Bra Mdu Sibeko My communication to you on the subject of Khondlo's critical evaluation of the SACP had several embarrassing gremlins, including the total excision from my email of discussing his take on the concept of a revolutionary vanguard.
The revolution in Iran was led and guided by the Islamic teachings of the Ayatollah Khomeini, who was in exile in France. The underground distributed to the masses regular recorded programmes on his speeches in VHS and Betamax. So for me it is difficult to understand the analogy to point out a revolution without its vanguard using Iran. Even in a reactionary western-centred scenario, CIA agents invariably use local representatives and provide an agenda of linked activities to overthrow progressive governments such as in Chile in 1972 for example. The reactionary vanguard is basically the CIA. The local SACP currently has no parenting structure, such as the Comintern or the Soviet communists. They are shorn off any guiding influence and are incapable of thought leadership because they were controlled from Moscow all along. They couldn't have been a true vanguard anyway. Mao Zedong on the other hand broke ranks with Moscow's controlling hand in the Sino-Soviet debacle, and crafted the revolution based on an assessment of the objective conditions in China. I believe a vanguard is the guiding force with a strategic plan to stimulate and sustain a programme of action. Spontaneity in a mass uprising on its own seldom wins and if so it is easily dismembered. The opaque leadership issues in the Spring Revolution in Egypt is currently very problematic and could cause a follow up uprising. They left a leadership vacuum to be filled by the military council - which supported Hosni Mubarak all along. Inyawo lemfene, as they say in isiZulu, is in charge (read, vanguard) in the so-called Arab Spring revolution. We could probably hold long debates and enlightening discussions with the likes of Dr Kwandiwe Khondlo. Interesting presentation indeed. Jaki Sent via my BlackBerry from Vodacom - let your email find you! -----Original Message----- From: Jaki Seroke <sero...@hotmail.com> Date: Fri, 18 May 2012 12:08:25 To: <payco@googlegroups.com> Subject: [PAYCO] PROF KWANDIWE KONDLO ON SACP Comrades Sibeko and Xaba Kwandile Kondlo's inaugural lecture at the University of the Free State is highly significant, including his choice of topic - 'At the Point of a Needle : The SACP and the dilemma of the National Democratic Revolution in SA, 1994 to date'. Many local academics have chosen to treat the SACP with kid gloves. For Kondlo to have launched the UFS's Centre of African Studies with this confrontational approach is very significant. Traditional left academics have had an overbearing hegemony over critical reflections of the struggle and the evaluation of its advocates, and they have systematically sidelined anyone whom they consider a threat by denying them senior posts and top jobs or even space to do research in the institutions of higher learning that they control. It is not just subliminal - it is intentional. I read that Baruch Hirson, a scholar and African Resistance Movement leader, who lectured at Wits in the before going into exile after serving a prison term, was ignored and denied a visiting lectureship at his alma mater - Wits university - post 1994, when he came back sick with cancer and needing to offer different struggle history perspectives from that of the SACP. There was also the highly publicised saga of William Makgoba and the 'esoteric enquiry' into his embellished curriculum vitae. Knowledge is power - and they deny access to knowledge deliberately. Truly, there is a dearth of political theorists to advance thought leadership in the interpretation of modern issues. This affect all the liberation movements. The SACP is worse off. Kondlo draws its weaknesses on its formation and the blundered and confusion it went on to create to date. For the SACP you could be a communist simply by wearing red socks, as Sam Shilowa used to do aping Joe Slovo, and even ironically by donning the complete uniform of the ZCC. For the SACP it has historically represented the interests of the Soviets, and when their backers crumbled they shifted to pose as representatives of the Beijing communists without rhyme or reason Their current leadership are exposed as political demagogues and ideologically bankrupt. That is why they have frequent clashes with the leadership of COSATU on basic tactical matters. Their close association with the conservative traditional leadership of JZ (Jeremy Cronin backed the excessive commercialism of the e-tolls) spells out that the SACP is a spineless jelly fish. Chris Hani did not hesitate to criticise Mandela on his unilateral decisions, even though he was himself later tamed. Kondlo highlights 'heteronomy' as a concentrated pragmatism in politics, less on thinking and more on doing, within the parametres of liberal democracy. He says this the political predicate of SA today. I venture to say the SACP created that environment through 'sufficient consensus' and 'sunset clause' concepts at the CODESA negotiating forums. To decode the heteronomy phrase, it is the practise of neo-liberal politics fraught with self-interest, corruption and revisionism - a betrayal of the common good. It has been imposed by the conditionalities of the IMF and World Bank in emerging economies. A classic case study would be the decline of ZANU(PF) after they agreed to implement the loan agreements with the IMF. Leading ZANU(PF) members threw out any sense of history, social morality, ethics, revolutionary ideology and justice. They made whoopee with state resources for personal gain and self-enrichment, and gave rise to the MDC. Watch a similar phenomenon unwittingly engineered by the ANC government to give rise to the DA. Jeremy Cronin, deputy SG of the SACP, drafted the national democratic struggle concept for the UDF in the eighties. It worked and allowed for mass struggles to coordinate towards the centre controlled by the charterists. It however did not require the leadership to overcome the imposed mentality of waging a struggle with colonial blinkers. All they needed to do is to remove apartheid policies and have a good government. It did not address the national question - the issue of returning land to the original owners and the reconstruction of a new democratic nation. They jumped with glee for power sharing with the colonial settlers. How is it possible to advance the two stage revolution when the first one is built on quicksand? Kondlo addresses this point - the National Democratic Revolution - as a falsehood poorly advocated by the SACP. I suggest you study the document, Comrade Sibeko. Maybe at some point we should invite Prof Kondlo to lead a discussion forum on these concepts and to elaborate on his ideas regarding thought leadership in southern Africa, in the context of a global phenomenon and a new world order. Jaki Date: Tue, 8 May 2012 21:56:25 +0200 Subject: Re: [PAYCO] From: sbusiso.x...@gmail.com To: payco@googlegroups.com Dear Comrade Dr. Khondlo is a real intellectual. He does not fear to kill holy cows. I think he has captured crisis of SACP extremely well. I was fascinated by: 1. His practical definition of SACP as liberal party. 2. His attack of vanguard party concept. 3. His criticism of two stage theory poor definition of separation of stages and time-frame. 4. Three element that will bring about the revolution (similar to Iranian model). I am keen on further reading on "organic approach" vs. "central planning or commandist approach". I do not agree with pity falls presented on lecture. On 4 May 2012 09:43, Mduduzi Sibeko <msib...@randwater.co.za <mailto:msib...@randwater.co.za> > wrote: Cde Seroke: If you have time, lets analyze this document. I haven't read it yet kind regards Mduduzi Sibeko Admin/finance cid:image002.jpg@01CA5626.C30DADC0 T +27-11-724-9281 C +27-71-101-2595 F +27-11-900-1929 F 086-754-2176 E msib...@randwater.co.za <mailto:msib...@randwater.co.za> www.randwater.co.za <http://www.randwater.co.za> This email and any accompanying attachments may contain confidential and proprietary information. 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