1. South African Communist Party
Bianca Zermeno

2. Brief Background:
The Communist Party of South Africa (CSPA) was founded in 1921 by the joining together of the International Socialist League.
First came to prominence during the armed Rand Rebellion by white mineworkers in 1922.
“Workers of the world, unite and fight for a white South Africa!”

3. Transition: CPSA was declared illegal in 1950.
1953 former CSPA members launched the South African Communist Party (SACP).
SACP was strongly aligned with the Soviet Union.
Forefront of the struggle against imperialism and racial denomination.

4. SACP Established:
SACP was a particular target of the National Party Government.
Suppression of Communist Act- Used against all those against ending apartheid (specifically Communists).
Members of the SACP adopted a policy of primarily working with the African National Congress (ANC).
From a nationalist party to a non racial program.
White and black members of the SACP began to take leadership roles of other multi racial based groups.

5. Liberation Movement:
SACP played a dynamic role in the development of the liberation movement in South Africa
After the ‘Africanists’ of the Pan Africanist Congress broke from the ANC, the PAC’s policy of Africanism and the acceptance of Maoism informed the black student uprising of the 1970s.
The PAC founder Robert Magaliso Subukwe also supported the concept of non-racialism as opposed to multi-racialism.

6. Mandela and the SACP:
As the National Party increased repression in response to increased black pressure and radicalism in the 1950s, the ANC (previously committed to nonviolence) turned toward the question of force.
A new generation of leaders, led by Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu recognized the Nationalists were sure to ban the ANC.
Making peaceful protest even more impossible.

7. Cont.
They allied themselves with the Communists to form 'Spear of the Nation' which began a campaign of economic bombing or 'armed propaganda'.
The leaders of the Spear of Nation were soon arrested and jailed and the liberation movement was left weak with an exiled leadership.
The ANC itself remained broadly socially democratic in outlook.

8. After Mandela's death in 2013, the ANC confirmed that he had been a member of the SACP and served on its central committee.
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