Ceylonese Trotskyists, organized in the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (Revolutionary Section), are planning an English-language publication to be called New Spark, The first issue is scheduled for November,
The party is already publishing a Sinhalese paper Samasama- - jaya. A Tamil paper Putachi [Revolution], begun as a monthly, has now been converted into a biweekly.
Native Representative Council, the Bunga, the Location Advisory Boards and any other institution of a similar nature which may be created to substitute, supplement or strengthen the existing institutions. oo
"(o) The acceptance of Non-collaboration, that is, the rejection of the Native Representative Council, the Bunga, the Location Advisory. Boards, the Native Representation Act, etc."
Here I may explain that a Bunga is simply an instrument for assisting the Native Commissioners in the rural areas, that is, the Reserves, in their work of administration. The Location Advisory Board performs the same function in the segregated urban locations... The Native Representative Council, sarcastically called a Native Parliament, has no powers of legislation or administration. These were-merely toys to keep the people from demanding their right to sit in Parliament, Provincial Councils and Municipal Councils.
The acceptance of the policy of Non-collaboration is an active policy involving the refusal to assist the oppressor in operating those separate institutions for our oppression. It means. the-rejection and active boycott of all separate elections under the Native Representation Act of 1936, whereby three White people were elected by African voters to represent the whole African population in a. Parliament of 153 representatives for the White minority.
At ‘this special meeting of the Executives of the African National Congress and the Alli-African Convention, the delegates of the All-African Convention made..a special offer in order to eliminate any wasteful spirit of rivalry at that crucial moment in our struggle. (The Nationalist Government had come into power in 1948.) They proposed that in the Executive of the United federal body, the African National Congress would be guaranteed one-third of the séats and in addition it could contest the remaining two seats, provided that the African National Congress accepted the following conditions:
1. The acceptance of the Ten-Point Programme, that is, the demand for all those rights that are enjoyed by the Whites only: the right of the full franchise, to vote and be voted into Parliament for all adults in South Africa, irrespective of race, colour or creed.:
2. _ NON~COLLABORATION WITH THE OPPRESSOR .
. &. The acceptance of the principle of UNITY OF ALL OPPRESSED GROUPS, AFRICANS, COLOUREDS AND INDIANS.
It should be explained here that this was the policy that the Imperialist press called extremist, revolutionary and “unrealistic.”
Negotiations for Unity broke down. The Congress leadership could not accept the policy, because (a) they were operating the
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very institutions, the Native Representative Council and the Bunga, against which the Convention was calling for a boycott; (b) they were committed to supporting and organizing the elections for the three White candidates to represent the African people in the White Parliament. Invariably the candidates were the liberal bourgeoisie, with whom an attachment with the Congress was of long standing. It might be mentioned here that some of the chief spokesmen for the African National Congress were Messrs. Selope Thema, J.B.Marks and Oliver Tambo,
The failure to achieve Unity at this stage was a triumph for the representatives of Imperialism in South Africa, assisted by the looal Communist Party, which, for its own reasons fought to keep the African National Congress out of the Unity of all the oppressed.
Those facts throw into bold relief the divergent paths fol-. lowed by the: ‘two tendencies of the liberatory Movement in South Africa. They reveal in a concrete way the logic of the position of the two groups, following upon their divergent policies,
We repeat that it is of paramount importance for the leaders . today to ask themselves in which direction their policies are leading the people. Whose interests are being served objectively by their actions? In whose battle are they calling upon the: people to engage? In this new and critical phase of the struggle for liberation, and within the framework of the contest between Afrikaner Fascism and the representatives of Imperialism -- all of which is taking place within a larger context of the confrontation of Imperialism versus Socialism on a world scale -~ it behooves the leaders to pause’ and take stock before it is too late. The All~African Convention's Conception of the Struggle
The struggle as conceived by the All-African Convention and the Unity Movement in 1943 compelled them to insist on the maximum © unity of all the organizations representing the different layers of society. From the outset they foresaw that in the given African conditions it would not be possible for a HerrenvolkGovernment peacefully to grant the demands of the oppressed people. It was not a : question of pleading for justice against this or that racial law, or. of bringing pressure on the Government to gain this or that conces-— sion. Neither is it possible for any one section of the oppressed to gain freedom for itself only. It is a question of a fundamental struggle against a whole system of oppression. The whole of South African society has to be reorganized from top to bottom, that is, politically, economically and socially.
