Everyday Communists in South Africa’s Liberation Struggle

Everyday Communists in South Africa’s Liberation Struggle PDF Author: Alan Kirkaldy
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030839214
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 397

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book explores the role of social movements in the Southern African liberation struggle, through the lens of two ‘everyday communists’. Focusing on the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA), the author explores the lives of Ivan and Lesley Schermbrucker, whose contribution to the party was more clandestine than that of leaders such as Bram Fischer and Joe Slovo. They represent how ‘ordinary’ people could play significant roles based on stances more rooted in common decency and morality than in Marxist theory. The book also sheds light on the interplay between transnational and national tendencies during the liberation movement, particularly between the 1940s and the 1960s. The Schermbruckers changed their views in response to the shifting national and international political landscape, the rise of Stalinism, and the flight of South African activists into exile from the 1960s. Both fluent in African languages, they were able to create relationships of trust with African members of the CPSA. Examining tensions and conflicts during the liberation struggle, this book provides fresh insights into ‘underground’ activism.

Everyday Communists in South Africa’s Liberation Struggle

Everyday Communists in South Africa’s Liberation Struggle PDF Author: Alan Kirkaldy
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030839214
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 397

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book explores the role of social movements in the Southern African liberation struggle, through the lens of two ‘everyday communists’. Focusing on the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA), the author explores the lives of Ivan and Lesley Schermbrucker, whose contribution to the party was more clandestine than that of leaders such as Bram Fischer and Joe Slovo. They represent how ‘ordinary’ people could play significant roles based on stances more rooted in common decency and morality than in Marxist theory. The book also sheds light on the interplay between transnational and national tendencies during the liberation movement, particularly between the 1940s and the 1960s. The Schermbruckers changed their views in response to the shifting national and international political landscape, the rise of Stalinism, and the flight of South African activists into exile from the 1960s. Both fluent in African languages, they were able to create relationships of trust with African members of the CPSA. Examining tensions and conflicts during the liberation struggle, this book provides fresh insights into ‘underground’ activism.

Everyday Communists in South Africa's Liberation Struggle

Everyday Communists in South Africa's Liberation Struggle PDF Author: Alan Kirkaldy
Publisher:
ISBN: 9783030839222
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Get Book Here

Book Description
This book explores the role of social movements in the Southern African liberation struggle, through the lens of two 'everyday communists'. Focusing on the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA), the author explores the lives of Ivan and Lesley Schermbrucker, whose contribution to the party was more clandestine than that of leaders such as Bram Fischer and Joe Slovo. They represent how 'ordinary' people could play significant roles based on stances more rooted in common decency and morality than in Marxist theory. The book also sheds light on the interplay between transnational and national tendencies during the liberation movement, particularly between the 1940s and the 1960s. The Schermbruckers changed their views in response to the shifting national and international political landscape, the rise of Stalinism, and the flight of South African activists into exile from the 1960s. Both fluent in African languages, they were able to create relationships of trust with African members of the CPSA. Examining tensions and conflicts during the liberation struggle, this book provides fresh insights into 'underground' activism. Alan Kirkaldy is Associate Professor and Head of the History Department at Rhodes University, South Africa. He has previously published works on the Kalk Bay fishing community and Venda history. Alan has lectured on African and environmental history since 1989. Much of his teaching has focused on liberation movements.

Strategic Problems in South Africa's Liberation Struggle

Strategic Problems in South Africa's Liberation Struggle PDF Author: Ben Turok
Publisher: Richmond, B.C. : LSM Information Center
ISBN:
Category : Communism
Languages : en
Pages : 76

Get Book Here

Book Description


Comrade Minister

Comrade Minister PDF Author: Simon Adams
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781629483221
Category : Electronic books
Languages : en
Pages : 267

