ANC Today

----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
Volume 6, No. 36, 15-21 September 2006

----------------------------------------------------------------------
 
THIS WEEK:

* Letter from the President: Greeting the 9th COSATU National Congress 
* Cuban Five: South Africans called to join international campaign for justice 
* Hilda Bernstein: Giving a voice to those who had been silenced 
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------

LETTER FROM THE PRESIDENT

Greeting the 9th COSATU National Congress

The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) will hold its 9th National
Congress from 18 September. We take this opportunity to extend our best wishes
to the Congress and all the delegates. Together with the rest of the ANC, our
fraternal delegation to the Congress will convey the official message of our
movement and looks forward to its comradely participation in the work of the
Congress, which should further strengthen the long standing bonds that have kept
the ANC and the progressive trade union movement together, over many decades, in
one revolutionary alliance.

As before, the ANC will await with great expectation the results of this
important Congress, which will surely not only help to promote the interests of
the organised workers, but also contribute to the further advance of the
National Democratic Revolution. This is particularly necessary given the ever-
increasing expectations of the masses of our people that our Alliance will
further accelerate our country's progress towards the achievement of the goal of
a better life for all.

Twenty years ago, on 5-6 March 1986, an important meeting took place in Lusaka.
This was a meeting of the ANC, the South African Congress of Trade Unions
(SACTU) and COSATU. Among other things, the Statement issued after the meeting,
on 7 March, said: "The respective delegations were led by Comrade Jay Naidoo,
General Secretary of Cosatu, Comrade John K Nkadimeng, General Secretary of
Sactu and Comrade Oliver Tambo, President of the ANC...The meeting resulted from
the common concern of all parties arising from the fundamental and deep-seated
economic, social and political crisis into which the Botha regime and the
apartheid system of national oppression and class exploitation have plunged our
country.

"There was common understanding that the Pretoria regime and the ruling class of
South Africa are powerless to provide any real and meaningful solutions to this
general crisis, that lasting solutions can only emerge from the national
liberation movement, headed by the ANC, and the entire democratic forces of our
country, of which Cosatu is an important and integral part.

"In this regard it was recognised that the fundamental problem facing our
country, the question of political power, cannot be resolved without the full
participation of the ANC, which is regarded by the majority of the people of
South Africa as the overall leader and genuine representative.

"The meeting recognised that the emergence of Cosatu as the giant democratic and
progressive trade union federation in our country is an historic event in the
process of uniting our working class and will immeasurably strengthen the
democratic movement as a whole...

"(The delegations) agreed that the solution to the problems facing our country
lie in the establishment of a system of majority rule in a united, democratic
and non-racial South Africa. Further, that in the specific conditions of our
country it is inconceivable that such a system can be separated from economic
emancipation.

"Our people have been robbed of their land, deprived of their due share in the
country's wealth, their skills have been suppressed and poverty and starvation
have been their life experience. The correction of these centuries-old economic
injustices lies at the core of our national aspirations. Accordingly they were
united not only in their opposition to the entire apartheid system, but also in
their common understanding that victory must embrace more than formal political
democracy...

"Cosatu is seized with the task of engaging the workers in the general
democratic struggle, both as an independent organisation and as an essential
component of the democratic forces of our country...The ANC emphasised the need
for the greatest possible mobilisation of all the people of our country to join
in united political action against the apartheid regime, equally and in
combination with the mass political struggle...It is the duty of the democratic
forces to work together and consult one another in order to establish maximum
unity in action by all our people."

Nineteen years after the meeting in Lusaka, our Alliance convened in a Summit
Meeting in Ekurhuleni on 22-23 April 2005, and adopted a Declaration of the
Alliance Summit. In part this Declaration, issued on 23 April, said: "Senior
delegations of the ANC, SACP, COSATU and SANCO met in our second Ekurhuleni
Alliance Summit from 22-23 April 2005. We have convened in a period that is
characterised by important advances and major challenges.

"On the one hand, as an ANC-led alliance, we have consolidated and expanded our
overwhelming electoral majority, we have advanced and deepened democratic
governance, we have entrenched extensive social and economic rights and we have
rolled out significant social resource transfers. In the recent period,
government has shifted to a more expansionary fiscal stance and has begun to
implement a programme of significant public investments. As an Alliance we
collectively salute and claim these achievements.

