M WO RID Meat Workers in the Cape Are Being Held Without Bail
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r IN THESE TIMES JULY 2-16, T98O 9 By contrast, labor's participation in the protest has remained disciplined, de- spite gross provocations by the regime and some employers. In one case, 42 M WO RID meat workers in the Cape are being held without bail. The workers maintain, quite reasonably, that they are legitimate residents of the area awaiting the resolu- SOUTH AFRICA tion of then- strike. The regime (undoubt- edly encouraged by the employer) says the 42 forfeited their right to remain when they struck, and must now be de- ported to "their" bantustans. In another instance, the regime moved against the Federation of South African Trade Unions (FOSATU), a group of 13 mostly black unions representing 50,000 workers. In a transparent effort to de- stroy the increasingly influential federa- tion, the regime unilaterally banned it from raising funds either here or over- seas. These and other moves once again exposed last year's much-heralded "new deal" for black labor as a sham. The regime's efforts to win over Afri- cans of mixed descent ("coloreds") and Indians are also ending in a debacle. Botha is proposing a President's Council of selected "coloreds" and Indians that would advise the white government. Leaders from the two communities re- fused to serve, in part because the coun- cil will exclude 20 million "Africans." Hennie Smit, the minister of posts and telecommunications, explained that Af- Demonstrators flee tear gas in Soweto. The violence peaked on June U> the fourth ricans were being left out because they ®Uke uprising in that black township. were "less developed," with "slower thought processes." A nationwide up- roar ensued over Smit's remarks, and no legitimate leader from any of the three communities will endorse the council Sabotage, protests and strikes now. Counterattacks. By contrast, the regime's response to the Sasol raid was instant—and deadly. One challenge the Botha regime day after the blast, what can only have been its agents bombed an ANC house in neighboring, black-ruled Swaziland, kill- least 1,000 dead—and probably more. By James North would prefer a continuation of the disci- ing two people. (No one died in the Sasol Prime minister P.W. Botha may be ex- pline that characterized the first phase of attack.) JOHANNESBURG ercising some restraint because he still the protest. "If a riotous situation emer- The protest wave reached one peak on nourishes hopes for his cosmetic reform ges, then the issue becomes hatred," one June 16, the anniversary of the outbreak HE MOB.NING AFTER AFRICAN policy, though the eruption has certainly National Congress (ANC) seasoned black leader here said. "The of the Soweto rebellion. Since 1976, crippled some of those half-hearted ini- long-range political goals we are fighting blacks have observed the date as a holi- guerrillas blew up one part of tiatives. More likely, he is deterred by a Sasol oil-from-coal plant for are forgotten." Random violence day to commemorate the dead and to world opinion, for which another Sharpe- south of lieie the liberal can also set back the struggle; Soweto pledge together to continue the struggle. s ville or Soweto could provide the catalyst TRand Daily Mail remarked editorially, has played a relatively minor role in the This year, the nervous regime banned all to start talking seriously about some "This country is ?iow ie a state of revo- present round of unrest because so many gatherings intended to observe the June lutionary war.'" form of economic sanctions. of its activists were either detained, ban- 16 holiday, including church services, The original boycott leaders, and oth- ned, or forced into exile after 1976. The paper's'assessment is still a bit Young people in Soweto and elsewhere ers, are by no means ecstatic at the grow- "Their wounds are still raw," the black predictably responded with stepped-up premature, though its apocalyptic tone ing risk of uncontrolled violence. They could ise pardoned, while saioke from the leader explained. violence. blaze—the biggest in Scjiith African his- Simultaneously, Botha told a hushed tory—billowed wmr. rJiar. two miles into parliament that the biggest battle be- the air. tween the South African army and SWA- But there is little doubt that South'Af- PO, the Namibian guerrilla movement, ANC takes militant lead has taken place in southern Angoia. rica i? experiencing the most extensive upheaval ever. A mood bordering on in- The African National Congress was now-underground ANC then carried Botha claimed the government had killed surrection is sweeping the country. Only founded in 1921, just two years after the out a sabotage program, attacking non- 200 SWAPO fighters while losing 16 of a miracle—the persistent discipline and Union of South