December Conference- 1943
When the All African Convention held its Conference in Bloemfontein, on the 16th and 17th December, 1943, the pivotal point round which its discussions revolved was the question of unity. It had to deal first with the unity within the African section itself and thereafter the larger unity, the unity of all Non-Europeans.
Now concurrently with the sessions of the All African Convention, the African National Congresswas holding its Conference, also in Bloemfontein. The rank and file of Congress raised the question: Why are our leaders keeping us apart? Why are we holding two different conferences? The people were demanding unity and they could not understand why the Congress should be holding a separate conference while the other African organisations in the federal body, the All African Convention, were discussing the same problems of oppression a few yards away. This protest from the floor resulted in the drawing up of a resolution to the effect that the All African Convention should be asked to form a select committee of ten to meet ten representatives from Congress with a view to discussing unity between the two bodies. The All African Convention agreed to this and the special committee met on the 16th December. After a lengthy discussion "the final decision arrived at by the joint committee by majority vote was that the All African Convention shall be the recognised political mouthpiece of the African people."(Minutes of the A.A.C. Conference, 1943, p. 9.)
When the President of the Convention reported this decision the All African Convention received the news with acclaim and passed the following resolution:
"In view of the decision made at the meeting of the joint delegates of the A.N.C. and the A.A.C. on the previous night of December the 16th, 1943, that the All African Convention shall henceforth be regarded as the official mouthpiece and the Co-ordinating body of the African people;and in order to give effect to this decision so that unity may be achieved in practice and not merely in resolutions, this session of the A.A.C. sitting at Bloemfontein on December the 17th, 1943:
(1) Invites all the branches of the African National Congress which were affiliated from the inception of Convention up to 1941 to re-affiliate to the All African Convention.
(2) Invites the African National Congress to affiliate to the All African Convention.
(3) Urges the African National Congress in the name of unity to come back to the All African Convention so that the unity that was demonstrated in 1935 and continued to 1941 should be recovered and improved upon."
This done, the All African Convention proceeded to deal with the question of the larger unity of the Non-Europeans as a whole. This found its place against the background of a full discussion on the present political situation in South Africa, the disastrous effects of the policy of "divide and rule"and the magnitude of the tasks facing the Non-Europeans. Finally it adopted a long resolution rejecting the policy of trusteeship and the Hertzog Acts. It was a resolution which breathed the spirit of the "Clarion Call."We quote the last section (8) to indicate the direction in which the Convention was moving:
"The Convention is firmly convinced that just as the division of the people into masters and servants serves only a small White ruling-class, so the division of the oppressed themselves (Africans, Coloureds and Indians) serves only this small ruling class, against the interests of the country as a whole and also the majority of its people. The first step to overcome these artificially fostered divisions and to bring harmony and goodwill amongst all the people, is the unity of all oppressed peoples of South Africa.
"The Convention therefore welcomes the Executive Committee's invitation to the two other Non-European groups and expresses satisfaction at the presence of the fraternal delegations as the guests of Convention.
"Furthermore, it resolves to send a representative delegation to the Conference of all the Non-European sections, which is to take place in Bloemfontein after the conclusion of this session of Convention, and to take whatever steps are necessary for the laying of a solid foundation for Unity of all Non-Europeans in their just struggle against all oppression and discrimination.''
Thus the All African Convention took the first practical steps in calling the Non-European Unity Movement into being.
Preliminary Unity Conference, December, 17th, 1943
In response to the call of the All African Convention a Conference was held on the 17th December, 1943, immediately after the Conference of the A.A.C., for the purpose of discussing the unity of all the Non-European sections. The Coloured people were represented by delegates from their federal body, the National Anti-C.A.D.;the Africans by the delegates elected at the Conference of their federal organisation, the All African Convention. The delegates from the South African Indian Congressrepresentative of the Indian section failed to turn up. The secretary, however, sent a telegram expressing regret that:
"their elected delegates were unable to attend as they were engaged in matters arising out of the Pegging Act. They were, however, in wholeÂhearted agreement with the Unity Movement."(Minutes of 2nd Unity Conference.)
This Conference was regarded as a preliminary one for the purpose of exploring the channels through which unity of all the Non-Europeans could be established. All the decisions taken were to be of a provisional nature pending confirmation by the various groups at their respective conferences. Delegates visualised an all-in Unity Conference in the near future and to this end a provisional committee was formed which would take upon itself the task of preparing for and convening such a Conference.
