5th Series: SASCO’s Strategic Perspective on Transformation (SPOT) A Political Guide to Action on the Strategies and Tactics of SASCO In pursuit of Communism.

DR AF T 2 0 1 0 1. INTRODUCTION 1. Our Strategic Perspective on Transformation (SPOT), though not revised, has hitherto been guided by our resolution to use Marxism-Leninism as a tool of analysis though remaining non-Socialist which was taken at our 12th National Congress (2004, Wits Tech). Though welcome, thus far, this has tended to relegate our organization into an academic institution that studies, finds the causes but refuses to cure them lest it be accused of performing a doctoral function. As a result, our organization has been imprisoned and locked into armchair mode. This has been discontinued in favour of a clear ideological persuasion, whose main thrust is the identification of the primary contradictions in society and whose resolution it seeks. 2. An explanation of these basic contradictions suffices. To us, the primary contradiction in South African society is a class contradiction which is caused by the exploitation of the working class by the capitalist class. The national and gender contradictions are secondary conflicts in South Africa which re-enforce and sharpen class contradictions even beyond the traditional class line. Of course, there is no singular conceptualization of the NDR within the Mass Democratic Movement (MDM) itself with some arguing on the basis of three interrelated contradictions, while others omit the class contradiction as a basis for conflict in South Africa and therefore do not see its resolution as necessary and opt for vagueness. Despite the primacy of the class question, as an organization we recognize the intersection of class, national and gender as the propellants of contestations in our society. As a result, to us, the National Democratic Revolution in order to succeed has to resolve the class conflict as a primary source of problems in South Africa. Without the resolution of this, both the national and gender conflicts can never be fully arbitrated. As a result of this, we commit ourselves to the full realization of the tasks of the NDR in relation to these contradictions. 3. As a progressive student movement, our organization remains an integral part of the tactical multi-class alliance between the majority of the South African black working class and black bourgeoisie expressed in the mass democratic movement by the relationship of the ANC, SACP, COSATU,

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SANCO and youth formations whose aim is the emancipation of blacks in general and Africans in particular from the yoke of apartheid capitalism. Left forces, nationally and internationally do not only contend with the exploitation of the working class by capital, but the ideological hegemony of the ruling class through various centers of knowledge production, education and socialization being a central part of them. 4. It is on this basis that our conceptualization of education is premised on our Marxist-Leninist outlook. Our strategy is driven by our commitment to socialism and communism. The direction of our tactics draws its impulse from our support for the National Democratic Revolution and its objectives as earlier stated. The linkage between our strategic objective and the strategy and tactics we employ in its pursuance form the main thrust of our Strategic Perspective on Transformation (SPOT).

2. INTERNATIONAL BALANCE OF FORCES 5. International Capitalism wallows in the throes of a crisis deeper than it has ever found itself before. Particularly because, the economic crisis has hit hard on the epicentre of capitalist accumulation (US and continental Europe). Marxists and liberals appreciate and accept this one fact and have sought to study its causes, though for different reasons. However, the duty of revolutionaries is not simply to study and engage in an academic process while at the same time lament about the effects of the economic crisis, and refuse to act. The old Marxist maxim: “The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways; the point is to change it1” is more relevant than ever before. Unfortunately for the working class this seems to be once more, another lost opportunity to assert its hegemony, instead of the international proletariat seizing the opportunity, its advanced section has been locked in a never-ending cycle of analysis. This is not to suggest that analysis is unnecessary, but theory without practice is sterile. As a result, now, and slowly signs of restabilization are showing and soon world capitalism will be back to high profitability with its increased arrogance. 6. Although slow to act, the left, internationally, has not been caught in midnight slumber; it has contested capital in various ways. Contrary to the triumph of neo-liberalism propelled by the collapse of the Soviet Union and progressive governments in Europe including social democracy, left forces in recent years have made significant advances, albeit minimal. This was marked by the emergence of popular forces though Social Democratic and left reformist in Latin America (Venezuela, Bolivia, and Brazil). The dangers of a cult of personality have reared their ugly head in Venezuela 1

Karl Marx (1845), Selected Works Vol. 1, Progress Publishers, Moscow: 1969.

