Anti-Apartheid Movement in South Africa is the resistance against the government laws.

1. The Anti-Apartheid Movement
in South Africa:
Three Cycles of Contention

2. Phase I- Society Challenges the State:
The Rise of a Mass Movement, 1948-1960
 Repertoires
 Boycotts, stay at homes, civil disobedience
 1952 Defiance Campaign
 Women’s pass-law demonstrations, ’56-59
 Goals & Framing
 1955 Freedom Charter
 1959 Creation of Pan Africanist Congress (splintering of
the organized movement): rivalry between PAC and ANC
 Repression & Facilitation
 Expansion of Apartheid
 1960 Sharpeville Massacre
 Organized by PAC
 67 people killed, 186 hurt

3. The Freedom Charter (selections)
Adopted at the Congress of the People, Kliptown, on 26 June 1955
 We, the People of South Africa, declare for all our country and the world to know:
that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and that no government can justly claim authority unless it is
based on the will of all the people;
that our people have been robbed of their birthright to land, liberty and peace by a form of government founded on injustice
and inequality;
that our country will never be prosperous or free until all our people live in brotherhood, enjoying equal rights and
opportunities;
that only a democratic state, based on the will of all the people, can secure to all their birthright without distinction of
colour, race, sex or belief;
And therefore, we, the people of South Africa, black and white together equals, countrymen and brothers adopt this Freedom
Charter;
And we pledge ourselves to strive together, sparing neither strength nor courage, until the democratic changes here set out
have been won.
 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;
 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-government .
All National Groups Shall have Equal Rights!
 There shall be equal status in the bodies of 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;
 All national groups shall be protected by law against insults to their race and national pride;
 The preaching and practice of national, race or colour discrimination and contempt shall be a punishable crime;
 All apartheid laws and practices shall be set aside.
…
Let all people who love their people and their country no say, as we say here:
THESE FREEDOMS WE WILL FIGHT FOR, SIDE BY SIDE, THROUGHOUT OUR LIVES, UNTIL WE HAVE WON OUR
LIBERTY

4. Changing Repertoires: “No easy walk to Freedom”, by
Mandela, 1953 (excerpts)
 A political movement must keep in touch with reality and the prevailing conditions. … The old methods of
bringing about mass action through public mass meetings, press statements and leaflets calling upon the
people to go to action have become extremely dangerous and difficult to use effectively. …
 The intensification of repressions and the extensive use of the bans is designed to immobilise every
active worker and to check the national liberation movement. But gone forever are the days when harsh
and wicked laws provided the oppressors with years of peace and quiet. …
 But in spite of all the difficulties outlined above, we have won important victories. The general political
level of the people has been considerably raised and they are now more conscious of their strength.
Action has become the language of the day. The ties between the working people and the Congress have
been greatly strengthened. … In the past we talked of the African, Indian and Coloured struggles. Though
certain individuals raised the question of a united front of all the oppressed groups, the various non-
European organisations stood miles apart from one another and the efforts of those for co-ordination and
unity were like a voice crying in the wilderness and it seemed that the day would never dawn when the
oppressed people would stand and fight together shoulder to shoulder against a common enemy. Today
we talk of the struggle of the oppressed people which, though it is waged through their respective
autonomous organisations, is gravitating towards one central command….
 Our immediate task is to consolidate these victories……Instructions were given to all provinces to
implement the "M" Plan without delay.
 The underlying principle of this plan is the understanding that it is no longer possible to wage our
struggle mainly on the old methods of public meetings and printed circulars. The aim is:
 to consolidate the Congress machinery;
 to enable the transmission of important decisions taken on a national level to every member of the
organisation without calling public meetings, issuing press statements and printing circulars;
 to build up in the local branches themselves local Congresses which will effectively represent the
strength and will of the people;
 to extend and strengthen the ties between Congress and the people and to consolidate Congress
leadership.
 … The hard, dirty and strenuous task of recruiting members and strengthening our organisation through a
house to house campaign in every locality must be done by you all. From now on the activity of
Congressites must not be confined to speeches and resolutions. Their activities must find expression in
wide scale work among the masses, work which will enable them to make the greatest possible contact
with the working people. You must protect and defend your trade unions. If you are not allowed to have
your meetings publicly, then you must hold them over your machines in the factories, on the trains and
buses as you travel home. You must have them in your villages and shantytowns. You must make every
home, every shack and every mud structure where our people live, a branch of the trade union
movement and never surrender.
 You must defend the right of African parents to decide the kind of education that shall be given to their
children. Teach the children that Africans are not one iota inferior to Europeans. Establish your own
community schools where the right kind of education will be given to our children. If it becomes
dangerous or impossible to have these alternative schools, then again you must make every home, every
shack or rickety structure a centre of learning for our children. Never surrender to the inhuman and
barbaric theories of Verwoerd.

