South Africa

Who “owns” anti-apartheid heritage?

Since South Africa’s first democratic elections in 1994 and the decisive victory of the African National Congress there have been several scandals involving the ruling party. But the ANC’s level of electoral success in post-apartheid South Africa has made the country, to all intents and purposes, a one-party state. It is a remote possibility that any other party could succeed to power unless the ANC itself splits into warring factions. Once perceived as the younger and more radical sister of the ANC, the Pan-Africanist Congress founded by Robert Sobukwe, and led by inspirational thinkers and...

The Monthly Survey - March 1995

Click here to download article as pdf . - "Strong moves to a united Ireland" by John O'Mahony - "School cuts spark nationwide fightback" by Colin Foster - "The lesson of the animal rights protests: if the law is wrong, disobey it!" by Wayne Nicholls - "Mandela's government attacks the working class" by Bobby Navarro - "The fight for Clause Four" by Gerry Bates - "Rail union backs Clause Four" by Alan Pottage (RMT National Executive, Scottish Area) - "The diary of a Clause Four activist" by Roland Trechet

Survey: intifada in West Bank; union recruitment campaigns; Labour Thatcherites in NZ; Natal's civil war

In response to the uprising (intifada) in the West Bank, which started in December 1987, Israel should be made to get out of the occupied territories and allow the formation there of a fully independent Palestinian state. The GMB and TGWU unions have started a scramble to recruit hitherto untapped sources of union membership - public work schemes, young people, part-time workers, especially women. Roger Douglas, minister of finance in New Zealand's Labour government, introduced a sweeping Thatcherite programme - flat-rate income tax, big privatisations - without even consulting the Labour...

Forum: Crooke vs McCalman on Scotland; Ellis vs Weaver on movies; Fine, Rigby, and Bradley on S Africa; Conway vs Bradley on PR

Stan Crooke disputes Ian McCalman's support for calls for a Scottish Assembly. Edward Ellis disputes Belinda Weaver's argument that movie-making has deteriorated. Bob Fine, Tom Rigby, and Clive Bradley dispute arguments dismissing the COSATU union federation in South Africa in favour of the NACTU federation. Liam Conway argues that Trotsky's "permanent revolution" idea is more "applicable" today than Clive Bradley allowed for in his article in Workers' Liberty 7 . Click here to download pdf .

The black working class

The potential, and the struggles, of South Africa's black working class, which rose in revolt in the years after 1973. Click here to download pdf .

Close to revolution

Successive waves of revolt have battered the apartheid regime. But the vast, sprawling black revolt needs a coherent leadership and strategy. Otherwise it could splutter out in heroic but uncoordinated rebellions. Click here to download pdf .

From diamonds to apartheid

A sketch of the economic and political history of South Africa from the start of the diamond industry to the introduction of apartheid. Click here to download pdf .

International solidarity: the case for direct trade-union links

How to build international solidarity with the fight against apartheid, and the case for direct links between trade unionists in South Africa and trade unionists in other countries - which the Communist Parties and their co-thinkers opposed on the pretext of "boycotting apartheid". Click here to download pdf . Click here to download pdf .

South Africa and Africa

The strategic interlinkings between South Africa and the rest of the continent. Click here to download pdf .

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