Women For War

The only thing that really matters about the British cabinet reshuffle is whether the replacement of Jack Straw by Margaret Beckett means war. The Guardian’s diplomatic editor seem to think that it does (see link). If so then Margaret Beckett follows a long line of monsters given preferment on gender grounds who have served the cause of war. These have included Margaret Thatcher, Jeanne Kirkpatrick, Madeleine Albright, and Condoleezza Rice, whom Beckett is rushing to meet on Monday. In this way feminism is used in the last analysis as a tool of reaction, because its theoretical base is weak or non-existent. As has been pointed out here a number of times, “innocent until proven guilty” also means “guilty if proven guilty”. People have been playing games with this straightforward statement, including Johannesburg’s Star newspaper. COSATU GS Zwelinzima Vavi sorts them out. See link. SATAWU, the security guards’ union, and POPCRU, the police and prison guards union, have both released statements clarifying their positions in the security guards’ dispute, so as to stop nonsense in the press. See linked documents below. If you thought that Bulelani Ngcuka had retired to enjoy his good fortune now that his wife Phumzile is the Deputy President, you would have been mistaken. Ngcuka is busy accumulating an enormous amount of money in property deals. Of course he has not “added value” in any way, except by being “connected” and politically in line with the reactionary white bourgeoisie that is slipping him the deals. See link. President Thabo Mbeki in a long and obscure piece of writing (several hours at least of work or maybe even a couple of days) has delivered himself of a pronouncement on the Constitution and its celebration on May 8th (linked). As usual in the President’s narratives, there appear to be “some among us” who are threatening to spoil the fun. A good Communist University exercise could be to guess who these naughty ones are. Click on these links: British Foreign Secretary Straw replaced, The Guardian (223 words) Star misleading headline, COSATU GS Zwelinzima Vavi (780 words) Update on SATAWU (313 words) POPCRU calls for police restraint in security guards dispute (262 words) Ngcuka heads first major BEE Property Charter deal, B Day (318 words) Constitution, national social compact, Thabo Mbeki, ANC Today (2973 words)