Mervyn Bennun is a comrade who lives in Cape Town, well respected as a veteran of the South African struggle and incidentally as a great expert on the law. Yesterday he responded to the Communist University post about the attitude of the young male comrades towards the question of war and peace.
Mervyn wrote:
“I am shocked by what the young comrades seemed to feel. War is utterly horrible…
“I remember very clearly in 1966(7?)(8?) a meeting addressed in London by Eduardo Mondlane, not long before he was killed. He spoke bitterly and with great passion about his experiences and philosophy as the leader of FRELIMO. He said that guerilla war was no romantic Che Guevara-Fidel Castro thing, with images of bearded, beret-wearers creeping through the jungle with sten guns and singing patriotic songs about freedom round campfires. What he said about his own FRELIMO really touched me: he said that FRELIMO wanted nobody who was not frightened, who did not hate and fear guns and bombs and fighting; FRELIMO just wanted people who wanted to build, to bring into being, to live.”
Thank you comrade Mervyn for taking us straight to the heart of the matter.
Also in Cape Town, as it happens, lives Mazibuko Jara, still a member of the SACP, though no longer an office bearer in the YCL. The article by Vicki Robinson linked below is incorrect in that regard and a few other respects as well. Some names are also spelled wrong.
Jara used to be the national spokesperson of the SACP and held many other positions at national level, in Johannesburg, to the point that he became a domineering, universal gatekeeper and very little could be done without his say-so. That was before his abrupt demise and resignation a few years ago. The resignation had to do with his founding role in the Dora Tamana Co-operative Centre (DTCC), and money problems having to do with that organisation. DTCC collapsed altogether in 2006.
Jara’s former position as national spokesperson has meant that he is still well known to the media freaternity. He maintains wide personal contacts and appears to have every intention of regaining his former dictatorial position within the Party. Vicki Robinson’s article does not come out of the blue. Together with "sourcings" by Jara, it amounts to factional lobbying by. Jara is clearly the main source, as he has often been before in such articles about the SACP.
Next time, Vicki Robinson should ask Jara about the DTCC, instead of just swallowing Jara’s skinder about other people in the Party.
Mervyn wrote:
“I am shocked by what the young comrades seemed to feel. War is utterly horrible…
“I remember very clearly in 1966(7?)(8?) a meeting addressed in London by Eduardo Mondlane, not long before he was killed. He spoke bitterly and with great passion about his experiences and philosophy as the leader of FRELIMO. He said that guerilla war was no romantic Che Guevara-Fidel Castro thing, with images of bearded, beret-wearers creeping through the jungle with sten guns and singing patriotic songs about freedom round campfires. What he said about his own FRELIMO really touched me: he said that FRELIMO wanted nobody who was not frightened, who did not hate and fear guns and bombs and fighting; FRELIMO just wanted people who wanted to build, to bring into being, to live.”
Thank you comrade Mervyn for taking us straight to the heart of the matter.
Also in Cape Town, as it happens, lives Mazibuko Jara, still a member of the SACP, though no longer an office bearer in the YCL. The article by Vicki Robinson linked below is incorrect in that regard and a few other respects as well. Some names are also spelled wrong.
Jara used to be the national spokesperson of the SACP and held many other positions at national level, in Johannesburg, to the point that he became a domineering, universal gatekeeper and very little could be done without his say-so. That was before his abrupt demise and resignation a few years ago. The resignation had to do with his founding role in the Dora Tamana Co-operative Centre (DTCC), and money problems having to do with that organisation. DTCC collapsed altogether in 2006.
Jara’s former position as national spokesperson has meant that he is still well known to the media freaternity. He maintains wide personal contacts and appears to have every intention of regaining his former dictatorial position within the Party. Vicki Robinson’s article does not come out of the blue. Together with "sourcings" by Jara, it amounts to factional lobbying by. Jara is clearly the main source, as he has often been before in such articles about the SACP.
Next time, Vicki Robinson should ask Jara about the DTCC, instead of just swallowing Jara’s skinder about other people in the Party.
For her information and yours, Jara is right now busy trying to expand his profile internationally. He recently circulated the following e-mail:
“I request info on names of comrades in the US (specifically New York) in unions, organisations and individual comrades you would suggest I contact and try to meet whilst there from 07 to 12 March. I would need to get email addresses, etc. I will be attending the Left Forum from 09 to 11 March in New York.”
The trademark of Jara and his factional allies is revealed by Jara’s threat to “investigate” a meeting held in Khayelitsha. These stalkers hunt for advantages in procedural wrangles. Especially, they love to gag their opponents and their perceived rivals, while they whisper like the grass to the bourgeois media.
They will not write of their politics openly. They conceal their aims, and communists are not supposed to conceal their aims. They are the cell-phone politicians. This phenomenon is normal prior to a Congress, and a Congress is a good way of dealing with it. The dogs bark, but the caravan moves on.
Click on this link:
Rumblings over Blade in SACP, Vicki Robinson, Mail and Guardian (634 words)
“I request info on names of comrades in the US (specifically New York) in unions, organisations and individual comrades you would suggest I contact and try to meet whilst there from 07 to 12 March. I would need to get email addresses, etc. I will be attending the Left Forum from 09 to 11 March in New York.”
The trademark of Jara and his factional allies is revealed by Jara’s threat to “investigate” a meeting held in Khayelitsha. These stalkers hunt for advantages in procedural wrangles. Especially, they love to gag their opponents and their perceived rivals, while they whisper like the grass to the bourgeois media.
They will not write of their politics openly. They conceal their aims, and communists are not supposed to conceal their aims. They are the cell-phone politicians. This phenomenon is normal prior to a Congress, and a Congress is a good way of dealing with it. The dogs bark, but the caravan moves on.
Click on this link:
Rumblings over Blade in SACP, Vicki Robinson, Mail and Guardian (634 words)
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