Cde Mduduzi
I wasn't so sure about your meaning of "ideologically grounded" and I avoided
discussing it loosely. Who is really certain about their ideology, their
worldview and the conclusive interpretation of their standpoint? As people
grapple with the constant changes in their social environment and they respond
to the dominant ideas of the day, they themselves experience a challenge to
their assumed positions and they take different paths from that which is
expected of them. Ideology is often associatied with a movement or particular
thinkers who champion that idea.
Pan Africanism, for instance, is a much wider philosophy and it accommodates
African perspectives from a political, religious, economical and cultural
angle. Its common thread is to oppose colonialism, racism, ethnic chauvinism
and tribalism, imperialism and capitalism as an economic system that
concentrates wealth in the hands of a few. It sees Africa as a collective
whole including those in the diaspora, and views the neo-colonial patchwork of
borders as a western imposition. The common focus point is determined by what
is crucial at a particular stage. There are positions which are regarded as
conservative or liberal or revolutionary or whatnot. These are the various
influences that powerful individuals bring with them to Pan Africanism. They
sometimes betray or advance the basic principles of Pan Africanism.
In Marxist philosophy however there are two contending ideologies: bourgeois or
proletarian, capital or labour. Class struggle is the bulwark to drive
revolutionary change and to benefit the majority. The universal laws of social
development are utilised to described the formation of a given society and to
analyse its economic base and its political infrastructure. In this way the
dominant ideas are those of the ruling class because they set the pace and tone
for any medium of instruction be it in schools, churches, mass media and
tertiary institutions. Those who are not politically conscious imbibe these
ideas and take them as their own. The ruling class dominates key sectors such
as commerce and trade, the judiciary, the army and security structures, etc. to
enforce their ideologies (worldview) on others.
The alternative for the people is to have a vanguard revolutionary party that
will promote their collective interests. It is also possible to do this
through revolutionary intellectuals who consciously elect to serve the
interests of the masses. They must have a resonance with the masses, and when
the party of the revolutionary thinkers speak the people must say this is us:
they are saying what we feel and know. The party and the individuals cannot
divorce themselves from the masses and they cannot accommodate tendencies that
drifts apart from the masses.
I cannot say with certainty that Henry Isaacs was ideologically grounded
because he has conducted himself in a questionable manner when it comes to
working with the collective in the PAC leadership, and his agenda was to
sabotage the collective good of the struggle for his own personal interests.
In the collective there are various approaches and the emphasis may not
necessarily be of one's liking at a given time, but society is in constant flux
and if we endure and persevere we will have our say understood.
Jaki Seroke
PS. Your analysis of the crisis of rising food prices and the predicament of
the political leadership is the SADC region is spot on. These are the issues
we should discuss in the PAC branches and in formations such as PAYCO, PASMA,
PAWO and even APLAMVA.
Subject: [PAYCO]
Date: Mon, 6 Sep 2010 19:25:23 +0200
From: [email protected]
To: [email protected]
Hi Jaki
Did you meet Henry Issacks in exile, was he ideologically grounded ?
Regards
Mduduzi Sibeko
[email protected]
www.randwater.co.za
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