OCTOBER 2018 THE COMPRADOR BO0URGEOISIE TAKES THE OFFENSIVE - ZCP BULLETIN - Zimbabwe Communist Party
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ZCP BULLETIN
20th October 2018
Vol.1 No.4
“Without revolutionary theory there
Zimbabwe Communist Partycan
be no revolutionary
OCTOBER movement.”
2018 ― THE
V.I. Lenin
COMPRADOR BO0URGEOISIE
TAKES THE OFFENSIVE
~ 1 ~neo-liberal, neo-colonial “ESAP 2” economic policy.
COVER PHOTO: Arrest of trade union member for protesting against
THE COMPRADOR BOURGEOISIE
DECLARES WAR AGAINST THE
WORKING-CLASS
Peter Mutasa Japhet Moyo
ZCTU President ZCTU Secretary General
Arrested Arrested
TIME TO FIGHT BACK !!
As we celebrate the 101st Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution in Russia, the
greedy, oppressive and incompetent black bourgeoisie in Zimbabwe are trying to impress their neo-
colonial masters by:
1) Proclaiming the right of the employers to hire and fire workers „willy-nilly‟.
2) Proclaiming the „necessity‟ of privatising the parastatals which they themselves have turned into
unproductive hollow shells.
3) Making the effort to enforce 1) and 2) by arresting trade unionists.
The fight-back must now begin in earnest. But we must remember that we are facing a well-
organised and ruthless class enemy. Although ZANU(PF) has now become transformed into an
organisation to further the interests of monopoly capital, we should not forget that last year‟s visit to
Washington by the MDC Alliance leadership shows that they are vying with ZANU(PF) to be the
true and faithful representatives of imperialism and monopoly capital. This was confirmed by the
reactionary MDC Alliance Manifesto.
But we cannot run into battle wildly. We must build ourselves ideologically. We must build
ourselves organisationally. We must develop dedicated and well-trained cadres. We must fight back
strategically and tactically.
~2~ Most of all we must show the people that we have an alternative system, a practical system which can take them out of poverty. That is why the Zimbabwe Communist Party has its Political Economy Policy Document based on the history and current conditions of Zimbabwe and is calling for an all-inclusive National Economic Dialogue. Our programme for rebuilding the economy is based on production and is understandable to the majority of our people. Our fight-back, then, is not based only on resistance to the disastrous policies which have been advanced by various „experts‟ who fail to understand that wealth is produced by the workers; it is based on practical and realisable policies ― policies which represent the first step towards socialism in Zimbabwean conditions during the early years of the 21st Century. Let us now examine recent statements and events.
~3~
Zimbabwe Communist Party
MESSAGE OF SOLIDARITY WITH
ZIMBABWE CONGRESS OF
TRADE UNIONS
AND
THE WORKERS OF ZIMBABWE
The Zimbabwe Communist Party utterly condemns the state violence used against the working-
class organised by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions in the protest of 11th October 2018
against the 2% Transaction Tax and „ESAP 2‟. We demand the removal of charges from all trade
union members, the arrest of police officers responsible for beating-up trade unionists and the
removal of the vicious and incompetent Cain Mathema as Home Affairs Minister. The ZCP calls on
all progressive formations in Zimbabwe and worldwide to give solidarity to those arrested. We call
particularly for solidarity from all trade unionists and all Communist and Workers‟ Parties.
The original ESAP ― Economic Structural Adjustment Programme of 1991, played the major role
in the destruction of what had been a vigorous and largely self-contained economy.
Recent statements, firstly by Minister of Labour Sekai Nzenza saying that employers should be able
to “hire and fire willy-nilly” and by Minister of Finance Mthuli Ncube saying that existing state-
owned enterprises would be privatised have shown clearly that the intention of this military-
capitalist government is to provide cheap labour for British and other monopoly capitalist
companies.
The comprador bourgeoisie, in league with the army is now hoping to share a portion of the wealth
produced by the workers with the neo-colonial masters. For them, workers must simply accept what
little the capitalist class decides to give them while the capitalists big and small, black and white,
become rich through the labour of the working-class.
Down with Monopoly Capitalism !!
Down with Imperialism and its Client Military Government !!
Long Live the Working-Class !!
Long Live the ZCTU !!
Long Live National Independence !!
Forward to Socialism !!
~4~
Zimbabwe Communist Party
COMMENT ON ATTACK ON
THE WORKING-CLASS
BY MINISTER NZENZA
29th September 2018
Newly appointed Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare Sekai Minister of Labour
Nzenza is reported to have said in a ZBC interview that “Employers should Sekai Nzenza
have the right to hire and fire workers willy-nilly.” As both the Amalgamated Rural Teachers‟
Union (ARTUZ) and the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU) have condemned the
statement, and as there has been neither a denial or a retraction of that statement, we can only
assume that this is a declaration of war against the already impoverished Zimbabwean working-
class by the militaristic comprador bourgeoisie seeking to impress British Prime Minister Theresa
May and the monopoly capitalists who she represents.
The Zimbabwean working-class is already operating in circumstances in which the employee is
only paid at a time convenient to the employer — that is, if the employee is to be paid at all!
