Activists As Theorists: Theorizing Race and Class in South Africa’s Black Consciousness Movement

What roles do racism and capitalism play in generating inequality, and what kinds of transformative strategies might be effective in challenging it? In 2022 and 2023, we conducted oral history interviews with 53 activists who were involved in the anti-capitalist wing of the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa. We sought to understand how activists thought about the linkages between racism and capitalism, and what kinds of struggle and political orientation were needed for social transformation. At the root of this project is our conceptualization of activists as theorists. Academic writing frequently trails behind activist theorizing, and so, treating activists as theorists proves essential to generating the highest quality theory.

In this paper, we focus on a subset of 18 of these interviews with activists who were part of the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) and its key affiliate, the Azanian People’s Organization (AZAPO). What were they fighting against and for? We argue that BCM/AZAPO activists emphasized the deep entanglements of racism and capitalism, and thus believed that eradicating racism required an anti-capitalist challenge. Yet, within this common viewpoint there was a subtle but important contrast between two positions. One, which we refer to as the equivalence position, understood race and class as effectively synonymous. In this view, socialism and national liberation were inherently and necessarily one and the same. Conversely, those adhering to what we refer to as the contingency position, pointed to a more complex and variable relationship between racism and capitalism. From this perspective, national liberation was an important terrain of struggle between class forces.

These two viewpoints are useful for understanding a wide array of movements today, not just in South Africa but across the globe. More specifically, they are crucial for making sense of the meanings that activists produce and the alternative worlds that they envision.