Browsing by Author "Van Deventer, Andre"
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- ItemAfrikaner nationalist politics and anti-communism, 1937-1945(Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University, 1991) Van Deventer, Andre; Kapp, P. H.; Stellenbosch University. Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences. Department of Social Sciences.ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This study is an analysis of the origins and early evolution of the conception of a communist menace in South African politics. While anti-communist sentiments in the South African political arena does not know any racial or ethnic bounds, it was in the context of white and, more specifically, Afrikaner nationalist politics that the conception of a communist menace, during the latter half of the 1930's, developed a stature and character which placed it on a level distinctively different from earlier references to this perceived menace. Chapter One discusses some of the functions of remarks on communism before 1937. Of importance in this analysis is not simply anti-communism as a political sentiment or an indication of political preference, but rather the origins of a specific kind of anti-communism which developed into an organic part of the larger ideology of Afrikaner nationalism. In this regard attention is focussed on the content, place and role of anti-communism in the main political embodiments of Afrikaner nationalism between 1937 and May 1945, viz. the Gesuiwerde/Herenigde Nasionale Party, the Ossewa-Brandwag, New Order and the Greyshirt-movement. Relating to the content, place and role of anti-communism in the aforementioned organisations, the evolution thereof was affected by a multiplicity of factors which, included, inter alia, the following: World War II, a variety of ideological elements relating to communism as well as other ideologies, differences between Afrikaner nationalist oppositional groupings, campaigns against Smuts and the ruling United Party and specific campaigns e.g. the colour question. Chapters Two, Three and Four discusses some of these elements. Chapters Five and Six discusses the three main component parts of the campaign against communism, namely the Colour Question, 2 Jewish Immigration and the promotion of Christian-nationalist trade unionism as alternative to the perceived communist approach. While the campaign against alleged Jewish compassion for communism had already reached a climax prior to the outbreak of war in 1939, the struggle for the "soul" of the Afrikaner working class and the integration of the 'red menace' (communism) and the 'black peril' (the colour question) progressively grew in stature. Particularly the integration of overt anti-communism and the colour question serves to illustrative the earlier referred to character of anticommunism as an organic part of the ideology of Afrikaner nationalism. In conclusion, some remarks are presented on the functional role of anti-communism in Afrikaner nationalist as well as South African society between 1937 and 1948. Given the fact that this dissertation is a study of conceptions and does not aim to evaluate the factual content or even fairness of remarks attributed to communism, these comments, by nature, will have to be of a tentative nature.