Speakers' Notes on Occasion of June 26, 1989
Setting/context of celebration.
Internal: on our side
Despite the palpable dent we have sustained from the regime's vicious counter-offensive we remain unvanquished. In certain important areas of struggle we have attained even greater heights. At places of learning we remain unbowed in our determination to form and be represented by democratic organs of our own. We are unyielding in our resolve to have education that arms us to tackle the problems which beset our society in all areas.
At institutions of higher learning we are, in fierce battles, maintaining and expanding the universality concept we have won so dearly - the aim to convert certain universities into "own affairs" institutions must be suffocated in embryo.
On the factory floor we are defending, deepening and enlarging our right to organise and strike. We demand that the bosses and the state recognise and negotiate wages and conditions with unions which enjoy the confidence and support of the majority of workers. We demand the right to picket enterprises and establishments on strike. In this way therefore we are giving a firm rebuff to the Labour Relations Amendment Bill and will ensure that it goes no further than the drafting rooms. The numerous ongoing and intensifying strikes in the country bear clear testimony to our resolve.
In the broader community we have made vital gains as well. We have launched and sustained a successful hunger strike campaign. As a result, many of our leaders and activists are among us today and continuing with the struggle. In this regard the role of the religious personalities stand out as a brilliant example of the determination of our people to fight the apartheid monster by all means at our disposal and in spite of the repressive intents and actions of the regime.
Our boycott campaign against exorbitant rents, transport fares, etc. are bearing fruits. We have forced the regime to negotiate with our representatives on these issues. We are forcing through our right to determine the manner in which we should be governed.
The dismal collapse of the state's case on treason charges against Moses Mayekiso and other community leaders in Alexandra constitutes a great victory to our struggle and open new vistas for our march to freedom. In a real sense, the organs of alternative forms of government which were on trial, have been granted legal respite. We should spare no effort to revive, consolidate and expand these fledging organs of the alternative power to apartheid.
The enemy side
We are winning the battle of wills. The enemy admitted this and more when he prolonged his vicious weapon - the state of emergency - for another year. Not only have three of the years of emergency failed to contain "the revolutionary climate", but, admits Adriaan Vlok, in many parts in the country it has "risen" and continues to rise.
This situation compounds the crisis the regime has been in for years now even further. It has ripped the ruling National Party right down the middle. The recent election results for the new National Party leader F.W. De Klerk shows this - he won with a slim margin of eight votes against the nearest rival, Barend Du Plessis. This will have an important bearing on the intended tinkering with "reform" and its application.
Challenges ahead
National Party leadership election results are unprecedented for any ruling party in the country in an election year. It carries with it the prospects of interesting policy trade-offs among the main factions within this party as well as among the various components of the tri-racial parliament.
Novel also in the politics of our country are the almost feverish exposures to and consultations with leaders of major capitalist countries of leading elements in the regime in an election year. Pik Botha, Barend Du Plesses and F.W. De Klerk himself have had contacts or are billed to have consultations with leaders of the British, West German and American governments. As well as the European Economic Community. On their part some of these capitalist powers have had and continue to maintain, at various levels, exchanges of views on how to settle the South Africa problem. British prime minister Margaret Thatcher has, in May of this year, held important discussions with leaders of Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Mozambique as well as of the regime. Important countries such as Zambia have exchanged ideas on our situation with the chiefs of the American and Canadian administrations. Our natural allies are also laying great stress on the option of a peaceful negotiated settlement of our conflict.
These are pressures exerted on both the regime and ourselves to go to the negotiating tables. All indicators are that the momentum of these pressures is not only going to be maintained but are bound to increase in the immediate term. The interests in the speedy move towards the negotiations are as varied as the forces behind the impetuous move of our revolution but want to reduce to naught our enormous gains and sacrifices. There are those who would like to control the extent and direction of the outcome of the demise of apartheid. There are also those who are broadly in accord with and sympathetic to our aspirations and objectives.
