Direct Action Movement
| Direct Action Movement | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | January 1953 (movement founded)-September 1991 (signing of the Pietersburg Agreement) disbanded officially in 1996 | ||
| Location | |||
| Caused by | Economic, social, and institutional segregation and racial discrimination in Nuvania | ||
| Goals |
| ||
| Methods | Protests boycotts strikes | ||
| Resulted in | Pietersburg Agreement
| ||
| Parties to the civil conflict | |||
The Direct Action Movement (DAM) was a political and social movement dedicated to ending racial discrimination in Nuvania faced primarily by its black population, although other minority groups, particularly indigenous peoples, also suffered from extensive discrimination from the government and wider society, and were also extensively involved in the political and armed struggle for civil rights.
The movement was founded in January 1953 in the aftermath of riots in Maitland in 1949 and Blairmont in 1952, both on the periphery of the city of Windstrand. Originally formed as a lobby group to promote better access to public housing for the city's black and indigenous populations, it quickly took on the role of advocating for greater social, political, and economic rights for blacks and indigenous peoples. Between 1953 and 1966, the Direct Action Movement engaged in non-violent political actions, particularly strikes and boycotts. However, following increased government repression and the consolidation of the rule of the National People's Party in the late 1960's, the DAM also began to support armed resistance, occurring concurrently with the armed conflict in Nuvania between 1960 and 1991. The resistance gradually intensified until it reached a peak in the late 1970’s and early 1980’s.
Following the 1989 general election, the DAM would participate in the National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation held following the signing of the Pietersburg Agreement in 1991 that brought an end to the armed conflict in Nuvania, bringing the numerous human rights abuses to the attention of the Nuvanian public. In addition, the DAM independently sought commitments from the government of Keith Hawkins to abolish all remaining discriminatory laws and improve economic, educational, health, and social outcomes for Nuvania’s ethnic minorities, particularly its black and indigenous peoples. It was officially disbanded in September 1996, its leaders going on to have political careers as members of the Social Democratic Labour Party.
The Direct Action Movement was controversial throughout its history. It was initially opposed by Nuvania's white population and some of its smaller southern Coian ethnic communities as the DAM was supported by leftist countries, particularly Chistovodia, with many fearing a takeover of the country by Nuvania's ethnic minorities. Since its official disbandment, many have questioned whether or not the movement should have disbanded, as several incidents since the Pietersburg Agreement have raised issues regarding the treatment of ethnic minorities. A lack of progress in terms of improving outcomes for black and indigenous Nuvanians has also impacted the legacy of the DAM in the years since the signing of the Pietersburg Agreement.
Background
Slavery
The first Bahians to arrive in Nuvania were imported slaves from the east coast of Bahia with both the First Hennish Republic and the Duchy of Flamia engaging in the slave trade from the early 17th century onwards, the first slaves arriving in Nuvania sometime after 1605. Bahian slaves were primarily utilised in the expanding plantations in northern Nuvania, particularly those growing sugar and tobacco. Slavery continued throughout the Hennish colonial period until the invasion and conquest of the Duchy of Flamia’s colonies in Asteria Inferior by Estmere, who had abolished slavery in 1749. By 1750, more than one million Bahians lived in Nuvania.
Dispossession
As the Hennish colonial empire expanded, so did the amount of land that came under the control of the Hennish colonisers. Initially this was limited to small trading posts on the northern coast, with the Duchy of Flamia expanding down the west coast of Nuvania and onto the island of Satavia. The First Hennish Republic, and later the Sotirian Commonwealth, began their expansion southwards into the foothills of the Arucian Mountains. This expansion came at the expense of the indigenous inhabitants, particularly the Tairona, who were conquered and their material wealth plundered. As both the Flamian and Commonwealth colonies came into contact with the Mosca, the competition increased in order to be the first to conquer one of the few Asterian civilisations left untouched by Eucleans. Conflict within the Mwiska enabled the competing Euclean colonies to gain more influence and by 1640, the conquest was complete.
The conquest of indigenous states and territories often resulted in the dispossession of land, with the colonial governments seizing land and material resources in order to provide for greater Euclean settlement. The indigenous inhabitants who had been conquered were often enslaved themselves or used as forced labourers. This disrupted traditional ways of living and the continual use as forced labourers or slaves meant that few had any economic opportunities even after independence.
