Events and Contributions

Events of all kinds are being announced now that the political season is well and truly under way. Please let the Communist University know of your events as early as possible, by e-mail to dominic.tweedie@gmail.com . Events are listed near the top of the home page of the CU web site . They include today’s SACP Gauteng Provincial Council meeting, tomorrow’s Zuma Trial in Johannesburg, and Issa Shivji’s lecture at Wits University from 13h15 tomorrow. On Tuesday Shivji lectures in Pretoria from 09h00, and in the evening at 15h30 at Wits there will be an architecture seminar. Tuesday is also the day that the Swaziland Treason Trialists appear in court, and there is expected to be a response to that in the form of pickets of the Swazi consulates in South Africa. On Wednesday from 09h00 there will be the seminar of IFAS at Wits University. March 8th is also International Women’s Day. On March 18th there is an international day of action for peace, especially in Iraq, and on March 21st we celebrate Human Rights Day in South Africa. Apart from notices of events, the Communist University is proud to receive and publishes a fair amount of original writing. It was nice to receive the following encouraging words from Ebrahim-Khalil Hassen, whose article on why we should vote was published here the night before the election: “An interesting exercise for me to circulate an article via email, rather than newspapers. The feedback was absolutely amazing, and positive.” Today we carry three more originals. The first is from Cheche Selepe, responding to Ebrahim, and also to Joel Netshtenzhe’s contribution in “Umsebenzi Online”, and to the centenaries of the Bambatha Rebellion and the transubstantiation of M K Gandhi. See link below. The second is a new poem from Ron Press, to mark International Women’s Day, which is next Wednesday, March 8th. See link. The third, called “First Visit…” is from yudac mthembu, sent as a reply to our group. Note that when people reply direct to these group messages they come to the CU and do not go out to the other members. (An alternative is the “comment “ facility on the blog at http://domza.net/ ). In this case I am going to link Cde. Mthembu’s short and lively message. In my excitement on Friday morning and because of an inaccuracy on The Star newspaper I made the mistake of reporting that Ward 82 is next to my own Ward 81. In fact it is Bosmont, to the West of Johannesburg, whereas Ward 81 is Lombardy East, in the North-Eastern suburbs. Both were won by the ANC from the DA in the local authority elections. So was another ward in Eldorado Park in the South. Here’s one more thing to get excited about – a great victory for Stuart Wilson and his colleagues at CALS. The City of Johannesburg has to find alternative accommodation for people it plans to evict from its "bad buildings", the Johannesburg High Court ruled on Friday. See the linked story and appreciate the enormous scope of this legal victory for the poor people of South Africa. Links: Election Religion, Bambatha and Gandhi, Cheche Selepe (2550 words) Enlightening Comparisons for International Women's Day, Press (poem) First visit, yudac mthembu (319 words) Alternatives must be found before eviction, IOL (307 words)