26 Jun 1952 Jahr - The Defiance Campaign

Beschreibung:

The Defiance Campaign was the first in a number of coordinated nationwide campaigns and protests organized by the ANC against the apartheid system.

In many respects it was also the most significant, as it marked the opening of a new, more radical phase in the struggle against White minority rule.

It was designed to apply concerted pressure on the government and force it into repealing apartheid legislation and negotiating with the ANC.

The objectives would be achieved using the following methods:

- The political potential of the masses of ordinary Africans would be harnessed by involving them in a coordinated campaign of defiance against new apartheid laws. ANC leaders and other volunteers would deliberately break the law while crowds of onlookers would provide them with support and encouragement.

- The Defiance Campaign's philosophy on non-violent civil disobedience would be contrasted with the heavy-handed response of the authorities. The police would be given no choice but to arrest thousands of campaigners. As the campaign became the focus of global attention, apartheid would be put in the spotlight and the ANC would win a moral victory.

- South Africa's prisons would be filled until they were overflowing. The various institutions of state repression - the police, the courts and the prisons - would be stretched to breaking point.

- Other racial groups would be involved in the struggle against apartheid by coordinating the Defiance Campaign with the South African Indian Congress (SAIC) as well as activists from other communities.

The Defiance Campaign peaking in July and August of 1952.

By the end of the year, a total of more than 8,000 volunteers had been arrested.

The campaign lost impetus in early 1953 and never recovered.

The main cause of the decline was the widespread rioting that broke out in the Eastern Cape in October 1952, and which then spread to Kimberley and Johannesburg.

Confronted with the prospect of draconian punishments, and struggling with the politial fallout from the rioting, the ANC decided to wind down the Defiance Campaign.

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