[DEBATE] : (Fwd) Peter Hain's stupidity

Sun Feb 17 08:48:54 GMT 2008

Hi Dominic,

     No I am not coming up for what Peter Hain is up to recently, nor can I
say that he is to be regarded as a "renegade" for joining the British Labour
Party. I had great respect and admiration for him regarding his Anti
Apartheid activist skills even though he did seem to be a bit of an outsider
as far as the exile community was concerned. His dedication was for real and
passionate. (I believe John Harris was his uncle). But with regard to the
British Labour Party I would be careful in throwing sto9nes, by the way. The
reason why the British AAM never really got off the ground with a vibrant
economic sanctions campaign was due to Briti9sh TUC pressures fearing job
losses should such a campaign ever get teeth.  

     I am acquainted with Christabel Gurney's paper ands views. This is the
opening paragraph of her article, "0n 26 June 1959 a group of South Africans
and their British supporters held a public meeting in Holborn Hall,
Theobalds Road, London, to call for a boycott of fruit, cigarettes and other
goods imported from South Africa. The meeting was organised under the
auspices of the Committee of African Organisations (CAO). The main speaker
was Julius Nyerere, then President of the Tanganyikan African National Union
(TANU),[1] joined by Kanyama Chiume of the banned Nyasaland African National
Congress, Tennyson Makiwane and Vella Pillay from South Africa's African and
Indian Congresses, Michael Scott and Trevor Huddleston.[2] None of the
speakers had a base in British politics. The choice of date, 26 June, South
Africa Freedom Day, is revealing. It clashed with the preparations for a big
peace rally on Sunday 28 June in Trafalgar Square, so was an unfortunate
choice in terms of the British political calendar. But the meeting was timed
to coincide with the boycott of products of Nationalist Party supporting
firms launched by the African National Congress and its ally, the South
African Indian Congress, in South Africa". The point is that at that time
the only organized group was the Committee of African Organizations (CAO).
There was no British AAM. Minty was not a member of the CAO.   

     So your mention of 1950 as genesis of the British AAM is patently
incorrect. Old George Houser, in the US, was earlier off the mark with his
support work with the comrades facing the treason trial. Fieldhouse recounts
"on 1 January 1960 a special Cabinet Committee chaired by Prime Minister
Harold Macmillan and attended by the Secretary of State for Commonwealth
Relations (the Earl of Home), the Secretary of State for the Colonies (Ian
Macleod), the President of the Board of Trade (Reginald Maudling), the
Minister of Labour (Edward Heath), met to discuss the newly-formed British
Boycott Movement which had declared its intention to build a consumer
boycott of South African goods. Despite the fact that the Labour Party and
TUC had publicly announced their support, the Tory government was reassured
to hear from Heath that the TUC had privately told him that they had no
intention of calling for industrial action. On this basis the Committee
concluded that the campaign posed no real threat. The TUC’s assurance and a
private word in Lord Home’s ear from one of the campaign’s founders led the
government to tell the South Africans that the boycott was ‘no more than an
irresponsible political manoeuvre’". (I cannot vouch for the credentials of
Fieldhouse but the publisher of the book from which this quote comes is
reputable enough for me. The point is that I can dig up more such quotes but
this one just seems tore poignant and serves its purpose well for
illustration purposes: seer Anti-Apartheid. A history of the movement in
Britain. 'A study in pressure group politics. Roger Fieldhouse. The Merlin
Press, ISBN 085036549X, 2005, 546pp, £20'.)

     The Norma Kitson group was the most powerful chapter in the AAM. This
group set itself apart by supporting the anti-imperialist struggle in
Ireland and was part of the "Troops Out Movement". The "official AAM" would
have nothing to do with this move. That apart from the fact that it also
refused to address the issue of rampant racism in the UK itself for
"strategic reasons". Similarly the British AAM was not affiliated to the
Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament Movement (CND or the Vietnam Movement. It
was indeed a stand alone movement with a very "churchy" constituency.

