The Battle of Ideas: The Bolshevik view on where we must go by Lindokuhle Mponco

 Introduction

As we head into the 3rd National People's Assembly we are confronted with the reality of rebuilding, advancing, and defending the struggle for economic freedom in our lifetime. With that being the reality that confronts our July 26 Movement, we have no option but to promote, campaign, and lobby for political ideas and leaders who will be constructive in the quest to achieve such. In the political vacuum of silence that is gripping the province of the Eastern Cape due to the silence of the PCT, and seeing other Provincial leaders making pronouncements of their preferred candidates, we have no option but to provide revolutionary guidance and make it clear and sundry to all members and the public which ideas we support and who we see best fit to ascend to the Central Command Team. This article will explore the current challenges and answer the revolutionary question of what is to be done?

 

We need Bolsheviks!

When the Russian Social-Democratic Labour Party (RSDLP) was confronted with reality of a brewing revolution, they convened a Party congress (1902) in London since most of the core leadership was based in the UK due to being exiled. The question that confronted them was on how best where they supposed to organise themselves going forward. There was a bloc within the Party which argued for a mass democratic approach and a politically flexible system which would allow private and public dissent should there be no consensus. While the other bloc made an argument for the Party to focus on building a core of cadres or professional revolutionaries who would be ideologically trained to be the vanguard of the working class, and to keep the Party small amid censorship and banishment. On top of that they made an argument for a system which would allow for democratic debate to ensue but when the majority decides, all members must abide with the decision and dissent would not be tolerated. This system is known as Democratic Centralism. These two sides are known as the Bolsheviks and the Mensheviks. The Bolsheviks were led by Vladimir Ilyich Lenin, while the Mensheviks were led by Julius Martov and Georgi Plekhanov. The Bolsheviks won the ultimate discussion of Democratic Centralism being adopted leading to a split between the two blocs which would go on to characterise the Marxist movement in Russia, and ultimately the world, especially after the triumph of the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917.

The EFF is confronted by a similar trend; however, it manifests itself in the form of Electoralism vs Revolutionism. The other side consists of leaders and supporters who firmly believe that the EFF must continue to pursue democratic means of overcoming the Neoliberal regime and rely on liberal bourgeois democracy to undo capitalism while the other side makes a strong argument for the creation of an alternative democracy which will create dual power, and lead us into a revolutionary situation, and ultimately lead us on the path to revolution. The Spark identifies as a Bolshevik outlet and as such we align ourselves with the ideas that seek to dispute the recurring theme which is contained in the discussion documents since 2014 that we are not ready to lead a revolution against capitalism. The analysis is partially correct given the subjective conditions that we are gripped with but partially wrong given the objective conditions that make it ripe for revolution. While we are still resolving our internal matters, the revolutionary tide keeps moving and it will move with or without us. This philistinism trend of wanting the movement to be subjected to a permanent cycle of competing in a liberal bourgeois space which is skewed in the favour of parties who are the core of the GNU is not assisting in building a truly revolutionary Party which can lead a revolutionary movement that can liquidate capitalism.

The EFF has a historical mission to liquidate capitalism and bring about a socialist dispensation, however, that will not be achieved if we still have electoralists at the helm of the Party. It is from this point of perspective that we make the solid argument that we must promote, lobby, and campaign for leaders who will lead us into a revolutionary situation, and ultimately ensure we liquidate capitalist relations of production. When the Bolshevik Party embarked on their quest to liquidate the Provisional Government of Kerensky, they had only 200 000 members, while we boast over a million members. It can't be that we are failing to locate the weak point and gaps that will enable us to establish a popular democratic outlet which will counter-balance the established institutions like Parliament. Our participation must move from simply exposing the hypocrisy of the ruling class, to active mobilisation of the masses to reject the institution itself and expose it as a nothing but a reformist structure. Most of the electorate has already rejected bourgeois elections, ours is to emphasise that which they have already rejected and provide a revolutionary posture and explanation. Lenin in 1917 after his arrival from Switzerland made sure the Bolshevik Party distances itself from the Provisional Government and actively promotes the Soviets as the organ of popular rule, thus creating a reality of dual power. It took a Special Congress for that to be achieved, and it was achieved after he published the classic April Theses. 

