The African National Congress (ANC), supported by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and the South African Communist Party (SACP), has been South Africa's governing centre-left political party since the establishment of non-racial democracy in April 1994. It defines itself as a "disciplined force of the left". Members founded the organization as the South African Native National Congress (SANNC) on 8 January 1912 in Bloemfontein to increase the rights of the black South African population. John Dube, its first president, and poet and author Sol Plaatje are among its founding members. The organization became the ANC in 1923 and formed a military wing, the Umkhonto we Sizwe (Spear of the Nation) in 1961.
It has been the ruling party of post-apartheid South Africa on the national level since 1994. It gained support in the 1999 elections, and further increased its majority in 2004, with 69.7% of the votes. In 2009 its share of the vote reduced slightly, but it remained the dominant party with 65.9% of the votes.
History
The ANC was founded in direct response to what was seen as injustices against black South Africans at the hands of their white, mostly Afrikaner government. The ANC had its origins in a pronouncement by Pixley ka Isaka Seme who said in 1911 Forget all the past differences among Africans and unite in one national organisation. The ANC was set up the next year on 8 January 1912.
The government of the newly formed Union of South Africa began a systematic oppression of black people in South Africa. The Natives' Land Act was issued in 1913. The effect of these laws was to force many non-whites from their farms into the cities and towns to work, and to restrict their movement within South Africa. By 1919, the ANC led a campaign against passes, and in 1929 the ANC supported a militant mineworkers' strike.
The ANC became dormant in the mid-1920s. During that time, black people were also represented by the Industrial and Commercial Workers’ Union and the once white-only Communist party. By 1927, J.T. Gumende (president of the ANC) proposed cooperation with the Communists in a bid to revitalise the organisation, but he was voted out of power in the 1930s. This led to the ANC becoming largely ineffectual and inactive, until the mid-1940s when the ANC was remodelled as a mass movement.
The ANC responded militarily to attacks on the rights of black South Africans, as well as calling for strikes, boycotts, and defiance. This led to a later Defiance Campaign in the 1950s, a mass movement of resistance to South Africa under apartheid. The government tried to stop the ANC by banning party leaders and enacting new laws to stop the ANC, however these measures failed.
In 1955, the Congress of the People officially adopted the Freedom Charter, stating the core principles of the South African 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. The government claimed that this was a communist document, and consequently leaders of the ANC and Congress were arrested. 1960 saw the Sharpeville Massacre, in which 69 people were killed when police opened fire on anti-apartheid protesters.
Whites eventually joined the fight against apartheid, leading many black supremacists to break away from the ANC.
Umkhonto we Sizwe
Umkhonto we Sizwe (or MK), translated "Spear of the Nation", was the military wing of the ANC. Partly in response to the Sharpeville Massacre of 1960, individual members of the ANC thought violence was needed because peaceful passive protest had failed. There was a significant portion of the ANC who therefore turned to violence in order to achieve their goals. A significant portion of ANC leadership agreed that this violence was needed to combat increasing backlash from the government.
Some ANC members were upset by the actions of the MK, and refused to accept violence as necessary for the ending of Apartheid, but these individuals became a minority as the militant leaders such as Nelson Mandela gained significant popularity. Many consider their actions to be criminal, but the MK said violence was justified by the goal of ending apartheid. Some members of MK committed terrorist acts to achieve their aims, and MK was responsible for the deaths of both civilians and members of the military. In cooperation with the South African Communist Party, MK was founded in 1961.