Readers will remember the note in the Inst isstie of the Bulletin about _the new revolutionary South Afrioon journal, assazai, now published in London. It does not take much politianl understanding to sce that assangoai ig edited by pcople who sre close to the South African Communist Party, but who have an extremely henlthy oricntation to revolutionary struggle. It is also very cleor that they have no illusiong in achicVing victory by their currcnt sabotage cumpaign alonee Of cxocptionnl interest is their study of gucrilla warfare and the statement many times over that it is opplichblie to South african. On many questions they have nbandoncd the positiona of Stalinism. They speak of the world workers’ revolution of which the South african revolution is on integral part, ond which fact “has too often bcen lost gight of by many South .ifricans in the past. In the presont stnge of the world the revolution should not be divided into scparnte stages: first the nmationnl or demoerntic rovolution snd then the socialist revolution.....There ig nothing wrong with South africa todny which Socinlism ennnot put right; but ovorything that is wrong with our country....cannot be sot right by capitalism. They are the logic of capitclist class rule as it has developed in South sfriea; thoy o11 spring dircetly from the system itsclf. It is nonsense, therefore, to any that 'Socinlism is not the immediate problom.' Socialism, now, is . burning necessity for our people..."
When compnrcd with the South African Rond To Eroekom, the South ifricnn Communist Party programme : tc agssogoi Incks cll the ‘mbiguities and ‘eonfusion and comics out clearly for the Revolution and its socialist nature. Indcod the polomieal nature of miny of the articlcs could lcad onc to wonder if there is no internal struggle on thig question, which in ii:rn would explain many things.
There ig porhaps only two questions which wo would raise when reading this magazine. First, although thcre is o healthy. omphasis on the role of the working closes ond Marxist idcology, there is not . full understanding of the vital role of the struggle of the pensantry» This is mninly . teehnical quegtion: it is much ensicr rolatively to fight in the eountryside then in the city, particularly in the ecarlicr stages of the revolution, and tuking into considerntion the conditions in the loentions in the South .«frican citios. Thus while the struggle tust be undcr the leadership of cndres from the working class and under their ideology (cs opposed to racialist or tribalist idcology) the struggle of necessity must oc based upon the peasantry, for it is only in the countryside that an cffective Army of Liberation can be constructed (as opposed to smnll clondestine scerct sabotage groups in the city, where onything clse is too easily crushed.)
We await vith interest the furthcr issues of Assngai os well o the future evolution of the South African Revolution itsclf. The dssagai spenks the truth when it says "The mnss participation of the pcopla is esscntinl..." but this will in turn moan a. Revolutionary United Front, no matter the diffcront politiesal origins of leadcrships and groups, particularly if they heve a common Morxist denominator.