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    African National Congress: A Documentary History of the Struggle Against Apartheid in South Africa
    African National Congress: A Documentary History of the Struggle Against Apartheid in South Africa
    African National Congress: A Documentary History of the Struggle Against Apartheid in South Africa
    Ebook338 pages5 hours

    African National Congress: A Documentary History of the Struggle Against Apartheid in South Africa

    By Lenny Flank

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    A collection of historical documents from the African National Congress. The ANC, led by Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, and Oliver Tambo, was, in partnership with the South African Communist Party and the Congress of South African Trade Unions, the core of the movement against the white supremacist Apartheid regime in South Africa.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLenny Flank
    Release dateJan 16, 2010
    ISBN9781452376004
    African National Congress: A Documentary History of the Struggle Against Apartheid in South Africa
    Author

    Lenny Flank

    Longtime social activist, labor organizer, environmental organizer, antiwar.

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      Book preview

      African National Congress - Lenny Flank

      African National Congress

      A Documentary History of the Struggle Against Apartheid in South Africa

      Edited and with Introduction by Lenny Flank

      © Copyright 2009 by Lenny Flank

      All rights reserved

      Smashwords ebook edition.

      Red and Black Publishers, PO Box 7542, St Petersburg, Florida, 33734

      http://www.RedandBlackPublishers.com

      Smashwords Edition, License Notes

      This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then you should return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

      Contents

      Editor's Preface

      Native Union

      How Congress Began

      The South African Races Congress

      An Appeal to the Members of the Imperial Parliament and Public of Great Britain

      Presidential Address

      Speech At The International Congress Against Imperialism

      Africans' Claims In South Africa

      Programme Of Action

      The Freedom Charter

      Congress Fights On; Statement By The ANC

      Memorandum Submitted To The General Assembly Of The United Nations

      Strategy and Tactics of the ANC

      Declaration of The African National Congress Executive Committee

      Forward to Freedom

      The Nature of the South African Ruling Class

      From Ungovernability to Peoples Power

      Statement on the Question of Negotiation

      The Illegitimacy Of The Apartheid Regime

      Colonialism Of a Special Type

      Advance To Power; 75 Years Of Struggle

      Statement Of The National Executive Committee

      Advance To National Democracy

      On The Working Class In The Struggle For National Liberation

      Editor's Preface

      The first Europeans to reach southern Africa were the Dutch, in 1652. In 1806, during the wars with Napoleon, the British also arrived in the area, when they established an outpost at Cape Colony to protect their southern sea lanes. By the end of the 19th century, the British governed the provinces of Natal and Cape Colony, while the descendents of the Dutch, who now referred to themselves as Boers or as Afrikaners, controlled the Orange Free State and the Transvaal provinces (the Boers had migrated away from the areas that were under British control, in what they called The Great Trek). Incursions by the British into Afrikaner-controlled areas, particularly after the discovery of diamonds and gold, led to two conflicts known as the Boer Wars. Also during this time, the British imported large numbers of people from India (one of whom was the then-unknown Mohandas Gandhi), to serve as a labor force.

      The British attempted to solve the underlying conflict between the English and Boer colonists by the 1910 Act of Union, which brought all four provinces together into the Union of South Africa. Under the Union plan, South Africa would remain within the British Dominion, but was granted full political autonomy.

      The new South African government, under Louis Botha and Jan Smuts, quickly took steps to implement the strongly-racist Afrikaner ideology, particularly in the provinces where they held a large majority. South African society was divided into four groups, the British and Afrikaner Whites, the African Bantus, the Asian Indians, and the mixed-race Coloureds-with all of the non-Whites often being lumped together as Blacks. In 1923, the Pass Laws were imposed, which set up a system of internal passes which severely restricted the movement of non-Whites. Only Whites and (in the Cape Province) Coloureds, were allowed the right to vote, and, in 1913, the Native Land Act restricted non-White ownership of land, and made it illegal for Blacks to own land except in specified areas.

      The increasing network of racist laws led to resistance. A brief Zulu rebellion led by Bombata was quickly crushed. Mohandas Gandhi began his political career by organizing nonviolent protests among the Indian populations of Transvaal and Natal. In 1911, an American-educated African lawyer, Pixley ka Isaka Seme, called upon African leaders to form a political organization. The result was the South African Native National Congress, which, in 1923, changed its name to the African National Congress.

