Confronting racial authoritarianism: lessons from apartheid South Africa

Abstract

In the face of burgeoning authoritarianism in the United States, this article turns to South Africa’s anti-apartheid movement for lessons in contesting this regime. The authors highlight two tensions in the 1970s and 1980s that are relevant for organisers today. First, South African activists worked to construct a mass coalition with popular support. But they did so at the expense of core demands, abandoning anti-capitalism in the name of democracy. This first tension then is between organisational form and political content. Second, Black Consciousness activists in the movement articulated an expansive conception of Blackness that worked to unify a broad sector of the oppressed. But they had to be careful not to let this identity broaden into an amorphous abstraction detached from lived experience and demands for dignity. This second tension then is between abstract and concrete articulations of racial identities. The authors conclude by drawing lessons from these tensions that can help us effectively fight a racist and capitalist authoritarianism in the United States.