All Human Life Is Here

The Communist University meets tonight at 17h00 at the Women’s Jail, 1 Kotze Street, Constitution Hill to discuss “Socialism, Utopian and Scientific” by Frederick Engels (1880). Our next session after tonight will be at the same time and place on Friday September 8th, when we will discuss “Why Revolutionaries need Marxism”, by MK favourite Dialego (John Hoffman). See the first link below for the reading. Don’t forget that at 17h15 on Thursday, September 8th, Joel Netshitenzhe will be appearing at The Fort, Constitution Hill to speak on “Political Parties, Labour and the State” under aegis of the blessed Wolpe. This event will take place ten days before the COSATU 9th National Congress. Perhaps those ten days could shake the world. Netshitenzhe, however, will stand against the revolutionary tide. In that regard, COSATU’s Industrial Strategy Policy document has been released and can be downloaded via the link below. It is about 10,000 words long (equivalent to one or two book-chapters) and includes graphs and tables. For students of working-class struggle this document is an obvious one to study. Even if you don’t read it all at once, it would be wise to download it and save it on your hard disk drive, and study it between now and the start of the COSATU 9th Congress on September 18th. SACP GS Blade Nzimande made a speech yesterday at the SADTU Congress, currently in process at Gallagher Estate, in which he said, among other things: “The SACP is strongly of the view that amongst other things, it is now time that we demand the teaching of historical and dialectical materialism in our schools. The working class did not struggle for political liberation only for its children to be fed with capitalist propaganda daily at school. It is a shame that much as South Africa was liberated by a movement whose strategy and tactics was informed by this philosophical outlook, only capitalist ideology is taught in our schools.” Viva! This is music to the ears of the Communist University! Find and read the whole speech via the link below. Meanwhile most of the bourgeois press is still trying to prophesy the future of COSATU, with varying degrees of implausibility. The Amy Musgrave article from yesterday's Business Day linked below is a relatively straight report of the SADTU Congress. It is reported today that ANC Deputy President Jacob Zuma is to speak at the congress, by popular demand of the SADTU delegates. NALEDI is the COSATU think-tank and it issues an electronic newsletter called e-NALEDI. See the link below for the latest edition (converted to a Word file). This one is devoted to Women’s Month. Click on these links: Necessity of Theory, Dialego, 1976 (3627 words) COSATU Industrial Strategy Policy 2006 (224 KB PDF download) SACP GS Blade Nzimande, Education for Working Class power (3832 words) Cosatu chiefs jockey for posts, Amy Musgrave, Business Day (520 words) e-NALEDI Vol 2 No 9 August 2006 (1610 words)