A Real Struggle

The first three linked items below contain many statements about the historic April 12th, 2006 actions on the Swaziland border. Concerning the comrades arrested at the border crossings on Wednesday, COSATU GS Zwelinzima Vavi said: “We are sympathising with them but we are not surprised by this because it goes with a real struggle.” The arrested comrades have all been released by now. News of those wounded when the police opened fire on the unarmed crowd is not yet available. The fourth linked item is a FOCUS (Friends of Cuba Society) bash with genuine fresh, imported, live Cuban salsa music in Newtown on April 24th at the “Horror Café”. The day before Good Friday used to be the only day in the year that the daily press does not work. It was the printers’ night out together. But the Communist University’s news service soldiers on. So long as there is news! What there will not be is any live session today. It will be next week on Friday, when we will discuss “Untimely Critiques for a Red Feminism” by Teresa Ebert (1995). That’s at 17h00 at the Women’s Jail, 1 Kotze Street, Constitution Hill, on April 21st. Links: COSATU and SFTU statements on border blockade, April 13 (825 words) Articles from Times of Swaziland, via Lucky Lukhele of SSN (1291 words) DITSELA solidarity message to COSATU and SSN (216 words) Cuban Salsa live at Horror Cafe 19h00 24th April, R50, FOCUS (notice)

Bullets, Words, and Class War

Five senior trade union officials, beginning with Joe Nkosi, 1st Deputy President of COSATU, were at the picket of the Pongola border crossing between South Africa and Swaziland yesterday. At a certain stage they formed a delegation, as unionists do, to talk to the police who were confronting them. Instead of talking to them, the police arrested them. At the Matsamo crossing police opened fire at close quarters, putting several people in hospital with serious wounds, and then arrested 20 of the demonstrators. See the linked brief report from COSATU. The policeman who was interviewed on SABC (SAFM) claimed this was justifiable as the traffic was being disrupted and this amounted to a “war situation”. SAFM’s Jeremy Maggs wanted to split the difference, as usual, as if COSATU is somehow half to blame for the fact that police are using firearms in the cause of smoother traffic-flow. Presumably Maggs would have declared a half-war situation, fired less bullets and arrested somewhat fewer people? The SABC TV announcer later said “Clashes cause people to be shot and arrested”. In English this fraudulent use of language is called the “passive voice”. Of course the clashes didn’t cause any arrests. Human beings did. Police, in fact. The BBC (nowadays often known as the Bush-Blair Corporation) is a master of such tricks of language (see link). Their report of the victory of the French working-class and youth is turned over and called “Humiliation for French government”. Why does the BBC call it a humiliation when a government listens to its people? Governments have to turn when the people tell them to. The South African government must also learn to turn, in Khutsong, in Moutse, in relation to the Gautrain and people’s transport, and in many other ways. No government needs to reverse itself into a false “war situation” like the police at the Matsamo crossing, and attack the very people it is supposed to serve and not boss. A turn for the people is a victory for all, and not a humiliation. Gautrain is not even wanted by the rich motorists for whom it was supposedly designed. Ministers who were talking about trade with the WTO have stopped talking. Employers of underpaid security guards use all sorts of tricks. See the three linked articles from Business Day below. The great Ann Crotty says she is sufferring from “Mittal fatigue”, causing her mind to wander at the competition tribunal hearings of the steel monopoly (see link below). In the process she has produced a spontaneous version of Karl Marx’s “Value Price and Profit”, and almost independently rediscovered the Theory of Surplus Value. Not all bourgeois writers are dishonest frauds. Viva Ann Crotty, Viva! The most outrageous of today’s stories is left for last. The Cubana flight 455 was blown up in the air on October 26, 1976. All on board died. The full story is known, yet the two principle terrorists responsible - Orlando Bosch and Luis Posada - walk free in the United States while the five Cuban investigators who uncovered their deeds have been in solitary confinement in separate US jails since 1998. This new article (linked) by José Pertierra, a Washington lawyer representing Venezuela, is well written and covers the three-decade story of US terrorism and deceit very clearly and briefly. Links: COSATU Swaziland border protest, names of those arrested (171 words) French strike victorious, BBC (631 words) Motorists likely to shun Gautrain, Business Day (322 words) COSATU slams state on China trade, Brown, Mde, Business Day (574 words) You guard millions but are paid peanuts, Nzimande, B Day (301 words) ROIC vs WACC is harder for individuals, Ann Crotty, B Rep (972 words) April 11- The Full Story of Cubana 455, Pertierra, Counterpunch (5200 words)

