THE South African Communist Party (SACP) has unveiled a series of activities to celebrate its centenary year in 2021, culminating in the 15th national congress of the party in July next year.
The programme will kick-off with a hybrid SACP Centenary Opening Rally on July 4 in Cape Town, followed by the Communist Party Founding Conference Rally in August and the Inaugural Annual SACP Lecture on July 30, which will also be a hybrid event as well.
The founding conference of the Communist Party was held at 20 Plein Street in Cape Town on 30 and 31 July, and 1 August 1921.
“Since its founding, the Communist Party has played a major role in South Africa. This includes the leading role it played in advancing the principle of non-racialism both in theory and practice as the first political organisation to organise on a non-racial basis in South Africa. It was also in the Communist Party, inclusive of the Young Communist League, that women members first played a leading role,” the Party said in a statement.
“The Communist Party further played a leading role in forming our Alliance with the African National Congress (ANC) and the progressive trade union movement, following the adoption by the Communist International in 1928 of the Resolution on the South African Question. The resolution was a product of interaction with the leadership of the Communist International in the Soviet Union led from South Africa by James la Guma, a leading member of the Communist Party, accompanied by Josiah Gumede, ANC President.”
The SACP, which claims to have more than 200 000 members, has trying very hard to convince everyone that it is an essential partner in the ruling alliance with the African National Congress (ANC), and that there is still an important role for the party to play despite its acute contradictions and indefinite ideology.
Relations between the ANC and its allies, the SACP and Cosatu, took a big knock during the past few years, especially under former president Jacob Zuma’s rule.
Both the SACP and Cosatu accused Zuma and the ruling party for not consulting them on key decisions and appointments.
In recent years, the SACP has been engaged a fierce debate of whether it should sever ties with the ANC to contest elections alone.
During the SACP’s elective congress in July 2016, the party resolved to formulate a road map which would guide it in contesting elections independently from its alliance partner, the ANC.
“After considerable debate at congress, we have resolved that, while the SACP will certainly contest elections, the exact modality in which we do so needs to be determined by way of a concrete analysis of the concrete reality and through the process of active engagement with worker and progressive formations,” reads the 2017 resolution.
The SACP said on Sunday that the key challenge facing the SACP and the working class in South Africa under the circumstances is to chart the way forward and carry it out into the second centenary of the Party, towards the achievement of all the goals of the Freedom Charter and socialism.
“To rise to the occasion, over and above the national democratic revolutionary and socialist measures that the SACP advances from its current programme, resolutions, declarations and the key outcomes of its Central Committee meetings, the Party has approved a process to update its programme, the South African Road to Socialism,” the Party said.
“The outcome of the process will be circulated in advance to all Party structures, branches, districts, provinces, the Central Committee and its Political Bureau, and the 15th National Congress which will adopt the final product for implementation. The process will include consultation with allies and fraternal formations, and co-ordinated public participation.”
- Inside Politics
