Class, Race, Ethnicity and the National Liberation Struggle in South Africa.

Organized civil disobedience to racial oppression began in 1960 in the United States and in South Africa. In South Africa, that movement was met with violent suppression, making the kind of campaign carried out in the US impossible. This paper explores why the South African experience was so different from ours; its focus is on the interrelationship between class, race and ethnicity. While in the US, the racial system obstructed the growth of the economy, in South Africa the apartheid state was expanding. Moreover, whereas African-Americans were a minority in the US, in South Africa Africans were the large majority, and political equality would transform who occupied the positions of power. Significantly, in South Africa, intra-racial conflicts between whites concerning political and economic hegemony complicated the conflict. Apartheid was not only a racial policy, but one designed to improve the class position of the Afrikaner people. Once that was accomplished, reforms became more feasible. In each country, the business class was vulnerable to pressures and had the power to bring about change, supported by middle class whites. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]