Constitutions, Courts, and Women

Iraq’s sovereignty has been destroyed by the US-led invasion and occupation, and the US cannot re-establish it on their own behalf or even for a puppet. See linked article for a description of the whole mess as it now is. Let nobody doubt the importance of retaining our national sovereignty, and respecting that of others. The nation-state will go one day, but war and weapons of war will have to go first. I received some furious feedback for writing that the Friends of JZ had the best reports of Jacob Zuma’s rape trial. Of course all the reports are biased, including those in the newspapers. None are objective, but the reports on the JZ site are credibly professional and extensive. They cover days 1 to 5 of the trial in full, unlike the newspapers. In that sense, they are the best. It is those who write who get published. The Friends of JZ have taken that advantage. They could have squandered it by working unprofessionally, but that is not what they have done. (See link for day 5). The testimony is upsetting. Jeremy Gordin does quite a good job of opening up the awful picture. See the linked article below called “Court of Horrors”. Neither side will like it much, but it deserves reflection. What emerges surely does not amount to rape of the complainant by Jacob Zuma. The trial should have been stopped when that became clear. It will be a mercy if it is stopped before Monday. It would also be nice to think that the complainant will be looked after. But by whom? Note Gordin’s final paragraph. The Communist University’s decision to programme discussions about women is fully vindicated. The part called “No Woman, No Revolution” (formerly “Women, for Women and Men”) has gone through five sessions so far and has another four to go, plus further relevant sessions later in the year. The Women’s Jail on Constitution Hill is where we meet, and in the same building, next Tuesday, March 14th at 18h00, there will be an event to reflect upon ten years of the current South African Constitution, which will be addressed by, among others, the Director of CALS, Prof. Cathi Albertyn. CALS is the organisation that recently helped overturn the municipal practice of evicting people on to the street without alternative accommodation. See linked notice. Also on Tuesday March 14th, but starting in the morning at 08h30, there will be an event on “Freedom of Expression in the Context of Religious Diversity” at the Human Rights Commission, 29 St Andrews Road, Parktown, Johannesburg. See also below for a timely warning from COSATU on pensions. Links: Iraq's Sovereignty Vacuum, Michael Schwartz, Tomdispatch (5606 words) Court of horrors, Jeremy Gordin, Saturday Star (851 words) Zuma Rape Trial Day 5, Friends of JZ (5264 words) Constitution Ten Years on Programme, Con Hill (Notice) COSATU, Pension Reform (279 words)

All Human Life

The Jacob Zuma rape trial is close to collapse. The best court reports have been the ones posted to the Friends of Jacob Zuma web site (see below, for a compilation up to Thursday). The Business Day says very little while the Star and the Mail & Guardian are mostly reporting what is happening outside the court. But yesterday’s Mail & Guardian front-page headline asked: “Jacob Zuma: can he claw back?” The corruption case has fallen apart because of President Mbeki’s admission that the crucial letter was his, not Zuma’s. Now the rape case is falling apart. Yet the Mail and Guardian still tries to suggest that Jacob Zuma is some kind of reptile (with claws) and the cartoonist Zapiro has returned to his vulgar cheap-and-ugly mode. The journalistic middle strata are neurotic. Meanwhile, let us honour our labour movement pundits, who are still too few in the mass media. These are the ones who write opinion pieces from a working-class perspective, such as COSATU’s economist Neva Makgetla and the unaffiliated freelance struggle veteran, Terry Bell. See links. The CU point of view is that if you don’t write, you can’t claim that you have been excluded from the media. Makgetla’s and Bell’s example shows that good writing in the working-class interest can and does get published even in the heart of the bourgeois press. First we must write, then try to get published, and then if we fail there are grounds for complaint. There are many ways to publish, including the CU itself. The Johannesburg District of the SACP’s Political Education sub-committee meets tomorrow morning, Sunday March 12th at 10h00 at the SAMWU office, Renaissance Centre, Gandhi Square. The topic to be discussed is “How to be a good Communist”, by Liu Shaoqi (linked below). These District sessions are designed for Political Education officers of branches, but all are welcome. Links: Zuma Rape Trial reports, Friends of JZ (11042 words) Value ANC successes without denying failures, Makgetla, B Day (726 words) Wrong idea of consensus steers Transnet machine, Bell, B Rep (807 words) 1939, Liu Shaoqi, How to be a good Communist, C1 (2546 words)

