12— GUARDIAN— MAY 2 1 , 1986 ■■SOUTH AFRICA I the police reported that they had made 15 ar­ Alexandra is firmly in the grip o f local ac­ rests for alleged possession o f drugs or stolen tivists— “ the comrades,” says a black repor­ property and one other arrest for driving with­ ter who covers the townships. “ Under their PRETORIA out a license. That hardly supported the view banner the local masses have reached a stage o f rampant lawlessness among Alexandra’s o f political consciousness where there is little 200,000 residents. or no cooperation between them and the au­ There are other more compelling reasons for thorities,” this correspondent states. “ This no TRIES accepting the residents’ claims that the ruid doubt led to the massive army raid this week. ” was primarily meant to intimidate. For one, it The comrades are even more forthright. " A i form an alternative the RETAKING ' lir the township. As the Alexandra Action township because the residents reject any gov­ Committee says, “ The raid is an attempt to ernment- appointed administration,” declares stop people from attending the funeral, but the the Alexandra Action Committee. “ The resi­ TOWNSHIPS funeral will go on.” dents have been mobilized so that they can de­ The committee is meanwhile seeking a fend themselves against the police.” court order to get troops and police out o f the By THE PRESS TRUST local sports stadium where they have been en­ LOSING CONTROL OF SOUTH AFRICA camped for the past three weeks. Committee Sending in the troops is Pretoria’s way of Special to the Guardian spokesman Naude Moitse says, “ They must trying to wrest control back from the residents DURBAN— The Alexandra township north vacate the stadium so that residents can go and the comrades. Thus far, however, they of Johannesburg has become South Africa’s ahead with the funeral.” The burials o f slain have not been able to break up any o f the ward latest “ Beirut.” political protesters have become major rally­ and street committees that are the shopfloor of Since the “ 6-day war” in February when ing points against apartheid so it is easy to un­ the new township democracy. The problem is more than a score of residents were killed at derstand the'tactics adopted by the govern­ that Pretoria’s control lasts only as long as it the hands o f South African police, the segre­ Last week's raid on Alexandra turned ment. On the other hand, despite the large can maintain thousands o f troops in the gated township has been raided by the army on the township into a war zone. numbers o f mourners— some 70,000 at an townships. And given that alternate govern­ dozens of occasions. Last week military de­ Alexandra burial a month ago— the absence of ments are being set up at a quickening pace in tachments beseiged Alexandra once again. out was like trying to leave a prison.” The in­ police led to a funeral at which nobody was black workers’ enclaves throughout the coun­ This time, however, the raid took on the di­ tensity o f the police searches meant that work­ killed. try, the army faces serious physical con­ mensions of a major operation, turning the ers had to wait several hours to leave for their Perhaps the most important reason for de­ straints. township into a war zone. jobs in Johannesburg. At some exits as troops in Alexandra is that the govem- Roger Hulley o f the opposition Progressive ' has already gotten the point. In a t parliamentary debate he*aid the gov­ Nearly 2000 heavily armed troops backed home government- town ernment had lost control in many o fth e Black by armored vehicles and tanks sealed off the The South African police said they carried council disintegrated in the wake o f the Feb­ townships. “ The control they have,” Hulley dusty slum and then moved in to carry out out the operation “ due to a high level o f law­ ruary clashes. They have been replaced by a observed, “ does not extend further than the house-to- house searches. Said a newspaper lessness which had been continuing in the system o f people’s government that is spring­ short shooting range of a patrolling Caspir as it reporter in the township: “ Getting into area. ’ ’ They also promised to maintain a high ing up in one form or another in many o f the patrols the streets o f the townships.” Alexandra was like getting into Beirut; getting profile. During the first 24 hours o f the raid, country’s black townships. townships. At a recent ECC rally in Johannes­ By HEINZ KLUG burg he was dragged off the stage by military Launching a national drive to demonstrate police and now faces a military tribunal and a opposition to the military draft, South Africa’s ? T'V?'HP possible 3-year jail