The Congress Movement

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ICU, ANC, CP and Congress Alliance Author Sylvia Neame's study of the development of the national liberation movement in South Africa is in stark contrast to the frequent depictions of the history of the ANC by leading academics as fragmented, fractured and discontinuous. Not only does her analyses disprove the belief that the ANC's development has been episodic, several of the conclusions drawn point to its essential inner coherence. Crucial to the development of the congress movement was the search for an alliance strategy that would ensure the ANC its central role. Particularly striking, and essentially new, is the depiction of the various alliance partners including the Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union (ICU), the Communist Party and the South African Congress of Trade Unions and their complicated interaction. The research, based on extensive primary and secondary sources including some eighty interviews dating back to the early 1960s, uniquely combines narrative and analysis. The Congress Movement invites the reader to engage in the fascinating development of the national liberation movement in South Africa in its formative period and uncovers its outstanding continuities as well as the considerable range of its methods. Volume 3 explores how the ANC emerges and steps into its primary role as a national liberation movement resulting from a complex process stretching from the 1920s to the beginning of the 1960s. A key theme in this context is the integral role of the then Congress Youth League leaders such as Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu and Oliver Tambo.

VOLUME 3: 19281961

SEARCHING FOR THE ADEQUATE FORM OF THE UNITED FRONT, 1928-34:
Threats to the ANC’s primary role
Introduction
ANC-ICU decision for cooperation, 1928 with an anti-communist rider
Issue of passes, 1928-30.
League of African Rights. What kind of organization was this?
Mahabane, not Gumede, takes the lead in calling for an African Convention
Mahabane’s policy of a black-white round table & declaration of rights, 1929 ANC conference
The communists’ attitude to Mahabane’s policies
Mahabane & communism, 1929
Manoeuvres to dismantle the ANC’s primary role, 1926-30
Gumede loses the Congress presidency
Plans to restructure the ANC on the basis of employees’ organizations role of Ballinger
The Non-European Conference
ANC AT THE TIME OF THE SEME PRESIDENCY, 1930-37:
Its congress character is endangered
Introduction
Seme’s political positions at the time of the founding of the ANC
The new Seme constitution
Seme & the Upper House at the time of the Mahabane presidency, 1937-40
Seme & business
Fate of the Heaton Nicholls initiative in the framework of the Joint Select Committee
Some ANC leaders & the Nicholls plan, 1931
State of the ANC in the first half of the ’30s
Liberals prime DDT Jabavu as African leader on the franchise proposals
Congress leaders call for an All African Convention. The regional conferences
The All African Convention, 1935
Manoeuvres around the “compromise” of 1936
Thema, Dube & Seme & the “compromise”
Seme’s removal at the 1937 conference. Mahabane puts the ANC back on course.
AAC & ANC, 1937-48:
Federal or unitary principle?
Introduction
Kadalie’s response to the AAC
Was the AAC a new social movement?
The communists’ attitude to the AAC
Reservations about the AAC & early moves to revive the ANC
The AAC challenge is defeated 1943 a turning point
Xuma & AAC(-NEUM), including the “meeting of the 12 leaders”
ANC UNDER XUMA, 1940-49:
To what extent was it a break with the previous era?
Introduction
Were Congress councillors on the NRC mandated by the ANC?
Division of labour between Matthews & Xuma. 1943 NRC Recess Committee on Representation
A new phase opens with Africans’ Claims
Pass campaign, 1943-46
The crisis conditions of 1946
Xuma, Congress & trade unionism
Prelude to the African mineworkers’ strike
African mineworkers’ strike, 1946
The communists & the question of a non-European trade union federation
Adjournment of the NRC & the Smuts proposals
Xuma, the ANC, & the boycott of the NRC
Xuma & organization
Growing political role of Indian leaders
The People’s Assembly of 1948. Problems of the united front
PHASE OF THE PROGRAMME OF ACTION, 1948-50:
A complicated historical juncture
Introduction
ANC & the general election of 1948
Emergence of the Congress Youth League. What was its strategy?
CYL’s programme for a new South Africa
Issue of a programme of action prior to the ANC’s 1948 conference
ANC conference, December 1948, & a programme of action
Efforts to formulate a programme of action in the course of 1949
ANC conference, December 1949, adopts the Programme of Action
Response of the communists to the programme
The difficulties of leading Youth Leaguers with the Defend Free Speech Convention, 1950
Suppression of Communism Act. Mandela, Tambo & Sisulu jettison anti-communism
CHAMPION, MSIMANG & THEMA LEAVE THE ANC, 1951-52:
The end of an era
Introduction
CYL & radical-democracy
CYL & trade unionism. CYL’s attitude to the ICU
Kadalie’s last years
Champion’s efforts to secure the role of “leader of Natal”
Champion’s growing irritation with the ANC
Natal, the National Fund, the Afrikaner nationalists & the Zulu royal house
African-Indian confrontation in Durban the 1949 riots
Champion’s attitude to the Youth Leaguers & to the Programme of Action
Msimang turns against Champion. Lutuli takes over the Natal leadership
The Baloyi issue. Congress & the Afrikaner nationalists
Thema’s role in Congress, 1946-49
Thema in 1949
Establishment of the National-minded Bloc
The National-minded Bloc, business & “economic independence”
The Youth Leaguers & the National-minded Bloc
Common basis of the defection of Thema, Champion & Msimang
Defiance Campaign, 1952
Xuma & the ANC, late ’40s-early ’50s, including his attitude to the Defiance Campaign
Postscript: How did Xuma come to turn against the ANC?
LUTULI & MANDELA, 1952-61:
The Mahabane heritage
Introduction
The problem of a united front with the Liberal Party
The ANC, the Liberal Party & the COP
What influences shaped the Freedom Charter?
The land shall be shared among those who work it
What organization or organizational framework was responsible for the Charter?
Lutuli & the Freedom Charter
M-Plan preparation for revolution?
The 1958 ANC constitution & the question of centralization
Political orientation of the IDAMF
All-in African Conference, October 1956
Multi-racial Conference, December 1957. Question of the broad front
Proceedings of the Multi-racial Conference
Was the Multi-racial Conference simply a dead end?
Dialogue continues
Liberal Party-ANC relationship in the late 1950s
The PAC
Why did the ANC leadership prevaricate on the issue of a pass campaign?
Growing lack of confidence in the method of mass campaigns
Crisis symptoms in the economy
“Sharpeville”. Was it a herald of revolution or counter-revolution?
Conceptual considerations in relation to the call for a national convention, 1960-1
Reference list

Index