How communism has changed.

[Dave A]

I could not help having a quick thought about the lot of the proletariat when I read this story.

When communists arrange an international conference, it seems, good old-fashioned capitalism is welcomed and all participants are, in fact, not equal.

The SA Communist Party (SACP) on Wednesday sent out invitations to what it bills as "The African Participatory Democracy Conference", to be hosted - for a fee - in Soweto on August 16.

Delegates are invited to purchase a gala dinner table for prices ranging from the princely sum of R150 000 for a place at the main table - hosted by ANC president Jacob Zuma - to R50 000 for a seat at the table of lesser political mortals such as education minister Naledi Pandor and Johannesburg Mayor Amos Masondo.

Finance Minister Trevor Manuel ranks second on the VIP list with a R100 000 price tag.

Organisers say this will provide a platform for "networking, sharing of ideas, learning and imparting knowledge, the possibility to influence discussions and the potential for self-development".

Special arrangements have been made for the capitalist class, who will be afforded the opportunity to "sell their wares" at an exhibition hall for the duration of the conference. Companies will pay R5 000 for this privilege and be provided with coffee - "only during scheduled coffee breaks" - electricity (organisers do not guarantee uninterrupted supply), and a single table with two chairs.

Ordinary delegates will be asked to pay a once-off registration fee of R500...
full story from IOL here

Capitalist communism?

[Marq]

Looks like we should break out the vodka and celebrate the huge profits that should roll in. Viva la Communist, or whatever that guys name was that started this party.

[Alta Murray]

......and the potential for self-development? Mmmm....me thinks at those prices one can get a lot of self-development done in one night. Only in Africa!

[Dave A]

It would be cheap at the price if your business was selling expensive military hardware or something like that.

I wonder if you could claim the investment on your BBBEE scorecard?

[Yvonne]

Taken from :
Thought LEader - Written by Alex Matthews!

Caviar communism: YCL comes out of business-class closet
Recently the Young Communist League national secretary, Buti Manamela, was detained for questioning at Heathrow on his arrival. Sounds like a horrible experience to go through — one which he shares in an interview in the Mail & Guardian a few weeks ago.

What I found fascinating, though, was Manamela’s admission that he flew to the UK in business class. Clearly the irony is lost on him. I mean — hello! — doesn’t business class symbolise the untrammelled, opulent excess of the “evil” capitalist system? So much for comrade Manamela representing an organisation that claims to be fighting for the proletariat, the people — and, of course, a classless society. Ahem, classless.

Ag shame. If the South African Communist Party had even a shred of credibility, it has lost it now — though my hunch is that it has been without any since its remarkable reluctance to pay its outstanding debt to the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University for the use of its facilities for the party’s conference last year, an amount in excess of R1-million. It’s no wonder the SACP is in favour of debt relief!

This little gravy-plane episode, I suppose, is just another reminder that the SACP has long lost its battle with ideological irrelevancy, being clearly unable to put into practice the archaic “principles” it so vehemently preaches. In true Animal Farm style, this is a case of all being equal — but some being more equal than others.

Whatever its protestations to the contrary, the SACP is wholly reliant on the ANC to survive. And, of course, that is why it is such a toothless entity — it knows only too well on which side its bread is buttered, and it isn’t in promoting the ideology from which its name is derived. Clearly, serving the interests of the poor is not one of the SACP’s priorities — but of course that has been the case among communist parties the world over (such as the Soviet Union, whose communist elite lived as luxuriously as the tsars they booted out).

Yes, the SACP’s current focus is not poverty alleviation or holding the government to account for its service delivery and education failures, its inability to reduce unemployment and its shocking missteps on Aids — the things that have hit the poor the hardest and left us with a country with a vast socioeconomic schism between rich and poor. Rather, the SACP and its infantile youth league is focusing on blindly supporting a money-grubbing, power-hungry populist who will do anything to wriggle out of being accountable for the alleged corruption he so often claims is just a conspiracy against him. In return for what? Power and patronage: the story of communism the world over.

Perhaps it’s not so surprising Manamela flew business class after all.

[Dave A]

I recall reading a story about a recent ANCYL conference and the cars of the leadership. In some cases, not just a fancy car, but a cavalcade no less.

Yep. These righteous youngsters seem well set on their way to all the trappings of success.

[Alta Murray]

Watched Carte Blance tonight? It is getting really scary, but what scares me the *most* is that we do absolutely nothing about it, we complain and discuss, and I think this is one instance where we have no idea *what* to do, but to complain, laugh, and talk about it. I am always one to take action, as some action is better than none in most cases, but now, I don't even have the faintest idea *what* to do.

I really don't know what to do, do you? How do you stop this satire that is current politics?

[Alta Murray]

Oi Dave, please explain to me yer very own grading system, how come I don't have member status yet I have more posts and thank you's than some real members? Did I miss a dinner

[Dave A]

Oi Dave, please explain to me yer very own grading system, how come I don't have member status yet I have more posts and thank you's than some real members? Did I miss a dinner

You have been promoted. Not just a member, but an enthusiast nogal

I missed the Carte Blanche program - apparently it was about these cavalcades and the mayhem they have caused. Bloody ego trip if you ask me.

[Alta Murray]

bad sales technique there dave, I can't go to the country club and say oh let me in i am an enthusiast, that is a demotion It sounds like a novice or an amateur..... or is it just me? I don't wanna be that nogal jiggy. I am enthusiastic by nature, that is enough i think

[Dave A]

And now I'm thinking how you are going to feel when you get upgraded to senior member

Cruise the enthusiast thread - if you've got suggestions, I'm open to ideas.

[Alta Murray]

hosed myself! Needed that after friggin completing cash balance on my system, what a bore! Okay will check it out....

[Marq]

Seeing as this is a thread on communism - I vote (oh that's right there's no vote word in red square) mmmmm - Ok so I vote anyway, that we are all equal and nobody has any nomenclatures and you all read the little red book on names.

What book you may well ask? - well there's this little book and I was going to call it Marqs names after my friend Carl, but that would have been imposing on his human rights and so I have been unable to launch a committee to determine who should be in the task team to plan the future of the red book.