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Salient. Victoria University Student Newspaper. Vol 35 no. 4. 22 March 1972

[Introduction]

The anti-apartheid conference which met at Victoria University last weekend began to prepare the groundwork for breaking New Zealand's relations with the White racist regimes in Southern Africa, and building up support and assistance for the liberation movements fighting those regimes.

The greatest impact on the people attending the conference was made by Miss Frede Guinwala, and Executive Member of the African National Congress, who flew from London to attend. Miss Guinwala dealt with the question of violence during the course of her address, and emphasised that the ANC had decided to choose armed struggle in fighting the South African regime not only to take over the state but also because of the necessity of self-defence of the non-white people in South Africa against the Bornster regime's oppression.

She said that the South African people had to choose the way they are going to act themselves In the anti-fascist struggle of World War II, people had decided that what they were fighting for was worth the sacrifice. By what right, she asked, are we to be denied the right of sacrifice so that our children can have a better life? The Sharpeville massacre in 1960 had been neither new nor unique in the history of protest against the South African Government. For years peaceful protest had been met by violence from the government, and finally the ANC had chosen the path of armed struggle. Ghendian non-violence, she said, had been born in South Africa, but it could only succeed where the government respects human freedom.