"It is beyond doubt therefore, that capitalism's transition to the stage of monopoly capitalism, to finance capital, is bound up with the intensification of the struggle for the partition of the world." - Imperialism, The Highest STage of Capitalism, by V.I. Lenin*
"in your book The German Ideology, you state that in the Communist society of the future, the individual will not be bound by the limitations of one particular activity but will exercise his faculties in areas he finds interesting and appealing, one thing today another the day after, hunting at dawn, fishing after lunch, at dusk lavishing care on his cattle and enjoying critical thought after dinner, all according to the mood of the moment, yet never turning into hunter, fisher, critic or stockman! - do you truly believe sir, that our life fits such an idyllic description?
the blast-furnaceman interrupted him if we follow your theories to the letter, the Soviet proletariat would be not the object but the subject of its own exploitation!" - The Marx Family Saga by Juan Goytisolo*
Will we ever see the real decline and subsequent death of the Capitalist scourge all over the globe?
Will the wretched of the Earth ever rise up en masse to claim back what is theirs, from the imperialist tyrants of the world,the descendents of Cecil John Rhodes? The ones who will stop at nothing in their pursuit for profits and destabilization of "weaker" countries and governments?
There have been many socio-political movements established with the sole purpose of ENDING THE WORLD as we know it, many have come and gone without achieving their noble ideals, while others survive, thriving on precarious compromises and cleavage to their principles and ideas.
The influencers of these social movements vary, but when it comes to political and economic theory, none stands as firmly established as Karl Marx. Marx's, view of the global market was impeccable and his views remain the focus of diverse economists and politicians. In the Black tadical tradition, only Marcus Garvey and Franz Fanon stand as firmly as Marx, yet more people have heard of Marx more than they have heard or read Fanon, Cabral and the monumental works of Kwame Nkrumah and Mwalimu Nyerere.
Yet many have asked of Marx's theories, "How could he be so wrong and yet so right?"
The role of Karl Marx's work in the Black/Afrikan revolution is undeniable, as one of the principal leaders of newly independent Afrika, Kwame Nkrumah and many ( not all) pan-Afrikanists and Black Consciousness activists would attest ...
While we are still thinking in terms of dialectics and Blackness and Whiteness, it is interesting to note that Marx thought and acted like a grandmaster chess-player and indeed he was one. Marx gave the world the Basic instructions for battling international thievery.
As one of his contemporaries, Wilhelm Liebknecht would recall: "Marx announced triumphantly that he had discovered a new move by which he would drive us all under cover. The challenge was accepted. And really - he defeated us all one after the other. Gradually, however, we learned victory from defeat, and I succeeded in checkmating Marx. It had become very late, and he grimly demanded revenge for next morning, in his house...the next morning the struggle commenced in earnest: through-out the day and afternoon and evening the two men faced each other grimly across the black and white battlefield until, at midnight, Liebnecht succeeded in checkmating his opponent... Marx wanted to continue until Helen the housekeeper presented a message: 'Mrs Marx begs that you play no more chess with Moor ( Marx's nickname, meaning The Black or Swarthy One ), in the evening, when he loses the game, he is most disagreeable."
It is recorded that Liebknecht never played chess with Marx again, but his description of the Marxian technique is very telling, and reveals something about his seminal work, the Communist Manifesto.
"He tried to make up what he lacked in science by zeal, impetuousness of attack and surprise."In the Communist Manifesto Marx asserts, that "Kings, queens, bishops and knights would all be forced into submission sooner or later, beaten down by the sheer determination of their challengers. Like the NEW MOVE of which he was so proud, the manifesto was a WEAPON OF REVENGE AGAINST HIS SMUGLY SUPERIOR ADVERSARIES. forged and fashioned during sleepless nights of brooding rage. His equally smug detractors today are therefore 'still'missing the point.
And I, myself have for a very long time, until recently, avoided delving into the theories and ideas of great thinkers from the West. I have maintained that the only tools that a Black revolutionary requires to Decolonise the Mind and truly get free are those devised by Afrikans ourselves.
But it does not take a longtime to realise that many of our modern day Black liberators gain a lot from the radical thought of people like Marx and Lenin and Mao Zedong.
While I still stand as a rebellious and impure Rastaman, an Afrikanist, an Afrikologist without a tribal identity, I acknowledge once again that I am neither a Marxist nor a communist. However remain inspired by Karl Marx, Vladimir Lenin; Amilcar Cabral, Thomas Sankara; Andile Mgxitama and the September National Imbizo and also all the Marxists who have given me a clear yet troubling perspective of the world.