Home Cooking

COSATU, Swaziland Solidarity Network (SSN), PUDEMO, SWAYOCO, SACP and YCL are on picket lines today at the border crossings between South Africa and Swaziland. The following is from COSATU’s Press Statement: “On this day 33 years ago, 12 April 1973, a new era in the political life of Swaziland began when King Sobhuza proclaimed a perpetual state of emergency, whose provisions, amongst other things, included the banning of political parties, 60-day detention orders without trial, banning marches and demonstrations and the removal of the independence constitution and its replacement with a draconian order called the 1973 king's decree. 33 years later nothing much has changed and the state of repression has continued unabated. “ COSATU held another Press Conference yesterday (linked). Among other things that it says about the imperialist “NAMA” is that a combination is to be formed of trade unions of Asia, Africa and Latin America at a conference hosted by COSATU, to fight this thing. From Geneva on the same day came the linked piece written by our reader Thabo Sephuma. Also from a reader, Kaizer Mohau, comes a piece (linked) on Human Rights, dealing with the Scorpions/NPA threats against the South African people, who have no use for this institution of terror and persecution and want to see it abolished as quickly as possible. The YCL Defiance Campaign kicks off with a Day of Defiance on April 18th (not March as was mistakenly put in their PDF leaflet and poster) in Johannesburg. A press conference will be held the day before – see linked document. The YCL’s political education classes continue this evening in the SATAWU offices, 13th floor, Old Mutual Building, 29 Kerk Street, between Harrison and Loveday, at around 17h00 (please, YCL, let me know what your exact start time is these days). The topic is Bill Pomeroy’s 1974 essay about the Phillippines, called “On the time for Armed Struggle”. It is actually a lesson on why the armed struggle must always stay subordinate to the political struggle, and by extension, on the importance of political education. Next week’s YCL topic is Colin Ley’s chapter on “Contradictions of Neo-Colonialism” (linked below). Links: COSATU press release re negotiations at the WTO (1891 words) Global Solidarity, Thabo Sephuma (273 words) Kaizer Mohau on Human Rights (797 words) YCL Defiance Campaign Press Conference 11h30 060417 (Notice) Leys, C8, Contradictions of Neo-Colonialism (8510 words)

Reform Or Revolution?

Kumi Naidoo’s linked letter about his breakdown is very instructive concerning the hopelessness of heroic liberalism without the assistance of a revolutionary party. Unfortunately it seems that the comrade is right back on the treadmill. Let’s hope he takes his own advice and drinks plenty of water, and that it helps him stay alive at least. Naidoo is Secretary-General of “Civicus - World Alliance for Citizen Participation”, an organisation that co-exists with Imperialism, without confronting it. All the problems it purports to fight are caused directly by Imperialism. Yet rule number one in Civicus is that this truth must be concealed. The beast must not be named, lest the funding be withdrawn. There is no funding for anti-Imperialism. There lies the problem. As much as Kumi’s stress appears to be a product of existential and personal angst, it is not. It is political. The way forward is political, not charitable. Comrade Kumi’s desperate letter was written on an aeroplane bound for Ethiopia, on a mission with Archbishop Njongonkulu Ndungane to bail out two NGO people in jail in that country. It reads like the last, lonely cry of a dying breed – the noble liberal. It seems out of time. It belongs in the era of Dag Hammarskjold, Alan Paton, George Orwell, Albert Camus and Graham Greene. Making poverty history? More like making a mockery of history, making time stand still, and making tragedy fashionable. The remedy is not just more glasses of water. That may be necessary, but it is not sufficient. The remedy is to change from being NGOs (Next Government Officials) to being PROs (Present Revolutionary Organisers). The perverse court ruling that proposed banning a legal strike on the grounds that the security guard employers had rounded up 14 semi-bogus small unions whose combined strength was less than the COSATU-affiliated SATAWU, has been overturned by the labour court. See linked COSATU statement. Links: Struggle for justice a marathon, Kumi Naidoo, Civicus (1693 Words) COSATU welcomes SATAWU court ruling (352 words)

