Non European Unity Movement

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The Non European Unity Movement (NEUM, occasionally also Non-European Unity Movement, from 1964 Unity Movement of South Africa , UMSA; German about "Unity Movement of Non-Europeans" or " Unity Movement of South Africa ") was an organization founded in 1943 by Trotskyists against the apartheid in South Africa .

history

founding

In 1939 the activities of the small Trotskyist Workers Party of South Africa were increasingly suppressed, so that it went underground. Under the leadership of Isaac Bangani Tabata , the organization Non European Unity Movement was founded in 1943 in order to continue to be politically active. The ANC Youth League was founded around the same time and attracted many activists. The founding meeting of NEUM took place together with a meeting of the All African Convention (AAC) founded in 1935 , a broad opposition alliance against the “white” South African government. In addition to the AAC and the Anti-CAD, a group of Coloreds against the Government's Colored Affairs Department , the South African Indian Congress (SAIC) should be involved - however, the then SAIC leader Yusuf Dadoo tended towards the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA ). The influential trade unions also refused to participate in NEUM. Some teacher associations such as the Cape African Teachers' Association as well as groups from Kimberley and Transkei became members of the NEUM. The only group in the Transvaal province was the small Trotskyist Workers' International League (WIL) in Johannesburg .

NEUM adopted a ten-point program based on socialism . She rejected Stalinism . Unlike the WPSA, NEUM was not fundamentally opposed to Pan-Africanism , but, unlike the African National Congress (ANC), which was operating at the same time, played only a minor role. A central question was the distribution of the country after the "whites" were disempowered. The strategy in the fight against racial segregation has been to refuse to cooperate with government agencies and to call for boycotts . Initially, she advocated a two-stage plan that provided for a democratic revolution that would put non-whites on a par with whites and, in the second stage, the socialist revolution. Unlike the ANC at the time, NEUM was open to members of all skin colors.

Leading NEUM politicians were, alongside Tabata Goolam Gool and Benjamin Magson, “Ben” Kies .

In 1946 the WIL disintegrated. In 1947 the Progressive Forum (PF) group was formed at Witwatersrand University ; an offshoot founded the first NEUM organization in Natal in Durban . In 1950 the South African government banned the activities of all communist groups, but NEUM was not banned. Nor did she protest the ban on the CPSA. In 1952, the NEUM group, Society of Young Africans (SOYA), was created to address young people.

Division and Exile

In 1958 NEUM split over the land question. Tabata preferred a possible sale of the land to black people, Kies pleaded against private land ownership and, along with some sub-organizations such as the SOYA, left NEUM, which subsequently became almost inactive.

In 1961, Tabata founded the African People's Democratic Union of South Africa (APDUSA) as a SOYA replacement . After the suppressed revolt in Pondoland 1959-1960 and the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, the leadership of NEUM assumed that the mood was favorable for a revolution. The aim was to turn APDUSA into a mass organization. It was officially founded in Cape Town in April 1962. Tabata was President of NEUM and APDUSA, while AAC President Nathaniel Honono became APDUSA Vice President. APDUSA ignored racial barriers and advocated both farm workers and urban disadvantaged people. It saw itself as a national liberation movement. While there were organizational problems in the Eastern Cape because of the state of emergency that had existed since 1960 , several APDUSA groups were founded in Natal. In Johannesburg, too, APDUSA won numerous members among the workers.

In January APDUSA - and with it NEUM - decided to take up the armed struggle against the government. In addition to training guerrilla fighters, the focus should continue to be on mobilizing the masses. APDUSA grew particularly quickly in East Pondoland and Sekhukhuneland , so that the following numbered several hundred people. Thanks to the mediation of the former PF member Joel Carlson , further supporters could be won in the Transvaal. The state banned ANC and PAC , but not NEUM and APDUSA as a whole. Instead, several leaders were banned and imprisoned and some leaders went into exile. Tabata also went into exile in several African countries such as Zambia and Tanzania in 1963 . During this time, the leadership at the Organization for African Unity (OAU) sought recognition as a liberation movement . However, the ANC and PAC spoke out against the competition. In the spring of 1964 the application was rejected.

APDUSA set up offices in Maseru in Basutoland and Lobatse in Bechuanaland . In Lobatse she had many followers among the Bafurutse there. South Africa could be reached illegally via the nearby border.

In 1964, the NEUM was renamed the Unity Movement of South Africa (UMSA), as the previous name no longer seemed up-to-date due to its reference to skin color. In 1964 and 1965, numerous supporters were arrested in Pondoland. Tabata finally got the Ghanaian President Kwame Nkrumah to agree to train UMSA fighters. However, he was overthrown shortly afterwards. The Belgian Marxist Ernest Mandel successfully campaigned for Cuba to offer military training. Five UMSA fighters were trained by Cubans in Guinea . In 1969, the ALC finally agreed to train fighters. An attempt to recruit 200 fighters in South Africa, however, almost failed - only nine residents from East Pondoland made it abroad. Around 200 APDUSA members were arrested under the Terrorism Act . Numerous members have been sentenced to eight to 21 years in prison on Robben Island . This largely destroyed UMSA and APDUSA in South Africa. In 1981 the UMSA moved its headquarters to Harare in Zimbabwe . In 1990 Tabata, who remained president until his death, died in Harare.

After the end of apartheid

In 1994, with the abolition of apartheid in South Africa, the UMSA dissolved. APDUSA still exists. With the document The Transitional Program , she stated that she would continue to strive for a socialist revolution.

Others

In addition to numerous other publications, NEUM published the newspaper The Torch ("The Torch").

The Minister of Justice and later Minister of Transport, Abdullah Omar , who was appointed in 1994 after the first free elections in South Africa, had previously been a member of NEUM for a long time, but also defended defendants from the ANC and PAC as a lawyer.

literature

  • Robin Kayser, Mohamed Adhikari: Land and Liberty - The African People's Democratic Union of South Africa during the 1960s. In: South African Democracy Education Trust (ed.): The Road to Democracy: 1960-1970. Zebra Press, Cape Town 2004, ISBN 1-86872-906-0 , pp. 319–339, online at google books

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f Baruch Hirson on NEUM at sahistory.org.za (English), accessed on June 21, 2012
  2. ^ A b c d e Robin Kayser, Mohamed Adhikari: Land and Liberty - The African People's Democratic Union of South Africa during the 1960s. In: South African Democracy Education Trust (ed.): The Road to Democracy: 1960-1970. Zebra Press, Cape Town 2004, ISBN 1-86872-906-0 , pp. 319-339, online at google books , accessed June 21, 2012
  3. ↑ Obituary for Omar (English, PDF file; 37 kB), accessed on February 7, 2016