Some within the sections of the Party called it Trotskyism, however, history proved Lenin and Trotsky correct. Our people need to be conscientized and shown in clear and scientific terms that this liberal bourgeois democracy has failed, and that the power to create a new alternative lies in their hands, and only their hands. This is the role the Vanguard Party must play in the intervening period, consistent with the method of Lenin of patiently explaining the conditions of the masses. However, to patiently explain the conditions we need a leadership stratum that has the ideological ability to explain and explain until our people are convinced that the only way out of this neoliberal hell is through a popular revolution which will be guided by a United Front of Workers' Parties, Unions, and Civic based organisations. This intervening period does not need leaders who will have egos, arrogance, and a sense of 'being in charge'. It needs leaders who will not blindly unify with distorters of Marxism and non-Marxists who seek to undermine the revolutionary science of a Marxist oriented revolution. It is quite clear to the most politically backward individual that the system has failed to address the needs of the people adequately. Even the Congress movement silently admits that they have failed to accomplish the first stage of the NDR, thus forcing them into the arms of neoliberals. Such is bound to happen when one follows a thoroughly Menshevik approach of stagism. The two-stage theory in as far as South Africa is concerned has failed, thus a Bolshevik approach is needed not an electoralist one. 

It is on this basis that we raise the clarion call that those who should emerge must be leaders who understand this reality and will not only stop at understanding but will advance it. The EFF needs Leaders who are not accustomed or draw inspiration from the perks and privileges which come from serving in Parliament, Legislative bodies, and Municipal Councils. The EFF needs dedicated revolutionaries who will ensure that all layers of leadership from Central down to the VD Task Forces are in tune with the demands of the masses and what is required to advance the revolutionary. In sum, we do not want Mensheviks at the driving wheel. Already we have seen some of these Mensheviks leave for other parties that either have nothing in common with us or are non-Marxist in character, while some have gone straight into the clutches of a feudal socialist party. It is time for the Bolsheviks to stand up and be counted.

 

 

 

What is to be done?

As a contributor of this Bolshevik revolutionary publication, we want to make it clear that we support, endorse, and openly declare our support for a fellow Bolshevik by the name of Comrade-Fighter Chumani Matiwane. Fighter Chumani Matiwane is a tried and tested leader who was the first Regional Chairperson of one of the fastest growing regions in terms of electorate share and membership, the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality. He led the EFF in its first Local Government Elections, and the EFF attained a 7.97% electoral share, and 8 seats in total, which was 0.19% behind the national average. This laid the foundation for an improvement in 2021 to 12.06% due to their performance in council and in the metro. As leader of the caucus for the most part, this saw the Party gain traction and relevance which continues to grow everyday under the current leadership of Fighter Mziyanda Hlekiso. The Party has also shown confidence in him by deploying him to national and provincial debates to articulate the position of the Party, and he has done well in providing perspective with the utmost clarity. Furthermore, Fighter Chumani Matiwane is a clinical writer who contributes to The Spark and provides ideological clarity on certain issues that need the necessary experience and clarity that some contributors including me, cannot provide. This is a Marxist-Leninist-Fanonian revolutionary who adheres to Bolshevik principles of advancing the revolution in all sites of the struggle, including the picket lines.

In our open endorsement, we cannot leave behind the contributions and his good working relationship with all leadership structures that have come after him, and his contributions in advancing the revolution. We openly believe that him being part of the Central Command Team and being in the central make-up of the Leadership, he will contribute to the ideological consistency, and ideological sharpening that is required in the intervening period and it will come to fruition as he is one of the members who were there in 2013 when this revolutionary movement was born. His storied activism in the then Vista Campus, which is now known as Nelson Mandela University, Missionvale Campus is documented, and his political peers who were with him in the trenches of the PYA agree that he is a revolutionary par excellence. It is on this note that we openly declare that Fighter Chumani Matiwane must be elected by revolutionaries who adhere to Bolshevik principles and want to see the movement going in a revolutionary trajectory that will ultimately liquidate capitalist relations of production. We call upon the elected delegates to cast away their fears and deliver a Bolshevik into the CCT so that the Party moves towards the necessary and logical conclusion of this neoliberal impasse, which is a popular revolution which will usher in socialism in our lifetime!

The concrete analysis: on the formation of the EFF Youth Command by MAB Shongwe

 

The concrete analysis: on the formation of the EFF Youth Command
MAB Shongwe

 

Introduction.

On the 10^th of October 2024, the President and Commander in Chief of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF), together with the officials addressed a media briefing on the upcoming 3^rd National People’s Assembly (3^rd NPA) and other domestic and international politics.

In relation to the 3^rd NPA, the core objective of the presser was to present the core messages carried by the various discussion documents. The discussion documents seek to facilitate, guide, and coordinate discussions outside and inside the conference, as conferences of the EFF are not only about electing new leadership but reflecting on the party, evaluate its leadership and its work of the last five years, thereafter, give mandate of the next five years to the organisation and the leadership that will emerge.

