Lest We Forget

The Johannesburg Central Branch of the SACP held a large, lively and successful meeting yesterday and got through a lot of business. This mailing’s principal general guideline is political education, limited by the necessity to be brief. If there is spare space it is used for announcements of events, new writing, press releases and other direct communications from allied and fraternal bodies, and for a selection of news, if there is any. Sometimes there is very little news. This weekend has been uneventful, with one main exception. The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the ANC has been meeting. Reports of its proceedings will presumably surface today. Also, the confection called the “orange” revolution in Ukraine has gone sour. That's not a surprise The CU receives at least 30 spam messages on an average day. “Hoax e-mails” are not seen as anything to get excited about, here. In any case, trying to get a handle on spook business is about as sensible as rushing to grab a greasy pig while wearing oven gloves and flip flops: a waste of time and space, and messy, too. Accordingly, we revive the occasional series of Revolutionary Classics with “The Critique of the Gotha Programme”, by Karl Marx. In this (linked) document is found a discussion of the tactical and strategic conditions for alliance among ostensibly socialist and proletarian forces. The other linked document is Chris Floyd’s piece on the slaughter of innocents by US forces in the Iraqi village of Isahaqi. Floyd challenges: “anyone who knows these facts, who sees these facts, and fails to cry out against them…” et cetera. It could not be passed over. Links: 1875, Marx, Critique of the Gotha Programme (8315 words) Death in an Iraqi Village, Chris Floyd, Counterpunch (1088 words)