Our Common Victory is Assured
(Address by Mwalimu Julius Kambarage Nyerere, Chairman of the Chama Cha Mapinduzi, CCM, at the Opening of the ANC Conference, Arusha,1 December 1987).
“This year we are celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the ANC. We celebrate its continued existence despite all the efforts to destroy it. It became an illegal organisation 27 years ago. But it still lives inside South Africa as well as in exile. It still leads the struggle for the freedom of South Africa, and for freedom in South Africa.
“With pride in our common struggle I pay tribute to all those who have worked for freedom and human equality within the ANC, and in co-operation with the ANC, from 1912 until today. There have been, and there still are, great leaders of the Organisation, people whose names are an inspiration to all the opponents of apartheid inside and outside SA; such men and women are so greatly feared by the leaders of apartheid that it is illegal to quote their words or even mention their names inside the country. And there are millions – yes, millions – of people who have participated in the struggle against racism and whose names are known only to those with whom they worked and struggled – and too often died.
“It is because of the resistance, and the active opposition, of all these people that the struggle for justice is still able to continue. Not all the might, the ruthlessness, viciousness and inhumanity of the South African racists has been able
