1300 187 187
This 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 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.
| List of Tables | p. ix |
| Acknowledgments | p. xi |
| Abbreviations and Acronyms | p. xiii |
| Organisations | p. xiii |
| Publications | p. xv |
| A Note on Terminology, Geography, Currency and Oral History | p. xvii |
| Bram Fischer's Ashes | p. xix |
| Communism is Dead, Long Live the Communist Party! | p. 1 |
| The SACP and the Forces of History | p. 5 |
| The End of the End of History | p. 12 |
| "First an African and Then Acommunist": Forging the Nationalist/Communist Alliance | p. 15 |
| Black and White, Cape Town and Khayelitsha | p. 17 |
| "The Bolsheviks are Coming!": The Communist Party of South Africa | p. 20 |
| The Paradigm Shift of South African Communism | p. 24 |
| From Class War to World War and Dissolution | p. 29 |
| Raising the Banner: The South African Communist Party | p. 36 |
| No Middle Road: Colonialism, Armed Struggle and Black Workers | p. 41 |
| Colonialism of a Special Type since 1962 | p. 43 |
| An Alliance of a Special Type: The ANC, the Freedom Charter and the SACP | p. 48 |
| Umkhonto we Sizwe: The Spear of the Nation and Black Workers in the 1960s | p. 53 |
| "The Dark Days": A Movement in Exile | p. 58 |
| Durban and Soweto: Black Workers and Armed Struggle in the 1970s | p. 62 |
| The 1980S: the Path to Power | p. 69 |
| FOSATU and the Community Unions | p. 73 |
| The United Democratic Front and the Matrix of Township Rebellion | p. 75 |
| Factories and Townships: "The Time of Folding Arms is Over" | p. 79 |
| The Umsebenzi Intervention | p. 82 |
| Cosatu and the Dialectic of "Workerism" versus "Populism" | p. 84 |
| Cosatu in 1987: "Facing Forward" and Endorsing the Freedom Charter | p. 88 |
| The Exile Balancing Act | p. 91 |
| The SACP's Seventh Congress | p. 97 |
| Towards a Negotiated Revolution, 1990-1992 | p. 101 |
| "Has Socialism Failed?": From Stalinism to Structural Reform | p. 103 |
| Low-Intensity Democracy and Low-Intensity Warfare | p. 108 |
| The Relaunch of the Communist Party and the Consolidation of Influence | p. 114 |
| The SACP's Eighth Congress and "Democratic Socialism" | p. 117 |
| Leipzig, Boipatong and Bisho | p. 121 |
| Isando Nesikela (Hammer and Sickle): Reconstructing the Communist Party | p. 127 |
| Who Were the Exiles? | p. 128 |
| The Unbanning of the SACP and the Reorientation of 1990 | p. 130 |
| Cosatu and the Communists | p. 133 |
| "Why Do We Throw Stones?": Turning Comrades into Communists | p. 138 |
| Communist Women: "A Hole in the Fence" | p. 142 |
| Becoming a Communist | p. 144 |
| 1993: the Young Lions Roar | p. 147 |
| Joe Slovo's Sunset Clauses: Towards a Historic Compromise | p. 149 |
| The Assassination of Chris Hani | p. 151 |
| The Communist Party Stumbles: Numsa Questions the Alliance | p. 156 |
| The RDP, Structural Reform and Cosatu's Special Congress | p. 162 |
| The Bop Uprising: Between the Negotiated and the Unnegotiated Revolution | p. 167 |
| "Re A O Phethola Mmuso waMangope!" ("We Are Overthrowing the Mangope Regime!") | p. 170 |
| Anatomy of an Uprising | p. 174 |
| The Last Gasp of the White Right | p. 176 |
| The Role of the Communist Party in the Uprising | p. 181 |
| Sekunjalo ("Now is the time") | p. 183 |
| Comrade Minister: Parliament and the National Democratic Revolution, 1994-1995 | p. 187 |
| Liberation or "Call It What You May" | p. 190 |
| "From Resistance to Reconstruction" or From Consensus to Confrontation? | p. 193 |
| The SACP's Ninth Congress | p. 197 |
| Labour Relations Compromise and Public Sector Fury | p. 202 |
| Ronnie Kasrils' Nightmare | p. 207 |
| Five Degrees to the Left?: South African Communism After Apartheid | p. 213 |
| Focusing the "Gradualist Vision": The Macro-Economic Debate | p. 217 |
| The Future of South African Communism | p. 222 |
| Select Bibliography | p. 225 |
| Primary Sources | p. 225 |
| Secondary Sources | p. 231 |
| Appendix 1 | p. 239 |
| Index | p. 241 |
| Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved. |
ISBN: 9781560728948
ISBN-10: 1560728949
Audience:
Professional
Format:
Hardcover
Language:
English
Number Of Pages: 247
Published: August 2001
Dimensions (cm): 26.0 x 18.0
x 25.4
Weight (kg): 0.735
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