[PAA-Discuss] FW: 2009 Red October Campaign

[Lee Loe]

 Amen to much of this. Very interesting. Lee L

-----Original Message-----
From: moderator at PORTSIDE.ORG [mailto:moderator at PORTSIDE.ORG] 
Sent: Thursday, October 08, 2009 10:22 PM
To: PORTSIDE at LISTS.PORTSIDE.ORG
Subject: 2009 Red October Campaign

2009 Red October Campaign
Roll back the corrupting intersection between private accumulation and
public service!
Blade Nzimande, General Secretary SACP
Umsebenzi Online
October, 2009
http://www.sacp.org.za/main.php?include=pubs/umsebenzi/2009/vol8-17.html#red
pen


On Sunday 4 October 2009, the SACP held a lively and vibrant rally to launch
its national 2009 Red October Campaign in Khayelitsha, Cape Town. It was one
of the best attended rallies in that part of our country, and once more
underlined the mobilisational capacity of the SACP through campaigns that
capture the hearts and minds of the workers and the poor of our country.

There are three inter-related aspects to our 2009 Red October Campaign:
building an affordable and quality health system for all; intensifying the
struggle against corruption in all of society; and disrupting the
intersection between business and public service interests.

In this publication we have before said a lot about the centrality of the
establishment of a national health insurance scheme (NHI) for the provision
of accessible, affordable and quality health care for all South Africans.
The fundamental principle of an NHI is that of ensuring that every South
African, rich or poor, black or white, employed or unemployed, is covered by
this scheme. The aim of the scheme is to ensure that no South African must
be expected to make an upfront payment for health services, whether in the
public or private health care sector. In addition, those who have resources
must subsidise those who do not have, and that we build an equitable health
care system, where we move away from the current unequal and unjust, regime,
where more than 60% of resources poured into health services benefit only
about 14% of the population, which happens to be on private medical aid
schemes.

The reason for the mobilization of our people around the NHI is two-fold.
Firstly, to explain the principles and objectives of an NHI; and how such a
system is going to benefit the overwhelming majority of our people.
Secondly, to counter the reactionary efforts by the capitalist classes in
the private health sector to defeat or undermine government`s efforts
towards the establishment of the NHI. It is our conviction, as has been
consistently shown in the past that only mobilized popular power can defeat
the greed of capitalism and ensure that the workers and the poor themselves
drive programmes for their own benefit.

To this end, we shall use our 2009 Red October Campaign to convene thousands
of red forums, in communities and workplaces, to discuss the NHI and ensure
that it is properly understood by all our people. Where necessary we shall
also be calling marches and demonstrations to expose the greed of capitalist
health institutions and mobilize our people to roll back the market in the
provision of health care.

The second and major focus of our 2009 Red October Campaign is that of
disrupting the relationship between private business interests and public
service. Most promising revolutions, especially in capitalist environments,
have faltered and even rolled back because of the triumph of money and
moneyed interests over the interests of the workers and the poor.

Some of our detractors, both inside and outside our movement, argue against
this focus of our campaign is inappropriate on the grounds that ours is a
multi-class movement that embraces all social classes. Yes, this is true,
BUT:

    *

      Much as our movement is a multi-class movement,
    and that is precisely where its strength lies, at
    the same time it is a movement biased towards the
    workers and the poor. Such a bias is informed by the
    fact that our struggle is about fighting poverty and
    to drastically reduce social inequalities in
    society. In order to achieve these objectives the
    interests of the overwhelming majority of our people
    (the workers and the poor) must be at the centre of
    our ongoing national democratic revolution. The very
    concept of a national democratic revolution is
    premised on the leading role of the working class in
    the transformation of South African society. *

      Being a multi-class movement does not equal to
    class neutrality. In fact class neutrality is a
    myth, and is often used as a cover to privilege the
    interests of elites over those of the masses. * We
    are also faced with the very real danger of two, but
    deeply interrelated, threats. The first one is that
    of the use of access to state power or holding of
    public office as a platform for private capitalist
    accumulation. Existing in our society today is the
    practice of use of public office to give out tenders
    by those who hold such office for their own benefit
    and to dispense patronage. This is what our 2009
    Special Congress discussion document refers to as
    `the throwing of the javelin` or
    `tenderpreneurship`. In fact such practices are
    completely unfair to those entrepreneurs, especially
    SMEs, who are working hard to build their
    businesses, whilst those occupying state office and
    simultaneously issue tenders for their own benefit
    have a hugely unfair advantage. The second threat is
    that using business influence to try and capture the
    state so that it serves such private business
    interests. It is for this reason, amongst others,
    that both the ANC and SACP have taken resolutions
    for their leadership collectives at various levels
    to declare their business interests and
    associations.

We shall use our Red October Campaign to openly discuss these dangers and
spread awareness and ideological consciousness about the dangers of this
relationship to our people. This by no means imply, as some of our
detractors also say, that people in leadership positions are prevented from
pursuing business interests. But these cannot be pursued in a parasitic
manner and at the direct expense of servicing the interests of our people as
a whole. Disrupting the intersection between holding of public office and
using such to pursue private business interests, as well as the opposite
phenomenon, is an absolute condition for building a developmental state.

The third component of our Red October Campaign is that of intensifying the
struggle against corruption. Whilst this is distinct from the above, but
there is a relationship between the two. It is usually on the interface
between public office and private business interests that corruption
festers. However, corruption is not only found in the public sector, but it
is also widespread practice in the private sector as well, and must
therefore be rooted out in the whole of society. It is for this reason that
the SACP welcomed the initiative by the South African Transport and Allied
Workers Union to expose corruption and mismanagement at the South African
Airways.

Through the convening of red forums the SACP seeks to mobilize our people
and build their confidence in exposing corruption. Often people are aware of
corrupt practices, but are afraid to act because sometimes it is powerful
individuals who are involved. Or even where they point out such maladies no
action is taken. We believe that through the organized mass power and
awareness of our people we can deepen the struggle against corruption and
that appropriate action is taken whenever this happens.

As we say in our Special Congress discussion document, the struggle against
corruption is not only a moral struggle, but it is a principled political
struggle at the heart of defending and advancing the national democratic
revolution. It is an essential condition for the realization of the five
priorities of the ANC-led alliance election manifesto.

Once more our Red October Campaign is a call to all communists to be at the
forefront of the mobilization of our people. for the sake of our revolution!
Let every SACP branch and district convene as many of the red forums as
possible during this month and beyond.

Asikhulume!!

_____________________________________________

Portside aims to provide material of interest to people on the left that
will help them to interpret the world and to change it.

Submit via email: moderator at portside.org Submit via the Web:
portside.org/submit Frequently asked questions: portside.org/faq
Subscribe: portside.org/subscribe
Unsubscribe: portside.org/unsubscribe
Account assistance: portside.org/contact Search the archives:
portside.org/archive