jun 26, 1955 - The Congress of People (COP)
Description:
The COP, convened in 1955 at Kliptown, was an alliance of anti-apartheid congress movements, of which the ANC was by far the largest.
The various congresses came together to create the COP in order to:
- forge a single popular front by uniting all of South Africa's racial groups in the fight against apartheid
- expand the membership and broaden the social base of the ANC through the direct involvement of poorer Africans in the COP and by doing so turn the freedom struggle into a truly mass movement
- draft a Freedom Charter for the COP, a document which would encapsulate the political goals of the congress movements as well as the democratic aspirations of all of the people of South Africa
- consolidate the ANC's strategy of working together with other parties and racial groups opposed to the apartheid system (like the SAIC) while also involving others, such as the Coloureds, whom had been largely excluded during the Defiance Campaign
Unsurprisingly, the Freedom Chapter was unanimously adopted by the COP.
The Kliptown rally ended in chaos, with armed police raiding the meeting an taking over the speaker's platform.
Rattled by the success of the COP, the government plenned to use these documents against the ANC leaders in the next phase of its battle against the resistence movement.
Beginning in 1956, the next few years of the freedom sruggle were dominatied by the marathon legal proceedings undertaken by the state against the accused in what was known as the Treason Trial.
Added to timeline:
Apartheid in South Africa
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