Scares, Lies, Selective Memories, and Truth

This is Monday’s distribution, sent early for the sake of the (linked) SACP CC statement. The Communist University does not normally dwell upon the lies of the yellow bourgeois gutter press. We usually pass over the works of those who spend time complaining about daily media lies, rather than using the time to tell more of the truth. But it could sometimes be useful to study the techniques of sellout aspirant-bourgeois hacks - with a view to retaliation, perhaps. One example could be the following extract from an article in the Sunday Independent Business Report headlined “US may foot post-Castro restitution bill in Cuba”, by Randy Nieves-Ruiz, sourced from the agency SAPA-AFP: “When Castro refused to pay for the property his government grabbed, the US government retaliated by imposing an economic embargo on the island in 1962.” This is saying that the 44-year blockade of Cuba is “retaliation”! AN ENORMOUS LIE! The Business Report buys it and prints it, probably without thinking at all. This could be a good opportunity for a letter. Send to The Editor at business.report@inl.co.za . You can spot such lies when you know a bit about the subject. Robert Fisk is an Englishman living in Beirut, Lebanon. He knows Britain, and he also knows what terror is. He laughs bitterly at the huge scare the plodding British police have created by arresting 24 people and accusing them of trying to blow up aeroplanes with hair gel and “fizzy drinks”. See the link below. Sunday’s City Press shows what a contrary thing a newspaper can be. Cameron Duodu (see link) is a veteran African journalist resident in London. He, too, “smells a rat” in the British policemen’s story (which caused disruption to air traffic on a world-wide scale), and he exposes it. Yet the same issue of City Press carries a pack of deliberate, blatant and outrageous lies on its own front page. This is actual corruption. It is an editor’s corruption, hurting individuals in a vicious attempt to damage the entire political fabric of the country. See the link. The City Press is also somewhat petty and stingy when it comes to putting its articles on the Internet. It puts up very few articles and often, as in this case, only part of an article. The hard copy contains the following additional quote from COSATU GS Zwelinzima Vavi: “It is tensions time, there is no doubt about it. There is a congress coming up and the debate about the leadership question has begun. But if this debate rolls to the level of personal attacks against me, then it is quite a regrettable development. “The reality is that we are facing the most testing times in the history of our federation. Never has our unity been challenged like it is now. Never has there been this phenomenon of people talking anonymously to the media and launching faceless campaigns against the leadership in the media. It pains me that COSATU has to deal with nonsense of this kind.” The same paper, divining or perhaps outright inventing (why should we believe that anonymous sources even exist?) tittle-tattle from the SACP Central Committee, tries to stir the pot in an attempt to damage the SACP. SACP GS Blade Nzimande corrects them. See the link. The way to defeat this phenomenon is not to shrink back into silence, but to lead with clear (and not anonymous) statements of the truth That is what COSATU and the SACP have done. Likewise with Trevor Manuel’s selective memory about the GEAR policy. Pulled from ANC Today, his article popped up again in the Sunday Times. SACP Deputy GS Jeremy Cronin and COSATU GS Zwelinzima Vavi correct some of Manuel’s omissions in the Sunday Independent (see the linked article below). The question, as Jeremy Cronin points out, is: Where are all the jobs you promised, Trevor? The full statement of the SACP Central Committee, issued on Sunday, is linked below. It deals, among many other things, with the call for a consumer boycott of Israel. Click on these links: How London terror scare looks from Beirut, Fisk, Counterpunch (1169 words) UK government's credibility is under threat, City Press (621 words) Vavi, Madisha at war, Msomi, City Press (317 words) Divisions over Zuma at SACP meeting, Msomi, City Press (472 words) Cronin and Vavi reject Manuel Gear defence, Terreblanche, Sindy (789 words) Statement of the SACP Central Committee (1465 words)