Facing the Future

The Communist University reconvenes this evening at 17h00 to discuss the chapter from Angela Davis’ Women, Race and Class on the Obsolescence of Housework. We meet at the Women’s Jail, 1 Kotze Street, Constitution Hill. We will need an opening from the floor tonight, because Pamela Masiko is unavoidably out of the country. There will be no CU session next Friday. We will resume on Friday, March 24th at the same time and place to discuss Jennie Bristow’s article on the Future of the Family (linked below). The two articles, about Bush and (humorously but seriously) Blair, are a good example of why bourgeois democracy is such a lie. These two no longer care what they say, because they know that the so-called “opposition” in the USA and in Britain is the same as they are, or worse. The electorate has no choice except to organise, not as “opposition” in the abstract, but instead as a class-conscious force for permanent, qualitative change. See links. The same applies to Zimbabwe. See the linked article, below. Further to yesterday’s material on the new Progressive Womens’ Movement Steering Committee, the Communist University is eager to receive all announcements. Today’s SACP statement stresses that this movement will only be viable if led by the working class. See linked statement below. COSATU’s initiative in calling a broad meeting on March 8th has generated the first concrete programme for the alleviation of the Cape electricity crisis. See linked historic document. This is the kind of action that gives meaning to the phrase “working-class-led”. Cdes Nzimande and Vavi, the General Secretaries of the two great working-class components of the alliance, the SACP and COSATU, will be addressing the political funeral of Cde Dan Mohapi, former COSATU activist and at the time of his death, Deputy Secretary of the SACP in Gauteng Province, as well as an ANC MPL. The Press are invited to this, the first such occasion in the post-election period. See link. Links: What Future for the Family, Bristow, 2004 (5747 words) Bush fantasies exposed again, Blumenthal, Guardian (644 words) I have lost faith in Blair - God, Guardian (707 words) Zimbabwe, ZCTU fully supports ZINASU. press release (435 words) SACP welcomes Progressive Womens Movement (248 words) COSATU leads in Western Cape electricity crisis (979 words) SACP and COSATU General Secretaries to address Mohapi funeral (155 words)

Women's Days

Yesterday, on International Women’s Day, a new Progressive Women’s Movement Steering Committee was launched in Sandton by “ministers, women in business, professional women, Faith Based Organisations and general civil orientated women's organisations”. The linked announcement appeared the day before on the ANC Women’s League site. We still await the press release from the Steering Committee launch, its composition, and the position paper that was supposed to be adopted. The actual PWM is proposed to be launched in five months’ time in August, presumably so as to coincide with South African Women’s Day. It will be instructive to find out why one mass movement (the ANC WL) feels that it is desirable to launch another one. Meanwhile the ICFTU announced from Brussels that their “Unions for Women, Women for Unions” campaign is to go into a second phase after a successful beginning. See linked. And the Global Campaign for Education, based in Johannesburg, has raised a particular campaign for parity in girls' and boys' enrolments to school. See linked Press Release. The rape trial of ANC Deputy President Jacob Zuma has proceeded through the third day of evidence from the complainant. Good reports of the proceedings can be found on the Friends of Jacob Zuma web site. Look under “Latest News”. Cde Zuma’s supporters are very optimistic. Meanwhile the mainstream media are reporting the behaviour of the crowds outside the court. Links: ANC Womens League on Progressive Womens Movement (311 words) ICFTU, Unions for Women, Women for Unions phase 2 (599 words) Global Campaign for Education, millions of girls still out of school (604 words)

Comrade Mohapi, Memorial and Funeral

The Memorial for Comrade Dan Mohapi takes place today from 14h00 to 18h00 at Kempton Park Civic Centre, Kempton Park. Comrade Mohapi’s funeral will take place on Friday, March 10th starting at 08h00 at Regina Mundi Church, Rockville, Soweto, and proceeding at 11h00 to the burial at Roodepoort Cemetary. More details can, if necessary, be obtained from Comrade Mhlekwa Nxumalo on 073 718 7552 . Comrades are requested to wear revolutionary insignia such as appropriate T-shirts, so that it is seen that we are burying a revolutionary, and in revolutionary style. At the time of his passing Comrade Dan was Deputy Secretary of the SACP Gauteng Provincial Executive Committee and an ANC Member of the Provincial Legislature. He had previously served the movement in many other positions for many years. For a fuller tribute, please click here.

