The African The African Communist NO.102 THIRD QUARTER 1985 THE FIGHTING YOUTH OF SOUTH AFRICA INKULULEKO PUBLICATIONS Distributors of The African Communist SUBSCRIPTION PRICE AFRICA £d. 00 per year including postage £8. 00 airmail per year (Readers in Nigeria can subscribe bw sending 8 Naira to New Horizon Publications, p.o. Box 2165, Mushin Lagos, or to KPS Bookshop, PNIB 1023, Afikpo, lmo State) BRITAIN £4. 00 per year including postage NORTH AMERICA ALL OTHER COUNTRIES $8. 00 per year including postage $15. 00 airmail per year £4. 00 per year including postage £8. 00 airmail per year Single copies: £1, $2 INKULULEKO PUBLICATIONS, 39 Goodge Street, London WI P 1 FD ISSN 0001 -9976 Proprietor: Moses Mabhida The African Communist is available on microfilm and microfiche from University Microfilm International, 300 North Zeeb Road, Department P.R., Ann Arbor, Mi. 48106, U.S.A. Phototypesetting and artwork by Carlinpoint Ltd. (T.U.) 5 Dryden Street, London WC2 Printed by Interdruck Leipzig 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 102 Third Quarter 1985 CONTENTS 5 Editorial Notes The Freedom Charter can put an end to bloodshed; Our Party paper. Thandi Dube 21 The Fighting Youth of South Africa The political struggle in our country in the recent past has been characterised by the vital role of the youth and students in the broad frontline of the liberation formations. Toussaint 32 In Search of Ideology: A Critical Look at Azapo The Azanian People's Organisation says it is committed to a socialist solution for South Africa but has so far failed to develop an ideology or study and learn from historical experience. 46 Aims of The South African Communist Party Extract from the new constitution adopted at the 6th Congress of the SACP. William Khanyile unit of the CP 47 There Are No Short Cuts to Victory A unit of the Communist Party in South Africa discusses the problems of mobilisation, organisation and politicisation confronting comrades working in the underground. Khotso Molekane 58 Lesotho's Struggle to Safeguard Independence The Secretary of the Central Committee of the Lesotho Communist Party describes the realignment of political forces in Lesotho in the face of the threat from South Africa. Comrade Mzala 66 On the Threshold of Revolution The countrywide uprisings in South Africa open up the perspective of the arming of the masses and the replacement of the racist state by people's power. 78 Mikhail Gorbachov - New Secretary of the CPSU Fidel Castro 80 Cuba's Role in Africa An interview with three correspondents of the Washington Post explaining the reasons for Cuban involvement in Angola and Ethiopia. Du Bois 90 Africa Notes and Comment Sudan: The end of a dictatorship. Semou Pathe Gufyf 101 Senegal Marxists Chart A New Course The Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party of Independence and Labour describes the steps taken by the Party's recent congress to improve its ideological and organisational strength and increase its influence in the country. Ahmed Azad 111 The Fight For World Peace Aids Our Fight For Freedom There is an intimate connection between the fight for national liberation and the fight for world peace. We must all play our part in the world peace movement. 120 Book Reviews Native Life in South Africa, by Sol Plaatje; Anglo-American and the Rise of Modern South Africa, by Duncan Innes. 124 Letters to the Editor Production relations under apartheid, from Stofilis; On British and US chicanery in Guyana, fromJanetJagan; An author replies, from Brian Willan. EDITORIAL NOTES THE FREEDOM CHARTER CAN PUT AN END TO BLOODSHED June 26,1985, marked the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the Freedom Charter at the historic Congress of the People at Kliptown, Transvaal, on South African Freedom Day, 1955. Beneath the great, green four-spoked Freedom Wheel, the symbol of the Congress of the People campaign, the 2,844 elected delegates who had come from every corner of the country pledged to strive, sparing neither strength nor courage, to win the democratic changes set out in the Charter. Then they went home, probably scarcely realising the full significance of what they had done. They had held congresses before - many of them - adopted declarations, issued appeals, voiced their grievances, made demands for an end to the oppressive F v z / apartheid system. In 1952 nearly 10,000 of them had gone to jail in the great Defiance Campaign against unjust laws, enduring every form of punishment and humiliation in their determination