"On the other hand, deeply entrenched poverty and inequality continue to
characterise our society and, above all, we have an economy that is not
generating nearly sufficient jobs. As we meet, another devastating wave of mass
retrenchments is striking the mining and manufacturing sectors. As an Alliance,
we acknowledge our collective responsibility for addressing the unemployment and
job-loss crisis. It is our Alliance that must provide the decisive strategic
leadership to our country on these challenges...

"Our review of the work of our Alliance since our 2002 Summit suggests that we
have functioned effectively in the midst of electoral campaigns, our local level
structures unite dynamically and there is a general unifying sense of purpose.
Outside of election periods, and despite a great deal of ongoing Alliance
interaction, we have not always been able to consistently carry through our
unity and our popular mobilisation. We acknowledge several problems and
challenges.

"Unconstructive public attacks on each other have not helped and we have agreed
to conduct our debates and air real differences, where they may occur, in ways
that build unity, and enable the Alliance to provide leadership to our society
in general. We have also agreed that each of us need to strengthen our
organisations, especially at the community and shop-floor level so that we are
able to strengthen each others' campaigns...

"Our discussions over these two days have confirmed for us a growing strategic
convergence among our formations on the key challenges facing our society, and,
above all, on the key short and medium-term measures that are required to
address these. We reaffirm the 2002 Ekurhuleni Summit declaration that states
that ours is a strategic alliance founded on the agreement that the primary task
of the current period is the implementation of the national democratic
revolution, a perspective that has been forged in struggle over more than seven
decades."

In addition to its Declaration, the 2005 Alliance Summit also adopted a
Programme of Action. Among others, this Programme says: "The Alliance is fully
aware of the critical responsibility we have to lead the process of
transformation in our country and contribute to the strengthening of efforts to
build a humane world order. Unity, a sense of common purpose, the depth of
understanding of our historical mission, activism, loyalty to the people -
especially the poor - and commitment to international solidarity and joint
action are some of the critical attributes that have placed the Alliance at the
head of the forces of change in our country.

"We are duty-bound by the realities of our history, the yearning of our people
for a better life and the confidence that they have placed in the ANC and other
components of the Alliance to ensure that these qualities continue to
characterise the relationship among ourselves and our interaction with the
motive forces of change, and with society at large."

Obviously, conditions in our country, Africa and the world have changed in many
significant respects during the nearly 20 years that separate the Lusaka meeting
of 1986 and the Ekurhuleni Summit of 2005. Not least among these changed
circumstances is that the democratic revolution triumphed in 1994. This
confirmed the prediction made by the Lusaka meeting that "victory over the
system of white minority racist rule is not far off".

The changes during these last two decades have also included such critical
developments as the collapse of the Soviet Union as well as socialism in Europe,
the emergence of a uni-polar world, the acceleration of the process of the
global integration of the largely capitalist world economy, and the dominance of
neo-liberal ideology in the global discourse about the building of human
societies.

And yet, despite these important changes, including our common victory in 1994,
the strategic framework that defines the relationship between the ANC and
COSATU, (and other members of the Alliance), has not changed to any material
degree.

As we did in 1986, and using the words in the 2005 Declaration, we remain
convinced that "ours is a strategic alliance founded on the agreement that the
primary task of the current period is the implementation of the national
democratic revolution, a perspective that has been forged in struggle over more
than seven decades".

In 1986, we said that, "the correction of...centuries-old economic
injustices...(and therefore our economic emancipation)...lies at the core of our
national aspirations." In 2005, we said, "we acknowledge our collective
responsibility for addressing the unemployment and job-loss crisis. It is our
Alliance that must provide the decisive strategic leadership to our country on
these challenges... (which include) deeply entrenched poverty and inequality
(that) continue to characterise our society."

Correctly, in 1986, we said that the Alliance had to lead both the struggle for
democracy and the fundamental transformation of our country saying, "lasting
solutions can only emerge from the national liberation movement, headed by the
ANC, and the entire democratic forces of our country". We continue to maintain
this position as reflected in our common statement in 2005, that, "we are fully
aware of the critical responsibility we have to lead the process of
transformation in our country."

