The most important thing to know about the African National Congress is that for decades it was a stepchild of the Stalinist Communist Party of the RSA (SACP). The ANC and SCAP were usually to the left of most Communist Parties because they were underground and persecuted. In spite of having some genuine heroes and radical members like Nelson Mandela the ANC and the SACP have moved sharply right since assuming power in 1994. That’s not surprising considering that the European SA Nationalist Party freely handed over power to the ANC. The NP’s trust was not misplaced. The ANC has only expropriated slightly less than 3% of the land Europeans stole during the colonial period and they’ve flatly refused to expropriate industry and transport. They refused to try and punish most police and military torturers and murderers. In terms of GLBT rights the ANC has a mixed record. The new RSA constitution guarantees our rights and they legalized samesex marriage last year. However gays and lesbians, especially African gays and lesbians are subject to increasing violence, including police violence. Moreover the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS could easily wipe what gains have been made. The ANC leadership has refused to limit the spread of the pandemic by scientific means resulting in the paralysis and collapse of the SA medical infrastructure under the impact of the gigantic AIDS patient load. The left wing of the ANC, trade unionists and GLBT activists will have to leave the ANC and go into open opposition to fulfill the goals of the SA revolution, which has been postponed on all fronts by the ANC/SCAP leadership.
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The most important thing to know about the African National Congress is that for decades it was a stepchild of the Stalinist Communist Party of the RSA (SACP). The ANC and SCAP were usually to the left of most Communist Parties because they were underground and persecuted. In spite of having some genuine heroes and radical members like Nelson Mandela the ANC and the SACP have moved sharply right since assuming power in 1994. That’s not surprising considering that the European SA Nationalist Party freely handed over power to the ANC. The NP’s trust was not misplaced. The ANC has only expropriated slightly less than 3% of the land Europeans stole during the colonial period and they’ve flatly refused to expropriate industry and transport. They refused to try and punish most police and military torturers and murderers. In terms of GLBT rights the ANC has a mixed record. The new RSA constitution guarantees our rights and they legalized samesex marriage last year. However gays and lesbians, especially African gays and lesbians are subject to increasing violence, including police violence. Moreover the rapid spread of HIV/AIDS could easily wipe what gains have been made. The ANC leadership has refused to limit the spread of the pandemic by scientific means resulting in the paralysis and collapse of the SA medical infrastructure under the impact of the gigantic AIDS patient load. The left wing of the ANC, trade unionists and GLBT activists will have to leave the ANC and go into open opposition to fulfill the goals of the SA revolution, which has been postponed on all fronts by the ANC/SCAP leadership.