Discrimination
Emancipation did not result in equal social or economic status, with many black Nuvanians utilised as indentured or bonded labourers. As Estmere’s colonial empire expanded, black Nuvanians were joined by Satrians, Kabuese, and Gowsas, who worked on many of the civil works projects instituted throughout the colonial period. Black Nuvanians were given some rights under the Estmerish colonial government, beginning in 1811 with the granting of responsible government by Estmere in 1811. The signing of the Treaty of Cuanstad in 1860 saw the creation of Nuvania’s first constitution, which guaranteed a non-racial franchise for all men over the age of 21. Although this would have allowed many black Nuvanians to vote, in practice, the government imposed further restrictions on who could qualify for the franchise, introducing both literacy and property ownership requirements. This predominantly impacted black and indigenous Nuvanians, as well as poor whites, particularly Asterianers. Independence in 1886 saw the lowering of the property qualifications for the franchise to allow more Asterianers to vote while keeping most of the black and indigenous population unfranchised.
Black and indigenous Nuvanians were often subjected to social and economic restrictions, with many unable to receive a formal education due to being unable to pay for education. Better paying employment was often reserved for whites or Creoles, with few jobs in the emerging manufacturing sector being given to black and indigenous people. They were also only allowed to live in certain areas of cities and towns, and these were often not given even basic services, particularly as civil infrastructure developed to allow wealthy and middle class areas of Nuvania’s cities to receive services such as electricity and sanitation. Local governments implemented laws that meant that the few who could afford to live elsewhere had to receive special permission in order to live in more affluent areas, often with exorbitant fees attached to permits. Services like public transport were de facto segregated, with trams, and later, buses, reserved for the use of black and indigenous people.
Urban planning throughout the first half of the 20th century saw this segregation become entrenched, with predominantly black and indigenous areas set aside on land well outside main urban areas. As urban populations grew, these areas expanded but did not receive the same services as those provided for wealthier areas and quickly became slums, often subject to high levels of poverty and crime. Following the Great War and into the 1940’s, suburban expansion meant that many of these areas were redeveloped and their inhabitants forced to move into existing slums or establish themselves elsewhere. Urban planners in Nuvania’s major cities often confined non-white majority areas to specific parts of cities as part of a “divide and distract” policy that would see working class areas of predominantly Creole and non-black and non-indigenous ethnic minorities, particularly Gowsas, border the slums inhabited by black and indigenous Nuvanians. The intent of this was to allow crime to proliferate from the slums into working class areas to keep the working class and impoverished Nuvanians from organising for better housing and better living conditions.
The end of the Great War and the adoption of a new constitution in 1937 brought about changes for Nuvania’s non-white minorities, with clauses that prevented discrimination based on race enshrined in the new constitution that founded the new government. In 1937, the Social Democratic Party, led by J.P van Vollenhoven, won a majority of seats in both houses of Parliament, under what was Nuvania’s first free and fair election. Universal suffrage for both men and women of all races was introduced under the 1937 constitution, and the van Vollenhoven government sought to improve the living standards and the quality of life for its ethnic minorities. This included the building of new schools, hospitals, and medical clinics, introducing free compulsory education for everyone aged between six and 16 years of age, and improving economic opportunities by prioritising the employment of non-whites in major civil works projects, guaranteeing hundreds of thousands of households a stable income. This partly came at the expense of working class white Nuvanians,, who felt as though they were not being given any equal opportunities or assistance from the state. As a result, the working class white vote was actively sought by the National People’s Party, and increasingly used it to reduce the SDP’s majority in both houses of Parliament, with the NVP winning the 1949 general election under the leadership of Charles Wakefield.
The Wakefield government would institute a number of policies that would prioritise Nuvania’s white population, predominantly the white working class, over ethnic minorities regarding education, employment, and healthcare, as well as furthering the limitations placed on non-white majority neighbourhoods and suburbs. In addition, preferences were also made in favour of white Nuvanians in social services, with many of the housing projects begun under the van Vollenhoven government completed under the Wakefield government now being reserved for white families. Trade unions that advocated for white and non-white workers equally were either shut down and replaced with government sanctioned unions, or were forced to accept appointees from the government that promoted white worker interests above all others. Government ministries soon developed a hierarchy for Nuvania’s ethnic groups that placed black and indigenous Nuvanians below all others.
