205-537: The Economic Freedom Fighters ( EFF ) is a South African communist and black nationalist political party. It was founded by expelled former African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) president Julius Malema , and his allies, on 26 July 2013. Malema is president of the EFF, heading the Central Command Team, which serves as the central structure of the party. It is currently the fourth-largest party in
410-640: A conspiracy theory that the VBS collapse was part of a plot intended to damage the EFF. After former VBS chairman Tshifhiwa Matodzi was sentenced to 15 years in prison in July 2024, the Democratic Alliance and ActionSA demanded that police conduct a fresh investigation of Malema and Shivambu. In October 2018, a group of seventeen former EFF members and councillors in the Northern Cape accused
615-643: A semi-colony to a leading world power, with greatly advanced literacy, women's rights, basic healthcare, primary education, and life expectancy. Its leading role in World War II saw the emergence of the industrialized Soviet Union as a superpower . Marxist–Leninist governments modeled on the Soviet Union took power with Soviet assistance in Bulgaria , Czechoslovakia , East Germany , Poland , Hungary, and Romania . A Marxist–Leninist government
820-459: A social revolution . The two classes are the proletariat , who make up the majority of the population within society and must sell their labor power to survive, and the bourgeoisie , a small minority that derives profit from employing the working class through private ownership of the means of production. According to this analysis, a communist revolution would put the working class in power, and in turn establish common ownership of property,
1025-452: A sociopolitical , philosophical , and economic ideology within the socialist movement , whose goal is the creation of a communist society , a socioeconomic order centered around common ownership of the means of production , distribution, and exchange that allocates products to everyone in the society based on need. A communist society would entail the absence of private property and social classes , and ultimately money and
1230-621: A 2016 political rally, EFF leader Julius Malema stated, " We are not calling for the slaughter of white people, at least for now ." When asked for comment by a news agency, the ANC spokesperson, Zizi Kodwa, stated that there would be no comment from the ANC, as "[Malema] was addressing his own party supporters". While still the ANCYL leader, Malema was taken to the Equality Court by AfriForum for repeatedly singing " dubul' ibhunu ", meaning "shoot
1435-433: A DA government would manage the economy and facilitate growth. The majority of the interventions suggested by the party are aimed at creating an atmosphere conducive to job creation and greater foreign direct investment. The DA has suggested measures to make South Africa's labour market more amenable to job creation. The party has also suggested several targeted interventions to allow for higher employment, especially amongst
1640-447: A Directorate for Victims of Crime, which would provide funding and support for crime victims. In addition, the party announced its support for a prison labour programme, which would put prisoners to work in various community upliftment programmes. The proposal was criticised by labour unions, who believed it was unethical and would result in labour job losses. In late 2008–2009, the DA took
1845-477: A Kenyan professor known for making homophobic statements and who is publicly supportive of Uganda's 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Bill, to deliver the party's 10th anniversary lecture at the University of Cape Town. According to a November 2013 Ipsos survey, the party's supporters are younger than average, with 49% being younger than 24, overwhelmingly black (99%) and mostly male, with women representing only 33% of
2050-437: A biological interpretation of race that allows the EFF to easily generalize and attribute racism to particular groups or individuals based on their demographic classification; they are in turn targeted for racial prejudice by the party. This has had a polarizing and radicalizing impact on South African politics. Leaders of the party have targeted a number of public servants, journalists, and communities based on their race. During
2255-702: A broader group of black South Africans an opportunity to compete and partake in the economy. The party advocates an active industrial policy that allows the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC) to co-ordinate industrial policy. Additionally it would also set up a sovereign venture capital fund to help support innovation in key industries. The DA also supports the creation of Industrial Development Zones and Export Processing Zones. The party suggests that by relaxing certain regulations in these zones, manufacturers and exporters would be able to grow faster and employ more people. This fits into
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#17327660897602460-500: A communist party, the rejection of private property and capitalism, state control of economic activity and mass media , restrictions on freedom of religion , and suppression of opposition and dissent. With the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, several previously Communist governments repudiated or abolished Communist rule altogether. Afterwards, only a small number of nominally Communist governments remained, such as China , Cuba , Laos , North Korea , and Vietnam . With
2665-483: A conspiracy against him or his party. In addition to Malema, other senior EFF members—such as Dali Mpofu and Griffiths Madonsela —have made accusations, without evidence, against the judiciary and attacked the character of individual judges. Since its establishment, the EFF has made a number of controversial racially- or ethnically-based statements about a number of South African minority groups, particularly white South Africans . The party has been criticized for adopting
2870-431: A core minimum of resources for each school, proper state school nutrition schemes for grade 1–12 learners, and measures to train 30,000 additional teachers per year. The DA continues to support the introduction of new performance targets for teachers and schools, and also advocates a per-child wage subsidy, and a national network of community-based early childhood education centres. The DA's "Quality Care for All" programme
3075-473: A distinct stage between capitalism and communism. This intermediate stage was a concept introduced by Vladimir Lenin as a means to defend the Bolshevik seizure of power against traditional Marxist criticism that Russia's productive forces were not sufficiently developed for socialist revolution . A distinction between communist and socialist as descriptors of political ideologies arose in 1918 after
3280-945: A fleet of vehicles used by the City of Johannesburg with tacit acquiescence of the Democratic Alliance. Another investigation alleges that the party improperly benefited from the awarding of a fuel supply contract for the City of Tshwane netting the party R15 million from successful contractors. Following the publication of a South African Reserve Bank report into the collapse of VBS Mutual Bank implicating former EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu's brother media reports came out alleging that Shivambu, who joined Jacob Zuma 's UMkhonto weSizwe (political party) in August 2024, received R10 million in illicit payments from VBS prior to it being placed under curatorship in March 2018. Prior to
3485-526: A form of communism. In their words, the Hutterites "established in their communities a rigorous system of Ordnungen, which were codes of rules and regulations that governed all aspects of life and ensured a unified perspective. As an economic system, communism was attractive to many of the peasants who supported social revolution in sixteenth century central Europe." This link was highlighted in one of Karl Marx 's early writings; Marx stated that "[a]s Christ
3690-455: A greater emphasis on certain aspects of classical Marxism while rejecting or modifying other aspects. Many schools of thought have sought to combine Marxian concepts and non-Marxian concepts, which has then led to contradictory conclusions. There is a movement toward the recognition that historical materialism and dialectical materialism remain the fundamental aspects of all Marxist schools of thought . Marxism–Leninism and its offshoots are
3895-556: A hierarchical basis, with active cells of members as the broad base. They were made up only of elite cadres approved by higher members of the party as being reliable and completely subject to party discipline . The Great Purge of 1936–1938 was Joseph Stalin 's attempt to destroy any possible opposition within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union . In the Moscow trials , many old Bolsheviks who had played prominent roles during
4100-421: A journalist." —Karima Brown South African political journalist Karima Brown was the target of verbal abuse and threats of violence by EFF supporters following the EFF's publication of her personal contact details. This led to charges being laid by the police and Equity Court against the party, amid speculation that the instance might be in breach of South Africa's Electoral Code of Conduct. Parties in breach of
4305-540: A matter of debate, but the distinction rests largely on the communists' adherence to the revolutionary socialism of Karl Marx." In the United States, communism is widely used as a pejorative term as part of a Red Scare , much like socialism , and mainly in reference to authoritarian socialism and Communist states . The emergence of the Soviet Union as the world's first nominally Communist state led to
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#17327660897604510-530: A mix of high spending on crucial social services such as education and health care, a basic income grant, and a strong regulatory framework, with more "moderate" policies such as a lower budget deficit and a deregulated labour market. At her 2009 State of the Province speech, party leader Zille described her party's economic policy as pragmatic: "We believe the state has a crucial role to play in socio-economic development. We are not free market fundamentalists. By
4715-521: A new logo and a new slogan. Zille said the new DA would be "more reflective of our rich racial, linguistic and cultural heritage," and emphasized that she wanted it to be a "party for all the people" and not decline into a "shrinking, irrelevant minority." In the 2009 South African general election , the DA won an overall majority in the Western Cape, and Zille became the new provincial premier . In her newsletter, she wrote that "winning power in
4920-425: A particular type of communism. One of the first uses of the word in its modern sense is in a letter sent by Victor d'Hupay to Nicolas Restif de la Bretonne around 1785, in which d'Hupay describes himself as an auteur communiste ("communist author"). In 1793, Restif first used communisme to describe a social order based on egalitarianism and the common ownership of property. Restif would go on to use
5125-529: A possible communist or socialist theorist, or as the first author to give communism a serious consideration. The 5th-century Mazdak movement in Persia (modern-day Iran) has been described as communistic for challenging the enormous privileges of the noble classes and the clergy , criticizing the institution of private property , and striving to create an egalitarian society. At one time or another, various small communist communities existed, generally under
