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The Afriocan The Afriocan co is INKULULEKO PUBLICATIONS Distributors of The African Communist PRICE AND SUBSCRIPTION AFRICA 10p per copy 40p per year post free Airmail £5.00 per year (Nigerian subscribers can send 1 Naira to our agent at KPS Bookshop, PMB 23, Afikpo, Imo State) BRITAIN 25p per copy £1.00 per year post free ALL OTHER COUNTRIES $1. Uu per cupy $4.00 per year post free Airmail $10.00 per year. US currency INKULULEKO PUBLICATIONS, 39 Goodge Street, London W.I. THE AFRICAN COMMUNIST Published quarterly in the interests of African solidarity, and as a forum for Marxist-Leninist thought throughout our Continent, by the South African Communist Party No. 68 First Quarter 1977 CONTENTS 5 EDITORIAL NOTES The Protection Racket in Southern Africa; Namibia's Struggle Enters a New Phase; Transkei Opportunists; Soviet-Angolan Agreement. Z. Nkosi 18 THE LESSONS OF SOWETO An analysis of the causes and consequences of the uprising of the oppressed black peoples in Soweto and other black townships last year. R.S. Nyameko and G. Singh 34 THE ROLE OF BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS IN THE SOUTH AFRICAN REVOLUTION The aims and work of the Black Consciousness organisations are analysed, and the authors conclude that they are not a substitute for but tributaries of the great river of liberation headed by the African National Congress. Alexander Sikebo 48 THE UNDERGROUND VOICE A discussion of the role played by the underground propaganda of the African National Congress and the Communist Party in sharpening the political consciousness of the masses in South Africa during the recent uprisings. A. Kalman 59 ISRAEL AND SOUTH AFRICA UNITE AGAINST BLACK LIBERATION A member of the Central Committee of the Israeli Communist Party discusses the alliance between Israel and South Africa which, together with Iran, aim to do the work of the imperialists in holding down the liberation movements in Africa and the Middle East. 69 CRISIS IN THE SOUTHERN SUDAN This historical analysis by a member of the Central Committee of the Sudanese Communist Party concludes that the solution of the problems of the Sudan, including the Southern Problem, can only be realised through the defeat of the whole Nimeiry regime and its system. 82 AFRICA: NOTES AND COMMENTS An historic advance - the founding of the Somali Revolutionary Socialist Party (SRSP); Ivory Coast "Economic Miracle" - a false image; Senegal - a bogus "Party ", Nigeria - a welcome venture. Dialego 89 WHAT IS DIALECTICAL MATERIALISM? The second in a series of four articles setting out the basic principles of Marxism as seen in the context of the South African liberation struggle. Scarlet Whitman 100 POEM 101 A SOVIET VIEW OF S.A. HISTORY An important contribution to the history of the South African working class and liberation struggle has been made in a book by the Soviet Africanist Professor A.B. Davidson. 112 BOOK REVIEWS Southern Africa - The New Politics of Revolution, by B. Davidson, J. Slovo and A.R. Wilkinson; Economics of Racism USA - Roots of Black Inequality, by Victor Perlo; Harry Pollitt, a Biography, by John Mahon. 126 DOCUMENTS Statements from the dock by David Rabkin and Jeremy Cronin, sentenced to 10 and 7 years respectively under the Terrorism and Internal Security Acts. 130 LETTER TO THE EDITOR From Sol Flapan, Warsaw. 131 CONTENTS LIST for THE AFRICAN COMMUNIST 1976 EDITORIAL NOTES Whichever way one evaluates the outcome of the Geneva conference on Zimbabwe, one consequence of the Kissinger diplomacy in Southern Africa is already glaringly apparent: both Smith and Vorster have been brought in out of the cold and made respectable. We have little doubt that both have also received assurances about the future indicating a preparedness by the Western imperialist powers to come to their aid in an extremity - assurances which could not be made public because they are not yet acceptable to world opinion and, it is to be hoped, will never become so. The very essence of Kissinger diplomacy is secrecy and deception if necessary deception of all parties, in the interests of U.S. security and the profitability of US investments. Was there ever a conference like the Geneva conference on Zimbabwe, convened without an agenda, without any preliminary conference document, without even agreement on what the conference is about? There was only one version of what Kissinger was proposing by way of a settlement, and that version came from the mouth of Ian Smith. From the very outset this justified the suspicion of the leaders of the African liberation movements, for Smith has time and again made it abundantly clear that in his view majority rule does not mean one man one vote, so that by committing himself to majority rule in two years he is committing himself to nothing certainly not to the "counting of heads", which is his contemptuous dismissal of the idea of votes for all. What, then, is the purpose of the United States diplomacy? A hint comes from a report published