The role of the South African Communist Party (SACP) in the struggle for liberation in South Africa, C.1921-2015
Loading...
Date
2021
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Zululand
Abstract
This research study addresses the role of the South African Communist Party (SACP) in the
liberation struggle from its inception, through the apartheid era to post-apartheid epoch.
The South African Communist Party (SACP) had a strong grip on the African National
Congress (ANC) on questions of theory, strategy and tactics of the national liberation
struggle. It is argued in this thesis that the SACP produced vast reading material such as
the African Communist to exert its influence in the liberation struggle through the ANC.
They contributed immensely in the drafting of the Freedom Charter which in turn shaped
the political perspectives of the ANC. This thesis asserts that Joe Slovo contributed to the
ANC’s “Two Phase Theory” revolution for which the National Democratic Revolution
(NDR) perspective was premised. This theory and perspective logically led to the formation
of the ‘Mass Democratic Movement’ strategy which accommodated everybody from
committed revolutionaries, moderates, reformists, opportunists, reactionaries, puppets
and dissenters. Slovo argued that it is the inclusiveness of everybody and everything that
makes the NDR democratic and national and therefore justifiable. Thus, by implication,
communists intentionally took the ANC and its allies through a reformist path. Emerging
from this thesis is a narrative that says it is not for revolutionaries to do anything
nonrevolutionary, anti-socialist and liberal in orientation and character for the sake of
convenience. The crucial contributions made by Slovo equal to the Two Stage theory and
which shaped the South African anti-colonial struggle were two pieces of work, viz,
‘Colonialism of a Special Type’ ( i.e. Settler Colonialism) and the ‘Sunset Clause’
respectively. The two, Colonialism of a Special Type and the Sunset Clause professed that
the colonized and exploited workers had to co-exist with the oppressors and exploiters.
The theory of colonialism of special type has as its main function to explain the fact that
SA colonizers are ‘live-in’ colonizers. The logic of this analysis led to the conclusion that the
‘anti-colonial’ struggle should not be to drive the colonizers away but to reconcile with
them, hence ‘power sharing mechanism’ which produced the 1994 government of national
‘unity’. This colonialism of special type theory that promoted ‘power’ sharing and
‘reconciliation’ flowed from Moscow’s policy shift from supporting armed struggle to
advocating negotiated settlement as the preferred solution. It is also premised on the
Freedom Charter’s declaration that “South Africa belongs to all who live in it”. The Sunset
Clause, also written by Joe Slovo, was intended to focus the attention of the masses to the
gradual removal of settler colonial racists from power positions not the overthrow of the
entire state machinery.
Description
A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences in fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in the Department of History at the University of Zululand, South Africa, 2021.
Keywords
South African Communist Party (SACP), Liberation, African National Congress (ANC)