United Democratic Front (South Africa)
Encyclopedia
The United Democratic Front (UDF) was one of the most important anti-apartheid organisations of the 1980s. The non-racial coalition of about 400 civic, church, students', workers'
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
and other organisations (national, regional and local) was formed in 1983, initially to fight the just-introduced idea of the Tricameral Parliament
Tricameral Parliament
The Tricameral Parliament was the name given to the South African parliament and its structure from 1984 to 1994, established by the South African Constitution of 1983...
(the parliament was put in place in 1984 with the election of P. W. Botha of the National Party
National Party (South Africa)
The National Party is a former political party in South Africa. Founded in 1914, it was the governing party of the country from 4 June 1948 until 9 May 1994. Members of the National Party were sometimes known as Nationalists or Nats. Its policies included apartheid, the establishment of a...
. Its slogan, "UDF Unites, Apartheid Divides" reflects the Front's broad support (about 3 million members).
Formation
The plans for a new political organisation were introduced by Rev. Alan Boesak at a conference of the Transvaal Anti-SAIC Committee (TASC) on January 23, 1983. The part of his speech calling for a "united front" of "churches, civic associations, trade unions, student organizations, and sports bodies" was unplanned, but well-received. Trade unions were very important in the UDF. They began to emerge in the 1980s and took on the roll of the "muscle" of the UDF. UDF pursued a strategy known as "ungovernability": leadership of these organizations declared a strategy to make lands ungovernable. The TASC appointed a sub-committee to investigate the possibility of such a front. After much debate, it was decided that the new organization would be a coalition of non-racism anti-apartheid organizations.The launch of the UDF
The UDF then formed regional committees, which established relationships with local organizations. The Natal UDF was launched first, in May, and then the TransvaalTransvaal Province
Transvaal Province was a province of the Union of South Africa from 1910 to 1961, and of its successor, the Republic of South Africa, from 1961 until the end of apartheid in 1994 when a new constitution subdivided it.-History:...
region (in June) and the Cape Province
Cape Province
The Province of the Cape of Good Hope was a province in the Union of South Africa and subsequently the Republic of South Africa...
(July). Representatives of the regions formed the Interim National Committee, which also included outside activists.
At the end of July, the committee held a two-day meeting where they discussed a national launch date. Although most delegates wanted time to organise the regions before the national launch, they decided the best date was August 20, the day the government planned to introduce the Tricameral Constitution. This Constitution was touted as reform, but in practice granted meaningless representation to India
India
India , officially the Republic of India , is a country in South Asia. It is the seventh-largest country by geographical area, the second-most populous country with over 1.2 billion people, and the most populous democracy in the world...
ns and Coloured
Coloured
In the South African, Namibian, Zambian, Botswana and Zimbabwean context, the term Coloured refers to an heterogenous ethnic group who possess ancestry from Europe, various Khoisan and Bantu tribes of Southern Africa, West Africa, Indonesia, Madagascar, Malaya, India, Mozambique,...
s and left the Black
Black
Black is the color of objects that do not emit or reflect light in any part of the visible spectrum; they absorb all such frequencies of light...
majority in the same position. The UDF's symbols — logo and slogan — were also selected at the meeting. Both the logo and slogan portray the widespread support the UDF hoped to achieve by incorporating a wide range of South Africans of all races. Some member organisations adapted the "UDF Unites, Apartheid Divides" slogan; for example, the Soweto
Soweto
Soweto is a lower-class-populated urban area of the city of Johannesburg in Gauteng, South Africa, bordering the city's mining belt in the south. Its name is an English syllabic abbreviation for South Western Townships...
Civic Association used "Soweto Civic Association Unites — Piet Koornhof
Piet Koornhof
Pieter G. J. Koornhof was a South African politician. As an apartheid-era National Party cabinet minister, he held various portfolios in the cabinets of B.J. Vorster and P.W. Botha, and was later appointed ambassador to the United States...
Divides".
On August 20, 1983 the UDF was launched in the Rocklands community hall, Mitchell's Plain
Mitchell's Plain
Mitchells Plain is a largely coloured township about 20 km from the city of Cape Town. It is one of South Africa's largest townships. It is located on the Cape Flats on the False Bay coast between Strandfontein and Khayelitsha...
, near Cape Town
Cape Town
Cape Town is the second-most populous city in South Africa, and the provincial capital and primate city of the Western Cape. As the seat of the National Parliament, it is also the legislative capital of the country. It forms part of the City of Cape Town metropolitan municipality...