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from time to time but are not deep nor are they embedded such that in their current form, they are not yet a threat to socialist consciousness in that country. The presence of these countries has brought new light and hope. They have added to the contestation against international capital despite the fact that they are significantly social democratic and some social liberal than socialist. More importantly the existence of these states has proven that nationalization and socialization have not become relics of the past, but a living reality which does not trigger capital flights and economic collapse as had been communicated by apologists of the neoliberal world. 7. The rapid economic development by communist China is a welcome sign. Of course this is not really socialist development but is rather a remix of capitalist accumulation albeit under a socialist tag. Despite our own misgivings about the nature of the Chinese economy one thing is for sure, the monopoly of the US and its stooges on the world economy is being contested on an almost equal footing by the continued existence and rapid development of the Chinese economy, which on its own seems to be once more another cog in the imperialist chain. Bretton Woods institutions (IMF and World Bank) have never reached such unpopularity as they do these days. This is so much that they must enter into secret agreements with many that they fund for fear of denunciation and illegitimacy. But they have begun a process of re-modeling themselves so as to re-gain legitimacy and this poses dangers to many developing countries. One thing is for sure, we no longer have a clear cut unipolar world. As a result of this, we have seen increased US militarism in the past years. These are not gratuitous acts, but they are a scramble by an imperial power slowly losing control and seeking to assert itself in whichever way possible rather than through economic inducement, which served it so well during the cold war. Recent events such as 9/11, the attack on Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine and the threats on North Korea have proven the declaration of an “End of History”2 by some to be nothing but an imagination and illusion. 8. Contrary to the wishes of many, certain tenets of Marxism such as nationalization and government intervention in the economy, internationally, have gained the respect of even those who would normally deride them as outmoded and archaic, such that at the emergence of the economic crisis some captains of industry were appalled by the failure of capitalism leading to the anecdote that many frantically distributed copies of Karl Marx‟s Das Capital, hoping to find answers. Indeed, for many working class patriots Marxism is the single most influential liberatory ideology. This must not lead us to the illusion that these are signs that there is a massive increase in socialist consciousness around the globe, there is none, but these are symptoms of the intellectual and political crisis 2

Francis Fukuyama, The End of History and the Last Man, Free Press, New York 1992

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capitalism finds itself in at this particular conjecture, such that it seeks to revert to Keynesian economics. True to form, this will not hold sway forever unless it is entrenched. Left forces must seize the moment or this might as well be once more another lost opportunity, which will result in the re-stabilization of capitalist accumulation and the co-option of the state in a campaign to bail-out capital from its own economic irresponsibility, internationally and domestically and to the destruction of the international proletariat. 9. Importantly, Latin America has proven that forces of international capital are not as strong as some had suggested3 nor are they brave enough, to reign in on those who nationalize, unless they impact badly on capitalist interests. In fact as a result of the global economic crisis, capital accepts that in certain instances nationalization and government intervention in the economy is a necessary ingredient to stimulate growth, increase demand and stabilize capital. Our intention is to stimulate growth, increase demand but not to stabilize but destroy capital. Another welcome fact is that there has been a major decrease of war and violence on the African continent, despite some persisting conflicts in central and western Africa. This is a welcome sign. However, the decrease in war has been accompanied by a decrease in the revolutionary morality and capability of many liberation movements many of whom have degenerated to unimaginable degrees. As an organization we should continue to engage and assist progressive forces in Africa in the struggle against imperialism and domestic political repression. But the battle begins at home. Recently we have seen the left gain ground in the alliance and in the state in South Africa. Although this is welcome and should be celebrated it has not translated to an economic paradigm shift on the part of the Democratic State and the ANC but a mixed bag of “continuity and change”.

3. DOMESTIC BALANCE OF FORCES 10. The popularity of the South African left has never suffered major knocks even during the darkest hours of international socialism (the collapse of the Soviet Union). In fact “as fast as red flags” came “down in Eastern Europe, an equal number” were “raised in South Africa”4. This has continued till the 21st Century. The triumph of the left within the MDM over the 1996 class project and its stranglehold on policy direction has further cemented the popularity of left forces in our society and within the Mass Democratic Movement. Slowly but surely, the Post-Polokwane 3

Moleketi, J and Jele, J 2002. Two Strategies of the National Liberation Movement in the Struggle for the Victory of the National Democratic Revolution. 4 Pallo Jordan, 1990. A survey of the South African Debate on the Decline of Socialism in Eastern Europe: Southern Africa Report.

