Comrade Minister: The South African Communist Party and the Transition from Apartheid to Democracy

267 Pages·2001·1.72 MB·English

by  Simon Adams

Comrade Minister:
THE SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNIST PARTY AND THE
TRANSITION FROM APARTHEID TO DEMOCRACY

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Comrade Minister:
THE SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNIST PARTY AND THE
TRANSITION FROM APARTHEID TO DEMOCRACY

SIMON ADAMS

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C
ONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES ix
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS xi
ABBREVIATIONS AND ACRONYMS xiii
Organisations xiii
Publications xv
A NOTE ON TERMINOLOGY, GEOGRAPHY, CURRENCY AND
ORAL HISTORY xvii
BRAM FISCHER'S ASHES xix
CHAPTER ONE: COMMUNISM IS DEAD, LONG LIVE THE
COMMUNIST PARTY! 1
The SACP and the Forces of History 5
The End of the End of History 11
CHAPTER TWO: "FIRST AN AFRICAN AND THEN ACOMMUNIST":
FORGING THE NATIONALIST/COMMUNIST ALLIANCE 15
Black and White, Cape Town and Khayelitsha 17
"The Bolsheviks are Coming!": The Communist Party of South Africa 20
The Paradigm Shift of South African Communism 24
From Class War to World War and Dissolution 28
Raising the Banner: The South African Communist Party 35
CHAPTER THREE: NO MIDDLE ROAD: COLONIALISM, ARMED
STRUGGLE AND BLACK WORKERS 39
Colonialism of a Special Type since 1962 41
An Alliance of a Special Type: The ANC, the Freedom Charter and the SACP 46
Umkhonto we Sizwe: The Spear of the Nation and Black Workers in the 1960s 50
"The Dark Days": A Movement in Exile 56
Durban and Soweto: Black Workers and Armed Struggle in the 1970s 60
vi Simon Adams
CHAPTER FOUR: THE 1980S: THE PATH TO POWER 67
FOSATU and the Community Unions 71
The United Democratic Front and the Matrix of Township Rebellion 73
Factories and Townships: "The Time of Folding Arms is Over" 76
The Umsebenzi Intervention 80
Cosatu and the Dialectic of "Workerism" versus "Populism" 82
Cosatu in 1987: "Facing Forward" and Endorsing the Freedom Charter 86
The Exile Balancing Act 89
The SACP's Seventh Congress 94
CHAPTER FIVE: TOWARDS A NEGOTIATED REVOLUTION, 1990-1992 97
"Has Socialism Failed?": From Stalinism to Structural Reform 99
Low-Intensity Democracy and Low-Intensity Warfare 104
The Relaunch of the Communist Party and the Consolidation of Influence 110
The SACP's Eighth Congress and "Democratic Socialism" 113
Leipzig, Boipatong and Bisho 116
CHAPTER SIX: ISANDO NESIKELA (HAMMER AND SICKLE):
RECONSTRUCTING THE COMMUNIST PARTY 123
Who Were the Exiles? 124
The Unbanning of the SACP and the Reorientation of 1990 125
Cosatu and the Communists 129
"Why Do We Throw Stones?": Turning Comrades into Communists 134
Communist Women: "A Hole in the Fence" 137
Becoming a Communist 140
CHAPTER SEVEN: 1993: THE YOUNG LIONS ROAR 143
Joe Slovo's Sunset Clauses: Towards a Historic Compromise 145
The Assassination of Chris Hani 147
The Communist Party Stumbles: Numsa Questions the Alliance 152
The RDP, Structural Reform and Cosatu's Special Congress 157
CHAPTER EIGHT: THE BOP UPRISING: BETWEEN THE
NEGOTIATED AND THE UNNEGOTIATED REVOLUTION 163
"Re A O Phethola Mmuso waMangope!" ("We Are
Overthrowing the Mangope Regime!") 166
Anatomy of an Uprising 170
The Last Gasp of the White Right 172
The Role of the Communist Party in the Uprising 176
Sekunjalo ("Now is the time") 179
CHAPTER NINE: COMRADE MINISTER: PARLIAMENT AND
THE NATIONAL DEMOCRATIC REVOLUTION, 1994-1995 183
Liberation or "Call It What You May" 186
"From Resistance to Reconstruction" or From Consensus to Confrontation? 189
The SACP's Ninth Congress 193
Labour Relations Compromise and Public Sector Fury 198
Contents vii
Ronnie Kasrils' Nightmare 203
CHAPTER TEN: FIVE DEGREES TO THE LEFT?:
SOUTH AFRICAN COMMUNISM AFTER APARTHEID 207
Focusing the "Gradualist Vision": The Macro-Economic Debate 211
The Future of South African Communism 216
SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHY 219
Primary Sources 219
Secondary Sources 225
APPENDIX 1 233
INDEX 235