5330-531: A post-capitalist society – positive humanism, socialism, Communism, realm of free individuality, free association of producers, etc. He used these terms completely interchangeably. The notion that 'socialism' and 'Communism' are distinct historical stages is alien to his work and only entered the lexicon of Marxism after his death." According to the Encyclopædia Britannica , "Exactly how communism differs from socialism has long been
5535-617: A prerequisite to socialism , were critical of the Bolsheviks from the beginning due to Russia being seen as too backward for a socialist revolution . Council communism and left communism , inspired by the German Revolution of 1918–1919 and the wide proletarian revolutionary wave, arose in response to developments in Russia and are critical of self-declared constitutionally socialist states . Some left-wing parties, such as
5740-564: A proposed scrapping of value added tax (VAT) on books and tax rebates for crime prevention expenditure by businesses. The DA supports an inflation-targeting monetary policy regime similar to that of the ANC government. It has also repeatedly reaffirmed its support and commitment for reserve bank instrument independence. The DA proposes to incentivise savings by reducing taxes on income earned from fixed deposits that are held for longer than twelve months. The party states that this would help South Africa to boost its domestic savings rate to enable
5945-458: A socialist principle of " to each according to his contribution ". Socialism has been described as a philosophy seeking distributive justice, and communism as a subset of socialism that prefers economic equality as its form of distributive justice. In 19th century Europe, the use of the terms communism and socialism eventually accorded with the cultural attitude of adherents and opponents towards religion . In European Christendom , communism
6150-546: A socialist state that is in the process of constructing communism. Terms used by Communist states include national-democratic , people's democratic , socialist-oriented , and workers and peasants' states. According to Richard Pipes , the idea of a classless , egalitarian society first emerged in ancient Greece . Since the 20th century, ancient Rome has been examined in this context, as well as thinkers such as Aristotle , Cicero , Demosthenes , Plato , and Tacitus . Plato, in particular, has been considered as
6355-577: A stand against the South African Police Service 's VIP Protection Unit , after several officers in the unit were charged with serious criminal offences. The party later released documentation of the unit's poor disciplinary record, and claimed its divisional commander had himself dodged serious criminal charges. The DA strongly opposed the disbandment of the Scorpions crime investigation unit, and similar efforts to centralise
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6560-714: A strong supporter of Ukraine during the Russo-Ukrainian War . South Africa, a member of the BRICS alliance, has remained neutral throughout the Russian invasion of Ukraine , but the DA (including DA-controlled legislatures and councils) supports Ukraine and has criticised South Africa's ambiguous position, though the ANC has denied supporting Russia and insists that it is neutral. Steenhuisen visited Ukraine in 2022 in solidarity. The party has also called for Russian President Vladimir Putin to be arrested . Unlike
6765-463: A threat to judicial independence, and almost certainly a violation of the Constitution". This followed accusations Malema made in a criminal case against him for illegally discharging a firearm in a stadium. Malema accused the magistrate of incompetence and corruption when the magistrate refused to dismiss the case. Malema went on to make unsubstantiated accusations that the judgement was part of
6970-710: A work about More, whose ideas could be regarded as "the foregleam of Modern Socialism" according to Kautsky. During the October Revolution in Russia, Vladimir Lenin suggested that a monument be dedicated to More, alongside other important Western thinkers. In the 17th century, communist thought surfaced again in England, where a Puritan religious group known as the Diggers advocated the abolition of private ownership of land. In his 1895 Cromwell and Communism , Eduard Bernstein stated that several groups during
7175-533: Is John Steenhuisen , who was announced as the new leader on 1 November 2020 after the party's Federal Congress . He had previously acted as the interim leader of the party from November 2019 to November 2020. Helen Zille is chairperson of both the Federal Council and the Federal Executive, the highest decision-making structures of the party. In aftermath of the 2024 general election ,
7380-527: Is Safiyia Stanfley. According to the DAWN constitution: DAWN will: Each province has a provincial DAWN chairperson. The provincial chairpersons are as follows: The DA Abroad is the Democratic Alliance's supporters network for South Africans who live outside the South African border. The DA Abroad aims to grow the DA's overseas voter base, actively lobby for international awareness and influence for
7585-466: Is a non- idealist attempt at the understanding of material history and society, whereby communism is the expression of a real movement, with parameters that are derived from actual life. According to Marxist theory, class conflict arises in capitalist societies due to contradictions between the material interests of the oppressed and exploited proletariat – a class of wage laborers employed to produce goods and services – and
7790-631: Is a part of the current South African Government of National Unity (GNU). The party has been the second-largest in South Africa since its foundation in 2000. The party is broadly centrist , and has been attributed both centre-left and centre-right policies. It is a member of Liberal International and the Africa Liberal Network . The DA traces its roots to the founding of the anti-apartheid Progressive Party in 1959, with many mergers and name changes between that time and
7995-670: Is against Zionism , is strongly critical of Israel and its conflict with the Palestinians ; referring to the country as "evil" and advocating for its destruction . During the 2023 Israel–Hamas war the leader of the EFF Julius Malema stated the party's support for Hamas and that should the party win the 2024 election they would send arms to assist the organisation. The EFF officially supports Russia's 2022 invasion of Ukraine , commending what they refer to as Russia's "anti-imperialist programme" against NATO . During
8200-493: Is focused on tackling the country's high HIV/AIDS infection rate . Included in these plans is an increase in the number of clinics offering HIV testing and measures to provide all HIV-positive women with Nevirapine . The party's health policy also plans to devote more resources to vaccinations against common childhood illnesses. The party also advocates creating a transparent and competitive health sector, to boost service delivery and encourage health care practitioners to remain in
8405-480: Is that of educating voters in what are deemed their true interests rather than in response to the expression of interest by voters themselves. When they have gained control of the state, Leninist communists' main task was preventing other political parties from deceiving the proletariat, such as by running their own independent candidates. This vanguardist approach comes from their commitments to democratic centralism in which communists can only be cadres, i.e. members of
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8610-542: Is the intermediary unto whom man unburdens all his divinity, all his religious bonds, so the state is the mediator unto which he transfers all his Godlessness, all his human liberty." Thomas Müntzer led a large Anabaptist communist movement during the German Peasants' War , which Friedrich Engels analyzed in his 1850 work The Peasant War in Germany . The Marxist communist ethos that aims for unity reflects
8815-680: Is viewed overwhelmingly negatively as a mass murderer ; for significant numbers of Russians and Georgians, he is regarded as a great statesman and state-builder. After the Chinese Civil War , Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party came to power in 1949 as the Nationalist government headed by the Kuomintang fled to the island of Taiwan. In 1950–1953, China engaged in a large-scale, undeclared war with
9020-523: The Daily Maverick alleged that the EFF illicitly received R1.8 million of VBS money through a network of proxy companies with the party's leadership (notably Shivambu and Malema) also illicitly receiving money though this network. After being approached by the Mail & Guardian for comment on his personal financial expenses Floyd Shivambu admitted that money from VBS, channeled through his brother,
9225-614: The 1917 Russian Constituent Assembly election , socialist parties totaled well over 70% of the vote. The Bolsheviks were clear winners in the urban centres, and took around two-thirds of the votes of soldiers on the Western Front, obtaining 23.3% of the vote; the Socialist Revolutionaries finished first on the strength of support from the country's rural peasantry, who were for the most part single issue voters , that issue being land reform, obtaining 37.6%, while
9430-490: The 1936 Constitution of the Soviet Union . War communism was the first system adopted by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War as a result of the many challenges. Despite communism in the name, it had nothing to do with communism, with strict discipline for workers, strike actions forbidden, obligatory labor duty, and military-style control, and has been described as simple authoritarian control by
9635-511: The Boer ". The ANC supported Malema, though AfriForum and the ANC reached a settlement before the appeal case was due to be argued in the Supreme Court of Appeal . A later 2022 hate-speech case brought against Malema by AfriForum for singing the same song found that the song was not hate speech. Communism Communism (from Latin communis , 'common, universal') is
9840-665: The Cheget , to Russian president Boris Yeltsin . That evening at 7:32, the Soviet flag was lowered from the Kremlin for the last time and replaced with the pre-revolutionary Russian flag . Previously, from August to December 1991, all the individual republics, including Russia itself, had seceded from the union. The week before the union's formal dissolution, eleven republics signed the Alma-Ata Protocol , formally establishing
10045-735: The Christian universalist teaching that humankind is one and that there is only one god who does not discriminate among people. Communist thought has also been traced back to the works of the 16th-century English writer Thomas More . In his 1516 treatise titled Utopia , More portrayed a society based on common ownership of property, whose rulers administered it through the application of reason and virtue . Marxist communist theoretician Karl Kautsky , who popularized Marxist communism in Western Europe more than any other thinker apart from Engels, published Thomas More and His Utopia ,
10250-558: The Cold War had begun. Stalin himself believed that capitalism was a hollow shell and would crumble under increased non-military pressure exerted through proxies in countries like Italy. He greatly underestimated the economic strength of the West and instead of triumph saw the West build up alliances that were designed to permanently stop or contain Soviet expansion. In early 1950, Stalin gave
