Five Years of Armed Struggle in

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Alternative title Notes and Documents - United Nations Centre Against ApartheidNo. 12/84 Author/Creator United Nations Centre against ; Woods, Jeanne M. Publisher United Nations, New York Date 1984-08-00 Resource type Reports Language English Subject Coverage (spatial) South Africa Coverage (temporal) 1976 - 1984 Source Northwestern University Libraries Description INTRODUCTION. BACKGROUND. - the early years. Strategy and tactics: Building the Base for People's War. 1976-1978: "The African National Congress lives". THE ARMED STRUGGLE ESCALATES - 1979-1983. 1979 - Year of the Spear. 1980 - Year of the Charter. Sasol. Mass action. The racists respond. 1981 - Year of the Youth. Voortrekker. "Treason Trial." Defeat "internal settlement" scheme. Dark days for racists. 1982 - Year of Unity in Action. Increased terror. Koeberg. 1983 - Year of United Action. Defeat collaboration and build unity. Armed solidarity. BOTHA'S "TOTAL STRATEGY". Increased military spending. Transnational corporations prepared. Constitutional "reform". Aggression against neighboring States. INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY - THE "FOURTH PILLAR". A special responsibility. Danger of intervention. Fight for sanctions. Immediate tasks. Unity is crucial. Notes. Format extent 21 page(s) (length/size)

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http://www.aluka.org UNITED NATIONS

UNITED NATIONS CENTRE AGAINST APARTHEID NOTES AND DOCUMENTS* August 1984 NOV 2 6 1984 FIVE YEARS OF ARMED STRUGGLE IN SOUTH AFRICA by Jeanne M. Woods /ote: This paper is published at the request of the Special Committee against Anartheid. It was presented at the North American Regional Conference for Action against Apartheid, held at the United Nations Headquarters from 18 to 21 June 198Y. Ms. Woods is a representative of the National Anti-Imperialist Movement in Solidarity with African Liberation, New York. The views expressed in this paper are those of the author._/ 84-19588 *All material in these Notes and Documents may be freely reprinted. Acknowledgement, together with a copy of the publication containing the reprint, would be appreciated. United Nations. New York 10017

INTRODUCTION ...... 1 BACKGROUND ...... 1 UmkhontoWeSizwe-theearlyyears...... 2 Strategy and tactics: Building the Base for People's War ...... 3 1976-1978: "The African National Congress lives" ...... 4 THE ARMED STRUGGLE ESCALATES - 1979-1983 ...... 5 1979 - Year of the Spear ...... 5 1980 - Year of the Charter ...... 5 Sasol ...... 6 Mass action ...... 6 The racists respond...... 7 1981 - Year of the Youth ...... 7 Voortrekker ...... 8 "Treason Trial ...... 8 Defeat "internal settlement" scheme ...... 8 Dark days for racists...... 9 1982 - Year of Unity in Action ...... 9 Increased terror ...... 9 Koeberg ...... 10 1983 - Year of United Action ...... 10 Defeat collaboration and build unity ...... 11 Armed solidarity BOTHA'S "TOTAL STRATEGY" ...... 12 Increased military spending ...... 12 Transnational corporations prepared ...... 12 Constitutional "reform" ...... 13 Aggression against neighboring States ...... 13 INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY - THE "FOURTH PILLAR" ...... 13 A special responsibility...... 13 Danger of intervention...... 14 Fight for sanctions ...... 14 Immediate tasks ...... 15 Unity is crucial ...... 15 Notes...... 16

INTRODUCTION In the five years commencing in 1979, revolutionary armed struggle against white minority rule in South Africa has escalated dramatically, shaking the very foundations of the apartheid regime. During this period, nearly 200 armed assaults and acts of sabotage by Umkhonto We Sizwe (Spear of the Nation), the military wing of the African National Congress, were documented by the South African press. 1/ Due to rigorous official censorship, countless more incidents remain unreported. This paper will examine the development of the armed struggle from 1979 through 1983. BACKGROUND Throughout the history of South Africa, examples of militant forms of struggle in the fight for freedom abound. For centuries, the Zulus, Besotho, BaPedi, Mpondomise, Batlaping and other peoples fought gallantly against the British and Dutch colonialists to preserve their land and independence. In 1879, at the Battle of Isandhlwana, King Cetshwayo's regiments armed with spears, defeated the powerful British army, marking the highest point in a 200 year protracted struggle. However, despite the great heroism and skill of the African people, by 1880, the whites had established their rule over the whole of South Africa. The Bambata Rebellion of the Zulu people in 1906, brutally put down, was the last war of resistance to be fought in the old style. 2/ Recognizing that lack of unity among the African people constituted their principal weakness, the African National Congress was founded in 1912 with the stated objective of uniting all the African people in the region to continue the anti- colonial struggle. 3/ During its early years, the African National Congress utilized primarily methods of agitation and propaganda. Later, more militant forms of struggle were employed, such as strikes, boycotts, civil disobedience and mass demonstrations. Year 1946 marked a turning point in the liberation movement. In that year, a strike called by the African Mineworkers Union was supported by over one hundred thousand workers. Intensified mass action was accompanied by growing unity among Africans and solidarity with both the peoples of Indian ancestry and the so-called "Coloureds". The election of the fascist Nationalist Party in 1948 accelerated the opposition to the racist r6gime. The African National Congress and its allies launched the Campaign for the Defiance of Unjust Laws; called nationwide general strikes for political demands; led women's resistance to the pass laws and a national bus boycott. This mass upsurge culminated in the historic Congress of the People in 1955, which adopted the . 4/

