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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Inside which circle? A reply to Colin Bundy |
Author: | Cronin, Jeremy |
Year: | 1989 |
Periodical: | Transformation: Critical Perspectives on Southern Africa |
Issue: | 10 |
Pages: | 70-78 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | South Africa |
Subjects: | revolutions national liberation struggles |
External link: | https://d.lib.msu.edu/tran/97/OBJ/download |
Abstract: | In a recent article entitled 'Around which corner? revolutionary theory and contemporary South Africa' (In: Transformation, no. 8 (1989), p. 1-23), Colin Bundy questions the strategic usefulness for the liberation movement in South Africa of the concept of colonialism of a special type (CST), arguing that the CST approach implies a protracted, largely rural-based guerrilla strategy - as opposed to a more urban-based insurrectionary approach. According to the present author there is simply no direct connection between a relatively abstract, general concept like CST and a particular, concrete strategy developed for a specific time and place. But there does exist a connection between a concrete, historical unpacking of CST at a particular time and an appropriate strategy. After all, CST has been maintained in South Africa since 1910, under changing conditions and varying mechanisms. Taking these aspects into account, the CST approach becomes a very useful theoretical tool to explain more adequately the South African Defence Force (SADF) factor; clarify the character of the South African countryside in regard to the liberation struggle; highlight the principal strategic features of the major mass revolutionary base in South Africa, the township; and clarify the character and strategic challenges of the present sustained mass offensive. Bibliogr. |