A History of the ANC

A History of the ANC

The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party, & has been South Africa's governing party supported by a tripartite alliance between itself, the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) & the South African Communist Party (SACP) since the establishment of majority rule in May 1994. Originally called the South African Native National Congress until 1923, it was founded to increase the rights of the South African black population, on 8 January 1912 in Bloemfontein, & counted John Dube (its first president) & poet & author Sol Plaatje among its founding members. A military wing was formed in 1961, called Umkhonto we Sizwe, meaning "Spear of the Nation". It has been the ruling party at national level in South Africa since 1994. It gained support in the 1999 elections, & further increased its majority in 2004.resented both traditional & modern elements, from tribal chiefs to church & community bodies & educated black professionals, though women were only admitted as affiliate members from 1931 & as full members in 1943. The formation of the ANC Youth League in 1944 by Nelson Mandela, Walter Sisulu, & Oliver Tambo heralded a new generation committed to building non-violent mass action against the legal underpinnings of the white minority's supremacy. In 1947 the ANC allied with the Natal Indian Congress & Transvaal Indian Congress, broadening the basis of its opposition to the government. The return of an Afrikaner-led National Party government by the overwhelmingly white electorate in 1948 signaled the advent of the policy of apartheid. During the 1950s, non-whites were removed from electoral rolls, residence & mobility laws were tightened & political activities restricted. In June 1952, the ANC joined with other anti-apartheid organisations in a Defiance Campaign against the restriction of political, labour & residential rights, during which protesters deliberately violated oppressive laws, following the example of Mahatma Gandhi's passive resistance in Natal & India. The campaign was called off in April 1953 after new laws prohibiting protest meetings were passed. In June 1955, the Congress of the People, organised by the ANC & Indian, Coloured & White organizations at Kliptown near Johannesburg, adopted the Freedom Charter, henceforth the fundamental document of the anti-apartheid struggle with its demand for equal rights for all regardless of race. As opposition to the regime's policies continued, 156 leading members of the ANC & allied organisations were arrested in 1956; the resulting "Treason Trial" ended with their acquittal five years later. In 1959, a number of members broke away from the ANC because they objected to the ANC's reorientation from African nationalist policies. They formed the rival Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), led by Robert Sobukwe. The ANC planned a campaign against the Pass Laws, which required blacks to carry an identity card at all times to justify their presence in "white" areas, to begin on 31 March 1960. The PAC pre-empted the ANC by holding unarmed protests 10 days earlier, during which 69 protesters were killed & 180 injured by police fire in what became known as the Sharpeville massacre. In the aftermath of the tragedy, both organisations were banned from political activity. International opposition to the regime increased throughout the 1950s & 1960s, fueled by the growing number of newly independent nations, the Anti-Apartheid Movement in Britain & the civil rights movement in the United States. In 1960, the leader of the ANC, Albert Lutuli, won the Nobel Peace Prize, a feat that would be repeated in 1993 by the next leader of the ANC, Nelson Mandela, & F.W. de Klerk jointly, for their actions in helping to negotiate peaceful transition after Mandela's release from prison. Underground or in exile, the ANC leadership concluded that the methods of non-violence such as those utilised by Gandhi against the British Empire during their colonisation of India, were not suitable against the apartheid system. It was decided that military tactics had to be used, which primarily involved targeting & sabotaging the government's resources, with a wish to minimise the bloodshed of civilians. A military wing was formed in 1961, called Umkhonto we Sizwe, meaning "Spear of the Nation". However, Mandela, as its first leader, was arrested for terrorism in 1962 & sentenced to life imprisonment in 1964 on Robben Island, along with Sisulu & other ANC leaders after the Rivonia Trial. During the 1970s & '80s the ANC, under the leadership of the exiled Oliver Tambo, engaged in a variety of militant attacks within South Africa, usually from bases in Botswana, Mozambique or Swaziland. One such attack was the 1983 Church Street bombing which killed 16 & wounded 130. Murder was occasionally used for political purposes. Tactics included car bombings as well as targeted assassinations. It has been alleged that people were tortured & detained without trial in ANC prison camps.