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Anti-apartheid non-violence presentation.
Nick Jackson
1. Date range covered-1945-1994. So looking at SA from the post war period
through to them holding their first ever free elections under universal suffrage,
with of course, Nelson Mandela, as the head of the ANC(African National
Congress) winning. The ANC has been the ruling party ever since.
2. Anti-apartheid movement has been described as ‘ Probably the largest
grassroots eruption of diverse nonviolent strategies in a single struggle in human
history.’ (Walter Wink, American theologian, writing in 1987)
3. Historical background
-However we could go much further back than this to look at the origins of the
grievances, for example in 1685 a cape colony law was introduced that banned
marriages between Africans and Europeans.
-In the mid 19th century franchise was determined by wealth and regardless of
race. This began to be restricted in certain regions by the end of the 19th
century. It was clear with the creation of the Union of South Africa in
1910(the union of what were separate colonies, now forming the different
states in South Africa) that the European population were looking to
consolidate their power.
-A key turning point in the relationship between African and European people
can be seen as the 1913 Native Lands Act, which forced hundreds of
thousands of Africans off land they either owned or were squatting on and
forced to live in what were termed African ‘reserves’. Around the same time
segregation was being introduced into the mines, and Africans were no longer
allowed to take any skilled labour jobs.
-It was in the run up to these measures that the ANC was formed (in 1912) and
fought a largely unsuccessful legal battle against these measures. This lack of
success is typified in the loss of the potential to gain the vote for African and
mixed race which began in the cape region in 1936. From here on in the
majority of the population were officially unable to control the running of their
country.
4. Apartheid officially instituted in 1948 after the victory of the National Party in
the elections. Their victory was based on policies of racial segregation and
support for poor Afrikaners. Upon election they instituted a series of laws
which put into place a formal structure of Apartheid.
5. Key Apartheid legislation:
1)1949 Prohibition of mixed Marriages Act, 1950 Immorality Act, prohibited
inter-race marriages, made inter-race sexual relations illegal.
2) 1950 Population Registration Act-each person in South Africa to be
classified and registered according to their race. There were four groups:
White, Black, Coloured(mixed race, typically of Malay descent), and Indian.
These classifications would determine social and political rights, the level and
type of education people would receive and linked to all of these economic
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position. This law also introduced an identity card carrying these
classifications for the individual on it.
3) 1950 Group Areas Act, this act decreed which areas different racial groups
would be allowed into in residential and business areas-so this divided up
urban areas by race. Non-whites were excluded from the most developed
areas, with them being forced into long commutes to their work and being
forcibly removed from areas that they may have previously inhabited that no
longer conformed to this ruling. Pass laws were introduced in order for a nonwhite to be able to enter a white area. These rulings ensured that the white
minority owned the majority of the country.
-these are seen as the three key pillars to the structure of the Apartheid state.
There was further legislation separating public amenities such as schools and
beaches. The Bantu education act of 1953 created separate types of schooling,
preparing the Black population for lives as the labouring class. The Bantu
Authorities Act sought to create separate governmental structures for the
population(1951), and eventually lead to a nominally independent homeland
for the native populations.
So it is clear throughout all of this that the legislation separated the population
by race, giving the worst conditions to the Black majority, whilst the whites
had the best, and Indian and Coloured populations were treated as inferior to
whites, but not as inferior as the Black population. There were also bans on the
South African Communist party and any other organisations deemed a threat
to the government/apartheid regime.
6. White South Africans had a monopoly over the state and the economy-SA
incredibly rich in natural resources, so the white population experienced the
benefits of these while the 80% non-white population remained excluded.
Legal, economic and political inequalities. Apartheid regime had developed an
explicit doctrine-philosophical and theological-of white superiority. They used
the legal and economic system, backed up by a modern military and police
force so as to exclude non-whites from the economic and political power.
7. Early Apartheid- The ANC
-began its programme of mass action against Apartheid, centring around The
Defiance Campaign of 1952- Defiance campaign sought to restore ‘dignity,
equality and freedom to every South African’. The central idea to this was to
disobey segregationist rules in public places-so the idea of disobeying
unjust/discriminatory laws. Noteworthy that the campaigns are against laws, not
people, so not against the white minority but against what they were doing
maybe? Worth considering!
