R IBERATION of OUTHERN FRICA October 1979 WOMEN AND

\r IBERATION OF OUTHERN FRICA (with B.C.M.H.E.) box 8'791. boh~l. mass. 02114 October 1979 WOMEN AND THE STRUGGLE FOR LIBERATION IN SOUTH AFRICA All Black South Africans suffer under the and they must leave their children with rela- laws of apartheid; a system which has been de- tives. Some women illegally join their hus- signed to create an underpaid, unskilled Black bands in urban areas. They usually have to live workforce from which whites and foreign cor- in illegal squatter camps and live in constant porations in South Africa can profit. This fear of being caught and sent back to the workforce has been created by forcing Blacks "homelands." to reside in rural "homelands" (or "Ban- The burden of discriminatory employment tustans") that are too small and infertile to sup- practices in the urban areas and rural poverty port their large Black population. To support in the "homelands" is particularly heavy on themselves, many Black people must leave the women, who bear the responsibility for raising "homelands" to migrate to cities to take the un- children. Isolated in the "homelands" with derpaid jobs to which they are restricted. Only little or no income they are frequently unable able-bodied, employed Black people, however, to adequately provide for their families. are legally allowed into urban areas, and any- WOMEN AND THE LIBERATION one who is sick, too old, or too young, or unem- STRUGGLES ployed must remain in the "homelands." This South African women recognize that they enables white employers to pay wages that are oppressed as women; but they also re- barely provide for the needs the individual cognize that it is apartheid's oppression of all worker, much less a family. Black people that has made this female op- This apartheid system oppresses men and pression intolerable. In discussing the li- women, but women bear a greater burden. beration of women, a South African woman Since men are preferred employees, it is dif- said, "Were our women to lauch a frontal at- ficult for women to enter the cities. Many tack on men... would they attain their li- women are left in the "homelands" to try and beration? Do our women really want to share scratch a living out of the poor soil. Those the dismal oppression of our men - do we women who enter the cities illegally are forced want to be equal to such abysmal humiliation? into the worst jobs - often domestic work - (cont. on next page) 2 (Women in S. A. con?.) Certainly not. We are then left with one option only, and that is to fight side by side with our men for national liberation." Echoing this call, South African women have adively worked with men in the national liberation movements. In 1943, for example, 15,008 women and men tesk part in a bus boy- cott in Johannesburg. Participants walked 18 miles a day to and from work to protest an increase in bus fares. In 1949, women and men workers engaged in a spectacular national work stoppage. Hun- dreds of thousands took part in what was pri- marilv a protest against apartheid and the election of the ultra-conservative Nationalist government in a whites-only election. During the Ssweto uprising af 1976, young women along with young men organized, pro- tested and were jailed. Older women were active in forming the Black Parents Association to show solidarity with Black youth. Winnie Mandela THE WOMEN'S PASS LAW CAMPAIGNS Women have also struggled separately from men. Probably the most important struggle of of three. All Pretoria was filled with women. South African women against their oppression Though protest continued in rural areas as well has been the struggle against the pass law sys- as urban areas, passes were issued. Women tem. This struggle began in 1913 in the Orange were forced to accept them in order to obtain Free State (a province of South Africa). There, pensions, to teach or nurse, and to register the women who lived in urban areas were forced to birth of their children. buy a permit or pass each month that they SOLIDARITY WITH SOUTH AFRICAN chose to remain in these areas. First, women WQMEN petitioned against the passes, but this failed The U.S. solidarity movelnent has begun to and across the Orange Free State women held emphasize the imprtance sf women's re- mass demonstrations. Although many women sistance to the apartheiai government. In Bos- were arrested and jailed, the struggle con- ton, a group sf woncn has been active sin= tinued for several years and eventually the Nov. 1977 in cduslting and erganiaing women women won. Passes were withdrawn. in support of South African women and their The pass struggle was rekindled in 1955 role in the national liberation strude. This when the Ministry of Native Affairs once