Visions of liberation: the Algerian war of independence and its South African reverberations

The launch of South Africa's armed struggle has been portrayed as the action of urban-based South African Communist Party (SACP) and African National Congress (ANC) members; scholarly debates concern the relative importance of the SACP, ANC and the Soviet Union. Yet the Left was fluid and eclectic during this transitional period. Seeking new approaches and methods to address the rapidly evolving political environment, left-wing activists drew on political and personal contacts to build new underground networks. Their arguments came not from the Soviets but from the experiences of guerrilla struggles, such as Algeria's war of independence. They sought, unsuccessfully, to integrate insights from Algeria into their strategies.