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Um-khonto we Sizwe / MK / Spear of the Nation

In 1910, by an act of British Parliament, the newly established Union of South Mrica became a dominion of the British Empire. Reacting to legislation and a constitution that virtually guaranteed white dominance, a group of black lawyers held a conference in Bloemfontein on 8 January 1912, from which was born the South Mrican Native National Congress. The name was changed to the African National Congress [ANC] in 1923.

The South African Communist Party (CP) came into existence in July 1921 as a result of white members of the Industrial Socialist League joining forces with the International Socialist League. The party was outlawed by the South African government in the Internal Security Act of 1950. On 24 June 1950, the CP dissolved itself, but core members went underground to continue to plot the overthrow of the South African government through force and violence.

After World War II, closer ties were forged between the trade unions, the ANC, and the CP. Then in 1958, the African nationalist faction of the ANC, unwilling to tolerate manipulation by the South African Communist Party any longer, broke away and founded the Pan-Africanist Congress [PAC]. The ANC functioned principally as a forum to express black African opinion, wherein protests against discriminatory practices could be voiced and other means of peaceful protest used against apartheid. Born five years after the birth of the ANC, Oliver Reginald Tambo spent most of his life serving in the struggle against apartheid. 'O R', as he was popularly known by his peers, was born on 27th October 1917 in a rural town, Mbizana, in eastern Mpondoland in what was then the Cape Province (now Eastern Cape). Tambo went to study at the University College of Fort Hare, near Alice, where he obtained his Bachelor of Science Degree in 1941. It was at Fort Hare that he first became involved in the politics of the national liberation movement.

He was among the founding members of the ANC Youth League (ANC YL) in 1944. In the ANCYL, Tambo teamed up with Walter Sisulu, Nelson Mandela, Ashby Mda, Anton Lembede, Dr William Nkomo, Dr C.M.Majombozi and others to bring a bold, new spirit of militancy into the post-war ANC. The South African government's attempts to suppress the Campaign of Defiance of Unjust Laws of 1952 resulted in the designation of Sisulu and others found guilty of organising the Defiance Campaign as statutory "Communists". (That is, though they were not Communists, in terms of the violations of the Suppression of Communism Act they had committed, the judiciary declared them "Communists" in terms of the statute.)

A decisive turning point occurred with the incident at Sharpeville in March 1960, when police fired upon demonstrators. Shortly thereafter the Government outlawed the ANC and arrested many of its members. The ANC and PAC created separate terrorist guerrilla wings. The suppression of the 1961 stay-at-home strike led to the ANC adopting the armed struggle as part of its strategy. The ANC decided in 1961 that violence would be the only tool that could force the South Mrican Government to negotiate, and formed a military operations wing, the Umklwnto We Sizwe (MK).

In 1965 Tanzania and Zambia gave the ANC camp facilities to house trained Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) combatants. In 1967, after the death of ANC President General Chief Albert J. Luthuli, Tambo became Acting president until his appointment to the Presidency was approved by the Morogoro Conference in 1969. In 1985 Tambo was re-elected ANC President at the Kabwe Conference. In that capacity he served also as the Head of the Politico-Military Council (PMC) of the ANC, and as Commander in Chief of Umkhonto we Sizwe.

Following the banning of the ANC and the Pan African Congress in 1960, political activity slumped, before renewed activism occurred in 1969 with the creation of a South African Students Organisation (SASO) informed by Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) ideology. SASO’s first president, Steve Biko, was enrolled in medical schoole, but Biko was dismissed in 1972 after privileging the political struggle over his medical career. Biko died in detention in South Africa in 1977.

Through the 1960s and 1970s, the MK conducted limited sabotage operations, with transportation and communications facilities the primary targets. The ANC's bombing attacks intensified in 1980, beginning with the bombing of the South Mrican Coal, Gas, and Oil Conversion Corporation (SASOL). In 1983, ANC operations - which heretofore had sought to avoid civilian casualties - abruptly changed. Attacks became more indiscriminate, resulting in both black and white civilian victims.

The PAC founded Poqo (Pure), implying the creation of an Africa for Africans that is non-Communist in character. The two groups commenced campaigns of sabotage and terrorism that caused the South African government to adopt increasingly harsh security measures in an effort to thwart the violence.

Close fraternal relations between the ANC and CP continued as the two organizations worked together toward similar objectives. Although the Soviet Union had not been able to infiltrate the PAC, there was ample evidence that the organization was partially supported by the People’s Republic of China.

In 1982, the Subcommittee on Security and Terrorism, of the Judiciary Committee of the United States Senate, conducted a thorough investigation of the problem. The subcommittee report concluded: ". . . that the original purposes of the ANC ... have been subverted, and that the Soviets and their allies have achieved alarmingly effective control over them." The US government came to believe that Soviet adventurism in southern Africa posed a clear and present danger to the national interests of the United States in that part of the world. Real terrorist acts were committed as part of the struggle against apartheid. There were deadly bombings of civilians. There were so-called ``necklacings,'' in which car tires were put around persons's necks and set on fire.