5. Listen to Nelson Mandela’s last
public statement (made in 1964
before he was sentenced to life
imprisonment) before he was
jailed for 27 years. Recently
recovered, and available at
http://www1.cnn.com/2001/WOR
LD/africa/02/11/mandela.speech/
Nelson Mandela, lawyer &
revolutionary, photos from the
early years
“During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this
struggle of the African people. I have fought against
white domination, and I have fought against black
domination. I have cherished the idea of a democratic
and free society in which all persons live together in
harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal
which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it
is an ideal for which I am prepared to die.”

6. Phase II- The state strikes back:
Suppression, militancy, and Black
Consciousness, 1960-1976
 Repression & Facilitation
 1960: Govt bans ANC & PAC
 1963 Rivonia Trial: ANC leaders sentenced to life
imprisonment
 ’63, ’67: New govt restrictions allowing for indefinite
detention of suspected activists
 Rise in harassment, torture
 1976 Soweto Uprising
 Schoolchildren protest against Afrikaans in schools
 Police violence leads to more protests
 In the next 10 months around 575 people killed, including
many school students
 Encourages thousands of young people to flee country and
join exiled ANC

7. Soweto, images
Famous photos: Mbuyisa
Makhuba carries fatally-
injured Hector Pietersen
to the Naledi Clinic in
Soweto on June 16 1976
after police opened fire
on students protesting
compulsory lessons in
Afrikaans. The Photo, by
Sam Nzima (The
World/AP), was
published around the
world.

8. Photos from:
http://www1.ocn.ne.jp/~yeboo/sahistory/sahistory003.html

9. Organizing From Within:
Black Consciousness Movement
 Emerges from black-only
universities
 Establishment of South
African Students Union
(SASO)
 Influenced by black
power in the U.S., black
theology
 Black African
empowerment through
internal strength
 Self-reliant struggle:
black Africans must lead
their own emancipation
movement
 Means: community re-
organization, self-
reliance, student
activism
“The most potent weapon in the
hands of the oppressor is the mind
of the oppressed.”
- Steve Biko, a leader of the Black
Consciousness Movement

10. Death of Steve Biko in
police custody, 1977

11. Another repertoire: MK attacks
 1960s MK relatively quiet
 Problems: no internal
support structure
 Dramatic increase in
actions in late ’70s and ’80s
 Reasons: new regional
bases, new internal support
structures
 Main repertoires: from
sabotage to bombings
 190 acts of sabotage
between October 1961 and
July 1963.
 1976-1982: 150 attacks
 1980s- 100s of bombings
 1983- MK bombs air
force headquarters. 19
people killed and more
than 200 injured.

12. MK targets:
 “"(e) Selection of targets to be
tackled in initial phase of
guerrilla operations with a view
to causing maximum damage to
the enemy as well as preventing
quick deployment of
reinforcements. In its study the
Committee should bear in mind
the following main targets:
 Strategic road, railways and
other communications.
 power stations
 police stations, camps and
military forces
 irredeemable Government
stooges."
(1969)

13. Phase III: State crisis and the
resurgence of society, 1976-1994
A woman performs a piece of anti-apartheid
resistance theatre, 1980s

14. Changing Political opportunity
structures
 State Crisis: Increasing
Access
 State under new regional &
dom. pressure
 Economic problems
 Growth of capitalism
means need for more
skilled workers
 1983 Limited Political
Reforms: New Constitution
with tricameral parliament
 1984 repeals of restrictions
on interracial relationships
 1990 ANC un-banned
 State Crisis: Increased
Repression
 State of emergency,1985
and 1986.
 “Total Onslaught”
 ’84-’86: 24,000 arrests
 Divisions within the state
 Influential Allies:
 U.S.
 divestment movement:
more than 200 U.S.
companies pull out of S.
Africa in 1980s
 Economic sanctions
against S. Africa
 UN
 Economic & Military
Sanctions
 In 1974 S.A. was suspended
from the UN General
Assembly
 Diplomatic isolation of SA in
international arena
 Cultural resistance to
Apartheid around the
world
 New regional realities

