Forms of Civil Disobedience Flashcards
1
Q
What did opposition groups do against the extension of the pass system to women?
A
- 20,000 women marched in protest in Praetoria
2
Q
What was the purpose of organised protest agains the pass laws?
A
- Weapon against the Apartheid regime
- But simultaneously created bitter competition between the ANC and PAC for legitimacy and support from South African blacks
3
Q
How did competition between the opposition groups contribute to the Sharpeville Massacre?
A
- PAC knew that ANC were planning to hold anti-pass law demonstrations
- PAC decided to hold their protests sooner, hoping to gain political reward, however it was hasty planning
4
Q
To what extent were anti-pass law demonstrations effective?
A
- Limited and could be counterproductive
- Pensions were dependent on showing a pass, so money could be denied to the poor and elderly if they had burned their passes
5
Q
What was the Sharpeville Massacre?
A
- 1960
- Response of local security forces to a protest organised by PAC’s Robert Sobukwe against the pass laws
6
Q
Why did Sobukwe plan this protest?
A
- Disillusioned with the ANC
- Frustrated that it was racially inclusive
- Believed that peaceful protests were ineffective
- Thought the movement was full of communists
7
Q
What happened in the Sharpeville Massacre?
A
- Thousands surrounded the jail and baited the police for hours
- What happened was not clear, but likely that some police lost their nerve and opened fire
8
Q
What happened to the protesters in the Sharpeville Massacre?
A
- 69 killed
- 180 wounded
- Many shot in the back (as they were running away)
9
Q
What were the international consequences of Sharpeville?
A
- Image of ‘massacre’ shocked many people globally: demanded for the dismantling of apartheid
- Investors withdrew money, leading to a short-term economic crisis
- Emigration exceeded immigration for the next few years
10
Q
Why did emigration happen?
A
- Mainly back to Britain
- Disgust towards the massacre
- Whites not convinced the government was fully in control, therefore there was an increase in demand for firearms
11
Q
What were the domestic consequences of Sharpeville?
A
- Sparked more protests (including PAC leading a protest in the cape involving 30,000 people)
- Convinced the regime to declare a state of emergency
- One of the reasons that the ANC and PAC created militant wings (ANC: MK, PAC: Poqo)
12
Q
What happened as the result of the declaration of a state of emergency?
A
- Mass arrests (10,000 people)
- ANC and PAC banned
13
Q
What was the ‘spear of the nation’?
A
- Militant wing of the ANC
- Founded in 1961
- Also called MK
14
Q
What contributed to the creation of the spear of the nation?
A
- Sharpeville massacre
- Mainly ANC leadership’s collective acknowledgement that peaceful protest alone was not enough to bring about change
15
Q
How did the ANC realise that peaceful protest was not as effective they had expected?
A
- Dramatised repeatedly in the early 1960s
- Regime was ruthless and cunning
- ANC tactics like burning passes ended up with the regime hurting the very people it was trying to help
16
Q
Why was the ANC leadership under pressure to take more militant action?
A
- Under pressure from its ordinary members
- Security forces never hesitated to use violence
17
Q
Who co-founded MK and why?
A
- Mandela
- Argued that ANC had no choice if government answered peaceful protest with violence (including killing, in which killers were not prosecuted)
18
Q
What was the spear of nation’s strategy in the short term?
A
- To sabotage government buildings or symbolic places by blowing them up
- Fatalities were avoided
- To prove that the regime’s inability to prevent destruction
19
Q
What was the spear of nation’s strategy in the long term?
A
- To train for guerrilla war (small independent group fighting larger regular forces), if the regime refused to reform
- BUT this was only ever intended as a last resort
20
Q
What did MK achieve in the 1960s?
A
- Almost nothing in terms of hurting the regime or forcing political change
- Same was true for the militant wing of the PAC
21
Q
What was the significance of MK in the 1960s?
A
- 1963
- Nine of its leaders and one of its plans were seized at Liliesleaf farm
- Link between MK and Mandela was made
- Arrests led to the Rivonia Trial
- Led to the imprisonment of Mandela and others on Robben Island
- Sequence of events were key in the long term for the dismantling of Apartheid
22
Q
What happened in 1976?
A
- Schoolchildren in Soweto (largest township south west of Johannesburg) began to riot
- ‘Soweto riots’ lasted months
- Involved strikes and mass demonstrations initially
- When security forces responded with tear gas and bullets, it involved rioting and attempting to destroy government buildings
- Students showed more and more courage each day
- Some innocent whites were killed by students
23
Q
What did Soweto symbolise?
A
- The cruelty of Apartheid domestically and internationally
- Anniversary commemorated every year
- The official casualty figures were a grave understatement of true statistics
24
Q
What ‘triggered’ Soweto riots?
A
- Regime’s insistence that half of school lessons were to be taught in Afrikaans
- Afrikaans was seen as the language of the oppressor
- Proof that the regime thought the blacks were incompetent and only fit to do unskilled work for the whites and to understand and obey their commands
25
What was the quality of education like for blacks?
- Poor with enormous class sizes
- Delivering lessons in a language that most students did not understand was the last straw (including maths)
- Shortage of teachers who spoke English/Afrikaans
26
What was the quality of life of the blacks like?
- High unemployment
- Quality of housing was getting worse
- Regime attempting to relocate blacks to 'bantustans' that were about to be declared 'independent', therefore fewer houses were built than before
- Many feared relocation as their prospects would be worse
27
What was another significant cause of the Soweto riots?
- Was the effect of political activism of the South African Student's Movement
- Its aim was to influence Soweto youth with its Black Consciousness ideology
28
In what way was Soweto significant internationally?
- International perceptions of the Apartheid regime hardened
- Televised brutality of the security forces was repeated night after night on the news
29
In what way was Soweto significant domestically?
- Led to imitation riots in other parts of South Africa
- Led to co-operation between blacks and the coloured (influenced by Black Consciousness)
30
What political consequences came from Soweto?
- Politicisation and radicalisation of young people
- Gravitated towards the ANC
- Rejuvenated the organisation
31
How did the regime reflect on Soweto?
- Initial response was to crush them with repressive action
- Decided that repression alone would not enable the system to survive
- Some degree of reform was needed
