> This is a serious marxist statement from an organisation that knows that
> capitalism is still very much in the ascendant in South Africa, but also
> knows that tens of thousands of lives may get sacrificed in the struggle
> for justice if bourgeois democratic rights are not respected and if
> fascists have a free hand.
Chris,
Anyone who knows the SACP knows that their most important function in South African society today is to tie the working class to the black bourgeoisie, through their participation in the Alliance with the ANC.
The ANC's position on the National Question (put forward by Pallo Jordan at the last ANC congress) clearly subordinates the interest of the black working class to the ascendancy of the black bourgeoisie. The SACP verbally chirp every now and then about the ANC's policies, but when the times comes, it will allow itself to be lashed into line by the ANC (like happened at their last Congress).
The South African Welfare minister, Geraldine Fraser-Moloketi, is a member of the SACP, yet she was responsible for gutting the child welfare system in South Africa (after coming to the amazing conclusion that a child requires R 75 / month to live - that's about 7.50 pounds a month). When South Africa invaded Lesotho last year, the SACP's response was a remarkable display of dilly-dallying.
Your acclaim for the SACP as a principled Marxist organisation is bizarre.
Peter -- Peter van Heusden : pvanheus at hgmp.mrc.ac.uk : PGP key available 'The demand to give up illusions about the existing state of affairs is the demand to give up a state of affairs which needs illusions.' - Karl Marx