South Africa revolt runs deep

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Forum: Socialism and Democracy see pp. 7-10 Police violence against rioting South African miners has continued to rack the gold mines surrounding Johannesburg. On Sept. 18, in confrontations that accompanied the first legal strike ever carried out by Black miners, seven miners were killed by police in Westonaria. This brought the overall death toll in recent weeks to 56. More than 350 miners were injured during the strike, while new waves of social protest by Blacks in Soweto, Sharpesville, and other huge shanty towns that ring the industrial areas have also resulted in deaths and injuries.

The new round of violent resistance was stimulated by the recent South African elections. The elections, which began last Aug. 22, were also marked by a huge abstention rate, the product of a successful boycott campaign. Only 18 percent of potential non-white voters, or 30 percent of eligible voters, participated in the apartheid regime's attempt to introduce cosmetic reforms into its racist structure. P.W. Botha, the prime minister, lamented: "A good number of Coloureds [the apartheid regime's term for Africans of mixed descent] still show little interest in the exercise of their democratic rights."

The elections to a new three-chamber, racially segregated parliament were the result of constitutional "reforms" introduced by the South African government. These reforms maintained the legal exclusion of Blacks from even the most basic citizenship rights while establishing two new powerless chambers of parliament to represent Indians and Coloureds.

(continued on page 5, in “Parti Quebecois defaults in nationalist struggle”) shoot down the airliner. And the U.S. now admits it is true that the Soviets did not know that the aircraft was a civilian passenger plane. What the intelligence agencies sought was to use K.A.L 007's intrusion into Soviet airspace to activate Soviet radar and defenses, thus providing a valuable opportunity to monitor Soviet responses.

Unanswered questions

There was nothing routine about Flight 007 right from the start. The plane left Anchorage 40 minutes behind schedule, a delay that has never been explained. The pilot added 9800 pounds of fuel that were not needed nor (continued on page 6, in “Pope "outlaws" class struggle”)

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Build local coalitions for mass spring mobilizations Vote SWP: Mel Mason and Andrea Gonzalez!

Mel Mason speaks in London to a rally sponsored by Socialist Action, a newsweekly published by Labour Party supporters.

Editorial, In a recent interview, Democratic candidate Walter Mondale said that if elected in November he would "quarantine" Nicaragua. He insisted that if Nicaragua "continued to export revolution in Central America" he would "be forced" to respond with such a measure.

Mondale also told reporters that he too would have invaded Grenada-as Ronald Reagan did exactly one year ago--in order "to go in there and protect American lives. OLIDARITY TH THE TRAL FRICAN DITION If any further proof is needed that both the Democrats and the Republicans are the parties of war and intervention, this is it. Shortly after Mondale's declaration, a headline appeared in Nicaragua in a pro-FLN daily stating that "Reagan, Mondale, It's the same thing!"

The bipartisan war drive against the people of Central America will step up after November, no matter who wins the elections.

Meeting sets April action The September 14-16 Cleveland emergency antiwar conference marked a tremendous step forward in building a unified and massive antiwar movement. [See article page 1.] Following this conference, on Sept. 25, a meeting of peace and religious groups was held in Washington, D.C., to discuss a common spring action against U.S. intervention.

The Sept. 25 meeting voted for national mobilizations in Washington, D.C., for the weekend of April 12-15, 1985. The meeting proposed that a The Socialist Workers Party candidates, Mel Mason for president and Andrea Gonzalez for vice president, are running on a program of opposition to the U.S. war drive in Central America and to the bipartisan attacks on working people in this country. The SWP candidates advance the idea that the labor movement should organize its own political partyindependent of the capitalist parties. Socialist Action calls on our readers to vote Mason-Gonzalez on Nov. 6 Reagan cuts in social spending can be steering committee of several peace organizations meet again on Oct. 23 to decide between Saturday, April 13, or Sunday, April 14, as the date for the massive spring demonstration.

The organizations attending the meeting included the National Committee for a Sane Nuclear Policy (SANE), the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the Mobization for Survival, the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), the World Peace Council, and others. Representatives of the Cleveland emergency conference attended the meeting and were given voice but no vote.

The meeting was another important step on the difficult road toward building a common spring mass-action date. Although many serious questions remain to be worked out (such as establishing a democratic coalition structure), the differences on a date for the mass demonstrations seem to have narrowed to simply selecting April 13 or April 14. Representatives of the Cleveland conference indicated they would drop the April 20 date in favor of April 13.

They are encouraging activists to begin building local coalitions in support of the fall action program passed by the Cleveland emergency conference as the best way to build for a united mass spring mobilization.

signifies a shift to the right by both the