Contesting Segmented Elections: Communists at the Polls in the '20s, '30s and '40s¶
Sheridan Johns (1994). Contesting Segmented Elections: Communists at the Polls in the '20s, '30s and '40s. History Workshop conference paper, 'Democracy: Popular Precedents, Practice, Culture', University of the Witwatersrand, 13-15 July 1994. University of the Witwatersrand, History Workshop.
| Type | conference paper |
| Scope | Wider apartheid literature |
| Method | synthesis review |
| Period studied | 1921–1950 |
| Regions | South Africa, Cape Province, Transkei, Transvaal and Orange Free State, Johannesburg, Cape Town |
| Themes | politics ideology elections, resistance social movements, origins segregation |
| Citation key | johns1994 |
Argument¶
Johns surveys the electoral activity of the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA) between 1921 and 1950, using four recently published books (by Roux, Basner, Podbrey and Lazerson) rather than new archival research. He argues that South Africa's racially segmented electoral arenas (common-roll Cape seats, indirect 'Native' representation after 1936, Advisory Boards, white-only municipal and parliamentary seats) forced the party to tailor tactics to each arena. Candidates mostly lost, but the authors of all four books judge the campaigns worthwhile as propaganda and outreach. Johns concludes that the sources are useful for some arenas but thin on Cape Town electioneering and Advisory Board contests, and he calls for systematic research in party newspapers such as Inkululeko and The Guardian.
Evidence and method¶
Four recent books: Roux's 1944 biography of Bunting (reissued 1993), Miriam Basner's edited memoir of H.M. Basner (1993, with notes by Tom Lodge), Pauline Podbrey's memoir (1993), and Lazerson's Against the Tide (1994). Election returns are taken from Schoeman, Parlementere Verkiesings in Suid-Afrika 1910-1976.
Place in the debates¶
- Should black and leftist candidates participate in segregated electoral institutions, or boycott them? (see Resistance and liberation movements). Notes the debate in the AAC and CPSA after 1935-36 and that Basner, Mofutsanyana and Marks persuaded the party to participate. Johns does not adjudicate it and says the question became especially contentious around Cape Town.
- Value of the CPSA's losing campaigns, and the legitimacy of white communists 'speaking for' Africans (see Resistance and liberation movements). Reports that all four authors consider the campaigns worthwhile. He relays Lazerson's view that white candidates speaking for Africans was 'problematic', and he does not offer his own verdict.
Findings¶
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The CPSA was unique among pre-1950s parties: multiracial, mobilizing blacks and mainly extra-parliamentary, though small. (p. 3)
It was the only political party open to all races, the only political party concerned to mobilize blacks, and the only political party whose prime focus was extra-parliamentary.
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The 1936 Native Representation Act removed Cape Africans from the common roll and created new segregated electoral arenas. (p. 4)
It removed Africans from the common national and provincial voters' roll in Cape Province.
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Bunting's 1929 Tembuland campaign won only a small share of the vote, confirming his pessimism about African voters. (p. 10)
the S.A.P. candidate garnered 1079 votes (46.2%), an Independent S.A.P. candidate attracted 934 votes (40.0%), and Bunting received 289 votes
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Wolton's Cape Flats campaign in 1929 did even worse and lost its deposit. (p. 11)
Wolton finished third with only 93 votes (3.0%), losing his election deposit
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In 1937 Basner reached the final round for the Transvaal/OFS 'Native' Senate seat but lost heavily to Rheinallt Jones. (p. 15)
In the second and final round Basner was resoundingly defeated, receiving 66,234 votes to 404,447 for Rheinallt Jones.
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Party membership rose sharply during the war, which encouraged the 1943 electoral push. (p. 16)
By early 1944 party membership numbered 1500, four times the membership of 1940.
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Nationally the 1943 communist vote was tiny, but the party targeted its constituencies well. (p. 17)
the total nationwide vote for the nine communist candidates in the 1943 general election was 6808, merely 0.8% of the total
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Communist candidates averaged 11.0% in the constituencies they contested, and did best in Cape Town seats with Coloured minorities. (p. 18)
The average percentage of communist votes in the nine constituences where they ran was 11.0%.
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The party's greatest electoral successes came after the 1948 Nationalist victory, in 'Native' seats in the Western Cape. (p. 6)
In November, 1948, Sam Kahn was elected to parliament as 'Native' representative for Western Cape and the following year Fred Carneson won a seat
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The sources are thin on Advisory Board contests and Cape Town electioneering, where further research is needed. (p. 25)
Party candidates did compete, and often successfully, for Advisory Board seats in a number of locations, particularly on the Witwatersrand.
