apartheid

Smuts

a leading delegate at the peace conference in Paris and would soon play a key role in the creation of the League of Nations

Protest of Native Land Act of 1913

London sent a message to the colonial secretary he was powerless to the act

MK was Successful in These Ways

1) it showed that Africans were not afraid to take up arms against the might of the government. The courageous acts of sabotage carried out by MK operatives added lustre to the ANC legend. Its cadres stuck at the apartheid goliath at great risk to themselves, and in so doing became heroes to many South Africans 2) the fact that MK even existed helped to keep the spirit of resistance alive during the dark days of the late 1960s and early 1970s. Indeed, it can be argued the first stage of the armed struggle served as an important precedent and a source of inspiration for the dramatic surge in resistance in the townships during and after the Soweto Uprising of 1976

More Failures of the ANC

1) the movement failed in its ultimate objective of bringing down the apartheid system. Indeed, it found it impossible to win even simplest concessions from the government. The Defiance Campaign & the bus boycotts were of symbolic importance but they had no real impact in weakening the NP 2) attempts to maintain party unity failed with the Africanist breakaway to form the PAC in 1959 3) close relations with the SACP contributed to this breakaway, and also alienated white liberals who may otherwise have supported the movement 4) the decision to adopt the armed struggle confirmed the suspicion of many whites that the ANC was at heart a terrorist organization. This played into the hands of the government and emboldened it to extend the apartheid system still further 5) the ANC had no effective answer when the government launched its crackdown in the aftermath of the Sharpeville massacre 6) the jailing of senior ANC leaders in 1964 was followed by a lengthy period of relative quiet. While the townships seethed with resentment, the authorities managed to keep a lid on tensions until the sudden eruption of violence in Soweto in 1976. Clearly, the authorities had succeeded in destroying anti-apartheid resistance by the end of the period

Phases of Armed Struggle

1) the purpose was to register symbolic strikes against the apartheid state while also hitting the regime financially by destroying high-value installations such as power stations and electricity pylons. 2) a second phase of the armed struggle envisaged a series of guerrilla campaigns conducted by MK in rural areas. Unfortunately for the movement, this phase was never reached. The reason lies not with any diminishing appetite for armed struggle, but in the typically forceful response of the Verwoerd government.

ANC's Resist Apartheid Campaign

At the heart of this was the strident opposition of the ANC to the forced evictions from Sophiatown that were planned as part of the government's Western Areas Removal Scheme. The campaign was launched at a meeting in Johannesburg in July 1954. This was due to be addressed by Luthuli, whose first two-year banning order was due to expire on that day. Luthuli was arrested at the airport and issued with a second ban, which prevented him from making his speech

Who Organized the Defiance Campaign?

JB Marks, Moses Kotane and Solly Sachs

MK Operations

MK was hastily constituted on 16 December 1961 (ironically, this was the anniversary of the famous Boer victory over the Zulu at Blood River in 1838), and it began operations on the same day. A National High Command included Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, Joe Slovo and Raymond Mhlaba. The MK regional commands in turn organized small cells of MK cadres, which planned and executed acts of sabotage.

MK

MK was in many ways a failure. The result is that the first phase of the armed struggle lasted only a couple years. By 1964, MK had been hunted down and its organizational structure in South Africa dismantled. Not once did MK directly engage in combat with the South African security forces, nor did it ever land a really decisive blow against the apartheid state. The "M Plan" failed to get off the ground, with MK failing to spark its planned rural insurgency.

Armed Wing

Mandela's "M Plan" envisioned the government's prohibition of the ANC, and the creation of an armed wing as a necessary precondition for the guerrilla war that would constitute the next stage of the anti-apartheid struggle. Luthuli's calls for patience could only be heeded for so long, and he was seen as increasingly out of step with the rank and file of the party.

