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2004 Election Manifesto of the Socialist Party of Azania
(SOPA)
28th
February 2004
1.
Preamble
It
is widely acknowledged in the financial centers of the Western world
that the global economy faces an unprecedented crisis of unmanageable
proportions. This crisis is compounded in the developing world and we
feel it acutely here at home. The scourges of poverty, homelessness,
landlessness, unemployment and illiteracy, which attend to this crisis,
cannot be resolved in piecemeal or ad hoc fashion in the context of our
modern globally integrated environment. A unified and composite social
plan, involving all sectors of society and mobilizing all of its
citizens in vigorous and open debate as to the best and most efficient
way of securing our future and that of our children is required. Yet we
are faced with the general failure of political will to truly harness
the immense resources of our people whose dedication and commitment
caused the collapse of the apartheid state. While a lasting solution is
an international question, we must start by addressing this issue on our
own doorstep. To this end the Socialist Party of Azania (SOPA) was
formed on the 21 March 1998 with the express purpose of meeting the
enormous social, political and economic challenges humanity confronts
today. The
globe is haunted at present by the concentration of unparalleled
economic power alongside immense poverty and misery for the majority of
its population. Yet even the most stalwart upholders of the modern
capitalist system decry the crisis in which it finds itself. The unseen,
supposedly rational forces of economic power entirely escape the control
of those who produce the wealth that sustains the economy.
Yet, the decisions of bond traders and speculators on the
financial markets often have major implications for the health and lives
of millions of people far from the shores where those decisions are
made. Increased economic and political centralization, lodging
ever-greater control in fewer and fewer hands, is consequently seen as
the only road to take. Those who are physically and intellectually
productive - from workers to traders, from agricultural laborers to
small farmers, from scholars, students and teachers through to
specialized professionals, from those business people with miniscule
capital to those who command our factories and mines - are all alike
caught in an impossible web, not of our own making. This is not to say
that everyone is equally affected. The burden consistently falls onto
the shoulders of black people who do not command productive resources
and commodities, despite being central to their creation. The
time has come to focus on the most pressing needs of all our people and
find ways to utilize the not insignificant human, physical and natural
resources at our disposal and satisfy these needs. The time for workers
to have an unequivocal political voice accountable only to their
democratic decisions is long overdue. The Socialist Party seeks to earn
the right to be the voice committed to extending the rights of workers
and their allies on all fronts. As
socialists we recognize the leading political role of that immensely
productive sector of our society whose toil and labor keep the wheels of
industry turning, the black working class. Yet, as realists, we also
recognize that we have inherited a past that concentrated a vast range
of skills and resources unequally, but which remain sorely needed if we
are to successfully and collectively address the challenges we face. No
one is exempt from the obligation to throw their weight into the effort
required to reconstruct and rebuild our country and its people. To the
end of achieving this necessary dream, we propose the following
guidelines - much discussed and debated in our steadily growing ranks -
to all men and women of good will who look beyond their own immediate
concerns in the interests of a morality which considers the basic
material and social needs of other human beings the greatest value worth
striving for. Our struggle is consequently inevitably a collective one. In
no other way can we express our own individual humanity more powerfully;
in no other way can we breakdown the manifold divisions of the past and
discover ourselves in the lives of those around us. This is what we have
always fought for and it is by this, which we still stand. 2.
Principles
The
Socialist Party stands by the principle that all forms of racism, sexism
and capitalist exploitation, based on the theft of the creative human
potential of workers, are fundamentally inhumane and degrading and must
be strongly opposed and eliminated. We dedicate ourselves to fighting
such practices in both our lives and in our society. The
Socialist Party stands by the principle that the army of employed manual
and intellectual workers, as well as those without jobs in both rural
and urban areas who depend so heavily on their meager wages, are
crucially central to any concerted social and political initiative to
resolve the current economic crisis. Organically and integrally linked
to the small traders and to the informal sector, to the partially
employed and unemployed, to the agricultural laborers and the rural
poor, to the homeless and dispossessed, this sector of any society must
play a central and leading role in the continuing struggle for the
development of true democracy and social reconstruction. Despite
major restructuring of the labor markets and ongoing public debate
regarding the flexible use of labor; despite trends to increased
industrial home work, the reintroduction of piece work and the length of
the working week; despite endless discussion regarding the productivity
of both capital and labor and the lack thereof despite all this and more
the fact remains that the industrial workers of our land remain the
crucial mainstay of every home, business, factory, industry and economic
enterprise. The importance of the role of workers must be brought to the
center of the stage of any discussions or political program.
If
workers demand a 40-hour working week without loss of wages, as workers
have done, the Socialist Party will fight for this demand. If this
demand needs to be backed up by a campaign of struggle to impose a
moratorium on all retrenchments, then the Socialist Party is committed
to utilizing whatever resources at its command to ensure that the
strongest strategies prevail. Where workers require an extension of UIF
because of the massive retrenchments that have swelled the ranks of the
unemployed, then the Socialist Party is obliged to mount a sustained
campaign to fight for this. If workers require a political party that
will clearly express the perspective and views of workers, then such is
the mandate of the Socialist Party. As
socialists, we firmly believe that workers will double and redouble
their efforts if they can but be assured that they and their families
will fairly share in the wealth they produce. No one denies the power of
organized labor. The Socialist Party is especially committed to
representing the interests of workers and in our country, particularly
black workers - and boldly states the confidence it has that this
pre-eminently productive sector of our society holds the key to our
future and prosperity. We will implacably oppose all that robs us of our
working class perspectives and strength. Where
workers require a political party that will stand by the every-day
struggles on the farms and in the factories of this land and requires a
political party committed to passing legislation to strengthen the
struggle of workers against the power of capital and bosses, then the
Socialist Party thus commits itself.
