destiny reviews a new book on South Time of 19.95, 459pp. Africa UTHAFRICA ed agains raring inflation; of the control and planning of the country's resources, of organisations which can link all sectors of the brutal accuck from vigilantes ond other anti- The strike waw is a new phase of the striggle in South Alrica. As this phase un- folds. all the unanswered questions will be posed again: The workeis themselves will iworkers charter" not in an absrract or formal way. but rather flowing directly from their ex- perience. The needs of the struggle now blems ol workers' self-defence as srate forces are inevicably drawn into the front line of the baccle, ofithe built in protection of the living gripping South Africa will raise new pro standards of working people and the unwag the discussion on the democratic forces. reopen superstitious anti-Sovietism and they hold in party to the left of the SACP. Up to now this lias been accompanied by ultimatist and somctimes deeply sectarian attitudes towards the mess movement, including the trade unions. Nevertheless the SACP has reacted violently to these efforts, not leust at the party is a modey conglomerarion of white intellectual political hobos of the (name) breed who have no record of political involvement. They an: (sic) their contempt the national oppression of black Just to mention. that the recently launch- people who have spilled so much blood ching: ed so called socialist workers disringuished by one. COSATE cungress itsell. of no importanee. (sic)
SOUTH AFRICA and apartheid have been curles. Whenever the donnant resentment of Africa of the glossy tourist brochure gives pacitying the situation. For the lax three vears however: These bocasiotal sporadic outbore have given piace 1o; a persistent ware of revole whad, an times, has teachod news, Micruitteady, Jor the pasr two der Sharperale 1960, Sowero 1976 — the Soush wat to the realines of life in the blark ghet- posure de the regime succeeds in remporarily die oppressed majority splutters inter life — toes, uniy to disappcar from high media ex mass movement at local, regional and na- nonal level. counterposed to the illegitimate apartheid regime: of How political power can Ilie towuships are ungovernahle except through the use of military force. The ungovernable' in the bld way. Bat it is the bartle in the political sphere which will workers aic rapidly making the economy decide die contes and there, despire the great divances registered at the CosaTu be won and kept bu the majority. congress. progress is uneven. The trade union movement's own political Traditiuns (which are incredibly rich) are in-
confliet in which within tocasurable time, not been lacking in combativity and orga- nixed, as well as spurudic, revol. Yer, ro vulnerable: From the birth of the ANC in 1912. through the rise and fall of the I0U in the 1020s; the defiance campaigns of the 1950k; Through Sharpeville and Soweto, the minority-ruled sare has emerged dented but As Martin Murray lays hare the dynamics of the current situation, this illusion - for i- - gives place to the reality of a regime's answer was co declare 1 state of For the non-academie, the man or woman on the Clapham omnibus, this book provides ill the fartial data repaired to achieve an ori- derstanding of rhicissues. It begins by putting South Africa in its continental and interna- tival contest, expluininy the impact of the The inter relationship of the South Alrican international capitalisen 15 essential to understanding the current sita- How is ir that the Kepublic of South Alti- ta, u maler indestrial guant with the most advanced economiv in the whole continent, with the oldest and largest black nationalist movement (ase), and a third or fourth gene- country in South Airica where majority rule story shows that the hlack people there have superlicial observers, the scare seems to hr in- pre-revolucionary polential. The minority There have boon tany books and Wirticles writen ahour the momentous events con vulsing the wab-continehr. Martin Murray's contributivn in this volmine b among the carion urbanised black proletariat, is Lie only has not been established? South African hi- emergency on 20 Jilly 198b, cnowed in July world economic recesion on. South Africa. apparenily, Irremovable. with cconomy this year- hest. tion 12. Sor Wirk in Proger nu, 48, for quotes from che: I3 Ser inraview with Cyril Ramaphosa in South diamonds. It jercens alammmy, 30 prrerore! its vanadiuns. These substances are irreplaceable The test we are going through is preciselt a way where liberal white business is feing to fiml a o: To negative renignition of this fact Rucha pro- min» be a picparing new trade union legita- decline of the popular movement, Flaiming 80,000 See the front page of And Aparna News. Britiin is the major foreign investor In 1 Despite the state of emergency chere are literally: CONATU congress resolution after rescilarion in- 2. 1911-21 was a decade of binet «ruggle hy main- y whir workers 19t0 culmnated in a black These were the proctous two penocs of the highest + Suth Alrica contributes nearly bU por cent st she mum-Sorter bloc's outpur of gold. 31 por cent of + per cem of its plutomum, 19 per cent of us sustainable pattern of sharing power with black Bobby Goureil, Trant-man for Anglor bion. We shoull also note that the South African Youth Conicss (SAXOO) is an exception in the I1. Nelon Mandela, guoted in Ineratigan! Vies the world' - manganese, 27 per tent ufas uranium. miners strike invulving 80,000 black wurkers 3. TheNtM had the largest delegation and a com Ahman Lobeur Balletin Vol. 12 no. 3. May 1987. sisted on the leading role of the working class 15. Soc index of Work in Progress, nos: 47/48. orcheneve politine perspectiot Follin 14 Joannesdang Weekly Mail, 20 July 1987. morth. Amitican, dav fitteen of the strike. in modern inducial toehmisues NUMSA conference resolution. members ar its Spring launch. 36: COMATU resolutions 1987. 1D. The Independent. 21/8/B7: 9. Soremier Warbo. 25/7/87 ¡ See the front page the world manness, hundreds ol linputes trade union aeries. Ty whit workers its vanadiums. hundrers Footes dillerent companies faced industrial action of strike support machine. Support relays of hinted ar, to consolidate and extend workers: defence to protect the lives and property ul evitably insufficient to address the problen ot political power. From that strategic point evidence of the congress, however, that the ideological struggie over the duture of the South African revolution is no more over Which brings us back to the current wave ol strikes. In May und June of this ycar, 35 some sort throughout South Africa A na- tional dispure between the metal industry: them; these strikes are grnerating a huge every kind are springing up to service the A now perspective on the armied popular) military actions has even been giousands of our Icaders who todav face of view, the rrade unions remain vulnerable to outside analyses, perspoctives and pin- I should be clear from the Gideon Marmal Rallen SOCIALIST OUTCOK my 3 September/Quinbur 1987 and NUMSA waits in the wings beyond the than the revolution itsell. struggin going
The toral raregy doctrine which, na- accht under JB Forster's Jeadership came to witned not ouly to restructure the dominant bloc of class forces hur also to forge new forms market forces than a formalised radical dis- the fore under the premiership of PW Botha. of legitimisation that relied mone crimination to securc bourgenis rule' Phibo Liffletor Refles represented a political SOUTH AFRICA more in line with the metropolitan zone of the capitalist wurld economy; and, turd, the institutionalisation of rigid racial compart- As Karl Marx noted over 100 vears ago.: the growth of industrial capicalism produces manufacturing and commerce — therby bringing Sourh Africa's economir structarr - the industrial prole- its own grave digger the forres of libration will mege vio- South Alrica's economic power is based un two factors - the wast mincral wealth. com- parahie nnly to the Sovier Uninn, which has provided the primitive accumulation for the development of manufacturing industry and the modernisation of agriculure; and the res- erve of cheap black labour which has assured Black township гіня.
