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Today, the 23 July 2009, the African National Congress (ANC) met with the
Labour Party delegation, headed by Cath Speight - the Labour Party
Chairperson.
The visit by the Labour Party is part of the ANC implementation of Polokwane
Resolution and its programme to revive and deepen party-to-party relations
between the movement and other progressive and like-minded parties in the
region, continent and the world.

The history that both these organization shared dates back to the 1950's and
early 1960's. The Labour Party participated in the anti apartheid struggles.
During the 1950's, the South African liberation movement had grown into a
mass movement under the leadership of the Congress Movement (a non-racial
anti-apartheid front which included the ANC, the South African Indian
Congress (SAIC), the Congress of Democrats and the South African Congress of
Trade Unions (SACTU), and was supported by the underground South African
Communist Party (SACP)) through mass protests, stay-at-homes, and passive
resistance.

As the South African Government retaliated with increasingly repressive
measures by outlawing all forms of political protest and arresting or
placing bans on all the opposition leaders. In the late 50's the ANC turned
to boycott. In April 1959, the ANC President Chief Albert Luthuli called for
an economic boycott of the products of the Nationalist-controlled firms
which was to start on 26 June (known as South Africa Freedom Day).

As fewer and fewer options remained open for the continuation of the
struggle, the ANC and the other liberation movements were increasingly aware
of the importance of international support for the domestic fight. In its
report to the Annual Conference of December 1959, the ANC National Executive
Committee stated: "The economic boycott in South Africa has unlimited
potentialities. When our purchasing power is combined with that of
sympathetic organisations overseas we wield a devastating weapon".

It is against this background that organisations such as the Labour Party
played a significant role in the liberation of South Africa.

Continuing the ANC and the Labour Party relations in the post apartheid era,
both parties have agreed to work on a Memorundum of Understanding (MOU) to
share experience first as political parties and governing parties in their
respective countries. The MOU is a mechanism to take forward the
constructive relationship that the ANC and the Labour Party have enjoyed
over decades.