Bonapartisms

It’s hard to believe that 16 years after the unbanning of the South African Communist Party to worldwide acclaim, the equivalent of our Young Communist League could be banned in the Czech Republic. Yet this seems to be the case. Thanks to James Tweedie of the London District YCL for bringing it to our attention. In a different kind of fantasy, the ideas of Hernando de Soto seem to feed into the vague, eclectic mix associated with the promotion of our new Deputy President. Ann Crotty points out some of the weaknesses (see below). In a more extreme kind of Bonapartism, the King of Nepal has failed in an attempt to legitimise his coup d’etat by holding local authority elections under absurd and tragic conditions of repression. The Nepalese people rejected this phoney sham of democracy. Links: Czech Communist Youth Movement banning, YCLB (270 words) Open Letter to Czech Ambassador from YCL London District (167 words) Why poor get poorer according to de Soto and P M-N, B Rep (864 words) Mass boycott of Nepal elections hits king, FT (474 words)

Comments

I somehow temporarily disabled the comments facility for the last two posts. So here is (if it works) a free section for any topics in the previous or any other matters.

National

A press conference of the Friends of Jacob Zuma Trust will take place this evening at 16h00 at the Booysens Hotel. The event formerly scheduled for Saturday will not now take place. Mobilisation will rather take place around JZ's court appearance at the High Court in Pritchard Street, Johannesburg on Monday. Khutsong, Moutse and Johannesburg are full of protest – see reports below. Ann Crotty’s article reminds us of the root cause of our problems, namely the machinations of monopoly capital. See below. It looks like things are hotting up. Let’s hope the old “combat team” of flying debaters will turn out for the SAIIA event (linked). Links: Battle lines drawn in Khutsong and Moutse, Seale, Star (246 words) Squatters take Jhb to court over evictions, Business Day (564 words) Zuma roundup, case and song, Star and Business Day (1300 words) Competition court muddies water, Crotty, Business Report (1163 words) SAIIA, Feb 14, Liberation, Governments and Democracy (517 words)

International

The YCL Johannesburg Central Branch Marxist Classes continue this afternoon with Marx’s Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right. The session is at SATAWU offices, 13th floor, Old Mutual Building, 29 Kerk Street, between Loveday and Harrison. Next Wednesday’s session at the same time and place will be on “The Attitude of the Worker’s Party to Religion” by Lenin (see below). This was planned a long time ago but turns out to be very topical in relation to the “cartoon” row. Two articles on the Cuban Five and the general campaign against US-sponsored terrorism against Cuba. Comrades, for our own sakes we need to step up our activities in support of our heroic Cuban comrades. We also owe it to them. And, not least, we love them. Haiti is reported in our own press as being about to vote for the progressive candidate and against the gangsters. We may see five more like this in the near future: Costa Rica, Peru, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Mexico. Simon Jenkins is a “Tory”, but in my opinion he has made a very good contribution to the extraordinary worldwide debate on the anti-Muslim cartoons that were published in a Danish paper. Links: Lenin, Attitude of the Worker's Party to Religion (4419 words) Amnesty International on The Cuban Five, Granma (592 words) Cuba crusade against murderer Bush, Star (396 words) Aristide ally set to win Haitian vote, Business Day (438 words) These cartoons threaten, not defend, Simon Jenkins (1407 words)

Zuma's Back!

I made a mistake last Saturday morning. I complained of late notice for meetings. One of these was a book-launch that is in fact due to take place next Saturday, February 11th, at the Workers’ Library at 13h30. Please see the first linked item below for more details. I apologise to Mazibuko Jara who was kind enough to point out my error, and to the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation. The SACP has once again made its support for the ANC in this election very clear – see below. The Friends of Jacob Zuma Trust Fund is having a public meeting in support of Comrade JZ, also on Saturday the 11th, at Kwa maNxumalo, Meadowlands Zone 4, at 10h00. Comrade JZ’s next trial begins on Monday, at the Johannesburg High Court in Pritchard Street. COSATU is planning rolling mass action against the SABC for banning “Zuma’s song”, by Izingane Zoma, from the airwaves (see below). The last two linked documents continue our short series of sampling from the liberal and semi-detached commentariat of the South African press. In this case we have Business Day’s dynamic duo of Brown and Mde on the succession, and Professor Susan Booysen from the Star, on the de facto democracy of the street in South Africa. There is to be a People’s Budget Briefing in COSATU House at 10h30 on Wednesday, February 8th, and a Public Lecture at SAIIA at 13h00 on Tuesday, February 14th. Links: NEPAD & SA imperialism book launch - 11 Feb 2006 (205 words) SACP throws support behind ANC, Phasiwe, Business Day (260 words) SABC ban of Zuma's song by Izangane Zoma, COSATU KZN (463 words) Succession plan may have empty throne. Brown, Mde, B Day (739 words) Democracy not from votes alone, Susan Booysen, Star (1102 words)

Who's talking?

