No Easy Walk to Freedom (9780795704772) by Mandela Nelson; Gumede William (INT)

Author:Mandela, Nelson; Gumede, William (INT)
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Freedom, Apartheid, Democracy, Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, National convention, African National Congress, Umkhonto we Sizwe, Protest strike, AJ Lutuli, Treason trial, The Rivonia trial, White domination, Bantu education, Nationalist Party, Freedom charter, William Gumede
ISBN: 9780795704772
Publisher: Lightning Source Inc
Published: 2013-03-25T00:00:00+00:00

June 1961

Letter from underground

The magnificent response to the call of the National Action Council for a three-day strike and the wonderful work done by our organisers and field workers throughout the country proves once again that no power on earth can stop an oppressed people determined to win freedom.

Today is 26 June, a day known throughout the length and breadth of our country as Freedom Day. It is fit and proper that on this historic day I should speak to you and announce fresh plans for the opening of the second phase in the fight against the Verwoerd Republic, and for a National Convention.

You will remember that the Pietermaritzburg resolutions warned that if the Government did not call a National Convention before the end of May 1961, Africans, Coloureds, Indians, and European democrats would be asked not to collaborate with the Republic or any Government based on force. On several occasions since then the National Action Council explained that the last strike marked the beginning of a relentless mass struggle for the defeat of the Nationalist Government, and for a sovereign multi-racial convention. We stressed that the strike would be followed by other forms of mass pressure to force the race maniacs who govern our beloved country to make way for a democratic government of the people, by the people, and for the people. A full-scale and country-wide campaign of non-cooperation with the Government will be launched immediately. The precise form of the contemplated actions, its scope and dimensions and duration, will be announced to you at the appropriate time.

At the present moment it is sufficient to say that we plan to make government impossible. Those who are voteless cannot be expected to continue paying taxes to a Government which is not responsible to them. People who live in poverty and starvation cannot be expected to pay exorbitant house rents to the Government and local authorities. We furnish the sinews of agriculture and industry. We produce the work of the gold mines, the diamonds and the coal, of the farms and industry, in return for miserable wages. Why should we continue enriching those who steal the products of our sweat and blood? Those who exploit us and refuse us the rights to organise trade unions? Those who side with the Government when we stage peaceful demonstrations to assert our claims and aspirations? How can Africans serve on school boards and committees which are part of Bantu Education, a sinister scheme of the Nationalist Government to deprive the African people of real education in return for tribal education? Can Africans be expected to be content with serving on advisory boards and Bantu Authorities when the demand all over the continent of Africa is for national independence and self-government? Is it not an affront to the African people that the Government should now seek to extend Bantu Authorities to the cities, when people in the rural areas have refused to accept the same system and fought against it tooth and nail? Which

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