{"product_id":"red-road-to-freedom-9781847013606","title":"Red Road to Freedom","description":"\u003cb\u003eLonglisted for South Africa's 2022 \u003ci\u003eSunday Times \u003c\/i\u003eNon-fiction Award \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eDefinitive and gripping narrative history of the Communist Party of South Africa.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eRenowned historian Tom Lodge has written an immensely readable and  compelling sweep of history, spanning continents and the last hundred  years, producing the first comprehensive account of the South African  Communist Party in all its intricacies. Taking the story back to the  party's pre-history in the early 20th century reveals that it was shaped  by a range of socialist traditions and that their influence persisted  and were decisive. The party's engagement in popular front politics  after 1935 has been largely uncharted: this book supplies fresh detail.  In the 1940s the author shows how the party became a key actor in the  formation of black working-class politics, and hitherto unused archival  materials as well as the insights from an increasingly candid genre of  autobiographies make possible a much fuller picture of the secret party  of 1952 to 1965. Despite its concealment and tiny numbers, its  intellectual impact on black South African mainstream politics was  considerable. On the exile period, the author examines the activities of  the party's recruits and more informal following inside South Africa,  as well as the scope and nature of its broader influence. In 1990, a  year in which global politics would change fundamentally, South African  communists would return to South Africa to begin the work of  reconstructing their party as a legal organisation. Throughout its  history, the party had been inspired and supported by the reality of  existing socialism, state systems embracing half of Europe and Asia, in  which the ruling group was at least notionally committed to the building  of communist societies. With the fall of Eastern European regimes and  the fragmentation of the Soviet Union, one key set of material  foundations for the party's programmatic beliefs crumbled and its most  important international alliances in the global socialist community in  Eastern Europe and Russia would end.  Finally, Lodge brings the story up  to date, assessing the degree to which communists both inside and  outside government have shaped and influenced policy in successive  ANC-led administrations, particularly during the popular resistance to  apartheid during the 1950s, which was underpinned by the party's  systematic organisation in the localities that supplied the ANC with its  strongest bases.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eJacana: Africa, India","brand":"Tom Lodge","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":48280858722555,"sku":"9781847013606","price":69.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0779\/3917\/9771\/files\/9781847013606_bcdc2aaf-6691-4fec-9072-06e7837dac22.jpg?v=1772487648","url":"https:\/\/indiepubs.com\/products\/red-road-to-freedom-9781847013606","provider":"IndiePubs","version":"1.0","type":"link"}