Rand Revolt (Rand Rebellion)

March 1922, an armed uprising of 22,000 white workers against the state. Smuts sent in the army and the revolt was bloodily suppressed, with 200 workers killed in the fighting. Smuts was punished by white voters for his role in putting down the rebellion and his South African Party (SAP) lost power in the general election in 1924

SACP

SAIC leader Yusuf Dadoo was elected chairman and Moses Kotane party secretary. The party was also a highly disciplined vanguard party, in the sense that it was headed by a small group of professional revolutionaries whose role was to lead the masses from the front. It was only confirmed after his death in 2013 that Mandela had served on the central committee of the party shortly before his arrest in 1962

SANNC

South African Native National Congress. It worked on the assumption that Africans had benefited in many ways from British colonial rule, not least through Christian evangelization and education

Crucial Events that Shaped the SACP

The Bolshevik Revolution in Russia 1917 was an event that inspired revolutionaries across the globe and prompted many of them to found Marxist parties of their own. Second was the dramatic growth of the South African labour movement in the years after the WWI. The growth took place against the backdrop of the fierce struggle between white workers and the mining houses

Alfred Xuma

The ineffectual president-general of the ANC, replaced by the more dynamic James Moroka in 1949, as the Youth League mounted a successful coup against the old guard

New Government

The new government took action against the CPSU as soon as Malan assumed office in 1948. The NP immediately closed down the Soviet consular offices in Johannesburg and Cape Town (diplomatic ties had been established in 1942 when South Africa and the Soviet Union unexpectedly found themselves allies in WWII). The CPSA was an obvious target of the government's Suppression of Communism Act (1950). The upshot of the new law was that the CPSA was declared illegal and driven underground

Treason Trial 1956-61

a prolonged legal case mounted by the government against hundreds of the organizers of the Congress of the People (COP), including all of the leaders of the ANC. The authorities argued that they were guilty of planning to overthrow the state. The charges were clearly spurious, but the trial did have the effect of temporarily removing from the scene, at a crucial juncture in the history of the movement, senior leaders such as Luthuli, Mandela and Sisulu. Their absence allowed the emergence of a major Africanist challenge from within the ranks of the party.

MK

an initial decision to launch the armed struggle had been taken at a secret Communist Party conference held in Johannesburg in December 1960, with Nelson Mandela and Walter Sisulu both present on behalf of the ANC. The main dissenting voice at this meeting was that of SACP Secretary-General Moses Kotane, who warned that the movement was not yet ready for military action and would surely be crushed by its formidable opponent

Communism

anti-communist fervour reached a peak in the build up to the 1948 election, when the twin fears of "red peril" (communism) and "black peril" (Africans) were fused in the Afrikaner nationalist mindset

Protests in General

apartheid's planners had proven themselves resistant to any attempts at moral persuasion or peaceful protest, whether from the black resistance movement inside the country or from the global community that had turned decisively against South Africa.

Famous Protests by the ANC

bus boycotts, the "stay-at-home" strike and passbook protests, which contributed to the Sharpeville massacre. This was followed by the banning of the movement, the decision to create Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK), then finally the defense mounted at the Rivonia Trial

PAC

by the early 1960s, the ANC risked being outflanked by the PAC, which had already launched its own armed wing, Poqo. There was already a concern at the ease with which the PAC had been able to hijack the ANC's anti-pass laws campaign.

SANNC leadership

dominated by traditional and conservative figures. The initiative in African politics passed to a more radical and energetic organization in the form of Clements Kadalie's Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union (ICU)

John Dube

first president of SANNC, also an ordained minister and schoolteacher

Anton Lembede

first president of the ANC Youth League formed in 1944. Leading members included Walter Sisulu, Oliver Tambo and Nelson Mandela

Unforeseen Consequence of the Defiance Campaign

having taken part in an act of defiance of the apartheid laws, Moroka inexplicably pleaded not guilty to the charges brought against him. His actions compromised the integrity of the campaign, the purpose of which was to offer guilty pleas and fill apartheid prisons with protestors. Moroka was replaced with Albert Luthuli

Philip Nel

historian & political scientist Philip Nel (1990) argues that this period marks the beginning of the NP's long-running obsession with communism

