No Easy Walk to Freedom

“The general political level of the people has been considerably raised and they are now more conscious of their strength. Action has become the language of the day. The ties between the working people and the Congress have been considerably strengthened. This is a development of the highest importance because in a country such as ours a political organization that does not receive the support of the workers is in fact paralysed on the very ground on which it has chosen to wage its battle.”

This quote expresses the aim of the “M” plan—to consolidate the Congress machinery by mobilizing mass support. Mandela’s discussions emphasize workers as the lifeblood of the South African economy, despite the concentration of wealth among the minority white elite. Workers, the majority of whom were Black, were in Mandela’s eyes the largest line of support for the resistance movement because they stood to gain the most from defeating a government that kept them impoverished and denied them human dignity.

“We must accept the fact that in our country we cannot win one single victory of political freedom without overcoming a desperate resistance on the part of the Government, and that victory will not come of itself but only as a result of a bitter struggle by the oppressed people for the overthrow of racial discrimination. This means that we are committed to struggle to mobilize from our ranks the forces capable of waging a determined and militant struggle against all forms of reaction.”

Mandela identifies defeating the apartheid regime as one of the primary aims of the movement and emphasizes the need for mass solidarity in pursuing that goal. It also identifies the main character of the mass mobilization strategy, which was militancy—i.e., direct action.

“We of the non-European liberation movement are not racialists. We are convinced that there are thousands of honest democrats among the White population who are prepared to take up a firm and courageous stand for unconditional equality for the complete renunciation of ‘White supremacy.’ To them we extend the hand of sincere friendship and brotherly alliance,”

This quote follows Mandela’s critique of the Liberal Party, which he describes as insincere in its claims regarding human rights, democracy, and constitutionalism. He identifies them as racialists with less forceful measures than the Nationalist Party. However, the welcoming of genuine white allies indicates that the resistance movement was not opposed to white people but rather to white supremacy and racial domination in all its iterations.