Synopses & Reviews
"... Meli combines the insights of an insider with sound scholarship." --Patrick O'Meara
"Meli's book is a welcome addition to the literature on South Africa." --L. E. Meyer, Choice
"... the book is written in a sober, matter-of-fact style with a minimum of invective and rhetoric. Packed with quotations and thoroughly annotated, it appeals to reason more than the emotions and deserves to be taken seriously as history rather than dismissed as propaganda or myth making." --The New York Review of Books
"This book is clearly the most important one written on South Africa during the last decade." --Nature, Society, and Thought
"... made the case for the ANC's central role as South Africa's historic movement for economic justice as well as racial and political democracy." --Journal of African History
In this history of the African National Congress, Francis Meli demonstrates that the party is central to the future of South Africa. British, American, and other Western governments have finally recognized that no South African settlement is possible without dealing with the ANC.
Table of Contents
Preface
A Note on Class and Colour in South Africa
1 Sources of Inspiration
The Emergence of the African working class
Religious influences: the early Christian converts and independent chruches
The African press
Political organization
2 The Formation of the African National Congress (ANC)
8 January 1912
The early years (1912-19)
African nationalism and socialism
3 The ANC and Workers' Organizations (191-28)
The Rise and fall of the Industrial and Commercial Workers' Union (ICU)
The ANC and the Communist Party (CP) (1921-28)
4 Fundamental Changes (1930-49)
The All-African Convention (AAC)
Resurrection of the ANC
The African Claims 1943
Massive Indian resistance (1946-49)
Workers set the pace: the great mineworkers' strike of 1946
The formation of the ANC Youth League (1943-49)
5 Defiance and New Strategies (1949-60)
The Defiance Campaign
The Freedom Charter
The Treason Trial
Mass direct action
The emergence of the Pan African Congress (PAC) (1959-60)
The turning point (1960-61)
6 Armed Resistance and ANC Strategy (1961-69)
The formation of Umkhonto we Sizwe
Mandela's tour of Africa
The Lobatse Conference of 1962
The Rivonia Trial
The ANC after Rivonia
The 1969 Morogoro Conference
7 The Re-emergence of the ANC (1969-85)
Steve Biko and the Black Consciouness Movement (BCM)
Workers' action
The Swoeto uprising
The Chruches
The ANC: consolidation and further advance (1975-85)
Their nightmares are our dreams
Appendixes
Presidents-General of the ANC
Secretaries-General of the ANC
The Freedom Center
Manifesto of Umkhonto we Sizwe
Chronology: Important Dates in South African History
References
Select Bibliography
Index