Abstract
This chapter focuses on the French movement of solidarity with the anti-apartheid liberation struggle in South Africa from the 1960s to 1991. The French solidarity movement, dominated by the animosity between the Socialist and Communist Parties, highlights the ideological and political debates that were specific to the Cold War period and demonstrates how these, in turn, often undermined effective solidarity. The chapter explains how the movement figured in a larger debate over the significance of the French Left from the 1960s to the 1990s and the extent to which it fell prey to the kind of disputes characteristic of French militant political culture. Consequently, its analysis opens new perspectives in the study of the elements that constituted the transnational anti-apartheid movement as it questions the French movement’s place within it.
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Notes
- 1.
Hennie van Vuuren, Apartheid Guns and Money: A Tale of Profit (Johannesburg: Jacana Media, 2017), 211.
- 2.
Jacques Amalric, “La preparation du premier tour de l’élection présidentielle: M. François Mitterrand refuse de rompre avec l’Afrique du Sud,” Le Monde, April 4, 1988. https://nouveau-europresse-com.acces-distant.sciencespo.fr/Search/ResultMobile/0
- 3.
Siestse Bosgra, Jacqueline Dérens, and Jacques Marchand, “France-South Africa,” in The Road to Democracy in South Africa, Vol. 3, International Solidarity, Part 1, ed. SADET (Pretoria: Unisa Press, 2008), 668.
- 4.
See, for instance, Rob Skinner, The Foundations of Anti-Apartheid: Liberal Humanitarians and Transnational Activists in Britain and the United States, c. 1919–64 (Palgrave Macmillan: New York, 2010).
- 5.
Håkan Thörn offers an analysis on how the anti-apartheid struggle was divided along the conflict lines that constituted the Cold War. See Håkan Thörn, “Solidarity Across Borders: The Transnational Anti-Apartheid Movement,” Voluntas 17, no. 4 (2006).
- 6.
Anna Konieczna, “La France, l’Afrique du Sud et les solidarités transnationales: l’activité du premier mouvement anti-apartheid français (1960–1974),” in Les nouvelles formes de contestations, eds. Emma Bell and Jean-Marie Ruiz (Savoie: Université de Savoie, Laboratoire de Langages, Littératures, Sociétés, Études Transfrontalières et Internationales 2017), 127.
- 7.
Ibid., 126.
- 8.
Ibid.
- 9.
Originally founded in 1866 by the journalist and educator Jean Macé, the Ligue de l’Enseignement temporarily dissolved in 1942 and was re-founded in 1945 as a secular movement for public education. To this day, it regroups approximately 30,000 associations across the French territory. For more information, see their website: https://laligue.org/qui-sommes-nous/. Accessed on 30 March 2019.
- 10.
Pax Christi International, founded in Europe in 1945, is an international Catholic peace movement committed to ensuring peace, the respect for human rights and the ideals of Justice and Reconciliation in the world. For more information, see their website: https://www.paxchristi.net/, accessed March 30, 2019.
- 11.
“Divers moyens de lutte contre l’apartheid ont été envisagé au cours des journées d’étude organisées à Paris,” Le Monde, March 3, 1964, https://nouveau-europresse-com.acces-distant.sciencespo.fr/Search/ResultMobile/0
- 12.
For a specific analysis of the role of Christians in the anti-apartheid solidarity movement in France, see Christelle Ortolland, “Les chrétiens français et l’apartheid en Afrique du Sud (1960–1990): ‘Nous’ et ‘Eux’” (PhD diss., Université Lumière Lyon 2, 2009).
- 13.
Konieczna, “La France,” 133.
- 14.
Jean-Paul Sartre, “Those who are confronting apartheid should know they are not alone”, statement at a press conference of the Comité de liaison contre l’apartheid, 9 November 1966, Paris. Accessed March 30, 2019, http://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/those-who-are-confronting-apartheid-should-know-they-are-not-alone-jean-paul-sartre
- 15.
Konieczna, “La France,” 133–4.
- 16.
Sartre, “Those who are confronting apartheid,” 1966.
- 17.
Konieczna, “La France,” 136.
- 18.
Ibid.
- 19.
Ibid.
- 20.
“La conférence européenne sur l’apartheid préconise la suspension de fournitures militaires à Pretoria”, Le Monde, May 9, 1967, https://nouveau-europresse-com.acces-distant.sciencespo.fr/Search/ResultMobile/0
- 21.
Konieczna, “La France,” 137.
- 22.
For more information on the military relations of South Africa and France throughout this period, see Victor Moukambi, “Relations between South Africa and France with special reference to military matters, 1960–1990” (PhD diss., Stellenbosch University, 2008).
- 23.
Konieczna, “La France,” 138.
- 24.
For more information on the Outspan: Bouwstenen voor apartheid (‘Outspan: Building Bricks for Apartheid’) campaign, see Esau du Plessis ‘The story of Outspan oranges in the Netherlands (NL) and the campaign of the Boycott Outspan Action (BOA)’, accessed March 30, 2019, http://www.sadet.co.za/docs/THE%20STORY%20OF%20OUTSPAN%20ORANGES.pdf
- 25.
