SASPU National, Vol. 4, No. 4
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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 51 Alternative title SASPU National Author/Creator SASPU (South African Students Press Union) (Johannesburg) Publisher SASPU (South African Students Press Union) (Johannesburg) Date 1983-10 Resource type Journals (Periodicals) Language Afrikaans, English Subject Coverage (spatial) South Africa Coverage (temporal) 1983 Source Digital Imaging South Africa (DISA) Rights By kind permission of the SASPU National Executive Committee. Format extent 28 page(s) (length/size) Page 2 of 51 Another pageturns in theSA studentscrapbooks# See page 26Mass actionand civil warreign supremein the Ciskei# See centerspreadSASPUNUMBER 4OCTOBER,.1983 PRICE: 20Members of the southAAlbod Workers unlfon cow that eemn of am of dm* ftnew works. Mow durin0 the bus boycotts in tllw.nueni,it I. estimated that over a hundred poop" have died sinew the boycott bpan.Ja Nee : . but thePeople Shall GovernON NOVEMBER 2, white South Africansvoted in the referendum on the new con-stitutional proposals. Black South Africansdidn't. That's the problem. By excluding themajority of South Africans from the processof political decision making, the powers thatbe are adding to the conflict, not to its resolu-tion.The fact that black South Africans couldnot vote was no oversight or accident. It wasa very conscious and deliberate step taken bythe Nats and the electorate. The privilegedminorities in South Africa can never rule byconsensus. The inequalities of power andwealth are so fundamental that they can onlyrule by control.To maintain this control they mustmonopolise power. They cannot afford toshare it. The wealthy and the powerfulhave constructed a whole network ofrepressive measures In order to dominatethe oppressed and the exploited. Ourbasic demands for human rights andfreedoms are being rejected, usually by force.Not only are we being denied any meaningfulsay in political decision making, but what lit-tle bit of parliamentary democracy there wasin South Africa is being jettisoned. Our onlyhope lies in organisation. Organisationthrough which democrats can express theirpolitical demands and aspirations.Two slogans come to mind. The one is therallying call of the most broadly basedalliance to emerge in South Africa's history:UDF unites, Apartheid divides. The other isdrawn from the most representative state-ment of the peoples' aspirations that we have,the Freedom Charter, which states: The peo-ple shall govern...# Gweta appears# Yusuf Dadoo:A Tribute9 Campaign to freeMandela p7p5p12THE DEMOCRATIC movement is facing aheavy attack from the state.Meetings have continually been banned, theSouth African Allied Workers Union banned inthe Ciskei, bus boycotters in Mdantsane shot,detained and harassed, and an official of theUnited Democratic Front threatened with arestriction order.Many organisations havehad their meetings banned.The UDF has been parti-cularly hard hit, its launch inthe Border region beingtwice banned, a national in-ter-secretariat meeting ban-ned, as well as meetings tooppose the constitutionalproposals and the KoornhofBills.In the run-up to the re-ferendum on the constitu-tion UDF meetings werebanned. Each time theauthorities have alleged thatSias Njikelana - releasedfrom detention in Ciskeia public meeting would en-danger the public peace interms of the Internal Security Act. Themeetings were prevented from being heldanywhere in the magisterial district for theentireweekend.UDF officials applied for an urgent courtinterdict against the banning of a rally inRondebosch, Cape Town. The interdict wasgranted, confirming the UDFs belief that itsmeetings do not pose a threat to law and order,and that the bans were groundless.Apart from the UDF other groups affectedby the bans are the Free Mandela Committee,the hrans\aal Indian Congress. Aiapo and theCongress of South African Students. Com-memora~on sersices for Yusuf Dadoo, thec.silcd past president of the South AfricanIndian Congress, and Stc\e Biko ha\calso beensilenced.1 he Free Mandela Committee called afaces iron fistof ApartheidFifteen thousand celebrated theUDF's People's WeekendPatrick Lekota - threatenedwith a banning ordermeeting to launch a campaign to free NelsonMandela, jailed leader of the African NationalCongress. Thousands of people from all partsof the country were expected to attend, but themeeting was banned.U DF President Archie 6umede said the banswere an attempt 'to inhibit the expression ofpopular opposition to the new constitution andthe Koornhof Bills.' . 