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honeymoon is fading and rightwing forces have begun to re-align. This could prove fatal to left forces if not properly exposed, isolated and combated. 11. Whence does the relative influence of the left South Africa come from? And whence do its shortcomings lie? After the 1994 General elections we witnessed the defeat of institutionalized apartheid and the ascendance of a democratic society premised on the will of the people under the leadership of the ANC. Our movement inherited a state not of its choosing but one crafted and shaped by apartheid capitalism. This refers to the executive, judicial and parliamentary aspects of the state including society in general. “But the working class cannot simply lay hold of the readymade state machinery, and wield it for its own purposes” 5 it has to transform it and the values that underpin its existence. Truly, the task of the movement has been to transform the nature and character of the state and install new values into it and use it as an instrument to emancipate the toiling masses in our country. 12. This has resulted in our state essentially remaining the same. Though democratic, South Africa remains a bourgeois democracy and therefore the post-1994 state is a bourgeois democratic state whose source of survival and sustenance is the development and accumulation of the South African bourgeoisie, both black and white. Instead of the state playing an active role in the economy, we have seen a rapid decrease in the size of state entities as a result of our own form of structural adjustment program (GEAR). Even existing state entities are a scary site and have served the accumulation of an elite rather than being used as instruments to contest the hegemony of capital. The resultant economic stratification that exists between leaders of the democratic movement and the masses continues to widen as a result of certain economic benefits accruing from access to the democratic state and those connected to it in a fashion no different to its apartheid counterpart. Surely these are dangers to the popularity of the movement and need to be revised and scrapped before more damage is done. 13. The state has proven to be a tricky aspect of the democratic movement. Though commendable; our performance in the state has been the dialectic of progress and reaction. On some areas we have made tremendous strides, while on others we have fared badly and seem to be backsliding. Thus far we have been able to transform racial demographics in upper echelons of the state particularly the political aspects, but we have fared badly on the economic front. For a number of reasons, this has been the main area where the Mass Democratic Movement has been caught wanting. Rather than fundamentally transform important areas of the state such as the Judiciary and Parliament, our movement has wrongly focused 5

Karl Marx (1871), Collected Works Vol. 22, Progress Publishers, Moscow 1986.

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on a change in agents, rather than a change in essence. This is not to suggest that there have been no changes, but they have been rather too reformist. In dealing with important areas of the state, we have been rather too shrill and technocratic, resulting in changes in form rather than in content. Neo-liberal permutations continue to dominate the nature and character of our government as well. 14. Rather than build people‟s power, we have tended to treat the role of government in a technocratic top-down manner. Masses have been reduced into clients and recipients of service delivery rather than active participants in an unfolding political and economic process. This has resulted in major demobilization of our major source of strength: mass power. Certainly this cannot be allowed to continue, otherwise we risk losing all what we have to an ever eager opposition whose aim is not the emancipation of our people but looting of state resources and a step back into the past. 15. Since the advent of the 1994 democratic breakthrough, we have basked in

victory rather than ensure left dominance of major areas of the state. In order to continue and increase our influence in major areas of the state and society we need to ensure that the left must have hegemony on key centres of societal development (production and reproduction). This on its own requires mass power rather than technocratic control and bureaucratic control. This is in contrast with the view that there must be one centre of power. Our “central thesis is that we must disperse democratic power in our society. In the typical mode of African dancing and singing, everyone must participate in the song with their own rhythm, pace, and gestures to create the conditions that will ultimately lead to the crescendo of a reinforcing collective performance. We must envision the utopia of pluralities of democratic power everywhere. We cannot afford to have power in ONE centre which if degenerates and fails then all our hopes and aspirations drown with it. That would be a tragic anti-climax to the play. We must strengthen popular, localised creativity, participation, power and involvement. We must reinvigorate traditions and practices of popular democratic power in many settings.” 6 16. In the present moment, there are some encouraging signs. Since the 52 nd ANC Conference there has been space for debate on the role of the state in the economy, what has not been up for discussion is economic stratification and its dangers. The single most important source of survival for capitalism apart from the extraction of surplus value, is the stratification of society which therefore enables capital to co-opt into its upper echelons whenever necessary such that significant sections of the society do not contest its survival with the hope that they could be the next up the 6

Mazibuko K. Jara, Post-Polokwane ANC, policy and governance: To the Critical Dialogue Forum: The ANC in the aftermath of Polokwane, implications for policy and governance. Durban, 25 February 2008

