The Nature and Function of Utopianism in the 
Communist Party of South Africa 
1921-1950 
 
 
 
 
Sarah Meny-Gibert 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements of Master of Arts 
Department of Sociology, University of the Witwatersrand 
 
May 2007
 i 
Declaration 
 
I declare that this is my own original work. It is submitted in partial fulfilment for the degree 
of Master of Arts at the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. It has not been 
submitted before for any degree or examination in any other university.  
 
________________ 
Sarah Meny-Gibert 
29 May 2007 
 
 
 
 
 ii 
Abstract 
 
The following study is concerned with the nature of utopianism in the Communist Party of 
South Africa (CPSA). The presence of utopianism is explored over the whole of the Party?s 
history from 1921 to 1950. The study is essentially a historical sociology piece, and is based 
on the assumption that ideas are constitutive of social reality, and in particular, that 
utopianism is an active ingredient in society.  
The CPSA?s utopian vision for a future South African emerged amidst the excitement 
generated amongst socialists worldwide by the success of the Bolshevik Revolution. Over the 
years CPSA members drew on a range of traditions and identities that shaped the content and 
form of the CPSA?s utopianism. This utopianism was influenced by a modernist discourse of 
Marxism, which was characterised by a strong confidence in the realisation of a socialist 
future. The CPSA?s vision was also shaped by the political landscape of South Africa, and by 
the influence of the Communist International. The discussions of the CPSA?s form and 
content provide background to an analysis of the function of utopianism in the CPSA. 
An investigation of utopianism?s function in the Party informs the most significant finding of 
the research. Utopianism played a positive role in the CPSA: it was a critical tool, and a 
mobilising and sustaining force. However, utopianism in the CPSA also revealed a 
destructive side. The negative role of utopianism in the CPSA is explored via two themes: the 
?Bolshevisation? or purging of the CPSA in the 1930s under the directive of the Communist 
International, and the CPSA?s often blind loyalty to the Soviet Union.  
The presence of utopianism in the CPSA is thus shown to have been ambiguous. In 
conclusion it is suggested that utopianism is an ambiguous presence in society more 
generally, as it has the potential to function as both a positive and a negative force in society.  
This is an under explored topic in the literature on utopianism. The role that utopianism will 
play in any given social group is context related, however. The study argues for a more 
contextualised approach than is adopted in many of the seminal texts on utopia, to 
understanding the way in which utopianism is manifest and functions in society.   
The study sheds new light on the history of the Party, by revealing a previously unexplored 
story in the CPSA?s history, and makes a contribution to sociology in providing a detailed 
exploration of the nature and function of utopianism.  
 iii 
Preface 
 
I left university after my Batchelor?s degree fairly sure of my principles, or at least of certain 
assumptions. But over the last few years life has delivered challenges to my assumptions. 
People appeared to me as increasingly complicated, ambiguous, and often contradictory 
beings and thus social issues became more difficult to understand, and solutions to these 
issues seemed less clear. It appeared to me that there was no escape from living with constant 
tension and ambiguity. 
For idealists, contradiction is difficult and life may be lived in a quest for a marrying of all of 
its spheres: a search for holism. Contradictions between this value or that, between words and 
deeds, between different spheres or areas of ones own life, are a sometimes a profoundly felt 
tension. It is possible that in a search for some kind of relief, a life where holism and few 
contradictions are possible ? a better world ? is imagined and held in one?s mind?s eye. 
Utopia is for many of us a life without this tension.  
The inspiration to research the topic of utopianism was a fascination with those who were 
able to continue to imagine the real possibility of a far better world. One with fewer tensions 
and less pain, where the contradictions of life could be lessened. Members of the Communist 
Party of South Africa believed that this was possible. I, on the other hand, seem constantly 
pulled between a sceptical and a utopian frame of mind.   
My initial intention was to study the utopianism of the South African Communist Party (a 
research project which I believe is still worthy of undertaking). When first skimming through 
the literature on the SACP?s origins in the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA), 
however, I was struck by the incredible utopian hopes that characterised the labour 
movement worldwide at the beginning of the 20th Century. In the second decade of the 1900s, 
members of the International Socialist League (a forerunner to the CPSA) stood beneath the 
statue of Jan van Riebeck in Adderley Street, Cape Town proclaiming the dawning of a new 
world. This was the period I was most fascinated by ? as it seemed so different to our own. 
My original proposal for this thesis was a rather celebratory piece on the presence of 
utopianism in society ? and I remain celebratory of its potential. Having settled on the CPSA 
as the subject of my study however, I discovered a facet of the internal politics of the CSPA 
that struck me as a direct contrast to the vision of a harmonious, just, and democratic society 
the Party imagined. The 1930s period in the history of the CPSA was deeply, and in some 
 iv 
instances tragically, affected by the influence of the Communist International. It was at this 
stage marching to the tune of the brutal policies of Stalin. The CPSA blindly followed the 
authority of the Communist International in carrying out a purge of its own Party in the 
1930s. It also remained loyal to the Soviet Union, despite evidence of the atrocities 
perpetrated in the Soviet Union. At first I wondered if the positive role of utopianism had 
only a limited reach but I began to understand the purging (or ?Bolshevisation?) of the Party 
and the CPSA?s loyalty to the Soviet Union ? as part of a discourse of utopianism. An 
exploration of this idea forms the most important part of this study. I have nevertheless 
included much detail on the content and form of the CPSA?s utopianism in order to provide a 
full sense of the nature of the CPSA?s utopianism.   
At certain points in the past year this project has felt rather utopian. I chose a slippery topic 
and there are a number of people I wish to thank who helped me to retain a grip on both the 
subject and my sanity. I am particularly grateful for the help of Dr Keith Beavon who 
generously offered his time, expertise, and sharp eye in commenting on the final draft of this 
report. A special thanks to my friend Simon Dagut for his valuable advice and common sense 
during a particularly busy time in his life. Dr Ivor Sarakinsky?s expertise on the subject of 
utopianism was a great help to me, and his obvious enjoyment at returning to the subject of 
utopianism (about which there are so few people in South Africa to talk to) was very 
encouraging. Thanks go to Tanya Barben, Brian Bunting, Irena Filatova, and Ilse Wilson 
who generously gave their time, opinion, and experience when I interviewed then earlier this 
year and in late 2005. Thank you to Jeremy Cronin for such an interesting conversation. 
Alison Drew of the University of York provided very useful leads during the early research 
phase of this study and Michael Gardiner generously provided helpful contact details for 
finding relevant interviewees. 
My parents? (Rose and Chris) labour of love in editing the report was much appreciated! 
Thank you to family and friends who offered advice and a sympathetic ear, particularly 
Tristan and Margot, who supported me through the constant ups and downs of this rather 
character building process. Finally and most importantly thank you to my supervisor, Paul 
Germond, who despite being under intense pressure himself, calmed me during frequent 
bouts of panic. Thank you so much for your belief in this eccentric topic I chose, for your 
academic insight and especially for your strong and expressed confidence in me.  
Sarah Meny-Gibert 
November 2006 
 v 
Contents 
 
Abstract ii 
Preface iii 
List of Illustrations vii 
Chapter One: Introduction 1 
Rationale for the Study 2 
Outline of Chapters 8 
Methodology 9 
Note on Terminology 12 
Chapter Two: Exploring Utopia 14 
Defining Utopia 16 
The Function of Utopia 22 
Chapter Three: Socialism: The Modern Political Utopia 32 
The Development of Modern Political Utopias in the West 32 
Socialism, Marxism and Utopianism 38 
Chapter Four: The Form of the CPSA?s Utopianism 46 
The Formation of the International Socialist League 46 
The Bolshevik Revolution and the Birth of the CPSA 49 
?Dawn of the World?: Hope for the Imminent Transformation of Society 52 
The 1922 Rand Revolt: Hope and Disappointment 56 
The CPSA?s Confidence in the Future 64 
Chapter Five: The Content of the CPSA?s Utopian Vision 69 
Influences on the CPSA?s Utopian Vision 70 
The Early Vision: An International Utopia 75 
Towards a More Focused and Inclusive Utopian Vision 79 
The CPSA?s Closer Engagement with Black Protest 81 
The Native Republic Thesis: Changes in the Utopian Vision? 84 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 vi 
Chapter Six: The Positive Contribution of the CPSA?s Utopianism 93 
The CSPA: A Whole New Way of Life 94 
The Function of Utopianism in CPSA Members? Lives 97 
?There is an alternative!?: The Function of CPSA Utopianism in  
South African Society 105 
Chapter Seven: The Destructive Function of Utopianism in the CPSA 113 
The ?Bolshevisation? of the CPSA 114 
?My Party, Right or Wrong!?: Political Messianism in the CPSA 124 
The Soviet Union: Utopia Realised? 137 
Defending the Soviet Union: Protecting the Ideal 144 
The Ambiguity of Utopianism 150 
Chapter Eight: Conclusion 154 
Research Summary 154 
From Past to Present Utopias: Questions for Further Research 158 
Primary Sources 163 
Illustration Sources 165 
References 168 
 
 vii 
List of Illustrations 
 
Figure 2.1: Portrait of Thomas More by Hans Holbein the Younger (1527). 14 
Figure 2.2: The Utopian alphabet, invented by More. 18 
Figure 2.3: Pieter Bruegel the Elder?s Land of Cockaigne (1567). 25 
Figure 3.1: Woodcut by A. Holbien for a 1518 edition of Utopia.  33 
Figure 3.2: Henri de Saint-Simon. 35 
Figure 3.3: Friedrich Engels, 1856. 36 
Figure 3.4: Karl Marx. 37 
Figure 3.5: Charles Fourier. 40 
Figure 3.6: A first edition of the Communist Manifesto. 41 
Figure 4.1: Certificate given to ISL member Sam Barlin. 49 
Figure 4.2: 1920s Soviet poster entitled ?Lenin Leads?. 53 
Figure 4.3: A crowd outside the Johannesburg Trades Hall, 6 March 1922. 56 
Figure 4.4: The bombing of Benoni, as viewed by the strikers. 57 
Figure 4.5: A CPSA poster announcing a meeting of the League of African Rights. 61 
Figure 4.6: S.P. Bunting, founding member of the CPSA. 62 
Figure 4.7: A 1920s Soviet poster entitled ?The Last Decisive Battle!? 67 
Figure 5.1: Eddie Roux, member of the CPSA. 71 
Figure 5.2: James La Guma, member of the CPSA. 74 
Figure 5.3: Bill Andrews, founding member of the CPSA. 78 
Figure 5.4: Moses Kotane, General Secretary of the CPSA and SACP from 1939-1978. 83 
Figure 5.5: An essay entitled, Revolutionary Songs of the South African Workers. 84 
Figure 5.6: CPSA rally in the late 1920s. 86 
Figure 6.1: Joe Slovo,member of the CPSA and SACP. 95 
Figure 6.2: Bernard Sachs, member of the CPSA. 97 
Figure 6.3: Yusuf Dadoo, member of the CPSA and SACP. 100 
Figure 6.4: David Ivon Jones, founding member of the CPSA. 101 
Figure 6.5: Ray Alexander, member of the CPSA and SACP. 103 
Figure 6.6: Naboth Mokgatle, member of the CPSA. 109 
Figure 6.7: A recent publication of the Freedom Charter.  111 
 viii 
Figure 7.1: Douglas Wolton and Alfred Nzula in the late 1920s. 118 
Figure 7.2: Molly Wolton addressing a crowd in the 1930s. 120 
Figure 7.3: An article on Lazar Bach and the Richter brothers. 122 
Figure 7.4: 1920s Soviet poster entitled, ?Under the banner of Lenin and Stalin              
forward to the victory of Communism!? 125 
Figure 7.5: A Durban District of the CPSA poster, in support of the War effort. 138 
Figure 7.6: A CPSA booklet, written by prominent South African communists about        
their visit to the Soviet Union. 139 
Figure 7.7: A Soviet poster entitled, ?Long live the international Proletarian Revolution!? 141 
Figure 7.8: Pauline Podbrey, member of the CPSA. 142 
Figure 7.9: Johnny Gomas, member of the CPSA. 143 
Figure 7.10: J.B. Marks, member of the CPSA and the SACP, in Moscow in 1971.   147 
Figure 7.11: A page from Alfred Nzula?s identification document for his period of             
stay in the Soviet Union. 149 
Figure 8.1: The logo of the South African Communist Party. 159 
Figure 8.2: The entrance to the Constitutional Court of South Africa.  160 
Figure 8.3: A shop in Singapore called ?Utopia?.  161 
 1 
Chapter One: 
Introduction 
 
A map of the world that does not include Utopia is not even worth glancing at, for it leaves 
out the one country at which Humanity is always landing. And when Humanity lands there, it 
looks out, and seeing a better country, sets sail.  
(Oscar Wilde, 1891)1 
South African society at the turn of the 20th Century was harsh and limiting for many people. 
It was a society built on discourses of racial and class hierarchy, which privileged a few at the 
expense of many. But ruptures developed in the hegemonic discourses of the time (regarding 
race, gender, class), where people perceived that life did not have to be the way it was, and 
that social divisions were constructed rather than natural. Members of the Communist Party 
of South Africa (CPSA) were such people. In 1921 when the CPSA was formed, they set sail 
for a utopia where democracy flourished, and material deprivation and social inequality no 
longer plagued society.  
In the following study the CPSA?s vision of a socialist non-racial society is characterised as 
utopian and the activity directed in attempting to bring this about, as an expression of 
utopianism.2 The study is an exploration of the nature of utopianism in the CPSA, 
specifically the form, content and function of utopianism in the CPSA are explored. The 
study?s contribution is twofold. First of all, it sheds new light on the history of the Party, by 
revealing a previously unexplored story in the CPSA?s history. Second, it also makes a 
contribution to our understanding of the nature of utopianism in society more generally.  
A label is thrust upon the CPSA from which they themselves would probably have been at 
pains to distance themselves. The critique of utopianism by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, 
and the construction of their analysis as ?scientific?, has caused many Marxists to see the 
mention of utopianism as a pejorative label, one that implies lack of a realist approach to 
analysis and the development of solutions. Such possible concerns are spoken to sensitively 
in this study by developing a more nuanced definition of utopianism in contrast to its 
common and negative association.  
                                                 
1
  Cited in Levitas, R. 1990. The Concept of Utopia. New York: Philip Allan, 5.  
2
  The differences between the term ?utopia? and ?utopianism? will be discussed in Chapter Two. 
 2 
The nature of utopianism in the CPSA is traced throughout the Party history, from 1921 to 
1950 when it was disbanded.3 The decision to cover the whole of the CPSA?s history was 
based on the assumption that utopianism would change in form, prevalence, content and 
function over time. Due to the fact that the Party?s was in existence for only twenty-nine 
years, an exploration of these changes was possible over the whole of its history.  
Rationale for the Study 
South Africa has a rich history of drawing on visions of an alternative society to carve out 
spaces of dignity and hope and to provide inspiration to rally against conditions of economic 
and political subjugation. The Freedom Charter is such an example. The CPSA?s vision of a 
classless, non-racial South Africa is another.  
Bundy and Beinart?s work on the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) in the 
Eastern Cape and former Transkei makes reference to utopian elements in the discourses of 
the trade union in the early 20th Century.4 Helen Bradford shows that millenarian undertones 
were common in ICU speeches and combined with ?the messianic traditions of 
Christianity?.5 Millenarian movements may be considered a sub-set of utopian movements: 
with a concentration of utopian hopes projected onto an other worldly place or being. 
Utopianism has also informed the (dys)utopia of apartheid, and the politics of contemporary 
social life in South Africa across a spectrum of political orientations. The post-apartheid state 
was envisioned as a utopian place by many ? one in which all South Africans would be equal 
politically, socially and economically. The community of Orania in the Northern Cape 
                                                 
3
  Many consider the South African Communist Party a continuation of the CPSA, and though there were 
indeed a number of continuities, including that the majority of the founders of the SACP were from the 
CPSA, David Everatt has argued that first of all, the SACP was an underground party and second, that the 
SACP?s adoption of the ?Colonialism of a Special Type? thesis provided a different ideological framework 
for the organisation. Everatt, D. 1991. ?The Banning and Reconstitution of the Communist Party: 1945-
 1955? in Bundy, C. (Coordinator). The History of the South African Communist Party. Lectures presented 
at the University of Cape Town Summer School. Cape Town: Department of Adult Education and Extra-
 Mural Studies, UCT, 33. 
4
  Beinart, W. and Bundy, C. 1987. Hidden Struggles in Rural South Africa: Politics and Popular 
Movements in the Transkei and Eastern Cape 1890-1930. Raven Press: Johannesburg. 
5
  Bradford, H, 1987 cited in Kelley, R.D.G. 1991. ?The Religious Odyssey of African Radicals: Notes on 
the Communist Party of South Africa, 1921-34? in Radical History Review, 51, 5-24. See Bradford, H. 
1987. A Taste of Freedom: The ICU in Rural South Africa, 1924-1930. Johannesburg: Ravan Press. 
 3 
Province, a separatist and exclusive community based on discourses of racial and cultural 
purity, provides another example of a utopian project (however dystopian it may seem to 
many people). Utopianism can also be found in the hope and the discourses of some of the 
new social movements in South Africa, which Patrick Bond has described as, ?both protest-
 orientated and utopian, in the sense of attempting to construct the community as a future 
society in the decay of the old??.6 Many of these social movements interact with the anti-
 globalisation or transformationalist7 movement, whose utopianism is captured for example in 
the World Social Forum?s slogan, ?Another world is possible.?8 
Utopianism has thus been an active ingredient in the making of South African history. In fact, 
political scientists Barbara Goodwin and Keith Taylor consider ?utopianism as an expression 
of fundamental social impulses and as an ingredient of modern political movements? around 
the world.9 
The study of utopia is prominent in both literary and social studies in France and America, 
whilst an under explored subject in Britain.10 Influenced more by Anglo-Saxon academic 
                                                 
6
  Bond, P. 2003. ?Johannesburg?s Resurgent Civil Society: For- or Against- Globalisation and World City 
Status?? Paper presented at the Free University, Berlin, 3. 
7
  ?Transformationalists? refers to those activists and social commentators who believe that institutions of 
governance, particularly global institutions, should (and can be) transformed into more democratic 
institutions to create a more equitable society. 
8
  The World Social Forum was established in 2001as an alternative global gathering to the World 
Economic Forum. 
9
  Goodwin, B. and Taylor, K. 1982. The Politics of Utopia: A Study in Theory and Practice. London: 
Hutchinson & Co. Ltd, 10. 
10
  British scholar Ruth Levitas is one of the most prolific writers on utopianism in contemporary utopian 
studies however. See for example Levitas, R. 2005. ?The Imaginary Reconstruction of Society or Why 
Sociologists and Others Should take Utopia More Seriously?, Inaugural Lecture, University of Bristol, 24 
October, http://www.bris.ac.uk/sociology/staff/pubs/levitasinaugural, Levitas, R. 2001. ?Against Work: a 
Utopian Incursion into Social Policy? in Critical Social Policy, 21(4), November, 449-465; and Levitas, R. 
1990. The Concept of Utopia. New York: Philip Allan. The reasons for the lack of concentration on utopian 
studies in Britain is not clear, though Goodwin and Taylor comment that, ?It would be interesting to 
unearth the cultural reasons for this isolation of a mode of thought which many others consider central.? 
(Goodwin and Taylor, The Politics of Utopia, 11). It would be equally interesting to explore why 
utopianism is considered in France and America. It might have something to do with the possibility that the 
constructions of the French (from the time of the French Revolution) and American nations were more 
overtly imbued with a utopian project than many other nations. Non-western interest in utopian studies is 
rarely mentioned in the literature.  In fact, the casual reader of literature on the subject of utopianism might 
be forgiven for thinking that utopianism is a purely western phenomenon (which it is not), due to the dearth 
 4 
traditions than any other, scholars in South Africa have echoed Britain in its neglect of 
utopianism. There is no tradition of ?taking utopia seriously?11 in South Africa as a force 
active in society, or as a useful analytical tool for understanding the competing projects of 
state and community construction around the world.12 The negative association of utopianism 
with dreamers and Marxist critiques of utopianism may to some extent account for the dearth 
of South African literature on the subject. Marxism and other left-orientated political 
frameworks have been highly prevalent in academic circles in South Africa, and constituted 
an ethical commitment as much as a framework for analysis in the context of apartheid.  
Passing reference is certainly made to utopia in academic writings about South Africa, but 
usually the term it is used pejoratively, to dismiss a discourse or vision as unrealistic. Many 
scholars in the town planning discipline recognise the importance of utopian thinking and 
normative planning theories for urban planning in South Africa.13 South African historians 
have developed a few rich narratives of millenarian movements in the country. For example, 
J.B. Peires?s The Dead Will Arise tells the tragic story of Nongqawuse and the Xhosa Cattle-
 Killings of the mid 19th Century.14 Nongqawuse told the Xhosa to slaughter their cattle and 
destroy their corn and to wait in preparation for the coming of the ancestors, after which food 
and clothing would be plentiful, the blind would see and the cripples would walk.15 
Nongqawuse?s promise of ?a perfect world in which ?no one would ever lead a troubled life?? 
was certainly utopian.  
                                                                                                                                                 
of literature on utopianism in non-western society. An exception is Plath?s Aware of Utopia, where 
Japanese and Indian utopian visions are discussed (Plath, D.W. (Ed) 1971. Aware of Utopia. Urbana: 
University of Illinois Press). There are no doubt other works on utopianism in non-western societies, but 
they were not found after an extensive literature review. In addition, there may well be literature on 
utopianism in languages (or known by another term in languages) other than European languages and 
English.  
11
  Title of a chapter in Goodwin and Taylor, The Politics of Utopia.  
12
  Ivor Sarakinsky, who has written on utopian theory, is an exception. See Sarakinsky, I. 1993. ?Utopia as 
Political Theory? in Politikon, 20(2), December, 111-125, and Sarakinsky, I. 1992. ?The Implications of 
Freud?s Theory of Human Instincts for the Utopian Visions of Hegel and Marx?. Masters Dissertation. 
Johannesburg: University of Witwatersrand.  
13
  See Vanessa Watson?s discussion of utopianism and normative planning theories: Watson, V. 2002. ?The 
Usefulness of Normative Planning Theories in the Context of Sub-Saharan Africa? in Planning Theory, 
1(1), 27-52. 
14
  Peires, J.B. 1989. The Dead Will Arise: Nongqawuse and the Great Xhosa Cattle-Killing Movement of 
1856-7. Johannesburg: Ravan Press. 
15
  Peires, The Dead Will Arise, 312. 
 5 
Few academics, however, have analysed in any depth the presence and function of secular 
utopianism in social and political life in South Africa, despite the fact that, as mentioned 
above, it has been a part of community and state construction in South Africa.16 There is 
therefore a gap in the South African literature that this study will fill.  
The study fills a number of gaps in the literature. Researching utopianism in the CPSA also 
adds a new dimension to our understanding of the history and sociology of the CPSA, as will 
be shown. In addition, whilst there is a wealth of literature on utopian novels (literary studies 
and critical theory), and theoretical writing on the concept of utopia (which examines 
questions like, how should utopia be defined?), empirical research is lacking and theory in 
the literature on utopia is not always easy to relate to practice. Few texts on utopianism are 
particularly grounded in anthropological and local historical data.17 Lucy Sargisson?s work 
on small utopian communities (to be discussed in the next chapter) is an exception.18 This has 
made conducting this research difficult, as there are few similar studies from which to draw, 
but it has meant that this study makes a contribution by adding to an as yet small body of 
detailed work on how utopianism actually looked and functioned in a particular group. 
The majority of the recent literature on utopia is celebratory of the role of utopianism in 
society, particularly in its role as a critique of the status quo in society, and as a challenge to 
                                                 
16
  There may be exceptions. For example, Neil Reid and Gary Lowe explore ?the nature and force of the 
Afrikaner nationalist movement that has been the source of the utopian vision of apartheid? and the 
negative impact this vision had on the economic development of South Africa. See Reid, N and Lowe, G. 
1987. ?Ethnic Utopianism and Market Reality in South Africa? in Cato Journal, 6(3), 869-888. 
17
  Millenarianism has attracted a great deal of attention from historians and anthropologists, who have 
produced careful reconstructions around these millenarian movements. The same cannot be said of secular 
utopian movements in the West.  
18
  Sargisson, L. 2005. ?Utopia in the Twenty-First Century, Part One: Anti-Utopianism, Religion and 
Fundamentalism.? Draft paper for discussion presented at a conference entitled: ?Is there a Role for Utopia 
in Twenty-First Century Ideology??, Centre for Political Ideologies, University of Sheffield and Centre for 
Political Ideologies, University of Oxford, University of Sheffield, 17 June, and Sargisson, L. 2004, 
?Utopia and Intentional Communities?. Draft Paper for discussion ECPR Conference, Uppsala. ?Utopian 
communities? are small-scale communities that attempt to create an ideal community along the lines of 
certain principles. It should be noted that there is no doubt other detailed sociological research on how 
utopianism is manifest and functions in particular social groups, but such work was not found after an 
extensive literature review. It is certainly the case that detailed empirical work on utopianism in social and 
political life is not common. 
 6 
the ?taken for granted? in society.19 Writings of the forties, fifties and sixties are usually 
highly critical of the utopian impulse, which is claimed to inevitably lead to totalitarianism.20 
This literature was written after the horrors of Nazism and Stalinism were revealed (where 
dystopias were created in pursuit of someone?s vision of a perfect society). These bodies of 
literature will be looked at in more detail in Chapter Two. The purpose here though, is to 
highlight the often polarised debate around the function of utopianism in society. The 
potential ambiguity of utopia is seldom highlighted, in other words, that utopianism might 
play both a positive and a negative role in society. There are a few exceptions. Paul Ricoeur 
makes brief mention of utopia?s ambiguity in Lectures on Ideology and Utopia, but does not 
explore the idea in any detail. Sociologist Lucy Sargisson examines the internal group 
dynamics in small utopian communities in New Zealand, where a vision of a good life 
became distorted, and she concludes that a certain form of utopianism can be dangerous, but 
that utopianism can also be a positive force in society.21 Leszek Kolakowski claims that a 
utopian vision can be dangerous if used as a constitutive ideal (if people attempt to realise a 
blueprint for an ideal society) but is vital as a regulative idea (i.e. in providing goals towards 
which activity can be directed, or ideals against which the present can be judged).22 This 
                                                 
19
  See for example: Bauman, Z. 1976. Socialism: The Active Utopia. London: Allen & Unwin; Fournier, V. 
2002. ?Utopianism and the Cultivation of Possibilities: Grassroots Movements of Hope? in Parker, M. (Ed) 
Utopia and Organization. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing / The Sociological Review, 189-216; Goodwin 
and Taylor, The Politics of Utopia; Grey, C. and Garsten, C. 2002. ?Organized and Disorganized Utopias: 
An Essay on Presumption? in Parker, M. (Ed) Utopia and Organization. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 9-
 23; Jameson, F. 2004. ?The Politics of Utopia? in New Left Review, 25, January to February, 35-54; Levitas, 
?The Imaginary Reconstruction of Society?, Levitas, The Concept of Utopia; Mannheim, K. 1936 [1929]. 
Ideology and Utopia: An Introduction to the Sociology of Knowledge. New York: Harvest Books; Ricoeur, 
P. 1986. Lectures on Ideology and Utopia. Edited by Taylor, G.H. New York: Columbia University Press; 
and Sarakinsky, ?Utopia as Political Theory?. 
20
  Dahrendorf, R. 1958. ?Out of Utopia: Towards a Reorientation of Sociological Analysis? in American 
Journal of Sociology, 64(2), 115-127; Popper, K. 1945. The Open Society and its Enemies: Volume I: The 
Spell of Plato. London: Routledge; Popper, K. 1945. The Open Society and its Enemies: Volume II: The 
High Tide of Prophecy: Hegel, Marx, and the Aftermath. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul; Shklat, J. 
1965. ?The Political Theory of Utopia: From Melancholy to Nostalgia? in Daedalus, 94(2), 367-381; 
Rouvillois, F. 2000. ?Utopia and Totalitarianism? in Schaer, R, Claeys, G, Tower Sargent, L. Utopia: The 
Search for the Ideal Society in the Western World. New York: New York Public Library / Oxford 
University Press (New York Oxford), 316-331; and Talmon, J. 1961. The Origins of Totalitarian 
Democracy. London: Mercury Books.  
21
  Sargisson, L. 2005. ?Utopia in the Twenty-First Century?.  
22
  Kolakowski, L. 1983. ?The Death of Utopia Reconsidered? in McMurrin, S. (Ed) The Tanner Lectures on 
Human Values, Volume IV. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 227-247. 
 7 
study makes a contribution to the literature on utopianism by explicitly exploring in detail the 
ambiguous presence of utopia in a social group. In addition, the study makes a new 
contribution to the literature in studying utopia?s function ?in the round? by exploring the 
varied ways in which utopianism played both a positive and negative, constructive and 
destructive role in a social group.  
To summarise: the study makes a contribution to an under-explored topic in the South 
African literature in studying the presence of utopianism in social and political movements. It 
further makes a contribution in providing a detailed study of the varied ways in which 
utopianism functioned in a group, by grounding the study in historical and sociological detail. 
In particular, the ambiguous nature of utopianism (as under explored topic in the literature on 
utopianism) is explored in detail. Finally, a contribution is made to the historiography of the 
CPSA.    
The study is essentially a historical sociology piece. Its subject matter is historical, but its 
contribution is to both to historical and social studies. The choice of subject matter was based 
on the assumption that ideas, as much as the material reality, are constitutive of social reality 
and profoundly affect the direction of historical events. More specifically the choice of study 
was based on the conviction that utopianism is an active ingredient in society, and thus an 
appropriate subject of sociology.  
The CPSA was a very small party ? at times its membership numbered just 175 people. This 
small group nevertheless had a disproportionately large effect on South African politics (seen 
in their contribution to the national liberation struggle). Most interestingly they stood out in 
the context of a segregated society: they held remarkably progressive views on race and 
gender relative to the rest of society in the first half of the 20th Century, constituting a small 
space of multi-racial integration where women could play an active role in politics.23 This 
difference from the rest of society, along with their frequent explicit articulation of an 
alternative vision for society, pointed to the possible presence of a particularly strong strand 
of utopianism, making the CPSA an ideal candidate for the investigation of utopianism in 
political and social movements. In addition, there appeared to be an untold story in the 
historiography of the CPSA: that of the power and presence of utopianism in the Party, 
throughout its 29 years existence.  
                                                 
23
  Some racism and sexism certainly did exist in the Party however. 
 8 
Outline of Chapters 
In Chapter Two a definition of utopia is developed for the purposes of the study that can 
justifiably be used to describe the CPSA?s vision of a future South Africa. The chapter 
provides a general discussion of utopia: it explores what the wide ranging literature on utopia 
has to say about utopia?s nature and function in social and political life.  
The discussion of utopia is narrowed down in Chapter Three by exploring the development of 
a particular form of utopianism: modern political utopias in the West. These are political 
manifestoes for change based on the belief in humankind?s ability to affect the future for the 
good.  Socialism is arguably the most prominent of modern political utopias. This subject is 
explored because socialism, and in particular Marxism, were significant ingredients in the 
CPSA?s utopianism. 
A roughly chronological exploration of utopianism in the CPSA begins in Chapter Four. The 
CPSA was established amidst the excitement generated in socialist communities around the 
world by the success of the October Revolution in Russia. At the beginning of the CPSA?s 
history hopes for the imminent transformation of society were high. This sense of imminence 
was not to last, but the CPSA?s utopianism continued to be characterised by an incredible 
confidence in the future. The reasons for this confidence are discussed. Chapter Four is 
essentially an investigation of the form that CPSA utopianism took, and how this changed 
with changing contexts in the CPSA?s social environment. Not only does the chapter add to 
an understanding of the nature of the CPSA?s utopianism, but it provides a vital backdrop to 
understanding the function that utopianism played in the CPSA, to be discussed later in the 
study.  
In Chapter Five the content of the CPSA?s utopian vision is addressed. The chapter discusses 
the personalities, traditions and events that influenced the development of the CPSA vision of 
socialist, democratic future South Africa. The development of the CPSA?s vision is 
contextualised with a concentration on the late 1920s, when the CPSA adopted the Native 
Republic Thesis. (This thesis saw a shift towards national liberation politics and away from a 
sole concentration on class issues). Once again, Chapter Five adds to an understanding of the 
nature of the CPSA?s utopianism, and provides further background to the discussion of the 
function of the CPSA?s utopianism. Chapters Four and Five demonstrate the contingent 
circumstances in which utopianism operates. 
 9 
An exploration of the function of utopianism in the Communist Party leads to the most 
significant finding of the study. In Chapter Six the positive contribution or function of the 
CPSA?s utopianism is discussed. Utopianism is shown to have played an inspiring, 
mobilising and sustaining role for members of the Party. CPSA?s vision of an alternative 
society also played a role in wider South African society by challenging the status quo.  
Utopianism also functioned in a destructive manner in the Party, however. In Chapter Seven 
the destructive role of utopianism in the CPSA is explored via two themes in the Party?s 
history: the ?Bolshevisation? or purging of the CPSA in the 1930s under the directive of the 
Communist International (Comintern), and the CPSA?s often blind loyalty to the Soviet 
Union. The purging of the Party in the 1930s and the CPSA?s often blind loyalty to the USSR 
had devastating consequences for the Party. It is shown that one of the reasons for the 
purging of the Party and loyalty to the Soviet Union was the presence of a certain form of 
utopianism in the discourses of the CPSA. Utopianism in the CPSA is shown to have been an 
ambiguous presence. The implications of these findings for an analysis of utopianism more 
generally are teased out in the conclusion to Chapter Seven and in the last chapter of the 
study. 
The study contains a detailed historical narrative of the CPSA in order to provide a full 
contextualisation of the development and presence of the CPSA?s utopianism. The inclusion 
of this detail was an explicit choice based on the conviction that any sociological study 
should be grounded in a thorough knowledge of the historical and social context in which the 
research subject exists. 
Methodology 
The research on which the study is based was gathered from a close reading of a range of 
primary documentary sources on the CPSA, supported by a few interviews with primary and 
secondary informants. Sources include both Party documentation and personal accounts of 
the CPSA?s history and experiences of being involved in the movement, in the form of 
autobiographies, biographies, memoirs, letters, and political writings. Party documentation 
consulted includes: policy statements, minutes of meetings, Party constitutions, programmes, 
manifestos, editorials and other newspaper articles from the CPSA?s press (such as The 
International and Umsebenzi), internal party reports, letters, and reports to the Comintern in 
Moscow. Archival material was gathered from a number of documentary histories and 
relevant collections in the University of Witwatersrand?s Historical Papers Library and the 
 10 
University of Cape Town?s Manuscripts and Archives Department.24 A list of primary 
sources can be found on page 163 of the study. 
A variety of sources (from the most public to more private forms of communication) were 
consulted ? first, in order to ensure a spread of primary material across the period studied,25 
and second, because the expression of utopianism in the CPSA was not assumed to be 
confined to a particular kind of text. Utopianism was assumed, however subtly or mildly, to 
be infused in the range of experiences of the CPSA members.  
Only one CPSA member was interviewed as very few CPSA members are still alive. Former 
CPSA activist Brian Bunting was interviewed. Bunting is currently a member of the South 
African Communist Party?s (SACP) Central Committee. Tanya Barben, the daughter of 
prominent CPSA and SACP activists, Ray Alexander and Jack Simons, was also interviewed 
regarding her recollections of her parents? involvement in, and motivations for, activism in 
the CPSA. Ilse Wilson (nee Fischer) was interviewed for her recollections of her parents? 
involvement in the CPSA. Bram Fischer was a prominent CPSA and SACP activist and his 
wife Molly was also an active member of both Parties. Jeremy Cronin, SACP Deputy 
General Secretary, was interviewed for his historical knowledge of the CPSA,26 and as an 
intellectual of the SACP who has given the philosophies and discourses of the CPSA and 
SACP considered thought. Dr. Irena Filatova and Dr. Ivor Sarakinsky were consulted for 
their knowledge of Soviet Union political and social life and utopian theory respectively.27  
                                                 
24
  Namely, the Simons Collection from the University of Cape Town, and the South African Race Relations 
Political Collection, the Edward Roux Papers, and the S.P. Bunting Papers from the University of the 
Witwatersrand.  
25
  Systematic records of official CPSA documents were not kept in a CPSA (or later SACP) archive. 
Researchers have had to rely mostly on the personal collections of CPSA or SACP members. These 
collections include party documents, letters, and minutes etcetera, ranging from private correspondence to 
official party documents. As these are not official archives, however, documents could not systematically 
and equally gained for each period or document type. 
26
  See for example Cronin, J. 1991. ?Origins and ?Native Republic?? in Bundy, C. (Coordinator). The 
History of the South African Communist Party. Lectures presented at the University of Cape Town Summer 
School. Cape Town: Department of Adult Education and Extra-Mural Studies, UCT, 7-20. 
27
  Dr Irena Filatova is Russian and was Professor and Head of Department of African Studies at Moscow 
State University. She moved to South Africa in the 1990s and was Professor at Durban-Westville 
University (now University of KwaZulu Natal). She is a co-author of the documentary history: South Africa 
and the Communist International (Davidson, A. Filatova, I. Gorodnov, V. Johns, S. (Eds.) 2003. South 
 11 
It should be noted that official party statements were not necessarily the opinions of the rank 
and file members. The leaders shaped much of the direction, policy, and propaganda of the 
Party, though influenced by the Party?s general membership (to varying degrees at different 
times). It will be on these prominent men and women that the study concentrates. This is 
partly because it is they who primarily shaped its trajectory and developed its vision of an 
alternative future society, and more mundanely because opinions of the rank and file and less 
prominent membership were not easily ascertained. Historical documents, biographies, and 
autobiographies that have been kept on the Party and its members, document the statements 
and lives of the more senior, or prominent members.28 It is the more senior members, often 
better educated and with better access to resources, who articulated, in a form accessible to us 
now, what the Party and a socialist future meant for them. 
A few words of qualification are needed regarding the study of the function of utopianism. 
Studying the function of utopianism in the CPSA is essentially a study of impact. It demands 
teasing out and isolating the causal factors at work in the actions and statements of CPSA 
members. As CPSA members did not identify utopianism as a phenomenon at work in their 
own lives ? an assessment of its impact is difficult. Very few CPSA members are still alive to 
be interviewed in order to explore pointed questions regarding the role of utopian visions. 
Such difficulties ? how to interpret facts and causes from socio-historical data ? are not the 
preserve of this study, but common to much historical enquiry, and to a lesser extent 
sociological research of contemporary society, and demand a self-consciousness about 
methodology and theoretical assumptions.29 
                                                                                                                                                 
Africa and the Communist International: A Documentary History Volume 1: Socialist Pilgrims to Bolshevik 
Footsoldiers 1919-1930. London: Frank Cass and Davidson et al. 2003. South Africa and the Communist 
International: A Documentary History. Volume II: Bolshevik Footsoldiers to Victims of Bolshevisation, 
1932-1939. London: Frank Cass). Dr Ivor Sarakinsky is a lecturer at the University of Witwatersrand. He 
wrote his masters dissertation on utopianism in the work of Hegel, Marx and Freud and is possibly the only 
academic in South Africa who has a thorough knowledge of utopian theory. Sarakinsky lectured on the 
subject for a number of years. 
28
  There are a few exceptions, for example Pauline Podbrey, an active but not senior CPSA member wrote 
an autobiography: Podbrey, P. 1993. White Girl in Search of the Party. Pietermaritzburg: Hadeda Books.  
29
  For debates on the interpretation of history see for example, White, H. 1985. Tropics of Discourse: 
Essays in Cultural Relativism: Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press; Evans, R. 1997. In Defense of 
History. London: Granta; Appelby, J, Hunt, L. and Jacob, M. 1994. Telling the Truth about History. New 
York: Norton, and many others. See also Rabinow, P. and Sullivan, W.M. (Ed) 1979. Interpretive Social 
Science: A Second Look. Berkeley: University of California Press for essays ?problematising? the study of 
 12 
For the most part the implications of utopianism in the lives of CPSA members have been 
teased out based on a careful, wide and sustained reading of the CPSA literature, with 
sensitivity to the presence of utopianism.30 The literature shows a deep commitment on the 
part of the majority of CPSA members to the ideal of socialism and to the vision of a non-
 racial, socialist future.31 Such commitment is quite reasonably assumed to have some causal 
impact on the fortunes of individual members and on the Party. This assumption, coupled 
with both the occasional mention by a CPSA member of the role of socialism or an ideal 
future in their lives,32 and on the function of utopianism asserted by others authors in the field 
of utopian studies, forms the basis for the conclusions drawn regarding utopias function.33  
Note on Terminology 
In a society with a history of racial segregation one is often forced to deal in terms of race 
oneself. The terms ?African?, ?white?, ?coloured? and ?Indian? have been used in the study to 
designate the racial categories used under apartheid and to a large extent in present society. 
The term ?black? is used more broadly to refer to people who were not designated as ?white? 
under apartheid. 
The CPSA used a range of terms to refer to race throughout its existence (white, European, 
black, Native and Bantu for example). These terms will not be utilised in this study except in 
                                                                                                                                                 
society and social processes, and which point to the need for an awareness of the interpretive, rather than 
scientific, nature of social enquiry.  
30
  The literature includes official party documentation, party histories and CPSA members? 
autobiographies, biographies, memoirs and political writings, as mentioned. See a list of primary source 
material on page 163 of the study. 
31
  For those of whom there is biographical information.  
32
  See for example the biography of David Ivon Jones (Hirson, B. and Williams, G.A. 1995. The Delegate 
for Africa: David Ivon Jones 1883-1924. London: Core Publications); the autobiography of Bernard Sachs 
(Sachs, B. 1949. Multitude of Dreams: A Semi-autobiographical Study. Johannesburg: Kayor Publishing 
House) and Pauline Podbrey (Podbrey, White Girl in Search of the Party). See also an occasional reference 
in Joe Slovo?s autobiography (Slovo, J. 1995. Slovo: The Unfinished Autobiography. Randburg: Ravan 
Press); Eddie Roux?s (Roux, E. and W. 1970. Rebel Pity: The Life of Eddie Roux. London: Rex Collings) 
and biographical detail of Yusuf Dadoo in Slovo, Slovo, Soobrayan, V. 1993. Yusuf Dadoo. Cape Town: 
Maskew Miller Longman, and the introduction (written by Dadoo) to Bunting, B. 1981. (Ed). South African 
Communists Speak: Documents from the History of the South African Communist Party 1915-1980. 
London: Inkululeko Publications. 
33
  See for example Bauman, Socialism; Goodwin and Taylor, The Politics of Utopia; Levitas, The Concept 
of Utopia; Mannheim, Ideology and Utopia; and Ricoeur, Lectures on Ideology and Utopia.  
 13 
reference to proper nouns used by the CPSA (for example: The Native Republic Thesis). 
(Towards the end of the Party?s history, the CPSA developed a greater self-consciousness 
about race terms).  
The reader will notice that the terms ?socialism? and ?communism? have been used fairly 
interchangeably, as with the derivatives such as ?socialist?. In general CPSA members 
referred to themselves as ?communists? and to the ideology or movement as ?socialist? or 
?socialism?. The same practice has been used in the study except where people quoted have 
used ?communism? to describe the movement or ideology in question. Members of 
communist parties are referred to as ?communists?. The term ?socialist? is used more broadly. 
In fact the term ?socialism? is far broader than ?communism?. Communists are Marxist 
socialists, but there are may other traditions of socialism. Exploring and using a strict 
delineation between the terms, however, is not necessary in this study. 
 
 
 14 
Chapter Two:  
Exploring Utopia 
 
Introduction 
The word ?utopia? entered the English language 
with the publication of Thomas More?s famous 
allegorical book Utopia, in 1516.34 More (see 
figure 2.1) coined the word from Greek eutopia, a 
good place; and outopia, nowhere. More?s utopia 
is the good place which does not exist. The term 
has taken on a life of its own in the last 500 years, 
however, and has been used in a number of 
different ways by scholars and in common 
parlance since the term was first coined.  
 
In common parlance, utopia is associated with the 
impossible. Paul Ricoeur notes that, ?[The 
concept of utopia] frequently has a pejorative 
reputation? It is seen to represent a kind of 
social dream without concern for the real steps 
necessary for movement in the direction of a new 
society.?35 The common usage of the term utopia, as Zygmunt Bauman points out, has 
stripped ?Thomas More?s term of its intended ambiguity? and reduced ?it to only one of the 
two originally intertwined meanings ? to ?a place which does not exist? (no longer associated 
                                                 
34
  See More, T. 1997 [1516]. Utopia. Ware: Wordsworth Editions Limited. More was an author, lawyer and 
politician in England during the reign of King Henry the VIII. More became Lord Chancellor of England, 
but was executed by Henry the VIII for refusing to sign the Oath of Supremacy which accepted the King as 
the Supreme Head of the Church in England. More?s book Utopia, in which a traveller Raphael Hythloday 
relates his experiences of the living on the island of Utopia, was a veiled critique of England?s political and 
social life, but was also a musing on what the ideal solution to societal and political questions is and 
whether this could be attained. Some have interpreted it as a critique of the possibility that a better society 
can be designed.  It is a very ambiguous book. 
35
  Ricoeur, P. 1986. Lectures on Ideology and Utopia. Edited by Taylor, G.H. New York: Columbia 
University Press, 1.    
Fig. 2.1: Portrait of Thomas More by Hans 
Holbein the Younger (1527). 
 15 
with ?a place to be desired?, eutopia)?.36  
In more scholarly circles, however, ?a place to be desired? has remained an important 
characteristic of utopia. Scholars have used the term utopia to cover a broad range of subject 
matter. Included in discussions of utopia are: literary fictions and folk legends of perfect 
places and times (oral or written depictions)37 and political and philosophical manuscripts 
and books regarding the ideal society, or an ideal principle.38 The term ?utopian? has also 
been used to describe small-scale communities (?referred to as ?utopian communities?) that 
attempt to create an ideal community along the lines of certain principles.39 Political parties 
and social movements may also share a collective endeavour to create an ideal or far better 
future. Utopian in this sense refers to the power and presence of imagination, rather than 
referring to the communities that have actually created utopias. Millenarian and messianic 
visions and social movements have also been included under the heading of ?utopian?.   
?Utopia? has thus been used as a broad umbrella under which a variety of concepts and 
subjects are discussed. The word utopia is used both as a noun to denote a perfect place and 
as an adjective to refer to aspirations for a perfect place or society. Given the term?s broad 
usage, it is essential to clarify the definition of utopia to be used here. In the following 
chapter a definition of utopia is developed for the purposes of the study. In addition, the 
literature on the nature and function of utopia in social and political life is discussed and 
                                                 
36
  Bauman, Z. 1976. Socialism: the Active Utopia. London: Allen & Unwin, 10. 
37
  The land of Cockaigne (see figure 2.3), a Middle Age English image of paradise, is an example. Literary 
and oral depictions of utopia are often inverted mirror images of society. In Cockaigne, a land envisioned 
by peasants, everything is free, cooked larks fly into men?s mouths and rivers run with wine. Interestingly 
descriptions of Cockaigne feature in the American ballad Big Rock Candy Mountain. The song was written 
during the Great Depression of the 1920s. The lyrics in this song speak of lakes of stew and whiskey, where 
?The jails are made of tin, And you can burst right out again as soon as they put you in.? (Cited in Levitas, 
R. 1990. The Concept of Utopia. New York: Philip Allan, 190.) For discussions of Cockaigne see Pleij, H. 
2003. Dreaming of Cockaigne. New York: Columbia University Press, and Kumar, K. 1991. Utopianism. 
Milton Keynes: Open University Press. 
38
  For example, from Plato?s Republic, to Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels?s The Communist Manifesto.   
39
  ?Utopian communities? are also referred to as ?intentional communities? in the literature. Examples 
include, Henri de Saint-Simon?s socialist communities in the 1830s in France or more contemporary 
communities such as hippie communes of 1960s, separatist feminist lesbian communes, eco-villages 
etcetera. Lucy Sargisson defines intentional communities as ?utopian social experiments in microcosm? ? a 
group of people living and possibly also working together, who share a collective endeavour to create a 
certain way of life (Sargisson, L. 2004. ?Utopia and Intentional Communities?. Draft paper for discussion at 
the ECPR Conference, Uppsala, 4). 
 16 
analysed. This discussion provides the theoretical foundation for later discussion of 
utopianism in the CPSA. 
 
