| | In the last three years, the economic and political crisis in the Sudan has deepened. Despite the increased repression, manifestations of popular resistance as exemplified by the strikes in the North and the armed struggle in the South have posed a most significant challenge to the dictatorial regime of Nimeiri. In the paper we emphasise, as has been done by the progressive forces in the Sudan, that the crisis centres around the fundamental issue of what path should be followed for the transformation of Sudanese society. The position of the rightwing political parties, on the other hand, has been based, both before and after Independence, on what could be termed 'liberation but not development' . They perceive the independence of the Sudan only in political terms and leave the essential features of the colonial socioeconomic structures to be reproduced. Their only achievement has been the so-called 'Sudanisation' of the leading posts in the socioeconomic structures. It is against the backdrop of the crisis that we seek to examine the positions held by the various political parties and their social bases. Of particular importance, we seek to situate the Southern Sudan Question in the struggles of the democratic forces at the national level and to determine the challenges it poses to the regime and its right-wing opposition in the North. |
