Law of Rule

The Johannesburg YCL meets this evening at 17h00 to discuss Lenin’s 1916 “Imperialism, Highest Stage of Capitalism” in the SATAWU offices, 13th floor, Old Mutual Building, 29 Kerk Street, between Harrison and Loveday. Next week at the same time and place they will be discussing excerpts from “The Prince”, by Nicolo Machiavelli (see link below). Cheche Selepe is a journalist, the founder, promoter and editor of a good number of publications, an amateur boxer, and a member of the Johannesburg Central Branch of the SACP. Cheche has kindly written again on the topic of the Zuma rape trial (linked). Zuma trial judge van der Merwe will commence reading the judgement at 09h00 on Monday May 8th, and it will be broadcast live. A CU post in response to Cheche’s previous message said that the SACP and COSATU have decided to accept the verdict either way. A reader then wrote on April 28 as follows: “Hmm. Dominic, are you making out a general case or a very specific one? If general, this is a very dodgy post indeed and one which says the courts never get it wrong. In a country like SA that is a helluva thing to say. There are never any miscarriages of justice etc. If specific to this case, then you have kind of thrown in the towel.... at best, this post is a stick to beat everyone into line. The world don't work that way no more....” On May Day, COSATU GS Zwelinzima Vavi said (see linked article): “If Zuma is found guilty on the rape charge, bad luck to him.” He went on to say what happens when Zuma is acquitted which . The COSATU/SACP position of “innocent until proved guilty” has stood up well while others have made a lot of noise during the trial, and it is looking better all the time. Even the Business Day’s editor grudgingly opines that what happened was not a rape. Meanwhile in Cape Town some young men identified as striking security guards wrecked a COSATU rally on May Day (see linked report). Were the police called or not? Should they have been? Thatcherites like Tony Leon want unions lawed to death whenever there is a fight between scabs and strikers. A certain senior person in the ANC known to the CU wants the SACP blamed and shamed and stigmatised as “fascist” in connection with this strike. SATAWU members have been killed. There have been other “train violence” style killings, allegedly connected to the strike. More on all this will come through tomorrow. The bourgeois Johannesburg newspaper The Star in an editorial (linked) recommends “dialogue” to the people of Khutsong. Do they mean a Freirean dialogue? Or what? They must know that plain messages have already been sent, received and understood, as also in the case of Matatiele (see yesterday’s post). The Communist University possesses no easy answers to any of these legal questions. Except to say that the best judges will be a politicised and revolutionary people. Amandla! Long live political education! Another reader writes that she is “disappointed to note that there was nothing mentioned about the death of Strini Moodley in Durban last week on Freedom Day. He was a great freedom fighter for this country, and a brilliant intellect with an extraordinary leftist ideology. Was there any reason for this omission?” It’s much better to have such things said by people who know what they are talking about, so let us be thankful for this heartfelt statement. And now Strini Moodley’s passing has been mentioned here twice, because it was previously reported that a tribute to Moodley was in SA President Thabo Mbeki’s omnibus Freedom Day - May Day message in “ANC Today”. See the two penultimate paragraphs. In Bolivia the hydrocarbon industries (oil and gas) have been nationalised! Viva! (more tomorrow). Click on these links: The Prince, Nicolo Machiavelli, 1512 (5131 words) Cheche Selepe on law, materialism, liberation and Zuma (1526 words) Widespread support for beleaguered Zuma, The Star (432 words) Disgruntled guards go on the rampage, The Star (870 words) Khutsong conundrum, editorial, The Star (354 words)