“Indigenous empowerment” has led, in fact to the disempowerment of the working-class, by the
greedy and incompetent parasitic black bourgeoisie. In particular, skilled workers have been
effectively deported from Zimbabwe and forced to seek work in surrounding countries and overseas
where their work ethic is valued. The Communist Party has long maintained that the recovery of
industry in Zimbabwe is impossible unless workers are paid on time and wages are at least
sufficient to maintain the workers and their families. This is not a requirement of a socialist
economy; it is in fact the requirement for a functioning capitalist economy!
The Zimbabwe liberation struggle began in earnest in 1957 when militant trade unionists took over
the nearly defunct Southern Rhodesian African National Congress (SRANC) and turned it into a
militant, fighting nationalist organisation. The struggle for national liberation was started by the
working-class but has now been hi-jacked by opportunists and reached its final degenerate form in
the creation of a subservient neo-colonial government seeking to line its own pockets by oppressing
the working-class in the interests of the colonial master.
The statement by Minister Nzenza is without doubt, the most reactionary made by any government
minister since „Independence‟ in 1980.
The ZCP calls on President Mnangagwa in the interests of national unity and development to
immediately have this statement retracted and to dismiss Minister Nzenza.
While supporting the statements of ARTUZ and the ZCTU, the ZCP calls on all trade union
formations and working-class oriented organisations to make representations to government for the
retraction of this statement and the removal of Nzenza. In particular we expect a reaction by the
Zimbabwe Federation of Trade Unions affiliated to the militant class-oriented body, the World
Federation of Trade Unions.
If no engagement with government is forthcoming, the working-class must urgently begin to build
its capacity and gather its forces for prolonged and bitter class struggle against the ruthless capitalist
enemy and its administration in Zimbabwe.
Issued by the ZCP Politburo
~5~
Zimbabwe Communist Party
STATEMENT ON THE ZCTU
DEMONSTRATION
AGAINST ESAP 2
10th October 2018 Mthuli Ncube
Minister of Finance
The Zimbabwe Communist Party welcomes the coming demonstration by the Zimbabwe Congress
of Trade Unions against „ESAP 2‟. The ZCP pointed out recently that the appointment of the
„technocrat‟, Mthuli Ncube as Minister of Finance seems to be little more than a repeat of what
happened earlier in our history when the „technocrat‟ Bernard Chidzero was appointed Minister of
Finance and played the leading role in the destruction of the Zimbabwe economy through the
imposition of the Economic Structural Adjustment Programme (ESAP).
The announcement that all state-owned enterprise will be privatised means that the re-colonisation
of Zimbabwe through an agenda which is both neo-liberal and neo-colonial will soon be a reality
unless there is massive resistance by the working-class and its allies.
The policies proposed by Mthuli Ncube match the statement by Sekai Nzanza, Minister of Labour,
stating that “employers should be able to hire and fire willy-nilly”.
Comrades, we are about to enter a phase of intense class struggle in Zimbabwe.
A word of warning. The MDC Alliance, which had an even more reactionary economic programme
than ZANU(PF) as expressed in its recent manifesto, will almost certainly try to hi-jack this
demonstration for its own factional, neo-liberal, purposes. This should not be allowed.
Ngqabutho Nicholas Mabhena
General Secretary
Zimbabwe Communist Party
on behalf of the ZCP Secretariat
~6~
POLICE CLAMP DOWN ON ZCTU
We thank Xolisani Ncube and NewsDay for this report
11th October 2018
Home Affairs Minister Cain Mathema has warned that police will be out in
full force today to thwart any attempts by the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade
Unions (ZCTU) to demonstrate against the worsening economic crisis in the
country.
Cain Mathema
Minister of Addressing journalists after touring the country‟s central registry
Home Affairs headquarters yesterday, Mathema said while it was everyone‟s democratic
right to demonstrate, that right must be exercised within the limits of the law.
“We hear that there are some who want to demonstrate against what they say are an untenable
economic situation in the country. Let me say that our President [Emmerson Mnangagwa] is a
peace-loving person. We are a law-abiding government and so is our President,” he said.
“If people go against the law and go to demonstrate, they must know that our law will deal with
them harshly. We don‟t want law-breakers. We don‟t want people who break our peace.
ZCTU has called for demonstartions across the country to protest against the two cents per dollar
transactional tax announced by government last week and triggered price hikes by retailers snd
suppliers, disappearance of some basic goods, while some companies closed shop.
The labour body yesterday vowed to go ahead with today‟s protests despite the police banning it on
account of fears of a fresh cholera outbreak.
ZCTU Secretary-General Japhet Moyo said the labour group would not be stopped by the police to
demonstrate against what he termed “economic sabotage”.
“We are going ahead as planned. We have instructed our lawyers to challenge (the police ban). We
are very confident that we are going to exercise our rights as citizens and the police cannot
determine or infringe on those rights like that,” Moyo said.
The stern warnings of former Marxist revolutionary Cain Mathema
~7~
POLICE POUNCE ON
ZCTU MIDLANDS
CHAIRPERSON
We thank Brenna Matendere and NewsDay for this report
18th October 2018
Law and order police officers yesterday pounced on Zimbabwe
Congress of Trade Unions‟ Central Region Chairperson,
Kudakwashe Munengiwa, and arrested him at his Gweru City
Council office over last week‟s demonstration against the
imposition of a 2% per dollar tax imposed by government.
