Voi 8Nos3 &4, 1989 Voi 8Nos3 &4, 1989 R6-95 (excl. GST) 00 Staffrider Volume 8 Numbers 3 & 4 Worker Culture Ravan (Cast in a RacialMould i EDDIE WEBSTER Racial..ould......... R 18.00 Working life (A People's History of S A Vol 2) LULI CALLINICOS R22.50 SGold and Workers (A People's History of S A Vol 1) LULI CALLINICOS R14-00 Industrial and Trade Union Organisation 1944-1955 JON LEWIS R15.00 The Sun Shall Rise for the Workers MANDLENKOSI MAKHOBA R1.00 A Taste of Freedom: The ICU in Rural South Africa HELEN BRADFORD R45.00 The Independent Trade Unions 1974-1984 Ed. JOHANN MAREE R21.00 Building Tomorrrow Today ISTEVEN FRIEDMAN R21.00 My Life Struggle PETRUS TOM 12 CZ1r I Pass Controls and the Urban African Proletariat DOUG HINDSON R14.00 Migrant Labour FRANCIS WILSON R3.50 Press Staffrider Volume 8 Numbers 3 & 4 Worker Culture Edited by Frank Meintjies and Mi Hlatshwayo with A.W. Oliphant and Ivan Vladislavi Ravan Press Johannesburg 6 © The contributors as listed on the contents page of this book All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise without the prior permission of the copyright owner. Copyright is held by the individual contributors of all material, including all visual and graphic material. Anyone wishing to reproduce material from this publication should approach the individual contributors c/o the publishers. First Published 1989 ISSN 0258-7211 Cover art (by Shelley Sacks) reprinted here with the kind permission of the Workers Library Cape Town. Typeset by Industrial Graphics (Pty) Ltd Printed by Sigma Press (Pty) Ltd Staffrider is published quarterly by Ravan Press Editor Andries Walter Oliphant. Assistant Editor Ivan Vladislavi6. Editorial Advisors Njabulo S Ndebele, Nadine Gordimer, Kelwyn Sole, Paul Weinberg, David Koloane, Gary Rathbone, Christopher van Wyk, Gcina Mhlope, Luli Callinicos. Designer Jeff Lok. Published by Ravan Press (Pty) Ltd P.O. Box 31134 Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2017 South Africa CONTENTS C om m ent .......................................... STORY Reminiscences of a Job Seeker .............. ESSAYS/INTERVIEWS Language and Labour in South Africa... 'We Organize and Educate': Cultural Intellectuals within the Labour Movement.... Mi Hlatshwayo: Culture and Organization in the Labour Movement ..................... The Living Wage Group ...................... The K-Team and Resistance Music ........ The Community Arts Project: Posters and the Proletariat .............................. Report on Culture and Media: COSATU Congress 1989 Ari Sitas: The Publication and Reception of Workers' Literature ......................... Video News Services: Collective Work and the M ass M edia .................................. Women Workers and the Struggle for Cultural Transformation ........................... Liberation Songs and Popular Culture... 'We Are Not Alone' The Making of a Mass Movement: 1950- 1960 ........................ POETRY The Workers' Trail .............................. Buya M andela .................................... There Was a Time .............................. A Fear, a Hope, a Dream .................... It's You, the People ............................ Ubani Omemezayo ............................. Marching to John Vorster Square .......... Day of Reckoning ............................... Ilanga Loduvuna ................................ Y o u .................................................. O h ... Y ou .......................................... CCA W U SA ........................................ Fear Not Detention ............................. Let Us Not Forget ............................... Aluta Continua! ................................. Kgoeletso Ya Ho Tla Seobokeng Sa Setjh aba ............................................ Victory is Certain ................................ Jangelisw e ......................................... Canto Fifteen: We Demand a Living Wage! Nithini na Basebenzi Ngelithala ............ Praise Poem of COSATU ..................... I am Talking ...................................... INTERVIEW Victor Shingwenyana: Theatre and the Struggle for Unity PLAYS The Silent Uhuru ................................ Gallows for Mr Scariot Mpimpi ............ Isolate the Enem y ............................... REVIEWS Before Dawn and Tropical Scars ........... Comrade Moss and Cruel Beyond Belief Organize and Act ............................... Frank Meintjies and Mi Hlatshwayo ........ 3 Jan Ceasar Mbele ............................. 10 Frank Meintjies ................................ 15 Moses Ngoasheng ............................ 29 A. W. Oliphant ................................ 39 The Living Wage Group ....................... 