"Workers are building the street committees'

Scan page 13

SOCIALIST ACTION OCTOBER 1986 13 As workers see it, and for clear historical reasons and experiences, the employers share joint responsibility for the attack being made on us, and for us there is no evidence that they have brought substantial pressure on the state to end the emergency.

Some employer organizations have openly welcomed the state of emergency and say that it has restored economic stability to the country. Our response is that it would be naive for employers to believe that the state of emergency has crushed or pacified the workers' movement. It has in fact strengthened our commitment to end the system of economic exploitation and apartheid.

We welcome the attitude of certain employers, but statements of disassociation do not really resolve the attack on trade unions. The employers have conceded us facilities, while many employers are using the state of emergency to attack us and regain ground that they have lost.

We are saying that this will not go unchallenged, and that we will not forget those employers who are using the present phase of repression to attack us.

SALB: What is your response to the claim that unionists have been detained for their political involvement rather than for trade-union work?

Naidoo: In response to Le Grange's [Minister of Law and Order] statement that no trade unionist has been detained for trade-union activities, we believe that the attack on the labor movement is a political attack, and our response, of necessity, has to be a political response.

Moses Mayekiso is the general secretary of the South African Metal Workers' Union (MAWU) and the chairman of the Action Committee in Alexandra, a Black township outside Johannesburg. He was arrested last June under the state of emergency.

The following interview with Mayekiso was given to MAWU's newspaper, the South African Metal Worker, before his arrest. The interview subsequently appeared in Azania Frontline, the newsletter of the Azania Liberation Support Committee in London.

MAWU: Why was the Alexandra Action Committee (AAC) formed?

Moses Mayekiso: People were disorganized in Alexandra and they wanted to be united. There were meetings-little meetings-of residents discussing how to organize Alexandra. At the end of the day, we held meetings street by street trying to hear how people wanted to organize Alex -andra. People decided that they should form yard, block, and street committees leading up to the Alexandra Action Committee.

MAWU: Where did the major influence come from for those democratic structures?

Mayekiso: Most of these people were workers, so the structures were based along trade-union lines-accountability, elections every year, and so on.

MAWU: What is the AAC's function?

Mayekiso: Its function is to coordinate the affairs of the township and to deal with the political and social problems. For example, we have begun to deal with the problem of unemployment. We are planning to have unemployed cooperatives in each and every street, so that everyone who is not working will be doing something for the community.

We are also looking at child-care structures, transport problems, cooperative buying, and a first-aid system. Maybe in each street there will be a person who will learn first aid.

MAWU: What role do the people's courts play in these structures?

Mayekiso: There are little courts and central courts. Each yard has a committee which deals with its own problems. If that committee cannot solve the problem it is taken to the block committee. If it cannot be solved there it is taken to the street com -mittee and then to the Action Committee.

All these committees are acting as courts. People at the central court are delegated to receive complaints and to mediate. We are not really acting in the same manner as the present courts. We would like to get people to come together problematic, because how do you sentence a person? We do not believe in corporal punishment, but we have been lucky because people listen to whatever decision is made there. If the person listens, then we don't need to implement any punishment.

We have been discussing punishment for the person that does not listen, but we haven't reached a solution. But the "neck -lace" will never be used because we believe the courts have an educational function. They are there to politicize the offender.

Most crime in the area is caused by the capitalist and apartheid systems, so we tell the offender that he musn't allow himself to be used by them.

MAWU: Do workers have an important role in the Alexandra Action Committee?

Mayekiso: Alexandra is very different from other townships, as the majority of the people living there are workers. Unlike Soweto, we don't have rich businessmen. Workers are directly involved in the various committees and they bring with them their experience of unions' democratic structures.

We believe that our struggle must be led by the working class, and therefore workers should play a greater role in community organizations. In Alexandra, shop stewards play a leading role in the community by being elected onto block committees and so on. So there are direct links with organized workers.

Also, the Action Committee has subcommittees to organize the unorganized factories, because we believe that unless those factories are organized, our struggle in the townships won't really be successful.