Violent and Non-Violent Transition
Forms and Methods of Struggle – The South African Democratic Revolution
by A. Lerumo (aka Michael “Mick” Harmel), 1962
“The time comes in the life of any nation when there remain only two choices: submit or fight. That time has now come to South Africa. We shall not submit and we have no choice but to hit back by all means in our power in defence of our people, our future and our freedom”
(from the Manifesto of “Umkhonto We Sizwe”, December 16, 1961).
It is not necessary in the present article to dwell on the burning necessity for sweeping democratic changes in South Africa. The very name apartheid – the vile form of oppression practised by the ruling White minority – stinks in every corner of the world. The formal concessions advocated by such bodies as the United and Progressive Parties will satisfy neither the people of South Africa nor world opinion, since they would leave 87 per cent of the land and all the dominant sectors of the economy in the hands of foreign and local White monopolists. In any case, even such concessions are bitterly resisted by the ruling Nationalist Party which has declared it will maintain a “granite wall” against any democratic reforms and continues to intensify its policy of discrimination and oppression with every year that passes.
The great majority of South Africans are determined upon a clean break with apartheid and racialism. They demand a South African Democratic R