46 A.W.Oliphant 48 A. W. Oliphant .................................. 50 COSATU Cultural Department ............ 58 Brunovan Dykand Duncan Brown........61 Frank Meintjies ................................ 69 Nise Malange .................................... 76 Jessica Sherman .................................. 81 Luli Callinicos ................................. 88 Mi Hlatshwayo ................................. 106 Mandlinyoka Ntanzi .......................... 111 Ari Sitas ......................................... 112 J. Z ondi .......................................... 117 John .............................................. 118 Dumisani Zungu .............................. 119 Lindy 'Day by Day' ......................... 121 Frank Meintjies ................................ 122 Mi Hlatshwayo ................................. 123 47 pick-and-shovel-unity-boy................ 124 William Mattala ................................ 125 Mandlinyoka Ntanzi .......................... 126 Stephen Rakgosi ................................ 128 Stephen Rakgosi ................................ 129 Edwin 'Mapata' Tekane ...................... 130 Thamsanqa Phaliso ............................ 131 Buyisile Jonas ................................... 133 Alfred Qabula .................................. 135 Peter Horn ...................................... 137 Mandel Mvunge ............................... 142 Keith Gottschalk ............................... 145 Thabadiawa ..................................... 147 A.W. Oliphant ................................. 149 Rankoa Molefe .................................. 153 Mi Hlatshwayo and the Clairwood Trade Union and Cultural Centre ........................... 159 Victor Shingwenyana ......................... 165 Peter Horn ...................................... 185 A.W. Oliphant ................................. 200 Kelwyn Sole ..................................... 204 It would be safe to say that the organisers and adjudicators of the national poetry competition for the 1988 Sanlam Literary Award were astonished at the number of manuscripts entered. When the dust had settled and the joint winners, Douglas Livingstone and Basil du Toit, had been decided, the adjudicators had read 330 manuscript collections of English poems - and not just once! Too often competitions result in the publication of the winner's collection while the efforts of everyone else is lost. It was with this thought in mind that the publication of an anthology of poems selected from the competition was commissioned by Sanlam for distribution by them to educational institutions. The result is SOUNDINGS includes poems by: Mike Alfred John Axe Robert Berold D E Borrell Lynne Bryer C J Driver Basil du Toit John Eppel P Esterhuysen Francis Failer Gus Ferguson Paula Geidenhuys Margaret Gough Keith Gottschalk D A Greig Dorian Haarhoff Geoff Haresnape C J D Harvey Roy Holland Marilyn Keegan Cathal Lagan Douglas Livingstone Moira Lovell Rod Mackenzie Winston Mzikayise Mahola Sharad Master Glynn Meter 'Miki the Strokesman' Gomolemo Mokas J P Moolman Hugh Munroe Mteto Mzongwana Shazaan Saj Nadir G A Noon A Nyamende Andries Walter Oliphant Fanle Olivier A Putter Vanessa Read Jennie Roberts Reg Rumney Tony Ullyatt Chris van Wyk Graham Walker Margo Wallace A LIMITED NUMBER OF COPIES OF SOUNDINGS IS AVAILABLE FOR SALE TO THE PUBLIC. COPIES CAN BE PURCHASED FROM THE CARREFOUR PRESS, P 0 BOX 2629, CAPE TOWN, 8000, BY MAIL ORDER ONLY. ize: 128 vases Publ. date: June 1989 Price: R15,95 + GS T Si COMMENT In recent times, the militancy of the working class has made a powerful mark in the struggle against apartheid. This is especially so in the last five years when organized workers proved that their trade unions are a force to be reckoned with. The organization and actions of the unions have interacted dynamically with the uprising of the militant youth and powerful community-based organizations. The labour movement's structures have provided a home-base for the militancy; a place of consolidation, strengthening and deepening. When we talk of resistance, we are at the same time talking about cultural expression: through collective action we turn away from fear and overcome the factors which bar us from the role of active human beings. We start to think again about all the ideas and the images that bind us to an oppressed position. Mass resistance has opened the door to creativity; to speaking out about things which have for so long been smothered. The leading mass political organizations have taken note of this. They have set up special departments and structures to give support and attention to culture. The labour movement has witnessed a particularly important burst of cultural activity. A key milestone