Black mineworkers jolt apartheid state
1985Michael Schreiber 1985-06Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 1 →
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A recent wave of strikes among Black mineworkers in the Transvaal region of South Africa threatens to shake the economic underpinnings of the apartheid state.
Nine thousand Black workers at the Blyvooruitzicht mine, west of Johannesburg, went on strike on May 18 to protest the dismissals of two shop stewards who were members of the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM). Two weeks earlier, more than 15,000 workers were fired from three separate mines, including the Vaal Reefs mine, which is the largest in the world. Many of the workers were deported to so-called homelands.
The dismissals came in response to "illegal" strikes that the NUM had carried out on April 26-27 after a breakdown in wage negotiations. The Black miners are seeking a 10-percent wage increase in a wage and benefits package that now totals $225 a month.
The NUM, a Black organization claiming 110,000 members, has begun a struggle to obtain wage and job parity with white miners-who average $1755 a month, making them the highest palo workers in the industrial and service sectors of the economy.
According to NUM General Secretary Cyril Ramaphosa, the union will carry out further "actions of resistance" including wildcat strikes, boycotts, and slowdowns in order to confront the apartheid system.
Gold accounts for half of South Africa's export earnings and 10 percent of government tax revenue. The owners of (continued on page 18, in “N.Y. cops torture youths”)