Railworkers celebrate their
SOUTH AFRICA the railworkers' action, seeing Sarhwu as virtually a sister union in the light of the common state ownership and close state control of the two industries. The militant struggle of the postal workers at one point forced the government to release two union leaders from prison before the union would start negotiations.
These workers' actions were taking place despite the state of emergency and in the face of formidable attacks by
THOUSANDS OF South African railway workers celebrated a resounding strike victory in Johannesburg's streets on
Friday, June 5. After three months on strike, and with many families near to starvation, the workers had refused to give in to the unrelenting attacks by management and the apartheid state. These articles are from the May 29 and
June 19 issues of the British fortnightly, Socialist Action.
DOREEN WEPPLER
IX RAILWAY workers gave their lives to the struggle. Hundreds were detained, including the union's entire negotiating committee. And every railway worker had faced daily intimidation and harassment by the security forces.
In an unexpected move, which left leaders of the South African Railway and Harbour Workers Union (Sarhwu)
"reeling a bit", the South African
Transport Services (Sats) finally backed down on Wednesday, June 3. Sats management contacted the union's solicitors with an offer.
Negotiating committee in prison
With the union's entire negotiating committee in prison, the solicitors had to go to the jails to consult over the company's approach. They were given the go-ahead to pursue negotiations and clinch the deal.
The company's climb-down was precipitated by the approach of the June
16 anniversary of the Soweto youth uprising of 1976. Sats and the apartheid regime — with which the transport system is so totally intertwined — knew that the bitter struggle by railworkers would provide a powerful focus for wide-ranging action by the community and the trade-union movement.
Indeed, the strike has already become a focus for many individual struggles and the discontent of broad forces.
Sparked by the dismissal of a worker for the "crime" of the late handing in of the f12 that he'd collected as part of his job, the strike rapidly spread throughout the Transvaal region, involving some 20,000 workers.
In the final weeks of the strike, the determination of the workers in the Transvaal was inspiring other workers further afield to join in the struggle. They saw that decades of racist treatment at the hands of one of the worst employers in South Africa - where even the limited 1970 labour reforms didn't apply — could be challenged.
The spectre of a national dispute was becoming a serious possibility. A national rail strike was a disastrous prospect for the South African employers, given the strategic importance of the rail network to South African industry. Additionally, and unlike any other country, the railway system is also vital for transporting vast numbers of workers forced by the apartheid system to live miles away from their place of
The railworkers' strike was deepening as important advances were being made by other workers and in other sections the population. the 700,000-strong non-racial trade union federation, was able to hail the merger of the car workers' and metalworkers' unions. This new union is a living example of Cosatu's industrial unions' policy. The second largest union in the federation, it will be a powerful weapon in the hands of the engineering industry's workers.
Formidable attacks by the state
The postal workers' union, Potwa, had also won a victory at the beginning of May. A range of overt racist practices - including a 200 per cent wage differential between white and black postal workers — had brought 7,000 out on strike.
These workers closely identified with the state. In April, 60,000 engineering workers staged three stoppages to protest against the imprisonment of their general secretary, Moses Mayekiso, one of five people on trial for treason.
The mines have also been the scene of sporadic action as protest strikes have mounted in response to continuing deaths in mining accidents, and as miners' wives and girlfriends moved into seven formally single-sex compounds in defiance of apartheid's inhumane separation of workers from their families.
Overwhelming community support for Sarhwu
From workers in the food industry and in the sugar mills of Natal to the go-slow in seven Coca-Cola factories, action was escalating. The launch of the "living wage" campaign by Cosatu helped to reinforce the action.
A second factor that the regime had to take into account was the developments within the community. Community support for Sarhwu was over-
Workers in the townships knew of the suffering faced by migrant railworkers whose wages have to support ten other members of their families left to fight for their existence in the barren bantustans.