Munengiwa‟s arrest brings to four the number of ZCTU Kudakwashe Munengiwa
leaders who have been arrested following the protest held in the ZCTU Central Region Chairperson
city on 12th October 12. Arrested
Gweru District ZCTU Chairperson Moses Gwaunza was
arrested at midnight after the protests, while District Secretary Bernard Sibanda and Central Region
officer Charles Chikozho were picked from their workplaces the following day.
They were, however, released without charge after prosecutors at the Gweru Magistrates‟ Courts
declined to prosecute them on the basis that the police case against them was weak.
“I can confirm that our Regional Chairperson, Munengiwa, has been arrested by police over
the demonstration that we held last week. He was taken from his workplace at Town House.
We regret the development because the same officers failed to find a strong case for the other
three leaders of the union on the same case, but now they arrest another person. We went to
see our Chairman in detention and now we are organising lawyers to defend him,”
ZCTU Central Region Secretary Rabbecca Butau said. She took a swipe at President Emmerson
Mnangagwa, saying his administration was acting contrary to promises he made ahead of the 30th
July elections.
“President Mnangagwa promised that he will uphold the constitutional provisions to the best
of his ability when he took oath of office. But now, citizens, who are exercising their
constitutional right to demonstrate, are being frustrated and arrested. President Mnangagwa
also said he will have a listening government and provide servant leadership, but that is not
what is happening. We urge the government to uphold citizens‟ rights.”
Munengiwa told Southern Eye that he wanted the police to take him to court.
“I am at the Law and Order section. I have been arrested over the peaceful demonstration
that we held against the illegal 2% tax introduced by the régime. I am urging the police to
take me to court immediately so that my innocence is quickly proven.”
Midlands Provincial Acting Police Spokesperson, Assistant Inspector Ethel Mukwende, however,
said she was unaware of the arrest.
“I do not have facts on that matter. If I get them, I will, however, not be able to comment. I
will just forward them to the National Spokesperson [Senior Assistant Commissioner Charity
Charamba] and then you can get a comment from her,”
~8~
REVISIT THE
NATIONAL HEROES STATUS by
Benny Moyo
ZCP
Secretary for
International
Affairs
ZIPRA fighters training
Early in September the nation laid to rest Killion Bhebhe, a pioneer nationalist and later member
of the ZIPRA Revolutionary War Council. The same week, we laid to rest Sly Masuku one of the
pioneer freedom fighters and part of the heroic Sipolilo campaign of 1968-1969. At the end of
September we laid to rest Nkomeni Nleya who together with Dumiso Dabengwa underwent military
training in the Ukraine in 1964.
Sadly none of these were accorded national hero status due to the partisan nature that award is
made. The Zimbabwe Communist Party notes with concern how ZANU(PF) has appropriated the
liberation war legacy and appointed itself sole arbiter of who should be a national hero. As
Communists, we note with regret the long list of revolutionaries denied this status.
We deep our Red Banner in memory of the likes of J. Dube Commander of the Wankie Cmpaign
of 1967. Zwangami Dube, one time ZIPRA Army Commissar and his successor Colonel Gedi
Dube, Brigadier Charles Grey, Brigadier Mhandu, Lieutenant-Colonel Sigoge survivor of Mgagao.*
This is but to mention a few. We note also that no female ZIPRA combatant has ever been awarded
national heroine status.
The ZCP continues to call for National Dialogue to not only address restoration of production
which we have emphasised, but also other issues, among them the criteria of what makes a national
hero.
The ZCP challenges our academics researchers and curriculum developers to revisit the history of
our liberation struggle and purge it of biased distortions and lies in the interest of objectivity and
national unity.
In particular we emphasise the part played by the working-class through trade union organisation
in transforming the nearly defunct Southern Rhodesian Afican National Congress into a militant,
fighting nationalist organisation in 1957.
We challenge the war veterans themselves to challenge this ZANU(PF) narrative that seeks to
arrogate to ZANU(PF)/ZANLA the liberation war legacy.
We remind the nation and ZANU(PF) of the immortal words of Cabral “tell no lies, claim no easy
victories”
*The Mgagao Declaration was a communique written by young military commanders at the main ZANLA
training camp in Tanzania in November 1975. It laid the foundation for the removal of Ndabaningi Sithole
and the elevation of Robert Mugabe as the leader of ZANU at a special congress at Chimoio two years later
in 1977. The declaration also reaffirmed that the fighters believed armed struggle to be the only way to take
power from the Rhodesian government.
~9~
FAREWELL TO A WORKING-CLASS HERO
Eric „Stalin‟ Mtshali
1933-2018
The Obituary of Comrade Eric „Stalin‟ Mtshali,
“The Man of Steel”
Eric Mtshali (84) was born in Clermont, Durban, on 20th November 1933. Mtshali was a recipient
of the National Order of Mendi for Bravery in Silver in recognition of the sacrifices and
contribution he made in the South African struggle against oppression, the struggle for democracy
and social emancipation.
He grew up and attended both primary and secondary school in Clermont, and was introduced to
the struggle when he was a high school learner by Wilson Cele, who was the District Secretary of
the South African Communist Party (SACP). Mtshali was involved in amateur boxing at school. His
last fight occurred after meeting Cele, who asked him about the fight and his future plans. He
further asked Mtshali about his interests and then introduced him to the local Ratepayers
Association.
