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FRANZ
J. T. LEE
SOUTH
AFRICA ON THE EVE OF SOCIAL CHANGE
Concerning
Marxism & National Liberation
Translated
by
Willfred
F. Feuser
Copyright: Franz
J. T. Lee,
for the translation
W. F. Feuser.
November, 1982
This book, in its German edition,
had the honour of coming under the censorship axe of apartheid; it was
forbidden to possess, to cite or to read in South Africa.
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This is a duplicate copied
from the last existing book available in English in the archives of the
University Library of the Johann Wolfgang Goethe-University in Frankfurt
on Main, Germany, under the signature Q 82/488/25 82488251T. This
duplicate has been hand written by Iris Bühler
and Stella Bühler
between 1996 and 1998, as there was no way to photocopy the book, due to
its unsharp and mostly faded printing. Orthographic errors have been corrected.
Final revision, editing and
conversion of the manuscript into html-format by Jutta
Schmitt.
Furthermore, deliberately
we have not updated the original manuscript, in order to avoid the violation
of the flowing truths of yester-millennium.
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Original Title: Südafrika
vor der Revolution?
Copyright: Fischer
Taschenbuch Verlag GmbH,
Frankfurt am Main,
1973.
346 016446 isbn
About this book
The climatic conditions
in Southern Africa have always appeared very attractive from the Central
European point of view. For this reason oppressed and landless peasants
especially from the Netherlands, England, France and Portugal at an early
period started emigrating to the territories of what is at present known
as the Republic of South Africa, Rhodesia, Mozambique and Angola. The very
first contacts with the European powers had already brought about the decline
of the great African empires such as Zimbabwe, Azania, Congo etc. so that
the settlers found it easy to continue in turn the oppression they themselves
had suffered in Europe and to reduce the indigenous African population
to serfdom.
These conditions,
which date back to the early colonial period and European feudalism, have
in more recent times been adapted to our industrial age through categories
which are partly borrowed from German Fascism: „master race“, „racial purity“,
„Bantustans“ (in actual fact residential areas for industrial reserve armies)
etc. At the same time, however, the oppressed majority of the population
is beginning to search for new ways of liberating itself from the white
minority. The history of these liberation movements and their likely future
development against the socio-economic background of South Africa is described
in this book, which is the revised and enlarged version of a doctoral dissertation
entitled "The Influence of Marxism on the National Liberation Movements
in South Africa".
About the Author:
Franz John Tennyson
Lee, born in Ficksburg in 1938, is a South African classified as
„Coloured“ by the racist legislation of his home country. He has been living
in the Federal Republic of Germany since
-2-
1962 where he studied Political Science, Philosophy
and History under Professors Ernst Bloch, Theodor W. Adorno and Iring W.
Fetscher. He obtained his Ph.D degree at the University of Frankfurt on
the Main in 1970. Since January 1972, Dr. Lee has been a Senior Lecturer
in Political Sciences at the Fachhochschule Darmstadt (Darmstadt University
of Technology).
Between April 1977
and March 1979, the author lectured at the University of Guyana, Georgetown,
in the Department of Political Science and Law, of which he was Acting-Head
of Department during the Academic year 1978/1979. Since September 1979,
he joined the staff of the post-graduate department of the University of
the Andes, Mérida, Venezuela, as Professor of International Politics,
where he is still teaching. Between November 1982 and July 1983, as Visiting
Scholar, he lectured at the University of Port Harcourt, in the Department
of Political and Administrative Studies.
Dr. Lee has published
various works. Among them are: Technische Intelligenz und Klassenkampf
(1974); Teoría-Praxis de la Revolución-Emancipación
(1983). He also made contributions to other books: „Raíces
históricas y socio-económicas de la ideología del
racismo: Sudáfrica y Guyana“, in Guyana Hoy (ed.
R. G. de Romero, 1982); „Dependence and Revolutionary Theory: Relevance
to the African Situation“, in Political Science in Africa:
A Critical Review ( ed. Yolamu R. Barongo, 1983). At the end of
1983, the University of the Andes Press is publishing his latest
work: "Socialismo Cooperativista" en Guyana: Ocaso de un Mito.
-3-
TO MY
MOTHER, MARIA LEE
DECEASED 11.