Remember

In Friday’s post there was a mistake. It said that the Communist University session on “(Untimely) Critiques for a Red Feminism” by Teresa Ebert would be next Friday, whereas it is scheduled for Friday April 21st, after Easter. There was no post yesterday or the day before. Below, linked, are the statements of the SACP and COSATU on the 13th anniversary of the death of Comrade Chris Hani. SACP GS Dr Blade Nzimande’s article on ASGISA from yesterday’s Sunday Times is also linked below. John Berger is a distinguished writer who lives in France. His article on the events that are taking place there is linked below. Another source in English, sent to me by Richard Smith of CSVR, is a blog called “O. K. Now” (or see the link on the CU web site, labeled “France on Strike”). The South African Young Communist League is going to have a Day of Defiance on April 18th in Johannesburg starting at Library Gardens at 11h00. A consultative meeting in preparation for this event will be held on the 13th April at 11h00 in the SAMWU office, 7th floor, North State Building, coner Market and Kruis Streets. Please see the linked notice. From it you will be able to download the PDF files containing the leaflet and the poster for the event on the 18th. The Food and Agricultural Workers Union (FAWU) is 65 years old this weekend. President Thabo Mbeki, COSATU GS Zwelinzima Vavi, and SACP Deputy GS Jeremy Cronin were all present for the celebration. Linked below is Cde Vavi’s speech. An archive of articles relating to SACP GS Dr Blade Nzimande’s visit to Zambia can be found here. This was an extraordinary tour. The reception was amazing, and the reports are fascinating. Links: SACP remembers Martin Thembisile Chris Hani (931 words) COSATU on 13th anniversary of murder of Chris Hani (608 words) ASGISA a welcome shift, Nzimande, Sunday Times (937 words) Wall and Bulldozer, John Berger (904 words) YCL Defiance Campaign Consultation invitation (Notice with leaflet and poster) Zwelinzima Vavi, COSATU General Secretary, salutes FAWU (2391 words)

Imagine

“Women - Caste, Class or Oppressed Sex” is our text for discussion tonight with the great and gentle Luli Callinicos at the Communist University in the Women’s Jail, 1 Kotze Street, Constitution Hill at 17h00. Next week at the same time and place we do Teresa Ebert’s “(Untimely) Critiques for a Red Feminism” – linked below. It is long and perhaps a bit difficult in terms of language. It is typical of a lot of feminist writing in that regard. Skim it, comrades. The general gist is: Can feminism be “reality-based”, or is the thought merely the daughter of a wish? Ferial Haffejee, the editor of the Mail & Guardian, agreed long ago to come and talk about it with us. Let’s hope she has kept the date free. Today at 13h00 there will be a picket of the Swazi Consulate in the Braamfontein Centre, Jorrissen Street. At 14h00 the final planning meeting will take place for the border blockades on April 12th. Therefore the CU will not recommend that anyone attends the US Culture and Information Library “Open House” reception from 13h00, unless you go after the picket. The event is scheduled to finish at 16h00. They appear to be offering free drinks (wine and cheese, very polite). The venue is 3rd floor, “1066” Building, corner Pritchard and Harrison Streets. Much more important than the free drinks is the rumour that there is good free Internet access in this library. A better social event to go to will be the Johannesburg Central Branch Freedom Day Party at 13h00 on April 27th. See notice. It’s not free like the imperialist’s reception, but it’s not expensive either: Only R20 per head for the Party. See link. Security guards have been in the streets in militant action. Now the bosses have maneuvered to exploit 16 so-called small unions, some “representing their jackets”, to try to impose a unilateral diktat on the majority of workers, who are in the COSATU-affiliated union, SATAWU. Read the linked SATAWU for a live case study in working-class tactics of the class war. “Non-Agricultural Market Access” (or NAMA) is the face of Imperialism, the world-wide class enemy of the workers. Read the linked document below for an advanced notice of international working-class action on this front. Last week at the CU we workshopped a project for a democratic federation, called Labour-Urban Federation, of existing organisations in Johannesburg for the purpose of acting on urban issues such as accommodation, transport, finance, and lumpen-proletarian crime. Here, linked below, is the fourth draft of that document. Links: 1995, Ebert, (Untimely) Critiques for a Red Feminism (14852 words) Swaziland border posts to be blockaded, COSATU (644 words) SACP Johannesburg Central Branch Party 13h00, 27-04-06 (Notice) SATAWU on so-called wage deal signed on April 1 2006 (1170 words) WTO agreement on Non-Agricultural Market Access, COSATU (192 words) Johannesburg Labour-Urban Federation, Fourth Draft (1971 words)

