Fine, Robert (1989) Labour and politics in South Africa, 1939-1964. PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

The core of my dissertation is devoted to a re-interpretation of the
history of the liberation movement in South Africa in two critical periods
of its development. The first I call in short 'the 1940s' but shall be
referring more specifically to the years between 1939 and the rise of
apartheid in 1948; the second I call 'the 1950s' but shall refer to the
years between the emergence of apartheid and the defeat of the liberation
movement in 1964. Both the 1940s and the 1950s were marked by fierce class
struggles which brought with them hopes of a new democratic order in South
Africa; both closed on the sombre note of defeat for democracy and triumph
for the forces of reaction and racism. Motivated by a dissatisfaction with
prevailing interpretations, I shall explore what went wrong in these years
in order to deepen our understanding of the political culture and social
base of the liberation movement. I have focussed on these two historical
periods because I see the basic parameters of the contemporary liberation
movement as set by the class struggles which occurred within them. My
central hypothesis is that, although class relations do not on the whole
manifest themselves directly on the surface of the liberation movement,
they have nonetheless been the crucial determinants of its pattern of
evolution. My introductory chapter will be devoted to a theoretical
discussion of the relation between nationalism and socialism in the South
Africa liberation movement. It was written after the historical research
and its ideas reflect a considerable change of mind which resulted from the
research; the ideas expressed within it provide a necessary foundation for
understanding what I wish to say through the substantive history. My final
section will be an attempt to outline the major lessons which I draw from
the history of these class struggles; it focusses on what I see as the
unresolved conflict between the two traditions of 'radical liberalism' and
'insurrectionism' which run through the history of the liberation struggle
and on defining what I see as the 'absent centre' of this history: social
democracy or more accurately the social democratic movement of the working
class.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DT Africa J Political Science > JQ Political institutions (Asia, Africa, Australia, Pacific Area, etc.)
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	South Africa -- History -- 1909-1961, Apartheid -- South Africa, Civil rights movements, Anti-apartheid movements, Nationalism
Official Date:	July 1989
Dates:	Date Event July 1989 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Sociology
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Clarke, Simon, 1946-
Extent:	530 leaves
Language:	eng

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