Sunday, March 21 marks the 50th anniversary of the Sharpeville Massacre which occurred in Sharpeville, South Africa. On this day in 1960 the African masses protested the colonial pass laws which made it compulsory for all Africans over the age of 16 to carry a "pass book" at all times.
Through the so-called pass laws the white settler colonial State arrogantly dictated where, when, and for how long an African could remain in a particular town, city or region of our own land.
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Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe
The protest was organized by the Pan African Congress (PAC) of Azania under the leadership of Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe. PAC members and supporters were to voluntarily leave their passes at home and offer themselves up for arrest at the nearest police station.
However, the response from the South African settler colonial State was a military one. Police attacked the protesters, opening fire on thousands of Africans, killing at least 69 and injuring about 180.
In addition, the leadership, including Sobukwe was arrested. Sobukwe spent the rest of his life in prison as a result of this heinous state action.
The Sharpeville Massacre was an integral part of the Black Revolution of the Sixties that was militarily defeated by the forces of imperialism and colonialism.
During this period revolution and anti-colonial struggle was the trend throughout the African world – from the Black Panthers out of Oakland, CA to the PAC of Azania. In fact, the PAC was thrust into the leadership of the Azania Front of the African Liberation Movement in the early 60's through the Sharpeville struggle.
It was only when the movement's leadership, including Sobukwe and other PAC forces, were murdered, put in prisons and chased out of the country that the African National Congress (ANC) and the South African Communist Party were able to exploit our communities and movement through neocolonialist politics and solutions often designed by the imperialists themselves.
The existence of the South African neocolonial (white power in black face) State under the ANC and its policies is evidence of this opportunism.
The ANC upholds the same colonial policies as its white settler colonial predecessors. The foul principles of the “Freedom Charter” of 1955, an Uncle Tom manifesto which essentially called for Our Africa to be shared by whites and blacks, articulate themselves to this day.
It comes in the form of 41.2 percent African unemployment rate in Azania and more than 80 percent of the useable land still being owned and controlled by the white people is evidence of this. None of the land is shared with African working people and poor peasants. Only the African petty bourgeoisie has any share of this economy.
Had it been allowed to continue on the same trajectory of development under Sobukwe’s leadership before he was arrested, it is likely that the PAC would have surely evolved into a revolutionary Party necessary to seize power for the African workers and poor peasants and permanently remove the white settlers from our land.
The PAC’s historic mission, like that of all genuine pro-independence African forces, is to build the African Socialist International (ASI) – the revolutionary organization whose aim is uniting all African resistance under the leadership of the African working class aligned with the poor peasantry.
The ASI, serving as the advanced detachment of the African working class, is the only organization in existence capable of leading the International African Revolution to its final conclusion – the seizure of power and the building of a united socialist Africa.
Long Live Sobukwe! Long Live Sharpeville! Build The ASI!