On day-1 of APDUSA’s 2025 conference, four highly topical and thought-provoking political papers were presented and vigorously discussed. These political papers stimulated lively debates throughout all conference sessions. Members of trade unions, left political organisations and APDUSA members engaged in very fruitful deliberations.

Contradictions of ‘new left politics’ unmasked
The central theme of the Presidential Address and subsequent discussion focused on APDUSA’s revolutionary political heritage/history as a weapon of struggle in South Africa today. Going back to the mid-19th century, it is a tradition which has stood the test of political times. Bourgeois ideologists/ intelligentsia, while promoting social movements as substitutes for trade unions today, base themselves on historians such as Francis Fukayama’s misguided interpretation of history. The advent of and transition to global neo-liberalism in the last quarter of the 20th century saw South Africa also being part of this process. With this transition, according to bourgeois intellectuals and proponents of a “new left” politics, developed the need to discard the basic tenets of proletarian class struggle against the bourgeoisie. In this process it becomes necessary for these political forces to denigrate, distort and attempt to expunge APDUSA’s alternative political vision from memory. The more earnest these attempts become, the greater the contradictions in their “new left” politics become. Talk of building socialism on the basis of bourgeois sponsored NGOs and other forums is one such political anomaly. Practicing sectarianism at multiple levels is supposedly going to advance left regroupment in South Africa. All this talk of “breaking new ground”, objectively results in ideologically reconciling the interests of the working class to its capitalist class enemy. The conference discussion on this paper served as a very positive platform for the remainder of conference.

National Situation: Struggles for anti-neoliberal alternatives in South Africa
The destructive GEAR and related policies of the South African government since the 1990s, gave rise to many progressive struggles against it. Strong resistance in which left forces like the APDUSA was integrally involved saw the emergence of the Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF), the Radical Left Network (RLN), the Democratic Left Front (DLF), the Social Movement Indaba (SMI) and the Working Class Summit (WCS). These formations took a stand against a pervasive neo-liberalism which was starting to cast its long shadow over the South African political landscape. Left political organisations, trade unions and NGOs undertook to make common cause against a common enemy. Several attempts were also undertaken to enter the electoral arena at a local government and national level. The paper emphasized the important point that united principled and programmatic struggle has been and still is vitally important. This is something many of the Left seemingly wish to downplay and/or ignore. The need to build independent organisations of the working class and landless peasantry was discussed as crucial in ongoing struggles against the neo-liberalism of the SA government. Speaker contributions lamented the extent to which the struggle in SA has in fact been regressing/going backwards to a great extent. Discussion contributions also touched on the need for the working class to have its own political ideology; for us to look to struggling for an alternative to the GNU/ANC rule; for the leadership of social movements to be questioned and our ideas spread far and wide to the masses.

International Situation: BRICS+ and world crisis
Mainstream media has been singing the praises of the BRICS/BRICS+ countries since its inception about 15 years ago. In leftist circles a fallacious argument has been constructed that BRICS+ represents a political alternative to US led imperialism. The Russian war on Ukraine has laid this political myth to rest. All the contradictions inherent in the political actions and economic policies of these countries make nonsense of arguments portraying BRICS+ as a progressive force for change in the world today. The close ties between many members of BRICS + and the major imperialist states outside of BRICS+ has been documented extensively. One such example is the use of the US Dollar as a trade currency. The role of the South African government in straddling power blocs like the G7, the G20, BRICS+ and others clearly testifies to this fact. The paper stressed that building and promoting international solidarity and cooperation are the political tasks of the international working class and its political allies. Relying on bourgeois governments, the implacable class enemies of the working class for freedom from oppression and exploitation, is a notion many unfortunately still consider worth supporting.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries: their political role and influence
The introduction and discussion on the destructive policies of the GCC countries elicited contributions that were scathing of the actions of these monarchy dominated, autocratic, repressive Gulf royalties. Some commentators have described the role of the GCC countries as a type of sub-imperialism. Apart from their major contributions to carbon based atmospheric warming, these repressive states have steadily been seeking to extend their rapacious influence across the globe by means of funding and sponsorship of all manner of social and economic projects across the globe. The involvement in the arming of groups in Sudan is one particular example of how states like the UAE encroach on the sovereignty of states in the Middle East-North Africa (MENA) region. The rolling back of democratic gains in Sudan due to the involvement of reactionary forces ruling in countries such as the UAE has been making headlines for years on end. Conference concluded that progressive forces the world over should resist such capitalist-barbarism wherever it manifests itself.
Overall, our 2025 conference examined the political situation to sharpen our political orientation and arm ourselves in unfolding local and global struggles against capitalism. It also helped to define our immediate political tasks as formulated in the resolutions that the conference adopted.