      During the First World War, the South African government decided to enter the war on the side of the British. The ANC, hoping to gain British support for an end to the racist South African laws, also supported the war, and many South Africans, white and black, died in the trenches. Many Afrikaners, though, still resented the British, and after a failed Afrikaner rebellion, JBM Hertzog formed the Nationalist Party, which preached a program of Afrikaner nationalism. In the 1930's, Hertzog's group joined with the South Africa Party of Jan Smuts to form a coalition government under a United Party. Hertzog served as Prime Minister, with Smuts as Deputy Prime Minister. In response, in 1933, radical Afrikaners from the Nationalist Party, led by DF Malan, broke away and formed the New Nationalist Party, with a virulently white supremacist program.

      During the Second World War, the still-simmering conflicts between the Afrikaners and the British bubbled to the surface again. Hertzog argued for neutrality, but was overruled in a party caucus and was replaced as Prime Minister by Smuts, and the South African government again decided to fight on Britain's side, against Germany and Italy. Many Afrikaner nationalists, however, with their white supremacist views, openly sympathized with the Nazis, and formed an underground pro-Nazi group called the Ossewabrandwag (Oxwagon Sentinals). Among its members were future South African presidents John Vorster and PW Botha.

      In 1948, the New National Party, dominated by Afrikaner white supremacists, won the elections, and Apartheid, or separateness, became the ruling ideology of the state. A flurry of laws were passed which legally enshrined racism and white supremacy. Under the Prohibition of Mixed Marriages Act and the Immorality Amendment, mixed marriages and interracial sex were outlawed; under the Abolition of Passes Act, the pass laws were actually tightened (Africans were now required to carry an identifying passbook at all times, and could not move from one area to another without permission); under the Population Registration Act, the entire population was registered by racial group (into White, Bantu, Indian or Coloured); under the Group Areas Act, land areas were assigned by race, and people who lived in the wrong areas were forcibly removed and resettled (in Johannesburg, some 60,000 Africans were forcibly removed to the newly-built South West Township, which became known as Soweto, while in Cape Town, 55,000 Coloureds and Indians were forcibly removed from District Six); under the Reservation of Separate Amenities Act, public amenities such as beaches, swimming pools and restaurants were segregated; under the Separate Representation of Voters Act, the right to vote was restricted solely to Whites; and under the Bantu Education Act, a separate education system was set up for Blacks (but controlled entirely by Whites) to give appropriate teaching to the different racial groups.

      To enable control of the population by the white minority, South Africa was turned into a police state. The Suppression of Communism Act allowed the government to outlaw any subversive organization, while both individuals and organizations were subject to banning orders which prohibited them from writing, speaking publicly, or attending public meetings. The Terrorism Act established the Bureau of State Security (BOSS), which had authority to jail terrorists (anyone who criticized apartheid) indefinitely without trial.

      The ultimate stage of the apartheid policy was the formation of Bantustans or Bantu Homelands, which were small areas set aside as independent states for the African population. In theory, each of the homelands was to be a place where each African tribe could have independence and self-rule, and all Africans were involuntarily stripped of South African citizenship and assigned to a homeland. In reality, however, the homelands were simply huge prison camps, which served to remove the Africans from White presence until they were needed as pools of cheap labor. None of the world's nations ever recognized the legality of the homeland governments.

      Resistance to apartheid soon coalesced around the African National Congress, which recognized that narrow opposition solely on an ethnic basis would not be strong enough to defeat the white supremacists-only a unified mass organization made up of all the victims of apartheid (as well as sympathetic Whites) would have the power to challenge the Afrikaner power structure. Under the leadership of Albert Luthuli, Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo and Walter Sisulu, the ANC was heavily influenced by Gandhi's campaign, among the Indians, of nonviolent non-cooperation. In June 1952, the ANC and other anti-apartheid groups began a Campaign to Defy Unjust Laws, a widespread civil disobedience campaign that placed the group at the center of the freedom movement. In 1955, the ANC issued the Freedom Charter, calling for a united non-racial democratic government in South Africa, which became the guiding document for the anti-apartheid movement. Among the most active supporters of the ANC was the clandestine South African Communist Party.

