Survival and Resistance: Township Organizations and Non-violent Direct Action in Twentieth Century South Africa

Abstract

Between the Durban strikes of 1973 and the Mass Democratic Movement’s (MDM) defiance campaign of 1989, a long wave of popular protest surged across the South African political landscape. It eroded familiar landmarks and opened new channels, it lapped at the beachheads of white power, and its high tide left a residue of aspirations and expectations that—on a clear day—could still be glimpsed from the World Trade Centre.¹

People experience deprivation and oppression within a concrete setting … and it is the concrete experience that moulds their discontent into specific grievances against specific targets… In other words, it is the daily experience of people that shapes their grievances, establishes the measure of their demands and points out the targets of their anger (Piven and Cloward, 1979).