The main question for discussion was the basis on which such unity should be established. Delegates were of the opinion that simply to come together was not enough. They expressed themselves strongly on the need for placing the struggle on a principled basis, because experience in the past had shown that without such a basis there is always the possibility of one or other section making use of the others for its own benefit. It was emphasised that a loose unity or ad hoc combinations to be decided on from time to time were not acceptable since they would open the door wide for opportunism. It was felt that all sections should agree to bind themselves to certain principles of action. With this in view Conference drew up a programme, containing the minimum demands of a people seeking democratic rights-the 10-Point Programme.
The 10-Point Programme was to constitute the basis of the principled struggle of the Non-European Unity Movement (N.E.U.M.). Conference drew up a comprehensive resolution of 12 clauses. We shall here quote the preamble and clauses 8 and 12, together with the 10-Point Programme:
Extract from draft declaration on unity
"These organisations of the Non-Europeans, which in themselves are not political parties but federal bodies embracing various political, economic and social organisations and parties of all shades of opinion from every walk of life, have met together in Conference at Bloemfontein, 17th Dec., 1943.
After frank and friendly deliberations on questions affecting all Non-Europeans in South Africa, the Conference has come to the following conclusions:-
(8) "The recognition that Segregation is an artificial device of the rulers, and an instrument for the domination of the Non-European, is at the same time a recognition that the division, strife and suspicion amongst the Non-European groups themselves is also artificially fostered by the ruling-class. From this it follows:
(a) That no effective fight against Segregation is possible by people who tacitly accept segregation amongst themselves.
(b) That the acceptance of Segregation, in whatever form, serves only the interests of the oppressors.
(c) -That our fight against Segregation must be directed against the segreÂgationists within as well as without.
(d) That the unity of all the Non-Europeans is a necessary precondition for this total fight against Segregation.
(9) "As representative of the Non-European oppressed people, we have come together in full recognition of the above in order to lay the foundaÂtion for real unity amongst the Non-Europeans. As the purpose of this unity is to fight against Segregation, discrimination and oppression of every kind and to fight for equality and freedom, for all, such a Unity Movement cannot and must not for a moment be considered as directed against the Europeans (an anti-European front). It is an Anti-Segregation front and, therefore, all those European organisations and societies which are genuinely willing to fight Segregation (as distinct from those who profess to be against Segregation but in reality are only instruments of the ruling-class) are welcome to this anti-Segregation Unity Movement.
(12) "In view of the fact that all the disabilities, economic, educational, social and cultural (enumerated above) all flow from the lack of political rights, the struggle for full democratic rights must become the pivotal point of our struggle for freedom. But while recognising that our struggle is chiefly a political struggle, we must not neglect any other form of struggle so long as it serves the cause of liberation. Thus it is the duty of every organisation attached to this Unity Movement to unfold to the people the meaning of the following programme, a programme not for bargaining but for representing the minimum demands and fundamental needs of all sections of the people.
10-Point Programme
1. "The FRANCHISE, i.e. the right of every man and woman over the age of 21 to elect and be elected to Parliament, Provincial Council and all other Divisional and Municipal Councils.
(This means the end of all political tutelage, of all communal or indirect representation, and the granting to all Non-Europeans of the same universal, equal, direct and secret ballot as at present enjoyed by Europeans exclusively.)
2. "Compulsory, free and uniform education for all children up to the age of 16, with free meals, free books and school equipment for the needy. (This means the extension of all the educational rights at present enjoyed by European children, to all Non-European children, with the same access to higher education on equal terms.)
3. "Inviolability of person, of one's house and privacy. (This is the elementary Habeas Corpus right. The present state of helpÂlessness of the Non-European before the police is an outrage of the principles of democracy. No man should be molested by the police, nor should his house be entered without a writ from the magistrate. The same right to inviolability and privacy at present enjoyed by the European should apply to all Non-Europeans. All rule by regulations should be abolished.)
4. "Freedom of speech, press, meetings and association. (This means the abolition of the Riotous Assemblies Act, directed specifiÂcally against the Non-European. It embodies the right to combine, to form and enter Trade Unions on the same basis as Europeans.)
5. "Freedom of movement and occupation. (This means the abolition of all Pass Laws and restriction of movement and travel within the Union;the right to live, to look for work wherever one pleases. It means the same right to take up a profession or trade as enjoyed by Europeans.)