Vox Populi, Vox Dei

Yesterday the work of the Swaziland Solidarity Network’s Lucky Lukhele, tirelessly preparing the ground for advances in the struggle for democracy and freedom in that country, was praised here. Today another SSN victory is reported (in alliance with COSATU). These organisations called on the two South African lawyers booked to prosecute in the Swazi Treason Trial, to withdraw, and they did. See link. Thami Xulu is coming home soon from London, bringing some London ideas with him. He gives us another original piece of writing, published for the first time on the CU. Linked. Thanks, comrade. The Communication Workers Union’s Mfanafuthi Sithebe is, naturally, a great communicator. Linked is his concise, text-book-like exposition of the position of the CWU vis-à-vis the employer, Telkom, as they go into a dispute situation. Read and learn! In Cape Town, COSATU is clearly leading a combined response to the Western Cape’s electricity crisis. See the linked call to a public meeting tomorrow at the Cape Town Convention Centre at 19h00, by COSATU’s experienced and respected Provincial Secretary, Tony Ehrenreich. The Student Sponsorship Programme (Umfundaze) offers bursaries to high-scoring primary school children so that they can be assisted at secondary school. The link is to a page where you can download the original forms. (Sent by a comrade). Links: SSN, COSATU on withdrawal of SA advocates from Treason Trial (498 words) Afraid of one-party rule, Thami Xulu in London (1019 words) CWU in dispute with Telkom, Mfanafuthi Sithebe (704 words) COSATU leads - CT electricity crisis public meeting, Ehrenreich (111 words) SSP Recruitment and Preliminary Application, 2007 (documents)

Shelter

Friday’s historic ruling by Judge Jajbhay in favour of residents who now can no longer be thrown out into the streets without alternative accommodation, needs to be publicised widely. At least it was on the front page of one newspaper yesterday. See link. The way activists can conscientise the public is well illustrates by the tireless work of SSN’s Lucky Lukhele. He hardly misses an opportunity to put his advocacy in front of the public in any medium, whether print or electronic. See his linked letter to Sunday’s City Press. The result is not immediate or automatic. It just becomes a lot more likely that mainstream articles, like that of the Star’s contributing editor, Nicole Fritz, will get space. See link. There are many other matters that will only be mentioned here today in brief. For example, there will be pickets against Swaziland today. And COSATU has called for the two South African lawyers hired by the Swazi prosecution authority (Els and Viviers) to refuse to prosecute the PUDEMO detainees and to turn back. There is a new Swaziland Solidarity Network site at http://swazisolidaritysa.wikispaces.com/ where all these Swazi-related things will start to appear. Contact ssnnetwork@gmail.com with your Swazi solidarity information for them to pass on. There will be a Zimbabwe site of this nature very soon. There is just too much material to be going out from one keyboard. A network of collaborative web sites is needed. More brief news: The Zuma rape trial is on. Transnet is trying to double-cross SATAWU and the other transport unions. The SACP congratulates the ANC on the election win, and rightly congratulates itself and COSATU for making the ANC win possible. COSATU congratulates the makers of the film “Tsotsi” for winning an “Oscar” in the USA as a “foreign” film. Finally, a notice from Cde Mazibuko Jara announcing a National Workshop of the ALARM Coalition, 24-26 April, in Johannesburg. See link. The struggle continues. Links: Illegal to evict Joburg squatters — judge, Benjamin, B Day (458 words) Unban political parties call is overdue, Lukhele, City Press (159 words) Swazi democracy hangs in precarious balance, Fritz, Star (692 words) ALARM National Workshop Jhb 24-26 April, Invite, Jara (1169 words)