Chris Hani Month

The latest Umsebenzi Online is out – see link below. It centres round Chris Hani Month, and SACP GS Dr Blade Nzimande’s recent visit to Lusaka, Zambia. In between Zambia and South Africa is Zimbabwe. Sokwanele is a shrewd Zimbabwean political web site (with en-suite blog) that promotes a creed of non-violence. Their report on the two rival MDC congresses is detailed, informative and well written. See link. There is more “content” than the CU can deal with these days. Therefore strict rules apply. This means selecting the best educational items, with an eye to organisation and mobilisation. What better way to illustrate these could there be than to see what an SACP Province (Northern Cape) is doing for Chris Hani Month, and how an SACP Branch (Mamelodi) arranges its AGM? See linked items. By link only, here also is an invitation from the Communist University’s weekly host Constitution Hill to a liberal event dedicated to eclecticism in the press, called Inside Out, with Denis Beckett and six other worthies. Seven speakers starting at 18h30 would appear likely to leave very little opportunity for dialogue from the floor. So this one’s for mute fans of the supposed great and good. Links: Umsebenzi Online Vol 5, No 53, 5 April 2006, Chris Hani, Internationalism, Lusaka (3365 words) More questions than answers, MDC congresses, Sokwanele (2669 words) Chris Hani Month, SACP Northern Cape Province, April 2006 (Schedule) SACP Mamelodi Branch holds its 2005-2006 AGM (252 words) Inside Out, Con Hill, HSRC and UKZN Press, Apr 26 18h00 (Notice)

A Time of Struggle

The ANC Youth League announces as follows: “The ANC YL President, Fikile Mbalula will be addressing thousands of SATAWU striking workers during their industrial action” (today), 05 April 2006 (Wednesday) at 11h00 in Library Gardens, Johannesburg. The current status in the SATAWU Security Guards dispute is described by the Mail and Guardian in the linked article below. The employers are trying to split the workers through deals with small sweetheart unions that are not affiliated to COSATU. SACCAWU’s dispute with Shoprite Checkers is at a crucial point as reported in the linked press release from the union. Other class struggles at present include the dispute involving 350 NUMSA members at the Aerodyna Strand Beach factory in Cape Town involving the use of labour brokers in an attempt by the employer at divide-and-rule. In France, nationwide strikes and protests involving both workers and students continue against the “dual labour market” proposals of Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin. In South Africa, Labour Minister Membathisi Mdladlana identifies the commonality between the French struggles and our own. Which side is he on? Hard to tell, but at least he did oppose the crude union-bashing version advanced by Deputy Finance Minister Jabu Moloketi that was rejected by the ANC NGC in July last year. See linked items. These notes are written with a view to stimulating dialogue among political education students in discussion groups that use the electronic Communist University as a resource. So it is a pleasure to have news of a new study circle, based in Dora Tamana Co-operative Centre, 1 Leyds Street, Braamfontein. See the linked schedule, and please check the page from time to time for any updates and alterations to the programme while it settles down. DTCC’s first class will be a look at some of the various economic schools of thought that have existed. Next week they will discuss “Class and State in the Global Political Economy” by William K. Tabb. Interesting choices, comrades. The Young Communist League meets this afternoon at around 17h00 in the SATAWU offices, 13th floor, Old Mutual Building, 29 Kerk Street, between Loveday and Harrison. They will discuss “Bourgeois Democracy and the Dictatorship of the Proletariat” by V. I. Lenin. Next week at the same time and place the YCL will discuss Bill Pomeroy’s essay on the time for armed struggle, which is in fact a very good lesson on the primacy of political struggle over the military, illustrated by the example of the Philippines. See link below. Links: Satawu calls for wage agreement to be undone, M and G (444 words) SACCAWU media release on dispute with Shoprite Checkers (682 words) Hundreds of thousands march in France, Guardian (666 words) SA shares French labour law challenge, Mdladlana, B Report (953 words) DTCC Political Classes, 2006 schedule (Schedule) 1974, Pomeroy, On the Time for Armed Struggle (6800 words)

