NELSON MANDELA'S
SPEECHES FOR FREEDOM
"I am the First Accused.
"I hold a Bachelor's Degree in
Arts and practised as an attorney
in Johannesburg for a number of
years in partnership with Oliver
Tambo. I am a convicted prisoner
serving five years for leaving
the country without a permit and
for inciting people to go on strike
at the end of May, 1961.
"At the outset, I want to say
that the suggestion made by the
State in its opening that the
struggle in South Africa is under
the influence of foreigners or
Communists is wholly incorrect.
I have done whatever I did, both
as an individual and as a leader
of my people, because of my ex-
perience in South Africa and my
own proudly-felt African back-
ground, and not because of what
any outsider might have said."
Thus Nelson Mandela opened
the defence case in the now-
famous (or infamous) South
African trial in April 1964.
To attend this trial he was taken
from prison after being sentenced
to three years' imprisonment for
incitement to strike and two years
on a second charge of leaving South
Africa without a valid permit or
passport.
"No Easy Walk To Freedom" is
the book which tells, in a collection
of articles, speeches at conferences
and addresses from three trials, the
story of this courageous, outstand-
ing leader of the African people in
their struggle against white supre-
macy and apartheid.
This struggle is not new. It
started from the time when South
Africa's four provinces were united
into a union of White privilege in
1910, when Africans were steadily
deprived of their land and pushed
off the pavements into the gutter
if they did not know their place.
Disjointed, at first, it gained a
form of unity with the formation
of the South African Native National
Congress (later to become the
African National Congress in 1912)
As time progressed treatment of
the Africans worsened. They were
forced to live in grinding poverty,
subjected to inhuman exploitation
treated like animals by their White
rulers.
The movement of the African
people strengthened until 1952, when
the African National Congress and
the South African Indian Congress
launched a campaign for the De-
fiance of Unjust Laws, which spread
throughout the whole country. This
movement united the people in
actions of defiance against the
Government until it was suppressed.
A statement of emergency was de-
clared under the Public Safety Act
and almost immediately following
this the Criminal Law Amendment
Act was passed, providing heavy
penalties for those convicted of
defiance offences.
Later the Government used the
Suppression of Communists Act
extensively and under all the laws
thousands of Africans, Coloreds and
Whites have been gaoled, whipped,
tortured and killed.
Nelson Mandela emerged as the
leader of the African people, work-
ing legally when he could and illeg-
ally when forced to do so.
He was one of the leaders who
tackled the problem of uniting all
who were opposed to the Govern-
ment's racist policy; working out
ways of publicising the aims of the
ANC and the actions to be under-
taken.
The charge against him for leav-
ing the country without a permit
arose from an invitation to visit
other African countries and Britain.
In Addis Ababa he had highly
successful talks with African Heads
of State and in Britain with Labor
leaders.
Because of his ability to evade
arrest, to organise and lead he be-
came known as the "Black Pim-
pernel".
For years the African organisa-
tion tried to rely on such forms
of action as strikes to drive home
their demands for equality.
So vicious did the Government's
offensive become that a new or-
ganisation was formed.
In December, 1961, the first acts
of sabotage announced the forma-
tion of Umkonto we Sizwe (The
Spear of the Nation).
But acts of sabotage were aimed
at hurting the economy, not at kill-
ing the Whites.
Mandela is not a Communist, al-
though he learned to understand
the aims of the Communist Party
and to work with them in the cause
of freedom for his people.
It is timely that these two books
are available for Australian readers
for they not only explain the aim
of the South Africans for equality
with the White people; they will
help readers to understand concerns
of the Rhodesian people at Premier
Smith's determination on a racist
constitution, in essence the same
as South Africa.
J.M.
"NO EASY WALK TO FREE-
DOM", price 21/-; "117 DAYS" by
Ruth First, 5/6 (8d. postage) from
New World Booksellers, 425 Pitt
Street, Sydney and all progressive
bookshops.
