SACP appears more radical

After scoring a major victory by having almost its entire leadership joining President Jacob Zuma’s administration, the South African Communist Party (SACP) is set to make a key demand.

The party is now hinting at having more influence in the ANC – a move likely to create tension between the so-called nationalists in the ANC and its leftist ally.

This is contained in discussion papers prepared for the SACP’s special national congress starting today at the University of Johannesburg Soweto campus.

In its discussion document, titled “Strengthening the Vanguard Character of the SACP”, the party states: “We are not spectators, we are part of the ANC, and we should also be engaged in an intense discussion on what kind of the ANC we would like to see over the next decade or so.”

The SACP said for it to remain relevant, it cannot afford to be a shadow of the ANC-led liberation movement imposed by the current dispensation.

“The party must engage the alliance about its independent role in the context of consolidating, deepening and advancing the national democratic revolution,” the document states.

“The SACP needs to take up the matter of the relationship with the state and the reconfiguration of the alliance more seriously.

“We cannot have a casual approach to a system of concentrated power in modern society such as the state.”

It said it will do a basic analysis of the current conjuncture in its organisational review. “For example, one of the major opportunities to build an even more radical ANC is the current commitment by the ANC to a second, more radical phase of our transition.”

The SACP said the current crisis of capitalism and the related crisis of neoliberalism provide a fertile ground for an even more left-oriented ANC.

It states: “In line with the preceding points on Cosatu and the ANC, we will have to carefully analyse the challenges facing our allies, and also better anticipate what kind of, for example, ANC we are likely to have in the next five, 10 or 20 years.”

The party blasted the “1996 class project”, saying there was a persistent threat of the growth of a “parasitic” and “compradorial” bourgeoisie.

The “1996 class project” is the ANC’s economic choices under former president Thabo Mbeki.

We cannot have a casual approach to a system of concentrated power in modern society such as the state. Discussion document SA Communist Party