Indigenous land conflict
Predating the introduction of slavery, the colonisation of Nuvania created a conflict between white settlers and Nuvania’s indigenous peoples that remains unresolved. As colonial states expanded, conquering previously sovereign indigenous people groups, they began consolidating their power over them throughout the colonial and post-independence periods. Various conflicts between white settlers and indigenous peoples, particularly over land ownership, resulted in numerous conflicts and massacres.
Among the most notable of the conflicts and massacres was the Oronokia Land Wars, which took place between the mid-19th and early 20th centuries. These conflicts stemmed from the expansion of white settlers into what is now Oronokia, most of whom intended to utilise indigenous land for farming, particularly livestock ranches. Minerals and the growing demand for cash crops also fuelled white settlement in Oronokia, which brought numerous indigenous people groups into conflict with white settlers. Backed by the Estmerish and later Nuvanian authorities, white settlers depopulated whole districts and communities of their indigenous inhabitants, and forced them into indentured labour on white owned farms and ranches. Between the 1850’s and 1910’s, up to 450,000 indigenous people were killed and many thousands more were forced into indentured labour or forced into controlled settlements. As economic development continued, many more moved from remote communities into cities in search of employment, and often found themselves living in poverty in urban slums. Others who had managed to retain ownership of land either communally or individually found themselves in conflict with white farmers who often forced them off their land with violence.
The genocide and depopulation of indigenous peoples from rural Nuvania, as well as the suffering inflicted under the Volksfront regime between 1917 and 1935, ultimately saw the creation of the National Tribal Federation in 1936 to advocate for greater rights for Nuvania’s indigenous population. Working with the social democratic government of J.P von Vollenhoven, the NTF secured significant land redistribution policies that allowed indigenous families to return to tribal lands and live on them or farm them as they wished, resulting in the break up of the massive farms and ranches owned by wealthy white elites. Following the victory of the NVP in the 1949 general election, wealthy white farmers began to advocate for the confiscation and redistribution of native-owned land back into the hands of white farmers who had been dispossessed by the previous government. This drew white farmers and indigenous peoples into open conflict, which resulted in a series of tit-for-tat killings, massacres, and armed skirmishes to take place from 1950 onwards. In turn, both white farmers and indigenous people groups began to form communal, and later, more organised armed groups for protection against attacks from one another.
Better Housing Movement
Beginning in 1942, the government of J.P van Vollenhoven engaged in a massive campaign to improve the living standards and social outcomes of Nuvania’s working class and impoverished households. In addition to expanding schooling as well as access to healthcare and social assistance, the van Vollenhoven government began a series of major redevelopments and long term investments in social and affordable housing, the former through the establishment of the Department of Social Housing to oversee the construction of social housing, and the latter through the Homes for All scheme, Nuvania’s first rent-to-buy scheme. While the social housing was directly built by the government, the land and zoning required in order for the housing to be built was provided by the local government, who often retained the older policies of housing segregation by approving social housing on the urban fringes. The Homes for All scheme was further complicated through local government directly providing the housing as well, often appropriating funds for use elsewhere, not only as a means of personal benefit, but also to undermine the integrity of the van Vollenhoven government. The houses that were built were subject to differing standards; white working class Nuvanians were given larger houses that exceeded building standards of the time, while houses given to non-white working class families were smaller and of worse quality.
This discrepancy led to the creation of the Better Housing Movement in September 1945. Led by Sidney Frazier, the Better Housing Movement intended to protest against the disparities in housing standards and the nature in which non-white families were excluded from living closer to the city centre where many non-whites were employed. The aims of the Better Housing Movement were to bring attention to the need for non-white families to live closer to their places of employment, as well as the need for better quality homes, particularly for large families. The first protest took place outside the Windstrand City Council offices on September 29, 1945 and soon spread around northern Etten to include urban areas within the broader Windstrand metropolitan area, particularly the satellite cities of Blairmont and Maitland. Protests had spread to Vryburg by December that year, and Pietersburg in May 1946. Although lead by Windstrand’s black population, other ethnic minorities also campaigned as well, including Windstrand’s Gowsa and Satrian population, the latter organising their own protest marches between 1946 and 1949.
Protests were peaceful and were tolerated by the authorities, although police often maintained a heavy presence around them. The movement was also important in drawing wider public attention to the lack of suitable housing for non-white families and received some attention from central government, with Frazier and the other leadership meeting government ministers and department chiefs, including Beaunard Nagel, the Chief Executive of the Department of Social Housing, in order to have their grievances listened to. Government officials began putting pressure on local governments, particularly city councils, to remove or lessen the barriers preventing non-white families from acquiring more suitable housing, as well as improve the quality of rent-to-buy housing provided through government funds. This had achieved little by 1949, and the movement was wound down shortly before that year’s general election.
