E respond to repression

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& Allied Workers Union women demonstrating during their annual general meeting in Durban shortly police attacked, killing one and injuring many. Despite repression, unions survive and grow.

SOCIALIST ACTION APRIL 1987 11 of the press in South Africa, which gives the Commissioner of Police the right to prohibit the publication of anything he considers "undesirable," the apartheid state can definitely be classified as a police state.

This blanket of darkness makes it difficult to assess with precision the true state of affairs of what is happening. What follows is based on conversations with friends from South Africa and from information (although limited) received directly from that country.—C.v.G.

The State of Emergency passed in June 1986 had two objectives: First, to cripple the liberation movement. Second, to try to heal the disarray in the ruling class.

President P.W. Botha thought that his limited program of reforms would soften criticism from the "liberal" wing of South African and international capital. Sections of world capitalism are anxious to see a structural change that would do away with the racism of apartheid while safeguarding what they euphemistically call "free enterprise."

Botha also hoped that his self-imposed limits-the retention of segregation in education and living areas and the continued disenfranchisement of the Black (African) majority—would be sufficient to slow down the growth of right-wing Afrikaner politics. He has failed in both objectives.

In an attempt to resolve these contradictions, Botha decided to call a general election two years before it was due in order to get a fresh mandate from the white electorate. The immediate effect of this was further splits from the ruling National Party, emphasizing the disunity that is wracking the ruling class.

The whites-only elections for parliament are scheduled to take place on May 6. Of course, they have no validity for the Black masses.

A setback for the struggle The emergency has dealt the liberation forces a severe blow. Thousands of national and local leaders have been arrested or detained without charges. The security forces are in the Black townships in massive strength.

The mood of euphoria that expected a quick victory and gave rise to such slogans as "no education before liberation" has largely given way to a realization that the state is still powerful, that the struggle will be prolonged, and that there will be setbacks as well as advances before the final victory.

These past two years have been years of militant struggle in the townships, in the schools, in the mines and factories, and in the countryside. They have also been the years in which the African National Congress (ANC) recovered and consolidated its position of preeminence in the national liberation movement.

Even if the ANC, as such, did not initiate all the activities in the schools and townships, there can be no doubt that the majority of the "comrades" conceived of themselves as supporters of the ANC. This is reinforced by government propaganda that credits the ANC with every act of violence and insurgency.

ANC assesses failures

In the "Statement of the National Executive Committee of the ANC on the Occasion of the 75th Anniversary of the ANC" (Jan. 8, 1987), presented by President Oliver Tambo, and in the accompanying "What Is To Be Done!" the successes and failures are frankly assessed.

In 1986, Tambo set his movement the task of further activating the underground army, Unkhonte we Sizwe, and of "drawing millions of our people into combat." Now he concedes that, 'In this regard, we must say that we have not progressed as far as we can."

One of the failures Charlie van Gelderen is a long-standing activist in the South African freedom struggle. He now lives in Britain.

YORKERS Metal before highlights is the failure to link up the cells of trained guerrillas sent into the country and the large number of discontented Black youths. In short, the call for a "People's War" could not be translated from propaganda into reality.

It could also be added that while the ANC (and other liberation organizations) have supported the building of alternative forms of popular government in the localities, the overwhelming armed power of the state has prevented the linking up of these local committees nationally into a genuine form of dual power. The slogan "Power to the People" remains exactly that—a slogan.

Trade unions unbeaten

The political wing of the liberation movement (the United Democratic Front [UDF] and the National Forum) has been dealt serious blows by the state of emergency. Meetings, rallies, and even mass attendance at funerals have been prohibited. Their leaderships have been arrested and their literature censored.

The trade-union movement, however, has shown a remarkable resilience. The main factor for this is the thoroughly democratic structure of the main trade unions as opposed to the highly centralized and bureaucratic leadership of the UDF.

Commemorating the first year of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), its general secretary, Jay Naidoo, recently stressed the increasing importance of the working class—which has not confined its struggle to the issues of wages and working conditions but played a leading role in national politics.

"Debates in COSATU have placed socialism very firmly on the agenda," Naidoo said. "The growth of working-class politics is clear. It is reflected in the methods and content of struggles being waged by democratic structures from village committees to street committees, from shop-steward councils to SRC's.

"More and more, these democratic structures are drawing the link betweeen the oppression they are fighting and the overall methods of political control of the working class in our society. They are drawing this link not only in theory but in action.

"These organs of people's power are important for advancing mass struggle now; but they are also important to ensure that we really govern ourselves after change.

"We believe workers' experience democracy in the unions is contributing building working-class leadership more broadly."

ANC skirts working-class role In the 7000 words of the "Anniversary Statement," Tambo devotes only 150 to the role of the working class. In the tasks proposed for 1987, there is no attempt to coordinate the workers' struggle to that of the general struggle for people's power.

While the ANC makes the usual genuflection to the "leading role of the workers," it gives no content to this leading role. Almost the same importance is given to the call to white people to join the struggle against apartheid.

How different the position of Naidoo: "Workers are more directly confronting the issue of the distribution of wealth; tactics like sit-ins have also put the issue of control of the means of production on the agenda."

COSATU's Vice President Chris Dlamini also spelled out how the "leading role of the working class" must be given a succinct political program if it is to have any meaning:

"The unholy alliance of apartheid and capitalism has become obvious and concrete. One cannot expect to eradicate it simply by removing apartheid, nor can economic transformation come about merely by organizing workers into unions and demanding a living wage and good living conditions.

"What we are talking about is the total change of the present system in its entirety. This change can never be brought about as the result of a change of heart from Big Business or a softening of attitudes by the regime or when Thatcher discards her attitude. It will only come through the struggles waged by all progressive forces of our people.

"I am convinced that the links [of the trade unions] with all progressive organizations of our people need to be concretized now."

"United front" with the bosses?

In contrast to the ANC's statements, the South African white capitalists are becoming all too aware of the growing strength of organized labor and its effectiveness as leader and organizer of the struggle against apartheid. Many leaders of Big Business are becoming convinced that capitalism will not survive in South Africa if it does not distance itself from apartheid.

The Federated Chambers of Industry actually proposed that workers and Impact Visuals Tony Savino management should form a "united front" against the State of Emergency. COSATU gave them a dusty answer:

"We would not consider a united front with the employers because capitalism is protected by apartheid, often at gunpoint. How can workers who are fighting toothand-nail battles with bosses in their factories be expected to see them as allies on any level?

"We believe we would weaken the growth of the working-class movement by entering a united front with monopoly capitalism. Instead, we have pressurized them to grant us rights in the factory that would allow us to regroup on our own terms. But their response has been fairly lame."

All available information shows that despite the severity of the repression, the struggle in South Africa continues-though, perhaps, at a slower tempo. Although handicapped by the denial of bases in neighboring states, there has been an increase in guerrilla activities within the country.

The state has responded to this, not only by direct military and police assault, but by organizing squads of counterrevolutionary vigilantes, the so-called Wit Doeke, so that the media can portray the struggle as Black against Black.

The Afrikaner-dominated state machinery now has no other option than a military solution. Despite the increased use of armed guerrillas, the liberation movement is not in a position for an all-out military confrontation with the state. This would indicate the need for a greater utilization of the industrial muscle of the organized workers than appears implicit in the ANC's strategy for 1987.

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The role of the Teamster leadership was