6. "Full equality of rights for all citizens without distinction of race, colour or sex.
(This means the abolition of all discriminatory Colour Bar laws.)
7. "Revision of the land question in accordance with the above. (The relations of serfdom at present existing on the land must go, together with the Land Acts, together with the restrictions upon acquiring land. A new division of the land in conformity with the existing rural population, living on the land and working the land, is the first task of a democratic State and Parliament.)
8. "Revision of the civil and criminal code in accordance with the above. (This means the abolition of feudal relations in the whole system of justice -police, magistrates, law-courts and prisons-whereby the punishment for the same crime is not the same, but is based upon the skin-colour of the offender. There must-be complete equality of all citizens before the law and the abolition of all punishment incompatible with human dignity.)
9. "Revision of the system of taxation in accordance with the above. (This means the abolition of the Poll-tax or any other tax applicable specifically to the Non-European, or discrimination between Europeans and Non-Europeans. There should be one, single, progressive tax and all inÂdirect taxation that falls so heavily upon the poorer classes should be abolished.
10. "Revision of the labour legislation and its application to the mines and agriculture.
(This means specifically the revision of the Industrial Conciliation and Wage Acts, the elimination of all restrictions and distinctions between the European worker and a Non-European worker, equal pay for equal work, equal access to Apprenticeship and skilled labour. This means the liquidaÂtion of indentured labour and forcible recruitment, the full application of Factory legislation to the mines and on the land. It means .the abolition of the Masters and Servants Act and the establishment of complete equality between the seller and buyer of labour. It also means the abolition of payment in kind, and the fixing of a minimum wage for all labourers without distinction of race or colour.)"
Along the new road
In the following year, under the pressure of events and with the mounting tide of discontent amongst the people, the All African Convention "Executive Committee met in Johannesburg on the 7th July (1944) and issued a Statement: "Along The New Road."We shall quote extensively from it because it clearly formulates the ideas of the Convention during this period. At the same time it reflects the mood of the people.
Extracts from the Statement: "ALONG THE NEW ROAD."
"Just over six months have passed since we met in Bloemfontein. It was there that we took several important decisions. We decided to turn away from the old road of passivity to the new road of leadership. We totally rejected the policy of segregation and we agreed upon the road of Unity with the other Non-European groups. Without doubt these were very important and very good decisions. But when we turn to look at the practical steps taken to apply these decisions and to translate them into action we have no cause to be satisfied with ourselves. We have not followed up these decisions with the necessary vigour and drive. Our attitude has rather been one of waiting, and the people's enthusiasm and hope after the last Convention has begun to sag. While the people' everywhere are on the move, while the militancy of the masses is rising everywhere, we wait, we hesitate to give the lead. But the plight of the people is such that they cannot afford to wait. Things are not improving, they are deteriorating, and the people are becoming desperate.
"During these six months the ruling class has not been hesitant. It has been very active indeed-forging new chains for us. These six months have seen the final dashing to the ground of the hopes of those who still clung so pathetically to the belief in a 'change of heart' on the part of the rulers. In an unmistakable way we have been finally shown, not only in words but also in deeds, that the Atlantic Charter applies only to the White man. No four freedoms for the Non-European! Only the old bonds of slavery called by four different names: 'trusteeship', 'segregation', 'separation', 'development on his own lines'."
The statement went on to point out that, while false promises had been made during the war, the present session of Parliament was busy tightening up all measures against the Africans. There was the proposal to extend the Pass system, to the Cape Province;there was wholesale imprisonment under the Pass Law;there were evictions, expropriation of land, deportations.
"In short,"the Statement continued, "this session of Parliament was an eye-opener to those who have been wearing blinkers up to now. The way in which the Minister, van der Byl, openly admitted the sinister nature of the three Slavery Acts, especially the Land Act of 1936 . . . the way in which the new Native Laws Amendment Bill was brought in to drive the urbanised African from the towns into the farms, closing every loophole of escape from the forced labour system on the mines and farms . . . All this must surely have torn off the blinkers.
