Academic literature on the topic 'South African Communist Party (SACP)'

This article draws extensively on an activist archive held at the University of Witwatersrand in order to analyze an important historical struggle within the South African Communist Party (SACP). A critical history of the crucial debates taking place within the SACP in the late 1990s is constructed from this archival material in order to explore the expulsion of Dr. Dale T. McKinley from the Party in 2000. The article argues that the expulsion of McKinley was a pivitol moment in the history of the SACP, and helps us understand the post-apartheid trajectory of the Party. Expelling McKinley fulfilled the SACP leadership’s goal of managing dissent at the rank-and-file level, and ensured that the Party’s loyalty to the ANC would remain an integral aspect of its strategy and tactics. Moreover, the use of this activist archive was absolutely essential in (re)constructing this critical story about the Party’s history.

The Delegate for Africa: David Ivon Jones, 1883–1924. By Baruch Hirson and Gwyn A. Williams. London: Core Publications, 1995. Pp. x+272. £8.50, paperback (ISBN 897640-02-1).S. P. Bunting: A Political Biography, new edition. By Edward Roux. Bellville: Mayibuye Books. 1993. Pp. 200. No price given, paperback (ISBN 1-86808-162-1).Outsiders looking at the recent history of South African politics are apt to be struck by two conundrums. How can a nation that pushed the logic of ‘race’ as far as any society in history also have produced one of the world's most enduring non-racial political traditions? And how, in a period that has seen the crumbling of the Soviet Union and the discrediting of communist parties throughout the world, has the South African Communist Party (SACP) not only survived but risen to power, in coalition with the African National Congress and the Congress of South African Trade Unions?

The written history and narratives of the anti-apartheid liberation struggle in South Africa has been cast, albeit erroneously, as if it was waged and won solely by the African National Congress (ANC), its ally the South African Communist Party (SACP), and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), the three alliance partners that have held the reins of state power since the first multi-racial democratic elections in 1994. The truth is that the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC) of Azania, the Azania People’s Organization (AZAPO), the New Unity Movement (NUMO), and several other liberation movements played significantly vital roles in that struggle. The ensuing discourse puts this state of affairs on the PAC’s diminished status in the politics of post-liberation South Africa, which derives partly from its radical antecedents from its inception that placed it apart from the ANC from which it split in 1959, earned it immediate proscription from the apartheid stage before it could root itself properly as well as notoriety in the West. The discourse argues and concludes that a more comprehensive narrative and written history of that struggle will benefit the on-going quest for the transformation of South Africa’s multi-racial democracy and the course of democracy in the rest of Africa.

Several recent publications have explored the African National Congress's (ANC's) external links during South Africa's apartheid years. The following four texts offer an insight into the very different personal and methodological approaches that have so far shaped attempts to understand this aspect of the ANC's struggle. The section starts with a review of Stephen Ellis's recent book External Mission: the ANC in exile, 1960–1990 by Hugh Macmillan, who argues that Ellis overemphasizes the relationship between the ANC and the South African Communist Party (SACP). In a response to this review, Stephen Ellis justifies his approach by pointing to the importance of interpretation for the production of history, but also by referring to the different networks and resources, both in South Africa and beyond, on which he and Macmillan were able to draw. A review of Hugh Macmillan's new book The Lusaka Years: the ANC in exile in Zambia, 1963 to 1994 by Arianna Lissoni follows. Lissoni agrees with the author that the debate about the ANC in exile must be understood in the context of contemporary disaffection with South Africa's ruling party. Emphasizing the specificity of the Zambian experience, she welcomes Macmillan's focus on the multiplicity of experiences in exile as potentially opening new avenues for further study and reflection on the ANC. Finally, Mariya Kurbak's consideration of Irina Filatova and Apollon Davidson's The Hidden Thread: Russia and South Africa in the Soviet era explains that the authors' close understanding of Russian–South African relations enables them to illuminate the previously hidden importance of the Soviet Union in the history of South Africa and the ANC.