[1][2] During this same period, the South African military routinely engaged in a number of raids & bombings on ANC bases. Dulcie September, a member of the ANC who was investigating on arms trade between France & South Africa was assassinated in Paris in 1988. As the years progressed, the ANC's attacks, coupled with international pressure & internal dissent, increased in South Africa. The ANC received most of its financial & tactical support from the USSR, which orchestrated military involvement with surrogate Cuban forces through Angola. In 1985 a group of businessmen, led by Dr. Theuns Eloff, met with the ANC in Lusaka & again in Dakar in 1987 but they returned empty-handed with the ANC immovable in their demand that there be a total capitulation of the White Regime. After the fall of the USSR, however, & the resultant demise of the Cuban exercise, which also brought an end to the ANC's funding, a more conciliatory tone from the ANC resulted in peace talks in the early 1990's, which ultimately resulted in a negotiated constitution, which has since been upheld by the courts. After the ANC showed a willingness to work with the white government on a constitutional settlement rather than total, unconditional capitulation, State President F.W. de Klerk unbanned the ANC & PAC on 2 February 1990, & announced a referendum in March 1992 to end apartheid, which white voters approved, well before the constitution was finalized. President De Klerk served as President Mandela's deputy during a power-sharing period after the ANC won 62% of the vote in the first democratic elections in 1994. In April 1994, in a tripartite alliance with the South African Communist Party & the Congress of South African Trade Unions, the ANC won a landslide victory in the 1994 general election, & Nelson Mandela was elected the first President of South Africa. In Kwa-Zulu Natal, the ANC maintained an uneasy coalition with the Inkatha Freedom Party after neither party won a majority in the 1994 & 1999 provincial elections. In 2004, the party contested national elections in voluntary coalition with the New National Party (NNP), which it effectively absorbed following the NNP's dissolution in 2005. After the 1994 & 1999 elections, it ruled seven of the nine provinces, with Kwa-Zulu Natal under the IFP & the Western Cape Province under the NNP. As of 2004, it gained both the Western Cape & Kwa-Zulu Natal after a combination of the NNP's electoral base being eroded by the DA & a poor showing by the IFP. By 2001, the tripartite alliance between the ANC, COSATU & SACP began showing signs of strain as the ANC moved to more liberal economic policies than its alliance partners were comfortable with. The focus for dissent was the GEAR program, an initialism for "Growth, Employment & Redistribution." In late 2004, this was again thrown into sharp relief by Zwelinzima Vavi of COSATU protesting the ANC's policy of "quiet diplomacy" towards the worsening conditions in Zimbabwe, as well as Black Economic Empowerment, which he complained benefits a favoured few in the black elite & not the masses. As of 2005, the alliance was facing a crisis as Jacob Zuma, who was fired from his position as Deputy President of South Africa by Thabo Mbeki, faced corruption charges. Complicating the situation was the fact that Zuma remained Deputy President of the ANC, & maintained a strong following amongst many ANC supporters, & the ANC's alliance partners Alliance cracks widen as Zuma goes for broke IOL</ref>. In October 2005, top officials in the National Intelligence Agency, who were Zuma supporters, were suspended for illegally spying on an Mbeki supporter, Saki Macozoma, amid allegations that ANC supporters were using their positions within organs of state to spy on, & discredit each other. In December 2005, Zuma was charged with rape & his position as Deputy President of the ANC was suspended. The ANC also faced (sometimes violent) protests in townships over perceived poor service delivery, as well as internal disputes, as local government elections approached in 2006. Politicians in the party win a place in parliament by being on the Party List, which is drawn up before the elections & enumerates, in order, the party's preferred MPs. The number of seats allocated is proportional to the popular national vote, & this determines the cut-off point. The ANC has also gained members through the controversial floor crossing process.

