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“Amandla”: A new voice from within the So. African Left By Bill Fletcher In South Africa this past June, Amandla (www.amandla.org.za), an on-line and hard-copy journal, emerged from within overlapping sections of the South African Left. Amandla appeared on the scene as a means for the summation of the South African experience and a mechanism for badly needed debate within the Left. The South African Left has been torn by its own internal contradictions. Those who have aligned themselves with the South African Communist Party have tended to favor the continuation of the tripartite alliance of the African National Congress, the Congress of South African Trade Unions, and the South African Communist Party, despite the grip that neo-liberalism has held on the ANC-led government. Separate from this section of the South African Left can be found at least two other components: smaller radical Left political parties, normally very critical of the tripartite alliance; and an altogether different amalgam of groupings that tend to be what can be described as the South African social movement Left (e.g., anti-HIV/AIDS; Clean water movements; anti-poverty). These components of the South African Left have all but ignored each other except to attack one another. Into this mix has stepped Amandla, which has served as a political project to promote dialogue within and between the factions. Amandla is important for those of us in the USA both for giving us insight into the thinking within South Africa, as well as for, hopefully, inspiring us to do likewise in the USA. In terms of giving us insight into South Africa, the South African Left, regardless of any problems it faces, remains among the most vibrant on the planet. It is confronting issues of national and regional economic development in the face of imperialism, as well as attempting to address the challenge of building a pro-socialist movement in a post-liberation society. The latter is noteworthy for many reasons, not the least being that the South African Left often finds itself up against former comrades, individuals who know all the right words and phrases of the Left, but who use them to advance a different set of class interests. The result of such a reconfiguration is impossible to predict, but it might, perhaps, result in the gelling of a new national-popular bloc that advances 21st century politics against neo-liberalism. ...Readers should look at Amandla through the eyes of members of the radical Left on this side of the ‘pond’ who are seeking knowledge and analysis of the situation in Africa, but also as those attempting to draw lessons for how we can qualitatively change the state of the US Left. Publications have historically had the potential, and actuality, to serve to challenge and, in some cases, change the discourse in movements. Drawing from that lesson we should ponder, in turning the pages of Amandla, whether we would benefit from such a project. Bill Fletcher, Jr. is an international and labor writer and activist. He is a Senior Scholar with the Institute for Policy Studies in Washington, DC, and is the immediate past president of TransAfrica Forum. He can be reached at [EMAIL PROTECTED] _______________________________________________ Marxism-Thaxis mailing list [email protected] To change your options or unsubscribe go to: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism-thaxis
