No News Today

It was never a Zuma Affair. It’s always been a Maduna Affair. But just when you would have thought the Maduna Affair was cooking, following what Jeremy Gordin rightly called “explosive” revelations, the word has gone around the newsrooms: “Shut it down, lads and lasses”. So they all went shtum. In place of such investigations, Steven Friedman was wheeled out to give a sermon on how we should all stop being nasty to one another. Then the grandstanding old sky-pilot, Desmond Tutu, was propped up to preach against Jacob Zuma, such a friend of his, more in sorrow than in anger, et cetera, et cetera. And someone prodded Xolela Mangcu into offering a fly-blown American plague on all the houses he could make out from his elevated plane of consciousness. All of it humbug. No news today. At least the Communist University still has something relevant to say. It will meet this evening at 17h00 in the Women’s Jail, Constitution Hill, to discuss Karl Marx’s 1845 “Theses on Feuerbach”, of which the last and most famous says: “Philosophers have hitherto only interpreted the world in various ways; the point is to change it” The following Friday (September 1st) we were scheduled to discuss an SACP Gauteng Provincial political education paper called “What is the World Social Forum?” by the well known expert on lumpen proletarians, Comrade Vishwas Satgar (he who has held the position of SACP Gauteng Provincial Secretary for many a year). Unfortunately, the Province uses the e-mail very sparingly. Perhaps they are trying to save money. As a result, and not for the first time, the Communist University is unable to distribute the current Provincial Text. We will have to improvise for next week. Our resources are splendid, and well up to the task. Hence we are able to offer an alternative in the form of “Socialism, Utopian and Scientific”, by Frederick Engels, as a thoroughly suitable alternative to the study of the World Social Forum. See the link below. Today’s text is short. This next one is long, but every page and paragraph is worth reading, so read as many as you can. In the subsequent week, on Thursday September 7th, South Africa’s home grown version of Karl Kautsky, Joel Netshitenzhe, will appear on Constitution Hill to revive Kautsky’s Imperialist Economism under the rubric of “Political Parties, Labour and the State”. On the following evening, September 8th, the Communist University will discuss “Why Revolutionaries Need Marxism”, by Dialego (John Hoffman), which will be distributed next week. Click on this link: Socialism Utopian & Scientific, Engels, 1880 (16228 words)