Archives

The archives of the Communist University (completed yesterday) comprise the notices, press releases, communiqués and articles that have been circulated since the beginning of 2005. You can find the “Archives” link in the “Navigation” on the left of the CU web site, choose the month, and scroll through the days. Or use the very good “Search” facility that wikispaces provide at the top of every page. Uploading the archive has been a long job, but worthwhile. Among other good things, it has provided the source for the 3-6-9-12-Months Ago feature that you can now find on the home page. The work was pushed on by the manifest importance and usefulness of the material. For example, the so-called “Zuma Affair” takes on a different aspect when the passages are read together. Each time ANC Deputy President Cde Jacob Zuma has been handed a problem he has overcome it and emerged stronger than before. An example is the last period uploaded into the archive (June-July 2005), and there are other similar episodes. Today is the start of the rape case that has been brought against Cde. Zuma. Surely, if he is found guilty, it must be the end for him. There could be an appeal, but in general, a convicted rapist would not be supported in South Africa by any party or mass movement. That is unconscionable. But if the charges are found to be false, the question of conspiracy must arise with even greater force than before. Liesl Gerntholtz, writing in the hard-copy Labour Bulletin, argues that no woman would gratuitously put herself through the humiliations involved in making a rape accusation. This argument has some force, but it cuts both ways. It simply means that there must have been a powerful incentive, whether it was justice and restitution, or whether it was some other incentive. A rape is not like a fraud or a corruption case. There are not hundreds of documents to be gone through. The incident in question took place during a particular day. The witnesses will have to report simply and directly on what they know about that day. It is hard to imagine a protracted trial. Potentially, this is a moment of truth. The archive shows, however, that whenever Jacob Zuma has been within reach of such a moment of truth, his adversaries have managed to snatch it away. We may usefully consider what the “Zuma Affair” will amount to, if Zuma is convicted of rape. The Zuma Affair is bigger than Zuma. It has a significance that transcends Zuma the man. So, if Zuma is convicted will it create a moral certainty among his opponents and crush the morale of his supporters? Or might it actually lead to a more open political contradiction, to the disadvantage of the anti-Zumas? As the fox-hunting English like to point out: If you shoot the fox, the sport is over. You must return to reality. Which all goes to show that in the study of politics, it is not a case of either studying the classics or otherwise current problems. Rather it requires examination of history in the light of current examples, and vice versa. The Cubans have today presented us with a good example of how this can be done. It is the 3rd International Conference of their Institute of Philosophy, due to take place in Havana between the 3rd and the 6th of May, 2005. See link. Bearing in mind the overwhelming victory of the ANC, I hope that comrades who have taken the CU to task in the past for treating Ministers with too little respect, will not object to a little drollery at the expense of our Cde Minister Alec Erwin. See linked document, including Zapiro cartoon. Links: Karl Marx CXXI Cuba Event May 3 to 6, 2006 (1471 words) Mampara of the Week - Alec Erwin, Sunday Times (139 words)

