Diversity Reading List

Synopsis generated from the paper: In this conference address, Ben Kies argues that the Non-European Unity Movement must take the Ten-Point Programme as its real basis of unity, not as a distant ideal or a paper pledge. He reviews how the programme was adopted through the 1943–44 unity conferences, and how it already marked a break with the South African Indian Congress leadership. He answers four misunderstandings: that accepting the programme ends one’s duty; that it licenses immediate adventurism; that it is only a long-term goal needing a separate short-term “bread-and-butter” policy of compromise; and that theory does not matter compared with action. Against these, he insists the programme is both means and end: day-to-day struggles must demand its points as a minimum, and reforms come as by-products of that militant demand. The preamble, he stresses, teaches that Non-European oppression is deliberate ruling-class design, not Christian misunderstanding; that full equal citizenship is the only solution; that segregation must be fought inside Non-European ranks as well as outside; that the movement is anti-segregation, not anti-European, and must keep the door open to white workers as eventual allies; and that the lack of political rights is the root of landlessness, labour colour bars, poor education, and related disabilities, so the political fight for full democratic rights must be central. The ten points themselves are the shared minimum demands of African, Coloured, and Indian oppressed. Accepting the programme in letter and implication is the test of genuine unity and the main way to break racial barriers among Non-Europeans.