term. End Conscription Campaign (ECC) is chal­ The ECC has become increasingly visible lenging the ongoing police and army occupa­ to apartheid’s draft since the current black uprising began 19 tion o f black communities and the growing months ago. During the state o f emergency, militarization o f local government structures. for example, antidraft organizers conducted a The ECC’s new campaign— under the slogan ‘ ^Troops out o f the townships” campaign, “ Working for a just peace” — will involve working closely with the llD F. Organizing hundreds o f people in local projects, all of cultural programs and educational meetings in them delivering the same messagfy, “ Con­ churches to avoid the ban on demonstrations, struction, not conscription!” ^ M J a C Q was able to ir*vyiye thyu^ds. Protest coordinator Richard, Steele says the ’people in this effort, which culminated in a 3- ECC hopes to make a “ small contribution to week fast in solidarity with detainees and with tremendous projects in townships where there the people facing the troops in the townships. are many social problems due to the lack of community facilities, particularly for the chil­ DEVELOP NONRACIALISM dren.” Drawing a distinction between its own The drive against conscription uses street work and that of the South African army, theater and other creative tactics to get whites which also carries out civic action projects in involved and to increase their political con­ mainly rural black are^, ECC press officer sciousness. “ We try to also get them involved Fiona Dove characterizes the military’ s initia­ in nonracial contact with black political or­ tive as “ essentially an attempt to co-opt the ganizations— even at the level o f our members hearts and minds o f black people, to buy credi­ going along to the funerals o f black people bility for the government and the military. Our killed by the troops, killed by the police, in the projects,” Dove expfouns, “ would be done townships. We feel that kind o f thing contrib­ only in consultation with, and under the guid­ utes to the development o f nonracialism,” ance of, representative community groups.” Evans relates. Whites who have been brought into political ORGANIZING WHITES activity through their opposition to military ECC spokesman Gavin Evans, recently in service, he continued, move through their New York to testify before the UN’ s Special work with the ECC and with black political or­ Committee Against Apartheid, discussed the Gavin Evans: ganizations to “ a point o f rejection of all as­ history and problems o f the anti-draft move­ pects o f minority rule and an acceptance o f ment in an interview with the Guardian. His majority rule and black political leadership.” visit to the U.S. comes at a time o f increasing ‘We are getting at the heart Campaign activists have recently suffered unease among South African whites. The regular attacks ranging from detentions to ver­ bal assaults in parliament from government of­ country’s defense ministry revealed late last o f apartheid's power.’ ficials calling the ECC a “ communist front.” year, for example, that about 25% o f the “ Even new conscripts going into the army get 30,000 high school graduates drafted in Janu­ ary 1985 did not report for duty. The jECC lectures on this devilish group,” Evans noted, adding that a right-wing student group linked aims to boost the resistance rate still further dents, but from their parents and people in the clared ineligible because they “ don’t have a when thousands of additional young whites are churches who were activists and in the civil history o f pacifism.” to the South African police and to the Young Republicans in the U.S. has run full-page ads called up in July. rights groups,” Evans recalls. The campaign It is illegal to counsel people to resist the In order to involve the largely conservative has even penetrated some Afrikaner bastions. draft, or even to object publicly to military ser­ attacking the ECC. white community in the anti-apartheid strug­ It now has branches at Stellenbosch Univer­ vice for individuals. TTie ECC skirts this re­ But while some 20% o f the white minority has shifted to the far right, Evans estimates, gle, Evans explained, activists decided to start sity, an incubator for the country’s governing striction by calling for a general end to the there has also been a significant shift o f whites with issues that directly affect whites. They elite, and in other conservative Afrikaans­ draft and to the military occupation o f the toward the left. More and more whites are ex­ thus began to rally opposition against the 4- speaking strongholds in Pretoria and Johan­ townships.