Congress Alliance

Definition: A joint anti-apartheid movement established in the 1950s under the direction of the African National Congress (ANC). Other groups included the Congress of Democrats (COD), the Coloured People's Congress (CPC), and the South African Indian Congress (SAIC). The Congress Alliance was instrumental in the development of the Freedom Charter, which was ratified at a mass rally, the Congress of the People, held at Kliptown, Soweto, in June 1955. In the following year many members of the Alliance were arrested and charged with treason (See Treason Trial.).