. After a conference of delegates from 565 organisations (400 were already members), a public rally was held, attended by about 10 000 people. Frank Chikane
Frank Chikane
Frank Chikane is a South African civil servant, writer and cleric. He is a member of the African National Congress.-Biography:...
, the first major speaker, called the day "a turning point in the struggle for freedom".
Organisational structure
The UDF was formed of organisations from throughout South Africa, although support was always concentrated in the Cape, Natal, and the WitwatersrandWitwatersrand
The Witwatersrand is a low, sedimentary range of hills, at an elevation of 1700–1800 metres above sea-level, which runs in an east-west direction through Gauteng in South Africa. The word in Afrikaans means "the ridge of white waters". Geologically it is complex, but the principal formations...
area. It soon attracted a massive following and had the support of around 3,000,000 members by 1985. Among its prominent leaders were Archbishop Desmond Tutu
Desmond Tutu
Desmond Mpilo Tutu is a South African activist and retired Anglican bishop who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid...
, Rev. Alan Boesak and several 1950s activists, including Albertina Sisulu
Albertina Sisulu
Nontsikelelo Albertina Sisulu was a black South African anti–apartheid activist, and the widow of fellow activist Walter Sisulu . She was affectionately known as Ma Sisulu throughout her lifetime by the South African public. In 2004 she was voted 57th in the SABC3's Great South Africans...
, Oscar Mpetha and Helen Joseph
Helen Joseph
Helen Joseph , a South African anti-apartheid activist, was born in Easebourne near Midhurst West Sussex, England and graduated from King's College London, in 1927. After working as a teacher in India for three years, Helen came to South Africa in 1931, where she met and married Billie Joseph...
. The UDF and its affiliates promoted rent boycotts, school protests, worker stay-away and a boycott of the tricameral system. Smaller organisations affiliated to the UDF targeted more specific targets for their protests; the End Conscription Campaign
End Conscription Campaign
The End Conscription Campaign was an anti-apartheid organisation allied to the United Democratic Front and composed of conscientious objectors and their supporters in South Africa...
(ECC), for example, was set up in opposition to the compulsory military conscription of white males into the South African Defence Force
South African Defence Force
The South African Defence Force was the South African armed forces from 1957 until 1994. The former Union Defence Force was renamed to the South African Defence Force in the Defence Act of 1957...
. The Front and its members were largely responsible for the intensification and sustenance of resistance in the period from 1984 to 1986. At its peak, in 1987, it had some 700 affiliates. The most important of these were student/youth organisations, trade unions, "civics" and women's organisations and the church groups where the UDF had its roots.
Relationship with the ANC
Early in its life, the UDF adopted the Freedom CharterFreedom Charter
The Freedom Charter was the statement of core principles of the South African Congress Alliance, which consisted of the African National Congress and its allies - the South African Indian Congress, the South African Congress of Democrats and the Coloured People's Congress...
, a statement of the aims for a free South Africa and basis for a democratic constitution. The strong relationship between the African National Congress
African National Congress
The African National Congress is South Africa's governing Africanist political party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party , since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a...
(ANC) and the UDF was based on this shared mission statement. Throughout its existence, the UDF demanded the release of imprisoned ANC
African National Congress
The African National Congress is South Africa's governing Africanist political party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party , since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a...
leaders, as well as other political prisoners. However, the UDF was never formally attached to the ANC
African National Congress
The African National Congress is South Africa's governing Africanist political party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party , since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a...
, and did not participate in the armed struggle. The UDF also suggested resisting all changes whites presented.
Relationship with the Black Consciousness Movement
The Black Consciousness MovementBlack Consciousness Movement
The Black Consciousness Movement was a grassroots anti-Apartheid activist movement that emerged in South Africa in the mid-1960s out of the political vacuum created by the jailing and banning of the African National Congress and Pan Africanist Congress leadership after the Sharpeville Massacre in...
disagreed with the UDF on the issue of whether non-black races should be accepted. The Black Consciousness movement was based on the principle that the liberation struggle should be led by black people, whereas the UDF welcomed anyone who shared their goals.
Treason Trials
Several UDF members were among the accused in two of South Africa's most highly publicised trials. Accused (with the banned ANCAfrican National Congress
The African National Congress is South Africa's governing Africanist political party, supported by its tripartite alliance with the Congress of South African Trade Unions and the South African Communist Party , since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a...
and South African Communist Party
South African Communist Party
South African Communist Party is a political party in South Africa. It was founded in 1921 as the Communist Party of South Africa by the joining together of the International Socialist League and others under the leadership of Willam H...
