M. P. Naicker
I. PLAN OF THE CAMPAIGN
The ANC presented the plan to its 39th Annual Conference held in Bloemfontein from December 15 to 17, 1951. Adopting the report of the Joint Planning Council, the
Conference decided to embark, in 1952, on mass national action, based on non-co- operation, against certain specified unjust and racially discriminatory laws of the Union Government, unless these laws were repealed before March 1, 1952. The Conference in the course of a lengthy public statement on this historic decision stated:
"All people, irrespective of the national group they belong to and irrespective of the colour of their skin, who have made South Africa their home, are entitled to live a full and free life.
"Full democratic rights with direct say in the affairs of the government are the inalienable right of every South African - a right which must be realised now if South Africa is to be saved from social chaos and tyranny and from the evils arising out of the existing denial of the franchise of vast masses of the population on the grounds of race and colour.
"The struggle which the national organisations of the non-European people are conducting is not directed against any race or national group. It is against the unjust laws which keep in perpetual subjection and misery vast sections of the population. It is for the creation of conditions which will restore human dignity, equality and freedom to every South African."
The Conference also decided that Union-wide meetings and demonstrations of protest be organised on April 6, 1952, the 300th anniversary of white settlement in South Africa as a prelude to the launching of the Campaign of Defiance of Unjust Laws.
Indian Congress Pledges Support
Following close on the decision of the ANC to make 1952 a year of political action against unjust laws, the South African Indian Congress met in conference in
Johannesburg from January 25 to 27, 1952, to discuss the report of the Joint Planning Council.
Appealing for unity to implement the plan of defiance of unjust laws adopted by the African National Congress, Dr. S. M. Molema, the ANC’s Treasurer General, told the conference of the Indian Congress:
"Only so long as the white man can succeed in making us believe that non-European destinies are
antagonistic or incompatible will he succeed in
destroying us one by one. If we realise the identity of our lot and combine to do relentless battle for
our legitimate and common rights of life and liberty, we shall save ourselves and our children, and no power on earth can prevent our success."
The response of the Conference, after lengthy deliberations, was a unanimous vote in favour of joining the ANC in the Campaign of Defiance of Unjust Laws.
Correspondence Between the Congresses and the Prime Minister
With the Indian Congress totally committed to the campaign and the Franchise Action Council pledging support for the demonstrations planned for April 6, the African
National Congress addressed a letter to Dr. D.F. Malan, the Prime Minister. The letter, signed by Dr. J.S. Moroka and Walter Sisulu, President General and Secretary General respectively of the ANC, drawing attention to the aims and objects of the Congress, called for the repeal of the laws enumerated in its 39th Conference resolution, "by not later than the 29th day of February 1952, failing which the African National Congress will hold protest meetings and demonstrations on April 6 as a prelude to the
implementation of the plan for the defiance of unjust laws."
With characteristic arrogance, Mr. A. Camp, Private Secretary to Dr. Malan, in a letter dated January 9, 1952, rejecting the demands of the ANC, rebuked the Congress for having written to him directly rather than to the Minister of Native Affairs to whom, according to the Prime Minister, such correspondence was usually addressed by the ANC.
In obvious reference to the growth of a new type of leadership sponsored by the ANC Youth League - a leadership pledged to a Programme of Action adopted by the League in 1949 - the Prime Minister, stating that this probably accounted for the direct approach to him, expressed doubt if the present leadership of Congress "could claim to speak
authoritatively on behalf of the body known to the government as the African National Congress."
Concluding his letter with a threat of drastic reprisals if Congress persisted with its campaign, Dr. Malan said:
"The Government will make full use of the
machinery at its disposal to quell any disturbances,
and, thereafter, deal adequately with those responsible..."
Replying to the Prime Minister’s letter on February 11, 1952, the ANC rejected the contention that Congress had at any time accepted the position that the Department of Native Affairs was the only channel of communication between the African people and the State and pointed out that the subject of its communication to the Prime Minister was not a departmental matter, but one of "general importance and gravity affecting the fundamental principles practised by the Union Government."
Renewing its pledge to embark on a mass campaign of defiance of unjust laws, the letter, dealing with the Prime Minister’s contention that there was a danger of
disturbances if the campaign was embarked upon, the ANC expressed its fear that the Government itself could create disturbances in order to suppress the movement.
Later events were to prove that this fear was not misplaced. Following on the ANC’s correspondence with the Prime Minister, the South African Indian Congress also wrote to Dr. Malan expressing its full support of the call of the African National Congress for the repeal of unjust laws. The plan for struggle has been adopted, stated the letter - signed by Dr. Y. M. Dadoo (President), Y.A. Cachalia and D.U. Mistry (Joint Secretaries) - to lessen the burden of oppression of the non-European people and "save the country from the catastrophe of national chaos and ever-widening conflicts." The Prime Minister neither acknowledged receipt of nor replied to the letter. The stage was now set for the first part of the Joint Planning Council’s plan - the April 6 demonstrations and meetings.
