The first National Consultative Conference of the ANC was held at Morogoro, Tanzania, from 25 April to 1 May 1969. The conference has become known as the 'Morogoro Conference'. Oliver Tambo summed up the conference with these words:
"Close Ranks! This is the order to our people; our youth; the army; to each Umkhonto we Sizwe militant; to all our many supporters the world over. This is the order to our leaders; to all of us. The order that comes from this conference is: Close Ranks and Intensify the Armed Struggle!"
The Conference was attended by over seventy delegates from various centres representing ANC branches,, units of Umkhonto we Sizwe - the ANC's military wing - leader of the Indian and Coloured peoples and the revolutionary working class movement. The Conference was opened at a public session by GeorgeMagombe, Executive Secretary of the OAU Liberation Committee. Other speakers at the opening session included Mr A Swai, Administrative Secretary for External Affairs of TANU, Mr J J Nambuta of NUTA, Tanzania's Trade Union Federation, Amadou N'diaye, Secretary of the All African Trade Union Federation and revolutionary leaders of FRELIMO (Mozambique), MPLA (Angola), SWAPO (Namibia) and ZAPU (Zimbabwe).
"Intensify
the Revolution": Extracts From the Political Report of the National
Executive Committee
The
Freedom Charter: Revolutionary Programme of the ANC
Strategy
and Tactics of the ANC
Memorandum
by Ben Turok before the Morogoro Conference, April 1969, and
"Reply" by Joe Matthews (abridged)
Index of other ANC Conferences
Last modified: 28 November 1999