Apartheid's multiplies
1985George Cranston 1985-04Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 1 →
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South African police conducted a bloody celebration of the 25th anniversary of the infamous Sharpeville massacre. They fired without warning on a crowd of 3000 to 4000 Blacks who were marching to a nearby town to attend the funeral of three Blacks killed 10 days before by the police.
Just 25 years earlier, apartheid's cops had murdered 69 Blacks protesting apartheid in Sharpeville. That year, the South African government was being rocked by both an uncertain economic situation and an upsurge of protest by Blacks against the apartheid regime. The apartheid government survived the crisis thanks to savage repression, on the one hand, and, on the other, the continued and increased support it received from the United States.
Today there is once again an upsurge of worldwide protest against South African apartheid. Inside South Africa, Black workers have organized unions and have even been able to launch general strikes, as they did in the Transvaal region Nov. S. On March 20 over 40,000 Black miners went on strike a the largest gold mine in the world.
The response of the Botha government is the same as that of his predecessors: Enact token reforms while relying on increased repression to keep the Black majority powerless. The events outside of Uitenhage-the police murder of 18 Blacks and the wounding of 29 others in a funeral march—are the real (continued on page 18, in “Aquino trial spotlights Marcos' uncertain future”) 2429.
Police threaten striking workers in South Africa.