June 26, 1967
From: Sechaba, June 1967
Once more this year we call upon the people of South Africa and the world to commemorate June 26, the National Day of the oppressed and struggling people of South Africa: a day observed by the liberation forces under the leadership of the African National Congress as an occasion for rededication to the revolutionary struggle to wipe away the scourge of racialism, fascist tyranny and imperialism.
June 26, a symbol of the unshakeable determination of the African people and their allies to seize power and banish oppression and exploitation, has its roots in the history of the long struggle of our people against the violent and brutal repression of white minority rule. It is a day of the oppressed that was born in the crucible of bitter and fierce resistance.
Day of Rededication
June 26 is a day of rededication to the sacred cause of liberating our motherland. On this day our people solemnly pledge themselves to avenge the martyred heroes who gave their lives to redeem the national independence and human dignity of the African, and the gallant sons and daughters of our land who with unsurpassed courage and selflessness have endured persecution and torture at the hands of ruthless racists.
On June 26 hundreds of thousands of our people, led by the African National Congress, embarked on militant mass actions which shook the citadel of white tyranny and forced a frightened fascist minority to take cover behind batons, bullets and military tanks. But the flames of revolutionary struggle and ardour of resistance have grown bigger and stronger with every new instrument of force and violence produced and used against the people by the enemies of freedom, peace and harmony in our country.
June 26 is our people's unchallengeable assertion that South Africa shall be free.
History of Massacres
To understand the value and significance of June 26 and appreciate its meaning to millions of oppressed Africans in South Africa, it is necessary to recall that the history of white rule in South Africa is a history of rule by force, violence and massacres.
There was shooting and killing of Africans during the 1919 Anti-Pass Campaign, during the strike by 80,000 Rand African miners and the Port Elizabeth African workers' strike in 1920. In 1921 the notorious Bulhoek massacre took place when 163 Africans were killed and 130 wounded. The Bondelswarts massacre in 1922 saw 100 people shot dead and hundreds wounded. People were killed during the Durban beer boycott in 1929, and at Potchefstroom and Durban during the 1930 Anti-Pass Campaign. There were killings at Worcester in 1930, Vereeniging in 1938, and during the Rand African miners' strike in 1946.
White fascist terror took the reigns of government in 1948 and an era of intensified tyranny and brutal repression started. The introduction of the Unlawful Organisations Bill (later renamed the "Suppression of Communism" Act) was followed by the shooting down of 18 Africans during May Day demonstrations in Johannesburg on May 1, 1950.
Country-wide Stoppage
In the same year the African National Congress called on the African and all other oppressed people and democrats of South Africa to join in unity and solidarity on June 26 in a national stoppage of work - which, for the Africans, was an act of mass defiance of the law - to honour the victims of decades of white violence and massacres and to assert their resolve to pursue the struggle for freedom despite brutal repression.
In their hundreds of thousands, the people responded to the call and thus June 26 came to be accepted and recognised as our NATIONAL DAY, symbolising the nature and objectives of our struggle for freedom, and providing the occasion for rededication to its noble cause.
There are many milestones along the path of struggle that followed June 26, 1950 - a path strewn with the bodies of our martyred and maimed compatriots. A few of these milestones are here recalled.
In 1952, determined to wage relentless resistance against fascist rule, the ANC, acting in close cooperation with the South African Indian Congress, galvanised the masses into defiance of apartheid legislation, when, from June 26 to December, more than 8,500 freedom-fighters defied the unjust and inhuman laws of South Africa and served jail sentences.
This was the finest hour in the development of national political awareness among our people. It brought panic and consternation to the white oppressors and their imperialist allies, and resulted in a spate of draconian legislation designed to contain the revolutionary upsurge of the people.
Freedom Charter Adopted
But three years later, on June 26, 1955, a heroic and epoch-making Congress of the People was convened in the face of fierce intimidation and victimisation by the racist Government and its police force. From every corner of South Africa delegates and representatives of the people assembled at Kliptown, Johannesburg; and despite harassment and constant provocation by hundreds of heavily armed police, they drew up a Freedom Charter, which was a blueprint of the political, economic and social structure that the people of South Africa demanded. The Freedom Charter, adopted on June 26 and acclaimed by freedom-loving people throughout the world as a historic document, became the basis of a charge of High Treason against 156 leaders of the liberation movement arrested in 1956; some of these stood trial for nearly five years.
In anger the people rose in militant mass action to assert the demands of the Freedom Charter. The political struggle raged more fiercely and June 26 assumed an ever-increasing significance for the South African people.
A Shining Thread
It will be seen that in the struggles launched on June 26, there is a shining thread which speaks of a determination to win, of dedication to a national cause and to the principle of unity among the ranks of the oppressed. Peace and freedom cannot be achieved unless they flow from a relentless struggle based on a revolutionary programme. The Freedom Charter is a programme which bewildered the oppressors and exploiters. It compelled them to seek and use, from the ranks of the oppressed people, those selfish and treacherous elements who are concerned only with their personal welfare.
Notwithstanding these imperialist tactics, June 26 has grown into an international day of solidarity with the cause of the oppressed people of South Africa. It has been adopted and is observed by the workers and peoples of South Africa, Asia and Latin America, by opponents of racism and white minority rule, and by progressives and democrats, comprising millions of people in many parts of the world. International and other organisations - political, cultural, social - and students' movements have demonstrated their support for the cause of freedom in South Africa by calling on their supporters to observe June 26.
Armed Struggles
This year, June 26 is of special significance for all opponents of colonialism and white minority rule in southern Africa. In Mozambique, the allies of fascist South Africa are suffering serious reverses from FRELIMO forces. In Angola, the Portuguese are straining their resources to hold the march of the MPLA militants. The Ian Smith regime, despite the British Government's guarantees against the use of force, is in the throes of a rising armed struggle. SWAPO forces have entered South West Africa and drawn blood from the South African racists.
The African revolution has rolled down to South Africa's doorstep. It cannot be too long before the flames of freedom sweep in to consume the evil forces that have plagued our country for centuries.
Certainly, our struggle will be hard and bitter. But certainly also, the sands of time are running out for the racists and oppressors, and each year June 26 heralds the approaching hour of reckoning. To hasten that hour, the ANC summons any who have strayed away from the path of revolution to return to the fold. We call upon all our people in and outside South Africa and on all our friends and supporters throughout the world to rally behind the struggle for liberation led by the African National Congress in South Africa. This is the call of June 26.