Throughout these two and more decades, we have, together, understood this vital
vanguard role of the Alliance in the national democratic revolution, and
therefore the strategic importance of its unity.

That is why in 1986, even despite the illegality of the ANC, we spoke of "the
duty of the democratic forces to work together and consult one another in order
to establish maximum unity in action by all our people". We reiterated this in
2005 when we called for "unity, a sense of common purpose, the depth of
understanding of our historical mission, activism... and joint action...(and)
agreed to conduct our debates and air real differences, where they may occur, in
ways that build unity."

We have similarly understood and accepted the fact born of our history and the
objective conditions in our country, that the ANC has the task to lead the
Alliance and the broad democratic movement. In 1986 we spoke of "the national
liberation movement, headed by the ANC", and referred to ourselves in 2005 as,
"an ANC-led alliance".

The historic alliance in our country, between the national liberation movement
and the progressive trade union movement, emerged from the fact that the black
workers in our country were oppressed and exploited both as a class and as a
nation or black people. Thus they could not fully realise even trade union
demands, without attending to the central matter of their national emancipation.

At the same time, as in all other countries that have experienced national
oppression, the people, oppressed as a nation across all classes, including the
workers, had given birth to their own movement that would lead them in the
struggle to secure that national emancipation.

The masses of the oppressed and organised workers understood that it would be
strategically wrong for them to separate themselves from the rest of the
oppressed masses, refusing to accept the political leadership of the people's
movement, in our case the ANC. At the same time the ANC understood that the
working class needed to organise itself into trade unions and act to advance the
interests of the union members.

It viewed all gains in this regard as an essential part of the overall
emancipation of the black oppressed. It therefore saw it and sees it as one of
its tasks to help to strengthen the progressive trade union movement, in the
same way as this trade union movement knew it had to use its organised strength
not only to advance the economic interests of its members, but also the
overarching objective of the people as a whole of national liberation.

The challenge to eradicate the centuries-old legacy of colonialism and apartheid
stands at the centre of our continuing struggle for fundamental social
transformation. The defeat of apartheid rule in 1994 opened the way for us to
address this challenge, or in the words of the 1986 Statement, to provide a
solution to the "fundamental and deep-seated economic, social and political
crisis into which the Botha regime and the apartheid system of national
oppression and class exploitation have plunged our country".

Necessarily, therefore, the forces that shared an interest in, and therefore
combined to defeat white minority rule, would therefore continue to share an
interest and seek to combine to use their common victory to confront the legacy
of racism that had brought them together as freedom fighters.

That is why the strategic framework that unites the Alliance is the same today
as it was two decades ago. Both the workers organised in the progressive trade
union movement and the masses of our people, now both black and white, members
and followers of the ANC, know that it would neither make sense nor is therefore
any objective basis for the separation of the progressive trade union movement
and the national liberation movement, COSATU and the ANC.

That is why, at Ekurhuleni in 2005, we said: "We reaffirm the 2002 Ekurhuleni
Summit Declaration that states that ours is a strategic alliance founded on the
agreement that the primary task of the current period is the implementation of
the national democratic revolution, a perspective that has been forged in
struggle over more than seven decades."

A strong COSATU remains fundamental to the achievement of this task. It is
therefore important that the ANC and the rest of the broad democratic movement
continue to do everything possible to ensure that, as was said in 1986, COSATU
remains a "giant democratic and progressive trade union federation in our
country...uniting our working class and...immeasurably (strengthening) our
democratic movement as a whole". 

Thabo Mbeki
 
----------------------------------------------------------------------
   
CUBAN FIVE

South Africans called to join international campaign for justice

At the launch this week of a country-wide campaign to seek the release of five
Cubans unjustly imprisoned in the United States, a broad grouping of
organisations and individuals called on the South African people to join an
international campaign for justice taking place from 12 September to 6 October
2006.

This call was made in a statement released at Constitution Hill in Johannesburg
on 12 September by the Friends of Cuba Society (FOCUS), South African Council of
Churches (SACC), African National Congress (ANC), South African Communist Party
(SACP), Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and South African
National Civic Organisation (SANCO).

