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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | The Bonds of War: The African National Congress, the Communist Party of South Africa and the Threat of 'Fascism' |
Author: | Furlong, Patrick J. |
Year: | 1997 |
Periodical: | South African Historical Journal |
Issue: | 36 |
Pages: | 68-87 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | South Africa |
Subjects: | African National Congress (South Africa) South African Communist Party World War II History and Exploration nationalism Politics and Government Law, Human Rights and Violence Ethnic and Race Relations |
External link: | https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02582479708671269 |
Abstract: | It is generally accepted that the alliance between the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA) and the ANC arose after the Second World War, particularly after the 1948 victory of the hard right National Party (NP). This paper examines the roots of the CPSA-ANC relationship through the lens of the wartime antifascist struggle. It shows how under Alfred Xuma the ANC shifted leftward and became more visible in this period. At the same time, the CPSA, hitherto beset by sectarianism and limited growth, expanded dramatically. The article goes back to the 1935 Italian attack on Ethiopia which enraged many black South Africans. It shows that in the heady atmosphere of fighting the worldwide fascist threat to democracy, existing barriers between the South African government, the ANC and the CPSA broke down. While in Europe the antifascist alliance collapsed after the war, in South Africa the centre-left resistance alliance solidified and consolidated in the face of the new rightist threat by the coalition of rightist and ultra-rightist political parties in the country. Ref. |