African Communist, No. 111 http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.SFF.DOCUMENT.0001.9976.000.111.1987 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. Aluka is a not-for-profit initiative dedicated to creating and preserving a digital archive of materials about and from the developing world. For more information about Aluka, please see http://www.aluka.org African Communist, No. 111 Alternative title African Communist Author/Creator South African Communist Party Publisher South African Communist Party Date 1987 Resource type Magazines (Periodicals) Language English Subject Coverage (spatial) South Africa Coverage (temporal) 1987 Description Editorial Notes; 70 Years of Liberation; A Page from the Diary of a Communist; How Close is Final Victory?; How the ANC was Revived by the Youth League; Working Class must lead our National Liberation Struggle; Bayete Nkalakata! uShaka Ka Senzangakhona'; Great Advances on the Trade Union Front; Africa Notes and Comment; The Triple Oppression of African Women in South Africa; Book Reviews; Letters to the Editor. Format extent 131 page(s) (length/size) http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.SFF.DOCUMENT.0001.9976.000.111.1987 http://www.aluka.org Alý -UA Alý -UA INKULULEKO PUBLICATIONS Distributors of The African Communist SUBSCRIPTION PRICE AFRICA £4. 0 per year including postage £8. 0 airmail per year (Readers in Nigeria can subscribe by sending 8 Naira to New Horizon Publications, p.o. Box 2165, Mushin Lagos, or to KPS Bookshop, P.MB 1023, Afikpo, Imo State) BRITAIN £4. 0 per year including postage NORTH AMERICA ALL OTHER COUNTRIES $8. 0 per year including postage $15. 0 airmail per year £4. 0 per year including postage £8. 00 airmail per year Single copies: £1, $2 INKULULEKO PUBLICATIONS, 39 Goodge Street, London WlP 1FD ISSN 0001-9976 Proprietor: Dan Tloome 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 Pubfislwd quarterly In the interest of Afica solidarity, and as a forum for Marxist- Leninist thought throhout our Continent, by the South African Communist Party. BANNED IN SOUTHA This notice reminds reade $steversity of Cape rown is oppposed to J fkem of censorship, which undermines om and restricts the potential contri university and others to South Afric University of Cape Town Is requir Wply with the rules and regulations pertalnl o p, but does so under protest. No 111 Fourth Quarter 1987 CONTENTS 5 Editorial Notes The October Revolution is for everybody; The Dakar get-together; Buthelezi is part of the system; Greetings from SWAPO; Obituary. William Pomeroy 20 70 Years of Liberation An analysis of the influence exerted over the years by the most important event of the 20th Century. Theresa 34 A Page from the Diary of a Communist In honour of the 70th anniversary of Great October. Inquilab 39 How Close is Final Victory? Some thoughts on the perspectives of struggle. For millions of our people life has become synonymous with the fight for freedom. Comrade Mzala 50 How the ANC was Revived by the Youth League A 70th birthday tribute to President Tambo from one ofthe Soweto generation. Diago 63 Working Class Must Lead our National Liberation Struggle An analysis of some conceptual considerations underlying the relationship between national and class struggle. Thando Zuma 76 "Bayete Nkalakata! uShaka Ka Senzangakhona" On the bicentenary of the birth of Shaka, King of the Zulu nation. R.E. Nyameko 85 Great Advances on the Trade Union Front Despite the co-operation of the bosses and the state in the processes of repression, workers' unity is growing apace and some magnificent victories have been won. Ahmed Azad 92 Africa Notes and Comment Egypt: The Communists and the elections; Mozambique: An historic visit. Phasha Mwandla 101 The Triple Oppression of African Women in South Africa True emancipation of women will only come with the liberation of the working class. We need to dismantle the institutions of national and racial oppression and class exploitation. 108 Book Reviews Resettlement and Rehabilitation, Ethiopia's Campaign Against Famine, by John Clarke; Up Against the Fences, Passes and Privilege in South Africa, edited by Hermann Giliomee and Lawrence Schlemmer; Resistance and Ideology in Settler Societies, by Tom Lodge et al; Flashback Beirut 1982, by Abu Attayib; The World of Nat Nakasa, edited by Essop Patel. Film Review: Come and See, directed by Elem Klimov, and Platoon, directed by Oliver Stone. 