10455-841: The Commonwealth of Independent States , and declared that the Soviet Union had ceased to exist. As of 2023, states controlled by Communist parties under a single-party system include the People's Republic of China, the Republic of Cuba , the Democratic People's Republic of Korea , the Lao People's Democratic Republic , and the Socialist Republic of Vietnam . Communist parties, or their descendant parties, remain politically important in several other countries. With
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#173276608976010660-669: The English Civil War (especially the Diggers) espoused clear communistic, agrarianist ideals and that Oliver Cromwell 's attitude towards these groups was at best ambivalent and often hostile. Criticism of the idea of private property continued into the Age of Enlightenment of the 18th century through such thinkers as Gabriel Bonnot de Mably , Jean Meslier , Étienne-Gabriel Morelly , and Jean-Jacques Rousseau in France. During
10865-500: The Lady R incident the party stated their support for any prospect of South African exports of military equipment to Russia that might assist in its invasion of Ukraine. The party supports closer bilateral relations between South Africa and China whilst considering Taiwan to be an "integral part" of the People's Republic of China; it has referred to the Chinese Communist Party as the "torch-bearer for all Marxist–Leninist formations in
11070-999: The National Assembly . At a 26 July 2013 press briefing in Soweto , Malema announced that the new party had over 1000 members, double the 500 required for registration with the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC). The EFF is now registered with the IEC, after an objection to its registration by the Freedom Front Plus (FF+) was dismissed in September 2013. In 2015, the EFF suspended MP Lucky Twala and expelled three MPs, Mpho Ramakatsa, Andile Mngxitama and Khanyisile Litchfield-Tshabalala . Mngxitama formed his own party, named Black First Land First (BLF), while Litchfield-Tshabalala joined
11275-524: The Russian Revolution or in Lenin's Soviet government afterwards, including Lev Kamenev , Grigory Zinoviev , Alexei Rykov , and Nikolai Bukharin , were accused, pleaded guilty of conspiracy against the Soviet Union, and were executed. The devastation of World War II resulted in a massive recovery program involving the rebuilding of industrial plants, housing, and transportation as well as
11480-611: The Russian Social Democratic Labour Party renamed itself as the Communist Party of the Soviet Union , which resulted in the adjective Communist being used to refer to socialists who supported the politics and theories of Bolshevism, Leninism , and later in the 1920s those of Marxism–Leninism . In spite of this common usage, Communist parties also continued to describe themselves as socialists dedicated to socialism. According to The Oxford Handbook of Karl Marx , "Marx used many terms to refer to
11685-731: The Second All-Russian Congress of Soviets of Workers' and Soldiers' Deputies in the October Revolution; after a few weeks of deliberation, the Left Socialist-Revolutionaries formed a coalition government with the Bolsheviks from November 1917 to July 1918, while the right-wing faction of the Socialist Revolutionary Party boycotted the soviets and denounced the October Revolution as an illegal coup . In
11890-595: The Socialist Party of Great Britain , boasted of having called the Bolsheviks, and by extension those Communist states which either followed or were inspired by the Soviet Bolshevik model of development, establishing state capitalism in late 1917, as would be described during the 20th century by several academics, economists, and other scholars, or a command economy . Before the Soviet path of development became known as socialism , in reference to
12095-511: The Soviet Union with the Russian Revolution of 1917, and then in portions of Eastern Europe, Asia, and a few other regions after World War II . As one of the many types of socialism , communism became the dominant political tendency, along with social democracy , within the international socialist movement by the early 1920s. During most of the 20th century, around one-third of the world's population lived under Communist governments. These governments were characterized by one-party rule by
12300-556: The Soviet economic model , several scholars posit that in practice the model functioned as a form of state capitalism . Public memory of 20th-century Communist states has been described as a battleground between anti anti-communism and anti-communism . Many authors have written about mass killings under communist regimes and mortality rates , such as excess mortality in the Soviet Union under Joseph Stalin , which remain controversial, polarized, and debated topics in academia, historiography, and politics when discussing communism and
12505-549: The United Democratic Movement . Malema has been chiefly accused by former members of purging his critics to consolidate his power, thus ruling the party with an iron fist. Malema acknowledged this criticism in a press conference and went on to say that the party should have expelled more ill-disciplined members. On 6 August 2015, the EFF announced that it has secured a Constitutional Court case for its "#PayBackTheMoney" campaign against Jacob Zuma . The case
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#173276608976012710-561: The University of Cape Town . Peter Keetse , president of the EFFSC, said the win was a warning shot for what was going to happen in 2019 national general elections. He said the youth were the influencers of the future: "this is an indication of what is to follow". In March 2023 the party attempted to organise a national shutdown in protest of loadshedding and calling for South African President Cyril Ramaphosa to step down. The shutdown
12915-427: The bourgeoisie – the ruling class that owns the means of production and extracts its wealth through appropriation of the surplus product produced by the proletariat in the form of profit . This class struggle that is commonly expressed as the revolt of a society's productive forces against its relations of production , results in a period of short-term crises as the bourgeoisie struggle to manage
13120-400: The common ownership of the means of production, therefore abolishing the bourgeoisie, ultimately abolishing the proletariat itself and ushering the world into communism as a new mode of production . In between capitalism and communism, there is the dictatorship of the proletariat ; it is the defeat of the bourgeois state but not yet of the capitalist mode of production, and at the same time
13325-602: The dissolution of the Soviet Union and the Fall of Communism , there was a split between those hardline Communists, sometimes referred to in the media as neo-Stalinists , who remained committed to orthodox Marxism–Leninism , and those, such as The Left in Germany, who work within the liberal-democratic process for a democratic road to socialism; other ruling Communist parties became closer to democratic socialist and social-democratic parties. Outside Communist states, reformed Communist parties have led or been part of left-leaning government or regional coalitions, including in
13530-476: The materialist conception of history which holds that the key characteristic of economic systems through history has been the mode of production and that the change between modes of production has been triggered by class struggle. According to this analysis, the Industrial Revolution ushered the world into the new capitalist mode of production . Before capitalism, certain working classes had ownership of instruments used in production; however, because machinery
13735-445: The means of production , earning profit via the surplus value generated by the proletariat, who have no ownership of the means of production and therefore no option but to sell its labor to the bourgeoisie. According to the materialist conception of history, it is through the furtherance of its own material interests that the rising bourgeoisie within feudalism captured power and abolished, of all relations of private property, only
13940-432: The municipal elections of 2016 , the DA made significant gains along with other opposition parties in some of the country's most important metropolitan areas. The DA currently governs Tshwane (including Pretoria , the administrative capital), Cape Town (South Africa's second-largest city and legislative capital) and various other municipalities. In the general elections of 2019 , the DA's national support declined for
14145-401: The productive forces ) is the primary agent of change in the structure of society and of human social relations and that social systems and their relations (e.g. feudalism , capitalism , and so on) become contradictory and inefficient as the productive forces develop, which results in some form of social revolution arising in response to the mounting contradictions. This revolutionary change is
14350-431: The state (or nation state ). Communists often seek a voluntary state of self-governance but disagree on the means to this end. This reflects a distinction between a more libertarian socialist approach of communization , revolutionary spontaneity , and workers' self-management , and a more authoritarian vanguardist or communist party -driven approach through the development of a socialist state , followed by
14555-435: The two-stage theory , communists made no major distinction between the socialist mode of production and communism; it is consistent with, and helped to inform, early concepts of socialism in which the law of value no longer directs economic activity. Monetary relations in the form of exchange-value , profit , interest , and wage labor would not operate and apply to Marxist socialism. While Joseph Stalin stated that
14760-488: The withering away of the state . As one of the main ideologies on the political spectrum , communist parties and movements have been described as radical left or far-left. Variants of communism have been developed throughout history, including anarchist communism , Marxist schools of thought , and religious communism , among others. Communism encompasses a variety of schools of thought, which broadly include Marxism , Leninism , and libertarian communism, as well as
14965-602: The 2019 State of the Nation address in parliament by President Ramaphosa, EFF MP Marshall Dlamini physically assaulted a member of the presidential security team after a disagreement between EFF MPs and security. During an October 2022 speech to members of the Western Cape EFF branch, Malema stated that party members should "never be scared to kill" in pursuit of what Malema described as the party's revolution. The South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC) ruled that
15170-615: The 20th century. In Western Europe, communist parties were part of several post-war governments, and even when the Cold War forced many of those countries to remove them from government, such as in Italy, they remained part of the liberal-democratic process. There were also many developments in libertarian Marxism, especially during the 1960s with the New Left . By the 1960s and 1970s, many Western communist parties had criticized many of
15375-654: The ANC, which outspokenly declared its support for Palestine and refused to condemn Hamas for its attacks on Israel on 7 October 2023 , the DA, along with other members of the Multi-Party Charter , specifically condemned Hamas for its attacks on Israel . However, the DA, like the ANC, supports a two state solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict , seeking peaceful resolution between the two, and for Palestine to be free, saying "the people of Palestine are not defined by Hamas". These charts show
