The article considers the pivotal organizing role of the revolutionary paper Congress Militant for the Marxist Workers’ Tendency of the African National Congress from the late 1980s to the mid-1990s, a period characterized by mass popular struggles against apartheid and violence and by political negotiations. Congress Militant was instrumental in shaping the internal life of the Tendency, from being a space of reportage of local struggles and political analyses to contributing to the development of a community of revolutionary cadres who belonged to national and international organizations. It was also the principal public vehicle for the propagation of the Tendency’s politics, serving as a tool of intervention in numerous campaigns and in recruitment. As such the paper offers a window into the history of the changing politics of one socialist organization during the tumultuous years of the early 1990s in South Africa, including its criticisms of the compromises made by the ANC leadership during the negotiations… read more
Congress Militant: Revolutionary Papers as Political Organizers