H.E. Pres. Mbeki, Hon. Member of Parliament, Mr. Pheko,
You two distinguished gentlemen are in a unique position to lead the world and Africa out of a crisis that threatens to devastate human civilization. All of conscious Africa would follow the lead of a patriotic front of ANC and PAC in matters of African Integration and the enhancement of the African Union's capabilities to meet the lofty goals it has set for itself starting with the Abuja Treaty.
Dr. Kwame Nkrumah, and others, have taught us that history is our best teacher. If I might digress for a moment, I would like to look at a little bit of the 20th century history of the African liberation struggle, and efforts to unite the Continent:
The martyred Prime Minister of the Congo, Patrice Lumumba, made the following observation
"...we do not want these ancestral traditions to remain fixed in their archaic mold, but on the other hand we do not want a slavish copy of European civilization. What we want is to improve and perfect our own culture by adding to it certain elements of European civilization." Conference donnee le 13 Avril 1958 aux membres de la Federation des Batetela par Monsieur Lumumba, Conseiller Permanent
The issue that is before us then is how does one achieve the goals and objective laid out by ancestor Lumumba. Here the experience of the CPP in Ghana and the PDG in Guinea are instructive in this matter, as the two parties were the cutting edge in the development of mass participation political organizations and movements.
As Osagyefo observed:
"...I have often said, the party and the nation are one and the same, namely: the Convention People's Party is Ghana and is Ghana the Convention People's Party."
"...a very grave responsibility lies on the shoulders of us all, not only as Ghanaians, but also as members of the Convention People's Party which, no matter what may be said by our detractors, remains right in front of the struggle for the total liberation of Africa and the union of the independent African states"
"the Convention People's Party must mobilize our total manpower for the industrial, economic, technological and scientific reconstruction of Ghana, so that we can produce the necessary conditions which shall mean an abundance of every good thing for our people and the greatest welfare of the masses" The CPP Twelfth Anniversary: A Message by Osagyefo 1961 (Accra, Ghana Government Printer)
Nkrumah was very clear on the role of the Party in the people's liberation:
"Party is the rallying point of our political activity. Without the Party there would be no force through which to focus the needs and desire of the people. The Convention People's Party is this force. The Party, therefore, is the hard core of those who are so dedicated to its ideology and program, that they make their membership the most serious business of their lives. The Party is nothing but the vanguard of the people, the active organ of the people, working at all times in the service of the people.:
Speech at the conclusion of the Civil Service Commission Referendum, Evening News, Feb 4, 1964
The PDG likewise approached the problems confronting African people as requiring the establishment of true democracy within an African framework; they held that the fundamental aspects were the establishment of
Government by the people and for the people;
equality of women;
the full decolonization of Guinea;
democratization of public agencies;
independence and unity for Guinea and all Africa;
assertion of African personality.
Just as the CPP, the PDG knew that these lofty goals could not be achieved without the correct party structure and environment, that is there must be circumstances conducive to REAL mass participation:
"Party leaders are directly and democratically chosen by the supporters, who all enjoy full liberty of conscience and of _expression_ within the Party;"
"The affairs of the State of Guinea are the affairs of all the citizens of Guinea. The programme of the Party is democratically discussed. As long as no decision has been made, each is free to say what he thinks or what he wishes. But when, after extensive discussions in congress or in assembly, a decision has been arrived at by an unanimous vote or by a majority, the supporters and leaders are bound to apply it correctly."
"The responsibility for leadership is not shared. Only the responsibility for a decision is shared. Thus, no breach of discipline can be permitted." Les Principes du Centralisme democratique, L'Action politique du Parti Democratique de Guinee pour l'emancipation africane, III, pp 454-5 -- English version taken from Toward Full Re-Africanisation: Policy and Principles of the Guinea Democratic Party p. 91
To that end the PDG, as did the CPP, sought to enlist the elements the intelligentsia committed to the peoples' interest and aspirations, as Seku Ture stated "the educated Guinean is actively caught up in a project he regards as historically momentous the creation of a modern African state."
Today we find Africa is once again at a crucial turning point. Many of the leaders are opting for closer integration into the various imperialist military camps; the national police agencies are growing ever more subservient to the US FBI, and are pursuing a path leading to their domination by Interpol; the dominant interpretation of NEPAD and development generally boils down to approaching the capitalist states as a supplicant for handouts -- handouts that will never be forthcoming by the way. A look at the aid packages, the farm subsidy issue and related matters makes this abundantly clear to any objective analyst.
Africa must wake up and unite for the times we live in our very, very dangerous. Military adventures are rapidly superseding other forms of political-economic domination, and unilateralism has completely eclipsed any semblance of multilateralism in world affairs.
Just recently, H.E. Robert Mugabe, the new Vice Chair (Southern Region) of the AU made the following observations, I quote from two sources (Jana and Reuters):
President, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe called yesterday for the establishment of strong close relations between African countries to counter the escalating attempts at military hegemony by the Western powers and confirmed that the west seeks to steal the wealth of the weak nations in the Third World. "
"At the opening of the new session of the parliament in Zimbabwe, President,Mugabe, said the latest developments in the Gulf and others areas of the world reveal clearly that the new unilateral hegemony system which some countries seek to impose as new world order is highly dangerous and unjust and indicated that such a system was laid down to halt the ambitions of nations in achieving total unity and self assertion in Africa and the rest of the world."
Jana/3 "President Mugabe calls" , Harare /23 Nasser/Jana/Jamahiriya News Agency/
And from Reuters:
"President Robert Mugabe said on Tuesday Zimbabwe would cultivate friends in the Third World to break out of international isolation because poor countries could not afford to be weak. In an address marking the official opening of parliament, Mugabe made an apparent reference to the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, calling the global environment as "dangerous as it is unjust."...