Africa was formed. The human targets, in a last attempt to force its own soldiers. He tried to paint an op- courage of black protestors, together first ANC activists, who were mostly the regime to the bargaining table. The timistic picture of the fighting there, but with a degree of police restraint—has church leaders and members of the tiny effort failed, and Mandela and its other shock at the casualties spread through the prevented it from exploding into a blood- black professional class, carried out a organizers are still in prison. white community. bath that would dwarf the 1976 uprising. restrained and dignified petition cam- The ANC weathered the long years in Lost in the news of-turmoil was the Virtually all the major urban centers paign against the intensifying system of exile better than its rival, which was prediction that South Africa's real econ- are affected, The black school-boycott racial domination.. plagued by poor leadership and vicious omic growth for both 1980 aad 1981 will campaign, which showed signs of ending In 1948 the National Party came to infighting. The PAC is no longer a ser- be the second highest in the Western in mid-May, has rekindled and spread to power and apartheid immediately be- ious political force. The ANC grew clos- world, trailing only Japan. ITie eruption even more areas. The students' original came more draconian. In response, er to the Communist Party—member- may still alter that forecast, but it at least commitment to nonviolence is eroding; younger ANC activists, including Nel- ship in the two overlaps in some cases— seriously calls into question the argument the young people more and more are re- son Mandela, Walter Sisulu, and other and received arms, supplies and training put forward by various multinational sponding to police brutality by stoning current senior leaders, formulated a from the USSR and its allies. It was corporations that foreign investment and and burning vehicles. One policeman in militant, nonviolent Program of Ac- therefore in a position to absorb many consequent economic growth here tend to the Cape was stabbed to death during a tion. In the 1952 "defiance campaign" of the several thousand young people erode apartheid. Events of the past few demonstration. la response, police acted the ANC led a nationwide effort to de- who fled the country after 1976 and months show that the system is as power- happily on a shoot-to -kill order. The of- liberately disobey certain apartheid sta- now constitute the ANC's growing ful and evil as ever, even as the boom in- ficial death toll is 32, but the press— tutes; close to 10,000 people went to guerrilla army. duced by high gold prices gets underway. which was not allowed into the affected prison. The organization is by no means a A more telling response to the pro-in- areas—insists it. is higher. The nationalist regime only respond- Soviet puppet. Its leadership does in- vestment rationale was offered by the The biggest WHVC of strikes in seven ed with more oppression, putting the clude a significant number of commun- ANC commandos who placed explosives years has idled thousands of workers at ANC leaders, including its president, ists, both black and white, some of next to the local headquarters of Fluor, plants and mines across the country. A Chief Albert J. Lutuli, through a mar- whom are insufficiently de-Stalinized. the American-based corporation that is bus boycott in the Cape 5s almost com- athon "treason trial." At the same But it is above all a broad-based front, building Sasol, at the same time that their pletely successful, arid the ANC's attack time, an "Africanist" faction within with a basically nationalist program colleagues were blasting the refinery it- at Sasol—easily the most spectacular the ANC charged that the organization that includes democratic socialist fea- self. The Fluor bomb was detected and raid in its history—has permanently de- worked too closely with whites and In- tures. The ANC also enjoys strong sup- defused, but its existence underscored the stroyed its lingering image of ineffectu- dians, particularly those in the illegal, port inside the country from people point that the ANC and other opponents ally and served notice that it, and the multi-racial Communist Party. In who are unconcerned with its interna- of apartheid consider investment a vital guerrilla struggle that it will carry out, 1959, the faction broke away to form tional alignment as long as it fulfills its strategic aid to the enemy during the will be a force tc be reckoned with. the Pan-Africanist Congress. growing promise in the struggle. Wheth- struggle for liberation. Whether Fluor The apartheid regime seems confused In 1960 the PAC, which had also ac- er the ANC's communist membership has integrated toilets or pays its black workers adequate wages seems unimpor- and uncertain.