Where workers need a political vehicle to advance unionization
and establish a concrete and practical alliance of the oppressed, then
the Socialist Party is obliged to commit itself to doing this. Where
workers and their allies require a truly accountable political
leadership who will not bend to making deals and enriching themselves,
then such is the Socialist Party of Azania. The democratic ranks of the
Party have already passed the resolution that if the people and working
class voters send representatives to parliament to proclaim their
interests, that any such elected parliamentarian will devote half of his
or her salary for the use of the Party as its members see fit. Lately,
more and more, our money goes to health care, poor transportation,
prepaid services on water, telephone, electricity and the process is
going on to all municipality services. Utilities have organized to raise
fuel prices, and their profits to outrageous levels. Those who own the
means of mental and material production have organized to pass laws that
protect them and not Black people. The fact that our tax helps those who
already have the most money more than they help us reflects the fact
that those people are well organized and we are not. In
Azania today power is concentrated in the hands of a small number of
well-organized individuals and corporations. These corporations and the
individuals involved in them have extraordinary power to make decisions
that affect all of our lives. Corporations have again and again shown an
ability to work together to fix prices regardless of the suffering and
hardships it has caused to Black people and even our country itself.
This is real power. Many working class families have been threatened
with unemployment and lay-offs, workers have been casualized with no
bargaining rights, homeless people have been evicted and forced removals
have gone on unabated. How many families have been able to escape the
payment of taxes altogether and avoid punishment? A
SOPA government will socialize all means of mental and material
production. It will provide free water, electricity, and free sanitation
particularly for domestic consumption, to hospitals, clinics, schools
etc. Reverse all installation of pre-paid meters, end evictions and
cut-offs. The
Socialist Party understands democracy to be the rule of the majority or
asserting the rule of the majority. In our country Black people who were
the dispossessed, robbed of their lands and subjected to the most
deplorable inhuman conditions by the occupying settler white minority
were both the subject and object of the liberation struggle. These
wretched people are the majority in the country and therefore any
liberation worth its name can only be within the framework of Black
majority rule. True liberation should in all earnest return all power to
these people. They should gain control and access to all land, wealth
and all natural resources. The
usurping Black elite which have assumed power in the name of the Black
majority while continuing to constantly act against them should be
exposed for what it is. Real democracy should free the overwhelming
majority from the clutches of poverty and want and should very
deliberately be biased towards them and them alone. It makes no sense to
have a government that claims to be representing the Black majority but
retains all the economic and social relationships that characterized the
Apartheid regime. Poverty, landlessness, homelessness, unemployment and
disease, in the main still afflict Black people.
5.
Labour (a) Black Workers in our country are living in a very
difficult situation, which is accelerated year after year by measures of
lay-offs in the public services, increase in taxes, liberalisation of
the capital sent abroad which accelerate the closure and liquidation of
our industrial bases. (b) The
majority party in government and the government it leads have in the
past demonstrated their anti-worker positions and attitude by
threatening workers with possible violence and dismissals for labour
actions and strikes the unions had embarked upon. These threats and the
asserted will of the government to see trade unions limit their action
to an unwavering support to the government clearly show how much the
present government’s policies are bent on imposing the destruction of
independent unions able to develop their action for the defence of
worker’s interests. (c) This
political will of government to destroy trade unions as representatives
of the legitimate demands of Black workers is part of the political
framework set up by the Kempton Park Agreements. With these Agreements,
the International Financial Institutions (mainly the IMF and the World
Bank) aim at succeeding to achieve something the Apartheid regime was
not able to do through violence: destroy trade unions. (d) The
question arises as to what means are being used to achieve such a goal?
It is those of a policy, which has become as ‘universal’ as
the ‘structural adjustment plans’ imposed to countries on all
continents, that is to say the association of trade unions to the
implementation of their murderous demands of these financial
institutions. Trade unions are being invited into programs that will
finally destroy them. This
integration policy first led to the co-optation of high-level trade
union officials into government, but more fundamentally, it relied on
the setting up of the National Economic and Development Labour Council
(NEDLAC) in the framework of the institutions set up by the Kempton Park
agreements. This tripartite institution (state, bosses, trade unions)
did not aim at examining and negotiating the workers’ demands but to
implement in the first place the RDP (Reconstruction and Development
Programme). The very last versions of the RDP were nothing else but
transposing the demands for an economy plundered by the Apartheid Debt
payment and the domination of multinationals. This explains the quick
and smooth transition from RDP to the GEAR strategy. (e) This
situation has led us to the conclusion that the trade union movement’s
break with NEDLAC is an essential condition for them to become
independent again and play the role which workers, particularly Black
workers, expect them to play, which is preserving and defending the
gains won through struggle. (f) Together
with NEDLAC, there was a policy pushing trade unions to set up private
pension funds and health care systems. Thus the stock market and
financial speculation institutions managed the workers’ savings. The
consequence would be that workers’ savings would turn to thin air in
the unavoidable stock crash, and also the workers’ savings would be
used as funds to be ‘invested’ in privatisation measures and
consequences: restructuring, lay off, production totally or partially
liquidated. Already, the unions, which were pioneers in this diabolical
ploy of capital, have lost millions of rands belonging to desperate and
poor workers and some of them presently unemployed.
