page 361 - Long Walk Original Manuscript [LWOM_361.jpg]

criticism is quite a strange one coming as it does from those who claim themselves to be socialists. Today nationalisation of the major industrial and commercial concerns is quite common, especially in the new states of Africa, Asia and Latin America. But we do not have to take a world tour to know that nationalisation is no evidence of communist influence for the history of our own country is full of several examples of nationalisation. In South Africa communications, iron and steel, power and other key sectors of the economy have long been nationalised.

But even more important than this is the fact that members of the PAC know very well that the whole idea of the Charter came from Professor Matthews. Almost all the members of its national executive were members of the ANC before the breakaway and some of them attended both the 1953 Cape Provincial Conference where Professor Matthews first introduced the proposal, and at the National Conference which accepted the idea. Many rank and filers who did not attend these two conferences received the reports from their branch delegates and became fairly conversant with the history of the idea. The charge is nothing more than a piece of cheap propaganda to discredit the ANC as the Nats have tried to do when they came into power and ever since.

What is of course trite is the fact that there are communist in the ANC and some of them occupy top positions. The PAC has repeatedly stated that they are not prepared to work with them and have refused to co operate with us on any issue mainly because of this fact. In fact it has been given as one of the stumbling blocks to the question of unity between the two organisations. But here again the inconsistency and opportunism of their leadership was clearly exposed when in later years they