united democratic front: ONE STEP FORWARD
This image is of a meeting of the UDF in South Africa.
This is a map of all the countries under the British Commonwealth. The British Commonwealth is useful for smaller countries such as South Africa to network with larger more prominent countries.
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Along with creating the ANC Youth League, Oliver Tambo was also instrumental in establishing the United Democratic Front (UDF) working conjunctively with Dr.Yusuf Dadoo, bringing together the ANC, the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC), the SA Indian Congress, and the South West African National Union (SWANU). Due to successful lobbying by Tambo and other members of the Front, the UDF were able to secure the expulsion of South Africa from the British Commonwealth in 1961.
By taking South Africa off of Commonwealth, it first brings international attention to the situation of apartheid. It also prevents South Africa from creating more allies or having a say on international issues on equal footing with other nations such as Great Britain. This is important to South African government considering that South Africa was economically unstable with high unemployment rates and the majority of the population (nonwhites) were living in extreme poverty. Tambo’s involvement in the creation of UDF sped up the process of the downfall of Pretoria government and exemplifies Tambo’s ability to lobby and take facilitate direct action against the government and apartheid. |