[Debate] On the accusations against me relating to the arrest of Ayanda Kota
okhela at iafrica.com
okhela at iafrica.com
Thu Jan 19 10:43:17 GMT 2012
Who lends books to a cocaine user? Books can be precious vessels of knowledge that need to be respected as to where wishes them to multi[ply knowledge with other comrades
From: Benjamin Fogel
Sent: Thursday, January 19, 2012 11:53 AM
To: Debate is a listserve that attempts to promote information and analyses ofinterest to the independent left in South and Southern Africa
Subject: Re: [Debate] On the accusations against me relating to the arrest of Ayanda Kota
get some sense of scale they are just books. I once lent my beloved copy of the communist manifesto out to somebody who proceeded to use it to try get some money for cocaine, did I press charges? No, I bought another copy and did not lend any books out to this person in the future.
On Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 9:44 AM, Jessie Lazar Knott <jessielazarknott at gmail.com> wrote:
Devan wrote:
Now its in the broader public arena, and everyone wants to pass judgement - when only those immediately involved, who can hopefully act with circumspection and compassion, can really have anything meaningful to say.....
Re-reading Aurthur Miller's The Crucible, would be apt, at this precise juncture.
Given my postion; here, of observer, but directly effected by brutal attacks on my integrity, life, relationships, and family, by various actors linked to this particular drama, for merely challenging a prominent man on the 'left's', and some eye-brow raising women on the so-called 'left's' outright abuse of power, arrogantly presumed to be ok, and acceptable, given not the evidential, and experienced knowledges of his, (and their) actions, but the overwhelmingly narcissicistic and split off rhetoric spewed as actualities.
Complexities demand not only self restraint, humility, and containment, but respect for the highly personal politics that is the struggle in this day, and age.
In otherwords, back off with brutal condemnations of any, (unless self exposure of the exhibitionist variety is indulged) until all evidences, are in. This is precisely why so many academics, and journalists are under fire in the all out competitive rat race of the 'knowledge economy'. It's a trafficking in opinions based on diluted value systems ungrounded in thorough processings, effective in part from outdated, and/or anoreixcially northern-centered theoretical apparatuses of the deep psycho-social complexities every second, of every day, this country gives up as reality.the
However, I am personally impressed that charges were brought against a 'comrade' for theft. There is, and has been, and this has been my intense struggle, a tendency to overlook disgusting behaviours of so-called 'comrades', from theft, to rape, to fleecing, to plagiarising, to the most discable abuses of time, energies, lives, homes, possessions, treasured or otherwise. What comrade, steals, from a comrade?
That this particular man was then brutalised by police has nothing to do with the woman in question. It's about police brutality. Why hold a woman (ala original sin style) accountable for the violences of men, against another man?
Surely it is now up to the one brutalised to resolve this by laying charges against the police their selves, putting out a call to those able to perhaps provide evidences against the police; surveillance cameras abound.
Jessie
On Wed, Jan 18, 2012 at 10:40 AM, Devan Pillay <devanp52 at gmail.com> wrote:
I think you put it well, Mandi. Here we are debating the merits of an intensely personal issue none of us know much about.
Either one person's books, of great personal and sentimental value is taken (hence the invocation of Dennis Brutus' name, I presume) without permission (stolen?), by a renowned activist whose personal integrity is now called into question (by abusing her hospitality, as well as other allegations bad personal behaviour)
OR we have a hysterical "controversial" academic who out of malice because she lost a political argument, is out to get said activist, by getting the police to beat him up. Said activist borrowed the book with her knowledge, and promised to replace it as it seems they were lost.
OR, the truth is somewhere in between.
What we do know is that it was ill-advised to go to the police - but before that drastic step was taken, what had gone on before, we know little. It all sounds intensely personal.
For any of us to jump in and take sides, especially from a distance, is exactly the problem, it seems. We emotionally jump to the defence of one side, and condemn the other, because it may seem politically appropriate.
We care little for the full facts, or the personal traumas that might be involved, and how a bridging of the divide might happen.
Now its in the broader public arena, and everyone wants to pass judgement - when only those immediately involved, who can hopefully act with circumspection and compassion, can really have anything meaningful to say.....
On Wed, Jan 18, 2012 at 9:05 AM, Mandi Smallhorne <mandiwrite at icon.co.za> wrote:
Claire, of course the consequences for AK were serious. I am, as you say, not taking sides – just pointing out yet another serious and important consequence. And I would actually prefer to hear from AK before making assessments of what happened. (Is he brain damaged? That wasn’t reported!) But people in the immediate circle of these two obviously knew about the friction between them. Before it turned into a situation where someone felt there was no option but the police, and before it earned immortality online, surely some sort of intervention could have been organised? I would like to believe the left was BETTER at this than the centre and the right, but it seems to me that, as Devan phrases it, internecine war is all too commonplace. And here’s the result – physical and online assaults.
Benjamin, I’ m aware the mainstream media did this, too .
M.
From: debate-list-bounces at fahamu.org [mailto:debate-list-bounces at fahamu.org] On Behalf Of Benjamin Fogel
Sent: 17 January 2012 10:38 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
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] 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] 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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