Gail Presby, Univ. of Detroit-Mercy

"The Successes of Political Action in South Africa: Credit to Gandhi or not?"

This paper explores the recent trend in nonviolent circles to attribute the successes of South Africans against apartheid to nonviolent methods. The paper points out that many South Africans attribute their successes to their armed struggle. Who is right?  The paper looks at contemporary analysts Sutherland and Meyer, who argue that the fight against apartheid would have been shorter and less violent if people had stuck to Gandhian methods of nonviolence.   With special emphasis on the experience of the Sharpville shooting, a survey of historians will be cited in order to grasp in more detail the events influencing the ANC's decision to abandon strict Gandhian nonviolence so as to add the dimension of armed struggle.  While criticizing the accuracy of the modern "myth" that the struggle in South Africa was done nonviolently, the paper does agree with Sutherland and Meyer (and presumably Gandhi) that the decision to turn to armed struggle ignored or rejected Gandhi's helpful !

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on effective resistance.