Guerrillas in Their Midst: Armed Struggle in the South African Anti-Apartheid Movement

In: Mobilization: the international quarterly review of social movement research, Band 6, Heft 2, S. 111-127

Abstract

Echoing a general silence in social movement theory, discussions of South Africa's antiapartheid movement tend to ignore the impact of armed struggle on mobilization. The antiapartheid movement is usually described in terms of mass mobilization & civil rights struggles rather than as an anticolonial movement involving military attacks by guerrilla infiltrators & clandestine links between open popular groups & guerrilla networks. This article explores some of the reasons why researchers might avoid discussing armed struggle, including some discomfort around its morality. It then considers how more systematic investigation of armed struggle might change our understanding of the antiapartheid movement, including its legacies for postapartheid politics. Finally, it suggests that these questions may be relevant for social movement theories. 41 References. Adapted from the source document.