Days of Commitment Long Walk Original Manuscript (Image #82)

mistake of doing so were beaten up by whites. Again it was Makgatho who organised volunteers to defy the law and forced the authorities to back down. Ramohanoe understood the basic guidelines to be followed by those who work in a national movement and resisted all forms of witch hunting inside the organisation or of sectarian thinking. The attitude of the older generation in the ANC as to the national charcter of the organisation was clear and consitent. They strictly adhered to the constitution and welcomed every African willing to play his part in the struggle, and worked well with African nationalist, Marxists, Christians, workers, peasants, business and professional men. In this regard many of our thinkers, both inside and outside the movement, cannot free themselves from the influence of the enemy press, radio, literature and other forms of propaganda and see problems mainly from the point of view of the enemy. They tend to be hostile to radical thinking and do not want to be associated with any idea, however sound it may be, which enjoys the support of the CP. They are lukewarm on the question of unity with other population groups and unconsciously help to divide the oppressed people when they should make unity a principal issue. This mistake is as dangerous as the views of those Marxists in a broad national struggle who regard as revolutionaries only those people who are members of the CP, who are suspicious of other schools of political thought and who see a multitude of counter revolutionaries in the national movement. Ramohanoe believed that Africans were the principal force in the freedom struggle and that they could win the struggle single handed even if the other population group combined against them. But