The Struggle in South Africa Has United All Races
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The Struggle in South Africa Has United All Races http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.SFF.DOCUMENT.nuun1984_07 Use of the Aluka digital library is subject to Aluka’s Terms and Conditions, available at http://www.aluka.org/page/about/termsConditions.jsp. By using Aluka, you agree that you have read and will abide by the Terms and Conditions. Among other things, the Terms and Conditions provide that the content in the Aluka digital library is only for personal, non-commercial use by authorized users of Aluka in connection with research, scholarship, and education. The content in the Aluka digital library is subject to copyright, with the exception of certain governmental works and very old materials that may be in the public domain under applicable law. Permission must be sought from Aluka and/or the applicable copyright holder in connection with any duplication or distribution of these materials where required by applicable law. Aluka is a not-for-profit initiative dedicated to creating and preserving a digital archive of materials about and from the developing world. For more information about Aluka, please see http://www.aluka.org The Struggle in South Africa Has United All Races Alternative title Notes and Documents - United Nations Centre Against ApartheidNo. 7/84 Author/Creator United Nations Centre against Apartheid; Benson, Mary Publisher United Nations, New York Date 1984-08-00 Resource type Reports Language English Subject Coverage (spatial) South Africa Coverage (temporal) 1984 Source Northwestern University Libraries Description Ms. Benson, a South African-born writer, has written extensively on the struggle for freedom in South Africa. Her paper entitled "South Africa's finest citizens" was published in the Notes and Documents series in 1969. Format extent 22 page(s) (length/size) http://www.aluka.org/action/showMetadata?doi=10.5555/AL.SFF.DOCUMENT.nuun1984_07 http://www.aluka.org UNITED NATIONS UNITED NATIONS CENTRE AGAI NST APATHEID NOTES AND DOCUMENTS* SxfT MrrN NOV 2 6 1984 THE STRUGGLE IN SOUTH AFRICA HAS UNITED ALL RACES by Mary Benson August 1984 /-Note: Ms. Benson, a South African-born writer, has written extensively on the struggle for freedom in South Africa. Her paper entitled "South Africa's finest citizens" was published in the Notes and Documents series in 1969. The views expressed in this paper are those of the author.7 84-18583 *All material in these Notes and Documents may be freely reprinted. Acknowledgement, together with a copy of the publication containing the reprint, would be appreciated. United Nations, New York 10017 7/84 In southern Africa, deaths in detention and the assassination of political activists have provided grim evidence that the struggle for liberation is not being fought only by black Africans, but that men and women of all races have made the supreme sacrifice. Babla Saloojee, Ahmed Timol, the Imam Haroun and Dr. Neil Aggett all died in detention, while Ruth First an academic, writer and revolutionary - was killed by a letter bomb at the University of Maputo. The deaths in London in 1983 of Dr. Yusuf Dadoo, leader of the South African Indian Congress since the 1940s, and of the Rev. Michael Scott, who first petitioned the United Nations on behalf of the people of South-West Africa (now Namibia) in 1947, are a reminder of how long and complex the struggle has been. Variously described as a struggle for liberation, a class struggle, or a struggle for Africans' birthright, it consists of all these elements, yet at its heart lies a fierce determination to combat and demolish racism. The colour bar that was enshrined in the South African constitution when the United Kingdom handed power to the white minority in 1910 and the discriminatory laws which have proliferated with each succeeding year have repeatedly been challenged by men and women of all races. The struggle goes beyond nationality, ideology, class or religion. Such challenges, such attempts by members of different races to co-operate with each other, have never been easy. Africans, dispossessed of land and of all human rights by the European invaders, had every reason to be hostile and suspicious. The Coloured people-those of mixed race - trapped between white and black, were loath to relinquish an assigned status that was superior to that of the Africans. The Asians, often more prosperous than other blacks and clinging to their own culture, tended to see their plight as that of a separate community, particularly since specific laws were directed against them. Whites, dominating politically and economically, were intent on consolidating their privileges and increasing their wealth. It took great courage, dedication, imagination and generosity to bridge the gulf created between the races by history, culture, and the law. Successive Governments made use of fear to unite the whites: die