Umsebenzi Online, Volume 18, No. 7, 26 June 2019 - Celebrating the 64th anniversary of the Freedom Charter in its historical context
Communications
Umsebenzi Online, Volume 18, No. 7, 26 June 2019 | |
|
Red Alert 
Celebrating the 64th anniversary of the Freedom Charter in its historical context
Tuesday and Wednesday, 25 – 26 june 2019 mark the 64th anniversary of the Congress of the People held in Kliptown Johannesburg from 25 – 26 June 1955. The Congress deliberated on, and adopted the Freedom Charter on 26 June 1955. Therefore Wednesday, 26 June 2019 marks the 64th anniversary of the Freedom Charter. A lot has been said, and even written about the history of the Freedom Charter, yet there are many excluded aspects in the narrative.
As an attempt to fill the gap, instead of an SACP statement on the 64th anniversary of the Freedom Charter, the Umsebenzi Online is today, 26 June 2019, carrying three important original documents, including the Freedom Charter, to celebrate the anniversary. The preceding two original documents are the Programme of the Communist Party of South Africa, now the South African Communist Party, adopted by the National Conference of the Party held in Johannesburg in 1944, 11 years before the adoption of the Freedom Charter. The second is an excerpt from South Africa’s Way Forward, statement by Moses Kotane, General Secretary of the Party from 1939 to 1978. The statement was first carried by the Advance, successor to the then banned Guardian, on 6 and 13 May 1954, a year before the adoption of the Freedom Charter.
The two documents are accessible from SACP archives, in particular, from the South African Communist Speak: Documents from the History of the South African Communist Party, 1915-1980. The purpose of making these documents available is to let the history of the roots of the content of the Freedom Charter speak for itself, perhaps for the first time. The rest, including the text and the format, noting that all italicisations were made for emphasis, is left to the reader to compare with the Freedom Charter. It is important nonetheless to indicate that some provisions were, reasonably as a minimum programme, moderated in the Freedom Charter, while others were enhanced, among others stylistically in terms of their presentation. Post-apartheid the content was given and thus found expression in the Constitution of the Republic.
Programme of the Communist Party of South Africa
Adopted by the National Conference of the Communist Party held in Johannesburg, January 1944
The Communist Party is a political party of the working class based on the principle of scientific Socialism. Guided by the theory and experience of the international labour movement, the Communist Party of South Africa aims at the establishment of a Socialist Republic based on the common ownership of the means of production and the rule of the working class and providing equal rights and opportunities for all racial and national groups. In order to achieve this aim the Communist Party seeks to organise and unite all sections of the working class, intelligentsia, poor farmers and progressive elements of the middle class in the common struggle against capitalism.
South Africa has many problems. Millions of our people are poor and uneducated. They lack the means to lead a healthy, normal family life. They are forced to live on low wages because the mines, factories and farms are owned by a small minority which controls the State in their own interests. A large part of our wealth is under the control of foreign imperialist interests which annually take millions out of the sweat and toil of the people of this country. This backward economy is maintained by a political structure which keeps millions of people in subjection, denying them the most elementary political and social rights. We must fight to remove all these disabilities which hamper the full development of our people.
We must undertake the daily struggle for higher wages, freedom from imperialist control and democratic rights for all. In the course of this struggle the unity of all workers will be forged. The advance towards Socialism demands class-conscious and militant leadership. The Communist Party, which has no other interests but that of the working class, puts forward the following programme:
A. POLITICAL RIGHTS
1. The establishment of an independent, democratic Republic in which all adults, regardless of race, colour or sex, shall have the right to vote for and be elected to Parliamentary, Provincial, Municipal and other representative bodies.
2. The guarantee to all citizens of freedom of religion, speech, Press, assembly and organisation. The repeal of such repressive laws as the Riotous Assemblies Act, the anti-strike laws and the Native Administration Act.
3. Freedom of movement for all citizens, including the right to live where they please.
4. The opening of the army and police force to all sections of the people on equal terms.
B. EDUCATION AND LANGUAGE RIGHTS
1. The recognition of the right of all national groups to the use of their language in all spheres of public life.
2. Free and compulsory education for all children up to the age of 16 years, and provision for adult education.
3. Equality of pay and privileges for all teachers of all races and both sexes.
4. The provision of grants and bursaries by the State to enable the children of workers to receive technical and university training.
C. ECONOMIC RIGHTS
1. Public ownership of the means of production, distribution and exchange.
2. The provision for the industrial development of the African reserves.
3. Taxation of land values and expropriation by the State of land which is held for speculative purposes.
4. The right of any person, irrespective of race or colour, to engage in any trade, profession or occupation. The Party fights for the repeal of the colour bar in industry.
5. Taxation of the rich and abolition of taxes which impose unfair burdens on the workers, such as personal tax, poll tax and hut tax.