Evidence ledger¶
Sources used¶
| Source | Kind | Period | How used |
|---|---|---|---|
| B.M. Schoeman, Parlementere Verkiesings in Suid-Afrika 1910-1976 (Pretoria: Aktuele Publikasies, 1977) | election returns | 1929, 1943, 1948 general elections (volume covers 1910-1976) | Supplies the constituency vote tallies and percentages for the 1929 and 1943 CPSA candidates. |
| Edward Roux, S.P. Bunting: A Political Biography (1944; Mayibuye Books 1993 reissue) | secondary literature compilation | 1929 campaigns, written 1944 | Main account of the 1929 Bunting and Wolton campaigns, quoting Bunting's campaign-time reports. |
| Miriam Basner, Am I An African? The Political Memoirs of H.M. Basner (Wits University Press, 1993) | secondary literature compilation | 1930s-1942 campaigns, written before 1977 | Main source for the 1937 Basner and Mofutsanyana campaigns, their strategy, and the vote totals in the 1937 Senate contest. |
| Pauline Podbrey, White Girl in Search of the Party (Hadeda Books, 1993) | interviews oral history | 1943 general election | Gives a canvasser's vignette of the 1943 Cape Flats campaign and its reception among Afrikaner farmers and in Pinelands. |
| Joshua N. Lazerson, Against the Tide: Whites in the Struggle Against Apartheid (Mayibuye Books, 1994) | secondary literature compilation | 1940s | Shows how white communist municipal candidates and councillors (Bernstein, Kahn) presented themselves and represented African interests. |
| The Guardian (party press, as used by Lazerson) | newspapers periodicals | 1940s | Lazerson's evidence on candidate discourse comes mainly from The Guardian's party statements and candidate reports; the paper does not consult it directly. |
| Inkululeko, The Guardian, Freedom and CPSA pamphlets (recommended sources, not consulted) | newspapers periodicals | late 1930s-1940s | Proposed as the best sources for further systematic research on Advisory Board and other electoral activity; the paper does not use them itself. |
| Native Representation Act of 1936 and Native Urban Areas Act of 1923 | legislation gazette | 1923, 1936 | Defines the segregated electoral arenas (Advisory Boards, Native Senate and Representative seats) in which the CPSA contested elections. |
| Tom Lodge, 'Class Conflict, Communal Struggle and Patriotic Unity: the Communist Party of South Africa during the Second World War', Wits African Studies Seminar Paper, 1985 | secondary literature compilation | WWII | Source of the call for research on CPSA electoral successes that frames the paper; also the 1985 Lodge notes in the Basner volume on Advisory Boards. |
Inference¶
Quantification: Illustrative figures.
Review essay: close reading and comparison of four recently published books (a biography, two memoirs, a historian's monograph) on CPSA electioneering, supplemented by a few vote tallies from Schoeman. It also does a simple comparison of national versus constituency vote shares in 1943. It makes no systematic analysis, and it states that assessing the books' claims lies beyond its scope.
Key claims¶
| Claim | Basis | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| The CPSA carefully targeted 1929 constituencies where black voters were about half the electorate, yet Bunting and Wolton polled very poorly. (p. 9-11) | Roux's account, Bunting's reports, and Schoeman's vote tallies (Bunting 289 votes, 12.4%; Wolton 93 votes, 3.0%). | Partial data |
| In the 1937 indirect Native Senate election Basner came second in the first round (77,349 votes) but lost heavily in the final round to Rheinallt Jones. (p. 13-15) | Basner's memoirs, with vote totals reported from the memoir narrative. | Partial data |
| The CPSA's 1943 candidate targeting worked: communist candidates averaged 11.0% in the nine contested constituencies against 0.8% nationally, and did best in Cape Town seats with a significant Coloured vote. (p. 17-18) | Vote tallies from Schoeman, with the author's own arithmetic on percentages. | Systematic data |
| The party sharply stepped up electioneering after June 1941, running white candidates in white-only constituencies while keeping its African electoral activity, and it scored its biggest successes in 1948-49 in 'Native' seats in the Western Cape. (p. 5-6) | Synthesis from the books and election chronology; Kahn and Carneson wins are stated without a cited source. | Asserted |
| Party membership grew to 1500 by early 1944, four times the 1940 figure, with recruits from all sections of the population. (p. 16) | No source cited. | Asserted |
| Available sources inadequately cover Cape Town electioneering in the 1940s and Advisory Board contests, where communists often won seats on the Witwatersrand. (p. 24) | The author's reading of the four books and Lodge's notes; no direct data on Advisory Board results. | Asserted |
The author's caveats¶
The author says the paper will not answer why the CPSA won elections, that assessing the four books' claims is beyond its scope, and that the books give only limited information on Cape Town electioneering and Advisory Board contests. He notes the books are not primarily about elections and that Podbrey's and Lazerson's accounts lack the tactical detail found in Roux and Basner.
Gaps in the evidence¶
The paper relies on secondary memoirs and biographies, not on primary party records, local election returns or the party press. It would need systematic Advisory Board, municipal and provincial election results, plus CPSA archives and newspaper runs (Inkululeko, The Guardian), to test its claims. These sources existed then, and many are now accessible in the archives and party press collections.
Replicability: Data poorly documented.