Change

Some among us, such as the President of the Republic and of the African National Congress, Comrade Thabo Mbeki, think that we need “agents of change”. This phrase carries the implication that there are those who are “change agents” (the President means the ANC) and others who are changed.

This is different from the communist view. The communists are not “change agents”. They exist to render the entire people into agents, or in other words to set them all free, so to realise the slogan “Power To The People” in full.

Agency is another word for power. Therefore “Power To the ANC” is not our idea. Nor is it a case of “Power To The Communists”, as much as our friends the Entryists may try to tell us so. That is a very seductive idea, but it is not a communist idea.

The task of the communists is to educate, organise and mobilise. Agency should not and must not rest with us. Agency must be with the people – the workers and the poor. Nothing less will do.

Our text for Tuesday, April 24th is the COSATU discussion document called “Possibilities for fundamental social change” (see link below). We meet at the SACP boardroom, 3rd floor, COSATU House, 1 Leyds Street at 17h00.

From Monday to Wednesday there is a COSATU extended CEC meeting taking place in Braamfontein to discuss the 13 documents of the ANC policy conference.

The Communist University programme has been revised to conform with the new arrangement of meeting on Tuesdays. See the link below.

Some people have been writing in the bourgeois press that Paul Wolfowitz’ crime of nepotism by arranging big pay rises for his girlfriend, Shaha Riza, was not so bad after all, and that he should be forgiven. Others say that he is guilty for Iraq and if he is wrongly sacked for what he did for Shaha, it is all to the good, and poetic justice. These apparently opposite views are both wrong. The fact is that the Shaha story is part and parcel of a general corruption, or web of generally corrupt relationships that surround Wolfowitz and all the other "neocon" cronies. The linked article from Counterpunch spells this out with facts and details.

The picture above is of Govan Mbeki, the President’s late father, who was a communist. He wrote the book "The Peasants' Revolt" and was a Rivonia Trialist.

Click on these links:

2006, COSATU, Possibilities for Fundamental Social Change (14712 words)

2007 Study Group Draft Programme, revised, with links (Table)

Wolfowitz Quid Pro Quo, Mekay and Lobe, Counterpunch (1316 words)