"And now after this most revealing session of the rulers' Parliament, what was our reply? What should it have been? In reply to the outrages and the intolerable conditions imposed by the three so-called 'Native' Laws, there have been minor revolts, protests and demonstrations. But all these were sporadic, unco-ordinated and ill-prepared. We sympathise wholeÂheartedly with the people of Pietersburg who were forced to defy the inhuman laws and regulations. We sympathise and associate ourselves with the African teachers in their public protests and demonstrations. We sympathise with the workers who were forced to strike against the intolerable conditions of labour and wages. We sympathise and associate ourselves with each and every protest and demonstration against the Pass Laws, but at the same time we consider that all this energy and activity should be co-ordinated into one political field and not dissipated in sporadic outbursts, now here, now there, without hope of success.
"At a great meeting of protest against the Pass Laws, a motion of no confidence in the Minister of Native Affairs was carried unanimously. This is all very well and without doubt expresses the view of every African (except a few chiefs who addressed him recently as the father of our people.) But why only in the Minister of Native Affairs? As if it was only Mr. van der Byl who is responsible for our oppression. No. In our opinion this is incorrect. It is not merely this particular Minister who deserves our vote of no confidence, for he is but the executor of the Government's policy. It is in the Government as a whole that we have no confidence. And as long as this government, or any other which may take its place, bases its policy on segregation and trusteeship, denying us full citizenship rights, full representation in the political, economic and cultural life of our country-so long will it not have our confidence.
"Yet this no-confidence in the Government, based as it is on our irreconÂcilable opposition to and rejection of the segregation policy, will remain an empty gesture if all we do is to adopt a pious resolution to this effect, while in practice we participate in working these very same laws that destroy the vitals of our economic and national life. We are convinced that the continuation of this policy will lead to the utter ruination, physical and mental, of our people. From this it follows that we must fight against this policy with all the means at our disposal. At this juncture the only weapon we possess is Non-collaboration. . . . . .
"As a first practical step we feel very strongly that the Africans who serve on the Native Representative Council would be doing a signal service to the African people if they resigned en bloc. We must uncompromisingly reject the sham representation. Let the people know that we are voiceless. For we ARE voiceless. Why then should we give the rulers a cover for our oppression and rightlessness, by this make-believe? Why should we feed our own people the illusion that we have representation? Seven years of the N.R.C. ('giving it a trial') have shown the utter uselessness of this sham council. After 1936 some of our leaders might have honestly believed in the fairy tales nurtured by the rulers-that now the three Bills were passed the 'danger' from the African had disappeared and the European would show a change of heart, since he would have nothing to fear, and an era of reforms would begin. Then, too, there were other leaders who believed that we had reached the limits of oppression and there would be no more repressive measures. But this session has proved the fallacy of these illusions.
"No one can have any illusions about the N.R.C. after this session. And if the members of the N.R.C. are true to their people, if they have the interests of the people at heart, they should not hesitate a moment longer;they should refuse to serve as a shield for the rulers, to serve as an instruÂment of oppression. They should resign en bloc. There must be a parting of the ways: either with the people against the Government, against the oppressors, or with the government against the people. The appeal, the demand of the Convention should go out to all the elected members of the N.R.C. to resign collectively .and immediately. Should a few refuse to serve the interests of the people, the rest must expose them before the people and show where they belong . . . . . .
"Naturally our rejection of this sham representation and our refusal to work these Native Acts does not stop with the N.R.C. We reject just as emphatically the sham of our "representation"in Parliament: three EuroÂpeans to "represent"six and a half million Africans, while two million Europeans are represented by 150 people. No matter who these three may be, however able they may be, they remain 3 against 150. Even if they were 10 or 20 against 150 we would still be in the same position as we are to-day. They may speak to their heart's delight, but whether there are 150 or 50 in the House nobody takes any notice of what they say. The policy and decisions of the rulers are not affected one iota by what the "Native Representatives"say. Indeed, the rulers are pleased with the show, with the pretence that the Africans are represented. The "Native RepresentaÂtives "themselves admit the uselessness and futility of this sham of repreÂsentation : 'It seems at times useless for us to speak or plead . . . but when we get up against the main issues, the main question of the Natives in the country we are up against a blank wall and our position seems to be hopeless. "(Senate Debates.)
"Dare anyone maintain that after seven years of this kind of 'represenÂtation' the lot of the African is better than it was? No! Even the "repreÂsentatives"themselves admit the opposite: We are going down, physically and materially, and this 'representation' has not been capable of slowing down this process, let alone stop it. Poverty is grinding down the African. But poverty is the result of our voicelessness, of our lack of rights, our lack or representation, real representation. It is because of our lack of political rights that we have no land, that we have no place on the land or in the towns;that we have to slave on the mines for two shillings a day or on the farms for ten shillings a month;that we have to live in hovels and pondokkies, in dirt and squalor, so that typhus and other diseases are mowing down our people;that we have no sanitation or adequate medical facilities, and no milk for our children;that one baby out of every two dies before it is a year old and the majority of those who grow up receive no education nor can they enter a trade or profession. All this will go on as long as we are deprived of our political rights.
