Business Day
*No SACP-Cosatu fight * *Jeremy Cronin, Business Day, Johannesburg, 7 June 2011 *In your article, Cracks deepen in tripartite alliance split (June 6), you contrive, twice, to have me say exactly the opposite of what I said when addressing the National Union of Mineworkers' central committee last week. On South African Communist Party (SACP) general secretary Blade Nzimande's appointment as a Cabinet minister, you said I admitted his "deployment ... has divided his attention".
In fact, I was making precisely the opposite point. Yes, inevitably, Mr Nzimande's deployment constrains the time he can devote to SACP duties. But in both capacities he is (and needs to be) single-minded in the pursuit of ... one overarching objective --- a more egalitarian society biased to the working class and poor. SA must be one of the few countries in which the number of communists ... in government is seen as a sign of the "weakening of the left"!
You also misquote me saying the Young Communist League was fighting a "proxy war" when the "fight is in fact between Cosatu and the SACP". There is a debate within Cosatu and the SACP on how the left should engage the state. There is no fight ... and I was critical of the league for giving the impression it was fighting a proxy war.
I don't blame you for getting it all so wrong. The (view that) the left is supposed to locate itself entirely outside of the state as a watchdog predominates so powerfully in the print media it renders any alternative view inaudible.
*Jeremy Cronin* ** *SACP Deputy General Secretary and Deputy Minister of Transport* *From: http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=145027* ** ** ** ** -- 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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