Defining Utopia 
Certain scholars have argued that the term ?utopia? should be used to denote a particular 
literary genre only, namely fictional works which depict, with whatever aim, a perfect or near 
perfect society, thus continuing the tradition of More?s famous work.40 Ivor Sarakinsky 
however, claims that ?Instead of confining these fantastic notions of human happiness or 
social harmony to the creative arts, it is possible to situate them firmly within the ambit of 
mainstream political theory.?41 Goodwin and Taylor argue that utopia is part and parcel of 
political theory and practice,42 rather that a quirky radical anomaly. Geoffrey Hodgson claims 
that ?social science and politico-economic policy ? however pragmatic ? can never be 
entirely free of goals and ends, of visions, and of fragments of utopia.?43 For example, as 
citizens we evaluate the success or fairness of policies and institutions in relation to some 
ideal.44  
Regarding this broader conceptualisation of utopia as more than a simple depiction of a 
perfect life, Barbara Goodwin and Keith Taylor note, ?In the twentieth century it has become 
more fashionable to talk of ?utopianism? than utopia, a term that embraces forms of thought 
incorporating utopian elements while not purveying complete utopian blueprints?.45 The term 
?utopianism? is thus broader than ?utopia?. In this study, ?utopia? is used to denote a vision or 
depiction of an ideal or better existence, whilst ?utopianism? will be used to denote ?forms of 
thought incorporating utopian elements?46 or an expression of the presence of utopia. For 
example, there may be utopianism in the actions of a social movement attempting to bring 
about change in society in line with a utopian vision.  
                                                 
40
  See for example Kumar, 1987 cited in Levitas, The Concept of Utopia, 166.  
41
  Sarakinsky, I. 1993. ?Utopia as Political Theory? in Politikon, 20(2), December, 112. 
42
  Goodwin, B. and Taylor, K. 1982. The Politics of Utopia: A Study in Theory and Practice. London: 
Hutchinson & Co. Ltd.  
43
  Hodgson, G.M. 1995. ?The Political Economy of Utopia? in Review of Social Economy. 53(2), 196. 
44
  For example, in order to say whether the justice system in a country is standing up to our expectations, 
we compare it to an ideal state of justice: the judiciary should be impartial, disinterested, consider all 
evidence before concluding and should not swayed by political pressure or personal experiences. 
45
  Goodwin and Taylor, The Politics of Utopia, 16. 
46
  Goodwin and Taylor, The Politics of Utopia, 16. 
 17 
Some scholars have claimed that traces of utopianism and of utopian visions are infused in all 
aspects of life. Ernst Bloch for example conceived of utopianism as an expression of hope 
which ?permeates everyday consciousness and its articulation in cultural forms?47 and is 
found in cultural expressions as varied as day-dreams, fairy tales, music, art, philosophical 
manuscripts and political activity.48  
Bloch?s work raises important questions about the utility of a broad definition of utopia. Does 
?utopia? lose meaning under such a broad definition? Conversely, do we lose a potentially 
useful tool for social analysis by defining utopia too narrowly ? as only depictions of a 
perfect society?  Matters of definition (while they should not constrain discussion of utopia in 
mindless categorization), are important in refining the exploratory and analytical potential of 
looking for utopianism in the subjects of social enquiry.  
Levitas?s suggestion that a definition of utopia should be broad enough ?to accommodate 
changes in the way in which aspirations for a better life may be expressed? seems sensible.49 
It begs the question however as to whether utopia should merely be defined as visions of a 
                                                 
47
  Kellner, D. Undated. ?Ernst Bloch, Utopia and Ideology Critique?, On ?Illuminations: The Critical 
Theory Website?: www.uta.edu/huma/illuminations/kell1.htm 
48
  See Bloch, E. 1986 [1959].The Principle of Hope, Oxford: Basil Blackwell. Bloch sees utopianism as a 
universal human impulse. Levitas points out, however, that ?[T]here is every reason to expect that societies 
will differ both in the extent to which a gap between needs and available or potential satisfactions is 
experienced, and in the extent to which there are cultural hypotheses about the potential closure of this gap, 
as well as the nature of these hypotheses.? (Levitas, The Concept of Utopia, 184.) Imagining a perfect 
society may be more prevalent in societies whose conceptualisation of time is orientated towards the future, 
such as those influenced by Judeo-Islamic-Christian eschatologies. This does not exclude the existence of 
utopias imagined in other places, rather than another time, but hints at prevalence, function and effect of 
utopianism. But the spread of Islam and particularly of modern Christianity via trade, missionaries and 
colonialism, meant that by the nineteenth century few peoples had not been influenced in some way by 
more linear notions of time. Millenarian movements for example, which were varyingly orientated either 
towards heaven or earth, and varyingly mobilised citizenry, spread to lands where such movements were 
not documented to have been experienced before. It is beyond the scope of the study to explore why utopias 
may be produced in any given historical context as this would have broadened the scope and length of this 
study well beyond the requirements of a course work Masters study. Briefly though, the creation of utopias 
in society involves a number of factors including but not limited to: an acute sense of alienation or 
oppression in society (Goodwin and Taylor, The Politics of Utopia, 138), or dissatisfaction with society, 
coupled with an optimist dispossession (in the case of utopias that people wish to realise) or a creative 
disposition (in the case of only imaginary or literary utopias). 
49
  Levitas, The Concept of Utopia, 5. 
 18 
better existence, or more narrowly as visions of an ideal or perfect society. Similarly, are only 
fantastical or impossible visions utopian, or should potentially realisable goals be included? 
And in what context might we denote a realisable vision utopian? Should the day-dreams of 
an individual be included as utopian? Do we include other worldly visions of a perfect place 
or limit the utopian to the secular? All these questions invariably crop up in discussions of 
what constitutes utopian, and will be explored below. 
For Grey and Garsten utopias are ?social and 
political philosophies about how the world 
should best be organised.?50 Theirs is a useful 
definition in that it allows for the utopian to 
be found not only in detailed descriptions of 
an ideal life but in social and political 
discourse in general. It remains agnostic on 
the question of whether or not utopias are 
depictions of the perfect society.   
Levitas claims: ?Some utopias may be 
possible worlds, others not; and while it may 
be fruitful to reflect on these issues, they are 
not definitive ones.?51 First, as Levitas notes, 
our notion of what is realistic is partially 
socially constructed52 and one might add, 
psychologically varied. Second, aspects of a 
particular utopian vision may be possible and 
other aspects, impossible. Third, all human 
beings hold in their minds both knowledge of 
a real world as they perceive it, and images 
which are a product of their creative or 
imaginative abilities. These relate to each other in a complex way. One may hold in ones 
mind?s eye an image of an impossible goal (which one recognises as an ideal which cannot 
                                                 
50
  Grey, C. and Garsten, C. 2002. ?Organized and disorganized utopias: an essay on presumption? in Parker, 
M. (Ed) Utopia and Organization. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 9. 
51
  Levitas, The Concept of Utopia, 5. 
52
  Levitas, The Concept of Utopia, 5. 
Fig. 2.2: The Utopian alphabet, invented by 
More, as it appeared in the first edition of 
Utopia, with the Latin translation. 
 19 
be implemented in totality) and yet be inspired by it and attempt to create fragments of the 
ideal society envisioned. Thus to attempt to draw a line between visions of impossible and 
possible worlds is first of all somewhat arbitrary and second, fails to capture the complexity 
of the act of imagining an ideal society. An investigation of utopianism in social and political 
life therefore seems best served by including visions of a better life along a continuum of 
possibility.  
If utopias may be possible or impossible visions, are all visions of a better existence utopian? 
Ernst Bloch for example, places few restrictions on what we might consider utopian. His 
definition of utopia as expressions of hope, which can be found in a myriad of cultural 
expressions, is perhaps the broadest. Under his definition the day dream of one individual is 
utopian.53 Similarly, Levitas defines utopia as a desire for a better way of being. She attempts 
to come to grips with an overarching framework that allows one to incorporate the different 
articulations and possible effects of utopianism ? and to explore how variations in form, 
function, and content relate to ?the conditions of the [utopia] generating society?.54  
The definition of both Levitas and Bloch are useful in that they do not limit a definition of 
utopia to visions or depictions of an ideal or perfect life, but include aspirations for an ideal 
existence. This is important, as it is argued here that utopianism is not only present in an 
image or goal of a better future but (in the case where utopian visions inspire action) in 
activity directed towards this goal.55   
Thus the broad definitions of utopia referred to above will inform the analysis in the present 
study but, for the purposes of this study the simple existence of desire or hope does not 
necessarily denote the presence of utopianism. 
The definition of utopia advanced for the purposes of this study is wide (a narrow definition 
is of little use in the investigation of social and political practice). Utopia denotes either the 
possible or the impossible: fantastical images (the land of Cockaigne for example) qualify as 
utopian, as do visions which seem impossible given present circumstances in society (the 
immediate transformation of South Africa into a communist society) and goals or visions that 
                                                 
53
  See Bloch, The Principle of Hope. 
54
  Levitas, The Concept of Utopia, 8. Note that hope and desire are not the same thing. Hope implies an 
element of anticipation, whilst desire speaks merely of what we want. Levitas?s definition is thus broader 
than Bloch?s.   
55
  This is certainly the case in the CPSA, as will be shown. 
 20 
are obviously possible, even if difficult to attain (the vote for black people in South Africa in 
the 1940s for example). This answers questions about whether utopia refers to the ideal 
society or whether it may be broad enough to include merely images of a better society. Both 
qualify.  
The identification of utopia will thus be difficult in practice however: a vision which 
imagines a radical change in society is easy to denote as utopian but that which wishes for 
changes within the existing structure of society is less easily denoted as utopian. It is not 
useful for the purpose here to denote everything that imagines something better than the 
present circumstances as utopian (for example, a desire for a stress free week at work). 
A number of qualifications of the broad definition of utopia advanced by Bloch and Levitas 
are therefore suggested. First, it is suggested that there are ?degrees of utopianism? in 
existence in society: images of a perfect community for example, show the presence of a 
radical utopianism, and visions of less extreme changes to existence show the presence of a 
less radical utopianism (this does not say anything about the relative effect of more or less 
radical utopian visions in society.)  
Second, utopia may be usefully thought of as a phenomenon that is collective or social in its 
nature. Whilst people may hold fantasies of a beautiful wife, a dream home ? a utopian vision 
is a more communal or shared vision. It may not be envisioned in exactly the same way by all 
people, and it may begin as the vision of one person, such as Marx. Utopia is not merely a 
vision of change in ones own life but is a vision of change brought about for a larger group of 
people, or surrounding environment. The suggestion of delineating social visions versus 
individual day-dreams and wishes is not intended to be definitive. Dreams and private hopes 
for improvement in an individual?s life cannot be wholly separated from collective or group 
imagination.  
Third, in the interests of consistency in addressing the most fundamental questions posed in 
the literature about the definition of utopia: a utopian vision may be an image of the future, 
an idealisation of the past, or an image of a better life existing elsewhere, including heaven. 
Utopias may be secular or other worldly.56  
                                                 
56
  In this regard, there is much debate in the literature about whether millenarianism should be considered 
utopian. Peter Worsley describes millenarian movements as those ?movements in which there is an 
 21 
The definition developed here, retains one of More?s intertwined meanings, eutopia, the 
place to be desired, and remains agnostic about its possibility. Essentially, denoting what is 
utopian is meaningful when socially and historically located.57 This is partly because 
identifying what is possible is partly context related, and a subjective process. What defines 
something as utopian is partly the gap between what is and what is imagined in a given 
utopia. What appears utopian now may well not appear so in a hundred years time ? or in 
another place. Thus a certain tension needs to be held in the identification of a utopia or 
utopianism in society. Utopia (if it is to be useful in research social and political practice) can 
never be a strictly defined once and for all.  
 
 
 
                                                                                                                                                 
expectation of, and preparation for, the coming of supernatural bliss.? (Worsley, P. 1986. The Trumpet 
Shall Sound: A Study of ?Cargo? Cults in Melanesia. New York: Schocken Books, 12).  Some scholars 
claim that utopia and millenarianism are two separate phenomena (see for example Kolakowski, L. 1983. 
?The Death of Utopia Reconsidered? in McMurrin, S. (Ed) The Tanner Lectures on Human Values, Volume 
IV. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 230). Millennial visions for example are often about an end to 
time, the establishment of life outside of human time (Harrison, J.F.C. 1984. ?Millennium and Utopia? in 
Alexander, P. and Gill, G (Eds.) Utopias. London: Duckworth, 65). Yet fictional examples which imagine 
the establishment of earthly bliss (the Land of Cockaigne for example) complicate the picture. In addition, 
although millenarian movements are defined by the influence of other worldly conceptualisations of utopia, 
some millenarian movements have mobilised around very worldly concerns and concrete political 
objectives (Thrupp, S. 1970. Millennial Dreams in Action: Studies in Revolutionary Religious Movements. 
Schocken Books: New York).  Another distinction made is that utopianism involves the agency of humans 
in order to bring it about, whereas millenarianism involves the work of a supernatural being. However, 
classical utopias of More?s kind simply imagined the perfect place to exist, how it was established was not 
always considered interesting, and some millenarian social movements saw their own agency as a 
necessary part of preparing for the coming of heavenly or earthy paradise. Thus the terrain of utopian and 
millenarian studies seems best served by keeping the distinction in the sense that millenarianism and 
images of heavenly paradise may be considered a sub-set of utopias, and noting that the distinction is fluid. 
In addition, there are elements of the millenarianism in utopianism and elements of the utopian in 
millenarianism. Norman Cohn, who has undertaken detailed research into Medieval millenarian 
movements, describes Nazism and ?Soviet Communism? as millenarian movements whose lineage lies in 
Medieval-Reformation millenarian movements (Cohn, N. cited in Barkun, M. 1974. ?Millenarianism in the 
Modern World? in Theory and Society 1 117-146). Barkun also describes Nazism, Bolshevism and Chinese 
communism as modern millenarian movements.  
57
  Conversation with Simon Dagut, Johannesburg, July 2006.  
 22 
The Function of Utopia 
Sociologist Karl Mannheim, who wrote one of the seminal texts on utopia, Ideology and 
Utopia, claims that utopia should be defined in terms of its function.58 For Mannheim, utopia 
is not defined by envisioning a perfect world that is impossible to attain but by its potential 
'realisability', in other words by its potential for realising change. Mannheim states: 
?we should not regard as utopian every state of mind which is incongruous with and 
transcends the immediate situation (and in this sense, ?departs from reality?). Only 
those orientations which, when they pass over into conduct, tend to shatter, either 
partially or wholly, the order of things prevailing at the time.59 
In Mannheim?s definition, utopias are only those visions or movements that change the status 
quo or ?shatter a given order?. It is not suggested that utopia should be defined in the way 
that Mannheim defines it (a definition of utopia has already been put forward above) but 
Mannheim?s definition is interesting for exploring what utopianism potentially does in 
society, namely that it has the potential to transform society. The driving force behind 
utopianism?s potential to transform society is due to the following features: utopia?s critical 
function as well as its inspiring and mobilising functions.  
Utopia?s ability to powerfully critique the status quo is possibly its most celebrated function 
in the literature on utopia. Contemporary scholar Thomas Moore suggests that, ?The function 
of utopia is to highlight the disparity between actual space (how society is) and the imagined 
space (how society could be under new circumstances)?.60 In so doing an implicit critique of 
the present is provided. In this vein, Paul Ricoeur writes: 
?the development of new, alternative perspectives defines utopia?s most basic 
function. May we not say then that imagination itself ? through its utopian function ? 
has a constitutive role in helping us rethink the nature of our social life? Is not utopia 
? this leap outside ? the way in which we radically rethink what is family, what is 
consumption, what is authority, what is religion, and so on? Does not the fantasy of 
                                                 
58
  Mannheim, K. 1936 [1929]. Ideology and Utopia: An Introduction to the Sociology of Knowledge. New 
York: Harvest Books. 
59
  Mannheim, Ideology and Utopia, 192. 
60
  Moore, T. 2002. ?Downsizing Utopia?, abstract to paper presented at the Third International Conference 
of the Utopian Studies Society, www.biggar-net.co.uk/utopia/art-2002.htm.  
 23 
an alternative society and its exteriorization ?nowhere? work as one of the most 
formidable contestations of what is?61  
Ricoeur thus correctly identifies utopia as a potential critique of the status quo, and as a 
challenge to the status quo. Utopias may challenge notions of what is possible. For example 
Valerie Fournier, commenting on contemporary grassroots social movements apposed to 
capitalism, notes that utopianism, by ?opening up spaces for alternatives?, ?may shatter any 
notion of ?inevitable? or ?natural? forces??62 Utopias may identify social problems, and 
furthermore they may present innovative solutions to present problems by being 
unconstrained by the usual parameters of what is imagined as possible. 
Bauman also celebrates utopia?s critical and transformative potential. In Socialism: The 
Active Utopia, he writes: 
Utopias relativise the present. One cannot be critical about something that is believed 
to be an absolute. By exposing the partiality of current reality, by scanning the field 
of the possible in which the real occupies merely a tiny plot, utopias pave the way for 
a critical attitude and a critical activity which alone can transform the present 
predicament of man. The presence of utopia, the ability to think of alternative 
solutions to the festering problems of the present, may be seen therefore as a 
necessary condition of historical change.63 
Read literally, Bauman is of course incorrect as it is not the case that utopianism is a 
necessary condition of historical change.64 Rhetorically, however, Bauman?s point is 
important: utopianism has been an active ingredient in many radical changes made in society 
by human beings, for example, revolutions have been fought in pursuit of a vision of a better 
world, nations? constitutions have been written with an ideal community in mind. Bauman is 
referring to the extent to which ideas and visions shape the directions of human events (a 
comment made in the Introduction to this study), specifically when ideas or visions are taken 
                                                 
61
  Ricoeur, Lectures on Ideology and Utopia, 16. 
62
  Korten, 1995 quoted in Fournier, V. 2002. ?Utopianism and the Cultivation of Possibilities: Grassroots 
Movements of Hope? in Parker, M. (Ed) Utopia and Organization. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing / The 
Sociological Review, 197. 
63
  Bauman, Socialism, 13. 
64
  Human history has been changed by natural disasters, by technological change, by war in pursuit of non-
 visionary goals etcetera, or simply by the small, mundane, everyday incremental changes in society. 
 24 
up by a collective and become a force for change. 
Utopias have transformative potential partly because they are able to inspire and mobilise 
people to attempt to bring about the utopia, or fragments of it. Utopias evidently do not 
constitute the only powerful critical or mobilising tools in society, but they often incorporate 
symbols and images, mediums beyond dry political language, which conjure up goals more 
concretely, and problems more vividly. Sarakinsky writes, ?[Utopian thought] smashes the 
concrete barriers of the mundane and allows creativity and the imagination to run free. 
Utopias grasp the wishes, passions and fantasies of people and realises then in magnificent 
models of a not-too-distant future.?65   
The imagined space may provide a goal towards which human agency and energies may be 
directed, and provide hope which sustains political activity. The potential inspirational and 
mobilising power of utopia however, is contingent upon the circumstances in which 
utopianism functions. As David Plath notes:  
Utopian image-work does not automatically unlock impulses to action. Often enough 
the utopigrapher himself is content to describe his otherland, and he does not furnish 
directions for getting there or bolster men?s willingness to try. In order to move men, 
one must also create roles for them to play, dramas of suffering and salvation in 
which they may star; and one must co-ordinate their performances. Visions, plans, 
and motivations are all three necessary for effective group action.66  
Any attempt to celebrate or define utopia solely in terms of its critical and potentially 
transformative function misses the variation in utopian expression and reduces the 
significance of any given utopia?s content or form too much. Though almost by definition 
                                                 
65
  Sarakinsky, ?Utopia as Political Theory?, 111. Sarakinsky?s article is essentially making an argument for 
seeing utopia as an important part of political theory and practice ? by showing what utopia has that the dry 
language of political and social theory and policy do not: ?Narrative versus science, imagination versus 
logic, it is clear which one of the two is more powerful in grasping and resonating the aspirations of people. 
For Habermas (1986: 146), ??People do not fight for abstraction, but with images. Banners, symbols and 
images, rhetorical speech, allegorical speech, utopia-inspired speech, in which concrete goals and conjured 
up before people?s eyes, are indeed necessary constituents of movements which have any effect on history 
at all.?? (123).  
66
  Plath, D.W. 1971. ?Introduction: Utopian Strivings? in Plath, D.W. (Ed). Aware of Utopia. Urbana: 
University of Illinois Press, 68. 
 25 
utopias are critical of the present by imaging something better, their function ? or intention ? 
is not always critical, nor does it necessarily mobilise action for change in society. Utopias 
may act simply as copying mechanisms, in a similar way to a belief in other an worldly 
paradise or heaven. If an individual believes that the utopia he or she imagines may, or will 
come about, this copying mechanism might work in conjunction with activity directed 
towards changing society (a Marxist activist?s belief in a future socialist state for example). 
The legend of the Land of Cockaigne however, may have been intended as a compensatory 
image. In addition, the critical function of a utopia may have a limited lifespan ? it may lose 
its critical edge once elements of the utopia have been incorporated into the status quo.67 To 
celebrate a utopia?s critical function outside of the context in which it was imagined, spoken 
of, disseminated ? is incorrect.  
 
 
Fig. 2.3: Pieter 
Bruegel the Elder?s 
Land of Cockaigne 
(1567).  
. 
 
 
 
In addition, a particular utopia may develop a critique of the status quo but place blame for 
the evils in society with an innocent group of people (for example, Hitler?s Third Reich, a 
utopian vision, implicitly and explicitly placed blame for the status quo on the shoulders of 
Jews) or may envision a solution to the status quo which has negative, or devastating 
consequences for certain segments of the population.68  
 
                                                 
67
  Though Bauman commented that ?one utopia treads on the heels of the other?.  Bauman, Socialism, 140.  
68
  One could certainly call Hitler?s Third Reich a dystopia. But the vision only had mobilising power 
because it was an image of the good life for some people, and thus is a utopian vision. 
 26 
It is when utopia inspires group action, when people believe that society should be radically 
redone in accordance with a particular plan, that utopianism reveals a more ambiguous 
nature. Sarakinsky claims that, ?Utopias should be understood as the ought that never is and 
it is this paradox that gives them their critical and prognostic power.?69 He continues that, 
?The point is not to implement the? blueprints, but to respond to the problems they identify 
and highlight.?70  
People have attempted to implement the blueprints for a perfect society, however: either on a 
small scale (see previous mention of intentional communities on page 15) or as plans for the 
transformation of a whole society or nation. The creation of a perfect plan is, according to 
Goodwin and Taylor, ?unfortunately utopia?s undoing, for it provides for disagreement and 
challenge. Utopia is powerful because we can concur in its criticisms (short-term end) and 
weak because we invariably disagree on the remedies (the long term ends and the means)?.71 
In addition, even within a group of people that share a common vision of an ideal 
community, disagreements on the method to attain the ideal community can be a major 
source of conflict.   
As has been shown, utopias may be fantastical or fictional visions of a good life or society, 
never intended to be implemented. But other utopian visions have been interpreted as literal 
blueprints for a perfect world which can be implemented, particularly those of the modern 
era, where human being?s sense of being able to seriously impact on the world has 
developed. In fact it seems scarcely useful to speak of fictional utopias such as More?s, and 
political utopianism of the 20th Century in the same breath. It is the latter form of utopia ? the 
political utopia ? rather than the literary or folk fiction that has attracted the greatest amount 
of critique.  
Karl Popper refers to the political utopia in one of the most often cited critiques of utopia, 
The Open Society and Its Enemies.72 In The Open Society he argues that:  
                                                 
69
  Sarakinsky, ?Utopia as Political Theory?, 122. 
70
  Sarakinsky, ?Utopia as Political Theory?, 123. 
71
  Goodwin and Taylor, The Politics of Utopia, 31. 
72
  It is beyond the scope of this dissertation to include all the critiques of the utopianism. For further 
reading see Dahrendorf, R. 1958. ?Out of Utopia: Towards a Reorientation of Sociological Analysis? in 
American Journal of Sociology, 64(2), 115-127; Kolnai A. 1995. The Utopian Mind and Other Papers. 
London: The Athlone Press; Popper, K. 1945. The Open Society and its Enemies: Volume I: The Spell of 
 27 
The utopian approach can be saved only by the Platonic belief in one absolute and 
unchanging idea, together with two further assumptions, namely a) that there are 
rational methods to determine once and for all what this ideal is, and b) what the best 
means of its realisation are.73 
Popper argues that utopianism leads to totalitarianism.74 He claims that the assumptions just 
mentioned are impossible for humans to determine. There can never be complete consensus 
over what is best for society, and thus, any attempt to realise a blueprint for an ideal society 
will lead to coercion and domination of one group over those who disagree with the 
blueprint.  
Written largely in reaction to the horrors of Stalinism and Nazism, Popper?s critique of 
utopianism, whilst influential, has been criticised by a number of scholars, not least of all 
those who saw his critique as firmly embedded in a liberal ideology.75 Critics argue that no 
                                                                                                                                                 
Plato. London: Routledge; Popper, K. 1945. The Open Society and its Enemies: Volume II: The High Tide 
of Prophecy: Hegel, Marx, and the Aftermath. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul; Rouvillois, F. 2000. 
?Utopia and Totalitarianism? in Schaer, R, Claeys, G, Tower Sargent, L. Utopia: The Search for the Ideal 
Society in the Western World. New York: New York Public Library / Oxford University Press (New York 
Oxford), 316-331; Shklat, J. 1965. ?The Political Theory of Utopia: From Melancholy to Nostalgia? in 
Daedalus, 94(2), 367-381; and Talmon, J. 1961. The Origins of Totalitarian Democracy. London: Mercury 
Books. It is interesting that the majority of the texts which critique utopianism were published in the 50s 
and 60s: a period of reflection after the horrors of Nazism and Stalinism. Also see Hayek, F.A. 1944. The 
Road to Serfdom. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul. For Hayek, utopianism is based on the ?fatal conceit? 
that through ?rational calculation and political will, society can be designed in ways that will significantly 
improve the human condition.?  (Wright, E.O. 1995 cited in Olssen, M. 2003. ?Totalitarianism and the 
?Repressed? Utopia of the Present: moving beyond Hayek, Popper and Foucault? in Policy Futures in 
Education, 1(3), 527). Ironically, Hayek posits what may be called his own utopia in The Road to Serfdom 
where he describes what he names a ?catallaxy? ? an extreme form of free market society which develops 
spontaneously and organically.   
73
  Popper, The Open Society and its Enemies, 161.  
74
  Totalitarianism may be defined as ?a society instituted without divisions that assumes command over its 
organization, is self reflexive in all its parts, and permeated by the same project throughout.? Lefort, C. 
cited in Rouvillois, ?Utopia and totalitarianism?, 320. In addition, Hannah Arendt has argued that the use of 
mass violence constitutes an integral part of the totalitarian state, as well as extensive social control and 
state propaganda. See Arendt, H. 1951. The Origins of Totalitarianism. New York: Harcourt. 
75
  See Sargisson, L. 2005. ?Utopia in the Twenty-First Century, Part One: Anti-Utopianism, Religion and 
Fundamentalism.? Paper for discussion at a conference entitled ?The Role of Utopia in Twenty-First 
Century Ideology?, Sheffield, 17 June; Olssen, ?Totalitarianism and the ?Repressed? Utopia of the Present? 
and Goodwin and Taylor, The Politics of Utopia, to name a few. 
 28 
mention is made of the utopianism implicit in the liberal paradigm in his work: an image of 
an ideal society as individuals free from coercion, an unquestioned emphasis on negative 
over positive freedom. Whilst valid, such commentary does not release us from responding to 
the serious points made in Popper?s argument. It appears safe to say that there can never be a 
perfect society, unless we radically readjust our conceptions of human nature. It is highly 
unlikely, improbable even, that humans will ever find complete consensus. Suffering and 
perceptions of injustice are always partially influenced by a particular position, or individual 
psyche, and made up of different experiences, thus the imagined solutions to the problems of 
suffering will be different.  
J.L. Talmon refers to a phenomenon he calls ?political messianism? in explaining the rise of 
totalitarianism.76 Political messianism, a form of utopianism, is the secular messianic belief in 
a ?preordained, harmonious and perfect scheme of things, to which men are irresistibly 
driven, and at which they are bound to arrive.?77 Marxism is an example. As a result of this 
belief (that this future is bound to come, and is in this sense natural, and that the right path to 
the ideal future has been identified), people can be coerced or repressed if ?they cannot 
perceive their long term interests.?78 Talmon continues, ?Totalitarian Messianism hardened 
into an exclusive doctrine represented by a vanguard of the enlightened, who justified 
themselves in the use of coercion against those who refused to be free and virtuous?79 (i.e. 
those who refuse to conform to the ?enlightened? individuals? idea of what the best and 
?correct? mode of conduct and living is).  
Lucy Sargisson concedes to some of Popper?s and Talmon?s concerns about the connection 
of utopianism with totalitarianism, but comments that Popper, and other critics of utopia 
make the mistake of assuming that all utopias seek perfection and that the primary function 
of utopia is its own realisation.80 The critical function implicit in utopianism has already been 
                                                 
76
  Talmon claims that political messianism developed in the eighteenth century in the West out of the idea 
of ?the natural order (or general will) as an attainable, indeed inevitable and all-solving, end, that 
engendered an attitude of mind unknown hitherto in the sphere of politics, namely the sense of a continuous 
advance towards a denouement of the historical drama, accompanied by an acute awareness of structural 
and incurable crisis in existing society.? Talmon, The Origins of Totalitarian Democracy, 249. 
77
  Talmon, The Origins of Totalitarian Democracy, 2. 
78
  Sarakinsky, ?Utopia as Political Theory?, 121. 
79
  Talmon, The Origins of Totalitarian Democracy, 5. 
80
  Sargisson, ?Utopia in the Twenty-First Century?. She also comments that it is mistaken to assume that 
while some utopias can be totalizing, they do not always produce totalitarian outcomes. This viewpoint is 
 29 
discussed. Utopias, rather than intending to be perfectly implemented blueprints, may act 
simply as critiques of society or as goal-posts towards a better future.81 Even those utopian 
movements which did mobilise for change along the lines of a particular vision did not 
necessarily seek perfection. For example the CPSA did not assume all suffering or 
disagreement would disappear in a class free society, but that a far better and more just 
society would be created if they worked towards the destruction of capitalism. In addition the 
CPSA?s visions of a new society did not always work blindly but changed as new material 
conditions imposed themselves on CPSA members.  
Mark Olssen comments that, ?To claim that the ideal of community is inextricably tied to an 
inexorable quest for unity or totality is a deeply mistaken premise.?82 Not all totalitarianism is 
caused by utopianism, but also by the will to power, egoism, disregard for individual opinion 
and human suffering. A utopian outlook does not necessarily slip into these things. In 
addition, the monopoly of society, or oppression of one group over another has been created 
in pursuit of far less lofty matters than utopian vision, such as money.   
Sargisson however, claims that when a utopian thinks that he has access to the truth, and that 
no other truth exists, utopianism can indeed be dangerous if it is combined with followers 
with the resources to attempt to realise this ?truth?. Nazi Germany is such an example. Thus it 
may be the case that in some contexts attempts to realise a blueprint for an ideal society may 
well lead to coercion and domination of one group over those who disagree with, or do not fit 
into, the blueprint.  
It is thus suggested, as pointed out by Ricoeur, that the presence of utopianism in society is 
ambiguous.83 Whilst utopianism may be a force for positive change in society in certain 
                                                                                                                                                 
not fully explained, but Sargisson possibly means that totalitarianism involves a host of other preconditions 
to develop. 
81
  One could argue that this is how the South African Freedom Charter (1955) has been used.  
82
  Olssen, ?Totalitarianism and the ?Repressed? Utopia of the Present?, 536. 
83
  Ricoeur, Lectures on Ideology and Utopia, 1. Ricoeur explores utopia in relation to ideology. While a 
discussion of the nature of ideology will not be entered into here, it is worth noting that Ricoeur said of 
ideology and utopia that, ?both are highly ambiguous. They each have a positive and a negative side, a 
constructive and a destructive role, a constitutive and a pathological dimension.? (Ricoeur, Lectures on 
Ideology and Utopia, 1) Ricoeur notes that ideology can at best have an integrative function in society (see 
the development of this idea throughout the text of Ricoeur, Lectures on Ideology and Utopia) but at worst 
can become a legitimising force for the maintenance of undemocratic or even totalitarian structures in 
society. Ricoeur does not explore utopia?s ambiguity, but merely points it out. 
 30 
circumstances, by questioning that which is taken for granted in a society and mobilising 
action, it may reveal a more destructive nature in others, as discussed by Sargisson. In 
addition, as Bauman notes, what might begin as a utopian vision for change in society may 
merge into a conservative ideology and lose its critical orientation to the present.84 Bauman 
cites the USSR as an example of a place where the critical orientation of the Soviet vision 
was lost once the Soviets gained power.85  
In Ideology and Utopia, Mannheim contrasts utopianism with ideology. He claims that, ?In 
limiting the meaning of the term ?utopia? to that type of orientation which transcended reality 
and which at the same time breaks the bonds of the existing order, a distinction is set up 
between the utopian and the ideological states of mind.?86 Steve Ackroyd has interpreted 
Mannheim?s polarisation of ideology and utopia as follows: ?Ideologies close down and 
stabilize a social order around particular principles of organization and key institutions, 
whilst utopias open things up by advancing contentious new principles and claims ? 
especially about forms of organization.?87 Utopias may become ideologies (ideologies as 
defined by Bauman and Mannheim). 
In conclusion, how utopianism works in any given society, group, or individual is dependant 
on a number of complex criteria.88 A utopian mentality will not necessarily lead to a 
totalitarian outlook or approach. The content of the utopia is also not insignificant. Compare 
the content of Hitler?s utopia, with that of the utopia of the new South Africa imagined prior 
                                                 
84
  Bauman, Socialism, 16. 
85
  Bauman, Socialism. See Chapter Six: ?A Socialist Experiment?.  
86
  Mannheim, Ideology and Utopia, 192. 
87
  Ackroyd, S. 2002. ?Utopia or Ideology: Karl Mannheim and the Place of Theory? in Parker, M. (Ed) 
Utopia and Organization. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 49. Mannheim?s concept of ideology and utopia 
is complex. He claims that there is never just one dominant ideology in society, and that ideology is not 
necessarily a negative phenomenon. It is not simply about the justification and defense of interests of the 
dominant group in society. Ideology does correspond to reality to a degree. Utopia does not necessarily 
unmask reality from behind an ideology, but simply offers and alternative and a challenge to what exists. 
See Ackroyd, ?Utopia or Ideology?. 
88
  This is where the analysis of Talmon and Popper and others falls down: it takes no cognisance of the 
particular context in the process of the formation of a totalitarian state or leadership. What other factors 
where active at the time in the Soviet Union for it to become a totalitarian state in which terror featured so 
prominently? Nor does it take cognisance of the differences in totalitarian governments: the Nazi and the 
Stalin regimes ? both mentioned as totalitarian in the literature ? were different. The utopian vision in the 
case of the former was evidence enough of almost inevitable decent into violence and murder. The Soviet 
Union was a somewhat different case.  
 31 
to 1994, as a place free from injustice, racism and poverty. The form that a utopianism 
discourse takes is also significant, as Talmon?s writings on political messianism show. Not 
all utopian movements have taken this form however. In addition, other contingent factors 
are relevant to an analysis on the potential function of utopianism in any group or society. 
For example, the strength of existing democracy in a group or society will affect how 
utopianism mobilises a group. In addition different individuals will be inspired in different 
ways, and will be drawn to utopian texts or movements for different reasons. What is 
important is how vested an individual or group?s identity becomes in an ideal. Is one open to 
readjusting the vision of a perfect society, or better future society in light of experience or 
debate with others? Or has a static vision of the future become so internalised that to consider 
its impossibility or changes to it becomes psychology disruptive and is thus avoided? Such 
questions will be explored further in Chapter Seven, where the complexity of utopianism role 
in society is demonstrated.  
Summary 
A broad and fluid definition of utopia is proposed for the following study. The definition has 
been developed based on a critical reading of the literature put forward in this chapter, and 
shaped by the research undertaken on utopianism in the CPSA for this study, to be presented 
in the following chapters.  
Utopias are images or descriptions of an ideal or far better world or existence, existing in 
another place or time. Utopias are social or collective in their nature: they are visions of a 
better world for a community or society and not merely a vision of something better for one 
individual. Utopias may include possible or impossible goals. Utopias may be secular or non-
 secular or contain elements of both. 
Utopianism is a broader term than utopia. It refers to forms of thought which include utopian 
traces, but do not necessarily include a complete vision of an ideal society or place. 
Utopianism is present not only in a vision of an ideal or better existence, but in attitude and 
activity created by the presence of a utopian vision. For example utopianism may be present 
in the belief in the possible realisation of a vision or in activity directed towards attaining it. 
 
 32 
Chapter Three: 
Socialism: The Modern Political Utopia 
 
The original utopians, the communal creatures of Thomas More?s Utopia, were never meant 
to exist. They are written into history as vehicles of satire. The nineteenth century demanded 
that utopia become a concrete objective. Utopia, elevated to a science, was in the business of 
political construction. It was thereby dispossessed of its ironic mode? 
(Thomas Moore, 2002)89 
Introduction 
The CPSA?s utopian vision, rather than merely being an image of an ideal society, was, to 
quote contemporary scholar Thomas Moore, ?in the business of political construction?. 
Members of the CPSA wished to change society in accordance with their vision. Theirs was 
thus a thoroughly modern form of utopianism, a defining feature of which is a belief in 
humankind?s ability to affect the future for the good. Chapter Three begins with an historical 
contextualisation of this form of utopianism. Socialism is perhaps one of the most important 
of the modern utopias and a vital part of the CPSA?s utopianism. Justification for seeing 
socialism, and in particular Marxism, as a utopian movement is provided.  
The Chapter places the CPSA?s form of utopianism in the context of a wider socialist utopian 
movement. The CPSA?s utopianism was very much influenced by Marxism and in particular 
by Comintern interpretations of Marxism. The Influences of Marxism (and Comintern 
interpretations thereof) on the CPSA?s utopianism are briefly mentioned at the end of the 
Chapter.  
The Development of Modern Political Utopias in the West 
Although utopias offer valuable insight into the period in which they arise because they are 
critical of the status quo, and despite pointing to an incredible capacity to imagine places and 
times radically different to the present, they may also take on much of the conceptual 
framework of the period in which they are created. In this regard, Mannheim stated:   
                                                 
89
  Moore, T. 2002. ?Downsizing Utopia?, Abstract to paper presented at the Third International Conference 
of the Utopian Studies Society, www.biggar-net.co.uk/utopia/art-2002.htm  
 33 
Change in substance and form of the utopia does not take place in a realm which is 
independent of social life. It could be shown rather, especially in modern historical 
developments, that the successive forms of utopia, in their beginnings are intimately 
bound up with historical stages of development, and in each of these with particular 
social strata.90 
The Enlightenment played a vital role in the development of what may be called ?modern 
utopias?, those created from approximately the nineteenth century onwards. The development 
of science, movement away from religious authority and increasing confidence in a rational 
approach to understanding society and nature, led to a new found confidence in people?s 
ability to change society. The majority of utopias became firmly orientated towards the 
future.  
Pre-modern utopias were often orientated towards 
another place, rather than another time. Utopias were 
often imagined to be present now, but elsewhere. This 
was particularly common when voyages of discovery 
were revealing new cultures and lands. These voyages 
captured the imagination of writers who depicted ideal 
small scale societies on islands, whose location was 
often described in detail. Thomas More's crescent 
shaped island of Utopia was situated off the coast of 
America for example (see figure 3.1).91 Though many 
utopias of this period were not intended to be read as 
depictions of actual societies, the discovery of new 
people and places did not make the idea of discovering 
harmonious and idyllic societies seem impossible.92 
 
                                                 
90
  Mannheim, K. 1936 [1929]. Ideology and Utopia: An Introduction to the Sociology of Knowledge. New 
York: Harvest Books, 206. 
91
  Goodwin, B. and Taylor, K. 1982. The Politics of Utopia: A Study in Theory and Practice. London: 
Hutchinson & Co. Ltd. 
92
  Goodwin and Taylor, The Politics of Utopia. The tradition of utopias of another place is continued to this 
day in the genre of science-fiction, where ideal societies existing on other planets are sometimes imagined.  
Fig. 3.1: Woodcut by A. Holbein for a 
1518 edition of Utopia. Hythloday is 
depicted in the left-hand corner 
describing the island of Utopia to a 
listener. 
 34 
Utopias of the classical period included Plato?s Republic (4th Century BC) which was not 
explicitly orientated towards a different time or place, but was written as an ideal which 
should and could exist. Some scholars have included Aristotle?s Politics and Plato?s Atlantis 
and Laws as utopias of this period. 
Western utopias produced during the Middle Ages were often intimately tied up with a 
Christian eschatology, and varied in their orientation to time and place. Heaven was imagined 
as an other-worldly place that exists always, and thus in the present, and yet will be 
experienced in the future (after death). Many of the millenarian movements of the Middle 
Ages, however, (as discussed in fascinating detail by Norman Cohn) believed in the 
imminence of the coming of paradise on earth.93 Interestingly though, the legend of the Land 
of Cockaigne was developed in the Middle Ages as well: a hedonistic world which may have 
been both a reaction to the strictures of the Church?s teaching as much as a to poverty.  
Renaissance and early modern utopias show a liberation from reliance on the church and 
Christian doctrine for conceptualising the world, and the beginnings of an engagement with 
the notions of rationality and science, though religious inspired utopian fictions still feature. 
Between 1500 and 1700 many utopian fictions were written depicting perfect societies as 
well ordered communities who allocated resources along some organising principle. 
Examples of utopias providing goals for real action, versus utopian fictions are scarce in 
relation to the Enlightenment period that followed, where utopias were often political 
manifestos for change, rather than literary fictions.94  
Many scholars have pointed to the French Revolution as a seminal event in the development 
of modern utopias. Goodwin and Taylor write that the French Revolution 
?suggested to some that the course of history could be diverted, and utopia (of a 
sort) could be implemented ? in other words, that abstract ideals could be incarnated 
                                                 
93
  See Cohn, N. 1957. The Pursuit of the Millennium. London: Pimlico. What is interesting about this 
period is that utopianism here was utopianism as defined by Mannheim, not simply imagined idyllic 
communities, but often movements with force for change behind them. Though some of these movements 
(usually of the poor sections of the population) inspired unrest and protest, they relied on an external 
agency for the final transformation of the world.  
94
  Goodwin and Taylor, The Politics of Utopia, 41-44. 
 35 
in society by deliberate human action. This discovery helps to account for the 
increased optimism and activism of nineteenth-century utopias. 95  
In this period utopian writings became overtly political.96 The most significant utopian 
writings were political manifestos and philosophical works. Utopia became increasingly 
associated with activism as people imaged the possibility of changing society for the better 
by applying new scientific discoveries and careful ?scientific analysis? to the remodelling of 
society. This modern spirit can be seen in the following statement written by Friedrich Engels 
(see figure 3.3) in 1880: 
Active social forces work exactly like natural forces: blindly, forcibly, destructively, 
so long as we do not understand, and reckon with, them. But when once we 
understand them, when once we grasp their action, their direction, their effects, it 
depends only upon ourselves to subject them more and more to our own will, and by 
means of them to reach our own ends.97 
During the Industrial Revolution in England, and later in 
Europe, many people believed that technology would 
eventually create material abundance, and would become the 
means with which to transformation society. Saint-Simon 
(see figure 3.2) and Robert Owen are well known utopians of 
this era. Saint-Simon imagined a parliament of engineers and 
scientists making decisions to maximise well being for all 
people, in the context of a highly industrialised society.98 
However, depictions of the ideal commonwealth were varied 
and based on differing conceptualisations of human nature. 
Fourier?s utopia (see figure 3.5), of the same period, was 
based on providing everyone with desirable work, and on the 
satisfaction of supposedly ?instinctual passions? (such as 
sexual drive) to create harmony and order.99 Thus not all 
                                                 
95
  Goodwin and Taylor, The Politics of Utopia, 15. 
96
  Goodwin and Taylor, The Politics of Utopia, 44. 
97
  Engels, 1880 cited in Bauman, Z. 1976. Socialism: the Active Utopia. London: Allen & Unwin, 61. 
98
  The phrase, ?from each according to his ability, to each according to his need? was first coined by the 
Saint-Simon movement. Goodwin and Taylor, The Politics of Utopia, 45. 
99
  Goodwin and Taylor, The Politics of Utopia, 45.  
Fig. 3.2: Henri de Saint-Simon. 
 
