South African Communist Party

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South African Communist Party
Emblem of the South African Communist Party.svg
Party leader Senzeni Zokwana
Secretary General Blade Nzimande
Deputy Chairman Thulasi Nxesi
founding 1921
Place of foundation Cape Town
Headquarters Johannesburg
Alignment Marxism-Leninism
Colours) red, black, yellow
Number of members 220,000 (2015)
International connections International meeting of communist and workers' parties
Website www.sacp.org.za

The South African Communist Party ( SACP , English for South African Communist Party ) is a political party in South Africa . It was founded in 1921 as the Communist Party of South Africa ( CPSA , 'Communist Party of South Africa') and fought against apartheid . Today, the SACP, together with the African National Congress (ANC) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), forms the so-called Tripartite Alliance ('Alliance of three parties').

history

Communist Party of South Africa

The Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA) was founded on July 30, 1921 in Cape Town . One of the previous organizations was the International Socialist League (ISL) , which in 1920 had unsuccessfully applied for membership in the Communist International . The first general secretary of the CPSA was William H. Andrews . Initially, only white South Africans were allowed to join the CPSA. The party became known during the armed Witwatersrand White Miners Rebellion in 1922. She stood up for the white miners who feared for their monopoly on the positions of overseer. During the strike, the slogan Workers of the world, unite and fight for a white South Africa! (“Workers of all countries, unite and fight for a white South Africa!”). The support of the white workers threw the CPSA back.

At the party congress in 1924, the all-white delegates discussed opening the CPSA to blacks for the first time; the chairman Sidney Bunting was one of the supporters of this line. The CPSA worked partly in personal union with the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) until the ICU leadership prevented this in 1926.

In 1928, under pressure from the Communist International, the CPSA accepted the Native Republic thesis, which stated that South Africa belongs to the blacks. At the same time the collaboration with the ANC began. Around 5,000 people took part in a demonstration by the two organizations. Andrews was expelled from the party in 1929, and Albert Thomas Nzula became the CPSA's first non-white general secretary. He died in 1933 at the age of 28.

The party organ The South African worker appeared from 1926 to 1930 . From 1930 the party published the magazine Umsebenzi (also South African worker ), which in 1936 was renamed South African worker (also Umsebenzi ). This was followed by the party organ Inkululeko (also Freedom ) from December 1940 to June 1950, the time of their self-dissolution .

With other left-wing organizations, the CPSA and ANC were involved in the All African Convention from 1935 , which was directed against the discriminatory laws of the Hertzog government. In 1939, Moses Kotane became general secretary. In 1940, Kotane and JB Marks were elected to the ANC's Resolutions Committee . From 1941 Yusuf Dadoo belonged to the Central Committee (ZK) of the party. He also represented the South African Indian Congress . In 1945 Bram Fischer was elected to the Central Committee for the first time. In 1946 the CPSA organized a militant demonstration against the passport laws with Kotane in Langa . Kotane and other high-ranking CPSA politicians were charged with rioting ; the proceedings were not closed until 1948. In 1948 Dadoo became chairman. In 1949, CPSA member Sam Kahn was elected to the National Assembly as the representative of non-whites in the Western Cape Province .

The CPSA was made illegal by the Suppression of Communism Act in 1950 . It officially dissolved itself in June 1950, a few days before the law came into force, and went underground. Kahn was expelled from Parliament, Brian Percy Bunting , also a former CPSA member, replaced him until 1953, but was also expelled.

South African Communist Party

In the same year, at a secret meeting, the South African Communist Party (SACP) was founded. The SACP moved its activities to the ANC, where it tried to change its orientation from a black nationalist to a non-racial one. Black members of the SACP should join the ANC and seek leadership positions there, while the white leadership of the SACP formed the Congress of Democrats ('Congress of the Democrats'), which with the ANC and other non-racial organizations formed the Congress Alliance (' Alliance of Congresses'). The leadership of the Congress of Democrats worked the Freedom Charter ( Freedom Charter from) supported by the African National Congress and other opposition organizations in 1955 on the "People's Congress" near Johannesburg has been accepted and the cornerstone of the resistance of the ANC during the years of oppression.

