Op Ed Hegemony

Johannesburg Central SACP Branch meets tomorrow morning at 10h00 in the SATAWU offices, 13th floor, Old Mutual Building, 29 Kerk Street, between Harrison and Loveday. Comrades of Johannesburg Central, this is important. COSATU’s Pat Craven has responded to Devan Pillay in the Business Day Letters – see link below. In her regular “op-ed” (opinion piece) COSATU’s Neva Makgetla describes class struggle in the (supposed to be) collaborationist corridors of NEDLAC, over BEE charters – another link. Terry Bell is Business Report’s token representative for labour. He is in a reflective mood about his role in life – see link. And in another op-ed, Stuart Wilson of the Wits Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) rubbishes the bleats of the “worried” bourgeoisie – link. The amount of text we manage to get published in the op-ed columns of the bourgeois press is one measure of the success of the Communist University and similar initiatives. We naturally have better and more exciting ideas. We are the pioneers, whereas the bourgeois intellectuals are the reactionaries - derivative and secondary by nature. We can do a lot better than we already do. Hats off to Craven, Makgetla, Bell and Wilson, but there are not enough of them. And by the way, these ones are all white. We need a lot more commentators in the proletarian mould, and a lot more black ones in particular. In terms of reports of actions, (as opposed to reflection or “analysis”) there are a lot at present and the volume seems to be increasing. For example this from COSATU, Mpumalanga: “The Congress of South Africa Trade Unions (COSATU) will be picketing against all major retailers in Mpumalanga on the 25 March 2006, beginning at 08h00 – 13h00 as part of its Jobs & Poverty campaign.” There is also a major political statement from SADTU’s NEC as well as reports of militant strike action on Thursday and Friday in Pretoria, Cape Town and Johannesburg by shockingly underpaid security guards, organised by SATAWU. As class struggle intensifies, the Communist University will increasingly be forced to summarise such reports. Google News is a good source of up-to-date reports. Links: COSATU stand, reply to Pillay letter by Craven, Business Day (328 words) BEE codes for development, not elites, Makgetla, Business Day (724 words) This column is about reflection, not advocacy, Terry Bell, B Rep (790 words) Bottom line rights, not quick profit, Stuart Wilson, Business Day (859 words)