The Young Communist League of South Africa is a Marxist-Leninist youth wing of the SACP.

The YCL stands for:

Non Racism
Freedom
Equality
The socialisation of the ownership and control of the means of production
JOIN THE YCL
Click here to download the membership form (pdf).

Print and complete the form and send to:

Fax2email:
086 601 2065 / 086 666 4153

For queries contact us at
CONTACT DETAILS
Tel: +27 11 339 3633
Fax: +27 11 339 4244
       +27 11 339 6880

PO Box 1027
Johannesburg 2000
South Africa

Join the YCLSA Facebook Group

Join the YCLSA Twitter Group

The Bottomline

Issue 20, Vol 5: 16 October 2008

In this issue:

 

National Secretary Political NotesThe Terrible Trio are Donkey's!

The political brouhaha caused by Terror Lekota, Mluleki George and Mbazima Shilowa around forming a new political party from the carcass of disgruntled ANC and SACP members will fizzle out even before the dawn of their envisaged new party. The Terrible Trio has announced, together with the regional leadership of the ANC in the Western Cape, that they will be convening a Convention in November and invites everyone to join in.

In the history of the ANC there have been people who were either expelled or just left for this or that reason to form their own political parties. The earliest of these was the Pan Africanist Congress, whose split from the ANC was an anti-communist and racist ideological orientation which opposed the Freedom Charter and the alliance between the ANC and the SACP. The PAC is now a non-factor in South African politics, and its few remaining members are scrambling for whatever teapots that are still in their offices, and they need a judge to decide on that nogal. The Gang of Eight disappeared in the wilderness even before we attained our democracy. But one of the issues which led to their expulsion was their questioning of the Alliance with the SACP and the leadership of OR Tambo.

Immediately after Comrade Jacob Zuma was elected as President of the ANC many commentators started raising concerns about the role and influence of the SACP, YCL and COSATU in ANC economic policy and on Comrade Zuma himself. Some even regretted Comrade Mbeki's non-election because they believed he kept communists at bay when it came to economic policy. It was so amazing how the intellectual body of our society were prepared to forgive Comrade Mbeki for HIV/AIDS, Zimbabwe and many other blunders because these were of a lesser evil that the one committed by Comrade Zuma-who is seen as more allowing communists too close to the cake. But this was exactly Mbeki's downfall. Enough about him! 'Terrorblance Lekota' writes to Comrade Gwede Mantashe and accuses him of being the first communist to be a leader of the SACP and the ANC at the same time, and that this is at odds with the history of the ANC. With all the garbage that Lekota and his group have provided as reasons why they are leaving the ANC, this one was the most telling. Lekota and company seek to salvage the ANC by building a new party on the basis of manipulated traditions. They also throw in some anti Freedom Charter mambo jumbo to legitimize their onslaught, and suggest that their heroic act will be to "Defend Democracy".

The basis of the new party is anger. All the people who form the nucleus of this party are angry because the democratic processes in the ANC booted them from the NEC. The Dullar Omar region leadership is not an exception to this rule. The rules in Polokwane were very clear and were adhered to up to the latter. It is therefore cleat that if the Terrible Trio were elected into the NEC, no doubt they would be firmly behind the current leadership. Lekota and company subscribe to the idea that the ANC belongs to them, and if they cannot have it, then no one can and will have it. In essence, what is presented as a principle is merely a convenient means to leadership.

The second basis for the new political party is populism. Listening to Mbazima Shilowa on Wednesday in his resignation speech, a lot of issues he raised were first echoed by the SACP and COSATU in their respective Congresses. This includes the idea of a constituency based election. Shilowa tried to appeal to what he perceives as public sentiment, when it is really a sentiment of few opinion makers who ink our papers and voice our radios.

What Lekota and company are teaching their children is that if the rules that have been agreed to are applied and as a result you lose, you must run. They are teaching their children that rules do not matter when you lose, especially if you can wag your tongue and play the blame game.