Exclusion, Excommunication, Ostracism, Shunning, and Censorship

Somebody got furious with the Communist University yesterday for announcing an event. Little did we know, it was supposed to be “invitation only”. When she first told us about it, this person never said it was a secret. But when it went out on the list (that’s what the CU does, of course: it announces things) she said we shouldn’t have done it. We had embarrassed her, she said. A different person got furious the same day because something that she wanted announced was not announced. But the Communist University can only do so much. If it becomes like a bottleneck with different people tussling competitively to force things through it, then something is wrong. Something needs fixing. Other web sites need to be set up and kept going. More groups and blogs and mailing lists need to come on stream. This is a good way to wear down the culture of secrecy, exclusion, and censorship. This one, home-made Communist University can’t carry the whole traffic of our enormous labour and progressive movement. The work of opening things up is a big work. The time when exclusive gatherings and obscure “institutional arrangements” decided everything in South Africa needs to be put behind us at last, by actively informing people, and not always expecting others to do it for us. “Send not to ask for whom the bell tolls. It tolls for thee.” Send not to tell the blogger what he must or must not do. Start your own. The Communist University does the best it can. The Events section at the top of the “amadlandawonye” home page is a proud part of the CU contribution. COSATU is one organisation that communicates well and fully, every working day, and often on non-working days too. COSATU has condemned what it sees as the unreasonable exclusion of the TAC and six other South African NGOs from the General Assembly of the United Nations in New York. Read the linked item for more details. In the other linked item, also forwarded by COSATU, FAWU reports how workers in a Pretoria beverage factory used to have memorial services in the workplace for comrades who had passed away. Fine, says the new management, except that you may not call out “Viva ANC, Viva!” This is South Africa today: A battleground for the right to speak and express oneself. Sometimes it takes a long time for truth to come out. The story and pictures of German Communists who survived the Nazis only to be captured and tortured by the British has taken 60 years to come out into the open. See linked article. Links: Exclusion of TAC condemned by COSATU (377 words) ABI Management Curbs Worker Freedom of Expression, FAWU (249 words) Revealed, victims of UK cold war torture camp, Guardian (616 words)

Contrast and Compare

The wikispaces were one year old on March 16th. There are now 2813 listed public “wikispace” wikis, worldwide. The first edit of the home page of http://amadlandawonye.wikispaces.com/ was made on November 4th, 2005, five months ago, but the site really only got going a month later. In the mean time, the hit-counting feature was not working. Now it has suddenly appeared – and it shows that our site has had just under 100,000 views in total (97750 to be exact), putting us in sixth place out of the entire 2813. Of the five above us, four have to do with games and the top one has to do with some kind of cell phone. This means that the Communist University has the top public educational wikispace site in the entire world. And of course it is in fact accessed from all parts of the world. Thanks to all for your support, and special thanks to Nhlanhla Mabaso and Muff Andersson for crucial help at the start. Nhlanhla introduced us to the wikispaces and gave us the now-famous name “amadlandawonye”. Viva! Wikispaces are being lobbied for an improvement in the interactiveness of the sites. At present this consists of a “discussion” button on each page. It can’t be much good, because nobody uses it. For “Critical Pedagogy” to work, dialogue is required, and it would be good to have more of it on-line, and internationally, as well as in our Communist University and YCL weekly sessions in Johannesburg. The other opportunity for dialogue is “comments” on the Communist University blog at http://domza.net/. Please use it! Contrast and compare the two linked interviews below. The first, from the “Sindy”, is with Frank Lingua of Dissembling Associates. The other one is a jargon-filled love-in between Bobby Godsell, chief executive of AngloGold Ashanti, and Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Deputy President of South Africa. The last linked item is a review of a book from the US peace movement. It highlights their situation and the iron necessity for the pro-peace movement also to be an anti-Imperialist movement. Don’t forget tomorrow’s seminar on ASGISA and JIPSA with Gwede Mantashe and Friday’s crucial Communist University session on “Women - Caste, Class or Oppressed Sex” with Luli Callinicos. Links: How to leverage the cliché, Sindy (526 words) Bobby Godsell with Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, Sunday Times (1646 words) Leaving Iraq Now is the Only Sensible Solution, Counterpunch (890 words)