The fast-reviving South African left is urgently coming to grips with the most acute national crises of structure and agency the country has experienced since the historic freeing of Nelson Mandela in February 1990 and the shift of the entire body politic in favor of the African National Congress (ANC) and the South African Communist Party (SACP).&hellip; The subsequent rise in unemployment, inequality, poverty, and environmental degradation soon reached some of the worst levels in the contemporary world. The consequent social unrest is now so high that President Jacob Zuma&hellip;promised increased "public order policing" personnel and the purchase of a new generation of technologically advanced weapons, including sonar canons&hellip;. In this conflagration, what survived of the left is now growing by leaps and bounds. Within a decade, it may become a force capable of an electoral challenge to the ANC for state power. But much will depend upon how it regroups amidst shards of splintered radical projects, with myriad questions hotly debated in the movement.<p class="mrlink"><p class="mrpurchaselink"><a href="http://monthlyreview.org/index/volume-67-number-2" title="Vol. 67, No. 2: June 2015" target="_self">Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the <em>Monthly Review</em> website.</a></p>

In South Africa, the Russian Revolution was admired by socialists and nationalists alike. The National Party soon stopped praising the Bolsheviks, but the effect of the Revolution on the nascent Communist Party was important and lasting. South African communists closely watched developments in Soviet Russia and established relations with the Communist International (Comintern) even before the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA) was born. The Party’s ideology and policy were shaped by the Comintern’s ideas and instructions. In the 1920s and 1930s the struggle around the Comintern-imposed slogan of the independent native republic and the Comintern’s campaigns for ‘bolshevization’ nearly brought the party to its demise. But it survived, and its leadership took the Comintern’s ideals and ideas into the postwar era. The Comintern’s theoretical legacy, particularly its idea of a two-stage (national and socialist) revolution proved long-lasting. This idea became entrenched in the programs of the African National Congress, the party of national liberation and since 1994, the party of government. Even today a significant proportion of South Africa’s black population cherishes the vision of a radical revolution and demands its implementation.

Thesis (M.A. (Political Science)) -- University of Limpopo, 2014
The study was about the South African Communist Party (SACP) and its entry into SA politics after 1990. The main question is whether it should contest elections independently of its Tripartite alliance partners led by ANC in democratic SA. As a democratic country it allows any party to participate in the elections. Given that space SACP can contest and triumph electorally thus assume the reins of government. For SA to become socialist, SACP has to campaign and triumph electorally for this to happen. The study followed a qualitative research paradigm. Purposeful sampling was used to collect data through in-depth interviews with information-rich respondents who have specialist knowledge about the study. Interviews and document analysis were used for data collection. For this reason, open-ended questions in the form of an interview guide were used to solicit information, perceptions and attitudes towards and about SACP. A tape recorder was used to capture information from these interviews. The recorded data was transcribed and coded into themes one by one which in turn formed part of the research portfolio. From the study findings contemporary SACP is a product of the revisionism that has come to characterise the post-Cold War. It is not surprising why the party then is not ready to contest election alone.

The Indians that settled in South Africa were differentiated by class, caste, religion, language and region of origin. Whilst some Indians were imported as indentured labourers to work on the sugar plantations in Natal, others came as merchants and traders and set up businesses in South Africa. In this thesis, I consider the historical background to the construction of 'Indianness' in South Africa, where the idea of 'community', a contested and transformative concept, called upon existing cultural traditions brought from India, as well as new ways of life that developed in South Africa. Crucially, central to the construction of 'Indianness' were notions of citizenship and belonging within their new environment. I look at the ways in which sections of the Indian 'community' were radicalised through fighting for democratic rights and citizenship in South Africa, and subsequently joined the South African Communist Party. With Indian South African communists, there was, I argue, a complex articulation between the influence of Gandhi and the Indian national movement, socialism and class politics, and the circumstances of their new social and political landscape. Historically, Indians have been disproportionately represented in the South African Communist Party in relation to their numbers in wider South African society. They have played an important part in the development of political strategies within the party and, in particular, have contributed to the ongoing debate on the relationship between nationalism and socialism and the practical application of this in party work. In this thesis, I look at the role of Indians in the South African Communist Party and consider the social, cultural and political influences that they brought to the organisation. I examine how these traditions were woven into new forms of political resistance within the CP, and how these fed into the Defiance Campaign of 1952.