 36 
utopian writings elevated rationality to such heights. Fourier?s utopia may have been a 
reaction to the Enlightenment and a perceived cold confidence in rationality and science.100  
A common base on which almost all modern utopias are built however, is the notion of 
human progress. Bauman defined utopia as a modern phenomena which developed once 
change in society was discernable in a lifetime. This developed a sense of ?history as an 
endless chain of irreversible changes, with which the concept of progress ? a development 
which brings change for the better ? was not slow to join forces.?101 Bauman correctly 
identifies socialism as an example of a modern utopia.  
Many scholars, however, have pointed to the 
utopianism implicit in other political conceptual 
frameworks or ideologies. Elements in 
conservatism may be viewed as utopianism, 
though interestingly while attempting to build a 
future conservative society, conservatives often 
draw on images of an idealised past rather than 
images of an ideal future. Referring to Margaret 
Thatcher?s conservative reign in the United 
Kingdom, Vincent Geoghegan said, ?Thatcherite 
conservatism is a glaring example of a right-wing 
utopianism, with its summoning up of the 
supposed glories of Victorian Britain.?102  
The utopianism in liberalism has also been 
explored by a number of commentators.103 Some 
writings of the French Revolution are examples of 
                                                 
100
  Sarakinsky, I. 1993. ?Utopia as Political Theory? in Politikon, 20(2), December, 111-125. 
101
  Bauman, Socialism, 19. Bauman sets up a definition of utopia which is similar to Mannheim?s in that it 
must ?involve a measure of hazard; for an image of the future to possess the qualities of utopia, it must be 
ascertained that it will not come to pass unless fostered by a deliberate collective action.? (17). Even using 
his restricted definition of utopia, Bauman is incorrect: utopian movements and images of utopia existed 
prior to the modern era. 
102
  Goeghegan, V, 1987 cited in Hodgson, G.M. 1995. ?The Political Economy of Utopia? in Review of 
Social Economy. 53(2), 196. 
103
  See for example Goodwin and Taylor, The Politics of Utopia.  
Fig. 3.3: Friedrich Engels, 1856. 
 37 
liberal utopian texts. Liberalism was built on a utopian quest to free man from a feudal 
society in which family lineage and not merit conferred privilege and to create a free society 
based on merit and rationalism. Goodwin and Taylor comment that, ?The very term 
?liberalism? reveals the force of its original utopian propensity: to establish a new social order 
based on a whole range of new liberties or freedoms as a means of attaining harmony and 
happiness.?104  
Socialism and Marxism in particular, however, became 
the utopian movement of the 20th Century. Karl Marx 
(see figure 3.4) and Engels?s vision of a socialist (and 
eventually communist) future which was to follow the 
demise of capitalism, is perhaps the most influential 
utopia of the last century. The utopian project envisioned 
by Marx and Engels was taken up, tweaked or re-
 imagined by Marxists and other socialists around the 
world. When the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917 erupted 
in Russia, the USSR became for many, utopia made real: 
eutopia. Goodwin and Taylor comment, however, that 
?the Russian Revolution diverted socialist dreams from 
utopianism to the observation and eulogization of Soviet 
Reality, and then to the criticism and justification of 
Soviet shortcomings??105 It is argued in this study that socialist dreams where not 
necessarily diverted, but that the eulogization of the USSR became a part of utopian 
discourse for many socialist parties around the world, and certainly in South Africa. This will 
be explored further in the following chapters. 
Mannheim claimed that ?as utopian movements develop and enter the arena of political 
struggle, they gradually lose their uncompromising opposition to the existing social situation 
and become more and more conservative in outlook?.106 This is partly because society has 
changed to incorporate some of the imagined utopia, and partly because once utopian 
movements have to engage in day to day politics, pragmatic concerns are emphasised, 
                                                 
104
  Goodwin and Taylor, The Politics of Utopia, 146. 
105
  Goodwin and Taylor, The Politics of Utopia, 47. 
106
  Goodwin and Taylor, The Politics of Utopia, 227. 
             Fig. 3.4: Karl Marx. 
 38 
?detailed decisions replaces [sic] the total, utopian emphasis on complete change?.107  
Not only did utopian movements have to contend with the realities of how to actually 
implement a plan for an new society, but events in the first half of the century lead to a 
scepticism about the value of utopian politics. According to Goodwin and Taylor, in the 1920 
to 1940s events such as the Great Depression, the rise of Fascism, war and the Holocaust, 
altered the ?prevailing mood from optimism to despair? and support of utopian movements is 
less widespread, and dystopian fictions feature prominently, such as George Orwell?s 
Nineteen Eighty-four (1949) and Aldous Huxley?s Brave New World (1932). The ?realities of 
Fascism and Stalinism were taken as warnings of what a modern scientific-technological 
system, established in the name of utopianism, might be like.?108  
Nevertheless, socialism and in particular Marxism, still remained as utopian movements into 
the 20th Century and beyond. Inequality, oppression and material deprivation were still part 
and parcel of life for many people, and thus utopian images of a just and harmonious society 
still resonated with and commanded the attention of people around the world, not least of all 
those living in South Africa, a very unequal and oppressive social environment indeed.  
Socialism, Marxism and Utopianism 
?Communism, as fully developed naturalism, equals humanism, and as fully developed 
humanism equals naturalism; it is the genuine resolution of the conflict between man and 
nature, and between man and man ? the true resolution of the strife between existence and 
essence, between objectification and self-confirmation, between freedom and necessity, 
between the individual and the species. Communism is the riddle of history solved, and it 
knows itself to be this solution. 
 (Karl Marx, 1844)109  
Socialism in its many guises (Marxism, Bolshevism, Fabianism, utopian socialism, for 
example) has been considered the utopia of the twentieth century. Socialist philosophies and 
movements are utopian in that they imagine an ideal future society and believe in the 
possibility of its creation.  
                                                 
107
  Goodwin and Taylor, The Politics of Utopia, 227. 
108
  Goodwin and Taylor, The Politics of Utopia, 48. 
109
  Marx, K. Economic and Political Manuscripts, cited in Levitas, R. 1990. The Concept of Utopia. New 
York: Philip Allan, 40.  
 39 
Bauman defines socialism not so much in the way in which a socialist wishes to organise 
society, ?referring to the structure of the system which socialists propose to institute?, but in 
terms of ?the structure of socialism itself, as a body of beliefs and attitudes in its own 
right.?110 Thus socialism may be understood partly as ?the desire for a just society? which, 
?coupled with the renunciation of the present one as unjust, is the most constant feature of 
socialism, as well as the key to the understanding of its historical role in modern society.?111 
In addition the ?socialist message is sent in the name of the deprived and the weak, those who 
cannot hope to rise above the level of destitution if they rely upon laissez-faire 
individualism.?112 Socialism may thus be defined as a desire for a just (and egalitarian) 
society, a particular vision for the organisation of society and an intrinsic and explicit critique 
of capitalism, articulated in the name of the less fortunate in society. This definition of 
socialism captures the drive and vision of the CPSA nicely.  
In common parlance, Marxism is often seen as synonymous with socialism. This does no 
justice to the diverse streams of socialism, many of which developed prior to Marxism such 
as Saint-Simon?s, Owen?s and Fourier?s versions of socialism and other forms of 
communitarianism active in the early 1800s. Engels was apparently influenced by Moses 
Hess (a socialist philosopher whose work influenced Zionism) and by Owen?s followers in 
Manchester. Marx?s writings incorporated some of Fourier?s work.113 Strands of what is 
                                                 
110
  Bauman, Socialism, 50. 
111
  Bauman, Socialism, 51. 
112
  Bauman, Socialism, 51. Goodwin and Taylor, as well as Bauman claim that modern socialism grew out 
of the development of liberalism in the 19th century, and eventually became the ?counter-culture? (Bauman, 
Socialism, 47) of capitalism. According to Bauman, ??the socialist utopia, in its starting point and 
leitmotivs, may be justly described as ?the counter-culture of capitalism?? (Bauman, Socialism, 47). 
However, he continues that, ?The notion of a ?counter-culture? contains a dialectic and conflict-ridden unity 
of continuity and rejection?, pointing to both socialism routes in liberalism and the way in which socialism 
has engaged in the language of liberalism, ?the dominant culture? in order to ?make the dialogue 
comprehensible? (47). So, while accepting ideals such as the reign of justice and law, the socialists refuse 
however, to accept the perceived affects of free-trade and the ultimate sovereignty of private property. In 
addition in the socialist utopia, freedom ?lost its place as the sole, supreme judge of justice, it? acquired a 
companion endowed with equal power, the principle of equality.? (52). Bauman does not mention less 
dominant streams of socialism such as anarchy ? which offer a far more radical break from the ?dominant 
culture?, examples of which can be found prior to the establishment of liberalism as a ?dominant culture? 
in the West.  
113
  Claeys, G. 2000. ?Socialism and Utopia? in Schaer, R, Claeys, G, Tower Sargent, L. Utopia: The Search 
for the Ideal Society in the Western World. New York: New York Public Library / Oxford University Press 
(New York Oxford), 222. 
 40 
recognise as socialism today can be found in the teachings of religious movements over the 
ages, and even in the values of the Spartan lifestyle of classical Greece.114  
Nevertheless it seems fair to say that Marxism has been 
the most influential form of socialism of the last century, 
influencing revolutions in a number of countries around 
the world, and most importantly for the purposes of this 
study, the eruption of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia 
which catalysed the birth of the CPSA, thousands of miles 
away. The CPSA was a fairly orthodox Marxist party115 
and utopianism in the writings of Marx will therefore be 
briefly touched on.116  
Interestingly, one of the strongest critiques of utopianism, 
particularly of utopian socialists, comes from Marx and 
Engels.117 Marx felt that utopian socialists? approach to 
socialism was not ?scientific?. For Marx ideology and utopia are of the same nature in that 
they obscure the true nature of things, thus limiting mobilisation around the real cause of 
oppression and limiting the possibilities for ?real structural change?118.  
Levitas points out that not all Marxists have seen utopianism in a purely pejorative light. 
Lenin was apparently ambivalent about utopian visions of the future, recognizing that ?the 
rejection of utopia and the need for goals were in constant tension.?119 Bloch and Marcuse for 
example, attempted to ?reintegrate Marxism and Utopia? by defining [utopia] positively 
rather than negatively as a catalyst for change.?120  
Marx and Engels made it clear that they could not provide detailed blueprints for a future 
                                                 
114 Claeys, ?Socialism and Utopia?, 207. 
115
  Interview with Ivor Sarakinsky, Johannesburg, February 2006. 
116
  However, a proper contextualisation of Marx?s utopianism is beyond the scope of this dissertation, as it 
would involve, amongst other things, an analysis of how Marx understood labour, freedom, the structure of 
society, ?alienation? etcetera. 
117
  See Engels Socialism: Utopian and Scientific (1880) and Marx The German Ideology (1847).  
118
  West, C. 1991. The Ethical Dimensions of Marxist Thought. New York: Monthly Review Press, 66. 
119
  Levitas, The Concept of Utopia, 53. 
120
  Levitas, The Concept of Utopia, 6.  
      Fig. 3.5: Charles Fourier. 
 41 
society because, as Marx claimed, ?the thing to be done at any definitive, given moment of 
the future, the thing immediately to be done depends of course on the given historical 
conditions in which one has to act?.121 Sarakinsky notes that ?Marx?s vision of the ideal 
society is based on an analysis and extrapolation of tendencies in the present. Consequently, 
it is only possible for Marx to present the general structure of a future society and not the 
detailed characteristic of a blueprint.?122  
Despite not providing blueprints for a communist 
society, utopianism is latent in Marx and Engels?s 
writings, and even explicit in some places. Levitas 
notes that, ?One of the reasons why Marxism itself can 
be said to be utopian in exactly the same way as the 
so-called utopian socialists is that an outline of the 
principal features of communist society can be pieced 
together from the writings of Marx and Engels, even 
though it was never presented by them in a single 
description.?123 
 
For example, characteristics of the future communist 
society can be pieced together from The Communist 
Manifesto (see figure 3.6) in which Marx and Engels 
describe a future society as one in which politics 
(defined as the oppression of one class over another) 
would cease. ?Classes and class antagonism? would 
be replaced by ?an association? in which the ?free development of each is the condition of 
the free development of all?.124 This ?association? is most definitely a utopia: an image of an 
egalitarian community, in which people would be able to develop to the fullest of their 
                                                 
121
  Marx, K cited in Lukes, S. 1984. ?Marxism and Utopia? in Alexander, P. and Gill, G (Eds.) Utopias. 
London: Duckworth, 157. 
122
  Sarakinsky, I. 1992. ?The Implications of Freud?s Theory of Human Instincts for the Utopian Visions of 
Hegel and Marx?. Masters Dissertation. Johannesburg: University of Witwatersrand, 97. Marx and Engels 
state that, ?Communism is for us not a state of affairs which is to be established, an ideal to which reality 
[will] have to adjust itself. We call communism the real moment which abolishes the present state of 
things? (Marx, K. and Engels, F. 1932 cited in Levitas, The Concept of Utopia, 43). 
123
  Levitas, The Concept of Utopia, 40. 
124
  Engels and Marx, The Communist Manifesto cited in Goodwin and Taylor, The Politics of Utopia, 166. 
Fig. 3.6: A first edition of the   
Communist Manifesto. 
 42 
potential, no longer alienated from their labour.  
The spirit of this community is captured in one of the most often quoted passages from The 
German Ideology: 
?in communist society, where nobody has one exclusive sphere of activity but each 
can become accomplished in any branch he wishes, society regulates the general 
production and thus makes it possible for me to do one thing today and another 
tomorrow, to hunt in the morning, fish in the afternoon, rear cattle in the evening, 
criticise after dinner, just as I have a mind, without ever becoming hunter, fisherman, 
shepherd or critic.125 
Marx and Engels?s analysis of society described forces within the structure of society that 
tended towards a particular state of being or structure of society (communism) that they 
evidently saw as desirable. In this regard, Steven Lukes writes the following in response to 
claims that Marxism is not utopian.  
?how can one have the one kind of knowledge (of the self-transforming present) 
without the other (of the shape of future society)? How can scientific observers know 
that ?what is happening before their eyes?, that the result of ?forces already at work 
within social reality? is the ?realisation of the ultimate objective? the emancipatory 
transformation of capitalism into socialism, unless they also know, or have good 
reason to believe, that the ?new society?, latent in the old, will take a form that is 
emancipatory? In other words, to assume that they do know the former is to assume 
that they know, or have good reason to believe, the latter.126 
In other words, Lukes claims that a utopian image of the future is implicit in Marx?s assertion 
that capitalism would cease to exist, and that society would progress towards an 
?emancipatory? state of being. The writings of Marx and Engels, and the Marxist movement 
which drew on their work, are thus clearly utopian in imaging an ideal state of society, 
communism.  
 
                                                 
125
  Cited in Levitas, The Concept of Utopia, 41. 
126
  Lukes, ?Marxism and Utopia?, 158-159. 
 43 
Marx and Marxists however, not only imagined an ideal future, but forecasted the realisation 
of this utopia, as Lukes noted. The messianic undertones in Marxism?s forecasting of the 
communist state of being, and the collapse of capitalism has been pointed out by a number of 
scholars.127 Both secular and religious modern utopias are often characterised by an 
incredible hope in the possibility of a better place and a better future. The confidence that the 
ideal future will be realised (as apposed to ?could be?) is, however, messianic in its 
forecasting of the future. Derrida has defined messianism as ?a specific determination of the 
emancipatory event within the overarching telos of history?.128 Messianism is certainly 
present in Marxism. Using Derrida?s definition of messianism, Owen Ware illustrates this 
point by comparing Marxism with a generally accepted messianic discourse ? Jewish 
mysticism:  
?as they stand in their orthodox forms, [Marxism and Jewish mysticism] are highly 
compatible. Marxist ?prophecy? believes the proletariat will give rise to their own 
Messiah-like leaders who will engage the ruling class in a battle that will determine 
the fate of humanity. After the fall of capitalist oppression, an entirely new form of 
social governance will arise, a Kingdom of God without God? Jewish Messianism 
and Marxism are, in their crude versions, translatable discourses because they both 
carry a strong messianic message.129 
A strong certainty in the future, due to a teleological concept of history and progress, and the 
related messianic element in Marxism was an almost defining feature of 20th Century 
socialism. It was a strong current in Soviet Comintern interpretations of Marxism and in the 
CPSA?s utopianism in South Africa (as will be explored in greater detail in Chapter Four).130  
 
                                                 
127 See for example, Ware. O. 2004. ?Dialectic of the Past / Disjuncture of the Future: Derrida and 
Benjamin on the Concept of Messianism? in Journal for Cultural and Religious Theory, 5(2), April, 99-
 114, and the work of Walter Benjamin for example: Benjamin, W. 1968. ?Theses on the Philosophy of 
History? in Illuminations: Essays and Reflections. New York: Schoken Books, and Jacques Derrida: 
Derrida J. 1994. Spectres of Marx: The State of Debt, the Work of Mourning & the New International. New 
York: Routledge.  
128
  Ware, ?Dialectic of the Past?, 100. 
129
  Ware, ?Dialectic of the Past?, 108. In this report all emphasis in cited work is the original author?s own 
unless otherwise indicated. 
130
  According to Michael Barkun, Norman Cohn sees ?Soviet Communism? as messianic in character. 
Barkun. 1974. ?Millenarianism in the Modern World? in Theory and Society, 1, 117-146. 
 44 
The CPSA believed that Marxism was a ?scientific? framework for understanding the world. 
They were significantly influenced by the Comintern in this regard. While Karl Marx?s work 
certainly lent itself to being interpreted as ?scientific socialism?, and was based on a 
modernist teleology, the Bolsheviks and in particular the Comintern based in Moscow, turned 
a ?fruitful and interesting conversation? in Marx?s work into a dogmatic ?scientific socialism? 
which confidently imagined a linear, inevitable march towards a communist future. It lost 
much of the spirit of Marx?s utopianism, a desire for a society free from alienation.131 
Comintern interpretations of Marxism ignored the ambiguities in Marx?s work, and certainly 
ignored Marx?s warning about producing ?cookbooks of the future?.132  
Alison Drew comments that, through the Comintern (1919 to 1943) ?the interpretation of 
Marxism became ritualized in an elaborate hierarchical style reminiscent of Catholicism.?133 
The Comintern ?set itself up as the supreme authority on and interpreter of Marxism?, and 
directed socialist activity to its affiliated parties around the world.134  
The Comintern was highly influential in the CPSA?s history at one point, as will be discussed 
in detail in later chapters. These often dogmatic, doctrinaire and authoritarian interpretations 
of Marxism shaped the CPSA?s utopianism. However, another strong trend in CPSA 
utopianism can be discerned: a gentler, humanist discourse ? an ethical Marxism which saw 
as its mission the creation of a society of people free from alienation and oppression and open 
to developing as full and contented human beings. This discourse was partly drawn from the 
humanism in Marx?s writings (visions of a communist society quoted above for example), 
but also from other discourses: a liberating Christianity, possibly a Jewish notion of 
redemption, and more simply by a desire to be rid of the injustices and harshness of society 
they experienced (or saw around them) in South Africa, as will be shown in the following 
chapters.135  
                                                 
131
  Interview with Ivor Sarakinsky, Johannesburg, June 2006. 
132
  Interview with Ivor Sarakinsky, June 2006.  
133
  Drew, A. 2000. Discordant Comrades: Identities and Loyalties on the South African Left. Aldershot: 
Ashgate, 2. Drew paraphrases the comment of a British socialist who complained that, ?Moscow became 
the ?Socialist Vatican?, ?issuing Bulls and Pronunciamentos on the Gospel according to St Lenin?.? Drew, 
Discordant Comrades, 2. 
134
  Drew, Discordant Comrades, 2.  
135
  Many of the CPSA members, while part of an avowedly secular movement, came from religious 
backgrounds. The prominent African members of the CPSA were mission educated (Kelley, R.D.G. 1991. 
 45 
Summary 
Nineteenth and 20th Century socialism, and in particular Marxism, developed in the period 
after the Enlightenment as thoroughly modern utopian movements. Not only did socialists 
imagine an ideal society but they believed that it could be created through human agency. 
Many socialists directed activity towards achieving this goal. Socialism in general and 
Marxism in particular, are utopian in terms of the definition proposed in Chapter Two. The 
form of their utopianism however, must be understood in light of the above: as utopian 
movements, not just utopian visions. This has relevance for understanding the form that 
CPSA utopianism took in the first half of the 20th Century, and the role that utopianism 
played in CPSA history.   
The CPSA?s vision of an ideal society was much influenced by Marxism, both as interpreted 
by local CPSA intellectuals themselves, and by the Comintern. The vision was partly based 
on teleological understanding of history, and of progress. Coupled with Marx?s analysis of 
the inability of capitalism to sustain itself, this lent a messianic and certain vision of the 
future.  
CPSA utopianism carried elements of a narrow, doctrinaire interpretation of strategy and 
goals in line with Comintern interpretation of Marxism, yet it also carried a strain of a more 
open-ended humanist utopianism in the spirit of Marx?s vision of a society free from 
alienation and conflict.   
                                                                                                                                                 
?The Religious Odyssey of African Radicals: Notes on the Communist Party of South Africa, 1921-34? in 
Radical History Review, 51, 5-24). A number of the founders of the CPSA came from Christian (Wesleyan, 
Methodist, Unitarian) backgrounds in England. Many prominent members were Jewish, some from 
religious backgrounds, although others from secular or Bundist families (see Drew, Discordant Comrades 
for the various traditions and backgrounds from which CPSA members came). These influences will be 
discussed further in the following chapters. 
 46 
Chapter Four:  
The Form of the CPSA?s Utopianism 
 
What we are witnessing is an unfolding of the worldwide Commonwealth                               
of Labour, which if the oppressed of all lands only knew? would sweep them into       
transports of gladness. 
(David Ivon Jones, member of the CPSA, 1917)136 
Introduction 
David Ivon Jones, founding member of the CPSA, wrote the rousing words quoted above in 
1917, shortly after the eruption of the October Russian Revolution. It is in this atmosphere of 
intense excitement that the story of the CPSA begins. The form that the CPSA?s utopianism 
took was characterised by an incredible hope and confidence in the future, as can be seen in 
Jones?s comment. As a thoroughly modern political utopia, this confidence was partly based 
on a modernist conception of history as progress, as discussed in the previous chapter. In 
Chapter Four the manner in which this hope and confidence was expressed, and the reasons 
for it, are contextualised within the social and political life of South Africa in the early 1900s. 
Utopian hopes in the future did not remain the same throughout the Party?s history, however, 
but changed in relation to changing contexts. Chapter Four provides an introduction to the 
CPSA, as well as an analysis of the form of the CPSA?s utopianism.137 
The Formation of the International Socialist League 
The early 1900s in South Africa was a period of intensifying white labour mobilisation, 
particularly in the mining areas of the country such as the Witwatersrand.138 On the Rand, the 
                                                 
136
  Written by David Ivon Jones, member of the CPSA, under the title, ?Dawn of the World?. Cited in 
Lerumo, A. 1971. Fifty Fighting Years: The South African Communist Party 1921-1971. London: 
Inkululeko Publications, 35.  
137
  The chapter headings: ?The Form of the CPSA?s Utopianism? and ?The Content of the CPSA?s Utopian 
Vision? do not point to strictly separate dealings of the subject matter in each chapter. The form of the 
CPSA?s utopianism is also mentioned in Chapter Five, and content is described occasionally in Chapter 
Four. 
138
  For a wonderfully atmospheric depiction of life on the Rand in this period, see van Onselen, C. 1982. 
Studies in the Social and Economic History of the Witwatersrand 1886-1914, Volumes 1 and 2. 
Johannesburg: Ravan Press. Johannesburg was certainly no utopia in the early 1900s, and saw massive and 
stressful changes over a short period of time. van Onselen quotes the following at the beginning the 
 47 
late 1800s saw a series of short depressions and the fortunes of workers of all backgrounds 
were cast up and down as the mining industry found stability.139 Frustrations of white labour 
with unemployment, decreasing wages and the memory of earlier economic depressions, 
were channelled against the state and capital, and increasingly towards black workers: 
capital, particularly the Chamber of Mines, increasingly sought to employ the labour of black 
workers (often African migrants) at lower wage costs than their white counterparts.  
Competition for jobs, now experienced mainly along colour lines (actively created by capital 
and state) combined with racist ideology on the part of white workers, was to inform the 
politics of labour protest for decades to come, and created major difficulties for socialists 
attempting to foster a working class consciousness across colour lines in South Africa.  
At this stage in South Africa?s history, the country had not yet developed an indigenous 
socialist tradition.140 Relative to Europe, socialism developed late in South Africa. 
Immigrants from Eastern Europe, Britain (and to a lesser extent America) brought their own 
traditions of socialism to the tip of Africa. Coupled with the influence of local experiences 
and personalities, numerous socialist groups were formed along different lines in the Boer 
Republic, Cape Colony and Natal. South Africa?s socialism in this period is described as 
?eclectic? by Alison Drew.141 These young groups were almost wholly white. Some groups, 
however, were beginning to grapple with the racially divided reality of South Africa society, 
such as the small Social Democratic Federation (SDF) in Cape Town.  
The birth of the Union of South Africa saw attempts by some labour and socialists groups at 
unification. In January 1910 the South African Labour Party (SALP) was established, which 
brought together regional Labour parties and many socialist parties across the Union.142 The 
Party was a broad church incorporating socialists and more conservative members who 
                                                                                                                                                 
volumes: ?Ancient Nineveh and Babylon have been revived. Johannesburg is their twentieth century 
prototype. It is a city of unbridled squander and unfathomable squalor. Living is more costly than one?s 
wildest dreams. All the necessities of life are imprudently dear. Miners of England and Australia, however 
poor may be your lot, however dark your present prospects, let no man tempt you to South Africa with tales 
of the wages that are paid upon the Rand! The wages are high indeed, but the price the workers pay for 
them is paid in suffering and blood.? (Pratt, A. 1913. The Real South Africa. London cited in van Onselen). 
139
  van Onselen, Studies in the Social and Economic History, volume 1. 
140
  Drew, A. 2000. Discordant Comrades: Identities and Loyalties on the South African Left. Aldershot: 
Ashgate.  
141
  See Drew, Discordant Comrades, Chapter 1.  
142
  Drew, Discordant Comrades, 28. 
 48 
simply wanted a better deal for white workers in the Union. The SALP was a member 
organisation of the Second International.143 
The cohesion of the SALP however was soon to be tested by the outbreak of the First World 
War. As with other member parties of the Second International, the SALP was split between 
those who supported participation in the War (believing that workers should support the 
?patriotic line? in their own countries), and those who considered the War a ?war of 
imperialist thieves? in which workers should play no part fighting for capitalist rulers.144  
As a result of this disagreement, a small group of socialists who were against participation in 
the War, split from the South African Labour Party (SALP), and joined by the Independent 
Labour Party and the Industrial Workers of the World, formed the International Socialist 
League (ISL) in 1915. Smaller groups from other socialist parties joined soon after, such as 
the Cape Town branch of the SDF. The ISL started publishing a party publishing a party 
paper, The International.145  
 
Prominent members of the League included Bill Andrews, David Ivon Jones and S.P. 
Bunting, who were to play a role in the CPSA?s future, as will be shown.146 The League 
comprised members who espoused a variety of different ideological interpretations of 
                                                 
143
  The Second International was an international socialist moment that collapsed due to labour and 
socialist organisation?s differing responses to the politics of the First World War. 
144
  Cronin, J. 1991. ?Origins and ?Native Republic?? in Bundy, C. (Coordinator). The History of the South 
African Communist Party. Lectures presented at the University of Cape Town Summer School. Cape 
Town: Department of Adult Education and Extra-Mural Studies, UCT, 8. 
145
  The International was still published by the CPSA in its first few years of existence.  The International 
was later renamed the South African Worker or Umsebenzi depending on whether the Party was attempting 
to woo black or white workers. In 1939 it started publishing ?Nkululeko (Freedom), anglicised to Inkululeko 
(and known for a short while as Freedom, and even as Freedom-Vryheid). The Guardian was not an official 
paper of the Party, though it was closely aligned to the CPSA. 
146
  Bill Andrews was a fitter and a turner who arrived from England as a young man. He was a prominent 
trade unionist and a Member of Parliament for the SALP before leaving to form the ISL. Jones was a 
Welshmen who left Britain in search of better climes due to ill health. He joined the socialist movement in 
South Africa and moved to Moscow in the early 1920s to serve in the new Soviet state. He died there in 
1924 of tuberculosis. Bunting first came to South Africa from Britain as a soldier in the Boer War. He 
stayed in South Africa where he gravitated towards the socialist movement. He was also a member of the 
SALP before forming the ISL. 
 49 
socialism, but the dominant current was Marxism.147 According to Jeremy Cronin, the ISL 
was the first official non-racial party in the country.148  
 
 
 
 
Fig. 4.1: 
Certificate given 
to ISL member 
Sam Barlin for 
his contribution 
to the 
establishment of 
the ISL?s printing 
press. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
The Bolshevik Revolution and the Birth of the CPSA 
Two years after the formation of the ISL, the Bolshevik Revolution erupted in Russia. News 
of the events of October 1917 reached a small group of enthusiastic socialists in South Africa 
in period in last century?s history when sudden and massive change of the social order 
seemed both possible, and just after the revolution, imminent. If workers could overthrow the 
ruling class in Russian, then the possibility in other countries seemed certain.  
 
                                                 
147
  Cronin, J. ?Origins and ?Native Republic??. The ISL, and later the CPSA, did not incorporate all 
socialist strands in South Africa. For example a small tradition of Trotskyism developed in the Cape. But 
the CPSA was quick to distance itself from, and often denounce, these groups. This kind of intolerance to 
other interpretations of Marxism and socialism became particularly strong under the influence of the 
authoritarian Comintern, to be discussed later. See Drew, Discordant Comrades, for an exploration of the 
varying and diverse traditions of leftist and socialist politics in South Africa, the histories of which are 
under-explored.  
148
  Cronin, J. ?Origins and ?Native Republic??. 
 50 
A leaflet entitled, ?The Bolsheviks are coming? written by the ISL in 1918 proclaimed that, 
The Great War of Nations is over and the Class War against Labour has openly 
begun? Bolshevism means the victory of the wage-earners. It will soon spread to 
Britain, France, America and throughout the world.149 
Russia was seen as the leader in the ?progressive march to world socialism?. Reporting to a 
sitting of the Executive Committee of the Comintern (ECCI) in Moscow in 1921, two 
members of the ISL (and later CPSA), Sam Barlin and Jacob Den Bakker dramatically 
declared that:   
We feel that objective theories that can be offered by Russia exceed the sum of all 
previous theoretical knowledge. Fully comprehending that unfolding historical 
events in Russia represent our future step in the social revolution we ask you to give 
us a chance to witness personally the colossus of development of the gigantic 
movement which has been started by the Russian proletariat?.150 
The formation of the Soviet Union played an important role in catalysing the birth of the 
CPSA. Communist parties around the world wanted to affiliate to the newly formed 
Communist International (Comintern), based in Moscow. According to the ECCI there could 
be only one party affiliated to the Comintern in each country.  
The Comintern was formed one year after the Bolshevik Revolution, in 1919. Some have 
described the body as an international socialist movement ? it was also known as the Third 
International.151 It was established to ?unify and direct the struggles by revolutionary 
Socialists world-wide.?152 Colin Bundy points out that at the time of the Comintern?s 
                                                 
149
  Jones, D.I and Greene, L.H., ?The Bolsheviks are coming?, leaflet of the ISL circulated in 1918 and 
1919. Source: Bunting, B. 1981. (Ed). South African Communists Speak: Documents from the History of 
the South African Communist Party 1915-1980. London: Inkululeko Publications, 40.   
150
  Den Bakker, J. and Barlin, S. Report submitted to ECCI (Extracts from Minutes of Meeting, ECCI), 25 
January 1921. Source: Davidson, A. Filatova, I. Gorodnov, V. Johns, S. (Eds.) 2003. South Africa and the 
Communist International: A Documentary History Volume 1: Socialist Pilgrims to Bolshevik Footsoldiers 
1919-1930. London: Frank Cass, 60.  
151
  Cronin, J. ?Origins and ?Native Republic??, 11. 
152
  Bundy, C. 1991. ?Left, Right, Left, Right: The CPSA in the 1930s and 1940s? in Bundy, C. 
(Coordinator). The History of the South African Communist Party. Lectures presented at the University of 
 51 
formation, the Soviets had only been in power for a short while and revolution in other 
countries seemed imminent.153 Over the years, however, and particularly under the leadership 
of Stalin, the Comintern became increasingly dictatorial. Rather than an international 
movement it became a Soviet lead body primarily influenced by whatever line suited the 
Soviet Union at any time.154 Though the Comintern was to be viewed as a guiding light by 
communist parties worldwide, it served in effect to marginalise interpretations of socialism or 
communism which did not conform to Comintern line by making the adoption of The 
Twenty-One Points by communist parties a condition for acceptance to the Comintern.155  
The Twenty-One Points demanded a highly centralised and disciplined Party and loyalty to 
the Comintern. Drew writes that, 
In these points, the Comintern put itself at the centre of the world socialist 
struggle?All national parties were expected to adhere to the Comintern?s policies, 
and within parties factions were to be subordinated to the Central Committee. 
Democratic centralism meant that the party centre was to have ?complete power, 
authority and rights?. Social democratic and social pacifist principles were to be 
removed from leadership posts in all labour organizations and replaced with 
Communists, even at the costs of replacing experienced personnel.156 
Back in South Africa The Twenty-One Points were hotly debated amongst socialists wanting 
to affiliate with the Comintern. During the course of 1920, the ISL, a group called the 
Industrial Socialist League, the Communist League, the Jewish Socialist League and other 
groups united as the CPSA, but divisions surfaced and original members left due to 
differences of opinion around the Comintern?s Twenty-one Points. Despite individuals and 
groups leaving unity talks, the CPSA was officially formed on the 30th July 1921, and named 
?Communist Party of South Africa, Section of the Communist International?. The Party 
comprised 175 people. 
 
                                                                                                                                                 
Cape Town Summer School. Cape Town: Department of Adult Education and Extra-Mural Studies, UCT, 
21. 
153
  Bundy, ?Left, Right, Left, Right?, 21. 
154
  See Drew, Discordant Comrades, and Davidson et al, South Africa and the Communist International. 
155
  Drew, Discordant Comrades, 51. 
156
  Drew, Discordant Comrades, 51. 
 52 
The newly formed CPSA outlined its vision of a new society in The Manifesto of the 
Communist Party of South Africa in 1921:  
?a society of economic and social equals wherein class divisions, privileges and 
disabilities will for the first time in history be impossible; a system of social 
ownership of the means of production industrially administered by the workers on an 
organised and harmonious plan, ensuring from every man according to his needs, 
under the motto ?All for each and each for All?.157 
The Manifesto called on all workers, ?black and white? to ?join in promoting the overthrow 
of the capitalist system and outlawry of the capitalist class, and the establishment of a 
Commonwealth of Workers throughout the World.?158 Many members of the CPSA felt that 
this would be possible within their lifetime. 
?Dawn of the World?:159 
Hope for the Imminent Transformation of Society 
The period just after the Russian Revolution was an intensely exciting and hopeful time for 
young socialist groups in South Africa. Socialist sympathisers were filled with idealistic zeal 
at the thought of the coming international socialist revolution. Sunday afternoons or 
mornings in Johannesburg, Cape Town, Durban and Germiston were spent by socialists 
debating and orating on subjects such as the Bolshevik Revolution with speakers calling for a 
repeat of the Revolution in South Africa.160 In 1919 a lecture written by visiting Soviets was 
organised by a member of the ISL, Michael Wolberg-Velmont, a travelling Russian, and 
delivered in the Johannesburg City Hall. Wolberg-Velmont reported the following in a letter 
to the Comintern:  
                                                 
157
  CPSA, Manifesto of the Communist Party adopted at the Cape Town conference, 30-31 July and 1 
August 1921. Source: Bunting, South African Communists Speak, 63. The Twenty-one Points was appended 
to the CPSA?s 1921 Manifesto. 
158
  CPSA, Manifesto of the Communist Party, 1921, 62. 
159
  Title of a leaflet written by David Ivon Jones, ?The Dawn of the World?, cited in Lerumo, Fifty Fighting 
Years, 35. The title captures the hope in an imminent and better future that the Revolution inspired. It also 
points to an expectation of the inevitability, the almost pre-ordained process of the change towards a 
socialist future. This was not another world, a different world, but the ?Dawn of the World? 
160
  See Wolberg-Velmont, M. Report submitted to the Bureau of the Third International in Moscow, 15 
April 1920. Source: Davidson et al, South Africa and the Communist International, 35-58.  
 53 
?after my concluding speech, several thousand voices rang out with the 
?International?, accompanied by the huge City Hall organ,  instead of the British 
national anthem for which the bourgeoisie who were present had risen from their 
seats?We dispersed loudly singing ?The International? for the second time and long 
afterwards walked along Johannesburg streets singing revolutionary songs.161 
David Ivon Jones had been watching the 
developments in Russia closely and was attempting 
to interpret them via Marxist writings. A few weeks 
after the Russian Revolution he wrote, ?Let us look 
forward with great hope to the entry of the Russian 
elemental mass into the International class struggle 
for human emancipation. The day of its coming 
seems immeasurably nearer by this awakening.?162 
Even those people that were hardly versed in 
Marxist discourse where caught up in the fever of 
this period. Bernard Sachs was a member of the 
CPSA from 1922 to the early 1930s. He joined after 
being inspired by the dramatic events of the 1922 
Rand Revolt. As a young man he sat in caf?s in 
Commissioner Street in Johannesburg, frequented 
by ?the ragged and the destitute?, and listened wide-
 eyed to locals who debated and lectured about 
politics, and read aloud from newspapers:  
                                                 
161
  See Wolberg-Velmont, Report submitted to the Bureau of the Third International, 42. According to 
Davidson et al, the ?lecture described by Wolberg-Velmont had the effect of a bombshell on the South 
African public? and was much debated in the local press (39 n7). Many of those who attended the lecture 
had expected to hear about how ?two noble Russian aristocrats? (41) had fled from the Bolshevik 
Revolution, and were unaware that the lecturer and its organizers where supports of the Revolution. 
Wolberg-Velmont comments that, ?As the lecture continued the faces of the bourgeois became darker and 
the faces of our comrades began to light up with joy.? (42) Lenin apparently requested a copy of Wolberg-
 Velmont?s report. 
162
  Jones, D.I. cited in Hirson, B. and Williams, G.A. 1995. The Delegate for Africa: David Ivon Jones 
1883-1924. London: Core Publications, 164. 
Fig. 4.2: 1920s Soviet poster entitled 
?Lenin Leads?. 
 54 
?in the midst of all the squalor and the sordidness and disintegration, I would be 
aflame with the news that Lenin and Trotsky were breaking a new road into history ? 
were leading downtrodden mankind out of bondage to undreamt of heights. How 
grandly my spirit soared above circumstances in those far-off days. Even now the 
memory of that heroic period stirs my heart, palpitating and rather tired, and re-
 awakens the passion and the drama which thrilled a whole world.163  
A friend of Bernard Sachs was Eddie Roux, who was a teenager when the Russian 
Revolution erupted. He and a few other young people formed the Young Communist League, 
and eager to spread the word about socialism, young Roux addressed a large meeting of 
African workers who where interested in the ICU in the early nineteen twenties:   
I told them I was a Communist, that the Communist Party believed in the union of all 
workers irrespective of race or colour, that we were working for the overthrow of the 
rule of exploiters and the establishment of soviets when the workers would take over 
the mines and factories and govern themselves through their own elected 
representatives. I went on to tell them of the great Russian Revolution which had 
happened and which would in due course be followed by a world revolution in which 
South Africa would play its part. Then would follow a world of comradeship 
between black and white in which all would work together for the benefit of all. The 
revolution, I implied, was around the corner. All that was needed was for the workers 
of the world to unite. So perhaps my head was in the stars: but as I spoke I believed 
every word I uttered.164 
This sense of the imminence of radical change was not only discernable in the personal 
accounts of this period. Following the lead of the Comintern which declared in the Twenty-
 One Points that, ?The class struggle in almost every country of Europe and America is 
entering upon the phase of civil war?,165 the newly established CPSA?s Manifesto claimed 
that ?if we play our part unfalteringly we shall in our lifetime see the robber and butcher class 
                                                 
163
  Sachs, B. 1949. Multitude of Dreams: A Semi-autobiographical Study. Johannesburg: Kayor Publishing 
House, 84-85.  
164
  Roux, E. and W. 1970. Rebel Pity: The Life of Eddie Roux. London: Rex Collings, 35-36. 
165
  Comintern, The Twenty-one Points: Conditions of Admission to the Communist International, adopted at 
the Second Comintern Congress, 1920. Source: Bunting, South African Communists Speak, 58-62. 
 55 
brought low and the workers? ?Soviets? in power.?166 It should be noted that the movement 
did not expect a new order to arrive like manner from heaven, but with sufficient 
determination and action, they believed they could effect great change in society. In addition 
economic forces were on their side. The complex and ambiguous position of Marxists on the 
relative importance of agency versus structure is evident in the Manifesto. 
The initial sense of imminence in the creation of a new world produced a particularly strong 
form of utopianism on the part of members of the CPSA. It was explicit, it was widely 
pronounced, and it was untempered. This mood of expectation and hope influenced the 
production of particularly stirring prose and speeches about creating a bright new world.167 
By comparison with the rest of the Party?s history, these years stand out as a particularly 
hopeful and inspired period.   
Just after the Russian Revolution, The International drew on religious language declaring 
that, ?The Word becomes Flesh in the Council of the Workmen.?168 Traces of messianism are 
discernable in this period. First, in that certain figures such as Lenin were seen as messiahs, 
leading the working class to salvation.169 Second, in the way in which Marx?s vision was seen 
as prophetic: after the Bolshevik Revolution The International stated that Marx?s vision was 
in the process of being fulfilled.170 Last, in that the transformation of society was to be 
experienced as a rupture with the old. Whilst traces of Messianism are discernable 
throughout the CPSA?s history in their confident forecasting of the inevitable salvation of 
society, the idea of a socialist society in South Africa being ushered in by an emancipatory 
event was less prominent after the Rand Revolt, as will be shown.  
 
 
                                                 
166
  CPSA, Manifesto of the Communist Party of South Africa, 1921, 64. The movement did not expect a 
new order to arrive like manner from heaven, but with sufficient determination and action, they believed 
they could effect great change in society. In addition economic forces were on their side. The complex and 
ambiguous position of Marxists on the relative importance of agency versus structure is evident in the 
Manifesto. 
167
  Brian Bunting commented that the Russian Revolution produced some of the most inspiring writings of 
the CPSA. Interview with Brian Bunting, Cape Town, January 2006. 
168
  Drew, Discordant Comrades, 46.  
169
  See the account of Sachs, Multitude of Dreams, 132-133. 
170
  Drew, Discordant Comrades, 46. 
 56 
The 1922 Rand Revolt: Hope and Disappointment 
The CPSA?s interpretation of socialism, and the form a revolution might take in South 
Africa, was soon to be tested by the 1922 Rand Revolt. Against the backdrop of economic 
recession and consequent falling gold prices, the Chamber of Mines attempted to reduce 
input costs in the mining industry. The 1922 Strike was primarily a response by white 
workers to the Chamber of Mines replacing relatively highly paid white labour (including 
many semi-skilled jobs) with cheaper black labour. 
To the young CPSA, still buoyed by the Bolshevik Revolution, the strike heralded the 
beginning of the socialist revolution in South Africa.171 It was indeed an impressive show of 
strength on the part of white workers on the Witwatersrand. The strike lasted three months 
and progressed to an armed revolt.   
 
 
Fig. 4.3: A 
crowd  
outside the 
Johannesburg 
Trades Hall, 6 
March 1922, the 
day the Strike 
was called.  
 