15. Expanding repertoires
 Trade Unionism:
 New consumption & worker
power in black African
communities
 New multi-racial unions & labor
orgs
 Black union membership jumped from
40,000 in 1975 to 247,000 in 1981
and to 1.5 million in 1985
 Congress of South African Trade
Unions (COSATU): umbrella org
representing more than 500,000
trade union members
 Strikes & protests: African labor
unions legalized in 1979
 1984: 464 strikes; 1987: 1,148
strikes
 In 1985 more than 390 strikes
involving 240,000 workers
 Schoolchild activism
 Urban migration
 Poor state of schools
 In 1970s a black child’s
education cost one-tenth
of a white child’s
 Schoolchildren
increasingly involved in
political demonstrations
 Class boycotts

16. Movement reorganization
 ‘Civics’
 Created in part to
protest and supplant
local govt. in
townships
 Neighborhood
organization & direct
action
 Consumer boycotts
 Political theatre
 1984-86 uprising:
“ungovernability”
 Urban revolt & clashes
between youths &
security forces
 Collapse of state
authority in some areas
 Creation of township
“shadow” governments
 Upsurge in political
violence
 ’84-’88: around 3,500
people killed;
 Around 45,000 detained
without trial
 Black on black violence
 Inkatha Freedom Party, est.
1975
“All the mothers and the
fathers, the brothers and
the sisters, the
grandmothers and the
grandfathers, the dogs and
the cats– they all have
joined in the struggle.”

17. Street barricades in Cape Town, 1985.

18. The United Democratic Front
(UDF)
 est. 1983, ANC-supported
 Primary goal: to
coordinate activities of
anti-apartheid orgs, and
to resist state’s recent
constitutional reforms
 Organized as a federation
of regionally based fronts
 Umbrella federation for
more than 600 local orgs
 Prominent church leaders,
civic leaders, former ANC
reps, students
 (mostly) Espoused
nonviolence

19. Framing…
Repertoires…

20. Eastern Cape UDF leader Mathew Goniwe salutes a crowd at the funeral of a youth activist
in 1986. Two months later Goniwe was assassinated, probably by state-sponsored death
squads. Photo from Beyond the Barricades: Popular Resistance in South Africa

21. Mkhuseli Jack: grassroots
community activist
“And as this organization
broadened and broadened
and broadened and
broadened, it became
extremely difficult for the
security forces to crush these
people. Because now you
have created a big, big
center of resistance within
the community. And then
slowly you started [to include
everyone] in the struggle for
justice. And slowly everyone
saw his role in the various
methods of struggle that
were available to us.”

22. This phase of mass action was much
more successful than the ANC’s in the
1950s. Why?
 Increased urbanization
 1951: 27% black population lived in urban areas
 1981:49 % black pop. in urban areas
 2nd
gen. Urban kids rose to lead UDF
 Much larger educated population
 Rapid expansion of schools & education in cities
from 1960s-1980s
 Created new sense of student identity and new
student culture
 Demographics: new black purchasing and worker
power
 Transformation in employment: rise of new &
upwardly mobile working class (esp. skilled labor)
 Technology: phones, TV, fax, planes

23. From movement to government:
the End of Apartheid, 1994
 Secret negotiations
 Mandela released from jail, 1990; ANC legalized
 Political violence
 Zulu vs ANC
 Afrikaner
 Negotiated settlement
 agreement reached on November 13, 1993, which
pledged to institute a nonracial, nonsexist, unified,
and democratic South Africa based on the principle
of “one person, one vote.”
 PR voting (list system), semi-federalism, property
protection, civil liberties

24. Reasons for the end of Apartheid
 S. African economic problems that split the white
community
 Collapse of the Rand, foreign investment
 S. African economy depended on African labor
 International pressure
 Sanctions
 Diplomatic isolation inc. U.S.
 Demographic shifts
 1911: 21% S.A. pop white, 67% black
 1991: 13% white, 75% black
 Movement pressure:
 “ungovernability”
 Economic cost of maintaining apartheid
 New geostrategic realities
 End of the Cold War
 De-colonization of southern Africa

25. 1986