Women's League

immensely successful in attracting women to the party (ANC) and its president, Lilian Ngoyi, was elected to the ANC National Executive Committee in 1956

Programme of Action

included proposals for mass strike action and other acts in defiance of the authorities

Successes of the ANC

it completed its transformation from a moribund and largely inactive organization into a radical, more mass-based movement that represented the aspirations of the majority of South Africans in the face of massive injustice and repression. The ANC was also successful in forging alliances with a range of other anti-apartheid groups, including the South African Indian Congress (SAIC), the South African Coloured Peoples' Organization and the South African Congress of Democrats, through the Congress of the People (COP) in 1955

ANC: elite party?

it was perceived as too narrowly political and seemed more concerned with apartheid laws that directly affected the interests of the black middle classes than with addressing the more pressing issues of extreme poverty and homelessness

Major Failure of the ANC

its inability to achieve its objective of creating a true mass movement against apartheid, one which included poor Africans as well as middle classes. However, by the early 1960s, with the harshly repressive measures of the government and the high national profile it enjoyed following the creation of MK and the publicity of the Rivonia Trial, it came close to achieving this aim

Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK)

means "spear of the nation" in Zulu and Xhosa, was the armed wing of the ANC. It was created on 16 December 1961, on the anniversary of the famous Boer victory over Zulu armies at the Battle of Blood River in 1838, and commenced operations on the same day, carrying out a series of explosions targeting government buildings and electrical installations across the nation. It was by no means clear to all in the party that non-violent resistance, which had served the party for over a decade and become part of its moral fabric, should be abandoned. Opponents of armed struggle argued that abandoning the path of civil disobedience in favour of armed confrontation would gift the regime with the opportunity to depict the ANC as a terrorist body and then completely destroy it. In addition, by embracing violence, the ANC risked surrendering the moral high ground and alienating many of its moderated allies in the anti-apartheid struggle.

SACP influence

one is that it is all too easy to exaggerate its role because of the incessant anti-communist propaganda of the government. The authorities were never slow to identify the malign hand of global communism behind every development in the anti-apartheid movement, and to argue that all opposition was the work of Moscow's handmaiden in South Africa, the SACP. In reality, the ANC was always by far the larger and more influential of the 2 organizations. Several members included Anton Lembede, Alfred Xuma, James Moroka, and Albert Luthuli, were never communists. If one organization was at all dominate over the other, it was more probable that it was the ANC over the SACP. Another perspective is that the role of the SACP was indeed profound, but that its influence was very much to the detriment of the liberation of the movement. The ANC may also have won more sympathy and support from the white population had it not been for its ties with the SACP. The historian Stephen Ellis (2012) has argued that the SACP's sway over the ANC was so great that the ANC effectively allowed itself to be taken over by the communists after the Rivonia Trial and the exile of its remaining leaders.

The Freedom Charter

one of the iconic documents of the 20th century struggle. Despite the government's success in crushing the ANC and MK in 1964, the movement was without question the political voice of the huge majority of the Black South Africans by the end of the period from 1948 and 1964. The government used the Freedom Charter as evidence in its case against ANC leaders in the famous Treason Trial, which began in 1956. The state managed to drag the trail on until 1961, but it failed to prove its case and all the defendants were acquitted

"May Day stay-at-home" in 1950

organized by the South African Communist Party (SACP) in response to the Suppression of Communism Act, was particularly successful. About half of the black workers of Johannesburg refused to go to work. However, the strike also offered an early indication of the sort of response that the ANC would come to expect from the apartheid government: armed police were used to fire on protesters and 18 people were killed

Leaders in Prison

regional commands were in disarray: with all of the major leaders either arrested or in exile there was no direction from the centre. The "spear of the nation trial" of MK cadres in Natal in 1964 extinguished the armed wing in the province where it had been most effective.

