Columbia College Chicago Digital Commons @ Columbia College Chicago End Conscription Campaign Orlando Redekopp Collection October 2017 Stop the Call Up End Conscription Campaign Follow this and additional works at: http://digitalcommons.colum.edu/ecc Part of the African History Commons, and the Military History Commons Recommended Citation End Conscription Campaign, "Stop the Call Up" (2017). End Conscription Campaign. 16. http://digitalcommons.colum.edu/ecc/16 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Orlando Redekopp Collection at Digital Commons @ Columbia College Chicago. It has been accepted for inclusion in End Conscription Campaign by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Columbia College Chicago. - ' ECC's path to peace In 1979, South African Defence Minister ~tany organisa tions responded to this General Magnus Malan said : "The decision and came together to establish (South African) Defence Force supports End Conscription Con1mittees in Johann­ govemn1ent policy and is responsible esburg, Cape Town and Durban by the for peace, law and order in this country. end of the year. The first national ECC This policy is the same as that laid down 111eeti11g took place at ~'ilgespruit near by Dr H F Verwoerd, nainely 1nulti­ Johannesburg in July 1984. ll was nationalism. and self-determination of decided to draw up the ECC Declaration nations." (Cape Times 28/ I 0/79) calling for a just peace in SA . The Declaration was endorsed by matty Government policy has since changed organisations and individuals over the to entrench apartheid in the new tri­ next few n,onths. In October and racial constitution. Malan's assertion of Nove1nber the Declaration was launched South African Defence Force (SADF) in Cape Town, Durban attd Johannesburg support for government policy remains. with extensive support for the campaign This political nature of the SADF has and widespread publicity of the Declara­ been a cause for concern in the white tion endorsers. comn1unity for many years. Opposition to the role of the military is not new. Church groupings have made repeated calls on the government to provide at1 TOWARDS A JUST PEACE IN OOR LANO alternative non-military form of national service. The late 1970s attd early 1980s Wt. 1,.-c VI .,., i,on,r-st $0<•~1y whve ~asi, h~an l"ighk ndulicd saw a rapid increase in the number of to U,e may,nty of tne people. young men conscientiously objecting to We. liwt. m an .a,~ I t.O<ict'y l<l'~re i"-e and and ....ait+h re serve in . the SADF on religious, moral o .... ned by th.. l'l'llrio.-ity. and political grounds. This objection to Wt. ffl j., a W<,id-y 1n fl 'Shlc of c.•vil ...,.,.,., where. bn,thcr i, c.llltd On to fi3ht- brwnu. conscription is, however, confuted to individuals and was severely curtailed \\'e, <-tll 1w th end t,o ~w-1ption, Yo"' f'x' IYlt1\ 9rt c.on5<r1ptcU ~ ft'la1nt9,., tf.t. ;Ueg ,ll ~f<lf\d by the Defence An1endment Act of Nam,b,-.. , ¥VJ to wage 1.1nrst ..,.,.,. a311,o~f- fOl'e.'8" ~,..h",u, 1983. (This Act increased the sentence ~0~ m en /U'~ (Qo'IGVlpfed Jo a ~~.e,I' in the .mpftl'l'l•t1f•f-io11 arid for consientious objectors fro1n a cfc(cr.c.e of dop,11'tf;c,d r ~•C.oCt. maxiJnum of two years to a mandatory Y11wn8 mf°t\ ~o ,-4:fu~ t-o t.f'-lV,t. .vt f,..(,td w, th ~ d\olC.C. of .ti six). He of l'~1k or ;s F'°""'l;,lc ~ )"-'Ir"'&, in ,,.-,w,n Wt uU ~ a" ~nd fo CJClfl6<ription, The first more generalised opposition 1 \ k bc~&lc th,* fiie- f..illn(;iaj e,o•,t of fht WK 1nc:rt.SC$ +ht_ ~ 0,, to the role of the 1nilitary came from the our «Ml'd')•, lll'J ih,t f'M•'4f ~ r«fnu bc.11• .., lhe. i~ts of pt.a. Black Sash when at its annual conference We 1-clit.ll't lhid ¼he ~tcnwri rJ c.o,ncr,pt1on to c-.obU"td and .-.d~f'I in 1983, a motion was passed calling for Y-*"''" .....11 ..: crU.\C C-OMl,c+- Mei r.. rthc,- d..... ,d~ OW" C,Ot,,ir\try. an end to conscription. Subsequently, in o;E BWEV£ mAT IT IS Tl-IE. ,•AORAL. RIGHT OF SOUTH AFRICANS 10 EXI:R.CISE FREWG\A OF CONSCIENCE July that year, at the fourth annual AND 10 CHOOS[ NOf TO SERVC IN THE. SADF. conference of the Conscientious WE CALL fOR ~ END TO CONSCRIPTION Objectors Support Group, a decision WE CAU FOl1 A JUST PEACE IN OUR J.AND was ta.ken to launch the End Conscrip· tion Campaign. 