"We have to recover lost alliances, resuscitate those that are dormant, and reconstruct those we may have neglected because it has become clear that the evolving global environment is unkind to the small, dangerous to the weak and the isolated, and tempting to the greedy," Mugabe said. He said his government would work to cultivate links with Third World nations and that his election this month as a deputy chairman of the African Union was a sign of confidence in his rule. "Such an election was meant to send an eloquent message to those who have spitefully sought our isolation and ruin," said Mugabe..."
"Mugabe Says Will Woo Third World to End Isolation" HARARE (Reuters) -
Tue July 22, 2003 11:25 AM ET
By Cris Chinaka and Stella Mapenzauswa
http://reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=worldNews&storyID=3134339
Reading these reports on the Parliament meeting in Harare, I couldn't help but think back to H.E. Pres. Mugabe's speech at the UN Millennium meeting
ADDRESS DELIVERED BY HIS EXCELLENCY PRESIDENT R.G. MUGABE AT THE UNITED NATIONS MILLENNIUM SUMMIT, NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 8, 2000
Co-chairpersons of the Millennium summit,
Distinguished delegates,
We are gathered here to observe the New Millennium whose arrival we have been privileged to witness.
I want to begin by asking whether this passage of time is a marker of qualitative change in the human condition and contact or whether it is human change in qualitative terms. Has the passage of time transported us all into a new commonwealth of diverse yet truly united peoples of the world living in one village? Are all the peoples of the world truly in the 21st Century by the way they live?
Sadly, most of us in Africa and the developing world are stuck in problems dating back to the days of slavery and colonialism. We remain burdened with the unfinished business of the 20th century, including even the problem the "colourline".
In Zimbabwe, and only because of the colourline arising from British colonialism, 70 percent of the best arable land is owned by less than one percent of the population who happen to be white, while the black majority are congested on barren land. We have sought to redress this inequity through a land reform and resettlement programme that will effect economic and social justice and this in terms of our constitution and laws.
But what has been the response from former imperialist quarters?
Their response has been staggering beyond description. My country, my Government, my Party and my own person have been labelled "land grabbers", demonised, reviled and threatened with sanctions in the face of accusations of reverse-racism. W.E. B. Du Bois must be turning in his grave for having thought the problem of the "colourline" would disappear with the 20th century.
But our conscience of course remains clear. We will not go back. We shall continue to effect economic and social justice for all our people without fear or favour. Mr President, our world has shrunk into a global village, and time, place and distance continue to shrink inexorably by the day.The biggest challenge for us still relates not only to cyberspace, nor to the great super highway responsible for shrinking our world, but demands of us an answer to the age-old question, "who is my neighbour?" Whichever part of the globe we find ourselves in, the question should be asked whether the man, the woman, the country, the region and the continent on my doorstep is neighbourly and whether the culture or civilisation of my neighbour truly coincides and blends with mine to enable us to have peaceful and friendly co-existence.
The question my compatriots and I face in Zimbabwe, as put to us by our peasants, is whether a globalised environment will enable them to have a patch of land to till and whether the ugly anomaly which history gave them in respect of land ownership shall be resolved in order to enlarge their own freedom so they can begin to be like the rest of mankind.
They ask why a predatory political economy that the United Nations rejected and helped fight in the 1960s, throughout the 70s and in the 80s now has once again found so many globalised protectors. They want to understand why a system which is at the centre of poverty; at the centre of race relations; at the centre of denying developing countries their sense of sovereignty and democracy, is made to appear so right, so just, and fair.
We are either makers of a new world based on new democratic principles of economic and social justice, or we remain in the old world with some conquering nations still set on old agendas of shrinking the rights of smaller nations as they enlarge their own conquests, sanctifying this under the cover of good governance, transparency, anti-corruption, democracy, human rights and digital technology.
We anticipate the risk of importing the spirit and contradictions of the Victorian era of slavery and colonialism into the new millennium and the New World Order. We also risk accepting the hypocrisy hidden in the demand for the democratic reform of national governments and institutions in developing countries while doing nothing to reform the undemocratic structures and practices of international bodies such as the Bretton Woods institutions and indeed the United Nations itself.Co-Chairpersons, if the new millennium, like the last, remains an age of hegemonic empires and conquerors doing the same old things in new technological ways; remains the age of the master race; of the master economy and master state, then I am afraid we in developing countries will have to stand up as a matter of principle and say, "no, not again!"
The time has come for the practise of political and economic dominance of poor nations by the rich to give way to the birth of a new inter-dependent world that recognises and respects the diversity and dignity of all cultures and civilisations. In this connection, I am pleased that the United Nations has declared 2001 as the "Year of Dialogue between Civilisations."I thank you.
end of speech
It is my hope, and I believe the hope of most Africans and that of just peoples all over the world that we will deploy the lessons and examples of the great Heroes of our past, Lumumba, Ture, the founders of ANC, PAC and the liberation movement generally, and particularly Osagyefo Kwame Nkrumah as guiding lights to help us navigate the treacherous seas of global conflict that threaten all of humanity with the slow agonizing death of endless poverty, disease, international crime, and famine or the quick death of massive bombings, artillery shells and bullets. These are not choices suited for human beings. We human beings must no allow ourselves to be treated as "meat," as a Belgian colonial thug labeled the heroic people of the Congo.
Please lead us gentlemen. Lead us in the tradition of our heroic ancestors and our mass organizations.
As always I thank you for your indulgence in this matter.
(I have sent an electronic copy of this message to elements of the Republic of Zimbabwe government.)
