Round table: Centenary of Oliver Tambo

2018 ◽  
pp. 112-116
Author(s):  
Yury Skubko

On February 27, 2018 in Moscow the Institute for African Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, its Centre for Southern African Studies in cooperation with the Embassy of South Africa in Russia held a roundtable dedicated to the centenary of Oliver Reginald Tambo (1917-1993), a dignified leader of anti- apartheid liberation struggle and the longstanding president of the African National congress of South Africa. Prominent scientists, officials of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and RSA Embassy in Moscow, members of the diplomatic corps, NGO and business community took part in the celebration. Among issues discussed were the history and lessons of South African liberation movement headed by Oliver Tambo and his comrades and the Soviet support of the anti-apartheid struggle by the African National Congress of South Africa.

2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 56-75
Author(s):  
Ainara Mancebo

A tripartite alliance formed by the African National Congress, the South African Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions has been ruling the country with wide parliamentarian majorities. The country remains more consensual and politically inclusive than any of the other African countries in the post-independence era. This article examines three performance’s aspects of the party dominance systems: legitimacy, stability and violence. As we are living in a period in which an unprecedented number of countries have completed democratic transitions, it is politically and conceptually important that we understand the specific tasks of crafting democratic consolidation.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Milan Oralek

<p>This thesis explores the life and work of a South African journalist, editor, and activist Michael Alan Harmel (1915–1974), a political mentor and friend of Nelson Mandela. A resolute believer in racial equality and Marxism-Leninism, Harmel devoted his life to fighting, with “the pen” as well as “the sword”, segregation and apartheid, and promoting an alliance of communists with the African National Congress as a stepping stone to socialism in South Africa. Part 1, after tracing his Jewish-Lithuanian and Irish family roots, follows Harmel from his birth to 1940 when, having joined the Communist Party of South Africa, he got married and was elected secretary of the District Committee in Johannesburg. The focus is on factors germane to the formation of his political identity. The narrative section is accompanied by an analytical sketch. This, using tools of close literary interpretation, catalogues Harmel’s core beliefs as they inscribed themselves in his journalism, histories, a sci-fi novel, party memoranda, and private correspondence. The objective is to delineate his ideological outlook, put to the test the assessment of Harmel—undeniably a skilled publicist—as a “creative thinker” and “theorist”, and determine his actual contribution to the liberation discourse.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Milan Oralek

<p>This thesis explores the life and work of a South African journalist, editor, and activist Michael Alan Harmel (1915–1974), a political mentor and friend of Nelson Mandela. A resolute believer in racial equality and Marxism-Leninism, Harmel devoted his life to fighting, with “the pen” as well as “the sword”, segregation and apartheid, and promoting an alliance of communists with the African National Congress as a stepping stone to socialism in South Africa. Part 1, after tracing his Jewish-Lithuanian and Irish family roots, follows Harmel from his birth to 1940 when, having joined the Communist Party of South Africa, he got married and was elected secretary of the District Committee in Johannesburg. The focus is on factors germane to the formation of his political identity. The narrative section is accompanied by an analytical sketch. This, using tools of close literary interpretation, catalogues Harmel’s core beliefs as they inscribed themselves in his journalism, histories, a sci-fi novel, party memoranda, and private correspondence. The objective is to delineate his ideological outlook, put to the test the assessment of Harmel—undeniably a skilled publicist—as a “creative thinker” and “theorist”, and determine his actual contribution to the liberation discourse.</p>


Author(s):  
Hendrik Van der Merwe

In this paper I discuss three case studies of facilitation and mediation in South Africa: 1) facilitation between the South African apartheid establishment and the African National Congress in exile from 1963 to 1989; 2) facilitation that eventually led to mediation between Inkatha and the United Democratic Front in Natal over 10 months from 1985 to 1986; and 3)mediation between the African National Congress and the Afrikaner Freedom Foundation (Afrikaner Vryheidstigting, also known as Avstig) over 18 months from 1991 to 1993.


2007 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jeff Goodwin

Most theories of terrorism would lead one to have expected high levels of antiwhite terrorism in apartheid South Africa. Yet the African National Congress, the country's most important and influential antiapartheid political organization, never sanctioned terrorism against the dominant white minority. I argue that the ANC eschewed terrorism because of its commitment to "nonracial internationalism." From the ANC's perspective, to have carried out a campaign of indiscriminate or "categorical" terrorism against whites would have alienated actual and potential white allies both inside and outside the country. The ANC's ideological commitment to nonracialism had a specific social basis: It grew out of a long history of collaboration between the ANC and white leftists inside and outside the country, especially those in the South African Communist Party.


2005 ◽  
Vol 43 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-239 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antoinette Handley

The stated economic policy of the African National Congress (ANC) underwent a dramatic shift in the 1990s, away from a soft-left redistributionist position to one much more closely aligned with the policy preferences of the South African business community. To what extent can this shift be attributed to lobbying efforts by that community? The article reviews the development of economic policy by the ANC in the 1990s, and concludes that while business was undoubtedly influential in this process, much of that influence was indirect and derived from two sets of sources: first, the international policy consensus around the neo-liberal reform agenda; and second, indirect signals from ‘the market’ by means of such mechanisms as movements in the value of the currency, and investor and business confidence.


2017 ◽  
Vol 52 (4) ◽  
pp. 935-958
Author(s):  
Irina Filatova ◽  
Apollon Davidson

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.


2020 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 328
Author(s):  
Evandro Alves Barbosa Filho ◽  
Ana Cristina de Souza Vieira

Desde 1994 a África do Sul pôs fim à sua estrutura oficial de segregação, baseada na ultra exploração da força de trabalho negra e na total segregação racial: o Apartheid. Embora esse sistema tenha acabado e o país seja governado pelo antigo movimento de libertação nacional, o African National Congress (ANC), as desigualdades sociais se aprofundaram. O objetivo deste artigo é analisar os processos políticos que condicionaram a transição Sul-africana do Apartheid à democracia. A pesquisa tem natureza qualitativa e foi realizada por meio de revisão bibliográfica da sociologia crítica sulafricana, da análise de documentos oficiais e na análise crítica de discurso. O estudo identificou que a transição à democracia foi tutelada pela mais rica fração da burguesia sul-africana e viabilizada pelo ANC, que aderiu às ideologias neoliberais.Palavras-chave: Apartheid. África do Sul. Transição. Neoliberalismo.ANALYZING SOUTH AFRICA'S TRANSITION TO DEMOCRACY: neoliberalism, transformism and capitalist restorationAbstractSince 1994 South Africa has put an end to its official segregation structure, based on the overexploitation of the black workforce and total racial segregation: The Apartheid. Although this system is over and the country is ruled by the former national liberation movement, the African National Congress (ANC), social inequalities have deepened. This paper aims to analyze the political processes that conditioned the South African transition from Apartheid to democracy. The research has a qualitative approach and It was conducted through a bibliographical review of South African critical sociology, analysis ofofficial documents and critical discourse analysis. The study found that the transition to democracy was led by the wealthiest fraction of the South African bourgeoisie and made possible by the ANC, which adopted the neoliberal ideologies.Keywords: Apartheid. South Africa. Transition. Neoliberalism.


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