15580-696: The Bolsheviks to maintain power and control in the Soviet regions, rather than any coherent political ideology . The Soviet Union was established in 1922. Before the broad ban in 1921, there were several factions in the Communist party, more prominently among them the Left Opposition , the Right Opposition , and the Workers' Opposition , which debated on the path of development to follow. The Left and Workers' oppositions were more critical of
15785-511: The Central Command Team include Fana Mokoena and Mbuyiseni Ndlozi (National Spokesperson). Controversial businessman Kenny Kunene joined the Central Command Team in July 2013 before resigning from the Central Command Team on 20 August 2013 and from the organisation on 26 August 2013. On 4 November 2013, it was announced that Dali Mpofu had left the African National Congress (ANC) after 33 years of membership and joined
15990-422: The Communist ideal. Mao charged that Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev was the leader of a "revisionist clique" which had turned against Marxism and Leninism and was now setting the stage for the restoration of capitalism. The two nations were at sword's point by 1960. Both began forging alliances with communist supporters around the globe, thereby splitting the worldwide movement into two hostile camps. Rejecting
16195-753: The Constituent Assembly in January 1918. The Draft Decree on the Dissolution of the Constituent Assembly was issued by the Central Executive Committee of the Soviet Union , a committee dominated by Lenin, who had previously supported a multi-party system of free elections. After the Bolshevik defeat, Lenin started referring to the assembly as a "deceptive form of bourgeois-democratic parliamentarianism." Some argued this
16400-464: The Constitution so as to allow for the expropriation of land without compensation. The motion, brought by the EFF leader Julius Malema , was adopted with a vote of 241 in support, and 83 against. The only parties who did not support the motion were the Democratic Alliance , Freedom Front Plus , Congress of the People and the ACDP . Land expropriation is one of the EFF's seven cardinal pillars. In 2018,
16605-415: The DA believes that the role of the government is to provide every citizen with a minimum basic standard of quality services and resources with which to be able to do so – a framework for choice." The DA therefore advocates a mixed-economy approach, where the state is involved in the economy only to the extent that it can expand opportunity and choice. The manifesto includes various proposals detailing how
16810-540: The DA entered into a ruling grand coalition with the African National Congress (ANC) and various other parties, called a government of national unity , formed between ten parties with jointly 287 seats in the House of Assembly (72%). The DA also governs several major metropolitan municipalities and has governed the Western Cape , one of South Africa's nine provinces, since the 2009 general election . Although
17015-562: The DA joined the Multi-Party Charter , an electoral alliance taking advantage of the unpopularity of the ANC. The ANC failed to gain a majority of seats in the National Assembly after the election, leading to the DA agreeing to form a coalition of national unity, entering ruling government for the first time. The DA sums up its political philosophy as the belief in an "Open Opportunity Society for All". Former party leader Helen Zille has argued that this stands in direct contrast to
17220-524: The Democratic Alliance (DA) in its present form is fairly new, its roots can be traced far back in South African political history, through a complex sequence of splits and mergers. The modern day DA is in large part a product of the white parliamentary opposition to the ruling National Party . The origin of the party can be traced to the mid-1950s when some younger members of the United Party felt that they were not providing strong enough opposition to
17425-545: The Democratic Alliance in hung-metro areas, while reiterating that it would not form a coalition with any political party. The EFF has vocally criticised black business owners, particularly in South Africa's mining sector. In an address at the Oxford Union in November 2015, Malema spoke out against billionaire mining company owner Patrice Motsepe . During further protests in 2015, the EFF delivered demands that included
17630-473: The Democratic Alliance. The merger was ultimately aborted, with both the NNP and FA leaving the DA. Many former NNP members remained, and the new name was kept. The DP was disbanded after the 2003 floor crossing period, establishing the DA at all levels of government. The party consolidated its status as the official opposition in the 2004 general election , while the NNP collapsed. Having gone into opposition in
17835-615: The EFF and its leader Malema to court after they had alleged that the appointment of Edward Kieswetter as commissioner of SARS by Manuel was the result of nepotism. Following the judgement, Manuel stated that he would be donating the R500,000 in damages to victims of the VBS Mutual Bank scandal in which the EFF is alleged to have participated. Following a string of court-case losses for inciting supporters to commit acts of intimidation (against journalist Brown), land invasion (which case
18040-462: The EFF in order to destabilise the ANC. In 2019 President Cyril Ramaphosa stated during a debate in Parliament that he had received numerous intelligence reports that the EFF "is an MI6 project" (a project of the foreign arm of British intelligence agencies). The party's chairperson, Dali Mpofu, said he would shut down the EFF if the claims turned out to be true but he was removed as chairman in
18245-531: The EFF was forced to publicly apologize and pay damages following a Gauteng High Court judgment that the party had made and spread false allegations that two journalists, Thandeka Gqubule and Anton Harber, had been apartheid-era U.S. ' StratCom ' agents. In May 2019, the EFF was found guilty of defamation of character by the South Gauteng High Court and ordered to pay R500,000 in damages to former Finance Minister Trevor Manuel . Manuel brought
18450-463: The EFF. An additional investigation traced financial statements from an account that received VBS funds and allegedly controlled by Julius Malema; leading the author of the investigation to estimate that Malema received and directly benefited from R5.3-million illegally taken from VBS. Additional media reports in October 2019, alleged that the party received R4 million of VBS funds into a slush fund that
18655-523: The EFF. In December 2023, former ANC member and Areta leader Carl Niehaus joined the EFF. On 19 August 2024 EFF leader Julius Malema announced to the party supporters in Soweto that Sinawo Tambo will be replacing former deputy and member of parliament Floyd Shivambu in parliament. The Economic Freedom Fighters Students Command (EFFSC) is the party's student wing, founded on 16 June 2015. It campaigns for free education , universal access to education and
18860-528: The Fourierists in France were considered respectable socialists, while working-class movements that "proclaimed the necessity of total social change" denoted themselves communists . This latter branch of socialism produced the communist work of Étienne Cabet in France and Wilhelm Weitling in Germany. While liberal democrats looked to the Revolutions of 1848 as a democratic revolution , which in
19065-595: The Gauteng Provincial Congress the same year. It consists of Pogiso Mthimunye (chairperson), Patrick Oberholster (deputy chairperson), Khathutshelo Rasilingwane (Recruitment and Campaigns) and Prudence Mollo (Training and Development). In the North West Province of South Africa, Emi Koekemoer is the elected Provincial Chairperson while Henning Lubbe takes the role as Provincial Deputy Chairperson of Administration, Quinton Booysen fills
19270-545: The Great Leap was a very expensive disaster." Put in charge of rescuing the economy, Deng adopted pragmatic policies that the idealistic Mao disliked. For a while, Mao was in the shadows but returned to center stage and purged Deng and his allies in the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976). The Cultural Revolution was an upheaval that targeted intellectuals and party leaders from 1966 through 1976. Mao's goal
19475-523: The Nation" proposed new measures to increase energy efficiency, and the introduction of sectoral carbon emission targets. The DA broadly supports reforms recommended by Frederik van Zyl Slabbert 's electoral reform task-team, that would see the current party list voting system replaced by a 75% constituency-based/25% proportional representation -based electoral system that would apply at the national and provincial level. The DA's governance policy Promoting Open Opportunity Governance also makes provision for
19680-808: The National Party and its policy of Apartheid , causing them to break away and form the Progressive Party in 1959. In the 1970s, as it rose to become the official opposition, the party merged with more splinters from the disintegrating United Party and become known first as the Progressive Reform Party and then as the Progressive Federal Party . The Progressives sought to change the system from within, but in doing so chose to comply with Apartheid legislation outlawing multi-racial membership. During this time,
19885-605: The October Revolution which involved the assault on Petrograd occurred largely without any human casualties . By November 1917, the Russian Provisional Government had been widely discredited by its failure to withdraw from World War I, implement land reform, or convene the Russian Constituent Assembly to draft a constitution, leaving the soviets in de facto control of the country. The Bolsheviks moved to hand power to
20090-654: The Russian Federation has some supporters, but is reformist rather than revolutionary, aiming to lessen the inequalities of Russia's market economy. Chinese economic reforms were started in 1978 under the leadership of Deng Xiaoping , and since then China has managed to bring down the poverty rate from 53% in the Mao era to just 8% in 2001. After losing Soviet subsidies and support, Vietnam and Cuba have attracted more foreign investment to their countries, with their economies becoming more market-oriented. North Korea,
20295-431: The Soviet Union . The declaration acknowledged the independence of the former Soviet republics and created the Commonwealth of Independent States , although five of the signatories ratified it much later or did not do it at all. On the previous day, Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev (the eighth and final leader of the Soviet Union ) resigned, declared his office extinct, and handed over its powers, including control of
20500-534: The Soviet government of Nikita Khrushchev , who enacted a period of de-Stalinization and re-approached diplomatic relations with Yugoslavia in 1976. The Communist Party of China, led by Mao Zedong, established the People's Republic of China , which would follow its own ideological path of development following the Sino-Soviet split . Communism was seen as a rival of and a threat to Western capitalism for most of
20705-524: The Soviet model of rapid urbanization, Mao Zedong and his top aide Deng Xiaoping launched the Great Leap Forward in 1957–1961 with the goal of industrializing China overnight, using the peasant villages as the base rather than large cities. Private ownership of land ended and the peasants worked in large collective farms that were now ordered to start up heavy industry operations, such as steel mills. Plants were built in remote locations, due to
