Defiance Campaign, noun phrase

In historical contexts. Shortened form of Defiance of Unjust Laws Campaign, a nation-wide campaign of non-violent civil disobedience, initiated in 1952 in resistance to certain apartheid laws; a similar campaign organized in 1989. Also attributive, and transferred sense. See also Freedom Day sense 1.
[1952 N. Mandela in Drum Aug. 35Our Defiance of Unjust Laws Campaign began on the 26th of June.]
1952 H. Nxumalo in Drum Dec. 11Moroka has found himself in the forefront of the ‘Defiance’ campaign, and soon he and 19 of his associates will face the Supreme Court.
1964 M. Benson Afr. Patriots 183Moroka, Sisulu, Mandela, together with Dadoo, the Cachalias, Marks, Bopape and several others..appeared for the preparatory examination in a court crowded out and surrounded by people singing Defiance Campaign songs.
1978 T.R.H. Davenport S. Afr.: Mod. Hist. 263The African and Indian congresses began to work cautiously together on a basis of non-violent non-cooperation with the authorities, towards the partnership which led in 1952 to the launching of a joint Defiance Campaign.
1984 Bhana & Pachai Documentary Hist. of Indian S. Africans 225The Defiance Campaign: (a) revolutionised the outlook of the non-white people on a mass scale and instilled the spirit of defiance in them; (b) established the African & Indian Congresses as the true spokesmen of the aims of the majority of the people of South Africa.
1986 P. Maylam Hist. of Afr. People 185The main defiance campaign..began on 26 June 1952. The campaign centred on the defiance of apartheid regulations — using facilities reserved for whites, and disobeying the pass laws and municipal curfews.
1990 P. Kearney in Weekly Mail 27 Apr. (Suppl.) 7In the long history of resistance to apartheid the defiance campaigns of 1952 and 1989 stand out as times of intense non-violent action to bring about change.
1990 Sunday Times 4 Mar. 17Maponya likes to describe himself as a squatter. And while he may be the world’s first diamond-encrusted squatter, his small but tenacious defiance campaign has undoubtedly created waves.
1990 Race Rel. Survey 1989–90 (S.A.I.R.R.) 346In August 1989 the Mass Democratic Movement (MDM),..launched a defiance campaign against the government’s policies of apartheid. The campaign was..in support of the demands..for..the lifting of the banning orders on leaders and organisations, the release of all political prisoners, the ending of the state of emergency and the withdrawal of troops from the townships.
Shortened form of Defiance of Unjust Laws Campaign, a nation-wide campaign of non-violent civil disobedience, initiated in 1952 in resistance to certain apartheid laws; a similar campaign organized in 1989. Also attributive, and transferred sense.
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