Congress of the People, 1955

The Congress Alliance came together in the 1950s to organise the Congress of the People - a conference of all the people of South Africa - which presented their demands for the kind of South Africa they wanted.

The demands called for the people to govern and for the land to be shared by those who work it. They called for houses, work, security and for free and equal education. These demands were drawn together in the Freedom Charter which was adopted at the Congress of the People at Kliptown on 26 June 1955.

The government claimed that the Freedom Charter was a communist document. Communism had been banned in 1950, so they arrested ANC and Congress leaders and brought them to trial in the famous Treason Trial. They also tried to prove that the ANC and its allies had a policy of violence and planned to overthrown the state.

• "Call to the Congress of the People". Leaflet issued by the National Action Committee of the Congress of the People, 1955
• 'What Women Want' - List of Demands Compiled by FSAW for Inclusion in the Freedom Charter, 1955
• The Freedom Charter, 1955
• "Freedom in our Lifetime". Article on the Freedom Charter by Nelson Mandela in Liberation, the newspaper of the Congress Movement, June 1956
• Does the Freedom Charter Mean Socialism? Article from New Age, 17 November 1957
• South Africa Freedom Day. A Call to all Revolutionary Forces to Rally behind the Struggle against Fascist Tyranny in South Africa. O.R. Tambo, 26 June 1967
• An Analysis of the Freedom Charter, Revolutionary Programme of the African National Congress. Adopted at the Morogoro Conference, 1969
• Drawing up the Demands of the Freedom Charter. Published in Sechaba, June 1976
• "The Historical Injustice" Speech Delivered by Thabo Mbeki at a Seminar held in Ottawa, Canada, from 19-22 February 1978
• Mandela and our Revolution. Extracts from an article in Sechaba, Third Quarter, 1978
• 1980 - the Year of the Charter. Extract from the Address to the South African People Delivered by President Oliver Tambo on Behalf of the NEC of the ANC on 8 January 1980
• Letter by the Chairman of the UN Special Committee against Apartheid, B. Akporode Clark (Nigeria), to Oliver Tambo, President of the ANC, Greeting the ANC on the 25th Anniversary of the Freedom Charter (26 June), 17 June 1980
• Extract of an article Inspired by the Discussion held at the ANC Youth Summer School in Hungary, 1980
• The Freedom Charter, a Beacon to the People of South Africa, by Alfred Nzo, Secretary General of the African National Congress. Published in the African Communist, Second Quarter, 1980
• Organisation of African Unity and the Freedom Charter. Statement on the 25th Anniversary of the Freedom Charter, 1980
• Congress of the People - I was there. A delegate to the C.O.P. describes the work involved in its preparation and the atmosphere and spirit of Kliptown June 25-26, 1955. Sechaba June 1980
• Introduction to 'Selected Writings on the Freedom Charter, 1955-1985', a Sechaba Commemorative Publication on the 30th Anniversary of the Freedom Charter, London 1985
• The Freedom Charter - Equal Rights and Freedoms. Article by Jack Simons, op. cit., March 1985
• June 26, South Africa Freedom Day, a day on which we rededicate ourselves to the fight for liberation, op.cit., 1985
• The Freedom Charter and its Relevance Today. Article Written by Mzala on the Occasion of the Thirtieth Anniversary of the Freedom Charter, op.cit.,1985
• The Freedom Charter and the United Nations. Unpublished paper by E.S. Reddy, May 1985

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