I acknowledge Mphutlane Wa Bofelo, Daggar Tollar and Richard Wright, Angela Davis in the same breath as I extol the works of Marcus Garvey; Ngugi Wa Thiongo and Toni Morrison. They have placed the Black person at the centre of the storm and through their Marxist inspired works and worlds, they have ensured that we all can boldly make New Moves and change the world for the better.
Here is a fitting tribute to Marx, from the September National Imbizo:
Political Education 101
Celebrating The Contributions Of Karl Marx on this 197th Anniversary Of His Birth
Karl Marx' thinking and works can really only be understood if it is considered in its entirety. For example, you cannot draw sound conclusions of Marx' analysis of revolution simply by assessing his early works like "The German Ideology" and "The Economic and Philosophical Manuscripts". In this regard a proper conceptualization would require an enquiry into how his theoretical submissions in his early works developed when tested in practice. Marx understood and called for melding theory with practice as the ultimate test for theory. He saw the labor movement as the site for testing his theories. It is instructive to therefore see how the French Revolution of 1848-49 and the Paris Commune of 1871 (the two revolutionary periods in Marx' life) impacted on the evolution of his political thinking.
Of the two texts "The Communist Manifesto" and "The Civil War in France", "The Civil War in France" is considered more important as it reflects Marx's political maturity in respect of his theory of revolution. "The Communist Manifesto" which Marx wrote before the French Revolution is really more of a theoretical prediction of future revolutionary developments based on scientific historical research. "The Civil War in France" however was written after the class struggle there had produced a new system, the commune. But never in his wildest dreams did he or any other thinker ever visualize the commune as a possible state form. This new form of state had in fact developed despite the influence of "Blanquist conspiratorial theories" and "Proudhonist anti-statist anarchist ideas" of that time. The commune was conceptualized and developed directly and spontaneously from class struggle. It was created to respond to the people's need for a new state form.
Marx himself regarded his most important contribution to be his identification of "the dictatorship of the proletariat" as the agency and core mechanism for the transition to socialism. Hence it is not surprising that Marx looked to the Paris Commune (as the first workers government and dictatorship of the proletariat) for inspiration. He referred to it as "a new point of departure of world-historic importance,"
The main theoretical questions raised in "The Communist Manifesto" were answered by the Paris Commune including: What would a government of the dictatorship of the proletariat look like? How would it use state power to deal with the former oppressors as opposed to the oppressed so as to further socialism? How would the other classes that formed tactical alliances with the proletariat against the previous system respond to the new worker's state? Why did previous revolutions fail?
V. I. Lenin in "In Memory Of The Commune" points out that in spite its rather short existence and of the unfavorable conditions giving rise to and establishing it, "the Commune managed to promulgate a few measures which sufficiently characterize its real significance and aims. The Commune did away with the standing army, that blind weapon in the hands of the ruling classes, and armed the whole people. It proclaimed the separation of church and state, abolished state payments to religious bodies (i.e., state salaries for priests), made popular education purely secular, and in this way struck a severe blow at the gendarmes in cassocks. In the purely social sphere the Commune accomplished very little, but this little nevertheless clearly reveals its character as a popular, workers' government. Night-work in bakeries was forbidden; the system of fines, which represented legalised robbery of the workers, was abolished. Finally, there was the famous decree that all factories and workshops abandoned or shut down by their owners were to be turned over to associations of workers that were to resume production. And, as if to emphasize its character as a truly democratic, proletarian government, the Commune decreed that the salaries of all administrative and government officials, irrespective of rank, should not exceed the normal wages of a worker, and in no case amount to more than 6,000 francs a year (less than 200 rubles a month)."
Ultimately, notwithstanding a call for the study of all Karl Marx's works, it is the study of the actual Paris Commune which is key to understanding Karl Marx' theory of revolution.
Selected Readings
1. Karl Marx, The Paris Commune in "The Civil War In France"
https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1871/civil-war-france/ch05.htm
2. V. I. Lenin in "In Memory Of The Commune"
https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1911/apr/15.htm
3. V. I. Lenin in "Lessons Of The Commune"
https://www.marxists.org/archive/lenin/works/1908/mar/23.htm
Issued By EFF Black Views
6 May 2015
Wednesday, May 6, 2015
Wednesday, April 22, 2015
Afriphobia and Cultural Imperialism - Who Betrayed The Black Daughter?
