. It cannot be advanced by just ordinary members who have no deeper theoretical understanding of the revolution. The revolution is both a science and an art and therefore requires a revolutionary who has the precision of a scientist and the creativity of an artist.
Over the past few years the African National Congress (ANC) and its allies, SACP, COSATU and SANCO, has been confronted with many challenges. We have witnessed new phenomena alien to the democratic movement and which are too many to enumerate.
As revolutionaries we should not be alarmed by the turn of events in our Movement because it is in the nature of revolutions to take different turns at particular historical moments and there are many such examples in history. Given its own long history, the ANC has confronted similar if not worse challenges as a revolutionary Movement. It has always been able to deal with those challenges and emerge as a united force, ready to organise and mobilise our people to continue the struggle against Apartheid. The ANC always comes out better poised to deal with the challenges which on many occasions have necessitated certain changes to happen organisationally.
The Morogoro Conference, Kabwe, 1st Consultative Conference inside the country and various other fora have all necessitated changes within the Movement at different historical moments. These have contributed to ensuring that the Movement emerges more united than ever before and better resolved to confront the enemy and the challenges history places on its path to people’s power.
Tambo visits Vietnam
One of the most interesting of these moments was in October 1978 when President Oliver Tambo led a delegation to Vietnam to draw lessons from the Vietnamese leadership on how they had vanquished one of the most sophisticated military establishments in the world, namely, the United States of America. And also to creatively apply these to our conditions in South Africa, as we confronted an enemy that was the most sophisticated militarily on the African continent.
The ANC’s operational strategy had from the ‘60s to the ‘70s been centered on the development of a popular armed struggle that would arouse the masses for seizure of state power in South Africa. This approach continuously undermined the ANC’s strategic objectives and it was only between October 1978 and August 1979 that the ANC tried to unravel the paradox in the course of a formal strategic review.
The report of the Vietnam visit was tabled in a meeting of the NEC in Luanda on 27 December 1978 and 1 January 1979. The meeting amongst other things decided to set up the Politico Military Strategic Commission whose mandate was to consolidate the report from the Vietnam delegation and make recommendations to the NEC and the Revolutionary Council (RC).
Interesting to note about this exercise was the amount of time it took and the fact that the report became known as the Green Book – which for me is the bible of our Movement that led our path to power. Members are encouraged to read the Green Book, which is today a public ANC document on the website of our organisation. I am confident that once comrades have read the document they will agree that the principles of “Review, Restructure and Reorganise” are the basis of the strategic review contained in the Green Book.
The point is that the process proposed may take as much time but it has to be seen within the context of the Green Book and its impact to the broader objectives of the National Democratic Revolution and our people’s victory over the forces of Apartheid and colonialism (of a special type). This strategic review led to mass mobilisation for people’s war and the establishment of the Congress of South African Students (COSAS), Release Mandela Campaign (RMC), United Democratic Front (UDF), Congress of South African Trade Union (COSATU), Mass Democratic Movement (MDM) and many other progressive organisations that united our people to mobilise against the destruction of apartheid.
The ANC and its allies led the process of the establishment of these democratic formations and through united and organised masses of our people in action we defeated Apartheid with the ANC as the vanguard of the heroic struggles of the people.
Fundamental question in the ANC today
Over the years, our Movement has developed scientific and correct policy positions, which were well- articulated by our leaders whether in prison, underground or in exile. This was a direct result of tried and tested quality leadership that was democratically elected in conferences of the ANC and its allies throughout the history of struggle.
The leadership collective understood the importance of abiding by the basic and fundamental principles that held our Movement together throughout the period of the conduct of the struggle against Apartheid.
I will not attempt to infer that there were no mistakes and excesses conducted by some of our leaders. Some of these were very serious and impacted our Movement negatively. In some instances, the Movement took drastic measures like expelling some of those leaders. Because of the kind of leadership we had, the Movement was able to emerge better poised and resolved to engage the enemy. The strategic review that led to the Green Book is one of those moments.
There are many new members who have found themselves as leaders in our organisations without necessary revolutionary theory, discipline, morality, etc. that should constitute the basis or basics for all ANC cadres. As is well-known to many, the last decade has been a difficult period for our organisation and that is when some of these members found themselves in leadership of the ANC. Some of our long-standing leaders were also not innocent and in fact were at the forefront of some of these processes that facilitated the degeneration of our Movement and the betrayal of our revolution.
