THE LAST DECADE or so has seen the rise of a 'new politics' in southern Africa: that of guerilla war. resulted in the defeat of the Portuguese in their former colonies, but have not resulted in a decisive Africa - although, of course, Rhodesia or the Republic of South Africa. Indeed, the struggle in the former has a long history and has of late begun to have a certain success; but in the latter the real test is yet to come.
In all sectors of the struggle in liberation forces have turned to guerilla warfare. Southern Africa, the New Politics of Revolution * is an attempt to describe this important development and the reasons why it came to be so. BALDWIN contributes a major discussion article which probes some of the themes raised in the book.
With such a rich subject matter, it is a pity that the book essentially fails. The authors are unsure - if not in fact ignorant - of the central problems posed by the development of the guerilla struggle in southern Africa. So the book consists of a collection of three essays from various analytical positions around the general theme of the "new politics'.
The first, by Basil Davidson, is a history of the development of the guerilla struggle in the former Portuguese colonies; the second and by far the best essay, by Joe Slovo, is concerned with the struggle in Africa; the concluding essay Anthony R. Wilkinson deals with the armed struggle in Rhodesia. The bulk of this article will be devoted to the essay by Joe Slovo, as the issues he raises are of such fundamental importance. subjects So far the 'new politics' have breakthrough elsewhere in southern they have not fallen on deaf ears in southern Africa, however, the Here CLIVE giving a real guarantee that the activities of the party will be checked by the masses, and thus allowing a much more fruitful development. The result in a colonial country of a successful revolution is more likely than not a one party state, simply because it is the people through the party that make the revolution, rather than the people guided by the party.
Angola, for instance, did see the development of various factory, neighbourhood commissions, etc.; and as the MPLA oriented towards them, the way in which it dominated the upsurge resulted in a certain marked radicalisation of the MPLA. Al this stage some form of internal dialogue did exist, as the leadership of the MPLA needed support to defeat the rival groupings. However, with the victory of the MPLA the Neto leadership faction sucJoe Slovo is a leading member of the South African Communist Party, and as such his analysis must be taken very seriously. Fundamentally he puts forward a variant of the two stage theory or revolu tion theorised for South African conditions. His starting point is to postulate that South Africa is a colony of a special type, an "internal colony' which has the exploiting capitalist power on its own territory.
To quote from the ANC's "Strategy and Tactics': South Africa's social and economic structure and the relationship which it generates are perhaps unique. It is not a colony, yet 1 regard to overwhelming majority of its people, most of the features of the classical colonial structures.
Slovo extends this theory still further when he argues that the policy of apartheid can best be understood as an attempt to apply the policy of neo-colonialism home. He remarks that it is an attempt to partially externalise the colonial relation ship in the shape of ethnic states, eventually having all the attributes of formal political independence'. In Slovo's own words, 'this theory of internal charactensation TUNE colonialism] provides the theoretical foun dation for the conclusion that the main content of the immediate struggle for change is the national liberation of the African people and with it the destruction of all forms of racial discrimination'.
The strategy of Slovo and the Sou African CP is an illusion, and a V dangerous one at that. What flows from is an excessive concentration on guer war. Slovo, in fact, gets almost hysterical his attempts to prove that guerilla warfar a viable strategy. Ramner than wasting tants" lives in this very tenuous operatic they would be better employed in devel ing class consciousness amongst the ploited people of South Africa. Value What is entirely lacking from Slov analysis - and indeed from most analy of South Africa - is an analysis of operation of the law of value. South Afr is not immune from the world econon nor is she immune from the contradicti of capitalist development. It is these wh will nave protound ellects on the Sc African socio-economic structure - effe which will begin to cause problems wit the ruling white elite, and effects which influence the white working class in Soi Cey Bre oppressed layers South Africa will have to organise confront the violence of the regime w their own violence, but that is a differ matter to the strategy of guerilla warf