Message by Oliver Tambo on South Africa`s year of the women, a call to the peoples of the world, 01 November 1983

The African National Congress, the broad democratic movement and the people of South Africa as a whole, will be observing 1984 as the Year of the Women.

We shall do this not merely to pay tribute to the embattled but struggling womenfolk of our country and to honour their historic achievements, such as the founding of the South African Women`s Federation on April 17, 1954. We have thus dedicated the coming year as confirmation of the resolve of the South African national liberation movement to see the women of our motherland play their rightful role in the forefront of the struggle for the destruction of the monstrous system of apartheid and the creation of a peaceful, democratic and nonracial South Africa.

The liberation of the land of our birth and of all its people will materialise as a genuinely popular victory on the basis of the involvement of the masses, including the women in their millions, as a conscious and active part of the anti-racist and anti-colonial democratic movement of South Africa. One of the fundamental tasks that this process of national liberation confronts is the liberation of the women of our country from their triple oppression on the grounds of sex, class and colour.

The African National Congress is convinced that the struggle in South Africa and its assured victory constitute an important component in the universal offensive for a peaceful world whose human and material resources should serve to enhance life in all its parts, whether spiritual or material.

For these reasons, we issue this call to the international democratic women`s movement and to the freedom-loving peoples of the world to join us in marking 1984 as South Africa`s Year of the Women, in pursuit of the common goals that we all espouse.

Together we shall win!

ES Reddy