"And across the parapet. I see the mother of African unity and independence, her body besmeared with the blood of her sons and daughters in their struggle to set her free from the shackles of imperialism." - Kwame Nkrumah, Ghanaian leader, 1957 - 1966
My primary aim is to write a personal response to the multi-layered challenge of Africide, the propensity of Afrikans to killing each other over the perceived scarcity of resources. I wish to state a few facts about the history of Afrika and its cultural and other contributions to global civilizations. But in as I continue reading the book The Curse of Berlin, Africa After The Cold War, it dawns on me once more that a lot has been said and written already, and more eloquently than I ever could - about what Africans have done and how we can emancipate ourselves from all forms of slavery. What does it matter then, what I write and say from podiums?
Can a poem, an essay or a song alter the price of oil, bread or the school fees?
Today, I was visited in my office by three teenage girls who said that they have come into my library because they have been locked out of school, yet they still wanted to complete their homework/project, something to do with tourism and could I help?
Moreover they added that they were kicked out of school because they could not afford the school fees which total R7000 and their parents could only afford to pay for half the term.
This saddened me but I did not want to show them how deeply moved I was by their plight. I teased them about their hairstyles and we joked a bit as I proceeded to pick out books and magazines that would help them to finish their schoolwork ...
One of the three girls had a central Afrikan accent and I later discovered that she was actually from the un-Democratic Republic of Congo, she was the only one who had already done her homework even before they came, but they all had the same financial problem.
To me this visitation was just a sign that beyond any shadow of doubt, the so called xenophobia problem in Southern Afrika is a direct result of the socio-economic imbalance deliberately created by the colonial experience of Afrikans everywhere.
Conditions of inequality and non-transformation of every sector and aspect of black lives is rooted in the neo-colonial project so precariously mismanaged by the the ANC government and indeed all the governments of an un-liberated Afrika.
We remain colonial subjects partly due to our leaders unscrupulous dealings with the West and our own unwillingness to wage a pan-Afrikan revolution, one that is detribalised and centred on ensuring each unique Afrikan countries sovereignty while maintaining a common cause - that cause being to strike a death-blow to white capitalist monopoly.
So while our young girls are let loose on the streets simply because they cannot afford an education ( as flawed as that may be), we are busy flirting with our new colonizers, the Chinese oligarchs and neo-monopoly capitalists in high places.
These girls may be in Grade 10 now, but they may end up on some Sushi-eatists table come next-year.They are already clad in Brazilian weaves and Chinese stockings, they are already wearing Chinese lip-gloss and listening to hyper-sexualized Amerikkkan music from a media that has black faces in white masks. Who will save them from the world that does not love them?
Who will liberate their minds from the mental slavery, cultural imperialism and the debauchery of the globalized CBD?
When will these young black women graduate from a useless education system to Self Knowledge and a liberatory spirituality and politics?
These are some of thequestions I will have to ask on their behalf when I attend the seminar on education tomorrow -
Ironically it is titled: The Doors Of Learning And Culture Shall Be Open ...
Tell that to those black children who cannot afford the fees.
My primary aim is to write a personal response to the multi-layered challenge of Africide, the propensity of Afrikans to killing each other over the perceived scarcity of resources. I wish to state a few facts about the history of Afrika and its cultural and other contributions to global civilizations. But in as I continue reading the book The Curse of Berlin, Africa After The Cold War, it dawns on me once more that a lot has been said and written already, and more eloquently than I ever could - about what Africans have done and how we can emancipate ourselves from all forms of slavery. What does it matter then, what I write and say from podiums?
Can a poem, an essay or a song alter the price of oil, bread or the school fees?
Today, I was visited in my office by three teenage girls who said that they have come into my library because they have been locked out of school, yet they still wanted to complete their homework/project, something to do with tourism and could I help?
Moreover they added that they were kicked out of school because they could not afford the school fees which total R7000 and their parents could only afford to pay for half the term.
This saddened me but I did not want to show them how deeply moved I was by their plight. I teased them about their hairstyles and we joked a bit as I proceeded to pick out books and magazines that would help them to finish their schoolwork ...
One of the three girls had a central Afrikan accent and I later discovered that she was actually from the un-Democratic Republic of Congo, she was the only one who had already done her homework even before they came, but they all had the same financial problem.
To me this visitation was just a sign that beyond any shadow of doubt, the so called xenophobia problem in Southern Afrika is a direct result of the socio-economic imbalance deliberately created by the colonial experience of Afrikans everywhere.
Conditions of inequality and non-transformation of every sector and aspect of black lives is rooted in the neo-colonial project so precariously mismanaged by the the ANC government and indeed all the governments of an un-liberated Afrika.
