Days of Commitment Long Walk Original Manuscript (Image #81)

tactical experience, lent much weight to his views and the League benefitted immensely from his advice. Although the basic policy of the League was broad and non racial we were nevertheless suspicious of the Left and strenuously opposed any joint political campaigns with other oppressed popuplation groups. On many occasions Youth Leaguers appeared on public platforms and attacked the communists, Coloureds and Indians who sought to run our affairs, so we argued, under the pretext of joint action. It was precisely this suspicion which made us introduce a motion, which we lost heavily, at the 1947 National Conference of the ANC, demanding the expulsion from the ANC of all members of the CP. Although he was a solid African nationalist and fully supported the view that Africans should be left free to plan and fight their own political battles, Peter Mda consistently warned against the danger of taking our ideological differences too far and to the point of breaking up public meetings and confusing the masses when unity and common PAGE 4/9 4/10 4/11 MISSING! Ramohamoe related how Makgatho challenged the legality of this practice by boarding a second class compartment. He was arrested and charged but the courts upheld his action. It was also Ramohanoe who first told me the story, which I have since heard repeatedly from various sources, that during Makgatho's days Africans were prohibited by law from walking on town pavements in the Transvaal, a law which many municipalities strictly enforced. Those Africans who made the