in the "Star" on October 7 last year stating: "A priority now, in the official Rhodesian view, is to legitimise themsleves and thereby win international support for the security forces in the fight which Rhodesians now say is clearly not black against white but communism against the West". Yes, it might be argued, that may be Smith's aim, but what of Kissinger himsel?. On August 30, 1976, speaking to an audience of black Americans in Philadelphia, Kissinger said the main aim of his forthcoming talks with Vorster in Zurich was to get South Africa to commit itself to blackruled independence in Zimbabwe and Namibia. "The white population of Rhodesia and Namibia must recognise that majority rule is inevitable. The only issue is what form it will take and how it will come about". Since Vorster, Smith and the Turnhalle conference in Windhoek have all declared for majority rule by the end of 1978, it stands to reason that they mean something different from what the rest of the world understands by majority rule. Smith in fact has declared it means rule by a majority of civilised men, which in effect means continued white minority domination. While the white delegation at the Turnhalle talks is trying to steer the decisions towards a Bantustan-type division of the country which would leave the whites in majority control of "their" area which, in addition to containing the major economic resources of the territory, would also classify the black majority as citizens of a foreign country and therefore not entitled to the vote. In his same Philadephia speech, Kissinger made his long-term objective a little clearer by coming to the defence of the white minority in South Africa itself. "The world and most black African leaders recognise South Africa as an African country", he said. "Its white settlers have lived on African soil for centuries. No one, including the responsible leaders of black Africa, challenges their right to be there. Unlike Rhodesia and Namibia, South Africa cannot be regarded as an illegitimate government, as an outside colonial intrusion". Thus the aim of United States policy is clearly no more than to produce some kind of settlement in Zimbabwe and Namibia which would end their illegitimacy, thus clearing the way for full-scale support, political, economic and military, for the South African apartheid regime, regarded since the defeat of the imperialist intervention in Angola as the only remaining reliable, and viable, bastion of the west in the sub-continent. True, South Africa is still something of an embarrassment to the West, and in his Philadelphia speech Kissinger was constrained to admit that "South Africa's internal structure is incompatible with any concept of human dignity". But the US is still prepared to accept South Africa as an ally, and most significantly Kissinger has not once declared his support for majority rule in South Africa itself, nor presented any specific demands to South Africa. For their part, the South African racists have always been aware of their value to the West. In the words of the London director of the South African Foundation, Mr Roy McNab, in an address to an international conference in Amsterdam last October, the West needs South Africa for its riches and resources, many of them vital to Western industry, and for its strategic value in preventing "the communists gaining control of the whole of Southern Africa". At the same time, said McNab, America could not give the impression that she was giving any kind of help to an unreformed South Africa. "It may well be that America will put pressure on South Africa to smarten herself up so that she can be readmitted, respectably, to the club where it is essential for the United States to have her" he said. (Star, October 28, 1976.) Thus the United States today deals with Vorster as an equal, and includes South Africa as an equal partner with the United States and Britain in discussions about multi-million dollar aid funds for the "protection" of white interests in Zimbabwe. The mass murderer of Soweto, Gugulethu and Bonteheuwel is numbered amongst the angels in the imperialist hierarchy. And to ensure that Vorster is kept supplied with the necessary hardware to shoot down schoolchildren by the hundreds in the black townships where they dare to demonstrate for their rights, the US, Britain and France last October vetoed once again a Security resolution calling for a mandatory arms embargo on South Africa. In the UN General Assembly in the same month the United States rejected demands from the majority of delegates that it sever its political, economic and military ties with South Africa, and was joined in this stand by the nine nations of the European Economic Community who formally declared, through the Netherlands Ambassador, that they had decided "that it is their duty and responsibility to keep open a channel of communication and to continue to make .our views known to the government and people of South Africa so that the policy of apartheid may finally be brought to an end".