Political strategies and the state

In the study of social movements of the oppressed, there often exists for the Left historian and political actor an inclination to avoid thorny questions of strategy and tactics. Definite strategic decisions may be naturalised as the only possible response to a particular situation or set of 'structural predeterminations'. They may be idealised as rational modes of action which make sense in the context of their application. They may be ignored in favour of a celebration of the struggle or a denunciation of its suppression. In order to explain the movement's successes and failures, appeal may be made to objective factors, like the size of the working class, the mode of its employment or the strength of the state's repressive apparatus. Alternatively, purely subjective factors may be invoked, like the heroism and commitment of the oppressed and the brutality of the rulers. Such considerations may all be true and illuminating, but they are not sufficient to explain the movement's progression. Left out of the picture is the conscious, rational side of social movements: their capacity to make programmatic and operational choices, to learn from the past and from theory, to combine their own experience with the experience of other movements abroad, to question themselves through debate and criticism and to rebuild afresh. There are undoubtedly times when a movement's strategic capacities are crucial to its success or failure. To ignore this dimension is to present a diminished image of the movement's character. It omits the self-consciousness with which a movement channels the anger and misery of the people, combats their demoralisation, offers a political understanding, programme and solution (which may be in competition with those of others), fights for a particular kind of leadership and direction, and organises a definite form of internal democracy

Political economy · Political science · Politics · Sociology · Computer Science · Law · Political and Economic history of UK and US · Political theory and Gramsci

• Were There Political Alternatives in the Wake of the Sharpeville-Langa Violence in South Africa, 1960

  Open Access•Saul Dubow•The Journal of African History•2015

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• The Oxford history of South Africa

  Leonard Monteath Thompson, Monica Hunter Wilson•The Oxford history of South Africa•1969

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• Southern Africa

  Patrick Wall, Patrick D Wall•African Affairs•1977

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• Class and Colour in South Africa, 1850–1950

  Rick Johnstone•African Affairs•1970

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• Urban Revolt in South Africa

  Open Access•Edward Feit•The Journal of Modern African…•1970

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• Organize or Starve! The History of the South African Congress of Trade Unions

  Bridglal Pachai, Ken Luckhardt et al.•African Studies Review•1982

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