      The ANC was not without rivals and opposition, however. A group known as the Africanists rejected the ANC's policy of embracing Indians and sympathetic Whites as members, and argued that Africans themselves must carry out the tasks of African liberation. In 1959, the black nationalists formed their own group, the Pan-Africanist Congress (PAC). Later, in the 1960's, another black nationalist group, called the Black Consciousness Movement, was formed by Steven Biko.

      In March 1960, the PAC organized a mass protest against the pass laws, in Sharpeville. The unarmed crowd was fired on by police with machine guns, and at least 69 people were killed. Both the PAC and the ANC were quickly outlawed, and over 18,000 people were arrested.

      A short time later, the South African regime declared its independence from the British Commonwealth, and announced the formation of the Republic of South Africa. In response, the ANC organized a stay-at-home strike, which was the target of brutal police repression.

      The Sharpeville Massacre and the stay-at-home strike convinced the ANC that nonviolent protest would never be effective against the Afrikaner regime, and in 1961, Nelson Mandela was given the task of organizing an armed wing to carry out guerrilla warfare. Known as Umkhonto we Sizwe (The Spear of the Nation), the guerrillas planned to target the symbolic installations of apartheid, such as pass offices, police stations, and courts. When the Western nations, alarmed by the presence of South African Communist Party members in the organization, labeled the ANC as a terrorist organization, Mandela turned instead to the Soviet Bloc for weapons and training.

      In 1962, Mandela, Sisulu, and eight other anti-apartheid leaders were arrested in Rivonia and charged with treason and sabotage. The government originally asked for the death penalty, but a wave of international pressure forced them to settle for a sentence of life in prison instead. Mandela was imprisoned at Robben Island, and his law partner Oliver Tambo took over as President of ANC.

      The open racism and brutal repression practiced by the South African regime led to international condemnation. In 1962, the United Nations passed Resolution 1761, declaring apartheid to be criminal. In 1963, the UN formed a Special Committee Against Apartheid. The International Olympics Committee voted to exclude South Africa from the Games. In 1974, the General Assembly passed a resolution to expel South Africa from the UN, but the action was vetoed by France, England and the United States. In 1977, after police massacred hundreds of unarmed student protesters in Soweto, the UN placed an arms embargo on South Africa.

      By the late 70's, Pretoria was a virtual pariah state. The racist regime still, however, continued to be propped up by the United States and Britain, particularly during the Reagan and Thatcher years. Under a policy called constructive engagement, American and British corporations were supported in their dealings with South Africa, under the theory that they could then presumably help to influence South African policy away from apartheid. The South African government was particularly dependent upon American-made computer technology, without which the bureaucratic task of administrating the maze of apartheid laws and classifications would have been impossible. Both Thatcher and Reagan classified the ANC as communist and a terrorist organization, and ANC members were banned from entering the US without special permission.

      In the United States, opponents of the apartheid regime organized a nation-wide campaign for divestment, calling on companies and governments to cut off all economic ties to South Africa. Although American corporations (and the Reagan Administration) resisted the divestment movement, thousands of local and state governments in the US passed laws forbidding economic cooperation with South Africa. There were also increasing international pressures on South Africa to release Mandela and other imprisoned activists.

      By the 1980's, the growing effectiveness of the ANC, and the increasingly hostile international isolation of South Africa, led to a siege mentality within the Pretoria government. President PW Botha surrounded himself with generals and police officials and became obsessed with security, and his cabinet was often referred to by critics as secur-ocrats. His actions became increasingly more militaristic. The African nations that bordered South Africa became known as the front-line states. Not only were they providing refuge for exiled anti-apartheid activists and ANC guerrillas, but, as examples of Black-led states, they were ideologically repugnant to the Afrikaner white supremacists. South African military incursions into the frontline states steadily escalated, from small cross-border raids on ANC bases, to military and political support for Pretoria-friendly guerrilla groups like UNITA in Angola and FRELIMO in Mozambique, to military operations against the ANC ally SWAPO (South West Africa People's Organization, which was fighting to end South Africa's illegal occupation of Namibia), to, finally, a full-scale invasion of Angola. In 1985, parts of South Africa were placed in a state of emergency, which was shortly later extended to the entire country. During this time, the regime began a secret nuclear weapons program and produced six deployed atomic bombs, reportedly with the aid of Israel (which was already working cooperatively with South Africa on the development of tanks and jet fighters).

