Rhodesian-born British political theorist

Callinicos's mother, the Honorable Ædgyth Lyon-Dalberg-Acton, was the daughter of the 2nd Lord Acton, descended from the 19th-century English historian Lord Acton. [1]

Callinicos was educated at St George's College, Salisbury... student at Balliol College, Oxford, He also received his DPhil at Oxford. In 1977, Callinicos married Joanna Seddon,[1] a fellow Oxford doctoral student.

  • StalinForTime [comrade/them]
    ·
    2 years ago

    All of that goes withouth saying. Apartheid South Africa and white Rhodesia were fascist settler colonial states and the offspring of those societies consequently tend to have the ideologies that they do. But I'd say the exact same thing about most white Americans, Europeans and Australians. White westerners elsewhere liked to distance themselves from white-rule South Africa and Rhodesia as if their shit didn't or doesn't stink. Also it doesn't affect the basic point that what really matters in the end is how they position themselves in reaction to their social position. Are they willing to declass themselves? How do they engage in politics? The latter was not their choice, but the former is. A heuristic is just a heuristic. It's based on probabilities based on experience (and media consumption). But yeh so indeed remain deeply wary of all white south africans and especially rhodesians (modern white south africans have tried to liberalize themselves like the anglos).

    For what it's worth, I'm pretty sure I'm far more intimately familiar with the rabid reactionary views of white south africans than the vast majority of people on this site, given that my impression is that it's mostly crakkker yankies, as I've come across a lot of white South Africans (and also some white rhodesians) in my life. Many of those you meet outside South Africa (who also probably let because they didn't feel comfortable living in a post-apatheid society) are more explicit in their racism than they would be inside (e.g. white farmer massacre conspiracy theories, obvs one the surest signs of fascism and white supremacy) but most will still publically espouse liberal views instead of more explicitly white supremacist views. Most were liberal and were therefore racist in that sense we expect of them (they had a tendency of always talking about Mugabe - who became their bogeyman - as the AntiChrist, while conveniently ignoring or whitewashing their own dictatorships and leaders like de Klerk). One weird thing is that I got the impression that alot of young white south africans, born post-apartheid, at least if they're anglo or from cities like Cape Town or Durban, were very culturally liberal, really marketing their progressive social credentials. I could be mistaken though so South African comrades would hopefully educate me on this if so. That being said I've also met some white south comrades who were MLs.

    The proportion of the white population in South Africa dropped, but they still have an overwhelminingly superior economic position overall, even if they can be classified in broad economic terms as working class. 8/10 of the richest South Africans are white, if I recall correctly, and South African is one of the most economically unequal countries in the world, with race remaining a fundamentally important factor. This also shows, and the panic that set in during late apartheid where the white media starting talking about how black communists were going to 'kill all the whites' also had a long-term effect.

    My impression is that the antidote to this for most white south africans who stayed in SA is that they attempted to get on board the liberal train of forgiveness, reconciliation, etc. Obviously there was a huge amount of selfish calculation here, because most of these people hadn't paid too much mind to the conditions that produced their conditions of life beforehand (or claimed that they were ignorant of them or propagandized) but again, neither do the vast majority of the white people in the West; USAmericans lifestyles and conditions of life are supported by imperial exploitation of an even larger scale than apartheid south africa (not that there's any moral difference). But I'll still support rad yankies, instead of disregarding their political views because of who their parents were.