Everything about The Freedom Charter totally explained
The
Freedom Charter was declared at the
Congress of the People in
Kliptown,
South Africa on
26 June 1955 by the
Congress Alliance, which consisted of the
African National Congress and its allies the
South African Indian Congress, the
South African Congress of Democrats and the
Coloured People's Congress. It was later adopted by all four organizations.
The meeting in 1955 was broken up by police on the second day, although by then the charter had been read in full. The famous
Nelson Mandela escaped this meeting under the
disguise of a
milkman, because at that time he was restricted by banning orders, which limited his movement and who he could talk to.
The charter was drafted by
Z.K. Mathews,
Lionel 'Rusty' Bernstein and others of the
South African Communist Party (Obituary,
The Times, London,
27 June 2002). The document is notable for its demand for and commitment to a non-racial South Africa, and this has remained the platform of the ANC. Members of the ANC with opposing Africanist views left the group after it adopted the charter, forming the
Pan Africanist Congress. The charter also calls for
democracy and
human rights,
land reform,
labour rights, and
nationalization.
When the
ANC came to power in May
1994, the new
Constitution of South Africa included in its text some of the items called for in the Freedom Charter. Nearly all the enumerated concerns regarding equality of race and language were directly addressed in the constitution, although the document included nothing to the effect of the nationalization of industry or redistribution of land, both of which were specifically outlined in the charter.
The Freedom Charter resulted in the Government's arrest of 156 activists under charges of high treason, an offense for which the penalty at the time was death. The trial is now known as the
Treason Trial, and was one of the longest trials in South Africa's history at that point in time.
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