Get Book Here

Book Description
The South African Communist Party (SACP) is something of a historical anomaly. In an era when communist organisations have crumbled, the SACP emerged in 1990 from years of exile to build an organisation of some 75,000 members by 1995. Some of its leading cadre entered South Africa s first democratically elected government as members of the African National Congress (ANC) and the SACP is arguably one of the most influential and powerful Communist Parties in the western world. This book analyses social and political contradictions unique to South Africa, which have given rise to such a situation and attempts to explain the historical role of the SACP within the South African liberation movement. Specifically, the book looks at the role of the SACP in the transition from apartheid to democracy and from exile to government. While theoretically rigorous, Comrade Minister is also accessible to members of the general public with an interest in South Africa s much celebrated democratic transition. The SACP s unique position as perhaps the only mass communist party to enter government in an industrialised country since the fall of the Berlin Wall, should also attract those with a wider interest in the historical implications of the death of communism post-1989. Comrade Minister should appeal to all enthusiasts of the South African struggle against apartheid and to those with a general interest in communism and communist parties. It would be useful for anyone running courses in South African history, race relations, in labour or development studies. Moreover, the uniqueness of the work is that it is based solidly on primary research and is the first attempt to write a detailed academic history of the SACP and its role in South Africa s recent democratic transition.

The History of the South African Communist Party

The History of the South African Communist Party PDF Author: Colin Bundy
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 74

Get Book Here

Book Description


The South African Working Class and the National Democratic Revolution

The South African Working Class and the National Democratic Revolution PDF Author: Joe Slovo
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Communism
Languages : en
Pages : 48

Get Book Here

Book Description


Reflections in Prison

Reflections in Prison PDF Author: Mac Maharaj
Publisher: Univ of Massachusetts Press
ISBN: 9781558493421
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 280

Get Book Here

Book Description
In 1976, while imprisoned on Robben Island, Nelson Mandela secretly wrote the bulk of his authobiography, Long Walk to freedom. The manuscript was smuggled out, along with essays by other prominent political prisoners, by fellow prisoner Mac Maharaj. These essays are published in this volume.

South Africa's Freedom Struggle

South Africa's Freedom Struggle PDF Author: Yusuf Mohamed Dadoo
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Anti-apartheid movements
Languages : en
Pages : 376

Get Book Here

Book Description


Armed and Dangerous

Armed and Dangerous PDF Author: Ronald Kasrils
Publisher: Jonathan Ball Publishers
ISBN:
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 392

Get Book Here

Book Description
During the years of apartheid rule in South Africa, Ronnie Kasrils was actively involved with the banned ANC, its military wing Umkhonto we Sizwe and the South African Communist Party. Hunted by the security police, he was described by them as 'Armed and Dangerous'. This is his riveting first-hand account of the tense and dramatic years of the liberation struggle followed by his role in the first ten years of a democratic South Africa in which he first served as Deputy Defence Minister (1994 to1999) and then as Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry (1999 to 2004). Originally published in 1993, the book was republished in 1998 with eight additional chapters.

Ruth First and Joe Slovo in the War Against Apartheid

Ruth First and Joe Slovo in the War Against Apartheid PDF Author: Alan Wieder
Publisher: NYU Press
ISBN: 158367358X
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 391

Get Book Here

Book Description
Ruth First and Joe Slovo, husband and wife, were leaders of the war to end apartheid in South Africa. Communists, scholars, parents, and uncompromising militants, they were the perfect enemies for the white police state. Together they were swept up in the growing resistance to apartheid, and together they experienced repression and exile. Their contributions to the liberation struggle, as individuals and as a couple, are undeniable. Ruth agitated tirelessly for the overthrow of apartheid, first in South Africa and then from abroad, and Joe directed much of the armed struggle carried out by the famous Umkhonto we Sizwe. Only one of them, however, would survive to see the fall of the old regime and the founding of a new, democratic South Africa. This book, the first extended biography of Ruth First and Joe Slovo, is a remarkable account of one couple and the revolutionary moment in which they lived. Alan Wieder’s deeply researched work draws on the usual primary and secondary sources but also an extensive oral history that he has collected over many years. By weaving the documentary record together with personal interviews, Wieder portrays the complexities and contradictions of this extraordinary couple and their efforts to navigate a time of great tension, upheaval, and revolutionary hope.