Archives nationales du monde du travail, Mouvement anti-apartheid (1955–1992), 2000-057-MAA-001, COCIAA/CAA, ‘La campagne anti-Outspan’, (1977), 1.
- 26.
Archives nationales du monde du travail, Mouvement anti-apartheid (1955–1992), 2000-057-MAA-001, Centre d’Étude Anti-Impérialistes [CEDETIM], ‘Pour une action politique contre l’apartheid et contre le soutien français au régime fasciste de Vorster’, (1975), 4.
- 27.
Ibid.
- 28.
Archives nationales du monde du travail, Mouvement anti-apartheid (1955–1992), 2000-057-MAA-001, ‘La campagne anti-Outspan: Pour informer l’opinion publique français sur l’Afrique du Sud, l’apartheid et l’exploitation des travailleurs noirs’, (1975), 2.
- 29.
Håkan Thörn, Anti-Apartheid and the Emergence of a Global Civil Society. (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006), 201.
- 30.
Ibid.
- 31.
Stuart Hall, “The AAM and the Race-ing of Britain,” paper presented at symposium on the Anti-Apartheid Movement: A 40-year Perspective, South Africa House, London, 25–26 June 1999, http://www.sahistory.org.za/archive/aam-and-race-ing-britain
- 32.
Maurice Cukierman, interview by Namara Burki, Paris, 13.12.17.
- 33.
Archives nationales du monde du travail, Mouvement anti-apartheid (1955–1992), 2000-057-MAA-001, COCIAA/CAA, ‘La campagne anti-Outspan’, (1977), 1
- 34.
Jacqueline Dérens, Nous avons combattu l’apartheid (Paris: Non lieu, 2006), 31.
- 35.
François de Massot, interview by Namara Burki, Paris, February 23, 2018 [own translation].
- 36.
Ibid.
- 37.
Van Vuuren, Apartheid, 246.
- 38.
“Après les déclarations de députés de droite et d’extrême droite invites par Pretoria, indignation quasi générale en France,” Le Monde, July 14, 1987. https://nouveau-europresse-com.acces-distant.sciencespo.fr/Search/ResultMobile/2
- 39.
“Afrique du Sud et cohabitation,” Le Monde, July 16, 1987. https://nouveau-europresse-com.acces-distant.sciencespo.fr/Search/ResultMobile/3
- 40.
Maurice Cukierman, interview by Namara Burki, Paris, December 13, 2017 [own translation].
- 41.
Van Vuuren, Apartheid, 246.
- 42.
“M. Jean-Bernard Raimon: le résultat d’une ‘politique de dialogue”’, Le Monde, September 7, 1987, https://nouveau-europresse-com.acces-distant.sciencespo.fr/Search/ResultMobile/24
- 43.
For more information about the history of the association, see their website: https://sos-racisme.org/histoire-des-mobilisations-de-sos-racisme/, accessed March 30, 2019.
- 44.
Horst Kleinschmidt, interview by Namara Burki, Cape Town, February 1, 2018.
- 45.
Ibid.
- 46.
Historical Papers Research Archive, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Oliver Tambo Papers, C2.20.2, Box 62, ‘France’, Mouvement anti-apartheid, ‘Survey of the French political situation in regard to anti-apartheid solidarity’, (June 1989), 2.
- 47.
Today, the RNCA has become the Rencontre nationale avec les peoples d’Afrique (RENAPAS). For more information, see their website: http://renapas.rezo.net/spip.php?article24, accessed March 30, 2019.
- 48.
Historical Papers Research Archive, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, Oliver Tambo Papers, C2.20.2, Box 62, ‘France’, Mouvement anti-apartheid, ‘Survey of the French political situation in regard to the anti-apartheid solidarity’, (June 1989), 2.
- 49.
UWC-Robben Island Museum Mayibuye Archives, MCH 132, “Afrique du Sud Apartheid”, n.d.
- 50.
John Kani, interview by Namara Burki, Johannesburg, January 16, 2018.
- 51.
Ibid.
- 52.
Archives Nationales du Monde du Travail, Mouvement Anti-Apartheid (1955–1992), 2000-057-MAA-001, “La campagne anti-Outspan: Pour informer l’opinion publique français sur l’Afrique du Sud, l’apartheid et l’exploitation des travailleurs noirs”, Paris, October 1975, 2.
- 53.
Archives départementale de la Seine-Saint-Denis, Archives de l’AFASPA, 67J 141, ‘Afrique du Sud, Rencontre Nationale Contre l’Apartheid, Historique’, 1940–1995.
- 54.
Ibid.
- 55.
Kani, interview.
- 56.
Dominique Lecoq, ed., Pour Nelson Mandela (Paris: Éditions Gallimard, 1986), 11.
- 57.
Marcus Solomon, interview by Namara Burki, Cape Town, February 1, 2018.
- 58.
Sadecque Variava, interview by Namara Burki, Johannesburg, January 1, 2018.
- 59.
Jacqueline Dérens, Nous avons combattu l’apartheid, 104.
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Burki, N. (2021). Conflicting Solidarities: The French Anti-apartheid Movement and the Liberation Struggle in South Africa, Circa 1960–1991. In: Andresen, K., Justke, S., Siegfried, D. (eds) Apartheid and Anti-Apartheid in Western Europe. Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53284-0_9
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