Mtshali was amused by the Association when he was growing up in Clermont, which was
declared a “freehold area”, meaning that it was one of the few settlements in South Africa where
Black people were allowed to buy and own a house. He later discovered that its meetings, which
took place every Sunday, were actually African National Congress (ANC) meetings. He and four of
his friends who were drawn closer to the Association used to sing. They particularly liked the
struggle song Mayibuye i-Afrikha. However, at that time they did not have a full grasp of what that
meant in a broader context. The association‟s members were known as Amaphekula skhuni, trouble
makers in English but revolutionaries in Zulu.
Cele was working together with Harry Gwala, who became known as “The Lion of the
Midlands”, as well as with Stephen Dlamini and Marimuthu Pragalathan „M.P.‟Naicker. It was as a
result of their work that Mtshali joined the SACP in 1957.~ 10 ~ At that time the Party was an underground organisation following its banning by the apartheid regime in 1950 under the Suppression of Communism Act. It therefore operated in secret. Recruitment to the Party was preceded by thoroughgoing screening, targeted induction and advanced training of the recruits. Mtshali joined the ANC a year after he had joined the SACP. By this time he had started accumulating experience of work in mass organisations, having joined the ranks of trade unions in 1950-1951 at the age of 18. Another stalwart of the struggle who participated in shaping Mtshali‟s political and ideological world view was Rusty Bernstein. Mtshali also worked with Kay Moonsamy, who became SACP National Treasurer. As a young man, working as a casual labourer at the docks, loading and unloading goods from the ships, Mtshali developed an idea of following a career that would help him make money. But Cele, who introduced him to the trade union movement, was not convinced. He gave Mtshali a pamphlet titled The Three Sources and Three Components Parts of Marxism, authored by Vladimir Lenin, the historic leader of the Great October Socialist Revolution that took place in Russia in 1917. He succeeded in convincing Mtshali to change his mind, thanks to a section in the pamphlet stating that people have always been victims of deceit and that will remain so until they conduct an inquiry into the class interests underpinning economic and other social phenomena. In 1951, at the age of 18, Mtshali started trade union organising for the Dock and Harbour Workers‟ Union as a casual worker. At that time he was paid a mere 15 shillings per week. It was during this time that he started attending political classes and workshops organised by the union and became active in the struggle for a living wage and improved employment conditions. He became involved in the founding of the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) in 1955. SACTU became part of the Congress Alliance together with the ANC, the Congress of Democrats, the Coloured People‟s Congress and the South African Indian Congress. While in theory the Alliance was legally made up of these five formations, in practice the underground SACP, from which Mtshali was receiving systematic training, was the sixth. Its members and leaders were active in the other Congress formations and were part both of their leadership and in organising the Congress of the People that adopted the Freedom Charter on 26th June 1955. Mtshali was one of the tens of thousands of volunteers who participated in collecting the freedom demands of the people country-wide in the democratic consultation process that led to the writing of the Freedom Charter. One of the first major responses by the apartheid regime was the banning of the entire SACTU leadership, the ANC in 1960 and other political formations. The SACP and the ANC responded by establishing the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) in 1961. Mtshali, who became affectionately also known as “Comrade Stalin”, or “The Man of Steel”, was among the first who were prepared to pay the highest price with their lives and accordingly joined the MK. He was one of the most advanced and resolute cadres who, on his part based on his Communist conviction, directly linked the struggle for the national democratic revolution to the struggle for socialism ― a transition, according to his belief, from the oppressive and exploitative system of capitalism and its social and environmental consequences to a classless society free from all forms of class oppression, inequalities, exploitation and domination. Mtshali left South Africa in July 1962 and went into exile without an opportunity to inform his family. Eight years later, without having had any contact with them, his first wife, Jabu Sibisi- Mtshali passed away. He married his second wife, Thokozile Mtshali (née Makubu) in 1980. She passed away in 2012, 19 years after they separated (after exile). Mtshali was deployed to the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics for military and intelligence training. He spent two terms at the Party School in the Soviet Union. Later he was deployed to receive further training in Cuba. On his return he was deployed to the MK‟s first military base in Tanzania and was appointed Chief of Personnel. He worked under Moses Kotane, John Beaver (JB) Marks and Moses Mabhida. Kotane was also the SACP General Secretary (he remains the longest serving SACP General Secretary to this day). JB Marks was a member of the Communist Party since 1932 and later served as its Chairperson. Mabhida succeeded Kotane after his death in May 1978 as SACP General Secretary.