(g) The
Socialist Party urges unions to break with NEDLAC and take away the
management of workers’ savings from pension funds, in order to set up
genuine national institution of Social security and health care managed
by workers, organising solidarity between generations. This is the only
way to ensure that workers savings escape speculative management or the
budgetary constraints of GEAR. (h) The
Socialist Party is part of the movement that is taking shape today all
over the world, the movement that is demanding that workers return to
their initial role in the trade unions; that is to say, help defend the
material interests of workers in the framework of guaranteed gains
allowing workers to impose their collective and individual rights. These
rights and norms are essentially those defined internationally by the
ILO, which the apartheid regime stopped ratifying when workers in Azania
and all over the world denounced the scandal of their implementation for
white workers only. These
rights are first of all:
(i) We
have experiences that we should reflect upon: The liberation movement
fought to destroy and destabilise the Apartheid regime. In this movement
Black workers in our country set up their own independent trade unions,
and developed their action on the basis of the legitimate demands of the
Black workers. The political dimension of this action was not derived
from submitting to an imposition of a party political program. It was
due to that fact that these organizations allowed the Black workers to
surmount the individualised relations imposed by the oppression of the
apartheid regime and become the spearhead of the changes that Black
people as a whole wished for. The
constitution of the tripartite alliance (ANC-SACP-COSATU) created the
conditions, which jeopardised trade unions independence and therefore
threatened their very existence. (j) The
need for trade union independence is leaning upon the deep consciousness
that there can be no better future for our people tomorrow, than that of
leaning upon their rights and gains in favour of workers today. 6.
The Land Question (a)
Historical Background The
masses of our people are mobilizing to recover the lands that were
forcibly seized from them during the period of colonization. There is a
spontaneous simmering of a people’s revolt against the unequal
distribution of the land and against the repayment of the apartheid
debt. “Those who posses the best lands are white. Those who want these
lands are black. The whites stole, by force of arms, these lands from
Blacks over a period of decades”. Western
imperialist governments have unleashed a hate campaign against the
peasants and the Black population of Zimbabwe. This is a cynical and
deceitful campaign. This campaign only serves to show the extent to
which whites place little value to the right of Africans to own land or
enjoy independence. Beyond the issue of the land and its control, what
is at stake is the control throughout the continent of the immense
resources that are pillaged today by the large multinational
corporations. When “we fought for independence, the goal of the
struggle was twofold: Land and Freedom. But when independence was
granted, what resulted was autonomy without land and without freedom”.
This explains why the great majority of Black people still do not have
land, while whites continue to hold millions upon millions of acres of
the best lands on the continent. This
should be enough to indicate the veritable intentions and orientation of
a Socialist Party of Azania (SOPA) government. No one should dare accuse
us of fomenting “chaos” as if chaos is not already the fate of the
dispossessed Black peasants and the working class, compelled to move
about the country continuously in search of a plot of land to feed their
families. Based
on a close examination of all facts, the root cause of the African
people’s plight is to be found in the pillage of the continent
organized first by the nations that promoted slave trade, nations that
imposed colonization, and now by nations and international financial
institutions that are forcing both the payment of the apartheid debt,
which is not the people’s debt, and the implementation of the
Structural Adjustment Plans. The
White farmers, who control most, if not all of the productive land in
the country, settled these lands during the period of colonization and
have been allowed to remain on these lands even after political
independence. The white minority was allowed by the Kempton Park
Agreement to retain the lands stolen under apartheid terror. The
question of land is at the center of imperialist plunder. Imperialism is
synonymous with chaos, barbarism, and the reversal of human
civilization. The Constitution of SA, preceded by the Kempton Park
agreement and underpinned by capitalist principles, shows clearly that
imperialist response to our struggle for national sovereignty was to
insist that the large landowners installed by colonialism must remain on
the lands they had stolen from Black people by use of violence and by
massive transfer of African people towards less productive zones. From
the standpoint of democracy and the right of Black people to
self-determination, a SOPA government will affirm the following: (a)
The right of Black people to recover the totality of their lands,
without indemnities or resale. One cannot, and should not, buy back that
which was usurped by force. (b)
The right of Black peasants and the Black working class to decide
for themselves their own fate, free from “pacts” and less favorable
“settlements” with colonial settlers and/or the structural
adjustment plans. (c)
The right of Black peasants and the Black working class to break
with institutions that perpetuate their domination e.g. the
Commonwealth, European Union, World Trade Organization (WTO), World Bank
(WB), International Monetary Fund (IMF) etc. (d)
