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Review of this meeting, in Minutes of the Annual Conference of the AAC, December 1949
From the very beginning it was obvious that some of the Congress delegates had no genuine desire for unity. They had to pretend they wanted unity because the masses wanted unity, and they did not want to appear responsible for the non-consummation of unity, lest they lost their following. The Convention delegates introduced as the first thing to be discussed, the policy of the proposed organisation. We knew that the Congress delegates would not dare break with us on the question of policy, because they would thus stand exposed to the country as collaborators. At the same time they would be committing themselves if they accepted non-collaboration, and they did not want to commit themselves. After a discussion lasting almost all day the Convention resolution on Non-collaboration was accepted. This acceptance of Non-collaboration by the Congress delegates, it appeared later, was a tactical move and not genuine acceptance. They had hoped that since they had conceded a point in accepting non-collaboration, we would also be sporting enough to concede a point on the structure of the organisation. They wanted a unitary organisation, membership to which would be determined by the whim of whosoever had the power so to do. In other words they merely wanted a re-juvenated Congress with no A.A.C. to embarrass it by advocating Non-collaboration. Having killed the A.A.C. they would conveniently forget about the Non-collaboration resolution. Unfortunately for them, the Convention delegates refused to be hoodwinked. They demanded that in the new organisation there should be provision for the admission of all organisations which accepted its policy. On this point the meeting broke down. The Congress delegates refused to guarantee the acceptance of such organisations, while the Convention delegates refused to accept unity without this assurance.
The Congress delegates now wanted to repudiate even that part of the proceedings on which agreement had been reached, i.e. they wanted to repudiate the agreement not to collaborate. As this was discussed and decided, however, we have no choice but to report what did happen.
The meeting was adjourned, sine die, and it is not likely that unity will be effected in the near future with the A.N.C., at least as long as it has its present leadership.