To the people's demands for a democratic, non-racial society, the rigime responded by arresting their leaders and charging them with "high treason" in a trial which lasted from 1956 to 1961. It was an unsuccessful attempt to intimidate the people and paralyze the movement. 5/ Meanwhile, parallel developments were taking place in the countryside, where peasants armed themselves to resist government attempts to replace their traditional leaders with puppets in the "Bantu Authorities". The most intense upsurge was among the Pondo, who developed a vast popular movement. By March 1960, thousands of peasants had established a clandestine government in the mountains, including people's courts, which evaded detection for many years. The Pondoland revolt demonstrated that the people of the countryside were ripe for armed struggle. 6/ In March 1969, the fascist attacked a peaceful demonstration at Sharpeville. Sixty-seven unarmed people were ruthlessly murdered, 187 wounded. The African National Congress was banned and forced underground. In 1961, the army was mobilized on the largest scale since the Second World War to put down a nationwide strike called to protest the formation of a racist Republic. With legal forms of struggle no longer possible, the African National Congress placed armed struggle on the agenda. 7/ Umkhonto We Sizwe - the early years On 16 December 1961, the first explosions of Umkhonto We Sizwe (popularly known as "M-K") heralded a new era in the liberation struggle. To the oppressed masses of South Africa, the M-K Manifesto declared: "The time comes in the life of any nation when there remain only two choices: submit or fight. That time has come to South Africa. We shall not submit and we have no choice but to hit back by all means within our power in defense of our people, our future and our freedom." 8/ The early acts of sabotage, committed with unsophisticaled "Molotov cocktails" and petrol bombs, were directed at government installations connected with the policy of apartheid. Among these exploits was the bombing of the office of the Minister of Agriculture in , the demolition of electricity pylons in Natal and on the Rand, and the bombing of the offices of Die Nataller, official organ of the Nationalist Party in Natal. 9/ The r6gime responded by enacting the notorious General Laws Amendment Act (known as the Sabotage Act), empowering the South African courts to impose a death sentence in cases of sabotage. Under the 90-day Detention Law, torture and detention incommunicado were legalized. 10/

With clandestine methods of work still imperfected, the infant organization was extremely vulnerable to betrayal by traitors and enemy agents. A major setback was suffered when the headquarters of M-K's High Command was discovered at Rivonia in 1963, its leaders arrested and sentenced to life imprisonment. Nevertheless, the acts of sabotage continued, and cadres were secretly sent out of the country to undergo military training. To procure routes for infiltration back to South Africa, the African National Congress formed a military alliance with the Zimbabwe African People's Union (ZAPU) in 1967. Together they fought the combined forces of Vorster and Smith in the Wankie Campaign, the first of many valiant joint battles. 1i/ The victories of the peoples of Angola and Mozambique over Portuguese colonialism ushered in a dramatic shift in the balance of forces in the region of southern Africa. More than merely providing the freedom fighters with friendly borders, they offered living proof to the oppressed masses of South Africa that it is indeed possible to defeat a powerful enemy through armed struggle. Moreover, the stunning defeat of the invading in Angola in 1975 forever refuted the racists' claim of invincibility. Inside the country, the growing militancy of the youth and students culminated in the uprisings, which spread nationwide. The shocking massacre of schoolchildren, shot in the back, proved once and for all that the r6gime would answer all just demands with ruthless military might. Thousands of youths fled the country to join the M-K. Strategy and tactics: building the base for people's war The strategy of armed struggle by the African National Congress is embodied in the concept of "people's war" - the combination of revolutionary armed action with revolutionary mass political action. In the words of , apartheid shall be crushed "between the anvil of united mass action and the hammer of the armed struggle." 2/ The armed wing seeks to "involve the masses of people in actual participation, not just as sympathetic onlookers." 13/ Thus, its tactics are designed to lay the foundations - the psychological, political and organizational preparation of the masses - under the specific South African conditions. The tactic of "armed propaganda" which characterizes the first phase of the armed struggle, takes into account South Africa's unique features: (1) it is the most highly industrialized country in the southern hemisphere, with a consequent high rate of urbanization, well developed infrastructure, and advanced transportation and coummunications systems; (2) Its economy is heavily dependent upon the 3,000 transnational corporations operating within its borders, which supply capital, oil, technology, know-how, military equipment and other vital products, having over $35 billion in direct foreign investment; (3) the white oppressor constitutes a small and diminishing proportion of the total population, necessitating the perilous enlistment of segments of the black majority to become instruments of their own oppression. Based upon these objective conditions, armed propaganda seeks to: (a) build the confidence of the people by exposing the enemy's vulnerability; (b) inform, agitate and mobilize the people in the militant mass action; (c) isolate and neutralize traitors and collaborators; LY (d) inflict material and moral damage upon the r6gime, striking key economic and military targets; and (e) scare away foreign capital by destroying power plants, interfering with rail and telephone communications and transportation of goods from the industrial areas to the seaports. 16/ 1976-1978: "The African National Congress lives" The period from 1976 through 1978 was characterized by actions largely designed to demonstrate to the nation that "The African National Congress Lives". 17/ Pamphlet bombs exploded everywhere, showering information about police activity amidst rush-hour crowds in Johannesburg, 18/ sending declarations from the M-K scattering through the streets of Cape Town, 19/ and fluttering photos of Nelson Mandela throughout Durban. 20/ Railway lines were sabotaged in Soweto, Durban and the Eastern Cape. Police stations in Soweto, Germiston and Daveyton, and "Bantu Administration" offices in Port Elizabeth were bombed. Notorious security policemen, including one who took part in the shooting of schoolchildren in Soweto, were executed. The M-K units saw direct combat with the fascist police, inflicting many casualties. Battles were reported in the Eastern Transvaal, and many unreported battles took place as well. 21/ The impact of these actions was immediately felt by the r6gime. Warnings were issued to white businessmen and householders to step up security "in order to help police combat internal unrest and urban terrorism". 22/ During this period, at least 2,500 people were charged with "riot offenses", and 450 prisoners were convicted under security laws. 23/