20910-555: The Soviets, built the hydrogen bomb , and strengthened the NATO alliance that covered Western Europe . According to Gorlizki and Khlevniuk, Stalin's consistent and overriding goal after 1945 was to consolidate the nation's superpower status and in the face of his growing physical decrepitude, to maintain his own hold on total power. Stalin created a leadership system that reflected historic czarist styles of paternalism and repression yet
21115-778: The Ukrainian Socialist Bloc finished a distant third at 12.7%, and the Mensheviks obtained a disappointing fourth place at 3.0%. Most of the Socialist Revolutionary Party's seats went to the right-wing faction. Citing outdated voter-rolls, which did not acknowledge the party split, and the assembly's conflicts with the Congress of Soviets, the Bolshevik–Left Socialist-Revolutionaries government moved to dissolve
21320-628: The United States, South Korea, and United Nations forces in the Korean War . While the war ended in a military stalemate, it gave Mao the opportunity to identify and purge elements in China that seemed supportive of capitalism. At first, there was close cooperation with Stalin, who sent in technical experts to aid the industrialization process along the line of the Soviet model of the 1930s. After Stalin's death in 1953, relations with Moscow soured – Mao thought Stalin's successors had betrayed
21525-585: The Western Cape in 2001 when the NNP formed a new coalition with the ANC, the demise of the NNP made the province a natural target for the party. In the 2006 municipal elections , the DA narrowly gained control of its largest city, Cape Town , in a multi-party coalition. Helen Zille, the executive mayor of Cape Town, then succeeded Leon as DA Party Leader in May 2007. In 2008, she re-launched the party as one that no longer acts solely as an opposition but also as an alternative choice for government. The party also introduced
21730-457: The Western Cape will allow us to show what co-operative governance between local authorities and a province can achieve." In the 2011 local government elections , the party won control of most of the municipalities in the Western Cape. In 2013, the DA launched the "Know Your DA" campaign, in an attempt to try to show that the DA (via its proxy predecessor organisations) was involved in the struggle against apartheid. This campaign focused mainly on
21935-479: The abolition of capitalism. For Leninist communism, such goals, including short-term proletarian interests to improve their political and material conditions, can only be achieved through vanguardism , an elitist form of socialism from above that relies on theoretical analysis to identify proletarian interests rather than consulting the proletarians themselves, as is advocated by libertarian communists. When they engage in elections, Leninist communists' main task
22140-499: The actions of communist states, distanced from them, and developed a democratic road to socialism , which became known as Eurocommunism . This development was criticized by more orthodox supporters of the Soviet Union as amounting to social democracy . Since 1957, communists have been frequently voted into power in the Indian state of Kerala . In 1959, Cuban communist revolutionaries overthrew Cuba's previous government under
22345-462: The army and Mao's wife Jiang Qing . China's youth responded to Mao's appeal by forming Red Guard groups around the country. The movement spread into the military, urban workers, and the Communist party leadership itself. It resulted in widespread factional struggles in all walks of life. In the top leadership, it led to a mass purge of senior officials who were accused of taking a " capitalist road ", most notably Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping . During
22550-422: The broad Marxist–Leninist tradition and Fanonian schools of thought in their analyses of the state, imperialism, culture and class contradictions in every society", according to its constitution. The EFF states that it takes inspiration from Burkinabé President Thomas Sankara in terms of both style and Marxist ideology. Prominent EFF member Jackie Shandu declared the party a "proudly Sankarist formation". At
22755-551: The center after 1990, and fared relatively poorly in the first democratic election in 1994 , won by the African National Congress. The DP established itself as a more effective party of opposition, however, and eventually rose from relative obscurity and ascended to the status of official opposition in 1999 under the leadership of Tony Leon , mainly by taking votes from the New National Party ,
22960-408: The code risk having their registration to run in elections revoked. Regarding the incident, Malema stated that journalists have no privileges, accused Brown of being a state agent, and denied that EFF supporters were making threatening remarks. The court found in favour of Brown and ruled that the EFF had contravened the South African electoral code by inciting its supporters to harass Brown. Following
23165-485: The community"; this semantic constitution has led to numerous usages of the word in its evolution. Prior to becoming associated with its more modern conception of an economic and political organization, it was initially used to designate various social situations. After 1848, communism came to be primarily associated with Marxism , most specifically embodied in The Communist Manifesto , which proposed
23370-582: The country and the removal of borders between it and South Africa. The party has supported a number of efforts to support change in Eswatini ranging from trying to shutdown the Eswatini-South Africa border with protest action to criticizing the electoral process in the country. The EFF is critical of France's presence in Africa ; in 2022 the party picketed outside of and ultimately barricaded
23575-568: The country to invest in projects that will provide additional job opportunities. The party has rejected the ANC's approach to Black Economic Empowerment , with former party leader Helen Zille arguing that the current policies have only served to enrich a small elite of politically connected businessmen. The party proposed an alternative it calls broad-based economic empowerment, which would provide for targeted interventions focusing on skills training and socio-economic investment instead of ownership targets. The party believes that this approach will give
23780-472: The country's embassy in Pretoria. The French ambassador to South Africa criticised the EFF for scapegoating France as the supposed source of all Africa's problems. Following the death of Queen Elizabeth the EFF announced that they would not mourn her passing instead stating that "she never once acknowledged the atrocities her family inflicted on native people that Britain invaded across the world." The EFF
23985-493: The country. The DA's economic policy aims to create a society in which all South Africans enjoy both the fundamental freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution, and the opportunities to take advantage of those freedoms. In its 2010 Federal Congress booklet, The Open Opportunity Society for All , the party describes this society in the following terms: "Opportunity is the vehicle with which people are empowered to live their lives, pursue their dreams and develop their full potential. And
24190-409: The delivery of 91 000 title deeds in the province and allowing residents to have full title deeds to their homes. In the build up to the 2009 elections, the DA announced it would create a new Ministry of Energy and Climate Change, to ensure improved integrated energy planning in order to deal with South Africa's growing carbon dioxide emissions. The DA's 2009 environment and energy plan, "In Trust for
24395-557: The demobilization and migration of millions of soldiers and civilians. In the midst of this turmoil during the winter of 1946–1947, the Soviet Union experienced the worst natural famine in the 20th century. There was no serious opposition to Stalin as the secret police continued to send possible suspects to the gulag . Relations with the United States and Britain went from friendly to hostile, as they denounced Stalin's political controls over eastern Europe and his Berlin Blockade . By 1947,
24600-654: The dictator Fulgencio Batista . The leader of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro , ruled Cuba from 1959 until 2008. With the fall of the Warsaw Pact after the Revolutions of 1989 , which led to the fall of most of the former Eastern Bloc , the Soviet Union was dissolved on 26 December 1991. It was a result of the declaration number 142-Н of the Soviet of the Republics of the Supreme Soviet of
24805-427: The direct election of the president, which would give voters a more direct link to the executive branch. The DA believe voting rights should be extended to include all South African citizens who are living and working abroad, many of whom intend returning. Since 2013, South Africans living abroad can now register and vote in national elections. The DA holds a generally pro-Western foreign policy. The DA has been
25010-513: The electoral performance for the Democratic Alliance, and its predecessor the Democratic Party, since the advent of democracy in 1994: The Democratic Alliance Youth (DA Youth), which came officially into being in late 2008, was first led by Makashule Gana until 2013, Mbali Ntuli led between 2013 and 2014, Yusuf Cassim led from 2014 to 2018 and Luyolo Mphithi led from 2018 to 2022. The current Interim Federal Leader, Nicholas Nyati,
25215-403: The elimination of registration fees, Following electoral losses in the 2024 general election the party experienced a number of high profile defections to the newly formed uMkhonto weSizwe party (MK) which weakened the party further. The party's former Limpopo chairperson, Jossey Buthane, defected to the ANC three weeks before the election whilst claiming that further defections would happen in
25420-490: The exception of North Korea, all of these states have started allowing more economic competition while maintaining one-party rule. The decline of communism in the late 20th century has been attributed to the inherent inefficiencies of communist economies and the general trend of communist governments towards authoritarianism and bureaucracy . While the emergence of the Soviet Union as the world's first nominally Communist state led to communism's widespread association with
25625-452: The feudal privilege, thereby taking the feudal ruling class out of existence. This was another key element behind the consolidation of capitalism as the new mode of production, the final expression of class and property relations that has led to a massive expansion of production. It is only in capitalism that private property in itself can be abolished. Similarly, the proletariat would capture political power, abolish bourgeois property through
25830-559: The first time in its history. The party retained control of the Western Cape but with a reduced majority and failed to win Gauteng once again. The conservative Freedom Front Plus (FF+) made significant gains on the DA in the Afrikaner community. In the aftermath of the election, the FF+ continued to make inroads in former DA strongholds. In the run-up to the 2024 general election ,
26035-477: The former Eastern Bloc. In Nepal, Communists ( CPN UML and Nepal Communist Party ) were part of the 1st Nepalese Constituent Assembly , which abolished the monarchy in 2008 and turned the country into a federal liberal-democratic republic, and have democratically shared power with other communists, Marxist–Leninists, and Maoists ( CPN Maoist ), social democrats ( Nepali Congress ), and others as part of their People's Multiparty Democracy . The Communist Party of
