West German aid-workers hard words for the friends of those kidnapped. The government is involved on the quiet in negotiations with the kidnappers.)
kidnapped by contras
The West German government has long since made its political choice clear. Immediately after the right came to power, development aid for Nicaragua was put on ice. In statements of position, this govern-
AS WE GO to press, the West German aid workers kidnapped on May 17 have not yet been released, although the contras have reportedly asked for a ceasefire in order to return them.
In the early morning Saturday May 17, the 500 or so inhabitants of the Jacinto Vaca village were awakened by machine-gun fire. Between 70 and 100 armed terrorfrom the US-financed contra organization, the FDN, staged an attack that had clearly been planned long in advance. They searched the houses, shot two farmers and forced those who had taken refuge under their houses to come out by threatening to throw hand grenades into German work brigade fell into the hands of the contras. Four of them managed to get away shortly afterward; eight remain in the power of eight workers? Welt, in its May 23 issue "the kidnapped Germans them were wearing parts of uniforms — jackets, pants and caps." (psychologist), student), Angelika Goetz (bricklayer), Astrid Stelter (teacher) and Reingard Zimmer (student). They belonged to a work brigade that in Nicaragua in May. In to build a new settlement on the outskirts of the area.
This new settlement was planned after the first contra attack in December of last year. It was to help reinforce the local cooperative and shore up the morale of the village populawork brigade building plots, dug holes and laid the foundations for eight houses.
the help of tools collected in West Germany, a workshop was set up. The settlement project decided on by the Sandinistas and taken charge of by the solidarity movement in West Germany was, among other things, to provide accommodafor refugees area bordering on Honduras and for defectors from the contra ranks.
One of the participants in the first work brigade in Jacinto Vaca in early March said: "We had been active more than a year in the Nicaraguan solidarity movement, and we that work in Germany was important but that there we could only get to know the revolution in a theoretical process, supporting it in a practical way and defending this revolution also a shield against the threat of US intervention. By our presence, we increase the price to be paid for a direct military attack." precisely at this role of the work that the contras struck by a deliberate kidnapping of the internationalist workers.
On Whitmonday, about 70 German intervene actively to secure the release of the kidnapped workers.
In particular, they demanded that the ambassador send a telegram to US President Reagan, who has not proclaimed himself a contra but is also the one who holds the decisive strings and provides money. The ambassador refused.
One of the occupiers "He thought that such a move would only annoy the Yanks, and refused to the American ambassador by telephoning him. If we had not been there, he would probably have gone for a swim. He was very nervous and talked too much. He knew, he said, that what they were doing was that there were political reasons for that."
In Bonn, the minister for economic cooperation, Warnke (Christian Social Union, the rightist Bavarian wing of
Democrats) described ment has adopted, with only minor differences, the language of the US and the contras, who talk about a lack of democracy and Communist dictatorship in Nicaragua.
If the Foreign Office is taking legal steps today, they are not directed kidnappers but against the brigade members. On May 21, Genscher's ministry announced that the government in Managua would occupiers. It is possible that charges will be lodged against some of the occupiers whose names are known
The reaction of the internationalist workers in Nicaragua was firm and unambiguous. In order to thwart the contras, a new international brigade Cyprus, the United States, Canada and West Europe are going to Jacinto Vaca as a replacement brigade to continue the work of those kid-
In West Germany, in the been underway to put pressure on the government. In Frankfurt on May 5, a protest was held in front of the consulate.
committee noted, for example: "The contras are financed, trained and supported by the US. The US, therefore, bears the responsibility for the kidnapping of the work brigade, as well as for the daily terror against the Nicaraguan population."
The statement went on to make the following demands on the West immediately by putting United States in Central America.
"Condemn clearly the trade boyby Reagan in West Germany May 1, and make a commitment to other such materials to Nicaragua,, and supported by a broad spectrum of International Viewpoint 16 June 1986
SOUTH AFRICA
The impact of the strike movement was also confirmed by employers' sources. The management of the
South African industrial and mining conglomerate, Anglo-American, calculated absenteeism to be 83%, whilst the Association of Chambers of Commerce noted that in some places 80% of businesses - above all those owned by Indians + had closed. Over and above the differences in the mobilization according to region, these figures illustrate the progress toward the unity of the oppressed and ex-
MORE THAN one and a half million Black workers went on strike on
May Day this year. This is undoubtedly the most significant stoppage in the modern history of the Black workers' movement in this country.
The call for the mobilization, issued by the Congress of South African
Trade Unions (COSATU), demanded among other things that workers should not work on May 1. For several years, along with the upsurge of a new union movement, actions have taken place to mark this symbolic date for workers.
TONY ROUX
A recent enquiry carried out by a study group on questions of work linked the independent to trade union movement - the Labour Moni-
Group
(LMG)
- testifies in toring detail to the scale of this strike movement.
Notably, the report confirms that under pressure from their employof bosses ees a certain number are already in favour of recognizing
May 1 as a holiday. Even so, the great majority of bosses maintain the attitude summed up in the adage
"no work, no wages".
strike movement has clearly developed in the principal industrial areas of the country.
metropolitan regions amount to only
4% of the total area of the country,
1984 a two-day general strike (stayaway took place with considerable
(See IV No. 74, April 22, 1985).
region of Port Elizabethin the Eastern Cape province, saw the biggest percentage of strikers: about 99% of African workers and "a significant" number of col oured workers.
In the Durban Zone, there were 160,000 strikers - a rate of 61% of the total with African workers representing 68% of strikers and Indian workers 31%. Finally, in the Eastern Cape province the sum of strikers was only 15% of the total. But here a strong disproportion between African workers (51%) and coloured ploited, African, Indian and coloured, in the present course of mobilizations in South Africa.
May 1 was also the date for united demonstrations held by the various organizations struggling against apartheid - the most striking example being Soweto, where 20,000 people met. The mood of unity and comba tiveness in the Black workers' movement shows up clearly in this initiative.
At the Soweto meeting Winnie Mandela, the wife of the imprisoned African National Congress leader, declared that the situation had forced her people "to declare the year 1986 the year of liberation. You are the power of this country", she added, *I ask you to close ranks and yourselves for the final assault prepare
In his speech the secretary general affirmed "that whether the government likes it or not we are going to make May 1 a holiday". He issued a major indictment of the prime minister of KwaZulu, Gatsha Buthelezi, (leader of the Inkatha organization based mainly in the Zulu population), who has just created a rival union to COSATU.
The same day in Durban, in front of 70,000 people, the leaders of but in mid-1970s they concentrated within them 85% of the coun The victims of apartheid increase daily (DR) try's industrial production and 70% of its national product. Some 40% of the economically active population were employed there. This illustrates the extent of the geographic concentration of South Africa, degree of concentration of the Black proletariat.
The LMG enquiry on the rate of participation in the May 1 strike in these four major industrial regions of the country again brought out that in the Pretoria-Witwatersrand-Vaal (PWV) zone the number of strikers was highest: 1 million, of which 209,000 were miners. Leaving aside the mining sector the rate of stoppage is estimated at 67% in this region, whilst 90% of Indian traders shut up shop in some areas. The PWV region is a zone of high concentration of industrial activity and of employment. It is also the area where in November
International Viewpoint 16 June 1986 workers (8%) was noticeable.
Inkatha in fact launched a new union
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