In military practice, a “regiment” is a complete army in miniature. It maintains all of its parts in an exemplary state. When war comes, the regiment is able to expand without losing its shape. It is able to reproduce itself, rapidly, up to the scale required for the war that must be fought, and then repeat this action, releasing large numbers of inducted soldiers in the process, ready for action.
Similarly, the Communist University has been ready for many years, and waiting for its call to arms, but as yet, the call has not come. We continue to be like a peace-time regiment. We keep everything in order, and we bring people through, but not at the scale required for major action and victory. The CU is the only such scaleable regiment of political education. There is no other in existence here. There have been proposals, but no execution, other than the CU’s. Looked at overall, the communist movement in this country appears not to be in communication with itself. In its theoretical statements, there are *“non sequiturs”* (disconnections) and unattended contradictions. Let me give an example. YCLSA National Chairperson Cde Yershan Pillay has written a long (25 pages) article, that has been published in the SACP’s theoretical journal, the African Communist (Second Quarter 2016 edition), yesterday. The article is called “Youth development and underdevelopment.” In the same second quarter of 2016, the CU course on Development was serialised for Cde Yershan’s YCL on the YCLSA e-mail Discussion Forum (and not for the first time). There is no sign, that I have yet discovered in his 25 page article, that Cde Yershan has taken any notice of this course of ours, which argues that “development” is class struggle. Cde Yershan presses on with the received, tacit, bourgeois understanding of “development.” There is no recognition of the CU’s work or response to it. Our proposition: “Development is class struggle” does not cross Cde Yershan’s horizon at all. I must also admit that to handle Cde Yershan’s long document, and incorporate it into the next iteration of the CU Development course, will be very difficult, if not impossible. There are no obvious points of contact between his text on development, and ours on the same topic. We are people who are talking past each other. In these circumstances, any talk of political education is “loaded.” The questions of who’s political education, by what method, where and when, and how much, are avoided. Calls for political education are uttered from out of a void, into another void. If challenged, the demi-Gods of SACP political education just deny that there is any problem (see correspondence with Cde Tebogo Phadu on this platform recently). Yet if there was no problem, then the constant calls for more political education, in the abstract, would make no sense. So what we have is an acknowledged problem, and at the same time a refusal to engage critically with the problem that we have. So Cde Sibusiso, I am not as sure as you are that people are about to embark on political education, or avail themselves of the work done by the Communist University. I see no sign of any change. The GS’s call is but another one in a long series, when we have not seen a change. Why should we expect such a change to appear now? On the contrary, the constant high-level appeals for political education have become a way of obscuring the problem, not curing it. And the same is true in the ANC, as is true in the SACP. I rest. VC On 4 July 2016 at 10:00, Sibusiso Mchunu <[email protected]> wrote: > *The youth and the revolution* > > * SACP General Secretary, Cde Blade Nzimande, address at:* > > *Young Communist League of South Africa’s Youth Rally, 3 July 2016, > Johannesburg* > > > Our clarion call must be that our institutions of learning across the > board must be transformed and not destroyed! > > Given the tasks we have just outlined, as well as the threat of > depoliticisation of our members and cadres, the Young Communist League will > have to up its game in the provision of political education amongst young > workers, students and unemployed youth, with a particular focus on > leadership. The SACP can think of no more urgent a matter than the need to > intensify political education amongst the youth. No matter what > difficulties that maybe faced by young people today, our youth is not the > problem but an asset. If properly mobilised, the youth can serve as a > vehicle to solve many of the problems facing society. > > ______________________________________________________ > > This therefore means Communist University as a Political Education, > platform (electronic classes, i.e. google group and its contact classes, > i.e. every Wednesdays) needs to play its central role on this question of > Political Education much more, than before. > > The call by the General Secretary of the Party of all of us, to take up > political education much more seriously in order ready/armed ourselves to > confront what cde Blade called the triple challenges (at the JHB City > hall)... > > "Corporate capture, factionalism and depoliticisation are usually mutually > reinforcing. Parasites need factionalists in order to accumulate through > captured leaders and organisations. Factionalists in turn need both the > resources in the hands of the parasites in order to fund their factionalist > activities, as well as a depoliticised membership used as voting cannon > fodder. If we fail to break and defeat this vicious cycle, our revolution > will die and so will your future as young South Africans." > > I am sure all revolutionaries will as soon as it is opportune embark on > this Clarion call of Political Education as directed, with fail. > > > Sibusiso Mchunu > > > > > > > > -- > -- > 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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