The right of Black peasants and the Black working class to cancel
the apartheid debt, whose repayment condemns them to a life of poverty,
misery, ignorance and diseases. (e)
The right of Black peasants and the Black working class to build
political parties that genuinely represent their rights and interests
and also to preserve the independence of Trade Unions. (f)
The right of Black peasants and the Black working class to
exercise true sovereignty in order that they can create the conditions
allowing them to live in peace and to be governed according to their
fundamental interests. (b)
Land Repossession, Ownership and Redistribution Policy Cardinal
in the policy objective of land re-conquest and repossession is the
historical necessity for the regeneration and creative development of
human capabilities of Black people in particular and the Azanian people
in general. Land re-conquest and repossession constitute the historical
and material basis for complete liberation of Black people in Azania. To
attain total liberation, Black people must liberate the land completely
and effectively from the inherited system of White racism,
Settler-colonialism, and Capitalism. The
policy objective of Land re-conquest and repossession is premised upon
the recognition of an important function of the land in Azania. For the
Socialist Party of Azania (SOPA), land is more than the primary means of
production. Historically, the basic and original function of the land
was to serve as the material basis for dynamic development of social and
human life. During the process of interaction with the social
environment, the rightful owners of the land had the potential to
develop various capabilities and skills. The
crucial invention of the bow and arrow and its effective utilization by
the hunting Khoi and San communities, was for instance an important
practical contribution indicating the origin and development of rational
science and technology. The bow represented the first utilization by
Black people of mechanically stored energy and the practical flight of
the arrow stimulated and contributed to the subsequent development of a
study of dynamics, a branch of mechanics that deals with forces and
their relation primarily to the motion of bodies. Land
possession and control enabled Black people to decide the nature of and
implement a social framework, which would appropriately sustain the
dynamic development of social and human life in Azania. This related to
the right of Black people to develop appropriate institutions and
organizations to govern the political, social, economic, and cultural
functions in the community. This also involved determining the mode of
thought, values, norms, etc, to govern social relation. Land possession
and control therefore enabled Black people to implement the nature of
ownership and principles of distribution of domestic resources
appropriate to the reality in the community. Centuries of living as
Landlessness people has generated and produced a passive relationship
with the land by Black people. A
SOPA government would there, effectively transform private and
individual ownership of the basic means of production and especially the
land. For this reason, a SOPA government will adopt an economic strategy
of expropriating the land without compensation and redistribute it on an
equitable basis to all the Azanian people. The selection and adoption of
this economic strategy is premised upon the historical, political, and
economic considerations regarding ownership and the social relationship
of Black people towards the land. SOPA
selects this economic strategy and policy objective on the basis of its
strength to fundamentally transform the conditions of the peasants in
particular and that of the working class in general. (c)
The willing-buyer-willing seller strategy or option SOPA
discards this economic strategy as both unworkable and grossly
misleading for a transformative process as required for socialist
development. It is premised upon a false tacit assumption that
landowners, both foreign and domestic, will readily avail their land for
sale to a socialist government in order to be redistributed among
workers and peasants. This hypothesis overlooks the fact that unequal
distribution and private ownership of the land are a major source of
concentration of wealth and income, and social positions of privilege
and power. Hence these cannot be surrendered readily, however benevolent
these social groups and classes may be towards socialist aims and goals.
This economic strategy therefore, is not premised upon socialist
realities and it is debunked by the historical experiences of countries
that have attempted implementing it. The Zimbabwe’s case is a recent
example. (d)
Loss of foreign aid and foreign investment For
a SOPA government, the gains that would be received from the national
control of the land and a socialization program would far exceed any
loss of foreign aid and foreign investments. To appreciate this one has
to understand the nature of foreign aid supplied by the capitalist
countries, the restrictions imposed and the like. The efficacy of
foreign investments to the Azanian economy is measured by the net
outflow of capital it generates as well as the resultant “spread or
backwash effects”. If foreign investment “spreads” its effects
throughout the economy, then the net gain results. However, this has
occurred in very rare occasions as foreign capitalists normally consider
the profitability factor and concentrate upon those sectors of the
economy engaged in exportation of commodities and resources. Hence the
loss of foreign investments is usually exaggerated considering the
various demands made by foreign investors. 7.
Agricultural Transformation A
Socialist Party of Azania (SOPA) government will primarily be
responsible for a comprehensive policy of agricultural transformation.