It is these aims that dictate our whole approach to the vital question of UNITY; our approach to the form of organization that is necessary; our insistence on the independence of the struggle and our approach to the function - of an organization.
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With this in mind the All-African Convention set itself the task of organizing the oppressed on a nation-wide scale, with a single aim and programme, the Ten-Point Programme, and to bring the struggle under one leadership. The aim was. to bring under one roof the innumerable organizations, political organizations, civic. bodies, teachers! associations, peasant committees and organizations and workers! organizations, and to politicise them. In order to conduct a sustained struggle it was necessary for them to know not only WHAT they were fighting AGAINST, but also to formulate clearly their posi-~ tive aims in the struggle, to visualize THE GOAL OF LIBERATION. ~~ Peasantry the Key to the Liberatory Struggle
-.In this situation the All-African Convention understood that it was of paramount importance, to begin with, to concentrate on winning the support of the peasantry. This was not only because the landless peasants comprise by far the greatest majority, but because they are the most exploited and oppressed and therefore constitute the greatest revolutionary potential. In addition to this there is the all-important factor of migrant labour -- that peculiar situation in South Africa where not only the mines and the White. farms. but also heavy industry are run on peasant labour. Thus. no serious struggle.could take place in South Africa without the participation and co-operation of the peasantry.
The main purpgse of all the segregationist or . “Apartheid laws in-South Africa has always been,to ensure a steady supply of cheap labour. All the regulations and proclamations. operating in the Native Reserves are designed to smoke out the Africans from their homes and force them to enter the inescapable recruiting channels that feed the economy of the country.
The so-called Rehabilitation Scheme in the Reserves, which the Herrenvolk has been trying to enforce for more than fifteen _ years, was nothing more than an attempt to.rob the peasantry still | further of land and cattle and render them destitute victims of the. recruiting machine.
The struggle took the form of resistance to the Rehabilitation Schemes. The first time that the All-African Convention caught the attention of the peasants, particularly in the Transkei (Cape Province), was when they joined the battle against the Government Schemes. It brought into the struggle political consciousness, linking land hunger of the peasants with their lack of political rights.
In this way the struggle was put on the road of the true liberatory struggle with the slogan of LAND AND LIBERTY. In every district throughout the Transkei there existed a branch of. the Cape African Teachers' Association, which was itself affiliated to the All-~African Convention. The membership of these branches acted as cadres of the All-African Convention in the villages, carrying the
policy of the organizing the peasantry into the national body.
For the first time in our political history the intellectuals were integrated with the peasantry and made common cause with . them in their struggles. We formed peasant committees in the. villages which served ‘as. centres: of Tesistance to .the Government schemes. et
Government Attacks
The Government replied with vicious measures to suppress the Movement. But the peasants continued to resist. The police and the army were called in and surrounded the district of Mount Ayliff near Poridoland, where a leader of the All-African Convention was arrested and charged. with incitement. From far and near the peasants attended his trial to demonstrate their solidarity with the All-African Convention. ;
‘The Movement spread to other districts in the Transkei and went-.over into Witzieshoek in the Orange Free State, where the army was called in once more to shoot and arrest the people, destroy their crops and burn their huts. Similar incidents took place in the Northern Transvaal, in Zeerust and Sekhukhmiland. The. people were subjected to a reign of terror. But the Movement spread to the Glen Grey district in the Cape Province and across to Zululand in Natal. Everywhere the peasant leaders of the resistance were being exiled and thousands were put in jail. The first exiles were peas- ant members of the All-African Convention :in the Glen Grey District,
Thereafter the Government turned its attack on the All-African Convention itself. The CAPE AFRICAN TEACHERS' ASSOCIATION was outlawed., By this time the All-African Convention had linked together the struggle against the Rehabilitation Scheme with the struggle against the Verwoerdian debased- "Bantu Education." All the members of the Executive of the Cape African Teachers! Association were sum=marily dismissed from their posts, and later hundreds of teachers, members of the Cape African Teachers! Association lost their jobs. In this way, the Teachers! Association was the first African organization to be outlawed.