The Youth League

rejected the cautious, constitutional approach of the old guard, and instead embraced a more assertive, thrusting political stance

African Mine Workers' Union (AMWU)

since manufacturing was booming due to WWII, new trade unions were created such as the AMWU under the tutelage of the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA)

AMWU

the AMWU-organized miners' strike of 1946 was crushed by police action. The strike failed to achieve any of its objectives and workers were forced back into the mines a few days later. However, the strike brought about a profound change in political consciousness in the country, with workers and government officials becoming more aware of the potential of communist-inspired, mass-based protest against the regime

Programme of Economic Advancement

the ANC adopted this in 1953 in an attempt to highlight its commitment to fighting against the extreme economic marginalization of poor Africans under apartheid

Josiah Gumede

the ANC enjoyed a brief revival in the late 1920s under the more assertive left-wing leadership of him, but this was followed by another long period of dormancy in the 1930s, as many Africans suffered severe economic hardship due to the effects of the Great Depression and politics took a back seat

Bantu Education Act

the ANC had a campaign against the introduction of this act, but was overall a failure. The ANC urged parents to observe a boycott of these government schools and instead enroll their children in community-run "cultural centres". It was evident the ANC lacked the resources necessary to make this a viable educational alternative, and the boycott soon lost momentum

Congress of the People (COP)

the ANC strove to work with other anti-apartheid groups in building a common front against apartheid. The result was the creation of the Congress alliance, which in turn organized the COP

"We Shall Not Move"

the ANC swung into action with its campaign of resistance to the removals, but the campaign failed to achieve its objective of saving Sophiatown. However, the tenants were elated during forced removals. They knew that the new housing provided by the state would free them from exorbitant rents charged by their (mainly black) landlords, and their failure to resist the resettlement had the effect of undermining opposition to the scheme

South African Trades and Labour Council

the CPSA formed this group, a federation that affiliated many unions, some which were Afrikaner. The party was also instrumental in establishing the AMWU in 1941, whose first president was the leading black communist JB Marks

Pact Government

the SAP was replaced by a coalition "Pact Government" of Hertzog's nationalists and the mainly anglophone South African Labour Party. The Labour Party had competed with the CPSA for influence over white miners during the 1922 revolt. As a revolutionary communist organization, the CPSA was obviously far more radical (and less racist) than the Labour Party - a party that was now willing to join a coalition with Afrikaner nationalists in order to secure the interests of its white workers at the expense of the black majority.

Treason Trial

the Treason Trial was important because it helped persuade the new generation of ANC leaders that the government was determined to increase its repression of peaceful protest and destroy the resistance movement come what may, and that the time for non-violent opposition had perhaps passed. In March 1961, the defendants in the marathon Treason Trial were finally acquitted. Fearing rearrest, Nelson Mandela finally decided to go on the run from the authorities, beginning the period during which he became known as the "Black Pimpernel"

Pixley Seme

the close relationship between the CPSA and the ANC faded in the 1930s, as the ANC swung back to the right under the conservative leadership of Pixley Seme

Rivonia Trial

the defendants, who included Goldberg and Bernstein (the latter being the only one to be acquitted), were represented once again by communist lawyer Bram Fischer. During the trial Mandela, falsely, denied being a communist, although he did admit that the relationship between the ANC and the SACP was a very close one. Following the guilty verdicts, Fischer was himself tried for treason in a separate trial in 1965-66. He died of illness while on compassionate release from his life sentence in 1975. After life sentences had been handed down to the accused, the mantle of leading the liberation struggle fell to the ANC in exile, headed by Oliver Tambo

Creation of PAC

the final split came in late 1958, when Robert Sobukwe and his followers failed to prevent Oliver Tambo from formally rewriting the ANC's constitution to incorporate the ideals and goals of the Freedom Charter. The result was the creation of the PAC in early 1959

After the Fall of Price of Gold

the mining magnates, with the full support of the Smuts government, proposed to cut costs by lowering the wages of white workers and suspending the so-called colour bar by allowing blacks to be employed in some semi-skilled and supervisory positions. This prompted a furious reaction from the white proletariat, and a series of strikes that brought production to a virtual standstill by the end of 1921. Considering the revolutionary potential in this situation, the newly formed CPSA decided to throw its lot in with the white protesters. One of the leading agitators in the struggle was CPSA leader WH Andrews, popularly known as "Comrade Bill". Ironically, this meant that the communists found themselves allied to an avowedly racist labour movement.

