THE PEOPLE ACCEPT THE CHALLENGE OF THE NATIONALISTS.
OUR POLITICAL LINE OF ACTION.
Our mass political line of action is inspired by our historic National Conference held at Lobatsi in November last year. The Conference was not significant only because it was fully representative of all the regions of the A.N.C. covering various strata of the African people, but also because of the militancy which characterised it, the impressive attendance of the youth on an unprecedented scale, and the fact that it was our first national conference since the banning of the A.N.C. in 1960.
It gave fullest attention to the strategy and tactics to be used in the new situation. Our New Year message expresses the spirit of the conference in general. This document therefore is not intended to give a profound and detailed analysis of the internal and external situation. It is a guide to our members of the political line of action to be followed during the present period in the year 1963. It is limited to this function particularly because of the grave conditions of illegality under which it is produced.
THE SPIRIT OF REVOLT.
The mass political action will demand that we arouse and raise to new heights the spirit of revolt among the people, against every aspect of white domination. In the situation of the present era, our fundamental aim in the liberatory movement is not just the repeal of individual laws, but also the liquidation of the whole status quo. In other words, our object is the seizure of political power, which is now the prerogative of the white minority. Our demands were clearly formulated by the All-in African Conference at Pietermaritzburg. Whatever political action we take must be seen in the light of these demands, viz. the Convocation of a constituent assembly.
The focal points of our struggle in this period are the pass laws and Bantu Authorities. The notorious Urban Areas Act Amendment Bill now aggravates the already insecure position of the Africans in the country under the pass laws. This Bill, when it becomes law, will complete the alienation process of their birth. The Amendment Bill, the pass laws and Bantu Authorities therefore become the central point of our struggle.
THE STRENGTH OF THE GOVERNMENT.
In our decision to launch a campaign against these measures and to work for seizure of political power by all means at our disposal, we have no illusions, we are aware that the Government is by no means weak. For years it has been consolidating its position of power. It has taken pains to accomplish its target of an army of 60,000 men. The Police Force is being increased, and is being perfected in its efficiency. Measures have been adopted to effect better co-ordination between the army and the police. Various semi-military organisations have been formed all over the country. These include Skiet Commandoes, Vigilance Associations, Police Reserves, Civil Guards, private armies of the Robby Leibrandt type, and women's Pistol Clubs. All these are in battle readiness; the country is in a state of siege. The rulers cynically justify this militarisation of the country in the name of Law and Order. It is clear to us that the fascists are equipping themselves with power in order to crush our resistance, perpetuate the oppression of the Africans, other Non-Whites and all democrats in South Africa.
The Government has equipped itself with enormous political power. It has passed a series of legislation culminating in two of the worst, the Suppression of Communism Act as amended, and the General Laws Amendment Act. With these they have banned political organisations of the people, jailed political leaders, gagged, exiled, banished and house-arrested them. Every conceivable restrictive order has been served on them. In their everyday lives they live in a state of outlawry, and are ever under the surveillance of the police. The crisis is deepening. It will continue to do so.
THE A.N.C. AND THE PEOPLE.
The people are even stronger. They are led by the most trusted and tried organisation, the A.N.C. It remains the one and only vanguard of the oppressed people in this country. The revolutionary mood of the people is growing. The hatred of the policies of this Government by the progressive world is also growing. Our external Mission has done magnificent work in exposing the immoral policies of the Nationalists abroad and in enlisting the sympathy of the democratic world. This is illustrated by the last resolution of the United Nations to impose sanctions on South Africa, by the decisions of the All-in African and PAFMECA conferences, and by the decisions of the Asian Conference. Internal and External situations favour us.
The African people are in the majority. Their common destiny and the unity it foments accord them greater power than that posed by this regime with all its modern weapons of destruction. The people's militancy and contempt for their ruling power assumes immense proportions. The most recent history of our struggle in town and country illustrates this fact.
METHODS OF STRUGGLE.
There are no short cuts in the political struggle. It is not a hit and a miss game. Our struggle today needs a leadership with the profound understanding of issues involved.
It is our duty as a political organisation to warn the masses of the people about certain adventurists who play just on the emotions of the people and take advantage of their desire for freedom, these people deliberately avoid an explanation of what the struggle entails, the people are told that by plunging the country into riots and terrorist acts, freedom will then be achieved and yet those methods can be very costly in life and time.
But it would be a mistake to regard the spontaneous actions of the people as inspired by opportunism of certain leaders. Some of these actions result from Government provocation, the people's patience becomes exhausted and the masses become desperate in the absence of a strong militant organisation. In these circumstances people are likely to resort more and more into senseless dangerous forms of action. If we embark on unplanned and misguided political actions, we are playing into the hands of the enemy. Sharpeville and Langa are still fresh in our memories; the Transkei and Paarl incidents still dominate our present-day politics. We know that in these acts are involved many honest and well-meaning elements of our oppressed people, whose hunger for freedom and desperation in their misery betray them into responding to these misguided calls. Our duty is to understand their motives, guide and direct their actions along the right course. Much as we admire the valour and militancy of the POQO rank and file, we cannot encourage them in their wrong acts, nor shall we refrain from condemning any activity of theirs that is calculated to discredit our struggle and bring ruin to our people.
