Work This One Out

Zimbabwe’s MDC split last year. The argument was about whether to put up candidates for the senate or not. The factions announced their separate congresses. The first to take place was that of is the pro-senate faction. It elected a new leader, Arthur Mutambara, who immediately declared himself anti-senate. How does that work? One explanation could be that sectarian splits never resolve anything. Each side of the split invariably re-creates the same split again within itself, and the same battles begin all over again. See linked. Today there is a picket from 12h30 of the Zimbabwean Consulate in Anderson Street, Johannesburg, behind Khotso House. It is for peace and the rule of law under democracy in that country, and for its national integrity and sovereignty. One or two years before 1994 I was categorically told by a white anti-apartheid education official that it had been decided that there was to be no mass literacy campaign on Nicaraguan or Cuban lines in South Africa. The reason was political. The CODESA compromise could not allow organised mass voluntary leadership and politicised education to stream out across the country. Instead we got the awful Education Minister Bengu, followed by Minister Asmal. Now we have Minister Pandor, and things may be changing at last. See the linked article. Note the repeated admission that bourgeois-designed programmes do not inspire the masses and simply fail, wasting huge amounts of money. Unlike, for example, the Communist University, which succeeds precisely because it does inspire the masses, and costs practically nothing. The movie “Mrs Henderson” is showing in Johannesburg. It is a tragical comedy of genteel sex-work in London around 70 years ago. Now comes the announcement of an International Sex Worker Rights Day. Maybe it’s about time. See linked. SATAWU has plural on-going disputes with Transnet but the good piece in Sunday’s Business Report about it is not on the Internet. See the linked notice for SATAWU’s other main action: its dispute with Nationwide Airlines. Two mistakes on CU. One is that there is no Wits architecture seminar this evening. The one on “tenements”, so-called, is next Tuesday, March 7th. The other mistake is that the important upcoming SACP Gauteng Provincial Council is to take place on the 5th of March, as I understand it, and not the 12th as announced here last Thursday. Links: New MDC faction leader enters arena talking tough, B Day (546 words) Cuban way to literacy for South Africa, Business Day (1062 words) International Sex Worker Rights Day (Download) SATAWU, Update on Nationwide strike (310 words)