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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | 'We are the Progressives': Alexandra Youth Congress Activists and the Freedom Charter, 1983-1985 |
Author: | Carter, Charles |
Year: | 1991 |
Periodical: | Journal of Southern African Studies |
Volume: | 17 |
Issue: | 2 |
Period: | June |
Pages: | 197-220 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | South Africa |
Subjects: | youth organizations political parties African National Congress (South Africa) nationalism Ethnic and Race Relations |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/2637234 |
Abstract: | This paper looks at the rise of a youth congress in Alexandra township, South Africa, in the mid-1980s. The formation of Alexandra Youth Congress (AYCO), in September 1983, involved creating a formal organizational structure which embodied a legalistic and constitutional ethos, central to which was the adoption of the Freedom Charter as a key organizational tenet. The document provided the youth activist with a clear set of ideals and an all-embracing philosophy. It also provided, however misleadingly, a sense of organizational and ideological security. This commitment to a particular ideological and organizational dominance was to be implicit in much subsequent AYCO activity. The paper describes these activities, distinguishing four categories: community oriented activity, internal organizational activity, school-based struggles and Youth Congress activity, and 'underground work' and 'public work'. Notes, ref., sum. |