Socialist Party of Azania - AbsoluteAstronomy.com

The Socialist Party of Azania (SOPA) is a Scientific Socialist, Black Consciousness political party in South Africa

South Africa

The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...

. In the 2004 general elections, it received only 0.1% of the vote and no legislatorial seats at either the national and provincial levels.

History

The party was formed on March 21, 1998. It was branched from the Azanian People's Organisation. The forefathers of the party were also founding members of the 1970s Black Consciousness Movement

Black Consciousness Movement

The Black Consciousness Movement was a grassroots anti-Apartheid activist movement that emerged in South Africa in the mid-1960s out of the political vacuum created by the jailing and banning of the African National Congress and Pan Africanist Congress leadership after the Sharpeville Massacre in...

which was led by Steve Biko

Steve Biko

Stephen Biko was a noted anti-apartheid activist in South Africa in the 1960s and 1970s. A student leader, he later founded the Black Consciousness Movement which would empower and mobilize much of the urban black population. Since his death in police custody, he has been called a martyr of the...

. Among noted members of SOPA are Professor Itumeleng Mosala, Asha Moodley, Steven Peter, Rose Ngwenya, Dr. Gomoleo Mokae, Tiyani Lybon Mabasa, Musa Kunta Mohamed, Phineas Malapela, Patrick Mkhize, Console Tleane, Ashraf Jooma and the late Strini Moodley

Strini Moodley

Strinivasa Rajoo "Strini" Moodley was a founding member of the Black Consciousness Movement in South Africa...

Ideology

SOPA's ideology is derived from both the Black Consciousness Movement and from Scientific Socialism

Socialism

Socialism is an economic system characterized by social ownership of the means of production and cooperative management of the economy; or a political philosophy advocating such a system. "Social ownership" may refer to any one of, or a combination of, the following: cooperative enterprises,...

(revolutionary Marxism

Marxism

Marxism is an economic and sociopolitical worldview and method of socioeconomic inquiry that centers upon a materialist interpretation of history, a dialectical view of social change, and an analysis and critique of the development of capitalism. Marxism was pioneered in the early to mid 19th...

). The goal of the party is the liberation of Azania

Azania

Azania is the name that has been applied to various parts of sub-Saharan Africa. In Roman times—and perhaps earlier—the name referred to a portion of the Southeast African coast south of the Horn of Africa, extending south perhaps as far as modern Tanzania....

(currently South Africa), so that the Black people within the country, who form the majority of the population, can have a larger voice in its political system. The party was created in response to the post-apartheid South African government which, the party believes, allows continuing cultural, social, and economic dominance by white South Africans. SOPA believes that this situation is perpetuated by "non-whites" in positions of power who are not attentive to the needs of fellow Blacks, and calls for political leadership which stands in solidarity with the Black population of the country.

It is SOPA's perspective that in order to liberate the poorest of the Black majority of population from despair, the working class

Working class

Working class is a term used in the social sciences and in ordinary conversation to describe those employed in lower tier jobs , often extending to those in unemployment or otherwise possessing below-average incomes...

must lead a proletarian revolution

Proletarian revolution

A proletarian revolution is a social and/or political revolution in which the working class attempts to overthrow the bourgeoisie. Proletarian revolutions are generally advocated by socialists, communists, and most anarchists....

which will abolish the system based upon the private ownership of fundamental means of production, and result in the redistribution of land and nationalisation of basic industries. This plan would, according to theory, reverse the detrimental effects of the racist apartheid and capitalist

Capitalism

Capitalism is an economic system that became dominant in the Western world following the demise of feudalism. There is no consensus on the precise definition nor on how the term should be used as a historical category...

system which they believe has placed the Black poor in desperate economic and social situations.

In 1998, leading SOPA figures participated in an international Tribunal on Africa, "to judge those responsible for the murderous course imposed on the workers and peoples of Africa." The Tribunal held that economic policies affecting Africa—as formulated by such international institutions as the World Bank

World Bank

The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans to developing countries for capital programmes.The World Bank's official goal is the reduction of poverty...

, World Trade Organization

World Trade Organization

The World Trade Organization is an organization that intends to supervise and liberalize international trade. The organization officially commenced on January 1, 1995 under the Marrakech Agreement, replacing the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade , which commenced in 1948...

, and International Monetary Fund

International Monetary Fund

The International Monetary Fund is an organization of 187 countries, working to foster global monetary cooperation, secure financial stability, facilitate international trade, promote high employment and sustainable economic growth, and reduce poverty around the world...

, and the cooperation of what SOPA sees as neocolonial

Neocolonialism

Neocolonialism is the practice of using capitalism, globalization, and cultural forces to control a country in lieu of direct military or political control...

governments like that of the African National Congress

African 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...

—have led to disastrous living conditions for the majority of Africans. SOPA regards such policies and practices as imperialism

Imperialism

Imperialism, as defined by Dictionary of Human Geography, is "the creation and/or maintenance of an unequal economic, cultural, and territorial relationships, usually between states and often in the form of an empire, based on domination and subordination." The imperialism of the last 500 years,...

on behalf of multinational corporations.

Electoral performance and political affiliation

The current president of SOPA is Lybon Masaba. In the 2004 elections, SOPA received 0.1% of the vote. The party is affiliated with the International Liaison Committee for a Workers' International. Although party members include socialists of different stripes, some of its most influential members are Trotskyists, and they comprise the Azanian Section of the reproclaimed Fourth International

Fourth International (ICR)

The Fourth International was established as an "International Centre of Reconstruction" by co-thinkers of Pierre Lambert, in 1981 who argued that the post-war political evolution of the Fourth International under the leadership of Michel Pablo and Ernest Mandel had taken the FI away from the...

History

Ideology

Electoral performance and political affiliation

External links

See also