** High Priority ** VC Please assist me what do you mean when you say "it is the class which must take power to accomplish socialism, and not the Party." further one is sure that such a particular class which MUST take power needs a vanguard party which in this case happens to be a communist party, safely to say the communist party shall be a leader of such a class towards an egalitarian society. What we seem to be grappling with now is whether the ground is fertile now for the party to lead such a class put differently have we reached a stage where we can say we are waging a class struggle...I am of the view that because of South Africa's uniqueness and the current stage we are at, is mainly informed by class contradictions found in society as much as many might argue to say it is a national question... However on a different note one would argue to say perhaps the masses of our people haven't reached the highest stage of class consciousness for the party to lead a class struggle... Assist me VC on this one. I remain! Thembinkosi Josopu Student Admissions & Advocacy Services University of Cape Town Level 3, Kramer Law building Middle Campus Rondebosch,7700 Tel :021-650-2429 Fax:021-650-4014
"A great leader's courage to fulfill his vision comes from passion, not position" >>> Dominic Tweedie <[email protected]> 2010/03/31 02:04 PM >>> My Dear Nqobizitha, You don't follow, but it's o.k.! All the time I have known you, you have been charming, and calm, and I have never known a theoretical political question to really trouble you. You are not a person who is usually disturbed by internal contradictions or doubts. This has its advantages, and its disadvantages. What I have written in my previous message on this thread stands on its own and is not to be cancelled by, or counterposed to, any matters such as these others that you mention now. Among other things, what I have written implies that the MDC of Zimbabwe is doomed because it is a bourgeois party. The MDC's only half-good argument is that two bourgeois parties are better than one. The MDC may have had revolutionary democratic potential at some stage. I don't know if it did or not. But if so, then by now those days of revolutionary potential are gone. It is clear that there are very few Zimbabweans who understand South Africa's National Democratic Revolution, or understand NDRs in general. By the way, I am currently running the CU course on NDRs on a blog called http://arsnotoria.blogspot.com/, if you are interested. I started it there on 15 March. The ANC is not a competitor to its allies. It does need to grow. All the other democratic mass organisations need to grow, too, and not just those three or four who are the acknowledged members of the NDR Alliance. I can't answer for people who think they can capture the ANC in some way. That is a mistake. We don't do that. It's against our constitution. The question of the SACP standing candidates for Parliament is a matter of tactics. The need for such a thing is considerably less since Polokwane. The question of the SACP ever seeking to win an actual majority in a bourgeois-democratic parliamentary election is absurd in my opinion, for reasons already given. The SACP, unlike the MDC for example, is not a bourgeois party. It is the class which must take power to accomplish socialism, and not the Party. Your idea of taking power is simply derived from bourgeois ideas of majority rule. That's o.k., because the communists will not slaughter the bourgeoisie. But if you want to get into our politics, in our organisations, then you need to straighten out some of your ideas Cde Nqobizitha. I am pretty sure that I have told you most, or possibly all, of this before, but it has rolled off you like water from a duck's back. Best, VC On 31 March 2010 13:25, Nqobizitha Mlilo M <[email protected]> wrote: Cde Dominic Please indulge me-I genuinely wish to understand this matter. So when there is a call to swell the ranks of the ANC what is the end goal of that? Secondly, are you suggesting that the call by some that the SACP must contest elections is ideologically indefensible? >From what you are saying how do we reach a Socialist and then a Communist >state? Is it by the communists swelling the ranks of the ANC and "... >fostering a dictatorship of the popular masses, or the proletariat..." through >the ANC. I don't follow. I beg your indulgence cde VC. Amandla On 3/31/10, Dominic Tweedie <[email protected]> wrote: Dear Cde Mduduzi, You have brought this discussion to a nice point where one can answer Yes, or No. And the answer is definitely: No. The Party's role is to foster a hegemony or in other words a dictatorship of the popular masses, or of the proletariat - a People's Democratic Dictatorship of one sort or another. By all means continue to have a discussion about those alternatives. But the distinguishing characteristic of the Communist Party among other parties is that it never seeks power for itself. The day that the Communist Party seeks power for itself, it will become no different from any common bourgeois party. The ANC as the liberation movement of the popular masses must lead itself. We can't lead it, without destroying it. It must be democratic and lead itself. It is the embodiment of the Alliance, as much as the One Spirit is the embodiment of the Trinity. There is no separate standing Alliance authority, and there will never be. Likewise the mass organisations of the working class lead themselves, and would be of no use if they were not able and willing and determined to lead themselves. The Party leads in its own way, as the indispensable generalist vanguard complement to the great mass organisations of the people. The task of the NDR is to extend democracy to all corners of the republic and from bottom to top. The main means of doing so is by educating, organising and mobilising the masses in all conceivable ways. This communist task has not changed and should not change. VC Mduduzi H Vilakazi wrote: Cdes, The discussion around the issue of who leads the alliance is as old as the existence of the alliance. This alliance is not a product of a boardroom wherein a decision of which component leads could be discussed. It is an alliance that came as a result of pramatic programmes. History tells us that were it not of the banning of the party in 1950, the ANC could have not made this historic strides. After its banning, the party operated underground and established an international networks with other communist parties outside. The base for the ANC in exile was created and established through the efforts of the SACP. The campaigns and the congress of the people (not COPE) in that took place between 1950 and 1960 were mainly influenced by a socialist agenda. Equally, the SACP was the first to adopt a non-racial and non-sexist stance long before the the ANC could realise it. When the ANC was banned in 1960, all systems were in place to accommodate these cadres into exile by the left-leaning organisations outside the country. Most cadres were taken to Moscow, Russia for military and political training. The ANC was mainly funded by the communist parties from accross the globe including education of most of our leaders. I have dwelt much on the historic epoch above to clarify that the SACP has always provided leadership during and after the fight for liberation. However, it was strategic then to allow the ANC as the major mobiliser of masses to carry on the work of speaking on behalf of the oppressed masses of our people because of its inclusive character. The question is whether the ground is not fertile now for the SACP to lead the alliance so that it spead up the realisation of an open class struggle. I mean, the ANC, much as it addresses certain elements of the revolution, it does so in focussing much on the national struggle while too accommodative to the capitalists as well. Are we not ready as communists to lead the alliance to an open class struggle? I remain Mduduzi Herman Vilakazi Internal Auditor Dept of P/Works, Roads and Transport Mpumalanga Province Tel: 013 766 8280 Cell: 083 357 4849/ 083 990 8523 Fax: 086 544 3205 "Ignorant men don't know what good they hold in their hands until they've flung it away." -Sophocles -- 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. 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