Yet all this time the imperialist press in South Africa was strangely silent. The world was never told about this struggle, the most fierce in the recent history in South Africa, Both Imperialism and Verwoerdian Fascism were united in an attempt to crush it, The army would surround a village, mow the people down, rape their women and destroy their crops in the fields.
- But the Imperialist press maintained its calculated silence on such outrages. Why?
Such struggie was undermining the very basis of the economic structure. Whoever organized the peasantry in South Africa was
interfering with the vital source of labour for the mines, farms and industry, including heavy industry. This Movement had to be crushed at all costs. But even more than this was at stake.
This was the real national struggle that is fighting against both Verwoerd Fascism and Imperialism, It is the struggle for liberation in South Africa. In short, it is the struggle that is fighting for the overthrow of the whole political, social and economic system of the Herrenvolk.
At this stage it is important to correct a misconception that has been created in the outside world, The dramatic event of the Sharpeville and Langa (Cape) massacres in 1960, resulting from the passive resistance campaign of the young Pan Africanist Congress, has been presented as the starting point of the struggle of the African people for liberation. Far from this being so, the truth of the matter is that these events were an overflow, a spilling over of the tidal wave of resistance that had engulfed practically all the Reserves in the country. The interesting fact is that the men who marched in the Cape Town demonstration from Langa Location were not the townspeople. They were: practically all living in the segregated barracks in the Location; that is, they were. the migrant labourers who had been forced to leave their families in the Reserves, It was the grim struggle that was going on in the Reserves that influenced them to join the march.
. It was at this point that the ‘Imperialist press, with a blaze of publicity, stepped in and gave a distorted picture of the events in their sum total, thus falsifying the true perspective. It gave the impression that this was the beginning of the struggle; they isolated it from the main stream and succeeded in capturing and harnessing it to the battle of Imperialism against Verwoerd,
- While the Imperialist press has focused attention on this socalled new struggle in the towns -- of which it had full control -it has kept the blanket of silence on the struggle in the Reserves, While publicizing every victim of the bannings,. house arrests and recently the 90-day Detention Act in the towns, so that today the English press has a compilation of over a hundred names of the detainees, the same press maintained a rigid silence firstly on the fact that for the last three years there has been in force in the Reserves a Proclamation enabling any policeman to arrest and incarcerate any African on mere suspicion, and that he can be kept in jail for an indefinite, period, Under this Proclamation thousands of: African peasants are languishing in jail. . Secondly, the press maintained its silence about the officials of the All-African Convention. Yet during the same period, and more particularly after the Pondoland disturbances, its leaders were jailed, put under house arrest or banned, co
The aim of Imperialism and its press is clear. It 1s.to shut off from the knowledge of the world the true Libératory Movement, the
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struggle that is being carried on with great heroism particularly by the peasants in the Reserves, and without any help whatsoever from any source in the outside world. The purpose of Imperialism isto isolate the struggle, smother it and crush it with those armaments it has enabled Verwoerd to pile up.
The Struggle Intensifies
Nevertheless the true struggle today has reached a new level, It has acquired depth and breadth and is moving forward with a new momentum. The All-African Convention has once more issued a call for UNITY. It has called upon the oppressed in all walks of life to organize themselves.into a Nation. For it is only as a Nation acting under a single unified command that they can prove themselves equal to the demands of the present eructal situation.