“It should not be forgotten that this ideological contribution impacted itself in a very real way on the whole national and democratic movement. It helped transform the ANC from its early beginnings of petition politics into a revolutionary nationalist movement.” Joe Slovo (in a speech delivered at the University of the Western Cape to mark the 70th anniversary of the SACP, 19 July 1991) At the time that the late Joe Slovo, former secretary of the South African Communist Party and former Minister of Housing in the first Government of national unity, made the speech the former party had about a year of legal existence inside the country after President FW de Klerk had unbanned all previously banned political parties in February 1990. Indeed the unbanning of political parties in South Africa was preceded by cataclysmic events in both Soviet Russia and Eastern Europe. General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev who was leader of the Soviet Communist Party was at the helm in Moscow. He introduced a number of policies whose main objective was to democratize Soviet society and do away with some of the undemocratic practices that were always associated with the policy of communism. Consequently, there was much talk about glasnost (openness) and perestroika during the period of President Gorbachev’s rule of Soviet Russia. The two policies were the main feature of his quest to modernize Soviet Russia and gradually move away from communism. The collapse of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the fall of Nicolai Ceausescu in Romania and the disintegration of other East European countries like Yugoslavia signalled a death knell for East European socialism. The foregoing events also implied that the era of the Cold War between the West (led by USA, Britain, and West Germany et al) and East (led by the USSR, Poland, and East Germany et al) was over. The Cold War was a period of tremendous tension as Soviet Russia sought to spread its system of communism to Third World countries in Africa and South America. The West for its part tried to counteract by supporting forces which were opposed to communism in these countries. One can cite the example of Angola where Soviet Russia supported the Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) led by Augustinho Neto which had adopted the system at the independence of the country in 1975. Jonas Savimbi led the Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) which was opposed to communism and was supported by South Africa and other Western countries which were also opposed to the system of communism. In essence the Cold War was a contest between the West and the East in gaining converts to their respective belief systems. The collapse of communism was viewed by the West as triumph of its own belief system and the confirmation of the failure of communism. It is against the backdrop of these foregoing events that the South African Communist Party was unbanned together with other erstwhile banned on the 2nd of February 1990.The SACP which had much influence in the ANC in the late 1950s and early 1960s and much of the time the parties were in exile was unbanned against the backdrop of the foregoing events. Of interest to observers was whether the party after it was unbanned would be able to exert the same influence it did on the ANC during the time in exile. Would the SACP take over from the ANC after the democratic transition and impose a socialist state in South Africa even if globally the trend was to move away from communism/socialism? Would the ANC itself follow a system which had been shown to lack the ability to confront the challenges of the 20th century? Some political commentators viewed the relationship between the ANC and the SACP as that of a metaphorical rider (the latter) and donkey (the former). In essence they argued that the SACP was the one determining the general trajectory of the liberation movement and its economic policies in particular. This dissertation will show that the influence of the SACP within the Tripartite Alliance in general and the ANC government in particular swings like a pendulum. It depends on who is in charge as president of the ANC. Before and during the exile years as the ANC was led by the late Oliver Tambo, the party enjoyed relatively better influence within the former organizations. The two organizations co-operated well in many ventures like the Defiance campaign, drafting of the Freedom Charter and the establishment of Umkhonto Wesizwe in 1961. During the presidency of Nelson Mandela most SACP members were in the first democratic cabinet though they did not exert as much influence as would be desirable. The main economic policy that the ruling ANC advocated was under the umbrella of what was termed the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) and was not even the brainchild of the SACP but of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). In 1996 Thabo Mbeki, then deputy president to Nelson Mandela, came with the neo-liberal policy of Growth, Employment and Redistribution to try and salvage the South African economy which at the time was not performing at its best. Not only was GEAR unashamedly neo-liberal, it was also done without consultation of the SACP by its alliance partner the ANC. This engendered palpable tension within the alliance and led to name-calling from the party which derogatively referred to all the advocates of GEAR as the ‘Class of 1996’. The tension between the SACP and the ANC continued until former President Thabo Mbeki and his ‘Class of 1996’ were ousted from office in the 2007 ANC Polokwane elective conference. After the Polokwane conference, Jacob Zuma who had been Thabo Mbeki’s deputy president in both government and the ANC, assumed power. Zuma did not deviate much from the policies that were adopted by his predecessor though the SACP had played a significant role in bringing him to power. Just like Mbeki and Mandela before him, he had a number of SACP members in his cabinet and, in his case, some of them in key cabinet posts like Ebrahim Patel (a member of the SACP) who serves as Minister of Economic Development. Though he has these staunch members of the party in his cabinet, the Zuma administration has been able to adopt a neo-liberal economic policy which it has termed: National Development Plan which has been criticized by communists as no better than GEAR. This dissertation will show how the party sometimes struggle and sometimes wins that struggle to influence government policy.

