Hello comrades! I thought this was a pretty good piece by our Communist Party. I’ve been thinking about joining them soon but for now I want to analyse them and understand their positions before I make a final decision. This is a good help when it comes to understanding the current economic and political climate of South Africa.
How is the situation with Marxist orgs in SA in general? I sadly know little about the country or the political situation in it.
There’s definitely a socialist sector within our political sphere, like even though the EFF (economic freedom fighters) has its flaws, it’s a party built upon populist principles that now and then coincide with socialist wants (land redistribution is one example). They are in the top 3 of our parties in terms of popularity, top 5 at minimum. Unfortunately, they suffer from opportunism. Our Communist Party is involved with our ruling party, ANC, and I feel they are somewhat responsible for keeping our welfare system somewhat in tact, though it’s been beaten to death by neoliberalism. Our trade unions have suffered a lot because of unemployment, and covid especially, however, they can make their voices loud at times.
Personally, I don’t feel that there’s a strong, organised, fully united socialist movement yet. Liberalism is still the strongest force in our country with our top two parties, the ANC and DA (democratic alliance), being almost two sides of the same coin. Not to mention the other party in the top 5, the VF+ (vryheidsfront plus) is basically an Afrikaner nationalist party, conservative, and is also neoliberal.
There’s a clear want for more from South Africans. We’re never in a good situation, and though it’s an obvious improvement from fucking Apartheid, the new South Africa isn’t being the radical change we wanted. This is because, shockingly, capitalism isn’t really all that great for a black population who has been ravaged for centuries!
The potential for revolution is here. Change doesn’t come about over night, so it’ll be a slow process, but change will come eventually. Our Communist Party is the largest Communist Party in South Africa, they see themselves as the vanguard, so maybe they’re the ones who will fill the role. Outside the SACP, some say they’ve been co-opted and go against them because the party has an alliance with the ANC. As for the first accusation, from reading their pieces, it doesn’t seem like that to me. They seem principled, but I’ll keep researching. As for the ANC part, they have this idea of a National Democratic Revolution, which they use to explain the alliance with the ANC. I will have to research this NDR before making a solid judgement, but from the piece I shared above, they seem highly critical of the ANC, so it doesn’t seem to me like they’re sellouts.
Here’s some podcasts:
The New Left? https://open.spotify.com/episode/0WSpeS4uWcaYSdUhgMXJZH?si=yOhyi2MWR46BXgDrGAHrQw&utm_source=copy-link
Rise of the Left in SA https://open.spotify.com/episode/74B2y425VwLG2gZimmkWIl?si=XEJaq1ibRsWX9LeTaVwVdw&utm_source=copy-link
Thank you very much
c.w. death
there is some latest and unfortunate news from peoples dispatch, rest in power.
Omg yes, my bad, I forgot to mention this group, they do a lot of work too and cannot be underestimated. The fact that they have suffered from political assassinations shows that they are making a true difference.
Thanks. That’s disheartening to say the least
deleted by creator