It is elementary for any general, before going into battle, to analyse the forces for and against him, decide on the most effective and least dangerous course of attack because he wants to finish the battle as effectively in his favour and as rapidly as possible. Similarly in our fight against the Nationalists we must analyse the forces of the enemy and assess our own potential. Our target is simply the Nationalist Government, its supporters, fully-fledged or half-hearted, and all the Government institutions of oppression. In other words we must destroy white supremacy wherever we see it. Any indiscriminate attack will strengthen rather than weaken our enemy, prolong rather than reduce the duration of our struggle, and can have disastrous effects for the whole political movement.
In the changed South African conditions of the struggle, we have the mass political wing of the struggle, spearheaded by the A.N.C. on the one hand, and the specialised military wing, represented by Umkhonto weSizwe on the other. OUR EMPHASIS STILL REMAINS MASS POLITICAL ACTION. The political wing will ever remain the necessary and integral part of the fight. Political agitation is the only way of creating the atmosphere in which military action can most effectively operate. The political front gives sustenance to the military operations. The Umkhonto cannot survive in a sterile political climate. Our primary objective is the conquest of political power, in doing so African Unity is indispensable.
Umkhonto we Sizwe, as the military wing of our struggle is also guided by the same principle of acting only on the basis of scientific analysis of the objective conditions. It must continue this form of approach, not only during its elementary phase of sabotage, but also during the advanced stage of guerrilla warfare.
We once more appeal for unity of all African political organisations genuinely engaged in the struggle for freedom. Together with African Unity, we advocate the policy of a united front of all anti-government African political organisations, organisations of the fellow oppressed Non-whites and all organisations of the progressive anti-Government elements.
In the light of this, we advise the Poqo groups against embarking on adventurous and futile acts of terrorism. Although the use of violence to obtain our political objectives has been sanctioned in South Africa, misguided violence or violence for its sake is undesirable and can be very costly to our people. Under extremely vicious conditions of oppression as we have in South Africa today, the temptation for people to lose their objectivity is strong. We may very well expect that there will be people in the not very far future, who will be spurred by their frustration and bitterness into perpetrating unnecessary and senseless acts of terrorism, ugly from every point of view. We strongly warn against such disastrous actions, they can have the gravest consequences for the movement.
"THE TRANSKEI AND THE WESTERN CAPE ARE THE BATTLE FIELDS.
In their intensification of the pass laws, the implementation of the Bantu Authorities, the removal of Africans from the Western Cape and the introduction of the new bill, the Government have chosen the Western Cape and the Transkei as the battle fields in the fight between their forces of reaction and ours. We accept this challenge without regret.
Their arrogance and contempt for the people's rights have created an intolerable and provocative situation in the Western Cape and the Transkei. The people are hounded like animals in the Cape. Many are outlaws who habitate the mountain and the bush, with no means of earning a livelihood. Others are jailed and deported to destitution in the Transkei where if deemed undesirable they will be detained in jail for months without trial or be deported by some power-drunk quisling chief to a place of his own liking. Still more will be herded into concentration camps, stylishly called "work camps."
These courageous sons and daughters of Africa have resolved to fight for their inalienable right to freedom of movement and to sell their labour to whosoever they will. The people in the Western Cape have lost their patience. They can no longer put up with these evil schemes of the Government, the pass laws in all their variations.
The National Executive, having fully considered the implications of the removal of the Africans from the Western Cape, the full right of its effects on the lives of both old and young, and being convinced of the mood and militancy of the people, calls on the entire country to give its full support and solidarity with the people of the Western Cape, to take up the fight against the pass laws, the Amendment Bill, and Bantu Authorities. It has chosen the Western Cape and the Transkei as the front line in its onslaught on the Government. It has accepted the people's call for the elimination of the passes in whatever form that proves effective.
To do this, we must embark on an extensive and intensive agitational and educational propaganda in town and country, taking up people's issues however small they might appear. In the towns questions of low wages, high rents and the accompanying ejections from houses must be taken up. Other issues include Urban Bantu Councils, Bantu Education, the deportations of people's leaders, bannings of people, house arrests, banishments and other forms of police terror.