The blogger Xymphora calls it “the cartoon conundrum” and it seems to me that he and my other fellow-blogger and good e-friend Helena Cobban have nailed the Danish cartoon provocation question fairly well (see linked document below). Which leads to wider thoughts about public debate. For example, the communists and the organised working class in South Africa are admirably quick to comment on any question affecting them. They are experienced enough to know that opportunities for comment must be taken without delay and that second chances are hard to come by in the bourgeois market place. But what are the others saying? What are liberals and those semi-detached intellectuals who have the privilege of the public prints grappling with, if anything? Here, linked below, are a mixed but representative bag of three pieces of writing from the South African bourgeois Sunday papers on the election, the succession, and the arms deal fallout. And what does it amount to? In my opinion, it shows for one thing at least, that the persecution and suppression of Jacob Zuma has not succeeded and will not succeed in altering the fundamental contradictions within the South African polity at this time. Links: Xymphora and Helena Cobban on the cartoons (609 words) Voters are being hoodwinked, Khathu Mamaila, City Press (743 words) Mistake to keep succession under wraps, Gumede, Sindy (718 words) Manuel must account for arms deal, Crawford-Browne, B Rep (530 words)

Classic Party-Building University

Today at 10h00 the Johannesburg District Political Education Sub-Committee meets in open session in the SAMWU offices, 9th Floor, Renaissance Centre, Gandhi Square. It will discuss the second part of the Communist Manifesto, called Proletarians and Communists. These sessions are designed first and foremost for the Political Education officers of the branches of Johannesburg District. But all are welcome to attend and contribute to the dialogue.The District programme is made up of basic communist texts plus the papers given in the monthly series of the Gauteng Province. The next session of the District programme will be on February 26th, 2006, at the same time and venue. The topic will be Transformative Trade Unionism, by Comrade Langa Zita. If we are not able to get that text on time, we will move straight to the next topic in the series, which is “How to be a Good Communist”, by Liu Shaoqi. Linked below are the latest in our occasional “Revolutionary Classics” series, plus a cheerful party-building document from Vietnam’s equivalent to our Young Communist League, which is the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union. All this material is held on the Communist University web site. These daily messages are initiated at the Communist University blog where you are more than welcome to make your comments. Links: 1880, Engels, Socialism, Utopian and Scientific 3, Historical Materialism (7962 words) Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, strong party builder (444 words)

State of the Nation, State of the World

It’s a strange thing to get invited to an ANC BGM in the middle of an election campaign (when such activity is supposed to be suspended) by e-mail on the morning of the event. It’s a strange thing to be invited to a book launch funded by the Rosa Luxemburg Foundation, at the Workers’ Library, featuring the Deputy National Secretary of the YCL, less than 24 hours before the event. Both these strange things happened to me this week. A person with a suspicious mind might assume that such events are for a particular group of insiders (who have been given good notice). And that the public announcement at the last minute is only done to forestall the accusation of factional or sectarian behaviour. But perhaps that assumption is wrong. Perhaps it is simply incompetence. So let’s just move on to more important matters.

(Comments on these messages are welcome, by the way, at http://domza.net/ ). President Mbeki’s State of the Nation Address is not the announcement of a Five Year Plan like India, China and the Soviet Union would have, but it is good in parts. See the three linked critiques below. Peace is the common cause of all humanity and the forces for peace include great writers like the Quaker, Helena Cobban and the libertarian, Justin Raimondo. The warmongers will be seen off if we unite. Don’t forget the international days of action for peace on the 3rd anniversary of the US/British invasion of Iraq: 18th and 19th March, 2006. Links: SACP on 2006 State of the Nation Address by President Mbeki (522 words) COSATU on the 2006 State of the Nation Speech (1276 words) SACTWU Comment on 2006 State of the Nation Address (755 words) Just a question, Helena Cobban, Just World News (376 words) A Treasonous Camarilla , Justin Raimondo, Antiwar dot com (1610 words)