swart gevaar - black danger - was a potent slogan in the 1930s, and by the 1980s, the bogey had become the threat of "total onslaught" - a catchphrase embracing blacks, communists, liberals, and the hostile world at large. Modern South Africa is a highly industrialized, heavily armed police State based on the forcible separation of the races. Its population of some 30 million consists of 21 million Africans, four and a half million whites, 3 million Coloured people, and nearly a million Indians. The notorious system of apartheid which separates all these communities, and which, under the euphemism of "separate development", also separates ethnic groups, has united the world in a wholesale condemnation. Meanwhile, inside the country, individuals and groups of all races continually join in protest and acts of resistance despite harassment by the security police; despite bannings, imprisonment, torture, even murder. Early attempts to co-operate During the early years of this century leaders of the various racial groups decided to organize their own people: The Natal Indian Congress, founded in 1894 with Mohandas Gandhi as Secretary, was preoccupied with local unity in face of anti- Indian legislation; the African National Congress, founded in 1912 as the South African Native National Congress, faced an almost insurmountable problem in attempting to bring together not only the various ethnic groups, but rural and urban people, most of whom lived in great poverty. Meanwhile, Coloured people in the Cape had formed the African People's Organization and their leader, Dr. Abdullah Abdurahman, called in 1906 for the non-racial Cape franchise to be extended to other parts of the country. A handful of whites spoke up for the rights of the other races, but the overwhelming force was divisive, and when eventually trade unions were formed, whether white, Coloured or Indian, Africans were excluded. Although there was a tentative coming together of Coloured and African dockers when the Industrial and Commercial Union was founded in Cape Town in 1919, it was not until the 1930s that multi-racial unions were effectively formed. White radicals - immigrants from Latvia, Lithuania and the United Kingdom, as well as some Afrikaners - provided orgnizational training for their black comrades. Such achievements were arduously won when the norm was racial discrimination, and even stricter segregation laws were being passed; when the police, as always, were given free reign to put down protests and strikes. The Minister of Justice, Oswald Pirow, was a pro-Nazi whose views reflected the mood of extremist Afrikaner nationalists. The Second World War brought hope of change. It was, after all, a war against racism, and the South African Parliament, under General Smuts, declared war on the Nazi Reich by a small majority. In the resulting industrial boom, Africans flocked to the cities, and the labour movement flourished. In the Cape, Coloured people and whites co-operated,as did Africans and Indians, in Natal. By 1945, the Non-European Trade Union Council could claim to represent 49 unions and 158,000 organized workers. In the political area, there was little sign of co-operation between black groups. However, among those dedicated to work for unity was the Indian leader, Dr. Yusuf Dadoo. From 1943, he was at the forefront of the struggle, helping to organize protests against Pass Laws, attempting to form a United Front; actions that were little more than symbols, but significant, never more so than in 1946, when Africans and Indians separately embarked on dramatic mass protests. The year of the miners and the passive resisters The African Mine Workers' Union had faced formidable obstacles since its formation in 1941. The miners' struggle for a living wage has been described as having "the epic quality of a mass movement of industrial serfs who risked life and liberty for elementary justice". I/ Migrant workers on pitifully small wages, they were supposed to depend partly on peasant earnings back in the poverty-stricken Native Reserves. The steep rise in wartime prices and famine in the rural areas contributed to their hardships and desperation. The 308,000 black miners - the most important workers in the country - were the most harshly exploited. In face of the growing militancy of African trade unions, the Government had passed War Measures: all strikes by all Africans under all circumstances were illegal; meetings of more than twenty persons on mine property were banned. But with the war at an end, the miners went on strike. Seventy-six thousand Africans in 21 mines came out in support of their Union's claim for the daily minimum wage to be raised from 2/5d to 10/- (from approximately 25 cents to a dollar). Men and women of all races assisted in organizing this strike. It was the biggest strike in the country's history, but within days police had violently driven the miners back to work. Nine were killed, and more than a thousand injured.