JOE SLOVO: BEYOND THE STEREOTYPE – THE SACP IN THE PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
(University of Western Cape Conference to Mark the 70th Anniversary of the SACP, 19 July 1991).
“In ten days time our Party celebrates its 70th anniversary. Three score years and ten is the biblical allotment of human lifespan. And those on the other side of our political divide would very much like us to fulfil the biblical prophecy so that we can meet our maker at the earliest.
“But they will be disappointed. We are here to stay. They failed to strangle us at birth. They failed to wipe us out by 40 years of illegality. They were forced to unban us coupled with the hope that the Eastern European events would lead to our demise. But we are stronger than we have ever been and we remain confident that they will fail to negate our role both now and in the future.
“Wherein lies our strength? We have a vision of society whose time will undoubtedly come; a socialist society in which one person does not live off the labour of another. And that time will come not because our Party exists but because our working people – the most wretched of our society – will in the end ensure the creation of both a political and economic democracy in our country. That is the essence of what we stand for.
“There is no political party which has so openly and rigorously addressed its past as we have done. And in major respects we did so long before the Gorbachev revolution. This capacity to learn fr
