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Honor Our Sisters on South African Women's Thirty years ago, South African wom­ cans, even though they are 72% of the en, 20,000 strong, rocked the streets of population. Pretoria to protest extension of the hated ALLIANCE AGAINST WOMEN'S OPPRESSION Under apartheid women's oppression pass laws to women. Thousands wore has reached the depths of brutality, ev­ the black and green blouses of the Afri­ ery minute of the day, with the "home­ can National Congress (ANC). Indian HONOR OUR SISTERS lands" policy. These so called "home­ women were dressed in brilliant saris, lands" or bantustans are, in reality, Xhosa women in clay yellow robes with wastelands which condemn the inhabi­ beautiful head scarves. After delivering ON SOUTH AFRICAN WOMEN'S DAY tants to eke out an existence that is but a hundreds of thousands of signatures to few steps away from death. Not only are the prime minister's office, Lilian Ngoyi" women and men in South Africa not paid President of the Federation of South enough to support a family unit, the African Women and of the ANC Wom­ "homeland" policy is designed to force en's League, called out "Afrika, Afrika, families to live separately. While men Afrika." Thousands of women shouted are in the mines or the cities, women, their response in kind, then stood in children and the elderly are routinely electric silence for half an hour with the banished to the bantustans declared thumbs up salute of the ANC. Thejoyful "superfulous appendages" and "unpro­ demonstration culminated in a new free­ ductive labor units." These bantustans/ dom song with the now famous refrain, wastelands read like a chronicle of in­ "Wathint' abafazi, wayithint' imbolondo humane living conditions-inadequate uzokufa-Now you have touched the housing, lack of running water and basic women, you have struck a rock, you sanitation, intense overcrowding, virtu­ have dislodged a boulder, you will be ally absent school and health facilities, crushed." rampant malnutrition and starvation. To Women everywhere can learn much add insult to injury, the barren land does from our South African sisters long not even allow subsistence farming. history of organizing. The first pass law Taken together, the situation adds up to resistance in the Orange Free State in a methodical program of genocide with a 1913 was started by South African wom­ particular focus on women and children. The Women's Federation oj South Africa (WFSA) leading a march in Soweto against high rents Jor inadequate housing. en. In 1919, on the heels of the declara­ F or women and children who escape tion of white minority rule by the Union rights of domestic workers. Women's cold blood last year right before the plained, "As Black women we suffer all the genocide of "homeland" banish­ of South Africa, the African National groups make up 60% of the 600 organi­ treason trial of Albertina Sisulu and the dehumanization of white racism. We ment and work in the cities and on the Congress, representing the majority of zations of the United Democratic Front other UDF leaders. While Ruth First are exploited as workers and our male­ farms, the content of oppression is a South Africans, was founded. Shortly (UDF), the broad coalition formed in was working for the ANC in exile, she dominated society treats us as inferior view through a different prism. Baseline thereafter, the ANC Women's League 1984 to coordinate resistance to the was tracked down and killed by a letter beings, dependent minors who belong in health, education, food, and shelter re­ was established by, among other sisters, apartheid regime's latest maneuvers. bomb sent courtesy of the racist regime. the worst paid, most menial job catego­ main inadequate or non-existent Wom­ Charlotte Maxebe, a leading activist, Membership in the "weaker sex" has These are but a few of the many South ries, in the bantustans and in the kitch­ en working as domestics or farm laborers who had participated as a founding never served to shield South African African women who have paid the ulti­ ens." do so for extremely low wages and in member of the ANC. Her presence at women from repression as women. Po­ mate price for their commitment to the The racist system of apartheid guar­ conditions unprotected from the whims both was no accidental occurrence. For lice brutality against women and chil­ people's struggle. As victims of apar­ antees the most intense class exploita­ of their white employers. As with Black it was as crystal clear to South African dren in the townships and squatter theid, women have fought for and earned tion for the Black majority. South Africa men, women's mobility is severely lim­ women then, as it is now, that their camps and prisons, banning or assassi­ a central role in the struggle against it. was built into the richest, most industri­ ited and separation of the family is still liberation as women is inextricably nation of leaders and organizers is com­ WOMEN'S OPPRESSION alized country on the African continent the reality for most Reminiscent of monplace. Albertina Sisula, Co-Presi­ by dragging the slave system into the bound up with the South African libera­ APARTHEID STYLE slavery in the U.S. South, many Black tion movement. dent of the UDF, under house arrest for 20th Century. 