36 Quotes by 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.

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

There are only two sorts of people in life you can trust – good Christians and good Communists.

It’s not difficult in South Africa for the ordinary person to see the link between capitalism and racist exploitation, and when one sees the link one immediately thinks in terms of a socialist alternative.

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.

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

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

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.

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.