The third basis of forming the new party is bitterness. Lekota and company are bitter that the person whom they spoke so evil about towards Polokwane beat all the odds and still became the President of the ANC. They are aware that their conduct and manner of campaigning towards Polokwane was far from the rules set by the Congress movement and because of that, they have lost all the credibility within the movement. They are bitter that the ANC under Zuma is not reliant on elitism and factionalism. This leadership collective is not centred on worshiping an individual but about the good and will of the collective. It is not the kind of ANC were you have to only lick the back of the leader and not engage with the masses and general membership. All their time in the NEC their role was to clean the red-carpet, lick the emperors' boots and protect his ego in exchange for patronage. It is this kind of ANC that they cannot stomach.

But Lekota and company also do not have the political balls to stomach defeat. When Zuma was fired as the country's Deputy President, many sympathizers urged him to form a new party. They argued that he can defeat the ANC at the polls if he does this. However, Zuma believed that his interests cannot supersede those of the organization. He believed that the support he got was not to the individual, but to the organization. He stayed on, fought his legal battles and ensured that those who were responsible for trampling accusations against him are exposed.

But this is not Lekota and company's rational. They lost and therefore they need to find a new home. This is the character of a political brat, who cannot stay on with discipline and fight within, but hopes that the only way to make the Polokwane victory a bitter one is to fracture the ANC. Many tried, but failed, and this is the demise that will follow Lekota and company.

The popularity that Lekota and company enjoyed was not as a result of their genius, but because peopled love the ANC. They will, in time realize that they are just like the biblical donkey which delivered Jesus to Jerusalem. When people cheered Jesus, the donkey was smiling with glee hoping the praises was showered to it. When it went back to Jerusalem the following day, there was no one to cheer. When election time comes, the three donkeys will realize that there is no one to cheer them. That's the Bottomline, cos the YCLSA said so!

Buti Manamela
National Secretary

 

Guest Article : Fidel CastroThe law of the Jungle

Trade, within a society and among countries, is the exchange of goods and services produced by human beings. The owners of the means of production appropriate the profits. As a class, they are the leaders of the capitalist state and they boast of fostering development and social well-being through the market. This they worship as an infallible God.

In every country there is competition between the strongest and the weakest; those with more physical energy, those who are better fed, those who learned how to read and write, those who attended school, those who have more accumulated experience, more social relations and more resources, and those in society who do not have these advantages.

Among countries: those with a better climates and more arable land, more water and more natural resources in the area where they are located, when there are no more territories to conquer; those that master technology, have greater development and handle unlimited media resources, and those that, in contrast, do not enjoy any of these prerogatives. These are the sometimes enormous differences between countries described as rich or poor.

It is the law of the jungle.

There are no differences among ethnic groups in terms of human beings' mental faculties. This has been thoroughly proven by science. Today's society is not the natural evolution of human life, but a creation of mentally-developed humans; without that society, their life would be inconceivable. Therefore, what is at stake is whether or not human beings will be able to survive the privilege of possessing creative intelligence.

The developed capitalist system, epitomized by the country privileged by nature to which European whites brought their ideas, dreams and ambitions, is today in crisis. But, it is not the usual crisis that happens once every certain number of years, or even the traumatic crisis of the 1930s; rather, the worst of all since the world started to pursue this model of growth and development.

The current crisis of developed capitalism is taking place as the empire is about to change its leadership in the elections that take place in 25 days; it was the only thing that remained to be seen.

The candidates of the two main parties who will decide these elections are trying to persuade the bewildered voters — many of whom have never bothered to cast a vote — that as presidential candidates, they can guarantee the well-being and consumerism of what they describe as a middle-class people, without the least intention of making real changes to what they consider to be the most perfect economic system that the world has ever known. It is the same world, of course, in the minds of each and every one of them, which is less important than the happiness of some 300 million people who account for less than five percent of the world population. The fate of the remaining 95% of humanity, war and peace, air that may be the fit to breathe or not, will depend to a great extent on the decisions of the empire's institutional leader, whether or not that constitutional office has any real power in a period of nuclear weapons and computer-controlled space shields, in circumstances where every second counts and ethical principles are increasingly less important. Still, the more or less disastrous role played by presidents of that country cannot be overlooked.