"We call on all South Africans who oppose terror and who support the rights of
all peoples to peace and justice to become part of the global effort to break
the silence about the plight of the Cuban Five.

"The unjust imprisonment of the Cuban Five is a violation of their right to a
fair trial. The Five were arrested on espionage charges; held in solitary
confinement; denied the right to a fair trial by an impartial jury; and
sentenced, collectively, to four life terms and 75 years.

"The imprisonment of the Five is an assault on the people of Cuba and their
inalienable right to defend themselves against acts of terror and aggression.
The Five were involved in gathering information about Cuban-American groups
using the US as a base to plan and launch terror attacks against Cuba and its
citizens. They were not engaged in any activities that threatened the national
security of the US.

"The imprisonment of the Five is an example of United States inconsistency in
the 'war on terror'. While it proclaims to be engaged in a war on terror, the US
allows terrorist groups to use its soil as a base for attacks on Cuban
civilians, colludes with those responsible for the attacks, and arrests and
imprisons those who have been tasked with monitoring and reporting on potential
terrorist atrocities. The imprisonment of the Five is an indication by the US
that they condone terror attacks on Cuba," the organisations said.

The dates for the campaign have been chosen because 12 September marks eight
years of imprisonment for the Cuban Five. Other key dates in this period are 21
September and 6 October, respectively the 30th anniversaries of the
assassination of the former Chilean foreign minister Orlando Letelier and the
sabotage of a Cuban civilian airliner off the coast of Barbados, which cost the
lives of all 73 on board.

The five Cubans - René González, Ramón Labañino, Fernando Gonzalez, Antonio
Guerrero, and Gerardo Hernández - were working for the Cuban government to
protect Cuba from invasion and terrorism organised, funded and launched from
Miami. To fulfill this mission they had infiltrated some of the Miami-based
organisations responsible for these acts.

Since 1959, Cuban-American groups based in Miami have conducted bombings,
assassinations and other sabotage, killing hundreds of innocent Cuban civilians.

These acts of terror have taken place in the context of US policy that has
sought to collectively punish the Cuban people for exercising their sovereign
right to determine their own road for building their society. This includes a
43-year economic blockade, which continues to this day, and providing shelter
for ultra-right terror groups.

Just months before the arrest of the Five in 1998, the Cuban government turned
over to US law-enforcement officials a memorandum summarising evidence gathered
on the 40-year campaign of murder, bombings, arson and other attacks against
Cuba. At a historic meeting in Havana, the Cubans requested US law-enforcement
officials to act on the evidence to end the cycle of terror.

Instead of acting against the terrorists, the US government arrested the five
Cubans on false charges of espionage. After their arrest by the FBI in September
1998, they were convicted on 8 June 2001 and sentenced in December 2001.

Right to justice

In the process of arresting, prosecuting and imprisoning the Cuban Five, the US
has violated the basic rights of the men in several ways.

They have violated the right of the Cuban Five to defend themselves and their
country from external aggression through the compilation of information that may
prevent another terrorist attack. In doing this, they posed no threat to the
national security of the US.

The five were held without bail for 33 months between arrest and trial,
including 17 months in solitary confinement cells used to punish prisoners
guilty of assault and other violent behaviour after being sentenced. They were
completely cut off from their families and young children, and not even able to
communicate with each other, in violation of international norms.

The five were denied the right to a fair trial by an impartial jury, having
their case heard in Miami, a city whose population has been shown by independent
polling to favour US military intervention against Cuba and which supports the
armed invasion of Cuba by exiles.

In May 2005 the UN Human Rights Commission Working Group on Arbitrary Detentions
declared that the imprisonment of the Five was arbitrary and insisted that the
US government adopt measures to resolve the situation.

In August 2005, a three judge panel of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeal, in
Atlanta, Georgia, reversed the convictions and sentences against the five on the
grounds that the Five did not receive a fair trial in Miami, and ordered a new
trial.

However, in an unusual step, the US Attorney General then ordered the filing of
an appeal to all 12 judges of the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeal to review the
decision of the three judges.

On 9 August this year, the court found, by a margin of 10 judges to two, that
the Five had not been prejudiced by the holding of the trial in Miami. While
this is a major setback for their effort to receive a fair trial, the Cuban Five
still have some legal avenues available to them.

