| | In ROAPE 49 Patrick Fitzgerald critically discussed some of my recent work on the relationship between democracy and socialism in the South African liberation struggle. I argued that political pluralism and civil liberties are central to any defensible socialist project, and that the discourses of the South African liberation struggle, of both the ANC camp and its far left critics, had so far failed to accord them the centrality they demand. Fitzgerald, though critical on several counts accepts the importance of a democratic state and civil society to post-apartheid South Africa. However, he makes a number of claims about my work which are misleading and cannot go unanswered. He also makes some claims on behalf of the democratic credentials of the ANC and its allies which seem to me one-sided. In what follows I both respond to Fitzgerald and clarify briefly my own views on the relationship between democracy and socialism in South Africa. |
