Inqaba ya basebenzi, No. 16/17 Use of the Aluka digital library is subject to Aluka’s Terms and Conditions, available at http://www.aluka.org/page/about/termsConditions.jsp. By using Aluka, you agree that you have read and will abide by the Terms and Conditions. Among other things, the Terms and Conditions provide that the content in the Aluka digital library is only for personal, non-commercial use by authorized users of Aluka in connection with research, scholarship, and education. The content in the Aluka digital library is subject to copyright, with the exception of certain governmental works and very old materials that may be in the public domain under applicable law. Permission must be sought from Aluka and/or the applicable copyright holder in connection with any duplication or distribution of these materials where required by applicable law. Aluka is a not-for-profit initiative dedicated to creating and preserving a digital archive of materials about and from the developing world. For more information about Aluka, please see http://www.aluka.org/. Page 1 of 98 Alternative title Inqaba ya basebenzi Author/Creator Marxist Workers' Tendency of the African National Congress (London) Publisher Marxist Workers' Tendency of the African National Congress (London) Date 1985-01 Resource type Journals (Periodicals) Language Afrikaans, English Subject Coverage (spatial) South Africa, United Kingdom Coverage (temporal) 1985 Source Digital Imaging South Africa (DISA) Rights By kind permission of the African National Congress (ANC). Format extent 48 page(s) (length/size) Page 2 of 98 Nos. 16/17 January-June 1985 Price 75cYA. BASEBEJournal of the Marxist Workers' Tendencyof the African National Congress;~ 983AZAPO 000 General strike *010 Sudan East Germany Page 3 of 98 INQABA47Special supplement with this issueSOUTH AFRICAN PERSPECTIVES:Workers' revolution orracial civil war The economy --basis of perspectives Character and tasks of the revolution Reform, reaction and civil war Strategy and tasksComrades are urged to read and systematically discussthis document in study circles. Make photocopies andpass Ingaba and the supplement on to others.helped to foster an atmosphere ofhope lacking in earlier years.Western capitalist leadersunderstood very well that the EastGerman working class were notdemonstrating for the return ofcapitalism. The West Germangovernment was content to makepropaganda points on the.radio butcertainly not to offer any real supportto the workers.The leaders of trade unions in theWest were also unwilling to offer anysupport. When East Berlin workersmarched through the Brandenburggate into West Berlin, they receivedthe sympathy of the working classand gifts of cigarettes and chocolates.In Magdeburg, railway workerstold East German workers, "Wenegotiate neither with Adenauer(Chancellor of West Germany) norwith Ulbricht but only withOllenhauer (the leader of the SPD)."Ollenhauer was following the lead ofthe West German and the Americanruling classes, who would prefer,whatever their differences with theRussian bureaucracy, for them tomaintain control of the East Germanstate, rather than to have genuineworkers' democracy.Although the Berlin uprising wascrushed, it showed the bureaucracythat it could no longer treat the work-ing class with contempt. When Polishworkers came onto the streets in1956, the East German bureaucracyrapidly acted to lower consumerprices by up to 50%, to ward off anyworkers' protest.In the 1960s there were growthrates of 5-6% in East Germany, andfar more was spent on the improve-ment of living standards than in mostother East European countries, withlarge subsidies for consumer goods.But regardless of these reforms,East Germany remains a state in crisisand the development of society willcome up against the obstacle formedby the bureaucracy with all its waste,incompetence and mismanagement.Eastern Europe needs workers'democracy to develop fully, like a liv-ing body needs oxygen.The memory of the 1953 uprisingwill serve as an inspiration to EastGerman workers as their struggles in-evitably impel them towards politicalrevolution, the successful overthrowof bureaucratic control of society,and the implementation of realworkers' democracy, in East Ger-many and throughout all EasternEurope. Page 4 of 98 CONTENTSEditorialZimbabwe: socialists detainedGEMWU campaignInterviewsInternational protestAZAPOBritish school strikeSA: general strikeANC . suspensionsPesticidesObituary: L.J.NothaSelibe Phikwe strike, 1975SudanEast German uprising, 1953page 2page 8page 14page 17page 18page 22page 26page 28page 33page 34page 36page 3 7page 41page 43For security reasons, fictitious names have been used by writers of articles in thisissue of lngaba ya Basebenzi. In every case, however, care has been taken not togive a misleading impression of the background and experience' of the comradeconcerned. Details about writers are provided only when security considerations makethis possible.lngaba ya Basebenzi, BM Box 1719, London WC 1 N 3XX, BritainPrinted by Eastway Offset Press (TU) Ltd3/13 Hepscott Road, London E9 5HB Page 5 of 98 ingah'aYA BASEBENZICan negotiations bringmajority rule?