The following article is from The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (1979). It might be outdated or ideologically biased.

African National Congress

(ANC), the most mass-oriented and influential political organization of the Republic of South Africa. It was founded in 1912, and it unites representatives of all classes and social strata of the indigenous population. Its basic task is the struggle against apartheid and all manifestations of racism; it fights for a democratic social structure. The ANC strives to unite all progressive forces in the country; on more than one occasion it has joined with the Communist Party and other progressive organizations in actions against the racist, antidemocratic policies of the country’s ruling circles. In 1955 it took an active part in conducting the congress in Klip-town (Johannesburg), at which the Congress Alliance, uniting all racial groups of the Republic of South Africa, was created, and a program adopted for the Alliance—the Freedom Charter, which was supported by the South African Communist Party. In 1960 the racist authorities banned the ANC, and its leaders fell victim to repression. Taking into account the intensification of outright terror by the ruling Nationalist Party of South Africa, in 1961 the ANC concluded that violent, as well as peaceful, forms of struggle had to be used against racism. In 1967 the ANC and the Zimbabwe African People’s Union (ZAPU) resolved to combine their efforts in the struggle against the racist regimes in the Republic of South Africa and Southern Rhodesia. United detachments of the ANC and ZAPU engage in joint militant actions.

The press organ of the ANC is the periodical Sechaba (published since 1967). The party’s leader is Oliver Tambo.

P. I. MANCHKHA

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References in periodicals archive

to improve health resources across the spectrum.' Abolishing private health care was not the way 'the country wishes to move', said Mkhize, who is also a National Executive Council member in the ruling African National Congress.

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The United States has removed former South African president Nelson Mandela and his African National Congress (ANC) from a three-decade old immigration watch list for possible terrorists, the White House have said.

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The past weeks have been tumultuous for women in South Africa's ruling African National Congress.

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ON February 11, 1990, Nelson Mandela, the charismatic figurehead of the African National Congress, finally walked free from Victor- Verster Prison in Paarl after 27 years of incarceration.

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is so much better than the old one." But he sounded an ominous note, warning of an upcoming "struggle for the soul of the [ruling] African National Congress" between Communists and radical trade unions on one hand and liberal Mandelaists on the other.

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Then a humiliated and enraged Chamusso joins the African National Congress and sets out to blow up a major refinery.

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Tambo was the leader of the African National Congress during the height of the anti-apartheid struggle in the country, Reuters reported.

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After Mandela was released, he served as president of the African National Congress (ANC) political party while negotiations with President FW De Klerk continued.

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1990: South African President FW de Klerk lifted the 30-year ban on the African National Congress, the South African Communist Party and 30 other anti-apartheid organisations.

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Nelson Mandela, who led the military wing of the leading anti-apartheid group, the African National Congress (A.N.C.), was arrested and sent to jail with a life sentence in 1962.

1991: the end of apartheid: South Africa's race laws were abolished after a long, sometimes violent struggle