ABSTRACT
The black opposition movement in South Africa crossed a new threshold in the mid-1980s. Its campaign of protest was more sustained and more widespread than any previous challenge the government had faced. A new generation of white intellectuals from English-speaking universities added their weight. By 1982, just as a major recession was about to start, the groundwork for a new resistance movement had been laid. Black allegiance to the African National Congress (ANC) was openly flaunted at public gatherings, through banners, flags and songs. In opinion polls and social surveys the ANC registered widespread internal support. The tide of African opinion clearly favoured a radical approach. Whatever mixture of reform and repression the government tried, black opposition endured. At the end of one of the most turbulent periods of South African history, the black opposition movement had taken significant strides forward.
