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The Freedom Charter Your name

SOUTH AFRICA | 1955

On 26 and 27 June 1955, the African National Congress (ANC) and other partners1 convened
approximately 3,000 delegates on a field in Kliptown, Soweto,2 near Johannesburg, South
Africa’s largest city. The attendees represented a broad swath of South Africa and included
those of every race and major ethnic group in the country. The purpose of this meeting,
called the Congress of the People, was to lay out a vision for an integrated, democratic
South Africa in light of the increasingly racialized policies and actions — which eventually
evolved into the institutionalized system of segregation and discrimination called apartheid,
the Afrikaans word for “separateness” — of the nationalist Afrikaner government then in
power. This vision was detailed in the Freedom Charter.
To craft this document, the ANC sent 50,000 volunteers across South Africa to collect
“freedom demands”. The responses ranged from entirely new constitutions for the country
to mere scraps of paper, all of which were synthesized into the single cohesive vision de-
scribed by the Freedom Charter. The charter itself was written by executives of the ANC, NOTES
including Z.K. Mathews, Lionel “Rusty” Bernstein, Ethel Drus, Ruth First, and Alan Lipman. 1 The organizations that con-
vened the Congress of the
Lipman’s wife, Beata, hand-wrote the original charter, which consisted of broad principles, People called themselves
rather than specific policy proposals, to reform and restructure all aspects of South African the Congress Alliance and
included the:
society and governance. The charter was read in full at the Congress of the People and ac- • African National Con-
cepted by the delegates, who shouted “Afrika!” in approval at the conclusion of each section. gress
• South African Indian
Plans to discuss and debate the sections of the charter in greater detail were interrupted Congress
on 27 June, when police raided the gathering. Every attendee was photographed while the • South African Congress
of Trade Unions
gathering’s leaders were arrested and documents were confiscated, including the Freedom • Coloured People’s
Charter. The charter was later used as evidence when many of the leaders of the ANC and Congress
• South African Congress
other groups that organized the congress, including Nelson Mandela, were tried for treason;3 of Democrats
the charter itself was eventually outlawed by the apartheid government. 2 When South Africa’s white-
Many, but not all, of the charter’s principles were incorporated into South Africa’s new controlled government be-
gan separating blacks from
constitution following the fall of the apartheid regime and the election of Mandela as the whites in the 1930s, many
country’s president in the 1990s. The charter’s vision of a nonracial South Africa remains a blacks were forced to live in
“townships”, rundown areas
core principle of the ANC, which has governed the country since then. outside the more developed
city centers. Soweto, which
is a shortened form of the
1 We, the People of South Africa, declare for all our country and the world to know: name South Western Town-
ships, was the most famous
of these townships. Today it
that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and that no government can is a part of the city of Johan-
justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of all the people; nesburg.
that our people have been robbed of their birthright to land, liberty and peace by a form of 3 Mandela and his fellow
defendants were eventu-
5 government founded on injustice and inequality; ally acquitted of treason at
that our country will never be prosperous or free until all our people live in brotherhood, this trial. However, many
of them stood trial later on
enjoying equal rights and opportunities; different charges; Mandela
that only a democratic state, based on the will of all the people, can secure to all their birth- himself was sentenced to
life in prison in 1964. He
right without distinction of colour, race, sex or belief; was released from prison
11 February 1990 as the
Afrikaner government began
10 And therefore, we, the people of South Africa, black and white together—equals, countrymen to crumble under pressure
and brothers—adopt this Freedom Charter. And we pledge ourselves to strive together, sparing from both inside and outside
South Africa.
neither strength nor courage, until the democratic changes here set out have been won.
15
1 THE PEOPLE
SHALL GOVERN!
Every man and woman shall have the right
to vote for and to stand as a candidate for all
bodies which make laws;
All people shall be entitled to take part
in the administration of the country;
20 The rights of the people shall be the
same, regardless of race, colour or sex;
All bodies of minority rule, advisory
boards, councils and authorities shall be
replaced by democratic organs of self-gov-
25 ernment.
2 ALL NATIONAL GROUPS
SHALL HAVE EQUAL RIGHTS!
There shall be equal status in the bodies of
30 state, in the courts and in the schools for all
national groups and races;
All people shall have equal right to use
their own languages, and to develop their
own folk culture and customs;
35 All national groups shall be protected
by law against insults to their race and na-
tional pride;
The preaching and practice of nation-
al, race or colour discrimination and con-
40 tempt shall be a punishable crime;
All apartheid4 laws and practices shall
be set aside.
45 3 THE PEOPLE SHALL SHARE IN
THE COUNTRY’S WEALTH!
The national wealth of our country, the
heritage of all South Africans, shall be re-
stored to the people;
The mineral wealth beneath the soil,
50 the banks and monopoly industry shall be
transferred to the ownership of the people
as a whole;
All other industry and trade shall be con-
trolled to assist the well-being of the people;
55 All people shall have equal rights to
trade where they choose, to manufacture
and to enter all trades, crafts and professions.
60 4 THE LAND SHALL BE SHARED
AMONG THOSE WHO WORK IT!
Restrictions of land ownership on a racial
basis shall be ended, and all the land redi-
65
vided amongst those who work it, to banish
famine and land hunger;
The state shall help the peasants with
The Freedom Charter
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implements, seed, tractors and dams to
save the soil and assist the tillers;
Freedom of movement shall be guar-
anteed to all who work on the land;
70 All shall have the right to occupy land
wherever they choose;
People shall not be robbed of their
cattle, and forced labour and farm prisons
shall be abolished.
75
5 ALL SHALL BE EQUAL
BEFORE THE LAW!