THE ARMED STRUGGLE ESCALATES - 1979 THROUGH 1983 1979 - Year of the Spear In the year of the centenary of the great battle of Isandhlwana, the African National Congress proclaimed the "Year of the Spear". 24/ The Spear of the Nation responded with ever more daring deeds. Bold units of the M-K made stunning raids on the Moroka and Orlando police stations in Soweto. Under the fire of AK-47 automatic rifles and hand grenades, three policemen were killed, records were destroyed and police barracks were heavily damaged. 25/ These notorious stations had stored the bodies of hundreds of massacred youths during the 1976 uprisings, stacked atop one another, like sacks of flour. The children of Soweto had returned. In another daring feat, three captured members of the African National Congress walked out of Pretoria Maximum Security Prison and escaped from the country under the noses of the border patrols. 26/ In frustration, the rigime staged the "Pietermaritzburg Treason Trial", jointly charging nine combatants who had been captured in diverse parts of the country over a period of year. When it was not possible to prove any specific illegal acts committed by them, the nine were convicted of leaving the country and plotting to overthrow the Government, and one, James Mange, was sentenced to death. Throughout South Africa, the people were engaged in heroic struggles. In the countryside at Crossroads, Alexandra and the Northern Transvaal, the people staged militant resistance to the attempt to forcibly remove them to the . "Independence" was imposed upon Venda under conditions of virtual martial law. In the cities, workers struck at the Elandsrand Goldmine, Fatti's and Moni's, Frametex, Rainbow Chickens, DTB Cartage. Commuters boycotted buses in Klipfontein and in the Ciskei. In Bergville and Alexandra, struggles raged against rent increases. 27/ The groundwork was being laid for entering the "Decade of Liberation". 1980 - Year of the Charter Heralding the 25th anniversary of the Freedom Charter, the African National Congress called upon the people to engage in militant mass struggle to defeat the "internal settlement" scheme of the Botha regime. 2/ The M-K answered the call, opening the year with an armed attack on the Soekmekar police station in the Northern Transvaal, the first such action in a white rural town L/ from which blacks had been forcibly removed. Two weeks later, the country was stunned when three M-K combatants, intercepted by police, took over the Volkskas Bank at Silverton, taking 25 hostages. After a long siege, all three men were gunned down. The reaction of the people were even more stunning. At the funerals of the three men, over ten thousand mourners gathered, proclaiming the slain men heroes. 20 In a poll conducted in Soweto by the Johannesburg Star, three out of four people interviewed expressed sympathy for the action, and felt that the siege advanced the interests of the black masses. 1/

Year 1980 saw the introduction of a new weapon on the South African scene - the RPG-7 rocket launcher. In the largest assault yet, the freedom fighters of the African National Congress attacked the Booysens police station in the center of Johannesburg, pounding the building for ten minutes with a combination of rocket-propelled grenades, AK-47 fire and hand grenades. They escaped unharmed, leaving behind leaflets demanding the release of Nelson Mandela and . This first attack in a white urban area was targeted to shake confidence of the residents in the ability of the police to protect them. 32/ Sasol On 1 June 1980, the world witnessed the first major economic sabotage of the South African revolutionary war, the brilliant attack on the strategic Sasol oil- from-coal installation. The key element in South Africa's plan to undermine possible economic sanctions was engulfed in flames. In well co-ordinated strikes, M-K combatants detonated bombs at fuel storage tanks at Sasol I and at nearby Natref. The blaze was described as the biggest fire known in South Africa. L/ Damage was estimated at R6 million. 3/ Unexploded bombs were discovered at the offices of Fluor, the American consortium which is building Sasol II and Sasol III. M/ The Star described the attack as ushering in "a new phase of well-planned and co-ordinated strikes on strategic targets .... aimed at the very symbol of the country's Achilles heel, its oil supplies". 36/ Liquid fuels power almost 80 per cent of the transport system and virtually all of South Africa's military machine. 37/ Mass action The Sasol blasts were accompanied by the fires of mass action. Buses and meat were boycotted, mines and factories were struck. In 1980, declared the "Year of the Worker", by the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU), there were four times more workers on strike than in the previous year. Port Elizabeth tenants went on strike, while thousands of students boycotted the classrooms, forcing the r6gime to close down nearly 100 schools. 38/ Demonstrating a heightened ability to co-ordinate its assaults with mass initiatives, the M-K launched an attack on railway communications, timed to reinforce a Soweto campaign against rent increases. Units also blew up the main railway line in Soweto, just hours after a Soweto residents' meeting called on blacks to stay away from work to protest a visit by Piet Koornhof, responsible for the intensification of the policy of forced removals. 39/ In November of 1980, fascist police besieged a house in Chiawelo, Soweto, in which hid Petrus Jobane, a combatant of the African National Congress. Although outnumbered, he refused to surrender, fighting to his last bullet and taking many policemen with him. His courageous spirit earned him the title, the "Lion of Chiawelo".