87% of the best land was women domestics live the cruel irony of Today women play the leading role in 20 years, has once again been arrested Apartheid embodies the most vicious usurped for the "white nation," with the raising white children while worrying grassroots struggles over rent, housing, for "treason." Victoria Mxenge, a long­ combination of race, class and sex op­ remaining 13% of the most barren land about their own children left to fend for education, forced relocations and the time civil rights lawyer, was murdered in pression. Activist Olive Shisana ex- declared the "homelands" of the Afri- themselves. Through it all, threat of banishment to the bantustans is ever­ pose it during the tenth anniversary of pass laws on August 9, 1956. This year, South Africa. It is past time for the U.S. because I also understand what the present if a job is lost or a woman is the Soweto uprising. Once again thou­ on the 30th anniversary-of South Afri­ movement to join in this part of sol­ white man is fighting for. When he loses widowed. sands have been arrested and a severe can Women's Day, women activists in idarity with the struggle in South Africa. it, he will lose it forever. And what I'm Under these conditions, children are news "whiteout" was imposed to silence the U.S. must recommit ourselves to In this way, our solidarity lives, not fighting for, when I get it, I will keep it special victims of apartheid. In 1980, information within the country and to the building the anti-apartheid movement. only as a moral response to abhorrent forever." infant mortality rates for Black South international community. The apartheid regime believes thai it can conditions and policies but as our soli­ Mricans was 90 in 1000 live births, But time is running out for apartheid. brazenly shoot down Black people and darity with the common struggle against The ·information in this leaflet was compared to 13 for white South Afri­ The Black majority has responded to the stonewall international public opinion racism, sexism and class oppression. drawn from an AAWO Discussion Pa­ cans. Yet South African youth have not ANC's call to "make South Africa un­ because it knows it can still count on For apartheid reminds us of our own per entitled, Forward to Freedom: accepted their conditions passively. It governable." 33 of the government's 38 Washington's support. Reagan's policy reality-of native people kicked off their Women and Apartheid in South Africa. was the youth of Soweto that sparked the puppet councils have been put out of com­ of " constructive engagement" is nothing land, of slavery and migrant labor, of If you would like a copy of the Dis­ 1976 uprising, who joined the ANC in mission. For 2 years now, despite dra­ but a figleafto cover up U.S. support to forced relocation and reservations, of cussion Paper, please send $1.00 to massive numbers in the years after, and conian repression, the South African apartheid as the most reliable agent for single mothers struggling to feed and AAWO (at the address below). We can who today, are at the core of the upris­ people have successfully sustained their Western interests on the African conti­ clothe their children, of infant mortality also send you more information about ings in the camptowns such as Cross­ resistance, uniting the powerful Black nent. and police murders of Black and Brown how you can give direct assistance to roads. The apartheid regime's response trade union movement, youth and stu- Here in the U.S. we have a special youth. South African women by supporting the has been to kill and arrest children as Over the 30 long years since the first Dora Tamana Day Care Centre ma­ young as 7 years of age. Youth under 16 "In our beleagered .country, the women's South African Women's Day, South terial aid campaign. made up one-third of those murdered or Mrican women have journeyed closer to arrested in last year's state of emergen­ place is in the battlefront of the struggle. " their freedom. Their outstanding mass AMANDLA! AWETU! cy. Along with their parents, the youth Oliver Tambo. ANe President activism and leadership, defiance and POWER! LET IT BE YOURS! continue to stand firm in the face of apar­ commitment will soon be rewarded.
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