NDS, yes? No, thanks.

Alas, time and again, the siren song called “End of History” seduces the imagination of every comrade who yearns for a permanent accommodation with capital. As Cheche Selepe’s letter on Mazibuko Jara says: “to him the struggle ends with bourgeois democracy”. The ANC’s new discussion document on Strategy and Tactics ossifies the National Democratic Revolution into a static, idealised National Democratic Society. The document’s long flights of fancy conceal a simple, cowardly wish for a quiet life: an undisturbed tranquillity of refinement and variation upon a fetishised theme called National Democracy.

In his letter to Bracke, later published with the 1875 Critique of the Gotha Programme, Karl Marx wrote: Every step of real movement is more important than a dozen programmes. And in the Critique itself Marx wrote:

“Between capitalist and communist society there lies the period of the revolutionary transformation of the one into the other. Corresponding to this is also a political transition period in which the state can be nothing but the revolutionary dictatorship of the proletariat.”

The SACP will hold a two-day National Policy Dialogue from tomorrow at Willow Park outside Johannesburg to discuss the new ANC Strategy and Tactics draft, the SACP’s own strategy and tactics in the current period, and five other items, including co-operatives. This is a topic that Marx also dealt with in the Critique of the Gotha Programme where he concluded:

“That the workers desire to establish the conditions for co-operative production on a social scale, and first of all on a national scale, in their own country, only means that they are working to revolutionize the present conditions of production, and it has nothing in common with the foundation of co-operative societies with state aid. But as far as the present co-operative societies are concerned, they are of value only insofar as they are the independent creations of the workers and not protégés either of the governments or of the bourgeois. “

The ANC document, the SACP announcement, and Cde Cheche’s letter are linked below.

Concerning Danisa Baloyi, the ABSA Bank, of which she is a director, has said: "Absa respects the legal process and is awaiting the outcome of the investigation. As such, it is premature for Absa to comment further at this time." This will not do! The best Baloyi can probably hope for is that the NPA will declare her case “prima facie but unwinnable”, or give her a plea bargain like they gave Mark Thatcher, or make her a state witness in exchange for a confession. But directorships of banks are out for her now. ABSA Bank is playing for time, dangerously. See the two articles about Baloyi, linked below.

The gross vulgarity of Baloyi’s Fidentia gang is well caught by the grandiose Fidentia Top Empowerment Awards held barely three months ago. The “Honorary Laureate” was our old fiend, Bishop Tutu. See the link below. Finally, the sordid tale of Condoleezza Rice’s relationship with her home town of Birmingham, Alabama seems very relevant here, even though it appeared in Counterpunch a full year earlier. See the link.

The picture above is of Morogoro, Tanzania, where the original and great ANC "Strategy and Tactics" document was created in 1969.

Click on these links:

ANC, Strategy and Tactics discussion document - building an NDS (13247 words)

SACP Statement on National Policy Dialogue, 22-23 February 2007 (417 words)

To him the struggle ends with bourgeois democracy - Selepe on Jara (2619 words)

Heat on Baloyi over Fidentia stake, R8m loan, Rob Rose, B Day (565 words)

Press wrong re Baloyi loan - Fidentia, Wiseman Khuzwayo, B Rep (397 words)

Fidentia Top Empowerment Award winners 2006, BizCommunity (605 words)

Rice Disdain for Civil Rights Movement, J L Chestnut, Counterpunch (834 words)