The country is equally important. The time has now come for us to adopt a new attitude towards rural areas by watching very closely the developments there and take up their grievances. Peasant committees of migrant workers in the cities and of people in the countryside must be formed promptly to co-ordinate activities. We must fight the culling down of stock, rehabilitation, landlessness, forced removals of people from their generations old homes, the permanent state of emergency in the Transkei, the tyranny people suffer under Verwoerdian chiefs like Matanzima and the mass starvation of the country dwellers while stacks of grain are hopelessly stored because they cannot be sold, at the time butter, milk and bananas prove useless to the farmers who have no markets for them, and are consequently dumped into the sea. The working conditions of teachers have also deteriorated since the advent of Bantu Education. They have lost their independence of thought; instead they are turned into robots who must do what Maree tells them. This scandal to the teaching profession must be taken up as well. No stone must be left unturned in the massive propaganda campaign. All these must be linked up with the central issue, the Urban Areas Act Amendment Bill, the Pass Laws and the Bantu Authorities.
NEW TACTICS IN THE CAMPAIGN.
We have said that in the new situation our attitude has changed. We say an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. Similarly our campaign against the pass laws will not just assume the form of our former routine pass demonstrations and deputations to various officials in gigantic administrative bureaucracy. Neither shall we announce the date on which actions must be taken. If the Western Cape is ready for action, for example, they must go ahead. The other areas must double their pace so that action taken by one area must snowball all over the country.
Also important to note is the fact that passes for women are now compulsory. This means that the anti-pass campaign will be a joint struggle for both men and women. Our volunteers must be put on a war footing.
A PERMANENT CRISIS.
The burning of the passes requires a political crisis, and such a crisis must be built up. We must ensure that the unfolding struggle if it must succeed, must assume a permanent crisis. The people must resist oppression all the time; they must refuse to be governed in the manner the authorities choose to rule them. They must not remain on the defensive, but must take the initiative to attack without giving the rulers time to reflect. A successful campaign against the passes and Bantu Authorities will act as a landslide where the people will score victory, and nothing will stop them from seizing political power.
ORGANISATION.
In view of the hard and arduous struggle that lies ahead of us, we need to pause and assess our own strength and potential. There is no doubt that our organisational machinery does not measure up to the requirement of leading to victory such a trying struggle at the present moment. Even at the time we were operating legally we were not the desired political instrument. There can be no successful struggle without a powerful and efficient political machinery, consisting of the most dedicated, advanced and trusted elements. The building of such an organisation becomes our immediate task.
This necessitates a change in the character of our activities, in keeping with the changes in the national situation. First and foremost, we must call for a greater unity among our members-leaders and rank and file. We must halt vilification, mischief, gossip and factionalism. Our members must be absolutely reliable. They must be apt to any changes in the political environment and be able to make quick decisions and act on them meticulously and accurately.
The basis of our organisation is the M. Plan. By this we mean that in every region, area or street or wherever there are African people, if we do not have a seven men committee, we must at least have an adequate contact. We must guard against being mechanical and dogmatic in our implementation of the blueprint. We must adapt it to the peculiarities of our individual areas, in a manner that will ensure our effective control and influence over the African in every region.
YOUTH AND VOLUNTEERS.
An effective organisation will depend on two things, a strong core of youth and volunteers. The type of volunteers we have in mind are those of the defiance campaign, perhaps even of a higher quality but certainly not less.
In every war in every country, the youth has always been in the forefront. It is the cream of the fighting force. Any organisation whose programme does not appeal to the youth has very little chance of success. Similarly our volunteers can never be equal to the task if they consist only of older and senile men. They could only be effective if they are drawn mostly from the ranks of the youth.
The women equally take an important place in our liberatory movement. Their role is not important only because it accords them an opportunity to take their rightful place of equality with every one in society, but also because they are an indispensable section of our population in the fight for freedom. Attempts must be made for our ideas to infiltrate into every women's organisation, and the Federation of South African women must be strengthened, and the organisations affiliated to the latter, which do not yet support or sympathise with our ideas, must be infused with them.
WORKER'S POLITICAL CONSCIOUSNESS.
Also important in the forthcoming campaign and in all our struggles is the building of workers' organisations and trade unions, and the heightening of the political consciousness of the workers. We must champion their economic issues, high wages, trade union rights and better working conditions. We must inculcate in their minds the feeling of working class solidarity. Their awareness of their economic strength and their ability to demonstrate it are necessary for our major campaign.
ACCURATE REPORTS.
We have always stressed that our members must give accurate and honest reports about any situation. They must be direct, precise and to the point. We must try not to read our own desires and meanings into them. Reports, on which we base our assessments of the situation, can if incorrect, bring about the gravest consequences for the entire liberatory movement.
A grim period is unfolding, as our campaign unfolds and gains momentum the greater will be the torture and onslaught of the Nationalists. The Government will certainly be more ruthless than it has been; it already considers itself at war and is fighting a desperate battle. Every European citizen has been called to defend white supremacy. Whites have been called upon to sacrifice not only time and money but life itself.
It would be criminal on our part not to prepare the Africans throughout the country on a similar scale. No one can afford to be neutral in this situation. We can no longer afford a luxurious life. Every family in every part of the country must adjust itself and make up its mind about the role it must play. The times have changed, we must make only one call, WE DEMAND FREEDOM OR DEATH, there can be no middle course.