African Resistance Movement

ARM (African Resistance Movement) was a militant anti-apartheid resistance movement which operated in South Africa during the early and mid 1960s.It was founded in 1960 as the National Committee of Liberation (NCL) by members of South Africa’s Liberal Party, which advocated the dismantling of apartheid and a gradual transformation of South Africa into a free multiracial society. It was renamed ARM in 1964.^[1]

NLC/ARM

Immediately after the 1960 Sharpeville Massacre the apartheid government imposed a state of emergency, under which it could apply a broad range of sanctions against its political opponents, such as banning and secret detention enabling the Special Branch (a Gestapo like police force answerable directly to the minister of justice) to detain and interrogate whoever it deemed a threat to the government in secrecy, without any due process (the infamous 90 day Act). Much of the party’s leadership was banned, detained or forced underground, rendering it impotent.^[2]

A number of young Liberals became increasingly frustrated and in 1960 formed the National Liberation Committee (NLC).^[3] Concentrating at first on aiding hunted people to escape the country, they decided to resort to violence in the form of sabotage against government installations and services, explicitly eschewing violence against persons. They launched their first operation in September 1963. From then, until July 1964 the NLC/ARM carried out successful acts of sabotage, bombing power lines, railroad tracks and rolling stock, roads, bridges and other vulnerable infrastructure targets, without causing any civilian casualties. Their strategy was to turn the white population against the government by creating a situation that would result in capital flight and collapse of confidence in the country and its economy. There were four attacks in 1961, three in 1962, eight in 1963, and ten in 1964.^[4]

In May 1964, the NLC was renamed the African Resistance Movement. The name change coincided with increased discussions about the use of violence against people, i.e. guerrilla warfare.^[5]

Discovery, Arrests, and Convictions

On July 4, 1964, the security policy carried out a series of raids including the flat of Adrian Leftwich in Cape Town. Leftwich, a former president of the South African Union of Students who had been one of the organizers of ARM, had a collection of documents in his possession which described virtually the entire history of the NLC and included a notebook recording the names and dues paid by each member.^[6][7] Under interrogation by the security forces, Leftwich informed on his colleagues. In July, 29 members were arrested by the security police. After brutal interrogation by the security forces a number pleaded guilty.^[8] Leftwich turned state witness in the trial of five members of the Capetown group and in the Johannisberg trial of 4 members of the the Johannisberg group.^[9] Of the 29 arrested, 14 were charged, 10 were convicted receiving jail sentences between 5 and 15 years.^[10]

Death and Execution

On 24 July, on of the few ARM members still at large, John Harris, placed a bomb in the waiting room of a Johannesburg train station. He telephoned a bomb warning to the police who did not respond before it exploded, resulting in the death of a women and the severe disfigurment of a number of others. Harris was caught by the police following a confession by one of his colleagues, John Lloyd, tried by the authorities, and hung, "bravely singing We Shall Overcome" on his way to the gallows on 1 April 1965.^[11]

Notes

1. ^ Gunther, Magnus (2004). Chapter 5 in The road to democracy in South Africa. Pretoria University of South Africa 2004. ISBN 1-86872-906-0. p. 210
2. ^ Robertson (1971) pp. 219-221
3. ^ Daniels, Eddie (1998).  p.105
4. ^ Gunter (2004)p. 246
5. ^ Gunter (2004)p. 246-47
6. ^ Lewin (1974) p. 17
7. ^ Daniels, Eddie (1998).  p.113
8. ^ Lewin (1974) pp. 34-37, Driver (1969) p. 2 of e-document
9. ^ Leftwich, Adrian (2002). "I gave the names". Granta. http://www.granta.com/Magazine/78/I-Gave-the-Names.  pp.20-21
10. ^ Gunter (2004) p.247
11. ^ Gunter (2004)p. 249

References

Daniels, Eddie (1998). There and back: Robben Island, 1964-1979. Bellville, South Africa: Mayibuye Books. ISBN 0620267860. 

Driver, C.J. (2002). "Used to be Great Friends". Granta 80, winter 2002, pp. 7-26. http://nivat.f2s.com/cjdriver.doc. Retrieved 2011-10-05. 

Driver, C.J. (1969). Elegy for a Revolutionary (A Novel). Faber & Faber 1969, William Morrow 1970, David Philip (Africa South Editions) 1984, Faber Finds 2010. 

Gunther, Magnus (2004). Chapter 5 in The road to democracy in South Africa. Pretoria University of South Africa 2004. [1]

Lewin, Hugh (1974). Bandiet seven years in a South African prison. London: Barrie and Jenkins. ISBN 0-214-66893-2. 

Lewin, Hugh; Strachan, Harold (2002). Bandiet: out of jail. Johannesburg: Random House. ISBN 0-9584468-1-4. 

Lewin, Hugh (2011). Stones against the Mirror. Johannesburg/Cape Town: Imuzi. pp. 192. ISBN 13: 9781415201480. 

Robertson, Janet (1971). Liberalism in South Africa, 1948-1963. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-821666-1. 

Vigne, Randolph. (1997). Liberals against apartheid : a history of the Liberal Party of South Africa, 1953-68. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: MacMillan Press Ltd. ISBN 0-312-17738-0.