to be free; some had even given their lives. Could the speaking and writing of a few words achieve more than that, raise the struggle to a higher level? Perhaps only this year, when a multitude of organisations and individuals throughout the country joined in ceremonies to commemorate the adoption of the Charter, can the full significance of the Charter and the Congress that gave birth to it be properly evaluated. Overcoming all the attempts of the apartheid regime to destroy it, as well as a mass of pettifogging objections from the ultra-left and the ultra-right within the ranks of the anti-apartheid movement itself, the Freedom Charter is now clearly seen by friend and foe alike as the picture of the alternative South Africa which must replace the racist state now tottering towards its demise. It is stamped with the authority not only of the expressive language in which it is couched but also the history of the struggle to produce it and transform it into reality. The Freedom Charter is today an institution which can never be demolished or erased from South African minds. It is an idea whose time has come. How It Started The idea of the Congress of the People was first mooted by ANC leader Professor Z. K. Matthews in an address to the Cape provincial congress of the ANC in August 1953. The conference adopted the proposal, which was endorsed by the ANC's national conference in December of the same year. The South African Indian Congress, the South African Coloured People's Organisation and the Congress of Democrats joined in support of the idea and ajoint Action Council of the four organisations was set up to conduct the campaign. A corps of Freedom Volunteers was created to be the core of the campaign, making themselves available to the organisers for whatever work in whatever place they were required. The text and terms of the Freedom Charter are now well known in South Africa and abroad. Less well known is the "Call to the Congress of the People" issued by the National Action Council, in itself a most poetic document which struck a chord in the hearts of all who heard it. "We call the people of South Africa black and white - let us speak together of freedom! "We call the farmers of the reserves and trust lands. Let us speak of the wide land, and the narrow strips on which we toil. Let us speak of brothers without land, and of children without schooling. Let us speak of taxes and of cattle, and of famine. LET US SPEAK OF FREEDOM. "We call the miners of coal, gold and diamonds. Let us speak of dark shifts, and the cold compounds far from our families. Let us speak of heavy labour and long hours, and of men sent home to die. Let us speak of rich masters, and poor wages. LET US SPEAK OF FREEDOM. "We call the workers of farms and forests. Let us speak of the rich foods we grow, and the laws that keep us poor. Let us speak of harsh treatment and of children and women forced to work. Let us speak of private prisons, and beatings and of passes. "We call the workers of factories and shops. Let us speak of the good things we make, and the bad conditions of our work. Let us speak of the many passes and the fewjobs. Let us speak of foremen and of transport and trade unions; of holidays and of houses. LET US SPEAK OF FREEDOM. "We call the teachers, students and the preachers. Let us speak of the light that comes with learning, and the ways we are kept in darkness. Let us speak of the great services we can render, and of the narrow ways that are open to us. Let us speak of laws, and governments, and rights. LET US SPEAK OF FREEDOM. "We call the housewives and mothers. Let us speak of the fine children that we bear, and of their stunted lives. Let us speak of the many illnesses and deaths, and of the few clinics and schools. Let us speak of high prices and of shanty towns. LET US SPEAK OF FREEDOM. "Let us speak together. All of us together - African and European, Indian and Coloured. Voter and voteless. Privileged and rightless. The happy and the homeless. All the people of South Africa; of the towns and the countryside. "Let us speak together of freedom. And of the happiness that can come to men and women if they live in a land that is free. Let us speak of freedom. And of how to get it for ourselves, and for our children". And the call continued, giving details of how the Congress of the People was to be organised, how the people should send in their demands for incorporation in the Freedom Charter, how they should hold discussions and elect delegates. ANC President-General Chief A.