'Mr C urtis Nkondo of the Free MandelaCommittee said 'the continued incarceration ofleaders like Mandela %vas inspired b\ .t sells. offear and guilt. -1 he ban %sawn act of co"ardirc.'I he ban of Saimu has come under hens\attack world-wide. I hoiatnile Gywcta, pre -sident of Saa%cu said. 'tile ban h\ Sche justcompleted what theSouth At rican(iu\crnmcntstarted. W. hold the South African (ioscrn-mcnl responsible fur the ban.'Spirit of defianceat people's weekendA SPIRI l of defiance and resistance sweptaccross South Africa last week as the UnitedDemocratic Front celebrated its 'People'sWeekend'.I housands of supporters from all corners ofSouth Africa joined together in days which,very clearly, belonged to the UDF.There w4,5 no stopping their belief in theirpewee to put a stop to the government's con-stitutional proposals and Koornhof Bills.Speakers and participants time and againswore to light them to the end.I he weekend was the climax of the UDF'sprogramme of action against the con-stitutional proposals and the Koornhof- Bills,and was timed to coincide with the white-only referendum.I he 'People's Weekend' brought togetherthousands of- people opposed to the proposednets dispensation in mass rallies, culturalevents, demonstrations, motor car cavalcadesand s,gils.w *To page 3 Page 3 of 51 REPORTS.SASPU_NATIONAL-2Cateringworkersremembera comradeONE OF the men who formed theCommercial, Catering and AlliedWorkers' Union, Morris Kagan, diedin September at the age of 74.Morris Kagan was born in Latvia,and from a young age was active inthe underground youth movementagainst the right wing dictatorship inthe country. In the 1930's, he arrivedt-' r VCO refusesto serve in`aggressive'SA armyDURBAN CONSCIENTIOUS ob-jector Paul Dobson has beensentenced by court martial to oneyears civilian imprisonment and adishonourable discharge from thearmy.Several prominent church leaders,including Dr Allan Boesak, presidentof the World Alliance of ReformedChurches, have condemned thesentence.Morris Kaganin South Africa, where he worked asa bus driver in Cape Town. He wasdismissed for organising fellowworkers.In his next job, as a clerk in a shop,he started his lifelong work organis-ing shop workers. During the 1959sand early 1960's, he was active in as-sisting Sactu and the unions as-sociated with it - particularly theNational Union of DistributiveWorkers. The NUDW delayed adecision on whether to affiliate toSactu or Tucsa due to the influenceof Kagan and others like him. It wasonly in 1961 that it joined Tucsa.Though most of his official posi-tions were in the establishedregistered unions, Kagan was in-strumental in forming CcawusaKagan's funeral was attended by ajlarge Ccawusa delegation, represen-tatives of Fosatu and Cusa, as well asemployers and members of other un-ions.Namibiandefendergoes downcampaigningONE OF the fast major internationalcampaigners against apartheid -Rev Michael Scott - died inLondon recently. He is also regardedas one of the earliest critics of SouthAfrica's role in Namibia.He spent large parts of his life cam-paigning against apartheid in SouthAfrica, and as a result was bannedfrom this country in 1950.In 1946 ne was jailed for threemonths after taking part in a passiveresistance campaign protestingagainst business restrictions on In-dian traders.In the same year he took up thecause of the lierero people inNamibia, making repeated appeals tothe UN to pressurise South Africa.He later took the case to the Inter.national Court of Justice.After leaving South Africa, RevScott founded the African Bureau inLondon, which wrote extensively onAfrican issues.lie travelled to many parts of theworld, informing people of changestaking place in decolonisingcountries.For his efforts he was deportedfrom Nyasaland in 1953 and expelledfrom India in 1966 for attempting tofind a solution to a 10-year tribal warin Assam. iIn his later years he also wo,irespect as a campaigner for nucleardisarmament.sChurch, student and communityorganisations have signed a petitionbrought out by the ConscientiousObjector