SPEECHES FOR FREEDOM
"I am the First Accused.
"I hold a Bachelor's Degree in
Arts and practised as an attorney
in Johannesburg for a number of
years in partnership with Oliver
Tambo. I am a convicted prisoner
serving five years for leaving
the country without a permit and
for inciting people to go on strike
at the end of May, 1961.
"At the outset, I want to say
that the suggestion made by the
State in its opening that the
struggle in South Africa is under
the influence of foreigners or
Communists is wholly incorrect.
I have done whatever I did, both
as an individual and as a leader
of my people, because of my ex-
perience in South Africa and my
own proudly-felt African back-
ground, and not because of what
any outsider might have said."
Thus Nelson Mandela opened
the defence case in the now-
famous (or infamous) South
African trial in April 1964.
To attend this trial he was taken
from prison after being sentenced
to three years' imprisonment for
incitement to strike and two years
on a second charge of leaving South
Africa without a valid permit or
passport.
"No Easy Walk To Freedom" is
the book which tells, in a collection
of articles, speeches at conferences
and addresses from three trials, the
story of this courageous, outstand-
ing leader of the African people in
their struggle against white supre-
macy and apartheid.
This struggle is not new. It
started from the time when South
Africa's four provinces were united
into a union of White privilege in
1910, when Africans were steadily
deprived of their land and pushed
off the pavements into the gutter
if they did not know their place.
Disjointed, at first, it gained a
form of unity with the formation
of the South African Native National
Congress (later to become the
African National Congress in 1912)
As time progressed treatment of
the Africans worsened. They were
forced to live in grinding poverty,
subjected to inhuman exploitation
treated like animals by their White
rulers.
The movement of the African
people strengthened until 1952, when
the African National Congress and
the South African Indian Congress
launched a campaign for the De-
fiance of Unjust Laws, which spread
throughout the whole country. This
movement united the people in
actions of defiance against the
Government until it was suppressed.
A statement of emergency was de-
clared under the Public Safety Act
and almost immediately following
this the Criminal Law Amendment
Act was passed, providing heavy
penalties for those convicted of
defiance offences.
Later the Government used the
Suppression of Communists Act
extensively and under all the laws
thousands of Africans, Coloreds and
Whites have been gaoled, whipped,
tortured and killed.
Nelson Mandela emerged as the
leader of the African people, work-
ing legally when he could and illeg-
ally when forced to do so.
He was one of the leaders who
tackled the problem of uniting all
who were opposed to the Govern-
ment's racist policy; working out
ways of publicising the aims of the
ANC and the actions to be under-
taken.
The charge against him for leav-
ing the country without a permit
arose from an invitation to visit
other African countries and Britain.
In Addis Ababa he had highly
successful talks with African Heads
of State and in Britain with Labor
leaders.
Because of his ability to evade
arrest, to organise and lead he be-
came known as the "Black Pim-
pernel".
For years the African organisa-
tion tried to rely on such forms
of action as strikes to drive home
their demands for equality.
So vicious did the Government's
offensive become that a new or-
ganisation was formed.
In December, 1961, the first acts
of sabotage announced the forma-
tion of Umkonto we Sizwe (The
Spear of the Nation).
But acts of sabotage were aimed
at hurting the economy, not at kill-
ing the Whites.
Mandela is not a Communist, al-
though he learned to understand
the aims of the Communist Party
and to work with them in the cause
of freedom for his people.
It is timely that these two books
are available for Australian readers
for they not only explain the aim
of the South Africans for equality
with the White people; they will
help readers to understand concerns
of the Rhodesian people at Premier
Smith's determination on a racist
constitution, in essence the same
as South Africa.
J.M.
"NO EASY WALK TO FREE-
DOM", price 21/-; "117 DAYS" by
Ruth First, 5/6 (8d. postage) from
New World Booksellers, 425 Pitt
Street, Sydney and all progressive
bookshops.
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