Leadership, Strategy

"The true revolutionary is guided by strong feelings of love. It is impossible to think of an authentic revolutionary without this quality." Che Guevera We learned this quotation from our young comrade Thando Tshangela, who includes it in all of his e-mails. It is impossible to read Zwelinzima Vavi’s address in farewell of the outgoing NUM General Secretary Gwede Mantashe without being made aware of the strong bonds of personal affection that bind our revolutionary proletarian leadership. Read it! This is something you do not often see in a lifetime. See the link below. COSATU’s Jobs and Poverty Campaign, in line with decisions taken last year and of a meeting of affiliated General Secretaries yesterday, will move into a new phase. This campaign becomes more focused and at the same time more concrete as it gets tempered in the fire of struggle. See the linked, simple and direct statement, which includes a declaration of intent to mobilise the unemployed. The National Union of Mineworkers comes out of its 12th Congress stronger than before and with a united leadership, and this is as it should be - if Cde Vavi’s recollections of Gwede Mantashe’s guidelines are correct, which indeed they are. Note also the remarks about the same Gwede by another ex-GS of the NUM, ANC SG Kgalema Motlanthe: “Comrade Cyril Ramaphosa was general secretary of the NUM then he became secretary general of the ANC. I myself followed the same path. Comrade Gwede leaves the union and he must not break that tradition!” See the linked item. The early bird catches the worm. The tardy press statement misses the bus. The ANC Press Statement from the NEC meeting that finished on Saturday was only released on Monday at 15h21. It says that the succession debate may open concerning “the broad expectations regarding its leadership collectives” from now on but not “debate on or nomination of individuals”. The latter is not supposed to happen until May 2007. See the link below. The statement refers to the document “Through the eye of a needle?” This five-year-old Umrabulo article walks on eggshells through the leadership minefield, and raises as many questions as it answers. On the one hand it says that people have rights to stand and to lobby for support and that leadership must be encouraged to come forward, but on the other hand it puts up a pious etiquette of goody-two-shoes qualities (as opposed to political and especially agitational qualities) that these leaders are supposed to have. Zweli on Gwede is a better guide. The NEC statement also refers to another article containing "reflections of the NEC Political Education Sub-committee", which has been trailed in the press, but has not yet fully surfaced in the public realm (if anybody has a copy, please send it in!) It seems that there will be two concurrent officially-sanctioned discussions going on: one in the SACP, and another in the ANC. That is not a bad thing. Click on these links: COSATU GS Z Vavi, farewell address to outgoing NUM GS Gwede Mantashe (2565 words) COSATU strategy for Jobs and Poverty Campaign, 29 May 2006 (331 words) National Union of Mineworkers, Press Release, 28 May 2006 (471 words) Statement of the ANC National Executive Committee, 29 May 2006 (1946 words)