Joe Slovo
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Joe Slovo | |
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Minister of Housing of South Africa | |
In office April 1994 – January 1995 | |
President | Nelson Mandela |
Preceded by | New post |
National Executive Committee member of the African National Congress | |
President | Nelson Mandela |
General Secretary of the South African Communist Party | |
In office 1984–1991 | |
Succeeded by | Chris Hani |
Commander of uMkhonto we Sizwe | |
President | Oliver Tambo |
Preceded by | Nelson Mandela |
Succeeded by | Chris Hani |
Personal details | |
Born | Yossel Mashel Slovo 23 May 1926 Lithuania |
Died | 6 January 1995 Johannesburg, South Africa | (aged 68)
Political party | African National Congress South African Communist Party |
Spouses | |
Military service | |
Allegiance | |
Part of a series on |
Apartheid |
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Joe Slovo (born Yossel Mashel Slovo; 23 May 1926 – 6 January 1995) was a South African politician, and an opponent of the
A South African citizen from a
Life
Slovo was born on 23 May 1926 in
Slovo joined the
Between 1946 and 1950 he completed a law degree at the
In 1950, the SACP was banned and both First and Slovo were listed as communists under the
In 1961, Slovo and Abongz Mbede emerged as two of the leaders of
Slovo was a leading theoretician in both the SACP and the ANC. In the 1970s he wrote the influential essay "South Africa: No Middle Road", which argued that the apartheid government would be unable to achieve stability, co-opt significant sections of the small but growing black middle class, or democratise: the only choice was between an insurrectionary overthrow of apartheid, centred on MK, or ever greater repression.[10]
At the time the SACP's orthodox pro-Soviet and two-stage view of change in South Africa – "national democratic revolution" first, socialism later – was dominant in the ANC-led liberation movement. Slovo's 1988 "The South African Working Class and the National Democratic Revolution" defended the two-stage conception, insisting that "national democratic revolution" would "implement economic measures which go far beyond bourgeois-democracy" and so "erect a favourable framework for a socialist transformation but will not, in themselves, create, or necessarily lead to, socialism".[11]
In 1989, he wrote "Has Socialism Failed?" which acknowledged the weaknesses of the socialist movement and the excesses of Stalinism, while at the same time rejecting attempts by the left to distance themselves from socialism. Slovo insisted on having a "justified confidence in the future of socialism and its inherent moral superiority", and pointing to "the failures of capitalism", although he now rejected the one-party state model.[12]
In May 1990, after 27 years of exile, Slovo returned to the country[13] to participate in the early "talks about talks" between the government and the ANC. Ailing, he stood down as SACP general secretary in 1991 and was given the titular position of SACP chairperson. Slovo was succeeded by Chris Hani, who was assassinated two years later by a white right-winger. Slovo was a long-demonised figure in white South African society, widely misrepresented as a KGB colonel or Russian secret agent, and attracted a great deal of press after his return.[14]
In 1992, Slovo secured a major breakthrough in the negotiations to end apartheid in South Africa by presenting the "sunset clauses" developed by the ANC/ SACP leadership: a coalition government for five years following democratic elections, guarantees for civil servants, including the homelands and armed forces, and an amnesty process. These were intended to head off right-wing coups and destabilisation. However, Slovo specifically rejected any compromise on full majority rule, and any agreement that "constitutionally prevented permanently" a new government "from effectively intervening to advance the process of redressing the racially accumulated imbalances in all spheres of life".[15]
After the elections of 1994, Slovo became Minister for housing in Nelson Mandela's government, until his death in 1995 of cancer. His funeral was attended by the entire high command of the ANC, and by most of the highest officials in the country, including both Nelson Mandela and Thabo Mbeki, and he was buried in Avalon Cemetery, Soweto, unheard of, for a white South African. 50,000 people, virtually all black, attended the event.[16]
Civic and similar tributes
In 2004 Slovo was voted 47th in the
Cinema and music
Joe Slovo appears as a character in two films for which Shawn Slovo wrote the screenplay. In the award-winning 1988 movie
References
- ^ "Negotiations: What room for compromise?". www.sacp.org.za. Archived from the original on 12 May 2018. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
- ^ Joe Slovo, Anti-Apartheid Stalinist, Dies at 68, NY Times, 1995-01-07.
- ^ "OBITUARY: Joe Slovo". The Independent. 7 January 1995. Archived from the original on 9 June 2022.
- JSTOR 4006277.
- ISBN 978-1-875284-95-5. p. 45.
- ISBN 978-1-84113-049-1. p. 252.
- ^ "Ruth First: Williamson given amnesty". Independent Online (South Africa). 1 June 2000. Retrieved 8 April 2009.
- ^ "SAPA – 12 May 97 – TAMBO ORDERED CHURCH STREET BLAST: ANC". www.justice.gov.za. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
- ^ Slovo, Gillian. Every Secret Thing: My Family, My Country. Little, Brown and Co. pp. 130–131.
- ^ Slovo, Joe (1976). "South Africa – No Middle Road". In Davidson, Basil; Slovo, Joe; Wilkinson, Anthony R. (eds.). Southern Africa: The Politics of Revolution.
- ^ Slovo, Joe (1988). "The South African Working Class and the National Democratic Revolution". South African Communist Party. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
- ^ Slovo, Joe (1989). "Has Socialism Failed?". South African Communist Party. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
- ^ Hedges, Chris (17 October 1990). "Old Marxist Returns, With Hope for South Africa". The New York Times. Retrieved 6 January 2024.
- ^ Gillian, Slovo (1997). Every Secret Thing: My Family, My Country. Little, Brown and Co. pp. 134–135.
- ^ Slovo, Joe. "Negotiations: What room for compromise?". South African Communist Party. Archived from the original on 12 May 2018. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
- ^ a b "Editorial: Joe Slovo – An African Patriot". Southern African Political and Economic Monthly. 8 (5): 3. February 1995.
- ^ "Joe Slovo". www.durban.gov.za. Archived from the original on 6 April 2018. Retrieved 6 April 2018.
- ^ University, Rhodes. "Discover our Halls of Residence". Archived from the original on 24 January 2018. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
- ^ "Invitation to the media to CHI Memorial Lecture". www.cosatu.org.za. Archived from the original on 26 January 2018. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
- ^ "COSATU statement on the commemoration of the 22nd Anniversary of the death of Cde Joe Slovo". www.cosatu.org.za. Archived from the original on 25 January 2018. Retrieved 25 January 2018.
External links
- Joe Slovo – biographical sketch at the homepage of the ANC
- Joe Slovo Archive at marxists.org
- "Speeches and Writings of Joe Slovo", hosted by the SACP
- "Joe Slovo: Ode to a mensch" – eulogy by friend Linzi Manicom