Workers Party of South Africa

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The Workers Party of South Africa (WPSA, German for "Workers' Party of South Africa") was a Trotskyist party in South Africa . It did not have any MPs in the South African Parliament .

history

The Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA) was almost wiped out in 1929 by the influence of international Stalinist circles who disregarded the issue of the black majority. The distribution of copies of the American Trotskyist newspaper The Militant resulted in the formation of Trotskyist groups by former CPSA members. The Lenin Club was founded in Cape Town in 1934 , to which Isaac Blank also belonged, who moved to London at the end of 1934 to lead the Trotskyist movement. In Johannesburg in 1934 the Bolshevik-Leninist League of South Africa (about "Bolshevik-Leninist League of South Africa") was formed. The League was closely linked to the small Johannesburg Laundry Workers 'Union , which represented the interests of laundry workers and initiated a workers' strike in 1934, which ended with the sacking of most of the participants.

The majority of the Lenin Club merged with the Bolshevik-Leninist League of South Africa League to form the WPSA in January or February 1935 , while the minority in Cape Town founded the splinter group Communist League of South Africa. Founding members of the WPSA included Isaac Bangani Tabata , Dora Taylor, and Ralph "Raff" Lee. Leon Trotsky made written comments in April 1935 on the founding of the party. He greeted them, but warned not to distance oneself too much from the African National Congress , which also represented the interests of the oppressed blacks. There were two centers of the party, Cape Town and Johannesburg. The Spartacus Club debating club was founded within the party . The party participated in the All African Convention (AAC) founded in December 1935 , which opposed the racial laws of the Hertzog government . There were differences within the party on how to deal with the CPSA. After another unsuccessful strike, several members such as Ralph Lee moved to London in June 1937 to represent the Trotskyist movement with Isaak Blank, who now called himself Ted Grant.

In 1939 the party's activities were increasingly suppressed, so that it went underground. In 1943, under Tabata's leadership, the WPSA founded the Anti-CAD, which was directed against the activities of the government agency Colored Affairs Department (CAD), as well as the Non European Unity Movement (NEUM) in order to continue to be politically active. In 1950 the South African government banned the activities of all communist groups, but NEUM was not banned. The time of the dissolution of the WPSA is not known.

The WPSA published the newspaper The Spark (German "Der Funke") from 1935 to 1939 . It contained considerably more theoretical articles than publications by other left groups in South Africa.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f g Encyclopedia of Trotskyism On-Line: Revolutionary History: Volume 4, No. 4, South Africa: Ian Hunter: Raff Lee and the Pioneer, Trotskyists of Johannesburg , accessed June 8, 2012
  2. ↑ Ciraj Rassool on the Selfishness of Dora Taylor , accessed June 10, 2012
  3. ^ English translation of Trotsky's letter , accessed June 8, 2012
  4. ^ Profiles of some WPSA members , accessed on June 10, 2012