No Easy Walk to Freedom

The central theme of No Easy Walk to Freedom is mass mobilization and unity. The opening chapter of the book consists of Mandela’s 1953 presidential address, which describes the Defiance Campaign of 1952 as “an effective way of getting the masses to function politically” and notes that the spirit of the day was direct action (4). He goes on to discuss the formulation of the “M” Plan, noting that its main objective was to consolidate the Congress machinery by “extend[ing] and strengthen[ing] the ties between the Congress and the people” (11). This relationship between the Congress machinery and the masses was all the more important in light of the government’s outlawing of earlier forms of political movement that the ANC and other organizations relied on, such as meeting amongst themselves and legally submitting resolutions to the parliament. 

As Mandela describes it, a principle of unity among various sectors of the population undergirded this mass mobilization strategy; his writings emphasize that multiracial, inter-class, inter-political, and international solidarity would be key to the strategy’s effectiveness. For example, his Chapter 2 criticism of the Liberal Party and their convergence of interests with the Nationalist government closes by noting the resistance movement’s openness to since and committed white allies (18).