 
Members of the CPSA were actively involved in organising and co-ordinating the strike. The 
Revolt was all-consuming for the workers and activists involved. The following account, 
pieced together by Drew, provides a sense of the atmosphere in which the Revolt?s supports 
were immersed:  
                                                 
171
  Jeremy Krikler points out in a recently published book on the Rand Revolt, that the protests in the Strike 
and the Revolt that followed were not directed primarily at black workers. Despite the prevalence of racism 
amongst the strikers and even racial killings of up to 40 black people during the Revolt, the strikers were 
highly class conscious  and most of their protests and violent action was directed against capital and the 
government, however selective their interpretation of socialism was. See Krikler, J. 2005. The Rand Revolt: 
The 1922 Insurrection and Racial Killing in South Africa. Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball, 111. 
 57 
The City Hall steps bore silent witness to the many assorted strands bundled together 
in this revolt and to the extent to which resistance was powered by structures beyond 
those of formal trade unionism. ?The City Hall steps became the focus of life,? wrote 
Bernard Sachs, ?and there poured forth from it nightly a spate of wrath compounded 
of hatreds, spites, disappointments, empty dreams, ambitions?. ?Fight till you drop?, 
exhorted Harry Haynes, recalling the Bolsheviks, while Ernie Shaw uttered only 
?Comrade Chairman? before collapsing, coughing blood from his phthisis-ridden 
lungs. Spendiff and Fischer vowed, on the steps, that they would never be captured 
alive.172 
Despite the impressive show of determination and strength on the part of the strikers, the 
Revolt was violently suppressed by the Smuts government. Up to 250 people were killed and 
Fordsburg and Benoni (working class suburbs in Johannesburg) were bombed by the 
government.173 Eighteen people were sentenced to death and four were executed.174 They 
went to the gallows singing The Red Flag. 
The Revolt and its suppression had a 
profound effect on the CPSA. The sense of 
the imminence of revolution, of dramatic 
and immediate change in society, decreased.  
First, the CSPA had placed their hopes in the 
Revolt hailing the beginning of a social 
revolution for a worker?s republic in South 
Africa. The ?revolution?, however, was 
quashed. Second, South African white 
labour did not turn out to be the 
revolutionary force that the CPSA had first 
assumed. They were fighting for an 
improvement in their material position via 
the exclusion of black workers from 
improved standards of living (evidenced by 
                                                 
172Drew, Discordant Comrades, 61. Based on Sachs, B. 1959. ?The City Hall Steps? in South African 
Personalities and Places. Johannesburg: Kayor Publishing House.  
173
  Cronin, J. ?Origins and ?Native Republic??, 13. 
174
  Drew, Discordant Comrades, 62.  
Fig. 4.4: The bombing of Benoni, as viewed by        
the strikers. 
 58 
their attitude during the Strike and their support of the Pact government in the 1924 
elections). Despite their frustration with their lot, they were not fighting for radical change. 
White labour was not the vanguard the CPSA had all imagined, and they had a long way to 
go to create a united working class.  
The CPSA thus began to engage more earnestly with the black working class, the new hope 
for a socialist revolution. Engaging in black protest, however, brought the CPSA in contact 
with harsh government (and later an often violent police state), and a mainly racist white 
population. Thus very real obstacles had to be faced and overcome.   
Hopes in the imminent transformation of society thus faded. After the adoption of the Native 
Republic Thesis (to be discussed in the next chapter) the anticipated change in society was 
not imagined as a rupture, but as incremental: there would be stages in the advancement to 
socialism.175 The present was no longer pregnant with change and the ideal society returned 
to being a phenomenon of the future, rather than a phenomenon about to burst forth from the 
present.  
The CPSA?s at first uncompromising stance on the primacy of class and its potential for 
creating a brand new society changed, and the Party became engaged in the national 
liberation struggle, sometimes in alliance with other national liberation organisations.176 In 
casting their eyes with greater focus upon the immediate South African social landscape, the 
                                                 
175
  After the adoption of the Native Republic Thesis, official CPSA policy stated that bourgeoisie 
democracy under majority rule would produce the context ripe for the development of socialism. However 
there is much ambiguity in the CPSA?s statements and documents on exactly how the socialist future would 
be brought about ? some people believed that a socialist future would follow a democracy under black 
majority rule, other believed that the fight for both would merge into one. These differing views are 
sometimes included in the same CPSA documents.  See Grossman, J. 1985. ?Class Relations and the 
Policies of the Communist Party of South Africa 1921-1950?. Doctoral Thesis. Coventry: University of 
Warwick, 157. 
176
  The national liberation struggle was also mobilised by utopian visions of a just and harmonious future 
society as a reading of ANC and other liberation groups? documents of the time will show. For example in 
an ANC publication Inkundla Ya Bantu in 1949 the president of the Congress Youth League said that ?in 
the course of our forward advance to National Freedom there will be created the democratic forces which 
will ensure the establishment of a true democratic and a just social order?. (Cited in CPSA, ?Nationalism 
and the Class Struggle?, extract from Central Committee report to the National Conference of the Party, 6-8 
January 1950. Source: Bunting, South African Communists Speak, 208). The Freedom Charter contains 
utopian elements drawn from the national liberation struggle, socialism and the Charterist movement. 
 59 
CPSA brought themselves closer to daily struggles for changes in the lives of South Africans. 
Whilst the Party members were certainly not forced to abandon dreaming of a glorious 
future, they spend more time concentrating on the present.  
CPSA official statements and writings became increasingly critical of the particular nature of 
capitalism in South Africa: how class and race issues intersected to produce a large, poor and 
oppressed black majority and a small white privileged minority.177 The state, capitalists, 
protectionist white labour, organisations considered ?social reformist? in character, all came 
under attack. Criticism of the status quo was coupled with the articulation of the CPSA?s 
immediate goals and demands.  
The high prominence of overtly or explicitly utopian writing, in other words writing which 
depicted, or referred to, an ideal future society, faded and was replaced (though certainly not 
entirely) by a concentration on more immediate concerns, for example objecting to the pass 
laws, particular pieces of legislation, and demanding increased wages for workers.178   
The prevalence of overt utopianism was thus affected by the reality of daily activity in the 
political arena. The Party was engaged with the day to day politics and strategy involved in 
building alliances with other organisations, developing trade union movements and gaining 
electoral support. As mentioned in Chapter Two, Goodwin and Taylor note in this regard 
that, ?the kinds of compromises made in the course of political struggle? involve a 
?pragmatic concern with isolated issues and detailed decisions? which ?replaces the total, 
utopian emphasis on complete change.?179  
Though utopianism was still present in the discourses of the CPSA, fewer references were 
made in the majority of documents and statements to a specific utopia. To illustrate: after the 
adoption of the Native Republic Thesis, the CPSA attempted to tap into the frustrations of 
black people and the energy of black protest. For example, in 1929 the CPSA founded the 
                                                 
177
  The conditions under which poor white people lived were sometimes included when the CPSA 
discussed the situation of the ?oppressed classes? in South Africa. In addition propaganda was still directed 
at both black and white workers. 
178
  The term ?explicit utopianism? or ?overt utopianism? has been developed for this study to refer to those 
instances where reference is made to an ideal future society or state, or in which an ideal future society is 
described in some detail. Later in the chapter, this will be contrasted with ?implicit utopianism?.  
179
  Goodwin, B. and Taylor, K. 1982. The Politics of Utopia: A Study in Theory and Practice. London: 
Hutchinson & Co. Ltd, 227. 
 60 
League of African Rights (see figure 4.5), which was essentially a petition demanding 
franchise for black people, abolition of the pass laws, universal free education for black 
children (which white children were receiving), and the right to free speech. Prominent 
leaders from the ANC and other liberation organisations were members. In the League the 
CPSA specifically steered clear of references to a socialist future, and concentrated on 
concrete demands which were sure to resonate with almost all black citizens.  
Demands made in election campaigns were even more immediate. The CPSA contested the 
municipal elections in Johannesburg in October 1937 for example. A letter sent to the Labour 
Party by CPSA activist Issy Wolfson outlined the ?Communist Party Programme of Action? 
entitled, ?Make the Rich Pay!? The Programme included the following: 
1. Active and adequate slum clearance, without the repetition of the inhuman 
evictions of poor people at Bertrams. 
2. Reduction in tram and bus fares for workers by the following methods: 
a) weekly seasons tickets at reduced rates. 
b) monthly season tickets at reduced rates. 
c) reduced fares between 6a.m. and 8:30a.m. and between 4:30p.m. and 6:30p.m. 
[?] 
9. Public Hot and Cold Baths in working class areas at reduced fees for the 
workers. 
10. Municipal Bakeries organised to produce good, wholesome bread at greatly 
reduced prices.180 
 
 
 
 
                                                 
180
  CPSA, Letter from Issy Wolfson to the South African Labour Party including election programme, 
reproduced under the title ?Johannesburg Municipal Elections: Communist Party asks Labour Party for 
Working Arrangement?, published in South African Worker, 12 June 1937. Source: Drew, A. (Ed) 1996. 
South Africa?s Radical Tradition: A Documentary History. Volume One: 1907 ? 1950. Cape Town: Buchu 
Books, Mayibuye Books, UCT Press, 269-270. 
 61 
No mention is made of what the 
CPSA stood for in terms of its 
greater goals: the creation of a 
non-racist socialist society. The 
CPSA had to provide the 
electorate with potentially 
immediately achievable demands, 
and a sense that small but 
immediate change to their lives 
could be achieved. Whilst 
references to an ideal future 
society can often be inspiring for 
people, it is at the same time, 
difficult for some people to hold 
on to more distant goals. In 
addition, it should be noted that 
the letter was written to the 
SALP, with whom the CPSA 
hoped to contest the election. The 
SALP was an exclusively white 
labour party and the majority of 
SALP members would have been 
repelled by the image of a non-
 racist society.  The CPSA was very small, and such collaboration would give them a greater 
chance at electoral success. Thus compromises were made in the course of political struggle.  
These compromises, however, were made in the hope that they were correctly serving their 
end goal. Some members of the CPSA grappled with these kinds of compromises. For 
example the CPSA?s support for ?immediate demands? for improvements in the position of 
workers versus a revolutionary purity was debated in the Party in 1923. The CPSA, it must be 
remembered, considered itself a revolutionary party: this was an important part of their 
identity. They were not seeking palliatives for workers for the sickness of capitalism. They 
wanted a transformation of society, and not merely a better standard of living for the workers.  
S.P. Bunting (see figure 4.6) pondered over the significance of this support in a letter 
published in The International in March 1923. He said that by ?supporting ?immediate 
Fig. 4.5: A CPSA poster announcing a meeting of the League  
of African Rights, 1929. 
 62 
demands? the Party will gain the support of the masses ? even though these demands appear 
on the surface to be ?reformist? and not ?revolutionary???.181 He continued: 
The communist Party, with revolution as its prime aim, certainly endeavours to 
emphasise and intensify the struggle as such, the demands themselves, rather than 
any supposed remedies.182 [?]The alternative to this real support of daily demands 
is, especially in times of crisis, not merely to ignore them or stand aloof from them, 
but to oppose them, in other words to support the other side.183 
As can be seen in Bunting?s comments, the fight for a 
radically transformed society was important to the CPSA 
even if not evident in all of their public statements and 
publications. In this sense utopianism was implicit 
throughout this Party?s history and in the discourses of 
the Party. Utopianism can be traced in the CPSA 
discourses in both their criticism of the present and even 
in the less radical calls for changes to society i.e. not 
only in their depictions of an ideal society (explicit 
utopianism). The CPSA were particularly critical of the 
status quo: the present was full of that which should not, 
and did not have to be. The majority of the CPSA 
members did believe in the possibility of a radically 
transformed society, and they used this ideal society as 
one of the ways in which they judged the present. Implicit utopianism is therefore evident 
throughout the Party?s history.  
The categories ?explicit? and ?implicit? utopianism are developed here for use in the specific 
case of the presence of utopianism in the CSPA, and not necessarily for use in utopian studies 
more generally. It is not the case that utopianism is implicit in all criticism of the status quo. 
In the case of the CPSA, utopianism was implicit in their criticism of the status quo and in 
their immediate demands for small changes in society, because they used a particular ideal 
                                                 
181
  Eddie Roux paraphrasing Bunting in Roux, E. 1944. S.P. Bunting: A Political Biography. Cape Town: 
Self-published, 60.  
182
  By remedies, Bunting was referring to ?social reformist? measures. Roux, S.P. Bunting, 60. 
183
  Roux, S.P. Bunting, 60-61. 
Fig. 4.6: S.P. Bunting, founding 
member of the CPSA. 
 63 
against which to judge the present. This ideal (gleaned from explicit articulations of 
utopianism) was articulated with varying frequency throughout their existence. 
At times, explicit utopianism ? the articulation of what the ideal society they were fighting 
for looked like ? was less common. More frequent expressions of explicit utopianism in the 
first few years of its existence were probably a reflection of the heightened sense of 
expectation for change in society, and the particularly strong or radical utopianism that this 
generated. It was also influenced by the fact that the CPSA had yet to be drawn into the level 
of daily political struggle that developed a concentration on ?isolated issues and detailed 
decisions?.184 
It is not suggested however that there was a constantly lower expression of explicit 
utopianism after the mid-twenties. Certain events or a particular social atmosphere brought 
more radical utopian sentiments to the fore. The Second World War and the fight that the 
CPSA took up against fascism produced some very overtly utopian texts, for example, 
particularly in relation to the USSR in the mid-1940s. A victory for the USSR, so the CPSA 
believed, could swing history?s fortunes more quickly in the direction of socialism. 
It is possible that when a society is on the brink of something potentially new, when change 
seems imminent, or in times of social upheaval, that we find the emergence of utopianism, or 
stronger forms of utopianism developing, as was the case with socialists after the Russian 
Revolution, and during the social upheaval of an international scale war. When society is 
more stable ? even if the conditions people live under are harsh ? we may find the creation of 
utopias less prevalent even if the desire for some kind of change in society exists.185  
Fredric Jameson suggests that as movements for change begin to reach pre-revolutionary 
peak their demands become more ?precise in their insistence and urgency? but that they also 
tend to lose their utopian vision and get replaced by more concrete demands.186 This is not 
always the case. It may be in the case of a movement which is beginning to see aspects of its 
utopian vision put into place, such as the labour movement in Europe, which won greater 
concessions for workers. Once people gain aspects of their utopian vision, the need for 
                                                 
184
  Reference to a quote from Goodwin and Taylor, The Politics of Utopia, 227 quoted on page 59 of this 
study. 
185
  Millenarian movements for example certainly predominated in times of particular social upheaval and 
change, rather than simply times of oppression.   
186
  Jameson, F. 2004. ?The Politics of Utopia? in New Left Review, 25, January to February, 44. 
 64 
radical change may lessen, and activism in the daily political arena is taken up with arranging 
the practical details of these small gains or concessions.187 It is not because movements reach 
pre-revolutionary peak that they lose their utopian character, but because the utopian vision 
has been (to an extent) mainstreamed into society.188 In fact when society reaches a pre-
 revolutionary peak (a sense of being on the brink of radical change) utopianism (the 
articulation of depictions of an ideal or far better society) may become more pronounced and 
forms of messianism or millenarianism within the utopian vision may become enhanced, as 
we have just seen in the case of the CPSA.   
The CPSA?s Confidence in the Future 
Do not forget Molotov?s clarion cry on the thirtieth anniversary of the glorious Soviet Revolution: 
?We are living in an age when all roads lead to Communism?. 
(Bill Andrews, Chairman of the CPSA, 1948) 189  
Despite fading hopes for the imminent transformation of society, CPSA members still 
believed in the inevitable triumph of socialism. This sense of certainty, rather than hope in a 
socialist revolution, can be seen in the official statements of the CPSA throughout its history, 
and in a number of individual CPSA accounts.  
In 1949 the CPSA issued a statement under the title ?End the Nationalist Tyranny?.190 The 
CPSA?s confidence in the future can be seen in the following rousing words:  
 
                                                 
187
  Perhaps South Africa around the transition to democracy in the early nineties also provides an example. 
The specific historical context needs to be taken into account: what are the balances of forces operating in 
the society at the time of transition and change? How radical was the utopian vision and the revolutionary 
content of the movement? Did compromise rather than complete change (which comes with high costs) 
seem more feasible, etcetera? 
188
  See Bauman, Z. 1976. Socialism: the Active Utopia. London: Allen & Unwin, for commentary on this 
phenomenon.  
189
  Cited in ?Communists Election Policy Defined: National Conference Decision? in The Guardian, 8 
January 1948. Source: Drew, A. (Ed) 1997. South Africa?s Radical Tradition: A Documentary History: 
Volume Two: 1943-1964. Cape Town: Buchu Books, Mayibuye Books UCT Press. 
190
  CPSA, ?End the Nationalist Tyranny?, Resolution adopted by the meeting of the Central Committee of 
the CPSA, Cape Town, 9-10th July 1949 and issued 13th July 1949. Source: Simons Collection, BC1081: 
08.2, Manuscripts and Archives Department, University of Cape Town, Cape Town. 
 65 
The Communist Party, which has been the spearhead of the fight for genuine 
democracy and for the defeat of Fascism in South Africa, feels confident of the 
future?Communism as a world force is getting mightier every day, winning new 
millions for the cause of peace and socialism. The Communist Party feels confident 
that out of the present attacks of [the South African] Government will emerge a 
powerful, united working class, determined to resist and defeat the enemies of peace 
and progress, liberate our country from racial tyranny and class oppression.191  
What reason did the communists have to be confident? It was not yet five years since the end 
of a devastating world war. The National Party had recently been elected to power and 
immediately begun instituting further racist and oppressive legislation. It should be noted, 
however, that many voters in the West did turn to the left after the Second World War, and 
labour parties secured victories in many countries. This was, however, seen by the CPSA as a 
trajectory towards a particular future, rather than a trend which could be reversed again. 
The document, ?End the Nationalist Tyranny?, was possibility written to inspire people to 
action ? it was rousing and confident rhetoric.192 Confidence in the inevitability of securing a 
socialist future is nonetheless evident in CPSA discourses and can be seen in internal as well 
as external documents and statements, including analytical essays and letters.193  
A number of factors influenced the CPSA?s tendency to believe in the inevitability of a 
socialist future. Some CPSA members appear to have thought that the levels of oppression 
experienced by the working class could only be tolerated for so long. In addition the CPSA 
offered a vision of society so tantalising (so they felt) that mobilisation towards its 
achievement would eventually develop. In 1944 a report to the Central Committee of the 
Party, published in their newspaper, Freedom, declared confidently that, ?We are moving in 
                                                 
191
  CPSA, ?End the Nationalist Tyranny?.  
192
  However, propaganda or publicity pieces intended to inspire rank and file membership or potential new 
recruits may also have had the effect of inspiring CPSA leaders and helped keep the flame of activism 
burning.   
193
  See for example, Jones, D.I, Extract of letter from Comrade Jones to Trotsky?s questionnaire, 2 June 
1921. Source: Davidson et al, South Africa and the Communist International, 71-73; Simons, J. ?Report on 
Capitalism in Crisis?. Submitted to the Meeting of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of South 
Africa, Cape Town, 9 ? 10 July, 1949, Source: Simons Collection, BC1081: 018.1; and Central Committee 
of the CPSA, ?Nationalism and the Class Struggle?, extract from the Central Committee report to the 
National Conference of the Communist Party of South Africa, Johannesburg, 6-8 January 1950. Source: 
Bunting, South African Communists Speak, 200-211. 
 66 
the direction of history; we express the deep-seated needs of the people; and must therefore 
eventually obtain the support of the people.?194 The perceived moral ?correctness? of the 
socialist ideal and the vision of the socialist future relative to the oppressive and unjust nature 
of the status quo, were sufficient to make some CPSA activists believe that the change they 
envisioned would come about. This belief was also build on an evolutionary perspective of 
history and a sense that history had ordained the socialist future. 
As mentioned in Chapter Three, Marxism was an evolutionary teleology in which society?s 
historical development was seen as tending towards the collapse of capitalism and the 
establishment of communism. Such evolutionary perspectives gave many Marxists 
confidence in the eventual realisation of a socialist order. Members of the CPSA were no 
exception, as can be seen from the CPSA?s 1921 Manifesto: 
All recorded history is the history of class struggles and consequent evolutionary 
changes in the form of society; the class divisions and institutions varying from age 
to age according to the current economic basis, and each form being superseded by 
another when its mission is fulfilled. Today this is more true than ever.195 
The following is an excerpt from a Draft Party Programme (written in 1941 during the 
Second World War) that speaks of the predictive powers of Friedrich Engels.  
The present war, a continuation of the 1914-1918 war, is the violent and murderous 
product of the incurable disease that has stricken capitalism in its imperialistic stage; 
it may well prove also to be the midwife of new socialist societies. [?] The collapse 
of capitalism is being accompanied by violence over a whole historical period, an era 
of wars of the most varied kind, - imperialist wars, civil wars, national wars. It is an 
era that was foreseen 55 years ago by Frederick Engels, one of the founders of the 
socialist movement. Writing in 1887, he described a future world war ?of an 
extension and violence hitherto undreamt of?. [?] Engels prediction is being 
fulfilled to the letter. His prophetic words were in reality conclusions drawn from a  
                                                 
194
  CPSA, Extract from ?The Struggle for Freedom, Equality and Security?, Report of the Central 
Committee to the CPSA conference, Johannesburg, published in Freedom, January 1944. Source: Bunting, 
South African Communists Speak, 183-184. 
195
  CPSA, Manifesto of the Communist Party of South Africa, 1921, 62. 
 67 
scientific analysis of the tendencies in capitalist society that have resulted in this 
major disaster. 196 
The evolutionary language of ?scientific socialism? is evident in this excerpt. The Second 
World War was interpreted as heralding the collapse of capitalism, which was predicted in 
Marx and Engels writings. Society was seen as tending progressively towards an inevitable 
conclusion.  
A year after the end of World War Two, the Party 
published a report to the CPSA Central 
Committee in Freedom stating that, a social 
revolution had taken place in ?the agrarian 
counties bordering on the Soviet Union? where 
the land of the ruling classes had been confiscated. 
They commented that the Second World War had 
thus been a revolutionary process in some places, 
in which power had been ?transferred to the 
workers and the peasants. In Western Europe, on 
the other hand, that process has still to be worked 
out to its conclusion [emphasis added].?197  
Referring to what Mannheim named the ?socialist-
 communist utopian mentality?, Mannheim 
commented in Ideology and Utopia that ?Only 
through the union of a sense of determinateness 
and a living vision of the future was it possible to 
create an historical time-sense of more than one 
dimension [?] It is not only the past but the 
future as well which has virtual existence in the 
                                                 
196
  CPSA, Draft Programme of the Communist Party of South Africa, 1941. Source: Simons Collection 
BC1081: 03.2.  
197
  CPSA, ?National Front and Class Struggle: Report to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of 
South Africa? published in Freedom, August-September 1946. Source: Drew, South Africa?s Radical 
Tradition, volume 1, 373-374. 
Fig. 4.7: A 1920s Soviet poster entitled 
?The Last Decisive Battle!? 
 68 
present.?198 This observation may be applied to the CPSA, for whom the present was latent 
with the future, as can be seen in the quote from Freedom. 
One more reason for some members continuing belief in the inevitability of a socialist future 
is tentatively advanced. It may have been too difficult for the some individuals to conceive 
that the ideal future that they imagined and had invested so much in fighting for would not 
come about. The imagined utopia simply had to come about. For many members of the 
CPSA, what ?ought not to be? became what ?will not be?. This may have been an expression 
of determination or of hope, but it was also perhaps a mechanism for some individuals in the 
CPSA to cope with what was a world filled with injustice, inequality, and general hardship. 
South Africa was a divided, unequal society, in which a few profited off the backs of many. It 
is within this context that many of the men and a few women of the CPSA clung to a vision 
of a more gentle, humane and dignifying society. The belief in the possible realisation of a 
socialist utopia played an important role in the lives of many members of the CPSA. This 
will be further explored in Chapter Six.   
Summary  
CPSA utopian discourses contained desire for a better society, and hope and expectation that 
the society they envisioned would be realised. At the beginning of the CPSA?s history, 
members felt a heightened sense of expectation for the imminent transformation of society. 
This sense of expectation influenced the CPSA to produce dramatic propaganda which 
frequently contained articulations of explicit utopianism. The sense of expectation also 
catapulted them in the upheaval of the Rand Revolt.  
Hopes for the imminent transformation of society faded, and the CSPA became increasingly 
involved with day to day politics. The high prevalence of overtly utopian statements 
decreased as a result, but utopianism nevertheless remained implicit in the discourses of the 
CPSA. Whilst the sense that radical change was imminent was not constant throughout their 
history ? their confidence in the eventual realisation of their vision was a defining feature of 
their utopianism, and lent it a sometimes messianic character. As will be shown later in the 
study, the confident form that the CPSA?s utopianism took affected the manner in which 
utopianism functioned in the Party?s history. 
                                                 
198Mannheim, K. 1936 [1929]. Ideology and Utopia: An Introduction to the Sociology of Knowledge. New 
York: Harvest Books, 245-246.  
 69 
Chapter Five: 
The Content of the CPSA?s Utopian Vision 
 
Introduction 
Images of a society in which people would be free from conflict, oppression, want for 
material things, a world in which all people could develop to the fullest of their potential, are 
described in many of the CPSA?s documents, and mentioned by individual members of the 
CPSA in interviews, letters, biographies and autobiographies. In light of the definition of 
utopia developed in Chapter Two, the CPSA?s images of a future society were utopian.   
The CPSA fought for concrete, immediate changes, such as the abolition of the pass laws in 
South Africa, and for more distant and far more radical changes in society. The CPSA?s 
ultimate aim was the creation of a socialist society, in which they believed class and racial 
conflict would disappear.  
The imagined utopia did not remain the same throughout the Party?s history, however: 
changes in the socio-economic and political environment in South Africa affected the way in 
which members conceived of an ideal society. In addition, as new people joined the Party, 
they brought with them new traditions and experiences and influenced the CPSA?s utopian 
vision. As will be shown, the CPSA?s official vision of the future was also strongly 
influenced by the Comintern. Essentially the following chapter describes the CPSA?s vision 
for a future and analyses the events, traditions and people that shaped it. 
The following chapter is not a detailed textual analysis of the CPSA?s utopian vision for a 
future South Africa, nor a detailed analysis of shifts in CPSA policy over the years, as this is 
beyond the scope of this study. Rather it is a sketch of the imagined utopia and the factors 
that influenced its formation, included to provide a fuller understanding of the nature of the 
CPSA?s utopianism, and further background to the following chapters on the function of this 
utopianism. It was because the content of the imagined utopia resonated with many South 
Africans? hopes that the CPSA?s utopianism was to play a role in South African society. 
 
 
 
 70 
Influences on the CPSA?s Utopian Vision 
The International Socialist League (ISL) and the other small socialist groups which were to 
make up the CPSA,  started as a small group of mainly white men, whose connections to 
Europe (England, Wales, Lithuania for example) were still strong.199 Jewish immigrants from 
Lithuania brought a Bundist tradition to South African socialism.200 British immigrants 
brought diverse interpretations of Marxism, often combined with what has been called an 
?ethical socialism?.201 De Leon?s writings and Syndicalism had some resonance with South 
African socialists in the first decade or so of the 1900s.202 Whilst South African socialist 
groups incorporated different interpretations of Marxism, the ISL ? and other small socialist 
organisations? ? decision to apply for affiliation to the Comintern (the birth of the CPSA) and 
its signing of the Twenty-One Points had the effect of narrowing the CPSA?s interpretation of 
Marxism often to that of the Comintern?s. 
The vision of an alternative just and harmonious socialist society also drew its inspiration 
directly from Karl Marx?s work, as mentioned in Chapter Three. Their utopian vision often 
echoed Marx?s humanism in their desire for a world free from alienation and want, a world 
that secured human dignity. This spirit can be seen in the following excerpt from the CPSA?s 
1921 Manifesto: 
We hold aloft the glistening banner of the World Commune to be, when the class war 
shall have been forever stamped out, when mankind shall no longer cower under the 
bludgeon of the oppressor, when the necessities and amenities of life, the comfort 
and the culture, the honour and the power, shall be to him who toils not to him who 
exploits, when none shall be called master and none servant, but all shall be fellow 
                                                 
199
  According to Drew, William Thibedi was probably the only black member of the ISL in 1921 shortly 
before the ISL and other organisations united to form the CPSA. Drew, A. 2000. Discordant Comrades: 
Identities and Loyalties on the South African Left. Aldershot: Ashgate, 53. 
200
  The Bundist movement developed as a Marxist movement amongst the Jewish working class and 
intelligentsia of Russia in the context of anti-Semitic repression. The ?Bund? was the General Union of 
Jewish Workers in Russia and Poland.  
201
  The influence of this ?ethical socialism? in South African can be seen in the approach of Olive 
Schreiner. Alison Drew writes of Schreiner that, ?Her life and writings epitomized the values of the 
oranganizationally eclectic socialism of the late nineteenth-century Britain ? most importantly, a profound 
concern with moral dilemmas and with the relationship between the personal and the political.? Drew, 
Discordant Comrades, 9.  
202
  Drew, Discordant Comrades, 9-10. 
 71 
workers in commune.203 
The CPSA utopian vision was also influenced by the spirit of the Second International, in 
envisioning an imminent international socialist future. This spirit was intensified by the 
Russian Revolution. 
Whilst the CPSA?s analysis of capitalism in South 
Africa was drawn primarily from Marxism, CPSA 
members were varyingly versed in Marx?s 
writings. For example David Ivon Jones became 
steeped in Marxist and Bolshevik writings, as did 
Lazar Bach who was to play a major role in Party 
affairs in the 1930s. Eddie Roux (see figure 5.1) 
on the other hand, was not convinced by some of 
Marx's analysis. He thought that his ?theory of 
value was at variance with obvious economic 
facts.? Yet this did not shake his ?faith in 
Marxism as a whole?.204 He was later to move 
away from Marxism. S.P. Bunting was apparently 
not particularly interested in understanding the 
details of Marxist theory.205 
The CPSA drew on a number of discourses (apart from socialism) in developing their vision 
for a future South Africa. This can be seen in the language in which utopianism was 
expressed by members of the CPSA. For example, religious language features in some of the 
depictions of an ideal society and in the utopianism of the CPSA. Shortly after the Bolshevik 
                                                 
203
  CPSA, Manifesto of the Communist Party adopted at the Cape Town conference 30-31 July and 1 
August 1921. Source: Bunting, B. 1981. (Ed). South African Communists Speak: Documents from the 
History of the South African Communist Party 1915-1980. London: Inkululeko Publications, 64-65. 
204
  Roux, E and W. 1970. Rebel Pity: The Life of Eddie Roux. London: Rex Collings, 34. 
205
  Bernard Sachs writes, ?Bunting shared Roux?s aversion for the capricious twists and turns of dialectical 
materialism. His rugged spirit was more like the Russian peasant revolutionary Zhelyubov, who left his 
home and decided to participate in the struggle against Tsarism. Zhelyubov said that liberalism wasn?t 
enough and that it was necessary to give history a shove forward. This was the spirit in which Bunting 
approached the movement. The complexity of doctrine was for him less important that that courage, 
sincerity and devotion with which history could be given a shove forward or a mountain moved?. Sachs, B. 
1949. Multitude of Dreams: A Semi-autobiographical Study. Johannesburg: Kayor Publishing House, 141. 
Fig. 5.1: Eddie Roux, member of the CPSA. 
 72 
Revolution in 1917, The International claimed that Karl Marx?s vision was in the process of 
being fulfilled, and proclaimed, as mentioned, that, ?The Word becomes Flesh in the Council 
of the Workmen?.206 In 1928 CPSA member James La Guma (see figure 5.1) and ANC 
leader Josiah Gumede visited the USSR. On their return Gumede addressed a meeting of the 
CPSA in Johannesburg. Using religious language, Gumede proclaimed that, ?I have seen the 
new world to come, where it has already begun. I have been to the new Jerusalem.?207  
Many of the members of the CPSA were brought up in religious households or in 
communities where religion was part and parcel of daily life. Virtually all African CPSA 
leaders were missionary educated for example, and a few remained Christian.208 A number of 
the British born CPSA members were brought up in Christian communities and many Eastern 
European CPSA members were brought up in religious Jewish communities.  
Official CPSA documents that mentioned the imagined future were written using secular 
language, and often using Marxist terminology. Personal references to, or accounts of, the 
imagined future, sometimes incorporated religious language. The use of religious language 
can be seen in the writings of David Ivon Jones, particularly in his references to socialism 
and to the imagined future.209 Jones was an intense and angst ridden intellectual, who came to 
socialism via a sometimes tortured and ecstatic journey from the Methodist and then 
Unitarian faiths. Jones?s biographer, Barauch Hirson says that, ?Ivon Jones was steeped in 
the language of the Bible and his writings reflected that absorption.?210 Two weeks after the 
Russian Revolution Jones wrote the following to a friend in Wales, ?The World is going 
through great changes, the greatest in the history of human society?the light that is breaking 
forth from Russia will illuminate the dark places of the Earth. The Russian autocracy was the 
                                                 
206
  Cited in Drew, Discordant Comrades, 46. 
207
  Cited in Bunting, B. 1975. Moses Kotane: South African Revolutionary. London: Inkululeko 
Publications, 30. Josiah Gumede was President-General of the ANC from 1927-30. Though Gumede was 
never a member of the CPSA, he was a communist sympathizer and he collaborated closely with the Party, 
making him very unpopular with some ANC leaders in the late 20s and early 1930s. Bunting, Moses 
Kotane, 30.  
208
  Kelley, R.D.G. 1991. ?The Religious Odyssey of African Radicals: Notes on the Communist Party of 
South Africa, 1921-34? in Radical History Review 51, 5-24. 
209
  Early Christian teachings and lifestyle contained communal values that we might today recognise as 
socialist. 
210
  Hirson, B. and Williams, G.A. 1995. The Delegate for Africa: David Ivon Jones 1883-1924. London: 
Core Publications, 93. Hirson and Williams write separate sections of Jones?s biography. 
 73 
shadow across the world, but the Russian Revolution is the light of the world.?211 
S.P. Bunting too came from a religious background. His great-great grandfather and great-
 grandfather were both Wesleyan Ministers, and his mother was brought up in a Methodist 
household. On the occasion of the CPSA?s adoption of the Native Republic Thesis, in a 
meeting in Johannesburg in 1928, Bunting said: ?We [the CPSA] preach good tidings to the 
poor, liberty to the captives and the opening of the prisons to them that are bound? 
(reminiscent of early Christian teaching).212  
In a country where the majority of black South Africans were Christian, black CPSA leaders 
drew on the religious language of their youth to appeal to black people. For example, during 
a political demonstration in Potchefstroom in 1929, Edwin Mofutsanyana ?equated 
Communist political goals with Christian principles, but insisted that those principles must be 
implemented on earth rather than heaven?.213  
Despite the fact that many of the African members of the CPSA were brought into the CPSA 
after a period of tutelage in Marxism in CPSA organised night schools, and remained 
committed Marxists, Kelley points out that religious language was not only a rhetorical 
device: ?The African cadre turned to the text they knew best in order to make sense of their 
movement, drawing their arsenal largely from Ethiopianism and other versions of 
Africanized Christianity.?214 This was not only the case for African activists. For example, La 
                                                 
211
  Hirson and Williams, The Delegate for Africa, 178.  
212
  Cited in Bunting, South African Communists Speak, 90. Drew notes, ?The influence of religion on 
socialism took different forms. In the nineteenth-century Britain, a culture of ethical socialism was built on 
a Protestant Tradition?? Drew, Discordant Comrades, 2. This can be seen in the case of  S.P. Bunting and 
David Ivon Jones.  
213
  Kelley, ??The Religious Odyssey of African Radicals?, 15. Edwin Mofutsanyana joined the CPSA in 
1927. He was also a member of the ANC. He was active in the CPSA until it disbanded and was General-
 Secretary of the Party for a period. 
214Kelley, ?The Religious Odyssey of African Radicals?, 16. Kelley?s article is fascinating because it deals 
with the influence of Christian discourses on the CPSA members, and because it provides some insight into 
the traditions that African CPSA intellectuals brought to the socialist movement. This topic is unfortunately 
seriously under explored. The majority of CPSA?s rank and file membership was African ? but about them 
we know little. This is partly because, as Kelley points out, the CPSA?s mass base was so transient and 
partly because, as with so many archives, concentration has been on more prominent leaders. Kelley?s 
remarks on this topic are speculative rather than conclusive. The interaction of Christian discourses with 
Marxism and socialism, and the traditions that black South Africans brought to the socialist movement in 
South Africa is an area in need of further investigation. Apart from the dearth of archival material with 
 74 
Guma a coloured activist and prominent member of the CPSA, published a poem in the South 
African Worker which was derived from Psalm 68 of the Bible: 
Hark ye comrades, fellow workers,  
The cry throughout the land. 
 Ethiopia lifts her weary head 
And stretches out her hand? 
 
Arise ye? African workers, 
Strip ready for the fray, 
In the rosy East is dawning 
The long awaited day, 
The day of emancipation.  
From the bitter galling [c]hains, 
 Of capitalist oppression,  
 That sucks the life blood from your veins?215 
Religion influenced the content of the imagined utopia for some CPSA members. For 
example, the imagined future may have been seen by some Christian members as the 
Promised Land (in a similar manner to Christian prophecies of a promised land) as shown in 
La Guma?s poem.216             
 
                                                                                                                                                 
which to explore this topic, it may have been neglected due to association of Marxism with an anti-
 religious position or with secularisation.  
215
  La Guma, 1928 cited in Kelley, ?The Religious Odyssey of African Radicals?, 16. James (Jimmy) La 
Guma joined the CPSA in 1925. He founded the Luderitz branch of the ICU as a young man. He played a 
role in developing the Native Republic Thesis to be discussed later in the Chapter. 
216
  The following quote is taken from an article entitled ?What is the Communist Party? Lesson 4: What 
Will be Done in the Bantu Republic?? which was written by the CPSA and published in a 1934 edition of 
Umsebenzi: ?Everyone who wants land will be able to get it, and so no one will starve. The people?s 
government will help the peasants in many ways, with ploughs and tractors and oxen and seed and with 
irrigation works. The whole nation will unite to fight the drought and the locusts, and the pests will no 
longer cause misery and death to thousands.? (Source: Drew, A. (Ed) 1996. South Africa?s Radical 
Tradition: A Documentary History. Volume 1: 1907 ? 1950. Cape Town: Buchu Books, Mayibuye Books, 
UCT Press, 215). While this passage contains no religious references, the prose of the passage is 
reminiscent of biblical prose and of millenarian visions of a better society in the promise of a harmonious, 
peaceful rural life (millenarian movements were usually rural based, and thus references to a harmonious 
society were often rural). Whether or not this passage was in fact influenced by religious visions of a better 
society is not clear, though quite likely. 
Fig. 5.2: James La Guma, 
member of the CPSA. 
 75 
Commitment to the socialist movement was to some CPSA members a moral and righteous 
choice to serve humanity and set it free, and some individuals? speeches and writings that 
included utopian references or images thus took on the evangelical tone of Christianity. 217  In 
addition, religious language provided them with references and language with which to 
articulate their utopianism. It is possible that even for those who were not religious, religious 
language gave them a vocabulary that expressed the hope and excitement they felt in the 
future.  
The humanitarianism found in certain Christian traditions, such as the Wesleyan community 
in which S.P. Bunting was bought up in, may also have influenced the content of the CPSA?s 
utopia ? as one in which people would be free from poverty, oppression and associated social 
indignities. 218 This humanitarianism was not of course exclusive to Christian traditions, and 
as mentioned, can be found in Marx?s work too.  
Importantly, the CPSA?s vision of a future society was also moulded by the experiences of 
activism in South Africa: and in particular a sense, or experience of the injustices of racial 
oppression. The CPSA?s closer engagement with black protest in the mid 1920s placed the 
goal of producing a non-racial society, where black people would be free from racial 
oppression, at centre stage. As already suggested in the previous chapter, however, the young 
CPSA was at first focused on creating an international socialist utopia.  
The Early Vision: An International Utopia 
David Ivon Jones and Sam Barlin, South African delegates to the Comintern in 1921, 
reported that, ?We white colonists are a shifting population. For some of us, the only tie with 
South Africa is the Communist Movement itself.?219 They did not of course speak for all 
CPSA members at the time. Nevertheless, though very much involved with labour issues 
                                                 
217
  It is possible that Judaism influenced the CPSA?s utopian vision. Redemption and salvation are certainly 
a part of Jewish religious discourse, and the similarity between Marxism and Jewish mysticism where 
mentioned in Chapter Two.  
218
  For example, Molly Fischer, a member of the CPSA and later the SACP, grew up in a family where the 
values of humanitarianism and compassion were important, a tradition which continued from Molly?s 
grandmother?s work as a missionary. Interview with Ilse Wilson, Johannesburg, September 2006. 
219
  Barlin, S. and Jones, I., Memorandum to the Small Bureau of the Comintern on the Situation in Africa, 
Statement of the South African Delegation to the Comintern, 16 July 1921. Source: Davidson, A. Filatova, 
I. Gorodnov, V. Johns, S. (Eds.) 2003. South Africa and the Communist International: A Documentary 
History Volume 1: Socialist Pilgrims to Bolshevik Footsoldiers 1919-1930. London: Frank Cass, 76.  
 76 
(mainly white at the beginning) in South Africa, most of the socialists looked northwards for 
answers, including South African born communists like Eddie Roux.  
Their foreign roots or orientation were reflected in the references used in writings and 
propaganda, which would probably not have appealed to a large segment of the South 
African population. By way of illustration: the language and references in the ISL?s leaflet, 
?The Bolsheviks are coming? (written after the Russian Revolution) were decidedly English: 
?Why do they send British armies to Russia to fight the Bolsheviks? Have they not had 
enough killing? Or is it a thirst for righteousness that makes them pack Tommy Atkins off to 
freeze in the snows of Archangel, just when he was looking forward to Home and 
Blighty??220  
In addition to their foreign orientation, the Party also had a decidedly internationalist outlook, 
which they shared with many socialist groups around the world at this time. They believed 
that all workers around the world shared a common desire (to rid themselves of oppression) 
and destiny, and could be united in their fight for a new world. This internationalist outlook 
can be seen in the name of the Party?s paper at this time: The International. 
The utopia imagined by the CPSA when it was first established also reflects this international 
(and sometimes foreign) orientation. They imagined a community whose economic equality 
and well being were assured via the communal ownership, production and distribution of 
assets and wealth. It was a worldwide commonwealth of labour. Grand scale international 
revolutionary change was to bring about a harmonious and just society. It was a society in 
which all men, irrespective of colour, where to be equal, and all ?races? where called to join 
in the fight for socialism.221 As shown in the previous chapter, the Russian Revolution played 
                                                 
220
  Greene, L.H. and Jones, D.I, ?The Bolsheviks are coming?, leaflet of the ISL circulated in 1918 and 
1919. Source: Bunting, South African Communists Speak, 40. The leaflet was translated in isiZulu and 
Sesotho (Bunting, 38). It would be interesting to see how such phrases were translated! As they stand, they 
would hardly have been the words to prick the ears of Afrikaner and South African black workers. 
Nevertheless the fact that they were translated into African languages shows that the Party was attempting 
to reach black workers at the time. 
221
  See an extract from a letter from David Ivon Jones to Trotsky (Extract of letter from Comrade Jones to 
Trotsky?s questionnaire, 2 June 1921. Source: Davidson et al, South Africa and the Communist 
International, 71-73); the CPSA?s 1921 Manifesto; ?The Fight to a Finish? (CPSA, ?The Fight to a Finish?, 
Manifesto to the striking workers of the Witwatersrand, 30 January 1922. Source: Bunting, South African 
Communists Speak, 68-69), their 1924 Draft Party Programme (CPSA, Draft Communist Party Programme 
adopted by CPSA conference, for submission to the branches, 30 December 1924. Source: Bunting, South 
 77 
a large part in increasing hopes for a worldwide transformation of society. 
The following is taken from the Party?s Draft 1924 Programme, their first:  
The only remedy for the evils of the capitalist system is the socialisation of the 
means of production, distribution and exchange, and the establishment of a 
Communist society based on social as opposed to individual ownership. THIS HAS 
BECOME THE RECOGNISED OBJECTIVE OF THE LABOUR MOVEMENT 
THROUGHOUT THE WORLD. Its realisation means that with the disappearance of 
private profit and exploitation, all unemployment, starvation, slums, so-called over 
production, wars, the subjection of man to man and THE CLASS STRUGGLE 
ITSELF, WILL DISAPPEAR IN A CLASSLESS SOCIETY.222 
The Programme sketched the outlines of an alternative society by contrasting it with the 
perceived evils of the present capitalist system. The majority of the Programme was 
dedicated to rousing talk of the worldwide exploitation of workers, and included little on 
analysis of the particular nature of class divisions in South Africa and their interaction with 
issues of race. 
It was however, critical of the white labour movement. Referring to the SALP, the 
Programme stated that, ?By its failure to recognise the exploited native workers it forfeits all 
claims to be a true working-class party.?223   
Bill Andrews (see figure 5.3) was still a member of the SALP when he spoke in the Union 
Parliament on the conditions under which miners were working. He concluded by saying 
that,  
We believe there are more important things than dividends, and they are the life and 
well being of the people of his country?.Ruskin, who was not a tub-thumper,224 
said: ?There is no wealth but life. In fact, it may be discovered that the true veins of 
                                                                                                                                                 
African Communists Speak, 80-84). See also the biography of Jones, (Hirson and Williams, The Delegate 
for Africa), autobiography of Sachs (Sachs, Multitude of Dreams) and Roux (Roux, E. and W, Rebel Pity) 
for ISL and CPSA members? hopes in the creation of a worldwide socialist order.  
222
  CPSA, Draft Communist Party Programme, 1924, 81. 
223
  CPSA, Draft Communist Party Programme, 1924, 82. 
224
  A tub-thumper refers to a noisy ranting speaker. 
 78 
wealth are purple- and not in rock, but in flesh- perhaps even that the final outcome 
and consummation of all wealth is in the producing as many as possible full-
 breathed, bright-eyed and happy-hearted human creatures.? That is the policy of the 
Labour Party.?225 
The SALP?s statements showed a commitment to building a 
better society and included utopian statements about the 
future. The SALP included in its objectives, the 
?socialisation of the means of production? in the interests 
of the whole community?. But the ?community? referred to 
white people only.226 The utopia of the majority of the white 
labour was implicit: while the majority of its members 
looked forward to the full develop of men, it was an 
exclusive utopia that they imagined, in which white 
privilege was assured and sustained. The slogan under 
which many of the workers revolted in 1922:  ?Workers of 
the World Fight and Unite for a White S.A.? was not 
contradictory if black workers were not considered part of 
society. 
By comparison with the SALP and white labour in general, and in comparison with the whole 
of South African society, the CPSA?s call to black and white to unite against capitalist 
oppression really stood out. The often poor conditions under which black South Africans 
lived and their lack of rights under South African law were included in CPSA statements in 
this period, though often in the patronising and stereotyping language of the time, particularly 
regarding African people.227  In 1923 the Party called on all workers to ?associate? with the 
                                                 
225
  Cited in Cope, R.K. 1944. Comrade Bill: The Life and Times of W.H. Andrews, Workers? Leader. Cape 
Town: Stewart, 128. 
226
  Drew, Discordant Comrades, 28. 
227
  See for example David Ivon Jones commentary on ?The South African Native? in a report to the ECCI 
of the Comintern in 1921 on behalf of the ISL: ?Yet in spite of it all [few rights and the experience of 
poverty], the Bantu is a happy proletarian. He has lovable qualities. ?His joy of life and fortitude under 
suffering,? to quote Lafargue?s words on the negro: his communal spirit, his physical vitality, his keen 
desire to know, despite his intellectual backwardness, make him an object of lurking affection to the whites 
who come into contact with him.? Jones, D.I., ?Communism in South Africa?, presented to the ECCI of the 
Comintern on behalf of the ISL, 1921. Source: Bunting, South African Communists Speak, 51. Not all white 
members used such patronizing language however: Eddie Roux and S.P. Bunting for example.  
Fig. 5.3: Bill Andrews, founding 
member of the CPSA. 
 79 
demands of the SA Native National Congress?228 and the 1924 programme included a call for 
the abolition of the pass laws and ?Equal justice, irrespective of colour.?229 
There was no specific analysis of racial oppression in either the CPSA?s first manifesto or 
their first party programme, however. The CPSA?s initial lack of concentration on the 
particular plight of black workers and the patronising tone in which black workers were often 
written about in this period, implied a utopia in which the equal participation in society by 
black people was not yet an important part of the imagined future. At this stage the socialist 
utopia was imagined by a group of predominately white males. This was to change. 
Towards a More Focused and Inclusive Utopian Vision 
By the time the CPSA drafted its second party programme it was 1929, the year the Party 
adopted the Native Republic Thesis. The young CPSA?s gaze had shifted from its constant 
scanning of the international horizon to a greater focus on the local South African situation. 
In addition the sense of imminence of a world revolution had decreased, as shown in the last 
chapter. Attention became focused on fighting for a transformation of the South African 
society, even though they still looked forward to a world free from capitalism. 
The introduction to the 1929 Programme remained the same as the 1924 Programme: the 
CPSA claimed that capitalism, the individual ownership of land and other means of 
production, led to the exploitation of workers. But in the 1929 Programme new sections were 
inserted under the titles, ?The Native National Cause?, ?Class and race emancipation? and 
?non-exploiting whites?.230 The CPSA stated that ?the Party devotes special attention to the 
national cause of the native people as such, not indeed in the sense of a campaign ?to drive 
the white man into the sea?, but in the Leninist sense of underlining the prime importance of 
supporting movements for complete national liberation of colonial peoples??.231 
 
                                                 
228
  CPSA, ?A Helots Bill of Rights?, editorial in The International, 1 June 1923. Source: Bunting, South 
African Communists Speak, 72. 
229
  CPSA, Draft Communist Party Programme, 1924, 83. 
230
  In this section the position of white labour was discussed. The CPSA attempted to get white labour to 
see the advantages of a united working class.  
231
  CPSA, Programme of the Communist Party of South Africa adopted at the seventh annual conference, 1 
January 1929. Source: Bunting, South African Communists Speak, 102.  
 80 
Important changes in the content of the utopian vision are thus discernable. The future 
society envisioned in the 1929 programme was one in which ?land and liberties? were 
restored to black people, and equality, emancipation, independence and self-determination 
were assured for all black South Africans; a society in which exploitation and domination of 
?man by man? was abolished, and all men were ?socially, economically and politically free 
to share alike in the fruits of their joint labour, with equal opportunity and equal access to all 
the comforts of life.?232   
By seeing all people, whatever their ?race?, as equal members of society, and in seeing both 
black and white workers as central in the fight for the radical transformation of society the 
young CPSA was pushed in the direction of imagining a more inclusive utopia.233 The 
CPSA?s vision was never exclusionary per se but the lack of concentration on black 
liberation may have had the effect of being a less attractive or inspiring vision for those 
beyond a small circle of white socialists.234 The vision of a future society was now ?inclusive? 
in that the imagined community explicitly included the equal participation of all people 
irrespective of race, and that the CPSA?s imagined utopia now comprised a society in which 
the liberation of black South Africans was a key feature of a future community.  
Thus the CPSA?s utopian vision did not remain static, but changed with changing contexts. 
The following section takes a more detailed look at the process in which CPSA utopian 
visions shifted in content and focus.   
 
                                                 
232
  CPSA, Programme of the Communist Party of South Africa, 1929, 101. 
233
  This did not however mean that the CPSA?s white (majority) members held no prejudiced views, and 
some of the language of CPSA writings and statements still included some patronizing and stereotyping 
language.  
234
  Due to limited time and space, the inclusive or exclusive nature of the CPSA?s vision in terms of other 
identities, such as gender, has not been looked at. Regarding gender, the CPSA was in principle a non-
 sexist organization, but in practice the CSPA did not give the active recruitment of women, and their 
mentorship, much thought. Far fewer members of the CPSA were women than men, and Josie Mpama was 
the only leading black women in the CPSA. (Mpama was a communist from the 1920s to the 1940s. She 
was a student in Moscow. She eventually left communism and turned back to Christianity. She was married 
to another prominent CPSA member Edwin Mofutsanyana). Some of the personal relationships between 
men and women were egalitarian (Jack and Ray Simons for example), others were fairly traditional. The 
Party nevertheless stood out in the context of the day for providing a space where women could engage in 
the political arena.   
 81 
The CPSA?s Closer Engagement with Black Protest 
Many socialists of the early 1900s believed that the white workers, increasingly militant and 
vested in the urban industrial experience, were the vanguard of the potential socialist 
revolution. It is this belief, coupled in the minds of many (though not all) white socialist and 
labour activists with racial prejudices about ?stages of advancement of different social 
groups? which in part explains the sometimes confused, oscillating attempts by white 
socialist to mobilise black workers in the fight for a socialist future in the first few decades of 
the 20th Century.235  
However, during the 1922 Rand Revolt some Party members such as S.P. Bunting were 
caught between supporting an enthusiastic protest against the capitalist government and 
condemning white labour?s attempts to retain white privilege at the expense of black workers. 
In a statement issued to the striking workers, the CPSA said that, ?To maintain the ?white 
standard? to build a ?white South Africa?, is impossible under capitalism, whose nature is to 
degrade every class it employs.?236 The call during the strike for a ?Workers? Republic of the 
World for the common and equal benefit of all workers?237 was a na?ve attempt to unite 
workers across colour lines.  
 
