YUSUF MOHAMED DADOO
Grave problems of life and death face us and the peoples of the world in the
coming year. In the international field the imperialist warmongers headed
by the United States are engaged in feverish activities to mobilise war materials
and manpower to drown the world in the blood and destruction of war.
But the people of the world say otherwise. They want peace, they
want freedom and independence, they declare that subjection of every
form, of one country by another, of one nation by another, of one
race by another, leads to human conflict and disaster, and must be
wiped out.
There is no reason why the peoples of the Socialist countries should
not live side by side and in peace and harmony with the peoples of
the Capitalist countries. There is no reason why atomic energy, the
greatest invention of mankind, should not be used for the betterment
of humanity unprecedented in written history, instead of being used
as a most satanic weapon of destruction as hoped for by the warmongers
of the world.
It is, therefore, the sacred duty of the peoples of all countries
to fight for peace, for the outlawing of the atom bomb, for the elimination
of racialism and for the recognition to every country of the right
to self-determination.
Apartheid
In order to fulfil this grave and sacred duty it is necessary for
every South African to oppose every aspect of the policy of apartheid
pursued by the Nationalist Party Government of Dr. Malan. During
the last two years this government has enacted many pieces of legislation
repugnant to democratic ways of life. During the next session of
parliament which opens this month, the Coloured people, and indeed
all the peoples of South Africa, face the gravest threat to their
liberties.
The Malan-Havenga pact which threatens the Coloured franchise,
is not merely a threat to the franchise rights of the Coloured people
who have the right to vote, but it is also a most sinister attack
on democracy as such.
The 48,000 Coloured voters in the Cape may lose the right of the
common franchise, but it also paves the way for a fascist State in
South Africa.
End of Democracy
To allow the Cape Coloured franchise to go would not only mean
an end to the era of liberalism in the Cape; it would mean an end
to democracy as we know it in South Africa. It would mean not only
one Witzieshoek, but hundreds of Witzieshoeks, where the legitimate
demands of the African people for land and living space would be
drowned in blood.
It would mean more and more forcible expulsion of the urban Africans
to work as serfs and slaves on the farms of the Afrikaner herrenvolk.
It would not only mean the greater oppression of the non-white peoples,
but the slow but sure whittling away of the rights of vast sections
of the European population. The rise in the cost of living not only
affects the Non-European people, but the vast majority of the Europeans.
Our Tasks
And so our tasks for the coming year are clear:
1. In common with hundreds of millions of people throughout the
world we must fight for peace, for the outlawing of the atomic bomb
and all bacteriological methods of warfare, for the ending of all
war propaganda, for the meeting of the big Powers for a peaceful
settlement of all disputes.
2. The elimination of racialism and the abolition of all forms
of racial discrimination in South Africa.
3. The abolition of the pass laws, police raids in locations, the
granting of land for those who need it, the repeal of the Group Areas
Act, the Population Registration Act, the Citizenship Act, the Suppression
of Communism Act, the Immorality and Mixed Marriages Acts.
4. An end to apartheid tyranny, which includes discrimination of
languages, citizenship rights and the establishment of a broederbond
republic.
A Convention
To end apartheid tyranny in 1951 it is fundamentally necessary
that a clarion call should go out from the African National Congress,
representing vast sections of the South African population, for the
calling of a National Convention in the immediate future; to bring
together at a central conference representatives of all sections
of the South African population, both white and non-white, in order
to resolve on a programme which would oppose apartheid in every form,
and work for the recognition of the human dignity and the basic human
rights of all social groups of people in consonance with the principles
and purposes of the United Nations Charter and the Declaration of
Human Rights.
This is a question which merits the attention and consideration
of ail South Africans, and on this... will depend the future of South
Africa.
1951 must see an end to apartheid tyranny. We fight for peace,
democracy, and an end to exploitation of man by man on earth.
