Alastair

South Africa under apartheid was a stalwart US and British ally and proxy, despite international divestment campaigns. It fought against the MPLA in Angola and Frelimo in Mozambique for that very reason (alongside those countries harbouring revolutionaries).

The USSR provided weapons, financial aid, and diplomatic pressure in support of the end of apartheid. In fact, they introduced the resolution in the UN for international sanctions against the apartheid government. The ANC, SACP and other forces would not have survived had it not been for this aid.

There is plenty to criticise the USSR for, yet ignoring its role in ending apartheid would be a disservice to its policy of aiding leftist revolutionary forces all around the world.

It birthed a culture of leftism in this country that is unfortunately underrepresented. In fact, some of the earliest communists in South Africa existed before the Soviet Union even existed.

In much of Africa, Marxism appeals to this day for its policies of nationalisation, representative governments, and an expansion of economic rights, not just social ones. It has morphed into African Marxism with the likes of Mbembe, Fanon, First, Hani, La Guma and so many others proposing how the scientific method can be applied to the material conditions of a particular nation.

The pattern appeared again and again, in Tanzania, Angola, and my own South Africa, all examples of American will being imposed on the continent out of fear that communism would take hold in Africa.

To speak close to home, the United States was perfectly content to allow the continuation of apartheid, because the National Party was a stalwart capitalist ally in a wave of African independence, especially with Marxist forces in Angola breathing down their neck. South Africa is a rich source of uranium and precious metals, so the material incentive of an ally in Africa rich in resources was further motivation.

The US only condemned apartheid with the weakening and eventual collapse of the USSR, the red bear that supported the anti-apartheid movement defeated. South Africa gained its independence at the height of US hegemony and became the neoliberal darling of Africa. It abandoned its socialist principles and accepted loans from the IMF.