Maitland riot
The Maitland riot in June 1949 was a pivotal moment in Nuvania’s history as it not only sparked a collective fear of the collapse of social order among Nuvania’s white population, it also contributed to the rise of the Direct Action Movement.
At the time, cities in Nuvania practised a policy of “passive repression” through controlling where whites and non-whites could live. Majority non-white areas were often found on the urban fringes and were interspersed with slums that allowed crime to expand outside of the slums. In addition, these areas themselves were often a patchwork of different ethnic enclaves or areas dominated by particular ethnic groups. This was to ensure that any violence that occurred would be between these groups and not between non-whites and whites.
The riot stemmed from the beating of a black child accused of stealing a loaf of bread by an ethnically Dezevauni storekeeper in the suburb of Howland on June 18, 1949, which prompted a crowd of people to gather outside the shop. Attempts to disperse the crowd by police were met with violence, which escalated into a full scale riot and the looting and burning of shops in the main shopping area of Howland, as well as neighbouring houses and a textile factory.
1950 General strike
The 1950 general strike was organised by the Union of Coloured Workers and sympathetic white labour unions in response to the introduction of the Racial Quota Act 1950, which established racial quotas within Nuvania’s workforce. Tens of thousands of non-white and white workers demonstrated against the introduction of the law over successive months, culminating in a period of violence in over a week between May 1-8, 1950, in the leadup to the final vote on the law in the Senate.
The violence saw 18 people killed and more than 300 injured, with violence centred predominantly in Pietersburg and Windstrand, Nuvania’s most ethnically diverse cities. The state responded with the emergency passage of an amendment to the Crimes Act 1938, which allowed the state to use force to ensure the return of workers back to their places of employment. This prompted continued protests, but forceful actions from police resulted in the protest dying out by late May.
Blairmont riot
The Blairmont riot occurred over two days between May 7-8, 1952 over the attempt by Etten’s provincial government to force the evictions of black residents of social housing in the city of Blairmont. Opposed to the evictions, black residents as well as others from around the city, participated in a series of protests in the leadup to May 7, which were broken up by police. A court case put forward by a lawyer representing the residents was rejected in the Blairmont District Court, with police and police auxiliaries moving in to evict the residents on May 7.
As police and police auxiliaries moved in to evict the residents, those being evicted and their supporters responded to the police presence with violence, throwing rocks, bottles, and Molotov cocktails, as well as directly attacking police with weapons. In response, police opened fire with live ammunition, resulting in a number of people being killed and injured. Some of those killed were police, who were attacked and beaten by the crowd. The event was among the catalysts for the creation of the Direct Action Movement.
History
Prior to the formation of the Direct Action Movement, Nuvania had undergone a period of political and social change following the end of the Volksfront regime after Nuvania’s surrender and subsequent occupation by Allied forces as a result of the Great War. Much of this social change had come about following the return of democratic rule and the adoption of the 1937 constitution, which expanded and enshrined political and social rights to Nuvania’s ethnic minorities, including the right to vote and freedom from discrimination. Despite this, Nuvania’s social and political institutions throughout the government of J.P von Vollenhoven instituted forms of discrimination against ethnic minorities.
This expansion of social and political rights came over a period of several years following the Social Democratic Party’s victory in the 1937 general elections. Following the 1943 general election, the Social Democratic Party governed in a coalition with the National Labour Party, which increased the labour rights of Nuvania’s ethnic minorities and saw the increase in importance of organisations such as the Union of Coloured Workers and the National Women’s Association, the former advocating for non-white workers and the latter advocating for women’s civil, political, and social rights in Nuvania. Other important organisations, including those that would later become key components of the Direct Action Movement, formed during this decade.
Post-war consensus
Nuvanian history between the end of the Great War and the beginning of conservative rule in Nuvania became known as the “post-war consensus”, a term used to describe an unwritten agreement between Nuvania’s main left-wing political parties at the time and the conservative political establishment in which a future left-wing government would not actively pursue civil servants and politicians who had been sympathetic to the Volksfront regime or who had avoided being removed from their positions within the civil service during Nuvania’s defunctionalisation period immediately following the end of the Great War. The leaders of the parties, J.P van Vollenhoven of the Social Democratic Party, and Clifford Stanley of the United Labour Party, did not openly articulate this willingness to ignore functionalist sympathisers within the political opposition but had agreed to cooperate to keep the opposition out of power for as long as possible. This consensus enabled the Social Democratic Party to continue to govern uninterrupted between 1937 and 1949.
