spells major changes to continue their Thatcher's visit to Southern Africa at stage in Britain's drive to establish a agreement in South Africa. The British government's new ally in this project is of Gorbachev's 'new thinking'. The British left has a special responsibility to withdrawn from Angola, and United Nations forces are superintending the withdruwal of placed in front of SWAPO, but the conditions It is precisely for this type of reason that understand these new developments have to win 75% of the vote in the forthcoming the beginning of April marks a new Zimbabwe-style, Lancaster House the Soviet Union, in a further expression The new international developments follow ment on Namibia. Cuban troops have South African troops from Namibia The South West African Peoples Organisation (SWAPO) elections to be recognised as the legitimate Not only has this constitutional barrier been under which the elections are being held are stacked against the libration forces. Under the terms of the agreement South Africa announced that the notorious Koevoet counter-insurgency unit was being disbanded. In fact all that has happened is that the unit have been told to the Cuhan, South African and Angolan agree ing its control over Waivin Bay, the chief clearly he faced with continuing reaches. SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 14 April 1989 SWAPO protested against the virtual halv- ing of the size of the UN peace-keeping force. The reduction in size of the unit means that the UN can claim it is unaware Snuth Africa is also illegally maintain- outlet for Namibian uranium and other im- portant mineral products. SWAPO will of the Namibian people's sovereignty and destabilisation, whatever the results of the There are other problems facing a post independence Namibia, which ate not reducible to extemal interference. Multi- nationals such as Rio Tinto Zine and De. Beers are keen to see a smooth transition without challenge to their interests. Tothis end they have pursued protracted negotia- The lessons of Zimbabwe stransition.to independence are important here. The Elections in Namibia Lessons of Zimbabwe operations against SWAPO. and to act accordingly. remove their badges and government of Namibia. tions with SWAPO. of such operations. independence cloctions.
SWAPO! TURE WITH FE Angola now means that any military capacity the ANC har is now some hundreds of miles The response of the South African Com- munist Party to Soviet "new thinking' has been unsympathetic. African Communist has carried extracts from spooches by Castro attacking the retorted, 'How can you support an armed strug In truth the removal of the ANC bases from Soviet leadership's new line and has stayed un- characteristically silent in its own editorial Manoeuvres by apartheid from the borders of South Africa. comment on perestroika' gle which doesn't exist?'.
ing on the military front. Politically too there is regime. The constitutional crisis over Botha's But the ANC does not only face a weaken- a challenge to be faced from the apartheid refusal to relinquish the presidency, has only temporarily interrupted the political manoeuv. De Klerk has already conducted discussions res being prepared by the National Party.
movement in South Africa. Such unity would have to be a genuine recomposition, rather than the simple ultimatum in which such a move has Moves towards unity have already developed apace belween individual unions and tirough present time is one of setback. In this context Trials such an the Upington 25 and that of Moses Mayekisn (soc hox) still consign scores. tion to the massive international campaign for when the government saw an opportunity to fers the opportunity for the left to start to put forward a constructive altemative within the anti-apartheid movement in Britain. Meetings of left activists in AA have already started to Building such a solidarity movement in this ly strengthen the development of the workers However even if such unity is established the prospect facing the liberation movement at the ing the promise of release from the government marksa signficant victory in an otherwise bleak the release of her husband, Ironically the Botha crisis probably blocked the release of Mandela Steve Roberts dela through the activitier of her bodyguard. has given the regime a breathing space in rela- release him with the minimum political impact establish a provisional agenda for such an alter- native based on: support for all those fighting against the apartheid regime; labour movement linking up with the black community and fight- chuntry should he the left's response to the project of our own imperialists in imposing a the victory won by the hunger strikers in forc- of militants to the gallows or massive jail sen- In addition the disgracing of Winnie Man- SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 14 April 1989 action to hlock collaboration with apartheid; been posed by COSATU leaders up until now. The period of change in Southern Africa of ing for a democratic anti-apartheid movement. Solidarity with Namibian struggle requires higher priority from the British left Hunger strike victory thanks to the Stompic Mokhetsi murder. solution on the people of South Africa. rank and file initiatives. landscape. Betha's goverment. The weight of repression this strategy, the United Democratic Front, has moves which led to the formation of COSATU, encant that the broad front formed to execute The only nationally bared organs of resis- tance still intact are those of the trade unions. The ANC, which was initially hostile to the trade union confederation, Until the last con- Ful. Little or no response was forthcoming from lenge of those who wished to impose the programmatic Framework of the ANC on the However the decision of that congress to bold a broad conference of all those against the apartheid regime, as against the position of the "Charterist" forces which was that the gathering should be limited to those who supported the ANC's Freedom Charter, marked a reversal of The conference itself was banned by the regime. But since then the terrain of the debate has shifted onto that of trade union unity and in particular the unity of COSATU with NACTU, has tried in impose its hegemony on the new gress of COSATU this appeared to be success the ranks of unions like NUMSA to the chal- The unity of the two federations would great and subversion for supposedly being part of Khola was accompanied hy Bongani an unlawful attempt to coerce, usurp or en- the other independent trade union federation. Bkhuno, NUMSA member and chair of the national shop stewards council of the BTR Dunlop Group. Bongani was recently unfair- ly dismissed and his union prohibited hy the courts form taking stnke action in his support. It is vital that we redouble all efforts to sup- Trade union unity danger the authority of the state", Defend the Alexandra Five port these comrades. collapsed. Rev. Allan Hendrickse, leader of the Labour ticular importance. The KwaZulu leader wants Klerk's price for this is the incorporation of Thatcher's evidence that her approach in better with various collaborationist leaders like the The negotiations with Buthelezi are of par- to see the introduction of the power-sharing elections in Natal, leading to the dramatic ex- tension of his clectoral basc in the country. De Buthelezi into the governmental National Council, which until now he has boycotted until Mandela and other political prisoners have The legitimisation of the Natal proposal with London and Washington are vital to both the govemment and Buthelezi, and are part of cords were the subject of an important meeting From the uprising of 1984-85 the ANC cording to which the ANC would develop a regime would be forced to the negotiating table mation of an ANC govemment within the This strategy underestimated the formidable partner of South African trade union leader, Moses Mayekiso, has just finished touring Britain on a TUC sponsored speaking tour to spending 2 years in detention as a result of trial which has already been going on for over The problems Rowing from the Namibia ac- of the ANC held in Norway at the end of March. and elections beld which would lead to the for- political and repressive reserves still enjoyed by Khola Mayekiso, NUMSA activist and The five were recently released on bail after massive international campaigns in the labour movement, but still face possible life senter- ces if they are found guilty at the end of their a year. They face charges of treason, sedition The organisation faces a crisis of perspective. Party, and Chief Buthelezi, the Zulu leader. ANC discusses problems developed a strategy of 'ungovernability", "dual power" based on the townships. raise support for the Alexandra Five. been released and the ANC legalised than that of sanctions. Page 12 decade.
THE WORLD ECONOMY In recent years there has been much discussion on the left of the 'new international capitalist crisis since the 1970s. In particular this discussion has centred on the division of labour', the re-ordering of the world economy as a result of the prolonged industrialised' countries in the third world. Here PHIL HEARSE argues that third world industrialisation is often overestimated, and the main feature of the coming relative economic decline of the United States, and the growth of "newly