Speaking on the core message carried by the document on organisational character and redesign, the CIC indicated that the document ponders on whether in the formation of the Youth Command, does the EFFSC ceases to exist, or continues to exist, if it does continue existing, in what format. To quote directly from the document, it ponders “In the formation of the Youth Command, the NPA must decide if the Student Command becomes the chapter of the Youth Command, or it becomes the Youth Command altogether. Meaning, branches that exist in campuses become youth command based in institutions of higher learning and as those in ward. In addition, we must also determine if we also form youth command branches in high schools in the founding of the Youth Command. In essence, all education institutions must have an EFF presence”.

In this article, we are going to argue that first and foremost, the EFFSC must continue existing but expand its mandate to basic education. Secondly, we are going to argue that in the current conjuncture, we do not need the EFFYC but what we must do, if the organisation strongly believes the youth component is neglected (which in itself is a serious point of debate), we can remodel existing structures, particularly at ward level such that they have a component that deals specifically with youth issues. Lastly, we are going to argue that in the event where the EFFYC is eventually formed, it must not happen at the expense of the EFFSC, the EFFSC and EFFYC can and must coexist.

On the existence of the EFFSC

As indicated in the introductory session, our firm view is that the EFFSC in its current form is a solid organisation that has captured the imagination and support of young people and workers in institutions of higher education. Furthermore, it is an organisation that contributes meaningfully to the growth and politics of the EFF, particularly electoral politics.

To demonstrate our case, we are going to deal what we characterise as Criticism of the Past and the practical response to such critique by the EFFSC, which has contributed to the solid organisation it is today. Lastly, we are going to use the recent departure of Floyd Shivambu to demonstrate how the EFFSC remains the first line of defence of the EFF whenever it is under attack from political opponents and the hostile white-owned media.

 

Criticism of the past

In the 3^rd National Students’ Assembly (3^rd NSA), the CIC strongly critiqued the EFFSC, arguing that it was struggling to have a life of its own, run its affairs, contest and win SRC elections without the heavy reliance on the EFF. He further strongly argued that the decision to form the EFFSC was a mistake, since the EFF was itself still forming (we return to this particular view later in the article).

The EFF, through its national leaders, notably the former deputy president who has lost his senses, criticised the EFFSC inability to convert the support it enjoys in institutions of higher education, particularly support in SRC elections, to the electoral fortunes of the EFF.

In wards where there are institutions of higher education where the EFFSC enjoyed electoral hegemony in SRC elections, the EFF did not enjoy the same support.

Of course, this was a serious contradiction as the EFFSC does not exist for itself but as correctly captured in its Constitution, it is established in terms of the EFF Constitution to rally on young people and workers behind the struggle of economic freedom in our lifetime, under the stewardship of the EFF.

 

Response to the criticism

The EFFSC warmly welcomed the correct observation of the CIC, and the leadership that emerged in the 3^rd NSA was charged with the responsibility of ensuring that the contradictions identified by the CIC were sharpened. And in the years that followed, the EFFSC went on to build a very solid organisation that had the capacity to run its programs, and most importantly build a machinery for SRC elections.

The EFFSC went on to win many institutions of higher education in the country which were previously led by the criminal cartel masquerading as a political formation called SASCO.

The leadership of the 4^th NSA took this work to a different level, which for the first time managed to host an anniversary rally of the EFFSC in 2023 without heavy reliance on the EFF. The EFFSC won SRC elections in almost all universities in the country, and for the first time, won SRC elections in all universities in the Eastern Cape province, a former stronghold of SASCO and stronghold of the ANC.

In relation to the inability of the EFFSC to translate its votes in institutions of higher education to votes of the EFF in local voting stations and wards, the EFFSC responded by making this question the core business of its 4^th NSA. And the 4^th NSA made intervention which will transform the EFFSC as an organisation fundamentally and respond to the above contradiction.

The EFFSC amended its Constitution and made it mandatory that for one to be a member of the EFFSC, outside being a registered student in an institution of higher education, that person must be a member of the EFF in a local ward, and they must be registered voters with the IEC.

Outside of this important amendment to the Constitution, the EFFSC 4^th NSA leadership led massive voter registration campaigns across the country in all institutions of higher education. This program ensured that many young people who believe and support the EFFSC in universities and TVET colleges, register to vote for the EFF in the May election.

And the result of the work that was done in the 4^th NSA in amending the Constitution and the massive voter registration programs that were ran were shown on both the voting day and after. In voting stations that where within and in proximity to institutions of higher education, young people came out in their numbers as seen in the videos that were circulating on social media on the day of voting. And the election results demonstrated that majority of those young people were voting for the EFF, as in voting stations within and in proximity to institutions of higher education, the EFF either registered exponential growth or even won such VDs, and even wards in some cases.

