No Woman, No Revolution, Part 4a
Freedom Charter
The Freedom Charter was
adopted by five organisations in the Congress of the People on June 26th
1966, one and a half years after the adoption of the Women’s Charter, seven
years after the formation of the ANC Women’s League, and twelve years after the
admission of women to membership of the ANC in 1943.
Without the prior admission
of women to the ANC, the Freedom Charter would have been unimaginable, or else it
would rightly have been taken as a fraud.
Without mass organisation of
the women in the ANC Women’s League and in the Federation of South African
Women (FEDSAW), the Freedom Charter would hardly have been possible.
The five Freedom Charter
signatory organisations were: SACOD, SAIC, SACPO, SACTU and the ANC.
All of them were
racially-defined except SACTU, the South African Congress of Trade Unions,
which was a federation of trade unions, and non-racial, like the Federation of
South African Women (which was not a signatory).
But clearly, and in the light
of the content of the Freedom Charter, the entire exercise amounted to a
movement away from separation and towards non-racialism.
What does the Freedom Charter
say about women?
·
that only a democratic state, based on the will of all
the people, can secure to all their birthright without distinction of colour,
race, sex or belief;
·
Every man and woman shall have the right to vote for
and to stand as a candidate for all bodies which make laws;
·
The rights of the people shall be the same, regardless
of race, colour or sex;
·
Men and women of all races shall receive equal pay for
equal work;
The Freedom Charter does not:
·
mention Gender
·
mention
Patriarchy
·
advocate
Structurelessness
The Women’s Charter of 1954
also does not mention these things.
All of the signatories of the
Freedom Charter were men. Does this invalidate the Freedom Charter? No, it does
not.
·
The above is to
introduce the original reading-text: The Freedom Charter,
Congress of the People, 1955.
