Sex, Race and Class

The Communist University meets this evening at 17h00 to in the Women’s Jail, 1 Kotze Street, Constitutions Hill, to discuss Teresa Ebert’s article on Red Feminism, previously circulated. A short reading guide to this article has also been circulated. Next week there is no session because of Freedom Day. The next session is therefore scheduled for Friday, May 5th. It will be on the last and most advanced session on feminism and revolution, Meera Nanda’s great synthesis on Postmodernism, Hindu nationalism and `Vedic science' (see link). After that we return to Basic Communism. The ANC Progressive Business Forum has been launched (see link) with the slogan “Can you afford not to belong?” Class alliance (unity in action for a common goal) is good. Class collaboration (betrayal of the oppressed to the oppressor class) is bad. Which is this? Do the “policy team” and the “friendly consultants” know the difference? The security guards' dispute has reached a very serious point. Lives have already been lost. COSATU has recognised the danger and appealed to Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana to play a constructive role (link). Unfortunately the Minister, at an imbizo in Atlantis on Tuesday, has chosen to make sarcastic and disparaging remarks about the major union in the dispute, SATAWU. Once again a Minister has appeared to side with a very rough crowd of bosses against some of the poorest and most exploited workers in the land. Let us hope he now listens to his former COSATU comrades. Merafong and Moutse march together in Pretoria today with a memorandum of demands for President Mbeki and Minister Mufamadi. See link. Yesterday in Pretoria medals were given by the President. Many were given in the name of people who have long passed away, including the father of King Mswati of Swaziland, Sobhuza, who cooked up the State of Emergency which still endures in that country today. South Africans were demonstrating against the Swazi royal oppression on the 33rd anniversary of the emergency only last week. The YCL has not hesitated to issue a strong condemnation. See link. The Communist University had a letter in the Business Day yesterday (see link) but many more articles and letters are needed so as to restore the balance in favour of the working class. The purpose of the CU, among others, is to prepare people to be able to do this. And then they must do it. On April 24th (Monday) there is a public lecture in the evening on the late Eddie Roux in the Senate Room at Wits University, Braamfontein, at 17h30. Unfortunately this clashes with the Cuban salsa event at 17h00 at the Horror Cafe in Newtown the same night. Links: Meera Nanda, Postmodernism, Hindu nationalism and `Vedic science' (9126 words) ANC Progressive Business Forum, Invitation to Belong, 11 Apr 2006 (360 words) COSATU appeals to minister in security guards dispute (245 words) Merafong and Moutse joint march in Pretoria 21 Apr, 11h00 (254 words) YCL Condemns Honouring of King Sobhuza (364 words) Break the Cycle, Dominic Tweedie, Business Day Letters (303 words)