Whose News?

SACP GS Dr Blade Nzimande yesterday replied succinctly and concisely to Steven Friedman’s odd pontifical spin-doctoring in the Business Day of April 19, alleging divisions in the movement. His remarks also cover well the direct allegation of the Mail and Guardian that the SACP itself is divided. It often seems as if the bourgeois press is uncomfortable with democracy. An ordinary voting “division” that is scheduled for the SACP Congress next year is already characterised as a “civil war”. This Mail and Guardian article was initiated by an anonymous “SACP central committee member”. The Mail and Guardian then went and solicited quotes from the SACP General Secretary and the National Secretary of the YCL. Then it flatly contradicted the quotes it had solicited, in its headline and in its roadside publicity posters, which speak ridiculously of “civil war”. It’s time the Mail and Guardian’s reporters learned what democracy looks like, and the difference between democracy and civil war. The Business Day’s Vukani Mde is not quite so far off the mark in his report of COSATU’s WTO concerns, but is inaccurate to say that next month’s Jobs and Poverty Campaign actions are solely about this particular (and indeed major) concern. COSATU has since said: “While this issue obviously has a bearing on the Jobs and Poverty Campaign, it is not the sole or main issue around which workers will be taking action in May, as some media reports suggest.” COSATU’s own speakers notes for May Day and the Jobs and Poverty Campaign are also linked below, for your information. In the next two linked items, COSATU’s Neva Makgetla in the Business Day and Terry Bell in the Business Report, cover the economy and the question of Swaziland’s labour movement. There are five major press articles about the working class side of things here from yesterday’s Johannesburg press, published on the one day. We need more. COSATU has called for the honour given posthumously to the late Swazi King Sobhuza to be withdrawn. It is a scandal and an insult to the memory of O R Tambo in whose name the medal is struck. Read COSATU’s short and powerful reasoning in the linked item below. FOCUS’s Cde Clever Banganayi points out that the Cuban Salsa event at the Horror Café in Newtown on Monday is at 19h00 and not 17h00 as was incorrectly stated yesterday, meaning that people who go to events at 17h00 or so will still have time to go to the salsa bash. Links: Twisting SACP position on Zuma, Nzimande, Business Day (817 words) SACP divided on Zuma, Mail and Guardian (950 words) COSATU to protest state of global trade talks with strike (392 words) COSATU speakers notes, Jobs and Poverty Campaign, May Day (1573 words) Worrying facts underlie economic patina of health, B Day (717 words) Swazi May Day test for democracy movement, Bell, B Rep (775 words) COSATU, Do not honour this despot, rescind Sobhuza award (245 words)