Towards socialist democracy

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Title:

Author:

Legassick, Martin.

ISBN:

9781869140946

Personal Author:

Legassick, Martin.

Publication Information:

Scottsville, South Africa : University of KwaZulu-Natal Press ; Johannesburg : Thorold's Africana Books [distributor], 2007.

Physical Description:

xxix, 725 pages ; 24 cm

General Note:

Distributor information from label.

Contents:

By way of introduction -- The roots of the present world crisis. World capitalism and the necessity of socialism ; The theory and practice of permanent revolution ; The rise of Stalinism -- South Africa : resistance to conquest and capitalism. The 1928 'black republic' resolution of the Communist Party of South Africa ; The rise of a mass African Nationalist Congress, 1948-56 ; From the Alexander bus boycott to Sharpeville, 1957-60 ; Sharpeville and its aftermath -- The nature of post-capitalist states in the twentieth century. The nature of the Soviet state ; The Chinese revolution and its significance ; The new South African Communist Party analysis of the Soviet state ; The debate around Slovo's 'Has socialism failed?' -- South Africa : the struggle for national and social liberation, 1960-94. The strategy of armed struggle in southern Africa, 1961-75 ; The revolutionary upsurge of the 1980s -- South Africa in the twenty-first century. The South African political economy ; Wealth, poverty and unemployment ; Conclusion : a political way forward.

Subject Term:

Socialism -- South Africa.

Socialism -- South Africa -- 20th century.

Government, Resistance to -- South Africa -- History -- 20th century.

Socialism -- History -- 20th century.

Democracy -- South Africa.

Geographic Term:

South Africa -- Politics and government -- 20th century.

Copies:

Available:*

Library	Material Type	Item Barcode	Shelf Number	Copy	Status
Searching... 1:IIEMSA	1:GEN-BOOK	33168025798725	320.5310968 L173T 2007	1	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

Towards Socialist Democracy is written for those engaged in struggles against capitalism around the world. It examines the history of the struggle for socialism in the 20th century, and draws on the lessons of the bureaucratic usurpation of the Russian workers' revolution, and of the revolutions that put a bureaucracy in power in China, Cuba, and other countries. Outlining the conditions of wealth and poverty in the world economy today, and looking briefly at recent uprisings in Latin America, the book argues that socialism is still a necessity which can only be achieved through nationalizing the economy under workers' control and management on an international scale. It explores the history of the battle for national and social liberation in South Africa, from the 1920s through the 1980s, and critically examines the policies of the leadership of the South African Communist Party. Finally, it reviews the economic record of the ANC (African National Congress) government since 1994 and stresses the need for a mass workers' party in South Africa to take up the struggle for national, and international, social justice and socialism.