We reply

we reply.. 1 We published a review of Scrape Ntshona's pamphlet because we think it necessary to discuss any and every contribution to discussion of the perspectives for the South African revolution. Unlike comrade Maarwana, we discussed it at that level. We repeat that to review a document does not imply editorial agreement with its contents or with the pol- ¡tical practice of its author. It is the right of the UMSA to exclude Nighona from its number on 'gecurity grounds'. It is not their right to prevent his political views being discussed. A marxist group or party which holds a false political position must, in a crisis, surely land four square on the side of the bourgeosie. Ominous clouds of crisis are fast building up in Southern Africa, Imperialism has already foreseen this. It has certainly learnt its lessons from the mistakes in Angola where, for various complex reasons, it moved too Late and too hesitantly. It is now moving in on Rhodesia and Namibia, bath of which are buffer states of South Africa.' It is mobilising its client black states to crush the revolution. Imperialism rarely makes a mistake in recognising its 'friends' and "potential allies'. Why does the Liberation Committee of the OAU still refuse to recognise the UMSA? Is it an accident that large numbers of SASO students on landing at the first African country are presented with a choice: either to join the ANC, sometimes even PAC, or retur to South Africa? The manoeuvres of imperialism in Rhodesia and the massive international support given to the Communist Party controlled ANC of South Africa and to a lesser extent to PAC point clearly to the fact that imperialism has already made up its mind about what it is going to do in south Africa to divert and abort the revolution in that citadel of imperialism. If the editorial board of AIS is serious about the revolution it cannot afford to perch on a high pedestal and adopt the attitude: a plague on all your houses. ฿. Msarwana 2. Because we do not comment on any giv! an article does not imply politicàl aga The comrades of the 4th eement with it. International are currently involved in a thorough discussion of the whole hist- Ory of the novement in South Africa. We shall publish our conclusions, which will certainly make criticisms of all its sections, as a contribution to an urgently necessary debate. We hope that comrade Maarvana and as many others as possible will participate in an enterprise whose only purpose is to equip us more soundly to face the future. INTERNATIONAL 3. We do not 'wipe out of existence more than seven million people in the But we do know that the over villages'. whelming majority of these are dependent subsistence on the urban for their acturl econony (see eg a recent enrlysis of the Transkei by Innes and O'leara in Review of African Political Economy no.7) Thus we conclude that the future South African revolution will be centrally based amongst the working class. We are not opposed to national 11b- 4. In fact the 4th Interation movements. ernational consistently makes defence of their fight world wide a central part of its programme and actions. But as marxists who adhere to the theory of permanent revolution, we are committed to the construction of revoluționary parties of the working class which alone can ensure the successful meeting of democratic demands in the era of late capitalism. We read above that the UMSA is similarly totally opposed to the stagist theory (at least from 1969). Unfortunately the minimum programme which it placed at the centre of its propaganda for the previous 26 years precisely rests on such a conception. The comrades that 'were later to con- 5. stitute the leadership of the UM... came to the conclusion that the problems of the oppressed could not be solved within the framework of the capitalist system' Excellent! But what did they do about it? SUBSCRIBE NOW! NAME: ... ADDRESS: Individuals (Britain): £3 31 Unfortunately they devoted their entire energies to building a national liberation movement on a programme of bourgeois democratic demands and entirely neglected to build a party which could forward this solution to the'problems of the oppressed'. 6. Revolutionary marxists in all situations take a position of non collaborat- For instance, ion with the ruling class. they absolutely oppose participation by workers parties in bourgeois governments (the 'popular front'). But, unlike the UMSA they distinguish between the principle of non-collaboration and the In certain circumtactic of boycott. strnces it is perfectly nermissible for revolutionaries to use campaigns for election to state institutions as a means of propagandising their politics (e.g. the Bolshevik participation in the Dama, 1906-11) 7. He are strongly opnored io the rin: of sectarianism contained in comrade Msarwana's comments on ANC and PAC. We have as many criticians of these organisations as he does. But we do not think that slandering them as effective agents of imperialism is the means by which to begin an urgent debate around the formation of that united front of all opponents of the apartheid regime which is an essential for its destruction. John Blair. WRITE TO: INTERNATIONAL, 328/9 Upper Street, London N. 1 Please make cheques /POs payable to Relgocrest Lid. 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