Mass struggles come together to produce explosive situation specific demands to the boycotts started around three demands: recognition of the student representative councils; the abolition of corporal punishment; and the ending of age limits that interfere with the already limited educational opportunities of many young
The death toll of the wave of rebellions shaking the Republic of South
Africa continues to rise.
On September 17, a spokesperson of the Pretoria police announced three new deaths; two men killed by rubber bullets and a woman found with a bullet lodged in her skull. This brings the total to 57 persons killed and several hundreds wounded in the last few weeks, according to the official statements alone.
of the riots was the 15 to 20 percent rent rise for government-owned housing in the townships around Johannesburg, coming on of the rises in General Sales Tax and basic product prices.
"To outsiders it might be beyond beyond belief that a rent increase of only
5.90 rands approximately £31 in the
Vaal townships could provoke a sizeable work stayaway, protest marches and
- once the violence has started - vicious attacks on community councillors.
It also led to massive police action, including the use of shotguns, and teargas, wrote a journalist in the Johannesburg Star (September 6, 1984).
The background is the growing convergence of a rise in the mass struggles against apartheid and against the constitutional reforms of Pieter W. Botha. It is very significant that, at the same time as there rioting in the Transvaal, the new three-chamber parliament was inaugurated and P. W.
Botha elected president one thousand kilometres away in Cape Town, in the presence of the
Unita leader from Angola, Jonas Savconcentrated the hands of the president, to the popular vote in a referendum time with the right to vote, on November 2, 1983.
Two-thirds of the electors approved of these proposals while there was growing protest activity among population, giving two new organisations, the UDF (United
Democratic Front, close the the positions of the ANC) and the National ian People's Organisation Azapo, the in-
Voting took place on August 22 for the 2.8 million 'Coloureds'
, and August
28 for the 850,000 Indians'.
on the turnout for the polls was awaited impatiently because this was an important test for the apartheid regime. Collaborators can be found. even a semblance of credibility be achieved? The response of the Coloured and Indian populations was clear. Many did not even register to vote, and of those who did only 30 percent of Coloureds and 20 per cent of Indians actually
The two winners in this electoral
The Reverend Allan Hendrickse, leader of the Coloured Labour Party, and Amichand Rajbansi of the Indian People's Party were both appointed minister without portfolio. about this status, P. W. Botha responded, 'If I find a Coloured or Indian capable of handling a portfolio, I will not hesitate to appoint him?
To dispel any lingering doubts on the emptiness of these member that the members of the three chambers will not sit in the same room. The 178 whites elected to the House of Assembly, the 85 members of the Coloured House of Representatives and the 45 elected to the Indian House of Delegates will be neighbours not be sitting in the same chairs. No opening for collaborators
The boycott campaign during elections showed the growing strength mass organisations, now at a higher point than they have been of repression in 1960. Leaders of the UDF and Azapo were among the 150 people arrested between August 20 and 22, just before the elections. Six leaders of the UDF had to seek refuge in the British consulate in Durban, where they still remain. out the country, public meetings, calling for a boycott of the elections, took
The independent non-racial unions were also involved in the campaign. The Fosatu (Federation of South African Trade Unions), one of the most powernon-racial federations, waged an intense campaign. Thousands of homes
Taking up, as they had done in August 1980 and 1976, the question of the overall racist educational system, the relationship rejection of racist elections was obvious. The official figures showed that 630,000 students boycotted classes in the schools and universities on Aug-
Thus, some 80 percent of Coloured students joined the boycott.
