South Africa: The Congress of the People
In June, 1955 a Congress of the People of South Africa was held. About 3,300 people attended, plus several hundred police. This Congress received little or no notice in the American press. We...
...Let us speak of the rich foods we grow, and the laws that keep us poor...
...And of the happiness that can come to men and women if they live in a land that is free...
...Let the demands be gathered together in a great Charter of Freedom...
...Let us speak of private prisons, and beatings, and of passes...
...Privileged and rightless...
...Let us speak of freedom...
...We call all good men and true to speak now of freedom, and to write their own demands into the Charter of Freedom...
...Let us speak of brothers without land, and of children without schooling...
...Let us speak of the light that comes with learning, and the ways we are kept in darkness...
...Let us speak of freedom...
...Let us go forward together to freedom...
...African and European, Indian and Colored...
...Let us speak of freedom...
...We call the workers of factories and shops...
...Let us speak together of freedom...
...We print below the moving call that was issued for this Congress...
...We call the housewives and the mothers...
...Let us speak of the many illnesses and death, and of the few clinics and schools...
...All the peoples of South Africa...
...And let the demands of all the people for the things that will make us free be recorded...
...We call all the People of South Africa to prepare for the Congress of the People where representatives of the people, everywhere in the land, will meet together in a great assembly, to discuss and adopt the Charter of Freedom...
...Let us speak together of freedom...
...Voter and voteless...
...We call the farmers of the reserves and trust lands...
...Let us speak of the wide land, and the narrow strips on which we toil...
...Let us speak of taxes and of cattle, and of famine...
...Let us speak together of freedom...
...of the towns and of the countryside...
...We call all who love Iiberty to pledge their lives from here on to win the Freedoms set out in the Charter...
...We call the teachers, students, and the preachers...
...Let us speak together—all of us together...
...of holidays and of houses...
...Let us speak of freedom...
...We call the workers of farms and forests...
...Let us speak of harsh treatment and of children and women forced to work...
...Let us speak of great services we can render, and of the narrow ways that are open to us...
...The happy and the homeless...
...Let us speak of foremen and of transport and of trade unions...
...Let us speak of high prices and of shanty towns...
...Let us speak of the good things we make, and the bad conditions of our work...
...Let us speak of the fine children that we bear, and of their stunted lives...
...Let us speak of the many passes and the few jobs...
...And of how to get it for ourselves, and for our children...
...This Congress received little or no notice in the American press...
...Let us speak of laws, and government, and rights...
...Let the voice of all the people be heard...
...Let us speak of freedom...
Vol. 3 • July 1956 • No. 3