Outside of the political consensus, there was also a broader belief among the Nuvanian public that society had to change in order to distance itself from the Volksfront regime. This change was driven primarily by liberal intellectuals, many of whom were white Estmerish who had opposed the Volksfront regime for its radical approach to segregation, including against non-Asterianer whites. In addition, social changes were further cemented in 1937 with the adoption of the constitution which extended economic, political, and social rights to Nuvania’s previously un-enfranchised ethnic minorities, as well as enshrining universal suffrage.
The government of J.P van Vollenhoven further expanded on social reforms by introducing new laws which expanded access to education and healthcare, established a network of public universities, and significantly expanded and equalised the welfare and healthcare systems. Von Vollenhoven also strengthened labour laws to allow greater unionisation and increase union membership, as well as the creation of new labour unions in key industries.
The rapid pace of social change lead the conservative political establishment to respond with any means at their disposal, including voter intimidation and forcing snap elections, which occurred in 1943 and 1945, both of which saw the van Vollenhoven government rely on the United Labour Party for support in a coalition government. Right-wing groups actively began to operate clandestinely within Nuvania in response to repeated failures, outing suspected communists and others deemed to be enemies for extrajudicial punishments, including beatings and killings. A sharp rise in violence from 1946 onwards, largely perpetrated by right-wing paramilitary groups and sympathetic elected local officials, turned public opinion away from the van Vollenhoven government and towards the National People’s Party.
Early actions
One of the first protest movements that lead to the creation of the Direct Action Movement was the Eastern Boroughs bus boycott in August 1943, in which predominantly black and Creole Nuvanians refused to use bus services provided by the city-owned public transportation company PVM over a fare increase as well as other issues with bus stations and bus conditions themselves. Although the strike lasted for ten days between August 9-19, the boycott was instrumental in cementing mass collective action as a means to resolve grievances with government-owned companies and institutions.
What set the boycott apart from other protest movements was the use of collective organisation, where multiple organisations came together to coordinate the boycott, something which had not been done before in Nuvania. Multiple organisations were represented or created in a centralised organising committee which planned the boycott. These included the Eastern Boroughs Resident Association, which overall represented those living in the eastern boroughs of Pietersburg, as well as the Union of Coloured Workers, which represented non-white staff employed by PVM, and the National Women’s Association, which represented many of the working women who commuted to their jobs using PVM’s bus network. Together they formed a list of grievances which were to be addressed in order for the boycott to end, and ensured that each group of people represented would do their part to enforce the boycott. This organised collective effort resulted in the quick resolution of the boycott, the cancellation of the fare increase, and investment in the system within the eastern boroughs.
A series of industrial actions occurred between October 1945 and August 1946 in which railway workers and miners began mass strike actions in protest against unfair wages and working conditions. Between October 20, 1945 and November 4, 1945, over 10,000 black and Creole workers of Nuvanian State Railways went on strike, with the strike coming to an end when the central government intervened to resolve the strike out of fear that the strike would result in widespread blackouts across Nuvania. The other major strike to occur in this period was a four day strike launched by coal workers in the northern provinces. Initiated by the UCW, nearly 70,000 black and Creole workers walked off the job at coal mines across northern Nuvania from August 12, 1946. The strike lasted four days due to the government fearing another potential for widespread economic problems caused by blackouts caused by a lack of coal, and ordered the police to break up the strike. Police used live ammunition in response to the strike action, killing dozens of miners as well as beating many with batons and clubs. In response, the Mason Commission was formed by the government to investigate the causes of the violence. Miners ultimately returned to work on the threat of further violence.
Rise of black intellectualism
The end of the Great War and the increased access to higher education saw the rise of black intellectualism in Nuvania, with the intent on establishing a united position on segregation and racial discrimination. Two leading intellectuals emerged during the immediate post-war period, the first being Charles Bromley and Calvin Franks. Much of the period was spent discussing how to end racial discrimination and segregation in Nuvania, with Bromley believing in petitioning the government and protesting in order for them to protect the constitutional rights afforded to Nuvania’s ethnic minorities as well as continued strike actions to demand better wages and working conditions for non-white workers. This would become known as the “constitutionalist position”, with the aim of working to end segregation and protect rights within Nuvania’s political and legal systems. Franks advocated for a more aggressive position, believing that blacks and other minorities had to stand up for themselves to protect their rights, even by force of arms if necessary. This would be known as the “militant position”, and the two sides would come to influence the direction of the Direct Action Movement in the coming decades.