Meanwhile, young Afrikaner students at the University of , the training center of many racist leaders, confronted Botha with petitions demanding the release of Nelson Mandela. L/ The Johannesburg Sunday Post initiated a petition campaign calling for his release. This campaign received widespread support throughout the country. 41/ Six months after the campaign was launched, over 75,000 signatures had been gathered, AJ/ and a majority of whites polled in Johannesburg said that the Government should consider releasing him. 43/ This incredible display of support for the M-K Commander-in-Chief was a reflection of the deep crisis of the r6gime. The racists respond Against this backdrop, 1980 saw the appointment of General Magnus Malan to the apartheid Cabinet as Defense Minister, and the deployment of military personnel into other leading State committees. ±4 In the first quarter of 1980 alone, 19 trials involving more than 70 people had been heard, or were proceeding under the Terrorism Act and other "security" legislation. J/ At the same time, Botha introduced in Parliament part of his constitutional scheme to further entrench apartheid. 1981 - Year of the Youth Year 1981 marked the 20th anniversary of the launching of Umkhonto We Sizwe, and the fifth anniversary of the Soweto uprisings. The African National Congress dedicated the year to the fighting youth of South Africa. 46/ On 30 January 1981, twelve of these valiant youths were massacred in their beds in a South African raid on Maputo, Mozambique. The cold-blooded slaughter was accompanied by the savage desecration of the bodies of the slain men. 47 The African National Congress responded with an unprecedented wave of armed attacks - by the end of the year there were over fifty reported assaults on rail lines, power stations, government offices, oil storage depots, and Defence Force installations, causing millions of rands of damage. 48/ In keeping with long- standing policy, however, all attacks were carefully timed to avoid civilian casualties. The acts of sabotage reached a peak during the month of May 1981, as the regime attempted to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the racist Republic. In its annual message to the people, the African National Congress had called on them to reject these "celebrations", and the M-K mounted a series of operations of high precision and co-ordination aimed at disrupting the festivities. On 25 May 1981 alone, five widely separated targets were hit within a few hours of each other. These included police stations near East London and Ciskei, telephone lines in the Orange Free State, and railway tracks near Johannesburg and Durban. Bombs exploding in a Durban Defence Force recruiting office coincided with nationwide protest rallies. Meetings were held throughout the country and millions of South Africans of all races pledged to boycott the celebrations. At the universities of Witswatersrand and the Western Cape, thousands of white and "Coloured" students burned South African flags, hoisting the flag of the African National Congress and posters brandishing the demands of the Freedom Charter. Schools were boycotted and workers stayed home in protest. Soweto demonstrators committed themselves to bring about revolutionary change and to support the liberation movement. M/ Maintaining the momentum, thousands commemorated the Soweto uprisings by demonstrating for Nelson Mandela's release, while M-K units hit strategic installations throughout the country. The most dramatic explosions devastated two power stations in the Eastern Transvaal and a power plant in Pretoria, both owned by the British McCarthy Group. 51/ The fascists retaliated with the machine gun assassination of Joe Gqabi, the representative of the African National Congress in Zimbabwe. Though the regime denied complicity in the murder, secret United States Defence Department documents revealed South African plans to assassinate leaders of the African National Congress. 52/ Voortrekker The African National Congress struck back powerfully, launching the first major armed attack on a military base. The Voortrekkerhoogte Army Base, one of the largest military installations in the country, was blasted by five rockets. Though the r4gime claimed that "little damage" had been inflicted, 53/ the intelligence of the African National Congress indicated that at least fifty soldiers had been killed. 54/ The attack was timed to coincide with the 14th anniversary of Wankie Day, when M-K combatants first saw action against the racist South African troops in Zimbabwe. 55/ The highly sophisticated operation involved use of a "safe house", rented months in advance, and rockets fired from a nearby township. Already that year, evidence of an advanced and organized system of underground communications, shelters and arms caches had been found. 56/ Voortrekker proved irrefutably that the operations of the African National Congress are planned and launched from inside the country. "Treason Trial" In desperation, the r6gime staged a show-trial of three M-K combatants, charging them with five separate acts of sabotage. Anthony Tsotsobe, Johannes Shabangu and David Moise were convicted of "high treason" and sentenced to hang. After the trial, hundreds of sympathizers spilled from the courtroom to the streets, where they joined a crowd demonstrating outside. The demonstrators were attacked by police with batons and dogs. Defeat "internal settlement" scheme The people continued to direct their anger against the hated institutions of oppression - the bantustans, pass offices and fascist courts. In furtherance of the objective of rendering the system unworkable, M-K units launched a massive attack on the Mabopane police station in Bophuthatswana, utilizing 20 to 30 men, forcing policemen to run to residents' homes for cover. 58/ In Venda, the Sibasa police station was destroyed in a rocket attack, and two policemen were killed. 59/ In the Ciskei, a notorious security policeman's house was bombed. LO/ Bombs ripped the magistrate's court in Orlando, Soweto, and destroyed the Cape Town pass office which had been involved in the r6gime's drive to uproot squatters from the Nyanga area. 61/ Durban was a special target. It was to be the site of the culmination of the Republic Day celebrations, as well as a center of the impending "elections" to the South African Indian Council (SAIC), a major component of Botha's "internal settlement" scheme. A bomb blast, heard over 10 km away, destroyed the local offices of the Department of "Co-operation and Development", causing R7 million in damage. 62/ The day before the "elections", offices housing the South African Indian Congress were bombed, making it the tenth bombing in Durban that year. 63/ Dark days for racists As the year closed, over 5,000 people attended the funeral of Griffiths Mxenge, a slain leader of the African National Congress. His coffin was draped with an African National Congress flag. Incensed mourners attacked and killed a Transkei security policeman who was found spying. 64/ Electrical substations were damaged in the white suburbs of Rosslyn and Capital Park. The Wonderboompoort police station, the center of attempts to remove the Batlokwa people from their ancestral lands, was attacked leaving one policeman dead. 65/ On the eve of 16 December 1981, the 20th anniversary of the M-K, five explosions at the Pretoria power sub-station plunged the city and suburbs into darkness for 24 hours. It was a harbinger of the dark days in store for the white minority r~gime. 1982 - Year of Unity in Action As the African National Congress celebrated its 70th anniversary, the struggle for liberation entered a new phase. The masses of people were daily demonstrating open support for the illegal organization, despite severe penalties. At funerals and meetings, the colours of the African National Congress, as well as flags and songs, were defiantly flaunted. The M-K combatants were striking severe blows against the r6gime, but they were rarely captured. A pool conducted by the Johannesburg Star showed that 76 per cent of blacks regarded Nelson Mandela as the future leader of South Africa. The newspaper called upon the Botha rigime to "commit itself to a year of radical reformist action which would help diffuse the potential for violence". 68/ Increased terror The r6gime, however, committed itself to escalating its savage terror. On 5 February 1982, Dr. Neil Aggett, a young white trade unionist, was found hanged in his cell in the notorious Square prison, a victim of brutal torture. 69/ South African hit squads assassinated the