In the past 4 to 5 years, the EFFSC has managed to establish itself as a solid organisation that is support massively by students and workers in institutions of higher education. It has built itself as an organisation that responds to its core mandate of rallying students who support it behind the electoral fortunes of the EFF, and the May election proved that beyond any reasonable doubt.

The only question that the EFFSC must respond to, is the question of the challenges of basic education, of absent and debilitated infrastructure, absence of study materials and facilities, shortage of teachers, violence and drug abuse, and many other challenges. In the absence of the Leaners Command, the EFFSC must be able to fill such a gap through expanding its mandate to basic education, this can be done through establishing higher school cells which will be led by leaners and work closely with the leadership of the EFFSC.

 

On the formation of the Youth Command

I.B Tabata in his letter to Nelson Mandela makes a very profound observation, arguing that in the context of the struggle for a better life for the African working-class, the importance of organisation does not lie on the subjective goodwill of its leaders and the well thoughts of its members. What is important, is that objectively, what contribution the organisation makes in the advancement of the objectives of the struggle.

On the formation, we must take guidance from Tabata and ponder on whether objectively, do the material conditions within the organisation and the political environment domestically dictate the formation of the EFFSC.

Let us take a brief tour to history of the formation of the Congress Youth League in the 1940s, an important generation in our pursuit of economic freedom in our lifetime. The formation of the Congress Youth League was not a product of the subjective aspirations of certain individuals, but was necessitated by the prevailing objective material conditions of that time. The ANC was an ineffectual organisation whose main method of struggle was appealing to the conscience of the oppressor to recognise and accommodate the natives, particularly the educated elite, was proving useless. Africans were landless and confined to unproductive and underdeveloped homelands, they were subjected to forced labour and perpetual violence, poverty, and despair. The ANC was unable to respond to all this, it is these conditions of Africans and the inability of the ANC to respond that resulted in the formation of the Congress Youth League.

The Congress Youth League will go on to inspire and lead a radical trajectory which reshaped, repositioned, and rejuvenated the liberation movement in the country. Most notably, was the Program of Action. The YL will go on to produce future leaders of the African revolution, the likes of Prof Sobukwe, A.P Mda, Anton Lembede, Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, and many others.

In pondering about forming the YC, we must be guided by the prevailing material conditions. And our view is that in the current conjuncture, we do not need the YC. The organisation is coming from a very difficult election which saw the organisation’s electoral performance declining for the first time since its formation.

The post-election context is even more challenging, with leaders and members defecting to the MKP. Similarly, we do not think there is anyone who can demonstrate objectively, that the EFF does not respond to issues of young people and thus needs a YC to fill that gap. In fact, the EFF is an organisation that is led by young people and enjoys the support of many young people across the country. On issues of young people, most notably being unemployment, it is the EFF that has been at the forefront of speaking about the issue and proposing sound interventions. In the election manifesto, the EFF proposes unemployment grants for young people, with educational background as a criterion for how much each unemployed young person will get.

It is true that young people suffer the most for the socioeconomic post-apartheid disaster of the so-called democratic project, but the EFF represents and responds to such challenges to the best of its ability, in parliament and in the legislature, including through programs on the ground.

Lastly, I think it is important to take cue from the intervention of the CIC in the 3^rd NSA of the EFFSC. He argues that the EFF is still forming itself, it was a mistake to establish another organisation while the EFF was itself forming. The EFF and its EFFSC while being very solid organisations, they are still forming. With the challenges of the recent electoral decline and the looming 2026 Local Government Elections, the EFF must not form another organisation but must dedicate its effort towards rebuilding and building a machinery for the 2026 LGE.

If the organisation strongly believe that the youth component is neglected, in the immediate a YC is not the answer, but we can remodel our regional and local structures such that they have a component, similar to the GBV and Labour desks, to respond to issues and challenges of young people.

 

 

Coexistence of the EFFSC and EFFYC

Our view that we do not need the EFFYC in the immediate does not mean a YC will not be formed in the future. In an event where the EFFYC is formed, it must not be at the expense of the EFFSC, the two must coexist.

Responding to media questions during the press address, the CIC indicates that they do not want the situation of SASCO and the ANCYL where they fight and contest each other. On the organisational character and redesign, the document makes a profound observation that as the EFF, we must not measure ourselves using existing political formations in the country, but we must measure ourselves in relation to our guiding documents and our work in communities, in parliament and the legislature. The ANCYL and SASCO openly defy, contradict, and denounce the ANC, its leaders, and its resolutions. Regional ANC leaders contradict Provincial leaders, Provincial leaders contradict National leaders. In the EFF you will never find such ill-discipline, there is command and control, there is democracy in discussion but adherence to decisions and resolution, lower structures respect the wisdom and decisions of higher structures. The EFFSC respects the EFF, its leaders, and its resolutions, it will do the same with the YC.

