21.03.2008
Each week, LALIT "political education" sessions continue. In Grand Rivyer last week, in his usual captivating style, Ram Seegobin, leading LALIT member, presented a session on election and democracy. He presented some of the philosophical ideas underlying different concepts of democracy in human history, and different electoral and democratic systems in bourgeois society. The session was spot-on just as the debate on electoral reform was becoming centre-stage on the national agenda. Another leading LALIT member, Lindsey Collen presented a compelling session on "Seizing Power". She explained the objective and subjective conditions necessary for the working class to seize power and talked of the experiences of the Paris Commune, of the Russian revolution, the Turin workers councils, the Chinese and Cuban revolutions. She also talked of working class uprisings in Mauritian history in 1937, 1943, 1979 and 1999. There was stimulating debate after both sessions.
In Curepipe Saturday last, Alain Ah-Vee and Rajni Lallah presented a second series on "Class analysis" and "The State". What was interesting was how the sessions sparked off animated debate on how capitalist ideology is bent on making us all think that the capitalist system has existed throughout history and is inevitable, even though the facts show us otherwise.