2005-12+Blog+Archive

2005-12 Blog Archive

 * This is the manual dump of daily bloggged messages automatically received from the CU Blog. It may not always be in strict date order. The Blog itself at** [|**http://domza.net/**] **also carries a full archive.**

The following was originally published December 19, 2005 at http://domza.users39.donhost.co.uk/http://amadlandawonye.wikispaces.com/ is the Communist University on the Internet. This circulation is archived there as " Current News". Register a username and password at Wikispaces (for free) to use the discussion facility there, or go to http://domza.net/ to comment on this message. 2005-12-20


 * Dear Comrades**,

Evo Morales has been elected President of Bolivia. A great victory! More about it tomorrow.

Herewith is the statement of COSATU on the outcomes of the Hong Kong WTO jamboree, called a Ministerial. The situation is clearer thanks to this statement. The Imperialists did not get all that they wanted but did create a dangerous “back door” for themselves which will have to be watched.

Especially significant are COSATU’s remarks about the way forward.

The statements of NEDLAC and the FSCC are included for the record and in continuance of the CU tradition of publishing original documents whenever possible. The recognition of the Ugandan trade union is a small sample of the huge amount of organising work that has to go on all the time so that the Trade Union Movement reproduces itself.

Antiwar.com is a libertarian web site opposed to war and the Iraq war in particular. These libertarians are trying to build an international peace front. Let’s hope they succeed. They obviously have a fair bit to learn. When Robert Mugabe turned up at their peace conference they felt compelled to protest. Dr Mahathir was wiser than they were. See the fifth document.

Some of you will be receiving this message through the new channel for the first time (and without attachments for the first time). If you prefer to have attachments, please let me know at dominic.tweedie@gmail.com or by replying to this message (replies come only to me). But I hope most of you will accept it, because it is going to be much faster and better and more convenient like this. If there are any bugs or links that don't work, please also let me know.

Yours in struggle,

Links (5):
 * Dominic

**1. COSATU on outcomes of the WTO Hong Kong Ministerial (2 pages)**
 * **2. NEDLAC Dec 16 statement from Hong Kong (1 page)**
 * **3. Financial Sector Charter Council Dec 13 statement (2 pages)**
 * **4. Ugandan Textile Union Wins Recognition, ITGLWF (1 page)**
 * **5. World Peace Forum, Secretariat, Garris, Antiwar, Dec 19 (2 pages)**
 * **4. Ugandan Textile Union Wins Recognition, ITGLWF (1 page)**
 * **5. World Peace Forum, Secretariat, Garris, Antiwar, Dec 19 (2 pages)**
 * **5. World Peace Forum, Secretariat, Garris, Antiwar, Dec 19 (2 pages)**
 * **5. World Peace Forum, Secretariat, Garris, Antiwar, Dec 19 (2 pages)**

The Communist University is: A live session scheduled at http://amadlandawonye.wikispaces.com/Communist+University+2006 Education, organisation and mobilisation at http://amadlandawonye.wikispaces.com/ A daily e-mail update. Subscribe at http://groups.google.com/group/Communist-University/ An on-line library of classics and courses at A blog at http://domza.net/ A person you can e-mail: dominic.tweedie@gmail.com

The following was originally published December 18, 2005 at http://domza.users39.donhost.co.uk/http://amadlandawonye.wikispaces.com/ is the Communist University on the Internet. This circulation is archived there as " Current News". Register a username and password at Wikispaces (for free) to use the discussion facility there, or go to http://domza.net/ to comment on this message.

Dear Comrades,

There’s nothing in the papers! Or very little.

Ariel Sharon is in hospital after having a stroke.

The Mail and Guardian displayed the racist fake “conspiracy” e-mails, to their eternal shame. The same paper apologised in the same edition to Dr Blade Nzimande, General Secretary of the SACP, for a previous falsehood that they had published. Apologies are cheap. Learning from mistakes is harder, it seems.

The WTO Hong Kong summit is over. It appears that some kind of “modus vivendi” (way of carrying on) was worked out and that the WTO itself survives. First reports, news conferences and press releases about the summit results are not likely to be reliable. It is better to withhold judgement until the documents have appeared and been read by the participants, and we have their reaction.

So we are back to another virtual session of the ever-growing course of Revolutionary Classics. The next one will be Lenin’s “Left Wing Communism” and it will be followed by Marx’s three great books on revolutionary class politics in France.

The Communist University is taking a shape that is designed for the long term, although it is not yet complete. It is intended to work in the following way: I blog this message at http://domza.net/. The blog automatically e-mails it to the list of subscribers, via the Google group http://groups.google.com/group/Communist-University/. There will be links to documents in the e-mails, but no attachments.

Everything will be archived at http://amadlandawonye.wikispaces.com/, including the blog (which is the same as this e-mail).

Not all of this is working yet. I am attempting to get all your names on to the group, but have not yet succeeded.

If you need to keep getting the documents as attachments, please let me know. I will create a special list for people who need the attachments. They may be in .txt (plain text) format in future. But the “default” will be links-only. I will keep repeating this message.

Apart from this daily system there is the Communist University Library at http://cu.domza.net/. This is the material from the CU CD (which is still available). It amounts to a basic proletarian library in a convenient form that is accessible to millions of workers. Have a look!

