Thank God For Communists

The SACP’s press conference following the Central Committee meeting at the weekend, together with the launch of the “State Power” discussion document the previous Wednesday, have created unprecedented goodwill and interest in the Party, expressed beautifully by Jon Qwelane in the Sunday Sun and News24 with the sentence: “Thank God for the communists” – see link below. Meanwhile the Business Day (see link) had the SACP as its front page splash (following COSATU on Friday), and editor Peter Bruce concluded his Monday “Thick End of the Wedge” column as follows: “ANYONE who read the attack on us by the ANC website recently would have figured that what bugged them was an editorial we wrote mildly criticising President Thabo Mbeki for not appearing before Parliament often enough. This was grounds for the website to accuse Business Day of hatching a plot to destroy the government and the party with unidentified “partners”. “Last week, one of the ANC alliance partners, the South African Communist Party (SACP) made almost exactly the same criticism to, so far, deafening silence from the ANC website. If its editors have any balls they will deal with the SACP observations in the same way they dealt with ours.” Succession struggles are not confined to the ANC. NUM issued a statement yesterday, countering suggestions of tribalism in its ranks. See link. Back in the Business Day, a letter by Mike Berger takes on Xolela Mangcu with wit and style. Linked. William Blum, author of the book “Killing Hope”, writing in the great on-line publication Counterpunch, takes apart the myth of the Marshall Plan, often praised in South Africa, even by people who ought to know better. See link. The last link is a piece about Cassinga, lest we forget; see link. This is a something very emotional for a lot of people. The cabinet was reshuffled yesterday, seemingly on a technocratic basis. In other words utilitarianism is the face of South African government politics for the moment. Click on these links: Thank God for communists, Jon Qwelane, News24 (953 words) SACP blames powerful presidency for ANC ills, Brown, Mde, B Day (638 words) Tribalism a red herring to a leadership contest, Lekorotsoana, NUM (366 words) Myth and African renaissance, Mike Berger, Letters, Business Day (364 words) What About the Marshall Plan, Bill Blum, Counterpunch (1792 words) The Massacre of Cassinga, Piero Gleijeses (2243 words)