We remain colonial subjects partly due to our leaders unscrupulous dealings with the West and our own unwillingness to wage a pan-Afrikan revolution, one that is detribalised and centred on ensuring each unique Afrikan countries sovereignty while maintaining a common cause - that cause being to strike a death-blow to white capitalist monopoly.
So while our young girls are let loose on the streets simply because they cannot afford an education ( as flawed as that may be), we are busy flirting with our new colonizers, the Chinese oligarchs and neo-monopoly capitalists in high places.
These girls may be in Grade 10 now, but they may end up on some Sushi-eatists table come next-year.They are already clad in Brazilian weaves and Chinese stockings, they are already wearing Chinese lip-gloss and listening to hyper-sexualized Amerikkkan music from a media that has black faces in white masks. Who will save them from the world that does not love them?
Who will liberate their minds from the mental slavery, cultural imperialism and the debauchery of the globalized CBD?
When will these young black women graduate from a useless education system to Self Knowledge and a liberatory spirituality and politics?
These are some of thequestions I will have to ask on their behalf when I attend the seminar on education tomorrow -
Ironically it is titled: The Doors Of Learning And Culture Shall Be Open ...
Tell that to those black children who cannot afford the fees.
Claim No Easy Victories
"The question that arises is whether the triumph of those market ideologies is polarizing the globe along racial lines more deeply than ever, with black people almost everywhere at the bottom, white people in control of global wealth, and Asian people in intermediate levels of stratification. Is this the global apartheid that is emerging, at its sharpest between white and black?" - Ali A.Mazrui, professor of international relations.
By way of introduction I would like to locate Professor Mazrui's statement as a clarifying note worth taking. The South Afrikan situation remains the most precarious of condition where inequality is played out in violent confrontations between black bodies, but barely ever touches the white community. The emergence of the Economic Freedom Fighters as a force to be reckoned in the political sphere has made an impression locally and globally, but is it misdirected revolution or is there still potential to salvage what is good about the movement? Within or Without parliament - Is there still adequate space and time to -
RESPOND TO THE TASKS OF THE REVOLUTION! SAVE THE SOUL OF EFF!
After the NPA in Mangaung we looked at the strategic objective of the EFF, it's long/medium/short term goals, and it's program of action and we asked ourselves:
1. What have we lost?
2. What have we gained?
We are now living through the adverse implications of the NPA in Mangaung. What we experienced at the NPA was a loaded performance. It made us understand why ghost branches were approved at the highest levels of leadership, the CCT and its war council. We basically witnessed a ritual of power in a situation where almost 50% of expected delegates did not turn up. The obvious question in this context was, do we really have an organization?
Anyway, we looked at the stated strategic objective including the long, medium and short term goals of the EFF and questioned whether our actions contributed towards achieving or liquidating the said objective. We created and joined EFF to help develop a revolutionary movement consistent with a future where the total needs of our people are responded to. Those of us who are disciplined cadres within EFF consistently continue to demonstrate absolute fidelity to the ideas of EFF throughout our political life in the movement even when elected to formal positions of leadership. We condemned EFF leadership for corrupting the foundational principles of the movement and demanded that
they account to our people who voted for the EFF! We exposed the numerous problems regarding the misconduct of EFF leadership, in relation to:
1. leaderships violation of the EFF constitution that exposed their manipulation of the results of the NPA to ensure that only loyalists to them were elected to the CCT.
2. Open attempts to appropriate the legacies of Steve Biko, Robert Sobukwe, Thomas Sankara and Chris Hani into bourgeois state power and to this end get our people to consent to an order of things destined to relegate the black liberation project to the periphery.
3. Purging of those not loyal to Malema and Floyd from the movement without proper procedures being followed. All Leaders and Fighters that question the Malema leadership have been silenced.
4. The ridiculing, threatening and intimidation of members who try to hold leadership accountable for non compliance with the purport and spirit of the non negotiable cardinal pillars of the movement.
5. Turning the movement into a militia gang where fighters are commanded and thugs are hired by leadership to physically assault members who disagree with them.
6. Leaderships misuse and mismanagement of party funds.
7. Corruption of the resolution of the land question. EFF has moved from from calling for expropriation of all land to calling for the occupation of "unoccupied" municipal land only. On mining we are now targeting the mines of blacks for occupations and blockading. White interests remain secured!
When Khanyisile Lichfield-Tshabalala, Andile Mngxitama, Mpho Ramakatsa and Lucky Twala lodged a high court application in March this year accusing Julius Malema and Floyd Shivambu of under-handedness and corruption regarding both the financial affairs and the ideals of the EFF, the first three members were expelled and Lucky Twala was suspended from the party. Subsequently all four members were expelled from parliament.
