This journal was founded during a period when the socialist transformation of newly independent countries of Africa and Asia was on the agenda and the existence of the communist party-led socialist state of Cuba was a reality in Latin America.We made no bones about aiming to produce a journal which would publish well-researched articles in solidarity with movements and parties working towards the liberation and transformation of Africa from imperialist domination.As observed in the last issue, in so doing the journal took up Fanon's critical stance on the African regimes that dropped the struggle for the liberation of their peoples once they assumed office (Chukwudinma, Lee and Engels 2025).This issue focuses on the role of the South African Communist Party (SACP) in the post-liberation government led by the African National Congress (ANC), South Africa's main liberation movement.The SACP is the oldest such party on the continent and in 2021, almost three decades after the end of white minority rule and its entry into the ANC-led government, the party celebrated its 100th anniversary.Three years later, the ANC faced a bruising election in which the tripartite alliance, of which the SACP was part, suffered a serious blow.Forced into coalition, the ANC chose the centrist Democratic Alliance as its partner.The left in South Africa is now reeling from challenges from populist, ethnic and xenophobic mobilisation as the working class and rural masses struggle to find political expression for their desperation and dissatisfaction.No clear socialist alternative was posed in the 2024 election, and the SACP chose to remain part of the ANC tripartite alliance, together with the labour federation COSATU, the Congress of South African Trade Unions.The SACP has now decided to contest the 2026 local government elections independently of the ANC, posing a fundamental challenge to the party's decades-long alliance with the liberation movement.
Cherry et al. (Thu,) studied this question.