125 Letters to the Editor From Moreku Gaitherule and A.M., Bophuthatswana. EDITORIAL NOTES THE OCTOBER REVOLUTION IS FOR EVERYBODY This year's celebration of the 70th anniversary of the October Revolution sees the cause of socialism advancing not only in the Soviet Union but throughout the world. It used to be called "the Russian Revolution", but this was a misnomer, for the revolution involved not only the Russians and has transformed the lives not only of the Russian people but of all the peoples of' the Soviet Union and indeed of all humankind. The Appeal of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union to the Soviet people on the occasion of this year's anniversary stated: "Our revolution is the most outstanding event of the 20th century. It heralded the beginning of a new era in people's lives. Time has revealed profoundly its intransient significance and illuminated the giant opportunities opened up by socialist social development". The transformation brought about by the revolution in the lives of the Soviet people needs no gloss. The most backward feudal empire in the world has been transformed into a great power whose explorers are penetrating the heavens in the finest spirit of scientific endeavour, blazing the trail of progress in the interest of all peoples. The programme of the South African Communist Party, adopted at the fifth underground congress of the Party in 1962, stated: "A new era in human history opened with the great October Socialist Revolution of 1917 when, led by the Communist Party, and inspired by the great teachings of Marx and Lenin, the workers and peasants of Russia and the former Tsarist Empire overthrew capitalist class rule and established, over a vast territory, the dictatorship of the proletariat. The heroic victories of the Soviet workers and peasants against counter-revolutions and foreign interventions, their triumph over famines and backwardness, their great achievements in the building of socialism, inspired millions of working people in many parts of the world. Powerful Communist Parties arose in many countries. In the areas of the greatest population, the colonies of imperialism in Asia, Africa and Latin America, the October Revolution aroused hundreds of millions to fight for national liberation". Anyone who doubts the benefits which the Revolution has brought to the Soviet people need only read Maxim Gorky's autobiography to realise the enormous distance which separates the lives of the ordinary people then and now. Class oppression and exploitation have been ended once and for all, poverty, homelessness, illiteracy and malnutrition eliminated. From our point of view in South Africa, perhaps the most significant gains were achieved in combatting national oppression, distinction and discrimination. If today the Soviet Communist Party and people appear to be regrouping their forces and recharting the road ahead, nobody should doubt their pride in their past achievements or their determination to reach the goal they set for themselves in 1917: a Communist society, based on social ownership and control of the means of production and distribution. The Soviet Party and people are intent on building, not merely a better life but a better kind of life, better grounded not only in the spheres of organisation and technology but above all in morality. If the ethic of capitalism is private enterprise, "each man for himself and the devil take the hindmost", that of communism is co-operation and sharing of the benefits and burdens of life, mutual endeavour for the common good. For centuries men and women have dreamed of a social order based on peace and justice in which all could share the toil and fruits of labour in a spirit of harmony which knows no barriers of class, creed or colour. The October Revolution has brought nearer the possibility that this dream can be transformed into reality not only for the Soviet people but for all humankind. A Continuing Process It is this revolutionary essence which gives November 7 its peculiar significance and fascination for friend and foe alike. To observe the anniversary is not to look back to an event which is fixed in time, over and done with, but to celebrate the beginning of a process which is still sweeping the world, to look forward to and plan for tomorrow. Lenin said: "No force on earth is capable of taking from us the principal gains of our revolution, for they are no longer 'ours' but have become the gains of world history." On the 50th anniversary of the October Revolution, the lateJ.B.