It is important to note that the Court application lodged by the 4 EFF MPS asks for an order declaring the National People’s Assembly (NPA) held in December 2014 null and void and also that the current Central Command Team (CCT) has no legal capacity to undertake any disciplinary action against them. The 4 members indicate numerous instances of violation of the EFF constitution as well as the rules and guidelines governing the election of leadership. They provide evidence of how the NPA was compromised and how this has rendered its outcomes a nullity.
Following the EFF NPA in December 2014 and on on 21 February 2015 in Mangaung, Free State the "Save The Soul Of EFF" Campaign was launched. On this day we pledged our commitment to struggle both inside and outside our revolutionary movement, towards a transparent and consultative leadership. We undertook to remain loyal to the EFF. We clarified that loyalty is in the first place to the realization of the seven cardinal pillars of the EFF and not to individuals. We committed ourselves to demonstrate to the whole world that EFF is a revolutionary movement that is against corruption and bad leadership and more specifically that it exists and operates in the interests of the black majority. We undertook to use the "Save The Soul Of EFF" Campaign as an instrument to cleanse the movement of all capitalist, compradoreial tendencies and corruption.
Currently our country is plagued by the anti black campaign of the ANC led government against "foreign nationals". The critical question in this context is how do we turn the war amongst our people into war against the anti black neo colonial system? Our situation of war among our people is a reflection of the crisis of neo colonialism on a continental and by extension a world wide scale. The inability of the Party to focus its efforts on redirecting the frustrations of South African blacks against the real enemy being neo colonialism is not in line with the politics of EFF. Also the Party's promotion of the anti black campaign by EFF KZN against so called Indians in KZN is concerning. This campaign was launched by EFF KZN and national leadership has been silent when called upon to condemn it as anti black and to this end give direction on the resolution the national question. The Party's clear lack of revolutionary direction regarding the two anti black campaigns as well as land and mines repossession has tainted the revolutionary image of the movement and this is in urgent need of rectification.
The tasks of the revolution in this context are clear. Right now the silence of the revolutionary movement to lead our people to respond to these tasks raises the biggest concern! What is to be done? This is where the "Save the Soul" campaign must play its role to develop the EFF into combat readiness mode so as to respond to the urgent and long term tasks of the revolution!
Land or death!
Victory is certain!
Save the Soul of EFF!
22 April 2015
By way of introduction I would like to locate Professor Mazrui's statement as a clarifying note worth taking. The South Afrikan situation remains the most precarious of condition where inequality is played out in violent confrontations between black bodies, but barely ever touches the white community. The emergence of the Economic Freedom Fighters as a force to be reckoned in the political sphere has made an impression locally and globally, but is it misdirected revolution or is there still potential to salvage what is good about the movement? Within or Without parliament - Is there still adequate space and time to -
RESPOND TO THE TASKS OF THE REVOLUTION! SAVE THE SOUL OF EFF!
After the NPA in Mangaung we looked at the strategic objective of the EFF, it's long/medium/short term goals, and it's program of action and we asked ourselves:
1. What have we lost?
2. What have we gained?
We are now living through the adverse implications of the NPA in Mangaung. What we experienced at the NPA was a loaded performance. It made us understand why ghost branches were approved at the highest levels of leadership, the CCT and its war council. We basically witnessed a ritual of power in a situation where almost 50% of expected delegates did not turn up. The obvious question in this context was, do we really have an organization?
Anyway, we looked at the stated strategic objective including the long, medium and short term goals of the EFF and questioned whether our actions contributed towards achieving or liquidating the said objective. We created and joined EFF to help develop a revolutionary movement consistent with a future where the total needs of our people are responded to. Those of us who are disciplined cadres within EFF consistently continue to demonstrate absolute fidelity to the ideas of EFF throughout our political life in the movement even when elected to formal positions of leadership. We condemned EFF leadership for corrupting the foundational principles of the movement and demanded that
they account to our people who voted for the EFF! We exposed the numerous problems regarding the misconduct of EFF leadership, in relation to:
1. leaderships violation of the EFF constitution that exposed their manipulation of the results of the NPA to ensure that only loyalists to them were elected to the CCT.
2. Open attempts to appropriate the legacies of Steve Biko, Robert Sobukwe, Thomas Sankara and Chris Hani into bourgeois state power and to this end get our people to consent to an order of things destined to relegate the black liberation project to the periphery.
3. Purging of those not loyal to Malema and Floyd from the movement without proper procedures being followed. All Leaders and Fighters that question the Malema leadership have been silenced.
