Dr. Yusuf Mohamed Dadoo played an outstanding role in the South
African liberation movement for over half a century - in persuading
the Indian community to link its destiny with that of the African
majority, in building the unity of all the oppressed people and
democratic whites of that country in a common struggle against
racism, in promoting fearless and militant resistance to the
oppressors, and in developing the international outlook of the
movement and international solidarity with it. He led the non-violent
Indian passive resistance movement - uniting Gandhians, Marxists
and others. He was a founder and leader of the Non-European United
Front, and of the Communist Party when it was revived as a clandestine
organisation. And since going into exile in 1960, he played a
key role in promoting underground and armed struggle in South
Africa and a world-wide anti-apartheid movement.

His contribution was recognised by the national Indian organisation
and by the Communist Party which elected him chairman. It was
acknowledged by the African National Congress which awarded him
its highest honour, Isitwalandwe-Seaparankoe in 1955, and elected
him the Vice-Chairman of its Revolutionary Council and later
of its Politico-Military Council. It was also recognised by the
racist regime which imprisoned and restricted him on numerous
occasions.

Dr. Dadoo began his political activities as a young pupil in
South Africa in his teens. Inspired by the spirit of defiance
of injustice that Mahatma Gandhi tried to impart in the Indian
community in South Africa, he took part in demonstrations against
anti-Indian measures by the racist regime and organised a meeting
of students to hear Mrs. Sarojini Naidu, the Indian poet and
national leader, who saw, already in 1924, that the struggle
of the Indian community is linked with that of the African and
Coloured people. Though he came from a prosperous Indian family,
he developed a sense of solidarity with the African people suffering
inhuman exploitation, and took an interest in the African trade
union movement (ICU). He even helped African workers in his father's
business in their strike for better conditions.

In later years, during his sojourn in India and in Britain
as a student, he not only identified with the Indian national
movement and the anti-fascist and anti-colonial movements in
Europe but actively participated in them. He was first arrested
in 1929 in London in a demonstration for Indian freedom. The
unity of the oppressed people and democratic whites, advocated
by Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and the League against Imperialism,
and the united front against fascism which was espoused by progressive
leaders in Europe, were an inspiration to him. He saw clearly
that such unity was essential in the struggle against racism
in South Africa.

Returning to South Africa in 1936, he soon began to confront
the authorities, as well as the rich traders in the leadership
of the Indian Congresses who saw the future of the community
in an accommodation with the racist regime and kept aloof from
the struggle of the Africans. He began to organise the community
for resistance and at the same time pressed for unity with the
Africans and the Coloured people in a common struggle. In 1938-39
he became the founder and secretary of the Transvaal Non-European
United Front and leader of the Nationalist Group of the Transvaal
Indian Congress. Above all, he fully dedicated himself to the
struggle for freedom and equality for all the people of South
Africa. His first two trials in South Africa were, in fact, not
in the struggle of the Indian community but for his work as a
leader of Non-European United Front. From the dock of the racist
courts, he denounced the oppression and exploitation of all the
black people in South Africa. In 1944-45 he was associated with
Dr. A. B. Xuma, President of the African National Congress, in
a campaign against the humiliating pass laws imposed upon the
African people, and was again arrested for leading a procession.

In 1946-48, he led the Indian passive resistance movement in
which over two thousand people courted imprisonment, and served
two terms of imprisonment with hard labour. Even during that
difficult struggle, which was to have a great impact on the liberation
movement, he and his colleagues helped the great African mineworkers`
strike of August 1946. A number of Africans, Coloured people
and whites went to prison in solidarity with the Indian people.
Out of that experience came the Xuma-Naicker-Dadoo pact for cooperation
between the African and Indian Congresses. His determined efforts
to promote cooperation in struggle, despite all difficulties,
contributed greatly to the joint action of African and Indian
Congresses in the stay-at-home on June 26, 1950, in protest against
apartheid, and then to the historic Campaign of Defiance of Unjust
Laws in 1952 in which he was the first, together with Nelson
Mandela, to court imprisonment. Banned and restricted, he continued
clandestine activities to strengthen the Congress Alliance of
the 1950`s and helped the formation of the underground South
African Communist Party.

The Sharpeville massacre, the outlawing of the African National
Congress and the State of Emergency in 1960, created a new situation.
Going abroad at the insistence of the liberation movement, he
made a great contribution, in cooperation with the leaders of
the African National Congress, to the organisation of armed struggle
and to the building of a world-wide anti-apartheid movement.

Oliver Tambo, President of the African National Congress, pointed
out at his funeral in 1983:

"...it
would be wrong to conceive of Comrade Dadoo only as a leader
of the
Indian community of our population. He was
one of the foremost leaders of our country, of the stature of
Chief Lutuli, Moses Kotane, J. B. Marks, Bram Fischer, Nelson
Mandela and others...

"His
contribution as a member of the Revolutionary Council of the
African National
Congress cannot possibly be overstated...

"As
a true patriot, Dadoo understood already in the thirties that
the struggle
in South Africa is part of a much wider struggle
against capitalism, colonialism and for national liberation,
peace and social progress. We owe it to stalwarts like him that
today our vanguard liberation movement, the African National
Congress, enjoys high international prestige as a genuine spokesman
and leader of our people's advance to the seizure of power."

I have prepared this compilation of his speeches and writings,
from 1940 to the day he passed away in London, in the hope that
it will assist scholars and students interested in the study
of the history of the great South African liberation movement.
I am aware that no such compilation can fully reflect his wide-ranging
contribution to the struggle, for, though he was a powerful speaker
and a thinker, he was, above all, a man of action.

He led by his example, by his readiness to participate in every
struggle and campaign, whatever the sacrifice. He never set himself
apart as a leader, but was always with the freedom fighters.
By his commitment, courage and modesty, he earned the love and
affection of the people, and the admiration even of those who
disagreed with his ideological convictions.

I became interested in the South African struggle, as a student
in 1943-44, when I read a pamphlet by Dr. Dadoo. I became convinced
that the destiny of the Indian community in South Africa was
linked to that of the African people, and that its future can
only be secured by its wholehearted participation in the common
struggle for freedom and equality, in which the interests of
the African majority must inevitably be paramount. For my country,
India, as Pandit Nehru affirmed, it was not merely a question
of the protection of people of Indian origin but of identification
with the struggle for the total liberation of South Africa.

Twenty years later, as Principal Secretary of the United Nations
Special Committee against Apartheid, I met Dr. Dadoo in London
on the suggestion of the leaders of the African National Congress,
and we remained close friends until his death. I was always impressed
by his vision and faith, and by the readiness of this man, who
loved life, to sacrifice all. He always emphasised that the leadership
of the struggle belongs to the African National Congress.

His mind was always with those in apartheid prisons in South
Africa, above all, Nelson Mandela for whom he had a great affection
- and he constantly encouraged me in promoting the campaign for
the release of South African political prisoners.

I have, therefore, thought it most appropriate that this compilation
of his speeches and writings should be dedicated to Nelson Mandela,
who came to symbolise the struggle of the South African people
against the inhumanity of racism and for a non-racial and democratic
society.

South Africa Freedom Day E. S. Reddy
June 26, 1990

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