~ 11 ~ Mtshali had been elected to the Central Committee of the Party in 1971, the same year he started serving as the Chief Representative of the ANC in Tanzania, a role he played for five years until 1976. Comrade Stalin became one of the founding members of the intelligence division of the ANC, of which he was the last surviving co-founder. Together with Chris Hani, Benson Ntsele and Don Nangu, they founded The Dawn, a weekly journal of the MK, which he was the editor from 1964 to 1969. Mtshali‟s involvement in political education, using the magazine, provided a clear direction during the Sino-Soviet split on various strands of thought amongst the soldiers who were trained in the Soviet Union and China respectively. The Man of Steel received further training while in Tanzania, and thereafter he was deployed to Egypt together with Lambert Moloi for a special higher training to lay the basis for future politico- military campaigns against the apartheid regime. Mtshali served in a crucial unit that started the sabotage missions. He handled all of his tasks with extreme care and dedication. In his capacity as the Chief of Personnel, he among others was responsible for transporting MK members and military hardware, working with Kotan, in one of the crucial military programmes across the Zambezi River. Together with about 40 MK combatants Mtshali attempted to enter South Africa using the ship Aventura in 1970. The mission was recalled after they realised that it was compromised. Mtshali had participated in the Wankie and Sipolilo Campaigns of 1967, in which he commanded 12 MK and Zimbabwe People‟s Revolutionary Army (ZIPRA) combatants to rescue a section of the Luthuli Detachment that had been surrounded by the forces of the oppressor régime of Rhodesia. The combatants crossed the river in three dinghies. Two dinghies capsized during the mission with most of the occupants being attacked by crocodiles ― necessitating a new rescue mission inside a rescue mission. Mtshali was one of the central figures in the “James Bond Unit”. At one point the Unit managed to smuggle firearms and carried out fully-fledged sabotage operations against the apartheid régime in South Africa. After the mid-1970s, the Man of Steel was deployed to work as a SACTU representative at the World Federation of Trade Unions (WFTU) in Prague, Czechoslovakia. He had sacrificed a lot in building the proletarian class-oriented trade union movement in South Africa, and had accumulated sufficient experience in trade union organising from his dedication and selfless service to the workers. At one point he had no pay and survived on bananas as a daily lunch whilst organising workers in South Africa. Comrade Stalin continued to serve workers with outstanding loyalty, and was deployed by the WFTU to establish trade unions in many parts of our African continent. He worked in Ethiopia, Sudan and Morocco, pioneering the development of the progressive trade union movement. He formed the first open trade unions in Ethiopia, during the time of Mengistu Haile Mariam as President. Previously, trade unions were suppressed in Ethiopia. Mtshali was further deployed by the WFTU to revive the trade union movement in Sudan after the massacre of Communists, including the General Secretary of the Communist Party, in that country. He went to Sudan to carry out the work despite the danger that the mission involved. The Communist Party of Sudan, which remained resilient during that period of brutal attacks, helped The Man of Steel to revive the country‟s trade union movement. Together with Joe Matthews, Mtshali was assigned by the SACP to establish the Communist Party of Lesotho. The assignment signified the critical role that he played in the work of the Party and symbolised the trust that he had earned. In Lesotho he worked among other revolutionaries with Mokhafisi Kena. The mission was very crucial in Lesotho both in its national and international context as well as in paving the way to bringing down the apartheid regime in South Africa. During the 1980s, the Man of Steel became involved in reviving the trade union movement inside South Africa. It was during this period that many of the affiliates of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the federation itself were established. COSATU became SACTU‟s successor in the National Democratic Revolutionary Alliance headed by the ANC. Mtshali was also a member of the ANC-headed Revolutionary Council.
~ 12 ~
Comrade Stalin He returned formally to South Africa after the unbanning of the SACP, the ANC
and other political organisations in 1991. Following the 1994 democratic breakthrough, he served as
the Deputy Commissioner of Police Crime Intelligence in KwaZulu-Natal, from 1995 to 2000.
When he was nominated to serve as a Ward Councillor of the ANC in eThekwini in 2000, he did
not say he was a senior leader with a wealth of many years of national and international experience
and therefore had to serve in a senior authority nationally, he made himself available to serve the
people as a Ward Councillor, a role he played for four years until 2004 when he was elected to
serve in Parliament as an MP of the ANC.
In Parliament he formed part of the portfolio committees of labour, higher education and training
as well as human settlements.
At the time of his last breath, he was the longest serving Central Committee Member of the
SACP. At its 14th Congress in July 2017, the Party conferred him one of its highest awards, the
Moses Kotane Award for his excellent service to the peace-loving people of South Africa and the
world working-class struggle for socialism. By virtue of this exceptional award, he became a
lifetime member of the Central Committee of the Party.
He ceased to breathe in the early hours of the morning on Friday, 12 October 2018 after a long
illness.
He is survived by his third wife Gcinile (née Kunene) and daughter Lindiwe Mtshali, seven
grandchildren and five great-grandchildren.
AT THE 17th CONGRESS OF THE WORLD FEDERATION OF TRADE UNIONS, DURBAN 2016;
Left to Right:
GEORGE MAVRIKOS, GENERAL SECRETARY WFTU, STALIN MTSHALI,
MZWANDILE ‘MIKE’ MAKWAYIBA, PRESIDENT WFTU~ 13 ~
SOUTH AFRICA:
THE WFTU FAMILY MOURNS THE
LOSS OF ITS MEMBER,
COMRADE ERIC „STALIN‟ MTSHALI
12th October 2018
“The capitalist system still remains the enemy of the working-class, especially
now that it is undergoing the international capitalist crisis. The struggle is still
there. A strong and united trade union movement is what we need.”
Eric „Stalin‟ Mtshali, in South African Worker and WFTU, Shoulder to Shoulder
(February 2012)
It is with great sorrow that we heard about Comrade Eric „Stalin‟ Mtshali‟s death, a historic
figure of the class-oriented trade union movement in South Africa and a firm militant against neo-
colonialism, apartheid and imperialism.
Comrade Mtshali has always stood as a symbol, representing the common struggle of the South
African people along with the World Federation of Trade Unions, an example of internationalism
and unequivocal commitment to the world working-class in its fight for a world without man-by-
man exploitation.