Demonstrations Held Throughout South Africa
The demonstrations on April 6 were preceded by hundreds of smaller meetings throughout the country. In the Transvaal and Natal, co-ordinating committees of the Provincial branches of the ANC and the Indian Congress were set up to make
arrangements for April 6. In a leaflet calling on the people to attend the meetings and demonstrations on that day, the National Executives of the two Congresses declared:
"This year, l952, marks 300 years since, under Jan van Riebeeck, the first white people came to live in South Africa.
"The Malan Government is using this occasion to celebrate everything in South African history that glorifies the conquest, enslavement and oppression of the non-European people.
"Nothing is said of the fact that South Africa has been built up on the sweat and blood of the working people. Nothing is said of the leaders of the non- European peoples.
"This van Riebeeck celebration cannot be a time for rejoicing for the non- European.
"It is the time to put an end to slavery in South Africa."
In the Cape, a special conference organised by the Franchise Action Council on March 16 discussed the part Coloured people would play on April 6. Among the speakers at the conference were Dr. Y.M. Dadoo, President of the Indian Congress, and Walter Sisulu, Secretary-General of the ANC. The Conference, which was attended by 91 delegates from 50 organisations representing 63,000 people in the Western Cape, pledged full support for the April 6 demonstrations and set up a special committee to organise meetings and demonstrations on that day throughout the Western Cape. International support for the April 6 campaign and the proposed Defiance of Unjust Laws Campaign came from hundreds of Heads of State, Government representatives and organisations from all over the world. These included Prime Ministers Chou En-Lai of China, Dr.
Kwame Nkrumah of the Gold Coast and Dr. Mossadek of Iran; H.J. Brillantes, executive officer of the Department of Foreign Affairs of the Philippines; the President of the All India Congress Committee; the Secretary General of the Arab League; the Council on African Affairs in the United States, headed by Paul Robeson; the Peoples` Progressive Party of British Guiana; and the World Federation of Democratic Youth.
On April 6, the day on which white South Africa was celebrating the arrival of Jan van Riebeeck and his first white settlers in South Africa, the black people and some white supporters demonstrated their abhorrence to racism and apartheid in a way never before witnessed in the country. Meetings held in almost every city and town were among the largest ever organised by black movements in the country. The Johannesburg meeting was attended by over 15,000; the meeting in Cape Town was attended by 10,000 as was the meeting held in Durban. In Port Elizabeth some 20,000 attended a meeting held on a hillside overlooking the city and the sea. Thousands more attended meetings and prayer services in Kimberley, Pretoria, East London and elsewhere. At each of these meetings, a pledge to join in the struggle against unjust laws was enthusiastically adopted.
The Government, obviously alarmed at this great show of unity and determination on the part of the black people, took several steps in an effort to intimidate the people and to influence the decisions of the joint meeting of the National Executives of the ANC and the Indian Congress scheduled for June 1, 1952, in Port Elizabeth to discuss details of the Defiance Campaign and to set a date for its launching.
Among the measures adopted by the Government were:
* The banning of a number of leading Congressmen and trade unionists from participating in meetings; confining them to their provinces and ordering them to resign from their organisations. Among the first to receive banning orders were Indian and African Congress leaders J.B. Marks, Dr. Y. M. Dadoo, Moses Kotane and David Bopape;
* The expulsion of Sam Kahn from Parliament and Fred Carneson from the Cape Provincial Council, both elected to these bodies by Africans in the Western Cape, who at that time still enjoyed the
right to vote for a white representative in Parliament and another in the Cape Provincial
Council;
* The banning of the Guardian, an independent weekly newspaper which supported the campaign; and
* The arrest of E.S. ("Solly") Sachs, Secretary of the Garment Workers`
Union, which had the largest organised black trade union branch in the country.
Mr. Sachs was arrested for addressing a meeting of his Union in defiance of a banning order prohibiting him from attending gatherings and ordering him to resign from his Union.
Defiance Begins
The African and Indian Congresses, meeting in conference on June 1, far from being cowed by these measures, reacted swiftly by taking the following decisions:
* Setting June 26 for the commencement of the Campaign of Defiance of Unjust Laws;
* Announcing that before this date banned leaders will defy their banning orders. Even while the Port Elizabeth meeting was in progress, Moses Kotane, National Executive member of the ANC, was arrested at a meeting he was addressing in Alexandra African township, Johannesburg, where he lived. Others were arrested in quick succession. J. B. Marks, Transvaal President of the ANC, was arrested at a meeting of residents in Orlando township, Johannesburg, and David Bopape, the Transvaal ANC Secretary, and Dr. Dadoo, President of the Indian Congress, were arrested at a meeting in a cinema in Fordsburg,
Johannesburg; and
* The staff of the banned Guardian brought out a new weekly publication, the Clarion, which continued to follow the pro-Congress policy of its predecessor.