THE AFRICAN National Congress has given the De Klerk government an ultimatum.
It has called for its resignation and for it to cede to a 'neutral' interim government. This is to prepare for multi-party negotiations for a new post-apartheid constitution.
It has come on top of a demand for the sacking of Minister of Defence Magnus Malan, and Minister for Law and Order Adriaan Vlok.
However the ANC leadership softened the impact. They denied that their demand was the of imperialism immediate resignation of the Instead they wanted recognition of the necessity of such a government to safeguard the transition to democracy. The government then rejected both an interim government and a constituent assembly.
Why has the ANC leadership changed its tactics? Why has it gone from calling for the sacking of defence and security ministers, to demanding the resigna tion of the government? The answer is not only the repressive role of the state, but also the interal politics of the ANC - a the Mandela leadership. pragmatics' are led by the ANC's Thabo Mbeki, and the 'radicals' he, as expected, succeeds Tambo as President at the But this conceals real differenIslanders', the exiled leadership, and internal members. There is also tension over SACPI ANC relations. Dual membership, the communists by ANC memThere is distrust of the leadera growing belief that they must agreed with Yeltsin. mass actions like those of the Plans for mass actions were well. about 200 members including It warned leaders to prepare thought necessary to make expected that the govemment Actions contemplated are two million. boycotts and stay-aways.
Lawson Mohlomi, Publicity Secretary of the ANG Youth the situation to launch a race-war going over to the armed struggle cadre are already going abroad. minister Pavlov, and the new union treaty proposals Pavlov's rescue package' is a major move towards growing authoritarianism. It would ban strikes and political rallies 'during working hours'. Goodbye perestoika, and now goodbye glasnost as 'Cut benefits' - IMF THE INTERNATIONAL Monetary Fund has turned its well known skills at imposing austerity on the third world to Britain. Last week it urged Britain to cut unemployment benefit to curb wage increases.
Stating that Britain faced the worst recession of any major country, the IMF solution is aimed at using the fear of total impoverishment as a discipline on workers - when official unemployment has shot past An absolute majority of Europeans below the poverty line now live in Britain, according to the EC.
Bulgaria, Hungary go for BULGARIAN PREMIER Dimiter Popov has announced that Bulgaria will have a new privatisation and property law by the autumn. Bulgaria has suffered worse than any other country from the collapse of the communist trading bloc; much of its economy depended on subsidised trade with the Soviet Union which is being withdrawn. It is owed billions of dollars