This thesis aims to make sense of Left politics in South Africa within the Tri-partite Alliance between the ANC, SACP and COSATU. The thesis focuses on developments in the Eastern Cape, between 2000 and 2008. The thesis describes the prevalent forms of Left politics in the Eastern Cape and the tendencies in the Alliance that organise this Left. The thesis also examines the historical, social and political conditions and that shape the form and content of Left politics in the province. Based on a survey of literature on what is considered the core manifestations of Left politics globally in the 20th Century Left politics is defined as the elements of the political spectrum that are concerned with the progressive resolution of involuntary disadvantage and with a goal of abolishing class society and capitalism. Although the Alliance as a whole should be seen to be on the Left on an international political spectrum, this thesis argues that the Left/Right dichotomy is useful for understanding the politics of the Alliance, as long as the second part of this definition is taken into consideration. The Alliance Left is understood as those leaders and activists within the Alliance that have the SACP and Cosatu as their operating base. It will be argued that this Left is, in its practice, largely concerned with what insiders refer to as politics of „influence‟, rather than with politics of „structural transformation‟. It is the ANC that is the leader of the Alliance and the party in government and thus it is on the terrain of ANC strategy, policy and positions that contestation in the Alliance plays itself out. Thus, for the Left, there is strength in the idea of the Alliance. However, there are significant theoretical and political weaknesses in the Left that undermine the possibility of making good use of various corporatist platforms to pursue the agenda of the Left in the Eastern Cape. There is also increased contestation within the Alliance Left itself about the continued usefulness of this strategy.

