Agents Provocateurs

From time to time the question of adventurism comes up. The communists are for democracy and for freedom, and against adventurism. There is no armed struggle that can substitute for politics. The political struggle is always superior to any tactical necessity that may be forced upon the revolutionaries by their class enemy. All military formations must be subordinate to political authority at all times. The class enemy will frequently use agents provocateurs. These are infiltrators who propose illegal or extreme actions, so as to expose the revolutionaries to attack or to arrest. An example of this was the false “bombing and arson” allegation (involving old South African dirty-tricks operators) that were used a year ago as an excuse by the Swazi regime to arrest PUDEMO members. This “false flag” operation was fortunately defeated by good communication and legal work and by international solidarity. Another bourgeois Imperialist tactic is to sponsor the overthrow of a regime by force, in order to pre-empt a true democratic revolution. In such cases, the very same dictators who are at first promoted and assisted by the Imperialists (so as to deny the masses their democratic power) would later be used by the same Imperialists as excuses for further interference. And so on in an endless cycle. So for example the Imperialists might support a Mswati, then support somebody to overthrow Mswati, and then later accuse the new person of being a dictator – a Mugabe - and then support yet another adventurer. And so on, while the real democracy of the masses is time and again postponed. The Imperialists play a shell game (“finder-finder”), trying to leave the people unsure of where their democracy is to be found. The revolutionaries must know who are the real partisans of democracy. We must know that democracy is ours, and that the Struggle for Democracy is not to be stolen away from us by the Imperialists, so that they can pose as “pro-democracy”, “human rights”, “anti-corruption”, or “colour-coded revolutionaries”. The anti-colonial, anti-Imperialist struggle has been the main carrier of human progress since the end of the Second World War in 1945. This struggle was opposed at every step by the same Imperialists who now pose as “Afro-pessimists”, “donor countries”, “peace-keepers” and all the rest of it. The great Dar-es-Salaam revolutionary intellectual Issa Shivji understands all this very well and expressed it very well in his 2003 paper “The Struggle For Democracy”, which we are going to discuss this evening at the Communist University. The venue is 1st floor, COSATU House, 1 Leyds Street, Braamfontein, time 17h00. Next week (Friday, December 1st) we will discuss two short essays of Lenin’s on the subject of adventurism and insurrection. See the link below. These texts were chosen for discussion long ago, but as so often is the case, they turn out to be very timely in terms of their content and their relevance. The next document linked below is a statement on Imperialism given by the SACP as a contribution to the international meeting of Communist and Workers’ Parties held in Portugal earlier this month. Finally, in an example of small-time provocation and interference published this morning, see the linked article from our old friend Moshoeshoe Monare of the Johannesburg Star. Mr Monare is a frequent visitor at COSATU House and also attended the entire four days of the COSATU 9th Congress in September, including the election of office-bearers. It would be nice if he could achieve a minimum level of professionalism, such as, for example, taking the trouble to spell the names of these office-bearers properly. Alinah (not Arlina) Rantsolase is COSATU’s Treasurer, and Violet Seboni (not Sibani) is COSATU’s Second Vice-President. If Monare forgets again, he can look up the COSATU web site, here. As for the rest of his article, you have to take it with a pinch of salt, noting that it will soon be Christmas and news is getting short. But there’s no bonus here for Mr Monare. Not until he learns to get his basic facts right. Click on these links: 1902, 1917, Lenin, Adventurism, Insurrection (10746 words) SACP Contribution, Meet of Communist and Workers Parties, Portugal (4407 words) Knives out for Madisha, Moshoeshoe Monare, The Star (770 words)