Cardinal in the envisaged policy will be the following inherited factors
and primary needs for effective transformation: (a)
Conscious realization and cognizance of the historical impact and
consequences of land conquest and dispossession, rural-urban migratory
process as well as the migratory labor system upon the rural population,
which will be taken into account by a SOPA government. (b)
The various aspects of the agricultural transformation strategy
and objectives will ensure a radical departure from existing production
and consumption patterns. For example increased production of food,
basic clothing is more important than increased production of luxury
commodities catering for private consumption requirement. (c)
Orientate and determine on a dynamic basis, the system of
production and distribution in the economy towards satisfying domestic
demands and social requirements of the majority of the population. (d)
Our socialist government will establish an Azanian Central
Planning Board whose basic function will include working out in detail
production priorities and basic essentials of the peasants and the
Azanian working class. A SOPA government through the Azanian Central
Planning Board will, on a sustainable and dynamic basis, take cognizance
of justice. (e)
On the basis of these cumulative historical factors, a SOPA
government will find it imperative to significantly increase the
productive capacity of the Azanian people by various means including
raising the levels of agricultural and industrial skills and techniques. (f)
Public investment in agricultural machinery and equipment, rural
water purification system and the provision of electricity in rural
areas are more important than capital investments in industries
producing and supplying the latest lipsticks to the rural poor. (g)
Increasing availability and the distribution of health and
educational facilities, on an equitable basis, as well as an
intensification of adult literacy campaign are certainly more important
than capital investments in developing night clubs, beer halls, and
modern hotels and casinos. (h)
Landlessness and the application of the racist legislation on
land ownership and cultivation over centuries of oppression and
exploitation have resulted in Black people utilizing rudimentary
techniques of production in the 13% of the land that was reserved for
them. A simple redistribution of land and resettlement of the rural poor
therefore, will not by itself lead to a rise in agricultural production
and human labor productivity. (i)
The existence of low-income levels for the majority of the rural
population is a crucial determinant for domestic demand in rural areas.
Hence food produced and consumed has a very low nutritional and health
value. (j)
Large-scale capital-intensive agriculture constitutes a dominant
feature of farming in agricultural areas currently owned by whites. This
private and individual ownership of land has historically produced the
practice of absentee landlordism among whites. Accordingly, Black farm
workers have historically performed the bulk of farming and agricultural
activities including supervisory and management activities. 7.1
Structural Transformation in Agriculture (a)
SOPA, on taking over state power and government, will engage in a
comprehensive economic planning process and strategy of structural
transformation, which will be geared towards prioritizing a socialist
mode of production, distribution and exchange. In the rural and
agricultural sector, priority will be given to a process of transforming
large-scale, capital-intensive farms historically and currently owned by
whites towards state farms. These farms will be expropriated without
compensation by the socialist state and SOPA government. (b)
Special attention and priority will be given to a process of
transforming the political, economic and social base of formally
capitalist farms in order to eliminate all forms of domination and
exploitation that are associated with the ownership structure, resource
utilization, and other elements of the superstructure. A similar
transformative process will be set in motion in rural villages that will
be organized into co-operative farms. The primary objective of the
process of transformation will involve consolidation and development of
socialist consciousness and socialist relations within state owned farms
and co-operatives. In pursuance of this goal, a SOPA government will
avail politically committed and ideologically sound cadres to perform
the basic function of mobilizing farm workers and peasants, and enhance
their socialist consciousness. SOPA regards the development of socialist
consciousness and socialist relations, in a liberated Azania, as
cardinal pillars for sustaining motivation and commitment of workers and
peasants to the socialist process of production, distribution and
exchange, as well as the development and reproduction of social and
human life within a socialist framework. (c)
Appropriate and adequate decision-making structures will be
established in state farms and co-operatives. Workers and peasants, as
producers in these farms, will be trained and encouraged to participate
in the management and planning structures in order to ensure maximum
democratic participation as well as the production of high levels of
surplus. Specific attention will be given to encouraging and mobilizing
the currently landless and unemployed Black people to participate in
leadership positions, in planning and management structures. Former
white landlords and other exploiters and oppressors of black workers and
peasants will receive intensive political education and ideological
reorientation while actively participating in the process of
agricultural production as workers. A SOPA government will provide
social, educational and economic assistance to the state farms and
co-operatives, in the form of modern farming methods, farming equipment
and machinery, agricultural advisors, fertilizers, seeds, marketing
services etc. (d)
Structural transformation and emancipation of agriculture in a
liberated Azania will involve a two-fold process. Firstly, to engage in
a process of transformation of the capitalist mode of production.
Secondly, to alleviate and ultimately eradicate completely all forms of
dependence upon the world market demands generated by the predominance
of world capitalist dominance of the Azanian economy. The economic
strategy and policy of rural and agricultural transformation and
emancipation is oriented towards ultimately disengaging the Azanian
economy from the system of world capitalist dominance. It seeks to cater
for the long-range basic requirements of the Azanian population on a
consistent and dynamic basis. Also, the policy seeks to safeguard the
principle and objective of national economic sovereignty of Black
people. In this respect, it is reinforced by our strategy and policy of
industrial transformation and development. (e)
The ultimate basic goal of SOPA’s economic policy entails
sustaining an efficient agricultural system. In pursuance of this
objective, a SOPA government will embark upon a systematic application
of modern science and technology in state farms and co-operatives in
order to increase agricultural output and labor productivity. This
process will involve supplying a variety of farming and agricultural
inputs, e.g. machinery and equipment, agricultural tools, chemical
fertilizers, pesticides etc. Also, adequate provision of dams and
boreholes, an extension of irrigated land areas, irrigation pumps, rural
electrification system and so on will be essential to attaining and
maintaining an efficient system of agricultural production and a
significant improvement 8. Environmental Policy It
has long been known that one of the major casualties of the uncontrolled
quest for economic super-profits by various global economic enterprises
is the natural environment, which sustains human life. The dumping of
toxic wastes, the cynical exploitation of raw materials, precious metals
and minerals and the destruction of sensitive wetlands, forests and
threatened species of fauna and flora, continue unabated on the world
stage. The spread of
deserts and their encroachment on arable lands has successfully been
tackled on the planet before. There
is no reason why such examples cannot be emulated. Every
citizen has a right to live in an environment that is not harmful to
his/her health or well-being and to have the environment protected for
the present and future generations, through legislation and other
measures that: (a)
Prevent pollution and ecological degradation and promote
conservation; (b)
Secure ecologically sustainable development and use of natural
resources. 8.1 Environmental protection
mechanisms As
a first step towards the protection of the environment, a SOPA
government will make sure that land is not privately owned. Factories
and houses built on land (which shall be kept in custody of the state on
behalf of citizens may be privately owned but not the land on which they
are constructed. Major
industries shall belong to the state and will be labor intensive in
order to provide employment for all the inhabitants of the land.
