Pan Africanist Congress

From the very outset the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) of Azania (the name the PAC has given to South Africa) has maintained that the fundamental goals of the struggle in apartheid South Africa are national liberation and self-determination. This has distinguished the PAC from those who regard the struggle as one for civil rights and integration or co-option into the existing system. The goal of self-determination arises from the historical fact that classical and settler colonialism dispossessed the rightful owners of the land, the indigenous majority. The Land Acts of 1913 and 1936 institutionalized this dispossession by allocating 87.3 percent of the total land area to the white minority, comprising one-fifth of the total population. The majority, the rightful owners of the land, was allocated only the remaining 12.7 percent.

Consequently, the PAC has consistently maintained that repossession of the usurped land remains the cornerstone of the struggle. In demanding this, the PAC has invoked the international legal principle of jus cogens, which holds that the right of self-determination is an inalienable right that cannot be superseded.

The PAC does not view the repossession of the usurped land and the exercise of the inalienable right of self-determination as an exercise based on exclusivity. On the contrary, the PAC's declared policies are accommodating and inclusive. For instance, the PAC, while advocating a policy of "Africa for Africans," has clearly defined the term African politically rather than racially. At its Founding Congress in 1959, the PAC defined an African as one who owes his or her only allegiance to Africa and accepts African majority rule.

Furthermore, at its inception, the PAC condemned and rejected both racism and multiracialism. The regime preached and practiced racism. The political organizations of the opponents of apartheid in 1959 were constituted along the lines of the racial classification of the regime. The African National Congress, together with separate Coloured, Indian, and white organizations, formed the Congress Alliance and advocated multiracialism. At its formation, the PAC said it believed in only one race, the human race, and it was the first national liberation movement to advocate and practice genuine nonracialism. Today the PAC takes great satisfaction in seeing that genuine opponents of the system have discarded rnultiracialism and have opted for the PAC's genuine nonracialism.

In pursuance of its policy of genuine nonracialism, the PAC has consistently rejected the granting or perpetuating of group rights. The concept of apartheid is based on group prejudices and group privileges. Instead of group rights, the PAC has called for guarantees for the individual rights of all Azanians. The PAC wishes to see fundamental individual rights enshrined in the new constitution.

The conquest of South Africa by the colonialists resulted directly in the mass confiscation of land and the virtual exclusion of the oppressed majority from the economy of the country, except as laborers. The PAC has called for a planned economy based on genuine democracy. In 1959, Mangaliso Robert Sobukwe, the founding president of the PAC, said that totalitarianism is not inherent in socialism and that only a planned economy can redress the imbalances resulting from centuries of dispossession and exploitation and promote a viable economy embracing the vast majority. The PAC remains committed to the redistribution of the wealth and resources of the country to all the people of a free Azania, the socialization of the commanding heights of the economy, a mixed economy, and the protection and promotion of workers' rights.

The rulers of the apartheid regime are opposed to socialism and genuine democracy. They advocate the "free enterprise" system and so-called "power sharing," with whites enjoying a veto on all national legislation. The PAC rejects this formula and has put forward concrete proposals for a democratic alternative.

To resolve effectively any conflict the following steps must be taken:

1. 1. Identifying the principal contradiction.

2. 2. Identifying social forces that can truly resolve this contradiction.

3. 3. Identifying the most effective methods to be employed to end the conflict.

4. 4. Forming a broad united front.

The PAC, having identified the nature of the struggle as one of national liberation and...