A historic cadre of the WFTU, Mtshali was born in Durban and joined the anti-apartheid
movement straight after high school. In 1951, he mobilized workers in the Dock and Harbour
Workers Union, and workers in the textile industry to protest against the repressive apartheid
=
state. As he stated:
“At the time, the dockworkers were the most militants, really militant workers. The regime
feared the dockworkers.”
He represented South African trade union movement in the WFTU Headquarters in Prague,
Czechoslovakia and spent more than 30 years in exile. For him,
“The WFTU positions always championed the class positions. Were there was struggle for
liberation, WFTU was there. It stood on the side of the oppressed”.
He participated in many WFTU missions to Ethiopia and Namibia, organizing trade union
organizations. He has also served as member of the Parliament, always loyal to the working-class
principles.
For us, the WFTU, the words of the “Man of Steel” — as his South African comrades used to call
him ― that “true liberation will only be achieved when the working-class becomes the ruling class”
stand as a guide for the struggles of today and tomorrow.
The WFTU militants will never forget the moving moment, during the 17th World Trade Union
Congress [Durban 2016] organized in the land Comrade Mtshali fought and bled for, when, during
the official opening ceremony he was chosen to raise the WFTU flag before all Congress delegates,
inaugurating its works.~ 14 ~
The WFTU honored his contribution and his selfless commitment to the working-class
emancipation ideals on several occasions, such as in Johannesburg, on February 2012, in the
framework of an honourable ceremony for the stalwarts of the South African Trade Union
Movement.
Dear comrades of COSATU and of SACP, please pass on our condolences to his relatives and
assure the whole working-class of South Africa that for us, the workers and simple people of the
world, he will always remain IMMORTAL. We promise to continue his legacy.
The WFTU Secretariat
STALIN MTSHALI ― A PERSONAL TRIBUTE
by Ian Beddowes
I had the privilege of meeting Comrade Stalin on a number of occasions after I came to live with
my family in South Africa following the meltdown of the Zimbabwean economy in 2008.
While still living in Britain, Comrade Moses Mabhida who was General Secretary of the SACP
from 1978 until his death in 1986 visited my London flat on three occasions; he was a simple but
dedicated man. Together with Harry Gwala and Stephen Dlamini, Moses Mabhida and Stalin
Mtshali formed a group of Natal-based incorruptible Communists completely dedicated not only to
the liberation of South Africa from apartheid, but to the total liberation of the working-class, the
peasants and the poor from capitalism. Comrade Stalin was the last of this group.
„Stalin‟ was not just some kind of loose nickname: Eric Mtshali was a follower and defender of
J.V. Stalin. Toward the end of his days he became very happy that research by people like Ludo
Martens and Grover Furr proved beyond doubt that the narrative about Stalin being a murderous
dictator advanced by the likes of Trotsky, Khrushchev and the British disinformation agent Robert
Conquest was false.
As Editor of ZimCom Publishers, I was able to present him with a copy of The Foundations of
Leninism by J.V. Stalin which we had published. He was delighted and asked us to produce an
edition of The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State by Frederick Engels ―which
we did ― adding a dedication to Comrade Eric „Stalin‟ Mtshali. He was thrilled when he received
the news that we had formed the Zimbabwe Communist Party.
This brings me to another point. Today comrades are always asking for us to simplify scientific
socialist texts and ideology; many of those who ask have had a far better basic education than
people like Stalin Mtshali and those of his generation. Before him, Moses Kotane, who was to
become the most influential and longest serving General Secretary of the SACP went into a
classroom for the first time at the age of 15. Yet these working-class stalwarts read the classics of
Marx, Engels and Lenin with great attention and understanding. As a young shop steward in the
building industry in London, I will never forget my mentor, Comrade Johnny Maher, a building
labourer from the west of Ireland. With little formal education, he yet had a firm grasp of how the
system worked and of the strategy and tactics needed to defeat it.
Despite his advanced age, Comrade Stalin Mtshali played an important role in the political
education of the Young Communist League in KZN. Unsurprisingly, the YCL in that Province is
arguably the most militant and best organised in South Africa.
Goodbye my Comrade and my Friend,
Go Well, Ian~ 15 ~
Zimbabwe Communist Party
CONDOLENCES ON THE DEATH OF
COMRADE TRAN DAI QUANG
24th September 2018
On behalf of the National Steering Committee and the entire membership of the Zimbabwe
Communist Party we dip the Red Flag and mourn the loss of Comrade Tran Dai Quang, President
of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
The ZCP extend its condolences to the family of Comrade Tran Dai Quang, the Communist Party of
Vietnam and the entire heroic Vietnamese people.
The ZCP salutes the National Assembly of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in the appointment of
Comrade Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh as President and wish her every success.
Yours fraternally,
N. Nicholas Mabhena
General Secretary
Zimbabwe Communist Party
Comrade Tran Dai Quang Comrade Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh
1956-2018 Born 1959
President of Vietnam Acting President of Vietnam
2016-2018 From 23rd September 2018~ 16 ~
To: Hon. Comrade N. Nicholas Mabhena
General Secretary
Zimbabwe Communist Party
Honourable Comrade,
The Embassy of Vietnam accredited to the Republic of Zimbabwe with residence in the Republic of
South Africa would like to thank you so much for your heartfelt letter of condolences about the
passing away of H.E. Comrade Tran Dai Quang, President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. It
was so kind of you to share with us and the people of Vietnam your support and friendship in this
difficult time.
