ld the Black A.N.C. Puppets’ Strings by David Irving Photo: Joe Slovo (BBC) HE AUDIENCE was frisked going in to the Conway Hall, evidently to heighten the drama. The platform was decorated with portraits of Marx, Lenin and a bearded South African gent, a banner of the S.A.C.P. and a banner of the A.N.C. A fifteen-strong choir of red-bloused Black women from some Brixton tribe chanted in the intervals between speeches, or uttered Indian whoops.
The audience was comprised of various ethnic dregs, Afro-Asians, Caribbeans in dreadlocks, Arabs, tieless, and about thirty percent gormless English; the only gent with tie was accompanied by a young liberated female with drooping breasts which totally cancelled out the effect of his tie.
The eight men on the platform (five Black, three Whites) were (except for the S.A.C.T.U. representative) wearing ties, finely pressed light grey suits and shirts of a quality and stylishness not normally associated with chosen representatives of the proletariat. They were greeted by a standing ovation and singing of a National Anthem “Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika”.
The audience raised one clenched fist and joined in the singing, including a surprisingly large number of Whites who appeared to know the words. The Communist leaders Slovo, McLennan and Stewart also appeared to be chanting the African words. The meeting was chaired by Dan Tloome. Gordon McLennan, the Chairman, then introduced the next speaker, James Stewart, Stewart was shy, diffident, not such a practised orator.
He wore a pink tie that matched his face, brought fraternal greetings from Ireland North and South to the S.A.C.P., spoke of the common Communist experience in the struggle against colonialism, racialism, and sectarianism, and was at pains to draw parallels between the two struggles. Once he hollered, “It must be sanctions now!”
Then he lurched off into a lengthy diatribe about the need to base the struggle on “proletarian internationalism,” not forgetting the teachings of Marxism-Leninism along the route. He was followed by Shapua Kaukungua. There then spoke the leader of S.A.C.T.U., Zola Zembe. Alfred Nzo, He recognized that the focus of Pretoria’s attack now is on the S.A.C.P.; he himself is in favour of having Communists in the A.N.C.
He did not see why they should have to explain “whether we are or are not members of S.A.C.P.” He referred to the Suppression of Communism Act of 1950 -many had chosen to deny it. It was reminiscent of McCarthyism in the U.S.A., what he called “maniacal anti-Communism.” All true South African democrats had refused to denounce Communism when challenged (Cheers).
Members of the National Executive Committee of the A.N.C. had been singled out for assassination, he claimed: it would then be said (by Pretoria) that they had been “killed by anti-Communist nationalists within the ranks of our movement.” (It seemed to me a bit Orwellian at this point: The Plot in “Animal Farm”!) He claimed that U.S. Special Forces and the British secret service and “those of Zionist Israel” are supplying murder machines to Pretoria.
The A.N.C. resolved last year in Zambia, “The African National Congress will not at any time be persuaded to forego its alliance with the S.A.C.P.” He quoted Oliver Tambo as saying on the 60th anniversary of S.A.C.P. referring to its links with the A.N.C., “Ours is not a mere paper alliance created at conference tables and formalized through the signing of documents and representing only an agreement by leaders. Our alliance is a living organism that has grown out of struggle.”
Waxing metaphorical, he continued that had the A.N.C. existed in 1936 it would have supported the Spanish Republic against Franco (Cheers); equally, it would have supported the Vietcong against the Americans (More Cheers); the Palestinians against the Israelis (Frenzied Cheers); it would have supported the freedom struggles in Nicaragua, El Salvador, Afghanistan -at which my own brain momentarily fuzed as it tried to fix Afghanistan into the previous galaxy of countries; having tossed into the
cheering audience further profoundly disapproving references to the American invasions of Grenada and Libya, and South African aggressions against frontline African states (Wild cheers) he thundered about “the right of every people to freedom and equality, among the peoples,” and the right to vote for and elect any Party of their choice, “as long as that Party is not a vehicle of racism and fascism.” (That appeared to leave open substantial room for manoeuvre.) “To talk of White minority rights
is to propagate an antidemocratic principal!” (Cheers, the loudest being from the less-intellectually endowed White members of the audience.) “Millions are on the march in pursuance of our strategic objective of seizure of power.” This objective he spelled out as: “A united democratic and non-racial South Africa.” (Non-racial? But the White minority is to have no rights? Nobody thought to ask.) He ended by calling for “comprehensive military and economic sanctions.”
The choirpersons started chanting and heaving again. This continued long after Joe Slovo had taken the microphone. As he started to speak a female behind me shouted “Comrade Slovo, what about –Richards? An injury to one not an injury to all when it comes to our own Party?” Two thugs descended on her and glared across two rows at her. The choirpersons started bleating the African equivalent of Two Legs Bad, Four Legs Good. Order was restored.
I confess I did not listen to more than the first fifteen minutes of Comrade Joe Slovo’s . [ rest of this note is missing ] The White Men who Hold the Black A.N.C. Puppets’ Strings David Irving: A Radical’s Diary Update on Pretoria’s parole refusal for Clive Derby-Lewis