The fundamental question in the ANC today is not its policies. It is the leadership that is tasked with the responsibility of implementing correct policies of the ANC at all levels of the organisaton. Many leaders are not cadres of the revolution. They are not cadres of a special type. They cannot advance the cause of our people. They have no interest and ability to provide basic services to our people. They are self-serving individuals of no consequence.
The revolution is the business of revolutionaries – like teaching is the business of teachers. It cannot be advanced by just ordinary members who have no deeper theoretical understanding of the revolution. The revolution is both a science and an art and therefore requires a revolutionary who has the precision of a scientist and the creativity of an artist.
These members have to undergo basic political training and development to understand the complex history of our country, ANC, enemy, various forces progressive and otherwise, economy, political economy, class struggle, balance of forces, global politics, international relations, diplomacy, UN Systems etc.
The Movement has hundreds of highly trained political commanders and commissars. Particularly former MK commanders who are more than willing to make time available to train our new members – particularly those who are in leadership positions.
Individuals and history
It is necessary to look at the role of individual(s) in terms of how recent historical events unfolded and how the individual single-handedly reversed the revolutionary gains of the South African revolutionary process.
There is no question about the role of the masses as the makers of history in Marxist-Leninist revolutionary theory. However, the role of the individual in history cannot be underestimated.
The general view theoretically is that the emergence of the individual is an “accident” and not a “necessity”. The relationship between these phenomena of “accident” and “necessity” is a dialectical relationship. Engels asserts that in his “Dialectics of Nature” that the emergence of a particular “Great individual is accidental” whilst the emergence of a Great Leader or visionary in general (at key moments in history) may be “necessary”.
Revolutionary theory does not negate the emergence of “Great Individuals’ but that their emergence is normally dictated by historical conditions. In other words, certain historical moments and conditions may need and require individuals with certain qualities and characteristics as dictated by the natural laws of history that have a major impact on the evolution of the revolutionary process in a given country.
History has witnessed a number of such ‘Great Individuals” that were a direct result of conditions prevalent in their countries at different historical moments.
These great men (and women) have played different roles in their various countries. Some of these are our own namely, Chief Albert Luthuli, Oliver Tambo, Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Govan Mbeki, Raymond Mhlaba, Albertina Sisulu, Winnie Madikizela Mandela, Helen Joseph, etc. Recently, our conditions produced Thabo Mbeki, Kgalema Mothlante, Jacob Zuma, Cyril Ramaphosa, etc.
Other conditions produced Tsar Nicholas II of Russia, Charles 1 of England, Ceasar, Louis XVI of France, Bonaparte, Karl Marx, Frederich Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Trostsky, Mao, Hitler, etc.
Important to observe in this regard is that each of these individuals possess certain personality features and characteristics that are unique and which are a direct result of their own environment and socialisation. These personality and hereditary traits as well as revolutionary characteristics of the individual are what determine the role of the individual in history.
Bourgeois historians and social commentators always attribute the developments of history to the individual’s personality only. In contrast, Marxist theoreticians attribute the role of these individuals not only to their personality, but to the sum-total of the historical conditions and processes obtaining in that historical space and time.
What is to be done?
This question is always an important question in the International Revolutionary Movement (IRM). It is always posed during the most difficult historical moments in the revolution. The answer to the question requires deep thought because the consequences of the answer will have a major effect on our country and will affect the future of millions of South Africans, Southern Africa, Africa and the rest of the developing world.
The 54th Conference of the ANC has amongst other resolutions called for the renewal of our organisation and the following proposal seeks to set out practical steps to implement the resolution.
- REVIEW POLICIES OF THE ANC
Constitution, Membership, Branches, Conference, Delegates, Political Education, etc.
- RESTRUCTURE ANC STRUCTURES
National Executive Committee, Presidency, Leagues, MK
- REORGANOISE INNER ORGANISATIONAL DEMOCRACY
Organisational Democracy, Democratic Centralism, Inner Party Life, Intra Party Life etc.
