{"id":1237,"date":"2015-05-10T20:56:15","date_gmt":"2015-05-10T19:56:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/english.lycee.nl\/?page_id=1237"},"modified":"2015-05-10T21:24:04","modified_gmt":"2015-05-10T20:24:04","slug":"part-three","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/mrglackin.eu\/?page_id=1237","title":{"rendered":"part three: protest and resistance"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Nelson Mandela&amp;apos;s Life Story\" width=\"500\" height=\"375\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/jgQBoXsxr8w?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>3. Protest and Resistance<\/strong><br \/>\n<em>During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of\u00a0<\/em><em>the African people. I have fought against white domination, and\u00a0<\/em><em>I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the\u00a0<\/em><em>ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live\u00a0<\/em><em>together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal\u00a0<\/em><em>which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an\u00a0<\/em><em>ideal for which I am prepared to die.<\/em><br \/>\n<strong>Nelson Mandela, Statement from the Dock, 1964<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2007\/apr\/23\/nelsonmandela\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/world\/2007\/apr\/23\/nelsonmandela<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Intensification of repressive, discriminatory laws and practices\u00a0under segregation and apartheid prompted growing black protest and resistance.\u00a0Early African political movements, most notably the African National Congress (founded in 1912\u00a0and known also as the ANC or \u201cCongress\u201d), emphasized a strategy of peaceful constitutional\u00a0protest to try to incorporate Africans more fully into colonial society.<br \/>\nIn its first protests, the ANC demanded equal rights and justice for all and presented a\u00a0petition to stop the 1913 Natives\u2019 Land Act. When South African authorities rejected their<br \/>\nappeals for justice, the ANC mounted several unsuccessful delegations to Britain. These<br \/>\ndelegations were their last resorts, for South Africa\u2019s highest appeal was to the British Crown.<br \/>\nImperial petitions proved futile, however. But after the Act of Union in 1910 and then Dominion\u00a0status in the 1930s, South Africa was free to build a government on white supremacy and\u00a0racism. Indeed, the central point of the Peace of Vereeniging, which ended the South African\u00a0War in 1902, was an agreement by Britain with the Boers Afrikaners; \u201cboer\u201d literally means\u00a0\u201cfarmer\u201d in Dutch) that white people would rule South Africa.<br \/>\nHardening racism in South Africa and the rise of anti-colonial nationalism elsewhere in Africa\u00a0and Asia modified ANC leaders\u2019 faith in respectful delegations and polite petitions. Alternative\u00a0ideologies &#8211; African nationalism, communism, and Garveyism &#8211; spread rapidly but unevenly\u00a0in South Africa during the 1920s. These ideologies were more readily subscribed to by younger,\u00a0newer members of the ANC, who were more likely to be radical teachers or workers as opposed\u00a0to relatively more privileged, conservative chiefs and established kholwa (Christian) elites. With\u00a0this changing class composition, the ANC began to shift its tactics. During economic crises\u00a0following World War I and in the depression years of the late 1920s and early 1930s, some\u00a0provincial branches of the ANC took part in more radical protests such as mass\u00a0demonstrations and burning passes.<br \/>\nBy the 1950s, with growing industrialization and the urbanization of Africans, the ANC began\u00a0attracting a large number of black workers.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The 1949 ANC Program of Action<\/strong> was a watershed in ANC history: it stated that the ANC\u2019s aim\u00a0was self-determination and \u201cnational freedom from White domination and the attainment of\u00a0political independence [which] implies the rejection of the conception of segregation,\u00a0apartheid, or white leadership.\u201d The new program embraced African nationalism\u2014a movement\u00a0of solidarity among African nations that fought for rights for black people, and thus against white\u00a0supremacy. It was championed by the Congress Youth League, formed in the 1940s and led by\u00a0Anton Lembede, Nelson Mandela, and Oliver Tambo. The 1949 Program of Action also adopted\u00a0more militant forms of protest, including \u201cimmediate and active boycott, strike, civil\u00a0disobedience, and non-co-operation,\u201d and stressed the need to organize African workers into\u00a0unions.<br \/>\nThe ANC\u2019s and other organizations\u2019 emphasis on non-racialism is enshrined in the seminal\u00a0document of the liberation movement:<strong> the Freedom Charter (1955)<\/strong>. It asserts that South Africa\u00a0belongs to all who live in it. The Charter came to represent ANC policies over the next four\u00a0decades. It grew out of a widespread campaign to collect the people\u2019s proposals for\u00a0alternatives to apartheid. From meetings organized across the country, people sent in ideas for\u00a0a democratic South Africa. The Congress of the People, held on June 26, 1955 in Kliptown,\u00a0near Johannesburg, adopted the Charter, which stated that \u201conly a democratic state, based on\u00a0the will of all the people, can secure to all their birthright without distinction of colour, race,\u00a0sex or belief.