                                                 
235
  A fuller understanding of the CPSA?s reaction to the Rand Revolt however demands earlier historical 
contextualisation of the broader landscape of white and black labour. In the late 1800s small scale 
Afrikaner farmers began to lose land to large landowners as a result of the consolidation of farmland after 
the mineral boom in the Transvaal and Orange Free State. In addition the Anglo-Boer War left many 
Afrikaner boers unable to farm again, and Afrikaners, many of them destitute, were forced into 
employment in the cities. They joined English workers, whose numbers had been swelled in the 
Witwatersrand by the discovery of minerals. By comparison, Africans were brought under the influence of 
industrial capitalism later, and by a more engineered process. The Masters and Servants Ordinance of 1904 
and the infamous Land Act of 1913 negatively affected African farm owners and workers, increasing the 
exploitation of the later, and destructively curtailing the development of black farming. Legislation and 
increasingly levels of taxation on African rural dwellers slowly forced Africans (at first mainly men) into 
South African towns and cities, either permanently or as migrant labour. (Based on Drew, Discordant 
Comrades and van Onselen, Studies in the Social and Economic History of the Witwatersrand, Volumes 
One and Two). It was these real and apparent differences between white and black workers experiences and 
rates of proletarianisation that led many socialists of the early 1900s to believe that the white workers were 
the vanguard of the potential socialist revolution. 
236
  CPSA, ?The Fight to a Finish?, 69. 
237
  CPSA, ?The Fight to Finish?, 69. 
 82 
After the strike, some CPSA members, such as Bill Andrews, still supported the thesis that 
white labour was the vanguard of the struggle. On the other hand, people like S.P. Bunting 
and Eddie Roux, felt that the CPSA should turn to organising black labour.238   
In 1924 the Pact Government was elected: the SALP and the National Party (NP) in alliance, 
and what were known as ?civilised? labour policies were introduced to co-opt white labour. 
The gap between the standard of living of white and black workers widened and animosity 
between black and white workers, already heightened by the 1922 Revolt, worsened. It was 
in this atmosphere that some CPSA members, particularly Young Communist League 
activists such as Eddie Roux, made contact with organisations such as the African National 
Congress (ANC) and the Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU), at one time a 
successful mass protest movement, with a large rural following. At the CPSA?s 1924 
conference the Party began to grapple with ?The Native Question?. But many white members 
were unhappy with the shift in policy, saying that it alienated white workers to hammer on 
about the Native Question, and many left the party as a result.  
Nevertheless, attempts at attracting black membership via night schools in Marxism, trade 
union work and public meetings soon bore fruit. Black membership increased from one to 
1600 between 1925 and 1928.239 Notable new recruits included J.B. Marks, Albert Nzula and 
Moses Kotane (who was to play a major role in party politics, eventually as General 
Secretary of the CPSA and then SACP from 1939 to 1978, see figure 5.4).240 The Party?s 
paper, South African Worker, started printing articles in African languages.241 Black 
communists also became involved in the work of the ICU, as the CPSA moved more directly 
into black protest. 242  
                                                 
238
  This shift was in fact driven at first not by a full appreciation of the national oppression of black people 
and their desire for national liberation, but by a fuller appreciation of the potential of black workers in the 
struggle against capitalism, and a shift away from the notion that white workers could be the vanguard of 
the struggle against capitalism.  
239
  Drew, Discordant Comrades, 77-78. 
240
  Alfred Nzula was a school teacher who joined the CPSA in the late 1920s. He was an intellectual of the 
Party who travelled to the USSR to study. He died in Moscow. J.B. Marks was a prominent CPSA member 
and a trade unionist who joined the Party in 1928. He was chairman of the SACP in the 1960s. He was also 
a member of the ANC. 
241
  Drew, Discordant Comrades, 78. 
242
  Relations between the ICU and the CPSA soon soured however, and the CPSA was expelled a few years 
later from a troubled ICU. 
 83 
From the mid twenties onwards the daily injustices 
experienced by black people became a central part of 
CPSA?s utopian message. Sometimes the status quo was 
contrasted with a future society in which people of all 
races were free to join in the fruits of labour. For example, 
in the booklet, What is the Communist Party? A Word to 
African Workers (after detailing the hardships under 
which African workers lived and worked) the workers 
were told that their oppression would lead them to 
organise to take over all productive property, ?for the 
common benefit of all, establishing a ?co-operative 
commonwealth? where ?ALL MEN SHALL BE 
SOCIALLY AND POLITICALLY FREE AND SHALL 
SHARE ALIKE IN THE FRUITS OF THEIR JOINT 
LABOUR, WITH EQUAL OPPORTUNITY AND 
EQUAL ACCESS TO ALL THE GOOD THINGS IN 
LIFE.?243 
As mentioned, the closer engagement with black protest and the increasing black 
membership in the Party pushed the white CPSA members towards a greater appreciation of 
the particular plight of black people in South Africa and may well have challenged prejudiced 
thinking within the Party. Black communists brought new avenues and methods of 
recruitment of new Party members. African members spoke African languages and were 
more closely connected to the mass of South Africa black workers by virtue of shared 
experiences of racial and class injustice and shared traditions, as seen in the way they 
propagandised for the party using the language and metaphors of African Christianity.244  The 
extent to which the rank and file of the CPSA members affected the Party?s official vision of 
the future is not easy to discern. But other strands of utopianism must have featured in the 
Party. For example meetings and protests were often accompanied by song. The lyrics of this 
?song culture? appear to have had elements of utopianism which drew on traditions such as 
                                                 
243
  CPSA, What is the Communist Party? A Word to African Workers, 1932, published by the Party. 
Source: Simons Collection, BC1081: 018.1.  
244
  However, Kelley comments that that in a sense these mission educated Africans remained slightly 
outside of traditional African culture, or ?became outsiders in the eyes of non-Christian Africans? and 
mainly outside of the European culture, and created a sub-culture which combined both African and 
European culture. Kelley, ?The Religious Odyssey of African Radicals?, 11-12. 
Fig. 5.4: Moses Kotane, 
General-Secretary of the 
CPSA and SACP from 1939-
 1978.  
 
 84 
local African folk stories and Christianity.245 About these alternative and more fluid 
expressions of utopianism than those found in the CPSA?s programmes and manifestos, we 
unfortunately know too little.246  
 
 
Fig. 5.5: An essay by Russian Soviet 
I.L. Snegirev entitled, Revolutionary Songs 
of the South African Workers,1937.  
The essay contained Russian translations of 
South African revolutionary songs.  
Held in the Comintern Archives, Moscow.  
 
 
 
 
The Native Republic Thesis: Changes in the Utopian Vision? 
The CPSA was to be pushed into a further re-orientation of its utopian vision by the adoption 
of the Native Republic Thesis, developed primarily by the Comintern. In the mid to late 
twenties, a number of changes in the Soviet Union and international politics saw an 
unprecedented level of intervention by the Comintern in Southern African affairs. First the 
extreme dictatorial and authoritarian rule of Stalin replaced Trotsky?s in the ECCI. Second, 
the Soviet Union was increasingly interested in anti-colonial and national liberation 
movements as hopes for a socialist revolution in Europe waned and the Soviet Union became 
increasingly internationally isolated.247  
                                                 
245
  Interview with Jeremy Cronin, August 2006. 
246
  No doubt archival material in this regard does exist. Due to the limited time one is able to allocate to a 
research report, this avenue was not explored, however, it would however be a fascinating area of research. 
247
  Drew, Discordant Comrades, 95. 
 85 
Accounts of the development of the Native Republic Thesis differ as to the exact origination 
of the Thesis: whether it was developed primarily by the Comintern, or whether it was 
developed by CPSA member La Guma, on a number of trips to Europe and Moscow, in 
consultation with the Comintern.248 Both Drew and Grossman point out, however, that the 
Thesis followed the Comintern?s more general approach to anti-colonial and national 
liberation struggles: its theoretical roots lay in Moscow.249 Davidson et al?s interpretation, 
written after close examination of Comintern documents accessed after the Comintern 
archives were opened in 1991, is that the ECCI never took the time to explain the meaning of 
the Native Republic Thesis to the CPSA, ?its line for the CPSA was shaped less by South 
African realities than by its global interests. Despite what the slogan itself might lead one to 
believe?, they continue, ?the specific situation was hardly taken into account.?250 
Drew summarises the Comintern?s view as follows: 
The Native Republic Thesis proposed national self-determination through a struggle 
against British imperialism, but it was an imperialism defined not so much by its 
capitalist nature as by it colonial character, which included both foreign and racial 
domination. From its emphasis on the colonial character of South African society, 
flowed the assumption that the land hungry peasantry was the moving force of the 
South Africa revolution?. the Native Republic Thesis offered a particular solution to 
South Africa?s national question: majority rule as a stage towards socialism.251 
 
                                                 
248
  Jack and Ray Simons appear to support the later (Simons, H.J. and R.E. 1969. Class and Colour in 
South Africa: 1850-1950. Hammondsworth: Penguin African Library). The Simons were far less critical of 
the negative role played by the Comintern than people like Eddie Roux and non-party historians, and 
celebrated the Thesis, seeing it as a positive move towards unifying the national and class struggles in what 
was to become fundamental SACP policy and strategy (See Legassick?s discussion of Simons?s position in 
Undated. ?Class and Nationalism in South African Protest: The SA Communist Party and the ?Native 
Republic?, 1928-34? in Bozzoli, B. (Complied by) Collected Papers of Martin Legassick Volume 2. 
Johannesburg: University of the Witwatersrand). Roux however, claimed that the CPSA was ?forced to 
adopt the slogan of a ?Native Republic?.? (Roux, E. 1964 [1948]. Time Longer than Rope. Madison: The 
University of Wisconsin Press, 256.) 
249
  Drew, Discordant Comrades, 95 and Grossman, J. 1985. ?Class Relations and the Policies of the 
Communist Party of South Africa 1921-1950?. Doctoral Thesis. Coventry: University of Warwick. 
250
  Davidson et al, South Africa and the Communist International, 13-14. 
251
  Drew, Discordant Comrades, 96.  
 86 
The slogan of the Native Republic Thesis read, ?An independent South African Native 
Republic as a stage towards the Workers? and Peasants? Republic, guaranteeing protection 
and complete equality to all national minorities?.252  
 
 
 
Fig. 5.6: CPSA rally in 
the late 1920s.  
Edwin Mofutsanyana 
is standing on 
the right side of the 
platform. 
 
 
 
The Party was split between those who supported the adoption of the Thesis and those who 
either outright dismissed it or objected to certain interpretations of the South African 
situation and the path towards a socialist future. S.P. Bunting led those who objected. He 
particularly objected to the assumption that the peasantry were potentially the vanguard of a 
revolution in South Africa, claiming that colonised people in South Africa were becoming 
?proletarianised?, and that anyway the category peasantry was complicated by the reality of 
the migrant labour system. He was also worried that the Thesis depicted all white people as 
imperialists, thus limiting co-operation in class struggle across colour lines.253 Bunting felt 
that democracy would be won via ?joint black and white proletarian struggle?.254 He was 
joined in his objections by Eddie Roux and others. This change in focus for the CPSA was 
not only resisted by white members of the party. Thibedi took a long time to have come 
round to supporting the thesis, and stated in a letter to the Comintern that, ?consider the 
Black Republic slogan a mistake, and that a ?Workers and Peasants Republic? would really 
                                                 
252
  Drew, Discordant Comrades, 21. 
253
  Drew, Discordant Comrades, 98. 
254
  Drew, Discordant Comrades, 98. 
 87 
rally the black and white workers in this country.?255  
The La Guma camp, which included Molly and Douglas Wolton, soon to play a major role in 
CPSA history, believed that revolutionary potential lay in the increasing national 
consciousness of black people in South Africa, irrespective of class, to overthrow 
imperialism and instil democracy, the route to socialism. La Guma was understandably tired 
of CPSA concerns about alienating white workers. He sarcastically wrote, ?Yes, you will be 
allowed to march into the promised land at such time as it can be considered without 
wounding the susceptibilities of the ?Baas?.?256 
Bunting, his wife Rebecca and Eddie Roux travelled to Moscow to attend the Sixth Congress 
of the Comintern in July 1928 and presented their objections to the Thesis. They received an 
icy cold reception. Despite their misgivings Bunting and others accepted the Native Republic 
Thesis, such was their faith in the Comintern?s interpretations of Marxism, and their loyalty 
to communism, expressed in towing the Comintern Party line.257 Significantly however, it 
was also accepted because the CPSA has not yet developed its own clear programme for how 
to work with black workers and organisations in order to forward the socialist project.258   
The CPSA was, however, confused about what exactly the Thesis meant and developed 
contradictory interpretations of the Thesis. The following two contradictory passages are 
taken from the same CPSA programme: 
This double burden of exploitation carried by the native masses calls for a 
democratic revolution? Such a revolution does not by itself mean the final liberation 
of the broad masses of South Africa. The stage remains to be traversed to the final 
                                                 
255
  Thibedi, W. 1929 cited in Drew, Discordant Comrades, 104. Bunting and other?s scepticism in the 
revolutionary potential of all black classes was not produced within a vacuum. The ANC at this stage was 
still a relatively conservative party of black professionals and ?petty bourgeoisie?. In addition, many 
members of the ANC were suspicious of socialism.  
256
  La Guma, J.A. 1928. ?Who?s for the Third International Thesis on SA? cited in Drew, Discordant 
Comrades, 98. This comment points to existing tensions in the Party around issues of race. Despite the 
CPSA?s incredibly open and non-racial history relative to the surrounding South African society, racial 
tensions surfaced in party debate and activity: the imagining of a non-racial utopia did not mean the 
complete transcendence of the bifurcation of South African life.  
257
  The CPSA constant deference to the Comintern on matters of policy and the reasons for their loyalty to, 
and faith in, the Comintern will be discussed in detail in Chapter Seven.  
258
  Grossman, ?Class Relations and the Policies of the Communist Party of South Africa?, 160. 
 88 
abolition of exploitation and domination of class by class.259 
And: ??the conception and realisation of the native republic rule merges into that of the 
workers and peasants republic, non Capitalist, non racialist, and in effect socialist?.260 Such 
evident confusion at this stage does lend some support to the position that the Thesis was 
largely imposed on the CPSA ?from above?.261 
The CPSA adoption of the Native Republic Thesis was thus not an easy transition to a more 
overtly pro-national liberation stance. Many of the Party members initial weariness is 
expressed in Eddie Roux?s words in a letter to the editor of the South African Worker. At the 
time, it appeared to some South African communists that adopting the Native Republic 
Thesis would mean a rejection of the very kind of society that the communists were fighting 
for: 
Communism, as I understand it, does not aim at a Black Republic any more than it 
means a White Republic or Yellow Republic. [?]Communism stands, I take it for 
Industrial Republicanism, where competition ceases and co-operation takes its place. 
No privilege, no class?. [?]The idea of a Black Republic is dangerously near to 
racialism, pure and simple. It can easily become the antithesis of International 
working class solidarity. There is no rule, apart from that of a class basis, by which it 
can be claimed that the future would be better than the past, and this rule is 
abandoned as soon as we drop class and take up race.262 
Manny Lopes was a CPSA member based in Cape Town, who had been very active in the 
early South African socialist groups in the early 1900s. In a letter to Umsebenzi in 1930, 
Lopes wrote that, ?Marcus Garvey263 stands for bourgeois Negro republics in Africa and that 
is what Messrs. Bunting, Roux and La Guma stand for. If they stood for anything else, for 
                                                 
259
  CPSA, Programme of the Communist Party of South Africa, 1929, cited in Grossman, ?Class Relations 
and the Policies of the Communist Party of South Africa?, 157. 
260
  CPSA, Programme of the Communist Party of South Africa, 1929, 157. 
261
  Martin Legassick pointed out that this confusion remained in struggle circles. See Legassick, ?Class and 
Nationalism in South African Protest?. 
262
  Roux, E. Letter to the editor of South African Worker, Pietermaritzburg, 7 December 1928. Source: 
Edward Roux Papers A667: B1, Historical Papers Library, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. 
263
  Marcus Garvey was an African American who developed the notion of a black worldwide racial and 
national identity. 
 89 
example, an independent Socialist republic in South Africa they would scrap their present 
reactionary slogan??264  
In the context of a racially divided working class, adopting the Native Republic Thesis 
involved a re-examination of how socialism could be achieved, but more importantly for 
some CPSA members, a re-examination of what socialism as a future community meant to 
them. Grossman notes that, ?Once the Comintern programme had been accepted by the 1929 
Conference, the individuals who supported Bunting?s opposition applied themselves to 
promoting it as diligently as possible. In so doing, they rested on the (self-) assurance that the 
programme really represented a new formulation of the socialism they had always been 
fighting for.?265  
The difference between strategy and goals in a utopian movement is not always easy to 
isolate. Some members of the CPSA convinced themselves that the Native Republic was a 
strategy for achieve a socialist South Africa and not a goal in itself. We see the same process 
at work in the 1930s. Under the New Line policy of the Comintern, the Native Republic 
Thesis was subject to a reinterpretation.266 Instead of seeing the Native Republic as a united 
democratic state, the Native Republic was to be a federation of different nations or tribes. 
Drew writes the following: 
At a meeting of the Central Committee in December 1931 Joseph Sepeng introduced 
the new version, which called for ?a Government of the Bechuana, of the Basutos, 
Swazis etc. and all of these will federate in one Union, free from the domination of 
any one nation, as is the case in the U.S.S.R., where every nation has the right of 
nationalism, to speak its own tongue, the right to maintain its own customs and 
traditions.? Molly Wolton explained that the new version would ensure that the 
various South African tribes did not have to worry about the possibility of 
domination by any single tribe. Moreover, she added, it would not dilute the Party?s 
socialist objective, as the struggle would not simply stop with the achievement of 
                                                 
264
  Lopes, M. 1930 cited in Grossman, ?Class Relations and the Policies of the Communist Party of South 
Africa?, 559 n66.  
265
  Grossman, ?Class Relations and the Policies of the Communist Party of South Africa?, 182.  
266
  The New Line was the policy of the Comintern in the late twenties and early thirties: communist parties 
were to break all ties with ?reformist? organisations, and to demand loyalty from activists and increase the 
centralisation of authority in communist parties. Stalin?s rise to power in the Comintern was a major reason 
for this shift as will be shown in Chapter Seven. 
 90 
national liberation for the various groups.267 
At first the CPSA had assumed that a revolution would once and for all change society into 
an egalitarian, just and harmonious community. For members such as Roux, Bunting and 
Thibedi the acceptance of the Native Republic Thesis implicitly meant that the realising the 
utopia that they imagined would require patience, time and compromise. They managed by 
consoling themselves that the final objective had not been lost. Others felt that the utopia they 
had imagined had been abandoned. Still others, such as La Guma and the Woltons may have 
felt that changes in the method of reaching a socialist society reflected the material conditions 
in South African society, and that they where closer to achieving the imaged society in 
refining their methodology.  
Part of the tension we see building around the adoption of the Thesis is because tension is 
inherent in a utopian movement. The following statement by Goodwin and Taylor, relevant 
to the analysis here, was quoted in Chapter Two: ?Utopia is powerful because we can concur 
in its criticisms (short-term end) and weak because we invariably disagree on the remedies 
(the long term ends and the means)?.268 Factions emerged in the CSPA as people grappled 
with how to achieve their utopia: a utopian vision cannot be pursued without tension and 
disagreement.269 In addition disagreement surfaced because people imagined the ideal future 
society in different ways. For some people, changes in strategy even meant contemplating 
changes to what they felt was the best remedy to South African society?s problems. A 
continual negotiation about strategy in the CPSA entailed a continual negotiation about the 
content of the utopian vision.  
 
                                                 
267
  Drew, Discordant Comrades, 128-129. Based on a report of the meeting of the Central Committee of the 
CPSA, 28-30th December 1931. How precisely this federation based on different ?ethnicities? was to unite 
the working class across these lines to implement a socialist future was not well explored by the CSPA, but 
the proposal was accepted nonetheless.  In the 1930s the role of the dictatorial Comintern was strong and 
debate was not encouraged. Changes in policy and the strategy identified for attaining the socialist utopia, 
where highly influenced by the Comintern.   
268
  Goodwin and Taylor, The Politics of Utopia, 31. 
269
  ?Intentional communities?, mentioned briefly in Chapter Two, provide some interesting case studies in 
this regard. Lucy Sargisson explores conflict and co-operation in small scale communities attempting to 
live according to a set of ideals or principles ? and the constant negotiation involved in trying to produce a 
community that resonates with all the inhabitants. See Sargisson, L. 2004. ?Utopia and Intentional 
Communities?. Draft paper for discussion at the ECPR Conference, Uppsala. 
 91 
Before concluding, it should be noted that the official line or policy that stated the form of a 
future society and the strategy involved in realising the imagined future, were to an extent the 
CPSA?s utopian vision. This official vision, however, did not always capture the spirit and 
the form of the utopia that CPSA men and women held in their minds? eye. The form and 
content of these more personal utopias, for lack of a better description, is more difficult to 
access. The spirit and the form of these imagined futures can be picked up in more personal 
accounts, such as autobiographies.270 As mentioned near the beginning of the chapter, such 
visions may have also been expressed in revolutionary songs, and in poems such as that 
written by La Guma. Individual CPSA members would have differing pictures the future 
South Africa in their minds: for some, freedom from racial oppression would have been the 
most important feature of a future society, for others economic equality would have been 
vital, for still others a collective ethos and a general regard for fellow citizens would have 
been the most important feature.271 
Summary 
The exact content of the CPSA?s official utopian vision did not remain the same but changed 
under the influence of changing socio-political circumstances, changing Comintern policy, 
different personalities active in the CPSA, and new analyses of the South African situation by 
South African communists. It is safe to say, however, that in general the CPSA remained 
committed to the creation of a united, socialist, non-racist and democratic South Africa.  
The CPSA?s utopian vision drew on the writings of Marx, a tradition of ethical socialism, 
Bundism, frustrations with personal experiences of oppression, or a deep empathy for the 
plight of the less privileged, often expressed in religiously influenced language. Their 
backgrounds (whether religious or secular, European or African) were not necessarily 
abandoned in their adoption of Marxism and socialism (as a framework for understanding 
class and racial oppression and as a solution to these problems). These differing traditions 
                                                 
270
  See for example the biographies and autobiographies of Bill Andrews (Cope, Comrade Bill), S.P. 
Bunting (Roux, S.P. Bunting), David Ivon Jones (Hirson and Williams, The Delegate for Africa), Naboth 
Mokgatle (Mokgatle, N. 1971. The Autobiography of an Unknown South African. Johannesburg: AD. 
Donker), Pauline Podbrey (Podbrey, P. 1993. White Girl in Search of the Party. Pietermaritzburg: Hadeda 
Books), Eddie Roux (Roux, E. and W, Rebel Pity). The next chapter will explore more personal 
engagements with this utopian vision. 
271
  It was probably the case that the imagined future was not particularly important to some members: 
people join political movements for a host of reasons, not least of all ambitions of power, or simply a need 
to belong somewhere.  
 92 
and backgrounds influenced the content of the utopian vision. The CPSA also drew heavily 
on Comintern interpretations of Marxism, however, as can be seen in their attitude regarding 
the Native Republic Thesis. The sometimes dominant influence the Comintern meant that 
more open ended and less orthodox versions of a socialist future were sometimes submerged. 
It should be remembered however, that the CPSA derived strength from identifying 
themselves as a ?scientific? socialist party, one that had found the right tools with which to 
understand society, as was demonstrated in the previous chapter.  
The official vision of the future was often contested. Differences of opinion over the best 
method to attain the imagined future were sometimes acute, and were to amplify in the 
1930s, when Comintern interference in CPSA affairs reached its peak. The story of these 
tensions within the Party will be retuned to in Chapter Seven. 
 93 
Chapter Six:  
The Positive Contribution of the CPSA?s Utopianism 
 
In a racist and authoritarian society, in which capitalist relations of exploitation were 
constructed upon colonial relations of domination, a tiny core of people retained a vision of a 
quite different society ? one in which both racialism and capitalism were abolished. Against 
great odds, it was this vision that sustained South African communists. ? the Party kept alive 
the vision of an alternative social order ? one more rational, more democratic and more 
equitable than any offered by capitalism? The vision of an alternative social order? shaped 
the commitment and creativity displayed by individuals? 
(Colin Bundy,1991) 272  
Introduction 
Zygmunt Bauman claims that ?...whatever inspiring power socialism can justly boast is 
drawn from its utopian status.?273 This proposition is explored in relation to the CPSA in the 
following chapter, where the function of the CPSA?s utopianism is discussed. In addition to 
utopianism?s inspirational power it is argued that utopianism mobilised and sustained 
activism in the CPSA against the racist state and economic inequality. Visions of an 
alternative and ideal society provided CPSA activists with hope for a better future and 
provided a coping mechanism for members of the CPSA to deal with the social injustices 
they experienced or saw around them. The CPSA?s utopian vision also played a role in wider 
South African society in offering a challenge to the status quo. This challenge was offered 
first, by simply positing an alternative to the status quo and second, in mobilizing protest.  
There is thus much to be celebrated about the presence of utopianism in the CPSA, and much 
of the literature on the positive function of utopianism in society mentioned in Chapter Two, 
is supported by an analysis of utopianism in the CPSA. Utopianism in the CPSA was Janus-
 faced, however, in that it also revealed a destructive side. The destructive or negative role of 
utopianism in the CPSA is discussed in the next chapter.  
                                                 
272
  Bundy, C. 1991. ?Left, Right, Left, Right: The CPSA in the 1930s and 1940s? in Bundy, C. 
(Coordinator). The History of the South African Communist Party. Lectures presented at the University of 
Cape Town Summer School. Cape Town: Department of Adult Education and Extra-Mural Studies, UCT, 
32. 
273
  Bauman, Z. 1976. Socialism: The Active Utopia. London: Allen & Unwin, 36. 
 94 
The CSPA: A Whole New Way of Life 
The CPSA attracted a wide range of people to its cause and people joined the Party for 
different, though not mutually exclusive reasons. Some joined out of an intellectual 
conviction with the analysis of Marxism. For others, joining the CPSA was an ethical 
commitment, a moral way of life, and a way to live a consistent life in the context of injustice 
and inequality. Still others joined because they found a movement that allowed them to 
channel frustration with their daily oppression in the direction of fighting for change in South 
African society.  
For some people joining the CPSA became a new way of life, and a rupture with the old. 
Stephen Yeo writes that in the late eighteen hundreds in Britain socialism ?involved a whole 
change in way of life. It was not just a question of being entered on a party?s membership 
list? A separation from older jobs, friends, places and habits was succeeded by acquisition 
of new ones?.274 This appears to have been the case in South Africa a few decades later for 
some members of the ISL and other small socialist groups, and then the CPSA, particularly 
for S.P. Bunting and David Ivon Jones.275 For white members in particular, joining a non-
 racial organisation which protested against the establishment would have ostracised them 
from mainstream white South African society.276  
Joining the socialist movement, and in particular the CPSA, was akin in many ways to the 
conversation experience of joining a new religion: the separation from old ties and 
associations, the adoption of a new way of life, a new set of friends, a new framework for 
understanding the world.277 
                                                 
274
  Yeo, S. 1997 quoted in Drew, A. 2000. Discordant Comrades: Identities and Loyalties on the South 
African Left. Aldershot: Ashgate, 8.  
275
  See Hirson, B. and Williams, G.A. 1995. The Delegate for Africa: David Ivon Jones 1883-1924. 
London: Core Publications and Roux, E. 1944. S.P. Bunting: A Political Biography. Cape Town: Self-
 published.  
276
  Some CPSA members joined having already been emerged in socialist circles. For example many 
Jewish members of the CPSA arrived in South Africa already part of the Bundist socialist movement.  
277
  Jeremy Cronin commented that many of the European communist parties in the first half of the last 
century were a world unto themselves. Sports and social clubs, youth movements etcetera were all formed 
within communist circles. They were ?preparing socialism in the wings? and living a new way of life that 
permeated all spheres of their lives. Interview with Jeremy Cronin, August 2006. This intensity and 
isolation of experience does not seem to have been as strong in South Africa, partly because of the nature 
 95 
The CPSA became a new home for people when they 
joined the Party. David Ivon Jones for example, felt 
lonely and isolated in the often insular, narrowly 
educated, yet snobbish culture of white South Africa 
after arriving from New Zealand. In the Party he found a 
meeting of minds and developed firm friendships 
including those with Bunting and Andrews.278 Joe 
Slovo?s (see figure 6.1) autobiography is full of 
references of the comradeship experienced in the 
CPSA,279 and shows that members did not only continue 
to engage in CPSA activism out of a desire to change 
society, but also out of the sense of belonging that the 
group created.280 In addition, Slovo and Pauline 
Podbrey?s autobiographies show that much fun was had, 
particularly by young members of the CPSA, in between 
serious intellectual debate and political activism.281  
                                                                                                                                                 
of the struggle in the country. Communists were forced to engage with a number of groups and discourses 
via their engagement with the cause of national liberation in a multicultural society. The socialist 
movement still constituted a small sub-culture in South Africa however. This sub-culture included a wider 
socialist social network, including organisations such as the Jewish Workers Club. The Jewish Workers 
Club was formed in the late 1920s and comprised primarily immigrant Jews from Eastern Europe many of 
whom had been involved in the Bundist movement prior to immigration. The Club provided a social place 
where members meet to relax, play chess, table tennis, discuss politics and listen to political lectures. See 
Adler, T. 1979. ?Lithuania?s Diaspora: The Johannesburg Jewish Workers? Club, 1928-1948? in Journal of 
Southern African Studies, 6(1), 70-92. 
278
  Hirson and Williams, The Delegate for Africa. 
279
  Slovo, J. 1995. Slovo: the Unfinished Autobiography. Randburg: Ravan Press.  Joe Slovo arrived from 
Lithuania as a young boy. He was introduced to socialism via immigrants form Eastern Europe he lived 
with in boarding houses in Johannesburg. He joined the party in 1942 and became a prominent member of 
the CPSA and the SACP. He was the first Minster of Housing in the post-apartheid democratic 
government. 
280
  See for example Jones?s biography (Hirson and Williams, The Delegate for Africa), Pauline Podbrey?s 
autobiography (Podbrey, P. 1993. White Girl in Search of the Party. Pietermaritzburg: Hadeda Books), 
Bernard Sachs?s autobiography (Sachs, B. 1949. Multitude of Dreams: A Semi-autobiographical Study. 
Johannesburg: Kayor Publishing House).   
281
  Podbrey, White Girl in Search of the Party and Slovo, Slovo. See also Roux, E. and W. 1970. Rebel 
Pity: The Life of Eddie Roux. London: Rex Collings. See Harrison?s autobiography for accounts of socialist 
Fig. 6.1: Joe Slovo, member of the 
CPSA and SACP. 
 96 
For the young Bernard Sachs (see figure 6.2), who had grown up in a poor family in 
Ferreirastown, Johannesburg after immigrating from Lithuania ? joining the Party conferred 
on him a sense of dignity and pride, and he was struck by the egalitarian culture of the Party: 
What pleased me most was the way we mingled on terms of equality with the leaders 
of the movement?It was the sort of sanguine atmosphere that must have pervaded 
the catacombs of the early Christians. [?] What impressed me most of all was the 
manner in which one of the leaders of the International Socialist League, a certain 
Sidney Bunting, the son of an English knight, had completely merged with this band 
of humble men and women. What finer illustration of the magnetic force of this ideal 
of Socialism that was sweeping the world? When I addressed Sidney Bunting ? and I 
chose every pretext to do so ? I felt that in the words ?comrade Bunting?, my world 
of poverty, slums and gloom was dissolving and that I had grown in stature.282 
Sachs also comments that the majority of the members of the CPSA were, ?mostly ragged 
outcasts to whom the Communist Party was a sort of clan for pariahs where the bitterness and 
isolation of their lives could be softened ? the warm contact with other human beings that the 
Party afforded them was more real than the exegesis of Marxism.?283 This could not be said 
of all members however ? as different members joined for different reasons: Johnny Gomas 
commented that, ?We didn?t meet together as friends, you see. We met together as members 
of a Party who had a job to do, to carry through a mission.?284 The fact that Johnny Gomas 
was a black man living under the daily realities of racial oppression and was filled with a 
desire to rid himself and others of this oppression,  may have been responsible for his 
pragmatic, task orientated approach to his involvement in the Party.  
 
                                                                                                                                                 
groups in the early 1900s in Cape Town. Harrison seems to have had a great deal of fun during what he 
calls his ?socialist propaganda days?, particularly in getting up the noses of government officials. However, 
one also gets the sense that Harrison could afford to take interactions with the state less seriously than 
many other members, particularly black, could. He was white and thus less of a target, and also (judging 
from his memoirs) not as personally invested in the struggle for socialism as many other CPSA members, 
and certainly not in the struggle for national liberation, in which he thought the socialist movement should 
take no part. Harrison, W.H. 1948. Memoirs of a Socialist in South Africa: 1903-1947. Cape Town: Self-
 published.  
282
  Sachs, Multitude of Dreams, 134. 
283
  Sachs, Multitude of Dreams, 139.  
284
  Musson, D. 1989. Johnny Gomas: Voice of the Working Class. Cape Town: Buchu Books, 135. 
 97 
The socialist and national liberation movement, and membership of the CPSA, also provided 
members with a sense of purpose, something so many people crave. The socialist and 
national liberation movement, as with religion, allowed members to place themselves and 
their lives within a framework of meaning. Sachs comments that moving away from religion 
as a young man (he came from a particularly religious Jewish community in Lithuania) had 
?left a vacuum? and ?Bolshevism? rushed in like a whirlwind to fill it.?285 Socialism also 
replaced religion in the lives of David Ivon Jones and Pauline Podbrey.286  
Socialism and in particular Marxism, offered tools with 
which to understand the world and in particular the 
nature of class and racial oppression in South Africa. 
For example in a letter by Alfred Nzula to the editor of 
the South African Worker in 1928, Nzula comments that 
he had always found capitalist literature (on which he 
was brought up) unsatisfactory in trying to ?explain 
working class misery?, whereas Marxist literature 
offered a satisfactory explanation.287 
Thus the CPSA, as with many other movements or 
groups, including religious ones, provided CPSA 
members with: a new way of life, a home, a network of 
friends and support, a sense of belonging and purpose, 
as well as a strong sense of meaning to their lives. Socialism (in particular Marxism) also 
provided a tool with which to understand the society in which they lived.  
The Function of Utopianism in CPSA Members? Lives 
The visionary or utopian aspect of the CPSA movement played a role in CPSA members? 
lives. As mentioned in Chapter Two, visions of an alternative and better society may give 
voice to frustrations with the present, by showing how lacking the present is in relation to an 
ideal future. The CPSA?s provision of a clear and often articulated goal allowed for the 
                                                 
285
  Sachs, Multitude of Dreams, 132.  
286
  See Hirson and Williams, The Delegate for Africa and Podbrey, White Girl in Search of the Party.  
287
  Nzula, A.  Letter to the editor of the South African Worker, 24 October 1928. Source: Bunting, B. 1981. 
(Ed). South African Communists Speak: Documents from the History of the South African Communist Party 
1915-1980. London: Inkululeko Publications, 89. 
Fig. 6.2: Bernard Sachs, member 
of    the CPSA. 
 98 
channelling of members? frustrations with the present towards change in society. The 
socialist and non-racial utopia imagined by the Party thus played a role in mobilising action 
on the part of CPSA for change in society. Utopianism functioned as a mobilising force in 
setting up a desirable goal towards which activity could be directed.  
The utopian visions of the Party not only mobilised action in the first place, but also 
sustained activism in often very arduous circumstances.288 Referring to his acceptance into 
the CPSA in the 1940s, Joe Slovo commented, ?I threw myself into Party work with a great 
vigour in the certainty (which I still have) that the revolution was around the corner. It is this 
triumph of will over pessimism of intelligence that has always sustained me.?289 The 
?revolution? would bring about the realisation of the imagined socialist democratic utopia. 
No doubt, the particular nature of the CPSA?s utopianism, which was characterised by a 
strong confidence that the imagined future would be realised, (as discussed in detail in 
Chapter Four), was partly responsible for the sustaining power of the CPSA?s utopian vision.  
The inspiration and sustaining power of a vision of a better society played a role in the life of 
Ray Alexander (see figure 6.5).290 Alexander ends her autobiography with the following 
words: ?Nikolai Ostrovsky Soviet Novelist reflects my life?s philosophy: ?All my life and all 
                                                 
288
  Activism in the Party was sometimes dangerous and sacrifices were made by the men and women of the 
CPSA. In the early days of the CPSA?s propaganda activity many members were beaten and chased by 
mobs of men who disagreed with their stance (see Wolberg-Velmont, M. Report submitted to the Bureau of 
the Third International in Moscow, 15 April 1920. Source: Davidson, A. Filatova, I. Gorodnov, V. Johns, 
S. (Eds) 2003. South Africa and the Communist International: A Documentary History Volume 1: Socialist 
Pilgrims to Bolshevik Footsoldiers 1919-1930. London: Frank Cass, 35-58). CPSA members were 
imprisoned, watched and harassed by the police, and as racist legislation and practice became increasingly 
entrenched in South African life, black members in particular were subject to harassment and imprisonment 
(See Drew, Discordant Comrades, 119). Some white CPSA activists sacrificed a better a standard of living 
and good career prospects for the cause of socialism and national liberation. For example, S.P. Bunting, 
lawyer, accomplished Oxford scholar, and the son of a knight, would no doubt have been able to pursue a 
very successful career in law had he not devoted so much to the cause of socialism and national liberation. 
See Roux, S.P. Bunting.  
289
  Slovo, Slovo, 23. 
290
  Based on interview with Tanya Barben, Cape Town, December 2005, and a reading of Alexander?s 
autobiography (Alexander Simons, R. 2004. All My Life and All my Strength. Edited by Suttner, R. 
Johannesburg: STE Publishers). Ray Alexander arrived from Lithuania as a young woman of fifteen, 
already having been immersed in socialist and Marxist literature and underground movements and 
promptly formed a trade union in Cape Town. She remained an active and prominent trade unionists and 
played a major role in the CPSA and later the SACP. 
 99 
my strength were given to the finest cause in the world: the liberation of Mankind.? For me, 
the finest cause in the world is the struggle for freedom and a full and satisfying life for our 
people.?291 The vision of a better society combined with a deep compassion for the plight of 
the oppressed, and a strong idealism, sustained Alexander?s activism.  
The vision of a better future appears to have played an important role in the activism of Bill 
Andrews for example, who made many references to a utopian future in his statements and 
writings,292 and in the life of Yusuf Dadoo (see figure 6.3). Dadoo commented in 1948 at a 
meeting in Durban that, ?I am proud to be a communist. As a communist I have dedicated my 
life to the principles of Socialism, of eventually ending the rotten system of capitalism, which 
brings untold misery to millions.?293 The vision of an alternative society, which will put an 
                                                 
291
  Alexander Simons, All My Life, 357. Nikolai Ostrovsky, a young Soviet who lived just 32 years, wrote a 
semi-autobiographical novel called How the Steel was Tempered which was inspirational for Ray 
Alexander (see Barben, T. 2005. ?A Women and Her Labours: The Importance of Reading (and Writing) in 
the Creation of a South African Revolutionary? in Bibliophilia Africana 8: From Papyrus to Print-out: The 
Book in Africa: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow. Cape Town: Centre for the Book and the National 
Library of South Africa, 118-126). Alexander?s daughter commented that the book captured the idealism of 
some of the members of the CPSA (Interview with Tanya Barben). The story (which virtually mirrors the 
young man?s life) is about a young Russian man who dedicates his life to becoming a ?good? Bolshevik and 
?fighter? for socialism. He was tragically wounded in the Civil War in Russia and was bedridden as a result. 
The hero then decides to write a book about his and other young peoples? fight for socialism, in the hope 
that once the book was published it would be a way for him to stay part of the building of a new society in 
Russia. It is a highly idealistic, even romantic book. See Ostrovsky, N. 1979 [1933]. How the Steel was 
Tempered. Moscow: Progress Publishers. 
292
  See Andrew?s biography, Cope, R.K. 1944. Comrade Bill: The Life and Times of W.H. Andrews, 
Workers? Leader. Cape Town: Stewart, and Andrew?s statements when Chairman of CPSA in the 1940s 
when he often ended his speeches with rousing words about a socialist future. For example in 1948, he 
claimed that, ?[A] hundred and fifty million or more of our fellow men and women in this great content of 
Africa have started on the road to liberty. Do not forget Molotov?s clarion cry on the thirtieth anniversary 
of the glorious Soviet Revolution: ?We are living in an age when all roads lead to Communism?.? Cited in 
CPSA, ?Communist Election Policy Defined: National Conference Decision? published in The Guardian, 8 
January 1948. Source: Drew, A. (Ed) 1997. South Africa?s Radical Tradition: A Documentary History. 
Volume Two: 1943-1964. Cape Town: Buchu Books, Mayibuye Books, UCT Press). See also his speech in 
the Union Parliament when still a member of the SALP (pages 77 of this study).  
293
  Cited in Bunting, B. 1975. Moses Kotane: South African Revolutionary. London: Inkululeko 
Publications, 151. Dadoo joined the Party in 1939 after spending many years in England studying and 
being actively involved in labour politics. He was influenced by the writings of Marx, Lenin and Jawaharal 
Nehru. Dadoo?s commitment to Marxism did not exclude the influence of other traditions of resistance on 
his politics, such as Gandhi?s passive resistance. He also drew on a number of other identities- as did most 
CSPA members- he was an Indian South African for example, he spoke Gujarati at some political meetings 
 100 
?end to the misery of millions? was a defining feature of the ?principles of Socialism? and 
sustained Dadoo?s activism, along with a sense of injustice about ?the untold misery? in 
which many people lived. According to Bram and Molly Fischer?s daughter, both Bram and 
Molly were motivated by a vision of the future.294 
As mentioned in Chapter Five, Marxism was varyingly 
important to the utopianism of different CPSA members. 
For many of the intellectuals and leaders of the Party, 
Marxism and socialism were conceptual frameworks with 
which to articulate their utopianism. For example, when 
Nzula first joined the Party in 1928, he believed that 
?religion and communism could be united in a powerful, 
morally based movement for social justice?.295 He 
eventually became an atheist, however. In Marxism he 
found not only a framework for understanding race and 
class oppression, but a solution to this problem.296 Moses 
Kotane?s biography is full of references to his 
commitment to Marxism and socialism. He commented 
that, ?I came to the Communist Party because I saw in it 
                                                                                                                                                 
(Interview with Jeremy Cronin). But his vision of a future South Africa as a socialist state was very much 
influenced by the principles of socialism. Joe Slovo commented that, ?Yusuf was truly one of nature?s real 
Socialists; he not only believed the aphorism that all property is theft, but also lived by it.? (Slovo, Slovo, 
42).  
294
  Interview with Ilse Wilson, Johannesburg, September 2006.  In 1955 Molly Fischer (then a member of 
the SACP) visited China. She was inspired by the way in which people were working collectively towards 
a better future. (Interview with Ilse Wilson). The socialist society which many members of the CPSA felt 
had been created in the Soviet Union was also a source of inspiration to many CPSA members, such as Bill 
Andrews, David Ivon Jones, Johnny Gomas, Ray Alexander, Pauline Podbrey, Moses Kotane and many 
others. The Soviet Union represented a living version of the future they were fighting for. The role that the 
USSR played as a living example of the socialist future will be further explored in the next chapter.    
295
  Kelley, R.D.G. 1991. ?The Religious Odyssey of African Radicals: Notes on the Communist Party of 
South Africa, 1921-34? in Radical History Review 51, 11. 
296 Whether Nzula continued to believe in communism after he travelled to the Soviet Union to study is 
unclear as he became quite disillusioned with the Soviet State, voicing his opinion when drunk, which he 
frequently was. He died in Moscow after apparently falling unconscious in the snow while drunk. Rumours 
circulated in Trotskyist circles in South Africa that Nzula was killed by Soviet State for airing his views 
about the Soviet Union. No concrete evidence had been found for this position however. Drew, Discordant 
Comrades, 135 n79. 
Fig. 6.3: Yusuf Dadoo, member of 
the CPSA and SACP. 
 101 
the way out and the salvation for the Native people.?297 
The inspirational and mobilising power of both the movement of socialism and the vision of 
a future society can also be seen in the following statement by David Ivon Jones (see figure 
6.4), who as mentioned often expressed his utopianism in religious influenced language:  
I have been swallowed up in the activities of a movement which is more than 
political, is indeed spiritual in its influence. I came to South Africa without a God in 
the world? With frequent spells of depression and pessimism unaccountable. Life a 
futility. I found South Africa permeated with the spirit of snobbery. The cure for my 
pessimism and South Africa?s snobbery has since been found in the entirely spiritual 
enthusiasm for a new Heaven and a new Earth, in which the publicans and sinners do 
share, with which labour?s awakening fires us.298 
The above quote hints at another valuable role that 
utopianism played in the lives of some CPSA activists. 
The creation of utopias (the act of imaging a future 
better than that actually experienced) acted as a coping 
mechanism (or a ?cure?) for some CPSA members to 
deal with the effects of living in an unjust and unequal 
society. South African society was psychologically 
damaging place for many people: for those who were 
oppressed, maltreated or whose capacity for empathy 
was strong and for those who found the daily 
experience of living in a society full of moral 
contradictions, painful. The imagining of a future 
utopia and directing activity towards its achievement 
may have lessened these contradictions, or simply 
enabled them to cope with present reality. The 
psychology acts in the following way: if a person 
cannot restore the tensions they experiences in daily life (for example, being white in a 
society which privileges white people at the expense of black people, being a black man in a 
                                                 
297
  Bunting, Moses Kotane, 89. 
298
  Hirson and Williams, The Delegate for Africa, 45. The fact that socialism replaced religion in Jones?s 
life can be seen in this excerpt.  
Fig. 6.4: David Ivon Jones, 
founding member of the CPSA. 
 102 
country that treats black men like boys etcetera) imagining and working towards a utopia 
(where such tensions disappear) can act as a psychological or therapeutic tool for coping.299 
The existence of a vision of a better society, which members of the CPSA believed could be 
realised gave members hope, and thus in turn may have mobilised protest against the status 
quo in society. This sense of hope can be seen in the following extract from a letter written 
by David Ivon Jones to a close friend who was rather sceptical of Jones new involvement in 
socialist activity, Jones says in 1915 that,  
Whatever doubts you may have about the ?dangerous? and ?impolitic?, and 
?materialistic? nature of my strange creed, remember only that it has enough of the 
light that never was on land or sea to keep your ever idealist, and ethereal friend 
trustful in life, hopeful of man, and with a growing faith in the goodness some day to 
be realized of man?s destiny which without that ?creed? he would not possess.300 
In working towards change in society members of the CPSA may have felt that they were 
beginning to lessen the injustices around them. In addition, the socialist and non-racial ideal 
became an ideal to live by and not just to live towards. In practice elements of the imagined 
future society were acted out in the small CPSA, where black and white, men and women, 
old and young mingled on relatively equal footing, thus helping to lessen the contradictions 
of living in an unjust society, and enabling people to live a more ethically consistent life.301   
The existence of a group of people of different genders, ?races? and classes in the context of a 
highly segregated society (and particularly in the white population, a society riddled with 
race prejudice and ignorance) was evidence of the utopianism active in the CPSA: the 
                                                 
299
  Ivor Sarakinsky claims that, ?[Utopian] visions of a harmonious society are entrenched in the cultures of 
all known civilisations and in fact, this longing for felicity and unobstructed gratification is a significant 
part of the human psyche.? Sarakinsky, I. 1993. ?Utopia as Political Theory? in Politikon, 20(2), December, 
111. Sarakinsky partly bases his claim on a reading of Sigmund Freud, who claimed that ?when desires and 
aspirations cannot be met in reality, imaginary satisfactions are the result?. Sarakinsky, ?Utopia as Political 
Theory?, 123 n2. 
300
  Hirson and Williams, The Delegate for Africa, 156. 
301
  Ilse Wilson mentioned that in the 1950s numerous social parties were held by members of the SACP, 
which Wilson says were often characterized by excitement and enjoyment, which was in part related to the 
fact that the SACP members had a sense that change in the South African order was imminent and that they 
were living the future. In the 1960s much of this optimism had faded as the apartheid state managed to 
infiltrate, incarcerate and weaken much of the liberation movement. Interview with Ilse Wilson.  
 103 
capacity to imagine and live beyond or outside of the parameters of the hegemonic discourses 
of race and gender.  
An argument is not being made that utopianism was the only factor that attracted people to 
the CPSA?s cause. Nor that utopianism was the only mobilising and sustaining force active in 
the CPSA, or for that matter, that its role in mobilising people can be easily isolated. 
The experiences and sense of persecution (from government, from both the black and white 
population for being communists); and the sense of belonging created by the movement; both 
intensified by the small size of the Party; the desire for a just society; frustrations with the 
present; compassion for other people; images of a better future: all played a role in 
mobilising and sustaining activism.  
In fact it may be the case that distant goals alone are 
insufficient to mobilise or sustain activism.302 The role 
of a utopian vision alone should not be over 
emphasised, and utopianism works in conjunction with 
a number of other factors. Whilst images of a better 
society mobilised action, in turn, the sense of belonging 
to a community, sense and experience of injustice, 
living  out elements of the ideal (an egalitarian internal 
Party culture), the energy created by being involved in a 
political movement, all created energy which could be 
directed towards the creation of a better future. These 
factors all interacted, and influenced each other, in a 
complex way.  
 
