[YCLSA Discussion] Re: Fwd: How the SACP betrayed the struggle against labour brokers and casualisation of labour- 7.10.09

Thu, 08 Oct 2009 02:13:19 -0700

Comrades,

A word of explanation and a little bit of opinion, if I may:
 
First of all, for the record, Shaheed Mahomed did not post his diatribe on this forum. I did. I forwarded it to this forum, with a note asking for comments.
 
I got it because Shaheed Mahomed has put my address on his press-release list. So his message actually went to the media. I wanted to show you all what he is doing, and to see what your responses would look like.
 
Thanks for the comments, comrades.
 
In my opinion, we all need to jack up our understanding and our responses to things like this.
 
The reason is because in my experience, when struggle gets sharper, so also does it become easier for people like Shaheed Mahomed, and also the right-wing reformists that we nowadays call Social Democrats (e.g. Cope and DA), to make up their propaganda and to catch the attention of the press. Hence I think it is likely that we will get a lot more of this kind of thing, as well as the DA-generated sniping that we see.
 
Lenin, in “The State and Revolution” called these two the “anarchists” and the "opportunists”, and he said that they are “twins”.
 
In the history of communist thought, the struggle with the anarchist “left” and the opportunist right has served to bring out some of the best and clearest literature. One example of this is Marx’s 1847 polemic against the anarchist Proudhon, which Lenin, again in “The State and Revolution”, calls “the first mature work of Marxism”.
 
There are many other examples.
 
Looking at the responses here, today, one thing that is remarkable is that Mpho, from outside the SACP, and Brendan, from inside, both think that if the ANC COSATU and SACP decide something, they can just enact it. Like, if they decide they want socialism, they can just declare it. Shaheed Mahomed thinks so, too, and takes the next logical step to say that the ANC COSATU and SACP must be traitors because they do not enact everything that they want.
 
Mpho, Brendan and Shaheed all think that the struggle is over but that something is holding things up, at leadership level. They all share the same focus on leadership and have all forgotten the masses, their condition and the necessity for mass struggle to make change. Therefore Mpho, for example, has given up the struggle altogether and is just waiting at the revolutionary bus-stop, until a revolutionary bus comes along to take him where he wants to go.
 
Cde Trevor, on the other hand, thinks it is o.k. to ignore the anarchists. Marx and Lenin did not think so.
 
In my opinion we all need to sharpen up our critique and in effect, to take advantage of the Shaheeds of this world so that we get some practice in; not forgetting the right wing opportunists as well. As the struggle sharpens, there will be many more of these.
 
In struggle,
 
VC


Trevor wrote: 
Comrades,

It is a complete waste of energy and a distraction to respond to every
criticism by Workers International, just as it is to respond to every
criticism by the DA. We have a much greater task to accomplish and that is
to plot the road to Socialism and ultimately Communism. Let us not be
distracted by these petty arguments.

The important task right now is to fight Capital and demand the abolition of
Labour Brokers and the casualisation of Labour, and use every tool available
to us to achieve this objective.

I just find that we waste too much energy debating and responding to petty
arguments instead of saying focused on the task at hand.


Kind Regards,

Trevor Joseph
Mobile: +27 82 946 3877
Fax:    +27 86 606 2130
Email:  [email protected]



-----Original Message-----
From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of BrendanLee
Sent: 08 October 2009 09:08 AM
To: YCLSA Discussion Forum
Subject: [YCLSA Discussion] Re: Fwd: How the SACP betrayed the struggle
against labour brokers and casualisation of labour- 7.10.09


im quite confused by the Stalinist bit, for an organisation thats
intent on attacking the alliance, they are not very good at applying
even reasonable arguments.

what i am a bit confused about by the whole debate is that a press
statement was released saying the ANC COSATU and SACP were for the
banning of Brokers, if the ANC was then why hasn't this reflected in
policy? wwho was responsible for this shift in policy? and should they
be named and shamed if no publically then at least whitin the
organisation?

On Oct 8, 8:10 am, sabelo gina <[email protected]> wrote:
  
Comrades,

I was in the Portfolio Committee in Cape Town when we made the submissions
to the Committee, I did not see a submission from Workers International. I
was in Germiston Civic Centre last night, I did  not hear a submission
    
from
  
Worker's International and now for Shaheed Mohamed to wtrite in this
    
forum,
  
opportunistically so, and accuse the SACP for no apparent reason is
hypocrisy and it must be tolerated. WE debate in this forum and she is not
raising a debate but continue with their old campaign of vilifying the
Communist Party.

A question that I would like to ask her, are they happy that they
    
encouraged
  
workers to spoil the votes in the Western Cape and contributed to the
blunders of some people in the ANC Western Cape to deliver the province to
DA?

Who is the enemy of the working class, is it the SACP or the DA that they
helped to install in the Western Cape through their campaign of
    
encouraging
  
workers to spoil the votes. I am told even in the ILRIG Globalisation
School, instead of discussing opportunities that are brought by the crisis
of capitalism, they spent inordinate amount of time vilifying Cosatu and
    
the
  
SACP... what are their intentions about the unity of the working class.

I pause,

Cedric Gina

On Thu, Oct 8, 2009 at 4:37 AM, Dominic Tweedie
<[email protected]>wrote:



    
*Comments, anyone?*
*
*
*VC*
      
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Shaheed Mahomed <[email protected]>
Date: 2009/10/7
Subject: How the SACP betrayed the struggle against labour brokers and
casualisation of labour- 7.10.09
To: news <[email protected]>
      
When the SACP 'discovered' that labour brokers were a problem and that
      
it
  
was necessary to have a campaign against them, the way the campaign was
posed was deliberately to act militant for the sake of the Cosatu
      
Congress,
  
while at the same time to divert the anger of the working class from
monopoly capital and its attacks on workers. When the campaign was
      
adopted
  
at the Cosatu Congress a day of 'action' was proposed (7 Oct 2009)-
lunchtime pickets at some hearings and in some industrial areas.
      
Without the permission of monopoly capital, labour brokers would not
      
exist;
  
thus what was really necessary was a general strike to force monopoly
capital to end these slavery conditions. This was avoided and faith was
placed in the leadership of the alliance, the amabhulu omnyama of the
      
ANC to
  
legislate an end to labour broking. let's not hold our breathe to wait
      
for
  
the ANC to enforce this minimal democratic demand but let us draw the
      
lesson
  
of the counter-revolutionary role of the SACP and Cosatu leadership, who
      
in
  
the face of the world capitalist attack are now the vanguard of
      
imperialism
  
in the ranks of the working class. We cannot place a programme against
stalinism in the hands of the stalinists themselves.
      
Forward to a general strike for an emergency workers plan, calling for
      
the
  
expropriation of the banks, mines, food, clothing, transport, energy
      
sector,
  
construction, health sectors, without compensation and for them to be
      
placed
  
under workers control.
      
--
Shaheed Mahomed
Secretary
Workers International Vanguard League
1st Floor, Community House
41 Salt River rd
Salt River
South Africa
7925
ph 0822020617
fax 0865486048
[email protected]
webwww.workersinternational.org.za- Hide quoted text -
      
- Show quoted text -


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