- Editorial Board statementcirculated in South Africa,9 February 1985Scarcely a year ago the new con-stitution, with its coloured and Indian"parliaments", was presented to thewhites as a way of securing theirpolitical privileges, by definitely ex-cluding the African majority fromthe vote. Now, in the very first ses-of the new "parliaments",M. Both. is forced to concede thatthe question of the political rights ofthe African people cannot beavoided.The new constitution has had astill-birth. The magnificent move-ment of all sections of the blackworking people-on the politicalplane even more than on theindustrial-has ensured this.Intended to divide the colouredand Indian people from the Africans,it provided instead a focus for unityin action between the coloured, In-dian and African workers and youth.Instead of avoiding the issue of ma-jority rule, it has accentuated thequestion, intensifying the struggle ofthe Africans and all oppressed peo-ple for democratic rights.Faced with deepening economiccrisis; with the growing challenge ofthe black workers; with the revoltwithin the communities and amongthe youth; faced above all with theprospect of mounting political strikeaction headed by the organisedworkers-all sections of the capitalistclass are having to recognise that thenew constitution is impotent.Botha's January 25th speech hasbeen hailed as the most "reformist"of his career. It has been made,moreover, against the background ofan apparent shift in the regime's posi-tion on the question of negotiationswith the ANC and the release ofNelson Mandela.But the proposals contained inBotha's speech share with allprevious schemes one common pur-pose: to prevent majority rule.Whilst the regime officiallyacknowledges that the Verwoerdiandream of a "white South Africa"free of blacks is unrealisable, it pro-poses yet another device for wardingoff the demand for one-person-one-vote in an undivided South Africa.It also hopes to create a climate ofacceptability amongst whites for theidea that Africans would have to beincluded in the future governing ofSouth Africa. But which Africans?Not the majority.The regime seeks a formula forfragmenting the African majority bydividing "legal" urban Africans fromthe "illegals", and dividing thoseconsidered "permanent" from thoseconsidered "temporary", as well asfrom their fellow-Africans in the"homelands". Conceivably, somesuch African MINORITY might thenbe conceded rights to the administra-tion of their so-called "own affairs",with some,,yoice in the apparatus ofcentral government. Plainly, onlystooges and sell-outs would col-laborate in any such scheme.The political representatives ofcapitalism in SA may have their dif-ferences but over one question all areunited: the Africanjnajority shall notbe allowed to bring to power throughtheir votes in an undivided SouthAfrica a government whose charactercorresponds to their numericalweight. This is the basis of all the"confederal", "federal" etc schemesof the ruling class.This is not accidental nor the pro-duct merely of the vile prejudicesamong the whites.Black working people who con-stitute the majority in South Africademand majority rule in order tosolve the problems of starvationwages, unemployment, housing,health, education, etc. Capitalism inSouth Africa, weak and crisis-ridden,suffering acutely from the convul-sions of a diseased world capitalistsystem, is utterly incapable of satis-fying these demands.The ruling class knows full wellthat, were a government electeddemocratically, the demands placedon it by mass pressure would presentan irreconcilable challenge to the pro-fit system itself. Capitalism is theenemy of democracy in SA. Tqachieve majority rule in an undiviJded SA, it is necessary to break thepower of the capitalist class.In a vain attempt to conceal theanti-democratic character of the pre-sent initiatives from the maises, theruling class is fuelling spelculationabout negotiations with the ANC andthe release of Mandela. In this waythey hope to present their presentproposals as part of an "evolutionaryprocess" of "power-sharing" thatwill culminate in a peaceful settle-ment with the ANC.Were a peaceful negotiated st?lu-tion of the democratic question possi-ble, every worker would welcome it.But, behin' every new constitutionalscheme, the real power of the rulingclass rests ultimately on its statemachine-i- in essence armedbodies of men making up the armyand the