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The Sharpeville Massacre

March 21 has become a day symbolic of the oppression and viciousness of South Africa's apartheid regime. In March 1960, the Pan-Africanist Congress called for a [unclear: wide], non-violent campaign against [unclear: ing] of security passes. The infamous passes have to be carried by all Blacks at all times on penalty of a heavy time and/ or imprisonment. The passes are used by the South African authorities to restrict the movement of Blacks in their own country. They are an essential factor in the subjugation of the Black people.

The form the protest action took was peaceful. Thousands of unarmed blacks arrived outside police stations throughout the country, tore up their passes and invited the police to arrest them. Thousands were duly arrested, but on March 21 1960, in the town of Sharpeville, the police panicked and opened fire. In the course of the massacre which ensued, 69 people were killed and a further 183 wounded.

Rather than investigating the incident, the South African government declared a State of Emergency. In the terror which followed a further 14 people were killed, hundreds injured and Black organisations (including the PAC and the African National Congress, the principal liberation organisations in South Africa) were banned. These measures brought almost 20,000 people before the secret courts, where thousands were condemned to prison or work camps. Censorship of the press ensured that none of these details were revealed.

Aside from being yet another revelation of the way the South African regime operates, Sharpeville contains an important lesson. Attempts to change South Africa from within by peaceful protest is doomed to certain failure. If the Blacks want their national liberation, the lesson of Sharpeville is that it will have to be taken by armed force.