Groups like the ANC found 1912 to bring blacks rites, And they try recruiting, And the campaign increased, based on black lawyers, & clerics, & others, And P leaders, mostly it was P leaders, organisation, Reading up on other left with activists campaigns, While the ruling authorities, Afrikaner led, Started to attack any attempt of British to reduce it's power, Which then saw whites increase their living standards, right upto the 1930s,

There was a black union which reached 10s of thousands of members in 1920s, But oppression saw it fall too less & collapse, & of oppression, & ignoring of it, And also the Communists started growing at some time, With many ANC members cheered in the 1950s, By Soviet & leftist Communists of world, support, And Lab, & leftist & lib Europeans supporting them very often, With small pro-racism support in Europe, In the late 80s, with the ANC entrenching support, The regime began saying it could ditch Apartheid, and wanting negotiation, It saw in 90s, Apartheid ditched, And negotiations with the ANC begin, Mandela was released, 18000die of political violence in 83-92, Most were killed by the state, 3000 by officials directly, Including black leaders thrown out of police HQ's, Killed that way, & IT claimed they were not killed that way, And with massive torture,

The Secret-service ups Zulu/rest blacks rivalry, So an extra 8000die, of that, With it's king encouraged to demand extra nat ways, & it's free market P, too, In a way supporting the regime, by divide and rule,

A Zulu P linked to him, supported by the regime, & wt, To divide blacks, & it got some people in the wt who supported the rightists, & free market, But that civil war calms in 93, Showing this was all caused by the government, and the dynamics,

2000die, in 44-77 politically, in suppression of blacks in many ways, They use police/finances to make minority white heads rule, And are dividing blacks, And create Corrupt black homeland puppets, which are for a minority of blacks,

But where corrupt kings & other s lead, on the regime's hopes, Of keeping blacks down, & such, With little real organisation & planning over selves, Or ability to make themselves wealthy, As I say some said they were doing it to get some black power, for long term,

In the flu epidemic caused by World Wr One, and the Kaiser, Tsar, and Emperor of Austria, this raged in every town, & in some places very badly, It is said 500,000 S-Africans died of the disease, Which was a worse amount than most lands, I believe that 5% of the population died, that made it as bad as India, less whites died per head, but still a high number,

Brits won this 1899-02 Boer war, 26000 Afrikaner women die in its' camps, And 7000 of their troops, And 20,000 black women & children died in camps, The women, & children were killed by an epidemic, The white women were relatives of white soldiers, & the blacks, And were people who lived there,

5000African Zulus, feeling betrayed by the British, die in a 1906 revolt, Which encouraged whites to favour a union, with the other white S-Africa states, As Natal was the only state, Where British & American whites outnumbered other Afrikaners, But even here, they opted for the lower class Afrikaner P, & white socialists, Not the pro white & black socialists, not than rich conservatives,

Like in the 19thC when similar numbers die in hard mining, 50000 do of 1900s of sick mines, & more of labour in other times too, At times 8% of some miners die in mining, in the 1870s, So lets say 70,000 blacks died in 1900-22, And 70,000 in 1880-1899, With this causing low numbers of deaths via their diseases for whites,

The ruling P leads to the 1920s, then crushes a 100s dead white workers strike, Angry at blacks lower paid, going to be allowed to do their jobs, Which saw an even more Afrikaans P, win over a Britifying coalition image P, Which established laws for whites, And increased white women's voting rights, Ruining the Cape blacks small voting percentage,

In the late 1920 & early 1930s, There was a drought which spread malaria here, This saw in Zululand, about 40,000 died, Plus about 5000 Mozambiquers, And 2000 from Lesotho, & Swazi,

And 2000 in the rest of that white led dominion, And of this lets say 25,000 died in such famines, Added to other stats in Mozambique, & Angola each, In the 1920s-30s, similar to other times,

As of the flu epidemic and South African wars even White South Africans had a lower life expectancy in the 20th Century than Britain, and more povicide and democide and war deaths.

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