In the 1980s, white activists, most notably through the Johannesburg Democratic Action Committee, an affiliate of the non-racial United Democratic Front, did pay greater attention to the white population. They made important gains in educating and mobilising white people against apartheid through the Call to Whites Campaign, which helped to weaken the power of the regime. They were also able to continue to mobilise when their black counterpart organisations were restricted.
3. Put your bodies on the line
The third lesson is that two people, in the same space, taking the same actions will not be treated the same. And that those with privilege can put their bodies on the line for the sake of others.
Throughout the anti-apartheid struggle a number of white activists including Denis Goldberg, Jeremy Cronin, and Raymond Suttner were imprisoned for a range of activities in the struggle against injustice. Out of the 156 people charged at the Treason Trials which began in 1956, 23 were white, including prominent activists Joe Slovo, Ruth First, and Helen Joseph. Ironically, according to Lionel “Rusty” Bernstein, one of the accused, the trial strengthened the personal and political relationships across racial divides – the opposite purpose of apartheid legislation.
As one of us, Leonie Fleischmann, argued in research on Israel and Palestine, the physical presence of members of the ruling population at protests has clear advantages. Lethal weapons are less likely to be used when Jewish-Israelis are present at Palestinian protests and they are unlikely to be treated badly if detained. Parallels can be found in South Africa, where conditions for white prisoners were markedly better than those for their black counterparts.
Helen Joseph described her arrest in 1956 alongside her black partner in the Federation of South African Women, Lillian Ngoyi. Joseph describes how she had a bed, sheets and blankets, whereas Ngoyi slept on a mat on the floor. Joseph had a sanitary bucket with a lid, whereas Ngoyi had an open bucket covered with a cloth. As Ngoyi exclaimed to Joseph as they were carted off: “You are better off with your pink skin”. Apartheid remained even in prison.
4. Don’t expect to lead
The fourth lesson is that members of oppressed groups must be the ones to lead the struggle and decide the role of allies.
The involvement of white activists in the anti-apartheid struggle was not universally welcomed. The Congress Alliance, a multi-racial coalition of anti-apartheid organisations was established in the 1950s. Yet, to mobilise the black population, the ANC initially felt it necessary for these congresses to remain separate.