26240-546: The future. Three months after the election, in August, party co-founder and deputy leader, Floyd Shivambu, defected to MK as did Mzwanele Manyi . This was followed by Busisiwe Mkhwebane in October, and the party's former chairperson, Dali Mpofu, in November 2024. The ANC has accused the Zimbabwean ruling party, the Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU–PF), of supporting
26445-535: The go-ahead for North Korea 's invasion of South Korea , expecting a short war. He was stunned when the Americans entered and defeated the North Koreans, putting them almost on the Soviet border. Stalin supported China 's entry into the Korean War , which drove the Americans back to the prewar boundaries, but which escalated tensions. The United States decided to mobilize its economy for a long contest with
26650-507: The historic circumstances in which it finds itself", and stated that Russia might be able to skip the stage of bourgeois rule through the Obshchina . The moderate Mensheviks (minority) opposed Lenin's Bolsheviks (majority) plan for socialist revolution before the capitalist mode of production was more fully developed. The Bolsheviks' successful rise to power was based upon the slogans such as "Peace, Bread, and Land", which tapped into
26855-418: The idea to group together different countries, such as Afghanistan and Hungary , has no adequate explanation. While the term Communist state is used by Western historians, political scientists, and news media to refer to countries ruled by Communist parties, these socialist states themselves did not describe themselves as communist or claim to have achieved communism; they referred to themselves as being
27060-546: The inspiration of religious text . In the medieval Christian Church , some monastic communities and religious orders shared their land and their other property. Sects deemed heretical such as the Waldensians preached an early form of Christian communism . As summarized by historians Janzen Rod and Max Stanton, the Hutterites believed in strict adherence to biblical principles, church discipline, and practised
27265-442: The intensifying alienation of labor experienced by the proletariat, albeit with varying degrees of class consciousness . In periods of deep crisis, the resistance of the oppressed can culminate in a proletarian revolution which, if victorious, leads to the establishment of the socialist mode of production based on social ownership of the means of production, " To each according to his contribution ", and production for use . As
27470-630: The lack of technical experts, managers, transportation, or needed facilities. Industrialization failed, and the main result was a sharp unexpected decline in agricultural output, which led to mass famine and millions of deaths. The years of the Great Leap Forward in fact saw economic regression, with 1958 through 1961 being the only years between 1953 and 1983 in which China's economy saw negative growth. Political economist Dwight Perkins argues: "Enormous amounts of investment produced only modest increases in production or none at all. ... In short,
27675-535: The land. The party says that it is committed to ensuring that those entitled to land receive it in the form of direct ownership, and not as lifelong tenants. The DA's "Land of Opportunity" programme supports the "willing buyer, willing seller" principle, though it also allows for expropriation for reform purposes in certain limited circumstances. The party has been critical of the resources that government has allocated to land reform, claiming that government has not been sufficiently active in buying up land that comes onto
27880-660: The last Communist country that still practices Soviet-style Communism, is both repressive and isolationist. Communist political thought and theory are diverse but share several core elements. The dominant forms of communism are based on Marxism or Leninism but non-Marxist versions of communism also exist, such as anarcho-communism and Christian communism , which remain partly influenced by Marxist theories, such as libertarian Marxism and humanist Marxism in particular. Common elements include being theoretical rather than ideological, identifying political parties not by ideology but by class and economic interest, and identifying with
28085-431: The launch of the EFF in 2013, party leader Julius Malema called for a referendum on re-introducing the death penalty, but by 2019 he had reversed this position. The party has promised to tackle corruption, provide quality social housing, and provide free primary healthcare and education for all, as well as proposing to expropriate White -owned farmland, nationalise the mining and banking sectors, double welfare grants and
28290-430: The law of value would still apply to socialism and that the Soviet Union was socialist under this new definition, which was followed by other Communist leaders, many other communists maintain the original definition and state that Communist states never established socialism in this sense. Lenin described his policies as state capitalism but saw them as necessary for the development of socialism, which left-wing critics say
28495-607: The legacy of Communist states. Communism derives from the French word communisme , a combination of the Latin -rooted word communis (which literally means common ) and the suffix isme ( an act, practice, or process of doing something ) . Semantically, communis can be translated to "of or for the community", while isme is a suffix that indicates the abstraction into a state, condition, action, or doctrine . Communism may be interpreted as "the state of being of or for
28700-611: The legal guardians of children living in poverty to ensure that their child attends 85 per cent of school classes, and undergoes routine health check-ups. In addition, to aid with youth development skills, the party proposed a R6000 opportunity voucher or twelve month community service programme to all high school matriculants. The party also supports a universal old age pension, and the abolishment of pension means tests. The DA's education programme, "Preparing for Success", focuses on providing adequate physical and human resources to underperforming schools. The DA supports guaranteed access to
28905-446: The long run ensured liberty, equality, and fraternity , Marxists denounced 1848 as a betrayal of working-class ideals by a bourgeoisie indifferent to the legitimate demands of the proletariat . By 1888, Marxists employed the term socialism in place of communism , which had come to be considered an old-fashioned synonym for the former. It was not until 1917, with the October Revolution , that socialism came to be used to refer to
29110-730: The market. Though the DA believes this could speed up the pace of land reform, their policies have been vocally criticised by members of the Tripartite Alliance. Land Affairs Minister Thoko Didiza accused the DA of attempting to "stifle" land reform, while the South African Communist Party contended that the DA's policies overly favoured big business. In a speech at the DA's national congress in April 2018, DA Leader, Mmusi Maimane, praised DA Western Cape Provincial Leader, Bonginkosi Madikizela, for overseeing
29315-489: The massive public desire for an end to Russian involvement in World War I , the peasants' demand for land reform , and popular support for the soviets . 50,000 workers had passed a resolution in favour of Bolshevik demand for transfer of power to the soviets Lenin's government also instituted a number of progressive measures such as universal education , healthcare and equal rights for women . The initial stage of
29520-406: The minimum wage, and end the proposed toll system for highways. It has criticised both the dominant African National Congress and the primary opposition party, the Democratic Alliance , for enacting policies that it claims have sold out the black people of South Africa to capitalism as cheap labour. However, after the 2016 local elections in South Africa, Malema suggested that the EFF would back
29725-408: The misery of the proletariat – a new class of urban factory workers who labored under often-hazardous conditions. Foremost among these critics were Marx and his associate Engels. In 1848, Marx and Engels offered a new definition of communism and popularized the term in their famous pamphlet The Communist Manifesto . In 1917, the October Revolution in Russia set the conditions for
29930-533: The most advanced capitalist development; however, the Russian Empire was one of the poorest countries in Europe with an enormous, largely illiterate peasantry, and a minority of industrial workers. Marx warned against attempts "to transform my historical sketch of the genesis of capitalism in Western Europe into a historico-philosophy theory of the arche générale imposed by fate upon every people, whatever
30135-482: The most well-known of these and have been a driving force in international relations during most of the 20th century. Classical Marxism is the economic, philosophical, and sociological theories expounded by Marx and Engels as contrasted with later developments in Marxism, especially Leninism and Marxism–Leninism. Orthodox Marxism is the body of Marxist thought that emerged after the death of Marx and which became
30340-473: The official philosophy of the socialist movement as represented in the Second International until World War I in 1914. Orthodox Marxism aims to simplify, codify, and systematize Marxist method and theory by clarifying the perceived ambiguities and contradictions of classical Marxism. The philosophy of orthodox Marxism includes the understanding that material development (advances in technology in
30545-479: The only element which places into the realm of possibility moving on from this mode of production. This dictatorship , based on the Paris Commune 's model, is to be the most democratic state where the whole of the public authority is elected and recallable under the basis of universal suffrage . Democratic Alliance (South Africa) The Democratic Alliance is a South African political party which
30750-469: The party as being reliable and completely subject to party discipline . Trotskyism overtook the left communists as the main dissident communist current, while more libertarian communisms , dating back to the libertarian Marxist current of council communism, remained important dissident communisms outside the Soviet Union. Following Lenin's democratic centralism , the Leninist parties were organized on
30955-519: The party was led by liberal-minded opponents of Apartheid, such as Jan Steytler, Helen Suzman , Zach de Beer , Colin Eglin , Frederik van Zyl Slabbert and Harry Schwarz . In 1989, it merged with two smaller reformist organisations to become the Democratic Party (DP), a name that was retained into the 1990s when freedom was achieved. It was marginalised by the National Party's shift towards
31160-401: The party who are full-time professional revolutionaries, as was conceived by Vladimir Lenin . Marxism is a method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism , to understand social class relations and social conflict and a dialectical perspective to view social transformation . It originates from
31365-465: The party's broader vision of growing the economy by cutting red tape and regulations it claims is holding back South Africa's economic growth. The DA has been against the introduction of a national minimum wage , arguing that workers should be allowed to accept a wage of less than R3500 on their own terms. In contrast, President Cyril Ramaphosa stated that the R3500 per month (R20 an hour) minimum wage