     Minty tried to dominate internationally and saw the British AAM as in
the lead and hegemonic. That was shit. In any case in as far as the US -
South Africa connection of progressive forces were concerned. He also tried
to dominate European-based movements, one being the Dutch. The principle
reason here was a squabble that flowed over from the Morogoro Conference
with SACP people factually "taking control" and smearing the legitimate
leaders of the Dutch Movement in 1975. 

     The Anti apartheid Movement in general has been the most over rated and
resulted in the ideologically bloated ANC government claiming that the whole
world was solidly in support. Of course, but not to the extent that nowadays
school children are being called to "honour" the strugglers against
Apartheid. In as far as he British Anti Apartheid Movement is concerned it
was a one-person show, Abdul Minty. This is not denigrating the others you
mention like Ethel de Keyser with whom I worked on a collegial basis for
years and for whom I had the greatest respect. And definitely Ruth First
should have been listened to and taken much more seriously than she was. So
Minty should be getting a golden crown from Mrs. Pandor!!!         

Berend     

-----Original Message-----
From: debate-bounces at debate.kabissa.org
[mailto:debate-bounces at debate.kabissa.org] On Behalf Of Dominic Tweedie
Sent: 17 February 2008 09:30 AM
To: debate: SA discussion list
Subject: Re: [DEBATE] : (Fwd) Peter Hain's stupidity

Hi Berend,

I assume you are not trying to work a passage for the repulsive poseur
Peter Hain. Let's not be too quick to forget him, because he is the
actual and immediate problem here.

The question of what you call "black Diaspora people" in relation to
the Anti-Apartheid Movement is very frankly looked at in Christabel
Gurney's "A Great Cause", which is archived on the ANC web site, and
also here:

http://amadlandawonye.wikispaces.com/1999%2C+Gurney%2C+A+Great+Cause

Abdul Minty, who was the Honorary Secretary of the Anti-Apartheid
Movement (and who presumably also qualifies for the designation "black
Diaspora person") was referring to that early decision by the AAM to
be a democratic mass structure within the British polity, with the
principal initial aim of effecting a mass boycott as opposed to state
action, or what are now called sanctions. This decision was brought
about in the process of the rejection of a proposal on behalf of a
white person (Canon Collins) to run the whole apparatus as an NGO, as
Christabel relates.

As such there was never any exclusion or sectarianism in the theory or
the practice of the Anti-Apartheid Movement. To the contrary, the AAM
remains to date an incomparable model of how divers localities,
specialisms, and areas of work could profitably function together
within a mass movement that was not democratic-centralist. Nor did it
shun those who for whatever reasons preferred to stay outside its fold
in the struggle.

What we veterans of the AAM will always object to is those, like Hain,
who want to take credit for work they did not do, so as to bury the
AAM in history in a way that they failed to do when it was in active
existence.

Yours in struggle,

Domza.

On 17/02/2008, Berend Schuitema <okhela at iafrica.com> wrote:
> If you want to dig further then also notice that the Anti apartheid
movement
> itself hi-jacked an anti-imperialist group set up by black Diaspora people
> in the UK. It then became a "stand alone movement" (Abdul Minty's words)
and
> to the very end had a problem in dealing with racism in the UK. There are
> many more who did not collaborate with the AAM for such-type reasons but
> made sterling efforts in the struggle all the seam. Berend
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: debate-bounces at debate.kabissa.org
> [mailto:debate-bounces at debate.kabissa.org] On Behalf Of Dominic Tweedie
> Sent: 17 February 2008 07:08 AM
> To: debate: SA discussion list
> Subject: Re: [DEBATE] : (Fwd) Peter Hain's stupidity
>
> "he [Peter Hain] became this country's leading opponent of apartheid"
>
> Completely untrue.
>
> Peter Hain shunned the Anti-Apartheid Movement founded by Bishop
> Huddleston and Julius Nyerere and established through the work of the
> likes of Ros Ainslie, Ruth First and Ethel de Keyser from the 1950s
> onwards.
>
> < snipped >
>
>
> _______________________________________________
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>

-- 
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