In 1971, SASO circulated a document titled ‘The Politics of Protest for Black Students’ that set out a limited case for black students’ involvement in public forms of politics, over and above the forms of community engagement described in the previous chapter. This case was founded on black students’ natural ‘concern for social upliftment’ arising out of their own ‘poor family background’. Black students, SASO suggested, were uncertain about the prospects of future employment in apartheid South Africa – and would thus consider participating in politics that would provide them with greater long-term security. In addition, ‘the situation in black universities’ was fraught with tensions – making political activism more likely to occur in this immediate context. Overall, students would also benefit from the ‘intellectual discovery’ that might arise from engaging with certain forms of political protest.

If this case for action was accepted, then the aims of that action could be considered. In part, political involvement should help link SASO to broader community networks: it should ‘spread the front for activism’ and rouse ‘the consciousness of black people’. But it should also work to deepen social engagement within university campuses: action should enable students ‘to record dissatisfaction and to express opinion’, it should ‘instil confidence’ in them, and permit them ‘to rally adequate bargaining power’. In this context, bargaining and negotiation were the preferred forms of engagement between students and university authorities – but in certain cases, boycotts, marches, ‘placards, statements, meetings’ could also be used in the service of change.

In this document, SASO sought to lay the foundations for a lengthy period of activism on campuses and in communities. Its instructions to students presumed a continuing relationship between activists and administrators. Over time, an accord would develop between all stakeholders: it was not in the interests of students to be over-aggressive in confronting the administration. Instead, SASO sought to encourage all parts of the university – students and administrators alike – to work towards a unity of purpose. Its advice presumed that, as such a shared purpose developed on a given campus, the ‘difference in ideals’ which had led to conflict would be resolved.