FROM PASSIVE RESISTANCE TO ARMED STRUGGLE

[Press Release of the Irish Anti-Apartheid Movement, February 24, 1987]

"Resistance by non violent means alone became untenable in South Africa where Mahatma Gandhi launched his first passive resistance movement (Satyagraha) eighty years ago because the successive racist regimes and white vigilantes showed no hesitation to kill peaceful demonstrators and the western world was not outraged by the killings of Africans. Strange as it may seem, it was by undertaking armed struggle that the African National Congress (ANC) was able to avert uncontrolled violence and terrorism, and save lives, including the lives of the whites" in the view of E.S. Reddy from India, a former Assistant Secretary-General of the United Nations in charge of its Centre Against Apartheid. He was delivering a lecture on "Passive Resistance to Armed Struggle" under the auspices of the Irish Anti Apartheid Movement to mark the 75th Anniversary of the African National Congress.

"Terrorism would have been a normal reaction of the African people when they were frustrated after decades of non violent struggle. The white minority community was and remains vulnerable, whatever its military might. It was the faith of Nelson Mandela and other leaders that a non racial society can be built with world support that has so far averted a carnage."

"The current attempts by conservatives in the United States to boost discredited rival groups will strengthen the intransigence of the Pretoria regime. It is only when the right of the South African people to rebellion against tyranny and oppression is recognised that efforts to avert a bloodbath can be seriously pursued. Sanctions remain the most effective measure to promote negotiations between whites and blacks willing to live in a non racial society."

Mr Reddy expressed disappointment at the continued hesitation of Ireland and other smaller countries to recognise the legitimacy of' the struggle by the oppressed people by all means open to them under racist tyranny. "Recognition of the right is not incitement and it has become imperative to persuade the Pretoria regime to see reason."

Reviewing the freedom movement in South Africa since the establishment of the ANC in 1912, he paid tribute to the ANC for developing non violent resistance as a means of struggle for liberation both before and after the ANC abandoned its strict adherence to non violence.

"Even today, the struggle by the African people is mostly non violent and the total number of persons killed in guerrilla warfare is a tiny fraction of those killed by the police and the South African war machine.

"The Pretoria regime and its friends have played up the killing of some informers by enraged youth in the African townships and accuse the ANC of terrorism for not condemning them."

Mr Reddy recalled that in 1942 Mahatma Gandhi refused to condemn those who were provoked to sabotage and violence in India in the face of leonine violence by the authorities.

Mr Pat Carroll replied to Mr Reddy's address. The Chairman of the meeting was the Revd Terence P. McCaughey, President of the Irish Anti Apartheid Movement.