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

Tue Jan 17 20:37:57 GMT 2012

just to point out before this turns into a full scale flame war, the Mail
and Guardian 'outed' Claudia as well.

On Tue, Jan 17, 2012 at 8:06 PM, claire <czerwoni at gmail.com> wrote:

> …Sorry false pretenses, the below was from me myself not from our magazine…
> ****
>
> ** **
>
> *From:* debate-list-bounces at fahamu.org [mailto:
> debate-list-bounces at fahamu.org] *On Behalf Of *Socialism from below
> *Sent:* Tuesday, January 17, 2012 7:55 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****
>
> ** **
>
> Yeah. Same goes for a police record. And for brain damage. ****
>
> ** **
>
> *From:* debate-list-bounces at fahamu.org [
> mailto:debate-list-bounces at fahamu.org <debate-list-bounces at fahamu.org>] *On
> Behalf Of *Mandi Smallhorne
> *Sent:* Tuesday, January 17, 2012 7:37 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****
>
> ** **
>
> 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 <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 <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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