Nelson Mandela’s Living Legacy

Nelson Mandela’s Living Legacy | Preparing for Defiance 1949-1952

Mandela took Alfred Xuma’s place on the ANC National Executive in March 1950. That month, the Defend Free Speech Convention was held in Johannesburg, bringing together African, Indian and communist activists to call an anti-apartheid general strike.

Nelson Mandela’s Living Legacy
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1980s ANC poster showing blind trade union leader Violet Hashe addressing a crowd in Johannesburg at the start of the 1951 Defiance Campaign (Image: Drum Magazine)

Embracing Communism and the Defiance Campaign 

Mandela took Alfred Xuma’s place on the ANC National Executive in March 1950. That month, the Defend Free Speech Convention was held in Johannesburg, bringing together African, Indian and communist activists to call an anti-apartheid general strike.

Mandela opposed the strike because it was not ANC-led, but a majority of black workers took part, resulting in increased police repression and the introduction of the Suppression of Communism Act, 1950, affecting the actions of all protest groups. In 1950, Mandela was elected national president of the ANCYL; at the ANC national conference of December 1951, he continued arguing against a racially united front, but was outvoted.

From then on, he altered his entire perspective to embrace such an approach; influenced by friends like Moses Kotane and by the Soviet Union’s support for wars of national liberation, Mandela’s mistrust of communism also broke down.

He became influenced by the texts of Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Vladimir Lenin, Joseph Stalin and Mao Zedong, and embraced dialectical materialism. In April 1952, Mandela began work at the H.M. Basner law firm, though his increasing commitment to work and activism meant he spent less time with his family.

In 1952, the ANC began preparation for a joint Defiance Campaign against apartheid with Indian and communist groups, founding a National Voluntary Board to recruit volunteers. Deciding on a path of nonviolent resistance influenced by Mohandas Gandhi, some considered it the ethical option, but Mandela instead considered it pragmatic.

At a Durban rally on 22 June, Mandela addressed an assembled crowd of 10,000, initiating the campaign protests for which he was arrested and briefly interned in Marshall Square prison.

Read the story thus far:

Nelson Mandela’s Living Legacy: Early Apartheid and the start of resistance 1947-1949

Nelson Mandela’s Living Legacy | Marriage, Family…and the ANCYL 1944-1947

Nelson Mandela’s Living Legacy | The Early years in Johannesburg: ’40-’43

Nelson Mandela’s Living Legacy | Clarkebury, Healdtown and Fort Hare: ‘36-’40

Mandela’s Living Legacy | 1918-1928: The herdboy becomes a Thembu prince