In 1958 a new Central Committee was elected at an illegal meeting. Dadoo remained chairman, Kotane general secretary. Fischer, Ruth First , Walter Sisulu , Joe Slovo , Lionel Bernstein and JB Marks also belonged to the Central Committee. In 1959 the first edition of The African Communist was published. However, the magazine was banned in South Africa. In order to improve the work of the SACP, Dadoo was seconded to London in 1960 . In the same year, after the Sharpeville massacre, all activities of the ANC were banned, so that it also had to operate underground. As a result, the ANC - under the leadership of Nelson Mandela - and SACP founded the Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK, "Spear of the Nation") as the armed arm of both organizations.

Communist Joe Slovo was the Umkhonto's first chief of staff. Numerous leaders of the MK were arrested soon after it was founded. As a result, communists such as Denis Goldberg and Lionel Bernstein were indicted in the Rivonia trial in 1963, alongside prominent ANC members such as Mandela . Bram Fischer was one of the defenders. Most of the defendants were sentenced to long prison terms. The SACP's influence soon grew as communist states provided the ANC with money and arms. The ANC itself, however, stuck to a political line similar to that of social democracy . The Central Committee meetings of the SACP took place in various Eastern European capitals from 1963 onwards. In 1966, JB Marks became chairman and Kotane remained general secretary. In 1972, at a Central Committee meeting in East Berlin , Dadoo was re-elected as chairman after Marks' death. In 1979, after Kotane's death , Moses Mabhida became general secretary. SACP members Joe Modise and Chris Hani were also Chiefs of Staff of the MK. In 1984 the party headquarters moved into the Zambian Lusaka to. In 1986, Joe Slovo became the new SACP chairman after Dadoo's death.

On February 2, 1990, the SACP ban in South Africa was lifted. Hani became general secretary in 1991, but was murdered in 1993. In 1990 SACP, ANC and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) formed the Tripartite Alliance . External pressure and internal processes of disintegration finally led to the end of the apartheid regime in South Africa in 1994. The new government led by the ANC under Nelson Mandela was also supported by the SACP. Three members of the SACP, Ronnie Kasrils , Joe Slovo and Mac Maharaj , were part of the first ANC cabinet, which served until 1999. SACP and COSATU members have been on the ANC's electoral lists since 1994. The Tripartite Alliance still determines politics in South Africa today.

On December 6, 2013, the day after Mandela's death, the SACP published an obituary identifying him as a member of the party's central committee in the early 1960s.

structure

At the top of the party are the chairperson , since 2012 Senzeni Zokwana (also President of the National Union of Mineworkers ), and the Secretary General (since 1998 Blade Nzimande ). The Politburo has eleven people and the Central Committee has 35 members. The youth organization of the SACP is the Young Communist League. The headquarters are in the Braamfontein district of Johannesburg in the Cosatu House.

The party symbol is a red, five-pointed star, inside a black star, inside the yellow symbol of hammer and sickle . The black star with the yellow symbol on a red background is often used.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Communism appears to be gaining favor in South Africa. Why? rdm.co.za from August 4, 2015, accessed September 4, 2016
  2. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from January 7, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.solidnet.org
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j Timeline of the SACP (English), accessed on February 10, 2013
  4. ^ Baruch Hirson: Resistance and Socialism in South Africa. at www.marxists.org , accessed February 10, 2013
  5. ↑ Baruch Hirson: Bukharin, Bunting and the 'Native Republic Slogan'. In: Searchlight South Africa, Vol. 1, No. 3, pp. 51-66.
  6. ^ The South African worker. Entry in the library catalog of Stanford University
  7. ↑ umsebenzi-The South African worker. Entry in the library catalog of Stanford University
  8. ^ The South African worker Umsebenzi. Entry in the library catalog of Stanford University
  9. ↑ Inkululeko. Entry in the library catalog of Stanford University
  10. ↑ SACP statement on the passing away of Madiba , accessed on January 28, 2014
  11. ↑ List of officers elected on July 14, 2012 on the SACP website , accessed on February 10, 2013
  12. ^ SACP contact details , accessed on February 10, 2013
  13. ↑ Photo ( Memento of the original from November 5, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. from the South African Broadcasting Corporation website , accessed February 10, 2013 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.sabc.co.za
  14. ↑ Website of the South African Communist Party ( Memento of the original from April 20, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (English), accessed February 10, 2013 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.sacp.org.za