The UDF Period and its Meaning for Contemporary South Africa (review article of Houston, Seekings and Van Kessel)¶
Raymond Suttner (2004). The UDF Period and its Meaning for Contemporary South Africa (review article of Houston, Seekings and Van Kessel). Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 30, No. 3. Taylor & Francis.
| Type | journal article |
| Scope | Wider apartheid literature |
| Method | synthesis review |
| Period studied | 1983–1991 |
| Regions | South Africa, Eastern Cape, Northern Transvaal, Natal, Johannesburg/West Rand |
| Themes | resistance social movements, politics ideology elections, transition post apartheid |
| Citation key | suttner2004 |
Argument¶
Suttner reviews three books on the United Democratic Front (Houston, Seekings, Van Kessel) and argues that the UDF period introduced a distinctive 'prefigurative democracy' and 'people's power' into South African politics. He criticises Houston's Leninist/Gramscian theorisation and Seekings's either/or categories (organisation vs confrontation, rights vs liberation). He argues that the UDF was neither an ANC creation nor directed by the ANC underground, though its affiliates saw themselves as carrying out ANC mandates. Success or abuse of people's power depended on the intensity of repression and on how broadly based the community leadership was. He prefers Van Kessel's local case-study approach and calls for more theorisation of the period.
Evidence and method¶
Close reading of the three books, plus the author's own interviews with activists (mid-1980s and 2001-2004), ANC documents (Green Book, January 8 statements), Morobe's 1987 article and secondary literature on the ANC underground and Black Consciousness. No economic data.
Place in the debates¶
- Was the UDF created and directed by the ANC underground? (see Resistance and liberation movements). Suttner rejects both the claim that the ANC 'set up' or ran the UDF and the claim of ANC-underground direction. He accepts underground involvement and affiliates' self-perception as carrying out ANC mandates, but stresses local interpretation and autonomy.
- Organisation vs confrontation/insurrection, and rights vs liberation, as tensions within the UDF (Seekings) (see Resistance and liberation movements). Suttner regards these as misplaced counterpositions. He sees organisation and insurrection as complementary, and liberation as a precondition for rights, while conceding that the rights/liberation distinction may help explain later Coloured and Indian voting for the NP.
- Was the ANC 'dead' after Rivonia, so that Black Consciousness dominated the pre-1976 period? (see Resistance and liberation movements). Suttner challenges this. He argues that ANC underground structures were rebuilt and that BC and Congress forces both contested and co-operated in the late 1960s and 1970s, which explains the later Congress hegemony.
- Was the UDF merely 'holding the fort' for the exiled/jailed leadership or something qualitatively new? (see Resistance and liberation movements). Suttner argues it was qualitatively new, with prefigurative democracy and self-empowerment, and criticises Chikane's 'holding the fort' view.
- Romanticisation of the UDF/internal struggle vs the exile experience (see Resistance and liberation movements). Suttner argues there was more continuity between them than is usually allowed. UDF structures also practised democratic centralism and intolerance, and exile was probably less uniformly top-down than is claimed.
Findings¶
-
Retrospective assessments of the UDF are bound up with judgements of post-apartheid democracy. (p. 1)
Any retrospective discussion of the United Democratic Front (UDF) in the 21st century inevitably also relates to an assessment of post-apartheid South Africa and the character of the democracy
-
Houston's attempt to theorise the UDF as a Leninist/Gramscian vanguard is unconvincing and obscures grassroots agency. (p. 3)
the use of this overarching notion at the outset tends to obscure some of the agency of people on the ground.
-
Seekings is the most thorough study but is top-down and national in focus, neglecting local activity. (p. 3)
Seekings's is the most thorough examination of the UDF, but it focuses primarily on the national level, and on institutional structures, mainly at a leadership level.
-
Resistance historiography wrongly treats the ANC as dead after Rivonia, leaving later Congress dominance unexplained. (p. 5)
Much of the existing resistance historiography treats the ANC as dead after Rivonia.4 In fact, many ANC people were not arrested in that period and others were periodically released from prison.
-
The UDF period embodied 'prefigurative democracy', in which democratic means and ends were fused. (p. 6)
People saw what they were doing in their daily practices as part of the process of building the 'new South Africa'. Means and ends became fused; the democratic means were part of democratic ends.
-
Successful popular power depended on the intensity of repression. (p. 8)
Moments of successful popular power may well have depended on the intensity of state repression. The lower the intensity, the greater the likelihood for the successful exercise of popular power.
-
During the state of emergency, the detention of experienced leaders let youth take command, bringing violence and declining community involvement. (p. 8)
The period of the state of emergency saw the arrest of almost all the most experienced leaders. As a result, in many communities, the youth took command, leading to the greater mobilisation of violence
-
The ANC did not set up or control the UDF, though underground members were active in it. (p. 9)
But that does not mean that the ANC set up the organisation, nor that it controlled the UDF and its affiliates.
-
Affiliates interpreted ANC calls locally, so neither Lusaka nor UDF headquarters dictated the line. (p. 9)
It was not ANC headquarters in Lusaka, or UDF headquarters in Johannesburg that dictated how these 'instructions' or 'the line of march' were interpreted.
-
Seeing itself as a 'curtain raiser' for the ANC, the UDF did not consider continuing after the unbanning, though it could have kept a broad sectoral coordinating role. (p. 10)
There was a tendency on the part of the UDF to see itself as a 'curtain raiser' before the main team arrived on the field, a type of B team mentality.
