Declaration of the 1st Provincial Council of the 3rd Provincial Congress

25 June 2012

We, Young Communist League of South Africa Gauteng 3rd Congress Provincial Executive Committee members, delegates from District Executive Committees and branches from across the province and all its five districts;

Representing seven thousand, six hundred and ninety two young communists and the revolutionary interests of all young people in the province;

Convened in the 1st Provincial Council of our 3rd Provincial Congress in Soweto on Sunday, 24 June 2012;

After detailed engagements and scientific analysis into the conditions of young people in with focus on the economic, social and political situation, the state of the organisation and the tripartite alliance as led by the African National Congress, declare as follows.

Unemployment, class inequality and poverty are fundamentally caused by capitalism and neither by the so-called lack of political will nor by President Zuma led administration.

Under capitalism, economic production, exchange and wealth distribution are dominated by a tiny minority of national and foreign capitalists who always appropriate the lion`s share of the economy.

Capitalists are driven by private capital accumulation as their fundamental interest. Part of their strategies includes constant restructuring of the organisation of work and production with focus on cutting down "labour costs" (variable capital). They do this in order to increase surplus value (basically the difference between the sum of value of production inputs and labour power on the one hand and the value of a product on the other hand), heap up profit and advance the accumulation of capital on a private basis. Their conduct causes systemic and cyclical crisis, which increases unemployment through retrenchments. Linked with this is always worsening poverty and widening class inequality during crises periods. That is basically why not only South African but also global unemployment and poverty have increased since the eruption of the global capitalist crisis in 2008.

We reject the insinuation that unemployment, inequality and poverty are caused by the so-called lack of political will. The so-called lack of political will, which is presented as the reason for almost all the systemic effects of capitalism, represents a commonly found platform between factional elements in our movement and the opposition in campaigning against targeted leaders of our movement. This agenda shall fail with distinction. We shall be there in the struggle trenches to ensure that it is defeated.

We reaffirm our commitment in working class struggle to bring capitalism to an end because as long as it exists, class inequality, unemployment and poverty will continue to be reproduced in varying degrees. Class inequality, unemployment and poverty are conditions of the existence of capitalism, levers and products of accumulation of wealth on a capitalist basis.

We also commit ourselves to forge ahead with the implementation of our 3rd Provincial Congress resolutions as part of our contribution in advancing youth and economic development and confronting the capitalist systemic effects of class inequality, unemployment and poverty. Our provincial council overwhelmingly reaffirmed our drive for education, skills training and co-operatives development as an alternative to the exploitative jobs relation and private ownership in our economy. The PEC shall convene a special summit on co-operatives development following our governance summit that has been postponed from June to July 2012.

We condemn the continuing attacks on our leadership of the South African Communist Party (SACP) to the contempt it deserves.

We reaffirm our support for the collective leadership of our Central Committee that served the SACP very well, advancing and defending its positions. In particular Comrade Blade Nzimande has attracted attacks as the General Secretary for resolutely advancing and defending the Party, its Medium Term Vision and overall programme. We reaffirm our confidence in the leadership of the General Secretary now and beyond the 13th National Congress of the Party in line with SACP Gauteng 10th Provincial Congress declaration.

Attacks on the General Secretary are attacks on the SACP as a whole including the YCLSA. Very soon we shall be switching from only defending against these attacks. We shall launch pre-emptive offensives. We shall not fold our arms when all sorts of forces including liberals and corrupt elements representing the interests of self-enrichment out of public resources and private capital accumulation attack our Party.

We support the struggle of the workers who are employed in Rea Vaya.

These workers have been fighting to achieve better conditions. Their struggle has proven to be difficult due to a wide variety of factors including management intransigence. We shall meet with the leadership of the South African Municipal Workers Union in the province and city of Johannesburg to find ways by which we can work together to achieve a breakthrough.

We support the general thrust of `The South African Road to Socialism: Draft Programme of the SACP 2012-2017`.

We welcome in particular the chapters on the battle of ideas (Chapter 9) and strengthening the organisational capacity of the SACP as a vanguard party of socialism (Chapter 10). We have identified areas in the document that we believe can be further strengthened. Our views shall be submitted to SACP Provincial Council on the last Sunday scheduled to take place on Sunday, 1 July 2012 and the YCLSA National Committee on Friday, 7 July 2012.

Contact:

Alex Mashilo - Provincial Secretary
082 9200 308
Matankana Mothapo - Provincial Spokesperson
082 759 0900