\u201d A strong constitutional element was discernable: \u201cAll Shall be Equal Before the\u00a0Law!\u201d and \u201cAll Shall Enjoy Equal Human Rights!\u201d Inclusiveness was evident in the demand that\u00a0\u201cAll National Groups Shall Have Equal Rights!\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">Demands for land reform, educational reform, and economic opportunity also were strongly\u00a0articulated in the Freedom Charter, which represented more radical socialist views. The latter\u00a0were seen in these demands: \u201cThe People Shall Share in the Country&#8217;s Wealth!\u201d and \u201cThe\u00a0mineral wealth beneath the soil, the Banks and monopoly industry shall be transferred to the\u00a0ownership of the people as a whole.\u201d The government used these statements to ascribe\u00a0communist influence to the movement and arrested 156 leaders of the Alliance. They were\u00a0charged with high treason, and 30 of these leaders endured a four-and-a-half-year Treason\u00a0Trial, which ended in their acquittal.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\">The apartheid government repeatedly met peaceful protests with violent repression. Bannings,\u00a0detentions, and harassment of liberation movement leaders and activists became\u00a0commonplace. The most brutal example of repression from this period was the Sharpeville\u00a0Massacre of March 21, 1960, when policemen killed at least sixty-nine defenseless people\u2014\u00a0many of whom were shot in the back\u2014during a peaceful demonstration against pass laws. In\u00a0the immediate aftermath of Sharpeville, the apartheid government declared a State of\u00a0Emergency and banned the ANC and PAC.<br \/>\nForced underground, the ANC and its allies adopted new tactics. Most significantly, the<br \/>\nmovements launched a campaign of armed struggle. In December 1961, Mandela became the\u00a0commander-in-chief of the ANC\u2019s new armed wing: Umkhonto We Sizwe (\u201cSpear of the Nation,\u201d\u00a0or MK).<br \/>\nBut within two years, the apartheid government had arrested Mandela and other anti-apartheid\u00a0leaders. The Rivonia Trial of 1963-64 featured an eloquent and well-publicized speech by\u00a0Mandela on the primacy of democratic values in challenging apartheid. However, in 1964,\u00a0Mandela, together with seven other Congress Alliance Members were found guilty of treason\u00a0and imprisoned for life. All were sent to prison on Robben Island, the notorious penitentiary\u00a0where a large number of people involved in the anti-apartheid movement were sent.<br \/>\nThe life stories of ordinary people, like those of resistance leaders, illustrate vividly how<br \/>\npeople coped with racial oppression, fought for freedom, and worked to develop democracy.\u00a0For instance, township residents resisted apartheid through bus boycotts and by participating\u00a0actively in a vibrant popular culture of sport, music and literature, passed on by word of mouth\u00a0or through popular media such as the magazine Drum. In the countryside, Africans also\u00a0challenged white rule, at times resorting to armed resistance, as in the 1960 Poqo Revolt in\u00a0Pondoland.<br \/>\nBlack and even some white women actively resisted apartheid. Women organized vigorous antipass\u00a0demonstrations in the 1950s, and they also protested against government-run beer halls.<br \/>\nAfrican nationalism also found adherents among migrant mineworkers.<br \/>\nHistorians generally see the 1960s as a period of defeat and quiescence of resistance, though\u00a0recent research shows that the ANC underground was far from inactive. Still, the apartheid state\u00a0continued to tighten repressive laws with the 1972 Internal Security Act, which gave police\u00a0powers to detain without trial for a renewable period of ninety days. With these stricter laws, the\u00a0apartheid regime succeeded in repressing most dissent, until in 1973 a series of wildcat labor\u00a0strikes erupted, followed by the youth revolt in 1976, reignited South Africa\u2019s quest for\u00a0freedom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>3. Protest and Resistance During my lifetime I have dedicated myself to this struggle of\u00a0the African people. I have fought against white domination, and\u00a0I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the\u00a0ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live\u00a0together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal\u00a0which I<span class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1237","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrglackin.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrglackin.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrglackin.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrglackin.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mrglackin.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1237"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/mrglackin.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1252,"href":"https:\/\/mrglackin.eu\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1237\/revisions\/1252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mrglackin.eu\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}