[Debate] On the accusations against me relating to the arrest of Ayanda Kota

Tue Jan 17 17:37:05 GMT 2012

The point really is that you're not just dealing with this person and that
person. When you name and shame as was done here, whatever the rights and
wrongs, you are putting it online. And once it's online, it spirals out of
control. And it lives online forever. So I would be very, very careful about
that. 

From: debate-list-bounces at fahamu.org [mailto:debate-list-bounces at fahamu.org]
On Behalf Of claire
Sent: 17 January 2012 06:53 PM
To: 'Debate is a listserve that attempts to promote information and analyses
of interest to the independent left in South and Southern Africa'
Subject: Re: [Debate] On the accusations against me relating to the arrest
of Ayanda Kota

Yeesh. We can go on and on and on here about fairness and balance. Someone
can point out that we still don't have a balanced view because we have not
heard Ayanda's side of the book saga.  Then Claudia can reply THIS and
Ayanda can rejoin THAT and and andand. 

But we do not live in a fair and balanced society and oh my goodness, isn't
it in the primer of (non-academic) Marxism that the police are one of the
ways that the ruling class loads the dice against the rest of us, not an
institution for impartial arbitration and justice?? 

Let me make this clear before I go on - I'm not taking any side in the book
saga nor in any question on styles of organizing.  I've yet to sit down with
anyone from Grahamstown to talk about the latter. I barely know any of the
parties involved, and I mean barely.

But let's look at the scorecard. Precious books retrieved: zero. Strained
relations between comrades mended: zero. Police swagger derived from the
satisfaction of finally klapping that blerrie troublemaker to hell and gone:
greatly increased. Police confidence to klap any other blerrie trouble
maker, including maybe one day those uppity blerrie lecturers: still
uncertain. Ability of the movement in Grahamstown to debate organizing and
strategy: further damaged. 

I'm afraid I can't come up with anything priceless, unless it's Lessons
Learned: among comrades, keep your personal and political arguments for
personal and movement spaces. Do not ever use the police to settle personal
scores. I mean, c'mon guys - many of us on this list are revolutionists and
most are oppositionists. Sooner or later we're bound to end up on the wrong
side of the police. For me the bottom line is that I can't really trust
someone to be in a movement with me if I think they're going to be dragging
the Repressive State Apparatus into a personal score. 

And a PS to Devon's phrasing below about it being reckless to say the
person's name: was not reckless for one experienced activist to expose
another activist to the real possibility of police violence over an issue
that is now revealed by the first activist to have been personal? And what
about recklessly associating Ayanda's name with a charge of theft?? 

As for the details of the whole book saga - I do wish comrades would treat
each other right all the time. I am only being the teeniest bit catty when I
say that honestly I feel the pain of precious tracts lost. But they're still
just books. A rude, screwed up comrade might still change, but a comrade
beaten into a vegetative state will pretty nearly every time stop right
there.  

Amandla

Claire

From: debate-list-bounces at fahamu.org [mailto:debate-list-bounces at fahamu.org]
On Behalf Of Devan Pillay
Sent: Tuesday, January 17, 2012 4:12 PM
To: Debate is a listserve that attempts to promote information and analyses
of interest to the independent left in South and Southern Africa
Subject: Re: [Debate] On the accusations against me relating to the arrest
of Ayanda Kota

Absolutely - whoever did so was being very reckless......  also concerned
about the DLF statement about a "controversial" academic etc, etc - it does
not take us away from the factionalist and intolerant politics of the SACP
etc (whatever mistakes may or not have been made in this unfortunate
saga).....

On Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 4:04 PM, Mandi Smallhorne <mandiwrite at icon.co.za>
wrote:

Yes indeed, Devan. It's also why we should be very careful about revealing
names.

Mandi

From: debate-list-bounces at fahamu.org [mailto:debate-list-bounces at fahamu.org]
On Behalf Of Devan Pillay
Sent: 17 January 2012 03:25 PM
To: Debate is a listserve that attempts to promote information and analyses
of interest to the independent left in South and Southern Africa
Subject: Re: [Debate] On the accusations against me relating to the arrest
of Ayanda Kota

Not knowing any of the parties involved - this detailed account shows why it
is imperative, if we are to build a new democratic politics of compassion,
to always hear all sides of an issue..... before jumping in to defend or
condemn.....

On Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 12:58 PM, Claudia Martinez Mullen
<C.MartinezMullen at ru.ac.za> wrote:

2012-01-17

On the accusations against me relating to the arrest of Ayanda Kota:

I write this statement in response to the media attention and the
statements which have been released by the Unemployed People?s
Movement, the Democratic Left Front and Abahlali baseMjondolo on the
arrest of Ayanda Kota, chairperson of the Unemployed People?s Movement
(UPM)

I have been accused of, wittingly or unwittingly, colluding with the
police in the arrest and assault of Ayanda. I have been subjected to
relentless pressure by the Jane Duncan of the DLF to unconditionally
drop the charge of theft I had laid against Ayanda in August 2011.
Comrades I work with in the Ubuntu Women and Community Forum were
pressured to the extent that they felt intimidated and threatened by
representatives of the UPM, with aim of getting them to pressurise me
in turn.

I responded by repeating the request I had made to Ayanda many times ?
that my request for the treasured belongings he took from me should be
treated with respect, and that if after having searched extensively
they were still not found, he should simply and sincerely apologise to
me. In my conversation with Jane following Ayanda?s arrest, I offered
to drop the charges immediately if she would be prepared to mediate
between the two of us in a serious and fair manner. This she refused.
My demand for the return of what Ayanda took from me, or an apology,
was belittled as irrelevant and dismissed.

The campaign which has been drummed up against me, reaching as far as
New Zealand (!), amounts to the equivalent of a public lynching of my
political reputation and my name and is unworthy of people calling
themselves comrades in the struggle against capitalism. It also
violates a fundamental principle of natural justice which I would
expect all progressive activists to recognise ? the principle of
hearing also my side of the story.

I maintain that the truth is not as simple as the seemingly clear-cut
picture of ?privileged academic colludes with state repressive
machinery to victimise heroic activist? which has been painted by the
UPM and hangers-on. I want to caution those who genuinely want to
build a united movement of workers and poor to maintain a critical
political mind and a comradely approach to others who share the same
commitment. I appeal in particular to the struggling communities of
Grahamstown not to allow this issue, which has been blown completely
out of proportion, to divide our important struggles for structural
transformation of society.

Who I am and what I stand for

I have been presented in the media, and in the statements mentioned
above, as a ?lecturer at Rhodes University? ? something completely
irrelevant to the issue at hand. Beyond this, I am the chairperson of
the Ubuntu Women and Community Forum, a grassroots organisation which
struggles for service delivery and to raise political consciousness in
the working class communities of Grahamstown East such as eThembeni,
Zolani, Joza, Tanyi, Vukani and Phaphamani. I and other comrades of
the UWCF have participated in joint struggles with the UPM many times
? for example in the bucket system protest at the entrance of the
municipal offices early last year, and in support (both financially,
personally and through mass mobilisation) of Ayanda Kota following his
arrest at a community protest.

My political criticism of Ayanda, which I discussed very sincerely
with him on many occasions, related to what I regard as a lack of
accountability and transparency on the UPM?s financial matters and the
complete lack of democratic control by the membership of the UPM over
a leadership that has never been elected and my deep concern over what
this means for the building of a strong, united mass movement. These
political differences however have nothing at all to do with the
personal conflict of concern at this point.

I have been involved in revolutionary politics from the age of 15 (33
years now!), starting in Argentina under the military dictatorship. In
the course of our struggle, 30 000 of my comrades ?disappeared?,
including many of my closest friends. I was lucky to survive to
continue the struggle. This is something I shared with my beloved
friend and comrade Dennis Brutus, who survived jail and torture at the
hands of the apartheid regime. We got a chance to share the local and
international struggle for some years; the last years of Dennis? life.

How I came to press charges against Ayanda Kota

The books which Ayanda took from me, and for which I have been
ridiculed in the media and by supposed critical Marxist comrades, were
gifts from Dennis during his last year in life, a year in which I
spent every day by his side. I mention this to explain that the great
value of these books ? which could have been any other thing ? to me
was not monetary but as a last memory of my closest friend. Ayanda
borrowed one book and took two others without my permission at the
beginning of May, 2011. This was at a time when I had opened my house
to him to protect him from the death threats he said he was receiving
from the ANC Youth League at the time. I had explained the sentimental
value of the books to Ayanda. A week later, I requested the books back
and he promised to bring them but never did. For two and half months,
I then tried with every means at my disposal to convince him to give
the books back, or at least come to me with a sincere explanation.
Comrades of the UWCF also approached him asking him to respond to me.
Ayanda made me go and look for the books in various places, including
his mother?s house, and maintained a very arrogant and disinterested
position.

