31-537: African Communist is the magazine of the South African Communist Party , published quarterly. The magazine was started by a group of Marxist-Leninists in 1959. It has its headquarters in Johannesburg . This political magazine or journal-related article is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . See tips for writing articles about magazines . Further suggestions might be found on
62-562: A blueprint for a future democratic and free South Africa. Joe Slovo believed socialism had failed in Eastern Europe and could not be regarded as a model for the SACP. In his autobiography Long Walk to Freedom , Nelson Mandela famously remarked: "The cynical have always suggested that the Communists were using us. But who is to say that we were not using them?" After Mandela's death in 2013,
93-616: A nationalist policy akin to the CPSA's former Native Republic policy towards a non-racial programme which declared that all ethnic groups residing in South Africa had equal rights to the country. While black members of the SACP were encouraged to join the ANC and seek leadership positions within that organisation, many of its white leading members formed the Congress of Democrats which in turn allied itself with
124-542: A number of communists occupied prominent positions on the ANC benches in parliament. Most prominently, Nelson Mandela appointed Joe Slovo as Minister for Housing. This period also brought new strains in the ANC-SACP alliance when the ANC's programme did not threaten the existence of capitalism in South Africa and was heavily reliant on foreign investment and tourism. However, the Freedom Charter had been considered only as
155-655: The African National Congress and other "non-racial" congresses in the Congress Alliance on the basis of multi-racialism. The Congress Alliance committed itself to a democratic, non-racial South Africa where the "people shall govern" through the Freedom Charter . The Freedom Charter was adopted by the ANC, the SACP and other partners in the Alliance in accordance with its evolution. The Charter has since remained
186-653: The Free State , failing to win any first-past-the-post ward seats, but gaining three proportional representation seats. In total the SACP received 3,270 votes (6,3%). In his address to the 2015 Biennial National Conference of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies , South African President Jacob Zuma credited South African Jews for being "among the first to organise the South African working class" as some Jewish activists occupied leading positions within
217-512: The House of Assembly protested certain functions of the act, such as the possibility to ban individuals purposedly advocating communist goals, circumventing the normal rule of law guarantees in the South African legal system . The government responded by watering down the act, explicitly outlining the right to due process before penalties (i.e. fines or imprisonment) were executed, requiring
248-461: The Minister of Justice to submit requests to ban to a three-member committee, affording the right to redress by those issued a banning order, as well as exempting labour unions from the sanctions included in the act. These guarantees, however, were not followed reliably, and banning orders emerged as one of the most effective tools of the South African government throughout the apartheid era. The Act
279-471: The 1952 trial of African National Congress (ANC) leaders, observed that such an offence might have "nothing to do with communism as it is commonly known." The Act facilitated the government suppression of organisations such as the ANC and others which advocated for equal rights for blacks, coloureds and Indians. The Act forced these groups to go underground with their activism. Because of this Act, groups such as uMkhonto we Sizwe , led by Nelson Mandela as
310-478: The ANC confirmed that he had been a member of the SACP and served on its central committee. Through the Tripartite Alliance and the sitting of many SACP members on the ANC's NEC , the SACP has wielded influence from within the ANC, often serving as an ideological opposition against the presidency and socio-economic policies of Thabo Mbeki (1999–2008); this became most apparent with the ouster of Mbeki from
341-471: The CPSA was declared illegal in 1950. In 1953, a group of former CPSA members launched the South African Communist Party that remained — as had been the CPSA — aligned with the Soviet Union. The ban on the party was lifted in 1990 when the ANC and other anti-apartheid organisations and individuals were also unbanned, and African National Congress leader Nelson Mandela was released from prison. The CPSA/SACP
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#1732852489439372-590: The Communist Party. Suppression of Communism Act, 1950 The Suppression of Communism Act, 1950 (Act No. 44 of 1950), renamed the Internal Security Act in 1976, was legislation of the national government in apartheid South Africa which formally banned the Communist Party of South Africa and proscribed any party or group subscribing to communism , according to a uniquely broad definition of
403-482: The European and the non-European races [...] calculated to further [disorder]". The Minister of Justice could deem any person to be a communist if he found that person's aims to be aligned with these aims, and could issue an order severely restricting the freedoms of anyone deemed to be a communist. After a nominal two-week appeal period, the person's status as a communist became an unreviewable matter of fact, and subjected
434-533: The National Party, elected to government in 1948, was about to ban the Communist Party, the CPSA decided by a majority to dissolve itself. A minority felt that the party should organise underground, but the majority apparently argued that this would be unnecessary, believing that support should be given to the African National Congress (ANC) in the drive to majority rule. After its voluntary dissolution,
465-551: The Nationalists were certain to ban the ANC and so make peaceful protest all but impossible. They allied themselves with the communists to form Umkhonto we Sizwe ("Spear of the Nation") which began a campaign of terror by bombing civilian targets like shopping malls and restaurants. However the leaders of Umkhonto were soon arrested and jailed and the liberation movement was left weak and with an exiled leadership. Communist Joe Slovo
496-524: The article's talk page . South African Communist Party The South African Communist Party ( SACP ) is a communist party in South Africa . It was founded in 12 February 1921 as the Communist Party of South Africa ( CPSA ), tactically dissolved itself in 1950 in the face of being declared illegal by the governing National Party under the Suppression of Communism Act, 1950 . The Communist Party