MARCH, 1975
AND
MY FATHER,
FRANZ TENNYSON LEE
DECEASED 5.
OCTOBER 1965
Both victims of Apartheid
like the millions of South
African freedom fighters
whose names will never be
recorded in official history.
-4-
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Foreword to the English Edition
(7)
Chapter 1: Political
Literature on South Africa
(11)
A: Publications
in the Federal Republic of Germany
(11)
B: On the
historiography of the South African Liberation movements
(16)
Chapter 2:
Concerning the History of the South African Liberation
movements
(22)
A: The transitorial
period (1880 - 1910 )
(24)
B: The African
political awakening
(31)
1. From forms of tribal organization to national political movements
(31)
2. The rise of politico-religious movements
(36)
a) The Bulhoek Massacre, May 1921
(38)
b) The Bondelswart Massacre, May 1922
(40)
3. The beginnings of the Trade Union movement
(41)
4. The foundation of the All African Convention, 1936
(45)
C: The attempt
to form a united front of the oppressed (1943 - 1960)
(49)
D: The social
revolutionary development since 1960
(54)
1. The foundation of the African People´s Democratic
Union of Southern
Africa ( APDUSA )
(57)
2. The foundation of underground movements developing methods
of
guerilla warfare
(58)
a) Poqo and Umkhonto we Siswe
(58)
b) The foundation of the Yu Chi Chan Club (YCCC), later
renamed
National Liberation Front of South Africa (NLF)
(59)
E: Summary
(64)
-5-
Chapter 3:
Trotskyism and Stalinism in South Africa
(67)
A: Concerning
the theory of socialist revolution
(67)
B: The genesis
of the theory of Trotskyism and its development
(73)
C: The criticism
of Trotskyism in South Africa
(82)
D: The policy
of the Communist Party of South Africa
(83)
E: The criticism
of Stalinism in South Africa
(95)
Chapter 4:
The Land and National Questions in South Africa
(96)
A: Preliminary
remark
(96)
B: Historical
background
(97)
1. The land question
(97)
2. The national question
(107)
3. Main theses
(110)
C: The position
of the Socialist groupings
(111)
1. General
(111)
2. The Sparacist theses
(113)
3. The political theories of the Trotskyites
(116)
D: Trotsky´s
„Letter to South Africa“
(121)
Chapter 5:
National liberation movements before and
after Sharpeville
(128)
A: The African
National Congress (ANC)
(128)
B: The Panafricanist
Congress (PAC)
(135)
C: The Unity
Movement of South Africa (UMSA)
(141)
1. The struggle for national liberation (1935-1945)
(142)
2. The transition to a conscious class struggle (1945-1965)
(143)
3. Incipient guerrilla warfare (1965 to date)
(145)
D: The Liberation
Struggle in Namibia
(149)
1. The history of German colonialism
(149)
2. Annexation by South Africa
(150)
3. The emancipation movement
(151)
-6-
Chapter 6: Who will
change South Africa?
(155)
A: On the problem
of the qualitative and quantitative strength of the
liberation movements in South Africa
(155)
B: On the
problem of the social basis of the revolution
(158)
Chapter 7: The Armed
Struggle
(170)
A: Concerning
the problem of violence
(170)
B: The present
situation
(171)
C: On the
revolutionary strategy of the guerrilla in South Africa
(175)
D: The formulation
of a Revolutionary Theory for South Africa
(182)
1. Structural economic changes since the ‘Sixties'
(182)
2. „Consultation“ and „Dialogue“
(185)
3. The Necessity of a Theory of Underdevelopment for South Africa
(191)
4. On the Theory of Underdevelopment
(197)
Appendices
(202)
Abbreviations
(202)
Bibliography
(203)
A. Primary sources
(203)
B. Secondary literature
(208)
C. Miscellaneous
(213)
D. Brochures
(217)
E. Periodicals, journals and newspapers
(217)
F. Author’s publications, 1963-1975
(219)
Documents:
I. Trotsky’s „Letter on the National and Agrarian Struggles
in
South Africa“ (1933)
(222)
II. Democratic Ten Point Programme of the AAC, NEUM, SOYA,
CPSU, APDUSA, etc. (1943)
(228)
III. The Freedom Charter (1955)
(230)
IV. Pamphlet No. III, published by the N.L.F. (1961)
(234)
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