Yours in struggle,

Dominic

Links/ Attachments (1):

1917, Lenin, State & Revolution C2 & 3 (16 pages)

The Communist University is: A live session scheduled at http://amadlandawonye.wikispaces.com/Communist+University+2006 Education, organisation and mobilisation at http://amadlandawonye.wikispaces.com/ A daily e-mail update. Subscribe at http://groups.google.com/group/Communist-University/ An on-line library of classics and courses at A blog at http://domza.net/ A person you can e-mail: dominic.tweedie@gmail.com

The following was originally published December 16, 2005 at http://domza.users39.donhost.co.uk/http://amadlandawonye.wikispaces.com/ is the Communist University on the Internet. This circulation is archived there as " Current News".

Dear Comrades,

The first three items today are reports from eminent comrades in Hong Kong (Zwelinzima Vavi and Thulas Nxesi). As the picture becomes clearer, anger rises. We hope for honour and the avoidance of a shameful humiliation or a betrayal. At least we can rely on these two.

The fourth and fifth items bear powerfully on the peace struggles in the Middle East.

The last item is a hostage to fortune by Oupa Lehulere of Khanya College, who describes his doctrine of “orientation”, among other things. I my opinion he does us a favour by exposing his ideological bankruptcy. It becomes clear that after Lehulere, there is only the SACP.

Yours in struggle,

Dominic

1. WTO 3rd day, problems multiply, talks unravel (3 pages)
 * Links/ Attachments (6):**

2. Thulas Nxesi, President, Education International, statement (2 pages)

3. Take Education Out Of GATS, Education International (4 pages)

4. What Peace Needs, Monica Benderman, Counterpunch (3 pages)

5. Ethical, Legal Challenges of Palestine, Ben-Dor, Cpunch (5 pages)

6. Social Movements, Cosatu, Lehulere hostage to fortune (7 pages)

The following was originally published December 17, 2005 at http://domza.users39.donhost.co.uk/Dear Comrades,

Sorry for another test. It should be the last, with any luck.

But try this URL (the shape of things to come):

[|http://cu.domza.net]

The following was originally published December 17, 2005 at http://domza.users39.donhost.co.uk/Dear Comrades, Sorry for another test.

It should be the last, with any luck.

But try this URL (the shape of things to come): [|http://cu.domza.net]

Yours in struggle,

Al Domza

The following was originally published December 17, 2005 at http://domza.users39.donhost.co.uk/http://amadlandawonye.wikispaces.com/ is the Communist University on the Internet. This circulation is archived there as " Current News". Register a username and password at Wikispaces (for free) to use the discussion facility there, or go to http://domza.net/ to comment on this message.

Dear Comrades,

The linked/attached document containing the joint COSATU/CUT statement was sent by Cde Zwelinzima Vavi, General Secretary of COSATU. This is as good as, or better than, any other report from the Hong Kong WTO talks. Here one can practically see Imperialism’s face up close (as well as sample its gobbledegook language – also see the other two documents).

As Elmer Gantry said of The Devil: “I seen ‘im plenny o’ times!”

Hong Kong is a major battleground. But otherwise it looks as if this year of struggle is about to go into retirement for a couple of weeks before handing over to its successor. At last.

One thing I have noticed this year. The retailers and the malls have finally realised that there are more people turned off by “carols” than otherwise. So suddenly, no more carols! Hooray! They will not be missed.

The Communist University never sleeps. The CU blog is back in business at http://domza.net/ and it feeds into the web site here. This is thanks to a new piece of wikispace technical wizardry. The net result is that these short introductions of mine will be available in both places from now on. You can comment on them in the blog or in the wikispace. That will be nice. You are still welcome to send me e-mails, but blog comments and wikispace discussions are visible to all, which is in principle better and more in keeping with Freirean principles.

I need to warn you that there will be some more changes. I am going to try to phase out the e-mail attachments (but not the e-mails). So please try to get used to using links instead of attachments. If you would like to express any view about this, please do so. But basically I have to rationalise the technology of this thing so that I can continue to manage it. So, in come links and out go attachments – soon. If this is going to cause you problems please let me know, and I will make a plan for you if I can.

Check out [|http://cu.domza.net] if you wish. It will soon have the full Communist University archive of books and courses, which has previously only been available on CD.

Yours in struggle,

Dominic

Links/ Attachments (1):

1. COSATU and CUT, Brazil, at WTO Hong Kong, statement (2 pages)

2. Deciphering the Language of Globalization, Counterpunch (2 pages)

3. Calling Rousseau, Privatizing the Social Contract, Cpunch (3pages)

The following was originally published December 16, 2005 at http://domza.users39.donhost.co.uk/ What I am trying to do here is to use the wikispaces Blog integration facility from the Blogger side so as to paste the blog simultaneously in a page on the Communist University wikispace that I have called Blog. The idea is to make this a daily routine procedure do that the covering messages of my daily circulation are here as a blog and there as an archive.

The nest step is to organise the e-mailing of the same message to the list of 400 or so addresses that currently are getting it, and then I will have a single integrated mechanism. All I will have to do is to paste the four to six items in the Wiki each day, make the links in the blog and write the covering note, press one button, and the work is done.

That's the general idea, anyway.