No Easy Walk to Freedom

In this 1956 essay, Mandela discusses the Freedom Charter and its major political significance. He opens with a quote from Albert J. Luthuli noting that the significance and uniqueness of the Congress of the People (COP) that adopted the Freedom Charter lies in its size, multiracialism, and democratic objectives. Mandela provides examples from print publications echoing the opinion that the COP and the adoption of the Freedom Charter constitute a significant and impressive historical and political moment in South Africa. He himself then reiterates that the COP and Freedom Charter are an unprecedented challenge to the racialist policies of the government. 

Continuing to explain its significance, Mandela asserts that the Freedom Charter stands apart from previous documents in its demands for democratic reforms, which can only be won through “the organization, launching, and development of mass struggles on the widest scale” but which do not call for breaking up the economy or the polity (40). Thus, it is “a programme for unification [. . .] on a democratic basis” rather than a plan for the development of a socialist state (41). It is intended for everyone’s material improvement, which is why it has received such widespread support and has the potential to draw more people into the mass struggle.