In the end, I saw no other way of putting pressure on him than to
approach the police, initially not to press charges. For a month, the
police attempted to get Ayanda to return the books or approach me with
an apology. When this failed I eventually laid a charge of theft in
August. Between August and November, the police called Ayanda
repeatedly to get him to make a statement, which he consistently
refused. In the end, the police took the matter to court and due to
Ayanda?s failure to appear before the police, the prosecutor issued a
warrant of arrest for Ayanda. This was put into effect on January 12,
when Ayanda came to the police station.I did not at any stage demand
the arrest of Ayanda. I denounce all forms of police brutality.

As a revolutionary activist, having myself been subjected to police
torture and imprisonment, approaching the police was not something I
took lightly, and which I would never do in a political matter, which
I believe must be resolved through political engagement. But, having
exhausted all other ways of engaging person to person, I believe I was
in my full right to do so in this private matter.
It is possible that the police used the charge of theft as a pretext
for his arrest in pursuit of a different agenda ? to persecute the
left and social movements in particular ? but had the charge not been
there they could have invented any other excuse for his arrest. If
this was the case it is not something for which I can be held
responsible.

Abuse of trust, commitment and comradeship

When Ayanda said his life was under threat, I took him in without
hesitation. But Ayanda abused my trust, comradeship and commitment to
united struggle by taking what he knew was my most beloved possession
without my knowledge or permission, and then refused to take
responsibility for his actions. Contrary to claims by the UPM and the
DLF, he never sincerely offered to return the books (as opposed to
empty promises that the books would be brought), nor did he come to
explain himself or apologise. Throughout this period, Ayanda was
treating me with contempt and arrogance, to the extent that I felt
deeply humiliated and harassed. If he was really my comrade, I believe
he would have approached me with a simple apology, which would have
sufficed for me.

I find it very alarming that those on the left who have attacked me
appear not to realise that they are in fact committing an error
similar to the one they falsely accuse me of: aiding the aims of the
state in discrediting and dividing the movement that needs to be built
to overthrow this system. It appears to me that the too-quick resort
to this kind of frenzy against me is consistent with an unhealthy
political method which prefers to elevate select individuals as
martyrs or mascots as a substitute for truly democratic, accountable
mass structures ? which are of course much more difficult to bring
into the cosy petty-bourgeois cliques which still occupy a political
space far out of proportion to their significance.

I am today motivating for the withdrawal of my charge of theft against
Ayanda. By doing so, I do not take responsibility for the state?s
actions against Ayanda, and I also maintain that he is responsible for
his disrespectful, hurtful and arrogant behaviour against me. But I am
not prepared to be abused as a puppet by anyone, including the
capitalist state and its police.

Although I have lost all confidence in Ayanda?s political integrity,
and know that I am putting myself at risk of not receiving back what
he stole from me, I am setting aside my personal considerations to
protect the unity of the genuine movement, in particular all the
members of UWCF.

I still demand that Ayanda returns the three books and issues a public
apology for the theft of a fellow comrade?s most treasured possessions.

I also demand an apology from those who organised the mob-like
campaign against my political reputation and my personal life.

The issue between Ayanda and me is a private, not political, issue. It
is very unfortunate that it has been turned into a public, politicised
issue. This is my first and last statement on this matter.

I am convinced that most sincere activists in Grahamstown, South
Africa and the rest of the world will be able to see beyond the clique
mentality of the academic left circles.

I wish to end with a poem which Dennis Brutus dedicated to me in
appreciation of my political integrity and unconditional friendship:

Claudia /DB ? February 2009:

Guernica, Shatila, Sharpville, Gaza

Horror is all around us:
Death, destruction, mashed corpses,
It is all around us; commonplace
Astonishing, humanity erupts
Such virulent excess against humanity
There is no limit to our ingenuity
In the service of torture carnage;
Astonishingly, too, we have levels
Of pity, mercy, goodness;
Devices to repair injury;
Miraculously, somewhere, we have compassion

Claudia Martinez-Mullen

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