Red Alert

What is the NDR? SACP GS Dr Blade Nzimande in the latest Umsebenzi Online problematises the National Democratic Revolution in its concrete historically-determined current South African circumstance. See the link below. Antonio Gramsci’s “Some aspects of the Southern Question” (our Communist University reading for this Friday’s discussion) is very relevant to this SACP-initiated national debate on the nature of the NDR. It covers the revolutionary relationship between the workers and the poor in Italy at a time when that country had many of the features of South Africa today. Among the other things he complained about in his “political overview” at the recent ANC NEC was the new political slogan President Thabo Mbeki put in Comrade Nzimande’s mouth, namely: “Imperialism is not invincible”. It is hard to see what the President of a sovereign independent nation should see wrong with this slogan. The terminal, coercive, military phase of Imperialism is a manifestation of capitalism’s critical weakness, not of strength. With solidarity and determination, the US jackboot can be kept off African soil, regardless of what the person George Bush once called his “point man in Africa” may be afraid of. Will our President use his new position on the UN Security Council to protest at this blatant statement of US neo-colonial intentions? Such tests always come sooner than you think. If the South African government fails to deal with this US provocation, it will have to enter the Security Council with its metaphorical tail between its legs, which is no doubt just what the US intends. What right has the USA to establish “a U.S. military command on African soil”? What is arrogance, if not this? See the link below for the vile and presumptuous US insult to Africa. It should be rejected immediately and with contempt, especially by those among us who like to declare: “I am an African”, as well as by those of us who are internationalists and unashamed anti-Imperialists. The Zimbabwe degenerate regime, following an all-too-common pattern prophesied by Frantz Fanon more than 40 years ago, is moving to eviscerate mass democratic politics altogether. In this case it is seeking to impose a gang of stooges on the ZCTU (Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions) in place of their elected leaders. “We stand by our leaders!” is an old South African slogan which can be recommended unreservedly to the Zimbabwean working class. See the link below. In Harare there is now something like a Soviet, called CHRA (Combined Harare Residents’ Association), facing up to another imposed stooge “Commission”. There is dual power developing in that city, and dual power is a sign of a revolutionary situation. See the link. The KSM is the Communist Youth Union of the Czech Republic. In a move similar to what the Zim regime wants to do to the ZCTU, and in violation of all principles of democratic freedom of association, the government of that country has “disbanded” the KSM. YCL (Young Communist League) formations in South Africa and in London have not been slow to alert the world about this disgusting reversion to the worst habits of European history. See the link below. The National Secretary of the YCLSA, Comrade Buti Manamela, will be meeting with representatives from the AfriForum and the Freedom Front Plus Youth today from 09h00 in the SACP boardroom, 3rd floor, COSATU House, Braamfontein. The meeting will discuss various issues affecting the youth in general and the Afrikaner youth in particular. It will be folllowed by a Press Conference at 12h00 in the same venue. For more information please contact Castro Ngobese, YCL Spokesperson (cell 082 567 3557). The next “Wolpe” at Constitution Hill, on November 2nd, will feature Geoff Budlender, Advocate of the High Court of South Africa, and Zac Yacoob, Justice of the Constitutional Court of South Africa. These are other words two distinguished lawyers of the struggle period who are now in high positions. They will speak on “Socio-economic Rights, the Judiciary, and the Developmental State”. Time is 17h15 for the drinks and the snacks, and 17h45 for the seminar in the Conference Room. Click on these links: Umsebenzi Online, Vol 5, No. 66, 18 Oct 2006, What is the NDR (3605 words) US military sharpens focus on Africa, Mark Trevelyan, Reuters (673 words) Zanu PF turns to Parliament over ZCTU, ZCTU Media Release (405 words) CHRA mobilizing Harare residents to defend their rights (597 words) SA, London YCL statements on suppression of Czech KSM (438 words)