Introduction+to+this+course+on+the+National+Democratic+Revolution

 ** National Democratic Revolution, Set **

__ **Introduction** __

The decision to prepare a series on the South African National Democratic Revolution (NDR), which is a new title as compared to the first set of Communist University Generic Courses publishes in 2005, was prompted by requests from comrades from South Africa and from Zimbabwe.

Later, the SACP on 14 September 2009 published its discussion document for its Special National Congress to be held in December, 2009, called “Building working class hegemony on the terrain of a national democratic struggle”. This document naturally took its place as the culminating part of this series, helping to give the series a sense of direction.

The NDR is a product of a class alliance against an oppressor class, which in action works to extend democracy to the whole national territory, and population, overcoming non-class contradictions such as those of race and gender.

The NDR is always historical in the sense of being a practical piece of work, carried out in changing objective conditions, by individuals acting through the structures that they have consciously created. This series traces the history of the NDR from the distant past up to the present, attempting to cover all the salient features, if not all the detail.

The living history of the NDR is the African National Congress, embodying as it does the class alliance that is the functional heart of the NDR. COSATU and organised labour generally are vital components in the necessary process of rendering an objectively-existing class-in-itself into a self-conscious class-for-itself. The working class leads and lends class-consciousness and a sense of purpose to the peasantry and to the petty-bourgeoisie.

But labour unions are not sufficient by themselves for the NDR. It requires a party of generalising professional revolutionaries. That party is the SACP.

When we look at the entire story of the NDR, we find that the theoretical pattern was in practice set very early (c. 1920) even if the conscious understanding of it was not widespread at the time. Coming up to date we find, in parts of the ANC, that the NDR is treated as if it is complete or in stasis or that it is an end in itself.

Whereas the communists know that history will insist on moving on towards the revolutionary end of class conflict and the consequent withering away of the state.

The challenge posed by this study of the NDR is to learn how to carry out the National Democratic Revolution to its utmost possible extent, and then to be able to conceive of an even greater degree of freedom, a freedom that is beyond democracy and is which is more than the mere crushing of a minority by a majority, which is the essence of democracy.

As Lenin pointed out in “The State and Revolution”, written on the eve of Great October, the withering away of the state has to become a burning issue.

The Communist University’s practice is absolutely not to have a lecturer, but instead to have one of the participating comrades, who has read the text, to “open the discussion” in the tried and tested communist manner.
 * Openings **

An opening need not be a summary of the text. It can be a “review” of the text in the manner of a book review. Or it can be a frank statement of points in the text or expressions that the comrade found impossible to understand.

But most of all it is to bring forward one or two points for discussion out of the text, and so to “break the ice” and begin the dialogue.

In this set, short “Openings” are given to each of the ten texts in the series. These are given as examples. The appropriate “Opening” could be read out prior to each session, to stimulate the beginning of discussion; but it would be much better if one of the participants made an attempt at opening the discussion.

Above all, please note that the “Openings” are not given as a substitute for the text, nor for the dialogue that, according to Freirean theory, will be necessary before you can internalise the text in a socially-useful way. The Communist University’s method is strongly influenced by the work of Paulo Freire. We use pamphlets and extracts from books to create “Short Texts” that can be used as Freirean “codifications” [1]. The point is not to learn the work, but to have a discussion.
 * The Communist University’s Freirean Method **

The source of many of our texts has been the **[|Marxists Internet Archive]**.

Some more considerations around the CU practice of study circles are: · We tend to meet weekly; the reading text or “codification” is given one week before we gather to discuss it. Therefore it must be sufficiently short to allow an ordinary person to be able to read it in a week. Or, which amounts to roughly the same, it should be short enough to be read out loud by one comrade to the others, in a preliminary sitting. · In the Communist University’s practice, these short texts (codifications) have been printed in an A4-folded-to-A5 stapled booklet format. This means that pages are in multiples of 4 (e.g. 4,8,12, 16, 20). The reduction from A4 to A5 requires a certain minimum font size, which in Arial font is 11-point. These limitations taken together tend to create a standard “Communist University” ratio of text to printed length. **[|Click here to go to the National Democratic Revolution Console on the YCLSA Discussion Forum]**

[1] ** Codification ** : A codification is a representation of the learner’s day-to-day situations. It can be a photograph, a drawing, or even a word. As a representation, the photograph or word is an abstraction which permits dialogue leading to an analysis of the concrete reality represented. Codifications mediate between reality and its theoretical context, as well as between educators and learners who together seek to unveil the meanings of their existence.