A vision of a better society is often present in a range of social, political and religious 
movements. Even groups (such as some religious groups) that make no explicit claims to 
wanting to change society in line with a vision may be motivated by an image of an ideal: an 
ideal of what a family should be, of what gender relations should be, of what should 
constitute a community, etcetera. In the case of some social groups, however, such as a 
religious community, factors such as a desire for a sense of belonging, a space to create 
                                                 
302
  Thanks to Tanya Barben for discussion on this point.  
Fig. 6.5: Ray Alexander, member 
of the CPSA and SACP. 
 104 
stability and certainty, or to find spiritual meanings, may be primary reasons for joining a 
group and interacting as a collective. The CPSA was a utopian movement, a movement for 
change. It is suggested that in the case of utopian movements (other examples may include 
modern social movements, as mentioned in Chapter One) the vision of an ideal or better 
society is a central mobilising force. In the case of the CPSA, and the lives of its members, 
the vision of a better society was central to its identity and activity. 
A close reading of the autobiographies and biographies of CPSA members shows that many 
were idealistic people. As idealists they were motivated by a conception of what should be, 
critiquing what is relation to an ideal. The notion that ideals can become reality, that a 
matching of reality and of ideals is possible, would have been a motivating force in the lives 
of many of the CPSA members.303 
Can the same be claimed for other less idealistic people in the CPSA, however, for whom the 
motivation for activity in the CPSA may have been a deep frustration with the present 
(particularly, racial oppression)? Zygmunt Bauman correctly notes that socialism?s ?intrinsic 
criticism of the present? is ?inseparable from its future orientation?.304 Likewise in CPSA 
discourses (which where not just a reaction against oppression, but proposed a specific 
solution), dissatisfaction and frustrations with the present (which mobilised action) and the 
ideal future imagined, cannot be divorced. CPSA members were motivated at the same time 
by a sense of injustice at the oppression of black South Africans and the working class, by a 
desire to change it, and by a belief in their ability to change society in accordance with a 
vision.  
Members of the CPSA were people who believed that society could be changed for the better 
via the application of deliberate human agency. Jack Simons, member of the CPSA and then 
SACP, for example, was described by one of his daughters as a humanist, who believed in 
people?s potential to change for the better and who believed that ?the force of just one 
individual could change things?.305 Utopianism was also implicit therefore in CPSA 
members? activity directed towards transforming society.  
                                                 
303
  A claim is not being made that all idealism is necessarily utopian. The term utopian has been used more 
broadly in this thesis to refer to desire for, or images of, an ideal or far better society. One may be idealistic 
about only one aspect of one?s life, for example, idealistic about romantic relationships. The terms are of 
course very similar. 
304
  Bauman, Socialism, 50. 
305
  Interview with Tanya Barben.  
 105 
Mannheim would have considered the CPSA?s vision for a new South Africa utopian in 
terms of his definition (discussed in Chapter Two): an image which was incongruent with 
reality and which in ?passing over into conduct? began to ?shatter a given order?.306 The next 
section of the chapter turns to an analysis of the role of CPSA utopianism in wider society as 
a critique of, and challenge to, the status quo.  
?There is an alternative!? 307 
The Function of CPSA Utopianism in South African Society 
Utopias share with the totality of culture the quality ? to paraphrase Santayana ? of a knife 
with the edge pressed against the future. They constantly cause reaction of the future with the 
present, and thereby produce the compound known as human history.                          
(Zygmunt Bauman, 1976) 308 
The criticisms intrinsic to CPSA utopianism and the Party?s explicit criticism of the status 
quo have been mentioned throughout this study. Critique of the inequitable distribution of 
wealth in society, the exploitation of workers by capitalists, racial oppression of black people, 
and the consequent unequal concentration of power in the hands of a few, was overt and 
impassioned, or implied in their vision of an alternative society. 
The most widely written about function of utopianism in the theoretical literature on the 
subject, is its critical function in social and political life. As mentioned in Chapter Two, 
utopianism acts as a critique in highlighting ?the disparity between actual space (how society 
is) and the imagined space (how society could be under new circumstances)?.309 In addition, 
the construction of utopias, particularly ones which a group of people propagate as possible, 
can challenge notions of what is possible, and become a force for change, even if the exact 
utopia imaged is never implemented.  
                                                 
306
  Mannheim, K. 1936 [1929]. Ideology and Utopia. New York: Harvest Books, 192.  
307
  As the CPSA claimed in: ?Fight for Freedom?, A declaration to the People of South Africa from the 
National Conference of the Communist Party, January 1950. Source: Bunting, South African Communists 
Speak, 212-213. As mentioned in the Introduction to the study, the World Social Forum?s slogan is 
?Another world is possible!? 
308
  Bauman, Socialism, 12. 
309
  Moore, T. 2002. ?Downsizing Utopia?, abstract to paper presented at the Third International Conference 
of the Utopian Studies Society, www.biggar-net.co.uk/utopia/art-2002.htm.  
 106 
Paul Ricoeur suggests that ?the fantasy of an alternative society and its exteriorization 
?nowhere? work[s] as one of the most formidable contestations of what is?.310 How does one 
measure the efficacy of this possible function of CPSA utopianism in South African society, 
however? To what extent did the CPSA?s criticisms fall on deaf ears? To what extent were 
South Africans who came into contact with the CPSA or its message challenged by the 
imagined utopia?  
Utopianism, so Bauman, Levitas, Mannheim, Ricoeur and others have written, essentially 
challenges the taken for granted of the status quo ? the naturalisation of what is socially 
constructed.311 As mentioned in Chapter Two, however, the potential power of the utopian 
critique is context related. Specifically, the CPSA was challenging, amongst other things, the 
ideology of race in which white South Africans had a vested and self-serving interest. Thus it 
was very difficult for the CPSA (in effect) to challenge this ideology in the white population. 
Beyond the few activists the CPSA attracted or the sympathisers who watched their 
movements, which were few in number, they barely changed mainstream white thinking. But 
they evidently offered a challenge to the status quo, specifically, to racial and economic 
inequality and white privilege.  
As mentioned, the CPSA mobilised protest against the racist state and the exploitation of 
labour. Mobilisation within the CPSA was influenced by frustrations with the present, 
coupled with an alternative vision of the future, as mentioned. The CPSA organised bus 
boycotts, anti-pass campaigns (including pass burning demonstrations), political rallies, 
petitions (such as the League of African Rights), trade union activity and other forms of 
protest. For a brief period the CPSA challenged the status quo in National Parliament. In 
1948 Sam Kahn won a seat in the House of Assembly as one of three representatives of a 
group of black people that had been removed from the voters roll in 1936. Joe Slovo claims 
that Kahn?s constant criticism of the status quo was ?a thorn in the side of the most powerful 
of white institutions ? the House of Assembly.?312 
                                                 
310 Ricoeur, P. 1986. Lectures on Ideology and Utopia. Edited by Taylor, G.H. New York: Columbia 
University Press, 16. 
311
  See Bauman, Socialism; Goodwin, B. and Taylor, K. 1982. The Politics of Utopia: A Study in Theory 
and Practice. London: Hutchinson & Co. Ltd; Levitas, R. 1990. The Concept of Utopia. New York: Philip 
Allan; Mannheim, K. 1936 [1929]. Ideology and Utopia: An Introduction to the Sociology of Knowledge. 
New York: Harvest Books; and Ricoeur, Lectures on Ideology and Utopia. 
312
  Slovo, Slovo, 41.  
 107 
The fact that the CPSA offered a challenge to the establishment can be seen in the level of 
state repression experienced by the Party and especially in the Suppression of Communism 
Act of 1950. To what extent though, was it the CPSA?s utopian vision that challenged the 
status quo and not merely the protests against the government that the Party organised? First, 
the CPSA not only offered a challenge to racial segregation in South Africa but also to racial 
capitalism upon which white privilege was built. Despite the small size of the CPSA, the 
vision of an egalitarian society in which there was no private property, was perceived by the 
establishment as a serious challenge, perhaps even more so than by the challenge offered by 
organisations such as the ANC at the time. 
Second, the CPSA?s vision of an alternative society may have been a ?powerful contestation 
of what is?313 for black people who came into contact with the Party?s work and message 
(either in person or via their press: at certain points in the CPSA?s history they sold a few 
thousand copies of their newspaper every month). The CPSA?s images of a new society may 
have resonated with very many people, and instilled the notion that things did not have to be 
the way they were, that one could image something radically different and that the status quo 
was not forever fixed. 
For rank and file members, many of whom hardly engaged with Marxist literature, the image 
of a future without racial oppression, a society of peace and democracy where all people (or 
perhaps all men) would be equal and ?free to share alike in the fruits of their joint labour?314 
may have had an intuitive pull.315At rallies, after rousing speeches about the status quo in 
South Africa, and the solution that the CPSA proposed in the vision of a future society, the 
Party sometimes signed up hundreds of people. The level of interest seldom translated into 
committed activism for the Party however. The CPSA was small, often not well organised 
and lacked a consistent strategy for maintaining activism due to its frequent policy changes in 
line with Comintern directives rather than an analysis of the South African situation (as will 
                                                 
313
  Ricoeur, Lectures on Ideology and Utopia, 16. 
314
  CPSA, Programme of the Communist Party of South Africa, 1929 in Bunting, South African 
Communists Speak, 101. 
315
  Whether the society?s well-being would be better catered for under collective ownership and distribution 
of resources may not have been something that was dwelt upon by all members. In 1934 Moses Kotane 
described the CPSA as ?something like a church congregation, very loose, politically illiterate and knew 
nothing about Communism save that it stood and fought for their rights.? Moses Kotane, Letter to a 
Comrade, 31 July 1934 cited in Edgar, R. 2005. The Making of an African Communist: Edwin 
Mofutsanyana and the Communist Party of South Africa 1927-1939. Pretoria: Unisa Press, 14 n33. 
 108 
be shown in Chapter Seven). Infighting in the Party also affected the Party?s ability to 
concentrate on maintaining interest in CPSA activities. 
Dominic Fortescue has argued that the CPSA?s message had limited appeal and relevance for 
most Africans, for a number of reasons.316 These include: the limited development of a class 
and even race consciousness in South Africa at the time (Fortescue concentrates on the 1940s 
period); the fact that activity in the CPSA exposed black people to risk and offered ?very 
little assistance in the central struggle of their lives: that of sheer economic survival?;317 and 
because the CPSA?s ?emphasis on total emancipation? seemed ?absurdly unrealistic and even 
scarcely imaginable to most Africans?.318 Fortescue claims that black South Africans did not 
sense that radical change was possible and that the South African system was seen as 
?brutally permanent?.319  
The CPSA did not have mass appeal in South Africa. At its height its members numbered a 
few thousand in a country of a few million, but as mentioned the Party sometimes signed up 
hundreds after political rallies. The reasons Fortescue cites for this lack of mass popularity 
are true to an extent. However, the CPSA?s message of ?total emancipation? was almost 
always (after the early 1920s period) combined with demands for changes to immediate 
economic and social conditions, from an end to pass laws, to better wages, and social 
support, so that the CPSA?s message was unlikely to have been perceived by Africans as 
?absurdly unrealistic? in the 1940s. It is very possible that had the CSPA maintained a 
consistent strategy for campaigning amongst black South Africans (instead of following the 
vacillating policies of the Comintern) they would very likely have had much larger appeal. 
According to Kelley, ?The rank-and-file usually joined the Party on the basis of single-issue 
politics, which might include pass burning campaigns, non-racial trade union activities, 
efforts to win the franchise for Africans, organizing the unemployed, or nettling racist 
government police repression.?320 Whilst it is likely that many members ?joined on the basis 
of single-issue politics?, the committed and active members that remained became inspired 
by the CPSA?s utopian vision as was shown in the previous section of the Chapter. In 
                                                 
316
  Fortescue, D. 1991. ?The Communist Party of South Africa and the African Working Class in the 1940s? 
in The International Journal of Historical Studies, 24(3), 481-512. 
317
  Fortescue, ?The Communist Party of South Africa?, 484. 
318
  Fortescue, ?The Communist Party of South Africa?, 482. 
319
  Fortescue, ?The Communist Party of South Africa?, 496. 
320
  Kelley, ?The Religious Odyssey of African Intellectuals?, 10. 
 109 
addition, many of the rank and file may have been attracted to more than immediate political 
demands and ?single-issue politics?. Samantha Abercrombie comments that, ?The utopian 
power to persuade, inspire and motivate (politically), arises out of unmet? political needs 
that reach far beyond short term utility and gratification.?321 
The power of utopian language, the conjuring up of a life 
of dignity and material satisfaction, did attract members to 
the Party. The story of Naboth Mokgatle (see figure 6.6) 
provides an example. Mokgatle was first introduced to the 
CPSA in night schools run by the CPSA. He was attracted 
by the Party?s detailed analysis of the South African 
situation, and by the stress they laid on the need for action 
on the part of oppressed black people. But he was also 
attracted by the CPSA?s vision of the future. In his 
autobiography he claimed that the CPSA, ?...impressed me 
as being the only [party] in the country working for a 
happy society in which all inhabitants would have the right 
to vote? a society in which all children would have free 
education and equal opportunities.?322  
The spread of millenarian movements throughout Pondoland, Natal and the Transkei (often 
attached to the mobilising of the ICU) in the 1920s says that utopian visions did have 
resonance amongst many black South Africans.323  
                                                 
321
  Abercrombie, S. 2001. ?The Poetics of Politics?, Unpublished Honours paper, Department of Political 
Studies, Rhodes University, Grahamstown (paper loaned by Ivor Sarakinsky), 29. 
322
  Mokgatle, N. 1971. The Autobiography of an Unknown South African. Johannesburg: AD. Donker, 234. 
Mokgatle joined the CPSA in 1941 amidst the politics of the Second World War. He was active in the 
CPSA and trade union politics before going into exile in the UK, where he died in 1985. 
323
  See Bradford, H. 1987. A Taste of Freedom: The ICU in Rural South Africa, 1924-1930. Johannesburg: 
Ravan Press. Dominic Fortescue sees the spread of millenarian movements where salvation was predicated 
on ?supernatural intervention? as a sign of the ?essential powerlessness felt by most blacks when 
confronted with the South African state.? (Fortescue, ?The Communist Party of South Africa?, 498 n61). 
While black South Africans no doubt did often feel powerless when confronted with the South African 
state, two points can be made. First, millenarian movements in these areas in the 1920s often combined 
with the resistance politics of the ICU. Helen Bradford mentions that millenarian undertones were common 
in ICU speeches. Second, religious and supernatural frameworks for understanding the world and in 
Fig. 6.6: Naboth Mokgatle, 
member of the CPSA. 
 110 
It may well be the case that the majority of black South Africans believed that the South 
African system was ?brutally permanent?. Breaks in the perceived hegemony of the social 
order did occurred, however, (as in the case of the CPSA) and the CPSA was responsible for 
developing a small, though influential group of people who challenged the status quo.  
Despite the limited appeal of the CPSA?s utopian vision to the masses of black South 
Africans in the first half of the last century, what started off as a radical vision of a small 
party with a small following was slowly incorporated in a more popular and far reaching 
discourse. For example, traces of the CPSA?s socialist, non-racial utopia can be seen in the 
Freedom Charter (see figure 6.7) drawn up in 1955.324 Although SACP member Rusty 
Bernstein wrote the rough outline of the Charter, the Charter expressed many of the heartfelt 
desires of oppressed black South Africans, as it was based on demands and hopes of 
thousands of black South Africans jotted down on pieces of paper and collected by the 
Charter organisers.325 The fact that elements of the CPSA?s vision of a new South Africa 
were incorporated into this democratically drafted document, which has resonated with many 
South Africans ever since, speaks to the appeal of the Party?s vision beyond its small and 
committed band of activists. The CPSA utopia, whilst imagined and heard by relatively few 
South Africans, slipped into popular discourse and provided a critical and programmatic tool 
(against which future policy options could be judged) in South African society, far beyond 
what the small Party?s history will show.  
                                                                                                                                                 
particular, cause and effect, were already a part of African traditional life, and did not merely reflect a 
sense of powerlessness. Had the CPSA?s utopian vision drawn more heavily on Christian discourses or 
language, they may well have experienced greater popularity, given the importance of Christianity in South 
Africa. The CPSA?s utopian message seems to have greater appeal with educated or literate black South 
Africans. Many prominent black communists were school teachers for example, who had been exposed to 
other conceptual frameworks for understanding the world. 
324
  Alison Drew points out (in South Africa?s Radical Tradition Volume 1, 327 n2) the similarity between 
Clause 8 of the Freedom Charter which reads, ?The doors of learning and culture shall be opened? and the 
following statement from a 1934 lecture written by the CPSA: ?The doors of the middle and higher schools 
will be thrown wide open for all the toilers.? (CPSA, ?What is the Native Independent Republic??, 1934. 
Source: Drew, South Africa?s Radical Tradition Volume 1, 205). The content of the Freedom Charter was 
however, influenced by a number of discourses, including for example the ANC?s notion of being able to 
?forge a new identity? (a modern idea) and a common African identity in opposition to discourses of ethnic 
difference. Interview with Jeremy Cronin. The Charter was also based on the international Charterist 
movement. 
325
  And as pointed out by Jeremy Cronin, elements of the ideal that the Charter imagined were lived out in 
the process by which the Charter was drawn up: it was a broadly participatory and democratic process. 
Interview with Jeremy Cronin.   
 111 
In conclusion then, claims to the power of the CPSA 
utopianism in wider South African society are tentative. It 
should be noted however, that though the Party was small 
and attracted relatively few people to its membership list, 
it had a disproportionate impact on the politics of South 
Africa, the cause of which it is suggested, is partly the 
critical, inspirational and constructive elements in the 
CPSA?s vision of an alternative society: the ability of the 
CPSA utopia to speak to frustrations with the present, and 
the mobilising power of its utopian vision.  
 Fig.6.7: A recent publication of the 
 Freedom Charter published by the 
 African National Congress. 
 
Summary 
Utopianism played a role in the lives of CPSA members and in the Party itself. Utopianism 
gave voice to frustrations with the present, provided a goal towards which these frustrations 
could be directed. It mobilised and sustained activism. It may well also have acted as a 
coping mechanism for members of the CPSA to deal with the frustrations and contradictions 
of living in an unequal and racially divided society. 
The CPSA?s utopian vision critiqued the status quo, specifically the racial and class stratified 
nature of South African society. It may well have provided people beyond the small circle of 
activists in the CPSA with hope for changed and better circumstances by contesting the status 
quo in imagining an alternative. In addition, the power of the vision of a non-racial, just, 
society in which the welfare of all was ensured, resonated with many oppressed black South 
Africans. There is evidence of this in the echoes of the CPSA?s vision for a new South Africa 
in the Freedom Charter. The Charter in turn (a utopian document itself) has remained a 
significant articulation of ideals against which realities in the new-South Africa are judged.326 
                                                 
326
  Despite being a contested document. See for example the debate between Peter Hudson and Jeremy 
Cronin in Transformation: Hudson, P. 1986. ?The Freedom Charter and the Theory of National Democratic 
Revolution? in Transformation 1, 6-38; Cronin, J. 1986. ?National democratic struggle and the question of 
 112 
About the function of utopianism in society, Bauman writes that: 
Utopias do exert enormous influence on the actual course of historical events. 
Sometimes they are so promptly incorporated into political practice (as was the case 
with Harrington?s Oceania and the American Constitution laid down by his 
admirers) that there is hardly time for the glue to dry under the utopian label; 
sometimes they are decreed to have been brought into reality and then they 
imperceptibly merge into conservative ideologies. But in most cases they just linger 
in the publics mind as guides for social action, as criteria marking off the good from 
the evil, and as obstinate reminders of the never-plugged gap between the promise 
and the reality, too slow to catch up with its own constitutive ideals.327  
Bauman?s comments are relevant here in two respects: first, Bauman is strong in his assertion 
that utopianism plays a vital and significant function in society. In addition, he points to the 
different ways in which utopianism might function in a society: that whilst utopian visions 
may remain as a guide for action, as constitutive ideals (as we have just seen) utopian visions 
may also ?imperceptibly merge into conservative ideologies.? This notion is explored in the 
next chapter.    
                                                                                                                                                 
transformation? in Transformation, 2, 73-78 and Hudson, P. 1987. ?Cronin and national democratic 
revolution? in Transformation, 4, 54-59. 
327
  Bauman, Socialism, 16. By, ?Too slow to catch up to its own constitutive ideals?, Bauman is possibly 
referring to the fact that a) reality can never come close to the ideal but that b) these ideals are nevertheless 
constitutive (part of the building blocks) of reality as human?s keep pushing for change in accordance with 
an ideal and thus realise aspects of the ideal envisioned.  
 113 
Chapter Seven:  
The Destructive Function of Utopianism in the CPSA 
 
Introduction 
The vision of an alternative society free from racial oppression and capitalism played an 
important role in the lives and fortunes of the CPSA and its members as already shown. An 
articulation and commitment to this vision remained throughout the Party?s existence. But a 
closer look at the Party after we left them in the late 1920s in Chapter Five, tells a more 
complicated story. Colin Bundy says that in the 1930s, ?Obedience to the successive 
Comintern lines provides the backbone of the history of the CPSA in this period.?328 
Obedience to the Comintern line, displayed in the CPSA?s adoption of the Native Republic 
Thesis, took an ugly turn in the 1930s ? when the ripples of Stalin?s purges reached South 
African shores.  
Bundy comments that an accurate assessment of the 1930s and 1940s in CPSA history must 
capture the CPSA?s creation of a sustaining vision of an alternative social order, but also, ?it 
must recall the political blindness and perversity involved in the Party?s obedience to a 
Comintern which itself was subservient to Stalin?s brutal and ungenerous version of 
socialism.? He continues that ?a history of the period should also measure how much the 
second damaged the first.?329 
The following account does just that. It is suggested however, that we might better 
understand the whole of the CPSA?s history and in particular the role of the Comintern 
through exploring the role of utopianism in the CPSA. An exploration of the presence and 
function of utopianism in the CPSA shows how the CPSA managed to keep alive a sustaining 
vision of a better and alternative order, and yet at the same time, allowed the influence of the 
Comintern to so negatively influence the Party as a result of their blindness to the failures of 
the Comintern and the Soviet Union. An analysis of utopianism is a key ingredient in 
understanding why, as will be demonstrated in this chapter. 
                                                 
328
  Bundy, C. 1991. ?Left, Right, Left, Right: The CPSA in the 1930s and 1940s? in Bundy, C. 
(Coordinator). The History of the South African Communist Party. Lectures presented at the University of 
Cape Town Summer School. Cape Town: Department of Adult Education and Extra-Mural Studies, UCT, 
32. 
329
  Bundy, ?Left, Right, Left, Right?, 32. 
 114 
The first two sections of Chapter Seven are a description and analysis of the 1930s period in 
the CPSA, when the Party was ?Bolshevised? under Stalin?s directive. The third and fourth 
sections describe and analyse the CPSA?s perception of the Soviet Union, and their (lack of) 
reaction to Stalin?s purges. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the ambiguous nature 
of utopianism, as shown by an analysis of the constructive and destructive functions of 
utopianism in the CPSA. The historical detail in this chapter is included so that the reader 
may form an appreciation of the atmosphere that infected the Party during the 1930s, and the 
effects on the Party and its members.   
The ?Bolshevisation? of the CPSA330 
Whilst the story of the CPSA cannot be told without reference to the history of the 
Comintern, the fate of the CPSA was not wholly in the hands of the once powerful Soviet 
body. Communists in South Africa were geographically far enough removed from Moscow331 
to make their own decisions and choices about the struggle for socialism in their own 
country,332 and they frequently did. Nevertheless CPSA members often chose to loyally 
follow Comintern line. Though debate about Comintern instructions and interpretations of the 
South African situation took place, the Party usually eventually came round to the Comintern 
position.333 During the 1930s, debate in the CPSA became stifled as the authoritarian 
leadership style of Molly and Douglas Wolton ?Bolshevised? the CPSA and implemented the 
Comintern?s New Line in South Africa. 
                                                 
330
  For accounts of the ?Bolshevisation? of the Party and of the internal atmosphere in the CPSA in the 
1930s see for example: Bundy, ?Left, Right, Left, Right?; Drew, A. 2000. Discordant Comrades: Identities 
and Loyalties on the South African Left. Aldershot: Ashgate; Edgar, R. 2005. The Making of an African 
Communist: Edwin Thabo Mofutsanyana and the Communist Party of South Africa 1927-1939. Pretoria: 
Unisa Press; Grossman, J. 1985. ?Class Relations and the Policies of the Communist Party of South Africa 
1921-1950?. Doctoral Thesis. Coventry: University of Warwick; Roux, E. and W. 1970. Rebel Pity: The 
Life of Eddie Roux. London: Rex Collings; and Sachs, B. 1949. Multitude of Dreams: A Semi-
 autobiographical Study. Johannesburg: Kayor Publishing House. 
331
  Geography became a significant factor in the 1930s when the horrifying reach of Stalin?s purges swept 
through the Comintern in Moscow, and to communists of other country?s called to the Soviet Union. 
However, few CPSA members in South Africa at this stage knew about or were willing to accept the 
possibility of Stalin?s purges. (Socialists in Trotskyist circles were highly critical of the Soviet Union by 
this period.) 
332
  See Drew, Discordant Comrades.  
333
  It is not assumed that the party remained a static, homogenous body. Members came and left ? and 
sometimes exited due to objections to Comintern policy.  
 115 
In Chapter Five, the historical chronology of the CPSA was left in the late 1920s ? shortly 
after its adoption of the Native Republic Thesis. The following historical account picks up 
where Chapter Five left off. The late 1920s saw the CPSA go through a period of infighting, 
partly over the different positions taken on the Native Republic Thesis, but it appears, also 
due to personal clashes and dislikes.  
Between 1924 and 1928 the Comintern put forward the theory that a period of ?capitalist 
stabilisation? was underway internationally and that efforts should be directed towards 
defending the Soviet Union rather than revolutionary activity.334 Alliances with reformist 
groups were ?allowed?. However by the end of the decade Comintern interpretations of 
international events did an about turn. The Comintern argued that capitalism was moving 
towards a state of crisis, as shown by the Great Depression of 1929, and that all efforts 
should now be spent on revolutionary activity. All alliances with reformist, non-revolutionary 
bodies should be broken. Social democratic tendencies were seen as ?counter 
revolutionary?.335 
Stalin had finally come to almost complete power in the Comintern. Through the policy of 
?Bolshevisation?, Stalin attempted to create a tight, strong and obedient following, which sent 
ripples through communist parties worldwide. Davidson et al point out that, ?The policy had 
devastating results everywhere. Hundreds and hundreds of foreign communists disappeared 
into the Gulag.?336 
Starting with the Native Republic Thesis, the Comintern sought to take direct control in 
CPSA activities. According to Davidson et al,  
This control took different forms: letters demanding adherence to Comintern 
directives, interference in internal party struggles, the sending of emissaries to South 
Africa and finally the creation of the commission to study the situation within the 
party and decide its fate.337 
                                                 
334
  Bundy, ?Left, Right, Left, Right?, 22. 
335
  Drew, Discordant Comrades, 112. 
336
  Davidson, A. Filatova, I. Gorodnov, V. Johns, S. (Eds.) 2003. South Africa and the Communist 
International: A Documentary History Volume 1: Socialist Pilgrims to Bolshevik Footsoldiers 1919-1930. 
London: Frank Cass, 14. 
337
  Davidson et al, South Africa and the Communist International, 12. 
 116 
The implementation of the New Line was carried out by the Woltons (see figures 7.1 and 
7.2), who were sent by Moscow to ?Bolshevise? the CPSA, after a period of study in the 
Soviet Union.338 Bundy writes: 
In November 1930, Douglas Wolton returned to South Africa from Moscow, 
claiming the status of Comintern ?representative?. He spearheaded the task of 
bolshevising the party. Bunting was ousted as Acting General Secretary, and a new 
Central Committee was dominated by Wolton and his wife Molly, and Lazar Bach. 
In 1931, this grouping engineered a series of expulsions from the Party so as to 
secure total dominance of the new line. The expulsions were justified in terms of 
ridding the Party of all ?right wing, social democratic and vacillating elements?. The 
Comintern approved: the ?right opportunist chauvinist Bunting clique? (it explained) 
has ?openly become agents of imperialism?.339 
One of the first causalities of ?Bolshevisation? in South Africa was the League of African 
Rights. Denounced as reformist, the League, on instruction from the Comintern, was 
disbanded. Though this did not go unchallenged at first by CPSA members,340 CPSA 
members attempted to follow the New Line, believing in Comintern?s superior interpretation 
of the needs of the socialist struggle.  
Considered to be one of the greatest tragedies of this period in many writings of the CPSA, 
was the expulsion of S.P. Bunting. Eddie Roux and Bunting?s son, Brian, believe that the 
expulsion from a party he had dedicated years to build so distressed him that it contributed to 
his early death in 1936.341 His involvement in an identity and life-giving movement had been 
violently cut off. Some black members saw Bunting as too slow to change towards new 
policies in the party,342 but he was in any event the victim of numerous incorrect allegations. 
                                                 
338
  Davidson et al, South Africa and the Communist International, 14.  
339
  Bundy, ?Left, Right, Left, Right?, 25. 
340
  Irritation at the Comintern?s continual chiding of the CPSA for its formation of the League was 
expressed by Nzula in a letter to the ECCI in 1929: ?[W]e would ask you to not be always seeking occasion 
for vilification of us on the one hand or public laudation of yourselves on the other?It is not impressive 
nor is it comradely? we do not only our best but better than, if we may say so, you can teach us to do 
when it comes to local details.? Quoted in Drew, Discordant Comrades, 116. 
341
  Interview with Brian Bunting, Cape Town, January 2006 and Roux, E. 1944. S.P. Bunting: A Political 
Biography. Cape Town: Self-published.   
342
  Drew, Discordant Comrades, 118. 
 117 
Bunting, who had been the first in the ISL to direct the small party?s attention to the plight of 
black workers, was now denounced as a white chauvinist and an ?imperialist bloodsucker?,343 
who engaged with right-wing activities.344 Other notable members expelled included Bill 
Andrews, accused of white chauvinism and Trotskyism, and William Thibedi and Gana 
Makabeni for ?Buntingism?.345 Grossman writes that ?La Guma was expelled, then reinstated, 
then expelled again?.346 Ray Alexander recounts how Joe Pick, who sold the Party?s paper 
Umsebenzi, was expelled for claiming to have sold all the copies of Umsebenzi, when in 
actual fact he sold all but three, putting in the money for the last three copies himself.347 
Experienced cadre were thus lost when expelled for ridiculous reasons, and energy in 
organising political protest was sucked into internal fighting and acrimony.348  
The Party even attempted to interfere in peoples personal lives: Eddie Roux was forbidden to 
marry another CPSA member, Winifred Lunt who was considered a ?petty bourgeois 
intellectual?.349 Senior members attempted to ensure the backing of the Comintern for their 
faction by secretly reporting other?s ?treachery? to the Comintern. 
 
 
                                                 
343
  Roux, E. and W, Rebel Pity, 104. 
344
  Drew, Discordant Comrades, 119 and124. Diatribes against Bunting followed in numerous publications 
of the party paper.  
345
  Davidson et al, South Africa and the Communist International, 15.  
346
  Grossman, ?Class Relations and the Policies of the Communist Party of South Africa?, 193. 
347
  Expulsions on weak or non-existent grounds continued for years. In 1935 another group of loyal and 
active members were expelled for ?attacking the line of leadership?, sowing discontent in the ranks of the 
Party and in mass organisations sympathetic to the CPSA. See Roux, E. and W, Rebel Pity, 145. 
348
  During this period the state?s oppression of political protest in South Africa was increasing. Communist 
members were deported, arrested, and banished to various areas of the country. The attacks on the CPSA 
increased its popularity and many black members joined in protest. But this effect was counteracted by the 
destructive effect of internal politics: expulsions and intolerance of debate. Many branch members left the 
Party. In addition the CPSA was moving further and further from connecting with increasing black protest 
and frustrations on the ground. The League of African Rights for example captured the frustrations of a 
broad range of black people in the rural areas, and linked them with concrete demands. The CPSA?s access 
to much of the energy of this resistance was lost when the League was disbanded. ?Purifying? the Party by 
cutting ties with reformist, nationalist or social-democratic groupings in practice meant that the CPSA was 
instructed by the Comintern to isolate itself completely. 
349
  See Roux?s autobiography: Roux, E. and W, Rebel Pity and Drew, Discordant Comrades, 129. 
 118 
Whilst the CPSA had always 
subscribed to the Leninist strategy 
of democratic centralism350 debate 
within the Party had been active in 
the first few years of the Party?s 
history. In the 1930s however, 
debate became stifled and 
members were criticised simply 
for disagreeing with the leadership 
? however absurd their actions. 
Criticism of the New Line was not 
allowed. When Bunting was 
censured in the Friends of the 
Soviet Union, (a society aligned to 
the CPSA which was also affected 
by ?Bolshevisation?) and named 
?an imperialist bloodsucker?, he 
apparently leaned across the table to young communist Winifred Lunt (Eddie Roux?s wife to 
be), and asked her if she thought he was indeed such a thing. She replied, ?No, it?s 
ridiculous!? For this reply she was sharply reprimanded by the Politburo of the CPSA.351 S.P. 
Bunting remained loyal to the Party even after his expulsion.352 
Not all CPSA members succumbed to the atmosphere of the time. Some members left in 
                                                 
350
  Lenin argued that a successful revolution required a disciplined and loyal group of revolutionaries who 
abided by the rules of democratic centralism. Democratic centralism meant that communist party members 
could debate and disagree within the party, but that once a final decision had been reached, all members 
should abide by it, and defend the decision against non-party members. 
351
  Roux, E. and W, Rebel Pity, 104. 
352
  Bunting?s loyalty to and faith in the Comintern also remained even after his expulsion. He and his wife, 
Rebecca Bunting, and son, Brian, put the period down to the personalities involved ? particularly Douglas 
Wolton (see letter from Eddie Roux to Brian Bunting: Roux, E. Letter to Brian Bunting, 6 June 1943. 
Source: S.P. Bunting Papers A949, Historical Papers Library, University of the Witwatersrand, 
Johannesburg) in a manner which Grossman has referred to as the ?individualisation of the political 
process.? (Grossman, ?Grossman, J. 1985. ?Class Relations and the Policies of the Communist Party of 
South Africa?, 10-11). Roux on the other hand aims all the blame for the 1930s period at the Comintern, 
and not nearly enough on the particular leaders of the time. Both the Comintern and the Woltons and Bach 
were, in a sense, mutually supportive.  
 Fig. 7.1: Douglas Wolton and Alfred Nzula in the late 1920s. 
 119 
disgust, or with great sadness, and Party members in smaller branches such as Bloemfontein 
watched in dismay at the behaviour of their more senior comrades. 353 
It was not simply the blind adherence to Comintern directives and authority that enabled the 
Woltons to expel so many people, and ?purify? the Party. Drew writes that, ?The CPSA was 
squeezed between the pressure of increasing legal repression, on the one hand, and 
organizational weakness coupled with increased intervention by the Comintern, on the 
other.?354 Under this pressure, some members turned on each other. In addition, tensions and 
personal feuds had been mounting since disagreements over the Native Republic Thesis. It 
also appears that a kind of destructive fever infected some of the members who were swept 
along by the extremist tide of the Woltons? ?Bolshevisation?. Sachs writes the following of 
that period:  
Twenty years have not erased from my mind a certain Party meeting ? a veritable 
Witches Sabbath ? with everybody shouting Bunting down and calling him ?Lord 
Bunting? as he tried to make himself heard.355 An elderly women, whom Bunting 
had befriended over the years, turned her posterior towards him with her dress lifted 
high. One quails at describing what appears as ordinary billingsgate. If I do so, it is 
that the very same thing was happening on a much grander scale at the very summit 
of the Bolshevik movement, that at one time gave promise of ushering in a new age. 
In the highest court of the Soviet State, Vyshinsky told Bukharin that he was a cross-
 bred between a sow and a bull. And yet it is this old woman who is more baffling to 
me than Vyshinksy. For she was only one of our strays, actuated by no motives of 
self-advancement as was the case with many of the others. But some how she caught 
the infection and it dehumanized her? It was a night of many dramatic moments. 
There still rings in my ears the cry of a Native member of the Party: ?Bunting is my 
God. Leave Bunting alone. He is my God, I say?.356  
Sachs?s quote illustrates the atmosphere that infected the Party at the time. A form of group 
hysteria appears to have developed in the Party.357 It also points to the fact that events in the 
                                                 
353
  See Drew Discordant Comrades.  
354
  Drew, Discordant Comrades, 116. 
355
  Bunting?s father was knighted. This fact was used against Bunting in the campaign against him. 
356
  Sachs, Multitude of Dreams, 164-165.   
357
  Why precisely this group hysteria developed is not easy to understand, and a full explanation will not be 
offered here.  
 120 
Communist Party in South Africa were echoing (to an extent) events in the Soviet Union. 
Referring to this period in the CPSA and to the Soviet Union, Sachs commented that, 
?ideology had ceased to count against the flood of ribald inhumanity which marked the rise 
of apparatus men and the exit of idealists.?358 It will be claimed in the following section 
however, that idealists had not all left, but that a different kind of idealist gained prominence 
(as well as ambitious and blinkered bureaucrats).   
 
 
Fig. 7.2: Molly 
Wolton addressing 
a crowd in the 
1930s. 
 
 
 
 
 
The New Line not only affected internal dynamics, as shown above, but also official policy 
regarding the struggle for a socialist future. The Native Republic Thesis also underwent 
changes and further contradictory interpretations, as briefly mentioned in Chapter Five. The 
Native Republic was interpreted as a group of different nations ? a federation of different 
republics ? in a manner which now looks distinctly like Bantustan policy.359 There were few 
dissenting voices to this interpretation.360    
                                                 
358
  Sachs, Multitude of Dreams, 165. 
359
  The reasoning was that it would ensure that one nationality or tribe did not dominate the other, but this 
was hardly interrogated.  
360
  A Party member by the name of Washington Nchee voiced dissent to the new interpretation. Drew 
paraphrases Nchee?s objections, ??there are too many tribes and we would too many republics? if 
 121 
Drew has interpreted the leadership?s unquestioning acceptance of this interpretation in the 
1930s as evidence of the lack of ?intellectual autonomy in the Party after the purges?.361 
Changes in policy about how to reach the desired future were indicative less of the wishes of 
and desires of its members, or of their critical analysis of the South African situation, than the 
unhealthy atmosphere of the time.  
The results of the ?Bolshevisation? of the Party were devastating (though not permanently 
crippling). By the mid thirties most day to day activity of the CPSA had stopped.362 Accounts 
differ but membership appears to have dropped to a few hundred, perhaps even less ? from a 
height of a couple of thousand in the late 1920s. Party paper circulation dropped as writings 
became more and more theoretical and abstruse. Most significantly, party theory and action 
had become increasingly removed from black protest in South Africa.  
In 1933 the Woltons left South Africa for England, apparently owing to the ill health of 
Molly. Lazar Bach took over the leadership, but he was soon to be challenged by Kotane who 
returned from studying in Moscow in 1933. Kotane was shocked at the state of the Party on 
his return. He was particularly critical of how far removed the CPSA had become from black 
popular organisations.363 He began to build support in the Party for the position that the 
CPSA needed to build a strong and broad alliance with black organisations. He believed that, 
?the black majority could be mobilized on the basis of democratic demands?364 towards a 
democratic state, and that CPSA policy should become rooted in the specific context of South 
Africa. His return coincided with a shift in Comintern policy. The rise of Fascism in Italy and 
Germany lead Stalin to seek allies in the West. The Comintern now did another about turn 
and instructed communist Parties to do the same in developing a united front with other 
liberation and labour organisations.   
                                                                                                                                                 
German, French, English and other people can live together why cannot we be a nation.? He also referred to 
Basutoland, where ?there was never peace? because they are divided under so many chiefs?.? (Drew, 
Discordant Comrades, 129). Drew points out that the federation interpretation was put forward at a time 
when the ANC was ?striving to unite Africans across tribal lines, not fragment them? (Drew, Discordant 
Comrades, 129). 
361
  Drew, Discordant Comrades, 128. Washington Nchee said at a meeting in December 1931 that, ?We 
had this discussion in Durban and I was beaten and given to understand there?I only brought it up for 
discussion and I though I might get support, but now I give up.? (Drew, Discordant Comrades, 129 quoting 
the report of the meeting of the Central Committee of the CPSA, 28-30th December 1931). 
362
  Davidson et al, South Africa and the Communist International, 16. 
363
  Drew, Discordant Comrades, 169. 
364
  Drew, Discordant Comrades, 169. 
 122 
Tensions between factional groups in the CPSA now rose again, partly around interpretations 
of the Native Republic Thesis, who the Party should work with and towards what. But the 
disputes seem to have been overlain with personal acrimony and the results of previous 
periods of infighting and lack of trust, sown to a large extent by the Comintern?s authoritarian 
interference in Party affairs. The Party turned to the Comintern to resolve the dispute, and 
Kotane, Bach and others travelled to Moscow to appear before the Marty Commission 
(named after the French Comintern official who headed the commission).365  
Bach did not return from Moscow. He was now, 
unbeknown to him at first, working against the 
Comintern line. He was found guilty of participation 
in counter-revolutionary organisations, counter 
revolutionary propaganda and assistance to the 
international bourgeoisie. He died in a concentration 
camp in the Soviet Union. Two other members of 
the CPSA, the Richter brothers, who had moved to 
Moscow a few years earlier ? were tried with him 
and later executed in a concentration camp for 
allegedly being part of a ?secret terrorist anti-Soviet 
organisation? with the other prisoners (see figure 
7.3). A South African communist Joe Glazer who 
had moved to the USSR in 1932 died in a camp in 
1936.366 
Though the worst of the ?Bolshevisation? period was 
over, tension, expulsions and accusations along 
various lines (e.g. Trotskyism, attacks on Party 
leadership) continued, and the Comintern still played 
a notable role in Party affairs by sending an agent by 
the name of George Hardy. The Comintern 
encouraged the CPSA to build relations with white 
labour unions and parties ? even those who were 
decidedly racist and protectionist ? in order to create 
                                                 
365
  Drew, Discordant Comrades, 174. 
366
  Davidson et al, South Africa and the Communist International, 20. 
Fig. 7.3: An article on Lazar Bach 
and the Richter brothers in the 
Soviet Union newspaper, Izvestia. 
Bach is pictured at the bottom. 
 123 
a broad anti-fascist front. The Simons say that in this period, ?Substituting reformist phrases 
for leftwing slogans, Hardy guided the Party into making a great turn right.?367 Bundy says 
that the CPSA at the time suffered from a ?kind of organisational schizophrenia?, by splitting 
its efforts ?between People?s Front activities alongside white working class racists, on the 
one hand and somewhat half-hearted work with black petty bourgeois nationalists, on the 
other hand.?368  
By 1938 the CPSA, fraught with tension in the Johannesburg office, was a small Party, 
whose newspaper had recently stopped publishing.369 In the same year, the head office was 
moved to Cape Town. Hardy had left, and with the move to Cape Town, the weakening of 
the Comintern in Moscow and the outbreak of the Second World War, the Comintern?s 
influence on the CPSA finally weakened and disappeared. A healthier period in the CPSA 
appears to have followed under the leadership of Kotane, Bill Andrews, Jack and Ray 
Simons, Cissie Gool and others. 
In 1943 the Comintern was disbanded by Stalin. USSR?s efforts where focused on fighting 
fascism and defending the Soviet Union in the War. It appears however that by beginning of 
the 1940s few Comintern officials remained. In affect the Comintern had been quite literally 
erased, hundreds of Comintern officials were executed in the purges or died in the Gulag.370 
In Drew?s words, the revolution had devoured its own.371 
Though the disbanding of the Comintern appears to have been unexpected for CPSA 
members, the Comintern?s slow and earlier demise under Stalin?s purges meant that its 
dissolution did not have the traumatic effect on the CPSA one may have assumed. The 
                                                 
