Prick Up Your Ears

The Communist University has received an e-mail that is both pompous and incontinent from one Willem Steenkamp, claiming to be News Editor of the Saturday Star (see the link below). From an educational point of view it behoves us to ask: What is the underlying nature of this odorous document? Is it the work of a fool, or a liar? Steenkamp the News Editor must be one or the other, or both. Is he being a fool when he calls the anonymous “source” who had a day out in Mpumalanga with Michael Schmidt a “dissident”? Is it foolishness to call people who act in favour of the Swazi autocracy “dissidents”, or is it a “big lie’, Goebbels-style? Steenkamp and Schmidt want to say that PUDEMO is not “dissident”, but the impimpi is a “dissident”. Surely this News Editor must have contempt for his readers if he thinks they will swallow such hogwash? Let’s not hesitate to point out that these two (Schmidt and Steenkamp) are cowardly popping their pea-shooters from under the skirts of Irish capitalist Tony O’Reilly, the former rugby player and Heinz beans executive who owns the Independent Group of newspapers. Maybe they think Uncle Tony is going to pay Wim Trengove or Billy Downer a pile of dosh to crush a Communist blog? Somebody in the firm should tell these lily-livered little anti-Communists that pigs will fly before Tony O’Reilly will waste his cash on such a fool’s errand. We had never heard of Steenkamp until we received his puny e-mail, but now that he has broken cover there is an outstanding matter that could not be directly laid at Schmidt’s door, but is definitely Steenkamp’s responsibility. That is the little pictures of AK47s on the map that was printed next to Schmidt’s original article in the Saturday Star. Steenkamp somehow thinks we didn’t read it properly. Unfortunately for him, we did. Schmidt made no reference to AK47s. Now, ten days or so later, the Swazi police “discover” ten AK47s somewhere in the bundus of Swaziland. What did Steenkamp know, that made him order up pictures of AK47s with no basis in the report? Or is he clairvoyant? While we are on questions of fact, why is it that neither Steenkamp nor Schmidt will give us the URL of the alleged interview with Mario Masuku that they keep saying is on the IOL web site? Because neither “Mario Masuku” nor “PUDEMO” nor “Schmidt” in the site search finds any such thing. Maybe they just think it’s there, or in other words they haven’t checked their facts. That would “figure”. Or maybe they are just bluffing. Maybe they are just not used to having their bluff called. Maybe editors forget how to write. Steenkamp doesn’t realise that when he accuses Schmidt’s readers of not knowing “even the slightest bit about him” that he is calling his friend a liar. He is saying the Schmidt we read every week is a false persona. He is suggesting that the Schmidt who tried to lie about Karl Marx when he worked for ThisDay newspaper was a bogus Schmidt. And the Schmidt who insulted the Cuban people not once but twice in the Saturday Star was a phoney Schmidt. And the Schmidt who set up the Swazi liberation movement for violent persecution, and gave comfort to those who want to revive the kangaroo “arson” trial of the PUDEMO cadres was not the real decent Schmidt that his pals and drinking mates know him to be. What nonsense! Steenkamp is an embarrassment. In the end this comedian comes up with a classic which we can’t help hoping will be laughed out of some court one day: “We have ears in all sorts of places!” In the dustbin, maybe, or down the toilet? What the hell is the man trying to say? This bloke really thinks he’s frightening. It might be nice to humour him and at least pretend to be scared, but our rules don’t allow that. It says in the Communist Manifesto: “The Communists disdain to conceal their views and aims.” So prick up your ears and listen to this, Mr Steenkamp: (expletive deleted). We can’t allow the whole day’s business to be taken up with these boikies. See the link below for our friend the admirable Professor Tilley’s article written in Johannesburg for Counterpunch on Palestine. And don’t forget to head out to Boksburg tomorrow for the COSATU 21st Anniversary seminar. Click on this link: Who's afraid of Virginia Schmidt, Willem Steenkamp, The Star (e-mail) Apartheid Israel, Virginia Tilley, Counterpunch (2888 words)