Document 15 - “Ruth First , “Progress in Unity Talks: African Organisations Agree Principle”, The Guardian , 23 December 1948

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

Document 15 - "Ruth First , "Progress in Unity Talks: African Organisations Agree Principle", The Guardian , 23 December 1948

The two premier African organisations in this country, the African National Congress and all three hours African Convention, meeting here in joint session last Friday, agreed after three hours' tense debate on the principle of uniting the two bodies.

Their executive committees were authorised to meet jointly to work out the details of unity, and to report to their next annual conferences.

Presided over by President D. D. T. Jabavu, of the Convention, together with Dr A.B.Xuma, of the Congress, the joint session agreed to endorse the October 3 statement of the 12 African leaders, which called for unity against the threat of 1, and initiated this unity conference.

“ A direct attack on democracy has accelerated the desire of all of us to come together”, said Dr. Xuma, outlining the history of the unity negotiations which dated back to August 1943.

On Thursday afternoon when the joint session was due to begin. Prof. Jabavu asked that it be postponed to the Friday. Some of his followers were still meeting at a conference of the African Voters' Association in Queenstown, he said.

Here, The Guardian understands, a vote of no confidence in Prof. Jabavu for being a party to the October unity declaration was defeated.

When the talks opened, the Convention delegation placed a "unity resolution" before the session. 'In view of the political crisis facing the African people and the crying demand for m the people," it said, "the African National Congress should be approached to join the other organisations already in the All-African Convention."

This unity should be subject to four Convention conditions:

Ӣ It should be based on the Convention's 10-point programme.

Ӣ The federal structure of the Convention should be retained.

Ӣ The unity should be based on the acceptance of the principle of the unity of all the non-Europeans.

Ӣ It should be based on a policy of "non-collaboration with the oppressor." (Here the Convention referred to its policy of the boycott of the 1936 Native Representation Act, for instance.)

The Convention's chief spokesman, Mr. I. Tabata, said, "we are prepared to ensure the Congress a given percentage of the seats on the Convention executive."

Arguing his organisation's thesis, Mr. Tabata said the Herrenvolk parties were united in their oppression of the Non-Europeans, and there was intrinsically no difference between them. On May 26 "the velvet glove was replaced by the brutal, mailed fist. For us it produces the same kind of blow."

The unity demanded at the present time must be based on certain fundamental principles. "We must say we do not want separate institutions. We want to go to the only councils recognised in the land - Parliament, provincial and municipal councils."

Prof. Z. K. Mathews rose to put the Congress viewpoint. "To the average Congress person this (proposal) seems to mean that one mouthpiece of the African people (the Convention) is wanting to swallow up the other mouthpiece (the Congress)," he suggested.

As the unity they were both seeking could not be achieved overnight. Congress placed a resolution before the session that a committee of representatives of the two bodies be set up to examine the details of unity. "There are also other organisations which must be drawn into the process of unification," he said.

Mr. Moses Kotane said the two groups had different conceptions of unity. "Some of us feel a federal organisation is not a source of strength. We want to eliminate conflicting direction, interests and ideologies. We want one political organisation that will speak for the individual members of that organisation."

"A federal body tends to be an organisation of different interested bodies that come together to consult but have always to go back to their executives for directions. We conceived of one political organisation."

Convention speakers insisted that agreement on policy be reached that afternoon.