Cde Dominic, Shouldn't we all register with Skype for live online purposes? My Skype address is xoli.dlabantu.
Most kind comradely regards, Xoli Dlabantu On 10/8/09, Dominic Tweedie <[email protected]> wrote: > <http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_D4UK2kWf5ik/Ss3DBrpazZI/AAAAAAAABcE/tkCSGo9ubF4/s1600-h/GDR3.png> > > [CU for Friday, 9 October 2009] > > What’s wrong with the Green Paper (linked below) on National Strategic > Planning? > > It is a discussion document. The SACP has called for more time to discuss > it. COSATU’s General Secretary has lambasted it. NEHAWU has lambasted it. > But they have not made clear what is wrong with central planning. NEHAWU > wrote (on Tuesday) that: > > *“It is a known fact that the need for a high level planning and the > planning commission and other modalities towards the establishment of the > developmental state were agreed upon at the Alliance summit in October 2008. > * > > * * > > *“NEHAWU therefore believes that it is only proper that the Green Paper > should be considered in the impending Alliance summit and that this should > take place prior to further processes in parliament and government.”* > > Our concern in this series is with the pre-SACP-Special-National-Congress > debates. The Green Paper has to be taken in this series. It is directly > relevant to the SACP discussions. It is taken as the eighth out of ten, > where the remaining two places are reserved for the SACP’s announced > discussion documents on: “Industrial Strategy and Rural Development”, and on > “The State and the Future of Local and Provincial Government”, (which should > be sufficient to conclude the series, when they come out). > > We must discuss this Green Paper, and we must discuss it on its merits. Its > greatest merit is that it makes a strong case for regular planning on three > “time horizons”: 1-year Programmes of Action, 5-year Medium Term > “Frameworks” corresponding to a maximum term of office between elections; > and Long-Term, plus/minus 15-year, “Visions”. It makes this case in > common-sense or bourgeois-bureaucratic terms, but given that limitation, yet > it does not compromise with neo-liberalism. The necessity for planning has > become orthodoxy. > > For those of us who have been banging the planning drum for many years > past, this is a moment of deep joy. > > The Green Paper is not itself a plan, but it commits the Minister to > produce the first plan within a year from now. It lays down the process by > which the planning will be done – centrally, of course, but transparently, > and not secretly or pre-emptively. > > The major de-merit of the Green Paper from a communist point of view is > shown by its frequent mention of something resembling an imaginary table of > weaknesses and problems. In this list you find women, children, the disabled > and the old, and those with low “social status”- meaning the working class. > Race, gender and lack of education are mentioned, but never “class”, or the > “working class”. Instead, where race is mentioned you get more (balancing?) > remarks about low “social status”, as if being working class is a disability > or a disease that needs to be palliated, treated or cured. > > The class struggle may be the engine of history, the Green Paper seems to > imply, but it can’t be considered in plans. The plans imagined in the Green > Paper will be curative courses of treatment for ills. If this remains > unchanged, the strategic plans produced by the process described are bound > to fall far short of what is necessary. > > The historical measure of change and of progress is the rate of class > formation. The basis of Chinese revolutionary planning success in the last > sixty years, for example, has been their constant attention to class > formation. (Even their few, now-long-past failures were a consequence of the > same, correct, focus). > > None of the goods, whether public or private that the planning process is > designed to maximise will be secure unless there is a steady and eventually > overwhelming growth of the working class. By treating the working class as a > “social status” problem, the Green Paper has the whole matter upside down, > and will fail, if it does not get corrected. > > Without any positive class orientation, the planning process as outlined in > the Green Paper will default back to conservative bourgeois utilitarianism. > The determination towards planning that the Green Paper represents is a > great leap forward, but it will come to nothing if the planning process is > not infused with revolutionary class-consciousness. This is a job for the > communists, and we must get to work on it. > > The objections of NEHAWU and of COSATU have not up to now revealed any > matters of substance that could be a cause for conflict, but only matters of > protocol. There is a great deal inside the Green Paper, too, about protocol > and government etiquette. Whether these things are really crucial will > become apparent, provided transparency is observed, and will be capable of > correction. > > We as the Communist University have always dwelt in the public realm, where > “a cat may look at a King”. So long as planning is a public process, and the > communists are not lazy, then we should be able to get a result, with or > without any elaborate prior protocols and laid-down pecking orders. > > While this series has been going on it has been debated, and there has been > feedback, including one full-dress Economic Policy planning document for > South > Africa by Xoli Dlabantu (linked). Contributions that are conceived and > executed at this bold scale make one extremely proud to be involved with > this rolling-mass-university we call the CU. > > Many, many thanks Cde Xoli. > > [Graphic: Symbol of the former German Democratic Republic, a good friend to > South Africa, founded 60 years ago this week] > > *Click on these links:* > > *SA Government Green Paper on National Strategic > Planning<http://amadlandawonye.wikispaces.com/Green+Paper+on+National+Strategic+Planning,+2009> > * (14354 words) > > *National Integrated Development Strategy, Xoli > Dlabantu<http://amadlandawonye.wikispaces.com/National+Integrated+Development+Strategy,+Xoli+Dlabantu> > * (3799 words) > > > > -- > Blog at: http://domza.blogspot.com/ > Communist University web site at: http://amadlandawonye.wikispaces.com/ > Subscribe for free e-mail updates at: > http://groups.google.com/group/Communist-University/ > Library of documents (CU "CD") at: http://cu.domza.net/ > [email protected] > > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You are subscribed. 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