Skip to main content
Non-violent campaigns have higher rate of success
IAN SINCLAIR tries to answer the crucial question: why are we so ignorant about the rich history of non-violent struggle?
WINNING FORMULA: The civil rights march on Washington of August 28 1963 – Jewish civil rights activist Joseph L Rauh Jr (centre, front row) marching with Martin Luther King (second from left front row)

Writing about the recent death of Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, Guardian columnist Afua Hirsch made an extraordinary claim about the ending of apartheid in South Africa in 1994.

“Columnists did not cut it. Activists could not have done it. Peaceful protest did not do it. Sports boycotts, books, badges and car boot sales did not do it,” she argued. “It took revolutionaries, pure and simple. People willing to break the law, to kill and be killed.”

Fellow Guardian writer Owen Jones tweeted in support: “Apartheid was brought down by revolutionaries, not peaceful protest. Brilliant piece by @afuahirsch.”

The protests that toppled Tunisian Ben Ali’s government in Tunisia in 2011 were largely non-violent

Successful non-violent campaigns
have the ability to confront and coerce centres of power

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Palestinians collect food from the wreckage of their tents following an Israeli airstrike in Khan Younis, Gaza Strip, June 30, 2026
Journalism / 7 July 2026
7 July 2026

IAN SINCLAIR examines the curious memory lapses across liberal media when it comes to British government crimes

broad ap
Books / 29 May 2026
29 May 2026

NADIA JOSEPH welcomes a survey of the role that TV played in the debate over apartheid and race relations in Britain

Pic: Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital only hospital in Soweto and the largest in sub Saharan Africa in 2017 / Pic: amanderson2/CC
Features / 22 May 2026
22 May 2026

ROGER MCKENZIE recalls the one-in-a-generation communist leader murdered at the dawn of a new South Africa 33 years ago last April 10

Claudia Jones
International Women’s Day 2026 / 7 March 2026
7 March 2026

The pioneering activist understood that freedom could only be won through solidarity across communities. Her legacy offers vital lessons at a time when progressive politics risks losing that shared purpose

The Morning Star republishes PRAGNA PATEL’s speech at the annual commemoration of Claudia Jones on February 22 2026