The SACP’s restructuring of communist theory: a shift to the right

The author takes the critique of Joe Slovo’s article ‘Has socialism failed’ made by P. Jordan (In: Transformation, no. 11 (1990), p. 75-89) further. He critically reviews Slovo’s theoretical and practical proposals for the South African Communist Party (SACP). Looking also at other documents and statements of the party and its leadership, he identifies the major features of the SACP’s restructuring of communist theory: the move to inner-party democracy and political pluralism, to disinheriting the heritage of Stalinism, to Eurocommunism, and to a vision of an economy characterized by a mixture of ‘plan’ and ‘market’. Notably the last two features represent a reformist project incapable of realizing the socialist order communists set as their task. Bibliogr., notes, ref.