"But we cannot even begin to fight for political rights as long as we maintain this sham representation . . . Enough of this farce of trusteeship! The plea of the rulers that the time is not yet ripe for giving the African his rights and freedom, that he must be treated like a child and a minor, that he is not yet ready for civilisation and is still 'slowly emerging from barbarism'-this is already a hundred years old. To-day, unlike our foreÂfathers, we know that it is their deliberate policy not to let the African become civilised and to deny him education;not to let him buy land or become a settled peasant on the land and to prevent him also from becoming a permanent town-dweller, from becoming a skilled artisan and from formÂing, trade unions. In short it is their deliberate policy to debar him from civilisation and then shout: 'He is not yet ripe for civilisation!' All this while they were destroying his customs, traditions and way of life, ruthÂlessly destroying his economy, his family and his moral codes, shattering them by the impact of a capitalist economy and capitalist greed for profit and power.
"The African was good enough, useful enough as a means of building civilisation in South Africa. He was good enough to build the towns and railways, the harbours and roads, the mines and the factories, the power-stations and the dams, the vineyards and the orchards, the telephones and the telegraphs and everything that makes a country civilised. But he is not good enough to enjoy the fruits of that civilisation which he has built by his labour. He must be pushed back to his tribalism, even if it is already destroyed. He must be kept in slavery because he is "not ripe "for civilisation. 'It is no good giving a Native land,' they say, 'because he ruins it . It is no use giving him higher wages, because he just squander it . . .'
"And so the farce of a few assigned Liberals pleading for reforms meets with the same reply year after year: 'The time is not yet ripe' . . . 'The time may never come.' That is the crux of the matter. It was and is and ever will remain the aim of the ruling-class to use the African as one uses a tool to build civilisation, but never to allow him access to this civilisaÂtion which he has built . . .
"If we continue with this farce of 'Native Representation,' which is worse than no representation at all;if we continue to cover up the sham debates on this and that grievance and continue with indecision, internal squabbling and failure to unite and organise our people and all Non-Europeans, 'the time may never come'. It is not at all a matter of the number of our 'representatives' (three or ten or twenty), nor of isolated outrages such as those at Pietersburg, Molepo, Siboto and Makoba Location, or of this or that oppressive law-even the Pass Law-but of one gigantic outrage against eight million people, an outrage known as segregation and trusteeship.
"It is against this gigantic outrage that we have to concentrate the unified political activity of our people. It falls, therefore, upon the All African Convention to translate into action our resolutions:
1. Totally rejecting the Segregation policy.
2. Turning from the road of passivity to the new road of active leadership and
3. Of Unity with the other sections of the Non-Europeans.
"We have now outlined the immediate policy to be followed in connection with the resolutions. But this is not enough. Our political policy cannot be brought to full fruition unless our organisational and educational activity keeps pace with it. They are interdependent. Without firmly established provincial, district and local centres of the All African Convention, with firm roots and widely-spread branches, we can neither enlighten the people, not inform them, nor unify them. Nobody will do this important work but we ourselves. There is no time to be lost. Enough of this indecision. Enough of this hesitation and waiting. The people are waiting for enlightenment. The people are waiting for a lead. Let us do our duty. Only then will we have a right to ask the people to do theirs. "
Here, in the document quoted above, one recognises a new tone, firm and unequivocal, a new language, dear and outspoken, new ideas and a new consciousness. One might even say this was a new people. Yes, a new people. What a difference between the clear formulation of tasks, the knowledge of where they stood and where they were going, which characterize's this docuÂment, and the nebulousness of resolutions in the past! The people who had tried to resist the 1913 Land Act were then slaves in a colonial country, slaves in mind and body. They could think only of sending deputations to London to plead their cause-slaves humbly begging for justice from their imperial masters. The people who had come together to fight the Hertzog Bills in 1935 had passed brave but nebulous resolutions indicative of their groping efforts, albeit in the right direction. But there was still a great deal of confusion, for they were still tied to the Liberals. The leaders had run hither and thither seeking help from the "friends of the Africans "-and found the notorious "Compromise. "
But now, by 1943 - 44, there has been a transformation. The people have broken loose from the ties that bound them to the Liberals and their influence, which had so long stifled their thinking and retarded their growth. They had thrown off the slave habit of mind and emerged from political tutelage. They were entering on a new road untrammelled by the ideological influences of the oppressor-class and they were exercising a new-found intellectual freedom, an independence of thought, which enabled them to formulate clearly their position, their tasks and the methods they must adopt in the struggle.