"This ruling," the organisations said, "has strengthened the resolve of the Five
and their many supporters in Cuba and around the world to continue the fight for
their freedom."

"We have therefore decided to participate in a campaign to mobilise the South
African people in support of justice, peace and human rights."

Activities that have been planned for the period up until 6 October include:

* The circulation of a petition addressed to the US Attorney General demanding
the immediate release of the Cuban Five, or the re-trial of their case before an
impartial jury. 
* Awareness raising among the South African people through the distribution of
leaflets and pamphlets in communities, educational institutions and workplaces;
outreach to various sectors of society; and interaction with the media.
* Urging all concerned organisations to make contact with fraternal
organisations or groups in the US to mobilise support for the cause of the Five.
* Organising various seminars, round-table discussions and debates in different
parts of the country. 

All this will culminate in a mass march to the embassies of the United States
and Cuba in Tshwane on 6 October, where we will present a memorandum calling for
the release of the five. Marches and pickets will also take place in other parts
of the country on that day.

The organisations said they were not asking for the Cuban Five anything more
than that to which they are entitled.

"We are not challenging the sovereignty of the United States or asking that they
act in violation of their own Constitution or legal instruments. We are, in
fact, only asking that the United States accord the Cuban Five the inalienable
rights to which they are entitled, both under US and international law.

"We are asking that the United States be consistent in its opposition to terror,
and in its affirmation of the right of all countries to defend themselves
against external terrorist aggression."
 
MORE INFORMATION:

Friends of Cuba Society 
http://www.focuba.org.za/
Free the Cuban Five 
http://www.antiterroristas.cu/

----------------------------------------------------------------------

HILDA BERNSTEIN

Giving a voice to those who had been silenced

Hilda Bernstein, a stalwart of the liberation struggle, who died last Friday at
the age of 91, was a talented writer and artist who used her talents to give a
voice to those who had for so long been kept in silence.

In a message of condolence, the ANC joined many across the country in mourning
the passing away of Hilda Bernstein, "a stalwart of our movement and an untiring
fighter for the cause of the oppressed and exploited".

"Like her many family, friends and comrades, the ANC is deeply saddened by this
loss. Like them, we nevertheless draw solace from the profound and selfless
contribution she made throughout her long and rich life to the cause of freedom,
democracy and equality," it said.

Bernstein was one among the few white South Africans of her generation who were
prepared to stake the relative comfort of a life of privilege in pursuit of her
principles and political conviction. Her commitment to the struggle for national
liberation and class struggle, including her preparedness to stand for public
office as a member of the Communist Party, was an indication of her willingness
to defy the norms of an oppressive society, even in the face of arrest, banning,
censorship and exile.

Through her writings, Bernstein exposed in unflinching detail and honesty many
of the iniquities of the apartheid system. She also chronicled the struggles and
sacrifices of the South African people, providing an inspiration for all those
engaged in struggle and leaving for future generations a rich documentary
legacy.

Having been actively involved in democratic and non-racial women's formations
over many decades, "Cde Hilda was a pillar in the struggle for women's
emancipation and a champion of the involvement of women in all elements of the
struggle".

Hilda Bernstein was born in London, one of three daughters of Simeon and Dora
Schwarz. Her father was a Bolshevik, who left the family for good when Hilda was
ten years old to return to the Soviet Union. Hilda left school to work, before
emigrating to South Africa in 1933 aged 18.

She soon became caught up in the intense political turmoil caused by the rise of
fascism in Europe, and joined the youth branch of the Labour Party. By 1940,
becoming increasingly aware of apartheid, she left for the Communist Party of
South Africa, the only organisation with no racial segregation. She served on
both the district committee and national executive, and in 1943 her effective
public speaking got her elected for three years to the Johannesburg city council
by an all-white electorate. As the only communist to achieve this, she was able
to use her position to publicise the injustices of apartheid.

She met Lionel (Rusty) Bernstein through shared political involvement, and they
were married in 1941.

During the 1950s she started to organise with women. In 1956 she was one of the
founders of the first multi-racial women's organisation, the Federation of South
African Women (FEDSAW), which was to be a stepping-stone for some of its members
to later become outstanding leaders of the ANC. She played a key role in
organising the historic women's march to the Union Buildings in 1956.

