This year, 1985, will see virtually millions celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Freedom Charter. All democratic and peace-loving South Africans will demonstrate that the Charter still lives.

However, people are worried about the UDF marking the 30th anniversary of the Freedom Charter. They feel that the UDF has its Declaration and some people see this as a document that competes with the Freedom Charter.

I think that it was correct for the UDF to be launched without the formal adoption of the Charter. For historical reasons, some groupings might have resisted coming into the Front if we had been explicitly ‘Charterist’. It was therefore correct not to insist on the adoption of the Freedom Charter. It is important to unite all democrats to advance the anti-apartheid struggle.

At the moment of the launch of the Front, such unity would not have been achieved on as wide a basis if the Freedom Charter had been adopted. It could not be a precondition for unity. Even today the adoption of the Charter might present a barrier against the incorporation of certain groupings. It might also lead to the disaffiliation of others.

When we speak of adopting the UDF Declaration instead of the Freedom Charter we are talking of two documents that are at the same time different and similar. But don't forget, to subscribe to either is basically to subscribe to the same principles and to commit yourself to the building of a particular type of South Africa.

The Freedom Charter is a unique document, it was created by the people. It is not the vision of any one individual or group of individuals or any one organisation or group of organisations. It emerged, as this book shows, from the dreams and ideas of ordinary people. The Charter is authoritative because of this birth. It remains authoritative because it continues to reflect the demands of all classes of oppressed and democratic South Africans.

While the UDF Declaration also embraces these aspirations, it does not claim to be a people's document of the same sort.