Searchlight South Africa, No. 5, A Marxist Journal of South African Studies http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.SFF.DOCUMENT.PSAPRCA0007 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, No. 5, A Marxist Journal of South African Studies Alternative title Searchlight South Africa Author/Creator Hirson, Baruch; Trewhela, Paul; Ticktin, Hillel; Phahle, Rose; MacLellan, Brian Date 1990-07 Resource type Journals (Periodicals) Language English Subject Coverage (spatial) Namibia, South Africa, Zambia Coverage (temporal) 1990 Source Northwestern University Libraries, 320.509 68 S439 Description Table of contents: Editorial; The Path to Negotiations?; Socialism-Has it Failed?; Joe Slovo's Apologia for Mr. Gorbachev; Inside Quadro; A Miscarriage of Democracy: The ANC Security Department in the 1984 Mutiny Open Letter to Mr. Mandela; The Kissinger/Vorster/Kaunda Detente; A Question of Truthfulness; Financial Sanctions-A Rebuttal Format extent 94 (length/size) http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.SFF.DOCUMENT.PSAPRCA0007 http://www.aluka.org 1- 1- V ~ V.' VP U i - D }.4 EAR CHL I GH HT NO.5 JULY 1990 C3.50 SEP 5,I Mutiny in the ANC, 1984 'Born-Again' Socialism - or Slovo's Apologia for Gorbachev The Path to Negotiations? History of the SWAPO 'Spy Drama' SEARCHLIGHT SOUTH AFRICA Vol.2, No.1 (No.5) A Marxist Journal of South African Studies Editorial Discussion Article Baruch Hirson The Path to Negotiations? Socialism-Has It Failed? Joe Slovo's Apologia for Mr Gorbachev MUTINIES IN THE LIBERATION ARMIES Bandile Ketelo et al Paul Trewhela Letter: P. Bond Inside Quadro A miscarriage of Democracy The ANC Security Department in the 1984 Mutiny Open Letter to Mr Mandela The Kissinger/Vorster/Kaunda Detente A Question of Truthfulness Financial Sanctions - A Rebuttal Cover picture: Goya, Desastres c.1820 30 35 66 69 87 91 SEARCHLIGHT SOUTH AFRICA Published Quarterly Address: BCM 7646, London WC1N 3XX ISSN: 0954-3384 Editors: Baruch Hirson, Paul Trewhela, Hillel Ticktin, Rose Phahle, Brian MacLellan. Annual Subscriptions Individual £12 Institutions £24 - Special student offer £9 Abroad: add £4 p&p or $US/Canadian equivalent. Notes to Contributors: Articles and reviews, accompanied by IBM ASCII files on disk - ifpossible should be submitted to the editors, typed or printed out, in one-and-a-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 the author'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. Errata: The article in our last issue on the Beijing Autonomous Federation, written annonymously, was incorrectly ascribed to Ralph Schoenman. EDITORIAL This issue of Searchlight South Aftica is different in structure from our four previous issues. For this we owe our readers an explanation. Firstly, there are issues that arise from the release of Nelson Mandela from prison after 27 years and the unbanning of all proscribed organizations. This has to be discussed alongside the opening of 'talks about talks' between an ANC team and the South African government. Secondly we offer an analysis of Joe Slovo's discussion of socialism's future. This document offers a critique of over half a century of crimes committed in the name of socialism. It is an attack on Stalinism, written bya once faithful servant of the iniquitous system that operated in the USSR and its satellite states. If this offered any hope that Stalinism was finally dead in South Africa and that the Communist Party had reformed- there would be no further need for us to continue publication. Some of us might have applied for membership of the SACP, or perhaps we would even have been invited by Slovo and his friends to join with them in the struggle for a socialist South Africa. We did not expect such an invitation - and none has come. Nor could we think of joining forces with a party that we still believe to be an anti-working class force. Consequently, we devote space to answering a document that we regard as spurious. However, the major part of this issue is devoted to two topics, seemingly different, but intertwined. We refer to the revolts inside the ANC and SWAPO, the two 'liberation' movements of Southern Africa that have been in the forefront of the news in recent months. Firstly, we print an eyewitness account of the mutiny in Umkhonto we Sizwe in 1984. We offer, from the pens of those who were victims of a Stalinist leadership, as we received the story, a graphic account of torture, executions and victimization. The truth of at least part of this story has been acknowledged by Nelson Mandela in a last-minute press conference in April before he flew in to the jamboree at Wembley Stadium to celebrate his release from prison, and also confirmed by Albie Sachs in May when he speach at the University of Cape Town. There is no shortage of confirmation of injustice done- although the ANC has refused to countenance an independent commission of inquiry into the mutiny and its aftermath. We print a story that some of the British media has refused to touch, and which the left wing press everywhere has (with one or two notable exceptions) refused to discuss. We find this inexcusable. This is a story that must be considered by every socialist trying to assess the progress of events in South Africa. There is also a twist to this story that is taken up in the discussion of Slovo's pamphlet. Slovo, who talks so readily about the crimes of Stalin was the Chief-of-Staff of the ANC armed forces when the mutiny took place. His task was to supervise events in those forces before and during that bloody encounter. If he was doing'his duty' as officer in command, then there is blood on his hands. If. however, he did not know what was happening, he is guilty of negligence, and must take responsibility for what happened. Yet, at the time of going to 2 SearchlightSouthAfrica Vol.2, No.1, July 1990 press, there is no statement from hin, no acknowledgment of guilt. From Chris Hani who succeeded him there is an even more ominous silence. Are they too busy talking to their opposite numbers in the South African government to be concerned about the fate of former volunteers in their army? In printing this document we must add that our contact with its writers, by post, fax and phone,. convinces us that the story they tell is true, but some readers might wish for further confrmation. With this we concur -but it is up to the ANC to provide their documents for all to judge. There is no excuse for the ANC to withhold its own account and no excuses for secrecy. If there were informers involved, as the ANC claimed, the South African government would have had all the details in 1984. But if there were no informers, or if the government failed to pick up the story in 1984, it certainly knows now. It is the duty of the ANC to provide any information it might have, and such evidence must be submitted to an independent commission of inquiry. Failing this, theANC must stand condemned for the murders committed in its name. Rumours about the ANC camps had been around for some time, but were denied by its friends. Even when the revelations about Swapo became known (see Searchlight South Africa, No.4), they repeated their conviction that nothing had happened in ANC camps.