PREAMBLE:

We, the women of South Africa, wives and mothers, working women and housewives hereby declare our aim of striving for the removal of all laws, regulations, conventions and customs that discriminate against us as women.

A SINGLE SOCIETY:

We do not form a society separate from men. There is only one society, and it is made up of both women and men. As women we share the problems and anxieties of our men, and join hands with them to remove social evils and obstacles to progress.

WOMEN's LOT:

We women share with our menfolk the cares and anxieties imposed by poverty and its evils. As wives and mothers it falls upon us to make small wages stretch a long way. It is we who feel the cries of our children when they are hungry and sick.

It is our lot to keep and care for the homes that are too small, broken and dirty to be kept clean. We know the burden of looking after children and land when our husbands are away in the mines, on the farms, and in the towns earning our daily bread.

We know what it is to keep family life going in pondokkies and shanties, or in over-crowded one-room apartments. We know the bitterness of children taken to lawless ways, of daughters becoming unmarried mothers whilst still at school, of boys and girls growing up without education, training or jobs at a living wage.

POOR AND RICH:

These are the evils that need not exist. They exist because the society in which we live is divided into poor and rich, into black and white. They exist because there are privileges for the few, discrimination and harsh treatment for the many. We women have stood and will stand shoulder to shoulder with our menfolk in a common struggle against poverty, race and class discrimination.

NATIONAL LIBERATION:

As members of the National Liberatory movements and Trade Unions, in and through our various organisations, we march forward with our men in the struggle for liberation and the defence of the working people.