again greup is callad the Winnie Mandela Solidarity stated that all women would be required to Committee (WMSC). It is named after Wide carry passes. The first big protest aminst the Mandela, a Black South African woman who passes, attended by 2,800 women, took place has helped lead the fight agoinst apartheid and that October in Pretoria, the capital. The ac- who has been interrogated, jailed, banned and tions spread and the following year in August tortured fer her activities. Despite this, she 28,000 women assembled in Pretoria. Since all processions were banned that day the women continues to be an inspiring and active leader walked to the government buildings in groups THE SOUTH AFRICA BOXING CONNECTION WBZ-TV 4 -RE4 APAll;rHEID , AND A5FROUDASA?UCOCK L Among the problems South Africa's whites letes were officially excluded from the Boston face is the rather enviable one of ample leisure Marathon. These were serious setbacks for time. With almost every white household well white South Africa. Every time a South Af- supplied with servants of all kinds, including rican athlete is barred from international com- cooks, laundry 'girls' and garden 'boys,' whites petition, the message that the racist policies of have lots of spare time. Many of their homes that country are unacceptable is hammered have swimming pools and/ or tennis courts in home to all white South Africans. the back yards. Furthermore, the government However, as South Africa has become in- provides excellent sports facilities for whites. creasingly isolated from the sporting com- As you might expect, then, sports are a very sig- munity, it has become more desperate to open nificant part of white South African culture. new opportunities for sports contact. South International sports competition has for Africa has found that opportunity in pro- many years provided South Africa with a fessional boxing. forum where the country could participate as an equal with other nations. In sports, the no- U.S. PROMOTER SERVES APARTHEID torious apartheid nation has enjoyed a rare ac- According to an anti-apartheid group, the ceptability. Sports therefore have provided a American Coordinating Committee for Equal- natural avenue for the South African gov- ity in Sports and Society (ACCESS), the ernment's overseas propaganda machinery. South African government secretly spent over $1 million in the U.S. in the past year to pro- SOUTH AFRICA ISOLATED mote the participation of South African ath- In 1970 South Africa was excluded from the letes in professional boxing. The World Box- Olympics. Apartheid apologists cried foul; ing Association (WBA) is largely controlled by "sports should not be mixed with politics." In the American promoter Bob Arum. Over the 1979 the governing body for international past few years the WBA and Arum have forged Track and Field prohibited South African par- close links with the South African Boxing ticipation. Earlier this vear South African ath- (cont. on p. 12) (Women in S.A. cont.) of the resistance. pressed people in the U.S. This pamphlet, Most recently, the WMSC has published a writterp hP -ri langue, .ir saeef the first pamphlet on South African wo- and tkik successful atfemp&+ts~akt infswutien -on stru&le. The pamphlet highEgh#s the Me of' women availabk to pcepk subide the aca- Wide Mandela as a woman en ia demic and pblitical cewdties. Iaformzgon worstn's struggles and in the national li- on the pa+hl& er WTofSC r;an be ebtained beration struggle as a whole. Further it draws from WMSC,c/o P.O. Box 8791, Besten, .MA out the connections between the Sauth African 021 14. liberation struggle and the struggles of op- -Liz Dressen WOMEN IN ZIMBABWE A new role for women in Zimbabwe is being born, and the midwife is that country's struggle for liberation, led by the Patriotic Front. Last May, the first seminar for women in the Zim- babwean liberation movement took place in Mozambique. The goal of the seminar was to increase women's participation in the struggle. TRADITIONAL AND COLONIAL REPRESSION OF WOMEN Delegates talked about how people in the liberation movement could overcome the ob- stacles to women's advancement posed by the present society. Customs such as bride price, or lobola, polygamy and ideas of male su- periority still inhibit women. In traditional African society, women pro- duced much of the surplus wealth by their agri- ALWAYS A MINOR cultural work, but men controlled the fruits of women's labor. Polygamy (the practice of hav- Regarding polygamy, Rhodesian law has co- ing more than one wife) meant that a man operated with the conservative aspects of tra- could obtain the labor power of several women ditional African society to keep women down. to increase his own wealth and prestige.

Load more