Apartheid

== Internal resistance ==
{{more citations needed|section|date=January 2020}}
{{Main|Internal resistance to apartheid}}

[[File:Queenstown massacre.jpg|thumb|Demonstrators at the funeral for victims of the 1985 [[Queenstown Massacre]]]]

Apartheid sparked significant internal resistance.<ref name="Lodge 1983" /> The government responded to a series of popular uprisings and protests with police brutality, which in turn increased local support for the armed resistance struggle.<ref name="ANC Armed Struggle">{{cite web
 |url=http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/mk/forward.html#* 
 |title=Armed Struggle and Umkhonto / Morogoro 
 |author=African National Congress 
 |year=1987 
 |access-date=28 December 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20071216163218/http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/mk/forward.html 
 |archive-date=16 December 2007 |url-status=dead 
}}</ref>
Internal resistance to the apartheid system in South Africa came from several sectors of society and saw the creation of organisations dedicated variously to peaceful protests, passive resistance and armed insurrection.

In 1949, the [[African National Congress Youth League|youth wing]] of the [[African National Congress]] (ANC) took control of the organisation and started advocating a radical [[African nationalism|African nationalist]] programme. The new young leaders proposed that white authority could only be overthrown through mass campaigns. In 1950 that philosophy saw the launch of the Programme of Action, a series of strikes, boycotts and civil disobedience actions that led to occasional violent clashes with the authorities.

In 1959, a group of disenchanted ANC members formed the [[Pan Africanist Congress of Azania]] (PAC), which organised a demonstration against pass books on 21 March 1960. One of those protests was held in the township of [[Sharpeville]], where 69 people were killed by police in the [[Sharpeville massacre]].

In the wake of Sharpeville, the government declared a state of emergency. More than 18,000 people were arrested, including leaders of the ANC and PAC, and both organisations were banned. The resistance went underground, with some leaders in exile abroad and others engaged in campaigns of domestic sabotage and terrorism.

In May 1961, before the declaration of South Africa as a Republic, an assembly representing the banned ANC called for negotiations between the members of the different ethnic groupings, threatening demonstrations and strikes during the inauguration of the Republic if their calls were ignored.

When the government overlooked them, the strikers (among the main organisers was a 42-year-old, [[Thembu]]-origin [[Nelson Mandela]]) carried out their threats. The government countered swiftly by giving police the authority to arrest people for up to twelve days and detaining many strike leaders amid numerous cases of police brutality.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20081123041201/http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,938112,00.html A War Won], ''[[Time (magazine)|Time]]'', 9 June 1961</ref> Defeated, the protesters called off their strike. The ANC then chose to launch an armed struggle through a newly formed military wing, [[Umkhonto we Sizwe]] (MK), which would perform acts of sabotage on tactical state structures. Its first sabotage plans were carried out on 16 December 1961, the anniversary of the [[Battle of Blood River]].

In the 1970s, the [[Black Consciousness Movement]] (BCM) was created by tertiary students influenced by the Black Power movement in the US. BCM endorsed black pride and African customs and did much to alter the feelings of inadequacy instilled among black people by the apartheid system. The leader of the movement, [[Steve Biko]], was taken into custody on 18 August 1977 and was beaten to death in detention.

In 1976, secondary students in Soweto took to the streets in the [[Soweto uprising]] to protest against the imposition of Afrikaans as the only language of instruction. On 16 June, police opened fire on students protesting peacefully. According to official reports 23 people were killed, but the number of people who died is usually given as 176, with estimates of up to 700.<ref>[http://africanhistory.about.com/od/apartheid/a/Soweto-Uprising-Pt2.htm 16 June 1976 Student Uprising in Soweto] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170301181628/http://africanhistory.about.com/od/apartheid/a/Soweto-Uprising-Pt2.htm |date=1 March 2017 }}. africanhistory.about.com</ref><ref name="Harrison1987">{{cite book|title=The White Tribe of Africa|year=1987|first=David|last=Harrison}}</ref><ref>([[Les Payne]] of Newsday said at least 850 murders were documented) Elsabe Brink; Gandhi Malungane; Steve Lebelo; Dumisani Ntshangase; Sue Krige, ''Soweto 16 June 1976'', 2001, 9</ref> In the following years several student organisations were formed to protest against apartheid, and these organisations were central to urban school boycotts in 1980 and 1983 and rural boycotts in 1985 and 1986.
[[File:MK Attacks.JPG|thumb|left|250px|List of attacks attributed to MK and compiled by the Committee for South African War Resistance (COSAWR) between 1980 and 1983.]]
In parallel with student protests, labour unions started protest action in 1973 and 1974. After 1976 unions and workers are considered to have played an important role in the struggle against apartheid, filling the gap left by the banning of political parties. In 1979 black trade unions were legalised and could engage in collective bargaining, although strikes were still illegal. Economist [[Thomas Sowell]] wrote that basic supply and demand led to violations of Apartheid "on a massive scale" throughout the nation, simply because there were not enough white South African business owners to meet the demand for various goods and services. Large portions of the garment industry and construction of new homes, for example, were effectively owned and operated by blacks, who either worked surreptitiously or who circumvented the law with a white person as a nominal, figurehead manager.<ref>Sowell, Thomas (2004, 2009). ''Applied Economics: Thinking Beyond Stage One''. Second Edition, NY: Basic Books. Ch. 7: The Economics of Discrimination.</ref>

In 1983, anti-apartheid leaders determined to resist the tricameral parliament assembled to form the [[United Democratic Front (South Africa)|United Democratic Front]] (UDF) in order to coordinate anti-apartheid activism inside South Africa. The first presidents of the UDF were [[Archie Gumede]], [[Oscar Mpetha]] and [[Albertina Sisulu]]; patrons were Archbishop [[Desmond Tutu]], Dr [[Allan Boesak]], [[Helen Joseph]], and [[Nelson Mandela]]. Basing its platform on abolishing apartheid and creating a nonracial democratic South Africa, the UDF provided a legal way for domestic human rights groups and individuals of all races to organise demonstrations and campaign against apartheid inside the country. Churches and church groups also emerged as pivotal points of resistance. Church leaders were not immune to prosecution, and certain faith-based organisations were banned, but the clergy generally had more freedom to criticise the government than militant groups did. The UDF, coupled with the protection of the church, accordingly permitted a major role for Archbishop [[Desmond Tutu]], who served both as a prominent domestic voice and international spokesperson denouncing apartheid and urging the creation of a shared nonracial state.<ref>Nelson Mandela Foundation, [https://www.nelsonmandela.org/omalley/index.php/site/q/03lv02424/04lv02730/05lv03188/06lv03222.htm United Democratic Front] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170517115132/https://www.nelsonmandela.org/omalley/index.php/site/q/03lv02424/04lv02730/05lv03188/06lv03222.htm |date=17 May 2017 }}</ref>

Although the majority of whites supported apartheid, some 20 percent did not. Parliamentary opposition was galvanised by [[Helen Suzman]], [[Colin Eglin]] and [[Harry Schwarz]], who formed the [[Progressive Federal Party]]. Extra-parliamentary resistance was largely centred in the [[South African Communist Party]] and women's organisation the [[Black Sash]]. Women were also notable in their involvement in trade union organisations and banned political parties. The public intellectuals too, such as [[Nadine Gordimer]] the eminent author and winner of the [[Nobel Prize in Literature]] (1991), vehemently opposed the Apartheid regime and accordingly bolstered the movement against it.