367
  Simons, J. and R. Source unreferenced in Bundy, ?Left, Right, Left, Right?, 28. 
368
  Bundy, ?Left, Right, Left, Right?, 28. The Popular Front policy, which saw the Party splitting efforts 
between white (often racist) labour work and national liberation organisations, appears to have exacerbated 
existing racial tensions within the Party. In a CPSA meeting in 1930 some members even debated splitting 
the Party in two and creating an African and a white wing. See Edgar, The Making of an African 
Communist, 39-42. Detail about this very serious matter in the Party has not been provided as it is not 
central to the argument put forward this study.   
369
  See Drew, Discordant Comrades, 188 for details. 
370
  The Comintern appears to have been a threat to Stalin ? many of the older leaders had not been chosen 
by him and he was not in complete control of the organisation. This partly explains why so many 
Comintern officials were murdered in the purges, though of course understanding the purges themselves is 
another matter.  
371
  Drew, Discordant Comrades, 184. 
 124 
USSR?s active involvement in CPSA affairs in the 1940s was far weaker than the preceding 
two decades. However, the influence of the Soviet Union ? both as a symbol of actualised 
socialism and more practically on CPSA activities, did not disappear.372  
?My Party, Right or Wrong!?:  
Political Messianism in the CPSA 
Arbitrary expulsions, uncorroborated accusations, public trashing of members? political 
integrity, interference in people?s personal lives, distrust, turning on years long friendships, 
authoritarian and dogmatic leadership, blindness to what was happening in the USSR: all 
became part of the 1930s period. Faint echoes of what the Soviet Union had become under 
Stalin?s leadership reverberated in South Africa.  
What where the reasons for the development of this internal culture in the CPSA in the 
1930s, and why was there insufficient criticism by CPSA senior members of the gap between 
what they claimed to be fighting for and what their internal culture and politics portrayed? 
Even when the internal politics of this period had serious negative consequences for some 
member?s lives and for the health and progress of the whole Party?  
A number of interrelated and complicated factors explain this unhealthy period in the Party?s 
history. These factors included: the CPSA?s deference to Comintern authority; loyalty to the 
Party; the role of particular personalities in the Party; the intensification of personal dislikes 
and feuds under the pressure of state oppression and Comintern interference; and tension 
around the interpretation of how to effect the imagined future. These factors are briefly 
touched on in the following section. They in turn interacted with what is put forward as a 
central factor in explaining this period ? the role of utopianism.  
A look at the role of the Comintern in CPSA affairs is central to this analysis. The 
Comintern?s striving to ?ensure that the leadership of the local Communist Parties accepted 
its ultimate authority? played a central role in the destructive atmosphere of the 1930s.373 Had 
                                                 
372
  Drew, Discordant Comrades, 236. The Soviet Union was to become an important supporter of SACP 
and ANC activity.  
373
  The 1930s in the CPSA?s history did not form a discrete period ? and elements of the 1930s internal 
culture (intolerance of debate, unquestioning loyalty to the Comintern and to Party leadership, personal 
feuds, expulsions of members for not following party line etc) can be seen in the 20s and 40s ? but not 
nearly to the same degree.  
 125 
the Comintern in the USSR not become the dictatorial, intolerant and doctrinaire interpreter 
of Marxism that it did in the late 20s and 30s, the fact it had such power in the CPSA might 
not have mattered so much.  
Alison Drew offers an explanation as to why 
the Comintern came to exert such an influence 
in the CPSA and on communist parties 
throughout the world. First, socialists across 
the world were ?bedazzled by the Russian 
Revolution of 1917 that led to the Comintern?s 
formation.? Second, the revolution that 
communists expected to spread internationally 
never did, thus enhancing the status and power 
of the Russian Comintern delegates. 
Communist parties experienced numerous 
setbacks in attempting to spread socialism in 
their countries and this sense of vulnerability 
?made them susceptible to imposition of 
doctrine from above.?374  
With specific reference the CPSA, by the time 
of the Comintern?s formation, socialism was 
still young and South African socialists had 
yet to develop traditions and most relevantly 
theories of their own. Drew writes that ?the Comintern inevitably became the measure by 
which South African socialists judged themselves and each other. South African Communists 
were awed by the Comintern?s apparent theoretical mastery and political 
accomplishments.?375 In addition, the backing and involvement of the Comintern in CPSA 
                                                 
374
  Drew, Discordant Comrades, 2. 
375
  Drew, Discordant Comrades, 2.  Not all members believed that the Comintern was infallible however. 
The CPSA did attempt to come to grips with what the fight for socialism in their own country meant, and 
spoke with confidence on many issues. Kotane?s famous Cradock letter to the Party in which he states that 
the Party was ?beyond the realm of realities? simply theoretical? and that the Party should Africanise, was 
written in a very confident manner, based on his increased confidence gained whilst studying in the USSR 
but also on a careful consideration of the South African situation. (See Kotane, M. Letter to Johannesburg 
District Committee of the CPSA, Cradock, 23 February 1934. Source: Bunting, B. (Ed) 1981. South 
Fig. 7.4: 1920s Soviet poster entitled, ?Under 
the banner of Lenin and Stalin forward to the 
victory of Communism!? 
 126 
affairs gave the small Party a much needed sense of confidence in a country generally hostile 
to communism.  
Whilst all the reasons stated above explain why the Comintern might be held in such high 
regard it does not fully explain the obedience to Comintern line at great cost to themselves. 
The level and nature of the Comintern?s influence was only possible due to the CPSA?s often 
uncritical loyalty and deference to the Soviet led institution, and this in turn was due to the 
CPSA?s perception of the USSR as the embodiment of the socialist utopia. This will be 
explored in some detail in the last two sections of the chapter.   
CPSA members were not only loyal to the Comintern. Loyalty and discipline of action in 
general was an all important value in the CPSA. Eddie Roux writes the following: 
It is hardly possible, I believe, for any person who has not actually been a member of 
the Communist Party to understand the tremendous scope and power of Party 
discipline. This was a rule, often harsh and always unyielding, to which all members 
submitted. The rule covered our every activity; in effect we had no private life but in 
every detail must serve the Party. To learn the perfect obedience required was at first 
a hard lesson? A feature of our loyalty was that every act of sacrifice and self-denial 
served always to bind us more strongly to the ideal we served. Hardship could not 
weaken resolve but strengthen it.376 
The notion of loyalty and obedience to the Party partly explains why many members 
continued to support and remain active in the Party even in its nastiest days. Brian Bunting 
commented that as members of the CPSA one ?didn?t turn ones back for frivolous reasons? 
and that one had to ?rely on an understanding of the Party more generally?, that it went 
through good and bad times.377  
As demonstrated in Chapter Six, the socialist utopia for which the men and women of the 
CPSA were fighting, meant an incredible amount to many active members of the CPSA. 
                                                                                                                                                 
African Communists Speak: Documents from the History of the South African Communist Party 1915-1980. 
London: Inkululeko Publications, 120). But when it came to the crunch even Kotane looked to the 
Comintern for final adjudication on matters.   
376
  Roux, E. and W, Rebel Pity, 127. 
377
  Bunting joined in the 1940s, when the Party was going through ?a good period? and much of the 
?hostility? of the 1930s had ?evaporated?. Interview with Brian Bunting.  
 127 
Roux was slowly pushed out of party work and then expelled in 1936, about which he 
comments: ?The dream was over, the vision had faded [emphasis added].?378 He continues, ?I 
knew that the efforts of some seventeen years of my life now counted for almost nothing.?379 
Bunting?s devastation at being excluded from the Party points to a similar reaction. This 
vision of an alternative future and the fight directed to attaining it was, as mentioned in the 
previous chapter, vital in providing a sense of purpose and meaning to life. To leave the Party 
was to lose this along with the friendships and sense of belonging that the Party developed.380 
Roux comments in his autobiography that, ?No member could conceivably be tempted from 
the Party by any lure of luxury or pleasure. And this is the grand error of those who think to 
fill empty churches by making the seats more comfortable or by providing jazz music. It is 
not pleasure or comfort that is man?s deep desire but meaning.?381  
It should be noted that a culture of loyalty and obedience to the official line of the Party was 
present in the CPSA prior to the 1930s period.382 Whilst the 1920s and the 1940s were more 
democratic periods in which debate was active, the CPSA?s acceptance of the Twenty-One 
Points in 1921 (and of the implicit values that went with adherence to the Comintern) laid the 
foundations for the unthinking obedience that predominated in the 1930s. In addition, like 
many communist parties, the CPSA also accepted the notion that the fight for socialism 
demanded a disciplined and centralized party, continuing Lenin?s philosophy of ?democratic 
centralism?. 
                                                 
378
  Roux, E. and W, Rebel Pity, 147. 
379
  Roux, E. and W, Rebel Pity, 147. 
380 Remember that at that time many of the liberation organisations including the ANC were not open to 
white people to join. Other small socialist groups were active at this time. Black communists who left the 
Party had more options in terms of the liberation organizations they could join. Trade Unionist (black and 
white) also had other political homes, but many CPSA members were not trade unionists and were not 
interested in being so ? for example Moses Kotane. (Bunting, B. 1975. Moses Kotane: South African 
Revolutionary. London: Inkululeko Publications).  
381
  Roux, E and W, Rebel Pity, 127. 
382
  S.P. Bunting was convinced that loyalty to the Party and the Comintern would prevent the splitting of 
the socialist movement. He said that, ?The C.I [Comintern] and its sections rightly claim a monopolistic 
position ? there can only be one machine, and isolated groups only confuse the masses.? (Minutes of a 
meeting of Communist Delegates, November 1932. Source: Simons Collection, BC1081: 08.1, Manuscripts 
and Archives Department, University of Cape Town, Cape Town). Roux?s biography of S.P. Bunting 
recounts rumours of Bunting having thought about starting a new communist party. S.P. Bunting was 
however, dead set against the idea of a new communist party.  
 128 
The intensity of experience created by belonging to a small group, which was in a sense of 
sub-culture, added to the internal dynamics of the Party. The CPSA may have felt (and 
indeed, was) beleaguered, under threat (from state repression, from general societal hostility 
to communism), and this was intensified by their small size. This sense of fragility may have 
influenced the creation of clear and inflexible boundaries and codes of conduct that 
designated one in or outside of the group. Notions of what constituted loyalty in the CPSA 
were part of these codes. 
Eddie Roux asks: ?What was it that caused so many of the young and intelligent thus to 
surrender their freedom? It was ultimately a choice of becoming accomplice by consent or of 
joining in revolt. The choice of revolt may stem from a deep feeling of guilt and from what 
Ignazio Silone has called ?that pride which makes poverty and prison preferable to self-
 contempt?.?383 But Roux does not interrogate the fact that working towards change in society 
did not have to involve the levels of loyalty expected of CPSA members in the 1930s. What 
is important to note with regards to the role of utopianism in the history of the Party is that 
loyalty to the cause of liberation and socialism was equated to loyalty to the Party in the 
minds of some. The Party embodied a vision of a future South Africa, and to leave the Party 
was to abandon this vision.  
The dynamics of the 1930s period must also be explained with regards to the particular 
personality types which gained prominence in the Party during the 1930s. A range of 
personalities were active in the CPSA, from the idealistic Jones and Bunting, to the focused, 
driven and grounded Kotane. Members of the early socialist movement in South Africa, such 
as Olive Schreiner, included (but was certainly not limited to) people who grappled with 
moral dilemmas, and how to marry the personal and political spheres of their lives,384 people 
who examined their own conduct in an effort to live a consistent ethical life. Very little of 
this spirit and tradition can be discerned in the CPSA in the 1930s period. The CPSA in the 
1930s, when the free reign was given to the autocratic and divisive influence of the 
Comintern, created room for authoritarian and doctrinaire personalities such the Woltons and 
Lazar Bach to come to the fore. Drew comments that ?the Woltons were precisely the type of 
local leaders chosen by the Comintern during the New Line years for their loyalty to 
                                                 
383
  Roux, E. and W, Rebel Pity, 127. 
384
  Drew, Discordant Comrades, 9. 
 129 
authority above all else, and they had been empowered by the Comintern.?385  
In addition the involvement of the Comintern created room for a more doctrinaire tradition of 
Marxism to dominate. In chapters Four and Five, the different traditions of Marxism that 
members brought to the CPSA were mentioned. One of these was a fairly narrow, doctrinaire 
interpretation of Marxism that in the case of Lazar Bach continued (along with a degree of 
religious fervour) the Talmudic tradition of preserving the ideological purity of original 
founding texts.386 In addition: a certain style of engagement in politics can be seen in the 
writings of important figures in the Marxist movement such as Marx, Engels and Lenin, 
which was characterised by a highly polemic writing style in which opponents were verbally 
dismissed and often destroyed. This style of engagement in politics may also have influenced 
the small party in South Africa, under the influence of the Comintern which had certainly 
adopted a polemic and destructive style of political writings and political practice, and under 
                                                 
385
  Drew, Discordant Comrades, 122. Regarding the Woltons and Bach, Drew comments that, ?Together, 
the triumvirate acted as the Comintern?s interpreters, pointing fingers at all those who had at any time 
challenged authority.? (Drew, Discordant Comrades, 122). All three appear to have been authoritarian 
people: Molly Wolton is described by Drew as ?an authoritarian personality? who according to Roux 
?could not endure contradiction, not even in the smallest detail. She had to be right, always right.? (Roux 
cited in Drew, Discordant Comrades, 122). Bach was a dogmatic person (Davidson et al, South Africa and 
the Communist International, 20 n27) and described by Brian Bunting as ?a Talmudic type of Communist 
who could quote chapter and verse from the Marxist classics and the Comintern manifestoes on any issues 
under debate, irrespective of relevance.? (Bunting, Moses Kotane, 61). (It was not only these three figures 
who played a destructive role in the Party in the 1930s. Many members such as Roux turned a blind eye to 
what was going on until the late 1930s. Mofutsanyana was a supporter of Bach?s actions. Many people in 
head office entered the fray, informed on their fellow comrades to others including the Comintern, and did 
little to stop the creation of factions within the CPSA). It may be the case that utopian movements which 
are characterized by a strong confidence in the imaged future may attract dogmatic and authoritarian 
personalities, partly because they offer a certain view of the world and of the future, but it is suggested that 
there is no necessary link between authoritarian personalities and utopianism. There appears to have been 
an interactive process between dogmatic and authoritarian personality types generating a particular internal 
culture in the CPSA in this period (in the context of the Comintern?s authoritarian influence) and the 
possibility that these personalities were attracted to the movement because they found a sure and certain 
framework with which to interpret the world. As has been made very clear, however, a range of people 
(and personality types) were attracted to the CPSA. 
386
  Interview with Jeremy Cronin, August 2006. Once again this tradition existed in the CPSA prior to the 
1930s, but was balanced in the earlier period by the more empirical approaches of figures such as S.P. 
Bunting, Kotane and Roux. 
 130 
the influence of some of its own members.387  
As mentioned in Chapter Five, the imaging of a utopia must to some degree see the 
emergence of factions as people attempt to interpret how to achieve the utopia. But it is when 
certain individuals believe that the vision necessitates a particular interpretation of strategy, 
and when this process of understanding present society and imagining the future becomes 
doctrinaire, that understandable tensions and disagreements over strategy become overlain 
with a nastier and more destructive antagonism, and gives licence ? at least in the minds of 
those that hold this opinion ? to a range of otherwise unacceptable practices (cushioned by 
people?s reluctance to criticise). The goal of creating a particular, and the ?correct? future 
became the means with which to justify the ends.388 Armed with the truth they could do 
whatever was necessary to forward the cause. Expulsions of experienced comrades, hurtful 
accusations, the creation of distrust and tension within the Party, interference in people?s 
personal lives, were all justified in the quest to build a disciplined and loyal force to begin to 
mould society into the only possible future. Sacrifices had to be made now for the success of 
the future. In addition, a kind of fundamentalist zeal appears to have driven a few members of 
the CPSA.  
The critics of utopia were mentioned in Chapter Two: utopia was seen to tend towards 
totalitarianism. Seeing there will never be consensus over what exactly the ideal society is, 
and how to get there, any attempt to implement a utopian vision will always lead to 
domination of one group over another. This analysis has been criticised for assuming an 
inevitable descent into totalitarianism in the presence of a movement attempting to 
implement its utopian vision. The content of the utopian vision, the level of existing 
democracy and the extent to which people have become (too) vested in a particular vision or 
ideal ? were all mentioned as influencing factors. The form that a utopian vision takes also 
affects the role that it potentially plays in society.  
It is the form of the CPSA?s utopianism took which goes a long way to explaining the events 
of the 1930s. The work of utopian critics, such as Talmon, do have some value in the analysis 
of how utopianism functioned, first and primarily in the Soviet Union (which had an impact 
                                                 
387
  Interview with Jeremy Cronin.  
388
  Roux and Winifred Lunt debated this between themselves when Bunting was expelled. Roux tried to 
convince his wife that Bunting?s expulsion was correct because of ?political necessity and the need for 
obedience to leadership?. But he asked himself in his autobiography, ?Does the end justify the means?? 
Roux, E and W, Rebel Pity, 129. 
 131 
of South African communist affairs via the Comintern) and secondly, to a lesser extent in the 
events in the CPSA itself.  
Talmon?s concept of political messianism is relevant to the analysis here. The doctrine or 
philosophy propagated by the Comintern did indeed take the form of political messianism:  a 
secular messianic belief in a ?preordained, harmonious and perfect scheme of things, to 
which men are irresistibly driven, and at which they are bound to arrive.?389 As mentioned in 
Chapter Three, the Comintern set themselves up as the high priests of Marxist doctrine (a 
doctrine which predicted a certain future outcome): the ultimate authority on matters of 
theory and practice in the international socialist movement. This authority was accepted by 
many communist parties around the world, including the CPSA. By the late 1920s this 
attitude took a nasty turn.  
Once the authority of the leaders, as supreme interpreters of doctrine and strategy had been 
established, many people in the communist movement lost their capacity, or became 
unwilling, to apply a critical and analytical eye to events around them. Roux recounts a story 
of his trip to Moscow for the 1928 Comintern Congress after Trotsky had been expelled and 
banished to Siberia, and denounced as a traitor to the movement. A communist delegate 
commented to Roux: ?Trotsky?s analysis is of course correct, but I?m sorry to say that 
Trotsky is no longer a communist.?390 Roux says that, ?The implication was clear: a 
communist must follow the line and failure to conform, even objection on the soundest 
theoretical grounds, put one outside the fold. The policy was now, ?My Comintern, right or 
wrong.?391 It was not only that the dictum had become, ?My Comintern right or wrong? but 
that a kind of circular logic was needed in order to ensure the integrity of the leadership and 
its decisions. In the Origins of Totalitarian Democracy Talmon says,  
An exclusive creed cannot admit opposition. It is bound to feel itself surrounded by 
innumerable enemies. ? From this sense of peril arise their continual demands for 
the protection of orthodoxy by recourse to terror. Those who are not enemies must be 
made to appear as fervent believers with the help of emotional manifestations and 
engineered unanimity at public meetings or at the polls. Political Messianism is 
bound to replace empirical thinking and free-criticism with reasoning by definition, 
                                                 
389
  Talmon, J. 1961. The Origins of Totalitarian Democracy. London: Mercury Books, 2. 
390
  Roux, E. and W, Rebel Pity, 63. 
391
  Roux, E. and W, Rebel Pity, 63. 
 132 
based on a priori collective concepts which must be accepted whatever the evidence 
of the senses: however selfish or evil the men who happen to come to the top, they 
must be good and infallible, since they embody the pure doctrine and the people?s 
government: in people?s democracy the ordinary competitive, self-assertive and anti-
 social instincts cease as it were to exist: a Worker?s Sate cannot be imperialist by 
definition.392 
Or its reverse: Trotsky cannot be a good theorist because he is no longer a communist as 
defined by the Soviet leaders. Within the Comintern and within the leadership of the Soviet 
Union, totalitarianism did indeed develop based on a discourse of political messianism (as 
well as other factors: the will to power on the part of certain leaders for example).393   
To what extent does the existence of a discourse of political messianism, an essentially 
utopian discourse ? explain events in the 1930s in the CPSA so many thousands of 
kilometres away? Two comments are relevant here: first that this destructive and doctrinaire 
political messianism affected the CPSA via the powerful influence of the Comintern. It has 
been shown how the New Line and the process of ?Bolshevisation? which the Party was to 
follow was unveiled to the CPSA as the only and correct way to proceed. This was then 
accepted by the CPSA.  
Some members saw the word of the Comintern as gospel. This is illustrated by the following 
story. Shortly after the Marty Commission in 1936 when the findings of the Commission and 
the new Popular Front policy had been communicated to the CSPA back in South Africa, 
Mofutsanyana convened a meeting of the Politburo. The purpose of the meeting was to 
?absorb the lessons of the Comintern directive?.394 Robert Edgar writes the following: 
Willie Kalk took up much of the meeting with a long discourse on why the 
Comintern was infallible, and how it was based on Marxism-Leninism and dialectical 
materialism and adapted its strategies to changing conditions. The rise of European 
Fascism dictated a new line ?not because the line was wrong, but because of the 
development of the struggle and change of circumstances. It is a mistake to say that 
                                                 
392
  Talmon, The Origins of Totalitarian Democracy, 253. 
393
  Large scale violence (a means to ?protect? the ?gains? of the revolution, i.e. to ?protect the people from 
themselves?), propaganda and extreme state control (all characteristics of a totalitarian regime as defined by 
Hannah Arendt) had been a part of Soviet Rule since the early 1920s under Lenin?s leadership.  
394
  Edgar, The Making of an African Communist, 30. 
 133 
the CI [Comintern] made mistakes?.395  
Under the leadership of authoritarian, and certainly in the case of Bach, doctrinaire 
personalities themselves, the process of ?Bolshevisation? was carried out with great 
confidence and vigour. Bach and the Woltons (and perhaps others active in the Party at the 
time about whom we have little information) appear to have styled and seen themselves as 
the ?vanguard of the enlightened?396 who would lead the movement forward along the correct 
and only path to the future. This attitude is alluded to in statements made by the leadership in 
the 1930s. When a number of activists were expelled in 1935 on the grounds of ?attacking 
the line of leadership?, the statement announcing their expulsion in Umsebenzi read, ?Now 
that the situation has been clarified, we sincerely hope that all those who have been 
previously confused will now see their way clear to following the Party line and 
leadership.?397 
In addition it appears that on the part of those communists who accepted the process of 
?Bolshevisation?, a fair amount of a priori reasoning was carried out: in the same way that 
the ?Worker?s Sate cannot be imperialist by definition,?398 the leadership and direction of the 
Comintern could not be misguided or destructive by definition. This process can also be seen 
in the CPSA?s attitude to the Soviet Union, described in the following section.399  
                                                 
395
  Edgar, The Making of an African Communist, 30. Not all CPSA leaders took this view of course. Edgar 
notes that ?not all the Politburo members joined in this ritual of self-flagellation?, including for example 
Johnny Gomas and later Moses Kotane.   
396
  Talmon, The Origins of Totalitarian Democracy, 5. 
397
  Statement in Umsebenzi cited in Roux, E. and W, Rebel Pity, 145. A year after Bunting was expelled, 
Douglas Wolton wrote to the ECCI that, ?Since the expulsion of Bunting in September last he has 
continually tried to make use of Native members of the Party (very backward politically) to carry on his 
counter-revolutionary activities and before the Party could take disciplinary action against any of the 
Native right wing elements a very wide enlightenment campaign had to be conducted amongst the 
backward elements in the Party.? Wolton, D. Extracts from: Report to the ECCI, 7 April 1932. Source: 
Davidson, A, Filatova, I, Gorodnov, V. and Johns, S. 2003. South Africa and the Communist International: 
A Documentary History. Volume Two: Bolshevik Footsoldiers to Victims of Bolshevisation, 1932-1939. 
London: Frank Cass, 22-23. 
398
  Talmon, The Origins of Totalitarian Democracy, 253. 
399 It could be asked in what way the political messianism active in the CPSA differed from religious 
fundamentalism. Lucy Sargisson suggests that ?religious fundamentalism might well spring to mind as the 
dominant form of utopianism today.? (Sargisson, L. 2005. ?Utopia in the Twenty-First Century, Part One: 
Anti-Utopianism, Religion and Fundamentalism.? Draft paper for discussion presented at a conference 
 134 
To summarise: a host of complicated and interacting factors explain the 1930s period, some 
of which have been briefly mentioned: the small size of the Party, the pressure under which 
they operated, personal dislikes of fellow members,400 not to mention very real and 
understandable differences over strategy and method to attain the utopian future. The 
influence of the Comintern, loyalty to Party leadership and the influence of particular 
personalities were shown to be vital factors in explaining the 1930s period. These in turn 
interacted with the presence of utopianism in the Party; the presence of a particular form of 
utopianism, that of political messianism. It was not the vision itself, the content of the vision. 
This remained a positive force in the Party. In addition, the ideal for which members of the 
CPSA were fighting had become equated with the Party itself, (and seeing that criticism of 
                                                                                                                                                 
entitled: ?Is there a Role for Utopia in Twenty-First Century Ideology??, Centre for Political Ideologies, 
University of Sheffield and Centre for Political Ideologies, University of Oxford, University of Sheffield, 
17 June, 5). In a sense political messianism is the secular equivalent of religious fundamentalism. They 
share common features: those who see the world through either paradigm are dogmatic and certain that 
they have found a (or even the) universal truth. Authoritarian leadership usually plays a significant role in 
both paradigms. Social dynamics are characterised by internal group cohesion (Sargisson, ?Utopia in the 
Twenty-First Century?, 5) and clear boundaries defining insiders and outsiders of the movement. In 
addition, certain central texts may be treated as infallible or interpreted in a doctrinaire way (such as the 
Bible in the case of Christian fundamentalism, or the writings of Marx and the Comintern in the case of 
those in the CPSA caught up in a discourse of political messianism). In Chapter Two it was suggested that 
the boundary between secular and religious utopianism is fluid (for example, millennium movements may 
be thought of a religious forms of utopianism). It should be noted however that utopianism cannot be 
equated with religious fundamentalism. It is when utopianism takes the form of political messianism that it 
becomes a fundamentalist discourse. In addition, Sargisson comments that ?not all religious 
fundamentalism is utopian?. (Sargisson, ?Utopia in the Twenty-First Century?, 5) Fundamentalist groups do 
not always have a clear vision of the future, or an ideal society, and may be greatly motivated by 
dissatisfaction with (or alienation from) contemporary society rather than image of an alternative. The 
relationship between fundamentalism and utopianism is a point for debate, and a conclusion is not 
suggested here. 
400
  For example, whilst the leadership appear to have felt fully justified and righteous in expelling Bunting 
on the grounds of ?right wing chauvinism?, part of the reason that the attacks on Bunting from Douglas 
Wolton were so vicious was because Wolton disliked Bunting, and was possibly jealous of him. In a letter 
to Eddie Roux in 1930, Bunting wrote, ?Wolton is leaving tonight for Cape Town to introduce the ?new 
line? to the Cape Town branch. At the Johannesburg branch meeting last night at which I was absent owing 
to stomach trouble (my first absence this year) he held forth something along the lines of the enclosed. It 
reminds me of the Conference of two years ago when he made a violent attack on me, and the rank and file 
said they did not want to listen to all this quarrelling.? Bunting?s suspicions were correct. Bunting, S.P. 
Letter to E. Roux, 29 November 1930. Source: Drew, A. (Ed) 1996. South Africa?s Radical Tradition: A 
Documentary History. Volume 1: 1907 ? 1950. Cape Town: Buchu Books, Mayibuye Books, UCT Press, 
113-114.  
 135 
the Party in this period lead to expulsion) people did not criticise sufficiently for fear of 
abandoning the ideal and the cause.  
It should be noted that in the final analysis the existence of a negative form of utopianism in 
the CPSA does not alone account for the unhealthy atmosphere of the 1930s.401 In addition, 
whilst this atmosphere prevailed, they still remained committed to a future of justice and 
harmony, engaged (even if to a lesser extent) in resistance politics and sometimes managed to 
produce some valuable insight into strategy regarding their involvement in South African 
politics.402 They drew on a number of discourses and traditions in forming a utopian vision 
and in expressing utopianism, as shown in the previous chapters. The narrow, confident, 
political messianism discussed in Chapter Four (derived from the Comintern, aspects of 
Marx?s writings and to some extent the tradition of literal interpretations of texts) was only 
one of the strands in the CPSA?s utopianism ? though a powerful one.  
In Chapter Four the following quote taken from a 1944 CPSA report to the Central 
Committee of the Party, was cited, ?We are moving in the direction of history; we express the 
deep-seated needs of the people; and must therefore eventually obtain the support of the 
people.?403 The quote shows the confidence that the CPSA always displayed (beyond the 
1930s period) in its vision of the future, based on an evolutionary perspective of history and 
the belief in having found the right answer to society?s problems. This confidence was 
evident right from the beginning of its formation. To illustrate: in 1921 when the small 
socialist groups in South Africa met to form a united communist party and debated the 
Comintern?s Twenty-One Points, the Social Democratic Party (formerly Social Democratic 
Federation) issued a prescient statement, saying that the Comintern?s insistence on 
?subordinating factions to central authority? would mean, ?constant suspicion, distrust, strife, 
and the stifling of all personal generosity within any movement  imbued with the spirit of the 
                                                 
401
  In fact developing a full understanding of the atmosphere that affected the CPSA in this period, would 
require the tools of psychology utilized in understanding group psychology. 
402
  See for example Moses Kotane letter to the CPSA from Cradock mentioned on page 125 (footnote 375) 
of this study (Kotane, M. Letter to Johannesburg District Committee of the CPSA, Cradock, 23 February 
1934). 
403
  CPSA, Extract from ?The Struggle for Freedom, Equality and Security?, report of the Central Committee 
to the CPSA conference, Johannesburg, published in Freedom, January 1944. Source: Bunting, South 
African Communists Speak, 183-184. 
 136 
Third International.?404 This is exactly what happened. The ISL?s reaction to the SDP?s 
statement published in The International, is telling. Sheridan Johns writes the following: 
The International was quick to reply to the SDP attack, and its response reveals much 
about the attitude of those who were struggling  for a new united communist party 
linked to the Communist International? the author of the article displayed the 
assurance of a firm believer marching into a long and difficult battle for the true 
faith: ?The SA United Communist party will not compromise in order to attain a 
spurious importance but by virtue of the fact that it is in line with the development of 
human society and is based on the immutable laws of human progress, must attract to 
its ranks all that is worthy in the working class in South Africa.?405  
The above mentioned confidence in their vision of the future, and analysis of society partially 
sowed the seeds for the development of a discourse of political messianism. Yet it was only 
within a certain period that the internal culture of the CPSA was so authoritarian and 
doctrinaire, and that the above mentioned confidence in their imagined future turned into a 
destructive discourse of political messianism. In the forties for example, the Party was a far 
healthier organization, and far more democratic. This points to the complex set of factors that 
saw the development of a discourse of political messianism: the increased dominance of the 
Comintern and particularly authoritarian leadership, for example. Thus there is a fundamental 
weakness in an argument, such as Talmon?s or Popper?s, that claims that utopianism will lead 
to totalitarianism. The contingent circumstances in which utopianism develops affects the 
function of utopianism. 
What remained consistent throughout the Party?s history was the high regard in which 
members of the CPSA held the Soviet Union, despite the dictatorial influence of the 
Comintern, and despite increasing rumours of Stalin?s purges beginning to filter into the 
South African press. It is to this theme the chapter now turns. 
 
 
                                                 
404
  Durban Social Democratic Party, ?Socialist Unity in South Africa?, 1921 in Communist Review, 1(4), 
August, 73-76 cited in Drew, Discordant Comrades, 53.  
405
  Johns, S. 1976. ?The Birth of the Communist Party of South Africa? in The International Journal of 
African Studies, 9(3), 393-394. 
 137 
The Soviet Union: Utopia Realised? 
A year after the CPSA moved head office to Cape Town in 1938 the Party became immersed 
in the politics of the Second World War, and in its efforts to defend and support the Soviet 
Union. After the outbreak of the Second World War, the CPSA came out in vocal and loyal 
support of the Soviet Union, which intensified after Hitler invaded Russia in 1941.406 In the 
context of the rise of fascism and Hitler?s terrifying racism, the USSR was a beacon of light 
for the CPSA and many of its sympathisers. Brian Bunting, who joined the CPSA in 1940, 
commented that the mere existence of the USSR was assurance that the world would not ?go 
fascist?.407 
The Party published and wrote numerous pamphlets and articles calling on South Africans to 
play their part at home or on the battlefield, in defending the Soviet Union. In June 1941 the 
CPSA?s Central Committee issued a statement calling on the ?working class and all 
democratic and freedom-loving people to give their unqualified and wholehearted support to 
the Soviet Union in its struggle against the Nazi aggressors.?408 They said that, ?The Soviet 
Union is today not only defending the home of Socialism, but is fighting for the cause of 
freedom of all nations and peoples.?409 
                                                 
406
  According to Drew?s account of the period, the CPSA was confused and somewhat divided in their 
reaction to Stalin?s signing of the non-aggression pact with Hitler (Drew, Discordant Comrades, Chapter 
Ten). Party branches were certainly divided on whether to encourage South Africans to join the war, 
echoing some of the tensions around ISL?s position regarding the First World War. Eventually the CPSA 
decided on an anti-war stance, called for resistance to fascism and Nazism in South Africa and combined 
this call with demands for rights for black South Africans (Bundy, ?Left, Right, Left, Right?, 28). When 
Germany invaded the USSR, the CPSA?s stance was much clearer (Bundy, ?Left, Right, Left, Right?, 28). 
The Party claimed that South Africans should fight for the defense of the Soviet Union, democracy and the 
defeat of fascism. It should be noted that not all Party members were happy with this stance, particularly 
some black Party members such as Kotane (Drew, Discordant Comrades, 233). Many black people, if not 
most, whilst anti-fascist in stance, were not willing to fight in a war for democracy when they had no 
democratic rights in their own country (Drew, Discordant Comrades, 225). The CPSA enjoyed great 
popularity amongst the white (mostly English speaking) population during the war years, due to the 
USSR?s alliance with the allies. The CPSA would apparently fill up the Johannesburg City Hall at their 
meetings. Interview with Ilse Wilson, Johannesburg, September 2006. 
407
  Interview with Brian Bunting.  
408
  CPSA, ?All Support for the Soviet Union?, Official statement of the Central Committee, published in 
The Guardian, 26 June 1941. Source: Bunting, South African Communists Speak, 163. 
409
  CPSA, ?All Support for the Soviet Union? in Bunting, South African Communists Speak, 163. 
 138 
In October of the same year the Central Committee published another statement with ?A Call 
to Action! Workers and People of South Africa?Smash Fascism NOW!? on the front cover. 
In rousing words, the CPSA declared that, ?For fifteen weeks the two mightiest armies in the 
world have been locked in deadly struggle. Soviet Russia, the land of Socialism and 
Workers? Rule, faces Fascism, the enemy of civilisation and human progress.?410 
 
 
Fig. 7.5: A Durban 
District of the CPSA    
poster, in support of the 
War effort, 1942. 
 
 
 
Under the sub-title, ?Make it a People?s War?, the pamphlet continued: 
The Soviet Union, being a Socialist country, has no imperialist aims, nor territorial 
ambition. Throughout the 24 years of its existence, it has constantly stood for a 
policy of peace and for rights of nations and of national groups. These facts will 
inevitably have decisive influence on the reconstruction of the world after Hitler?s 
defeat. The Soviet Union is the guarantee for us that there will be no repetition of 
Versailles with all its horrors and terrible consequences. The Soviet Union, by reason 
of its Socialist structure, provides the basis for a real People?s War against 
Fascism.411 
                                                 
410
  CPSA, ?Smash Fascism Now?, official statement of the Central Committee of the CPSA, issued 13 
October 1941. Source: Simons Collection, BC1081: 08.5. 
411
  CPSA, ?Smash Fascism Now? in Simons Collection, BC1081: 08.5. For glowing reports of the Soviet 
Union written during the Second World War also see page 37 of the booklet We South Africans: 1652-
 1943, published by the CPSA, circa 1943. Source: South African Race Relations Political Collection: AD 
2182: A1.10, Historical Papers Library, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.  
 139 
The incredibly high regard in which the CPSA 
held the USSR can be seen from these statements. 
This regard can be seen throughout the CPSA?s 
history, having begun with the success of the 
Russian Revolution in 1917. For the CPSA the 
Soviet Union was a vital symbol of what was 
actual and possible, and not only imagined: a 
socialist utopia already in existence. For this 
reason the USSR was for many members of the 
Party, almost indispensable to the continuing 
belief in socialism itself. 
In addition, the backing and interest in CPSA 
affairs of the powerful Soviet Union, gave the 
small and oppressed Party at the tip of Africa a 
great deal of confidence. Brian Bunting 
commented that the constant support from the 
USSR gave the CPSA the sense that they had 
strength behind them and that this ?fraternal 
action? profoundly influenced the CPSA 
members.412  
By claiming the USSR was seen as a kind of utopia, it is not argued that CPSA members 
thought that a perfect place, the complete realisation of the communist state of being 
prophesised by Marx and Engels, had been realised. For example, in 1934 in, ?A word to the 
African workers? the CPSA said that not even in the Soviet Union had real communism come 
about.413 They knew too about the mass starvation endured by Russians in the first few years 
after the Bolshevik Revolution. Bill Andrews visited Moscow for the 1922 Comintern 
Congress. Andrew?s biographer, R.K. Cope wrote that ?Moscow of 1923 was anything but 
                                                 
412
  Interview with Brian Bunting. Bunting was a patient in Russia for a while in a special section dedicated 
to international communists in the hospital in which he stayed. Bunting also mentions an appreciation of 
the support received by the SACP (especially financial support), as well as the support of the Communist 
Party of Great Britain. Bunting commented that the support of the USSR was disinterested and due to their 
commitment to bring about international socialism.  
413
  CPSA, What is the Communist Party? A Word to African Workers, 1932, published by the Party. 
Source: Simons Collection: 018.1 
Fig. 7.6: A CPSA booklet, written by 
prominent South African communists about 
their visit to the Soviet Union.  
 140 
the Socialist Utopia?: the devastation of the Civil and First World wars were apparently very 
evident. Andrews wrote in a letter to Johannesburg that, ?There are many unsatisfactory 
features in Russia I see around me??.414 What precisely these features were is not elaborated 
on. But in another letter from Moscow Andrews wrote, ?In Moscow? everyone looks happy 
and well fed; everyone is hopeful and confident. There is an air of buoyancy not to be felt 
anywhere else in my experience, and this is the feeling that everyone has.?415 
Many members of the CPSA felt that in the Soviet Union a new, just, equitable social order 
had been created, where oppression, dictatorship and terror could not exist. The exploitative 
and undemocratic government of the Tsar had been replaced by a community of workers who 
were working for the benefit of all. Freedom of movement and expression, and access to 
resources were assumed to be enjoyed by all. Soviet citizens were ?builders of the glorious 
future?.416 If the USSR was not utopia, their conceptualisation of the USSR was certainly 
utopian.417  
This kind of romanticism was to be tested by both personal visits to the USSR by CPSA 
members and by a flood of information in local and international Western press about the 
lack of democracy in the USSR and the violence of the Soviet State.418 Sometimes members 
                                                 
414
  Cited in Cope, R.K. 1944. Comrade Bill: The Life and Times of W.H. Andrews, Workers? Leader. Cape 
Town: Stewart, 289. 
415
  Cited in Cope, Comrade Bill, 288. Roux travelled to Moscow for the 1928 Comintern Congress. In his 
autobiography he notes that in Russia he saw beggars, overcrowded housing, lack of sanitation, but he 
never wrote about any of this in his articles on his trip in the South African Worker, but describes instead 
the great Soviet films they saw. Roux, E. and W, Rebel Pity, 63-64. 
416
  Pauline Podbrey referring to her expectations of the future society Soviet Citizens were building in 
Hungary, where she was to live for a while with her husband, H.A. Naidoo. Podbrey, P. 1993. White Girl in 
Search of the Party. Pietermaritzburg: Hadeda Books, 163. 
417
  The point here is not to deny the real changes for many of the Russian people after the Bolshevik 
Revolution. The life standards for millions of people improved under Soviet reign, relative to their 
existence under the Tsar. Interview with Irena Filatova, Cape Town, March 2006. 
418
  Many CPSA members traveled to the USSR to study at the International Lenin School and the 
Communist University of the Toilers of the East (KUTV), including: Moses Kotane, Alfred Nzula (see 
figure 7.11), Edwin Mofutsanyana, J.B. Marks and many others. The experience that communists 
underwent in these universities appears to have been ambivalent. For black CPSA members it was a chance 
to receive an education they were denied in South Africa. Kotane comments that at the Lenin School he 
was taught to argue and to think (Bunting, Moses Kotane, 58-59). In addition the history of Africa taught at 
the universities was told from the perspective of the oppressed African, a very rare occurrence in the 1930s 
anywhere in the world. However according to Filatova, based on archive material, black students 
 141 
of the CPSA wavered in their belief that all was well in Russia, but few members of the Party 
became openly critical of aspects of the Soviet Union, and the defence of the USSR?s 
integrity remained an important part of CPSA propaganda and internal policy.  
This was more than an official Party stance. 
The fact that the USSR was seen as a beacon of 
hope can be seen in the narratives of individual 
CPSA members? lives. Moses Kotane?s regard 
for the Soviets can be seen in the fact that his 
son, Joseph, born in 1940 was named after 
Joseph Stalin.419  
Pauline Podbrey and H.A. Naidoo, both CSPA 
members, worked in Budapest in the 1950s, 
when Hungary was under Soviet rule. They left 
feeling disillusioned by how far Hungary fell 
short of their expectations of a Soviet ruled 
country. Their reactions say much about the 
way in which they had initially conceptualised 
the USSR before leaving South Africa. Podbrey 
writes the following of her initial reactions to 
arriving in Budapest in her autobiography: 
 
 
                                                                                                                                                 
complained of the racism they experienced at the universities and in the Soviet Union in general. 
Mofutsanyana was one of the students who made a formal complaint of racism at the KUTV (see Edgar, 
The Making of an African Communist, 22). These experiences were rarely mentioned by CPSA members 
on their return to South Africa. In addition students were subject to extreme levels of secrecy once in the 
universities: at the KUTV they could not for example give their real name to anyone during their stay at the 
university, nor tell anyone outside the university about life at the university. See Filatova, I. 1999. 
?Indoctrination or Scholarship? Education of Africans at the Communist University of the Toilers of the 
East in the Soviet Union, 1923-1937? in Paedagogica Historica: International Journal of the History of 
Education, 35(1), 41-66. 
419
  Bunting, Moses Kotane, 86. 
Fig. 7.7: A Soviet poster entitled, 
?Long live the international 
Proletarian Revolution!? 1925. 
 