31570-443: The party's senior leadership of corruption and sexual exploitation of more junior female party members. Four months later, two former female employees of the EFF claimed that party leadership had intimidated and engaged in acts of bullying behaviour towards them and other party staff members. Following the temporary removal of eight EFF provincial MPs from Gauteng Provincial Legislature, a large number of EFF members protesting against
31775-750: The party's student wing, the EFF Student Command came in first at several Student Representative Council elections, defeating the African National Congress (ANC)-aligned South African Students Congress (SASCO) at the Durban University of Technology , the University of Zululand and Mangosuthu University of Technology . They also won in Cape Town, the District Six, Mowbray and Bellville Cape Peninsula University of Technology (CPUT) campuses with landslide victories. They also won
31980-497: The party. The affidavit was supported by the South African National Editors Forum and other notable South African journalists such as Max du Preez , Pauli VanWyk, Adriaan Jurgens Basson, and Barry Bateman. The EFF denied any involvement in attacks on Munusamy and other journalists. "We need to ask the IEC how such a party can be on the ballot box. It threatens journalists. It encourages its supporters to make rape threats and sexual assault threats. It wants to dictate what I can do as
32185-512: The police service such as the nationwide disbandment of specialised Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offences (FCS) units. The party adopted a resolution declaring farm attacks and murders as hate crimes at its 2020 Federal Congress. Central to the DA's social development policy, "Breaking the Cycle of Poverty", is a Basic Income Grant, which would provide a monthly transfer of R110 to all adults earning less than R46,000 per year. The party also supports legislation that would require
32390-437: The policies in South Africa that Gaddafi implemented in Libya. The party is against presence of the American military bases in Africa , most notably in Botswana . Prior to forming the EFF, Malema had called for the overthrow of President Ian Khama 's government in Botswana. The EFF has been strongly critical of the government of Eswatini , one of the last absolute monarchies in the world, advocating for democratic reforms in
32595-402: The political ideologies grouped around those. All of these different ideologies generally share the analysis that the current order of society stems from capitalism , its economic system , and mode of production , that in this system there are two major social classes, that the relationship between these two classes is exploitative, and that this situation can only ultimately be resolved through
32800-399: The present. The DA has a variety of ideologically liberal tendencies, including neoliberalism , social liberalism , classical liberalism , and conservative liberalism . The party draws its support predominantly from Afrikaans and English speakers, people aged over 35, and white South Africans , as well as the Indian and Coloured communities. The current leader of the party
33005-491: The primary element in the transformation of society towards a communist mode of production . Communism in its modern form grew out of the socialist movement in 18th-century France , in the aftermath of the French Revolution . Criticism of the idea of private property in the Age of Enlightenment of the 18th century through such thinkers as Gabriel Bonnot de Mably , Jean Meslier , Étienne-Gabriel Morelly , Henri de Saint-Simon and Jean-Jacques Rousseau in France. During
33210-468: The productive forces continued to advance, the communist society , i.e. a classless, stateless, humane society based on common ownership , follows the maxim " From each according to his ability, to each according to his needs ." While it originates from the works of Marx and Engels, Marxism has developed into many different branches and schools of thought, with the result that there is now no single definitive Marxist theory. Different Marxian schools place
33415-440: The proletariat. According to communists, the proletariat can avoid mass unemployment only if capitalism is overthrown; in the short run, state-oriented communists favor state ownership of the commanding heights of the economy as a means to defend the proletariat from capitalist pressure. Some communists are distinguished by other Marxists in seeing peasants and smallholders of property as possible allies in their goal of shortening
33620-488: The publication of an article by the amaBhungane Centre for investigative journalism looking into allegations of corruption by the EFF, the party controversially announced that it would be banning both amaBhungane and the Daily Maverick from its public events and that they would be treated as enemies of the party. In 2018, the party's former deputy president, Floyd Shivambu, was filmed and charged with assaulting Netwerk24 journalist Adrian de Kock in Parliament. In January 2020,
33825-421: The publication of the Reserve Bank's report the EFF criticised the Reserve Bank for placing VBS under curatorship and accused it of victimising VBS on racial grounds. The EFF stated that it had seen no evidence that Shivambu received the R10 million and called for government to recapitalise VBS Mutual Bank whilst also taking legal action against those mentioned in the Reserve Bank report. A follow-up investigation by
34030-423: The reintroduction of the death penalty , the party's controversial 1999 campaign slogan "Fight Back", and the short-lived alliance with the centre-right New National Party fuelled criticisms of the party from the left. After Helen Zille's election as party leader, the DA has attempted to reposition itself as a mainstream alternative to the ANC. The party's economic policy is also broadly centrist, and supports
34235-440: The religious emphasis with a rational and philanthropic basis. Notable among them were Robert Owen , who founded New Harmony, Indiana , in 1825, and Charles Fourier , whose followers organized other settlements in the United States, such as Brook Farm in 1841. In its modern form, communism grew out of the socialist movement in 19th-century Europe. As the Industrial Revolution advanced, socialist critics blamed capitalism for
34440-434: The renamed version of the NP. The party also became kingmakers in the Western Cape province, where it formed a coalition government with the NNP. With a fractured national opposition standing against an increasingly dominant governing party, there was a perceived need to better challenge the ANC. To this end, the DP reached a merger agreement with the NNP and the much smaller Federal Alliance (FA) in 2000. Together, they formed
34645-435: The rise to state power of Vladimir Lenin 's Bolsheviks , which was the first time any avowedly communist party reached that position. The revolution transferred power to the All-Russian Congress of Soviets in which the Bolsheviks had a majority. The event generated a great deal of practical and theoretical debate within the Marxist movement, as Marx stated that socialism and communism would be built upon foundations laid by
34850-421: The role of Provincial Deputy Chairperson of Recruitment and Campaigns, Percilla Mompe is the Provincial Deputy Chairperson of Media and Publicity and Neo Mabote is the Provincial Deputy Chairperson of Training and Development. Until 28 April 2021, the Democratic Alliance Women's Network (DAWN) federal leader was Nomafrench Mbombo , who is also the current Western Cape Minister of Health. The deputy federal leader
35055-520: The role played by a few key individuals in opposing apartheid — particularly Helen Suzman and Helen Zille. The campaign received a certain amount of media attention, much of it somewhat sceptical. The ANC issued a detailed critique of the campaign, focusing especially on Suzman's role in the apartheid parliament. Partially on the basis of this campaign the DA contested the 2014 general election , where it once again grew its support base but failed in its stated goal of winning Gauteng province. In
35260-462: The ruling ANC's approach to governance, which she maintains has led to a "closed, crony society for some". This formed the basis of the philosophy underlying the party's 2009 Election Manifesto, which seeks to build a society by linking outcomes to "opportunity, effort and ability". The DA's historical roots are broadly liberal-democratic. During the 1990s, the party remained associated with liberal values, though party leader Tony Leon 's support for
35465-482: The ruling stormed the provincial legislature building. During violent university protests characterized by arson and vandalism, EFF Youth leader Omphile Seleke posted instructions on how to make petrol bombs on social media. A Vodacom store in Polokwane was damaged and looted by EFF members following a presentation by Corruption Watch at the 2018 Vodacom Awards, which included an image depicting EFF leaders Malema and Shivambu as "abusers of Democracy". Following
35670-404: The same period, Mao's personality cult grew to immense proportions. After Mao's death in 1976, the survivors were rehabilitated and many returned to power. Mao's government was responsible for vast numbers of deaths with estimates ranging from 40 to 80 million victims through starvation, persecution, prison labour , and mass executions. Mao has also been praised for transforming China from
35875-462: The same token we do not believe that a state, with limited capacity, should over-reach itself." In the DA's crime plan, "Conquering Fear, Commanding Hope", the DA committed itself to increasing the number of police officers to 250,000. This is 60,000 more than the government's own target. The party also announced plans to employ 30,000 additional detectives and forensics experts and 500 more prosecutors, in order to reduce court backlogs, and establish
36080-427: The same year. A number of articles published by investigative journalists have accused the party of using their influence to earn improper payments from government suppliers in cities where the EFF has significant representative power. An investigation by the amaBhungane centre for investigative journalism stated that the EFF received R500,000 in kickbacks from a company in return for a R1.26 billion contract to manage
36285-465: The socialisation of the mining sector and called for more explicit targets for the 26% BEE ownership required by law. The EFF is a vocal proponent of expanding the role of South African state-owned enterprises in the national economy. In a public address at Marikana in the Rustenburg area, near the site of the Marikana massacre , Malema blamed mining companies for poverty in the region and called out platinum mining company Lonmin in particular. The EFF
36490-471: The state-capitalist development and the Workers' in particular was critical of bureaucratization and development from above, while the Right Opposition was more supporting of state-capitalist development and advocated the New Economic Policy . Following Lenin's democratic centralism , the Leninist parties were organized on a hierarchical basis, with active cells of members as the broad base. They were made up only of elite cadres approved by higher members of
36695-433: The statement—along with seven others made by the EFF, such as "a revolutionary must become a cold killing machine motivated by pure hate"—constituted hate speech. The EFF disputed the SAHRC's ruling. Journalist Ranjeni Munusamy lodged an affidavit in December 2018 detailing threatening remarks, intimidation, harassment, and personal attacks made by party members, including Malema, towards her and other journalists targeted by