Thesis (MA (Political Science))--University of Stellenbosch, 2010.
ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This thesis is a postcolonial analysis of Third World foreign policy, looking at an atypical case of state relations with national liberation movements. It is also an empirical contribution to an area of recent South African history through interrogating Cuba’s foreign policy towards South Africa’s liberation movements from 1959 until 1994. My starting point has been that meagre scholarship exists within the field of International Relations on this important area of South African history and on Cuban foreign policy. Mainstream scholars have largely overlooked relations between the Cuban state and civil society and liberation movements such as the African National Congress, the South African Communist Party, the Congress of South African Trade Unions and Umkhonto we Sizwe. By interrogating an ignored area of Third World foreign policy, this thesis furthermore aims to probe into the field of International Relations and analyses of foreign policy. Applying the methodology of a postcolonial theoretical critique, I highlight the ontological assumptions within the field that make theorising foreign policy from states and societies in the Third World peripheral within IR, as well as render states and civil society in the Third World as objects rather than subjects of the theoretical endeavour. The conceptualisation of the Cold War as a mere Superpower affair, with states in the Third World as mere sites of conflict between the Superpowers and divorced from the causal dynamics of the conflict, exemplifies the ontological assumptions that exist within the field of International Relations theory. I use the case study of Cuba’s foreign policy towards South African liberation movements in carrying out a qualitative analysis of the available literature and well as conducting interviews with senior participants of South Africa’s various liberation movements. A broad reconstruction of relations between 1959 and 1994, as well as post-1994, reveals extensive relations between Cuba and South African liberation movements involving the Cuban state and civil society. The findings of my research include an overview of relations between Cuba and various liberation movements at the political and military level, as well as the role of Cuban civil society in areas such as education and strengthening the role of women in the liberation struggle. Respondents reveal that relations between the two spheres are not uni-directional, but in fact reveal a complex interaction in which the agency of South Africa’s liberation movements in determining the content of relations is central. In conceptualising foreign policy using a postcolonial theoretical framework, I look not only at the Cuban state but also at the role of civil society in Cuba in constructing and carrying out foreign policy towards South African liberation movements. This theoretical framework rejects a strict dichotomy between the foreign and the domestic by looking at social forces within the state as well as the role of ideology in the making foreign policy domestically. Lastly, the extensive relations between Cuba and South African liberation movements that my research reveals points to possibilities for further theoretical investigations within the field of International Relations from a postcolonial theoretical critique.
AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie tesis is ‘n post-koloniale analise van Derde Wêreld buitelandse beleid, dit kyk na die atipiese geval van staats verhoudinge met nasionale vryheidsbewegings. Dit is ook ‘n empiriese bydrae tot ‘n area in onlangse Suid-Afrikaanse geskiedenis deurdat dit Kuba se buitelandse beleid teenoor Suid- Afrikaanse vryheidsbewegings tussen 1959 tot 1994 ondervra. My beginpunt is dat daar skamele vakkundigheid tans bestaan binne die studieveld Internasionale Betrekkinge met betrekking tot hierdie belangrike area van Suid-Afrikaanse geskiedenis en Kubaanse buitelandse beleid. Hoofstroom deskundiges hanteer tot ‘n groot mate die verhoudinge tussen staat en burgerlike samelewing van Kuba met vryheidsbewegings soos die African National Congress, die Suid-Afrikaanse Kommunistiese Party, die Congress of South African Trade Unions en Umkhonto we Sizwe met min aandag. Deur hierdie geïgnoreerde area binne Derde Wêreld buitelandse beleid te ondervra, is dit ook ‘n verdere oogmerk van hierdie tesis om die vakgebied van Internasionale Betrekkinge en die gepaardgaande analises van buitelandse beleid te ondersoek. Deur die toepassing van die metodologie van post-koloniale kritiek, beklemtoon ek die ontologiese aannames binne die vakgebied van Internasionale Betrekkinge wat die teoretisering van buitelandse beleid van state en samelewings in die Derde Wêreld marginaliseer, asook om hierdie state en burgerlike samelewings in die Derde Wêreld tot objekte in plaas van subjekte van ‘n teoretiese onderneming te reduseer. Die konseptualiseering van die Koue Oorlog as bloot ‘n supermag aangeleentheid, met state in die Derde Wêreld as blote ligging vir konflikte tussen die supermagte asook terselfdertyd vervreemd van die oorsaaklike dynamiek van die konflik, beliggaam die ontologiese aannames wat binne die vakgebied van Internasionale Betrekkinge bestaan. Ek maak gebruik van Kuba se buitelandse beleid teenoor Suid-Afrkaanse vryheidsbewegings as gevallestudie om ‘n kwalitatiewe analise te maak op die bestaande literatuur asook om onderhoude te hê met senior deelnemers in Suid Afrika se verskeie vryheidsbewegings. ‘n Uitgebreide rekonstruksie van verhoudinge tussen 1959 en 1994, sowel as post-1994, openbaar diepgaande verhoudinge tussen Kuba en Suid-Afrikaanse vryheidsbewegings wat die Kubaanse staat en burgerlike samelewing behels. Die bevindinge in my navorsing sluit in ‘n oorsig van verhoudinge tussen Kuba en verskeie vryheidsbewegings op politiekeen militêre vlak asook die rol van Kubaanse burgerlike samelewing in areas soos opvoeding en die verstewiging van die rol van vroue in die vryheidstryd. Respondente openbaar dat verhoudinge tussen die twee sfere nie in een rigting geloop het nie, maar dat dit eintlik ‘n komplekse interaksie openbaar in wie die agentskap van die Suid-Afrikaanse vryheidsbewegings om die inhoud van die verhoudinge te bepaal ‘n sentrale deel speel. Deur buitelandse beleid te konseptualiseer deur gebruik te maak van ‘n v post-koloniale raamwerk kyk ek nie net bloot na die Kubaanse staat nie, maar ook na die rol van die Kubaanse burgerlike samelewing in die konstruksie en uitvoering van buitelandse beleid teenoor Suid- Afrikaanse vryheidsbewegings. Hierdie teoretiese raamwerk verwerp ‘n eng tweeledigheid tussen die buitelandse en binnelandse deur te kyk na die sosiale magte binne die staat sowel as die rol van ideologie in die binnelandse skepping van buitelandse beleid. Ten slote, die diepgaande verhoudinge tussen Kuba en Suid-Afrikaanse vryheidsbewegings wat my navorsing openbaar dui in die rigting van moontlike verdere teoretiese ondersoeke binne die vakgebied van Internasionale Betrekkinge vanaf ‘n perspektief van post-koloniale kritiek.

