How cheap AIDS drugs (Doug H's list)

Patrick Bond pbond at wn.apc.org
Tue Jul 18 11:31:23 PDT 2000



> From: Peter van Heusden <pvh at egenetics.com>
> There's some evidence (Chatsworth protests, some campaigns like the TAC
> and Jubilee 2000) that a significant layer of people who take political
> action independently of the ANC structures is emerging.

A couple of days ago, the head of the ANC, Kgalema Motlanthe, began to publicly express frustration at "limbo socialists... who draft resolutions from their armchairs."

Plenty of us around, and some even get out of the armchairs--all within the last month, to heckle Larry Summers after a speech at Pretoria University; to confront Michael Moore at the Durban session of the World Economic Forum; to break in on Horst Koehler's sales job to the corporatist bargaining forum in Jo'burg; to toss water balloons at SA's main privatisers during a Jo'burg workshop a week ago; to stampede a US embassy debt-relief blahblah at the Durban AIDS conference the next day; and to disrupt the closing of a mega-conference at Wits University on Friday where very neoliberal university and city leaders were giving plenary addresses (both the latter were once hard-boiled marxists... but have realised no return at all on that dried-up old social capital).

Hot times in cold South Africa, right now.

The ANC's neolib core leadership disapprove of all of the above, I would suspect, though an extremely committed young layer of the SA Communist Party has emerged in all of these struggles. Most importantly, when not under leadership pressure to cut corporatist deals, the workers also emerge in their millions (4 mn out on general strike on May 10 to protest job-killing macroeconomic policies).

I'll cc this to our South Africa list of naughty people, to see if they have anything to add.

(If anyone wants in, it's easy: write to majordomo at sunsite.wits.ac.za then write: subscribe debate youremail )



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