Solidarity must be stepped up
THE FORMATION of COSATU should make it possible to step up support for the South African workers and their organizations that are independent of the racist regime. In the main industries, united class-struggle unions are now going to be set up that will be anxious to find effective internationalist and class-struggle trade-union solidarity in the industrialized countries.
Subscribing to the press of the independent trade-union movement in South Africa, support for the strikes that take place there, inviting South African trade-union activists to the congresses of trade-union organizations in the Western countries, as well as sending delegations to South Africa, are now elementary acts of solidarity that the unions must perform in order to build relations with, and support the independent South African trade-union movement.
In consultation with the independent trade-union movement, special campaigns for boycotting and exposing imperialist interests in South Africa can be built. Industry by industry, company by company, it is possible to organize special actions.
The addresses of the individual united industrial unions are not yet known. Some fusion processes must deepen further in the coming months. The superfederation COSATU can be contacted at the following address: COSATU, c/o 2 Godhope Street, Belville South, 7530 Cape Town, South Africa.
* ** IN BRITAIN ... The declaration issued at the end of the international conference initiated by the seafarers' and dockers' unions on October 30-31, 1985, calls for complete international solidarity in adhering to the oil boycott against South Africa adopted by the United Nations.
The resolution in part calls on governments to "endorse and implement the UN resolutions on apartheid, in particular those on the oil embargo" and to "immediately lift
Standard Oil Honeywell (ENK Citicorp TWA GEMERALEEL R CBM® AMERICAN XPERS S CHASE MORGAN E Mobil BANNER Fosbury CE, HARVARD OUT
NOw! 18 any legislation which restricts trade union solidarity with the Black people of South Africa."
It further urges trade-union organizations representing seafarers, port, dock and other transport, oil, and chemical workers throughout the world to: "take direct action against the vessels of any companies involved in supplying oil to South Africa in order to tighten the UN oil embargo and to increase the risks and costs of suppying South Africa with oil." It also urges the exchange of information among the unions represented on ships violating the embargo and calls for a campaign among their members for "solidarity action with the Black people of South Africa."
Among the 28 unions with delegates were the National Union of Marine, Aviation and Shipping Transport Officers; the National Union of Railwaymen; and the National Union of Seamen from Great Britain. The United States was represented by the International Longshoremen's and Warehousemen's Union. From India came the Madras Port United Labour Union and the Forward Seamen's Union; and from Canada, the Fishermen's Union.
There were also representatives of other trade unions and anti-apartheid organizations from all over the world including the South African Congress of Trade Unions, the US United Mineworkers, and the British Trade Union Congress. IN THE UNITED STATES ... The disinvestment campaign around the country and on the college campuses continues unabated. Eleven states and at least 35 cities have passed legislation ending or limiting their investments in companies doing business with South Africa. And, according to Dumisani Kumalo, project director for the American Committee on Africa, 29 other states are currently debating such bills.
"The Student Anti-apartheid Newsletter" has reported that more and more universities are being forced to accept total divestment of their South African holdings in their investment and retirement funds. Among the latest are the University of Minnesota (21 million US dollars) and the University of Miami (17 million US dollars). Other universities with large investments that they have been compelled to withdraw by the student pressure are Columbia University (33 million US dollars) and the State University of New York (11 million US dollars).
On the artistic front, "Sun City," the powerful recording sponsored by Artists United Against Apartheid, has been bolstered by a music video and a new book, "Sun City -the struggle for freedom in South Africa," with an initial press run of 75,000 copies.
The Sun City complex in Bohputhatswana is a 90million-dollar pleasure dome that includes an enormous concert hall, the "Superbowl," where many American popmusic stars have performed despite the United Nation's call for a cultural boycott of South Africa. One verse of the title song, "I ain't gonna play Sun City," admonishes:
"Linda Ronstadt, how could you do that?
Rod Stewart, tell me that you didn't do it.
Julio Iglesias, you oughta be ashamed to show your face!