D. WORKERS’ RIGHTS
1. The right of all workers, irrespective of race, colour or sex, to organise into trade unions, as well as the right of collective bargaining.
2. The extension of such laws as the Factories Act and Workmen's Compensation to all sections of the workers, including agricultural workers.
3. The introduction of an 8-hour day and a 40-hour week in all occupations except in dangerous occupations, where the working day shall be limited to 6 hours.
4. The prohibition of payment in kind and the abolition of the tot system.
5. The prohibition of recruiting of labour in any sphere of employment and the compound system.
6. The payment of a minimum wage […]
7. The revision of industrial laws so as to ensure to workers the right to strike and the establishment of labour inspection under the control of the trade unions.
8. The repeal of the Masters and Servants Act.
9. The removal of all colour barriers in industrial legislation.
E. AGRICULTURAL
1. Re-division of the land so as to ensure equitable distribution among poor farmers and landless agricultural labourers.
2. The fullest utilisation of the land so as to increase the food supply of the people. The prevention of the system of allowing large tracts of land to lie idle for speculative purposes.
3. A plan financed by the State to combat soil erosion.
4. The right of all sections of the population to purchase land.
5. Relief of small farmers from the burden of debt.
6. The introduction of collective farming into the reserves and the extension of transport, marketing facilities and irrigation schemes.
7. The ending of monopolies which control the marketing of food. The ending of export subsidies and the distribution of cheap food to the people.
F. SOCIAL SERVICES
1. The guarantee by the State to all citizens of the right to work and a full and comprehensive system of State social insurance to apply to all workers against sickness, injury, old age, childbirth and unemployment.
2. A State medical service for all.
3. Housing for all. Expropriation where vested interests stand in the way of slum clearance.
In putting forward the above programme the Communist Party emphasises the need for the workers of South Africa to realise their unity of interests with the workers of all races and countries in the struggle towards freedom and democracy.
South Africa’s Way Forward
Excerpt from the Statement by Moses Kotane
First published in the Advance, successor to the banned Guardian, on 6 and 13 May 1954
CONGRESS OF THE PEOPLE
The decision by the leaders of the main democratic organisations to embark upon a great Congress of the People of South Africa opens the way for a great advance towards a democratic future. For the first time millions of ordinary men and women will elect their representatives to a real assembly of the people. For the first time they will have the opportunity to discuss their own people's solution to the problems of our country, the problems of the workers, farmers, housewives, miners, teachers and others who make up our multi-national community. How South Africa should be governed, who should elect the men and women who make the laws of our country, how these laws should be administered – these and other questions will be discussed not only in the Congress of the People but in hundreds and thousands of discussions and meetings, great and small, throughout the land.
It is these true expressions of the voice of the people of this country which should find their faithful expression in the People's Freedom Charter.
And the Charter can become a historic document, guiding the way forward to a new and better life for all who live and work in this land.
TOWARDS A PEOPLE'S DEMOCRACY
The Freedom Charter will be a charter of the people, and it is not the purpose of this survey to attempt to draft it. Yet it must be clear to every thinking democrat that the Charter will, if it is to be the true voice of the people, do more than express pious hopes in words which will mean all things to all men. The people must write into this Charter their claim to equality of rights and equality of opportunity, political, social and economic, for all men and women. The people must proclaim through the Freedom Charter their demands:
1. That freedom of speech, freedom of movement, freedom of association and freedom of assembly be guaranteed;
2. That the rich farmlands of South Africa be shared among their rightful owners – those who plough them and water them with their sweat;
3. That the big mining and other monopoly-owned industries of our country become the property of the people;
4. That the working people be guaranteed by law their rights to free, recognised trade unions, wages sufficient for a civilised life, leisure and social security in sickness, unemployment and old age;
5. That urgent steps be taken to provide houses for the homeless, schools for the children and hospitals for the sick, without discrimination.
All these demands, of course, will not be attained just by drafting a Charter, They must be fought for. They will be realised only when the basic colour bar structure of South Africa has been abolished and replaced by a people's democratic state. But the Freedom Charter, embodying the people's aspirations and pinpointing the way forward, can mark a major advance towards a new South Africa, offering a fuller and happier life to all her people.
The freedom charter
Adopted by Congress of the People, Kliptown, Johannesburg, 25 – 26 June 1955
We, the People of South Africa, declare for all our country and the world to know:
That South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white, and that no government can justly claim authority unless it is based on the will of all the people;
That our people have been robbed of their birthright to land, liberty and peace by a form of government founded on injustice and inequality;
That our country will never be prosperous or free until all our people live in brotherhood, enjoying equal rights and opportunities;
That only a democratic state, based on the will of all the people, can secure to all their birthright without distinction of colour, race, sex or belief;
And therefore, we, the people of South Africa, black and white together equals, countrymen and brothers adopt this Freedom Charter;
And we pledge ourselves to strive together, sparing neither strength nor courage, until the democratic changes here set out have been won.