through shop foor bacdes, "illegal' strikes 1976. Cociding with an economic crisis. These cronomic and political factors gave with the successfal liberation struggles of thic The Wielahn trade union and Jabout only legitimised existing strue- Trade union rights were arquired and so lords. I was the growth and orgu- aused strength of the trade unions, Logether Portuguese colonics to the north which gave fresh impenis and cohesiveness to the move- ment of revolt in South Africa after Sowero in rise to the independent black trade sions and so forte. The Jormacion of the blark trade unions is the key ingredient in the growth of black cariar. The current explosive situation in *in the new wave of unrest. demands are intertwined' political and economic South Abica is living proof of this. ment Apartheid, the ultimate relinement of Strict territorial segregation is basic 10 rional Party regime. Its corner stone is thr 1913 natives' land act, originator by the "Tiheral" General Smuts, whuch set aside 13 die remaining 87 per cent for the exclusive: per cent of fragmented land areas for the 75 the vast super-profits to attract capital Lnvest the colour bar which preceded ir, was to he the quarantor for the perperation of this apartheid: This, of course. antedates the Na- per cent majoricy of the population. system of cheap labour. the remaining 87
its and gas prices and so on, in che new wave cade of quiescence by banning organisarions: lood prices, starply increased rents, elecing- of unrest, political and conomic demands The events Murray analyses have been The difference be- tween the current struggle and previous row- (ANC, PAC) and arresting a few charismasic which led to an indlabonary spiral of surging chroniled chewhere, but never as concises olis is underlined. Alter Sharpeville, a stare of emergency successfully introdoend a de- descripuion of the rise ro political power of the afrikaner National Parry in 1919 and the beginnings of grand apartheid which was of shop-floor militancy was paralleled by che development Ol a huge mass movement in It is against this cronomic and political harkermand that Martin Murray dissects she current struggles. He also gives a graphic designed to consolidate white rule and afri- kaner domination within the white minoriry. But South Africa's rapid econonne grow th the townsbios and in the schoolk.? working class militaney towns. The resulting black urbanisation is perhaps the most important socio ennomic use of the white minority. Flisact wasto ber come the bedrock on which Verwoerd's con- These land fragmenrs are now designated as Murray describes bow conditions in these 'homelands" have steadily deteciorated. Un- able to support themselves through farming activities, the people have been compelled to seck work elsewhere and, principally. in the phenomenon in South Alrica during the ception of 'grand aparthoid was to be built the so-called 'homelands" for the blacks.
SOCIALIST OUTLOOK no 3 Saptember/Oclobe: 1987. Today that is nor the case. As Martin Murray puts it, "social violence has become. so routinied and endemic in the townships that it appears to have evolved into the "nor- dy confrontations between mcreasingly pola- rised antagonists seems to have convinced growing numbers on both sides that a milit- ary lest of strength and will is both an una- vidable and incvirable outcome of the conti- the profound experience of pit hed and baloo. mal" state ol' allairs" He concludes thar mious political unrest* theid: The last-expanding industries gave orienter contomic growth, the relaxarion of (from 1948-1030 second only to Japan) was undermining the very foundations of apar- rise to an insatiable demand for labour. This, lands was driving workers into the urban khentors despite restrictive legislation. Sch- ismus developed within the ruling National Party: A 'verligec faction emerged with a job preservation and the provision of job- combined with the poverty in the home training lor wage camers. reformist strategy: dents account for approximately 50 per cent of the total metropolitan population of South The author sums up the basis wlich has con and the attendant expansion of regiona! commercial metworks: sccond, the deepening ul internal ecunonnie structures by comple- post 1948 cra. Today, urban black resi- sustained the apartboid: regime nfaccumula- lion as follows: the widening nt the domestr economic base caused by rapid industrialisa- menting die peripheral agmo-mineral cirac- ive sectors with aurocentre growth poles in
cial reserves. Striking miners got no abrupt decision to call off the strike arose There is little doubt that to have chal- lenged that injunction would have led to the use of the army. It is not possible preciscly: there may be factors we are not from the threat of state intervention, fol- strikers to leave the occupiod dormitory from this distance to judge the situation lowing the injunction ordering