These debates influenced the rise of other black intellectuals in Nuvania, particularly Roland Lynwood [Moses Kotane], who believed in waging “economic warfare” against the Nuvanian state in order to end segregation and secure the rights of minority groups.
The assassination of Calvin Franks in 1945 did little to dissuade black intellectuals from further discussing how best to advance their cause, with black intellectualism being entrenched within wider Nuvanian academia by the beginning of the 1950’s.
Conservative reaction
The changes brought about by the post-war consensus and the 1937 Constitution significantly concerned the conservative political establishment in Nuvania, principally the Asterianer nationalists who had held the reigns of power through the Volksfront regime between 1918 and 1935. Many sectors of Asterianer society believed that they would lose social and economic privileges afforded to them by the Volksfront, particularly as Asterianers were largely poorer than their Nuvanian Estmerish counterparts prior to the rise of the Volksfront. Many Asterianers had been purged from the public services and important positions within the central government and policies that promoted and protected Asterianer culture and language were rolled back. Furthermore, Asterianer landowners were in particular targeted by the government’s post-war land reforms which saw Asterianer farmers targeted more than any other land-owning ethnic group. Largely mistrustful of the authorities, Asterianer nationalists formed the Volkskommando, a nationalist group that sought to retain Asterianer supremacy within Nuvania.
White landowners, particularly those in central and southern provinces, were impacted by land reforms which while targeting Asterianer landowners particularly, also affected non-Asterianer whites. Indigenous Nuvanians began occupying or attempting to occupy land that had once belonged to their tribe or people group, which subsequently brought them into conflict with white farmers and landowners. In response, particularly to the outbreak of violence in Barimanna in 1948, rural white communities began forming Residential Defence Committees (RDCs), ad-hoc groups of armed men who routinely kidnapped and executed people either involved with or suspected of sympathising with indigenous land occupations. As the violence increased and spread, RDC’s became more involved in punitive actions designed to intimidate and terrify indigenous communities and farm workers, resulting in dozens killed and injured in tit-for-tat attacks.
Outside of rural areas, white working class Nuvanians believed that the social and economic changes brought in through the post-war consensus undermined their social and economic position, particularly as non-white workers were often paid wages far below those of whites, leading to widespread belief in businesses hiring non-white workers over whites, or replacing white workers to reduce costs. White dominated trade unions began lobbying the government for protections for white workers from 1943 onwards, promoting workforce quotas and other restrictions. Additionally, white-dominated trade unions also lobbied the government to continue preferential access to social housing for white union members. However, as the decade progressed, white trade unions began to abandon the Social Democratic Party and United Labour Party in favour of the National People’s Party, who campaigned in 1949 on offering protections for the white working class.
Quota System
Following victory in the 1949 general election, the conservative National People’s Party government led by Charles Wakefield introduced a raft of legislation designed to ensure white Nuvanians were given preferential treatment by the state and by private enterprises. These laws primarily established quotas for Nuvania’s different racial groups and ethnicities that benefitted white Nuvanians, but also introduced racial and ethnic segregation within Nuvania. These laws became known as the Quota System.
The first of these laws to be introduced was the School and Universities Admittance Act 1951. The Act created the decile system in which schools were ranked based on a combination of education achievement and income levels of the area in which they were located, with schools split into high decile and low decile. High decile schools were located in predominantly white areas, while low decile schools were located in non-white areas. High decile schools were required to maintain a non-white student attendance of five percent, and could reject additional applications on the basis of race or ethnicity. Universities were also able to reject non-white candidates applying to attend.
Later in 1951, the Public Housing Corporation Act 1939 (Tenancies) Amendment Act was passed through both houses of Parliament, which limited non-white access to housing built by the Public Housing Corporation, which provided social housing in Nuvania. It also allowed local administrators within the PHC to evict non-white tenants from their allocated housing. This was subsequently conducted between 1952 and 1986, mostly in northern provinces.