-10- representative of the African National Congress in Swaziland, Petrus Nzima and his wife; 7/ wrecked the homes of the refugee members of the African National Congress in Lesotho; 71/ bombed the offices of the African National Congress in London; 72/ murdered by letter bomb , a member of the African National Congress; 73/ and massacred 42 South African refugees and Lesotho nationals in Maseru while they slept. 2/ Undaunted, the people responded with heightened militancy. Neil Aggett's funeral drew over 5,000 mourners, black and white. Songs, slogans, flags and banners of the African National Congress filled the air, despite the menacing presence of hundreds of riot police. His death was observed by a half- hour work stoppage in which an estimated 80,000 workers throughout the nation took part. 2-5/ According to the official figures by the Department of Manpower, 1982 saw more strikes and work stoppages than any other year in recent South African history, involving over 150,000 workers. An average of 1,000 workers were on strike each day. M-K units blasted pass offices and courts in Soweto, 17/ Durban, 1/ Pinetown, 79/ Lamont, 80/ Port Elizabeth, 81/ and Martizburg, 82/ destroying cells, documents and records of pass law "offenders". Pipelines in Durban were bombed, 83/ followed by explosions destroying coal mining equipment and seven fuel tankers in a rural town in Northern Natal. 2/ Commemorating the anniversary of the Soweto massacre, twelve acts of sabotage took place in a two week period. §/ From the Eastern Transvaal to Cape Town, the offices of the "President's Council", 86/ petrol storage tanks, 87/ grain storage bins, L8/ and railroad lines and signal boxes 8 were destroyed. Koeberg In December 1982, two weeks after the massacre at Maseru, Lesotho, four explosions over a twelve hour period rocked the top secret Koeberg Nuclear Power Station near Cape Town. 90/ The r6gime tried desperately to suppress information regarding the incident, but the penetration of this heavily guarded facility made clear that no place in South Africa is safe from the M-K, because the M-K is rooted in the people. 1983 - Year of United Action The 20th anniversary of the arrest of the M-K leadership at Rivonia found a situation where revolutionary ferment among all sections of the oppressed black majority had reached unprecedented heights, plunging the racist r6gime into ever deeper political and economic crisis. Pointing out that the "initiative is shifting into the hands of the people", the African National Congress called upon the masses to increase their offensive power by organizing all democratic forces into one front for national

