Joe Slovo Quotes

• You can’t go to a negotiating table pointing a gun, but you’ve got to keep it over your shoulder.

  Joe Slovo

• When a man has been consistently battering his wife, he shouldn’t expect a bouquet of roses from her the morning after he promises to stop.

  Joe Slovo

• We need to respond to the mood of the people – that we must take the lives of the other side as well.

  Joe Slovo

• We believe the currently one cannot speak of a revolutionary situation, just as there is no concrete possibilities of an immediate and comprehensive assumption of power by the people.

  Joe Slovo

• We are of the opinion that an important and irreversible process is taking place among the white population. Just as with the blacks, the whites, too, are currently overcoming a psychological barrier.

  Joe Slovo

• Therefore, our fight must primarily be a political mass struggle with revolutionary goals.

  Joe Slovo

• The whole of that part of Southern Africa which is controlled by racial minorities is experiencing either consistent and regular guerilla activity or is faced with advanced preparation for its commencement.

  Joe Slovo

• The ANC, we believe, stands at the head of the whole liberation front, the whole Mass Democratic Movement.

  Joe Slovo

• Sometimes, if you wear suits for too long, it changes your ideology.

  Joe Slovo

• Some may seek revenge, but this is not our policy.

  Joe Slovo

• Socialism is undoubtedly in the throes of a crisis greater than at any time since 1917. The last half of 1989 saw the dramatic collapse of most of the communist party governments of Eastern Europe.

  Joe Slovo

• Reality shows that, contrary to other countries in southern Africa, we have no basis for a classical guerilla struggle. We have never had a hinterland, and we do not expect to.

  Joe Slovo

• One thing is obvious: Our policy, which is directed at making the country ungovernable, has started to bear fruit. The process that has been initiated is irreversible.

  Joe Slovo

• One of the regime’s most important tactics is the creation of a third force in the country.

  Joe Slovo

• On the other hand, one factor helps us that no other liberation struggle in this region could count on – our liberation front is characterized by relatively highly developed class forces, tested in political struggles.

  Joe Slovo

• No movement finding itself in this stage of struggle can operate by getting authority from the leading body of the political organs for even minor action that is taken and we don’t even know in the case of the actions which have publicize whether they are in fact our people.

  Joe Slovo

• No matter what vision one has of South Africa, the first thing that must be done is to destroy racism.

  Joe Slovo

• It has been demonstrated that no system, not even the most inhuman, can continue to exist without an ideology.

  Joe Slovo

• I think it is tragic that a situation should arise where civilians on any side are killed. But it is almost a cliche to say that it is virtually unavoidable and this isn’t unique to us alone.

  Joe Slovo

• However, the combination of civil resistance, of large-scale mass activities and strikes, with a certain degree of revolutionary violence, could provoke a crisis in the enemy’s camp that would ultimately lead to essential changes.

  Joe Slovo

Joe Slovo (25)

Birth:	23rd May, 1926
Death:	6th January, 1995
Nationality:	South African
Profession:	Politician

About

Joe Slovo was born in Obeliai, Lithuania. He was a South African politician. He was a long-time leader of the South African Communist Party, a leading member of the African National Congress, and a commander of the ANC's military wing Umkhonto we Sizwe. He lived in exile from 1963 to 1990, conducting operations against the apartheid régime from the United Kingdom, Angola, Mozambique, and Zambia. In 1990 he returned to South Africa, and took part in the negotiations that ended apartheid. After the elections of 1994, he became Minister for Housing in Nelson Mandela's government. He earned a law degree from Wits University.

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