-The campaign was successful in mobilising around 10,000 people to transgress
the segregation laws, of which around 8-8500 were imprisoned. However the
government was forced into temporarily relaxing their restrictions, ANC
membership swelled and more attention was drawn to their cause.
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-However these short-term gains were outweighed by the end of 1952 as the
government suppressed the movement.
-1954 Freedom Charter- ‘The People Shall Govern’, non-racial South Africa,
democracy, land reform, human and labour rights, nationalisation.
-Increasingly people became disenchanted by the moderation and co-operation of
with whites by the ANC and by 1959 the Pan-Africanist Congress had been
formed.
-The PAC organised mass protests against the pass laws that restricted their
movements. 21st March 1960, in Sharpeville, near Jo’burg, the police fired into
one of these protests where around 10,000 people had gathered. They fired
indiscriminately killing at least 69, wounding 178(this is the Sharpeville
massacre).
-There is debate over whether this was an entirely nv protest-some reports suggest
the police were responding to stones being thrown and advancing on the police
station, others say it was a largely peaceful protest. The government then called a
state of emergency to calm the situation, arresting thousands and removing the
leadership of the ANC and the PAC.
- It is at this juncture that the ANC concluded non-violence would not be effective
in bringing down the apartheid regime. From this they formed Umkhonto we
Sizwe(Spear of the Nation) with South African communists, turning towards a
violent struggle. The government banned the ANC in 1960 and by 1963 had
managed to capture key leaders such as Mandela and Walter Sisulu, both of
whom were sentenced to life imprisonement. By the mid-1960s the ANC and the
PAC were pretty much lost as powers, with the suppression of all their overt
activities and most of their underground activities too.
8. Mandela’s critique of nv-saying he was prepared to die for the cause, Black South
Africans had been trying unsuccessfully to gain their rights through nv means for
50 years, and all that had happened was that repression had increased. As govt
met their nv with force it was unsurprising and in fact necessary that violence be
used-why preach peace if peaceful methods are being countered by force?
-But perhaps a failure by Mandela to recognise the power and force within nonviolence. Force should not be interpreted in its literal sense. However it was really
violence that served to undermine the campaign, taking away resources from the
nv campaign and giving the regime justification for the repression of all resistance
activities
9. Black Consicousness movement (BCM)
-Can be seen as the starting point in the revival of the non-violent resistance
campaign against apartheid. This really started with the founding of the South
African Student Organisation was formed in 1968. This group was led by
Steve Biko.
-The central theme of the BCM was to get the black population to first reject
the ideology of Apartheid in order to then reject the Apartheid system. So, cf.
readings, Biko seeking for Black people to be liberated from subservient and
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inferior mindsets in order to be liberated from the political shackles of
Apartheid. There was the idea of the ‘consciencialization’ of the black
populations-the idea being to realise the self-worth of the black population
and their need for Black activism.
-They also sought a return to African culture, values and the need for
economic independence from the oppressive white population.
-It is also worth noting that the BCM redefined the term black to mean all nonwhites who were subject to racial discrimination under Apartheid.
-The BCM sprung a collection of organisational groups such as the Black
People’s Convention (1972) which acted as an umbrella group and political
wing for the BCM whilst the Black Community Programs(BCP) sought to
develop the strength of Black communities. They used organised labour to
strike in defiance against the anti-strike laws in 1973.
-However the main focus of the BCM was really on cultural pride and
psychological independence from Apartheid, through literacy campaigns and
cultural organisations. Key to the spreading of these messages were church
organisations and the distribution of leaflets and magazines.
-The BCM, like the PAC excluded whites from having a role in the resistance
movement-as we have seen though winning hearts of people theoretically in
opposition to you is key to successful nv and thus perhaps can be seen as part
of the BCM’s downfall.
-The movement lost its momentum with the death of its leader, Steve Biko,
whilst he was in police custody in 1977, as well as the banning of Black
Consciousness movements in the same year.