Additionally, they had direct experience — as commuters — of the repression meted out against the strikers, as armed state forces moved into railway stations and on to the trains, manhandling passengers and carrying out arbitrary searches of the carriages. The community organizations were more and more loudly demanding action from
Women have been playing a particularly decisive role in the community organizations and have been providing the leadership of the street committees. This deepening activity has found its reflection in the relaunching of Fedsaw, the Federation of South African Women, on June 1. 1
Fedsaw had played a major role in the 1950s, especially in the campaigns against the pass laws, but had been dispersed by the repression of the 1960s. 7
Its relaunch - with veteran leaders such as Helen Joseph again in the organization's leadership — is a major July 13, 1987 • International Viewpoint
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victory
The settlement
• Non-selective re employment: One of the main demands of the strikers was for their reinstatement. On April 22, 16,000 had been sacked for tak ing strike action. Sats had originally offered re-employment, meaning that the company would decide who to take back, and those who were taken back would be treated as new starters
The final agreement for "non selective re-employment" is reinstatement put into a face-saving formula. All workers will have their original jobs back. The scabs will go, as Sarhwu demanded. And the re-employment specifies that continuity of service, and other facilities, will be guaran-
SOUTH AF SARHWU advance for the liberation struggle. The victory of Sarhwu will give a powerful impetus to these struggles. It will lead to droves of workers flocking to join the union, which was already
• Permanent status for Black workers: This clause of the agreement experiencing substantial growth during strikes at the heart of one of the key effects of the apartheid system. One the strike itself. The entire union has of the ways Sats has kept a super-exploited workforce is by denying any been strengthened.
job security whatsoever. At the end of 11 months, migrant workers would
But the victory will not mean an end be forced to return to a bantustan (or land reservation assigned to them)
to attacks by Sats. Although Sarhwu and apply for a new contract at their local labour office has won thousands of workers steeled
The agreement awards Black workers with two years service a new dein struggle and united around the princigree of job security by ending their contract labour status. This conces ple of "an injury to one is an injury to sion by Sats was a direct product of the strikers demand for an end to raall", the union hasn't even got a roof over its head.
• The right to elect their own representatives: Sats had maintained
All the materials needed to rapidly throughout the strike that it would negotiate with representatives elected consolidate the victory were lost in the by workers but not with Sarhwu. But in the negotiations that did take place bombing of Cosatu House. Some of the the workers representatives were de facto union representatives. The union's leaders remain in prison or desettlement now means that Sarhwu delegates will be recognized by the tained. Continuing solidarity by the company. It is a major step towards total recognition of the union. * labour movement, especially by railworkers in this country, will be very important in the coming months. #
An eyewitness report
RAIL AGAINST Apartheid
(RAA) was formed by activists in the British
National Union of
Railwaymen in March last year. When the South
African rail strike erupted, two representatives of
Sarhwu tried to visit Britain to build international solidarity, but were refused entry. So it was decided to send Geoff Revell and
Doreen Weppler - the chair and secretary of RAA - to
South Africa as an official delegation from the NUR.
This article is an extract from their eyewitness report on the strike.
International Viewpoint • July 13, 1987 cism on the railway.
D ESPITE THE obstacles, we
managed to make our contacts. They were marvellous people. Their underground existence is difficult to appreciate. When they escort you around, their eyes are everywhere. They live like that all day, all night. The union leader sleeps and travels in the boot of a car.
Out in the townships it's even worse. The world cannot see what's going on. There have been many, many murders.
Indeed, there have been many murders inside the police stations. Since the declaration of the state of emergency, there have been 68 people die in detention in John Voorster Square police station alone. It's in that place that Mike Roussos — who we originally had contact with a year ago — is being detained.
Mike is under a murder charge. He's being stitched up for the murder of railway workers! The media and the state have launched a big campaign claiming that these workers were victims of "necklacing" by trade unionists. Mike has been interrogated naked. He has been humiliated in the process. And all for murders that were really done by the security forces.
One day when we were there 15 Sarhwu shop stewards were arrested. The entire leadership of Sarhwu has been срем по весту росі detained. And when you're detained under the emergency powers, you disappear. the security forces are under no obligation to say where you are.
Against this background the young leaders of the rail strike are incredible. Their humour and their strength. One of them told us that the night before they had been spotted by the security forces who pulled out their guns
The railway workers immediately drove up a one-way street the wrong way, ditched their car, ran through a shopping centre — all this to meet up
Another told us of a "terrible time" he had the previous week. They were driving along a road and were spotted by the security forces. A car drove in front of them and forced them to stop. The security forces put pistols against their heads, opened the car doors and forced them out.
They were sure that they were going to be killed and left in the ditch by the side of the road, when a BBC reporter drove up to report on a nearby incident. Because the BBC had a camera and started filming, the security forces
Under the emergency regulations, it appears that the security forces are a complete law unto themselves. They've got carte blanche to do anything they want.
They don't do it so much in the cities - you don't go shooting up a shopping centre in a city because the world can see what's going on. But in the townships it's different. *