4. The ridiculing, threatening and intimidation of members who try to hold leadership accountable for non compliance with the purport and spirit of the non negotiable cardinal pillars of the movement.
5. Turning the movement into a militia gang where fighters are commanded and thugs are hired by leadership to physically assault members who disagree with them.
6. Leaderships misuse and mismanagement of party funds.
7. Corruption of the resolution of the land question. EFF has moved from from calling for expropriation of all land to calling for the occupation of "unoccupied" municipal land only. On mining we are now targeting the mines of blacks for occupations and blockading. White interests remain secured!
When Khanyisile Lichfield-Tshabalala, Andile Mngxitama, Mpho Ramakatsa and Lucky Twala lodged a high court application in March this year accusing Julius Malema and Floyd Shivambu of under-handedness and corruption regarding both the financial affairs and the ideals of the EFF, the first three members were expelled and Lucky Twala was suspended from the party. Subsequently all four members were expelled from parliament.
It is important to note that the Court application lodged by the 4 EFF MPS asks for an order declaring the National People’s Assembly (NPA) held in December 2014 null and void and also that the current Central Command Team (CCT) has no legal capacity to undertake any disciplinary action against them. The 4 members indicate numerous instances of violation of the EFF constitution as well as the rules and guidelines governing the election of leadership. They provide evidence of how the NPA was compromised and how this has rendered its outcomes a nullity.
Following the EFF NPA in December 2014 and on on 21 February 2015 in Mangaung, Free State the "Save The Soul Of EFF" Campaign was launched. On this day we pledged our commitment to struggle both inside and outside our revolutionary movement, towards a transparent and consultative leadership. We undertook to remain loyal to the EFF. We clarified that loyalty is in the first place to the realization of the seven cardinal pillars of the EFF and not to individuals. We committed ourselves to demonstrate to the whole world that EFF is a revolutionary movement that is against corruption and bad leadership and more specifically that it exists and operates in the interests of the black majority. We undertook to use the "Save The Soul Of EFF" Campaign as an instrument to cleanse the movement of all capitalist, compradoreial tendencies and corruption.
Currently our country is plagued by the anti black campaign of the ANC led government against "foreign nationals". The critical question in this context is how do we turn the war amongst our people into war against the anti black neo colonial system? Our situation of war among our people is a reflection of the crisis of neo colonialism on a continental and by extension a world wide scale. The inability of the Party to focus its efforts on redirecting the frustrations of South African blacks against the real enemy being neo colonialism is not in line with the politics of EFF. Also the Party's promotion of the anti black campaign by EFF KZN against so called Indians in KZN is concerning. This campaign was launched by EFF KZN and national leadership has been silent when called upon to condemn it as anti black and to this end give direction on the resolution the national question. The Party's clear lack of revolutionary direction regarding the two anti black campaigns as well as land and mines repossession has tainted the revolutionary image of the movement and this is in urgent need of rectification.
The tasks of the revolution in this context are clear. Right now the silence of the revolutionary movement to lead our people to respond to these tasks raises the biggest concern! What is to be done? This is where the "Save the Soul" campaign must play its role to develop the EFF into combat readiness mode so as to respond to the urgent and long term tasks of the revolution!
Land or death!
Victory is certain!
Save the Soul of EFF!
22 April 2015
Thursday, April 16, 2015
Thursday, February 19, 2015
The Price Of Not Thinking Freely - Ideological Hunger and Land Hunger
MOTHERLAND OR DEATH!!! This was the battle-cry of the Burkinabe people under the grand leadership of the greatest president Afrika has ever seen.
Thomas Sankara would chant this mantra repeatedly and the people of Burkina Faso who rallied around him would echo the call. Until the people of Southern Afrika realize that the land of their Mother and Father is still under colonial and even black colonialist rule, there will be no end to the violence we inflict against each other, and there will be no end to the poverty we experience everyday. We need to see ourselves with new eyes, out of the ashes of the old dying world of exploitation and greed, we have to create NEW Values and New Systems -
" A change of values - that means a change in the creators of values. He who has to be a creator always has to destroy." -F.N.
What Ever happened to the value and inalienable right of free thinking and speaking?
Indeed, can we even dare to speak any kind of Truth the the powers that pretend to be without risking our very own lives?
In what one of the main opposition political party spokespersons has called "A Broken Country led by a broken man", can we even afford the luxury speaking effectively of true freedom of expression? Or is freedom just another charade. Another parade?
It seems to me that the very notion of Freedom needs further investigating.
