Review – Tom Lodge, Red Road to Freedom, A History of the South African Communist Party 1921–2021, Jacana, Johannesburg

Abstract

In the year of the South African Communist Party’s centenary, Tom Lodge’s in-depth, scholarly work is a landmark achievement. The account is particularly strong in tracing the ideological currents that shaped the party and the changing and diverse sociology of its membership. The influential role of the party in helping transform the African National Congress into a mass-based campaigning formation from 1945 is a central focus. Lodge also traces the critical role of the party in the re-building, at first largely in exile, of a weakened ANC following the major strategic setback of the liberation movement in the mid-1960s. There is less focus on the reciprocal impact of the ANC upon the party, especially in the context of the practice of “dual membership” in both formations. This neglect is one factor in weakening the analysis of the post-1994 period in which the ANC has been the ruling party.

Entangled oligarchies: structure, agency and rent seeking in South Africa

“…Tom Lodge's Red Road to Freedom provides a much needed corrective in this comprehensive history of the South African Communist Party (SACP). Several indepth discussions have already appeared regarding its impact on the field (Cronin 2022;Southall 2022;Nzo et al 2023). Rather than add to this debate, I will focus on Lodge's analysis of SACP contributions to ANC political culture.…”