The All-african Convention could now speak with greater authority, which it had earned over a long period during all the struggles of the peasants. It had earned the. respect of the people, not only because its leaders had been instructed to remain in thecountry and face persecution together with the masses, but also becausé it had not hesitated to criticise the masses when it had considered them to be making mistakes,
To give one example: before the ill-prepared revolt in Pondoland in 1960, the peasant leaders had come all the way to the Eastern Cape to consult the Executive of the All-African Convention, They ‘were advised against the revolt at that time and the leaders were convinced. that the Executive was right. However, the masses ignored the advice, with disastrous results.
Now the fearlessness or the Convention leaders in going against the stream has borne good fruit. Today most of those village committees that participated in the Pondoland revolt belong to the All- African Convention. In addition to this, the leaders have come as individuals into the African People's Democratic Union of Southern Africa (APDUSA), a national political organization which is itself. affiliated to the All-African Convention and the Unity Movement, —
The last six months have seen the All-African Convention grow by leaps and’ bounds. In addition to the village-committees all over the Transkei, it has now won over the MAKHULUSPAN, numerically the biggest organization in all South Africa, We have been penetrating: — also into the towns, where for the first time African, Coloured and Indian workers and intellectuals are joining as individuals the new organization, the APDUSA, which has captured the imagination: of the oppressed.
As we write this document, news is coming in that the Verwoerd Government is letting loose its terrors on members of the African People's Democratic Union of Southern Africa, And still the press maintains its silence.
Unity Essential to a Protracted Struggle
If the history of the last twenty years has taught us anything at all, it is that the Movement will continue to suffer the unnecessary Losses of our brave men and women UNLESS UNITY IS ACHIEVED.
It has taught us:
(a) That unity is a prime necessity for the successful con-. | duct of a protracted struggle.
_ (b) That a precondition for united struggle is a complete break with. the agents of Imperialism in South Africa.
(c) That the maximum unity can only be achieved in the actual conduct of the struggle, provided that the struggle is an independent one, free from the influence of the ideas of an enemy class, and has a principled base and a correct policy.
(a) That a nation-wide organization uncer. a central command is essential for the waging of a protracted struggle for liberation.
This means that the numerous organizations must be brought under one leadership. A national political organization, like an army, has its strategy and its tactics, which must be synchronised and put into operation under a single unified command. If this is not done, anarchy will reign, with frustration, disillusionment and wastage of human life following in its trial,
It should be added here that within the country itself, contrary to the beliefs abroad, there.exists today far greater unity amongst the oppressed people of South Africa than there has been since the crisis of 1935, when all the African organizations of that time came together and decided to create the federal organization, the All-African Convention, as the mouthpiece of the African people.
Neo-Colonialism the Danger
In conclusion, we feel that it is a matter of great urgency to point out that the struggle in South Africa has reached a critical stage which might decide the course of events and the fate of our people for a long time to come,
We ask the independent States in the continent of Africa who are committed to the assistance of their brothers in the South,. to make a careful study of the complex situation in our country and to give us such assistance as will save us from ‘the fate of NEO- —-: COLONIALISM,
The decisions taken by them at the Addis Ababa Conference
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have far-reaching implications. It is for this very reason that we would urge that a full understanding of our complex political problems is of: paramount - importance. —
It is ‘within the power of the independent States of Africa to give such assistance it might be used to land us in the quagmire of neo-colonialism.
It is equally within their power to assist in putting the struggle of the oppressed people of South Africa on the road leading to true independence, a road that leads to political liberty and freedom from want. It is a road that leads to the achievement of that society where there will be no. exploitation of man by man, a society in which every man and woman shall have the opportunity to Gevelop his or her potentialities to the utmost, oe The people of South Africa cry out for aid and support from their brothers. They need it urgently. Time is running out.
"There is a tide in the affairs of men,
which, taken at the flood, leads on to fortune,
“omitted, all the voyage :of their life
is bound in shallows and in miseries.
PRESENTED, BY:
IB, Tabata, President of the
African. People's Democratic Union
of Southern Africa and leader of
the delegation.
Soo Ne Honono, President of the All-.
~ African Convention,. . me | a 0. Miss-J. Gool, Chairman of the
co Working Committee of the
Non-European Unity Movement.
November, 1963.
ALLEN SENTENCED FOR