Document 37 - “Communist Election Policy Defined: National Conference Decision”, The Guardian, 8 January 1948

From: South Africa's Radical Tradition, a documentary history, Volume Two 1943 - 1964, by Allison Drew

Document 37 - “Communist Election Policy Defined: National Conference Decision", The Guardian, 8 January 1948

JOHANNESBURG. - Everything possible will be done by the Communist Party ling general elections to work for the defeat of the extreme reactionary and Pro-Fascist forces represented in the Nationalist Party.

This decision on general election policy arrived at by the National Conference communists Party, held in Johannesburg on January 2, 3 and 4. The conference over 50 delegates from all parts of the country.

The resolution on the general elections points out that the conference recognised that as long as the vote is denied to the African, Coloured and Indian peoples, Parliament cannot be representative of the great of the population, but must perpetuate the present backward and oppressive system of society.

“Conference regards the primary task of the Party in the forthcoming general elections as that of advancing the struggle for the universal franchise, and for a Socialist Democracy, and of rallying the people against Imperialism."

SEDITION CASE

Conference passed a unanimous resolution, recording its strongest protest against the continued prosecution of members of the central executive of the Party and others.

The Government's conduct in this case constitutes a grave attack on civil liberties and deserves the universal condemnation of all liberty-loving peoples.

Conference calls upon all workers and democrats to unite in protesting against the Government's action and to demand the immediate withdrawal of the prosecution." Representation Act of 1936 was condemned as a vicious measure of racial discrimination, intended to defeat the demands of the African people for their direct representation in Parliament and to cloak the undemocratic structure of South African society.

The resolution on this subject, reads:

“Conference recognise that the stand taken by the members of the Native Representative Council has forced the Government to make concessions, but denounces these concessions as useless and a further attempt to deceive the African people as to the real character of the segregation system.

The N.R.C. cannot achieve any useful purpose and the African people's efforts must be directed towards its abolition. In the forthcoming elections to council, Conference resolves to work for the election of a bloc of candidates pledged to repeal the Act, the introduction of a universal franchise and the recognition of the right of all Africans to sit in Parliament.

Questions of the forthcoming nominations for the Native Representative Council, and the matter of African representation in the House of Assembly and the Senate, were referred to the Central Committee of the Party for further discussion.

BAN THE FASCISTS

Oilier resolutions demanded the outlawing of open Fascist organisations such as the Osscwa Brandwag, the Greyshirts and the Pirow New Order Group; condemned mass police raids on African locations, and cases of police brutality against Non-Europeans; and demanded the immediate introduction of the National Health Services plan.

The conference was characterised by the great amount of attention paid in commission to work in the rural areas, and by the greater representation and high standard of debate of African delegates from centres such as the East Rand.

The proposed Industrial Conciliation (Natives) Bill was vigorously condemned, and the Central Committee was instructed to concentrate its full energy upon the carrying out of a broad and intensive campaign among all workers and friends of Labour to secure the rejection of the Bill and the amendment of the Industrial Conciliation Act of 1937 so as to include on an equal basis all workers without discrimination.

REACTIONARY CAMPAIGN

Delivering his opening address to the Conference, Bill Andrews referred to the attempt of international Capitalism, allied with the forces of Reaction, including the survivals of Fascism and Nazism, to rally to a general counter-attack on all progressive forces, whose spearhead is the Communist movement.

We note the increasing truculence of governments which are controlled by big business, land monopolists and other vested interests; the alliance, open or concealed, between these governments and the dregs of Fascism, and the threat of a Third World War, with the atomic bomb waved threateningly in the face of the U.S.S.R. and its Democratic and Socialist allies.

Ill Andrews said the forces of liberty and progresses were immeasurably stronger really and potentially than the dark forces of Reactionary Capitalism. "Our part in South Africa may seem a small one, but remember that a hundred and fifty million or more of our fellow men and women in this great Continent of Africa have started on the road to liberty. Do not forget Molotov's clarion cry on the thirtieth anniversary of the glorious Soviet Revolution: 'we are living in an age when all roads tad to Communism'."