527-521: The cornerstone of the Alliance, as its basic, shared programme to advance a national democratic revolution, both a process of struggle and transformation to achieve a non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous South Africa. The SACP played a role in the development of the Freedom Charter through its cadres who were openly active in the Congress Alliance and in the Party's underground organisation. In
558-476: The leadership of the Communist International . Contemporary scholars have argued that the party dismissed competing attempts at multiracial revolutionary organisations during this period, especially multiracial union organising by the syndicalists , and used revisionist history to claim that the party and its Native Republic policy was the only viable route to African liberation. Despite this, in 1929
589-554: The monopoly of higher and well-paying occupations. The CPSA supported the strike as the struggle between the working class and the capitalist class, but it distanced itself from racist slogans associated with the strike. The party said in the statement a white South Africa was impossible, and all the workers had to organise and unite regardless of their race to fight for a non-racial South Africa and better conditions for all workers. The party thus reoriented itself at its 1924 Party Congress towards organising black workers and "Africanising"
620-590: The party adopted a "strategic line" which held that, "The most direct line of advance to socialism runs through the mass struggle for majority rule ". By 1948, the Communist Party had officially abandoned the Native Republic policy. In 1946, the CPSA along with the African National Congress participated in the general strike that was started by the African Mine Workers' Strike in 1946. Many party members, such as Bram Fischer , were arrested. Aware that
651-557: The party. By 1928, 1,600 of the party's 1,750 members were black. In the same year, the Communist International adopted a resolution for the CPSA to adopt the "Native Republic" thesis, which stipulated that South Africa is a country belonging to the natives, that is, the Indigenous Black population. The resolution was influenced by a delegation from South Africa. James la Guma, the party Chairperson from Cape Town, had met with
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#1732852489439682-539: The person to being barred from public participation, restricted in movement, or imprisoned. The government justified passage of the Act by noting the involvement of members of the South African Communist Party in the internal resistance to apartheid , the subversive tactics of communist parties more widely, as well as the perceived threat of the Soviet Union in the emerging Cold War and decolonisation. The opposition in
713-543: The presidencies of both the party (2007, by vote) and the government (2008, by ANC party recall) and his eventual replacement in both offices with Jacob Zuma , who was widely seen as being more conciliatory to the ideological demands of both the SACP and COSATU. Initially, the party did not contest elections under its own name. However, in December 2017, the party contested a number of local council by-elections in Metsimahalo in
744-546: The same vein the Party played an important role in the evolution of the Alliance and the development of the liberation movement in South Africa. As the National Party increased repression in response to increased black pressure and radicalism throughout the 1950s, the ANC , previously committed to non-violence, turned towards the question of force. A new generation of leaders, led by Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu recognised that
775-418: The term. It was also used as the basis to place individuals under banning orders , and its practical effect was to isolate and silence voices of dissent. The Act, which came into effect on 17 July 1950, defined communism as any scheme aimed at achieving change—whether economic, social, political, or industrial—"by the promotion of disturbance or disorder" or any act encouraging "feelings of hostility between
806-404: Was Chief of Staff of Umkhonto; his wife and fellow SACP cadre Ruth First was perhaps the leading theoretician of the revolutionary struggle the ANC were engaged in. The ANC itself, though, remained broadly social democratic in outlook. In exile, communist nations provided the ANC with funding and firearms. Gradual work by the ANC slowly rebuilt the organisation inside South Africa, and the ANC
837-439: Was a particular target of the governing National Party. The Suppression of Communism Act was used against all those dedicated to ending apartheid, but was obviously particularly targeted at the communists. Following the dissolution and subsequent banning of the CPSA, former party members and, after 1953, members of the SACP adopted a policy of primarily working within the ANC in order to reorient that organisation's programme from
868-449: Was able to capitalise on the wave of anger amongst young South Africans during and after the Soweto uprising of 1976. Eventually external pressures and internal ferment made even many strong supporters of apartheid recognise that change had to come and a long process of negotiations began which resulted, in 1994, in the defeat of the National Party after forty-six years of rule. With victory
899-589: Was founded in 1921 by the joining together of the International Socialist League and others under the leadership of Willam H. Andrews . It first came to prominence during the Rand Rebellion , a strike by white miners in 1922. The large mining concerns, facing labour shortages and wage pressures, had announced their intention of engaging blacks in semi-skilled and some higher-level jobs at low wage rates, compared to their white counterparts who enjoyed
930-459: Was reconstituted underground and re-launched as the SACP in 1953, participating in the struggle to end the apartheid system. It is a member of the ruling Tripartite Alliance alongside the African National Congress and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and through this it influences the South African government. The party's Central Committee is the party's highest decision-making structure. The Communist Party of South Africa
961-415: Was worded in such a way that anyone who opposed government policy could be deemed a communist. Since the Act explicitly declared that communism sought to encourage racial disharmony, it was frequently used to legally gag critics of racial segregation and apartheid . The Act defined communism so sweepingly that defendants were frequently convicted of "statutory communism". Justice Frans Rumpff , presiding in