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capitalist ladder. As an organization, not only are we opposed to economic stratification and all that drives and goes with it, but we reject the idea and illusion that the state can play a neutral role in the economy or could act as a dis-interested referee whose only aim is to level the playing field. The state has to decisively intervene in the affairs of the economy and tilt the balance of power in the favour of the working class if our movement continues to brand itself as biased to it. 17. Having analyzed the domestic balance of forces, the question; are we defeated or on the verge of victory rises? Taking stock of all fundamentals, it is safe to suggest that the left has not – certainly not yet – been defeated, but however we have not won and still need to increase the tempo of contestation for ideological hegemony in the alliance and in society. When we suggest that we have not won nor have we been defeated, we do not mean it in the Bornapatist sense of equilibrium, when neither class force has won leading to a state of reciprocal siege. We are far from that. Our situation is premised on the opportunities and dangers presented by the Post-Polokwane period. On the one hand, there are real opportunities to substantively re-direct the dominant policy paradigm. While at the same time there is the real possibility of strategic confusion and demobilization of popular forces from the illusion of a victory over the 1996 class project. This is a fluid moment. Revolutionary forces need to remain vigilant and steadfast so that we do not lose our strategic focus which is the total defeat of neo-liberal permutations and the capitalist free market. Regardless of the political victories we have won, we need not forget that our economy remains squarely in the hands of white capital with a slight co-option of a fraction of blacks into the upper echelons of capitalist society. The task of the National Democratic Revolution remains that of the de-recialization of the economy.

4. APARTHEID CAPITALISM AND EDUCATION 18. Before the arrival of the employees of the Dutch East India Company (DEIC), Africans, many of whom compose the current South African population, were immersed in economic, social, religious and political activity; gathering plants for food, hunting wild animals, rearing cattle, planting crops, running initiation schools, slaughtering cattle or goats for ancestral rituals, paying tribute to kings, attending traditional courts, even engaging in war. At the same time these communities collectively educated their offspring how to engage, relate and perform these tasks. This was performed through: some sort of apprentice work and even through initiation schools (male and female). In short, the community took the task of socialization and economic education to itself and performed it without qualms. This was performed relatively for free, albeit under a

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feudal economy. As soon as the arrival of the employees of the Dutch East India Company and many after them, this feudal economy and some of its progressive aspects were soon going under the bridge. This did not occur without a fight. 19. For hundreds of years, after 1652 and even after the colonization of the Cape by Britain, two economic systems co-existed, side by side and ferociously jostled for hegemony. These were both the capitalist and feudal economic systems. For some time, as a result of the economic and political independence of African nations the white capitalist could not access African labour power, regardless of his willingness to compensate it with a salary. There arrived a time when the labour power offered by the white employees on the side of the capitalist economies, both Dutch and British was woefully inadequate, the labour power extracted from slaves had dried up for various reasons, there was a pressing need to hunt for new reservoirs of labour power, thus the white capitalist looked to the independent African states such as those of the Xhosa, Pondo, Zulu, Shangan, Sotho, Pedi Venda etc. Capitalism had to survive: without sufficient if not an oversupply of people ready to exchange their labour power for wages it was doomed to the hangman‟s noose. 20. Driven by what some scholars viewed as the capitalists‟ resentment of “the tribesman's way of life”, on the basis of which “They complained that he had too much land, leisure and sex. Instead of working for an employer, as was his proper destiny, be battened in ease on the labour of his wives…Tribal marriage and self-sufficiency were blamed for a scarcity of wage workers that impeded the growth of the colonial economy and disappointed hopes of a quick prosperity"7, white capital elected to fight for its hegemony and was determined to stop at nothing to achieve its ends. To expand and take advantage of the potential market, both British and Afrikaner capital waged a vicious campaign to destroy the feudal state: its political, social, religious, judicial and particularly its economic edifice. This campaign began as soon as the white capitalist set foot on South African soil culminating in the total destruction of many African states and economies and their subjugation to capitalist production and governance. This is resulted colonization, which later evolved into apartheid and the National Liberation Movement termed this latter aspect Colonization of a Special Type (CST). This is part of the process of the primitive accumulation of capital so eloquently studied and described by Marx as “The discovery of gold and silver in America, the extirpation, enslavement and entombment in mines of the aboriginal population, the beginning of the conquest and looting of the East Indies, the turning of Africa into a warren for the commercial hunting of black-skins”8.

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HJ Simons, African women: Their legal status in South Africa, Northwestern University Press, 1968. Karl Marx (1867), Collected Works Vol. 35, Progress Publishers, Moscow 1996.

