Searchlight South Africa: a marxist journal of South African studies, Vol. 2, No. 2 http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.SFF.DOCUMENT.PSAPRCA0008 Use of the Aluka digital library is subject to Aluka’s Terms and Conditions, available at http://www.aluka.org/page/about/termsConditions.jsp. By using Aluka, you agree that you have read and will abide by the Terms and Conditions. Among other things, the Terms and Conditions provide that the content in the Aluka digital library is only for personal, non-commercial use by authorized users of Aluka in connection with research, scholarship, and education. The content in the Aluka digital library is subject to copyright, with the exception of certain governmental works and very old materials that may be in the public domain under applicable law. Permission must be sought from Aluka and/or the applicable copyright holder in connection with any duplication or distribution of these materials where required by applicable law. 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For more information about Aluka, please see http://www.aluka.org Searchlight South Africa: a marxist journal of South African studies, Vol. 2, No. 2 Alternative title Searchlight South Africa Author/Creator Hirson, Baruch; Trewhela, Paul; Ticktin, Hillel; Phahle, Rose; MacLellan, Brian Date 1991-01 Resource type Journals (Periodicals) Language English Subject Coverage (spatial) Angola, Namibia, Zambia, South Africa Coverage (temporal) 1991 Source Northwestern University Libraries, 320.509 68 S439 Description Table of contents: Third Worldism: The Albatross of Socialism; The Killing Fields of Southern Africa; A Death in South Africa: The Killing of Sipho Phungulwa; Dragons Teeth in South Africa; Welverdiend Spells Death: A Story of Overkill; The Kissinger/Vorster/Kaunde Detente:Genesis of the Swapo 'Spy-Drama', Part II; The Dualism of I B Tabata; The Commune of Bulhoek; The Passing of a Friend; The AFL-CIO and the Trade Unions in South Africa; The ANC Conference: From Kabwe to the Johannesburg Conference Format extent 98 page(s) (length/size) http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.SFF.DOCUMENT.PSAPRCA0008 http://www.aluka.org 1 1 1 1 - FRICA No. 6l January 1991 £3.50 The Killing Fleids of Southern Africa The Shooting of Sipho Phungulwa Inkatha versus the ANC The AFL-CIO and the Trade Unions in South Africa Yhe Swapo 'Spy -Drama', Part II ThOc Wordism - Albatross of Socialism 6i Lur 17 SEARCHLIGHT SOUTH AFRICA Vol2,No2(No6) , A Marxist Journal of South African Studies, / ; Editorial Third Worldism: The Albatross of Socialism 06 b 1) The Killing Fields of Southern Africa c1) Editors The Killing Fields of Southern Africa 9 P Trewhela A Death in South Africa: The Killing of Sipho Phungulwa if B Hirson Dragons Teeth in South Africa 25 B Oswin Welverdiend Spells Death: A Story of Overkill 38 P Trewhela The Kissinger/Vorster/Kaunda Detente: Genesis of the Swapo 'Spy-Drama', Part 1I 42 Obituary The Dualism of I B Tabata 59 Archive Frank Glass The Commune of Bulhoek 64 M Wade The Passing of a Friend 67 P'h.r ewhela The AFL-CIO and the Trade Unions in South Africa 69 Letter The ANC Conference: From Kabwe to the Johannesburg Conference 91 Cover Picture Picasso, Guerrica 1 Ist SEARCHLIGHT SOUTH AFRICA Published Quarterly Address: BCM 7646, London WC1N 3XX ISSN: 0954-3384 Editors: Banich Hixson, Paul Trewhela, Hillel Ticktin, Rose Phahle, Brian MacIellan. Annual Subscriptions Ind iidual £12 Institutions £24 - Special student offer £9 Abroad: add £4 p&p or$US/Canadian equivalent. Why finance the banks: Send dollar notes. Notes to Contributors: Articles and reviews, accompanied by IBM ASCII files on disk - if possible - should be submitted to the editors, typed or printed out, in one-anda-half, or double spacing. Articles should be between 4,000 and 7,000 words, but the editors will be flexible and will consider longer pieces. Short articles (other than letters) will only be accepted if they are of exceptional interest. Pseudonyms may be used but we need to know theanthor's identity. If substantial alterations would improve an article or review, the editors will communicate with the author before proceeding with publication. The editors reserve the right to alter grammar, spelling, punctuation or obvious errors in the text. Where possible, references should be included in the text, with sources listed at the end of the article, giving author, title, publisher and date. We regret the lateness of issue after issue. But we will try to meet our publication dates and early submissions will ensure early inclusion. Letters commenting on recent articles in Searchlight South Africa, or relating to current events in South Africa, will be printed as soon as possible. These contributions should not exceed 1,500 words and may