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Download - LSE Theses Online - London School of Economics and ...

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whole world. ANC solidarity was not only born <strong>of</strong> principle, but <strong>of</strong> necessity, as itdrew upon the expertise <strong>and</strong> material assistance <strong>of</strong> patrons as far afield as NorthernIrel<strong>and</strong> (the IRA) 364 <strong>and</strong> Cuba.The assassination <strong>of</strong> the military leader, Chris Hani, in April 1993 muted the voice<strong>of</strong> an important constituency in the ANC, namely the MK cadres who had goneinto battle for the liberation movement <strong>and</strong> endured many arduous years in exile invarious African countries. In fact, “(w)ith Hani’s untimely death the ANC wasburying not only …one <strong>of</strong> the most ardent voices <strong>of</strong> radicalism in the organization,M<strong>and</strong>ela was also symbolically burying the organization’s previous incarnation as aliberation movement”. 365 However, this was not a clean break, as exile <strong>and</strong>underground cultures have continued to vie for dominance in the ANC as a politicalformation.M<strong>and</strong>ela’s personal prestige <strong>and</strong> international status helped to mask many <strong>of</strong> thecontradictions in thinking within the organisation at the time. As a sample, therewere the differences between those who had been socialised politically within thecountry – the so-called ‘in-ziles’ – <strong>and</strong> those who had been active in conducting thestruggle abroad, the exiles, which heavily influenced the political culture within theparty. The ANC leadership realised in 1991 that it required a “systematic reappraisal<strong>of</strong> foreign policy”. 366The third period, labelled ‘neoliberal/pragmatic’ by Evans, cannot be neatlyencapsulated, as it is still in progress, with its postulates hotly contested by the ANC<strong>and</strong> its allies. While it appears that in the aftermath <strong>of</strong> apartheid the ANC did comeunder the influence <strong>of</strong> global neoliberal ideology as diffused by training programmes<strong>of</strong> the IMF <strong>and</strong> its loan disbursement requirements, this was not an unproblematicacceptance by the Party. 367 This periodisation brings the narrative more or less up todate with the chronological focus, <strong>and</strong> the analytical subject, <strong>of</strong> this thesis.364 Ellis <strong>and</strong> Sechaba, Comrades Against Apartheid, 106365 Alden, “From Liberation Movement to Political Party”, 78.366 Evans, “South Africa in Remission”, 255.367 See Taylor, Stuck in Middle GEAR.158

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