Production methods will prevent environmental degradation by making sure
that emissions comply with the acceptable standards set by the state,
and such standard shall ensure that human and nature are put first. The
incineration method of toxic waste disposal shall be forbidden as it has
proved throughout the world that it is a major cause for asthma and
cancer. Private and public industries shall subject themselves twice per
annum to a state run Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA). The
wild life and game reserves shall belong to the state and shall not be
subjected to private ownership. Poaching of wild life shall be
punishable by prison sentencing and hunting of endangered species shall
be forbidden. Rivers,
dams, wetlands and indigenous trees shall be strictly protected by the
state through continuous legislation and policing to avoid pollution and
degradation. 8.2 Structures responsible
for Environmental Protection State
security structures shall have unlimited powers to protect and serve the
citizens of the land including the protection of environment. However,
there shall be specialists within the policing agency that deal with the
protection of environment. An
Environmental Court shall be established to prosecute individuals and
institutions that violate the environmental policy. Repeated
environmental offences by private companies shall lead to further
prosecution and closure. 9.
Crimes and Corruption 9.1
Crime The
past few years have seen increasing levels of crime and corruption. We
have seen more people becoming victims of crime. While others would like
us to believe that the solution to crime is more policing, SOPA contends
that this will need a policeman on every street corner and this will not
solve the problem. Only by aggressively tackling the causes can its
manifestations be uprooted. Crime
can be uprooted and eradicated. The
active propagation of a culture of mutual respect for human dignity and
the moral worth of human life - which as socialists we consciously
strive to engender within our ranks and among ourselves - is the first
step to overcoming the current, increasingly rampant culture of greed,
egotism and the socially destructive attitude of serving oneself without
heed of the other. With the
scourge of poverty under sustained attack by a SOPA government, the
horror of crime will suffer the first telling blows. Crime
is a direct result of economic conditions under which our people live.
The so-called New South Africa has failed to improve the conditions
under which the majority of the black working class lives. There has not
been any improvement in terms of employment. Instead, we are always told
that we should become small business people. No! Not everyone can become
a small businessperson. Otherwise who will buy from whom? We
have seen growing frustration, with an increasing number of our people
turning to alcohol abuse, drug abuse, violence against women and
children; and even prostitution. We are under no illusions as to the
immense difficulty of fighting this social evil. The institutionalized
violence of the current capitalist system must be recognized. We
have seen many young people turning to petty and violent crimes like car
hijacking, house breaking, robbery and many more. We have also learnt
through research that some of the ‘big’ people behind these crimes
are the white middle class people who live in comfortable houses and
take their children to the best schools while our children always have
to go to jails or get killed. The
last ten years have also brought nothing for the black working class in
terms of improved housing conditions. We still live in overcrowded
conditions where crime is likely to be more than in better housing
conditions. Our people still live in the so-called squatter camps, where
there are no jobs. These are the conditions that give rise to crime. For
crime to be solved, there needs to be an aggressive strategy to create
jobs. The creation of jobs will decrease crime. If there are jobs no one
will be forced to go into the streets and hijack people of their cars.
No one will be forced to rob people off their belongings. No woman will
be forced into the streets to sell her body. Also,
the incidents of domestic violence against women and children will be
decreased because men will have their self-esteem back and will not have
to vent their anger against defenseless women and children. But,
does this mean that if there are enough jobs then there won’t be any
crime at all? There will still be some form of crime. We believe that
once the causes of crime, especially petty and violent crimes have been
addressed; it should be easier to isolate other crimes and deal with
them accordingly. In
terms of dealing with crimes by those who choose to involve themselves
in them not because of poverty but because of sheer greed a SOPA
government will do the following:
9.2
Corruption
A
lot has been said about corruption. Yet, there are always misleading
interpretations about what causes corruption. Corruption is a direct
product of the capitalist system. In
a system where everyone is made to aspire to become more rich, and where
they are exposed to a lot of resources (money) that they work with,
there is always a tendency for them to want to accumulate as much as
possible for themselves. Corruption
is always committed by those who are in power, whether in the state
(public sector) or in business (private sector). It is fuelled by greed.