The elections took place amid fumes of teargas and amid violent con-
While a small in the polling booths, the mass of black people took to the streets, despite the strong police presence, and the violence that the repressive forces habitually use. The demonstrators responded in kind, with whatever came to hand. Their determination was such that the minister of law and order, Louis LaGrange, had to turn back his armoured convoy when he saw the crowd he faced on his tour of inspec tion in the townships. This symbolic withdrawal took a practical form in the government's suspension present situation in South Africa is the constant level of violence. learnt this truth through bitter exper-
Up until two years ago the independent unions could not organise the miners. The gold mines are the economic lifeblood of the country, and the white
Mine Workers Union, led by Arrie Paulus, was in agreement with the employers in refusing to allow what they considered as a plague into the mines. However, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) was recognised in 1982, and has now signed 17 recogniagreements and claims members among the 480,000
The cause of the strike is to be found in the annual wage negotiations with the Chamber of Mines. The employers' offer was a raise of between 9.5 and 10.9 per cent, while the NUM was demanding a minimum of 25 percent. "The offer is much lower than last year's settlement of 9 per cent for certain categories and 15.7 percent for others. There is no way we can settle for less than last year,' pointed out Cyril Ramaphosa, general secretary of the NUM. Certain sections of the employers want-
International Viewpoint 1 October 1984
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SOUTH AFRICA.
The black masses have thus shown, on every front, that they have gone through their experiences and have no illusions that it is possible to live with apartheid. This is more than a simple setback for the regime. The fact that P. W. Botha is continuing with his constitutional reform policies, and that a new homeland, Kwandebele, to the north of Pretoria, will receive its "independence' in December, making It the tith black state in south Africa, should not create any illusions.
The agreements made with Mozambique and Angola were important successes for the regime and its strongman. They help to lend credence to the idea that the only solution for Pretoria's adversaries is to negotiate from a position of weakness and accept peace South African-style.
The events of the southern winter are a counterweight to these agreements. They show the of reaching that sort of negotiated settlement, a Lancaster House-style agreement [that is, the deal that achieved neocolonial stability in Rhodesia-Zimbabwe], Within the borders of the Republic of South Africa.
No force representative of the black masses can take the risk of appearing as a collaborator with the apartheid regime. The principle of non-collaboration advanced by the Unity Movement in the 1950s is well and truly fixed in the consciousness of the masses.
Certain sections of white liberals have not yet given up the hope of reaching an agreement with the African National Congress, which has many times dangled this possibility. (1) But the ANC is caught in a contradiction: the national question is so central that it cannot go any further than an alliance with an organisation like the NUSAS (National Union of South African Students) whose rhetoric is quite close to their own, and does not appear representative of the white bourgeoisie in the eyes of the black masses.
The black uprising in the Transvaal shows what fate lies in store for blacks who collaborate with the municipal institutions created by the racist gov-
One can imagine the fate
The townships, scene of massive social upheavals (DR) opportunity to cripple the union.
Confronted with the employers' arguments about the recession, the miners replied that with the price rises and the drought, which particularly affected the rural areas where their families live, they were not prepared to give up. This explains why, at the same time as a legal strike on September 18 was called in seven gold mines belonging to Anglo-American, an illegal strike broke out at a coal mine in the Johannesburg region, at Harlbeesfontein, and in other places.
Although the Ango-American strike was legal, it was brutally attacked by the police. The violent confrontations that this provoked lasted all night, causing at least 10 deaths and almost International Viewpoint 1 October 1984
500 wounded among the miners. The conditions for black miners partially explain the strikers' reactions. Paid only a seventh of what white miners receive, the black miners face a death rate probably six times higher than in the United Kingdom, according to Dr Herbert Eisner, a British mine safety expert called in by the NUM. He also found local statistics on mine accidents "misleading.
The Chamber of Mines backed down to a certain extent, offering a wage increase of 15 per cent, which was accepted by the NUM. But peace has not been restored to this region, where there have also been rebellions in the townships. The curfew is still in force, and is not limited to the Transvaal.
ernment. of a political current that crossed this Rubicon.
The race is on, therefore, to win hegemony over the mass movement, a race that hots up as the confrontations between the black masses and the regime intensify. While the riots of the last few weeks did not endanger the rule of white capital, they demonstrated that a shift in the relationship of social and national forces has opened a crucial period in the history of Africa. 1. According to press reports, a meeting took place between Colin Patterson (the commercial attache and only South African representative in Mozambique) and Joe Slovo, a leader of the ANC, at the end of August. This would be the first official contact between Pretoria and the ANC.
9
YUGOSLAVIA
emerged. Petitions for the abolition of
"clauses affecting freedom of conthe science" in the Yugoslav criminal code, which make it possible to prosecute people just for things they say, or against