While chatting about the transformation of educational institutions today, a sister reminded me that the greatest challenge for Afrikan self determination and progress today is that of "selective memory". She said that we the younger Africans in the South suffer from a lack of connectivity, a deficit of pan-Afrikan memory. If we knew what it means to be part of the Afrikan story from slavery, to colonialism and apartheid to now, we would not violate any fellow Afrikans right to belong and work anywhere in the continent.
Instead of fighting against one another and struggling for the crumbs that fall from the masters table, we would definitively call our leadership to account and demand restorative justice.
Essentially all our woes are tired multifariously to the problem of foreign invasion and occupation of what was once our birthright, our source for wealth, cultural expression and dignity.
If we are to speak clearly and frankly, We must begin with the question of Afrikan people's landlessness and impoverishment while a handful of foreigners lord it over them. If we do not have clear plans and a vision about our Land, then we might as well cease all other human rights.
We simply cannot create any value or even values if we speak from a place of landlessness.
We must use all our powers and all faculties to occupy and utilize the land for every conceivable progressive means and ends. Without land we are dehumanized and unmade. There is no culture without land and therefore there is no language and therefore there is no such entity as an Afrikan. The Afrikan becomes a creature attempting assimilation and integration to whiteness. Whiteness itself is a void when there is no blackness to exploit. We can end all forms of exploitation as soon as we deal decisively with the matter of land.
I heard someone on the radio, repeating the old false mantra that the question of land is an emotional matter. This is far from the truth.The question of Land is a LOGICAL matter, it is the crux of all political and sociological engagement.
We are led by a government which glorifies a constitution that defends the rights of thieves and criminals over justice and redress of pressing matters such as Who Are The Right Custodians of the Land and the true Sons and Daughters of the Soil?
Many deliberations have continued fruitlessly in half-hearted attempts to reshape the ownership, stewardship and tenure of the land called South Africa. But it appears as if after 21 years of wayward and neo-liberal policy choices concorted in cahoots with imperialist powers, the question of land ownership continues to be a sore point in this country.
This clearly indicates that there can never be any kind of social cohesion before economic freedom and guaranteed economic opportunities.
The celebrated constitution which was drafted more to appease the foreign stakeholders of the wealth of the land more than the original peoples of the land is loosely and carelessly based upon a troubling document called the Freedom Charter.
In this Freedom Charter there are numerous preposterous claims about who the land belongs to and many Southern Africans have been hard-pressed to question the validity of these claims.
Here is an excerpt from the Freedom Charter:
" The Land Shall be Shared Among Those Who Work It!
Restrictions of land ownership on a racial basis shall be ended, and all the land re-divided amongst those who work it to banish famine and land hunger;
The state shall help the peasants with implements, seed, tractors and dams to save the soil and assist the tillers;
Freedom of movement shall be guaranteed to all who work on the land;
All shall have the right to occupy land wherever they choose;
People shall not be robbed of their cattle, and forced labour and farm prisons shall be abolished."
Yet after 21 years of African National Congress misrule, the indigenous peoples of this country are still imprisoned in white owned farms, they are forced to labour for 10 years before they can have meagre shares in the produce of the land formerly owned by their fore-mothers and forefathers. The blacks of this country remain the most poor and most wretched people and they are terrorised whenever they attempt to occupy any land they may choose.Since much of the good land if owned by foreigners and private capitalists and white farmers, they cannot access their true wealth.
The state supplies mostly genetically modified seeds to poor black farmers and meagre support for small traders, while focusing on assisting large scale farming projects which sap the states resources for little or no profit.
We remain a people who are far from tasting the fruits of true freedom and we are spoonfed. Even our notions of freedom are deeply troubling. Phd students and other educated blacks continue to display a saddening inferiority complex to whiteness and to capital.
Leaders appear to lack a clear vision on what is to be done and those who step up with programs of action are quickly compromised by their lust for power and money.
What we need today are more unselfish leaders and the potential for that kind of leadership is within all of us. We can no longer afford demigogues and demigods. We Must become those whose character is shaped by the fire of truth rather than the blood of vengeance.
We are the ones we have been waiting for!!!
Thomas Sankara would chant this mantra repeatedly and the people of Burkina Faso who rallied around him would echo the call. Until the people of Southern Afrika realize that the land of their Mother and Father is still under colonial and even black colonialist rule, there will be no end to the violence we inflict against each other, and there will be no end to the poverty we experience everyday. We need to see ourselves with new eyes, out of the ashes of the old dying world of exploitation and greed, we have to create NEW Values and New Systems -
" A change of values - that means a change in the creators of values. He who has to be a creator always has to destroy." -F.N.
