An article from the Daily Worker entitled ‘Africans & Indians to Unite’, 23 December 1951, Catalogue Ref: DO 35/3837
The African National Congress (ANC) is a political party in South Africa. At the time of this newspaper the African National Congress was a liberation movement founded to support rights for Black South Africans before the First World War. By 1948 it worked to oppose apartheid in South Africa through a Defiance Campaign against Unjust Laws and other civil disobedience actions.
Transcript
Africans & Indians to Unite
By the Foreign Editor
Africans have decided to join the Indian community in South Africa in a planned campaign of non-co-operation in 1952.
This decision was taken at the meeting of the African National Congress which had just been held in Bloemfontein. It is historic because it brings Indians and Africans into a united planned campaign of resistance for the first time.
They are resisting the Malan Government’s racial laws against both peoples.
The Congress describes the action, to take place in 1952, as intended “for the redress of the just and legitimate grievances of the majority of the South African people”.
PASS LAWS
The laws against which the two communities will act are:
The Pass Laws, the Group Areas Act, the Separate Representation of Voters Act, the Suppression of Communism Act, the Bantu Authorities Act and certain other regulations.
This legislation is the basis of racial discrimination and persecution in South Africa.
If the Government does not repeal these measures by February 29, 1952, says the Congress, the people will have no alternative to launch the mass campaign.
- What news story is reported in the ‘Daily Worker’?
- Explain why the laws mentioned are regarded as ‘legitimate grievances of the majority of the South African people’?
- How useful is this source for understanding resistance to the Suppression of Communism Act?
- What does the source reveal about the role of the African National Congress in South Africa?
- What can you find out about ‘the Daily Worker’ (U.K.) newspaper?
- What can you find out about press freedom in South Africa during apartheid in the 1950s.