About symbols, and revolution
In consequence of the Great French Revolution that began in 1789, the revolutionary flag, the Tricoleur, was adopted as the National Flag of the French Republic. It looks like this: Tricoleur.jpg The old flag and symbol (fleur-de-lis) of the defeated royal and feudal power of France was completely abandoned, and no new coat of arms has ever been adopted by the French republic up to today. By the way, all coats of arms are throwbacks to feudalism. A revolutionary song, the "Marseillaise", became (and still is) the national anthem of France. This was the rousing battle-song of the French republicans in their victorious revolutionary war against the foreign feudalists who invaded the country with the intention of restoring the old regime (ancien regime). Thus, it was accepted that the old regime had been fully eradicated from France, just as completely as slavery was subsequently eradicated from all bourgeois society, so that any return to the old condition has become unconscionable (i.e. impossible to think of). The leaders of the ANC in the 20th century must have been well aware of the details of the French Revolution. In Govan Mbeki's "Peasants' Revolt", for example, it is recorded that the high council of the Pondoland rebellion was called "the mountain", which can only be a direct reference to the revolutionary peasant party of the French Revolution, also called "the mountain" or montagne. Before 1994, and certainly before 1990, the black-green-and-gold flag was always referred to as the "National Flag" and never as the ANC flag or ANC colours. Here it is: ANCflag.jpg Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika was likewise known before 1990 in revolutionary circles as the National Anthem, and is also the national anthem of other African countries, for example Tanzania (Mungu Ibariki Afrika). This is the version that ends with the single word "Afrika", and not "South Africa". The negotiators of the old minority regime at the CODESA talks were determined that the transition that we now call the "democratic breakthrough" should not bear any of the signs of a permanent revolutionary change. The negotiators on behalf of the majority, which included but was not exclusively composed of the ANC, were obliged to yield to this. This question is usually referred to as the matter of not having a military victory parade into Pretoria; but in practice the question of the flag, and the national anthem, were much more to the point. The new flag, the Y-shaped design that we now have, was designed in 1994 by an obscure white man called Frederick Brownell. It was introduced by surprise on 10 May 1994 when it was trailed by three helicopters over the Union Buildings during Nelson Mandela's inauguration as President. Some of us, including myself, were affronted by this flag-ambush. In my case I watched the event it on TV from Mlungisi, a township next to Stutterheim, Eastern Cape. There is no question that it was deliberately staged in this way at a time when objection was practically impossible. Here is the flag that was so brutally imposed in that moment: SA Flag.png The heraldic symbolism attributed to the new flag by its designer is of no importance. In historical, class and revolutionary terms this flag is meaningless. It is arbitrary, and this is the point of it. It is designed to block out any thoughts of revolutionary transformation. This flag was subsequently written into the constitution. The revolutionary or reformist nature of the constitution is likewise still a contested matter. At the same time, the ANC began to use the black-green-and-gold revolutionary National Flag as its own party flag, with the ANC logo superimposed upon it. By so doing the ANC, in symbolic terms, partly yielded to the representation of itself as no longer the national liberation movement, but only an electoral party on a par with any other, be it the National party, the DA, or whatever. Unlike the French Revolution, which had no intention of ever again losing power to the old regime, our ANC in theory at least, allows the possibility of reversal of the political breakthrough. It is this theoretical possibility of reversal of the National Democratic Revolution through the ballot box that is exciting the bourgeois media at this moment, prior to the election of the ANC under the leadership of Jacob Zuma, and in the light of the formation of the Shikota party. The fact that there is a struggle over symbols with the Shikota party (that wishes to be called "Congress of the People") is therefore not a coincidence or an irrelevance. It is all of a piece with the public struggle over the meaning of our liberation, and the struggle for its completion as a true revolution. To continue: The National Anthem, Nkosi Sikelel' iAfrika, was mutilated by combination with the old regime's "Die Stem", also partly rendered into English, in 1996 during the Mandela presidency. A national coat of arms was introduced in 2000 during the Mbeki presidency, as follows: SA Government.jpg This coat of arms, like the new flag and the compromised national anthem, has nothing to do with the revolutionary history that created the present post-1994 democratic republic. Instead, it seeks to create a fictional, transcendent class-neutral mystique of an ahistorical ancient nationality of South Africa. Unlike the French revolutionary symbols, the present flag, anthem and coat of arms of South Africa make no reference to the revolutionary events and struggle that brought our democratic republic into being. There are parallels to all this in other countries. In the Soviet Union, for example the national flag was the uncompromising red revolutionary flag with the symbol of the revolutionary alliance of workers and peasants - the hammer and sickle. When the Soviet Union was overturned, the national symbols were replaced with revivals of pre-revolutionary symbolism. The so-called "COPE", or "Congress of the People" is seeking to further subvert the revolutionary history of our country through a logical fallacy that goes something like this: (a) the history of the struggle that gave birth to the ANC and especially to its revolutionary Alliance with the SACP and COSATU, is anybody's property and (b), that this general property can now be privatised by simple claim, and thereby become the trademark and the sole property of the Shikotas. Comrades, there is a view that says, in effect, that text is the primary form of communication and that visual symbols and songs, for example, are secondary and therefore of lesser importance, or of no importance at all. In my opinion this is very wrong and is a misunderstanding of human culture. Human culture is characterised by multiple means of expression and communication. The integration of all the arts into task of projecting the revolutionary fact and the revolutionary message is a revolutionary necessity. No one medium can be privileged in a general way. All facets of human culture must be part of the revolutionary movement. None may be ignored, downplayed or neglected. This is how it has always been in the great revolutionary passages of history. The revolutionary way forward must include the determination, as soon as possible, to restore to the black-green-and-gold flag the status of National Flag, and to restore Nkosi Sikeleli as National Anthem in its original form. The challenge of the Shikotas should be met with a full-scale mass conscientisation of the Freedom Charter and the history of the struggle. In this way we should exploit the impertinence of the Shikotas to mount a cultural-political counteroffensive on the ground that they have chosen, and thereby re-assert the permanence of our National Democratic Revolution and the hegemony of THE National Liberation Movement, the African National Congress. More discussion of this matter on this forum would be highly useful towards the development of these arguments. --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [EMAIL PROTECTED] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [EMAIL PROTECTED] . -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
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