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1951, South Africa: Vets Opposed Gov. On Civil Rights

By VVAW

The present government of South Africa came to power after the Second World War and consisted of many Nazi sympathizers. As a matter of fact the present Premier of South Africa, Vorster was jailed for his Hitlerite sympathies. In 1951 as part of the government's program to subdue and subjugate the non-white peoples, they denied the right to vote for "collards" (half white and mixed blood people.)

This outrage brought on a storm of resistance. One of the leaders of the struggle against the government was a group of WWII veterans known as War Veterans Torch Commando, (taking their name from one of their early torchlight parades). Condemning the attack on democratic rights that the Nationalist Party was pursuing they issued a statement saying that it "denied the free spirit of man and led to bigotry and ignorance." They led demonstrations in over 160 cities, besides conducting letter writing campaigns, lobbying, etc. In Capetown they marched in the thousands; were attacked by the police and suffered 160 casualties and had numerous members arrested.

While they led much struggle they floundered on building multi-national unity in the organization itself. The leadership equivocated on the issue of allowing non-whites to join, despite the fact that that was directly where the struggle was leading. This contradictions of integrating the veterans organization and directing the organization's activities into "constitutional" forms led to the decline and eventual breakup of the group by 1953; a sad development for the struggle.

The struggle against a common enemy and building unity does exist even today in South Africa. A statement made by a white English-speaking Lance Corporal in the South African army brings this out clearly. He said they (the present ruling class) "never gave a damn about us, and now they want us to go out and die for their system."