We firmly believe that when the YC is eventually formed, it will coexist with the EFFSC.

 

Overcoming The Sgameka Tendency by Chumani Matiwane

Introduction

The life of an organisation depends on a culture which develops along the behaviours or conduct of its membership. It is merely not enough to have a revolutionary founding manifesto without vigorous training of the membership on the party line. The mistakes that arise from a lack of cadre development have led to the collapse of many revolutionary movements. 

On Infiltration & Bourgeois Co-option

One of the major challenges of building a revolutionary movement within a bourgeois political system is the high possibility of infiltration that can lead to the co-option of the leadership. The trappings of this system first present themselves when the party has to deploy members to the various Legislatures. We have to bear in mind that our democracy is a product of secret dealings between the white billionaire class and leaders of the former liberation movement. Essentially this means that at the base of our political system is the creation of a comprador class by big business to protect its hold on the economy. Thus, the economic relations of Apartheid South Africa were never dismantled in our negotiated settlement. One would argue that as a nation we have never attained national liberation which would allow us to conduct our own affairs with the outside interference of big business and imperialist forces. This is the context within which the EFF exists, therefore it has to grapple with these forces which at every moment will want to turn it into another reformist movement or broad church without ideological conviction.

A tendency develops within a movement as a result of planned activities by agent provocateurs or through sheer ignorance on the part of the membership. It can become cancerous and with time it can entrench itself as a culture within the movement. This can rapidly dislodge a relatively young movement like the EFF if the membership is not capacitated with the correct tools of analysis. As we have alluded to before, it is not enough to declare on paper that the party adheres to the Marxism-Leninist-Fanonian tools of analysis without a clear program to train membership on how to correctly apply these tools in the analysis of the party itself. A party should be able to match theory and practice. What we have learnt from the former liberation movement is an attempt to suspend practice to the day of revolution. By this we mean, the revolution is turned into a destination sometime in the future that we will magically arrive in and only then will we be able to practice theory. The attainment of political power is set as a precondition for the full exercise of the party's founding manifesto. This is taking a defeatist approach to struggle. When one member calls for a boycott of products of a certain Billionaire, a Leader will claim that it is practically impossible with questions like 'what will we eat if we boycott his businesses?"

Understanding the Sgameka Tendency?

The Sgameka Tendency comes as a result of the trappings of power that come with deployment of members to legislatures. It creeps in first by reducing elected Leadership into administrators of the revolution. This results in the creation of a social distance within the movement and the development of a "Baaskap" relationship between elected Leadership and Ground forces. The challenge then lies in the fact that participation in the movement is voluntary. Therefore, when a member gets discouraged, they withdraw their active participation in the life of the organisation. This means that we end up having less feet on the ground as the moral of Ground forces is killed by this tendency. As a practical demonstration of this tendency is when members are called to a door-to-door campaign. On arrival the leadership will sit in their vehicles and not participate in the physical program. At the end of the day when a meeting is called to account on the day's work, the same person who was sitting in a vehicle the whole day will deride Ground forces for being useless as targets have not been met. If we had 10 Ground forces on the day, the next day the numbers would be reduced as the moral was crushed by this "Baaskap" approach to Leadership. 

What is to be done?

To combat this tendency, we need to advocate for the establishment of a political school that will continuously train Leadership on the correct party line. This will translate to branch level as capacitated Leadership will have a grasp of the strategy and tactics needed to keep the organisation grounded. If we fail to do so, we will become another failed project because when theory fails to match practice it creates a gap for opportunism as manifested by careerism as opposed to a membership grounded within community struggles. The Commander-in-Chief has expressed that there can be no Activists where there is no activity. The permanent factions established act as gatekeepers thus reducing branches only to machinery for advancing the needs of a cabal. The state of branches is dire as BCTs only meet on the day they are elected after that no induction is conducted to capacitate the new leadership. This means that our branches are not visible in the communities but only exist on paper. The CCT has attempted to arrest this tendency by introducing the 10% threshold. This needs further interventions by introducing a digitised membership system that will only confirm membership through a system of OTPs or QR Codes that can only be generated by one device linked to a RICAd cell number for an example.

 As we move onto the next decade of our struggle it is vital that we tighten our controls in order to counter counter-revolutionary forces who seek to hijack or derail our movement from fulfilling its generational mission.