-11- liberation. 91/ This would enable the full realization of the strategy of people's war developed by the African National Congress - consisting of the union of revolutionary mass political action and revolutionary armed struggle. Defeat collaboration and build unity Thus, two spectacular parallel developments elevated the struggle on the military and mass fronts to qualitatively new levels. In May 1982, a powerful car bomb exploded at a military intelligence installation of the South African Air Force in Pretoria. Beneath the shattered glass and crumbled walls lay more than 70 dead members of the fascist armed forces. 2/ By all accounts, the reaction of the black masses was "jubilant". "Never again", asserted , President of the African National Congress, "are our people going to do all the bleeding". 93/ He vowed that the "escalating armed struggle will make itself felt among an increasing number of those who have chosen to serve in the enemy's forces of repression". 94/ Three months later, the largest legal demonstration since Sharpeville was held, signalling the formation of the United Democratic Front. Organized in opposition to Botha's "constitutional scheme" to win allies from among the black population, the united Democratic Front forged greated unity among the people. In open defiance of the r~gime, it selected Nelson Mandela as its patron, and all three people elected as national presidents are prominent figures of the African National Congress. 25/ Presently, over 600 national organizations are affiliated, with a combined membership of millions of people. 96/ Armed solidarity The M-K units continued to exert pressure on the apartheid administrative structure, deepening their co-ordination with the struggle of the people. In solidarity with the militant boycott and strike activity in the Ciskei, explosions extensively damaged the offices of the Ciskei "Consulate" in Johannesburg. 27/ Five bombs rocked the Supreme Court building in Pietermaritzburg, the scene of many notorious "treason trials", destroying offices used to interrogate and torture prisoners. 98/ Two powerful bombs destroyed the offices of the Department of Internal Affairs in the western Transvaal, causing over R250,000 in damage. 2/ On Kruger Day, the Afrikaner national holiday, a series of limpet mine explosions rocked the small northern Transvaal town of Warmbaths, destroying 11 vital tanks of petrol, as well as the tankers. 100/ Electric power stations in Pietermaritzburg, 101/ the Johannesburg-Natal railway line, 102, a police warehouse and a bus depot in Durban, 103/ as well as two Durban power pylons 104_/ were destroyed within a three week period.

-12- On the eve of the M-K's 22nd anniversary, a bomb shattered the Johannesburg office of the Department of Foreign Affairs. Three hours later, three more bombs went off on Durban's beachfront. 105/ The next week, two bombs exploded in the black township of KwaMashu, causing extensive damage to the hated offices of the "KwaZulu Development Corporation." 106/ Incidents of direct clashes with South African police and military personnel grew more frequent, but were usually censored. After one such engagement, reported so that the rigime could brag that its forces had killed four "terrorists", Magnus Malan admitted that there was a "new tendency of active internal support" for the freedom fighters of the African National Congress. 107/ As the year closed, a Star pool in Soweto found that if elections were held now, Nelson Mandela and the African National Congress would be put in power. 108/ BOTHA'S "TOTAL STRATEGY" In response to the rising tide of liberation, the South African fascists have developed the "total strategy". It is a strategy based upon the complete militarization of the State apparatus and of all sectors of white society. Through the , senior military and intelligence officers exercise the effective decision-making authority, supplanting the Cabinet. 129/ Since 1976, the private sector of the economy has been drawn into a closer alliance with the State, under the dominance of the military. A "Defence Manpower Liason Committee", consisting of businessmen drawn from major industrial and financial enterprises, is responsible for advising the Minister of Defence on military matters related to the economy. Increased military spending South Africa's military expenditures have increased astronomically since the commencement of the armed struggle - from R72 million in 1961, to R3,000 million in 1981 - 4,168 per cent. 11__1/ Under the Defence Amendment Act of 1982, compulsory military service was dramatically expanded. All white males between the ages of 16 and 55 are liable for conscription for two years, followed by 720 days, over a twelve year period, in the Citizen Force, five years in the Reserves and finally, emergency service in the Commandos (regional militia.) 112/ All white boys aged 12 to 17 receive cadet training in the schools, as well as a military training during summer vacation. The more than 750,000 whites who possess light weapons are organized into local vigilante squads. 113/ Transnational corporations prepared Local industry and foreign corporations are an integral part of the "total strategy". White workers are organized into commando forces which, according to a confidential memorandum leaked from General Motors, will be put under army command in the event of an "emergency". A secret group of strategic industries, called "National Key Point Indistries", are prepared for full military mobilization to put down an "insurrection". 114/

-13- Constitutional "reform" Vital to the "total strategy" is the winning over of sectors of the black majority into an unholy alliance with the white minority. There are fewer than one million white men upon whom both the economy and the military can draw. 115/ Thus, the so-called constitutional "reforms" are designed not only to buy off the "Coloured" and Indian people with symbolic "power-sharing", but also to render them eligible for conscription into the fascist military forces. Simultaneously, repression of the black majority is mounting. The r6gime is ruthlessly pursuing its genocidal policy of forced removals and bantustanization. Deaths in detention are frequent, 116/ and for the impoverished masses who are tortured by starvation and disease, liberation is a matter of life and death. Aggression against neighboring States Viewing the existence of viable independent African States on its borders as a threat to the "security" of white minority racist rule, the r6gime has embarked upon an undeclared war of destabilization against the young nations. In an attempt to strangle them into submission and turn these natural allies of the liberation movement into enemies, the r6gime arms, trains and deploys mercenary bands in Angola, Mozambique, Lesotho, Zimbabwe and Namibia. Through murder, rape, pillage and economic sabotage, it seeks to coerce them into so-called "non- aggression pacts" which trample upon their sovereignty, reducing them to the status of Pretoria's policemen. INTERNATIONAL SOLIDARITY - THE "FOURTH PILLAR" OF REVOLUTION The African National Congress has identified four "pillars" of the revolutionary struggle in South Africa: (1) the vanguard activity of the underground structures of the African National Congress; (2) the united mass action of the people; (3) the armed offensive spear-headed by Umkhonto We Sizwe; and (4) the international drive to isolate the regime and win worldwide moral, political and material support for the struggle. 117/ A special responsibility In the construction of this fourth pillar, the poeple of the United States have a pivotal role to play. In a real sense, we share a common struggle with the people of South Africa, face a common enemy. President Reagan has proclaimed a "strategic alliance" with the South African fascists. His so-called policy of "constructive engagement" has bestowed a billion dollar loan by the International Monetary Fund, nuclear