Queen and the O'Jays what you got to say?" The recording, written by Little Steven Van Zandt, former lead guitarist for Bruce Springsteen's band, is a scathing indictment of apartheid and Ronald Reagan's policy of "constructive engagement."
International Viewpoint 24 February 1986
Workers on strike in South Africa (DR)
Another new book, "an anthology of visual and literary art work in solidarity with the struggles of the people of southern Africa," is being published this month by Art Against Apartheid, a coalition of artists and arts organizations. The anthology includes artists such as Mfundi Vundla, Dennis Brutus, and Alice Walker. For information, contact Art Against Apartheid./NCBL, 280 Broadway, New York, NY 10017. IN BELGIUM . Two thousand people demonstrated in Antwerp on February 1 against apartheid and fascism. The demonstration, organized by the Anti-Fascist Front, was called in response to a fascist demonstration in November 1985 that supported apartheid. The Anti-Fascist Front is composed of the main trade-union federation, [FGTB], the Socialist Party, the Communist Party, POSSAP [the Belgian section of the Fourth International] and other progressive groups.
The mayor of Antwerp tried to prohibit the demonstration because of the sometimes violent confrontations that have been occurring for the last two-and-a-half years. He was finally forced to withdraw his prohibition, but so late that confusion around his actions deterred many people who would have otherwise come out. Nevertheless many trade-unionists, teachers, and members of the FGTB and POS-SAP were there to hear an address by the representative of the African National Congress in Belgium.
The next demonstration has been called for March 21 in Brussels. IN FRANCE ... The ten-year-old Anti-Apartheid Movement (MAA) held its sixth congress January 25-26 in Toulouse. Representatives from a dozen cities where local groups exist were present. The balance sheet of the MAA's activities demonstrated its vitality both as the center of initiatives in the fight against the racist regime in South Africa and as a source of information on all of southern Africa.
The positions adopted by the movement rest on a campaign aimed at the total isolation of the apartheid regime and the denunciation of its supporters. In particular, the electoral campaign the French legislative elections will be held on March 16] will be the occasion to demand of the candidates that they come out for legal sanctions against Pretoria.
International Viewpoint 24 February 1986
BREAD
WORKERS DEMAND A
Among French firms, CFP-Total has been chosen as the chief target for denunciation because of its particularly large involvement in South Africa. In fact, Total holds an exclusive contract to furnish fuel to the South African army, which is occupying Namibia, and to the police who are mounting the repression in the townships. O Pass Laws confusion CONFUSION REIGNS in South African officialdom over the status of "pass-law" policy. President Pieter
W. Botha's statement in his speech to the opening of the South African parliament that "influx control" should be replaced by "orderly urbanization" only repeats his statement made last year that "influx control was costly and out-of-date." (Le Monde, February 2-3, 1986). This latest statement followed a recent recommendation of the President's Council that the pass laws should be abolished.
The change will have to be enacted by Parliament, and even if passed, it is not known how the change will affect apartheid. Mr. Chris Nicholson, director of the Centre for Juridical Research in Durban, says that, even it a common identity document is issued to people of all races under the new policy of orderly urbanization," only the Blacks will be stopped and obliged to produce the identity document." (Le Monde, February 2-3).
In the meantime, however, prosecutions for pass-law offenses have dropped off dramatically although no new policy has yet been set. Between September 1984 and June 1985, in the Johannesburg Commissioner's Court 10,874 cases were prosecuted under Sections 10 and 15 of the Urban Areas Act (Section 10 strictly limits the right of Blacks to be in so-called white areas. Between July and December 1985, a total of 1,991 cases were heard but on a declining scale: 577 in July, 37 in December (Department of Justice statistics reported in the Weekly Mail (South Africa) January 24-30, 1986).
While prosecutions have declined, however, pass raids and harassment of Blacks continue, according to Sheena Duncan president of Black Sash, an organization that monitors rights violations in South Africa.
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HUNGARY