It is fuelled by the prevailing climate, which encourages everyone to
aspire to become a millionaire. The individualistic environment that is
nurtured by the capitalist system fuels it. In
order to fight corruption we need to first identify its real causes. We
need to fight against these causes and defeat them. The only way to
fight corruption is by removing all the causes of this scourge –
rolling back the capitalist system. We need to uproot individualism and
greed and replace them with a system that puts people first; a system
that discourages private property. It
is only when we have removed a spirit of self-enrichment and
accumulation that there can be any progress in the fight against
corruption. Also, it is only when we have removed the artificial but
very huge gaps in terms of financial remuneration between those who hold
high positions and lower ones that we can succeed in fighting
corruption. Corruption
is also a result of the continued privatization of state assets. There
are a lot of kickbacks that happen when state assets are sold
wholesomely to private companies. That is another reason why we need to
halt privatization. It breeds corruption. Therefore we also need to
reverse privatization. Corruption
needs to be fought by ensuring that the society is brought into
equality, where there is no self-enrichment; where there is not
inequality; and where there is less private property. Fight corruption!
Fight capitalism! 10. Education Our
schools and universities are in crisis and have been for years.
Student numbers at some of our 'premier' institutions have
dropped markedly, just at that point in our history when the need for
skills, training and learning is at its most desperate. The doors of our
educational institutions must be thrown open; the intellectuals therein
must urgently apply themselves to collaborating collectively to
addressing the situation in which the country finds itself. Books and
desks must be shared, the rand must be stretched, and teaching and
learning must become a shared national asset and an inalienable right
for development, growth and social stability.
These institutions have not significantly addressed themselves to
the reconstruction and the revitalization that is necessary if they are
to serve the interests of the mass of our people.
We
recognize that education is a psychological, cultural, social and
political process of training which perpetuates the existing
historically concrete conditions of the society in which it is located.
We do not believe this need necessarily to be so. 10.1 A SOPA government will
therefore strive for the following: (a)
To ensure that the principles of socialism, democracy, equity and
freedom underpin the education policy. Only
a conscious philosophy of education, devoted to a lasting liberation and
the solution of social ills, will provide the social glue with which to
piece together our fractured nation and its divided people and draw the
socially ignorant out of their condition. (b)
To fight for state adoption of all educational institutions and ensure
free education to those who cannot afford it, that is, provision of free
education up to technical, diploma and degree level.
Those who can pay must continue to do so as a mark of their
contribution to society. (c)
To rationalize the unequal distribution of personnel in institutions of
learning and introduce innovative measures to fast-forward particularly
the development of those who demonstrate aptitude, determination and
commitment to learn in order for them to make their contribution to
their communities and society at large. (d)
To institutionalize life-long learning in all places of work and develop
workable models of basic adult education and encourage and provide
comprehensive assistance and state support for those already in
existence. (c)
A SOPA government will encourage communities to take their children to
schools closer to their places of residence to avoid the daily traveling
of the young ones which more often than not result in accidents. To
ensure that this policy objective succeeds, equitable resources will be
provided e.g. research capacity, laboratory, and access to a library,
free psychological and psychiatric help and provision of free nutritious
food to the needy.
11. Health Treatable
and preventable diseases continue to decimate the productive capacities
of too many of our people. Many of these diseases are embedded in the
social structures inherited from the past and cannot be tackled without
dealing with their root cause. The
attempts made by the current administration at breaking with the past
and instituting a socially sensitive health-care system are
unsustainable in the long term if the government remains committed to
policies that diminish, rather than increase, government spending under
the guise of fiscal discipline. Under
such conditions, the equalization of health-care facilities will not
readily be achieved. The
privatization of health-care is inimical to serving the needs of the
destitute and those thrown into unemployment.
To achieve the desired results of a healthy and productive
people, we need a government that is unapologetically committed to the
needs of the workers, the peasants and the poor. 11.1 HIV/AIDS Introduction The
HIV/AIDS pandemic has some societal phases The initial phase This
is the infection stage, where a high number of people are infected. At
this level there are a lot of uncertainties, ignorance, denial and
myths. A SOPA government will introduce a vigorous education program
that will help dispel the myths and ignorance. At
this phase there is a need for intense and extensive educational program
to suit all levels of society. SOPA will create the necessary facilities
to assist people in this particular phase. The party will also look into
the present disclosure rule in order to protect partners and spouses. The illness phase The
country should be well prepared before hand for this phase of the
scourge. HIV/AIDS should be tackled like any war aggressively and with
total commitment. SOPA commits itself to meeting this task in a
wholehearted manner unlike the present wavering government. The dying phase At
this phase people die in large numbers. It is a costly and devastating
phase, financially, emotionally, educationally and emotionally. It
drains the country of its human resources and creates multiple societal
problems such as a high number of orphans or child headed families,
suicides, unemployment etc. SOPA will put into place a state supported
funeral system to allow our people to be buried with the dignity they
deserve. Intervention South
Africa is at the dying phase. We are losing millions of people. HIV/AIDS
must be viewed as a crisis or a state of emergency. It is not just a
health issue. SOPA will mobilize all people to the fight against the
pandemic. All necessary resources should be made available in the war
against this pandemic. A SOPA government will work with all interested
parties and institutions in the fight against AIDS. Accurate monitoring
mechanism must be in place in order to avoid profit makers in the name
of HIV/AIDS. It is a public issue. Generic medication must be available
at all levels of communities including even the most remote rural.
