Re: civil disobedience is only option

On Mon, 13 May 2024 11:58:42 +0200, D <nospam@example.net> wrote:

punished?

South Africa: Overcoming Apartheid

Summary

Pass laws were designed to control the movement of Africans under
apartheid. These laws evolved from regulations imposed by the Dutch
and British in the 18th and 19th-century slave economy of the Cape
Colony. In the 19th century, new pass laws were enacted for the
purpose of ensuring a reliable supply of cheap, docile African labor
for the gold and diamond mines. In 1952, the government enacted an
even more rigid law that required all African males over the age of 16
to carry a "reference book" (replacing the previous passbook)
containing personal information and employment history.

Africans often were compelled to violate the pass laws to find work to
support their families, so harassment, fines, and arrests under the
pass laws were a constant threat to many urban Africans. Protest
against these humiliating laws fueled the anti-apartheid struggle -
from the Defiance Campaign (1952-54), the massive women's protest in
Pretoria (1956), to burning of passes at the police station in
Sharpeville where 69 protesters were massacred (1960). In the 1970s
and 1980s, many Africans found in violation of pass laws were stripped
of citizenship and deported to poverty-stricken rural "homelands." By
the time the increasingly expensive and ineffective pass laws were
repealed in 1986, they had led to more than 17 million arrests.

https://overcomingapartheid.msu.edu/multimedia.php?kid=163-582-15