ANC adopts the Youth League Programme of Action
On 17 December 1949, the African National Congress (ANC) adopted a Programme of Action at its 1949 December conference, which marked one of the most important turning points in the history of the Organisation’s existence up to that time. The adoption was precipitated by the victory of the National Party the year before and its determination to implement a policy of apartheid. However, the primary reason behind the adoption of the Programme of Action was the coming into existence of the ANC Youth League, on 10 September 1944.
The idea of the formation of the ANC youth league started in 1943, in Orlando, Soweto, at Walter Sisulu’s house, by Anton Lembede, A.P. Mda, Jordan Ngubane, Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo. Its founders felt that ANC was dominated by an older generation who were conservative and could not relate to the youth and the changing circumstances of the liberation struggle. According to these young militants, the “older generation” had used deputations and delegations to try to get the colonial government to grant equal rights to all, but it became increasingly clear that this tactic was ineffective.
The ANC, inspired by the desire to achieve national freedom, was transformed in the following decade from being an organisation led by middle class liberals who believed that they could, through persuasion, wring concessions from the White government, into a militant liberation movement. The Programme o