What Ever happened to the value and inalienable right of free thinking and speaking?
Indeed, can we even dare to speak any kind of Truth the the powers that pretend to be without risking our very own lives?
In what one of the main opposition political party spokespersons has called "A Broken Country led by a broken man", can we even afford the luxury speaking effectively of true freedom of expression? Or is freedom just another charade. Another parade?
It seems to me that the very notion of Freedom needs further investigating.
While chatting about the transformation of educational institutions today, a sister reminded me that the greatest challenge for Afrikan self determination and progress today is that of "selective memory". She said that we the younger Africans in the South suffer from a lack of connectivity, a deficit of pan-Afrikan memory. If we knew what it means to be part of the Afrikan story from slavery, to colonialism and apartheid to now, we would not violate any fellow Afrikans right to belong and work anywhere in the continent.
Instead of fighting against one another and struggling for the crumbs that fall from the masters table, we would definitively call our leadership to account and demand restorative justice.
Essentially all our woes are tired multifariously to the problem of foreign invasion and occupation of what was once our birthright, our source for wealth, cultural expression and dignity.
If we are to speak clearly and frankly, We must begin with the question of Afrikan people's landlessness and impoverishment while a handful of foreigners lord it over them. If we do not have clear plans and a vision about our Land, then we might as well cease all other human rights.
We simply cannot create any value or even values if we speak from a place of landlessness.
We must use all our powers and all faculties to occupy and utilize the land for every conceivable progressive means and ends. Without land we are dehumanized and unmade. There is no culture without land and therefore there is no language and therefore there is no such entity as an Afrikan. The Afrikan becomes a creature attempting assimilation and integration to whiteness. Whiteness itself is a void when there is no blackness to exploit. We can end all forms of exploitation as soon as we deal decisively with the matter of land.
I heard someone on the radio, repeating the old false mantra that the question of land is an emotional matter. This is far from the truth.The question of Land is a LOGICAL matter, it is the crux of all political and sociological engagement.
We are led by a government which glorifies a constitution that defends the rights of thieves and criminals over justice and redress of pressing matters such as Who Are The Right Custodians of the Land and the true Sons and Daughters of the Soil?
Many deliberations have continued fruitlessly in half-hearted attempts to reshape the ownership, stewardship and tenure of the land called South Africa. But it appears as if after 21 years of wayward and neo-liberal policy choices concorted in cahoots with imperialist powers, the question of land ownership continues to be a sore point in this country.
This clearly indicates that there can never be any kind of social cohesion before economic freedom and guaranteed economic opportunities.
The celebrated constitution which was drafted more to appease the foreign stakeholders of the wealth of the land more than the original peoples of the land is loosely and carelessly based upon a troubling document called the Freedom Charter.
In this Freedom Charter there are numerous preposterous claims about who the land belongs to and many Southern Africans have been hard-pressed to question the validity of these claims.
Here is an excerpt from the Freedom Charter:
" The Land Shall be Shared Among Those Who Work It!
Restrictions of land ownership on a racial basis shall be ended, and all the land re-divided amongst those who work it to banish famine and land hunger;
The state shall help the peasants with implements, seed, tractors and dams to save the soil and assist the tillers;
Freedom of movement shall be guaranteed to all who work on the land;
All shall have the right to occupy land wherever they choose;
People shall not be robbed of their cattle, and forced labour and farm prisons shall be abolished."
Yet after 21 years of African National Congress misrule, the indigenous peoples of this country are still imprisoned in white owned farms, they are forced to labour for 10 years before they can have meagre shares in the produce of the land formerly owned by their fore-mothers and forefathers. The blacks of this country remain the most poor and most wretched people and they are terrorised whenever they attempt to occupy any land they may choose.Since much of the good land if owned by foreigners and private capitalists and white farmers, they cannot access their true wealth.
The state supplies mostly genetically modified seeds to poor black farmers and meagre support for small traders, while focusing on assisting large scale farming projects which sap the states resources for little or no profit.
We remain a people who are far from tasting the fruits of true freedom and we are spoonfed. Even our notions of freedom are deeply troubling. Phd students and other educated blacks continue to display a saddening inferiority complex to whiteness and to capital.
Leaders appear to lack a clear vision on what is to be done and those who step up with programs of action are quickly compromised by their lust for power and money.
What we need today are more unselfish leaders and the potential for that kind of leadership is within all of us. We can no longer afford demigogues and demigods. We Must become those whose character is shaped by the fire of truth rather than the blood of vengeance.
We are the ones we have been waiting for!!!
Tuesday, January 27, 2015
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