A decisive battle for the rights of labor ARMED POLICE surrounded the offices of the Confederation of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) on April 29 and then stormed the building, systematically pursuing all the unionists who were there. In this way, the Pretoria regime launched an open confrontation with the country's main labor organization.
This assault came on the eve of two major political tests: May Day, which in 1986 was marked by the most massive strike in the history of the country, and the May 6 "white" legislative elections against which COSATU had just called for two days of peaceful protests. This attack on COAT came after a series of grave incidents. For several days repression had been escalating against the independent trade-unions, which in recent years have been one of the strongest links in the people's movement. On April 22, near Doornfontein, in the Johannesburg area, South African police killed six Blacks. This would only have been another item of news in reactionary and racist South Africa if it were not for the fact that this time it was six railway workers who were killed. On the same day the police also entered COSATU national headquarters in Johannesburg, causing serious damage. They were looking for strikers wounded in Doornfontein.
Moses Mayekiso is leader of the metal workers' union, MAWU, and of a
NONAL UNION •
CCAWUSA
community organization in his township, Alexandra. With four comrades he has been imprisoned for months, and has just been accused of high treason for his role in leading neighborhood committees. On this charge, he faces a very severe sentence.
Under the state of emergency declared in July 1986, the mass movement in general has suffered very heavy blows Now, COSATU has become a new target for the government.
The international workers' movement must go on the alert to defend COSATU and all the independent unions in South Africa. If the repression against COSATU continues, it will not simply complement the other forms of repression against the African National Congress (ANC), the United Democratic Front (UDF), the National Forum and so on. It would represent a new stage in the regime's repression against the mass movement.
The South African trade-union movement, and COSATU in the first instance, represent the highest level of unity and militancy reached in the coun try. Virtually every political and trade-union current participates in it and, within the framework of the union, discusses the future of its struggle.
The COSATU congress scheduled for July could, moreover, be an important stage in the consolidation of class-struggle trade-unionism.
Furthermore, COSATU has stepped up its collaboration with the community organizations, notably with components of the UDF. It has confirmed its decision to collaborate with the most active and and radical forces in the communities, namely the youth movements.
The recent founding of the South African Youth Congress, uniting the youth movements who identify with the UDF, was marked by a certain number of contacts with COSATU.
All of this cannot be tolerated by the Botha regime. It cannot allow a workmovement that is progressively consolidating its role as the backbone
SOUTH AFRICA of the mass movement to keep on indefinitely gaining strength and growing more radical.
In its April 26 issue, the London weekly Observer wrote, "A change has taken place in the resistance struggle of the Blacks. It has shifted from the terrain of the political and community organizations, which have been seriously disorganized by the activity of the forces of order under the state of emergency, toward that of the tradethrough the state of emergency intact and even seen its forces grow."
In fact, this movement itself has just taken a further step in its struggle. The strike by Black railway workers is the first of such scope in the vital public sector. It combines with a strike in the post office that has been going on now for 30 days. The state cannot tolerate such defiance. Moreover, it now faces another problem, the discontent of white public service workers who do not want to continue taking over the jobs of Black strikers, which they consider menial and degrading
The railway and postal strikes amount only confirm the self-confidence of the workers after the big strike of the clerks in the OK Bazaar stores, which got very broad support from the population and other sections of the trade-
It is imperative that workers throughout the world get information about what is happening in South Trade-union delegations must visit the country and be able to see for themselves what the workers' movement represents in the country. The unions that are fighting and suffering repression must be helped finan-
African trade-unionists who travel abroad to inform tional public opinion about their strug gles need to get the maximum hearing
It is essential to build broad, active support for the South African indepen-
Solidarity is needed Messages of support can be sent to: COSATU, PO Box 1019, Johannesburg 2000, South Africa; and in solidarity with the campaign to release Moses Mayekiso to: MAWU, 6th Floor, Angus Mansions, 268 Jeppe
3
Street, South Africa. (Tel: 4022210). May 18, 1987 • International Viewpoint
SOUTH AFRICA
INTRODUCTION THE following documents are of various types. The first is the new year message of the COSATU leadership to the membership of the union. It gives an account of the situation in COSATU. It stresses in particular the urgency of building one single, united union in each industry. The projected fusions are being delayed, and the leadership points out here that it cannot accept a continued inertia, which stems largely from the organizational weakness of some small unions or various forms of sectarianism expressed in previous debates.
Another key point in this document is the one on workers' self-defence. This is the first time that this has been posed clearly as a task. It reflects repeated attacks on trade-unionists, especially in Natal by armed groups following the lead of Inkatha.
The other major document, which concludes the dossier, is excerpts from a statement made by Sydney Mufamadi, assistant general secretary of COSATU, to the liberal white student organization the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS).
This text is very significant, because before the launching of COSATU, Mufamadi belonged to a union linked to the UDF. He himself can be considered to belong to the "Chartist" current [that is the current that takes the 1956 Freedom Charter as its programmatic reference]. His statement about an uninterrupted revolution is therefore very interesting because it indicates rather well the present position of this current, which traditionally favored a strictly national and democratic revolution, but is today strongly drawn toward a socialist perspective.
Moreover, Mufamadi mentions the negative balance sheet of the general unions in the past. This is the first time that a union leader coming from this current has clearly recognized the past weakness of this type of union, the major example of which was SAAWU. Most such unions adhered to the UDF.
Mufamadi's statement indicates the political recomposition underway in COSATU, a shift toward the left of the Chartist current, combined with the support of a united front with the UDF organizations by the bulk of the old trade-union left.
The middle part of the dossier is made up of articles that appeared in the March issue of COSTAU's journal, which was devoted entirely to the minimum wage campaign. The articles reprinted here give a view of the general line on this question. The content is radical, very pedagogical, and openly anti-capitalist.
From this collection of articles, it is possible to get an idea of where COSATU and its 650,000 members are today (and also of the constant concern for internal democracy that exists in the union).
This is food for thought and debate for trade-unionists around the world. In this country of ferocious repression, a democratic, united, anti-capitalist class-struggle trade-union movement has developed that is undoubtedly one of the most radical in the world. * International Viewpoint • May 18, 1987
AN INJURY
•
ALL
INJURY TO
"The
future is
in your
hands"
COSATU's 1987 new year message
WE gress or Sinth Arican Trade
Unions.
We greet you in 1987 — the year for the consolidation and decisive action of our movement.
COSATU is just over a year old. Today we are closer to the day when we -the workers and youth of our land -free ourselves from poverty, hunger, exploitation and racism. But a long and bitter struggle still awaits us.
Our struggle has come so far because of the struggle and unity of millions of people, led by the workers and the youth. The path we have travelled has not been easy, and although we have built COSATU into a mass workers' organization, we can see that the path ahead is even more difficult.
The possibilities before us are greater than ever before — but so are the dan-
We are being attacked on all sides — the bosses, their government and their allies are panicking. They are confused - and in their crisis they can see we are getting stronger.
They want to stop us from advancing. That's why they have imposed a State of Emergency.