No Hiding It

The Communist University meets tonight in the Women’s Jail, 1 Kotze Street, Constitution Hill, at 17h00 to discuss Lenin’s writings on the “Women’s Question” of 1919 and 1920, circulated last week. Next week, on Friday, February 10th, at the same date and time, the CU will discuss Clara Zetkin’s interview with and recollections of Lenin’s views on women and revolution (text linked below). The SACP has issued its independent statement on the local elections in the form of Umsebenzi Online (linked below). The SACP has also issued a statement on the Transnet workers’ successful strike, linked below together with reports on the strike from the two major South African financial daily papers. There is no way to hide the effect of this well-organised action. Links: Power to the People, Vote ANC, SACP election statement (2270 words) SACP statement in support of Transnet workers (453 words) Fleet of waiting vessels tells a story, B Day (740 words) Union calls for disrespectful Ramos to resign, B Rep (534 words) Zetkin, 1920, Lenin on the Women's Question (6207 words)

Bourgeois and Proletarians

What is the mass base of South African National Civic Organisation (SANCO) these days? SANCO President Mlungisi Hlongwane looks as if he is personally heading for the ranks of the bourgeoisie (see linked article). Meanwhile, among the ranks of the proletarians, white and black make common proletarian cause (see linked article re CWU and Solidarity). On Sunday, at 10h00 on February 5th, in the SAMWU offices, 9th floor, Renaissance Building, Gandhi Square, the Johannesburg District of the Communist Party’s Political Education sub-committee will hold its second education session of the year around the topic of the second part of Marx’s “Communist Manifesto” of 1848, called “Proletarians and Communists”. All are welcome. The next session of this sub-committee will be on Sunday, February 26th, when we will discuss Comrade Langa Zita’s forthcoming paper, “Transformative Trade Unionism”. At the next session after that we will discuss Liu Shaoqi’s “How to be a Good Communist” (linked). Ann Crotty and Anton Harber in coincidental articles from South Africa’s two main business daily papers yesterday reflected on aspects of the bourgeois media in an instructive way (linked). The ceremony marking the re-naming of the former Harrow Road as Joe Slovo Drive will take place on Friday, 10th February, 2006 at the Yeoville Recreation Centre from 10h00 onwards. It is a working day, but as far as possible, we must urge Communist cadres to the front. The event is organised and hosted by the Johannesburg Metro Council. Buses will collect people from the surrounding area from 09h00. Links: SANCO boss in R439m Vukile property deal, Business Day (497 words) Coalition between CWU and Solidarity, Press Conference (114 words) Media groups look after money first, Crotty, Brep (830 words) New medium, same test for journalism, Harber, B Day (756 words) 1939, Liu Shaoqi, How to be a good Communist, C1 (2546 words)

Big Movement, Two

The YCL will march in Moutse, on some day soon – they don’t say, but they do give a phone number (see linked notice). The Johannesburg Central YCL meets tonight to discuss Caudwell’s “Liberty” (SATAWU offices, 29 Kerk Street, between Loveday and Harrison). Their next week’s session is on Marx’s Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right, which includes Marx’s famous remarks about the “opium of the masses” and the “heart of a heartless world” (linked) The two-term, three-term row started by SANCO is well and truly jumped on by COSATU, SACP, and the ANCYL (see linked articles). The (linked) report from the Zim Independent is very instructive about that country at this moment, and about politics in general. Thanks to the Zimbabwean comrade who sent it to me. Links: YCL Free Education march in Moutse (190 words) SACP on two terms presidency (226 words) Cosatu, SACP, ANCYL reject third term, B Day and Star (935 words) Grow up Chamisa, Zimbabwe Independent (1068 words) Introduction to Criticism of Hegel Philosophy of Right, Marx, 1844 (5605 words)

Big Movement, One

We have a big movement and we must take terrible losses as well as gains, without breaking our stride. Such a loss is that of Comrade Juda Tsotetsi, SACP Provincial Secretary of Mpumalanga. See the linked satement of the SACP – the first of many expressions of grief on the loss of this famous young comrade. The four-union combined strike against privatisation at Transnet is well supported. It is an example of the ability of the South African working class to organise and mobilise and project its case. The CWU position on pirate radio .is carefully explained in their linked message. This, too is a stand against privatisation of a finite national resource. Links: SACP on the passing of Comrade Juda Tsotetsi (369 words) COSATU backs Transnet workers (550 words) Union rates Transnet strike a success, plus 2, B Report (1502 words) CWU open letter to illegal broadcasters (677 words)