Events and Contributions

Events of all kinds are being announced now that the political season is well and truly under way. Please let the Communist University know of your events as early as possible, by e-mail to dominic.tweedie@gmail.com . Events are listed near the top of the home page of the CU web site . They include today’s SACP Gauteng Provincial Council meeting, tomorrow’s Zuma Trial in Johannesburg, and Issa Shivji’s lecture at Wits University from 13h15 tomorrow. On Tuesday Shivji lectures in Pretoria from 09h00, and in the evening at 15h30 at Wits there will be an architecture seminar. Tuesday is also the day that the Swaziland Treason Trialists appear in court, and there is expected to be a response to that in the form of pickets of the Swazi consulates in South Africa. On Wednesday from 09h00 there will be the seminar of IFAS at Wits University. March 8th is also International Women’s Day. On March 18th there is an international day of action for peace, especially in Iraq, and on March 21st we celebrate Human Rights Day in South Africa. Apart from notices of events, the Communist University is proud to receive and publishes a fair amount of original writing. It was nice to receive the following encouraging words from Ebrahim-Khalil Hassen, whose article on why we should vote was published here the night before the election: “An interesting exercise for me to circulate an article via email, rather than newspapers. The feedback was absolutely amazing, and positive.” Today we carry three more originals. The first is from Cheche Selepe, responding to Ebrahim, and also to Joel Netshtenzhe’s contribution in “Umsebenzi Online”, and to the centenaries of the Bambatha Rebellion and the transubstantiation of M K Gandhi. See link below. The second is a new poem from Ron Press, to mark International Women’s Day, which is next Wednesday, March 8th. See link. The third, called “First Visit…” is from yudac mthembu, sent as a reply to our group. Note that when people reply direct to these group messages they come to the CU and do not go out to the other members. (An alternative is the “comment “ facility on the blog at http://domza.net/ ). In this case I am going to link Cde. Mthembu’s short and lively message. In my excitement on Friday morning and because of an inaccuracy on The Star newspaper I made the mistake of reporting that Ward 82 is next to my own Ward 81. In fact it is Bosmont, to the West of Johannesburg, whereas Ward 81 is Lombardy East, in the North-Eastern suburbs. Both were won by the ANC from the DA in the local authority elections. So was another ward in Eldorado Park in the South. Here’s one more thing to get excited about – a great victory for Stuart Wilson and his colleagues at CALS. The City of Johannesburg has to find alternative accommodation for people it plans to evict from its "bad buildings", the Johannesburg High Court ruled on Friday. See the linked story and appreciate the enormous scope of this legal victory for the poor people of South Africa. Links: Election Religion, Bambatha and Gandhi, Cheche Selepe (2550 words) Enlightening Comparisons for International Women's Day, Press (poem) First visit, yudac mthembu (319 words) Alternatives must be found before eviction, IOL (307 words)

New Start

Overall the ANC got more than 70% of the vote in the March 1st Local Government Elections. In Johannesburg the ANC got more than 62% of the vote, and won 75 wards and 61 Proportional Representation seats, a total of 136 out of 217. News24 gives a good short summary of the overall position, linked below. Full results can be got from the IEC web site. COSATU’s statement on the election results is also linked below. Comrade Dan Mohapi was the Deputy Secretary of the SACP Gauteng Province. He very regrettably passed away on February 28th, on the eve of the election. Cde. Dan served the three main alliance structures in many capacities and at the time of his death was an ANC Member of the Gauteng Provincial Legislature and Chairperson of the Portfolio Committee on Public Transport, Roads and Works. Linked below is a fuller tribute to the late Cde Mohapi from the African National Congress. The reason given for the postponement of the SATAWU strike in their dispute with Transnet is that workers would be inhibited from taking part because of the trial of Cde Jacob Zuma due to start on Monday, March 6th. The strike is now scheduled for March 13th. A meeting with minister Alec Irwin will take place on March 9th. See linked document below. Links: ANC strengthened nationwide, Pressly, News24 (415 words) COSATU statement on local government elections (824 words) ANC Gauteng Province tribute to Cde Dan Mohapi (540 words) SATAWU, Transnet strike postponed (398 words)