-14- technology, Coast-Guard training, cattle-prods, and credibility upon the r6gime. In exchange, United States transnational corporations and banks continue to extract astronomical profits from the toil of the super-exploited black workers, IL8/ and the United States military-industrial complex maintains its unfettered access to strategic minerals: titanium used in aircraft frames and missiles, manganese for making steel, cobalt used in jet engines, platinum for refining oil, and chromium needed to make stainless steel - minerals which are vital to its nuclear war machine. For the people of South Africa, this alliance means prolonged suffering and bloodshed. For the people of the United States, it means runaway factories, unemployment, inflation, and billions of dollars diverted away from human needs. For the people of the world, it means the strengthening of a fascist military axis which surpassed Nazism, for it threatens to consume humanity in a nuclear holocaust. Danger of intervention President Reagan's record demonstrates that the danger of outright military intervention looms as the armed struggle in South Africa intensifies. Already there are United States "advisers", "observers", and a "diplomatic office" in Namibia. There can be little doubt that the imperialists will not rush to the defence of their "strategic ally" to protect their more than $15 billion investment in apartheid. 119/ Fight for sanctions The people of South Africa are prepared to wage a protracted struggle. But they are forced to battle not only the apartheid r6gime, but also the combined forces of imperialism, United States imperialism in the first place. This fact places the people of the United States in a position to considerably shorten their struggle, lessen the bloodshed, and simultaneously advance our own cause for peace and progress. The fight for comprehensive mandatory sanctions is a key factor. Transnational corporations control the most vital sectors of the South African economy, with United States companies dominating the motor vehicle, petroleum and computer industries. 120/ Without these transnational corporations, the r6gime could never withstand the escalating might of the people's war. In addition, we must organize to: - demand the release of Nelson Mandela and all South African and Namibian political prisonersl - demand that the regime accord prisoner of war status to all captured freedom fighters pursuant to the Geneva Convention of 1949 and United Nations General Assembly Resolution 37/69A of 9 December 1982;

-15- - prohibit all loans to and investments in apartheid South Africa; - strengthen and enforce the mandatory arms embargo; - impose a mandatory oil embargo; - strengthen the sports and cultural boycott; - end all diplomatic and military ties between the apartheid regime and the United States Administration; - intensify political, material and all-round support for the African National Congress in its fight to establish a free and democratic South Africa by all means possible, including armed struggle. Immediate tasks Legislation which would impose partial economic sanctions upon South Africa, including a ban on the sale of police paraphernalia, nuclear arms or technology, is now pending in a joint House-Senate Conference Committee, attached to the Export Administration Act. Also, Rep. George Crocket has introduced a bill (HR 240) calling for the release of Nelson Mandela. These measures must receive our fullest support. In addition, local divestment bills must be introduced and/or supported. Selective boycotts should be considered against major corporate supporters of apartheid, such as Exxon Corporation and Citibank. Unity is crucial As we meet in solidarity with the struggling people of South Africa, let us take to heart a message from their beloved leader, Nelson Mandela, in the aftermath of the Soweto uprisings: "Our struggle is growing sharper. This is not the time for the luxury of division and disunity. At all levels and in every walk of life, we must close ranks. Within the ranks of the people, differences must be submerged to the achievement of a single goal - the complete overthrow of apartheid and race domination". 121/

-16- Notes Y/ Guardian (U.K.) 13 December 1983. 2/ Publication and Information Bureau, South African Studies "Guerilla Warfare", African National Congress 1970, p.25. 3/ Sechaba February 1982, p. 3. 4/ Ibid. pp. 6-7. 5/ Nelson Mandela Planet Books, London 1980, p. 93. 6/ Mbeki, G., South Africa: The Peasant Revolt Penguin African Library. 7/ Guerilla Warfare p. 28. 8/ Manifesto of Umkhonto We Sizwe 1961. 9/ ANC Speaks African National Congress 1977, p. 111. 10/ Ibid. 11/ Ibid. p. 113. 12/ Nelson Mandela, op. cit. p. 192. L/ Sechaba April 1983 p. 13. L~A Guardian (U.K.) 6 June 1982. L/ See Sechaba March 1984 p. 8. 16/Nelson Mandela, op. cit. p.8. 17/ Rand Daily Mail 9 August 1977. Slogan on banner hung from Cape Town building. 18/ Rand Daily Mail 1 September 1976. L Rand Daily Mail 16 December 1976 301 Johannesburg Star 30 November 1978. 21/ Dawn, official organ of Umkhonto We Sizwe, Vol. 3 No. 11. 12 Citizen 2 September 1977. 23/ Sunday Express 27 January 1980. ?/ Sechaba April 1979 p. 1

