African Activist Archive

The report says the African National Congress (ANC) and the United Democratic Front (UDF), along with the independent black labor unions, are currently leading the struggle in South Africa. The report says the ANC, which has spearheaded the liberation struggle in South Africa ever since its inception in 1912, has been banned or outlawed since 1960 and now operates in exile with headquarters in Lusaka, Zambia. During the recent upsurge in protests, evidence of popular support for the ANC has grown, despite its outlawed status. The report says the UDF, a coalition of over 600 organizations, has emerged over the last two years as the major legal force of resistance inside South Africa. The report says the growing black labor unions, often working in collaboration with the UDF, have shown through strikes and work stoppages that they now have the power to cripple the apartheid economy. The report notes the ANC's program is contained in the Freedom Charter, which was adopted in 1955 by the ANC, the South African Congress of Trade Unions, the South African Indian Congress, the Coloured People's Congress, and the Congress of Democrats. The report discusses the ANC's June 1985 National Consultative Conference. It also discusses the Azanian Peoples' Organization (AZAPO), the Soweto Committee of Ten, the Federation of South African Trade Unions (FOSATU), the Council of South African Unions (CUSA), and the National Union of Mineworkers. The report says opposition to the new constitution and associated apartheid legislation has sparked increasing violence in South Africa during the past two years, and a state of emergency was imposed on July 21, 1985. The report says UDF leaders and activists have become special targets of repression, and almost its entire leadership is in jail. The report says 16 UDF leaders are currently on trial in Natal for high treason, and 22 other leading members of the UDF are scheduled for trial in Transvaal.

African Activist Archive

The Current State of the Struggle

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