2 The ECC held its first national con­ ference in January 1985 where its constitution was drafted and a national organiser appointed. Here the idea to convene a national festival for peace was raised. Over the next months, amidst frenetic planning for U1e festival, ECCs were established in Port Elizabeth and Pietermarit.zburg. Five End Conscription Committees (JHB, PE. PMB, CT, DBN), in which over 40 organisations have participated nationally have been set up in less than two years. This rapid growth of the ECC has occurred with organi a,tions uniting around a number of areas of opposition to conscription. These have been express­ ed as follows : 1) Conscription intensifies the violent conflict in South Africa. This is engend­ ered by a political syscem which denies most South Africans basic human rights; 2) Conscriptio n prolongs the war in Namibia. Forcing young men to fight in Nan1 ibia inhibits the im plem enta tion of United Nation's Resolution 435 and the demand of many church and human concept of a just peace in our land, a rights groups that SA troops withdraw peace that can only be realised in a non­ fro1n Namibia to allow UN supervised racial, democratic South Africa . elections to take place. 3) Conscription is a cornerstone in the With the basis of opposition to con­ militarisation of South Africa. Conscrip­ scription so defined, the End Conscrip­ tion conditions society to accept the tion Committees have set themscvles a intrusion of the nulitary into schools, number of tasks. Firstly, the ECCs are townships and the highest levels of attempting to create a coherent and political decision-making, and the SADFs educated voice of opposition to the role ongoing destabilisation of Southern of the military and to conscription. African states. Secondly, the ECCs provide a supportive 4) Conscription violates the right of the and stin1ulative environment for their individual to refuse in conscience to member organisations to take up this render military service and be granted opposition. And thirdly, the ECCs instead a non-military alternative. endeavour to propogate non-racialism 5) Conscription forces South African and build support for the non-racial you th to work hand in hand with the organjsations representing the majority South African Police in the implementa­ of South Africa's people, in order to tion of oppressive apartheid laws. work towards the goal of a just peace 6) Conscription is antithetical to the i.n our land. 3 WE LIV E IN AN UNJUST SOCIETY WHERE BASIC HUMAN RIGHTS ARE DENIED TO THE MAJORITY OF THE PEOPLE Violence is present wherever people are Rac ial classification forced to live in such a way that their human potential and needs can never Access to health, housing, education be realised. Needs can only be adequately and employment is based on colour. 1net by a system of government that is There is one doctor for every 400 whites answerable to the people it goven1s. in South Africa, and one doctor to 73 per cent of South Africa's people every 90 000 blacks. While R 129 million have no say in the goverrunent of their is spent on forced removals, only R8 country - a governn1ent that since I 948 n1illion is allocated for housing in the has en trenched the system of apartheid latest budget. in the laws of this land. Detention and security legislation Influx control and migrant labour Africans are forced to suffer the 70 people have to date died whilst hun1iliation and degradation of the in tl1e custody of the South African 'do1npas'. There are over 200 000 police, and torture by tlle security arrests for pass law offences each year police is widely alleged. The accepted and 3,5 million people have been leaders of the black population have been forcibly relocated. Family life has been in1prisoned. So far this year, 55 people destroyed for millions through the policy are facing charges of treason for their of migrant Jabour. active opposition to the system of Bantustans apartheid and the hardships it inlposes The hon1eland policy has deprived on the majority of South Africa's 1nore than 8 n1illion South Africans of people. their citizenship. Jhe impoverished The violence of apartheid is thus Bantustans are unable to provide even structured into every facet of South the bare essentials of an adequate African society. \Vith the new tri­ existence. Of every .1000 cllildren born, racial parliament, apartheid has been 130 in the Transkei and 240 in the incorporated into South Africa's Ciskei will die from malnutrition before constitution. Until apartheid has been the age of one. eradicated, there can be no peace. 4 WE LIVE IN AN UNEQUAL SOCIETY WHERE THE LAND AND WEALTH ARE OWNED BY THE MINORITY To provide adequate 1neals for a is calculated to be about R250. Over family, parents need to have either 50 per cent of African households have land and the n1eans to grow food, or the an incon1e of less than RI 50 p/m and purchasing power to obtain food.