-This clampdown came after the Soweto uprising of 1976. These were in
protest against the imposition of Afrikaans upon the black students who as
well as wanting to learn in their own languages saw English as the more
appropriate European language to be learning in order for them to achieve
economic independence.
-Key also is the imposition of language being a direct affront on their idea of
an assertion of their own autonomous culture. June 16 1976, students
throughout Soweto(largest township in SA, outside j’burg) began protesting in
the streets against the imposition of Afrikaans(approx.. 20,000 students). Upon
being confronted with a police barricade the leader of the march instructed the
protestors not to confront the police and led them on another route to the rally
at the Orlando stadium.
-Again seemed generally peaceful although reports of stones being thrown
before the first shot. In all 176 people were killed in the riots that erupted.
Something that had started nv became violent. Children as young as 13 were
killed which in terms of getting public opinion against the regime would have
been very successful. This protest had been supported by the BCM, but not
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organised it, it was the BCM though that gave them the impetus to protest and
overall had been able to bring together those communities discriminated
against in Apartheid in order to be able to present a future united front in their
struggles.
-After the Soweto riots however it became clear that the BCM, not just
because of its banning and depleted leadership, was not the organisation
through which the anti-apartheid struggle would best be channelled and giving
other organisations the opportunity to fill this vacuum. BCM had succeeded in
tis primary goal of the liberation of Black minds from inferiority and
acquiescence but did not have a political strategy to build on this momentum.
10. UDF-United Democratic Front,
-formed August 20 1983 to act as an umbrella organisation for the numerous
local organisations that had formed at the beginning of the 1980s to defend
black interests against government policies e.g. on issues of rent, housing and
transportation. The UDF sought to co-ordinate these local struggles and to
fight the government’s apartheid measures.
-At the start the UDF consisted of 565 local organisations and at its peak it had
around 700. Given that these were mainly groups such as unions, youth
organisations, civil and professional organisations it is hard to think that there
were major urban area which went untouched by the UDF.
-By linking various local movements the UDF was seeking to launch national
political challenges to the legislation that was the route cause of these local
grievances.
-Key facets of the UDF were that it remained a grassroots organisation, so
difficult for the state to repress as it had done the BCM, ANC or PAC. The
methods they used to campaign were normal nv techniques such as
demonstrations, marches and rallies.
-The UDF’s first major challenge to the constitutional reforms of Apartheid
was during the 1984 elections when only 20% of eligible coloured and 1/7
eligible Indians voted-this brought into question the legitimacy of the reforms
being made.
-After this they managed to undermine state authority in many townships
through the boycott of rent, state services and schools. This non-cooperation
tactic was successful to the extent that on July 21 1985 the government
declared a partial state of emergency, the first time it had had to do so since
1961.
-The repression that ensued led to the end of this being non-violent protests
and saw militant action against security forces, as well as the targeting of
Black officials and ‘necklacing’ of collaborators-where hundreds were killed
by having burning tires put around their heads by mobs.
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-The UDF sought to calm these, having learnt from the Soweto uprising in the
1970s that the state would always win in terms of violence. Their new strategy
was one of people power-this meant building up their decentralised structure
so that the state could not suppress them, curb the violence of militant youth
and channel it into more constructive forms of activism. This meant
boycotting and ostracising collaborators rather than attacking them.
-NV very much a tactic-believed in violence for self-defence and never gave
disapproval to the armed actions of the ANC but did seek to educate about the
practical virtues of nv action by offering alternative methods to violence as a
means of resistance.
-Ultimately the idea was to create dual powers, through people power,
undermining state power-this meant their own structures and institutions.
Some statistics- by 1986, rent boycotts by half a million people in 54
townships at a cost of 40m per month rand to the state, which according to my
rough calculations would have been the equivalent to 16m USD at the time, or
31 million dollars nowadays.
-So not just financially damaging to the state but significant symbolically
showing the power of non-cooperation as well as the widespread nature of it.
The rent deficits were normally used to fund community councils but without
these revenues many were forced into closing. The UDF’s structure remained
resilient to the increasingly repressive measures of the Apartheid state and
even managed to spread consumer boycotts despite these measures.
