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)