ANC Strategy

the party began to forge links with squatters' groups and community organizations, with trade unions and other centres of opposition to the government

SACP

the party helped orient the ANC towards non-racialism and in a more militant direction, to such an extent that the ANC was eventually persuaded to embrace armed struggle against the apartheid regime. The party played a key role in organizing strike action through its union affiliations, most notably during the miners' strike of 1946

Josiah Gumede

the radical became the leader of the congress in 1928 and the party veered sharply to the left under his stewardship

Violence

the scale of violence unleashed by the police at Sharpeville shocked even the veterans of the movement. The government's response to further protests was to declare a state of emergency that made all political protests illegal. Both the ANC and PAC were banned when authorities passed the Unlawful Organizations Act in April. While they were in prison, Walter Sisulu and Nelson Mandela, along with the SACP leader Joe Slovo and Lionel Bernstein, held discussions about an imminent move to an armed struggle. In May, a planned three-day strike was called to protest against the government's decision to leave the British Commonwealth. Predictably, the strike was a failure. According to Slovo, both the ANC and the SACP were now moving together towards recognizing the necessity of armed struggle. In June 1961, Mandela presented his proposal for an official MK to senior party leaders at an ANC working committee. Luthuli was persuaded that his party had simply run out of options

Communists

the white-dominated Congress of Democrats, an organization at the heart of the Congress Alliance, was essentially a front for the communists

Rural Revolts

these revolts culminated in peasants taking up arms against alleged government collaborators in Zeerust, Pondoland and Sekhukhuneland in the late 1950s and early 1960s. The argument that the government would use the establishment of an armed wing as an ideal excuse to prohibit the movement was rendered moot with its decision to ban the ANC anyway in April 1960.

The General Laws Amendment Act of 1962 (Sabotage Act)

this act made it a criminal offense to plan or execute even the most minor act of sabotage, which was vaguely defined as "wrongful or willful acts"

Prime Minister David Lloyd George

told the SANNC should return home & negotiate directly with the Smuts government in Pretoria

CPSA

under orders from the Comintern (the global organization of communist parties dominated by Moscow), the party shifted its focus from white labour to the African proletariat. Although the party was mainly black and it called for black majority rule in the country, the CPSA was still a party in which white intellectuals remained very prominent

Strategy of SANNC

work with liberal white politicians in attempting to reverse the tide of segregation, and to petition politicians in London (South Africa was still formally part of the British Empire even after 1910) by arguing that the actions of the union government were a betrayal of Britain's colonial traditions of promoting the welfare of Africans and its values of decency and fair play. This strategy did not work out as planned

Albert Luthuli

•Grew up Christian, father was a minister •non-violent •educator •worked at Adams College •joined Natal Native Teachers' Union •1935 elected by tribal elders to chieftaincy of Groutville, which was a designated spot for natives •joined the ANC in 1944 and was elected to the Native Representative Council, an advisory body established under the 1936 act •became provincial president in Natal in 1936 •"The Road to Freedom via the Cross" •elected president of ANC in December 1952 •won Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, December 1961 •Let My People Go: an autobiography

Nelson Mandela

•rebellious since early childhood •expelled for taking part in student protests •father was chief counsellor to the king of Thembu •became a lawyer and helped defend blacks fallen foul to segregation laws •joined the ANC 1944 •formed the ANC Youth League with Sisulu and Anton Lembede •appointed president of the Youth League in 1950 •elected to the National Executive Committee of the ANC in late 1949 •drafted "M Plan" •was for violence when peace stopped working •"Black Pimpernel" •supported MK •first black president of South Africa •in prison for 27 years