M.A.
The following dissertation examines the political and economic policy approaches of the South African Communist Party for, in main, the period 1993 to 1996. The study is an exploratory one and relies largely upon the policy expressions that have emanated from the SACP, in official or related documents, during the period 1993 to 1996. Although interviewees are acknowledged in the appended source list, these have not been explicitly referred to in the text. The dissertation opens with the submission of an hypothesis, towards the tentative substantiation of which it works throughout. The hypothesis should none the less be subject to further consideration and critique. The central argument made in the dissertation is that: It is a product of the revisionism within the SACP that followed the upheavals in the Soviet bloc and the Apartheid state in the period 1989 to 1993, that the Party should no longer be understood according to older Marxist-Leninist orthodoxy or the two-stage revolutionary theory that sustained it during the exile period of 1950 to 1990. Moreover, the Party's fusion with the ANC by means of common programmatic platforms, in 1955 and again in 1993/1994, has allowed it to neglect the development of its vision of a post-apartheid socialist transformation. These factors resulted in the elimination of tangible benchmarks according to which the Party could have measured progress towards socialism in the period after the South African democratic election of 1994, and have exacerbated the Party's inability, by itself, or as part of a Left vanguard, to engage effectively with the Rightward shift that the post-apartheid democracy has taken since 1996. The study concludes, however, that there is some scope for the Party to engage with the global 'neo-liberal' order and South Africa's essentially liberal democracy. This engagement might be based upon the Party's now secular political agenda and should be aimed at deepening South Africa's democracy.

Abstract The following study is concerned with the nature of utopianism in the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA). The presence of utopianism is explored over the whole of the Party’s history from 1921 to 1950. The study is essentially a historical sociology piece, and is based on the assumption that ideas are constitutive of social reality, and in particular, that utopianism is an active ingredient in society. The CPSA’s utopian vision for a future South African emerged amidst the excitement generated amongst socialists worldwide by the success of the Bolshevik Revolution. Over the years CPSA members drew on a range of traditions and identities that shaped the content and form of the CPSA’s utopianism. This utopianism was influenced by a modernist discourse of Marxism, which was characterised by a strong confidence in the realisation of a socialist future. The CPSA’s vision was also shaped by the political landscape of South Africa, and by the influence of the Communist International. The discussions of the CPSA’s form and content provide background to an analysis of the function of utopianism in the CPSA. An investigation of utopianism’s function in the Party informs the most significant finding of the research. Utopianism played a positive role in the CPSA: it was a critical tool, and a mobilising and sustaining force. However, utopianism in the CPSA also revealed a destructive side. The negative role of utopianism in the CPSA is explored via two themes: the ‘Bolshevisation’ or purging of the CPSA in the 1930s under the directive of the Communist International, and the CPSA’s often blind loyalty to the Soviet Union. The presence of utopianism in the CPSA is thus shown to have been ambiguous. In conclusion it is suggested that utopianism is an ambiguous presence in society more generally, as it has the potential to function as both a positive and a negative force in society. This is an under explored topic in the literature on utopianism. The role that utopianism will play in any given social group is context related, however. The study argues for a more contextualised approach than is adopted in many of the seminal texts on utopia, to understanding the way in which utopianism is manifest and functions in society. The study sheds new light on the history of the Party, by revealing a previously unexplored story in the CPSA’s history, and makes a contribution to sociology in providing a detailed exploration of the nature and function of utopianism.

