“Setting the Free Thinker Free”: The Use of an Activist Archive to Analyze a Pivitol Moment in the History of the South African Communist Party (SACP)

David P Thomas

doi:10.22158/wjssr.v6n3p283

Abstract

This article draws extensively on an activist archive held at the University of Witwatersrand in order to analyze an important historical struggle within the South African Communist Party (SACP). A critical history of the crucial debates taking place within the SACP in the late 1990s is constructed from this archival material in order to explore the expulsion of Dr. Dale T. McKinley from the Party in 2000. The article argues that the expulsion of McKinley was a pivitol moment in the history of the SACP, and helps us understand the post-apartheid trajectory of the Party. Expelling McKinley fulfilled the SACP leadership’s goal of managing dissent at the rank-and-file level, and ensured that the Party’s loyalty to the ANC would remain an integral aspect of its strategy and tactics. Moreover, the use of this activist archive was absolutely essential in (re)constructing this critical story about the Party’s history.

Highlights

The South African Communist Party (SACP) has historically been a formidable political force in South Africa
The SACP invoked Para 4.4, which commits the SACP to working to “strengthen the liberation alliance of all classes and strata whose interests are served by the immediate aims of the national democratic revolution. This alliance is expressed through the liberation front headed by the African National Congress (ANC)” (SACP Central Committee Disciplinary Committee, 2000, p. 1)
McKinley aggressively challenged the fundamental aspects of the SACP’s participation in the ANC-dominated Tripartite Alliance. He was unwilling to accept the compromises and/or contradictions arising from the SACP’s cooperation with the ANC, and called for the Party to take a more confrontational approach toward the ANC. He refused to follow a code of discipline that did not allow free and uninhibited criticism of the current neoliberal trajectory of the Tripartite Alliance

Summary

Original Paper

World Journal of Social Science Research ISSN 2375-9747 (Print) ISSN 2332-5534 (Online). Vol 6, No 3, 2019 www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/wjssr “Setting the Free Thinker Free”: The Use of an Activist Archive to Analyze a Pivitol Moment in the History of the South African. Thomas* 1 Department of Politics & International Relations, Mount Allison University, Sackville, New Brunswick, Canada * David P.

Introduction

World Journal of Social Science Research

Conclusion

Review of African