National Democratic Revolution, Part 6a
The Freedom Charter as part of the NDR
This week we are looking at
the Congress of the People campaign that in 1953 followed the Defiance of
Unjust Laws campaign, which was in turn a consequence of the banning of the
Communist Party of South Africa in 1950; plus we are looking at the Freedom
Charter.
The 1955 Kliptown Congress of
the People, where the Freedom Charter was adopted, was followed by a campaign
of conscientisation and positive endorsement of the Freedom Charter both by
individuals and by mass organisations. This was interrupted in 1956 by the
Treason Trial of most of the Congress Alliance leadership, which was not
concluded until 1961, a year after Sharpeville and the banning of the ANC in
the year of 1960.
In the previous post on this
topic we looked at the “Call to the Congress of the People”, taking it as a
typical tactical example of the conscious, deliberate, democratic formation of a
collective revolutionary Subject of History through well-designed organisation.
Taken all together, we can
see the 1950s as a time of focussed, concerted organising towards the NDR – a
“process and not an event”, as we used to say.
This leaves us with the
Freedom Charter itself. Nowadays it is often quoted as a bible, and without
explicit reference to the NDR.
The Freedom Charter does say
that “all who work shall be free to form trade unions, to elect their officers
and to make wage agreements with their employers”. But it does not specifically
say that political parties shall be free to organise. Nor does it say that
women should organise as women, or as working women.
Hence there are two lessons coming out of the 1950s. One is the
practical example of the movement’s work throughout the decade; the other is
the rights-based Charter that was produced in the course of all the work.
This sometimes disconnected contrast between action and prescription
remains characteristic of South African politics.
Picture: Chief Albert Luthuli, President of the ANC in the
1950s
·
The above is to
introduce the original reading-text: Call to the Congress of the People; Freedom Charter.
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