After three hundred and forty-two years of colonialism and apartheid, South Africans of all walks of life experienced their first democratic elections in 1994. Now, as the country is at the precipice of the 5th democratic elections, it has known no government other than the African National Congress (ANC). The ANC has had landslide victories at the ballot box and always managed to secure an electoral vote of around 66%. These victories have not been by accident and have been carefully managed through an Alliance Pact with the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU). The nature of the Alliance has infiltrated and influenced the character of contemporary South African public administration. This study postulates vigorously that an alliance is not a coalition, but rather a partnership of ideological semblance and political decorum. This is most significantly expressed through the National Democratic Revolution (NDR). The study further elucidates the notion that the NDR remains the main political artery of the ANC and is seminal in the policy debates and critical platforms for each of the Alliance Partners. The study affirms that irrespective of this convergence of ideology, there is periodic divergence on the leadership role of the ANC viz a viz that of the Alliance as the strategic centre for policy and governance issues. However, the ANC has over the years successfully challenged this assertion and through practice, led the Alliance in a politically driven manner that is predicated on consultation, due diligence and functional purpose. However, any member of the SACP or COSATU who desires to be part of parliament or the executive is required to be a member of the ANC. This, the study asserts, is the new formation of a political partnership. The study adumbrates that the SACP (even though it is registered as a political party with the Independent Electoral Commission) and COSATU do not contest elections separately. As part of the agreement, only the ANC contests elections and as such leads the Alliance. While COSATU and the SACP provide advice through Alliance structures on the deployment of cadres in the public service, the deployment committee is an ANC structure and the final decisions in regard to deployment resides with the ANC. This study has reinterpreted the dialogue within the Tripartite Alliance and how this has moulded the political nomenclature of the ANC, and the solidified impact on the way in which public administration is affected and effected in South Africa and vice versa. The study presents with equanimity how the practice, for example, of dual membership of two political organisations (ANC and SACP) enriches the public service and the policy-making process in a developmental state. It furthermore points to the imperative for a clear underlying ideology (as provided for through the NDR) and certainty as to who leads in such an arrangement. This study finds that it is through the Alliance structures that individual leaders within the Governing Party (ANC) are held to account for their actions – and after a hundred years of existence, the ANC and Alliance structures have managed to address the challenges of time, the pressures of political stress and the coalition of a “broad-based political church”. The logic of maintaining this political marriage and developmental triangulation, and also interpreting the essence of consolidating party manifestos to its membership, and further to preserving democratic principles, while at the same time translating this into the action of good governance in South Africa, is complex, yet manageable.
Thesis (PhD)--University of Pretoria, 2013.
am2013
School of Public Management and Administration
unrestricted

Communists and members of the New Left were involved in the Anti-Apartheid Movement [AAM] from its origins in the Boycott Committee in the late 1950s. In its early days, the AAM welcomed support from individual communists, but was reluctant to be seen to be too close to the Communist Party. Nevertheless, members of the Communist Party of Great Britain [CPGB] played a significant role at all levels of the movement throughout its history. Fundamental to this was the relationship between the CPGB and the South African Communist Party [SACP] whose cadre played a central role in the exiled structures of the African National Congress [ANC]. In contrast to the CPGB, other left tendencies had more complicated relationships with the AAM’s leadership. This chapter examines the relationship of different far Left tendencies to the anti-apartheid struggle during the 1970s and 1980s.

This chapter follows Jonathan Daniels to Scottsboro, Alabama, and provides a concise account of the arrest, convictions, and eventual release of the Scottsboro Boys, nine African American youths who were falsely accused of rape in 1931. Daniels's calls for justice for the Scottsboro defendants are contrasted with his opposition to federal anti-lynching legislation advocated by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). He saw the 1933 Costigan-Wagner bill and the 1937 Gavagan bill as impossible to pass in the Senate, unlikely to be effective, and certain to breed resentment among white southerners. His preferred solution was local and state action as well as education to increase whites' commitment to the rule of law. The chapter acknowledges that the defense of the Scottsboro Boys by the International Labor Defense (ILD) helped the Communist Party-USA gain in the 1930s the greatest influence it has ever had in American politics and culture.

This chapter traces South African foreign policy responses to the civil rights movement in the United States. It explores how the National Party engaged with the racial politics of the Cold War in an attempt legitimize apartheid to an increasingly sceptical global audience. The National Party did not shy away from challenging negative portrayals of apartheid. In the United States, South African diplomatic officials mounted a systematic propaganda campaign to correct “misconceptions” and present the apartheid system in a positive light. Equating black protest with communist subversion, South African diplomats engaged in a deliberate and sustained effort to defend apartheid in the United States.