 142 
I searched the faces of the passers-by for signs of eager, enthusiastic commitment. 
Where were all those happy, determined men and women, marching forward in 
triumph, with red banner held high? Where were the models for the people who?d 
inspired me on all those Soviet posters? The strong rosy cheeked women, the 
determined, confident men? Were these dejected, suspicious citizens the builders of 
the glorious future?420  
 David Ivon Jones was also to live under Soviet rule in 
the early 1920s, shortly after the Revolution when the 
young state was in the beginning stages of its 
transformation. The Welshman travelled to Moscow in 
1921 and lived there for the remainder of his short life. 
He spent the three years learning Russian, translating 
local press into English for visiting delegates to the 
Soviet Union, writings articles about the transformation 
of Russian society in the communist press in Britain and 
South Africa, and reading and interpreting Marxist and 
Bolshevik texts. He died at the age of 41 of tuberculosis 
and was buried in Moscow.421 Jones?s biographer, 
Baruch Hirson writes that:  
The road that took David Ivon Jones to Moscow was paved with hope. Not to find a 
release from the disease that had taken him from his beloved Aberystwyth422 ? but 
the possibility of restructuring society in which he believed so fervently. This was, at 
                                                 
420
  Podbrey, White Girl in Search of the Party, 163. Podbrey and Naidoo fell in love and were married in 
the 1940s. Such was the (usually racist) antagonism to ?mixed? marriages in many of the communities in 
South Africa, particularly in the white suburbs, that the young couple was urged by the CPSA leadership to 
leave for England. They soon travelled to Budapest in order to offer their support and labour in the new 
socialist state. Their experiences of life under Soviet rule in Hungary (including experiences of state 
surveillance, oppression and corruption) left them disillusioned and bereft, exacerbated by the isolation 
they received from many communist friends who refused to believe the possibility that life under Soviet 
rule was not as they imagined.  
421
  Hirson and Williams, The Delegate for Africa. 
422
  A town in Wales where Jones had formed a close and lifelong friendship and where he had been 
immersed in the Unitarian faith.   
Fig. 7.8: Pauline Podbrey, member 
of the CPSA.  
 143 
least in metaphorical terms, the ?new Jerusalem? and he had entered it.423 
Far more of a pragmatist than Jones, Johnny Gomas (see 
figure 7.9) was a member of the CPSA, and earlier, a 
member of the ISL. He became a Marxist, and an admirer of 
Stalin, a picture of whom hung on his bedroom door for 
years.424 Gomas was moved to activism by a sense of 
injustice, deep personal anger at the humiliation and racial 
domination wrought upon black lives in South Africa, 
which he personally experienced. If he was spurred on by 
dreams of a better society, these dreams were not made 
explicit in his writings, though implicit in his commitment 
to activism. Gomas retained an immense regard for the 
Soviet Union all his life.425 Gomas?s biographer, Doreen 
Musson, writes the following:  
According to Cornelius Gomas, her husband had few regrets in his life, but one was 
definitely the fact that he had never been sent to Russia, the land of ?freedom only? 
and ?mighty Volga?. The thought of not having been to this ?great workers? state? 
could move old Gomas to tears.426 
Thus in South Africa, a country where society was far from the ideal future they imagined, 
the USSR sustained hope that the future they were fighting for would be realised.427 The ideal 
of socialism became embodied in the USSR (and even possibly in certain figures such as 
                                                 
423
  Hirson and Williams, The Delegate for Africa, 210. 
424
  Gomas was very active in trade union politics, as well as the All Africa Convention, and was one of the 
founding members of the National Liberation League. (Formed in 1935, the League was launched by La 
Guma of the CPSA and Cissie Gool, a prominent activist in Cape Town.  Gomas was later to move towards 
the Black Consciousness movement and joined the Pan African Congress in the 1950s. See Musson, 
Johnny Gomas.  
425
  Based on readings of Musson, D. 1989. Johnny Gomas: Voice of the Working Class. Cape Town: Buchu 
Books.  
426
  Gomas was particularly resentful apparently of not having been given the chance to travel to Moscow 
for the Sixth Comintern Congress in 1928, when the Buntings and Roux presented their position on the 
Native Republic Thesis. Musson, Johnny Gomas, 49. 
427
  Tanya Barben agrees that the USSR undoubtedly played a role in the CPSA as an example of what was 
possible. Interview with Tanya Barben, Cape Town, December 2005.  
Fig. 7.9: Johnny Gomas, member 
of the CPSA. 
 144 
Lenin and Stalin). The regard in which the CPSA held the USSR goes a long way to 
explaining the powerful role that the Comintern was able to play in the CPSA, so many 
thousands of miles away.   
Defending the Soviet Union: Protecting the Ideal 
The Soviet Union was a dream of utopia common to right-thinking persons all round the 
world, the Fatherland to which we all owed allegiance for moral, ethical and 
 ideological reasons. 
(Pauline Podbrey, member of the CPSA, 1993) 428 
The CPSA?s attitude to the Soviet Union was one of the ways in which the CPSA?s 
utopianism was expressed. For many CPSA members, the Soviet Union was utopia in 
another place, and a representation of the utopia of the future. All hopes were projected onto 
the Soviet Union, to the extent that for some individuals in the CPSA, discovering that the 
Soviet Union was not as they imagined was profoundly disillusioning and even devastating.  
The Party?s belief in the correctness of the vision of an ideal society in socialism, and seeing 
the USSR as a kind of utopia, was partly responsible for creating blindness to certain events 
in the Soviet Union. The lack of democratic practice in the USSR, Stalin?s purges, and the 
gulag, the terror it created ? were dismissed by the CPSA as Western propaganda.429 There 
                                                 
428
  Podbrey, White Girl in Search of the Party, 186. 
429
  Rumours of Stalin?s purges were circulating in South Africa at the time that the CPSA leaders were 
called to Moscow in 1935, and some members became wary. For example J.B Marks (see figure 7.10) was 
also called to Moscow in 1936. He was apparently warned whilst on route in Paris not to continue to 
Moscow by French communists. He made an excuse not to go to Russia. On his return to South Africa he 
blew his cover (he and other communists had to travel under pseudonym to Russia, and on false passports) 
by claiming for a lost piece of luggage in his own name and putting the CPSA?s office address as his own. 
Such action could not have been absentmindedness and Davison et al surmise that he wished to make 
future trips to the Soviet Union in the next while impossible. (Davidson et al, South Africa and the 
Communist International, 21). Marks was expelled from the CPSA as a result (Edgar, Edwin 
Mofutsanyana, 28) and reinstated a few years later. Louis Joffy apparently advised Bach not to go to the 
Soviet Union. He was reprimanded for this by CPSA leadership ? but he claimed that ?he had a nervous 
condition that made him say things that he did not really mean as they sounded [sic].? (Drew, Discordant 
Comrades, 184). Thus rumours of what was happening in the USSR did make some CPSA members pause 
for a while, but were usually eventually brushed aside. That one should take such rumours seriously enough 
to consider not going to the Soviet Union, or advise others not to go, and yet remain faithful to an ideal of 
the Soviet Union and not voice criticism of any aspect of the Soviet Union, is telling.  
 145 
was, to be fair, much misinformation in the South African (and other nations?) press about 
the USSR.430 But reports of the atrocities in the press were sustained and often detailed, and 
yet the CPSA made little effort to find out more about what was really happening in the 
Soviet Union. It appears that the reality of what was happening in the Soviet Union in the 
1930s and 1940s was too much for the CPSA activists to take in.431 To outsiders of the CPSA 
this may have made their criticism of South African society and their descriptions of an ideal 
future society seem somewhat hollow.432 
Not only did their blindness lead them to implicitly condone horrendous practises in the 
USSR, but this blindness also had devastating effects for some CPSA members, as the reach 
of Stalin?s stretched to South African shores. Had the Party taken rumours of Stalin?s Terror 
more seriously, rather than dismissing them simply as Western propaganda, they might have 
spared the lives of their members who travelled to Moscow at the insistence of the Comintern 
and who never returned.433  
 
                                                 
430
  Interview with Ilse Wilson. 
431
  Interview with Irena Filatova.   
432
  Naboth Mokgatle described himself as a ?Communist at heart? but he kept hesitating in joining the 
CPSA in the late thirties due to the rumours of the purges in USSR: ?While I was hesitating whether I 
should apply for membership of the Communist Party, newspapers came along with reports that the 
Communist party of the Soviet Union was being purged of its best and leading figures who had brought it 
into being?The newspaper said that they were being arrested because they opposed Stalin and those who 
supported him. Some were sentenced to death by firing squads. After reading the verdicts I remember 
asking myself, how can I join the party which destroys its cream, the party with no future because its 
leadership is destroyed? I convinced myself that it was just a matter of time before the Communist party of 
the Soviet Union would cease to exist and all the arguments for a World Communist Movement would 
collapse.? (Mokgatle, N. 1971. The Autobiography of an Unknown South African. Johannesburg: AD. 
Donker, 211).   
433
  Drew recounts the following in regarding the news of Bach?s death reaching South Africa: ?Ray Adler 
Harmel [a CPSA member] had lived with Lazar Bach before he went to Moscow. Much later, she heard 
that he had been accused of Trotskyism and had died while imprisoned. She was anguished but her reaction 
reveals the seemingly unshakeable faith many Communists had in the Comintern: ?I said once at the group 
to which I belonged that if that was the decision of the Comintern I would have to accept it but that never, 
never had I heard Lazar express Trotskyist views. I couldn?t argue with the Comintern. I wasn?t there.? 
(Harmel, R, 1993 cited in Drew, Discordant Comrades, 195-196 n83.) 
 146 
Not all CPSA members shut their eyes so tightly.434 Bernard Sachs recounts his feelings 
when he began to see the first signs of the growing intolerant and doctrinaire culture in the 
Soviet Union, as early as the nineteen twenties: 
I shall never forget the day when the ?Imprecorr? the official organ of the 
Communist International, arrived some time in 1927, its pages filled with nothing 
else but a succession of violent tirades against Trotsky written by the other Bolshevik 
leaders? It was like a flash of lightning in a sky full of foreboding. ? I spent many 
anguished hours hoping that the differences would be patched up. But the division in 
the Russian Party grew within months. One of the saddest moment of my life was the 
news which now reached us though the regular Press that Trotsky had been banished 
first to Siberia and then to Turkey. A whole world, into which had gone my most 
precious dreams and the full ardour of my spirit, was visibly collapsing before me. I 
continued to hang on to my membership of the Party. But there was no longer any 
enthusiasm or a will to sacrifice myself.435 
For most members however, loyalty to the Party, mentioned in the section above, included 
loyalty to the USSR.436 Though criticism of the Soviet Union was sometimes voiced by 
CPSA members, public criticism was seriously frowned upon. For example in an incident in 
the early forties Pauline Podbrey (see figure 7.8) publicly mentioned her objection to a Soviet 
policy that forbade Russian women who had married British men in the forties during the 
War to join their husbands outside the Soviet Union. Her conduct was referred to two 
disciplinary hearing in the CPSA and she was reprimanded.437 
 
                                                 
434
  According to Ilse Wilson, Ruth First, member of the CPSA in the 1940s and a member of the SACP, 
was one of the first active members of the Party to question whether the information about atrocities and 
lack of democracy in the USSR were in fact true. Interview with Ilse Wilson.  
435
  Sachs, Multitude of Dreams, 159. 
436
  This sense of loyalty was not produced in a vacuum: for example some of the CPSA members were 
immigrant Jews who had experienced the anti-Semitism of Tsarist Russia first hand or whose family had 
lived under this oppression. The USSR liberated Jews in Russia, and memories of this influenced some 
Jewish CPSA members to continue to defend the integrity of the Soviet State, which it seemed, had put an 
end to a history of Jewish persecution in Russia.   
437
  On this occasion, Moses Kotane commented to Podbrey that, ?We can differ and argue as much as we 
like inside the Party?but once a decision is reached we must all abide by it. That is democratic 
centralism.? Podbrey, White Girl in Search of a Party, 105. 
 147 
When the rumours of the fate of Bach and the 
Richter brothers reached South Africa, Ray 
Alexander attempted to find out what happened to 
Lazar Bach on trips she made to the Soviet 
Union.438 Alexander claimed that she did not know 
that she was shown a fa?ade when she visited the 
USSR. Her husband, Jack Simons, however was 
somewhat more wary and critical.439 No systematic 
investigation to find out what had really happened 
was launched, however, and the stories in the South 
African press were essentially dismissed by many 
members, and the implications of wondering about 
the rumours were not taken to their conclusion by 
prominent CPSA members.440 
 
Despite the idealism and utopianism inherent in their constant criticism of South African 
society, they failed to sufficiently self-criticise their own actions in supporting the USSR 
without qualification. This can partially be explained in CPSA activists continuing belief and 
faith in the ideal of socialism. Abstract goals (such as the ideal of socialism, the imagined 
future society) may, as mentioned, be difficult to hold on to, and thus people or places may 
come to embody these ideals.441 The socialist utopia was embodied, in the minds of many 
CPSA members, by the USSR. To criticise the person (for example Stalin) or the place (for 
                                                 
438
  Not all the blame for CPSA members' lack of determination to find out what happened to the Richters 
and Bach can be laid at the feet of the CPSA?s attitude to the USSR. The three men were from Eastern 
Europe, despite having spent time in South Africa and members may have assumed they returned home. 
Interview with Irena Filatova. Bach however, had been an active member of the CPSA for quite some time 
and was involved in a relationship with another South African communist, and some concern about his well 
being could be expected, particularly in light of the press reports about his trial and death. 
439
  Interview with Tanya Barben.   
440
  A local South African paper the Sunday Express carried news that the three men had been sentenced to 
death. The CPSA?s South African Worker described the news as ?lying and false?, emanating from a small 
Trotskyite group in Cape Town ?claiming to have underground connections with the Soviet Union. But the 
Sunday Express has been proved through cables received from Reuter and the British Embassy in Moscow 
to have published a lie fabricated by the enemies of the working class.? Bunting, Moses Kotane, 291 n49.  
441
  This process does not of course only develop in utopian movements, but also in religious beliefs and 
movements for example. This process may have a graduated effect depending on how deeply people are 
involved or implicated in a particular discourse.  
 
Fig. 7.10: J.B. Marks, member of the 
CPSA and the SACP, in Moscow in 1971. 
Marks died and was buried in Moscow. 
 
 148 
example the Soviet Union) was to criticise the ideal of socialism, by challenging the fullest 
expression of the socialist utopia. This would mean a loss of the ideal for which they were 
fighting, and which gave meaning to their lives ? and a feeling that their actions and 
investment had been in vein. 
This can be seen in the emotional devastation caused for those who did lose faith in the 
vision. Pauline Podbrey comments on losing her faith in the socialist ideal after living in 
Hungary under Soviet rule: ?I?d lost my God many years ago but then I found the Party. Now 
I was stripped of my Party and it left me feeling naked and bereft. There was a gaping hole 
where my faith had rested, my centre of certainty.?442 
 In South Africa and the Communist International, Davidson et al tell a story relevant to this 
point. Comintern officials in Moscow were housed in the time of the height of Stalin?s 
Terror, in the Hotel Lux.  
In the late 1930s foreign Comintern officials who lived in the Hotel Lux in the centre 
of Moscow could not sleep at nights. At three or four in the morning there would be a 
sound of a car stopping at the entrance and heavy steps of NKVD guards would echo 
in the long empty corridors leading to one or two doors and then returning with the 
arrested victims. People behind the closed doors sat fully dressed listening: whose 
door would they go to today? Sometimes their nerves gave way, and, unable to take 
the terrible waiting any longer, they shot themselves. Some jumped to their death 
from their windows into the courtyard far below. Always into the courtyard, never 
into the street where Soviet passers-by might see the suicide and get the wrong idea. 
Soviet citizens? ideals had to be protected at all costs, and the internal courtyard was 
safely surrounded by the hotel walls. 443 
                                                 
442
  Of her husband, H.A. Naidoo, who was possibly even more devastated, she writes: ?I knew that H.A. 
felt even more abandoned than I and his groping for a way out was as doomed as mine?he became 
apathetic and depressed, a complete contrast to the man he was. At first gradually and then more rapidly his 
mental health declined. Tragically he didn?t live long enough to overcome his bitter disappointments and to 
forge for himself a new life. He never came to terms with his past.? (Podbrey, White Girl in Search of the 
Party, 200). 
443
  Davidson et al, South Africa and the Communist International, 22. Filatova commented that ?the idea 
was considered right? and that what was happening in the Soviet Union during Stalin?s Terror was seen by 
 149 
This story illustrates the power of a radical 
commitment to an ideal. If the Soviet Union, as an 
expressed of the ideal of socialism, failed, then there 
is nothing, a life dedicated to an illusion. Thus in 
jumping to their death in the courtyard rather than the 
street, the Comintern officials attempted to maintain 
the integrity of the ideal.444  
This extreme form of loyalty and investment in an 
ideal (socialism as the ideal form of social 
organisation, and the realisation of a dream in the 
form of the Soviet Union) was not present to this 
extent in the CPSA in South Africa. But it appears 
that the utopian vision of a future ideal society in 
South Africa, and in the vision?s present incarnation 
in the Soviet Union, became so internalised by some 
CPSA members that to consider changes or challenges 
to this ideal or its representation, became 
psychologically disruptive, and was thus avoided (an 
idea mentioned in Chapter Two). This is the power of 
a utopian vision ? of an ideal ? if it is strong enough 
to mobilise, to sustain activism and to help people 
cope with life in an imperfect society, it may also 
become indispensable, an ideal to be protected at all 
costs.   
Referring to the critical and transformative power of utopia, Bauman commented that, 
?Utopias relativise the present. One cannot be critical 
about something that is believed to be an absolute. By 
exposing the partiality of current reality, by scanning 
the field of the possible in which the real occupies 
                                                                                                                        
some as an aberration, not something more internal to the structure of the Soviet society or governance at 
the time. Interview with Irena Filatova.   
444
  Filatova commented that in the USSR, the Soviet Union, and its protection became ?the major value? in 
the Soviet Union government, and even the value of life was at times subordinate. Interview with Irena 
Filatova.  
Fig. 7.11: A page from Alfred 
Nzula?s identification document 
for his period of stay in the Soviet 
Union 
 150 
merely a tiny plot, utopias pave the way for a critical attitude and a critical activity??445 This 
transformative and critical power of utopia is however, not always active: in the case of the 
CPSA, the USSR became an absolute for many CPSA activists, and they were thus unable to 
sufficiently criticise it, nor the influence of the Comintern.  
The Ambiguity of Utopianism 
The utopianism of the CPSA acted as a positive force in both South African society and in 
the lives of Party members. Furthermore, the critical orientation of the utopian impulse was 
very evident in the CPSA in its constant criticism of the status quo in South Africa. This 
critical orientation, however, did not extend to all spheres of the Party?s engagement as seen 
in the uncritical relation to the USSR and the Comintern. In addition an intolerant, 
authoritarian, undemocratic, period existed in CPSA?s history, in contrast to the future they 
were fighting for. These two phenomena, the uncritical relation to the USSR throughout the 
CPSA?s history and the authoritarian and intolerant internal culture of the 1930s are related: 
the CPSA?s perception of the USSR affected the role that the Comintern was able to play in 
the Party?s history and because they can both be understood partly as a result of the presence 
of a certain form of utopianism. 
Through an analysis of the role of utopianism in the CPSA?s history, utopianism has revealed 
an ambiguous nature, both as a potentially positive and negative, constructive and destructive 
force, as was suggested in Chapter Two.  
Utopianism can change from being a critical, challenging and transformative discourse (as 
celebrated in much of the literature discussed in Chapter Two) to being an ideological 
discourse, in the sense that it closes down debate, and justifies a given situation, no matter 
how removed that situation might be from the originally imagined utopia.  This is particularly 
the case in those places, communities or societies where elements of the utopian vision have 
been said to be realised, as mentioned in Chapter Four.  
The utopian movement of Bolshevism in the USSR certainly became an ideology in that once 
changes in line with an aspect of a utopian vision had been realised, the discourse of 
Bolshevik socialism became hegemonic, and lost its critical edge, becoming as Bauman 
                                                 
445
  Bauman, Z. 1976. Socialism: the Active Utopia. London: Allen & Unwin, 13. 
 151 
noted, a conservative ideology.446 Samantha Abercrombie, writing about utopianism, 
comments that:  
A liberating narrative can in time become so embedded within the society it 
challenged that it becomes a metanarrative, constraining that society and actively 
maintaining the status quo. Communism, which began as a little narrative against 
imperial capitalism, was ideologicalized into a constraining system. After liberating 
workers? it was used to enforce an ideological viewpoint which protected the 
bureaucratic autocracy of the USSR.447 
Whilst the USSR offers a case study of a utopian movement turned into an ideology (as 
defined above) on a grand and international scale, this small study of the CPSA shows 
something slightly different. It has revealed that the CPSA?s utopian vision functioned as 
both a transcending, critical force, a movement for change, and that certain elements of the 
utopian discourse became constraining, uncritical paradigms. The ambiguous nature of 
utopianism is active both across a long period of time, as seen in the Soviet Union, but more 
interestingly, within the same historical moment.  
It is not necessarily in utopia ?becoming ideology? that utopia moves from the positive into 
the negative, but rather that both positive and negative, creative and destructive impulses 
potentially lie within utopia.  
Drawing on the analysis in the above sections on the Soviet Union and the ?Bolshevisation? 
of the Party, this is first of all because of the potential for a political messianic kind of 
utopianism to develop within a utopian movement. This involves the development of an 
authoritarian and doctrinaire interpretation of the utopian vision, and the strategy needed to 
achieve it. It bestows on some of members of the movements a sense that they are the 
                                                 
446
  See Bauman, Socialism, 16. This process of utopia turned into ideology is hinted at in Mannheim?s 
Ideology and Utopia (though he never explicitly states it and it does not seem to have been his intention to 
posit this idea) where he discusses a number of utopian ?mentalities?: including ?liberal-humanitarianism? 
and ?socialist-communism?. He notes that liberalism was at one stage a utopian quest to create a free 
society based on merit and rationalism. This became part of mainstream thinking in the West, and 
liberalism became associated with a defence of the existing order. Mannheim, K. 1936 [1929]. Ideology 
and Utopia: An Introduction to the Sociology of Knowledge. New York: Harvest Books, Chapter Four. 
447
  Abercrombie, S. 2001. ?The Poetics of Politics?. Unpublished Honours paper, Department of Political 
Studies, Rhodes University, Grahamstown (paper loaned by Ivor Sarakinsky), 21.  
 152 
enlightened vanguard, leading people towards a self-evident truth, a future salvation which 
must and is bound to come. They thus feel justified in either coercing people for ?the good of 
the community?, or they are justified in making sacrifices of people now ? for a better future. 
Second, utopia may critique the status quo, opening ?things up by advancing contentious new 
principles and claims?,448 yet at the same time become such an organising principle in the 
mind of those who hold it that it also ?closes down and stabilizes?449 and limits critical 
faculties. This appears to have been the case in relation to the CPSA?s perception of the 
Soviet Union and all that that meant for the Party and its members. Certain places or people 
(the USSR for example, or Stalin) that symbolised ideals, in the utopian discourse of 
socialism and national liberation of the CPSA, were internalised, uncritically used, to the 
extent that the existence of something far removed from that they imagined for a future South 
Africa was justified and emulated. This is because, (and this is barely mentioned in the 
literature on utopianism) the utopian impulse cannot be divorced from other socio-
 psychological phenomena, such as identity formation, loyalty to an ideal, the construction of 
life discourse, and how these processes interact. When a utopian vision or ideal becomes 
important in individual?s life, or when people come together as a community on the basis of 
this ideal, the utopia becomes part of their life paradigm, or life?s narrative.450 In becoming a 
vital, integral part of people?s discourses and identity in the Party, utopianism revealed a 
more ambiguous nature, because people are not always able to criticise the ideal.  
It may be the case that certain content of a utopian vision may be more given to critique, to 
inspiration (in the case of the CPSA ? this was drawn from the vision of a future society 
described in Chapter Five), and other aspects of the utopian discourse (such as its form) may 
be more given to lack of criticism and closing down debate. For example those elements in 
the utopian discourse of the CPSA that spoke of a wonderful society and that were critical of 
                                                 
448
  Ackroyd, S. 2002. ?Utopia or Ideology: Karl Mannheim and the Place of Theory? in Parker, M. (Ed) 
Utopia and Organization. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 49. 
449
  Ackroyd, ?Utopia or Ideology?, 49. 
450
  In Identity: Youth and Crisis, Erik Erikson provides a definition of an ?ideological system? that we 
might just as well term ?a paradigm? or a ?discourse?: (in fact it would be preferable given that ideology is 
used in a different way in this study!): ?a coherent body of shared image, ideas, and ideals which? 
provides for the participants a coherent, if systematically simplified, over-all orientation in space and time, 
in means and ends.? (Erikson, E. 1968 cited in Ricoeur, Lectures on Ideology and Utopia, 258). This is in a 
sense what socialism, and the utopian vision which is implicit in socialism, came to provide many members 
of the CPSA. 
 153 
the status quo, were inspiring (this speaks to utopia?s critical and inspiring function 
illustrated in Chapter Six). But certainty rather than hope and desire in a particular future 
may create a potentially negative utopianism. In addition, those elements which projected 
this vision onto something in existence (the USSR) became its downfall. Defining the Soviet 
Union as the embodiment of the utopian vision meant an ethical compromise: this is partly 
because no reality could be utopia.  
 154 
Chapter Eight:  
Conclusion 
 
When I am asked where I would like to live, my standard answer is: 
deep in the virgin mountain forest on a lake shore at the corner of Madison Avenue 
in Manhattan and Champs Elys?es, in a small tidy town. 
(Leszek Kolakowski, 1983) 451 
 
Research Summary 
In line with Colin Bundy?s suggestion mentioned at the beginning of the previous chapter, an 
account has been taken in the history of the CPSA of both the ?political blindness and 
perversity involved in the Party?s obedience to a Comintern which itself was subservient to 
Stalin?s brutal and ungenerous version of socialism?, and also of the inspirational and 
sustaining power of a vision of an alternative society.452 Instead of seeing these as two 
disjointed sides of the CPSA, they have been shown to be connected: both are partly a result 
of the CPSA?s immersion in a utopian discourse. 
In exploring the role of utopianism, a hidden history of the CPSA has emerged. In addition, 
the study has added to the analysis of how utopianism functions in society more generally.  
Utopianism was evident in the discourses of the CPSA throughout its history. It was 
explicitly expressed in the CPSA?s articulation of an ideal or far better future society 
(particularly in the first few years of their existence when change in society seemed 
imminent). The content of this vision of a future South African was discussed in Chapter 
Five. An argument has been made that utopianism in the CPSA was evident in more than the 
detailed depictions of an ideal or better society. Utopianism was implicitly expressed in the 
CPSA?s constant criticism of the status quo, and in their demands for small changes in 
society, as demonstrated in Chapter Four. As mentioned, utopianism was generally implicit 
in the CPSA?s activity directed towards change in society. The category ?implicit utopianism? 
                                                 
451
  Kolakowski, L. 1983. ?The Death of Utopia Reconsidered? in McMurrin, S. (Ed) The Tanner Lectures 
on Human Values, Volume IV. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 229.  
452
  See Bundy, C. 1991. ?Left, Right, Left, Right: The CPSA in the 1930s and 1940s? in Bundy, C. 
(Coordinator). The History of the South African Communist Party. Lectures presented at the University of 
Cape Town Summer School. Cape Town: Department of Adult Education and Extra-Mural Studies, UCT, 
32. 
 155 
demonstrated that a vision of an ideal or far better future (and the belief that it could be 
realised) permeated much of the discourses and activities of the CPSA members.   
Utopianism in the CPSA revealed an ambiguous nature. It was both an inspiring, mobilising 
and critical force, constructive and creative and at the same time, but under the influence of 
particular circumstances, utopianism revealed another side. It showed that utopianism can 
also act as a destructive force which closes down debate, limits self-criticism and criticism of 
its own leading figures. This ambiguity may be seen in the transformation of a liberating 
utopian vision into a limiting and conservative ideology as in the case of the USSR, or in the 
case of the CPSA: this ambiguity may be present at the same time. 
It is suggested that utopianism is an ambiguous presence in society more generally. Small 
and detailed case studies of how utopianism functions in a group, such as the study presented 
here, allow for a more detailed and comprehensive commentary than larger cases studies on 
Bolshevism or Nazism for example (about which sweeping statements are often by necessity 
made).453 They allow for a more nuanced and contextualised argument than those provided 
by the either the anti-utopian critics, or those who celebrate utopia without qualification.454  
In the final analysis the anti-utopian critics were both right and wrong. They were right in 
claiming that utopian visions have lead to the oppression of one group by another or to a 
totalitarian outlook, but wrong in assuming that utopian visions would always lead to this 
outcome. Talmon?s analysis was more astute in identifying a particular utopian discourse, 
political messianism, as the one which will lead to totalitarianism. The belief in a pre-
 ordained future and in being part of an enlightened group which will help to bring it about is 
more likely to see the emergence of totalitarianism and oppression of one group over another 
than a vision that says nothing about whether their view is right ? but merely that it is one 
possible desirable goal. The CPSA?s utopianism, with its roots in Marxism and its faith in the 
Comintern ? clearly had elements of the former.  
The CPSA however, also drew on other discourses, as mentioned. An ethical and moral 
commitment to building a society that was just, equal and humane, based on a desire to see 
                                                 
453
  It would be interesting to compare utopianism active in other communist parties in the same period, to 
understand whether utopianism functioned in a similar manner. 
454
  This is not to say that the work of Karl Popper or Jacob Talmon was not nuanced in themselves ? they 
provided detailed and sophisticated arguments but due to the lack of concentration on anthropological 
findings, their analysis was too generalizing.  
 156 
people rid of pain, frustration and oppression, as shown in Chapter Five. Though it may seem 
incredible having seen the state of internal politics in the 1930s, they drew on a commitment 
to democracy, and this can be seen in the way in which they managed to climb out of the 
slump of the 1930s to build a more democratic institution in the 1940s.455 In addition their 
most immediate cause, to free black people in South Africa from oppression, was still 
unfulfilled. Their commitment to this ideal pulled them through this period and towards a re-
 engagement with black protest and towards strategy more rooted in the South African 
context. This speaks once again of the positive, inspiring and sustaining power of a utopian 
vision. 
As noted in Chapter Two, the role that a utopian vision will play in any group appears to be 
context related ? and may well change over time in the same group or society. The role that a 
utopian vision may play will be affected by the particular personalities involved in a utopian 
movement, the levels of existing democracy (is authority in the hands of a few and how 
easily can it be contested?), the content of the utopian vision (compare the Third Reich with 
environmentalist vision of a green future), how vested people are in a vision, and how open 
they are to changing it. Lastly the form of a particular vision is vital, as this thesis had shown: 
is the imagined utopia a future that is desired or one that is both desired and seen as bound to 
come, in a sense the only future?  
Leszek Kolakowski?s ideal place, described in the quote at the beginning of the chapter, 
captures the essence of the utopian impulse: a desire for an idyllic existence, which does not 
have to contend with the restrictions and tensions of life, which captures the best of all 
circumstances. Yet an ideal utopia is unattainable, and herein lies a primary cause of utopia?s 
ambiguity, alluded to in Thomas More?s coining of this rather frustrating word. Utopia might 
be a good place that is nowhere. 
To expand on this idea, one of the central ingredients in understanding the complex and 
ambiguous way in which utopianism functioned in the CPSA was the presence of the Soviet 
Union: the presence of a state or place in reality which embodied the socialist utopia. 
Referring to the communist utopian vision, Francois Furet says that, ?[The communist idea?s] 
                                                 
455
  See the Constitution of the Party adopted in 1944. The Constitution lays the basis for democratic 
decision making in the Party. Chairman Bill Andrews?s introduction to the Constitution shows that the 
Party was mindful of the detrimental effects of the undemocratic decision making in the 1930s. See CPSA, 
Communist Party of South Africa: Constitution and Programme, 1944. Source: Simons Collection BC 
1081: 03.1 Manuscripts and Archives Department, University of Cape Town Cape Town. 
 157 
voyage through the century would never stop depending on discussion of the regime that was 
supposed to illustrate it. The communist idea was no longer free, as it has been in the 
preceding century, but subordinated to the constraints of a constant affirmation of the 
veracity of its Soviet incarnation. This was its strength ? that the idea has taken root in 
history ? but also its weakness, for the idea was dependant upon its manifestation in 
reality.?456 Reality cannot be utopia, and any attempt to claim that it has been or can be 
created in totality must lead to all manner of a priori and selective reasoning in order to keep 
the ideal intact. 
The CPSA?s utopia was nowhere near to being fulfilled, unlike in the USSR where attempts 
were made to defend a system which purported to be the socialist ideal in existence. What 
makes the CPSA such an interesting case study is that it involves an investigation of the 
interaction between a group of people using a utopia as a goal against which the present is 
judged and a goal to work towards, and also engaging with a society, the Soviet Union, in 
which it was claimed that the ideal had been brought into existence. The CPSA?s relationship 
with the later involved a defence of the supposed ideal (despite its distorted incarnation) and 
here developed a legitimation of a very imperfect status quo.  The CPSA was engaged with 
both a distant utopia, where it could remain a regulative ideal and a goal, and with the 
contradictions inherent in engaging in or with a society which claims to have found an 
answer to the tensions, antagonisms and alienations of a previous life. 
Despite the tension inherent in utopia, society needs the space to create utopias. It was briefly 
suggested that the construction of a utopia where the contradictions, tensions and injustice of 
society are erased, provides a psychological coping mechanism, particularly when (as seen in 
the case of the CPSA) elements of the utopian vision have been put into practice within a 
social group.  
As Kolakowski reminds us, we cannot dispense with utopia, because life without the utopian 
spirit would ?condemn us to hopeless stagnation? and the justification of any existing status 
quo.457 The power of utopia may function at its best when those who are moved by a utopian 
vision, know well its fallibility, and if its creators are well aware that the ideal imagined will 
never be created. In this case a utopian vision can be a tool against which to judge the 
represent and a reminder that all in society is not fixed. In addition it can provide a goal to 
                                                 
456
  Furet, F. 1998. ?Democracy and Utopia? in Journal of Democracy, 9(1), 69.  
457
  Kolakowski, ?The Death of Utopia Reconsidered?, 247. 
 158 
work towards. Whilst Kolakowski reminds us of the necessity of utopia, he deplores political 
programmes that have ended in violence due to a group attempting to realise a utopian vision. 
He comments that society needs the ?shaking coexistence? of both the utopian and sceptical 
type of mind.458 This coexistence will always be a tension within society, and as mentioned in 
the Preface to this study, for some of us, a tension within our own lives.  
From Past to Present Utopias: 
Questions for Further Research 
The story of the CPSA was left off in the early forties, when the Party had recovered 
somewhat from the mess of the 1930s and was immersed in the politics of the Second World 
War. The late 1940s saw the closer merger of the CPSA activity with national struggles. The 
new leadership of the ANC: Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo and Walter Sisulu, began 
utilising Marxist analysis in trying to understand the nature of racial oppression in South 
Africa.459 Notable CPSA members were also ANC officials, such as J.B Marks, Yusuf Dadoo 
and Edwin Mofutsanyana.460   
By 1946 the State?s temporary easing of attacks on communist activity as a result of the 
USSR?s role in the Second World War on the side of the allies, had lifted. The end of the 
Second World War heralded the beginning of a new kind of conflict in the form of the Cold 
War, which Drew describes as ?a war for hearts and minds, one of ideological battles and 
localized but virulent military conflicts.?461 In South Africa, the state?s real and propaganda 
war against the ?rooi gevaar?, took its ugly shape with the election of the Herenigde National 
Party (later simply the National Party) in 1948. Combined with its fight against what it saw 
as the ?swart gevaar?, the early 1950?s saw the tabling of some of Apartheid?s most 
horrendously discriminatory laws, such as the Mixed Marriages and the Group Areas Acts. 
The National Party government gazetted the Suppression of Communism Act in 1950. The 
CPSA disbanded shortly after.462 In his closing speech in parliament, CPSA Member of 
                                                 
458
  Kolakowski, ?The Death of Utopia Reconsidered?, 247. 
459
  Everatt, D. 1991. ?The Banning and Reconstitution of the Communist Party: 1945-1955? in Bundy, C. 
(Coordinator). The History of the South African Communist Party. Lectures presented at the University of 
Cape Town Summer School. Cape Town: Department of Adult Education and Extra-Mural Studies, UCT, 
43. 
460
  Everatt, ?The Banning and Reconstitution of the Communist Party?, 39. 
461
  Drew, Discordant Comrades, 263. 
462
  The Party appears not to have taken cognisance of the warning signs and prepared itself in any way for 
underground activity. The majority of the Central Committee agreed to disband and Party members were 
 159 
Parliament, Sam Kahn said that, ?Communism will outlive the National Party. Democracy 
will be triumphant when members of this government will be manuring the fields of history. 
Millions in South Africa will echo my final words: ?Long Live Communism?.?463 
The SACP was established in 1953, an illegal underground party.464 The SACP?s adoption of 
the Colonialism of a Special Type Thesis which fore grounded the national liberation 
struggle to a greater extent than the earlier Native Republic Thesis, partly laid the foundation 
for the intertwining of SACP and ANC histories in the second half of the century.  
An investigation of utopianism in the SACP would make for an 
interesting comparative study to this one. The SACP now 
operates in a society which is partially the realisation of their 
utopian vision (a democratic South Africa). The SACP is now 
in government however, and a whole new set of contradictions 
and complexities have opened up before them (and before many 
others in South Africa). They are now faced with the task of 
redefining strategy towards a socialist future in the context of an 
international world order that creates little space for a socialist 
state to exist. It would be interesting to trace the possible re-
 imagination of the SACP?s utopian vision of a socialist future 
within this context.465  
                                                                                                                                                 
urged to unanimously support the decision. The decision to dissolve the Party was received with mixed 
opinions by CPSA members (See Drew, Discordant Comrades and Everatt, ?The Banning and 
Reconstitution of the Communist Party?). It appears that some rank and file activists may have thought that 
this was a front, and that the Party would immediately go underground (Everatt, ?The Banning and 
Reconstitution of the Communist Party?, 45). This did not happen.  
463
  Cited in Bunting, Moses Kotane, 172. Joe Slovo comments that Sam Kahn was the first Member of 
Parliament in South Africa?s history to be expelled from parliament for political reasons. He continues, 
?But before the machinery of the law could bring this about, Sam managed to insert in the record of the 
Hansard the full text of the Communist Manifesto, ostensibly to demonstrate to the select committee the 
true nature of the aims of the Party. And this most fundamental text of Communist theory is available for 
all time, by courtesy of the Government Printer.? (Slovo, Slovo, 41). 
464
  Everatt, ?The Banning and Reconstitution of the Communist Party?. 
465
  Their slogan ?Socialism is the future, build it now? speaks of continuing hopes in a socialist future. 
Jeremy Cronin points out that, ?build it now? is intended to call people to begin to build elements of 
socialism in present society in the form of co-operatives for example, or greater rights of access to 
Fig. 8.1: The logo of the 
South African Communist 
Party. 
 160 
The CPSA?s vision of a future society did not altogether fade into the past, however. As 
mentioned, echoes of the CPSA?s vision of a future South Africa can be seen in the Freedom 
Charter. In turn, elements of the Freedom Charter have been incorporated into the Bill of 
Rights and the South African Constitution. Much of the CPSA?s vision was continued in the 
vision and activism of the SACP, and echoes of this vision (which was shared by some 
members of the ANC) were incorporated into the Reconstruction and Development 
Programme (RDP). The RDP and the Freedom Charter remain critical and programmatic 
tools in South African society, in that they are used as ideals against which the present is 
judged and future policy objectives and options are explored. In addition, they have been 
used as documents which show the gap between the promise of post-apartheid democracy 
and its reality: witness the protests new social movements and the cases regarding 
?democratic rights? brought to the Constitutional Court.  
As mentioned in the Introduction, utopianism is 
part and parcel of contemporary society, and 
specifically, part and parcel of contemporary 
South African social life. Utopianism can be 
seen in the competing ideas and strategies put 
forward by social commentators and policy 
makers regarding the best way to run the 
country.466 For example, an edition of the 
magazine, Maverick, carries an article by Peter 
Bruce, editor of Business Day, entitled ?Saving 
Capitalism?.467 Bruce proposes changes to the 
way in which capitalism in South Africa 
presently functions, which would require a 
round of negotiations between different stakeholders in South Africa, akin to the Codesa 
(Convention for a Democratic South Africa) talks of the early nineties. He writes, ?Here?s 
what my perfect economic Codesa would look like: 1) The state makes [sic] all property 
assets ?over to democratically elected and regularly audited community trusts where poor 
people live? 4) Companies are required to redesign their boards? 8) All companies listed 
                                                                                                                                                 
resources and institutions for the poor. Cronin comments that the idea behind it is to get people to engage 
with the here and now, and not only to see socialism as a distant goal. Interview with Jeremy Cronin, 
August 2006. 
466
  Utopianism is not of course to be found in all such strategies.   
467
  Bruce, P. 2006. ?Saving Capitalism? in Maverick, 1(12), 2 November, 40-43. 
Fig. 8.2: The entrance to the Constitutional 
Court of South Africa. ?Constitutional Court? 
is inscribed on the entrance wall in all eleven 
of South Africa?s official languages. 
 161 
on the JSE donate one percent of their issued shares to a pool.?468 And so continues a list of 
suggestions for changing the way in which companies and capital-labour relations function in 
South Africa. Bruce comments, ?The real barrier to a stakeholder economy and a happier 
country is perception.? 469  
The point here is not to debate the merits of his suggestions but to show that his article is 
essentially a venture into the utopian model of problem solving, and is essentially creative 
and pragmatic, and counters the idea that utopianism is a) a foray into useless fantasy (as this 
study has shown) and b) only present on the extreme left or right. Utopias exist across the 
political spectrum. 
Utopianism is present in more than just explicit  
articulations of an ideal society, as shown in the case of the 
CPSA. The statements and actions of different political 
parties, and other actors in the social and political stage may 
be read for traces of the utopian (as defined in this study) 
project they have in mind. For example, what is the utopian 
vision underpinning Thabo Mbeki?s idea of African 
Renaissance? Further questions for research could include: 
how does it speak to different sections of the African 
population, if at all? With whom does the SACP?s socialist 
utopia resonate in South Africa? Is it competing with a 
consumerist utopia which appears to be so strong amongst 
South Africa?s youth? What kind of society is implicit in the 
Democratic Alliance?s criticisms of the way that the ANC 
government is handling labour policy, health policy, crime 
or Black Economic Employment for example? What kind of 
imagined future society is implicit in the ANC?s policy of Black Economic Empowerment or 
of their policy on immigration and foreign nationals? Or in the lobbying of the Congress of 
Traditional Leaders of South Africa around land reform?  
Elements of contemporary South African society may thus be fruitfully examined via the lens 
of utopia. Ruth Levitas claims that academics can use the concept of utopia as a useful 
                                                 
468
  Bruce, ?Saving Capitalism?, 43. 
469
  Bruce, ?Saving Capitalism?, 43. 
Fig. 8.3: A shop in Singapore 
called ?Utopia?. Much of 
contemporary branding and 
marketing sell society the 
consumerist utopia.  
 162 
critical and analytical tool, in what she calls the Imaginary Reconstruction of Society.470 She 
says that revealing the underlying utopias implicit in political thinking (she looks at New 
Labour and European Union policies on ?social inclusion?) can be a useful analytical tool for 
understanding contemporary politics. For example one can construct, by analysing policy 
documents and speeches, the implicit utopia of a government or political party for example, 
in order to lay bare the values and assumptions on which a particular policy or political plan 
is built. (Bauman claims that ?Utopias? help to lay bare and make conspicuous the major 
divisions of interest in a society?471). Levitas claims that ?by making future options explicit, 
it can also expose them to public scrutiny and democratic debate.?472 Levitas sees this 
?method? as having activist utility.  
As mentioned in Chapter One, the choice of subject matter for this study was based on the 
conviction that utopianism in an active ingredient in social and political life, and is 
constitutive of our social reality. The definition and understanding of utopia and utopianism 
developed in this study may help refine the exploratory and analytical potential of using the 
concept of utopia as a tool for social enquiry.   
                                                 
470
  See Levitas, R. 2005. ?The Imaginary Reconstruction of Society or Why Sociologists and Others Should 
Take Utopia More Seriously?. Inaugural Lecture University of Bristol 24 October 
http://wwwbris.ac.uk/sociology/staff/pubs/levitasinaugral  and Levitas, R. 2005. ?Looking for the Blue: the 
Necessity of Utopia?. Paper presented at ?Is There a Role for Utopia in Twenty-First Century ideology?? 
conference, Centre for Political Ideologies, University of Sheffield and Centre for Political Ideologies, 
University of Oxford, University of Sheffield, 17 June.   
471
  Bauman, Z. 1976. Socialism: The Active Utopia. London: Allen & Unwin, 15. 
472
  Levitas, ?Looking for the Blue?, 7. 
 163 
Primary Sources 
 
Collected Papers and Archives  
Manuscripts and Archives Department, University of Cape Town 
Simons Collection, South African Communist Party, BC1081 
Historical Papers Library, University of the Witwatersrand 
Edward Roux Papers, A2667 
S.P. Bunting Papers, A949 
South African Institute of Race Relations Political Collection, AD2182  
Documentary Histories 
Bunting, B. (Ed) 1981. South African Communists Speak: Documents from the History of the 
South African Communist Party 1915-1980. London: Inkululeko Publications. 
Davidson, A. Filatova, I. Gorodnov, V. Johns, S. (Eds) 2003. South Africa and the 
Communist International: A Documentary History Volume 1: Socialist Pilgrims to 
Bolshevik Footsoldiers 1919-1930. London: Frank Cass. 
Davidson, A. Filatova, I. Gorodnov, V. Johns, S. (Eds) 2003. South Africa and the 
Communist International: A Documentary History. Volume II: Bolshevik 
Footsoldiers to Victims of Bolshevisation, 1932-1939. London: Frank Cass.  
Drew, A. (Ed) 1997. South Africa?s Radical Tradition: A Documentary History. Volume 
Two: 1943 ? 1964. Cape Town: Buchu Books, Mayibuye Books, UCT Press. 
Drew, A. (Ed) 1996. South Africa?s Radical Tradition: A Documentary History. Volume One: 
1907 ? 1950. Cape Town: Buchu Books, Mayibuye Books, UCT Press. 
Autobiographies and Biographies 
Adhikari, M. 1996. James La Guma. Cape Town: Maskew Miller Longman.  
Alexander Simons, R. 2004. All My Life and All My Strength. Edited by Suttner, R. 
Johannesburg: STE Publishers. 
 
 164 
Bunting, B. 1975. Moses Kotane: South African Revolutionary. London: Inkululeko 
Publications.  
Cope, R.K. 1944. Comrade Bill: The Life and Times of W.H. Andrews, Workers? Leader. 
Cape Town: Stewart.  
Edgar, R. 2005. The Making of an African Communist: Edwin Thabo Mofutsanyana and the 
Communist Party of South Africa 1927-1939. Pretoria: Unisa Press. 
Harrison, W.H. 1948. Memoirs of a Socialist in South Africa: 1903-1947. Cape Town: Self-
 published.  
Hirson, B. and Williams, G.A. 1995. The Delegate for Africa: David Ivon Jones 1883-1924. 
London: Core Publications. 
Musson, D. 1989. Johnny Gomas: Voice of the Working Class. Cape Town: Buchu Books. 
Mokgatle, N. 1971. The Autobiography of an Unknown South African. Johannesburg: AD. 
Donker.   
Podbrey, P. 1993. White Girl in Search of the Party. Pietermaritzburg: Hadeda Books.  
Roux, E. 1944. S.P. Bunting: A Political Biography. Cape Town: Self-published. 
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Slovo, J. 1995. Slovo: The Unfinished Autobiography. Randburg: Ravan Press. 
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Tanya Barben, Cape Town, December 2005. 
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 165 
Illustration Sources 
 
Figure 2.1  Portrait of Thomas More. Source: www.wikipedia.org   
Figure 2.2 The Utopian alphabet. Source: More, T. 1997 [1516]. Utopia. Ware: 
Wordsworth Editions Limited.  
Figure 2.3  Pieter Bruegel the Elder's The Land of Cockaigne, 1567. Source: 
www.wikipedia.org         
Figure 3.1 Woodcut by A Holbein for a 1518 edition of Utopia. Source: 
www.wikipedia.org  
Figure 3.2 Henri de Saint-Simon. Source: www.wikipedia.org      
Figure 3.3  Friedrich Engels, 1856. Source: www.wikipedia.org  
Figure 3.4 Karl Marx. Source: www.wikipedia.org  
Figure 3.5  Charles Fourier. Source: www.wikipedia.org   
Figure 3.6   A first edition of the Communist Manifesto. Source: www.wikipedia.org 
Figure 4.1  Certificate given to ISL member Sam Barlin. Source: Drew, A. (Ed) 1996. 
South Africa?s Radical Tradition: A Documentary History. Volume One: 
1907 ? 1950. Cape Town: Buchu Books, Mayibuye Books, UCT Press. 
Figure 4.2 1920s Soviet poster entitled ?Lenin Leads?. Source: 
http://socrates.berkley.edu/~bonnel/posters.htm 
Figure 4.3  A crowd outside the Johannesburg Trades Hall. Source: Krikler, J. 2005. The 
Rand Revolt: The 1922 Insurrection and Racial Killing in South Africa. 
Johannesburg: Jonathan Ball. 
Figure 4.4  The bombing of Benoni. Source: Krikler, The Rand Revolt. 
Figure 4.5  A CPSA poster announcing a meeting of the League of African Rights. 
Source: S.P. Bunting Papers A949, Historical Papers Library, University of 
the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. 
Figure 4.6  S.P. Bunting. Source: www.sahistory.org.za  
Figure 4.7 A 1920s Soviet poster entitled, ?The Last Decisive Battle!?. Source: 
www.is.bham.ac.uk/erc/postergallery/poster12.htm  
Figure 5.1 Eddie Roux. Source: Roux, E. and W. 1970. Rebel Pity: The Life of Eddie 
Roux. London: Rex Collings. 
Figure 5.2 James La Guma. Source: www.sahistory.org.za  
Figure 5.3  Bill Andrews. Source: www.sahistory.org.za 
Figure 5.4  Moses Kotane. Source: www.sahistory.org.za 
 166 
Figure 5.5  Revolutionary Songs of the South African Workers. Held in the Comintern 
Archives, Moscow. Source: Davidson, A, Filatova, I, Gorodnov, V. and 
Johns, S. 2003. South Africa and the Communist International: A 
Documentary History, Volume II: Bolshevik Footsoldiers to Victims of 
Bolshevisation 1931-1939. London: Frank Cass. 
Figure 5.6 CPSA rally in the late 1920s. Source: Edgar, R. 2005. The Making of an 
African Communist: Edwin Thabo Mofutsanyana and the Communist Party of 
South Africa 1927-1939. Pretoria: Unisa Press, 5. 
Figure 6.1  Joe Slovo. Source: www.sahistory.org.za 
Figure 6.2.  Bernard Sachs. Source: Sachs, B. 1949. Multitude of Dreams: A Semi-
 autobiographical Study. Johannesburg: Kayor Publishing House. 
Figure 6.3  Yusuf Dadoo. Source: www.sahistory.org.za  
Figure 6.4  David Ivon Jones. Source: SACP. Undated. The Red Flag in South Africa: A 
Popular History of the South African Communist Party, 1921-1990. 
Johannesburg: SACP, 6. 
Figure 6.5  Ray Alexander. Source: www.sahistory.org.za 
Figure 6.6  Naboth Mokgatle. Source: www.sahistory.org.za 
Figure 6.7  A recent publication of the Freedom Charter. Source: ?African Digital 
Commons?, supplement of the Mail and Guardian, 15-21 September, 2006, 3. 
Figure 7.1  Douglas Wolton and Alfred Nzula. Source: Edgar, The Making of an African 
Communist, 7. 
Figure 7.2  Molly Wolton addressing a crowd. Source: SACP, The Red Flag in South 
Africa, 19. 
Figure 7.3  An article on Lazar Bach and the Richter brothers. Source: Davidson et al, 
South Africa and the Communist International. 
Figure 7.4 1920s Soviet poster entitled, ?Under the banner of Lenin and Stalin forward to 
the victory of Communism!?. Source: 
www.sovmusic.ru/english/p_list.php?part=48  
Figure 7.5 Durban District of the CPSA poster. Source: Podbrey, P. 1993. White Girl in 
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Figure 7.6  A CPSA booklet written by South African communists about their visit to the 
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International.  
Figure 7.7 Soviet poster entitled, ?Long live the international Proletarian Revolution!? 
Source: http://socrates.berkley.edu/~bonnel/posters.htm 
 
 167 
Figure 7.8  Pauline Podbrey. Source: Podbrey, White Girl in Search of the Party.  
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Figure 7.10   J.B. Marks. Source: Davidson et al, South Africa and the Communist 
International. 
Figure 7.11  A page from Alfred Nzula?s identification document. Source: Edgar, The 
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Figure 8.1  The logo of the South African Communist Party. Source: 
www.news.bbc.co.uk  
Figure 8.2 The entrance to the Constitutional Court of South Africa. Source: 
www.constitutionalcourt.org.za  
Figure 8.3 A shop in Singapore called Utopia. Source: 
www.theurbanwire.com/apr03/shopglitz.html 
 
 
 168 
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