AROUND
THE
WORLD
SOUTH AFRICA Freedom for the Upington 25! THERE IS much talk about negotiations and detente in South Africa these days. The regime wants to project a reassuring image. There is a parliamentary debate scheduled on the deregulation of apartheid and a probable reform of the Group Area Act is on the agenda.
But, for the regime, this "reformist" approach must be combined with bringing the mass movement into line. That is why, behind all the pretty speeches, the repression continues unabated. It took a long and difficult hunger strike for hundreds of prisoners, most of them held without trial for a long time now, to regain their freedom. As a result, today some of them have been released.
The "special branch" — the political police — continue to hound activists and leaders of Black organizations, searching their headquarters, detaining them for days
OBITUARY Abu-Baker Asvat
ABU-BAKER Asvat, a leading member of the Azanian People's
Organization (AZAPO) was assassinated at the end of January. As a doctor and an activist, he dedicated his professional activity to his political work in the townships of Lenasia and Soweto, in rural regions, and within ranks of the NACTU trade-union federation. All tendencies of the popular movement came together for his funeral.
His assassination once again lengthens the list of all those women and men who have run up against a pitiless South African government determined to smash the struggle. At the age of 46,
Abu-Baker was a living example of the whole fighting generation who had been involved since the youth uprising of 1976 and took part in the huge mass movements from 1982-86. He was one of the great figures on the South African left. * at a time and impeding the functioning of democratic and trade-union organizations. No movement is spared, and the trade-union movement — which is still the largest organized force in the country - is subject to constant threats.
Among the worst methods of oppression employed by the police is their tactic of making anyone who was even present at a demonstration where the death of a police officer or other agent of the state occurs guilty of murder. This was what happened to the Sharpeville 6 for whom, fortunately, hanging was averted by a massive international solidarity campaign. There are other cases of a similar nature, such as that of William Ntomela, an active member of the shopworkers' union (CCAWUSA) who was accused — despite the lack of evidence — of the deaths of a security guard and a scab during a struggle in 1986. Ntomela faces the death-sentence.
Finally, there are the 25 people from the Upington township, to the north of Cape Province, who are also collectively accused of murder in the face of a total lack of evidence. This example of repression is getting a lot of press coverage in South Africa, and there are the beginnings of a democratic mobilization for their freedom.
All of them are accused of having participated in the murder of a police officer on November 13, 1985 during a demonstration against rent rises. The judge found them guilty of various degrees of involvement: three of them for direct participation in the death, twenty-one for collective complicity and one for attempted murder. The trial is based on the principle that there was common purpose on the part of those assembled to kill the police agent, thus most of them face the death penalty.
MICA WEKNO
IS RIDICULOU
I SALMAE RUSHDIE
AROUND THE WORLD
Their trial began on October 13, 1986 and is continuing to determine a sentence. The Upington 25 include several women and their ages range from 20 to 63 years old. But many of them are under 25, clearly products of the youth uprising of 1985-86. And it is the youth, today, who are organizing to defend their comrades.
In the Upington township, there are an average of two families per household, and unemployment is at 40% (according to the Weekly Mail, February 17, 1989) In the Paballelo neighborhood, where the accused live, 92.4% of those who work earn far less that the official minimum wage of 557 rand a month (about US $184). Almost 60% earn 250 rand a month (about $83), and 36.9% earn only 150 rand (about $50). Apartheid reforms are nowhere to be scen in Upington!
As for the Sharpeville 6, international solidarity must now be stepped up so that they are finally liberated. * MEXICO Polish protest for García PROTESTS and solidarity demonstrations following the kidnapping of our comrade continue in Mexico (see the last issue of /V).
We publish below addressed to Mexico's President Carlos Salinas de Gortari from the General Council of the Polish Socialist Party-Democratic Revolution:
We are very concerned about the fate of José Ramón García Gómez, a leader of the PRT, kidnapped in Mexico on December 16, 1988. We are in full solidarity with the appeal launched by Ana Santander de Garcia, the wife of the disappeared, and by the PRT leadership.
We know that José Ramón García was an organizer of the Civic Defence Committees created after July 6, 1988, and that he took part in political activities against election fraud. We hope and expect that both the Mexican government and yourself will undertake an in-depth investigation into the circumstances surrounding this kidnapping and do everything necessary in order to as-
Warsaw, February 12, 1989 ISLAMIC NEWS WOR CHRONICS LITERARY CRITICISM