2/29/2024 0 Comments National general strike dayUntil a week or so before the stay-at-home, the South African press endeavoured to live up to the standards and ethics of honest journalism and reported news items as they were without slants and distortions. At the beginning of the campaign the press gave us fairly objective coverage and, acting on information supplied by their own reporters in different parts of the country, they reported growing support for the demonstrations and correctly predicted unprecedented response to the call. On this issue, the radio, the press, and European employers played a thoroughly shameful role. ![]() By resorting to these drastic steps the government has in fact conceded that we are the country`s most powerful and dangerous opponents to its hated policies. Only by adopting these strong-arm measures could the government hope to break the stay-at-home. More than ten thousand innocent Africans were arrested and jailed under the pass laws and terror and intimidation became widespread. Meetings were banned throughout the country, and the local authorities, in collaboration with the police-force, kept vigil to ensure that no strike propaganda should be spread amongst the masses of the people. The army had to be called out, European civilians armed, and the police force deployed in African townships and other areas. Only by mobilising the entire resources of the State could the government hope to stem the tide that was running so strongly against it.Ī special law(2) had to be rushed through parliament to enable the government to detain without trial people connected with the organisation of the stay-at-home. It also realised that the organisational machine built up to propagate the campaign was of so high a standard, and support for the idea so firm and widespread, that the situation could only be controlled by resorting to naked force. It realised that there would be overwhelming support for the call if the campaign was not immediately suppressed through open terror and intimidation. The government was alarmed by the tremendous impact of the demand for a national convention and the call for countrywide anti-Republican demonstrations. The steps taken by the government to suppress the campaign were a measure of our strength and influence in the political life of the country and of its weakness. Ever since the All-in African Conference at Pietermaritzburg, the issue that dominated South African politics and that attracted pressmen from all over the world was not the Republican celebrations organised by the government, but the stirring campaign of the African people and other non-White sections to mark our rejection of a White Republic forcibly imposed upon us by a minority.įew political organisations could have succeeded in conducting such a stubborn and relentless campaign under conditions which, for all practical purposes, amounted to martial law. Defying unprecedented intimidation by the State, trailed and hounded by the Special Branch, denied the right to hold meetings, operating in areas heavily patrolled by government and municipal police and teeming with spies and informers, they stood firm as a rock and spread the stay-at-home message to millions of people throughout the country. ![]() This magnificent response was the result of the hard work and selfless devotion of our organisers and activists who had to overcome formidable difficulties very often involving personal risks to themselves. The call of the All-in African National Action Council for a stay-at-home on 29, 30 and received solid and massive support throughout the country. National Policy Conferences Menu Toggle.National Consultative Conferences Menu Toggle.
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