No one shall be imprisoned, deported or
restricted without a fair trial;
80 No one shall be condemned by the or-
der of any Government official;
The courts shall be representative of all
the people;
Imprisonment shall be only for serious
85 crimes against the people, and shall aim at
re-education, not vengeance;
The police force and army shall be
open to all on an equal basis and shall be
the helpers and protectors of the people;
90 All laws which discriminate on grounds
of race, colour or belief shall be repealed.
95
6 ALL SHALL ENJOY
EQUAL HUMAN RIGHTS!
The law shall guarantee to all their right
to speak, to organise, to meet together, to
publish, to preach, to worship and to edu-
cate their children;
The privacy of the house from police
100 raids shall be protected by law;
All shall be free to travel without restric-
tion from countryside to town, from province
to province, and from South Africa abroad; NOTES
Pass Laws,5 permits and all other laws re- 4 See the introduction (page
1) for a brief description of
105 stricting these freedoms shall be abolished. apartheid.
5 Pass Laws: These laws
7 THERE SHALL BE
WORK AND SECURITY!
required black men and
eventually all blacks over 16
to carry a pass book, which
110
All who work shall be free to form trade
unions, to elect their officers and to make
wage agreements with their employers;
restricted their movement
within South Africa, particu-
larly into areas designated
for whites. The laws were
finally repealed in 1986.
The state shall recognise the right and
 duty of all to work, and to draw full unem-
ployment benefits;
115 Men and women of all races shall re-
ceive equal pay for equal work;
There shall be a forty-hour working
week, a national minimum wage, paid annual
leave, and sick leave for all workers, and mater-
120 nity leave on full pay for all working mothers;
Miners, domestic workers, farm work-
ers and civil servants shall have the same
rights as all others who work;
Child labour, compound labour,6 the tot
125 system7 and contract labour shall be abolished.
8 THE DOORS OF LEARNING AND
OF CULTURE SHALL BE OPENED!
The government shall discover, develop
130 and encourage national talent for the en-
hancement of our cultural life;
All the cultural treasures of mankind
shall be open to all, by free exchange of
books, ideas and contact with other lands;
135 The aim of education shall be to teach
the youth to love their people and their cul-
ture, to honour human brotherhood, lib-
erty and peace;
Education shall be free, compulsory,
140 universal and equal for all children;
Higher education and technical train-
ing shall be opened to all by means of state
allowances and scholarships awarded on
the basis of merit;
145 Adult illiteracy shall be ended by a
mass state education plan;
Teachers shall have all the rights of
other citizens;
The colour bar in cultural life, in sport
150 and in education shall be abolished.
9 THERE SHALL BE HOUSES,
SECURITY AND COMFORT!
All people shall have the right to live where
195 Let all who love their people and their country now say, as we say here:
“THESE FREEDOMS WE WILL FIGHT FOR, SIDE BY SIDE, THROUGHOUT
OUR LIVES, UNTIL WE HAVE WON OUR LIBERTY.”
200 Adopted at the Congress of the People, Kliptown, South Africa, on 26 June 1955.
they choose, to be decently housed, and to The Freedom Charter
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bring up their families in comfort and security;
155 Unused housing space to be made
available to the people;
NOTES
Rent and prices shall be lowered, food
6 compound labour: Migrant
plentiful and no one shall go hungry; workers — in this case, typi-
A preventive health scheme shall be cally referring to black South
African men who migrated
160 run by the state; to work in mining, agricul-
Free medical care and hospitalisation ture, or similar employment
— were often forced to live
shall be provided for all, with special care in “compounds”, single-sex
for mothers and young children; facilities that were usually
crowded and unsanitary.
Slums shall be demolished, and new Their movement outside the
165 suburbs built where all have transport, compound was restricted,
as was visitation by others.
roads, lighting, playing fields, creches8 and Pass laws (see footnote 5)
social centres;
The aged, the orphans, the disabled
and the sick shall be cared for by the state;
reinforced the system.
7 tot system: A system in
which workers in South Afri-
ca’s wine-producing regions,
170 Rest, leisure and recreation shall be the largely in the Western Cape
province near Cape Town,
right of all; were paid with a daily ration
Fenced locations and ghettoes shall be of wine in addition to their
wages. This led to a higher
abolished, and laws which break up fami- incidence of alcohol abuse
lies shall be repealed. and related social and health
problems, many of which
175 remain prevalent today.
10 THERE SHALL BE
PEACE AND FRIENDSHIP!
South Africa shall be a fully independent
For example, some areas
of Western Cape have the
highest rates of fetal alcohol
syndrome in the world.
state, which respects the rights and sover- 8 creches: Crèche, pro-
nounced “kresh”, is a French
180 eignty of all nations; term used largely outside
South Africa shall strive to maintain North America for a day-
care, preschoool, or similar
world peace and the settlement of all inter- facility.
national disputes by negotiation—not war; 9 protectorates: These areas
Peace and friendship amongst all our were officially under the rule
of Britain, which managed
185 people shall be secured by upholding the their foreign affairs, though
equal rights, opportunities and status of all; they were largely self-
governing.
The people of the protectorates9—Ba- • Basutoland gained inde-
sutoland, Bechuanaland and Swaziland— pendence in 1968 and is
today called Lesotho.
shall be free to decide for themselves their • Bechuanaland became
190 own future; independent in 1966 and
is now called Botswana.
The right of all the peoples of Africa • Swaziland became
to independence and self-government shall
be recognized and shall be the basis of close
co-operation.
independent in 1968.
It changed its name to
Eswatini in April 2018.
Layout, introduction, and footnotes
© 2019 Dustin Tyler Joyce
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April 2019 | dtjoyce.com
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