Letter+and+reply+re+Zuma+and+the+proletariat

Working Class Massacred
I write at a point when many South Africans continue to show support for the President of the Republic on his decision to Release the deputy president of the ANC his Government duties.

The ANC is an ideological cocktail.

Within the ANC different classes exists and these classes in existence are primarily in direct contradiction with each other. The liberation role that the ANC played together with Alliance partners ensured that the cocktail is mixed successfully. The key question remains, in light of liberation that we attained is it necessary for us (the Classless Society Minded) to continue membering the alliance?

The ideological route that the President has taken is clearly that of those who exacerbate class divisions in society. He has for the Past Years led to perpetuate his capitalist agenda under the banner of nationalism.

Our presidency was always divided like the entire ANC into camps of Pro and Anti-working class. Make no mistake, Comrade the mighty JZ was and continues to be Pro-working class. His warm and people centered approach always put the President's popularity and stature internally at peril.

Do you still remember what the President did to Winnie (Mother of The Nation) when vast numbers of peoples gave her a greater ovation than they did to the President?

Also remember that Winnie is Working class and People centered. Could this mean that the working class has power over the nationalists and capitalists?

JZ continued to be the pillar of the working class, socialists and communists in the presidency and therefore the hopes and aspirations of these could be safely classified as being thrown outside the presidency.

The danger that the Nationalists face when Zuma becomes president is that the capitalist gains made in Thabo's era would be reversed, totaling to 0 given the years that JZ would have in power.

We had a two staged theory and revolution, that of liberation first and means towards socialism as the only route to communism. In his 1989 "Path To Power" document, Joe Slovo advances that the Matrxist-Lenninist Party has a Vangaurding role to play at ensuring that the NDR is on track, the key question is with the nationalists in power, is the NDR on track?

"Communism is the future build it now", what is stopping us from building that which we believe in for the benefit of the poor and the working class? Should we remain in the alliance with people that are self-centered against the nation and poor people in particular?

Your Branch Secretary replied:

 * Dear Comrades,**

I am sorry I did not reply sooner to your message. I am afraid it was probably too late for the Umbiko. In any case you should rather send direct to Andile or Theresa, if you want your stuff to go in. I don't want to be second-guessing them. They are communist cadres. Let them make the editorial decisions. Even in bourgeois law there is not supposed to be "prior restraint" on publication. "Publish and be damned!" is the saying.

Well, here goes:

In his first paragraph our comrade says "many South Africans continue to show support" for the President against Jacob Zuma. This is arguable on three counts:

1. This usage of the word "many" is bad style, even if the President himself likes to do it. It is part of what is known as the "passive voice". It is a substitute for a fact, where there is no fact. If you knew that 25% (or 75%) of South Africans felt that way, you would say so. You say "many" because you have no factual information, and it is obvious, and it undermines everything else you are going to say from then on.

2. Everything I have seen indicates that the movement, including the ANC as a whole, the SACP, and the largest mass formation in the country, COSATU, support Zuma. Those outside the movement may be against Zuma, but they are a minority in the country. Those within the movement who are against Zuma are few.

It is not the case that the movement is split "down the middle" as I have heard on the radio or somewhere in the mass media. The mass media have been used very cleverly by the reactionaries to spin an illusion. You must be in touch with the masses if you want to know the truth, and not expect to find it in the mass media, unless you can "read between the lines".

3. Zuma's opponent is not Mbeki. Zuma's opponent is the reactionary candidate for the leadership of the ANC and the Presidency. Who that person is, is not clear, but it seems clear that the "crew" that is pushing for a reactionary candidate includes Bulelani Ngcuka and his friends Khaya Ngqula and Mzi Khumalo. At least this is the view of one bourgeois journalist, David Gleason, who writes in the ”Business Day”.

Our comrade bases his next paragraphs on the fact that Winnie and JZ are working class or pro-working class. Well, fine, as far as it goes, and I do believe that politics is acted out by individuals. But behind the individual players there is a disposition of class forces, and this is what we must pay attention to.

Our task is to organise the working class as a self-conscious class, aware of its historical position and role. This must continue with or without JZ or Winnie, who do not in fact contribute very much to the organising work that goes on among the masses. The SACP's constitution says: Educate, Organise, Mobilise - in that order. If we do our work properly, then whoever is the President will have to pay due regard to the working class, and attempts at reaction and suppression of working class power will fail.

We have to remain in the alliance so that we can lead it. In the ANC and in COSATU the Party cadres play an indispensable role and they can play their role even more effectively in future. The campaigns of the Party are vital. The individual leadership that Party cadres give in ANC branches is vital. ANC comrades who are not members of the SACP respect us deeply and listen carefully to us, and even ask us to give them political education. This, at least, is my experience.

The Party of the working class must do more than lead the working class. It must give leadership to the whole people, including in our South African case, the petty bourgeoisie, the rural masses, the traditional elements, and even the monopoly bourgeoisie. If you think this is impossible, then I suggest you take a look at China. The other classes have instincts but they do not have ideas to compare with ours. None of them have a way forward to offer the country. We have to do this, we have no choice. We have to unite the whole people behind our working-class leadership.

If we say that JZ is capable of understanding that much about the working class and its Party, then we say a lot, and that is a good basis for supporting him. But it does not mean that he is everything to us. With or without JZ, our task is the same: educate, organise, mobilise.

The working class has not been massacred in our revolution. In 1848 and 1872 in Paris they were massacred in thousands, literally, and we must never forget that possibility. But we must not bring it upon ourselves. Our defence is organisation of the Party, of the Unions, and of the other mass organisations whether working-class or not, including the ANC.

Yours for revolution,


 * Dominic Tweedie,**
 * Branch Secretary, Johannesburg Central,**
 * June 18th, 2005.**