Evidence ledger¶
Sources used¶
| Source | Kind | Period | How used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Author's interviews with Pityana, Mgijima and Serache on BC/ANC contact pre-1976 | interviews oral history | interviews 2002-2003 | Supports claim that Black Consciousness figures and ANC underground had extensive contact and overlapping membership before 1976. |
| Author's 1980s interviews with UDF activists (Weza Made, Titus Mafolo, Gugile Nkwinti, Mapheti Leeuw, Paul Mashatile) | interviews oral history | 1986 | Evidence for conditions under which people's power succeeded or degenerated: community involvement, crime control, consumer boycotts, street committees. |
| Suttner's post-2001 interviews (Mothupi, Mohlala, Mashigo, Shoke, Jordan) | interviews oral history | 2002-2004 | Supports claims on Radio Freedom listening, MK actions complementing civic grievances, the Northern Transvaal paper-trail episode, exile debate and Nchabaleng's murder. |
| Suttner, 'It is Your Mother Who is the Enemy Now!' (unpublished WISER seminar paper, 2003) | other | 2003 (covers post-Rivonia 'lull') | Cited for the claim that ANC underground structures persisted after Rivonia, challenging the BC-vacuum account. |
| Interview with Weza Made, early 1986 (transcript) | interviews oral history | 1986 | Shows activists saw street committees as implementing the Freedom Charter's 'The People Shall Govern!'. |
| Murphy Morobe, 'Towards a People's Democracy: The UDF View', Review of African Political Economy 40 (1987) | newspapers periodicals | 1987 | Primary statement of UDF leadership's view of democratic means and ends, used to illustrate 'prefigurative democracy'. |
| ANC 'Green Book', Report of the Politico-Military Strategy Commission to the ANC NEC, August 1979 | commission or official report | 1979 | Shows ANC's long-standing aim to build mass internal organisation, relevant to the ANC-UDF relationship. |
| ANC January 8 statements and Radio Freedom broadcasts | union or movement records | 1980s | Shows UDF activists studied ANC strategic 'tasks' but interpreted them locally. |
| Rev. F. Chikane, 'The Origins and Significance of the UDF', Umrabulo (June 2003) | union or movement records | 2003 | Cited as an example of the 'holding the fort' view that Suttner disputes. |
| Reviewed books: Houston (1999), Seekings (2000), Van Kessel (2000) | secondary literature compilation | UDF 1983-1991 | The data and case studies in these books are assessed and drawn on, e.g. Van Kessel's case material is used to support claims about grassroots agency. |
| Newspaper articles on UDF 20th anniversary (Sowetan Sunday World, The Star, March 2003) | newspapers periodicals | March 2003 | Illustrate the tendency to contrast the UDF with post-apartheid ANC-dominated society. |
| Govan Mbeki, South Africa: The Peasants' Revolt (1964/1984) and Sunset at Midday (1996) | other | 1964, 1996 | Mbeki's account of Pondoland people's courts used as precedent for people's power; Sunset at Midday used for claim that ANC directed the UDF, which Suttner disputes. |
Inference¶
Quantification: None.
A review article that assesses three UDF monographs through argument, drawing on the reviewer's own interviews with activists (1980s and 2002-2004), his earlier papers on the ANC underground, and theoretical reasoning on prefigurative democracy and Gramsci/Lenin. It is not an economic or quantitative study.
Key claims¶
| Claim | Basis | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| Houston's claim that the UDF became a Leninist vanguard party is not supported by the data he presents. (p. 692) | Internal critique of Houston's book; no independent source. | Asserted |
| The ANC underground persisted after Rivonia and had substantial contact with the BCM, so the pre-1976 'BC vacuum' account is wrong and Congress hegemony needs fuller explanation. (p. 694) | Author's interviews (Pityana, Mgijima, Serache) and his unpublished WISER paper; Buntman cited. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| The UDF embodied 'prefigurative democracy': activists treated democratic practice as valuable in itself rather than waiting for a transfer of power. (p. 695) | Morobe's 1987 statement, the Made interview and the Freedom Charter; Van Kessel's data. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| People's power worked best with low repression and broad community representation, and degenerated into violence when experienced leaders were detained and youth or criminal elements took over. (p. 697) | 1986 interviews with activists from Atteridgeville, Uitenhage, Port Alfred and Alexandra; Neocosmos's periodisation. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| The UDF was neither created nor directed by the ANC underground, although activists saw themselves as carrying out ANC policy and interpreted it locally. (p. 698) | Tambo interview, Green Book, January 8 statements, Radio Freedom, and the author's interviews (Mothupi, Mashigo, Shoke). | Partial data |
| Under the state of emergency the UDF's internal democracy eroded, and its ideological hegemony rested more on coercion than persuasion. (p. 699) | Interview with France Mohlala on the Northern Transvaal paper-trail episode; Van Kessel and Delius. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
| The UDF and exile experiences shared more continuities than the literature allows. (p. 700) | Interviews with Jordan and Serache; Delius, Van Kessel, Cherry and Mufson on intolerance and witch-burnings. | Illustrative or anecdotal |
The author's caveats¶
The author notes that the tapes of his 1980s interviews were mislaid when he was detained in 1986; only some transcripts survive, and precise dates are not always available. Post-2001 interviews and transcripts are in his possession.
Gaps in the evidence¶
The argument rests on a small number of interviews with activists and leaders, with no systematic sample of affiliates or periods. Testing the claims about people's power, violence and ANC control would need organisational archives (UDF, civics, security police files), township-level event data and wider oral testimony. Some of this exists in the UDF and ANC archives, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission records and local civic papers, but the review does not use them. It also has no economic or demographic data on township conditions.
Replicability: Data poorly documented.