The most important piece of legislation came after the foundation of the DAM in 1953, with the Workforce Quota Act 1955’s introduction, which established quotas in all workforces across the country. Low wage work was generally reserved for non-white workers while higher wage work received more stringent quotas. Both government and private businesses as well as central and provincial government institutions and agencies were allowed to refuse job applications from non-white workers, as well as immigrant workers who did not speak either Estmerish or Asteriaans. Workforce quotas were audited by the government, with businesses forced to fire non-white employees if their quota was exceeded.
Foundation
Operation Dragnet
Structure
The structure of the Direct Action Movement was complex, involving both centralised and decentralised leadership with different committees, component organisations, and other affiliated groups that worked together to bring an end to discriminatory and segregationist policies in Nuvania.
Leadership
The Direct Action Movement’s leadership was collective and was split between two groups: the Representative Committee and the Coordination Committee.
The Representative Committee was the collection of leaders and representatives from the various member organisations and affiliated groups that would collectively decide and approve various activism programs and protests for the DAM, which were to then be implemented at a national or local level. These ranged from local voting drives during elections to industrial action and mass protests. Decisions made at this level would then be finalised and voted on by the National Congress on Direct Action and implemented by the Coordination Committee.
The Coordination Committee were volunteers from around Nuvania who would implement activist programs or oversee approved actions from the Representative Committee or from more local organisations and groups. Each province had a cadre of volunteers who would organise collective efforts between groups to mobilise additional volunteers and members of organisations and groups for protests or other direct actions.
National Congress on Direct Action
The National Congress on Direct Action was the DAM’s member organisations and affiliated groups' way of approving or disapproving of both the leadership and collective direct action, particularly prior to the launch of nationwide protests or industrial action. Congresses were composed of elected delegates from member organisations and affiliated groups who would vote to approve or disapprove of certain actions or leadership candidates.
Congresses were not regularly held and were sometimes used by leaders within the DAM to assert influence or power. Substantial periods of time would pass between each Congress; much of the 1980’s saw no Congresses held. In the lead up to, and following the signing of, the Pietersburg Agreement, Congresses were held annually to determine the DAM’s course of action during negotiations and subsequent National Commission for Truth and Reconciliation. The final congress approved the disbanding of the DAM in September 1996.
Provincial Action Committees
Provincial Action Committees were the way in which the DAM implemented and organised direct action against provincial and national governments at a local level. Each PAC was responsible for the mobilising of volunteers and of members as well as the coordination and implementation of direct actions such as protests and industrial action.
Each PAC was composed of members or representatives from each component organisation or locally affiliated group, as well as representatives from local volunteer cadres at the district and municipal level, these representatives acting as intermediaries between the PAC and local cadres. During the armed resistance period, each PAC was also responsible for organising security for major action events, and often raised security detachments and volunteer organisations to protect members and participants.
Component organisations
The DAM was composed of numerous social and economic organisations that collaborated and cooperated to engage in peaceful but active resistance to the segregationist and discriminatory policies of the conservative government between 1949 and 1994.
Black Emancipation Movement
By far the largest component of the Direct Action Movement, the Black Emancipation Movement was not a dedicated organisation like many of the others but a confederation of groups and organisations dedicated to the enfranchisement as well as social and economic emancipation of black Nuvanians. The BEM dominated the DAM’s leadership as well as overall membership, its own members often also holding membership of other component organisations.
The BEM was known for its affiliations with left-wing paramilitary groups as well as direct involvement in the armed resistance against the state during the DAM’s existence, with many within the Nuvanian state and larger white society often considering the BEM to be the DAM’s unofficial armed wing. It also had open affiliations and ties to many black nationalist and black extremist organisations, as well as affiliations with black-dominated street gangs. This often led to criticisms from conservatives as to the nature of the negotiations for the Pietersburg Agreement, as many considered the BEM to be nothing more than criminals and terrorists.
National Coalition of Indigenous Peoples
Formerly known as the National Tribal Federation, the National Coalition of Indigenous Peoples was formed in January 1965 to better coordinate national activist and protest action against continued discrimination and violence against Nuvania’s indigenous people groups, particularly indigenous farmers. It was a founding member organisation of the Direct Action Movement. The NCIP was active in various campaigns, advocating for both urban and rural indigenous peoples. It was particularly active in the land rights campaigns in rural Nuvania, securing the right for indigenous communities to own land in common through the creation of government commissions and legislation.
Today the NCIP still exists as a means of advocacy for Nuvania’s numerous indigenous people groups and as an intermediary between indigenous communities and government.