The people shall govern!
Every man and woman shall have the right to vote for and to stand as a candidate for all bodies which make laws;
All people shall be entitled to take part in the administration of the country;
The rights of the people shall be the same, regardless of race, colour or sex;
All bodies of minority rule, advisory boards, councils and authorities shall be replaced by democratic organs of self-government.
All national groups shall have equal rights!
There shall be equal status in the bodies of state, in the courts and in the schools for all national groups and races;
All people shall have equal right to use their own languages, and to develop their own folk culture and customs;
All national groups shall be protected by law against insults to their race and national pride;
The preaching and practice of national, race or colour discrimination and contempt shall be a punishable crime;
All apartheid laws and practices shall be set aside.
The people shall share in the country's wealth!
The national wealth of our country, the heritage of South Africans, shall be restored to the people;
The mineral wealth beneath the soil, the Banks and monopoly industry shall be transferred to the ownership of the people as a whole;
All other industry and trade shall be controlled to assist the wellbeing of the people;
All people shall have equal rights to trade where they choose, to manufacture and to enter all trades, crafts and professions.
The land shall be shared among those who work it!
Restrictions of land ownership on a racial basis shall be ended, and all the land re-divided amongst those who work it to banish famine and land hunger;
The state shall help the peasants with implements, seed, tractors and dams to save the soil and assist the tillers;
Freedom of movement shall be guaranteed to all who work on the land;
All shall have the right to occupy land wherever they choose;
People shall not be robbed of their cattle, and forced labour and farm prisons shall be abolished.
All shall be equal before the law!
No-one shall be imprisoned, deported or restricted without a fair trial; No-one shall be condemned by the order of any Government official;
The courts shall be representative of all the people;
Imprisonment shall be only for serious crimes against the people, and shall aim at re-education, not vengeance;
The police force and army shall be open to all on an equal basis and shall be the helpers and protectors of the people;
All laws which discriminate on grounds of race, colour or belief shall be repealed.
All shall enjoy equal human rights!
The law shall guarantee to all their right to speak, to organise, to meet together, to publish, to preach, to worship and to educate their children;
The privacy of the house from police raids shall be protected by law;
All shall be free to travel without restriction from countryside to town, from province to province, and from South Africa abroad;
Pass Laws, permits and all other laws restricting these freedoms shall be abolished.
There shall be work and security!
All who work shall be free to form trade unions, to elect their officers and to make wage agreements with their employers;
The state shall recognise the right and duty of all to work, and to draw full unemployment benefits;
Men and women of all races shall receive equal pay for equal work;
There shall be a forty-hour working week, a national minimum wage, paid annual leave, and sick leave for all workers, and maternity leave on full pay for all working mothers;
Miners, domestic workers, farm workers and civil servants shall have the same rights as all others who work;
Child labour, compound labour, the tot system and contract labour shall be abolished.
The doors of learning and culture shall be opened!
The government shall discover, develop and encourage national talent for the enhancement of our cultural life;
All the cultural treasures of mankind shall be open to all, by free exchange of books, ideas and contact with other lands;
The aim of education shall be to teach the youth to love their people and their culture, to honour human brotherhood, liberty and peace;
Education shall be free, compulsory, universal and equal for all children; Higher education and technical training shall be opened to all by means of state allowances and scholarships awarded on the basis of merit;
Adult illiteracy shall be ended by a mass state education plan;
Teachers shall have all the rights of other citizens;
The colour bar in cultural life, in sport and in education shall be abolished.
There shall be houses, security and comfort!
All people shall have the right to live where they choose, be decently housed, and to bring up their families in comfort and security;
Unused housing space to be made available to the people;
Rent and prices shall be lowered, food plentiful and no-one shall go hungry;
A preventive health scheme shall be run by the state;
Free medical care and hospitalisation shall be provided for all, with special care for mothers and young children;
Slums shall be demolished, and new suburbs built where all have transport, roads, lighting, playing fields, crèches and social centres;
The aged, the orphans, the disabled and the sick shall be cared for by the state;
Rest, leisure and recreation shall be the right of all:
Fenced locations and ghettoes shall be abolished, and laws which break up families shall be repealed.
There shall be peace and friendship!
South Africa shall be a fully independent state which respects the rights and sovereignty of all nations;
South Africa shall strive to maintain world peace and the settlement of all international disputes by negotiation - not war;
Peace and friendship amongst all our people shall be secured by upholding the equal rights, opportunities and status of all;
The people of the protectorates Basutoland, Bechuanaland and Swaziland shall be free to decide for themselves their own future;
The right of all peoples of Africa to independence and self-government shall be recognised, and shall be the basis of close co-operation.
Let all people who love their people and their country no say, as we say here:
THESE FREEDOMS WE WILL FIGHT FOR, SIDE BY SIDE, THROUGHOUT OUR LIVES, UNTIL WE HAVE WON OUR LIBERTY