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21. The introduction of the capitalist system of production in South Africa and in many parts of the world brought with it a new form of learning that was premised on the separation of education for economic production and education for social and political survival. The historic roots of this act is tied with the development of industry and specialization of work which increased the need for skilled workers who had to be trained specifically for the line of work they were required only to perform, hence today we have engineers, commercial students etc. In resolving this predicament Capitalism usurped education for economic survival and separated it from society by building academic institutions specializing on various fields of economic activity at a price, while at the same time it let loose on education which is meant for socialization and allowed it to remain a task to be performed by the family and society for free. In essence, capitalism split education into two; formal and informal education. The latter is free and accessible to all, while the former has an exchange value, and remains exclusive to those who can afford access to it. 22. In South Africa, this could only take place as soon as the peasantry was incapacitated to produce crops, without sufficient stock to trade amongst themselves; African peasants were forced to seek work. It is only at this stage that white capital hoisted formal education as a conduit for acquiring skills, which would guarantee employment. In order to legitimize the capitalist economy forced unto free African people, the capitalist did what it has done in other countries. It used education not only as an instrument to produce workers, but also as its primary intellectual factory, where it produces its apologists and intelligentsia. It ensured that capitalist ideology underpins the curricular and management of education institutions. So intense has been the ideological re-orientation such that “Educators and students are cajoled „to ultimately see all meaning in terms of what can be bought, sold or made profitable”9.

5. PERSPECTIVE ON EDUCATION 23. It is as a result of this that as a Marxist-Leninist student movement we view our education as part of the capitalist superstructure whose aim is nothing more than the reproduction and legitimating of capitalist production relations through spreading bourgeois ideology in institutions. As a result, the capitalist class, through its stranglehold on curriculum content, treats education as a process to develop acceptance of capitalist production which orientates potential workers and capitalists about the workings of the capitalist system and teaches them how to best serve it. Higher education has become a production center for capitalist apologists 9

Shumar, W., 1997, College for Sale: A Critique of the Commodification of Higher Education, London: Falmer Press.

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and beneficiaries of stratification. We also understand that modern education in the eyes of the capitalist constitutes nothing more than the improvement of the labor power of every worker and potential worker, whom capital is ever willing to exploit. Sadly, centers of education are viewed and treated as nothing more than labor factories. They are run as “incubators of little monsters aridly trained for a job, with no general ideas, no general culture, no intellectual stimulation, but only an infallible eye and a firm hand”10 which serves no one else but the capitalist. 24. Though reactionary and capitalist class biased, modern education holds some small opportunities for the working class. To some degree, it serves to increase the market value of labor power and increases possibilities of better remuneration and should not be discarded, simply on the basis that it is capitalist dominated and reactionary. It is on this score that the capitalist has not flung all the doors of education open. Higher Education is one such aspect. It is not treated in the same manner as lower levels of basic education which have been made easier to access. Such is the mud that lays on the riddle of access and success. And untill the hegemony of the capitalist class is contested and destroyed, access to higher education will remain in the hands of the elite, while quality will remain forever compromised and reduced to service narrow interests of the ruling class. Freeing curriculum content from the stranglehold of capital and increasing access to education is the first step in the struggle against capitalist hegemony. Our objective is to ultimately ensure that the people have a say in their education, this is necessary in the construction of people‟s education for people‟s power.

6. OUR MARXISM 25. Since our existence, we have remained tolerant to diverse and at times antagonistic ideological persuasions and have never sought to give one an upper hand over the rest. Though laden with contextual determinants this has often been a source of conflict and acrimony in our ranks and surely cannot be continued. Hand in hand with this phenomenon, has been the rapid decrease in ideological clarity amongst the ranks of our movement about the direction of SASCO and its ideological standing in society despite its resolution to use Marxism-Leninism as a tool of analysis. This has been a major lacuna for our movement and has continued to be the most important source of weakness. 26. The maturity of our movement has brought us to such a stage that we do not suffer such inhibitions as previous generations and can no longer be 10

Antonio Gramsci, Men or Machines, 24 December 1916.

