Comrades Against Apartheid

This book is about the South African Communist Party and how it took over the leadership of the African National Congress between 1960 and 1990, during the time when both organisations were banned in South Africa and forced to establish their headquarters in exile. It also concerns Umkhonto we Sizwe, the Spear of the Nation, the guerrilla army set up jointly by both organisations in 1961 under the overall command of Nelson Mandela. The banning of the ANC left them no other means of political expression but to fight. Central to the book is Tsepo Sechaba's inside account of the interaction of the SACP and ANC. He was also witness to much of the espionage, counter-espionage and infiltration which was carried out by the South African government.

Provides a new perspective on the struggle against apartheid, and contributes to key debates in South African history, gender inequality, sexual violence, and the legacies of the liberation struggle.

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.

"In 1986 'Comrade September', a charismatic ANC operative and popular MK commander, was abducted from Swaziland by the apartheid security police and taken across the border. After torture and interrogation, September was 'turned' and before long the police had extracted enough information to hunt down and kill some of his former comrades. September underwent changes that marked him for the rest of his life: from resister to collaborator, insurgent to counter-insurgent, revolutionary to counter-revolutionary and, to his former comrades, hero to traitor. Askari is the story of these changes in an individual's life and of the larger, neglected history of betrayal and collaboration in the struggle against apartheid. It seeks to understand why September made the choices he did - collaborating with his captors, turning against the ANC, and then hunting down his comrades - without excusing those choices. It looks beyond the black-and-white that still dominates South Africa's political canvas, to examine the grey zones in which South Africans - combatants and non- combatants - lived." -- Publisher.

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.

In the 1980s South Africa's urban townships exploded into insurrection led by youth and residents' organisations that collectively became known as the civics movement. Ironically the movement has been unable to adapt to the role of a voluntary association in the liberal polity it helped create, and has great difficulty defining any alternative role. This volume charts the rise and fall of the movement in the transition to and consolidation of democracy in South Africa.

Teacher and Comrade explores South African resistance in the twentieth century, before and during apartheid, through the life of Richard Dudley, a teacher/politico who spent thirty-nine years in the classroom and his entire life fighting for democracy. Dudley has given his life to teaching and politics, and touched and influenced many people who continue to work for democracy in South Africa and abroad. Whether it was students, comrades, or opposition, life was always teaching and relational for Dudley. He challenged power throughout the apartheid era, and his foundational beliefs in anti-imperialism and nonracialism compel him to continue to talk, teach, and speak to power. Through Dudley's story, Teacher and Comrade provides a rare portrait of both Cape Town and South Africa, as well as the struggle against racism and apartheid.