See p.12 Miners, students rock S. African apartheid
1985Michael Schreiber 1985-09Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 1 →
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FALWELL IS THE MINORITY A year-long reign of terror, which began when South African police attacked protesters in Sharpeville and other Black communities on Sept. 3, 1984, has failed to smother resistance to the white minority-ruled system.
House-to-house searches, mass arrests, and assassinations of anti-apartheid activists have only fueled the struggle. Boycotts, strikes, and demonstrations have spread to virtually every part of the country.
As we go to press, the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM) has called a strike that could shake the economic framework of the apartheid regime. NUM General Secretary Cyril Ramaphosa said that about half of the union's 150,000 members would walk out on Sept. 1.
Gold accounts for almost 50 percent of South Africa's foreign earnings and 14 percent of its gross domestic product. The NUM argues that the low wages paid to Blacks have enabled the mine owners to make record profits despite a drop in the world gold market.
Black mineworkers earn one-fifth of the wages of whites. The Black workers are asking for a 22-percent wage hike and other "political" concessions.
Ramaphosa claimed that a partial victory had already been won during negotiations in August. He said that the NuM extracted wage concessions from several of the mine owners, breaking through the united front that the employers had previously presented.
"We pushed them against the wall, Ramaphosa said.
The union stressed that if the authorities should attempt to break the strike against mine owners who have held out, "the entire membership of the union in all mines will take solidarity action."
Meanwhile, the government has outlawed the Congress of South African (continued on page page 15)