Also, the Embassy would like to sincere thank for your saluts and best wishes addressed to the
National Assembly of Vietnam and H.E. Mrs. Dang Thi Ngoc Thinh in her appointment as Acting
President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam.
We strongly believe that the Communist Party of Vietnam and the Zimbabwe Communist Party will
continue supporting each other in the cause of our respective national and Party maintenance and
development, and further promoting our friendship and bilateral cooperation.
Please accept, Honourable Comrade, the assurances of our highest considerations.
Yours fraternally,
Embassy of Vietnam in the Republic of South Africa
87 Brooks Street, Brooklyn, Pretoria
Tel: +27 12 362 8119
Fax: + 27 12 362 8115
Website: www.vietnam.co.za~ 17 ~
THE GREAT OCTOBER
SOCIALIST REVOLUTION
STORMING OF THE WINTER PALACE
Scene from the film October made in 1927 on location in the USSR to celebrate
th
the 10 Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution
25th October 1917 (Old Style)
7th November 1917 (New Style)
On this date, the Bolsheviks under the leadership of Vladimir Ilyich Lenin gained control of the
All-Russian Congress of Soviets (workers, soldiers and peasants councils), stormed the Winter
Palace where the weak Provisional Government was sitting and declared a Soviet Republic. The
following day came the Decree on Peace (Russia was at war with Germany) and the Decree on
Land which gave land ownership to the peasants who worked it. [The full story was published in
Vanguard Vol.2 No.3, 1st November 2017.]
Within the ranks of militant activists in Zimbabwe today, we have many brave and dedicated
Comrades who only understand the politics of opposing the government. We have few who
understand the difficulties of taking power and of building and administering socialism.
Although the Bolsheviks took power in the capital, Petrograd in 1917, by October 1918 they were
far from having gained control of the whole country, a country the size of the whole of sub-Saharan
Africa. So, as it is now 100 years since 1918, let us trace some what was happening in Russia that
year in order that we can increase our understanding of real revolution (as opposed to the fantasies
of social media).
When the Revolution took place, the war with Germany was continuing with Germany gaining
huge amounts of the territory of the former Russian Empire. It was opposition to this war that was
the main catalyst in this vast and backward empire. And once the Tsar had been overthrown, many
believed that it was now necessary to defend the country that was now “belongs to us” against the
German invader.~ 18 ~
Explanatory Notes
Why Do We Celebrate the
Great October Socialist Revolution
on 7th November?
At the time of the Bolshevik Revolution, the Julian
Calendar was still in use in Russia as opposed to the
Gregorian Calendar used in most of the rest of the
world. The Julian Calendar (introduced by Julius
Caesar in 45 BCE), was based on the idea that an
actual year consisted of 365 days and 6 hours, and
therefore had three years of 365 days followed by a
leap year of 366 days. More scientific calculation
gives the length of a year as 365 days, 5 hours, 49
minutes, 12 seconds, that is the number of times the
earth revolves on its axis against the time it takes to Julius Caesar Pope Gregory XIII
circle the sun.
By 1582, the calendar was out by 9 days, and the calendar revised by Pope Gregory XIII
came into force in most of Europe. From that time, century years have not been leap years
unless they can be divided by 400 — therefore, 1900 was not a leap year but 2000 was.
Those countries, in particular Russia, which followed the Eastern Orthodox Church rather
than the Roman Catholic Church, continued to use the old Julian Calendar long after the
Gregorian Calendar had been accepted in the rest of Europe and most of the world. By the time
of the Revolution the calendar was out by 13 days; because of this, the Great October Socialist
Revolution which was on 25th October of the Julian calendar is therefore now celebrated on the
7th November.
The Soviet government adopted the Gregorian Calendar in February 1918. When reading the
literature of the period, it is customary for dates to be referred to as „Old Style‟ — Julian
Calendar or „New Style‟ — Gregorian Calendar.
Russian Capitals
The Revolution of 25th October 1917 started in Petrograd, then the capital of Russia. The
Revolution was successful in Moscow a few days later. A few words of explanation are needed
about what Lenin referred to as “...both capitals”.
Moscow became the capital of Russia in 1480, when Ivan III, Prince of Moscow (better
known as Ivan the Terrible), became the first Tsar of Russia. Following the capture of part of
the Baltic coast from Sweden in 1703, the progressive Tsar Peter the Great decided to build a
new, purpose built capital there which would be closer to Western Europe. He built St.
Petersburg which became the capital of Russia from 1712 until the Bolsheviks moved the
capital back to Moscow in March 1918, fearing foreign invasion during the Civil War. Moscow
has remained the capital ever since.
