S. African union federation champions workers' rights

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struggle against seabing and to advance the . . . Malcolm X Barely a month after is founding, the 500,000-member Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) faces a major test in the minefields.

On Jan. 1, about 30,000 Black workers—virtually the entire work -force went on strike for better wages and working conditions at South Africals Impala platinum mine. Black mineworkers there earn top wages of about $120 a month.

One week later, the parent company, General Mining Union Corp. (Gencor), fired two-thirds of the workers. Gencor threatened to fire the remaining workers if they refused to go back to work.

The Impala mine, which supplies a third of the platinum used in the capitalist world, is located in the nominally independent Bophusthatswana "homeland." But the puppet authorities in Bophusthatswana do not recognize the National Union of Mineworkers (NUM), a COSATU affiliate, which most of the Impala mineworkers support.

The NUM vowed to fight to represent the striking workers, to get the fired workers rehired, and to reopen wage talks with the employers. The NUM is also trying to organize workers in Namibia, a South African colony.

In response, the South African police have attacked the union with savage fury. On Jan. 22, police broke up a rally of several hundred mineworkers southwest of Johannesburg. After several hours of fighting, nine Blacks were dead and-for the first time-two white cops.

But COSATU and its various affiliates are continuing to expand their efforts to organize new workers, work among the unemployed, and take part in various political protests around the country.

We have reproduced below excerpts from several of the resolutions that were passed at COSATU's founding convention, held in Durban Nov. 29 to Dec. 1, 1985. The text, which originally appeared in Congress News, a bulletin published by COSATU, is here reprinted from Intercontinental Press.

Noting:

* That under capitalist conditions of exploitation, unemployment is a reality fac -ing every worker at all times.

* That these unemployed workers are used as a reserve pool of labor by the bosses to keep wages low and to provide a source of scab labor in the event of strikes.

* That the unity of employed and unemployed workers is essential in the struggle for the right to work at a living wage.

Congress therefore resolves to:

* Fight as one united force to defend all jobs threatened by retrenchments; fight the closing of the factories; and fight for participation in and control over-right from the planning stage-the imple -mentation of any new technology. And fight all attempts by employers to make workers work harder and attempts to rationalize production, because in the present system this always leads to unemployment.

* Campaign for a 40-hour week at full pay and a ban on overtime.

* Fight for a subsistence fund, in addition to unemployed benefits, supplemented by rent, transport, and medical concessions for all unemployed workers.

* Demand that the state initiate a national program of public works to provide jobs for the unemployed and to improve services and facilities in working-class communities.

* Fight for work-sharing on full pay whenever workers face retrenchments.

* Establish a national unemployed workers' union as a full affiliate of the new federation to struggle for the realization of the right of all to work and security.

* Struggle for a fair, democratic, and rational political and economic system We offer a special introductory offer of three issues for $3. A six-month subscription is $22, and one year of International Viewpoint is available for $42. Subscribe now! which can guarantee full employment for all people in Southern Africa at a living wage. National minimum living Seeing that:

* The majority of workers in South Africa are earning starvation wages because of the present economic system; constantly rising prices (inflation) is making what little money workers have worth less and less every day.

* To give full support to efforts bY retrenched and dismissed workers to establish cooperatives based on the principles of COSATU.

We hereby resolve:

* To initiate and conduct—in alliance with other progressive organizations and trade unions in the country-an ongoing national campaign for a legally enforced national minimum wage for all workers in South Africa, by amongst other things, fighting in every industry through worker action and negotiation for that minimum living wage to be paid by all employers.

ANGOLA with President (continued from page 16: “U.S. history and the legacy of Malcolm X”) slavemasters, they became ardent champions of the slave system.

In 1829, a New York merchant told the Rev. Samuel May, a prominent abolitionist: "We cannot afford, sir, to let you and your associates succeed in your endeavor to overthrow slavery. It is not a matter of principle with us. It is a matter of business necessity."

The growth of the Industrial Revolution in the North-along with the factory system and new markets for its products-gave the Northern industrial capitalists the economic ability to begin serious challenges to the rule of the Southern slavemasters and their merchant allies. In 1854, they organized the Republican Party to promote their interests and in 1860 won political control of the national government with the election of Lincoln.

A National Negro Convention that was held in Philadelphia in 1864 issued a resolution condemning both the Democratic and the Republican parties. Of the Democrats, it stated: "To it we are nothing;

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Rm. 308 San Francisco, CA 94110 * To fight for this minimum living wage to be automatically linked to the rate of inflation.

* To fight to open all the books of every organized company so that workers can see exactly how the wealth they have produced is being wasted and misused by the employers' profit system, and on that basis can demand their full share of the wealth they have produced. Should the wealth not be there, then it will only prove the inefficiency of employer management and strengthen the case for worker control and management of production.

Women This federation noting:

* That women workers experience both exploitation as workers and oppression as women and that black women are further discriminated against on the basis of race;

Resolves to fight:

* Against all unequal and discriminatory treatment of women at work, in society, and in the federation; to paid work as an important part of the broader aim to achieve full and freely chosen employment;

* For equal pay for all work of equal value-the value of work must be determined by organized women and men workers themselves.

* For the restructuring of employment so as to allow women and men the opportunity of qualifying for jobs of equal value;

* For child care and family facilities to meet workers' needs and make it easier for workers to combine work and family responsibilities;

* For full maternity rights, including paid maternity and paternity leave and job security;

* For the protection of women and men from all types of work proved to be harmful to them, including work which interferes with their ability to have children; -* Against sexual harassment in whatever form it occurs.

Bantustans The congress noting:

* That the bantustan system was imposed on the African people, against their will, with a view to thwarting the just struggle for One Person, One Vote in a unitary South Africa.

* That various bantustan administrations have practiced extreme forms of oppression against the oppressed people-including trade unions.

Noting in particular:

* That the banning of SAAWU (South African Allied Workers Union) in the Ciskei, the banning of all unions in the Bophuthatswana bantustan, and the killing of trade unionists and other democrats by tribally based organizations.

Hereby resolves that:

* The bantustan system be totally rejected and that the federation struggle-together with other democratic forces-for the creation of a democratic and unitary South Africa.

* We shall not hesitate to use our right to organize in plants based within the bantustans and that we are fully prepared to defend ourselves against repression by whatever effective means at our disposal.

man to be a Democrat or a Republican because both of them have sold us out."

In his famous "Ballot or the Bullet" speech, he said, "You put the Democrats first and the Democrats put you last." He characterized the role played by different segments of the Democratic Party as "a giant political con game" that keeps Blacks politically impotent by keeping them in its clutches.

Malcolm was also anti-capitalist. He characterized capitalism as as a system that "needs some blood to suck" in order to survive. He realized that the capitalist system dominates the political structure in this country and that it must be eliminated here and in the world in order for real liberation to come into existence.

If Malcolm were alive today, his record proves that he would be involved in the many local, national, and international battlefronts against oppression-from Harlem to Central America to South Africa to the Middle East.

Above all, Malcolm 1 Was &1 uncompromising revolutionary. He advocated that the world's oppressed free themselves totally from all forms of oppression and take control of their lives and destiny By Any Means Necessary.

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San Francisco: 'A tribute to Malcolm X Speaker: Kwame M.A. Somburu Fri., Feb. 7, 8:00 p.m.

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