11. COSATU-The Congress of South African Trade Unions.
-With the industrialising of the SA economy there was an increased
dependence for its functioning on black labour-thus giving black workers
some power over the state. COSATU was formed in response to the growing
role unions had due to the UDF and then the increased repression of these
groups. COSATU was thus fighting both a political and an economic battle.
-COSATU was an umbrella organisation for unions that started off with just
under .5 million workers in 1985 and had over a million by 1990.
-COSATU was able to link the smaller scale industrial issues with both the
local and national issues that were caused by the Apartheid system. Remaining
independent of the ANC and UDF but loosley aligned to both. They also were
a grassroots organisation, meaning that they were much more difficult for the
state to target as key people were not so obvious.
-They organised strikes and stayaways in support of their demands. A
stayaway in the Transvaal region nov 1984-800,000 workers, 400,000
students. Stayaways in June 1988 in memory of Soweto uprising was the most
successful general stike in SA history-lasting 3 days, 70%(non)turnout,
costing the economy an estimated 500m rand(roughly 390M usd nowadays).
-This hurting of white businesses began to see the tide being turned in terms of
getting the business community to see the need for the end of Apartheid as it
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was beginning to hurt them too. Figure from the readings of boycotts in Port
Elizabeth causing businesses to lose on average 30%. These stayaways really
demonstrated the vulnerabilities of the apartheid regime as despite being
incredibly resource rich and strong in terms of its security forces it was also
entirely reliant on the labour of the black population for the functioning of its
economy.
-COSATU took on leadership of the anti-apartheid campaign in 1988 as the
UDF had been banned., launching the Mass Democratic Movement- to
remobilise various groups in the campaign. Repression unable to stop
grassroots organisation whilst support for apartheid legislation was also
dropping as the consequences of these mass actions were being felt by
employees. So the movement had successfully divided the state from elements
of the white population, undermining its power base.
12. ANC-African National Congress,
-yes the ANC had advocated violence to overthrow the Apartheid state but
never actually posed a genuine threat so we can still look at their non-violent
elements as well as think about a key theme which should have become
apparent of the links between nv and violence.
-ANC had become a public presence again after the Soweto uprising and was
increasingly popular through its cultural and resistance programmes as well as
being able to use the prestige of the fact that it was a long-existing frontrunner
in the anti-Apartheid campaign e.g. its 1954 Freedom Charter.
-The movement adopted the ANC’s symbols, songs and signs as well as
framing the ANC’s violent rhetoric as simply being rhetoric to instigate
thoughts both in Black and White South Africans about Apartheid rather than
a true armed uprising. ANC leaders who were imprisoned became iconic as
symbols of the enduring struggle against Apartheid and provided inspiration
for those who were newer to the movement e.g. Mandela.The movement
capitalised on existing ANC underground structures for their non-violent
resistance as well as using the ANC’s international connections.
13. Whites-Joined the United Democratic Front, white student activism too. All
added to give the movement credibility as well as demonstrating the future
possibilities for a united and peaceful society cf. idea of the rainbow nation.
Also important victory for the movement was to be able to harm whites
economically, e.g. through boycotts-turning them against Apartheid.
14. Church-Desmond Tutu-moral indefensibility of Apartheid, won the nobel
peace prize in 1984-so very prominent in getting international support for antiapartheid movement. South African Council of Churches-defended and
supported the families of political prisoners, churches used as means of
communication for the struggle, meeting places, nonconformity with laws too
such as conducting what were illegal interracial marriages.
15. Role of international pressure-not just damaging to Apartheid regime but also
gave legitimacy and support to anti-Apartheid movement, which no doubt was
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positive in helping South Africa start a new era at the end of Apartheid.
Boycotts, protests, removal of financial assets, limited sanctions, arms
embargo-all this helped to compound the pessimism in the 1980s surrounding
SA’s poor growth and high inflation. So loss of support for Apartheid regime
there.
16. De Klerk as President 1989, -time for negotiation- feb. 1990 restrictions on
political groups removed, political prisoners released, soon followed the
repealing of the laws that gave structure to Apartheid. ANC became a mass
political party rather than an underground organisation, winning the 1994
election. Goals acheived