7Oth Anniversary of the Freedom Charter: The Loadstar of the National Democratic Revolution
(Extracts of a Document titled “Revolutionary Programme of the African National Congress: An Analysis of the Freedom Charter as Adopted at the National Consultative Conference, Morogoro, 1969”).
The South Africa of today is the product of the common labour of all its peoples. The cities, industries, mines and agriculture of the country are the result of the efforts of all its peoples. But the wealth is utilised by and for the interests of the white minority only. The Freedom Charter was adopted at the Congress of the People representative of all the people of South Africa, which met at Kliptown, Johannesburg on June 25 and 26, 1955. Thus the Freedom Charter became the common programme enshrining the hopes and aspirations of all the progressive people of South Africa. What we believe is that the Charter may require elaboration of its revolutionary message. But what is even more meaningful, it requires to be achieved and put into practice.
The Preamble of the Freedom Charter
The first lines of the Charter declare that South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and that no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of the people. No government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will, not just of the whites, but of all the people of the country. The Freedom Charter thus begins by an assertion of what is and has b
