Revisiting the 60th Anniversary of the South African Communist Party

Revisiting the 60th Anniversary of the South African Communist Party

“We must demonstrate with particular force that no amount of political and ideological subversion on the part of our enemies and their apologists will ever weaken the revolutionary alliance of the ANC and SACP”. African National Congress Secretary-General, Alfred Nzo.

On 30 July 1981, the South African Communist Party (SACP) organised a meeting in London to celebrate its 60th anniversary. Chairing the meeting SACP Chairperson, Yusuf Dadoo, and solidarity messages were given by the General Secretaries Gordon McLennan and Michael O’Riordan of the British and Irish Communist Parties respectively, with a keynote address on behalf of the SACP being given by the General Secretary, Moses Mabhida.

According to Mabhida, “Our Party’s with the ANC is based on mutual trust, reciprocity, comradeship in battle and a common strategy for national liberation. Our unity of aims and methods of struggle are a rare instance of positive alignments between the forces of class struggle and national liberation. … Ours was the first Marxist-Leninist Party in Africa. At that time and now the Party has had to grapple with the complexities of the national liberation struggle in our country. Our role in the present phase of the national liberation struggle in our country is to identify ourselves with the struggle waged by our people led by the African National Congress, for a National Democratic Revolution. On these questions, our Party has always taken a clear stand.”

“Comrades”, Mabhida continued, “our policy is based on a long association with the ANC, which reflects our Party’s attitude towards national liberation. We are clear about the priorities of our struggle, first National Democratic Revolution and then an advance towards socialism. The Freedom Charter, our people’s document and programme of the ANC, sets out a scheme for the desired democratic liberated South Africa. … Sixty fighting years of our Party have meant dedication to the national goals of liberation as reflected in the Freedom Charter, the document of the people of South Africa.”

“Dear Comrades”, as an assurance to the ANC-led national liberation alliance, Mabhida averred, “In the course of this long struggle covering the sixty years of our lives, the struggle has been bitter. … We can all rest assured that the South African Communist Party will never fail in its contribution towards the total liberation of our oppressed people.”

On behalf of the Alliance with the African National Congress (ANC), the address was made by President Oliver Tambo, who noted the presence of the British and Irish Communist Parties and said, “These are our allies; they are part of the international movement of solidarity which gives us strength and confidence in the certainty of our victory. These parties, together with other communist and workers parties around the world, are parties which we can always appeal to for solidarity in the conviction that they will respond.” Tambo, on behalf of the ANC, further congratulated Moses Mabhida on his election to the position of General Secretary of the SACP.

With regard to the relationship between the ANC and the SACP, Tambo maintained that “The ANC speaks here today, not so much as a guest invited to address a foreign organisation. Rather we speak of and to our own. For it is a matter of record that for much of its history, the SACP has been an integral part of the struggle of the African people against oppression and exploitation in South Africa … And so, your achievements are the achievements of the liberation struggle. Your heroes are ours. Your victories, those of all the oppressed.”

For Tambo, “The relationship between the ANC and the SACP is not an accident of history, nor is it a natural and inevitable development. For, as we can see, similar relationships have not emerged in the course of liberation struggles in other parts of Africa. To be true to history, we must concede that there have been difficulties as well as triumphs along our path, as, traversing many decades, our two organisations have converged towards a shared strategy of struggle.”

Most importantly in Tambo’s address was the fact that “Ours is not merely a paper alliance, created at conference tables of documents and representing only an agreement of leaders. Our alliance is a living organism that has grown out of struggle. We have built it out of our separate and common experiences … it has been fertilised by the blood of countless heroes many of them are unnamed and unsung. It has been reinforced by a common determination to destroy the enemy and our shared belief in the certainty of victory.”

With regard to Common Objectives, Tambo maintained that “Our organisations have been able to agree on fundamental strategies and tactical positions, whilst retaining our separate identities. For though we are united in struggle … we are not the same. Our history has shown that we are a powerful force because our organisations are mutually reinforcing. It is often claimed by our detractors that the ANC’s association with the SACP means that the ANC is being influenced by the SACP. That is not our experience. Our experience is that the two influence each other. The ANC is quite capable of influencing, and is liable to be influenced by others. There has been the evolution of strategy which reflects this two-way process.”

“This kind of relationship”, according to Tambo, “constitutes a feature of the South African liberation movement, a revolutionary movement, a feature of the SACP which helps to reinforce the alliance and to make it work as it working. It is a tribute to the leadership of the SACP. We are therefore talking of an alliance from which, in the final analysis, the struggle of the people of South Africa for a new society and a new social system has benefitted greatly. Within our revolutionary alliance each organisation has a distinct and vital role to play. A correct understanding of these roles, and respect for their boundaries has ensured the survival and consolidation of our cooperation and unity.”

“… The objective of the struggle in South Africa”, Tambo emphasised, “as set out in the Freedom Charter, encompasses economic emancipation. It is inconceivable for liberation to have meaning without a return of the wealth of the country to the people as a whole. To allow the existing economic forces to retain their interests intact is to feed the roots of racial supremacy and exploitation, and does not represent even the shadow of liberation. It is therefore a fundamental feature of our strategy that victory must embrace more than formal political democracy; and our drive towards national emancipation must include economic emancipation.”

In conclusion, Tambo said, “For the revolutionary movement, anniversaries cannot only celebrate the past. We must recall and acclaim our history, but more importantly, we must use the past to arm ourselves for the future: to learn lessons and to strengthen our resolve and commitment. … The ANC’s capacity to unite our people and to lead a unified liberation struggle is one of our most formidable weapons, and it is consequently a prime target of the enemy. It is only as a united force that we can move forward. It is as a united people that we shall be victorious.”

“We need to work together for the fulfilment of the objectives elaborated in the Freedom Charter. We need, in other words, to consolidate further our alliance and ensure its maximum effectiveness”.

Sources:
Editorial, “Mutual Trust and Comradeship in Battle”, The African Communist, No. 87, Fourth Quarter, 1981.
President OR Tambo, “Our Alliance is a Living Organism that has Grown Out of Struggle”, Sechaba, September 1981.

Castro Khwela
Good day fellow Compatriots!