Educational

This distribution is part of the Communist University, which is a political education initiative. Yesterday’s report from Nepal, for example, was included because it was like reading an action replay of 1789 or 1848. This educational principle is applied when there is just too much apparently eligible material. The CU is not an encyclopedic project or anything like a “newspaper of record”. It is also comparatively small. COSATU’s Daily Labour News or the ANC’s Daily News Briefing each carry five or six times the number of items daily. Some items “spiked” today were: Khutsong, and COSATU on the WTO from City Press (not on the Internet); “Salute to the Party” from a Zimbabwean who witnessed SACP GS Blade Nzimande’s visit to Zambia; King Mswati’s interview with the Mail & Guardian; SACP Yusuf Dadoo District statement on Khutsong (condemning burning of councillors’ houses and of tyres at the Union Buildings); COSATU statement on the collapse of the dry-cleaning murder case; NEHAWU briefing on conclusion of Public Service Summit; COSATU Limpopo HIV/AIDS conference Press Release; Security workers camping in Firoz Cachalia’s office; and SATAWU rubbishing Bheki Cele’s allegation that they might have arsoned a bus depot in KZN. Feedback seems to indicate that five articles are quite enough. Sometimes they are exceptional, sometimes typical, sometimes critical and sometimes marginal. They are selected for Freirean educational reasons. They are supposed to be the ones most likely to stimulate dialogue. Today’s are: A review from the Sunday Independent of Jeremy Cronin’s latest volume of poetry A Jonny Steinberg article from the Business Day on poverty and sex. Dr Blade Nzimande’s statement on a report from the competition committee. SATAWU’s two major strike statements from yesterday, in one document. COSATU’s main solidarity statement for CWU. Links: Older, tougher Cronin, master of dialectics, Sunday Independent (782 words) The link between HIV-AIDS, poverty and sex in SA, Business Day (775 words) SACP statement on competition commission report, Nzimande (497 words) SATAWU response to Minister of Labour and Strike Bulletin (1954 words) COSATU backs CWU against Telkom (346 words)