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shy about our ideological stance. Consistent with our biasness to the working class and our yearning for working class leadership in our revolution, we identify ourselves as a Marxist-Leninist student movement in pursuance of socialism and ultimately a communist society, under the leadership of the SACP which remains the revolutionary vanguard of the working class in its struggle against capitalism and its pursuance of a socialist order. The recognition of the Party is not to subsume our organization under its banner, but is acceptance of the centrality of the SACP on the struggle for socialism. 27. What relation is our Marxism to many variants and distortions? As a revolutionary organization our Marxism-Leninism draws impulse and inspiration from the now defunct Third International whose origins are premised from the left wing of the Second and ultimately the First International founded by Marx and Engels together with many revolutionaries of their time, whom we have not mentioned. As an organization we have evolved to appreciate the role of Marxism-Leninism in not only explaining the shortcomings of the capitalist system and its negative impact on our education and therefore but accept it as the only tool which assists in finding answers for the replacement of the tyranny of capitalism with a communist society under which as an organization we will find no reason to continue existing in the same form. 28. How therefore do we conceptualize our relationship with many working class parties in South Africa and their youth formations? We are not and do not intend to be a student wing of the South African Communist Party (SACP). However, we respect and support the role of the SACP as the revolutionary vanguard of the South African working class and its offsprings, and intend to follow its lead out of South African capitalism. As an organization we intend to swell the ranks of the Party, not only to increase its numbers but to assist in its ideological development and sharpen its capacity to analyze and contest South African capitalism head-on. The same applies to our relationship with the Young Communist League of South Africa (YCLSA) which remains to be a relationship with firstly a PYA partner, but most importantly with whom we share a collective interest which is the realization of Socialism in our lifetime and on whose strategic and tactical direction we have an interest. We are a revolutionary student movement of the left and we do not identify with neither the rightwing nor with ultra-left tendencies. 29. Although we remain a Marxist-Leninist student movement, we are acutely aware that the aspect of society we mobilize often does not constitute part of a class but is composed of a social stratum in transition. As a result of this, we will continue to mobilize students of different ideological persuasions with the intention of developing Marxist-Leninists out of them, regardless of the class from which they sprout, which we believe are not

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the only determinants of one‟s ideology though first they would have to commit some degree of class suicide. 30. We are convinced that the struggle for socialism entails the contestation by left forces of parliament, the judiciary, the executive and other areas of society. However, we believe that the working class should not only naively grab and use but transform these entities lest it be transformed and de-ideologised into accepting capitalism. We know and understand that the struggle against capitalist hegemony is no walk in the park. No class has ever handed power on a silver platter and we should not expect the same in South Africa, where necessary we should be ready to use extra-parliamentary means to acquire political power from the ruling class (black and white).

6. STRATEGIES AND TACTICS 31. Our strategic objective is the destruction of capitalist relations of production and the state together with its education system as we have already stated and the creation of a socialist state which will ultimately lead us to a communist society where education shall be free from the ideological stranglehold of any class but shall be for the social, political and economic development of all society and shall be freely accessible to all. As a result we are determined to re-shape the nature and character of our education system as part of the process of contesting the hegemony of capitalist economic and ideological thought and values in our society. 32. Among other things this entails the reshaping of the structural tenets and values that underpin our education system; commodification, capitalist class bias, uneven access and individualism. At the same time this entails the enunciation or contestation of these values with socialist and working class values; de-commodification, working class biased content, equal access and community service. This would mean a creation of a nonsexist, non-racist, working class biased and free education. All this would not come cheap it needs to be struggled for. 33. We are conscious of the fact that the Mass Democratic Movement through the African National Congress forms the current government. In essence, the ANC-led government belongs to the MDM, which we are part of. Consequently, an immense opportunity for constructive engagement with important layers of government including sectors beyond education has been opened and remains favorable to our organization. It is our duty as an organization to defend and deepen the hegemony of the MDM in the government and important areas of the South African state. Despite this, our organization is not the government and does not seek to be.

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34. Despite all these progressive colorings of the state, our government is not a dictatorship of the proletariat and does not seek to be. It does not represent a campaign for the destruction of capitalist relations of production but rather their stabilization. Our organization is aware of both the progressive and rather reactionary aspects of our own government and relates to them in a dialectical manner. In the tradition of our organization this has been described as a CC approach: Contradict and Compliment. 35. In simpler language, this means as an organization we will compliment those areas of governance that we believe are progressive, while at the same time we will denounce and contest those aspects that we believe are reactionary. We will not act as uncritical cheerleaders of the government simply on the basis that we campaigned for its election at the polls, nor will we join those who view themselves as strategic enemies of the ANC led government.