      South Africa's deteriorating political position was now matched by economic decline. In the 1960's, South Africa had an economic growth rate almost as rapid as Japan's, and the white minority enjoyed the highest standard of living in Africa. By the 1970's, however, the enormous costs of administrating and defending the apartheid system were a huge drain on the economy-a situation that was exacerbated by increasing international sanctions (by 1989, even the US and Britain had been forced to give in to pressure to place legal economic sanctions on South Africa). At the same time, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), allied with the ANC and the South African Communist Party, was becoming increasingly more powerful, running a three-week strike with 200,000 workers in the crucial mining industry.

      By 1983, the need to make reforms was unstoppable, and Botha introduced a new Constitution containing a Tricameral Parliament, in which Indians and Coloureds would now have their own legislative bodies. These would have authority to administrate (and pay for) its own internal affairs such as education or health care. National matters would still be decided by the white-dominated Cabinet. Africans were to have no representation at all in the government; they were considered to be citizens of their Bantu homelands-their passbooks would be repealed, and they would now be issued passports from their homeland. Henceforth, Africans would only be treated as foreign guest workers. A new multi-racial group, the United Democratic Front (UDF), was formed to oppose the proposed Parliamentary structure, and succeeded in having most Indians and Coloureds boycott the elections. The UDF quickly allied itself with the ANC-and was as quickly banned by the government.

      Botha also began making covert overtures to Mandela, hoping to use him to gain credibility for the Bantustans. In 1984, Botha secretly sent word that he was willing to release Mandela from prison, on the condition that Mandela make a public announcement accepting the legitimacy of the Transkei homeland and agree to live there. Mandela refused. A year later, while Mandela was recuperating from surgery in prison, Botha secretly sent another offer, to release Mandela if he would renounce armed struggle. Mandela again refused, but he was transferred from Robben Island prison to the lower-security Victor Verser prison farm. Botha himself secretly met with Mandela to try to work a deal.

      In August 1985, Botha declared in a speech that South Africa had crossed the Rubicon, and that he would not lead white South Africans on the road to abdication and suicide. Botha's defiance convinced the international community that the regime would never voluntarily give up power-and led to even greater economic sanctions and international pressure for an end to apartheid, including the first economic sanctions by the United States.

      In 1989, Botha suffered a stroke, and FW de Klerk replaced him as President of South Africa. It was a turning point, as de Klerk realized that the entire system of apartheid was breaking down and could not be saved. Negotiations were quickly begun to withdraw from Namibia, and to end South African military involvement in the front-line states. In February 1990, de Klerk issued an order un-banning the ANC, the South African Communist Party, the Pan-Africanist Congress, and other anti-apartheid organizations. Nine days later, Mandela was released from prison, after serving 27 years. He was promptly elected President of the ANC.

      The collapse of apartheid began. De Klerk agreed to the release of all political prisoners, began dismantling all the legal machinery of apartheid, and ordered the formation of a Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA) to draw up a non-racial constitution. De Klerk, however, bowing to pressure from the Afrikaner nationalists, insisted that no constitutional changes could be made without a 75% vote, which could not be met without White agreement-in effect giving the White minority an effective veto power. Negotiations came to an impasse.

      In September 1992, peaceful protestors in the Ciskei Bantu Homeland, who were demanding the reintegration of Ciskei back into South Africa, were fired upon by homeland police. At the same time, violent confrontations were taking place between ANC supporters and members of the Zulu-based Inkatha Freedom Party, which wanted to set up an independent Zulu nation in the KwaZulu homeland. There was also violence from whites who feared black rule; South African Communist Party leader Chris Hani was assassinated in April 1993 by a white nationalist.

      When negotiations restarted, de Klerk finally gave in and agreed to elections for a new democratic government on the basis of one person, one vote. Shortly after, de Klerk and Mandela were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.

      In April 27, 1994 (Freedom Day), South Africa's first free election was won by the African National Congress, with 62% of the vote. Nelson Mandela was sworn in as President.

