South-African Communist party

the South-African Communist party ( South African Communist Party or SACP ) is a Communist party of South Africa founded in 1921. Combined with the African National congress (ANC) in the fight against the mode of Apartheid in South Africa, it belongs to triple alliance (SACP, ANC and the trade union of COSATU) which controls the country since 1994.

History

The Communist party of South Africa was founded the July 30th 1921 with the Cape. It is resulting from the union between the socialist international league, the social democrat federation of the Cape, the Communist party of the Cape, the Jewish and socialist company of the Cape, the Jewish and socialist socity of Johannesburg, the Marxist club of Durban and some others entitées local of South Africa.

According to its proclamation, he proclaims his faith in the advent of South Africa of the workers, white and blacks, within a débarassé country of the capitalist system and distinction between social classes. William H. Andrews, a trade unionist and a former Labor member of Parliament who had opposed the entry in war at the side of the United Kingdom in 1914, is then elected to be the first general secretary of the party.

Although groupusculaire, the Communist party meets the sympathy of the white minors of the Witwatersrand thanks to the active militancy of its members.

The working revolt of the Rand of 1922

The salary demands and racial of these minors, hostile with the racial liberalization of the labor market by the large mining conglomerates, had received the support of the militants of the Communist party to be started with one of its main leaders, W.H. (Bill) Andrews. Although opposed in theory to the principle of racial Discrimination, the South-African Communists were primarily them-also white and in the fight to reverse the Capitalisme had adhered to the claiming slogan minors proclaiming " Workers of any country, you for South Africa blanche" link; (" Workers off the world, unit and fight for has white South Africa! ").

At the New Year's Day 1922, the minors had put themselves in strike following the reduction of their hourly salary and with the recruitment of new black minors. Ten days later, more than 20.000 white minors and the majority of the mining engineers ceased work whereas the trade unionists refused any mediation of Jan Smuts, South-African the Prime Minister.

Although having proclaimed its impartiality, Smuts took part for mining employers by requiring the resumption of work in the name of the maintenance of law and order. The showdown moved thus towards a confrontation between the government and the minors. The latter, which profited already from strategic councils of the militants of the workers party and the Communists, accepted the discrete but noninactive support nationalists afrikaners. The strikers, some of weapons, then started to express in the streets of the mining cities of the Rand, blocking the principal arteries. In Boksburg, crowd refused to disperse in spite of the injunctions of the police force. The following days, the demonstrators ravelled by singing their revolutionary anthem entitled " the flag rouge". The March 6th 1922, the general strike was issued by the European Public Service Union and of the exactions began with ensanglanter the Witwatersrand. For Smuts, the strikers, become of the insurrectionists, came to update their true intention, that to spread a " terror rouge" in South Africa to lead to a communist revolution. It requisitioned the army in order to restore the order, armed the police force with which it gave the authorization to draw and proclaimed the martial Loi the March 10th.

At this time, the whole of Reef (the mining zone of the Rand) is under the control of the insurrectionists, well armed and organized well. Smuts made give the attack against the general headquarter of risen and ordered with aviation to bombard the centers of resistance. The insurrectionists resisted with courage Benoni, Boksburg, Brixton, Langlaagte and Fordsburg where the resistant last were buried under the bombs. The March 18th at the evening, the revolution of the Rand was finished. The insurrection had failed. Nearly 200 people had been killed, mainly of the minors and the police officers. More than thousand other individuals had been wounded.

Politically, the Communist party was in failure because the former strikers preferred to join the rows of the nationalists Afrikaner S and those of the workers party of Frederic Creswell to join those which promised to put at bottom the capitalist system.

Political reorientation

In 1923, William H. Andrews was elected at the executive committee of the international Communist and passed the major part of the year to Russia leaving the position of secretary general to Sidney Percival Bunting. At the time of its annual convention, the Communist party of South Africa decided to be affiliated with the South-African workers party (South African Labor Party) but this one refused. At the time of the general elections of 1924, it gave nevertheless its support for the political coalition between the national left James Barry Hertzog and the workers party, its main concern being to make beat Jan Smuts. The defeat of this last aquise, the Communist party condemned the entry of the members of the Labor Party in the new South-African government.

