Most theories of terrorism would lead one to have expected high levels of antiwhite terrorism in apartheid South Africa. Yet the African National Congress, the country's most important and influential antiapartheid political organization, never sanctioned terrorism against the dominant white minority. I argue that the ANC eschewed terrorism because of its commitment to "nonracial internationalism." From the ANC's perspective, to have carried out a campaign of indiscriminate or "categorical" terrorism against whites would have alienated actual and potential white allies both inside and outside the country. The ANC's ideological commitment to nonracialism had a specific social basis: It grew out of a long history of collaboration between the ANC and white leftists inside and outside the country, especially those in the South African Communist Party.
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1 June 2007
Research Article|
July 17 2007
"The Struggle Made Me a Nonracialist": Why There was so Little Terrorism in the Antiapartheid Struggle
Jeff Goodwin
Jeff Goodwin
1
Department of Sociology, New York University
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Mobilization: An International Quarterly (2007) 12 (2): 193–203.
Citation
Jeff Goodwin; "The Struggle Made Me a Nonracialist": Why There was so Little Terrorism in the Antiapartheid Struggle. Mobilization: An International Quarterly 1 June 2007; 12 (2): 193–203. doi: https://doi.org/10.17813/maiq.12.2.c27p720k825u3636
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