SECHABA: “Taking the Struggle to the White Areas”

SECHABA: “Taking the Struggle to the White Areas”

In the December 1985 issue of the African National Congress (ANC) journal, “Sechaba”, it reproduced a leaflet that had been distributed inside South Africa titled “Take the Struggle to the White Areas!” The leaflet began with a belligerent slogan, which declared, “Make the whole of South Africa ungovernable! Paralyse apartheid!”

It then had a topic, “The Battle Lines Are Drawn”, in which it maintained that through resolute action, many parts of South Africa were rendered ungovernable and the apartheid system of government in the African ghettoes were smashed, while at the same time rudimentary organs of people’s power were evolving. Furthermore, the leaflet asserted that despite enemy brutality, the people were engaged in mass action around all issues affecting them.

Moreover, according to the leaflet, the ANC had managed to create combat groups and mobile units to defend the people and their leaders by confronting the racist army, police, death squads, agents and stooges within their midst. By using all forms of struggle, the people had thrown Botha and his clique into confusion. The leaflet then said the goal was clear, which was “to destroy the system of apartheid colonialism and establish in its stead a democratic, non-racial system in The People Shall Govern!”

In the following heading of the leaflet, “The Enemy is Desperate”, the ANC averred that Botha and his generals were resorting to martial law and full-scale repression against all anti-apartheid forces, which included mass murder, arrests, bannings and so on, in an attempt to cow the people into submission. At the same time, the document argued, the regime was doing all it could to confine the struggle to the Black areas and protect the comfort of Whites, which was viewed to be a consequence of oppression and super-exploitation. As a solution, therefore, the leaflet asserted that the time had come to take the war to the White areas, as White South Africa could not be at peace while the townships were in flames.

In the leaflet’s definition of taking the war to the White areas, it meant the strengthening of workers’ organisations and engaging in united action in the factories, mines, farms and suburbs; spreading the consumer boycott to all areas of the country; engaging in well-planned and organised demonstrations in the White suburbs and central business districts; forming underground units and combat groups in places of work and taking such actions as sabotage in the factories, mines, farms and suburbs, and disrupting the “enemy’s oil, energy, transport, communications and other vital systems”; systematic attacks against the army and police and the so-called area defence units in the White areas; and organising well-planned raids on the armouries and arms dumps of the army, police, farmers and security services to secure armaments for the combat and mobile units.

The leaflet then called on White democrats and all anti-apartheid Whites to play a special role by ensuring that they participated in even larger numbers in mass action in the White areas hand-in-hand with the mass democratic movement; spreading the voice of democracy far and wide through the anti-apartheid organisations and win as many Whites as possible to the side of freedom and non-racialism; and intensifying the campaign against conscription, repression, the tri-cameral system, racist education and the mass carnage by the army and police in the townships.

Furthermore, the leaflet challenged the challenged the progressive White community to change those who were serving in the apartheid parliament, who were claiming to stand for democracy by abandoning the illusion that the apartheid system could be changed from within and finding their place within the democratic movement; changing those who were serving within the army and the police to refuse to shoot their fellow countrymen, and turn their weapons against the sadists that were giving orders for killing and maiming; as well as throwing their lot with the fighters for liberation by swelling the ranks of the ANC and Umkhonto we Sizwe underground.

The leaflet then concluded by saying, “The issue today is not whether or not freedom for the people will come. The question is on which side you should be – whether to perish with apartheid or to live with the forces of democracy and peace. Let us all Act in Unity against a system that has brought so much suffering to so many, and that continues to drown thousands in blood.”

WEAKEN THE ENEMY’S REAR! PARALYSE APARTHEID’S NERVE CENTRE!
MAKE THE WHOLE OF SOUTH AFRICA UNGOVERNABLE!

Source:
Sechaba Leaflet, “Take the Struggle to the White Areas! Make the of South Africa Ungovernable! Paralyse Apartheid!”, Sechaba, December 1985.

Castro Khwela
Good morning fellow Compatriots!