Date: Sun, 4 Feb 1996 10:41:42 +0000
From: mattk-AT-indigo.ie
Subject: ANC atrocities


Chris Burford wrote:

>In a revolutionary situation against a vicious enemy what do you
>do? How do you avoid anyone making mistakes? What do you do when
>your organisation has been penetrated by spies, as often happened.

>How do you keep up morale in a camp hundreds of miles away from the
>front. How do you stop people drinking too much alcohol and
>being violent? How do you stop people who have been tortured
>themselves, tragically acting brutally to others.

The point I would make about this is that it is not the job of Marxists to
advise the ANC, who are after all nothing more than nationalists.

The recent news of ANC atrocities and ANC torture camps shouldn't surprise
anyone who knows the history of nationalist groups in the 20th Century.

What communists should be counterposing to their ideology is class
struggle, whether it be against a white supremacist regime or a black
nationalist regime.

Don't get me wrong here - I was as moved by the release of Nelson Mandela
as anyone - it's just that I don't think the answer (for Marxists) to the
problems of South Africa will come from the ANC, or ever could have.

Matt Kelly.

--
E/irigh lasadh as an splanc seo




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