Free Nelson Mandela
1985 1985-10Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 15 →
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Interview with S. African activist: ess of seeking ways and means of ending the violence of apartheid."
He expressed hope that in future meetings with the capitalists "we might even begin to agree about what exactly should be done."
Nevertheless, in its calls to "make the apartheid system unworkable, make the country ungovernable" the ANC has demonstrated that they will continue in their efforts to help mobilizé the masses in struggle.
Black unions in forefront The African National Congress and its imprisoned leader, Nelson Mandela, command respect and even reverence by, millions of South Africans. But the ANC is the first to admit that most mass protests take place outside of iis leadership and control.
The Black trade unions are beginning to step in to help fill the void of political leadership. During the past year Black workers have carried out a number of regional general strikes around political demands. On Aug. 28 some 3000 workers struck the Mercedes-Benz plant in East London, in the Eastern Cape region, to demand freedom for Nelson Mandela.
The unions recently worked with community organizations to spearhead a two-month boycott of white-owned the fight with the Communist Party (CP).
The discussion is heating up. Leaders of FOSATU have raised the need for a labor party based on the trade unions. The Communist Party has responded by publicly criticizing the FOSATU leadership in an article entitled, "A trade union is not a political party."
The CP charged in another article that FOSATU leaders and other unionists were "fascinated by Brazil."
The article criticized FOSATU for writing in its union journal about the Brazilian workers' movement.
Many union activists in South Africa consider the Brazilian Workers Party (PT)—a mass-based political organization based on the independent union movement—as an example of the type of organization that should be built to give leadership to the struggle of South African working people.
union federations, FOSATU and CUSA. Until then, FOSATU and CUSA had abstained from openly political