Race, Nation, and Class Based Ideologies of Recent Opposition in South Africa

Abstract

Differing tendencies within South Africa's internal opposition have long disputed the implications and relative salience of race, nation, and class for the oppressed. Activists' competing claims for the priority of any one or set of these concepts are often defended as the appropriate response to specific economic conditions or state policies. However, the applicability of race, nation, or class depends not only on such shifting material conditions, but also on how these subjective categories of social relations are defined. Analysis of the meanings and the strategic implications of these central concepts can assist us in understanding the differences among tendencies and the overall development of recent South African internal opposition. Concepts of race, nation, and class have been central to activists' interpretations and responses to South African oppression. An opposition tendency's definitions of and priority among these concepts are indicative of its ideology, for each of these concepts implies a potential constituency, long-term goals, and a repertoire of preferred strategy. For example, South African activists who have focused more on race have often excluded whites from the