Interview with SACP representative Jeremy Cronin
"Our alliance with the ANC is str
International Viewpoint #266 May 1995
South Africa The South African Communist Party has just held its ninth conference, the first since the government of national unity led by the ANC took power in April 1994. International Viewpoint asked leading SACP member Jeremy Cronin about the tasks ahead for South African Communists. • What are the main achievements of the conference ?
Cronin: This Congress aimed at uniting the Party around a strategic vision. The new Strategy and Tactics document, which incorporates the positive Congress amendments, has consolidated a much clearer strategic perspective in the Party. Another success of the conference was a commitment to cadre development so as to ensure greater coherence in the Party — crucial for party building.
We have a new, very strong Central Committee (CC) which is enormously encouraging for Party full-timers like myself. The CC brings together leaders of the trade union movement, Cabinet and revolution. The disappearance of the Soviet block raises a lot of unresolved questions. While some countries remain socialist, there is no longer a fully fledged second block - an alternative in terms of trade, aid, and military and political assistance
• What are your strategic priorities in the new S. Africa?
The national democratic revolution must be completed. The ANC victory in the April 1994 elections was a significant breakthrough, but the essential content remains - the emancipation of the Black and especially the African majority from the legacies of centuries of colonialism and decades of white minority oppression. This means the advance, deepening and defence of the April 1994 democratic breakthrough., as part of an overall reconstruction and development deputy ministers, Provincial premiers, Demonstration after the death of leading SACP MPs and key personnel in other important institutions of our society1 - which makes for very interesting debates. It also shows that that unionists and Ministers are taking the Party seriously, as they see it providing an important political framework.
The rapid changes in the world since the collapse of the USSR and the communist regimes of eastern Europe confused and demoralised many socialists, here and abroad. What about the SACP ?
Joe Slovo helped open the discussion in the Party early on. The debate is not closed - it broadened at this Congress. Events in Eastern Europe since 1989 have had a profound strategic impact on progressive national liberation movements in the South. We (the ANC-led liberation movement) have not collectively thought through the implications of the new world situation for our national democratic revolution.
The existence of two blocks was central to our concept of national democratic 10 programme.
The national democratic revolution is likely to be a very long and ongoing project. Its essential features are: consolidating national self-determination, the relative ability to pursue our democratically chosen path in a complex global situation; deepening national unity; and thoroughly democratising all aspects of society. None of these is possible this side of a decisive breakthrough to socialism.
So the question is really at what point does a decisive breakthrough to socialism come on to the agenda?" I do not believe that it is useful to lay down quantitative or metaphysical criteria. Socialist forces should engage with the present situation, be in the midst of the democratic movement, and champion the advance, the deepening and defence of the democratic transformation. We should increase the momentum towards socialism, and even build some elements of socialism here and now.
How can we ensure fulfilment of the promises contained in the government's Reconstruction and Development Programme ?
Mass involvement would be critical to securing the implementation of the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) and the broader ongoing democratic transformation under any circumstances. It is particularly important when we understand that the ANC-led movement has secured some, but not all political and institutional power.
State power and mass power are the two key pillars for ongoing transformation. Clearly, we must shift gears — from a largely opposition mode towards a more developmental mode. But this should not be overstated. After all, developmental struggles (house building brigades, workplace transformation, land redistribution) will necessarily bring mass forces into
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Mass mobilisation needs to be genuinely empowerment of working people. Some factions within the ANC movement mobilise on popular grievances in a demagogic way. This is really about securing a larger slice of the action for this or that faction, not about people-driven transformation. The masses should not be turned on and off according to the needs of the movement's elite.
We also need to draw a clear line between effective mass participation and lawlessness. However real the grievances of students, for instance, vandalism of public property or the taking of hostages are simply not acceptable. These kind of actions play straight into the hands of those forces who see transformation as a top-down, state-delivered business and who are increasingly tempted by a law and order approach.
Isn't there a contradiction between your strong line against privatisation and increased military spending policies for which SACP members of the government share the decision-making?
This is a difficult and awkward question. But the conference discussions on spending military and privatisation demonstrated our capacity for democratic debate.
Comrade Kasrill (a Deputy
Minister in the government)
tried to persuade the delegates that we must use the window of opportunity to build a modern army and quoted the Vietnam experience. Normally, quoting
Vietnam would have been enough to win the argument.
But delegates were not convinced. I think the final resolution on this question2 will recognise that we can not approach this question in too mechanical a way — saying we do not need to spend any money on defence. We need to address the military question in a more systematic way. At the same time the resolution will emphasise that the priority for government spending remains the social priorities of the RDP.
On privatisation, we agreed that some state assets such as military land can be privatised to aid the land restitution programme. But I think all agreed that key public utilities such as Telkom and Escom, should remain in public hands.
• How has your alliance with the ANC changed now they are in power?
We still see the alliance as very important. Now we have SACP members in the ANC who are ministers, deputy ministers, and provincial premiers. More than 50 MPs. are members of our Party.
This brings new challenges. But the SACP has always had members in leading positions of the ANC, and we played a prominent role in the ANC during the negotiation period, so the problem is note
We respect the same framework as before: we do not operate as a caucus, and where we have specific positions we pursue those within the democratic parameters and constitutional structures of the ANC. And yet... Congress reasserted the vanguard nature of the Party. On issues which may require a more independent SACP position, like the transformation of the Reserve Bank Board, or the privatisation of key public utilities, we are still fumbling
However, we see the alliance with the ANC stronger than ever. I think this is because of the very progressive, unifying and effective role that our cadres have played, ignoring factionalism.
The COSATU trade union federation and the SACP hosted a Socialist Conference in November 1994, as an attempt to begin a dialogue on the left. What were the results?
Our overall assessment is positive. We were able to enter into dialogue with a number of non-Party socialist intellectuals. We hope we can continue. But we felt that this positive dialogue was diverted into a discourse of the deaf by a number of small far-left groupings whose argument was that nothing has changed in South Africa, and that the key task remains "the overthrow of the bourgeois state". They're entitled to hold that view, but it is radically different from our own, and it makes useful discussion virtually impossible. For the SACP, carrying the socialist debate into the main mass organisations (the ANC, COSATU, NACTU, SANCO, SASCO, COSAS) is a more important priority than a socialist debate with the far left. * notes
1. The CC includes senior COSATU leaders like Enoch Godongwana, the General Secretary of the Mine Workers Union NUMSA, the General and Assistant General Secretary of NUMSA, Ministers Jeff Radebe and Sidney Mufamadi, Deputy Ministers Ronnie Kasrils and Geraldene Fraser. Deputy Minister for Finance Alec Erwin chose not to stand again.
2. The resolution has been referred to regional organisations, and will be finalised at the next CC meeting.
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