Apartheid, Thought Crime and South Africa’s New Left

Apartheid, Thought Crime and South Africa’s New Left, Volume 1, examines the suppressed history of the National Liberation Front (NLF) during the early 1960s. While other groups faced prosecution under apartheid security laws, the NLF stood apart as a non-violent, explicitly socialist organization. This history book explores how the NLF challenged both racial and capitalist structures in South Africa, positioning itself within the broader global New Left movement. Allison Drew recovers the lost narrative of this movement, tracing its specific perspectives on colonialism, political education, and the guerrilla struggle.

The text investigates the politics of intellectual repression, focusing on how the apartheid state utilized censorship and unequal education to control thought. By analyzing the NLF's unique approach to political education, Apartheid, Thought Crime and South Africa’s New Left, Volume 1, provides a critical look at the intersection of race, political economy, and state control. This history volume offers a detailed study of the conditions that shaped and eventually dismantled South Africa's New Left.