[SACP]) of plotting to overthrow the government, the sixteen accused, including Albertina Sisulu
Albertina Sisulu
Nontsikelelo Albertina Sisulu was a black South African anti–apartheid activist, and the widow of fellow activist Walter Sisulu . She was affectionately known as Ma Sisulu throughout her lifetime by the South African public. In 2004 she was voted 57th in the SABC3's Great South Africans...
, were acquitted in the first of these trials. In the Delmas Treason Trial
Delmas Treason Trial
The Delmas Treason Trial in South Africa was the prosecution of 22 anti-apartheid activists under security laws, with the intention of suppressing the United Democratic Front . The defendants included three senior UDF leaders, Frank Chikane, Mosiuoa Lekota and Popo Molefe, known as the "Big Three"...
(1985–1988), however, the nineteen were convicted, but these convictions were later set aside.
Prominent Members
- Rev. Allan BoesakAllan BoesakReverend Allan Aubrey Boesak is a South African Dutch Reformed Church cleric and politician and anti-apartheid activist...
- Frank ChikaneFrank ChikaneFrank Chikane is a South African civil servant, writer and cleric. He is a member of the African National Congress.-Biography:...
- Joe Gqabi
- Helen JosephHelen JosephHelen Joseph , a South African anti-apartheid activist, was born in Easebourne near Midhurst West Sussex, England and graduated from King's College London, in 1927. After working as a teacher in India for three years, Helen came to South Africa in 1931, where she met and married Billie Joseph...
- Trevor ManuelTrevor ManuelTrevor Andrew Manuel is a South African politician, currently serving in the Cabinet of South Africa as Minister in the Presidency in charge of the National Planning Commission...
- Albertina SisuluAlbertina SisuluNontsikelelo Albertina Sisulu was a black South African anti–apartheid activist, and the widow of fellow activist Walter Sisulu . She was affectionately known as Ma Sisulu throughout her lifetime by the South African public. In 2004 she was voted 57th in the SABC3's Great South Africans...
- Archbishop Desmond TutuDesmond TutuDesmond Mpilo Tutu is a South African activist and retired Anglican bishop who rose to worldwide fame during the 1980s as an opponent of apartheid...
- Bantu HolomisaBantu HolomisaBantubonke Harrington Holomisa is a South African Member of Parliament and President of the United Democratic Movement.Holomisa was born in Mqanduli, Eastern Cape. He joined the Transkei Defence Force in 1976 and had become a Brigadier by 1985...
- Victoria MxengeVictoria MxengeVictoria Mxenge, was a South African anti-apartheid activist. Trained as a nurse and midwife, she began practising law....
- Oscar Mpetha
- Mosiuoa LekotaMosiuoa LekotaMosiuoa Gerard Patrick Lekota is a South African politician who currently serves as the President and Leader of the Congress of the People since 16 December 2008. Previously, under President Thabo Mbeki, he served in the Cabinet of South Africa as Minister of Defence from 17 June 1999 to 25...
- Farid EsackFarid EsackFarid Esack is a South African Muslim scholar, writer, and political activist known for his opposition to apartheid, his appointment by Nelson Mandela as a gender equity commissioner, and his work for inter-religious dialogue.-Early life:...
External links
- UDF Virtual Exhibition
- UDF unites Apartheid divides
- South Africa: Overcoming Apartheid, Building Democracy: A curricular resource for schools and colleges on the struggle to overcome apartheid and build democracy in South Africa, with seven streamed interviews with South Africans in the struggle in UDF, plus many historical documents, photographs, and educational activities for teachers & students.
- http://www.cvet.org.za Community Video Education Trust: a digital archive of 90 hours of videos taken in South Africa in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This raw footage documents anti-apartheid demonstrations, speeches, mass funerals, celebrations, and interviews with activists that capture the activism of trade unions, students and political organizations, including 40 segments on the activities of the United Democratic Front.]
- Civil society, citizenship and the politics of the (im)possible: rethinking militancy in Africa today, 2007, a theoretical interpretation of the UDF by Michael NeocosmosMichael NeocosmosMichael Neocosmos, is an author, translator and Professor and Director of Global Movements Research at Monash University, in Johannesburg South Africa. He is also a fellow at the Centre for Humanities Research at the University of the Western Cape....
.