The   Morogoro   Consultative   Conference,   held in Tanzania from the 25th of April to the 1st of May 1969, marked a turning point for the African National Congress and the congress movement in the South African struggle for liberation. It was an epoch of history that reshaped the entire political landscape of the 20th century and birthed a new phase of struggle as a response to the fascist Apartheid Regime commonly defined as ‘Colonialism of a Special type’. It was also a platform for restructuring the organizational structures, given the fact that it took place at a time whereby the majority of the political leadership were sentenced in the 1963/4 Rivonia Trials. Its emergence contextualized, redefined, modernized, and intense- find the African people’s struggle for political and socio-economic emancipation.

The content of the strategy and tactics of the revolution gave an appreciation of new political, social, and economic contexts on a domestic and global scale. It understood that the international balance of forces and the geopolitical climate was unfolding at a time when the world was moving away from a highly monopolized imperialist system into a socialist system as a result of national liberation and socialist

revolutions. The majority of countries in Africa had gained their independence and had broken the shackles of colonialism, while, in the Southern Africa region national liberation was the chief content of the struggle; Mozambique, Angola, South West Africa, and South Africa were still fighting the fascist

Regimes that were hellbent on maintaining the colonial order. These regimes had the military and economic backing of the ‘unholy alliance’; Portugal, Rhodesia, and South Africa. White domination maintained its power through the use of violence, mass murder, intimidation, the spread of fear, propaganda, the imposition of unjust laws, and legal administration.

In attempts to further contextualize the South African struggle for liberation, the conference was cognizant of the fact that historically resistance from white domination by the African people had taken place ever since the white man landed on the shores of South Africa. The old crude and traditional forms of resistance from white domination by different heterogeneous tribal groups of the African people (divided by tribal parameters), would not yield fruitful results in the 20th century South African state.

As a form of adaptation, there was an emergence of political formations that organized the African people from different tribal and racial backgrounds – it was a period of national consciousness and organizational growth; the African National Congress as an imperative component of the liberation movement, the South African Communist Party as a non-racial vanguard of the newly developed working class and organized labor formations that represented workers. Given the context of the then political climate, it was clear that the birth of a new phase of the struggle was inevitable. The liberation movement under

stood that resistance took different forms at different at times and in order to adapt, agitate and mobilize the oppressed African people, the methodologies of waging the struggle would have to conform to the new material conditions.

The adoption of the armed struggle and the guerilla warfare prowess dictated that the struggle would not partake in a setting whereby the material conditions were favorable to the enemy, therefore, in order for it to be effective, it needed to be conducted within the confines of the enemy, inside and outside the country. The first point of departure was to inflict economic sabotage to the industrialized urban areas of the country, even though it was not a viable permanent solution that would lead towards the total overthrow of the state but it sent a strong political statement to the government and gave a new meaning to the political discourse. The next step was to exploit the enemy’s weak points – the outskirts of the country, however, for an effective military activity three-pointers had to be met; (1) A well-established military apparatus – recruiting large numbers of cadres to be trained into Umkhonto Wesizwe military camps. (2) Military attacks that were intended to send a strong political message to the enemy to indicate that the liberation movement was now advancing into a new phase of the struggle.

(3) The need to thoroughly orchestrate subtle carefully assessed and well-thought military strategy and tactics that would lead to the overthrow of the regime rather than partaking in uncalculated sporadic military activities.

The ideological posture of the struggle dictated that the armed people’s struggle could have never been defined in isolation from the political context, therefore the advancement of the struggle into the second radical phase and partaking in the revolutionary people’s army meant that the political was to be amalgamated with military force. The political structures of the liberation movement were integrated with Umkhonto Wesizwe as a military wing into one strong revolutionary fighting force, however, it was made clear that the supremacy of the political leadership was unchallenged and it reigned supreme over the military “all revolutionary formations and levels (whether armed or not) are subordinate to this leadership” (Morogoro Consultative Conference Strategy Tactics, 1969) – the center of power rested on the shoulders of the political leadership.

The military of the enemy did not affect the morale of the liberation movement, for it understood that material strength was not a decisive factor in guerilla warfare, in fact, it was in the nature and character of the warfare that there was a vast imbalance of material strength between the two opposing hostile camps. The livelihood of the organization and people’s army was dependent on the mass action Of the people who also nurtured and protected it; the local communities, foreign liberation movements in exile, and the broader international community as allies. Through careful application of guerilla tactics; the now open, now closed, now near and now far guerilla warfare, the enemy would be confused, weakened, and destroyed.

Even though the consultative conference reaffirmed the aspirations of the 1955 Congress of the People’s adoption of the Freedom Charter, particularly on the inclusion and influence of non-racial politics; the African Nationalist ideological posture identified that the main content that was at the core of the struggle was the national liberation of the majority land disposed of, political and economically marginalized, and the oppressed group- the African people. The national consciousness also dictated that the national character should dominate the approach, and the main motive forces of the National Democratic Revolution are Africans in general and blacks in particular.

The debate on the national question that also stemmed from the adoption of the Freedom Charter gave an appreciation that even though the blacks faced the most intense racial oppression, they were not the only oppressed group in South Africa. The rich history of resistance of the minority non-white groups; Indian and Coloureds also indicated that they had also faced oppression from white domination. This meant that their quest for self-determination was tied to the liberation struggle.

The then brewing Marxist-Leninist politics through the influence the South African Communist Party and various socialist trade unions further characterized the epoch of the liberation struggle by noting that the vast economic growth through industrialization spearheaded by the state and its bourgeois allies, subsequently the growth and development of the proletariat as an exploited wage labor force, therefore, it also formed part of the motive forces of the revolution. It was without a doubt that the unity of all the oppressed groups in South Africa with the liberation movement was sacrosanct. In essence, the national struggle was inter-twined with the class struggle.

Vusumuzi Z. Mchunu is a former Regional Secretary of SASCO Greater Johannesburg Region and a member of the ANC, SASCO Wits Branch, ANC YL Wits Dr. MxolisiMajombozi Branch, and YCL Shimi Matlala Wits Branch. The views expressed here do not in any form represent those of the organization.

“In attempts to further contextualize the South African struggle liberation, the conference was cognizant of the fact that historically resistance from white domination by the African people had taken place ever since the white man landed on the shores of South Africa.”

The debate on the national question that also stemmed from the adoption of the Freedom Charter gave an appreciation that even though the blacks faced the most intense racial oppression, they were not the only oppressed group in South Africa.

The adoption of the armed struggle and the guerilla warfare prowess dictated that the struggle would not partake in a setting whereby the material conditions were favorable to the enemy, therefore, in order for it to be effective, it needed to be conducted within the confines of the enemy, inside and outside the country.