Author Description

"This is the first major study of an organisation that transformed South African politics in the 1980s. By co-ordinating popular struggles on the ground and promoting the standing of the African National Congress, the UDF played a central role in the demise of apartheid and paved the way for South Africa's emergence as a democracy. Based on extensive documentary and interview sources, this book traces the UDF's birth, career and dissolution. It is a tale of strategic and tactical decision-making: of how opponents of apartheid made choices that helped to seal the fate of white domination whilst avoiding the general bloodbath that always threatened."--Jacket.