-17- 25/ Rand Daily Mail 9 September 1980. 26/ Sechaba March 1980 p.4. 27/ Ibid. L8/ Ibid. p. 11. 29/ Rand Daily Mail 9 January 1980. 1/ Rand Daily Mail 12 February 1980. 31/ Star 22 February 1980. 32/ Sunday Post 6 April 1980. 33/ Star 2 June 1980. 34/ Rand Daily Mail 3 June 1980. 35/ Ibid. 36/ Star 2 June 1980. 37/ Rand Daily Mail 3 June 1980. 38/ Sechaba March 1981, p. 6 39/ Star 16 October 1980. ±O/ Sunday Express 23 March 1980. 41/ Sunday Post 16 March 1980. 4_/ Sunday Post 5 October 1980. 43/ Star 28 March 1980. 44/ Sechaba March 1981, p.5. 45/ Sunday Post 4 May 1980. 16 Sechaba March 1981 p. 10. L/ Ibid. p.1. 48/ Guardian (U.K.) 6 January 1982. 19J Morning Star (U.K.) 15 December 1981. 501 Sowetan 29 May 1981. 51/ Sowetan 22 June 1981.

-18- 5E2/ 57/ _/ protests, 59/ 60/ 61/ 62/ 63/ 64/ 65/ ±6/ 68/ 270/ 71/ 22/ 23/ 24/ 15/ 76/ causing a Rand Daily Mail 5 August 1981. Star 13 August 1981. Sechaba October 1983, p.12. The Herald (United Republic of Tanzania) 14 August 1981. Citizen 22 April 1981. Sowetan 19 August 1981. As a result of international mass their sentences were subsequently commuted to life imprisonment. Sowetan 4 September 1981. Daily News 27 October 1981. Star 30 June 1981. Sunday Times 8 November 1981. Citizen 13 October 1981. Sunday Times 8 November 1981. Star 30 November 1981. London Times 16 December 1981. Ibid. Star 12 January 1982. Ibid. London Times 15 February 1982. Cape Times 5 June 1982. Rand Daily Mail 3 August 1982. London Times 15 March 1982. AIM Maputo, 17 August 1982. Foreign Affairs Winter 1983-1984 Vol. 62 No. 2 p. 386. Financial Times London, 25 May 1982. Rand Daily Mail 8 April 1983. In 1982, there were 394 strikes, loss of 365,000 man-days.

-19- 77/ Star 4 January 1982. S78/ Star 7 June 1982. 2/ Ibid. 60 Ibid. 81/ Rand Daily Mail 2 August 1983. ! Ibid. 1/ Rand Daily Mail 26 May 1982. IV Daily News 4 June 1982. 85/ Citizen 7 June 1982. W§/ The "President's Council" consists of whites, Indians and "Coloureds", and advocates "power-sharing" for Indians and "Coloureds". 87/ Star 7 June 1982. LB Citizen 7 June 1982. !/ Sunday Express 6 June 1982. LO/ Rand Daily Mail 8 February 1983. a/ Sechaba March 1983, p. 5. Sj Star 21 May 1983. L3/ New York Times 22 May 1983. 14/ Ibid. In the characteristic form, the racists "retaliated" for the Pretoria bombing by launching an air attack against civilian targets in the People's Republic of Mozambique. Even South African newspapers reported that "the most damage was to a jam and fruit factory, where three Mozambicans were killed. (Star 24 May 1983). The buildings hit showed no current connection to the African National Congress, a fact which suggests that its purpose was primarily to pacify the fears of the white population (New York Times 25 May 1983). L5 Financial Mail 25 November 1983. L6 _ _d. 9/ Sunday Express 11 September 1983. 98/ Star 31 January 1983. 99J Star 28 June 1983.

-20- 100/ Star 10 October 1983. 101/ Citizen 15 October 1983. 192/ Star 1 November 1983. In the words of Dr. Phillip Frankel of the University of the Witswatersrand, "What we see in South Africa today .... is the commando ethic, where the soldier and the civilian are interchangeable". 103/ Star 2 November 1983. 124/ Daily News 22 November 1983. 1 Star 16 December 1983. 1061 Guardian (U.K.) 22 December 1983. 127j The Herald (Zimbabwe) 5 November 1983. 108/ Star 23 November 1983. 129/ Apartheid: The Facts, International Defence and Aid Fund in co-operation with the United Nations Special Committee against Apartheid, London 1983, p. 52. 110/ Ibid. p. 68. 111/ Ibid. The military budget for 1983 increased to R3.7 billion. 112/ ibid. p. 69. !L/ Palmberg, M.e, ed., The Struggle for Africa Zed Press, London 1983, p. 277. 114/ Ibid. 115, Rand Daily Mail 3 December 1983. 116/ Star 23 February 1984. In 1983 alone, more than 400 people were detained, according to the Detainee Parents Support Committee. (Rand Daily Mail 1 March 1984). 117/ Sechaba March 1984, p.4. 118, In the manufacturing industry, profits are 50 per cent higher in South Africa than elsewhere, while in mining, they are almost 100 per cent higher. Rand Daily Mail November 1983. 119/ Black Enterprise Magazine (U.S.) February 1984, p. 24 120/ United States companies account for 38 per cent of the motor vehicle market (Ford, GM); 48 per cent of petroleum products (Mobil, Caltex, Exxon) and 70 per cent of the computer market (IBM, NRC, Burroughs, Control Data). 121/ Nelson Mandela op. cit. p. 192.