its a shame that still the only party to speak sense in this whole issue is SASCO, statements like these are still not providing a framework to resolve disputes but are helping to fan the flames of a argument that never should have taken place. im very disapointed that it was released to the independent at this stage in the game
On Dec 20, 12:02 pm, Dominic Tweedie <[email protected]> wrote: > The communists are not only insulting us, they are holding us back, says ANC > Youth League > > > Floyd Shivambu, Sunday Independent, Johannesburg, 20 December 2009 > > THE perceived or real attack on the incumbent leadership of the SA Communist > Party (SACP) and Young Communist League (YCL) began with the SACP's (or > should I say Jeremy Cronin's) response to the ANC Youth League's (ANCYL) > emphasis that our struggle should begin to actualise and practicalise the > emancipation of the black majority and Africans, in particular. > > The SACP's response was to label the call for "Africans in particular" as > narrow Africanist chauvinism. > > It is Cronin who resurrected the concept of "narrow Africanist chauvinism" > because at the Cosatu political school, which preceded an SACP central > committee meeting by a week, he spoke in detail about "Africanist chauvinism" > in response to the observation by the ANCYL president that Africans are not > occupying strategic positions in the cabinet's economic cluster. > > The statement of the SACP central committee a week later reflected the same > words and sentiment used by Cronin at the Cosatu school, but it was captured > in the media as the words of SACP general secretary Blade Nzimande. > > Cronin also used the Cosatu platform to suggest that the ANCYL's perspective > on mine nationalisation is sponsored by indebted BEE components, who are > interested in being bailed out and nothing else. > > Cronin's was a sad intervention. In the ANCYL's first response on its website > on August 27, youth league president Julius Malema appealed to the SACP > leadership to engage with the ANCYL openly. > > He specifically said: "We believe that those who intend to engage with us > should do so in an open and instructive manner because we are youth and would > not intend to degenerate a discussionthrough name-calling and labelling". > > There was, however, the persistence of the same labelling, now called > characterisation, which sought to reduce the debate of the ANCYL to > chauvinism, justified by comrade Buti Manamela's waffles in an ANC Today > article. > > After the YCL national committee meeting, Manamela made an insulting remark > which isolated the president of the ANCYL from the organisation, undermining > and questioning his intellectual capacity. > > This was, by the way, after YCL national chairman David Masondo warned that > we should desist from that. > > During these events, a debate on nationalisation was happening with the full > backing of the YCL and Cosatu. The Gauteng YCL in particular took to task any > leader of the ANC who disagreed with nationalisation, and the national YCL > questioned the bona fides of National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) general > secretary Frans Baleni when he disagreed with nationalisation. > > The Gauteng YCL released a personalised statement on Matthews Phosa - which > was condemned by the ANC national working committee - and the youth league > did not enter the discussion because we also felt Phosa was out of line in > reassuring imperialists. > > Cronin then entered the nationalisation debate in an arrogant, heavy-handed > fashion - isolating, undermining and insulting the president of the ANCYL. > His input was reactionary and racist. Sadly, Cronin was responding to the > ANCYL after having ignored the conceptual framework sent to him for comment > and enrichment. > > The ANCYL responded and exposed the weaknesses of his input on > nationalisation. Its response was consistent with what he did and what the > Gauteng YCL did (on Phosa) and what the national YCL did (on Baleni); we said > that in this debate, messiahs are not required to assist the youth to think. > > Cronin then read the article the youth league had asked him to read and > subsequently apologised for his racism. > > The ANCYL accepted the apology, and instead of apologising back we took it > beyond an apology and showered him with praise as one of our best > intellectuals in the revolution, in the hope that he would come right and > assist the discussion. > > But still Cronin continued his inputs with undertones that suggested that the > ANCYL was doing its work on behalf of big business - basically suggesting > that we cannot think and that we are corrupted by black businessmen. > > The president of the ANCYL was then booed by the delegates at the SACP > special congress. > > The booing was sad because for the two weeks ahead of the congress the > president of the ANCYL had been speaking about the need to engage with > communists and to convince the congress to take a resolution on mine > nationalisation. > > The youth league's first reaction to the booing was constructive and sought > to indicate that we are not an enemy of the SACP and that we will speak > further to consolidate on nationalisation. > > Then came Manamela's address to the congress and Cronin's television > interview, in which he said the booing was a "lesson" to the president of the > ANCYL. > > Insulting songs that were sung during the plenary session insulting the ANCYL > president were not condemned by the leadership of the SACP and the > environment was evidently hostile to fair engagement. > > Then the SACP central committee's political report contained overt insults > aimed at the leadership of the youth league and even suggested that the > leadership of the league was heavily funded, corrupt and basically unable to > conceptualise anything in line with the movement's progressive programmes. > > The ANCYL was ready to constructively engage with the Communist Party on > deeper ideological questions despite the heckling and booing from congress > delegates. After a careful consideration and persuasion from provinces and > regions, the youth league national working committee was left with no option > but to respond in the manner it did. > > The address to the National Press Club was arranged before the SACP congress, > and the ANCYL national working committee decided to use the platform to > respond to some of the things that had taken place. > > Deeper ideological questions and debates should indeed happen so that we are > able to altogether dismiss the SACP's misdiagnosis of the enemy. The SACP is > not adequately radical and, at the pace it is moving, it will delay the > attainment of the aims and objectives of the Freedom Charter. > > The attainment of the Freedom Charter's objectives should never be > compromised, and all revolutionaries should without shame contribute to such. > > If that is the SACP and Youth League's common programme, then there is no > crisis. > > If there is ever any crisis, it is the crisis of the SACP's ideological > coherence and political programme. Otherwise, we are cool. > Floyd Shivambu is an NEC member and national spokesman of the ANCYL. He also > heads the ANCYL's political education, policy and research. > From:http://www.sundayindependent.co.za/index.php?fArticleId=5292761 > > > > sindy.jpg > 9KViewDownload -- You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. 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