How was apartheid in South Africa defeated? This was a system of brutal racist oppression, internal passports, and dictatorship. Drawing lessons from this struggle are key to the current struggle against Israeli occupation and to win Palestinian liberation.
In the early 1990s, the apartheid regime, led by the racist National Party (NP) was forced to release Nelson Mandela from prison, unban the African National Congress (ANC) and negotiate for black majority rule.
It is frequently argued that this took place either because of sanctions and diplomatic pressure on the part of capitalist powers, or by the bombing campaigns of Mkhonto We Sizwe (MK-‘Spear of the Nation’) the African National Congress (ANC)’s armed wing.
In reality, the regime was only forced to make these concessions after two decades of mass struggle by workers and youth inside South Africa. This revolutionary uprising of the black working class majority meant it was no longer possible for the capitalist class to continue ruling by armed repression, resting solely on the social and economic privilege of a white minority.