South African Colored People's Organization
The South African Colored People's Organization (SACPO), Colored People's Congress (CPC) from 1959 , was an organization of the Colored in South Africa from 1953 to 1966 . The SACPO allied itself permanently with the African National Congress (ANC), which represented a large part of the black majority of the population, against the apartheid government .
history
Prehistory and foundation
After the National Party's victory in the 1948 elections , several laws were passed that restricted the rights of the Colored. These included the Group Areas Act of 1950 and the Separate Representation of Voters Act of 1951, which were intended to restrict the right of colored people to vote . At that time, several organizations represented the interests of the Coloreds. These included the radical Non European Unity Movement (NEUM), the African People's Organization (APO) founded in 1902, and the moderate Colored People's National Union (CPNU). The law was partially withdrawn, but the three groups were divided and did not form alliances with other opposition groups. In 1951 the Franchise Action Council (FRAC) was founded, which worked with the ANC and, in some cases, successfully opposed the restriction of the right to vote. The FRAC took part in the Defiance Campaign from 1952 to 1953 , but disbanded after it ended. The APO had also dissolved, the CPNU could no longer represent the interests of the Coloreds.
In August 1953 an assembly in Cape Town established the SACPO. First president was Alex La Guma , first general secretary Reggie September .
Activities and dissolution
In May 1954 the SACPO already had more than 4,500 members, had numerous branches and held regular meetings at the national level. In 1954 the SACPO initiated a bus boycott in Cape Town against the introduction of segregation in buses, but this was unsuccessful.
In 1955 the SACPO belonged to the Congress Alliance, which passed the Freedom Charter (" Freedom Charter ") at the Congress of the People in Kliptown , together with the ANC, the South African Indian Congress (SAIC) and the South African Congress of Democrats (SACOD) . Some SACPO members were subsequently among the 156 defendants in the Treason Trial , all of whom were acquitted by 1961.
The SACPO was unsuccessful in its efforts against further apartheid laws and the resulting mass expropriations of coloreds on the Cape Peninsula . In 1956, the Separate Representation of Voters Amendment Act (No. 30/1956 ) was passed, which included the Coloreds in a separate electoral roll and limited their representation in the National Assembly to a few, exclusively white representatives. SACPO initially wanted to boycott the election, but gave in at the urging of the ANC. The Cape Town SACPO candidate, who belonged to the SACOD, received only 900 votes and therefore no mandate in the 1958 elections.
In December 1959, the SACPO was renamed Colored People's Congress . In the aftermath of the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, the CPC took an active part in protests. After the ban on opposition groups, several CPC leaders were arrested, banned or went into exile. In 1962, the CPC offered to join the ANC, but the ANC refused. In 1966 the CPC disbanded. The last President, Barney Desai, recommended converting to the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC). La Guma and September, on the other hand, held important positions at the ANC in exile.
In South Africa there were new moderate groups of the Coloreds, above all the Labor Party founded in 1969 under the leadership of Allan Hendrickse . With the introduction of a three-chamber parliament in 1984, with its own chamber for coloreds, it was the strongest party there. More radical colors were organized in the United Democratic Front (UDF), among others .
Web links
- History of SACPO / CPC at sahistory.org.za (English)
- Declaration on the resolution of the CPC in 1966 (English)