7. OUR FIVE PILLARS Policy Work 36. The ascendance of the democratic forces to political and state power variously, as a result of the struggles of the people, has magnified the task of policy work and elevated it to a Strategic task. For SASCO this means that we now have an opportunity to make policy inputs into the process of systemic changes that are taking place at institutional and macro level but also at other issues broadly in society. We have already done much work in this regard as part of ensuring that our policy work becomes effective SASCO has deployed present and past Cadres of the organization to serve in various capacities in state and state related bodies. We must elevate ourselves to the role of the policy think-tank of our movement and society. The challenge is to maintain the policy efficacy and lobbying capacity of the organization at all levels on matters of policy, particularly at the level of the branch where engagement with institutional authorities on policy matters is a daily affair. This requires a strong and well-oiled policy unit which should operate at all levels of our organization. We need also to increase such through the acquisition of both the material and human resource necessary. After all for the revolution to triumph it must draw the best into its ranks, the policy sphere in the student movement is no exception in this regard. Campus Work

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37. The challenge of institutional transformation as an area of work is one that cannot be neglected and falls squarely within the pillar of campus work. Otherwise we would be contesting access to Student Representative Councils (SRC) and various governance structures simply for its own sake. Student Governance structures are not only instruments but are on their own sites of struggle. As a revolutionary organization we should not only contest access to student governance structures but we should seek to transform and change them to suit our aspirations and intentions and at the same time to protect our cadres from the temptations of neo-liberal structured governance. We need to strengthen student governance as part of an ongoing process of building capacity, simultaneously co-opting our opposition, as a way variously ensuring that opposition to SASCO is very limited. 38. There has been a continuing trend over the last few years that have seen student governance continually losing credibility, because of unacceptable conduct on the part of some student leaders. But also because of false propaganda on inter alia the side of managements that fear the united force of students SASCO is now giving increasing attention to this and this must be pursued at all levels. Students must reclaim their high moral ground as the standard bearers of the new person that the revolution must build! Branches of SASCO and other bodies need to engage in campus work as part of their daily program this could entail assisting students with academic or social problems that they may encounter, it also relates to the general recreation of students. But most importantly this must be geared towards raising the hegemony of SASCO its policies and those of our broader movement. This amongst others requires working amongst and with students; student‟s organizations both academic and non-academic staff their Unions and Associations. It is also about taking policy work forward on campus through lobbying. Community Work 39. It has been a historical motto of the student movement since the days of the South African Student Organisation (SASO) that “we are members of the community before we are students”. We need to affirm this in practice by continuing to work amongst the people. This would require the strengthening and establishment of the Student Reconstruction and Development Program Brigades we would work in respective communities. Hence in our attempt to entrench this in our society we have historically called for compulsory community service. Some of the issues that constitute our program in communities are civic education, assisting with service delivery and the eradication of illiteracy amongst others. Amongst the key programs that we have to pursue at the level of the branch is that of building quality cadres, turning supporters into members and quantity into quality as a simultaneous and ongoing process.

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40. Our participation in community issues should be with the express intention of assisting in ensuring fundamental change. It should not be a once off event. We should have an ongoing participation on community matters and we should provide necessary leadership on community matters whenever required and at the same time provide assistance to those whom can best be served by the strategic position we occupy in society as a result of our location within the higher education landscape. International Work 41. We have already reflected at length why the student movement in particular SASCO should not be blind to global factors. We are an internationalist student movement and we hold a firm belief that we cannot improve our country and education system outside the context of the global situation we find ourselves in. At the same time our own people were great beneficiaries of the struggles of the international community against apartheid as a second equally important factor in this regard international solidarity programs must always be at the centre of the agenda of SASCO and the progressive student movement. In this regard our organization would continue to form ties and interact with progressive organizations especially student organizations playing a role at a global stage being informed by the aforementioned characterization of organizations with whom SASCO shall associate. Ideological Work 42. Currently, capitalist values are imbibed from youth to adulthood through various forms; family upbringing and formal education are one of them. This needs to be combated. Side by side with the spread of capitalist education (both formal and informal) our movement needs to contribute to the re-development of anti-capitalist and pro-communist consciousness in society through increasing the tempo of Marxist-Leninist education at all levels of society. This should be done through an increase in political education, discussion and analysis. Our organization should be in the forefront of education all in society that a better world is possible. The first step is the ideological development of all our cadres. It is the creation of a new cadre. A Marxist-Leninist par excellence. On top of this we need to campaign for the introduction of dialectical and historical materialism into our education curriculum taught to all students.

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