trials begin The first three of a total of 30 black activists facing trial on treason charges in South Alrica this summer have been sentenced in the Rand Supreme Court. Jabu Ngobese, a member of the banned African National Congress. was sentenced to 15 years in jail for bringing in weapons; two black trade unionists accused of helping him received 5 years each.
These sentences symptomise the combination of routine brutality and comparative restraint which is being shown by the South African regime in dealing with the steady rise of black resistance. Faced with increasingly volatile masses of militant blacks, organising themselves in trade unions and political groupings, and showing themselves prepared to die on the streets fighting the employers and their apartheid system sooner than capitulate to impossible economic pressures and state repression, the white ruling class has so far held back from unleashing the full potential power of its police-military machine.
Io grasp the relative restraint in Pretoria, it is useful to contrast the Ghandi overnight swoop, arresting thousands of Sikh activists across India following a wave of bornbing incidents with the relatively insignificant numbers of arrests South far more powerful
security" forces — even in instances where whole black townships have been placed under military occupation. against Jitenhage on March 21 (the 25th an niversary massacre) stands out as an embarrassing, obviously unplanned, exception to the generally lower key approach of the government - followed by the elaborate charade of a full "inquiry".
Even the arrest and trial of dozens of black trade union and political leaders on serious charges has been so far handled in such a way as to minimise the spectacle of a new "show trial" on the old model -though with 14 members of the United Democratic Front due for trial on July 11, this still remains an option for the state.
Brutal intimidation continues, but
By HARRY SLOAN on a different level. The brazen police murder of a prominent leader of the Federation of South African Trade Unions (FOSATU), Andries Raditsela; the savage 5 year jail sentence to ailing 75-year old UDF leader Oscar Mpetha; the special
legislation UDF in key areas (the Eastern Cape and Transvaal) where its strength is growing; the tact that on average at least one black worker has died fighting apartheid every day this year all spell out the determination of the
Wto defend minority rule with traditional brutish force — and give a hint of the barbaric measures it is holding
But the white rulers cannot comshould employ. South Atrica is in the throes of an economic crisis in which it is estimated that around 3 million of unemployed, while the whole working class is faced with 16% inflation. Recognising that last year's rent increases in the black townships were a trigger to waves of revolt and mass struggle — and that the threat to "repatriate" redundant black workers
barren, jobless "homelands" sections of the bourgeoisie are driven to contemplate some kind of "liberal" alternative to such confrontation, which, in the longer term, they cannoi hope to win.
Even the Finance Minster recognis-
uncontrollable danger when he went out of his way to minimise the effect on black workers of a series of tax increases designed to cut South Africa's huge public
Deliberately avoiding any increase in the price of basic foodstuffs, he announced a rise
Sales Tax on other items, increased petrol prices, postal charges, rail and air fares slapped a surcharge on income tax and on gold, diamond and other minpaid to the country's vast (largely white) civil service was cut by a third
Other attempts to find answers to the impasse of apartheid back middle cementse smal black middle class, businesses are seen as more likely Socialist Viewpoint, No. 6, June 1985. Page 16
South African workers at a May Day Rally in Johannesburg. than the recession hit monopoly firms to provide a source of new jobs to soak up some of the unemployment: and attempts to placate and stabilise urban blacks, by lifting some of the threat of deporation should they lose the blacks councire while erecting the facade of black to draw petty bourgeois and other forces into longterm collaboration with the apartheid
While these measures represent a real retreat from the historic vision of pure apartheid - and antagonise the fascists and the right wing fer little to satisfy the real problems of the black working class.
The failure of the councils to convince more than a handful of blacks was shown by the near-total boycot of their first elections in 1983 (less than 10% voted in Soweto) and the sustained campaign against stooge black "councillors" that has been a focus of every mass rising ever since. Uvel 150 black councillors have resignec under pressure since then; well over 100 have been attacked; nearly 70 had their homes burned down and 6 have been killed - along number of policemen. Only 6 of the 34 councils were still functioning in April: 5 collapsed in the Eastern Cape alone since January
With the mass of blacks rejecting any such collaboration, the cultivation by the regime of a careerist layer of black petty bourgeois "power brokers" has been difficult. Even the most "moderate" black leader, Chief Gatsha Buthelezi, has rejected the "liberal" formulae on offer — looking for more concessions to build his personal position as the price for collaboration — while his supporters are prominent in attacks on more radical
black organisations and unionists.
Most of the active petty bourgeois forces have gathered around the banner of the UDF — a rather chaotic assembly of around 650 affiliated organisations which has attracted considerable support workers and youth. The UDF portrays itself variously: to the masses it puts forward a radical face, trading on the historic links of many with the old ANC. however, the UDF presents itself as the "disciplinary" element in the anti-apartheid struggle. When banned
trade from meeting in the Eastern Cape and
Transvaal, UDF responded by warning the government that: to lead the masses in disciplined resistance to apartheid. The government must bear the consequences. amongst Meanwhile,
organisation and Stalinist-influenced to pursue its search for collaboration of its leaders with a To the state, bourgeoisie.
Tambo, speaking in the USA in April in the demands for demands Mandela and other ANC leaders, and offered unconditional negotiations on a new constitution in South Africa. tangent to the radicalising movement of the black struggles to defend living standards have brought a rising tide of strikes. Moves towards a possible merger of the two largest non-racial unions ¡OSATU and CUSA (the Council o Unions of South Africa) have recently been joined by the formerly hostile, more community-based (South African Union) and the Workers and the Food and Canning Workers' Unions. large a protest strike as possible there is every sign of a growing move to unity and a politicisation of these black unions, Vaal Triangle.
cross-class "our organisation will not be able While it clandestine in the in exile, ANC continues 'progressive", wing of the ANC leader Oliver aftermath of the Uitenhage or one release to Nelson. release of Nelson This line appears to head at a working class whose the bourgeoisie mine SAAWU of white Workers Allied smaller General • Despite the failure to organise as at of Andries Raditsela, corporating which rocked the democratic regime last November with a 2-day 1-million-strong general strike in the dependent The UDF at its Easter conference decided in the light of this to step up its ettorts to draw in attiliations iron the main non-racial unions. But the Socialist Viewpoint, No. 6, June 1985. Page 17
character and undemocratic structure of the UDF is not fitted to the type of struggle posed before the black working class.
Tis important that the unions break from their abstentionist stance and bring their weight to bear on the UDF, they should do so in the form of a struggle for a serious democratic structure in which the voice of the working class and the rank and file emerges as the dominant force. Instead of using the UDF's cross class character as an excuse to stay out, they should lead the struggle to change it.
There is no "liberal" piecemeal way to whittle away the structures of apartheid, which in their essence are fundamental to the suppression and super-exploitation of black workers by South African and multinational capitalism. The skin-deep nature of
"liberalism" of the white was clearly demonstrated by the recent mass sackings of miners at the Vaal Reefs
owned by the Anglo-American Corporation whose boss Harry Oppenheimer is a leading light
'"liberalism"
The struggle for democratic rights and the smashing of the racist state, with all its trappings and appendages, is first and foremost a struggle for the working class to lead a socialist revolution. The struggle in the unions and in every political arena for a socialist progeriese int
series demands for the smashing of apartheid and the in-
organisation of the workero' movement is the task before the South African working class. By their stance on this issue they should judge every would-be leader of the anti-apartheid struggle.