At the time of its annual convention of 1924, under the recommendations of the Comintern, the SACP renonçait to promote solidarity between white and black workmen and adopted the principle of Africanization of the party. After having disallowed the proposal for a new request for affiliation to the workers party, the Africanization had been adopted under the impulse of young radicals like Eddie Roux and Willie Kalk, which encouraged their comrades to militate near the young blacks of the towships. If this Africanization were carried out quickly, it is that many white, refusing at the same time the racial mixture and the principle of South Africa controlled by the blacks, left the party. Under the pressure of Moscow, the party is organized in small revolutionary cells.

As of 1925, the majority of the Communist militants resulted thus from the black community.

In 1928, the Communist party decided for the first time in favor of a indigenous republic in South Africa. If 1600 of its 1750 members were blacks, the party remained directed by Sidney Percival Bunting, a white. This one however went to Russia where he protested against the decision of the Comintern to support the principle of the indigenous republic (" Native republic).

At the time of the general elections of 1929, Sidney Percival Bunting was the Communist candidate with the Transkei in a district where half of the voters were blacks but he was not elected.

Between 1930 and 1950, the party started to maintain the relations with the ANC although this last rejected any affiliation towards the communist ideology as of 1930. During this time, the party was victim of purgings. William H. Andrews was expelled before being reinstated in 1937 and becoming in 1940 the president of the party. In 1931, Sidney Percival Bunting was in its excluded turn. It wrote a lampoon in which it called some with a socialist order on all the African continent before dying following an hunger strike in 1936. In 1935, tiny room in a state of bunch, the Communist party of South Africa, badly managed counts nothing any more but 150 members.

From 1938, the strong man is Sam Kahn, elected official at the municipal council of the Cape (1943 - 1952) and at the South-African Parliament by the voters of colors of the district of the Cape-Westerner (1949 - 1950). At the same time, communist city council men are also elected with Johannesburg, Durban and East London.

In 1948, the party modified its internal policy to include all the population of South Africa.

In 1950, it was interdict under the terms of the law of suppression of Communism.

Alliance with the ANC in the fight against apartheid

Starting from 1950, the Communist party, from now on prohibited, took a route of close cooperation with the African National congress (ANC) and adopted a nonracial program proclaiming the equal rights between all the South-African ones some is their race. He encouraged dual membership between the black members of the SACP and the ANC (then nonopen to the white) while the white Communists formed the Congress of the democrats, allied itself with the ANC under the principles enacted by the charter of freedoms in 1955. This one professed the advent of South Africa nonracial and democratic.

The armed struggle

With beginning of the year 60, after the Massacre of Sharpeville, rising generation of leaders of the ANC like Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu decided to engage the Armed struggle against the South-African government. They were combined with the leaders of the Communist party to found Umkhonto we Sizwe ( the lance of the Nation ) which began a campaign of Sabotage in order to destabilize the economy of the country.

But quickly, the leaders of Umkhonto and the main leaders of the ANC were stopped and sent to the Bagne of Robben Island leaving Umkhoto under the direction of Joe Slovo, the chief of the Communist party.

In exile, the bonds between the ANC and the SACP were reinforced more especially as the countries of the Eastern bloc were the leading vendors of weapons of the ANC and financed the drive of the recruits for the Guérilla. Joe Slovo and his wife Ruth First undertook during this time the propaganda in particular based on the ideology the revolutionary combat in which the ANC had engaged although this one never broke with the social-democracy.

With beginning of the year 90, whereas Chris Hani had succeeded Joe Slovo with the direction of Umkhoto, the South-African Communist party renonçait with the revolutionary principles to take part in the constitutional negotiations with the South-African government and the various parliamentary political parties and extra-members of Parliament.

Triple alliance

Triple alliance forged in the combat against apartheid between the ANC, the Communist party and central trade-union COSATU was maintained during the negotiations and after the electoral victory of the ANC to the elections of the April 27th 1994, Joe Slovo entered the first government formed by Nelson Mandela although the rupture with the Capitalisme and the market economy, preached by the SACP, has was given up by the ANC.

External bonds

the working revolt of the Rand

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