Racism is deeply rooted in the United States, and the minds of millions of white people cannot accept the idea of a black man, with his wife and children, occupying the White House, which is precisely what it's called: White.

It's a miracle that the Democratic candidate has not met the same fate as Martin Luther King, Malcolm X and others who dreamed of justice and equality in recent decades. Moreover, he tends to look at his adversary with serenity and to laugh at the dialectic predicaments of an opponent who gazes into space.

The Republican candidate, on the other hand, who cultivates his reputation as a belligerent man, was one of the worst students in his class at West Point. He has confessed that he knows nothing about Mathematics, and presumably far less about complicated economic sciences.

There is no doubt that his rival surpasses him in intelligence and serenity.

Something McCain has the most of is age, and his health is not at all secure

I mention this information to indicate the eventual possibility — if anything should happen in terms of the candidate's health, given that he is elected — of the rifle lady, the inexperienced former governor of Alaska, becoming president of the United States. It is obvious that she knows nothing about anything.

Meditating on the current U.S. public debt that President Bush is laying on the shoulders of the new generations in that country — $10.3 trillion — it occurred to me to calculate the time it would take somebody to count the debt that he, Bush, has practically doubled in eight years.

Somebody working eight hours per day, without missing a second, at the rapid pace of 100 one-dollar bills per minute, in 300 days of work per year, would need 715,000 years to count that amount of money.

I could not find a more graphic way of describing the volume of that sum of money that is now mentioned almost every day.

In order to avert a general state of panic, the U.S. administration has declared that it will secure deposits that do not exceed $250,000. It will administrate banks and sums of money that Lenin, with his abacus, could never have imagined counting.

We might be wondering now about what contribution Bush's administration might make to socialism. But let's not entertain any illusions. Once banking operations go back to normal, the imperialists will return the banks to private enterprise, as some other countries in this hemisphere have already done. The people always foot the bill.

Capitalism tends to reproduce itself under any social system because it is based on egotism and on human instincts.

Human society has no other alternative but to overcome this contradiction; otherwise, it would not be able to survive.

At this time, the flood of money being poured into world finances by the central banks of developed capitalist countries is dealing a heavy blow to the stock exchanges of countries that are trying to overcome their economic underdevelopment by resorting to these institutions. Cuba has no stock exchange. Undoubtedly, we will find more rational and more socialist ways of financing our development.

The current crisis and the brutal measures of the U.S. administration to save itself will bring more inflation, more devaluation of national currencies, more painful losses in the markets, lower prices for exports and more unequal exchange. But they will also bring to the peoples a better understanding of the truth, more awareness, more rebelliousness and more revolutions.

We will see now how the crisis develops and what happens in the United States in 25 days.

Fidel Castro Ruz

 

Aspire to be like Mzala ....write...write and write!

We are encouraging our members to sharpen they writing skills by contributing articles. This should be done as a way of emulating and following into the footsteps of a Marxist intellectual Jabulani ‘Mzala’ Nxumalo. We are providing a platform and an opportunity for our membership and the youth in general to write for our publications, the Bottomline and YREDS.

This is our call as the Bottomline Editorial Collective to all Young Communist cadres in schools, universities, sports clubs, workplaces and everywhere to aspire to be like Mzala!

As readers of the Bottomline you are welcomed to submit articles or stories for publication in YREDS and the Bottomline. Articles or stories may cover any political issue considered relevant to the purpose of our publications.

When submitting articles or stories, please consider the following; articles should be 800 - 1500 words, stories 250 - 300 words in length. Our publications are aimed at a broad range of young people within the YCL and the progressive youth movement, but at especially at branch members. Contributors should use plain and simple language.

Articles should be submitted together with the name and contact details of the author. Articles may be submitted by e-mail or fax. The editor may edit any contributions for the purposes of length or ensure clarity. The Editorial Collective reserves the right to decide whether or not to publish a contribution.

Articles or stories may be sent to the following addresses:

castro@ycl.org.za /
castro.ngobese@gmail.com /
khaya@ycl.org.za  

OR

Fax: 011 339 4244