At a national level this process will include the current and former Presidents as Chief Conveners. It might be prudent to include former Presidents. The current President will become the Chief Convenor and the former Presidents who will be Co-convenors of relevant Committees. This will consequently report to the Chief Convenor.
At a Provincial level the NEC will deploy an NEC member to be the Chief Convener and current and former Chairpersons and Secretaries as Co- Conveners of various Committees. At a regional level the PEC will deploy a PEC member as Chief Convener and current and former Chairpersons and Secretaries as Conveners of various Committees.
The various committees will be populated by veterans, members of the current NEC, leadership of alliance partners. The committees should be allowed to co-opt progressive experts who will cross the t’s and dot the i’s once the work is complete. This process should be allocated a timeframe by which the work should be complete.
Once the work is complete, there should be a special sitting within the NGC focusing specifically on finalising the work of the Committee. It should deliberate on new policies and resolve to have them adopted by the next elective Conference, which will adopt new policies and other changes recommended to Conference.
This work must include the issue of the delegates because we have to be careful not to send voting fodder to Conference. That, in my view, would lay a firm foundation for the renewal and revival of the ANC. It would again be the organization we all knew and loved as the authentic representative of the majority of South Africans.
Important to note about this is that throughout this period the committees should inform the public about developments in the work they are doing. This approach may give a sense that the ANC is serious about the future of our country and about its own future. This could lead to the broader populace embracing the ANC as their only authentic representative once again.
Our revolutionary alliance
It is also important that we remain conscious of the dialectical relationship between the national content of our class struggle and the class content of our national struggle. Failure to understand this dialectic poses the danger of never understanding the organic nature of the relationship between our pursuit of the national democratic revolution and the socialist revolution. This is the basis for the historic imperative of the revolutionary alliance between the ANC, SACP, COSATU and later SANCO. It was dictated by concrete conditions confronting the toiling masses of our people that were oppressed as a nation and exploited as a class.
The revolutionary alliance was tested in the last decade or so. Many of our leaders in both the ANC, SACP, COSATU and SANCO failed to grasp the contradictions of the last decade. This period represented the betrayal of our revolution by the very organisations that were meant to be leaders of the current phase of the NDR and the pursuit of a Socialist Revolution. It represented the reversal of the gains of our revolution. It was a moment of retrogression for the South African revolutionary movement. It was apolitical, ahistorical and “untheorised” and indeed a betrayal of the cause of the people of South Africa, our continent, developing world and the broader global progressive humankind. It marked a particularly difficult time that witnessed the degeneration of a glorious Movement – one of the oldest liberation movements in the world.
The saddest moment of all was the decision of COSATU to expel NUMSA and other 9 trade unions for reasons that had nothing to do with COSATU’s constitutional principles. This was nothing but a purge which left COSATU poorer. Sadly, the SACP was not innocent in this process. Basic arithmetic tells you that two COSATUs are less than one because the South African workers have been divided.
It may be in the interest of the SACP to seriously consider the possibility of once again working diligently to unite the South African working class as its vanguard. The Party must reclaim and regain its rightful place in the history of our country by assuming its historical position as the leader of the working class.
Conclusion
It is critical for us to appreciate that the revolution is never a straight line. It will, at different historical moments, be confronted by challenges similar or worse than those that confront the South African revolution. The responsibility for the revolutionary movement is to find and utilise the best tools to treat the ailing revolution. It is for the revolutionary leadership to find the finest amongst its cadres to deploy in the appropriate tasks so that they achieve the best results. Revolutionary cadres must employ correct tactics to ensure that tasks at hand are performed timeously and with high levels of discipline and without fail.
One of the fundamental mistakes committed by our organisation in this current phase of our struggle was to invest in many of its cadres but not deploy them in strategic and key positions at all levels of government and its agencies. Many of these comrades were ready to pay the supreme sacrifice for the South African revolution and its people during the most difficult phase of our struggle. They were in the trenches when it was not fashionable to do so. Many are tried and tested veterans of our liberation struggle.
If our organisation was to consider the possibility of a total overhaul it may be necessary to do a “roll-call’ of all our cadres and develop a human resource policy framework to ensure that the Movement deliberately trains and develops these cadres for specific roles and deployment both in government and in the Movement. Many comrades are still waiting for the “next order’ to carry out tasks of the revolution.
ENDS/