Pharmaceutical companies will be regulated, as their primary motive is
the concern for profits. SOPA will prohibit profiteering from health. There
should be accessible facilities, which are not stigmatized. Nutrition
programs, basic needs such as safe running water, proper sanitation,
proper and humane housing will reduce premature deaths from HIV/AIDS
related conditions. Governance SOPA
will establish a special and specific portfolio in parliament for
HIV/AIDS, which will be answerable to the public. Its approach will be
scientific, which will seek to find a lasting cure for HIV/AIDS by
ensuring tolerance, recognition of free speech, opinion, and upholding
the right for dissenting views. Appropriate treatment and care will be
provided, including free drugs for those affected with HIV/AIDS. Finance A
specific known amount on the budget to be allocated to HIV/AIDS related
matters such education, preventive measures (not just issuing of
condoms, but reviewing of moral education as well), road shows,
studies/research and monitored drug trails. 12.
Housing
Slum
clearance and the provision of decent and adequate housing for the
Azanian workers and peasants will be a SOPA government’s priority.
Homelessness is the fundamental context in which the Socialist Party has
begun within its ranks to define and articulate a housing policy.
Housing is essentially the responsibility of a workers and
people's government. Taking population growth into consideration, the backlog on
housing continues to grow in absolute terms.
The mushrooming of squatter camps grows on an unprecedented scale
and is symptomatic of the poverty in rural areas and the extent of the
social problem that confronts us. Erecting
even more poorly constructed dwellings, far from places of work and
employment, than did the apartheid regime is scandalous. In this regard
particularly will all those contractors responsible for executing
government tenders be obliged to comply with the relevant legislation
protecting the rights of workers and employ only unionized labor?
We believe this should apply to all government tenders. It
is further only by assisting communities to define their own needs and
requirements for shelter that those who can build themselves homes
worthy of the name efficiently utilize the employment of available
resources. Successful
examples of small independent housing projects exist in our country
today, but in piecemeal and ad hoc fashion. For a start, these efforts
must be encouraged, rewarded, supported educationally and funded from
within the existing budget and generalized across the country.
The fundamental orientation of building self-sustaining
communities that are the necessary seedbeds of a decent quality of life
and a dignified human existence forms the basis of our discussions,
policy objective and strategy. SOPA
will implement an urban policy, which will take rural development,
creation of job opportunities and wealth in rural areas as a point of
departure. 13.
Welfare
Where
the lives of human beings are considered sacrosanct, a civilized society
takes care of the young, the permanently disabled and those senior
citizens who have spent their working lives serving their communities. We
cannot accept the imposition of austerity measures and mechanisms of
fiscal discipline that in practice effect only the poorest in our
society. Where social
benefits and claims to entitlements have been won through the collective
struggle of organized labor and mobilized communities, these gains must
be protected by legal and institutionalized mechanisms.
Cutbacks on social expenditure merely conceal and mask
economically created disparities and inequalities and postpone the
resulting social ills to future generations.
The situation in our country today attests to this self-evident
fact. 14.
Public Transport We
believe that the state should control the marketing of local products
and goods intended for both internal and external marketing so that such
products and goods are available for internal consumption at minimal
prices and external consumption at advantageous prices. -Secondly
the state should operate its own importation programme through a
national co-operation in competition with the privately owned import
houses so that the imported goods can reach people at minimal and
acceptable prices 14.1
The policy implication of this position is that: The
department of state responsible for transport shall control all public
transport–land, sea and air – such that the state through its
various organs participates maximally in intra-inter–town,
inter-provincial as well as national and international transport There
should be no provision of private ownership of public transport except
by special licence, provided that all railways, harbours, and airways
shall be owned completely by the state. An
elected government of the Republic Of Azania should therefore recognise
that the movement of the people and goods requires a well planned and
efficiently operated public transport system. Goods must be moved as far as possible by rail and minimally
by road to prevent the tearing up of highway roads. The cost in money as
well as human life as results of congestion on the roads is intolerable
and should be immediately reviewed and adjusted in favour of a more
robust railway system. Human
traffic
must also, as far as possible be moved by rail to minimize the cost and
loss of life through accidents -The
road fatalities in country are totally unacceptable and should be
reversed through a well devised programme of rapid rail programme
The
transport infrastructure The
social and physical landscape of the country points to the need for the
improvement of the road system in urban cities through the development
of well–planned mass transit program, preferably, one that is
generated by electricity. A
SOPA government will ensure that there is a rural roads infrastructure
that enables each one of our rural villages to be connected to essential
services by a good secondary road system. The level of inaccessibility
to schools, clinics, hospitals and markets in our rural settlements is
totally unsatisfactory and unacceptable, and threaten the country’s
security and well-being. 15. Towards the Future We are under no illusions as to the enormity of the task before all those who would ally themselves with the cause of workers in particular and humanity in general. We are cognizant of the fact that those who were enemies yesterday will need to stand shoulder to shoulder tomorrow in the quest for the noble goal of building a true humanity. While we do not claim to have all the answers, we deign to call ourselves socialists and to commit ourselves to collectively tackling this historic task. Let history be the judge of our intentions and our actions. Vote SOPA, a guarantee to roll-back privatization, retrenchments, casualization of labor, stop the payment of the apartheid debt, socialize the means of production, establish Black Majority rule and a socialist order in Azania, and attack poverty and unemployment.
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Open World Conference of Workers