In February 1986, The Vice President's Task Force on Combatting Terrorism released its public report, which contained a number of policy recommendations. These recommendations became the cornerstone of US counterterrorism policy. One key proposal was to launch a public awareness effort to better inform the American people about the nature of terrorism and the threat it represents to American national security interests. In November 1988 the office of Vice President George Bush published a report with detailed information about key terrorist groups.

This report noted that "Although ANC operations have not posed any direct threat to US assets or personnel in South Africa, the indiscriminate nature of recent attacks raises the danger of Americans becoming inadvertent victims. In addition, in June 1986, ANC acting President Tambo issued a warning to all foreign firms operating in the country that their continued presence could be an indicator of their home governments' support for the South Mrican regime; as such, they could become targets. ANC personnel receive the majority of their training at camps in Angola. Some have received educational training in Tanzania. The group operates throughout all of the countries bordering South Mrica, as it seeks to infiltrate South Africa to conduct various types of operations. The ANC received many of its weapons from the Soviet Bloc."

The New York Times reported 21 August 1988 that :"Leaders of the ANC have for the first time accepted responsibility for some recent bombing attacks on civilians and said they have taken the first steps to prevent a recurrence. . . . [A] score of bombing attacks appear to have been deliberately aimed at civilian targets like amusement arcades, fast-food outlets, sports stadiums and shopping centers in and near Johannesburg and Pretoria. The [ANC] had avoided either taking or denying responsibility. Criticism reached a climax with a car-bomb explosion outside a Johannesburg stadium early last month, in which 2 people died and 67 were hurt. The attacks have been widely condemned by anti-apartheid leaders and church groups normally sympathetic to the ANC. . . . [The removal of an ANC political commissar] was widely regarded as something of an exercise in damage control. . . . [He] had publicly spoken in favor of striking at civilian targets, arousing debate within the organization over military tactics." As the apartheid regime waned during the late 1980s and early 1990s, the African National Congress (ANC) mounted “Operation Vula,” an attempt to build an underground political and military structure within South Africa in preparation for an all-out “people’s war.” As part of the operation, the ANC stepped up its ongoing efforts to develop sources within South Africa’s security structures. Speaking contemporaneously, one member of the ANC’s military wing, Spear of the Nation, claimed that “we haven’t done badly” in terms of recruiting “moles” inside the security services. According to other Vula participants, sources were also recruited within the police, military, and other security forces and gained access to National Intelligence Service files and other intelligence reports.

In 1989 Oliver Tambo suffered a stroke, and underwent extensive medical treatment. He returned to South Africa in 1991, after over three decades in exile. At the ANC's first legal national conference inside South Africa, held in Durban in July 1991, Tambo was elected National Chairperson of the ANC. He was also chairperson of the ANC's Emancipation Commission. Oliver Reginald Tambo died from a stroke at 3.10am on 24 April, 1993.

Between 1990 and 1994, the ANC negotiated with the South African Government for the end of apartheid and the enfranchisement of black South Africans. President de Klerk and Nelson Mandela negotiated an end to the conflict and an end to the apartheid system on behalf of the National Party and the African National Congress. In 1994, the country held its first democratic elections in which full enfranchisement was granted. The ANC became a registered political party and Nelson Mandela was elected to be the first black president. Today, the ANC serves as the majority party in a diverse ruling coalition.

The United States, throughout the 1970s and 1980s, had a cozy relationship with the apartheid Government of South Africa which had labeled the ANC as a terrorist organization. The apartheid government banned membership and political activity in the ANC and forced its leaders underground or into exile. A direct result of that ban was that under U.S. law individuals convicted of crimes, including the Nobel Laureate and former President of South Africa, Nelson Mandela, were deemed inadmissible for entry to the United States, along with individuals labeled as terrorists by the former South African government.

Under the US Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) of 1990, any guerilla group would find itself under the definition of a terrorist organization. In the wake of the attacks of September 11, 2001, Congress enacted the USA PATRIOT Act of 2001 and the REAL ID Act of 2005. Among other things, these measures sought to exclude and remove known and suspected terrorists from the United States by broadening the security-related grounds of inadmissibility -- especially those related to terrorism -- within the INA. These measures, however, broadened the security-related grounds of inadmissibility to such an extent that they were triggered by numerous groups and individuals whom Congress did not intend to affect.

Since the recognition of the ANC as a legitimate political party, several prominent black South Africans were denied visas to enter the United States on the basis that they were considered to be inadmissible under the 1990 law because they were members of a terrorist group. Nelson Mandela was considered inadmissible under this same law, but the Department of State has provided waivers to ANC leaders to enter the United States. Only in 2008 did the Congress remove the ANC from treatment as a terrorist organization by passage of Pub. L. 110-257 "Exemption of African National Congress from Treatment as Terrorist Organization for Certain Acts or Events Public".