Democratic Socialist Movement (South Africa)
Encyclopedia
Democratic Socialist Movement (DSM) is the name of the South African section of the Committee for a Workers' International
(CWI).
(ANC) and had been formed by activists who had helped build independent trade unions and participated in the 1973 KwaZulu-Natal
strikes. Members of the MWT included Nimrod Sejake
, Zackie Achmat
and Martin Legassick
.
In 1981 they began publishing the journal Inqaba Ya Basebenzi (Fortress of the Workers) from exile in Botswana, Zimbabwe, Ireland and the United Kingdom where they were in exile. Four members of the MWT were expelled from the ANC at the 16 June 1985 ANC Consultative Conference in Zambia.
In 1989 it started producing the newspaper Congress Militant.
The DSM was refounded in October 2002 at a conference of 45 people held on the 5th and 6th of that month at the University of Durban-Westville.
Committee for a Workers' International
The Committee for a Workers' International is an international association of Trotskyist parties. Members include the Socialist Party of England and Wales, the Socialist Party , the Socialist Party the Democratic Socialist Movement in South Africa and Nigeria and groups using the name Socialist...
(CWI).
History
The CWI section in South Africa was historically known as the Marxist Workers Tendency (MWT) of the African National CongressAfrican National Congress
The African National Congress is South Africa's governing Africanist political party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party , since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a...
(ANC) and had been formed by activists who had helped build independent trade unions and participated in the 1973 KwaZulu-Natal
KwaZulu-Natal
KwaZulu-Natal is a province of South Africa. Prior to 1994, the territory now known as KwaZulu-Natal was made up of the province of Natal and the homeland of KwaZulu....
strikes. Members of the MWT included Nimrod Sejake
Nimrod Sejake
Nimrod Sejake was a labor leader in South Africa in the 1950s. He was a leading member of the Congress of South African Trade Unions, initially as secretary of the Iron Steel Workers, and became active in the African National Congress in Soweto in the 1950s.He was one of the defendants during the...
, Zackie Achmat
Zackie Achmat
Zackie Achmat is a South African activist, most widely known as founder and chairman of the Treatment Action Campaign and for his work on the behalf of people living with HIV and AIDS in South Africa.-Early life:...
and Martin Legassick
Martin Legassick
Martin Legassick is an eminent and world renowned South African historian and a lifelong activist.Legassick was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, in 1940. In 1947 he and his parents emigrated to South Africa. In 1960 he became a Rhodes Scholar at Balliol College, Oxford...
.
In 1981 they began publishing the journal Inqaba Ya Basebenzi (Fortress of the Workers) from exile in Botswana, Zimbabwe, Ireland and the United Kingdom where they were in exile. Four members of the MWT were expelled from the ANC at the 16 June 1985 ANC Consultative Conference in Zambia.
In 1989 it started producing the newspaper Congress Militant.
The DSM was refounded in October 2002 at a conference of 45 people held on the 5th and 6th of that month at the University of Durban-Westville.