Improve Your Word Power

A British Conservative Party Conference in Bournemouth has to be different from a COSATU Congress in Midrand. Hence in the interest of comparative political education and research, a link found on the Guardian’s web site labeled “Boris Johnson's inspiration of collective media hysteria at the Tory conference” must be pursued. We don’t know if Boris Johnson is related to South Africa’s Bill Johnson. Any facial resemblance is probably imaginary and most likely the product of police training on how to spot illegal immigrants (see the photo in the linked document). However the article is of considerable literary interest and leads fortuitously to further studies in spontaneous lumpen-proletarian or lumpen-bourgeois (is there a difference?) vocabulary formation. The article begins: “Rarely does British politics witness the kind of collective press hysteria known in the States as a "goat fuck", but tonight was one of those moments.” The modern student of politics and the press does not hesitate. Straight to the Google we go, only to find that “goat fuck” features in not one but two very large on-line dictionaries. The first is in the Urban Dictionary, here. The other is in Sex-Lexis, here. Naturally, these dictionaries contain thousands of other popular expressions, many of them even more bizarre than “goat fuck”. A more serious on-line dictionary is Wiktionary, which is entirely written by its readers using the collaborative “wiki” principle. South Africa’s official languages do not all have dictionaries of their own. The wiktionary is one way of generating such dictionaries. It would be a “development project” that the whole country could take part in. Respectable wordsmiths Ferial Haffejee and Mondli Makhanya will be at Number Four on Constitution Hill tonight to talk about “The Media’s View of the State”, in the Wolpe series. Drinks and snacks will be served from 5:15pm. In the SACP Red October Trnasport Campaign the District will be having activity committee meetings on Saturday October 7th in Renaissance Building, Gandhi Square. SACP Johannesburg Central branch will be leafletting outside Shoprite in Hillbrow on Sunday 8th. On the 15th there is a to be rally in Katlehong, and on the 21st an activity in Mabopane. The National March will be on November 4th, and the Transport Summit on November 18th. This information is based on notes taken at our BGM last Sunday. More details of dates, times and venues in this campaign will be appreciated. The transport campaign already has every sign of being a big success, so join in and learn how to do such things. Renee Grawitzky has an article about the COSATU 9th Congress in today’s Business Report, which is not yet on the Internet. In it, among other things, she writes about the influence of the SACP as follows: “This influence can become problematic when it extends to meddling in the nomination and election of union leaders”. She suggests (in the “passive voice”) that this happens but gives no facts or names. The reason is that the facts would show that it did not happen. It was wildly obvious at the COSATU 9th Congress that SACP members from ministers, through Presidents and General Secretaries, right down to individual delegate level could be found arguing passionately on either side of any and every question. The SACP constitution explicitly forbids caucusing (go to 6.4) and rightly so, and the Party can be extremely proud of itself in this regard. The problem is the opposite of what Renee suggests. The problem is for the Party to give its lead clearly and openly (as its constitution says it should) as the vanguard party of the working class - recognised as such by COSATU. Click on this link: Boris at bay, Ros Taylor, Guardian (173 word)