      Native Union

      by Pixley Ka Isaka Seme

      Imvo Zabantsundu, October 24, 1911

      I have been requested by several Natives, Leaders and Chiefs, to write a full and concise statement on the subject of the South African Native Congress, so called. I feel, however, that I shall better meet their desire as well as more properly treat this subject if I disregard the pretentious title and write on the simple subject of Native Union, for after all, this is what the Congress shall be.

      There is today among all races and men a general desire for progress, and for co-operation, because co-operation will facilitate and secure that progress. This spirit is due no doubt to the great triumph of Christianity which teaches men everywhere that in this world they have a common duty to perform both towards God and towards one another. It is natural, therefore, that there should arise even within and among us this striving, this self-conscious movement, and sighing for Union. We are the last among all the nations of the earth to discover the priceless jewels of co-operation, and for this reason the great gifts of civilisation are least known among us today. I repeat, co-operation is the key and the watchword which opens the door, the everlasting door which leads into progress and all national success. The greatest success shall come when man shall have learned to cooperate, not only with his own kith and kin but with all peoples and with all life.

      The South African Native Congress is the voice in the wilderness bidding all the dark races of this sub-continent to come together once or twice a year in order to review the past and reject therein all those things which have retarded our progress, the things which poison the springs of our national life and virtue; to label and distinguish the sins of civilisation, and as members of one household to talk and think loudly on our home problems and the solution of them.

      Such National Conferences of the people are bound to give a wide publication of the Natives own views on the questions which primarily concern him tomorrow and today. Through this Congress the Native Senators in the Union House of Parliament will be able to live in close touch with the Natives of the whole country whose interest each Senator is supposed to represent. The Government also will find a direct and independent channel of informing itself as to the things uppermost in Natives mind from time to time, and this will make it easier for the Union Government to deal with the Natives of the whole of South Africa. If we wish to convince the Government that it is possible to have a uniform Native policy for the whole of South Africa than let us form this Congress. Again, it is conclusively urgent that this Congress should meet this year, because a matter which is so vitally important to our progress and welfare should not be unnecessarily postponed by reason of personal differences and selfishness of our leaders. The demon of racialism, the aberrations of the Xosa-Fingo feud, the animosity that exists between the Zulus and the Tongaas, between the Basutos and every other Native must be buried and forgotten; it has shed among us sufficient blood! We are one people. These divisions, these jealousies, are the cause of all our woes and of all our backwardness and ignorance today. A great Paramount Chief accepting that his name be included in the honourable list of Native princes who endorse and support this movement, writes that He however wishes to point out that whilst the objects and the aims of a Congress appear to be good and reasonable, much of the success depends upon the attitude of the members. There should he among other things a firm resolve on the part of every member to eliminate factors which have in the past proved fatal to the continued existence of such Societies. They should set their faces strongly against the jargon of racial feeling, the ebullition of the Xosa-Fingo element, and the excessive display of political partisanship.

      In conclusion, I do not feel that it is at all necessary that I should preach Union even in this article. The Natives everywhere now and today know that a South African Native Congress such as is proposed in these columns, will give them the only effective means whereby they will be able to make their grievances properly known and considered both by the Government and by the people of South Africa at large. Through this Congress the Natives will have the opportunity and means with which to influence the public opinion of this country and to greatly assist the South African Statesmen who are working for the peace, prosperity, and the development of this land.

      The Executive Committee, which is simply a Committee elected by a part of the people, is busy performing the thankless task of organising this movement. As one of the Committee, I am pleased to say that we have been greatly encouraged by the support which we have received from all the great sections of our country. Today this movement is known, and in a great measure is openly supported by nearly all the leaders and the greater Chiefs of at least three Provinces and all the Protectorates. The Committee, therefore, intends to summon the first sitting of the Congress in the early part of December. This will certainly be an important day in the annals of our Native history; we shall have come together to bury forever the greatest block to our security, happiness, progress and prosperity as a people. We shall have come together truly, as we are, the children of one household to discuss our home problems and the solution of them.

      This is a general announcement sent to all the Native leaders, Societies and Editors asking them to explain this important news to the people at large, and to advise them to arrange for the sending of delegates so that every section of the people shall be represented in that Conference of the races.

      How Congress Began

      By R.V. Selope Thema

      Drum, July 1953

      Pixley

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