scholarly journals “Setting the Free Thinker Free”: The Use of an Activist Archive to Analyze a Pivitol Moment in the History of the South African Communist Party (SACP)

2019 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. p283
Author(s):  
David P. Thomas
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
The South ◽  
Archival Material ◽  
Critical History ◽  
South African Communist Party ◽  
History Of ◽  
The University ◽  
History Of The South

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.

Discordant Comrades: Identities and Loyalties on the South African Left By Allison Drew. Aldershot, Hampshire: Ashgate, 2000. 282p. $74.95

2002 ◽  
Vol 96 (1) ◽  
pp. 236-237
Author(s):  
Courtney Jung
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Communist Party ◽  
Unique Contribution ◽  
The South ◽  
New Information ◽  
History Of ◽  
Party Members ◽  
South African Politics ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
History Of The South

Drawing on a wealth of new information made available by the opening of the Comintern archives, Drew sheds the light of hindsight on the relationship between the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA) and, in turn, the Soviet Comintern, the South African liberation movement, and the white and black trade union movements in the first half of the twentieth century. This rich book makes a unique contribution to our understanding of ties between the Comintern and its satellite parties as well as the early history of the South African antiapartheid movement. There are only two other major books on this period of party history, and both are memoirs of party members who try to establish a particular version of the record. Drew contests the teleology of their accounts of communist party history and instead weaves a contingent narrative that identifies major turning points that narrowed the possibility for a radical reorientation of the party (p. 281). It was not inevitable that the party would split and finally dissolve in the way it did—other outcomes were possible, almost until the end. That they were not taken was the layered result of personal and ideological rivalries and party alliances that made socialism, and socialists, perpetually weak and vulnerable in the context of South African politics.

scholarly journals Kerk, volk en owerheid in die 1858-grondwet van die Zuid-Afrikaansche Republiek

1995 ◽  
Vol 51 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
W. A. Dreyer
Keyword(s):  
Sixteenth Century ◽  
The Netherlands ◽  
South African ◽  
Old Testament ◽  
The South ◽  
History Of ◽  
History Of The South ◽  
The Church

Church, people and government in the  1858 constitution of the South African Republic During the years 1855 to 1858 the South African Republic in the Transvaal created a new constitution. In this constitution a unique relation-ship between church, people and government was visible. This relationship was influenced by the Calvinist confessions of the sixteenth century, the theology of W ά Brakel and orthodox Calvinism, the federal concepts of the Old Testament and republican ideas of the Netherlands and Cape Patriots. It becomes clear that the history of the church in the Transvaal was directly influenced by the general history of the South African Republic.

Solid sedimentation rates history of the Southern African continental margins: Implications for the uplift history of the South African Plateau

Terra Nova ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guillaume Baby ◽  
François Guillocheau ◽  
Jean Braun ◽  
Cécile Robin ◽  
Massimo Dall'Asta
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Continental Margins ◽  
Sedimentation Rates ◽  
The South ◽  
History Of ◽  
Uplift History ◽  
History Of The South
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