National Satrian Association
The most controversial of the member organisations, the National Satrian Association was created following events in Pietersburg in 1946 as a way to advocate against discrimination of Nuvania’s Satrian population. It was composed of numerous small community groups and organisations representing various Satrian communities around Nuvania and was known to also engage in advocacy for better policing and security from those inhabiting slums around the fringes of working class suburbs in Nuvania, often supporting conservative rhetoric and policies that brought it into direct conflict with other organisations within the Direct Action Movement.
Although a founding member, the NSA was subsequently ejected from the DAM in 1954 owing to engaging in separate and secret dialogue with the conservative government regarding policing in majority Satrian neighbourhoods. It was readmitted following the NSA’s opposition to the introduction of the Quota System.
National Union of Students
The National Union of Students was the only component organisation to form after the Direct Action Movement was created in 1952, having been founded in 1970 following widespread student protests in the 1960’s. The NUS’ primary focus throughout its membership in the DAM was advocating for desegregated universities and advocacy for students and young people in primary and secondary schools, including more funding for schools in low income areas. It was primarily composed of students from universities but also came to encompass older students from secondary schools. Following the demise of the White Lily Society, the NUS became the primary vehicle through which white Nuvanians could protest against the National People’s Party and against racial discrimination and segregation. It also became a secondary outlet through which teachers and university professors, as well as other academics, could also voice support for the DAM.
The NUS continues to exist today primarily as an advocacy group for university students, particularly when it comes to critical services provided to students.
National Women’s Association
The National Women’s Association was founded in 1936 as a continuation of various women’s groups and organisations campaigning for political and social rights in Nuvania between independence and the Great War. One of the earliest post-war social organisations, the NWA also provided financial and legal assistance for women in poor and rural communities around Nuvania, regardless of their racial or ethnic background. Entirely a volunteer organisation, the NWA was influential in finally securing suffrage for women in 1943.
A founding member of the Direct Action Movement, the NWA often had cross-membership with other organisations, particularly the White Lily Society, as a substantial proportion of the NWA membership is white women. It was important during the movement as a support organisation for non-white women who faced discrimination in both employment and in accessing social care, as well as women whose husbands or partners were engaged in prolonged civil disobedience action during the fight against racial discrimination and segregation, in particular those men who worked in low-wage manual labour industries. The NWA also organised protests for increased women’s social and economic rights, in particular regarding marital and health laws.
Despite the DAM disbanding in 1996, the NWA continues to provide financial, legal, and material support for women in impoverished and rural communities, as well as advocating for greater social and economic rights for women in Nuvania.
Union of Coloured Workers
The Union of Coloured Workers was created in 1938 to represent non-white workers across multiple industries in Nuvania, particularly agriculture and mining, as unions representing agricultural and mine workers were often not welcoming of non-white members. The UCW was recognised as a trade union by the van Vollenhoven government in 1940, and was permitted to engage in collective bargaining and strike actions in industries that discriminated against non-white workers.
The UCW was a founding member of the Direct Action Movement upon its formation in 1952, with the organisation organising activism and industrial action in response to discriminatory labour laws, particularly the introduction of the Quota System in the 1950’s by the government of Charles Wakefield. In the 1980’s, the UCW subsequently took on the role as the primary advocate for equal pay for non-white workers following the removal of ethnic and racial quotas by the government of Johnathan Keaton.
The UCW continues to advocate for better wages and working conditions for non-white workers across Nuvania today, although its prominence has been reduced with the desegregation of many predominantly white labour unions in the 1980’s and 1990’s.
White Lily Society
The White Lily Society was a predominantly white political organisation advocating for the removal of discriminatory and segregationist policies as well as one of the principal white social organisations opposed to the National People’s Party government. Formed in 1951, the White Lily Society provided economic and financial assistance to both other organisations within the Direct Action Movement as well as members of those organisations. In doing so, the society became a founding member of the Direct Action Movement in 1952.
It included a number of important white liberal political and social figures at the time and was bankrolled by prominent liberal members of the business community. In addition to its financial activities, the White Lily Society provided legal aid for non-white persons arrested by police and engaged in direct activism, including mass protests, the largest occurring in August 1954 and attracting 75,000 people. The society folded after five years, officially disbanding in December 1956 due to falling membership. Many of its members continued on to volunteer, while white support for the Direct Action Movement would later be taken up by the National Union of Students.