36900-490: The support base. A disproportionate number of supporters live in Malema's home province of Limpopo (28%), while only 1% live in KwaZulu-Natal , a more populous province. A 2018 survey conducted by social research company Citizen Surveys found that around 70% of EFF supporters were between the ages of 18 and 34, overwhelmingly black (97%), mostly based in major metropolitan cities (48%), predominantly male (62%) with 43% of their support base located in Gauteng Province . The party
37105-465: The term communism fell out of use during this period. An early distinction between communism and socialism was that the latter aimed to only socialize production , whereas the former aimed to socialize both production and consumption (in the form of common access to final goods ). This distinction can be observed in Marx's communism, where the distribution of products is based on the principle of " to each according to his needs ", in contrast to
37310-545: The term frequently in his writing and was the first to describe communism as a form of government . John Goodwyn Barmby is credited with the first use of communism in English, around 1840. Since the 1840s, the term communism has usually been distinguished from socialism . The modern definition and usage of the term socialism was settled by the 1860s, becoming predominant over alternative terms such as associationism ( Fourierism ), mutualism , or co-operative , which had previously been used as synonyms. Meanwhile,
37515-453: The term's widespread association with Marxism–Leninism and the Soviet-type economic planning model. In his essay "Judging Nazism and Communism", Martin Malia defines a "generic Communism" category as any Communist political party movement led by intellectuals ; this umbrella term allows grouping together such different regimes as radical Soviet industrialism and the Khmer Rouge 's anti-urbanism. According to Alexander Dallin ,
37720-448: The upheaval of the French Revolution , communism emerged as a political doctrine under the auspices of François-Noël Babeuf , Nicolas Restif de la Bretonne , and Sylvain Maréchal , all of whom can be considered the progenitors of modern communism, according to James H. Billington . In the early 19th century, various social reformers founded communities based on common ownership. Unlike many previous communist communities, they replaced
37925-428: The upheaval of the French Revolution , communism emerged as a political doctrine under the auspices of François-Noël Babeuf , Nicolas Restif de la Bretonne , and Sylvain Maréchal , all of whom can be considered the progenitors of modern communism, according to James H. Billington . In the 20th century, several ostensibly Communist governments espousing Marxism–Leninism and its variants came into power, first in
38130-416: The vehicle for fundamental society-wide changes and ultimately leads to the emergence of new economic systems . As a term, orthodox Marxism represents the methods of historical materialism and of dialectical materialism, and not the normative aspects inherent to classical Marxism, without implying dogmatic adherence to the results of Marx's investigations. At the root of Marxism is historical materialism,
38335-472: The works of 19th-century German philosophers Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels . As Marxism has developed over time into various branches and schools of thought , no single, definitive Marxist theory exists. Marxism considers itself to be the embodiment of scientific socialism but does not model an ideal society based on the design of intellectuals , whereby communism is seen as a state of affairs to be established based on any intelligent design; rather, it
38540-450: The world". The EFF supports the rights of the LGBT+ community in Africa and officially condemns laws that seek to ban homosexuality. The party was critical of Uganda 's 2023 Anti-Homosexuality Bill and led a protest outside of the Ugandan embassy in South Africa urging Uganda's president not to sign it into law. Later in 2023, the party was strongly criticized by members of the South African LGBT+ community for inviting Patrick Lumumba ,
38745-469: The youth. These interventions include a wage subsidy programme to reduce the cost of hiring first-time workers. The DA has committed itself to a counter-cyclical fiscal policy approach. This is evident in the party's previous alternative budget frameworks, with both alternative budgets posting deficits. The party defended this stance by arguing that increased spending was necessary to help the economy out of recession . Other fiscal interventions have included
38950-405: Was also created under Josip Broz Tito in Yugoslavia ; Tito's independent policies led to the Tito–Stalin split and expulsion of Yugoslavia from the Cominform in 1948, and Titoism was branded deviationist . Albania also became an independent Marxist–Leninist state following the Albanian–Soviet split in 1960, resulting from an ideological fallout between Enver Hoxha , a Stalinist, and
39155-427: Was also quite modern. At the top, personal loyalty to Stalin counted for everything. Stalin also created powerful committees, elevated younger specialists, and began major institutional innovations. In the teeth of persecution, Stalin's deputies cultivated informal norms and mutual understandings which provided the foundations for collective rule after his death. For most Westerners and anti-communist Russians, Stalin
39360-416: Was believed to be the atheist way of life. In Protestant England , communism was too phonetically similar to the Roman Catholic communion rite , hence English atheists denoted themselves socialists. Friedrich Engels stated that in 1848, at the time when The Communist Manifesto was first published, socialism was respectable on the continent, while communism was not; the Owenites in England and
39565-410: Was brought by AfriForum ), or defamation of character (against ANC politician Manuel), the party was left with combined court costs amounting to almost R1 million. The judicial monitoring organisation Judges Matter and the South African Ministry of Justice have condemned the EFF and its leader Malema for making unsubstantiated comments that, according to Judges Matter, are "an attack on the judiciary,
39770-489: Was channeled to Malema via a company named Santaclara Trading. A former member of the EFF's leadership accused the party leadership of accepting donations from VBS Mutual Bank prior to its collapse. The South African Parliament’s joint ethics committee found that Shivambu had received at least R180,000, in three payments, of VBS money from his brother's company Sgameka Projects Pty Ltd in 2017; but found no evidence that Malema received any VBS related funds. Malema has forwarded
39975-464: Was elected at the Interim Democratic Alliance Youth Federal Congress in 2022. Robin Atson, Kamogelo Makola, Chadwin Petersen and Lindokuhle Sixabayi are the Interim DA Youth Federal Deputy Chaipersons in Administration, Recruitment, Training and Development, and Media and Publicity, respectively. In the Gauteng Province, the first dually elected Democratic Alliance Youth Provincial Executive Committee took office in November 2017 after they were elected at
40180-428: Was expected to make an impact in the 2014 general election , taking between 4 per cent and 8 per cent of the national vote. This was potentially enough for the party to hold the balance of power in provinces where the governing African National Congress was in danger of losing its absolute majority. The ANC retained its absolute majority whilst the EFF got 6.35% of the vote in the 2014 election. High-profile members of
40385-421: Was heard on 9 February 2016. The judgement was released by Chief Justice Mogoeng Mogoeng and stated that the then-President had violated the Constitution of South Africa, along with the Speaker of the National Assembly Baleka Mbete . The President was given 60 days to fulfill the requirements of the Public Protector Thuli Madonsela . On 27 February 2018, the EFF tabled a motion in the National Assembly to amend
40590-415: Was much more efficient, this property became worthless and the mass majority of workers could only survive by selling their labor to make use of someone else's machinery, and making someone else profit. Accordingly, capitalism divided the world between two major classes, namely that of the proletariat and the bourgeoisie . These classes are directly antagonistic as the latter possesses private ownership of
40795-420: Was never established, while some Marxist–Leninists state that it was established only during the Stalin era and Mao era , and then became capitalist states ruled by revisionists ; others state that Maoist China was always state capitalist, and uphold People's Socialist Republic of Albania as the only socialist state after the Soviet Union under Stalin, who first stated to have achieved socialism with
41000-489: Was still not a living wage, and would only "advance the struggle for a living wage". The DA is resolutely against land expropriation without compensation. This is in response to the ANC and the EFF's recent attempts to change section 25 of the Constitution which deals with land reform. The DA says that changing the Constitution will open the floodgates and undermine property rights, allowing government to own all land and forcing all South Africans to be only permanent tenants of
41205-407: Was the beginning of the development of vanguardism as an hierarchical party–elite that controls society, which resulted in a split between anarchism and Marxism , and Leninist communism assuming the dominant position for most of the 20th century, excluding rival socialist currents. Other communists and Marxists, especially social democrats who favored the development of liberal democracy as
41410-429: Was the only parliamentary party that opposed the 2018 political party funding bill, a funding transparency law that requires political parties to publish their sources of funding. The EFF presents itself as a Pan-Africanist party and supports the proposal for a United States of Africa . In respect to this, the EFF and Malema have repeatedly praised former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi , promising to implement many of
41615-560: Was to purify communism by removing pro-capitalists and traditionalists by imposing Maoist orthodoxy within the Chinese Communist Party . The movement paralyzed China politically and weakened the country economically, culturally, and intellectually for years. Millions of people were accused, humiliated, stripped of power, and either imprisoned, killed, or most often, sent to work as farm laborers. Mao insisted that those he labelled revisionists be removed through violent class struggle . The two most prominent militants were Marshall Lin Biao of
41820-413: Was used to buy his Range Rover Sport valued at R680,000. By June 2021 Shivambu's brother had repaid R4.55 million and admitted to taking VBS money. A follow-up investigation by the Daily Maverick found that R454,000 of VBS money was used to pay for the 2017 EFF birthday celebration. It also found that a total of R16.1 million was channeled through a Shivambu associated company largely for the benefit of
42025-485: Was widely reported as ineffective and involved an number of instances of fake news spread by party supporters. In June 2024, the EFF refused to join the ANC-led Government of National Unity (GNU), because of the Democratic Alliance (DA) and Freedom Front Plus (FF+) participation in the coalition. In August 2024, EFF deputy president Floyd Shivambu left the party and joined former president Jacob Zuma’s uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party. The EFF "draws inspiration from
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