By 1953 the African National Congress (ANC) had emerged as the major extra-parliamentary organisation in the struggle against apartheid. The belief of some cynical observers that the Defiance Campaign ‘totally failed to achieve its objective: the revocation of unjust laws. In its way it failed gloriously in that it became the prologue to the great legend of Congress's role in the freedom struggle’ rather misses the point: the Defiance Campaign succeeded, politically, in making the ANC something akin to what the youth leaguers wanted – popular, militant, and the driving (and leading) force in opposition to apartheid.

As a result the ANC's political philosophy and strategic thinking were a matter of concern to communists, liberals and others who hoped to influence events. To do so now required creating a relationship with the ANC and this, in turn, required a strategic framework within which to engage. Thus it was that, in the early 1950s, anti-apartheid organisations and groups were forced to review the political situation. Whites were particularly affected. They were unable to join the ANC, were alienated by the anti-white sentiments which marked the final stages of the Defiance Campaign and were wary of the militant nationalism of the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) and of the (real or imagined) influence of communists. The debates of the early 1950s among anti-apartheid whites of all political hues set the parameters within which white opposition to apartheid operated throughout the 1950s and beyond.

White opposition: the wider context

The post-war years saw an increasingly militant ANC as well as growing co-operation between African and Indian congresses and other organisations. The African and Indian con gresses moved into an alliance and, with representatives of the largely coloured Fran - chise Action Committee (FRAC), co-ordinated the 1952 Defiance Campaign. Although the attainment of unity was not a simple or linear process the general thrust was clear. With the formation of the South African Coloured People's Organisation (SACPO) in September 1953, representatives of the coloured population formally joined the Congress Alliance. The 1952 Darragh Hall meeting called by the ANC and SAIC was an attempt to capitalise on white opposition to apartheid and find an organisational home for whites.