The Origins of Non-Racialism

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David Everatt. The Origins of Non-Racialism

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THE ORIGINS OF NON-RACIALISM

WHITE OPPOSITION TO APARTHEID IN THE 1950s

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Liberals called for the extension of social services as a necessary precondition for black advancement to a ‘civilised’ status and incorporation in a modern Western state. In contrast, radical whites supported and worked for the organisation of the working class through mass-based extra-parliamentary campaigns, and called for immediate universal suffrage. White radicals assisted with the formation of black trade unions and offered support for strikes, bus boycotts and other campaigns.

Although relations between liberals and radicals were marked by hostile rhetoric the white liberal/left comprised a relatively cohesive social grouping. Largely drawn from the professional, English-speaking upper middle class, dominated by academics, lawyers and journalists, the liberal/ left was interwoven with friendships and professional and personal relationships that criss-crossed ideological and organisational divisions.39 Through the 1940s the ANC slowly radicalised its programme, adopted extra-parliamentary methods and demanded unqualified white identification with both, a demand that was to sharpen divisions among white liberals and radicals.

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