She also helped to found the South African Peace Council and was its national
secretary until being banned.

As with so many others, Bernstein met with a succession of government attempts
to stop her political activity, starting in 1946 with a conviction for assisting
an illegal strike of black mineworkers. In 1953 she was banned from 26
organisations and from attending any meetings; in 1958 her renewed banning
orders included a ban on writing or publishing (she was a regular writer for
periodicals in South Africa, other African countries, and Europe). In 1960 she
was detained during the state of emergency following the Sharpeville massacre.
She continued political work clandestinely.

In 1963 her husband Rusty was arrested at Rivonia and charged together with
Nelson Mandela and others. He was acquitted, rearrested, recharged, and then
released on bail. Soon after his release, Hilda fled from home as the police
came to arrest her. She and Rusty crossed the frontier on foot to Botswana,
ultimately arriving in London. The story of the Rivonia arrests, trial and their
escape was dramatically told in her book "The World that was Ours".

In exile, Bernstein continued to be active in the ANC, including in the women's
section, and also the Anti-Apartheid Movement and the British peace movement.
Her public speaking and writing skills were used extensively for all these
causes throughout Europe, the USA and Canada.

Bernstein also forged a new life as an artist and writer. She had many one-
person shows of her etchings, drawings and paintings in London and elsewhere,
and exhibited extensively in group shows of print-makers and women artists in
the UK, USA, Europe and African countries. Her work has been hung several times
in the Royal Academy and is in both public and private collections throughout
the world. It has also been used on book jackets and illustrations, on posters
as greetings cards for the Anti-Apartheid Movement.

Hilda and Rusty Bernstein came back to South Africa to take part in the first
democratic elections of 1994. In 2004, Hilda Bernstein received the Luthuli
Silver Award for her "contribution to the attainment of a free and democratic
society" in South Africa.

In its message, the ANC drew attention to Bernstein's involvement in women's
struggles, saying "we are called upon to draw on the example of Hilda Bernstein
as we open up a new front in the struggle for gender equality".

"As we pay tribute to an extraordinary South African, freedom fighter and
communist, let us draw inspiration from what Hilda Bernstein stood for and how
she lived her life. Let us pay her the ultimate tribute, by taking forward the
struggle that she pursued with determination and vigour throughout her many
years," it said.

Much of what she wrote remains as a timeless reminder not only of the struggles
fought, but the tasks ahead. The concluding paragraphs of her book, "For their
Triumphs and for their Tears", first published in May 1978, still resonate with
the challenges of today:

"In South Africa black women, the most vulnerable of all people within the
apartheid state, have been forced to embark on a struggle that takes them beyond
their own specific oppression. The struggle of South African women for
recognition as equal citizens with equal opportunities is primarily the struggle
against apartheid, for national liberation. Nor is it a question of putting one
first, then taking up the other. The victory of this struggle against apartheid
is the absolute condition for any fundamental change in the social status of
women; the participation of the women in this struggle is the absolute condition
for its success. The participation of the women is an expression not only of
their desire to rid all South Africa of the curse of apartheid, but also of
their deep concern for their own status as women.

"Thus under the conditions of apartheid South Africa's oppressed women cannot
limit their objectives to those of simply trying to establish their legal rights
in a modern industrialised society, nor can they hope to emerge with a few
privileges in a male-dominated world. Instead they participate in the movement
to destroy the whole basis of racial exploitation, and to open up the prospect
of free development for both women and men. This is based on the understanding
that the liberation of women is not simply a matter of amending laws or changing
male attitudes, but of the fundamental restructuring of a society towards the
aims of freedom and justice for all...

"The women of South Africa, always an integral part of this struggle, remain a
key to its strength and mass development. They have come a long way: they have a
long way to go."

----------------------------------------------------------------------

This issue of ANC Today is available from the ANC web site at:
http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/anctoday/2006/at36.htm

To receive ANC Today free of charge by e-mail each week go to:
http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/anctoday/subscribe.html

To unsubscribe yourself from the ANC Today mailing list go to:
http://lists.anc.org.za/mailman/listinfo/anctoday