Every Party member should raise his revolutionary qualities in every respect to the same level as those of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin.

Some say that it is impossible to acquire the great qualities of revolutionary geniuses like Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin and that it is impossible to raise our own qualities to the same level as theirs. But as long as Party members work hard and earnestly, never allow themselves to be isolated for one single moment from the day to day struggle of the people, and make serious efforts to study Marxist literature, learn from the experiences of other comrades and the masses of the people, and constantly strive to steel and cultivate themselves, they will be perfectly able to raise their qualities to the same level as that of Marx, Engels, Lenin and Stalin.

Nelson Mandela, from his book: “How To Be A Good Communist” (1962)

The processes leading to the formation of the SACP started in 1914 when communists across the world, including in South Africa, condemned the imperialist war known as World War 1. Preceded by the War-on-War League, formed by revolutionary militants in opposition to the war, the International Socialist League was formed in 1915. The International Socialist League went on to become the largest component of the various communist organisations in South Africa that came together to form the SACP as the Communist Party of South Africa.

The founding conference of the Communist Party was held at 20 Plein Street in Cape Town on 30 July – 1 August 1921. This historic step had been announced on the evening of 29 July 1921 at a public meeting in the Cape Town City Hall, attended by over 2,000 people. However, it was not until the following day, 30 July 1921, that the founding conference delegates formally passed the resolution constituting the Communist Party.

The Communist Party contributed in no small measure to building South Africa’s national liberation movement and advancing the struggle for liberation and democracy, towards social emancipation. Communist revolutionaries played an active role on all fronts of the struggle.

In reaction, the apartheid regime banned the Communist Party and prohibited any communist activity in South Africa in 1950, ten years before banning other political organisations. In response, the Communist Party adopted new methods of organisation to carry on and intensify the struggle.

Communist revolutionaries played a great part in the organisation of our Alliance, the Congress of the People held in the mid-1950s and the drafting of the Freedom Charter that it adopted, the turn to the armed struggle and the formation of uMkhonto weSizwe in the early 1960s, mass struggles, and, finally, the defeat of the apartheid regime in the early to mid-1990s, to mention but a few events of historic importance.

The communists were among those who made immense sacrifices towards the South African freedom. It was in this process that others were assassinated. Others disappeared. To this day we still have families that do not know where their loved ones ended, because of the actions of the apartheid security networks.

Post-1994, it was the SACP that characterised the 1996 class project epitomised by GEAR in terms of policy substance as a neoliberal policy regime that went against the objectives of a radical national democratic revolution. The SACP pushed caring broader social transformation policies, including through its flagship campaigns such as the Financial Sector Transformation Campaign and the Red October Campaign.

It was also the SACP in the struggle against corruption that first exposed the problem it characterised as corporate state capture and first called for a judicial commission of inquiry into state capture.

Megathreads and spaces to hang out:

reminders:

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