Political Education Does It Again

The ANC’s Onica Mashego Branch took Johannesburg’s Ward 81 from the DA. The newly-elected councillor is Cde. Meisie Modiba. Another ward won from the DA (82) is adjacent to our ward, and a third ward was won from the IFP nearby in Alexandra. Viva Political Education, Viva! 18th March is the international day of demonstrations for peace, being the 3rd anniversary of the US-British-Danish invasion and occupation of Iraq. The SACP has called for organisation and the general public to join the Party in Library Gardens at 10h00 on that day, for a rally and multi-media event to show our solidarity with the occupied Iraqi people, against Imperialism and war, and for our own people’s definition of Human Rights. See this notice for details. The latest Umsenzi Online is a classic, not only for the vivid lines written by Cde. Blade Nzimande, the SACP’s General Secretary, describing an extraordinary South African electoral journey of tragedy, endurance and eventual (as we now know) triumph, but also for the inclusion of debate from our ANC comrade and member of its NEC, Joel Netshitenzhe, and from our YCL comrade and National Chairman of that organisation, David Masondo. See link below. Thanks to our Cuban comrades, we have a further report (not seen elsewhere) on the gyrations of the bull-in-a-china-shop US embassy to the United Nations, headed by the crazed John Bolton, in relation to the new UN Human Rights Council. See link. The Communist University meets tonight in the Women’s Jail, 1 Kotze Street, Constitution Hill, at 17h00, for a discussion on Liesl Orr’s “Socialism and Gender Equality”, which will be opened by Tanya van Meelis. Please be on time, comrades. Next week’s text is the chapter on Obsolescence of Housework from Angela Davis’ “Women Race and Class”. See link below. Zimbabwe deported the well-known writer and activist Pat Horn the night before last. See the linked COSATU - ZCTU combined Press Release linked below for the details. Max du Preez, a natural-born man of the cloth who has so far missed his true calling, believes that Allan Boesak was “iced out” and should not have gone to jail. He may be right on both counts, but he is wacky when it comes to saying that Boesak could have “pulled a Zuma”. (See link).The difference between Boesak and Zuma is the difference between abstract charisma and concrete politics. What political path does du Preez think Boesak would have taken? He doesn’t think, and he doesn’t say. Liberation theology has to go a lot further than Boesak ever went before it can start leading whole secular countries. Even so, it would be lovely to have du Preez, Boesak, Bishop Tutu, Cedric Mayson and all the other old faithfuls with us on March 18th for our Peace Rally. Links: Umsebenzi Online, Nzimande, Netshitenzhe, Masondo (5199 words) Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Cuba on UN Human Rights Council (2003 words) Women Race and Class, Obsolescence of Housework, Davis, 1981 (7009 words) COSATU condemns Zimbabwe deportation of Pat Horn (524 words) Boesak was iced out, Max du Preez, The Star (874 words)

Human Rights

Our Human Rights Day is on March 21st. Will there be plain truths spoken on that day, or only platitudes? The principle violator of human rights in the world is the USA. Consequently, the USA uses the “Big Lie” technique, loudly accusing others in a bullying tone, of the very crimes they are themselves committing all the time. Now, linked below in an interview between US writers Tom Engelhardt and Mark Danner, we have a picture drawn from inside the USA. They describe the general deterioration of their country towards even more atrocious, arbitrary, coercive violence. Issa Shivji is a great anti-Imperialist veteran of Dar-es-Salaam University and a living link with the likes of Walter Rodney and Mwalimu Julius Nyerere. In a 2003 text long used by the CU Shivji wrote: “The independence and liberation struggles for self-determination, beginning in the post-world war period, were eminently a struggle for democracy”. He meant that the struggle for democracy is ours (as is the struggle for human rights). The Imperialists have nothing at all to teach us about democracy (or human rights). Shivji is coming to South Africa and will speak at Wits on March 6th. On the 7th he will speak in Pretoria on “National Autonomous Development”, which sounds like a long name for the good old idea of “Independence” (in Kiswahili: Uhuru!). See link. All such ideas are contested in a class-divided society. IFAS is the Institut Francais d’Afrique du Sud (French Institute for South Africa). Are the French also Imperialists? Well, yes, frankly, they are. And like the US Imperialists, they want to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds. They are sponsoring an event on a topic (“effective states”) not far removed from Shivji’s. In 2005 we used to have a “combat team” of Communist debaters. It’s time they got back to work. See link below. I don’t know if the Johannesburg YCL met yesterday to study Martin Luther King’s “Beyond Vietnam” speech as scheduled. According to the same schedule, they should assemble at the SATAWU offices, 13th floor, 29 Kerk Street, between Harrison and Loveday, next Wednesday, March 8th at about 17h00, to discuss Engels’ “Socialism, Utopian and Scientific” – linked below. Links: State of Exception, Mark Danner, Tomdispatch Interview (7011 words) IERI Shivji invite, National Autonomous Development, Pretoria Mar 7, 09h00 (PDF) IFAS, Building Effective States, 09h00 Mar 8, Wits (Notice) Engels, Socialism Utopian & Scientific, Compilation (16, 229 words)