When the Conference of the All African Convention met in December, 1944, it had far-reaching decisions to make. It had before it the Statement of the Executive Committee: "Along the New Road."This was thoroughly discussed and its implications carefully analysed, for the delegates realised that it marked the first step along the new path of struggle. It was finally accepted. Next they had to discuss a report from the delegates who had represented Convention at the Preliminary Unity Conference the previous year, where the 10-Point Programme had been put forward as the basis of struggle of all Non-Europeans. ConvenÂtion whole-heartedly endorsed the decisions of the Unity ConÂference. It passed a resolution adopting the 10-Point Programme, finding it "the clearest expression of the needs and aspirations of every section of the people."The Resolution further stated:
"It finds in the 10-Point Programme the foundation upon which the Unity of all Non-Europeans can be built. It finds that only the realisation of the 10-Point Programme can bring about a true democracy in South Africa, can bring peace and security to all the people of our country and terminate the strife and division."
Conference also resolved:
"to call upon all the members of the Native Representative Council (N.R.C.) to tender collectively and, if possible, together with the Parliamentary representatives, their resignations. "
What comes out of all the resolutions and documents of the A.A.C. during the period of 1943-44 is that there is a sharp break with the past. What emerges can be expressed under a number of points: (a) the rejection of the inferiority of the Black man and (b) the claim for full equality;(c) the clear formulation of the tasks facing the oppressed and consequently (d) the evolving of new methods of struggle.
Once the African people had sloughed off the slavish attitude of mind and begun to recognise themselves as men and women endowed in all respects with the same capabilities, the same human needs and desires shared by all humanity whatever its race or colour, it was inevitable that they should apply this new outlook to their politics. To claim full equality was necessarily to reject the policy of trusteeship and segregation. A man could not be an equal and an inferior at one and the same time. The policy of trusteeship flowed from the idea of the inferiority of the Black man and this dictated the creation of special segregatory institutions for a "child-race ": the Bungas, the Location Advisory Boards and the Native Representative Council. It also led to the creation of special departments of state, such as the Native Affairs Department which deals separately with matters affecting' the Africans;the special Education Advisory Board for "Native Education ", segregatory schools, separate inferior education, etc.-in a word, everything that is synonymous with inferiority.
All these the African people had to reject and they did so emphatically. Having turned their back on trusteeship they proceeded to stake their claims as equal members of the South African State. This they did in the 10-Point Programme, a programme which was at the same time to guide them and determine the method of struggle. It was to constitute a principled basis of struggle. With a new-found political clarity they went straight to the core of their social and economic disabilities, namely, the lack of political rights. Their very first demand on the 10-Point Programme was for full democratic rights. Moreover, they were able to view the struggle in its entirety. Every single disability affecting now one section and now another of the Africans was seen as part and parcel of a single system of oppression. Further than that, every piece of legislation, every ordinance or regulation against any section of the Non-Europeans was seen as falling into place in a unified system of laws designed for their enslavement. Oppression was recognised as being indivisible. Recognition of this fact led to the further recognition, i.e. the imperative necessity for the unification of the struggle.
This unification was a concept with far-reaching implications. It meant not only the unification "of the struggles within each racial group, but also the unification of the struggles of the oppressed as a whole. It meant that in every centre, be it urban or rural, in districts however remote, the people could carry on their struggle in the knowledge that it was dynamically connected with the general struggle of the oppressed. The specific issues facing the people in different parts of the country were dealt with in accordance with a unified policy.
Thus 1943 - 44 ushered in a new period, with its new outlook and new methods of struggle. The Movement was launched on a principled basis. It will be recalled that in the past people had been guided more by their allegiance to this or that particular leader-whithersoever he might lead them-than by allegiance to a principle. Leaders themselves, lacking sheet-anchor, were often prone to follow the path of opportunism. Now principles replaced opportunism and leadership replaced individual leaders.