Intelligent Alarm

Great new poem from Ron Press today. See link below. ALARM is the Alliance of Land and Agrarian Reform Movements. ALARM submitted its demands to the Minister of Land Affairs, Thoko Didiza, in July last year at the Land Summit held in Johannesburg. “Yet, none of these demands have been met” - see linked press release. To subscribe to the TAC newsletter, send an e-mail to news-subscribe@tac.org.za (and respond to the confirmation email). The current edition continues the discussion reported here on March 17, that is to say, different opinions about using the courts (and especially libel laws), as political tools. The whole newsletter is too long to reproduce here. Links: Intelligent Design, a poem by Ron Press ALARM press statement - 01 April 2006 (1102 words)

Bourgeois State

The second of the two pieces that Prof Shivji sent is linked below. It is about NGOs and “Civil Society”. What is the ideology underlying the existence of these phenomena? Shivji recalls that writing the phrase “civil society”, for Karl Marx, was no more than a useful way of distinguishing bourgeois society from the preceding feudalism. Civil society is bourgeois society. The problem is to go beyond bourgeois society. Political education must be redoubled when the call to class action comes. Such a call, in detailed terms, has been issued this week in the form of the COSATU National Office Bearers Statement, linked below. In particular the next phase of the Jobs and Poverty Campaign is mapped out. This phase involves four sectoral national strikes in May, in Manufacture, Public Sector, Mining and Services. These strikes will be preceded by sectoral summits in April, accompanied by demonstrations. In between come the May Day Rallies, of which this document gives a full schedule. The theme of the May Day rallies is: AIDS is the new struggle - Each one teach one! Test, Treat and Fight for Life! Internationally, the document details the blockade of Swaziland on April 12, and outlines the basis of solidarity in relation to France, Australia, Zimbabwe, and the WTO. This COSATU document contains many more items and much more depth in its six pages. Read it. Altogether, it presents an agenda of class struggle that can and must unite us all in action. ASGISA is another of the topics mentioned (together with JIPSA). COSATU is putting on a seminar on April 4th (Tuesday) in COSATU House (10th floor) at 14h00 to be addressed by Cde Gwede Mantashe, to explain what ASGISA and JIPSA are all about. See linked notice, and mobilise yourself and comrades to this seminar. Terry Bell reported on the Telkom dispute in his weekly Friday column in Business Report. See link. The bourgeoisie has put a lot of stress on the theories of Hernando de Soto lately. He is the Peruvian development theorist who thinks that shack dwellers can be made into prosperous little bourgeois if they are given title deeds to their shacks. See here, for example. The Wits School of Public and Development Management is going to mount a two-day public critique of de Soto’s ideas on June 1st and 2nd. See link. Further and better particulars will follow later. This is another one to mobilise seriously for. It will be an ideological tournament. Links: The Role and Future of NGOs in Africa, Issa Shivji (12177 pages) COSATU National Office Bearers Statement, March 27-28 (2418 words) Seminar on ASGI-SA, Mantashe, Cosatu Education (Notice) Telkom hubris gets workers fighting back, Bell, Bus Report (690 words) Wits P and DM School June 1-2, de Soto event (Notice)