be shortened to fit available space. Reviews of books will be by invitation and must be ready for the following issue of the journal. A REQUEST TO READERS If readers have documents of contemporary or historic interest that would bear republication, we would be pleased to receive them. They will be returned immediately. Editorial THIRD WORLDISM: THE ALBATROSS OF SOCIALISM Once Again On The Colonial Question One issue separatesSearchlightSouthAfrica from most other socialist journals focused on South Africa: the editors do not support the nationalist or 'populist' movements. This journal does not acclaim their 'armed struggle', rejects their programmes (whether couched in reformist or radical phrases) and argues the need for a movement which will rally that class in a struggle for socialism. Against the ideologues who proclaim the end of Marxism, and all the Stalinists who use the word communism to mislead, it is still necessary to state that a more human world society will be achieved through socialism. What then of the nationalist movements in South Africa? While defending their right to exist and protecting them against the attacks of the government, there can be no support for their political philosophy and no support for their intervention in the trade unions or any other working class movement. Any such attempt by these populist leaders can only lead to a betrayal of the workers. This conclusion is buttressed by the article on the AFL-CIO by Paul Trewhela in this issue. For Mr Mandela in New York to call upon an organization that was CIA fundedto assist in building a trade union movement in South Africa is unacceptable. For the vice president of Sactu, Chris Dhlamini, to echo that request would be inexplicable if it were not that he is one of the leaders of the Communist Party. From this it must follow that defence of those movements does not, and cannot, imply support for their aims, their tactics or their strategy. To do so would mean the end of an independent socialist movement, the betrayal of the working class and the repudiation of Marxism. It also means that it is not possible to accept any proposal that socialist groups immerse themselves in the populist stream. Elsewhere in this issue there is an obituary to I.B. Tabata, one of the founders and leaders of the Non-European Unity Movement (NEUM) since 1943. Tabata's first commitment to the political struggle came when he joined the Workers Party of South Africa in 1935. In private he always claimed allegiance to socialism and internationalism and there is no reason to believe that he meant otherwise. However, by placing himself at the head of the NEUM, or its main section, the All African Convention, Tabata always appeared publicly as a nationalist. No matter how often he denied that he was a nationalist, or that his politics had not moved away from socialism, he remained in the groove of 'liberation politics'. Yet Tabata's association with the WP was well known and the NEUM was always described as a Trotskyist movement. For nearly fifty years the South African Trotskyists were enmeshed in this dualism: a movement devoted ostensibly to internationalism and the working class that played nationalist politics, and nationalist politicians who were 2 Searchlight South Afica, Vol 2, No 2, fanuary 1991 condemned as Trotskyists. It was an albatross that hung around the neck of the anti-Stafinist left in South Africa. Tabata was not alone in pursuing his mythical socialism through a nationalist movement. Several of his co-leaders had the same philosophy and conducted the same dualist politics. cGoolaxn Gool, Ben Kies, Janub Gool, to mention only a few, came from the Workers party. other smaller Trotskyt groups affiliated with the NEUM, explaining their move in entryist terms. The Labour Party was rejected as segreationist consequently they would work inside the national movement and mere find their way to a mass audience. Leading Trotskyists in Cape Town, like -Ioea Jaffe of the Fourth International Organisation of South Africa (FI()SA), was elected to the executive of the NEUM. Except for one group in the Transvaal, there is no evidence that before the late 1970s any Trotskyists worked inside the trade union movement or tried specifically to organize a working class movement. Thus far had they moved from Marxsm.Only those who broke from the nationalist politics of the NEUM, but retained some of the Marxism they had first encountered (all so secretly) in that body, worked in the unions. But they did not have a Marxist movement behind them and when the time was obviously ripe for (he emergence of a workers' movement, they were unable to offer a lead. This criticism of Tabata is not meant to belittle the man. He devoted his life for the movement he helped create and he did not waver in his beliefs.