The State, Economy, and Self-Determination in South Africa

Abstract

Political analysis has traditionally projected material structure or the power of ideologies as the primary determinant of popular movements and other pressures for social change. Applying either a reductionist materialism or a disembodied idealism to the South African conflict cannot fully explain variations in the political analysis and strategy of popular challenges to the minority regime, nor the likely outcome of such challenges. The dynamics of the South African conflict can only be understood by analyzing the impact and interaction of structural changes in the economy and state rule and the role of mass mobilization. Country-wide South African opposition has a long and variously textured history, dating back at least to the founding of the African National Congress (ANC) in 1912. In the 1950s the still legal ANC had organized a popular, multiracial, national protest movement. By 1959, the racially exclusive Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) had broken away from the ANC and begun to gain support for its more confrontational approach. One year later, both the ANC and PAC were banned, forced into exile, and began low-scale guerrilla activity launched from neighboring states and from within South Africa.' This analysis focuses on the