Caucuses, No! Leadership, Yes!

The Communist University, as a study circle, has been hit hard by the power cuts. Twice we have been forced to abandon our class in the cold and the dark. As loath as we may be to have our programme dictated by the odious Eskom, in its new, menacing guise of “Big Brother”, yet we cannot afford to do without the live sessions for so long. They are the life-blood and the nourishment of the CU.

We have reason to believe that there will be no “load-shed” today. Consequently we plan to meet at 17h00 this afternoon in the SACP Boardroom, 3rd floor, COSATU House, 1 Leyds Street, Braamfontein. Part of our discussion will be around proposals for changing the day, to avoid load-shedding, to Monday. Come with your advice, comrades.

Since we have not lately been able to distribute hard copy texts, it would seem to be prudent to take the scheduled topic of Rule Six Point Four today, because it is only three sentences long, so it can easily be read out to the gathering in its entirety. It is linked below for those who need a URL; but here it also is in full:

“Members active in fraternal organisations or in any sector of the mass movement have a duty to set an example of loyalty, hard work and zeal in the performance of their duties and shall be bound by the discipline and decisions of such organisations and movement.

“They shall not create or participate in SACP caucuses within such organisations and movements designed to influence either elections or policies.

“The advocacy of SACP policy on any question relating to the internal affairs of any such organisations or movements shall be by open public statements or at joint meetings between representatives of the SACP and such organisations or movements.”

Rule 6.4 of the SACP constitution has for a long time defined the relationship between the Party and the ANC and between the Party and all other mass organisations (trade union, international solidarity, and domestic single-issue). The definition of the relationship has thereby, and correctly so, been unilaterally made by the vanguard Party, and not by the mass organisations. The SACP has never alienated its power to make up its own mind about such relationships, and how they are supposed to work.

With rule 6.4, the SACP is never likely to become dependent, like other parties have sometimes been (e.g. the British communist party) on decisions and regulations made in other organisations without any revolutionary backbone (e.g. in that particular case, the Labour Party). Our rule looks, at first glance, like it is written to protect the mass organisations, but fundamentally it protects the Party. The SACP does not mortgage itself. Consequently the SACP has the best and strongest relations with mass political and trade union formations of any communist party in any bourgeois country. Rule 6.4 is our master-stroke and is a good example to all the communist parties of the world.

The other two linked documents are, as we had long planned, the latest issues of Umsebenzi Online, to be taken in the next two sessions. Umsebenzi Online is ideal for study-circle purposes. It is the ideal length (i.e. it can be printed as a four-page folding leaflet on one sheet of A4). It is both concrete and topical at the same time. It is authentic. In fast-moving, revolutionary times we need this thing, comrades, and we need to use it more, for discussion purposes.

Click on these links:

Rule Six Point Four, SACP Constitution, 2007 (115 words)

Revolution and Counter-revolution in South Africa, Blade Nzimande (1959 words)

Defend living standards of workers and poor, Blade Nzimande (2361 words)

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