Peter the Great gave his new capital the German sounding name „St. Petersburg‟ because at
the time it sounded modern. In 1914, however, when Russia started fighting Germany in the
First World War, the name was changed to the more Russian sounding „Petrograd‟.~ 19 ~ Lenin realised that continued war would undermine the revolution and that an immediate peace, even at the expense of the loss of huge quantities of land, was necessary to preserve the Revolution. Despite opposition even from within the revolutionary forces, even from within the Bolshevik Party itself, a peace treaty, the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, was signed with Germany on 3rd March 1918. Huge amounts of territory including the Baltic states and the whole of Ukraine (which came under the puppet rule of the former Tsarist officer, the Hetman Skoropadsky) were subjected directly or indirectly to German rule. Advances by the forces of Britain, France and the United States, but more importantly a revolutionary upsurge in Germany itself, brought the First World War to a close on 11th November 1918. Nevertheless, Soviet Russia was to come under attack from no less than 14 countries coupled with the growth of the Tsarist White Armies and local nationalist forces in the Russian Civil War. It was not until 1920 that Soviet power was to establish itself over most of the territory and it was not until late in 1922 that the Civil War was to come to a close when the Japanese vacated Vladivostok in the Far East. On the 6th March 1918, the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party (Bolsheviks) changed its name to the Russian Communist Party (Bolsheviks), using the original term used by Marx and Engels in the Manifesto of the Communist Party in 1848 With the country in extreme crisis shape, Lenin and the Bolsheviks turned to the problem of the re-organisation of the economy. In The Immediate Tasks of the Soviet Government, published on 28th April 1918, Lenin had this to say: “Thanks to the peace which has been achieved — despite its extremely onerous character and extreme instability — the Russian Soviet Republic has gained an opportunity to concentrate its efforts for a while on the most important and most difficult aspect of the socialist revolution, namely, the task of organisation.” “In every socialist revolution, however — and consequently in the socialist revolution in Russia which we began on 25th October 1917 — the principal task of the proletariat, and of the poor peasants which it leads, is the positive or constructive work of setting up an extremely intricate and delicate system of new organisational relationships extending to the planned production and distribution of the goods required for the existence of tens of millions of people… By creating a new, Soviet type of state, which gives the working and oppressed people the chance to take an active part in the independent building up of a new society, we solved only a small part of this difficult problem. The principal difficulty lies in the economic sphere, namely, the introduction of the strictest and universal accounting and control of the production and distribution of goods, raising the productivity of labour and socialising production in practice. “…We have won Russia from the rich for the poor, from the exploiters for the working people. Now we must administer Russia… “Keep regular and honest accounts of money, manage economically, do not be lazy, do not steal, observe the strictest labour discipline — it is these slogans, justly scorned by the revolutionary proletariat when the bourgeoisie used them to conceal its rule as an exploiting class, that are now, since the overthrow of the bourgeoisie, becoming the immediate and the principal slogans of the moment.”
~ 20 ~ Some Comrades demanded that bourgeois specialists should be got rid of and replaced by „revolutionaries‟. In ‘Left-Wing’ Childishness and the Petty-Bourgeois Mentality, published in May 1918, Lenin pours scorn on the so-called „Left-Communists‟ and their ideas: “There could not be better confirmation, in political literature, of the utter naïveté of the defence of petty-bourgeois sloppiness that is sometimes concealed by „Left‟ slogans. “According to them, under the „Bolshevik deviation to the right‟ the Soviet Republic is threatened with „evolution towards state capitalism‟. They have really frightened us this time! “…It has not occurred to them that state capitalism would be a step forward as compared with the present state of affairs in our Soviet Republic. If in approximately six months‟ time state capitalism became established in our Republic, this would be a great success and a sure guarantee that within a year socialism will have gained a permanently firm hold and will have become invincible in our country. “…the „Left Communists‟ do not understand what kind of transition it is from capitalism to socialism that gives us the right and the grounds to call our country the Socialist Republic of Soviets… they reveal their petty-bourgeois mentality precisely by not recognising the petty- bourgeois element as the principal enemy of socialism in our country. “But what does the word „transition‟ mean? Does it not mean, as applied to an economy, that the present system contains elements, particles, fragments of both capitalism and socialism? “The shell of our state capitalism (grain monopoly, state controlled entrepreneurs and traders, bourgeois co-operators) is pierced now in one place, now in another by profiteers, the chief object of profiteering being grain. It is in this field that the main struggle is being waged. “…It is not state capitalism that is at war with socialism, but the petty bourgeoisie plus private capitalism fighting together against both state capitalism and socialism. “The petty bourgeoisie oppose every kind of state interference, accounting and control, whether it be state capitalist or state socialist. This is an absolutely unquestionable fact of reality, and the root of the economic mistake of the „Left Communists‟ is that they have failed to understand it. The profiteer, the commercial racketeer, the disrupter of monopoly — these are our principal internal enemies, the enemies of the economic measures of Soviet power.” The current ruling élite is in a very precarious position and the main opposition has no answers to dealing with the economic challenges which are appreciably different from the current rulers. We are close to having a revolutionary situation in Zimbabwe and our movement is growing. But we must not be simply opposed to the current state of affairs, we must be read to assume state prepare and re-build our economy. It is one thing to criticise the current government: another to take up the reins of administration. Are we ready to do that? If we are not ready, we must get ready, understanding what is possible and what is not possible in Zimbabwe early in the 21st Century as Lenin did in Russia one hundred years ago. Ian Patrick Beddowes October 2018
~ 21 ~
~ 22 ~
From:
HOW THE STEEL
WAS TEMPERED
(1934)
Man's dearest possession is life. It is given
to him but once, and he must live it so as
to feel no torturing regrets for wasted
years, never know the burning shame of a
mean and petty past; so live that, dying,
he might say: all my life, all my strength
were given to the finest cause in all the
world ── the fight for the Liberation of
Mankind
by Nikolai Ostrovsky (1904-1936)You can also read