We therefore have to proceed with the struggle with a full grasp of this unfolding reality and address ourselves to it adequately. Our response will vary with our perceptions and play-out of interests at stake and the consequent scenarios they breed. However our surest way of victory lies in the all round intensification of the struggle and flexibility in approach we adopt in our march.
Strengthen and expand unity
In this context therefore we should spare no effort to ensure that the design of the enemy to weaken us collapses. The fratricidal conflict provoked by the Pretoria regime in Natal constitutes a major threat to our gains. It is a trampoline from which the enemy will deliver a telling blow on the corner-stone of our people's drive to emancipation and freedom - the unity of all the oppressed and democratic forces and, in particular, the African. We are well familiar with Pretoria's failed attempts over the years to drive wedges of divisions among the various ideological tendencies within the forces of change and democracy. We fought tenaciously and not only emerged intact from the past offensives but even stronger. With this experience still fresh in our minds, therefore, and enriching it with new and strengthened initiatives and flexibility, it is all the forces opposed to the apartheid in order to bring about a broad and powerful movement of peace to end this tragic carnage in Natal. In so doing we will isolate apartheid diehards and direct our decisive and final blows on the enemy in Pretoria - the various death squads, A-team, etc.
We have made tremendous strides towards broadening the unity of the anti-apartheid forces in action. In this regard the unity of the working class cemented at the March 5 and 6, 1989 workers summit should serve as a loadstar. Faced with a common threat we have augmented and strengthened our ranks, overcoming ideological hurdles and other differences. The achievement has actually laid the basis for the launching of a broader anti-apartheid coalition bigger than any our country has produced thus far. Already the major trade unions have resolved to support or host such coalition. This in the case of the National Union of Metalworkers of South Africa, among others. We need to rally behind these calls and work determinedly for the speedy realisation of such a potent force in our struggle.
As we observe South Africa Freedom Day in 1989, we should also increase the striking power of our peoples' army, Umkhonto we Sizwe, and increase the efficiency and effectiveness of its blows. We should do all this within the confines of our country. The unfolding situation referred to above make this absolutely imperative.
Launch a concerted and massive defiance campaign against apartheid
We have no truck with the laws of apartheid. They have been enacted against our will and to oppress us. We have made appreciable headway in resisting these laws. The regime is meeting stiff resistance in its drive to implement some basic laws of its system. The Group Areas, the Foreign Funding, the Separate Amenities and other acts pertaining to the forced removal and settlement of communities are, in important ways, being rendered in-operative.
Building on our achievements in these areas and the ongoing struggles around Conservative Party controlled municipalities such as Boksburg and Carletonville, a broad coalition of anti-apartheid forces places us on a historic threshold to launch a general campaign of defiance against all discriminatory laws on the statute book. In the process we shall be, in struggle and in our strength, creating the basis of legal system of the new South Africa that we aspire for.
The actions of our various formations within the country and within the international community should be directed as well to further impressing upon the various forces within this community that now is not the time to relent on the fight and let Pretoria off the hook. Thus all pressures aimed at isolating the regime and weakening its capacity to defy the efforts of humanity to put an end to this crime should not only be maintained but increased.
A combination of the unity of our people, their united action, the increased blows MK and firm international action against the apartheid system will ensure its speedy eradication.
Solidarity with SWAPO and the Namibian people.
We hail the historic victory scored by our brothers and sisters in Namibia under the leadership of our comrade-in-arms of the South West African People's Organisation (SWAPO). As the ANC we have done all in our power to give the apartheid regime no flimsy excuse to renege on agreements which set the Namibian independence process afoot. The Pretoria regime, as we too well know, is a past master at dirty tricks and prevarications. We should therefore, as a people, strive by all means to expose and frustrate the regime's machinations in the run-up to the elections to the Constituent Assembly. The people of Namibia must become masters of their destiny. The way to that noble objective is replete with traps and thorns. This victory must impel us to attain our cherished objective of a single, democratic and non-racial South Africa sooner.
All support to SWAPO!
Long live June 26!
Long live the unity of anti-apartheid forces!
Long live MK!
Long live international solidarity of peace, liberation and democratic forces!
June, 1989